I've looked at curriculum from many popular companies and have yet to find one that I love for all subjects. Last year, I was writing curriculum for our six year old myself each night after the kids went to bed. That was fun...but short-lived. One can only stay up until 2 AM and wake up in the morning with early risers for so long before craziness sets in. So, this spring my husband and I made it our mission to find prepared material for our kids. We selected our favorite subjects from various publishers. In the end, it has eased the workload quite a bit, although I still prepare some of the lessons.
Here is a list of some of the resources we are currently using for our homeschool lessons and the general structure of our school day. [That said, bear in mind that not a single day this year has gone entirely according to plan. Our schedule is really more of a guideline to help us stay focused.] Our children are 7, 5 and 2.
My oldest, our son, is the early bird. He is almost always the first one awake and has been since he was a toddler. So, we've learned to provide things he can do while he waits for others to wake up. His school activities usually begin before breakfast, so he can be productive with that extra awake time each day.
When the kids wake up they have two tasks: make their bed and get dressed. After this, my son may work on his Spanish and Typing lessons. He may also spend 30 minutes exercising. For Spanish, he is using
Rosetta Stone. He uses
Glencoe's Online Keyboarding for his typing lessons. Once he is comfortable typing, I plan to provide him with passages from the Bible and other books to copy. And once he is proficient in that, I will provide writing prompts and have him complete assignments using word processing software.
We try to have breakfast at 8:00, although, it's really been closer to 8:30 most days. After breakfast, we clean up and gather our materials for our morning studies.
At 9:00 we begin with prayer and Bible study. We have been reading from Proverbs daily and discussing together what the proverbs mean. We usually read about 5-15 proverbs each morning. Today it was on my heart to begin reading Matthew together, so we read several chapters. My son reads and we stopped periodically to discuss any questions the kids had.
After we read, the children write in their Bible Notebooks. These are just basic lined-paper notebooks. I have one dedicated to most subjects for the kids to take notes in. For each entry the children write their name and the date at the top of the page [or section they are writing in, journal-style]. My daughter [5] then writes the passage that we read and I ask her to draw pictures of what she learned about. When she is finished, I ask her to explain the pictures to me and I transcribe her explanations onto the page next to the drawings. She also keeps a record here of verses that she has memorized. These she copies from her handwriting practice pages.
My son does basically the same with his notebook. The only difference is that he writes in his journal himself, without my help. In addition to making notes and pictures of the passages we read together and keeping a record of verses he has memorized, I also ask him to write down any spiritual/Biblical questions he has, any specific things he is praying about, and any exciting things that God is teaching him. Periodically I will also be asking him to copy passages of Scripture into the notebook. We did this last year and it was good. I used a children's Bible for him to copy then, and he really enjoyed it.
Sometimes we use a topical approach for our Bible Study time. For example, at the beginning of the year, we began by studying wisdom and knowledge. [The
Blue Letter Bible is a helpful free online resource for Bible studying.] We discussed why these virtues are important and where they come from - how do we gain knowledge and what makes a person wise? We also studied God's wisdom and explored the concept that we study God's creation to learn and gain knowledge. God is wise and everything he has created, from a tiny cell to the vast expanse of the sky and the heavenly bodies, has all been designed by his wisdom. So, as we learn together this year, whether the subject is Bible, Science, History, Geography, Math...etc. we are not only gaining knowledge in that particular subject, but we are also seeing a glimpse of God's wisdom and of His design and plan.
One other resource I am using for our Bible Study time is a book called
The Lamb, by John R. Cross. It shares the story of the Bible in a very intentional way with beautifully illustrated pages. The chapters are followed by questions to review the material that was taught. I read this book to the children, then they respond to questions throughout the chapter and answer the review questions at the end of each reading session. I have read through it before with my son, but this is the first time I am reading it with my daughters. It presents a very clear "big picture" of the redemptive story that the Bible teaches.
 |
| An Illustration from "The Lamb" |
Our Bible Study time usually flows very naturally into our Handwriting. Most days, the children trace and/or copy a Bible verse for this portion of our school - either into their Bible Study Notebook or their Handwriting Notebook. Other days, I provide a quote for them to copy instead. If the children are memorizing a verse at the time, this is often the verse they print. And it is also the time that we usually recite our memorized passages.
I've been teaching my children the
Pledge of Allegiance. I'm not consistent yet with when we say it, because I'm not sure when to best incorporate it into our school day. However, this seems to be the best point to me right now; so it is at this time that we have been saying it lately. [That could change...]
Next is Science, which seems to be one the kids' favorite subjects. We have been using
Bob Jones University [BJU] Science, which I mostly like. There are some frustrating aspects for me, however. BUT, the more I use it, the more I have grown to like it. Right now, I am working through
BJU Science 2 with both of the older children together. Once we complete 2, I think I will continue with BJU Science 3 for my son and BJU Science 1 for my daughter. Right now two science lessons feels too ambitious, but I keep hoping that maybe later in the year our days will flow a little smoother and it could be do-able...we will see. I don't use the BJU Student Activity Books, although I might for older grades, the activities in the lower grades seemed too childish and unnecessary [IMO]. Instead, I use our simple notebook system. The children begin each entry with their name and the date. Then, my younger student draws pictures of what she is learning and I help by writing the majority of her explanations, although, I usually ask her to write more in her Science Notebook than I do for some other subjects, simply because we can often use one or few words to express our observations. Often I will draw charts in their Notebooks ahead of time and allow them to fill in the charts as we complete our experiments and studies. My son completes his assignments in his Science Notebook in much the same way, but again is responsible for all of his writing.
We also printed a fun
Weather Station from Mr. Printables. [It's free - go print one!] The kids love to check the weather and keep our station accurate at all times. We use
My Calendar Book, by Christian Light Publications for more daily/monthly weather, charting and graphing activities. I also recently purchased
My First Human Body Book, by Dover. I'm excited to use this resource and plan to purchase additional books for my girls in the future.
After Science, we study History and occasionally Social Studies either in place of History or in addition to it, but cutting time from both subjects. For History, I have not yet found a curriculum. [I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have to offer...] I am currently reviewing Abeka's History material. At the present, we are borrowing books from the library about American History and reading these together, then documenting what we learn from the text in our History Notebooks. We use the same structure as with other subjects - name and date, explanation of what was studied, and pictures with captions. I am compiling a set of cards with images to represent significant events in history, along with the date[s] and a brief summary of what took place at that time, to be used in constructing a timeline at the end of our school year. In part, I think this will be a fun project and also, this was my way of saving myself some trouble in trying to study American History chronologically. Instead of worrying about reading everything in order, we will just read what interests us, make note of significant occurrences and review our timeline cards throughout the year, concluding our history studies with a comprehensive timeline on the wall at the end of our school year.
For Social Studies, I have used
Social Studies Throughout the Year [Grades 2-4]. I like this material as a guide, but I'm not crazy about all of the content. So I use what seems valuable and skip some of the busywork and the suggested extra materials that I either don't have access to or don't love. Much of the content of this book can be studied in conjunction with our History or Geography studies. I'm not sure whether I will continue to refer to it as a separate subject or simply combine the materials with the other two subjects. Either way, this is not a subject that we study daily - only periodically for now.
After History we clean up our learning areas and break for lunch. Usually the kids play a little while I make lunch and then we eat, clean up and my little one takes a nap. During this time, the kids split and do their work separately.
My daughter does her Reading and my son works on Spelling, Reading or completes any Spanish or Typing that he may have left incomplete from that morning. For my daughter's reading lessons, I use:
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I love this book. I did not expect to like it. I almost didn't even give it a chance. But I highly recommend it and will probably use it for all my children. At the end of each lesson students are directed to practice writing specific letters. She writes these along with additional practice letters, sight words and important words - such as her name, names of family members, our address, our telephone number etc.
For Spelling, I
kinda use
Spelling Power. I have typed portions of the Spelling Power lists into lessons/worksheets. My son follows the same procedure for each group of words:
1. Say each word.
2. Look carefully at each part of the word.
3. Say the letters in the word while you look at it.
4. Close your eyes and think about what the word looks like, then spell it.
5. Open your eyes and check to see if you spelled it correctly.
6. Trace the word as you say each letter out loud.
7. Write the word in the space[s] provided.
8. Check to make sure you spelled the work correctly when you wrote it.
9. Use the word to write a complete sentence.
Usually he completes the lesson one day and then I test him on those words the next day. He is a very good speller and it comes naturally to him, so we have not needed to re-test or review words yet, but his lists have been relatively easy for him so far. I really do love reading his sentences. I think this is one of the things I most look forward to as I go over his work with him. I also expect him to use proper capitalization and punctuation in his sentences, so it provides a good English/Grammar review as well.
He uses the following method to complete each Spelling test:
1. Listen carefully to each word as it is dictated to you.
2. Repeat the word out loud.
3. Spell the word out loud.
4. Say the word again.
5. Then carefully write the word on the next line.
6. Listen as the correct spelling is given to you.
7. If your answer is correct, you will be given the next word to spell.
8. If your answer is incorrect, you will need to correct your spelling then try that word again before you move on to the next word.
This seems to be a very effective way of teaching spelling.
Right now, we are reading so much for History that I have not dedicated additional time yet this year to devote specifically to Reading, as a subject itself, for my son. While we read history, I ask my son to write down any words he does not understand. We discuss the definitions of these words and later look them up again in a dictionary. I select several words from the list and have him write these onto prepared vocabulary cards, with the word on one side and the definition on the other.
My son reads often for leisure as well. I have him recording the books he reads in his [you guessed it...] Reading Notebook. He documents the title of the book, the author, the date he started reading the book, the date he completed the book, the number of pages in the book, how many minutes he spent reading the book [or a close guesstimate], a summary of the book and his opinion of the book.
I also plan to incorporate the use of
Kid's Discover Magazines into our Reading/Science/History Curriculum. I was given a large stack of these and came across another large stack of used issues for pretty cheap. The publisher has provided
free Teacher Guides and
free Power Vocabulary lessons to accompany many of their magazines. These may be more appropriate for him next year, but I think we will try a few in the coming weeks and see how it goes.
Geography is FUN this year. We are learning about the 50 States. When we are studying a state, we first read about it. I have been using the
Our Amazing States books by PowerKiDS Press, which we borrow from our local library. I have not yet actually applied this yet, but I intended to have my kids take notes [or picture notes] in their Geography Notebooks as we read. We'll see if that idea works out. I also have my son complete
Crayola's states coloring page for that state and also
Crayola's states flashcard page for that state. Next I have him make an "Interesting Facts Book" for that state. I use
50States.com for information about state facts. He colors the state on a map printed on the cover of his mini-book and writes the name of the state. He then writes three interesting facts [that he chooses] about that state and illustrates each fact. Finally, he designs his state piece for
our giant USA wall map. He writes the name of the state and the postal abbreviation on the state piece. Incorporated in his design is a golden star sticker representing the state capitol. He writes the name of the capitol next to the star. He also marks any major cities, interesting landmarks, or other significant facts - either with text or drawings [or both].
Last year, when I wrote our curriculum, we studied the interesting things about each state in addition to the state itself. For example, when we studied Florida, we also studied citrus and swamplands and used oranges to discuss fractions. When we studied Arkansas, we also studied diamonds and mining. When we studied Arizona, we also studied deserts and created a shoebox miniature desert. I miss that aspect of our studies, but my ideas are bigger than my time is available.
We are using Modern Curriculum Press'
"Maps Charts Graphs" workbooks. [I use different levels for each child.]
We are also learning much about geography as we study in our Science and History lessons. In History, we use the globe almost everyday as we trace the paths of explorers and adventurers to the New Land. In Science we are going to be learning about earth and various landforms. Last year, we studied the continents, oceans and global landmarks. I think I will introduce some of these to my daughter later in the year and review them with my son at that time too.
For English/Grammar, we are reading together through
Kids' Guide to the English Language, by Marvin Terban. After each section we use the white board to review what we learned and practice using that information. Last year, I made English worksheets, but I have not this year. I'm considering having my son edit the local news articles as part of his grammar work, since they are nearly always full of glaring typos...that would be interesting. For right now, I plan to continue working on the board with him and paying careful attention to basic correct English in our note-taking. For next year, however, I intend to decide on a curriculum to work through. [Suggestions??]
I recently discovered
Khan Academy and we are using this as a primary resource for our Math. I realized that we needed to incorporate Khan when I was previewing a multiplication lesson and both of my older children crawled up on my lap [uninvited] and watched the entire 13 minute presentation entirely fascinated and then asked to watch another. My son loves these videos! It is fantastic. We use that site and then we also do lots of practice using flashcards and laminated worksheets. We keep a record of my sons time and accuracy for each type of practice he is working on and discuss with him his areas of improvement and areas that he needs to continue to practice more. When we work on the flashcards together, I have him read the equation out loud, and then answer the equation. For example: if the flashcard reads, "5+7=" he would say, "five plus seven equals" out loud and then state his answer. We love the
Growing with Mathematics Discussion Books. Occasionally, we will work from these together. Finally, we are testing
Scott Foresman's Investigations in Number, Data and Space Student Activity Book. I have not determined whether I like this workbook or not.
My daughter listens in sometimes when we discuss the Growing with Mathematics book - and participates when she can. She has a Math Notebook in which she completes
"Snack Math" lessons. I give her a small handful of M&M's [or another colored snack] and allow her to explore math with them. She separates the candy into color groups and counts each color, creates and answers addition equations, arranges her groups in order from least to greatest and then when she is all finished, she gets to have a fun little snack. I also like to discuss math with my girls using Dorling Kindersley's
"My First Number Book". I used this with my son when he was younger and he enjoyed it too.
My littlest usually sits with us for our morning Bible Study. She does
very well playing independently. Sometimes she prefers to go to her room
and play, while other days she pulls out her own special "Notebook"
along with the colored pencils and then joins us at the table to do her
"school". I have lots of sorting and color games for her, but so far, we
have not used those activities very often; she either wants to do what
we are doing or go and play. About once or twice a week she and I will
sit together and study alphabet flashcards or read My First Number Book,
or discuss a
Rod & Staff Workbook page together.
In addition to the separate subjects, my older daughter is also using the
Rod & Staff Workbooks, which are comprehensive preschool and kindergarten workbooks. I like to use
Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills by American
Education Publishing as a supplementary resource for grades 1+ [For the lower levels, I highly recommend Rod & Staff]. These are all relatively inexpensive books.
I plan to enroll my son in a team sport this year and continue basic piano with my older children. My son is interested in learning to play guitar, which I would love to teach him, but he says his fingers need to grow, because they are not strong enough. No rush there.
So there is the lengthy overview of our academic studies. There are so many available options in a wide variety of price ranges and sometimes deciding what materials to use feels like an overwhelming task in itself. But I am really pleased with the direction we are heading this year and as long I we can stay on task - and not loose perspective of what our ultimate goals are [to love God and to love each other], I think that no matter how we go about learning, we
will learn and enjoy discovering and growing together.
