Curriculum choices, a summation

I am really excited to say that I have finally ordered almost all of the curriculum and workbooks for school! I have already received most of the books, and I am only waiting for one more shipment.

I say "almost" because I have ordered everything we need to start the year, but I will need to order KONOS when Michael gets paid again. I am watching to get the best price on Ebay and since we do not plan to start school until the first week of September, I am giving myself time to find the best price (and time to prepare).

I am using this post to list the books we will be using, and a summation of the "new" curriculum ("new" meaning the different types of curriculum that we haven't used in the past).

I am looking forward to a new approach to teaching the boys, and in my search for curriculum KONOS seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

About KONOS:
According to their website, it covers the following subjects

Bible

Character

History

Science

Literature

Writing

Practical Living

Field Trips

Critical Thinking

Arts/Crafts

Music

Drama/Speech

Geography

Social Studies

Health/Safety

How is KONOS different
from other curricula?

KONOS is distinct from other curricula in that it features:

· Godly character trait focus

· Units with all subjects integrated

· Hands-on, experiential activities

· Discovery learning

· Multi-level, family teaching

KONOS uses the entire library as a textbook and the whole world as its curriculum.

I have had several high recommendations for it. I love the fact that we as a family will study these subjects as a unit-together, and the fact that it gives me a library reading guide. I love the fact that every subject is based on a character trait.

For the three R's we will be using ABeka Math, Phonics, and Language, the Getty-Dubay Italics handwriting course (I talked about in an earlier post.. if you want to see a picture, go back a few posts), and Spelling Power. Even though KONOS covers reading, I still ordered the ABeka reading curriculum for the simple fact that I love it so much! Justin will be reading Pilgrim's Progress this year, one of my favorites.
So we will be doing both ABeka reading and following the KONOS reading schedule. Needless to say we WILL BE doing a lot of reading!

About Spelling Power:
Spelling Power is complete. It includes lists of the 5,000 most frequently used words organized by Phonetic principles and spelling rules. It can be used all the way through high school!
It came highly recommended by Rhonda Pepple (who taught me high school English & Grammar). I am hoping to have some really good spellers before it's over :-)

In addition to KONOS history (which uses a time-line), we will be using several books I ordered back when my boys were babies. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to teach from them. They are as follows:
Don't Know Much About American History
Don't Know Much About The Fifty States
Scholastics Encyclopedia of the Presidents and their Times
and Pa-pa's gift to Justin: Eyewitness book about Presidents.
I also have a nice set of flashcards teaching the fifty states and their capitals that I ordered "way back when". It's funny that when I ordered those books & flashcards I had no idea I would be home-schooling!

Going back and reading my curriculum list gives me a huge reason to praise the Lord! Even though it has taken a little more planning and time to get good prices on a lot of the items, a lot of them are brand new or like new in condition.
I have been ordering a little bit per paycheck. Here's my praise: I am happy to record that so far, as opposed to last year's $500, I have only spent around $200 for EVERYTHING so far (and ordered at my own leisure) and this includes my teaching resources ! And hopefully after KONOS is ordered, it will still be less than $250! The beauty of this homeschooling thing is that I can research and find resources at my own leisure and time frame. This luxury, in itself, has been a huge financial blessing for us.

Now that I have almost all my curriculum, I need to get my schedule ironed out. September starts Michael's new day shift schedule (perfect timing!). Since I am just now getting my curriculum and still need to order KONOS September seems a whole lot better than August. :-)