2013-2014 Curriculum Choices

The choices when it comes to homeschooling are overwhelming to say the least.  Living in Washington state, I can more or less teach what I want, how I want (especially since schooling isn't even required until age eight). At the kid's current ages (Laila will be 3, Shawn will turn 5 in November, missing our district's kindergarten cut off) a curriculum really isn't necessary. Really. But I like structure and I see any curriculum as nothing more than a tool. It isn't the boss. The minute it starts causing more problems than it solves, out it goes. 

Originally I had decided to enroll in an online charter school. Then I decided against it. Back and forth. And again. Currently, I'm leaning towards going it on my own. The Charter school just closes too many doors. No Handwriting without Tears. No year round homeschooling.  Their only viable (in my eyes) option for language arts is Moving Beyond the Page. And I'm not 100% sure I want to do that. Of course, the biggest 'pro' for the Charter school is that I wouldn't have to pay for the curriculum (their selected curriculum). This would be huge bonus if I had my heart set on the (very expensive) Moving Beyond the Page. But I don't.

I have discovered that I am very drawn to the Charlotte Mason approach to education. Bible memorization,focusing on character values, short lessons. I like that. Having said that, my priorities this year are to instill good character values & a love of God.Then Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. Here's what's in my toolbox for my kindergartner.

Math: Right Start Math. I love that this is conceptually based & very hands on.We'll be starting with Level A.
Reading: My oldest will probably sit in on our AAR Pre-Reading with my Preschooler, but he'll primarily be doing The Reading Lesson as well as Bob books. I might add in Explode the Code...but maybe that's overkill. We'll see how the year goes.
Writing: Handwriting without Tears. Love this program. I'll also have him copy down the scripture of the week.
Science: Elemental Science. I'm really excited to try this out.
History: We'll be focusing on Bible history for now. I'm also excited to introduce the Little House on the Prairie books to the kids.

For my Pre-Schooler:
Math: Whatever. The girl can already count to 20 and knows patterns, shapes, colors etc. We may, at some point, do some Singapore EarlyBird...we'll just see how much she wants to do.
Reading: AAR Pre Reading Level and lots of read alouds
Writing: We're working through the PreK Handwriting without Tears. She loves it.
Science: She'll sit in on Elemental Science if she wants.
History: Same as her big brother.  

I'm working on a list of Read Alouds to work through this year. I'm tentatively planning on some form of year round schooling...but I haven't delved any further into it than that.  I need to bulk up my homeschooling fund, so I've got some time to plan :)