The final topic for Homeschool Week is curriculum. What do you use? What "gems" do you recommend?
I could not begin to cover all of our curriculum as I am a very eclectic homeschooler and use a vast variety of pieces of different curriculum. I have 4-5 tubs of different things to use for different subjects in several different grades and that does not include reading or resource books. 4 of my 6 children are now being homeschooled and for the most part they have different learning styles. If you are unsure of your child’s learning style I highly recommend The Way They Learn. It can be bought, of course, or found at most libraries. It will give you a great insight into your child’s head, thinking and how they process information. I found it to be a lot easier to pick what books I wanted to purchase for each child. We purchase almost all of our curriculum from Christian Book Distributors. They do not sell only Christian material but rather they sell a lot of Christian materials as well as other curriculums. If there is any particular book I recommend it would be Spectrum test books. Spectrum makes an awesome test book! I use them at the end of each year to see how the kids are doing. It helps me to know where their strengths and weaknesses are so we can address them. The test books also help the children learn how to properly take the tests many states require. Win/ win!
Some of the curriculums I have used are Horizons, Lifepac, BJU, and Spectrum. I am sure BJU is wonderful but just wasn’t right for us. Too constricting and rigid. So far I am loving Horizons math for my physical learner- Ms. Firecracker. I have and am using Lifepac science and math for different children. I really like how each topic is covered in its own workbook. We are also using Apolgia Science this year and that is new to us. This is the book we use for handwriting with my 5th grader. I used these last year for all of them and really like them over what I am using now for my 2nd and 3rd graders. This year I am using this but I just don’t find it is as fun or thorough as Transitions. Next year I will go back to Transitions for Short Man and Ms. Firecracker but I am not so unhappy as to waist the money I spent on the other handwriting books for them this year. All of my kids love Explode the Code books. I had heard of them but never really paid all that much attention until I was at a local Christain book store and saw them. I bought one and I had to go back and get more. The kids ate them up!! I use Explode the Code for my Kindergartener, 2nd grader and my 3rd grader. I use Wordly Wise for my 5th grader. She really enjoys those books as well. They bring together spelling, vocabulary, reading, reading comprehension and more all into one book. Woo Hoo!
Sometimes it takes trying out a few things to figure out what will work best for you. Going to expos and such help you to review the products in person before you buy. Just remember- if it doesn’t work for you then don’t use it. Sell it and try again. If anyone has any questions I will be happy to answer them if you would like.
I guess I wish I had known that I didn’t have to imitate the government school system. For the first few months of my first year I tried to imitate a daily school schedule. That was such a headache. I finally realized that the way the government school system takes up so much time is all the waiting in line, waiting on other students, shuffling between classes and so on. I relaxed and just focused on teaching my children. We started having a lot of fun and included arts, crafts, reading time (at that time I read to them) and playing time with puzzles, games and outside. The more fun we had the more they learned.
The other thing I wish I had known about was Christian Book Distributors. I had a hard time finding books other than the little workbooks at the megastores. My kids were getting older and needing more. A friend told me about CBD and I was thrilled. Great prices, huge selection and reviews about the products. I can take peeks inside the books I am interested in. Don’t get stuck on just one kind of book. There are many choices out there so look for curriculum pieces that best suit your child’s learning style. It is so easy to overbuy so take your time and do a little research. What may work for one family or one child may not work for you. There are 3 kinds of homeschoolers- the first are the ones that use entire curriculums from one source- like saxon, abeka, BJU and such. The second are eclectic and use a variety of curriculums and books from different sources (that is me) and third are homeschoolers who rarely use anything you can purchase other than notebooks. They use other resources like the library and the internet. Your particular style is unique so don’t sweat it if you differ from everyone else you know. Relax and enjoy!!
All for His glory, ~Rhen
I Have To Say is hosting the "Back to Homeschool Week" and to see the other days and the other blogs who posted in her Mr. Linky click here.
…………….and we do!! One of the great things about homeschooling is portability! LOL We pack up a subject or two and head to the park. The little ones play, the big ones do their work, we feed the ducks, we have wonderful discussions, we laugh and we play.
Every week we have a library day. I have reading lists for each of the readers and they get to choose a few of those to check out as well as whatever interests them. While at the library they get some computer time, books on tape time, reading time, coloring time, research time and play time. We have an awesome library for such a small town and the librarians are very wonderful!
Woo Hoo, field trips!! We LOVE field trips! There are so many free things to do or things that do not cost a lot and offer the kids great hands-on experiences. This year I have been talking to locals and am lining up a trip to a bee keeper, a chicken farm, the fire house, the police dept, a pumpkin farm and a few others. We also go to the state parks and the free or low-cost events put on around our town.
I just signed our oldest 4 up for gymnastics and ballet. Our oldest is taking ballet and the next 3 are taking gymanstics. The place they are doing this is so great.. They offer classes for homeschoolers that are scheduled during the day and they are not only reasonable but worked with our budget to get as many of the kids in there as we could. The kids look forward to every Wed. with Coach Billy.
I have been teaching our oldest to play guitar and now the next two are interested in playing instruments as well. I will start by teaching them to read music then actually play instruments. When they outgrow me I will have to find them someone to teach them. Until then I am the music teacher.
I Have to Say is hosting a "Back to Homeschool Week". Here is what is about. Visit her to see what everyone is saying!
I will be hosting "Back to Homeschool Week". There is a topic for each day and my hope is that my fellow homeschoolers here in the blogosphere will participate by posting their own experiences on their blogs. This is the time of the year that our thoughts begin to turn towards curriculum, planning and scheduling, and I thought that gathering together to encourage one another would be beneficial all of us.
Below is the list of topics for the week. I tried to keep the topics broad so that way we will have lots of different ideas and things to discuss. You may participate for all five days or just for one. Whatever you have time for.
Monday, August 6---What led to your decision to homeschool?
Why do you do what you do? What brought you to homeschooling? What factors played a part in your decision?
Tuesday, August 7---How do you homeschool?
Scheduling, classical education, unschooling, getting the kids to help with chores, how to be "mom" and "teacher" at the same time, special needs, teaching an advanced child, how to teach the tough subjects, teaching high school, teaching with babies and preschoolers in the house, budgeting for homeschool supplies, notebooking, etc., etc., etc...
Wednesday, August 8---Getting out there...
Extra-curricular activities, community involvement, volunteering, sports teams, music lessons, making sure your kids have opportunities to be social, co-ops, etc., etc., etc...
Thursday, August 9---If I had only known...
What have you learned on your homeschooling journey? What would you/did you change? This is an opportunity to encourage others who are just starting out or who are struggling with issues that seem unsolvable. It is also a perfect opportunity to tell us about one of those days made you want to throw in the towel. A funny story? Perfect!
Friday, August 10---Curriculum
What curriculum do you use? Where do you buy it? Have you found a "gem" that you must share with others? Was something in particular a complete failure for you and your kids?
We are working on weather in our schooling and since weather is a year round occurance we have found a great way of adding every month. Graphs, baby!! For 1 week a month (that is Mon-Fri) every hour on the hour from 9 am to 9 pm we will record the temperature outside. We will also record whether or not it was cloudy or sunny. We will record if we got precipitation (fancy word for water from the sky wink, wink) and how much. This will go each month until we have done the whole year. As each month progresses we can compare what the weather is doing. There are variations of this, of course. You can record just one day a week every week. You could record every day for the whole month or whatever but it is still a lot of fun to do. Once we have a week’s worth of info we make temperature graphs and precipitation (there’s that fancy word again) graphs. The whole family gets into it and learns a lot. This can easily be tied in with the different seasons as well.
I admit it. I sneak my children's books that they get from the library and read them. I can't help it! Have you read any of the Junie B. Jones books? They are hilarious. I find myself laughing out loud often. Too, too funny. My sneaky-book-reading goes along really well with Jennifer's Summer Reading Challenge. My thoughts on the challenge is that it doesn't have to be summer to do it. Her idea is great for anyone with kids at any time! I am also answering Veronica of Toddled Dredge's Reading Challenge. Both are great and can easily be a part of our schooling. Something like this can "light their fire for reading" so to speak. Got a match?
I found a very interesting challenge given by Veronica at Toddled Dredge. Follow this link to read more about it but to give you the basics..................it is about books that became movies. My choice in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. What's yours gonna be? I love a good challenge! I am going to have my oldest three participate in this challenge as well. This will be interesting..............
We just love going to the library and I thought I would share why.
First- it is free! It doesn't cost us anything to get a card and spend hours there!
We really do spend hours there. Ms Serious, Short Man, Ms Firecracker and Ms Banana all love to play learning games on the computers and they can all do it at the same time. Our library is not a huge one but it is full of great stuff. In addition to the 8 kids computers there is also plenty of kid-sized seating (including wing back chairs!) and an area for them to listen to books on tape. They can color, they can read, they can look at the awesome collections of antique toys and such that locals bring in to display for a while. The displays are always changing. There is the coolest, gigantic doll house there too that is fully done. Maybe I can get a pic of it. I would love to have one myself to do.
Anyway, the kids check out books, movies and books on tape. We have such a good time there and the ladies are wonderful. They are always keeping their eyes open for homeschool stuff for us. Anytime we are researching a subject they have a a whole bunch of resources ready for me next time we come in.
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If you don't already take advantage of your library I hope you will. There are so many wonderful books and opportunities. Ours even has a homeschool section full of how-to books, curriculum and workbooks. Go ahead! Get lost in your library!!
I subscribed to TOS and I am loving all of the free gifts I received. My inbox is full and my mailbox will be very shortly. I really am liking the free 6 month subscription to a lapbook site. I have been wondering what they are and such and now I am finding out. Very cool. I can't wait to get my first issue of TOS!
A homeschooler named Proverbs posted this gem of an idea over at her homeschool blog (Click here to see her how-to pictures). It is the coolest tie dye and younger children can do it (with supervision of course)
Materials:
Something made of white material
Permanent markers of different colors
An eyedropper
Alcohol
Disposable cup or bowl (a smaller cup seems to work the best but larger ones create larger circles)
Rubber band to fit over cup or bowl
Be sure to cover work surface to protect from the alcohol.
Place fabric over the top of cup or bowl and secure with a rubber band. (This is our makeshift hoop)
With a permanent marker make little dots or small lines within the middle of the “hoop”
(don’t put to many marks because they will spread and bleed into each other)
Using an eyedropper, drop a few drops of alcohol into the center of your marks.You don’t need to drench the fabric.A few drops will give you good results.
You will see the colors begin to run and mix together creating a kaleidoscope design.
Wait a few minutes for all the bleeding to run to the edges, then remove the rubber band, find a new spot and do it all over again to your heart’s content.
When the project has completely dried, before washing it, throw it in the dryer for about half an hour to set the colors.(Wash separately just in case. Colorfastness depends on the fabric and I’m not sure which is which.)
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This is definitely a project we are going to do. Easy, cheap, fun and a chance for them to be very creative! Have fun.
I received this in an email and thought I would pass it on.
Don't Let Your Child Be A Kangaroo!
Once upon a time the animals had a school.
They had to create a curriculum that would satisfy everyone,
so they chose four subjects:
running,
climbing,
flying,
and swimming.
All the animals, of course, studied all the subjects.
The duck was very good at swimming, better than the teacher, in fact.
He received passing grades in running and flying,
but was hopeless in climbing,
so they made him drop swimming
so that he could practice climbing.
After a while he was only average at swimming,
but average is still acceptable, at least in school,
and nobody worried much about it except the duck.
The eagle was considered a troublemaker.
In his climbing class he beat everybody to the top of the tree,
but he had his own way of getting there that was against the rules.
He always had to stay after school and write,
"Cheating is wrong," five hundred times.
This kept him from soaring, which he loved,
but schoolwork comes first.
The bear flunked because they said he was lazy,
especially in the winter.
His best time was summer, but school wasn't open then.
The zebra played hooky a lot because the ponies made fun of his stripes,
and this made him very sad.
The kangaroo started out at the top of the racing class,
but became discouraged when was told to move swiftly on all four legs
the way his classmates did.
The fish quit school because he was bored.
To him, all four subjects were the same,
but nobody understood that because they had never seen a fish.
The squirrel got an A in climbing,
but his flying teacher made him start from the ground up,
instead of from the treetop down.
His legs got so sore practicing takeoffs
that he began getting Cs in climbing and Ds in running.
The bee was the biggest problem of all,
so the teacher sent him to Doctor Owl for testing.
Doctor Owl said that the bee's wings were too small for flying
and they were in the wrong place.
The bee never saw Doctor Owl's report, so he just went ahead and flew anyway.
I think I know a bee or two, how about you?
The duck is the child who does well in math and poorly in English
and is given tutorials by the English teacher while his classmates are doing math.
He loses his edge in math, and only does passably well in English.
The eagle is the child who is turned into a troublemaker
because he has his "own style" of doing things.
While he is not doing anything "wrong,"
his non-conforming is perceived as troublemaking,
for which he is punished.
Who does not recognize the bear?
The kid who is great in camp,
thrives on extra-curricular,
but really just goes flat in the academics.
The zebra is the heavy, tall, or short, self-conscious kid
whose failure in school few realize is due to a sense of social inadequacy.
The kangaroo is the one who instead of persevering gives up
and becomes that discouraged child whose future disappears because he was not appreciated.
The fish is a child who really requires full special education and should not be in the regular classroom.
The squirrel, unlike the duck who "manages,"
becomes a failure.
The bee, oh the bee,
is the child who the school just feels it cannot deal with,
yet, against all odds, with the backing of his parents,
has enough self-motivation to do well even though everyone thought he couldn't.
I had the pleasure of knowing many bees.
Your child is a unique blend of talents, personality, and ingredients nowhere else to be found.
Some children are skilled intellectually, others are blessed emotionally,
and many are born with creative ingenuity.
Each child possesses their very own exclusive collection of gifts.
The kids didn't come with direction booklets.
Effective parents are always learning, studying, and customizing the instructions
for their individual child.
Each and every child is as unique as their fingerprints; a sparkling diamond of unparalleled beauty.
I finished! Actually, WE finished. I made the chalkboard and Mr. Muscles made me a frame for it. Isn't he wonderful?!?! He even made a lip to hold the chalk and erasers. It is roughly 3 ft by 3 1/2 ft. Don't you just feel so good when you have finished a project? I certainly do and I am going to put this bad boy to good use come Monday lessons.
Here is my chalkboard.
I think I will paint the frame a nice bright white. I am not a fan of painted wood but this would definitely look better with a coat of paint. :) I need to wash it too.
We received one of our books for next year's curriculum! It is A Child's Geography. Here are some of the table of contents:
1. Introduction to His World
2. The Lower Atmosphere
3. The Upper Atmosphere
4. The Continents
5. The Oceans
and there is much more (11 chapters in all). This wonderful book has projects, vocabulary words, pictures, charts, graphs and is really well written. I don't remember who but one of the wonderful homeschooling bloggers here introduced me to this book- THANK YOU!! Like their website says- it is perfect for students ages 4-104.
We have been blessed with a wonderful Christian homeschooling co-op in our area. We found it and joined about 1 month ago and our whole family has really enjoyed the experience. It is not a "drop off your kids and leave while someone else teaches them" kind of co-op. It is a family of families! All of the homeschooling parents give their time to teach, assist, organize and do whatever it is they can do. There is time for fellowship, classes and fun. Yesterday the Family met to go on a field trip. We drove 50 minutes down to Kennesaw to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park. Wow!! We had such a great time. You have to remember that most of the people in the co-op have school age children and only one other family has younger ones (they weren't there yesterday). My children are ages 9 weeks, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. I decided that just because I would have to do extra to take the little ones doesn't mean I am going to let the older ones miss out on field trip and learning opportunities. We ALL went yesterday. We saw a film about the Civil War battles that happened at Kennesaw Mtn and leading up to it. We went on a hike to the top of the Mtn. It is a 2 mile round trip. I put Ms. Suesue in her off-road stroller and up we went. She and I went .6 of the way up until the rocks were too much to get past. My other children continued up with two of the ladies watching them. Ms. Suesue and I waited for them at a bench. Wow, what a view! You could see the heart of Atlanta from there. All these big buildings sticking up. You couldn't pay me to live there!! LOL Yuck! Anyway I had my Canon with me and found several good shots to take. I ran out of film but another photography lover came by and gave me some. How sweet was that! I spoke to quite a few people who stopped at the bench and just really had a good time. Then I heard the group coming down the mountain. Even my 2 year old, Ms. Independent, went all the way up and down. Not one bit of grumpyness. I really got to know a couple of the other moms and they are such wonderful people. It turns out they live right here around us! After we got back down the mountain we took a tour through the museum and gift shop. Can you believe it is all free!! The film, the walk and the museum. Not a penny to enjoy or learn. Even the gift shop was very reasonable. I bought replicas of Lincoln's Gettysburg address, a replica sheet of Civil War weapons, replicas of Confederate and Union money and some learning/ activity books all about what we learned. 14 bucks for all of it! I know! Wow! It must be amazing. Look at all the "!" I am using! LOL I look forward to more field trips with our new learning Family.
The Kids and I stopped for lunch afterwards while a slow leak in my tire was fixed and on to pick up a few things before we headed home. I did get hubby an anniversary gift. It is coming up in 3 weeks but I gave him his gift last night. It is a curl bar and he used it during our workout. Man my triceps are soar this morning but that means no flying squirrel arms!
Today we are heading to the library. We didn't make it yesterday so now I have late fines to pay. Oh well. How much can they be on 534 books? JK- it is more like 35 total. And 3 VHS learning videos.
I am off for now. A lot to do today and I need to get more in gear than I am. Until later all!
Grab your homeschooling geniuses and look, look, look!!! Click this link and you can track, watch and learn about real loggerhead turtles that are migrating- right now! This is a very cool way of seeing how God 's created animals live. Enjoy!
I am so glad to finally have that done! We spent a little more money that we had planned but we were able to get several items I will be able to use for the younger ones as they progress as well. The most expensive item was Ms. Firecracker's math. I really wanted to get a program for learning style and Horizons seem to fit it well. I have math for Short Man already and I ordered LIFEPAC math for Ms. Serious. I ordered Apologia's Exploring Creation through Botany and EC through Astronomy as well. Other subjects we are covering are reading, language arts, history, geography (http://www.achildsgeography.com/volume-one/) , social studies, home economics, health, writing, foreign language and handwriting. For 07-08 I will have 4 of them homeschooling. The other two are just too young. I mostly piece my curriculums together with books, workbooks, videos and such we are interested in. These 2 math curriculums are the first time I have ever bought a full set in the 6+ years I have been homeschooling. I am mostly an eclectic homeschooler but I find it so vital for math to have a very solid foundation and I am taking steps with the math curriculums to have that.
On a side note- how much do you spend on curriculum? I know people who spend a couple hundred per child and I know people who spend a couple hundred on everything for everybody (depending on family size). I am hoping to attend a used curriculum fair and check out what they have. I am worried about items being out of print and I won't be able to get workbooks. This year I spent about $325 for 4 kids. Most of the items I bought can be used for the younger children as they grow so that will save me money next year and on. When the stores put out the school supplies and there is the no tax weekend I will go purchase those items. I usually can get a whole year's+ supplies for about $30. I buy about 10-15 twenty-four count crayon packs. For some strange reason 2 year olds and 4 year olds go through them like crazy! LOL
Look, look, look to the right under links. There is a link to homeschool penpal exchange. The woman who started it is Christain and it is a great place to find pen pals for children and homeschooling parents. Not all families are Christians so no one is left out but all are homeschoolers. Each of ours that are school age (including our 4 year old) have pen pals. Writing letters to pen pals is a great schooling tool and a lot of fun for the kids. My kids are thrilled every time they get a letter in the mail. We have pen pals all over the US and the world. 2 of our kids have pen pals in Kenya!
I want to first thank everyone who posted suggestions on science and shared what they use. We have decided to go with the Apologia Elementary Science. We do a lot of hands on science with experiments and projects and the Apologia books seem to really go well with that. We have also been able to find math for the two girls we were looking for.
Now- how about social studies? What do you do in your schooling for social studies? We are getting ready to do a family tree. Then, we will pick a country and use the internet and the library to find out about the country and its people.
I have another curriculum question for you all. For the past 6+ years I have been homeschooling I have used mostly workbooks and peices and parts of curriculums to teach science as well as projects and field trips. We were given a 3rd grade science book and that was fun too. What do you use to teach science? Do you buy a science curriculum pack? Do you just use the library? How do you decide what to teach? I am very interested in your answers.
Home Schooling A Well Socialized Conversationalist
I took my two daughters, ages 5 and 7 to a local bookstore to browse the shelves and have a treat. It's one of those bookstores with a cafe inside. After the treat, the girls decided to hit the kid's section.
I leisurely finished my coffee and headed over to check on them. I found my 7 year old deep in conversation with a mature woman. A younger woman near her saw me approach, smiled and asked, "Is that your daughter?" I replied in the affirmative. She beamed at me and then asked, "Do you homeschool?" Again I replied in the affirmative, meanwhile wondering just what my 7 year old was discussing!? She got very excited and told me that the woman my daughter was conversing with was her mother.
The younger woman told me that she wanted to homeschool, but her mother was worried about socialization! I laughed, what else could I do? My children regularly interact with other children of ages between infant and adult, they also converse with adults of varying ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. The younger woman then stated that she could always tell when children where homeschooled. When I asked how, she said, "They are such great conversationalists! "
I told her that one of the dads in our homeschool group put it very succinctly. In public/private schools children only interact with children that are approximately the same age, and usually only with children of the same sex (you do know that boys have cooties, don't you??). In addition, children must wait upon an adult's consent to address them. Truly an artificial way to converse. In homeschools and homeschool groups, adults are more open to being asked questions and are generally more willing to spend the time to explore the topic. Hence socialization in a homeschool environment is far superior to that of your average public or private school.
I came away from the encounter very encouraged, and feeling rather smug - the mature woman complimented me on my girls' manners and said that they had alleviated most of her concerns about homeshcooling!
Here are two sites I print great lessons off of. You do not have to be a member to find and print the lessons but members get so much more. You can even choose and print out a cirriculum based on your child's needs. Both sites are inexpensive to join if you choose to do so.
Just thought I would share two homeschooling links I really like. The first one is for Georgia homeschoolers. It is a Christian group of people and they are wonderful. It is a yahoo group called GAChristianHschooler.
The other one is a pen pal exchange. People from all over post to find pen pals for their homeschooled children. All of our school age children have pen pals. It has turned out to be great. They learn about new people, places and there are so many grammer, spelling, writing, etc. lessons in there too. It is also a yahoo group called homeschoolpenpalexchange.
My sneaky-book-reading goes along really well with 
