Eighth Grade, Fifth Grade, Third Grade, First Grade

2017-2018 School Year Books and Resources

First Son - eighth grade, Mater Amabilis™ Level 4
First Daughter - fifth grade, Mater Amabilis™ Level 2, Year 2
Second Daughter - third grade, Mater Amabilis Level 1A, Year 2
Second Son - first grade, Mater Amabilis™ Level 1B

Everyone

• Scripture
• Psalm - one psalm a day from The Book of Psalms.
• Scripture - My Big Book of Catholic Bible Stories. Read my review.
• Virtue Study - daily discussion of a virtue and the prayer from the Education in Virtue virtue cards. Read my review.
• Literature
• Poetry
• Poet of the Term - one poem each day from this poet (except on days we have our general poetry)
• Walt Whitman
• Langston Hughes
• William Butler Yeats
• Poetry - read a handful of poems from the current book of poetry, just for enjoyment and edification. We're going to start where we left off last year in Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Selection edited by Micheal Rosen. Here's a post of our poetry for the year.
• Shakespeare: Macbeth, Henry IV Part I (memorization only)
• retellings of our plays for First Son in Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb and for First Daughter in Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit. Neither of these have Henry V, so we're going to try a retelling by Andrew Matthews.
• How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. Read my review. See what Romeo and Juliet looked like for us last year.
• Music Appreciation
• Music Masters CDs and how we use them
• Lives of the Musicians by Kathleen Krull
• Spotify
• Art Appreciation
• Child-Sized Masterpieces - We have lots of folders from the original program and that I've created from artwork we've studied. Each of the three younger kids uses one folder each week for just a few minutes.
• Stories
• Fairy Tales and Legends - We'll start where we left off in The Green Fairy Book. (We didn't finish this so we'll continue again next year.)
• Nature Tales
• The Curious Nature Guide by Clare Walker Leslie. Read my review.
• Pagoo from Mater Amabilis™™ Level 1B. Read my review.
• Read Alouds - I'm always reading something to the kids, just for fun.
• Art of Letter Writing - the three older children write a letter a week to the person of their choice.
• Children's Adoration once a week, at our parish
• Memory Work - each student has a binder with poems and such, plus we have Scripture memory verse system on index cards
• Nature Study - nature walk once a week
• PSR at our parish where they use the Sophia Institute Press series

First Grade

• Catechism - Clare's Costly Cookie by Julie Kelly. Read my review. (You can find this at Sacred Heart Books and Gifts if Amazon doesn't have it in stock. Or, better yet, ask your local Catholic bookstore to stock it.)
• Saints - Holy Friends: Thirty Saints and Blesseds of the Americas by Diana M. Amadeo. Read my review.
• Math
• Addition and Subtraction: Math Games for Elementary Students. Read my review.
• playing games from our shelves once a week (some examples from Second Daughter)
• Reading
• The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Read my review.
• Tandem reading every day after a lesson from our reading book.
• Handwriting - Cursive First. Read my review.
• Fables - Aesop's Fables for Children illustrated by Milo Winter. Read my review.
• Geography - Earth Studies - Rivers and Oceans
• Maps - Maps, Charts, and Graphs A. Read my review.
• Journal - Me: A Compendium. (I've done a journal like this with each of the kids in first grade, just for fun.) Read my review.
• Scissor skills - Second Son likes to cut pictures out of the weekly grocery flyer, and I'm totally counting that as school.
• Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 2 at our parish

Third Grade

• Catechism - The Mass Explained to Children by Maria Montessori
• Saints - Saints for Young Readers for Every Day volumes 1 and 2. Read my review. (You can find these at Sacred Heart Books and Gifts if Amazon doesn't have them at a reasonable price.)
• Seasonal reading
• Advent - The Life of Mary by Inos Biffi
• Lent - More Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls. Read my review. (This book often appears on the $5 and $10 sale pages at the publisher's website.)
• Easter - The Young Life of Sister Faustina. Read my post on Claire Jordan Mohan books.
• Math
• Life of Fred elementary series. She'll be starting with Dogs. Read my review.
• Khan Academy (Grade 3).
• Games with me and First Daughter from Multiplication and Fractions. This book is new-to-us. I have the Kindle version, but I'd upgrade to paperback if I could justify it.
• xtramath. Read my review. Second Daughter has struggled with xtramath; for some reason she really doesn't like it, so we may switch to timed worksheets instead. They seem harder to me, but as long as she's practicing the math, I suppose I shouldn't care.
• Speed on the ipad, every once in a while.
• Logic - Mind Benders Level 2 (a few activities from last year) and Mind Benders Level 3
• Financial Literacy - We read a bunch of picture books that introduces a variety of financial themes like saving, borrowing, credit, and debt. Here's a little about it.
• English 
• Independent Reading - I have a list of books Second Daughter will read at her own pace, about one chapter a day. I'm not sure what she'll get through this year, but the Little House and Narnia books are all on the list.
• Copywork - ten minutes copying something from our copywork binder (poems and selections I have written out for them over the years).
• Spelling - Sequential Spelling 1. We started this last year and will just pick up where we left off. They're switching to an online format, but we still have the old books and CDs.
• Grammar - Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree
• Handwriting - another round of Cursive First. Read my review.
• Literature
• Tales - D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. This is an alternative to Classic Myths to Read Aloud, which I wrote about here.
• Classic Children's Literature - My goal is to read Ballet Shoes, Emil and the Detectives, and The Princess and the Goblin to everyone.
• History
• American History - Connecting with History volume 4, grammar level, found at RC History. I think we'll do the first four units.
• World History - RC History: Connecting with History volume 2 (units 6-7), Connecting with History volume 3 (units 1-4), mainly beginner level.
• Geography and Earth Studies
• Maps - Maps, Charts and Graphs, Level C (Communities). Read my review.
• People and Places - Second Daughter will work with the maps of the area most weeks for a few minutes before doing the reading using the Geography Coloring Book.
• Term 1 - Sovietrek: A Journey by Bicycle Across Russia
• Term 2 - The Children of China: An Artist's Journey
• Term 3 - Miss Happiness and Miss Flower
• Earth Studies - Extreme Environments
• Term 1 - 52 Days by Camel: My Sahara Adventure by Lawrie Raskin with Debora Pearson. Read my review and lesson plans.
• Term 2 - Jungle Islands: My South Sea Adventure by Maria Coffey with Debora Pearson. Read my review and lesson plans.
• Term 3 - By Truck to the North: My Arctic Adventure by Andy Turnbull with Debora Pearson and Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Owings Dewey. Read my review and lesson plans.
• Earth Studies - Mountains and Volcanoes - See the plans I made for First Son.
• Mountains and Volcanoes by Barbara Taylor
• How to Dig a Hold to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNulty
• Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber
• Kansas Studies - Kansas (From Sea to Shining Sea). Read our plan.
• Science
• Birds - We're going to finish reading The Burgess Bird Book for Children using the Peterson Field Guide Coloring book. Here's a link to the pages for the guide book.
• Chemistry - our plans for the year.
• A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick
• Super Science Concoctions by Jill Frankel Hauser
• Rocks and Minerals (Eye Wonder Book)
• The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe by Ellen McHenry. Read my review.
• How to Think Like a Scientist by Stephen P. Kramer
• Music - piano lessons - John W. Schaum piano course books
• Art - continuing with Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book One, which we started last year. We do a lesson from this about every other week with lots of access to colored pencils, markers, and watercolor pencils in between.
• Typing - TypingClub.com
• Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at our parish (Level 2)

Fifth Grade

• Rosary - Pearls of Peace 
• Saints - 57 Stories of Saints by Anne Heffernan
• Seasonal Reading
• Advent - Stories of the Child Jesus from Many Lands by A. Fowler Lutz
• Lent - The Way of the Cross by Inos Biffi
• Easter - Our Lady's Book by Lauren Ford. Read my review.
• Math
• Life of Fred Before High School series. She'll be starting with Fractions. Read my review. She has completed the Elementary and Intermediate books.
• Khan Academy (Grade 5).
• Games with me and Second Daughter from Multiplication and Fractions. This book is new-to-us. I have the Kindle version, but I'd upgrade to paperback if I could justify it.
• xtramath. Read my review. She'll start again with addition and work all the way through division.
• Puzzles - The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade by Brian Bolt
• Logic - Mind Benders Level 4
• English
• Reading - I was going to let First Daughter skip independent reading this year because she reads so voraciously, but then I found a few books I know I want her to read and this is the easiest way to make sure that happens.
• Copywork - 10 minutes daily from our copywork binder.
• Spelling - Sequential Spelling 1. We started this last year and will just pick up where we left off. They're switching to an online format, but we still have the old books and CDs.
• Grammar - Fix It! Grammar: The Nose Tree continued from last year.
• Myths - The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Alfred J. Church.
• History
• American History - This Country of Ours by H. E. Marshall (first year of a three year course using the schedule for levels 1A and 2).
• World History - RC History: Connecting with History volume 2 (units 6-7), Connecting with History volume 3 (units 1-4), mainly grammar level.
• Geography and Earth Studies
• American Geography
• Tree in the Trail by Holling C. Holling
• Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Holling
• Some of the images and maps from Little House in the Suburbs for Minn of the Mississippi
• Holling Geography Map Pack
• People and Places - Read our mapping plan using the Geography Coloring Book.
• Safari Journal by Hudson Talbott
• Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan
• A Gift from Childhood by Baba Wague Diakite 
• Map Work - Maps, Charts, and Graphs E. Read my review. This is in addition to the mapping we do with our geography and history studies.
• Science - Simple Machines with Fantastic Physics at Wildflowers and Marbles, updated plans are here.
• French - French for Children Primer A
• Latin - continuing Latin for Children Primer A, though we have the previous version. Read my review.
• Art - Artistic Pursuits Grades 4-6 Book One (continued from last year and almost done) and Artistic Pursuits Grades 4-6 Book Two
• Typing - TypingClub.com
• Music
• Homeschool Band - saxophone
• Piano lessons - John W. Schaum piano course books

Eighth Grade

• Scripture - the Gospel of John (because he's the patron saint of our parish) with The Gospel of John: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture by Francis Martin and William M. Wright. Read my review.
• Catechism - Introduction to Catholicism: A Complete Course (Didiche series). Read my review.
• Saints and Catholic Heroes
• Blessed Stanley Rather - The Shepherd Who Didn't Run by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda. Read my review.
• St. John Paul II - John Paul II by Ray Flynn. Read my review.
• Servant of God Emil Kapaun - A Shepherd in Combat Boots by William L. Maher. Read my review.
• Seasonal Reading - Lent - Boys to Men: The Transforming Power of Virtue by Tim Gray and Curtis Martin. Read my view.
• Math
• Life of Fred High School series. He'll start where he left off in Beginning Algebra. Read my review of the Life of Fred series as a whole. 
• Khan Academy (Grade 8).
• xtramath. Read my review. Just one more time! (He'll master all the way to division very quickly and then be done for the year.)
• Puzzles - The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade by Brian Bolt
• Logic
• The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Bluedorn
• Mind Benders Level 4 and Mind Benders Level 5
• English
• Composition - IEW Student Writing Intensive Continuation Course Level B, continued from last year
• Copywork - 10 minutes daily from his school readings or memorized poetry into a commonplace book
• Grammar - Fix It! Grammar: Robin Hood, continued from last year.
• Spelling - Sequential Spelling 5. We started this last year and will just pick up where we left off. They're switching to an online format, but we still have the old books and CDs.
• Classic Literature
• Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton. Read my review.
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Read my review.
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Read my review.
• Twentieth Century History
• Term 1: National History using The Century for Young People by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster. Read my review.
• Term 2: World War I and World War II using The World Wars (Usborne). Read our plans for World War I and World War II. Read what I thought of The World Wars.
• Term 3: Russia and the Collapse of Communism and Asia. See our original plans for the Asia unit here.
• Geography and Earth Studies
• Twentieth Century Exploration
• Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. Read my review.
• Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft by Thor Heyerdahl
• The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz. Read my review.
• National Geographic magazine
• Mapwork - Maps, Charts, and Graphs H in addition to mapwork for our geography and history studies.
• Nature Reading
• A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Read my review.
• All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Read my review.
• Science - a combination of the Mater Amabilis™™ Level 4 books and Simple Machines with Fantastic Physics at Wildflowers and Marbles
• Latin - Latin for Children C, continued from last year
• Music - piano lessons - John W. Schaum piano course books
• Art - Artistic Pursuits Middle School Book One , continued from last year
• Typing - TypingClub.com
• PSR at our parish where they use the Faith and Life books

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. Links to RC History are also affiliate links. Many of these books are also available at Sacred Heart Books and Gifts (not an affiliate link) at excellent prices. Comments and linked reviews are my honest opinion. I received nothing for writing these reviews.