Several days ago a new worry crossed my mind - I realized that perhaps we weren't covering all that we should be. Take reading for example...While I spend A LOT of time reading aloud to the kids, they do very little reading on their own, which can't be good. Also, our days still seem very "light" somehow, as though we're not learning enough (though I'm probably a little paranoid about that!). So, I turned to The Well-Trained Mind Forums for help and got some wonderful ideas and suggestions. Here's what I've decided to add:

Spelling: The boys are all terrible at spelling, so I've decided to use All About Spelling. They were never taught a phonetic approach and my eldest asked that I teach them this, so I'm hopeful it will be a good program (at least, it comes highly recommended). We already have The ABC's and All Their Tricks by Margaret Bishop, which I think will make a good supplemental resource.

Reading: Bridges Beyond + Light Units (Grade 4 Reader + Workbooks) and Calls to Courage (Grade 6 Reader + Workbooks), from Christian Light Publications.

Writing: I'm still debating about whether or not to add a separate writing program to our already very full schedule. Nevertheless, if I do, it will likely be either Writing Tales or Classical Writing - Aesop. Against my better judgment, I ordered the more labor-intensive IEW Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons. This way we'll be right on track with their program, using their Medieval History-Based Lessons next year, followed by U.S. History I & II...

Critical Thinking/Logic: We'll be using Grid Perplexors from MindWare; Logic Safari has also been suggested. Lori D. from TWTM Forums posted a wonderful list of free logic/critical thinking resources here. I think the puzzles will be a good time-filler for the kids if they finish their work early.

Science: After our upcoming Geology unit, we'll be studying the history of science. I'll write more about this in a future post.

Art: I'll be adding Draw and Write Through History (Books 1 & 2) and Visual Manna's Teaching History Through Art.

Now I'll just need to figure out how to incorporate the changes into our already tight schedule. We're so not morning people, but I suspect that starting our day earlier will be quite unavoidable.