Group Subjects

There are some subjects we do together as a group during our homeschool day.  Here is a quick look at them.

Art: This year I did not buy a single Art Curriculum for us to work through.  I decided we have a ton of art books that we will just work through this year.  We started this year with the Wizard, Pirate, and Princess things to make book.  We just went through the book and picked a few projects to make.  Later this Fall we will start in the Seasonal Start to Fall Chalk Pastels.  We love using chalk pastels, they make such beautiful pictures.  We will then pick a few projects from the Show me a story book to make later in the school year.  We also use some standard How to Draw books from time to time. We also use You Tube, I am loving Art Hub for Kids, and so are the children!

Geography:  This year in Geography we are using "Trail Guide to World Geography."  I am not using the entire curriculum. This year we are using this as a guide to talk about general geography such as map using, continents, oceans, countries, and culture.  We will save this curriculum to use later to dig deeper.

Nature Study: A friend talked me into buying this curriculum last year.  I am glad I did.  We really enjoy it.  We used it last year, we are using it this year and doing things we did not get to do last year.  There is even enough suggested reading ideas that we will probably use it again next year and dig deeper into the areas that are covered. They also now make a journal you can buy and print to go with this curriculum, I might get it to use next year.

Science:  Every one is doing their own science curriculum this year, that is new for us.  Usually we all do science together.  I talked it over with the children and we agreed we still wanted to do a science together.  We picked an uncommon area of science to study together.  They each get plenty of chemistry, biology, and physics.  We chose Meteorology.  We are using a curriculum I bought and downloaded from "The Good and the Beautiful" by Jenny Phillips. So far we are enjoying it.

Bible:  We always do Bible together. We have been working on the Old Testament for the last few years.  We decided to start on the New Testament this year.  I will revisit Old Testament stories with Lillian though for a few more years. I downloaded a free Matthew Study Guide and right now we are working on just reading through Matthew and making sure we understand everything that happens.  After we finish reading through Matthew we will then do our Matthew Lego Challenge Curriculum.  We have used several of the Lego Challenge Curriculums in the past and we all love them.  After the Lego Challenge we will then watch a DVD I bought called "The Gospel According to Matthew."  It states on the front that it is the only dramatization using the actual scriptures, word for word from the NIV.

PE:  For PE we use several different dvd workout videos.  Logan uses a wheelchair or walker, so we have two videos from David Stamps, Chair Boxing and Chair Salsa.  We really like David Stamps videos and plan to buy more in the future.  I never thought chair exercise could be so tough! We also have Denise Austin's Fit Kids DVD and Faithful Workouts DVD.  The children take turns picking out which dvd we do.  Some days we walk, some days we just play, and sometimes we use a curriculum I bought a few years ago called "Family Time Fitness."

We do not get to each of these group studies every school day. I schedule them in, but we only work on them if everyone finishes their core studies in a timely manner.