Curriculum
I am so excited about our new school year! I finally found the “almost perfect” curriculum that I’ve been hunting for – Heart of Dakota. The two youngest will be doing Little Hands to Heaven, and the older two will do Bigger Hearts for His Glory.
Here is the entire list of Our Curriculum for 2007-2008. Click on each picture for a link to the website & samples. my kids are 10, 8, 4 & 2. (almost 9, 5 & 3)
I want to highlight something we started in the middle of last year – ACSI Spelling . We’ve tried several spelling books & I am very pleased with this one. I wanted a workbook format, but most of the ones I found seemed to have no pattern or method to the spelling words. ACSI spelling lists are organized according to spelling rules. Another thing I love is that they incorporate Bible verses in the daily activities, so the girls have to look up verses to complete their assignment. You have to check out this site – SpellingTime.com My kids now ask to do spelling. I let them take the pop quiz as their pretest instead of doing it orally. Spelling Time is free and they will email you the results from the quizzes.
Now, I have some questions for you:
Is Reading Comprehension work necessary? We use the Charlotte Mason method of narration. In the past I’ve made the girls sit down with those short story worksheets with all the multiple choice questions. They look at me like, “Are you serious?”. It seems like pointless busywork to me – they read quality books, & through narration I know they comprehend what they are reading. I just want to make sure I’m not missing the point, since every major curriculum out there has a Reading book & workbook.
Do any of you who don’t have a schoolroom have any organization/storage tips? I need some creative ideas for hiding our stuff.
Visit Back to Homeschool Week, hosted by Randi, to read more or play along.
We had used (or tried to!) some literature study guides in the past, and I’ve also gotten that questioning look! As long as the children are able to narrate, we should be assured that they are comprehending.
It would be interesting for us this year as we have decided to use Tapestry of Grace and they approach literature differently than we are already doing. In the end, discernment will win.
We just acquired some unwanted shelves from my dh’s work and they have been such space and organizing-savers!
Here are links from Amanda’s Hidden Art blog that might inspire you:
http://hiddenart.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/school-rooms-organization
http://hiddenart.wordpress.com/2007/08/06/new-school-cabinet
Thank you so much for the spelling links! Sounds like what I’ve been looking for.
I don’t have a schoolroom. We sit at the dining table.
I have one particle-board bookshelf that holds all our current books, an equally cheap plastic-shoe-box style organizer (for math manipulatives, markers, etc.), and a roll-top desk that I close to hide my mess.
This is not creative, but it’s cheap: I use banker’s boxes in a basement storage closet. Stuff I can’t bear to throw away or give away, or can’t use yet, gets filed in a box, which is labeled and stacked. I intend to go through one box at a time to pare down. I’d love something Pottery-Barn style, but would have to find a way to do that on the cheap. 🙂
I have a great wire shelf from Lowe’s and a 4 drawer filing cabinet that hubby brought home. I got lots of sweater storage tubs and seperated all of our art, crafts and supplies. I labled those and they take up the shelf. The shelf was not expensive and I didn’t want to invest any money into something that was not real wood. We can’t waist money and solid wood shelves are just too expensive. Anyway, I also get to use the of the drawers of the filing cabinet. I can store our materials with the binder up (to read it of course :). I have individual baskets to hold the books they are working on now. Those stack on each other and store in a corner very easily. Until we get a little more room that is the way if works here!
Thanks, everyone, for the great ideas!!