This Year's Curricula

New Homeschool Year

here are our curricula purchases for the upcoming school year (which we start on May 1st, don't ask), by category:

Math:

Foerster's Algebra I (Student book and Solutions Manual)
Math Without Borders (video lessons) to accompany Algebra I
Westcott Metal Compass (I have no idea if Primo will need a compass this year, but he could have used one a few weeks ago while doing 'test prep' for his CAT-E, so I'm picking one up.  It's $1.25, not a big deal if we don't need it this school year)
Singapore 1A/1B workbooks (for Snorzy in four years, I'm worried they will stop selling these before he gets around to starting math)
(nothing for Radish, I jumped the gun last year buying 5th grade Singapore, which we didn't need until this coming May.  I also have Life of Fred Fractions, and Decimals & Percents ready for him, if he wants to start those this year)

Science:

Tarbuck Earth Science (college textbook, it looks intimidating but everyone in the online reviews I read swore this was the best thing to use for middle school/high school level Earth Science, we'll see)
Prentice Hall Science Explorer Earth Science
Earth Science Success: 50 Lesson Plans for grades 6-9 (for labwork etc to go with above)
Investigating Rocks: The Rock Cycle (from the Do It Yourself series, supposedly good hands-on experiments and activities that kids can do with little to no adult help)
Detective Science: 40 Crime Case Activities

History:

History Odyssey Modern Times (Level 1)
History Odyssey Modern Times (Level 2)- I'm so excited about having both boys use this curriculum this year, each at an appropriate level!  I still haven't gotten around to writing a whole blog post about how much I love this history curriculum, but I will one of these days.

English:

Daily Grams Jr/Sr High (sad that this is the last in the series!  these have been so great for my guys, they never mind doing them, it's a nice little bit of work to get them going in the morning, and their basic writing skills have grown so much since they each started doing these)
Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing, Grade 6
Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing, Grade 9
Reading Comprehension Book 4, plus Teacher Key
More Reading Comprehension Level 2, plus Teacher Key- I'm nervous and unsure about these four (above) pieces, I haven't made the guys do much in the way of reading or even writing instruction for the past few years and I don't know if they're going to be overwhelmed, or enjoy a little challenge in these areas.  My thinking is that it's time (for Primo, anyway) to go back to having 'English' as a subject, aside from the reading and writing he does in science and history.  In the past few years I've been acting as if he has 'tested out' of English by reading above his grade level and testing high on the CAT E at the end of each year, in both reading and writing.  Now I'm starting to think in terms of transcripts and college entrance requirements, he's going to need English and I'm too lazy to want to tease out what he's doing organically and write it up.
Comedy of Errors (No Fear Shakespeare)- a young friend showed this book to me the other day, and since that young friend and her brother are going to be in a production of this play in the summer which we will certainly want to attend, I thought my guys should become familiar with the story.  I love the format of these 'No Fear Shakespeare' books, wish I had had them when I first tried to read these plays!
Getting Started With Latin- I lump Latin in with English for our purposes.  We finished Minimus Secundus a while ago, and I didn't know where to go next with this.  I want to continue to expose them to some Latin, it can't hurt anything, but I don't want to spend a lot of time or energy on it either. 

Practical Arts:

Start it Up: a Complete Teen Business Guide for Turning Your Passions Into Pay
Better Than a Lemonade Stand!: Small Business Ideas for Kids
Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids
Let's Cut Paper (for Snorzy, to practice cutting)
Betty Crocker's Cookbook For Boys and Girls

Health:

Healthy Eating: Diet and Nutrition (another of those DIY books like the one I bought for science, this one sounds more like 'health ed' to me so I'm putting it in its own category)
Pandemic! Board Game (maybe this one is a bit of a stretch, but I usually throw in a new board game with our huge curricula buy, and tell myself it has educational value.  That's how Settlers of Catan came into our lives, a few years ago)

Physical Education:

Cozy Coupe (Snorzy)
Mashoonga! Warrior Pair (we're calling these 'whack-y sticks', and I hope they'll encourage a certain Primo to want to go outside to play a bit more often)

The Big Buy

Every year around this time we get a tax refund, and it's time once again to make our big homeschool purchase.  The project of deciding what books and supplies we need for the coming school year has been consuming all of my spare time for the past week and more.  It was a little more work than usual; in the past I've mostly just ordered the next book in each of the series that I've liked over the years.  This year, though, I felt a need to make things more challenging and comprehensive for Primo, as he goes into 7th grade.  And after six years of trying to put together something on my own for science that I can be happy with, I'm going to cave and try a textbook-based curriculum for Primo.  I think I've almost settled on what we're getting (for all the boys and all the subjects) after *many, many hours* researching various curricula, previewing books through interlibrary loan, reading reviews, and taking stock of what we already have (and what sorts of things I buy and then find we never use-- that's right, I'm talking about you, art supplies).  This may change a bit, there's no hurry to order since we won't start our new school year until May 1st.  Here it is then, for anyone who is curious:

Math:
Singapore 5A/5B workbooks (Radish, he won't need them until early 2015 but I like to have everything I'll need for the next 12 months when I place my order)
Life of Fred Beginning Algebra Expanded Edition
Life of Fred Beginning Algebra: Zillions of Practice Problems (both of these for Primo)
Learning Wrap-Ups: Multiplication (Radish)

History and Geography:
History Odyssey- Early Modern (Level 2) (for Primo, but some of the literature units I'll use for Radish as well)
Yo, Millard Fillmore!
Yo, Sacramento!
The Little Man in the Map (these last three mostly for Radish, to work on memorization)

Science:
Holt Science And Technology, Life Science, Homeschool Package (Primo)
Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia (both)
Microscope Adventure! Unit Study (both)
World of the Microscope (both)
ScienceWiz DNA (kit, for both)
Bridges! (mostly Radish, although I think Primo won't be able to resist 'helping' with some of the projects and experiments)
spring scale (Radish, needs for Steck-Vaughn Science by the Grade, which we already own)

English:
Daily Grams 4th Grade (Radish)
Daily Grams 7th Grade (Primo)

Practical Arts:
Life Skills for Kids (Primo)

Art:
1-2-3 Draw People (Radish)

Philosophy:
Thank You For Arguing, Revised and Updated Edition (both)

Planning for High School and Beyond:
Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook (me)
College Without High School (Primo, very unschool-y but I want him to be exposed to these ideas)
Setting the Records Straight: How to Craft Homeschool Transcripts and Course Descriptions for College Admission and Scholarships (me)
Homeschooling the Teen Years (me, on the fence about this one because it's the same author as the Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook above, might be repetitive)

Snorzy, toddling at home:
water table
My Fairy Princess Palace (because I want it, and he'll want me to play with him, and this is the compromise we're going to come to-- I'll play with him, if we can play things that I like and am usually deprived of in my boy-centric world)

So there you have it, and that's what's been eating all my time lately.  (don't ask about the craft challenge, I had to let it slide this past week or go crazy! hoping to continue the sweater project as this week's 'craft')