7QT: Homeschool Curriculum Edition

Good Saturday everyone!  I thought another set of quick takes would be good for some rambling about this year's homeschool curriculum, which I've been wanting to do for a while.  Feel free to skip over this post if you're bored by homeschool talk!  Here we go...

(For more quick takes, visit thisaintthelyceum.org!)

--1--

I talked a bit in last year's posts about how we don't really follow any particular homeschooling "method" (Charlotte Mason, Waldorf, Montessori, etc.).  Being totally new to homeschooling last year, I hadn't done enough research to decide what was right.  As the year went on, however, I realized that it makes me feel better if we are pretty much keeping up with what the public school kids are learning.  So, I still haven't done much research on the various homeschool methods, but we have sort of settled in to a "school at home" type of thing rather than going our own way with any kind of philosophical track.  If I were smarter about those types of things I would love to find "THE method" that maximizes learning and potential, but for now I feel quite humble about my own teaching abilities, and I want to feel like my kids could jump into another school environment without having to completely shift gears, content-wise.  Keeping schooling options open is something that feels right to this (somewhat indecisive) Mama. So this year, I'm trying to focus mainly on those subject areas that would be emphasized in "regular" school (basically reading and writing and 'rithmetic) especially with the baby coming. Trying to be realistic about what we can get to in a day, and focus on what is most important (a debatable concept, I know).

Okay.  Enough prefacing.

--2--

Let's start with phonics and spelling.

Both girls are doing Explode the Code.  N is starting book 4 this year and L is on book 1.

This is one method from last year that we really loved and are sticking with.  Effective and fun.  It's really more than just a phonics book-- it provides practice with everything (handwriting, reading, spelling).  One page every day gives us practice in a lot of content areas, and the girls both love it.  We still have L's primer book from last year, too:

...and I'm thinking we could do some of this with C starting very soon.

This book provides enough practice with spelling that I don't see the need for an additional spelling curriculum, at least not at this point.  We started Sequential Spelling last year and it seemed to be geared more toward older kids.  The words are pretty advanced and, although they're taught in a systematic way so that N was able to be successful, it just wasn't exciting and not quite on her level.  We're going to put it off until grade 3, I think.

Every time we finish a lesson in Explode the Code, I put the words from that lesson into a list in our Vocabulary Spelling City app for iPad.  N does a little bit of practice on this every day and that gives her the reinforcement that she needs.  I highly recommend this app!  There is a version that is completely free, and you can create your own lists.  There are several fun games that you can play to keep the spelling tests interesting.  N enjoys it.

--3--

Math.

I've already mentioned our Splash Math app that we love.

N is currently reviewing on the grade 1 app and we will start grade 2 in a few weeks.  L just started her kindergarten app and LOVES it.  She begs to do "Mr. Hippo" every day.  She seems to find the concepts really effortless so I'm glad that she has something that can build her confidence!  In this app, the girls each have their own "jungle" and they get little dancing interactive animals to add to it every time they successfully complete a quiz on a certain math concept.  N's app also has an aquarium for which she earns fish.  It's super motivating for them!  It is also Common Core aligned so they are learning all of the math standards for their grade level.

I do like to try to sit with them while they do work on Splash Math, just because many of the questions are multiple choice and the temptation is for them to just guess until they get the right answer (the quickest way to earn their dancing animal) rather than actually think about the question.  So I try to make it something we work on together, and it's always a fun time in our day.

To reinforce the concepts we're learning, I'm going to start some Common Core checks with both girls in a few weeks.  I bought these second grade ones and this kindergarten bundle on Teachers Pay Teachers.  The plan is that we will do two or three quick assessments per week, and I'll just keep them all in a notebook and flag the ones that need further reinforcement or teaching.  At that point I'll either use Splash Math for further practice or find some hands-on activities to help.

--4--

Reading.

We found success last year without a reading "curriculum" so I'm keeping it that way this year, for N at least.  Last year she worked her way through pretty much all of our library's leveled easy readers, reading level 4 by the end of the year.  She's now starting some short chapter books.

Last year we read several chapter books aloud together-- Pippi Longstocking (Astrid Lindgren), James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dhal), two of the Narnia books (Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) by C.S. Lewis, and we re-read Little House in the Big Woods (Laura Ingalls Wilder).  We started Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (Beverly Cleary)... only got through a couple of chapters.  About half the reading aloud I did at home with the girls, and the other half we achieved listening to audio books in the car.  I want to keep exposing them to great literature... some ideas for this year are The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster), The Twenty-One Balloons (William Pene DuBois), or The Indian in the Cupboard (Lynne Reid Banks).

Each week, I plan to systematically go through this list and inter-library loan some of the Caldecott Medal and Honor books in the picture book category.  N likes to read these to the younger girls during afternoon quiet time, and we usually have some quiet reading time when the girls get into bed at night too.

For L, we are working our way through Progressive Phonics books that I mentioned in last week's quick takes.

We are also learning the kindergarten sight words by doing one or two of these worksheets per week, and hanging up the finished product on our "word wall" in the living room.  L practices reading those words frequently each time she looks at the wall!  So far these methods combined seem to be pretty successful in teaching her to read, and we will probably start checking level 1 easy readers out of the library for her soon (once we get through all of the Progressive Phonics books).

--5--

Handwriting.

L will be doing a LOT of practice on this.  We are still working on correcting her pencil grip and strengthening her fine motor skills and finger dexterity.  She has come a long way though and I see improvement every day.  It's amazing how quickly those little muscles can develop with daily practice.

I'm having her work through the pre-K book for Handwriting Without Tears because there are so many great fine motor activities inside.

We do these activities with chalk bits or broken crayons because correct grip comes easiest to her that way-- using just the pincer grasp.  She loves the fun coloring and tracing activities-- and I love that her muscles are building without any of the frustration that comes with letter writing for her right now.

We are also simultaneously working through the kindergarten book

 

which is much more frustrating for her so we take it in small doses.  She has to use a pencil with a gripper and it takes a lot of concentration.  She is learning the letter strokes and formation though, so with that knowledge at the ready I know things will get easier for her as her grip strengthens.  We are also using the Wet Dry Try iPad app so that she can practice the letter strokes with her finger and doesn't have to worry about the pencil.

N's handwriting improved a lot last year, so we're not doing quite as much practice for her.  She will do copywork once or twice a week, and I made her a little dry erase notebook where she can practice some of the letters that she still reverses on occasion (she has pretty much fixed her b's and d's, but p's and g's still come out backwards every once in a while, and 2's and 3's).  I'd like to start cursive with N after Christmas, and she's really expressed a lot of interest.  We will see if we can fit it in.

Along with our purchase of handwriting books we got two discounted licenses to Keyboarding Without Tears and so I got the girls each set up for it.  We only did it once this week but they really enjoyed it, and I do feel that learning to type is important this day in age!  So we will do it when we can.  Obviously we need to spend the majority of time on handwriting right now, especially for L.

--6--

Science.  Geography.  Music.

We had hoped to get to some weather last year in science and we didn't do much of it, so I'm having N do some Science Scribes on weather and we may do some of Liesel's weather packet.  I'm not totally decided on what we will do for science this year-- focusing more on geography and social studies in our fall semester.

In geography my goal is to get the girls familiar with the continents, oceans, and USA geography.  It's something we touched on last year but didn't spend too much time on.  I got a lot of cut and paste activities from Homeschool Bits Speedy Geography when they were on sale for 10 cents.  We'll be doing one of these each week and also some mini-books.

We are going to start history with some Columbus mini-books and later transfer some of the dates from our wall timeline into timeline notebooks for each girl.

We have taken some time off from violin (starting around the time I got pregnant and tired) but I hope to get started again.  It is going to be a challenge to fit it in, so I'm considering finding a teacher other than me to give us a little consistency and take some of the responsibility off my shoulders.  We haven't quite decided on that yet.  I'm also okay with taking a bit of a break while we adjust to new baby.  So we will try to just listen to music as much as we can in the meantime!

--7--

The last thing we're doing that I'm SO excited about is the Read to Feed curriculum from Heifer International. 

image source

The activities teach a lot about geography, history, science, and most importantly, social awareness.  It is completely free to download and we have enjoyed it *so* much.  N set up her own Read to Feed fundraising page and raised enough for a flock of chicks this past summer, so we have had great fun learning a bit about where her chicks went and how children in other countries live and use the resources provided by Heifer.  So cool.

Oh-- and we're also learning about manners, kindness and compassion using the parenting cards from We Choose Virtues (I didn't purchase the entire curriculum here).  We're taking a laid-back approach with this and just doing it once a week.  I also have Manners of the Heart at Home which has some cool crafts combined with morality lessons for after Christmas.

So that about wraps it up, folks! Thanks for listening... It really helps me to have a record of our curriculum

choices here-- reading through last year's posts was really beneficial for planning. Thanks for putting up with my rambling!