Daily scripture study
Reading stories and discussing them.
Family Work
Faith in God
Scouts
Individual interests
They have grown now and need more. I liked the simple focus of building a foundational core. I am glad I spent those years the way I did. I don't regret it. The academics were not forgotten, however they took a backseat to that foundational curriculum plan. I have learned that Dr. Raymond and Dorthy Moore were right: they can catch up academically- so "better late than early."
We still have the same basics but have added the academic element. I have never paid much attention to grades; I deal better with ages so I'll give it to you that way.
This year I have a 13 year old boy, an 11 year old boy with autism - He has delays and is academically about first-ish grade. I have an 8 year old boy and a 5 year old girl. (My two year old boy isn't quite ready for school yet.) I find myself in the position of having 3 in need of individualized phonics instruction concurrently. They need different types of instruction and are at different levels so I cannot combine well. This all takes more time from me each day. I cant wing it as well as I could before in this new climate. I am so grateful for wonderful resources to help me so that I do not have to reinvent the wheel.
I basically have two tracks one for the independent reader and another for the not quite yet independent readers.
This is what we are doing this year:
We are trying out the Writing Course by Fred Lybrand this year. I came across this last year in my investigation of the Robinson Curriculum. With RC you have your students spend about 1/2 - 1 hour of writing each day. Lybrand wrote this to assist that process. I'll have to let you know how it goes. Only my oldest is doing this right now. It is designed for children about 10 and over and the others are not there yet.
I do like this one. I like the way students practice their words in a multi-sensory way. I like the fact that it is one book that works for all students 8ish and above. Again, only my oldest is here thus far.
I do like this one. I like the way students practice their words in a multi-sensory way. I like the fact that it is one book that works for all students 8ish and above. Again, only my oldest is here thus far.
(Just as a side note. In my education classes for my teaching degree the classes stressed the importance of making math visual and meaningful. All of the examples, that everyone else was ooing and aahing over, all those epiphanies were all review for me because of Math U See. I had already learned how to visualize math concepts from teaching with MUS. cool, huh?)
Of course we will use the Scripture Story Books. This is a picture of the DVD's which we also have and watch sometimes, but we really like the books. The Friend Magazine is also a staple around here.
I ran across Heritage History at the Washington State Homeschool Convention. It is similar to a lot of the other living history programs, Ambleside, Old Fashioned Education, Robinson, etc.; except that it was all there ready to go. The book collections come in pdf ready to print or read online or in epub and mobi to move to the e-reader. This I loved; I don't have to mess searching for the right formatting or conversions. It also has beautiful maps and a curriculum guide. We are doing Middle Ages this year.
I always dismissed Explode the Code in my effort to avoid workbooks. I thought they were redundant and boring. Now that I have essentially three children needing that intensive phonics at the same time, I needed some help. I am very impressed with the program. The kids enjoy them and really need the repetition. I am adding the Beyond the Code books to our routine. I hope it will give them additional reading practice while working on the comprehension aspect.
This year we are doing Physics and Astronomy. This is a pricey curriculum and I have children in the pre-level one and level one ages (now called focus on elementary or focus on middle school). I decided to get both levels of the first curriculum and see how I can combine them. In a lot of ways I am just using the older level for all of them. It is too much for my Kindergartener, but the other guys are catching on to much of what is intended for an older level. I think I will probably just get the middle school level in the future. They will revisit the same subjects in few years at a deeper level.
I have gone back and forth on handwriting. Printing first, cursive first, italic instead, capital letters first, lower case first, blah, blah, blah. Each perspective has its points. For me I have an autistic boy who learned capitals first and refuses to learn anything else. (does it really matter? I don't know). But for know I am sticking with this. I like it. At least with book C and above. Books A and B teach the letters in alphabetical order. I really do like it when they teach it in stroke families. C and above do.
Really, that's about it. I am trying to keep things very simple as I finish my own degree.
