First week of 2014 homeschool year

After much thought and prayer, I’ve decided to start writing on here again. I hope to write once a week. I am mostly writing for myself–as a creative outlet and a record. If it helps a couple of other people get ideas or be encouraged, that will be an unexpected benefit.

This year I have four little learners along on this journey–three girls and a boy: RJ is 9, AG is 7, MA is 3 (almost 4), and CN just turned 1.

Last week we started our current homeschool year on Tuesday after taking a rather frustrating trip to the dunes for Labor Day (remind me later that we do not do well with one-night-away trips). I have found that easing into our year makes for a happier mama and kiddos. We took all of July and August off (doing a little math and finishing Sonlight Core B read alouds in June), so adjusting to a new schedule is a big transition.

I’ve arranged our schedule this year into blocks of about an hour. They include 45 minutes or less of time to spend on our work and then 15 minute breaks of free time (or, in my case, diaper changing time). We will have three blocks before lunch and one block after lunch before rest time.

This week we started Block One and Block Four. Our aim was to have kids dressed and breakfasted by about 8:15 at the latest. Then we gathered in the living room for Block One.

Block One included:
Bible/Family Worship
Math for RJ and AG
Mommy time for MA while the older two did math and Caleb did his impression of a tornado
15 minute break

I was so pleased with family worship time. It’s only the first week, granted, but it went a lot better than anything else we’ve done before. We all have folders (even the three-year-old) containing our memory work and hymns. We began by reciting the Apostles’ Creed together (our memory work). On Wednesday we came up with motions for it. Then Nathan read the collect prayer for this week and we discussed any confusing parts. Then we repeated after him to say the prayer. The rest of the week we just repeated the prayer after him, and then he read a scripture and we talked about it and how it went along with the prayer. We ended each time with singing part or all of our hymn (God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory) for this term (we are doing a 7 week term at the moment). This all took about 15-20 minutes.

Cuddling during family worship time

RJ and AG went with Nathan to work on their math. RJ is working through the second half of Math Mammoth 3 and AG is in the beginning of Math Mammoth 2. Both girls are working on their math facts on my iPhone. They both were done with a sheet or two of math in about 10 minutes, and they were excited to find out they had a break for awhile.

While they did math, MA and I had some time together.  We are working through a loop (for more on loops see Sarah Mackenzie’s blog: Amongst Lovely Things or read her book Teaching from Rest).

Her loop: Read books together/Math activity/Read book together/Alphabet activity/Books/Workbook (like Kumon or coloring)/Books/Other activity (like rice bin or play dough).

Over four days we went through the first three in the loop.  We spent two days on the Math activity (Lauri puzzles).  I try to set my timer and spend the full 25 minutes with her, even if RJ and AG finish math “early”.

Block Four is basically Sonlight read alouds. We are in Core C this year. We loop through the read alouds as we have time. Each day I start the block with playing the geography song we are learning. Then if it’s the first day of a new week (not an actual week, but a new week of read alouds, which might or might not be the same thing) we do RJ’s and AG’s timeline books. Then we do the loop (History read aloud/Bible read aloud/fiction read aloud) until we finish our hour. Normally we will do this block right after lunch, but this week we did it in the morning.

Friday is a little different.  We still have Bible, but then Nathan is trying to play Pentathalon games with the older two while I have mommy time with MA.  Then I spend a half hour with each of the older girls to work on part of a requirement for their independent badge work for American Heritage Girls.  RJ wants to do Dawn of our Country, and AG wants to do Music Appreciation.

So far it’s gone all right. We’ve had frustrating moments and good moments. The girls are enjoying the read alouds so far. And they love the geography songs. I think the hardest thing will be to get going on time.

Tomorrow we add Block Two: Morning Time.

Read Full Post »

Researching homeschool curricula

I feel like we are at a crossroads as we come up the next year of homeschool.  We have done two years of Sonlight (P 4/5 two years ago and Core A last year) and have taken this year to do a mixture of this and that.  Now the question for next year is–Do we go back to Sonlight Core B for History/Science/Read Alouds or do we find something else?  Also, do we stay with Math-U-See for both girls?  Is Writing With Ease good for now or do we transition to Institute for Excellence in Writing?
I think the first question we have to ask is, “What is our educational philosophy?”  Is it in line with Charlotte Mason?  What about Christian Classical?  And then there is the Thomas Jefferson Education that has been popping up.  I find that I am eclectic in many areas of my life and how we educate our children has not escaped that.  I like to pick and choose from the best of everything, but that also means that I rarely feel like we get really good or focused on anything.  Do we need to choose one direction or philosophy and stick with it?  Many questions and much to pray about for God’s direction in what is best for us and how we can glorify and follow him best.
So, what do we like and want to keep?

–I like how we do Bible right now.  Long Story Short is a good length and Bible-based.  I like following their suggestions for memory work.  I like singing songs together with the guitar.

–I think All About Spelling is going well.  I have no desire to change that.  It is phonics-based, thorough, requires little prep, and is well-organized.

–First Language Lessons for grammar is providing a good foundation for knowledge of English grammar.  I like that I have very little prep with it.  We’ll continue with it, though we won’t do the copy work in it, since we do copy work in Writing with Ease.

–Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading–I think Ally will actually be done with it by the end of the year, but I will use it again with Maggie, Lord willing.

–New American Cursive–I like this for Becca and Ally will use it when her printing is established.

–Handwriting without Tears–I will continue to use this for Ally until her printing is established.

–American Heritage Girls–I think we will join again next year, but we’ll see how the rest of the year goes first.
What do we want to consider replacing?

–Math-U-See–I do like this curriculum.  I think it is working well for both girls, so I don’t know if I really want to mess with something that works.  But I would at least like to look into Math Mammoth and Teaching Textbooks.  I also want to look into Kahn Academy videos for a possible supplement to our main math curriculum.

–Writing with Ease–Again, I like this curriculum.  The lessons are short and they use narration and copy work, both which are suggested in the Charlotte Mason educational philosophy.  Now that Becca is okay with doing WWE if I use Little House books, Trumpet of the Swan, or Charlotte’s Web, we might move through it faster.  I would like to look into the Institute for Excellence in Writing.  It might be something we go to eventually.

–Sonlight, Memoria Press (Classical/Latin), Thomas Jefferson Education (which also has some Charlotte Mason and Classical leanings).  These are what I’m considering for the core.

What do we want to add?

–Latin–Prima Latina.  Others?

–Piano lessons–once we get the piano from my parents.

–Focused handwork–make plans to start a project (knitting, embroidery, sewing, bracelet-making, weaving, etc) and finish it.

 

Read Full Post »