Summer Planning: Year 4 2012/13

Wow it's been awhile since I've been able to post. We finally decided to get a real internet connection as of yesterday and found a computer at a garage sale for $30! So I no longer am left with my iPod touch to try to make updates to this blog... which I completely gave up on months ago!

I attended the Fort Wayne Used Homeschool Curriculum sale this Tuesday and while I left with a couple good titles, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed in the overall quality of what I found in literature available. I'm not so sure I'll be half as excited to attend next year.

I found Abeka Arithmetic 3 for Free! After this past year I had been considering finding a more in depth math curriculum than what I have been using for the past three years (Houghton Mifflin), but I wasn't entirely certain which to go with. I was considering Saxton, however the price range alone was out of our reach. Abeka was a close second. The copy I found is old but at least gives me a chance to review the material over the summer and consider purchasing a newer/used edition before fall.

Writing with Ease 2 by Susan Wise Bauer. Even though all the student pages are missing I think I'd rather have a notebook dedicated to this subject for third grade. Ya! This is going to be perfect for Mara. It really focuses on areas that she can use the most help in and is literature based. Double bonus.

A microscope, and Science Detectives book. While I think I could have gotten by with what we have in house for Science I figured it wouldn't hurt to bolster our Science toys a little more. Mara actually picked out Science Detectives, of course. This was actually the reason I was most pleased with this sale. It gave us a chance to look at her books for next year together, instead of me looking and comparing online each summer. It gave her the opportunity to participate in choosing her own curriculum and that will give her another level of anticipation for next year.

Those were the main things I brought home that I'm most excited. A few others to add to our shelves: Little Women, Little Men, The Moffat Museum, Harry Cat's Pet Puppy and an interesting Japanese Wood Block Cut Prints Coloring Book. There might be one or two others that I have forgotten.

Oh yes, and while reorganizing our front room I realized that I already have a great piece of furniture to begin using the workbox idea for next year. Our trusty 747 as it's been named. Richard's old architecture supply cabinet from grad school. So that's one less thing on my list :) I am pleased. Now to give it a fresh coat of paint and haul the thing upstairs!

Still on my list:

Spelling

Susan Wise Bauers World History book 3 and test book

Finish buying Math Curriculum

Audobon guide to Trees / Flowers

Music Appreciation

Any of these in literature:

Children of the New Forest

The Jungle Book

At the Back of the North Wind

The Bears of Blue River

The Saturdays

Gone Away Lake

King of the Wind

Mother Carey's Chickens

The Enchanted Castle

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

The Bestiary: A book of Beasts

Dido and Pa

The Three Royal Monkeys

Oliver Twist

The House of Sixty Fathers

The Book of British Fairy Tales

Voyage Round the Horn

Are all the Giants Dead?

The Diamond in the Window

The Queens Brooch

The Trumpeter of Krakow

The Children of Green Knowe

The Stranger at Green Knowe

The Thirteen Clocks

The Last Guru