We have come to the end of our school year. We took our time, smelled the roses and really enjoyed our first full year of using ACE. Well, I did make some changes to our materials at the semester break. I stopped using the ACE math and switched to Math-U-See. A choice that I’m extremely pleased with. Because we started the Math-U-See halfway through the year, we are completely done with the workbooks we started, but we’re close.

This year, we’re only taking a short summer break, about a week or two, before going right into our next year’s work. Summertime is excruciatingly hot and humid here. My kids are forced inside due to the heat every afternoon. Rather than let them sit around all day in the AC, why not get some work done? When the cooler temps arrive, they can take the entire day off and enjoy the great outdoors. This goes against my habit – I have always taken a summer break – but I think this will be a good change for us. We can be more flexible during the regular school year, which will really take some pressure off of me.

So…here’s how things are shaping up for our 2011-2012 school year.

Lauren, Grade 7:

Math: Math-U-See Zeta
Language Arts:
English: ACE
Literature ACE and Of People (Abeka)
Writing: Combination of The Write Stuff Adventure and From Heart to Page: Journaling Through the Year for Young Writers.
Spelling: ACE
Science: ACE
Social Studies: ACE
Bible: ABC’s of Bible Doctrine (material my husband used in Sunday School)

Electives: Typing practice, You CAN Sew, Music (piano lessons), Art

Mitchell, Grade 4

Math: Math-U-See, finishing Beta and moving into Gamma
Language Arts:
English: ACE
Writing and Literature: ACE Creative Writing & Literature paces.
Spelling: ACE
Science: ACE
Social Studies: ACE and Arkansas State History
Bible: ACE Bible Reading paces

Electives: Art, typing practice, music (piano lessons)

Leslie: Grade 1

We will be using ACE for all of her subjects, supplementing with readers from Abeka, Bob books (all sets) and other books from the library. She will also do art and I’ll be reading Storytime with the Millers to Leslie and Laci together.


Laci: Pre-school

I have found some excellent books for pre-schoolers from Rod & Staff. I have purchased 6 of these books and we will complete 3 each semester by  only doing 3 pages a day. We will also be introducing the ABC’s of ACE toward the end of the year.

We also do a family read aloud as often as we can. For a list of some of the books we’ve read, check out the Books We Love. 

As you can see, I’m mostly using ACE materials. I love the fact that my children and so easily be independent learners with this material. Even with Math-U-See, they can watch the DVD lesson once a week, or as often as needed, and complete the work with minimal assistance from me. This frees me up to read to my little ones and work them on math. I would love to use Apologia science or living history or maybe even a unit study! But, alas, that is not feasible for me right now. An active baby/toddler and preschooler demand much of my time, not to mention the million other things that beckon me such as housework, cooking, and laundry!

Have you planned out your school year? I’d love to hear about it!