2012 curriculum

New homeschool catalogs are out.  I love this time of year.  I’m not sure if I am in the minority on this or not.  I think a lot of homeschoolers seem to feel a drag on the end of the year.  I’m always looking ahead though 🙂

This year the curriculum we were planning to get Emma in March ended up going through an overhaul.  I wanted to wait and see what the new changes were before I went ahead and made the purchase.  Luckily, we like the changes, there are more books, and it ends up being about $80 cheaper overall.  Score one for us!

We are getting Emma the Core A program through Sonlight.  We will be getting Language Arts K with K readers, although we may end up going to the grade 1 readers towards the second half of the year, depending on how she is doing.  Luckily, we already have most of those books, so we won’t need to purchase anything different.  We will be getting Science A, which I plan to do with both kids.  I’m not entirely sure how you would separate science for two kids.  Jack wants to do everything that Emma does, so I don’t think it would work well to try to keep him out of the science.  For Math we will be getting the Singapore Earlybird program.  I think that this will last us for maybe a semester though, so we will most likely end up getting the Singapore 1 Math program later on in the year.  Her handwriting program will be Handwriting Without Tears K.  I am happy with these choices, and the fact that I can get it in a multi-subject package for additional savings makes me super happy!  The only thing I am changing in the multi-subject package is the math program, because I have heard great things about Singapore Math.

Jack will be listening along to a lot of the read-aloud books from Emma’s core, but we will also be incorporating the P 3/4 program that I bought for Emma a couple years ago.  These are all stories that both kids really enjoy, and we read them often as it is.  I think it will end up being a great year.  At least that is my hope!

I am a little nervous about getting into “formal” teaching with Emma.  I don’t want to stifle her creativity.  But, I am also concerned that Jack will make getting much done impossible.  She is pretty good about working on her own once I give her instructions, but we will both be moving into an entirely new realm of teaching (how am I supposed to teach her handwriting when mine is horrible?!)

Any tips on homeschooling with a 20 month old at your feet?  Are you planning out your next school year?  Do you wait until the fall?  Or will you start as soon as possible (like me)?