Hello, friendly friends!
Getting back into the swing of homeschooling-things since Christmas
has been a struggle.
We nearly fell to pieces last week.
There was crying.
Weeping.
Whining and thrashing-about.
And the kids were out of sorts, too.
But this week I put on my strict-old-schoolmarm hat and
got serious.
We mixed up the routine a bit and it worked fairly well.
And after feeling convinced a week ago that I would send these darlings
off to boarding school next year,
I do think we may stick this homeschooling thing out for another year.
Hooray!!
But we'll see.
So now I'm in the mood to start planning and figuring out
what curriculum (or hodge-podge thereof) we'll use.
And I'd love YOUR help!
Well, those of you with proven expertise, that is.
Right now we're having great success with A Beka.
That's probably what I'll use for Isaiah, since I already own a lot of
what I need for him.
But for Lucy, I'm thinking of throwing in something different,
at least for a subject or two.
She's a worksheet-kind-of-girl...but I think something on the computer,
or completely outside the box (whatever that would be),
might be fun for her.
She'll be in third grade.
Tell me your thoughts!
9 comments:
I am going to start homeschooling my youngest next year. She is 8 so I can't wait to read the comments you get here.
If she likes computer work, check out Teaching Textbooks. My son used it for 3rd grade, and it's fun, and he learned a lot. And it was really hands-off for me, which I kind of liked, because everything else is so hands-on in homeschool. We HIGHLY recommend.
Not going to give homeschool advice, but Jennifer at OUr China Starfish has some great curriculum that my hands have touched in her home that if I could homeschool I would use. She lists it on her sidebar and often posts about it. As for Lucy Goosey, I can't believe she is in third grade already!! WOW!
Friend! We LOVE the Apologia science books & journaling notebooks. Can't say enough wonderful things about those! I usually order them from CBD.com.
Happy Wednesday!
My hands-down favorite curriculum this year is our Sunrise Math by Christian Light Education!!! It's fun, simple, and extremely user-friendly... No prep necessary! And it's so working!!! I use A Beka for LA, but I almost lost my mind with them this year. Their customer service is HORRIBLE... And practically non-existant... And they could really not care less. I find its great curriculum, but really confusing to maneuver through as a parent. Also takes a good bit if time to plan. I'd love some new suggestions for this subject...
Loving Life of Fred math!!!!
Just learned recently about the availability of public school online. All materials are free (even the computer), much of the work is computer-based, the mom does very little of the organizing or teaching, and the child is assigned to a live, online teacher who grades his or her work and holds the child accountable -- as opposed to the parent holding the child accountable, which isn't a bad thing but some children (and some moms) do better with outside accountability. My 15-year-old niece and six-year-old nephew have been doing public school online for a year now, and both they and their mom love it. I was immediately interested because I very much want to homeschool but one of my three children would certainly do better with someone besides me as her accountability for her progress :-), but we are "underemployed" right now and can't afford curriculum. "But alas," my state does not yet provide online public school; only wealthier states do. Maybe yours is one of them? At any rate, the link is k12.com. Another side benefit to online public is that you can always supplement with whatever Christian ed. material you prefer. In a way, this sounds to me like the best of both worlds, and if we move to a state that provides online public school, we will at least attempt it for a semester.
I love a lot of the things others listed above for different kids. My boys LOVE Teaching Text books. I love the Sunrise Math from Christian Light. It a no-nonsense and super easy to use. It is an inexpensive, comprehensive and christian curriculum that Katie and I enjoyed doing together. I also used the science and history from Christian Light. Cameron is using the High School Apologia Science and Jus and I just supplementing a lot from tour CC curriculum. We have always used Wordly Wise and Explode the Code. We are going to try to the Wordly Wise online. I also love All About Spelling. For 1st and 2nd grade grammar I use a workbook along with First Language Lessons. In grade 3 I start Rod and Staff English. At grade 6 I switch from Rod and Staff to Analytical Grammar. We use Bob Jones for reading along with the Sonlight readers that go along with our history. For Latin we use Latin's not so Tough for elementary and Henley Latin for the older kids. We also joined a Classical Conversations Campus last year and LOVE it! I still do everything at home because as much as I want to be a classical educator I can not give up my text books. LOL!
I 2nd the Teaching Textbooks math, and Apologia science. We swore by Saxon, until TT came out. Apologia science was great for my older kids when they had boring textbook burnout. 12+ years experience--nothing beats Abeka language. We did use Easy Grammar some, and really liked it. But my college kid was so thankful for Abeka Language! BTW--my college kid works at ABeka...and yes, they did have troubles this school year with several things that ended up backordered....a bad year, but an overall great trackrecord.
Post a Comment