Rundown of 2011-2012

So we are just about done with the year. I have K completing five more lessons and one more quiz in math, and finishing her geography notebook. Other than that we are DONE!!! Woo hoo!!

To recap what worked and what didn't:

•  MFW ECC - great concept. I just realized I am a homeschool rebel. Put a teacher manual in front of me with everything planned and I can't use it. :-) We basically ended up setting up the notebook as it said to. Then I placed all of the country pages from the Trip Around the World and Another Trip Around the World books into their respective continent section.  We also used the John 3:16 sheets for our notebook. The passports were great. The kids loved it and we did those as it said. I added in the other countries we did as well, so there are LOTS of stickers in the passport. One neat thing we did is, during our fall trip to EPCOT, we got the passport from the World Showcase. Then we got it signed in each of the countries there. When we got home, as we studied on of those countries, we would pull the passport from EPCOT out and place the stickers in there. We would also try to remember any little tidbits the people from the countries told us. It was fun and well worth the $10 for that passport. 
• Abeka Language 3rd grade - This was very technical and gave great instruction. K loved it. Her grammar skills have come far.
• Writing Strands - It was a bust here.
•  Building Spelling Skills - Dropped this like a hot potato. K was just not ready for spelling. 
•  Horizons Math 3rd grade - Great program. However, this is the one area K and I butt heads on. We struggled so hard with math this year. There was one instance when we were talking about subtraction, and I was explaining it for the 10th time; K looks at me and says "Oh! Now I get it. I should have listened sooner." Not Horizon's fault. Once we switched to Teaching Textbooks, math has become a favorite subject.
• Song School Latin - Great  program. Even O has a grasp on basic Latin phrases and words from just listening to the songs!  
• VP Literature Guides (Charlotte's Web, Mary Poppins, Little House in the Big Woods, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, and Misty of Chincoteague) - LOVE these guides and can't wait to delve into Narnia this coming year with the Narnia guide.
• MFW K - Once again a great program. However, I had to manipulate it for my child. O is not a cut and paste, color this in, put an X over that, etc. kid. He did it, but it was torture. We delved into the science part of this and had fun! 
•  Horizons Math K - O begged me for this each and every day! We love Horizons Math!
•  Phonics Pathways - Ditched this for the Reading Eggs program online. He likes that so much more and is now able to read the 8th Dick and Jane primer! 
• Bible - we read this together as a family. Each morning we would start with reading a chapter and then praying together. We also loved the Hero Tales: A Family Treasury of True Stories from the Lives of Christian Heroes book from the MFW program. K would pick which missionary she wanted to learn about and we would read a bit about him/her each morning.

My mommy lesson from this year? Do not use a boxed curriculum again. It ended up costing us more because I tweaked so much. For now I will stick to the method of looking at the boxed curriculum, picking which books interest me, and then piecing it all together. The next time I may try an all in one type of thing would be middle school. Unless I can be talked out of that in the next 2-3 years. ;-)