In years past I’ve done separate curriculum posts for Poppy and Pete. They’re working with the same publishers for most everything this year, though, so I’m consolidating.

Simplify, simplify.

History

We got off the one-book-a-year schedule in nearly every subject a few years ago, and I haven’t managed to get back on track yet. Seeing as the kids are in the same classroom every year, though, I don’t suppose that matters.

We’ll kick off this year by finishing “Story of the World: Volume 3“ — from Bonaparte all the way to the California Gold Rush — and move on to Volume 4 after that.

Math

Pete is near the end of the second volume of McRuffy Math, and Poppy is a little more than halfway through Math 4. They’ll finish with those quickly, I hope, and proceed to the next level.

Poppy liked Teaching Textbooks well enough, but she didn’t seem to retain much of the information. I have it already, though, so I’ll probably have Pete work through TT3 just for a little extra review and practice.

Language Arts

The kids really enjoyed the Michael Clay Thompson “Grammar Island” books last year, and they seem to have retained some of the information. I haven’t decided 100 percent yet, but I think we’ll probably do “Grammar Town” this year.

Poppy was enjoying All About Spelling 2 last year, so she’s going to go ahead and finish that. Pete and I, meanwhile, will be continuing our hands-on, no curriculum spelling efforts.

Poppy will be doing some more Reed Novel Studies for her “formal” reading curriculum. Pete is going to have some assigned reading, too, but he’s a little young yet for the Reed offerings.

Science

There’s a place in town that offers after-school and homeschool classes, and I was thrilled to see science on the class listings this year. Pete will be in the K-2 class, and Poppy will be in the 3-5. Which means they’re both on the high end of the age group. I’m hoping the material is challenging enough to keep them engaged.

Handwriting

Poppy likes the McRuffy handwriting books, and Pete tolerates them. So that’s what we’re sticking with!

Art

Also outsourced! Pete will be in art class while Poppy is in science, and vice versa.

Physical Education

We’re taking July off, but the kids will be resuming their tae kwon do practice in a few weeks. Poppy is currently a blue belt, and Pete is a green belt.

The kids are also both doing soccer this year. Pete “retired” from soccer a few seasons back, but he’s decided to return to the field. Poppy is in her second season of the two-weekly-practices-plus-a-game-on-the-weekend league, which makes me very grateful to have a couple of other parents who are willing to carpool.

There are many, many ways to approach homeschooling. For a look at what other families are doing, check out Curriculum Week at iHomeschoolNetwork.com!