Homeschooling Part 2

Here is the long-awaited post on homeschooling curriculum--more like a review of what we have used. If you don't homeschool, this will be pretty boring stuff. ;)

S0, I have posted about why we decided to homeschool . . . now I am going to post about how we do it.

I have only been homeschooling "formally" (I say this because we are teaching our children as soon as they are born, of course) for 3-4 years. I don't have all that much experience under my belt. I can only share what I have used and what I liked and disliked about each particular curriculum. I do think that most of what is out there is good. It is more about what teaching style you enjoy and the learning style of your children. I can say with confidence that if you don't enjoy teaching something a certain way, even if you believe in the philosophy behind that style, it isn't going to work. You really have to love how you are teaching--maybe not WHAT you are teaching because there are just things that we have to teach that aren't that interesting--but the manner in which we teach, we have to enjoy it if it is going to work. Some people like textbooks and work sheets, some like all living books (real life books that teach history, science, etc, through stories.) Some people like the Charlotte Mason approach, some classical--There is just SO much out there. Just because I like something doesn't mean others will and just because something didn't work for us doesn't mean others won't or don't like it.

When I first started to homeschool Anna, I began with 2 things: Phonics Pathways and Five in A Row (FIAR). I didn't enjoy Phonics Pathways. It is one book and was very boring. It did teach Anna to read, but it was like pulling teeth to get her to do it. However, my friend used this with her son and loved it. I ended up switching to Sing, Spell, Read, and Write and Anna enjoyed this more, but was already reading enough that she FLEW through this program. By the time I switched, she was way beyond what I had even taught her. It just "clicked" and she was off. That is the exciting thing about homeschooling--watching your children "get it". Sing, Spell, Read and Write is a good curriculum, but Anna hated writing out all of the words. There are lists of words each lesson and Anna would be in tears. She was reading way beyond her writing ability. Her fine motor coordination had not yet caught up. I ended up only making her write 10 words a day. I vowed that I would not do that to another one of my children. I have chosen a curriculum for Jonas in which he doesn't have to write, but is learning to read. Jonas did not like Phonics Pathways either. He also didn't like SSRW. He couldn't tolerate the songs and games. He had no patience for it. I am using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". I really like it. It isn't perfect, but I think it is straightforward and easy to use. He is reading, which is something I thought would never happen. Now with Jerome, I think I am going to have to have a totally different approach. I haven't found what that is yet. He is stuck on blending, but has all of the letter sounds down. He did the songs from SSRW everyday until he was so tired of them he wanted to cry. He doesn't want to do them anymore. We will try something else until we find what works for him.

Five in a Row was a good curriculum. I did this when Anna was 4-5 years of age. The books are amazing and are now some of our favorite books in our home "library". The curriculum was worth it just because of these rich children's classics. I ordered all of them used off of Amazon. The curriculum in and of itself is okay. The basic idea is that you read the same book to your child 5 days in a row and do a different activity with the book each day. Some of the activities were great, some were over my children's heads. This is a good curriculum if you are homeschooling just a few children. Really, I think this would have been better if my children had been older, but I am not interested in using it now. I won't be doing it with my little ones--just reading them the books. Some of the books are: The Story of Ping, A Pair of Red Clogs, The Rag Coat, A New Coat for Anna, Madeline, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, etc. This curriculum is worth it just to get a list of some amazing children's books and discover some neat activities to use with the various books. We had a world map on our wall and the curriculum comes with paper "disks" that the child attaches to the map to show where the book took place. My children loved this aspect. It really is good for social studies.

For Math, I have only tried one thing: Saxon Math. It works for us and I am living by the motto: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I am not going to look elsewhere because this is working. I know that there are SO many math curriculums out there that are great. I just haven't tried them and I am not going to switch. I feel that math is one of those things that once you choose a curriculum you should stick with it because every curriculum hasn't a different approach to teaching math and a different time frame for when to introduce concepts. I would be too afraid that if I were to switch, my children would have "holes" in their learning and understanding of math. I enjoy Saxon. We don't do a lesson every day. I teach a lesson one day and my children do 1-2 pages of assignments. The next day, they finish the pages for that lesson (usually 1-2 more). The third day, we do the next lesson. We like the slower pace better. It isn't so overwhelming. Anna is in Saxon 2 (about to finish), Jerome and Jonas are in Saxon 1. It has worked for all three of these children, no problem. We really like the math manipulatives. There have only been a few times when I thought that a lesson wasn't teaching in a straightforward manner, or a lesson was pointless. Other than that, I really have no complaints.

For history/literature, I tried Sonlight. I returned it within the first month. I am sure it is a great curriculum. Sonlight is the curriculum that when I got the catalog I drooled in anticipation of teaching it. It is a curriculum in which one uses living books to teach literature and history. Why it wasn't for us: The way it is set up, you read 1 chapter from a bunch of books each day. Well, my children didn't like that approach. They wanted me to keep reading just one book. Secondly, there was no application of principles learned from the books--no hands-on activities.--at least at the level I was teaching. I have little experience with the grade school levels. Now, I am not reallly that into hands-on activities, but I know that they are important for little kids to "get it". Even if it is a coloring sheet to reinforce a lesson learned, or copy work or re-telling the story in one's own words, dictated to mom, and the copied in their own hand. In addition, many of the concepts in the books were way beyond my children at that time (and Anna is pretty adavanced). So we switched to My Father's World and I LOVE it! The first year, when Anna was 5-6, we did Adventures (which is American history). It is for 2nd-3rd graders, but you gotta know Anna. She did great with the material. We both enjoyed it. It wat the perfect mix of living books, textbooks, and hands-on activities. The lessons were clean and well-organized, the material interesting. The curriculum is Charlotte Mason and classical combined, which to me is the best of both worlds. The curriculum is set-up in the following manner: K, 1st grade, 2nd-3rd grade (American history), then a 5 year cycle beginning with a "world overview" called Exploring Countries and Cultures, and then onto the typical 4-year classical history cycle beginning with Ancient history in year 1 and by year 4 coming up to the present.

This fall, Anna will be doing Exploring Countries and Cultures. Our favorite aspect of the curriculum is the "book basket". At the back of the teacher's manuals is a HUGE list of additional resources for every week. Most of these books, I have gotten for free off of paperbackswap.com.
Jonas and Jerome will begin with 1st grade. First grade focuses on the Bible, specifically the Old Testament and Proverbs. It also reinforces reading and does some science. It includes math, but I am going to stick with Saxon.

For spelling: I looked EVERYWHERE for a spelling curriculum for Anna and 2 years ago I found Spelling Power. This is the only thing that will work for Anna! Every other curriculum I got, she was too far ahead. Well, now I know why: With Spelling Power, you test your child's level and begin them there. When I tested Anna at age 6, she was at a 5th grade level. Now, using this curriculum, she is at the 6th grade level. This curriculum is daunting with its huge instruction manual. I mean, I was thinking, "Are you kidding me?" But, once you use it, it is SO easy. The children take a test each day and then only study the words they get wrong. The next day, you test them on those words plus new ones. It really is nice in that your child does not have to waste time on words they already know. I don't know if I will use it for my other children. No one is quite near Anna and her abilities. The curriculum is intended for 3rd graders and the same book is used up until graduation.

English: I have used a variety of things. With Anna, I first used a workbook called "Language Lessons for the Very Young" by Queen Homeschool. Very gentle, Charlotte Mason approach. She did some poem memorization, copy work and an introduction to grammar. This year, we moved onto Rod and Staff 2nd grade. I know--HUGE difference in style, but she LOVES it. It is a text book approach, very much like public school, but the examples given are all related to the Bible. Many of the lessons we do orally because she gets it and we can just move on. No need to do any busy work. Creative writing and such stressed her out, which stressed me out. I have heard that R & S is the most academically rigorous English program out there and I believe it. We will continue this with Anna. She also used R & S phonics this year and this thing kicked MY butt! Man, didn't they teach phonics when I was in school? I had NO clue what a diagraph or diphthong was--and I still can't tell you the difference! Anna loved it. It is a workbook and she just writes in it. At one point, I wanted to ditch this and she begged me to let her keep going. Now, she does it on her own most days and checks her answers in the teacher's manual.

For Jonas and Jerome, I am doing First Language Lessons. This is the book written by the authors of "The Well-Trained Mind". I like this book so far because it is a very slow and gentle approach to grammar and this is what my boys need. Much of it is oral, which is good because Jerome has a very difficult time writing and gets easily frustrated. Anna did not like this book at all. She wanted more of a fast-paced challenging curriculum. So far, Jonas has memorized a poem and both boys can tell you what a noun is. We just started this last week, so I am not that far into it. I am going to get the same workbook for Jonas that Anna started with: "Language Lessons for the Very Young."

For Science: This year we are taking a breather. Last year, science was included in My Father's World, and it is again next year. We have also purchased NOEO's biological science and plan to incorporate that at some point in the future. It looks like a great curriculum based on some good children's books. It is Charlotte Mason in its approach.

If you don't know the difference between Charlotte Mason and Classical and such there is a ton of information online and such to explain the differences. My FAVORITE website is called: http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/. On this site, you can read other's views of curriculum and they have a forum where you can ask questions. I have gotten some really good ideas from there. Honestly, I scoured that site when I was just beginning and picked people's brains about EVERYTHING. I buy all of my curriculum, that I can, used from: http://www.vegsource.com/homeschool and http://www.homeschoolclassified.com/.


Katria and Ruth are learning their letters. No curriculum. Just a letter bingo sheet and some treats. They have also learned their colors this past year. I also just read read read to them.

I am also always in the middle of a good chapter book with my children that we read from everyday. I read to the 3 older children and the little kids choose to listen in if they want. Currently, we are reading "Misty of Chincoteague". Now, my children are playing "horses" everyday in our woods. Each child has a large stick for a horse with a rope attached. They have even made trails for their horses. My children always act out whichever book we are reading. It is so fun! Other books we have read include: All of the Little House books, Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, all of the Henry Huggins books, My Father's Dragon, All-of-Kind Family, Hundred Dresses, all of the stories from Grandma's Attic books, Pippi Longstocking books, The Trumpet of the Swan etc. etc.

Well that's it in a nutshell.


In Christ, Laura