In an effort to answer in a traditional way, we have a 6th grader, a 3rd grader, and a 1st grader this year! Realistically we have curriculum from several different grades depending on where the child is at the moment. But I've encouraged the children just to answer according to the age and what they would be in public school when strangers ask what grade they're in. And technically Wild Man would be in preschool but we are doing very little structure for him right now. I lean far more toward "unschooling" with my preschoolers and kindergarteners. I find that if you leave the TV off and supply lots of fun activities they learn very well, they love to learn really. Although, I am allowing Wild Man to do starfall.com almost daily and he is benefiting from that a lot! So here is where we have landed this year. It's quite similar to last year's line up except for a few things. Bible- We just read through books of the Bible for this. We endeavored to make it through the Gospels last year but still have John to finish. And then I will attempt the Minor Prophets....I think. I still have to do some research there and get ready but that is what the kids want to study. We do praying during Bible and catechism and our Copy Can too. The Copy Can is filled with bible verses and famous quotes from men. The Boy hasn't graduated to the Copy Can yet, so for now I have him just copying down the date and his full name for practice. But I think he is just a couple weeks away from being able to handle the Copy Can. The Boy is too easy. Science/History- We alternate days for these. And we are using the same curriculum as we did last year because we enjoyed it so much. Answers in Genesis for Science and Beautiful Feet Books for History. I can't sing BFB for History enough! It's so good! We may try their Geography set next. Reading, English, Spelling, and Penmanship- Are all Rod and Staff. I just really appreciate the simplicity of Rod and Staff. Only Tender and Hurricane are doing English for now and I'm not totally sold on Rod and Staff for English but it's working for now. I'd like to veer away from it but for now we are sticking with it. As for Penmanship and Spelling I'm totally married to Rod and Staff for those!! So simple, totally accomplish what I want! Hurricane and The Boy are the only ones doing Penmanship right now and really, The Boy's penmanship is so good I will likely not push it too hard. Hurricane and Tender are the only ones doing Spelling. And I found Rod and Staff's Reading curriculum at a garage sale and wanted to get it for Tender so we are doing that too. I'm glad I got it, it's been helpful. For The Boy's reading we use the Alpha Phonics book. For those of you that are familiar with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, it's a lot like that but WAY more simple. And The Boy is tearing through it. He is literally doing a lesson right now as I type this with myself just glancing over to make sure he gets the words right. He is a new breed for education, this one. And I nice one at that! Math- We have Teaching Textbooks for the girls still and will stick with it. And for The Boy I just got him Singapore math because TT doesn't start until 3rd grade. I also purchased the whole elementary set for Life of Fred and we are doing that on Fridays. Right now the girls want to do it everyday so we may transition to Life of Fred mainly eventually. I'm praying about that. As for organizing all this chaos I am using a system that I started late in the year last year. Below is our big schedule and it is my favorite organization tool! It is a pickler to put together because it's like a complex jigsaw puzzle to figure out how everyone's schedule fits together but once it's done it is my biggest ally! With this little piece of paper I know where everyone is and what they are (or should be) doing at all times! If you have more that two homeschoolers I don't know how you could survive without it! I got the idea from Teri Maxwell's book Manager's of their Homes. Although mine is little different than what she outlined. Plus, the kids love the predictability! It makes them feel safe to know what is happening next and when I get lazy it holds me accountable. If one child has attitude problems and goes crazy slow on a particular subject then they just work through a break and it typically gets them caught up. Below is one of our file boxes. I got the idea for these from simplylivingforhim.com. She is all about simplicity and I really like the file box ideas. It puts the kids in charge of organizing their own work. They have a file for each subject in their box and that is where their complete works goes. I also made them personal schedules for their boxes if they want to check off with a dry erase marker what they have finished for the day. Here we have my new drawer organizer. I noticed last year that I am doing a poor job of grading in a timely manner so that my responsible children can file their work. ; ) So I got this for that purpose. When they finish a subject that needs to be checked by me they put it in their top drawer (one color per kid) and when I'm done checking it or grading it I put it in their bottom drawer. They are labeled "Finished Work" and "To-be filed". Plus it's on wheels!! So when the kids go to bed I wheel it into the living room and check work while the hubby and I watch tv or chat comfortably on the couch! Above is the human body poster we made a couple weeks ago. It was so fun and I was VERY impressed with how much they had learned from our most recent Science book on the human body. Wild Man didn't actually help, but we let him be in the picture. I've no doubt he learned by just hanging out with us while we worked.
We are also working on making miniature mishoons. We learned about those canoes that are made from a single tree trunk by indians. And daddy has been doing lots of chopping down of extra foliage around the house so we decided to make some little ones to float in the spring in the backyard during big rains. When they are finished I will be sure to take pictures! That is all I suppose!
2 Comments
Melissa
7/30/2015 09:35:20 am
Wow!! Good job!! You're so organized!! You impress me, always.
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Beverly Richardson
7/30/2015 11:02:00 am
It looks like the transition is A LOT of work but going well.
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LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
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