What a Year!!!! We finished up 2nd and 5th grade and I feel so very proud of what all we accomplished this year. It was our first year using Alveary, a complete Charlotte Mason based curriculum for K-12th graders. (If you are interested in using I do have a $25 coupon code I will enter below) I loved it! I typically am the homeschooling parent that picks and chooses from different curriculums and usually ends up piecing together my own by the end of the year. I have always struggled with using one sole curriculum and loving it. Am I the only one?
However, this year with Alveary it was different. Although I did not take advantage of their entire curriculum it was our spine. I am also very grateful that both of my children are now avid readers, and I can finally put reading instruction behind me. Praise!
What worked and what did not? Let’s dive in!
Second Grade
Language/Reading – The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 (Not continuing with next year)
- Open and Go for the most part (it would benefit the parent to go through each lesson ahead of time in case there is cutting or glueing, but can be open and go)
- I did like the mini books as well as the B book for review, I felt that the time we spent in the review book was most beneficial.
- Although this is a faith-based program (which I love) it was not enough for him to really notice but I like the mention of the Lord.
- We could have lived without some of the extras since we do these in our family time (artist and picture studies etc), but for those that do not this is great!
Math – Math U See (will continue with next year)
- We have been using Math U See for years. I love it! I love that there is video instruction as well as a parent book to learn or follow the lesson if your child needs extra help. It does not have a bunch of flowery pictures and is all black and white but we enjoy this. One of my children has dyslexia and this has been 100 for her!
Alveary (history, geography, science, literature read aloud, composer, poetry, music, art, handcrafts, bible history)
- We have loved Alveary!
- The only thing we will be changing this coming year is using Alveary for our science curriculum. It is not because the science is not amazing but mostly because I was having to split up my children for this and I realistically want to do science and experiments as a family. I felt that the younger science was too immature for my older child and the 5th grade science was too difficult for my youngest. So, we are doing something different this year for this.
- Continuing this year – changing out science
Fifth Grade
Math – Math U See – continuing next year
Language/Grammer- Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL)
- I absolutely loved this. It could be open and go, but you do benefit from going through it the night before. I do know for the younger years it would be less open and go as for the older. I know some parents that have their children do this program on their own, but with my daughter I chose to lead her through it.
- Continuing this with my daughter and starting it with my son.
Writing- IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) Structure and Style
- Many families love this curriculum and use it. I however, did not. I felt it was so very rigorous and I did not like how confusing it felt at times. I have enjoyed some of their other curriculums but this one in particular was not for us. My daughter has dyslexia, and this caused so many tears and frustrations. So, we will not be using that next year but instead will start our year with EIW (Essentials in Writing).
Spelling – IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) Phonetic Zoo
- This spelling program was wonderful. We used the CDs and my daughter would do this independently. She enjoyed being able to do it on her own and was able to really expand her vocabulary this way. However, we are also not using it this year as our writing and grammar for 6th grade includes some spelling.
Alveary – (history, geography, science, literature read aloud, composer, poetry, music, art, handcrafts, bible history)
- We enjoyed Alveary greatly and will continue with what we did this year and add more!
We had the best year and
looking forward to next year!