Tomorrow the tax refund arrives in my bank acount so as soon as I wake up I'm hitting submit on all of the shopping carts that I've got loaded and waiting. Woot!!
Here's the damage for Mackenzie's fourth grade year...
Bible
We will be using Starting Strong from Sonlight's Bible 4 and Learning About God From A to Z which used to be in Sonlight's Bible 4. I bought it right before they discontinued it. A friend's son raved and raved about A to Z when he was doing core 4 and Mackenzie has been dying to do it ever since. So I snagged it while I could.
We will continue with our beloved Math-U-See, level Delta.
Next year we're changing it up a bit. We going to do Apologia's Zoology 1, Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. We're excited. We did the Astronomy a few years ago and it was fun. I think she was a tad too young then so we're anticipating a lot of good retention this time around. LOL
We will not be doing the notebooking per say. Kenzie's not big on a lot of extra writing and, to her, notebooking=too much writing LOL. We'll be doing these Learn 'N Folders. They're like a cross between lapbooking and notebooking. Mackenzie likes to have the "pretty little books" to show all her hard work. And she thinks lapbooking is less writing then notebooking. That's probably not true but whatever makes her happy. This will be our first time using them so we'll see out it goes.
I'll be happy because I can get the complete kit for the experiments, just like at my beloved Sonlight, and the lapbook is easy enough to print out.
Do you even have to ask what I'm using for history??? Sonlight of course!!! Core 4, Introduction to American History part 2, to be specific.
Our supplements will be a Gold Rush Kit and Spy Science from Winter Promise and the Civil War History Pocket. Although Mackenzie is really interested in this from Time Travelers. It does look really neat but since it doesn't come with the supplies needed to complete the activities it's been vetoed by moi. I don't have time to chase down that stuff. I think the Spy Science will make up for it. She dreams of being a spy. LOL
For geography we are going to focus on the U.S., using The Star-Spangled State Book. Mackenzie has really enjoyed geography this year and I think this choice will keep her interested.
Language Arts
No changes here. We'll continue on with Sonlight's core 4 readers that go along with the history we'll be studying. We're also sticking with Spelling Power, Handwriting Without Tears Cursive Success, First Language Lessons 4, and Writing With Ease 3.
Extras
We're going to attempt to do better with the Spanish and art that we already use. We dropped Spanish early on and just started art back up. Sonlight also suggests taking up the recorder when starting core 4. We already have it but we haven't really tried it yet.
It should be easier, in theory, with Kayleigh being older, right? Feel free to lie to me about that. =o)
Looks like a great line up! I love this time of year :).
ReplyDeleteThere is NOTHING funner than school shopping!! :0) I have a big old list waiting to be bought once we get back to our duty station in June!
ReplyDeleteMay this year be the best yet [smile].
ReplyDeleteI hear the difficulties shift over the years as kids get older. So will it be easier? Hard to say. Some things will likely be easier while new challenges arise [smile].
~Luke