We are Ready for 4th Grade!

Our school year runs from Jan-Dec, which means that we're starting our second year of homeschooling. Our first year (2011) was all over the place. Since the decision to homeschool happened from one day to the next, I had no time to prepare. This year will be very different. I've been working on our curriculum for several months now, printed up everything over the last month, and we're ready to go! Another big difference is that we're using quite a few store-bought books, which I know is kind of cheating on my only-free-stuff policy, but let me explain... We already had these books in the house. Most of them were given to us when our son was still too young to use them. I basically just went through all our books and fished out the ones that fit our 4th grade needs. I found much more than I expected right on our own bookshelves. Have you been through your books lately? You might find some useful forgotten treasures too.

Here's our schedule:

Chapter Books for Independent Reading:

We'll be working with this Dorling Kindersley Encyclopedia
that covers World Regions, People and Society, History of People, Living World,
Science and Technology, Planet Earth, Space and the Universe.

I made worksheets for each chapter,
so he reads through and then answers questions.

Here are our Read-Alouds -
Myths and Legends from around the World,
Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attack (a 20+ year-old copy from my childhood),
and Aesop's Fables in Spanish (which we will also use for copywork/handwriting)

For math we're using several resources.
The Math Skills workbook is by Harcourt Family Learning (sent to us by a friend).
Glencoe Math - free downloadable 80 page workbook.
MEP Math in Spanish - free downloadable 175 page textbook.
And we'll also be using Khan Academy free online program.
If you don't know Khan Academy yet, you're missing out big time.

For Spelling, Vocabulary and Grammar,
I got 750 pages worth of free downloadable worksheets
from McGraw-Hill and Scott Foresman.
I also wrote up my own workbook on Homophones,
using a dictionary and this site.

For Science in Spanish, we'll be using this Larousse book.

I printed out pages for him to come up with his own Q&A from what he reads.

For Science in English, we're using Mr. Q Science.

We're using the free Life Science textbook (the others are for sale).

And here's what it looks like all together!

I can't wait to start on Monday!

Download-A-Thon

I've been downloading free textbooks for 6th-12th like crazy the last few days since I found this awesome site:
http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

My library is now stocked with Calculus, Biology, Geometry, Algebra, Physics, Chemistry and a bunch more.
Most of the textbooks come with a Teacher's edition as well.
I'm so psyched.
And I got it all for FREE!!!

We are so fortunate to have good people, like these folks, who put together quality educational resources and make them accessible to all.
That's how the sharing of knowledge should be!

Between CK12 and Khan Academy (my hero), I think we've got it down.

Information is Power!
Save - Organize - Archive - Share
and help other seekers by spreading the wealth

*A Tip to the On-line textbook user: if you are using a free online textbook that has the option of downloading - Just Do It! Last week I lost access to the science books I thought we would be using for the next three years. We loved it, and suddenly it was GONE. The site stopped providing free access. So, if you can, just go ahead and download it.