Have some great math links of your own? Leave them in the comments, or link to a post of your own, & I’ll add them to the list.
Curriculum Resources-printable
Money
hit the books
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.
i need a time machine
If I had only known…
What have you learned on your homeschooling journey? What would you/did you change?
I don’t think there is anything that I haven’t changed! If I had it to do over again, I would RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. I had no idea at the time that there were so many wonderful options available. My sister-in-law and I have very similar tastes, so when I found out they were enjoying A Beka, I just knew that was the one for me. That was a very expensive mistake. We ended up hating it and dreading school every day. I finally sold the whole thing and we did workbooks for the rest of the year. It had nothing to do with A Beka – it is a great curriculum and my nieces & nephews excel with it. It just wasn’t the right fit for our family. I’ve been tinkering with things ever since, trying this & that, & keeping what works. I feel like this year is the first time I have been completely happy with our curriculum.
Helpful Tip #1: Spend some time and prayerfully look through websites & catalogs. Most publishers will have samples on their sites. Here are two places to start:
Cathy Duffy– great info on her website & many libraries have her book.
Rainbow Resource – this is the mother of all homeschool catalogs, about 2 inches thick. It would be a little too overwhelming to actually pick out your curriculum from this for the first time, but here’s what it is good for: it will give you an idea of just how vast the choices are if you have no idea what’s out there.
Helpful Tip #2: Don’t really give much weight to anyone’s opinion about a particular curriculum. It is waaaaay too subjective. For example: We LOVE Saxon Math. I enjoy teaching it, my kids enjoy learning it, and I would tell anyone that it is the best Math out there. Know what you’ll find if you talk to enough people or visit enough message boards? There are lots of people that HATE Saxon Math, to the point where it borders on child abuse to force your children to use it. I was afraid that one of us was going to go into a coma, fall out of a chair, and sustain a fatal head wound if we continued with A Beka. Your family might grow & blossom & think every day is a party while using A Beka. That’s because God made us all different! (Didn’t we learn that in Bible class when we were, like, 3?) Welcome to the beauty of homeschool.
Helpful Tip #3: Listen carefully to me now, this is important. You.Do.Not.Have.To.Do.Every.Assignment. WorkbookPage.Or.Problem.Just.Because.It’s. In.The.Book. Did you get that? Give yourself permission to just let it go if your kids don’t need it. We throw out the first month of lessons in our math because it’s just basic review of what we just finished, written to refresh minds or catch kids up who may be jumping into a new curriculum.
I could spend the rest of the day writing about mistakes made & things I changed, but for some reason my family thinks hot food & clean clothes are necessities. You”ll have to visit Back to Homeschool Week, hosted by Randi, to read more or play along.
wfmw – blog for kids
I’ve been participating in Back to Homeschool Week so I thought I would share an idea I will be using for school this year. It is not an exclusive idea though, so keep reading even if you are not a homeschooler!
I set up a blog just for my kids to read. I put all of their favorite game links in the blogroll, plus lots of educational sites that I want them to explore. They will have computer time each afternoon and I have assigned different subjects for each day. After they choose a site to explore, they will have to leave me a comment telling me what they learned and any questions they might have. (sneaking in writing practice where they least expect it, Ha Ha Ha) They can also let me know of any projects they would like to do or subjects they would like to know more about. I will be posting sites that go along with our current studies, or just a little note to say Hi, I Love You.
I will be sharing Tons of FANTASTIC educational links like these in the next few weeks, so bookmark me & check back. They are great for homeschoolers or for homework helpers. I can’t share my kids’ blog with you because it is private, but I will share their assignments:
Monday – Math & Geography
Tuesday – Science & Animals/Bugs
Wednesday – Reading & Bible
Thursday – Health & History
Friday – Music & Art
Run on over to Rocks In My Dryer for some really great tips!
beyond these four walls
Getting out there…
Today we are talking about extracurricular activities. I appear to be one of the few not involved in a homeschool support group. LOL This is the first year since we started homeschooling that I’ve not been pregnant or had a napping toddler, so I think we will be joining one this year. I am a major homebody, but my kids are social butterflies and would love all the new friends.
I’m sure there will be plenty of posts today on the whole “Socialization” thing, so I might as well throw my two cents in. I have no scientific study to back this up, just my observation, but I think my two older girls are MORE social than if they were public schooled. They have never had to deal with peer pressure and cliques, with having to choose between friends or being made fun of because of their friends. Therefore, they see every child as a potential new friend. They search out little girls at the park to meet and introduce themselves to, and they are all best buddies by the time we leave. Here’s the most popular response to that:”But what’s going to happen when they get out into the real world one day and are thrown into the middle of all that in college?” Guess what, they already are in the middle of it. They have many public school friends and have seen & heard it all. The difference is, they think that kind of behavior is childish and ridiculous. It is rather amusing to watch their reactions to it all, and it stimulates some great conversations about being a follower of Christ. Just to clarify – my girls are not little angels who never say an unkind word to others or get their feelings hurt, but they are able to be objective about it all. Ok, I’ll get down off my soapbox now.
One thing they have been involved in for the past two years is music class. I can’t say enough good things about that experience. They did the typical elementary music class things like folk songs and dances, Dancerella learned to use rhythm sticks, and Funny Girl was old enough to start beginner recorder. The fantastic thing about this class was the voice training. The Fall semester was spent learning songs for a Christmas program, and in January they started training for regional contest. That was a lot of fun! Our little homeschool group was out there with all these huge public school groups, and they did great – they got a 2 at contest! Performing really built up my girls’ self confidence, although they were terrified at the thought of it at first. Funny Girl is old enough to start Beginner Band this year, but we are going to take the year off to ease our way into support group activities. If you are in the Dallas area, please check out J & L School of Music . She offer classes in Sachse, Sunnyvale, Allen, Rockwall & Richardson.
Well, if you are still here after all that rambling, thanks for coming by. Visit Back to Homeschool Week, hosted by Randi, to read more or play along.
