Curricula Chosen. Angelicum Academy Wins!

I've finally committed! My research is done, my plans are set. We are enrolling with Angelicum Academy this year again!! I know you probably already knew this; however, I'm tweaking the system to make it work for us. The great thing about Angelicum is that they are flexible and I can borrow from not only different grade levels (as you'll notice I'm doing for Isabella), but also from outside sources. There really is no "one size fits all" curricula out there, which is why homeschooling is such a wonderful thing!

I'm sure if you've looked at what we've done in the past, you'll notice that we are not straying far from the path. My biggest failure this past year was spelling. Spelling Workout was a huge bust and Click n Spell was fun, but not producing results. After much research, I'm giving All About Spelling a go and I'll be combining Marco & Isabella together. I'm excited about using a multisensory approach, which is what I think will produce a better speller for me.

History was my biggest conundrum. Should I continue with History Odyssey or go with Angelicum's history cycle? After much thought, prayer, and back-and-forth emails with Angelicum...I decided to stay with what was working. History Odyssey (HO) is great to use with several kids and all the planning is done for me. My plans are to finish the level 1 cycle with HO and then switch over to Angelicum's cycle. But I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Language arts has been going well for us this past year too, so switching over just didn't make sense to me. Rod & Staff is a super solid grammar program that we enjoyed and I plan on keeping up with it. Writing With Ease has also been producing great results, but I am planning on doing Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) with Marco mid-year, perhaps sooner.

As for religion, we have the most fun with it! I believe that Faith & Life is a great program and combining them with Angelicum's recommended saint books has been a big success. This year Marco made his own saint book and I'm planning on having him continue with another one for this year as well as starting Isabella with one of her own (she is looking forward to it already!). Add some Catholic lapbooks on top of that, and we are set!!

I'm happy that I won't have to worry about making my lesson plans, keeping grades, or even grading some of the kids' writing. Interested in Angelicum? Check them out at www.angelicum.net You can also join the Angelicum Yahoo Group (the button is on the left bar).

Marco 3rd Grade
Religion	Faith & Life 3, Baltimore Catechism, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks
Math	Saxon 54
History	History Odyssey Level 1 Early Modern Times
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Phonics	Hooked on Phonics Master Reader
Grammar	Rod & Staff English 3
Writing	Writing With Ease 3, IEW
Spelling	All About Spelling
Handwriting	Zaner Bloser Cursive 3rd Grade
Music	Piano, Stories of the Great Composers
Art/Nature	Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study
Unit Studies	50 States Geography, Animals, anything fun!
Science	Apologia Astronomy with co-op
Cartography	Map Essentials 3

Isabella 1st Grade
Religion	Faith & Life 2, Baltimore Catechism, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks
Math	Saxon 2
History	History Odyssey Level 1 Early Modern Times
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Phonics	Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read 2nd Grade
Grammar	Rod & Staff English 2
Writing	Writing With Ease 2
Spelling	All About Spelling
Handwriting	Zaner Bloser 1st Grade
Music	Stories of the Great Composers
Art/Nature	Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study
Unit Studies	50 States Geography, Animals, anything fun!
Science	Apologia Astronomy with co-op
Cartography	Map Essentials 2

Anthony Kindergarten
Religion	Who Am I?, Saint Stories, Catholic Lapbooks
Math	Saxon 1
History	Dinosaurs, History Pockets Ancient Civilizations
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Phonics	Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Kindergarten
Spelling	Spelling Connections K
Handwriting	Zaner Bloser Kindergarten
Art/Nature	Misc. Art Materials/Handbook of Nature Study
Unit Studies	Anything fun!
Science	Dinosaur Study with co-op

Christian Nursery
Religion	Who Am I?
Math	The Shoemaker and the Elves Numbers 1-10, Number flashcards
Literature	Good Books from Angelicum
Language Arts	Alphabet Flash Cards, A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway, Snow White and Town Mouse pre-writing workbooks
Art/Nature	Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, and Pinocchio workbooks