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Showing posts with label Homeschool Curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homeschool Curriculum. Show all posts
Our lilac bush, which has not bloomed in three years, came to life with flowers this year. As I was choosing a photo for this post, I remembered the too-many photos I took of the lovely blooms, and it struck me that our lilac bush feels like a fitting metaphor for our homeschool season. After two years of struggling through our homeschool days, somehow as we close out this year I find myself less burned out and more excited about homeschooling again.
Often when I write these “lessons learned” posts I’ll have some general principles and advice mixed in with my points, but I don’t have any this year. The changes we made were unrelated to any specific challenges we had, but ended up shifting our homeschool dynamic in unexpected ways.
Last year I ended the year struggling hard, and the fact that this year was better is probably a mix of the changes I made and also just entering a different season with my kids. I don’t think if you are struggling you should do the same things we did this year - but if you are struggling in your homeschool, make the changes YOU need to make to feel excited about homeschooling again. Don’t be afraid to try something new, because sometimes it ends up being just what you needed.
These are the two new things we did that breathed some life back into our days.
1. We started a new Charlotte Mason curriculum for history, geography, and literature.
We have been doing Masterbooks for history since the kids were small and to be clear, we have loved it! But after going through the same books several times now, I was ready to try something else. I heard about a reformed protestant Charlotte Mason curriculum that was in its beta year, called Living Heritage, and I was intrigued. I liked a lot of the books on the lists and the layout of the curriculum, and I decided we would give it a try.
I have been familiar with Charlotte Mason’s philosophy for years, and we have incorporated some of her principles (such as narration), but this was our first attempt at a full Charlotte Mason approach for certain subjects. We followed Living Heritage Cycle 4 for history, geography, art and music, and literature (with one or two science books as well).
Living Heritage ended up being a success for all my kids. I saw them grow leaps and bounds in their abilities to recall information from the readings, and in their writing endurance (for my older kids). We had zero complaints about any of the books (except my boys making fun of the opera stories we read), and my older kids asked to continue reading “real books” for history next year too.
Since we have never done another true Charlotte Mason curriculum, I can’t compare it to the big curricula, like Ambleside Online or others. It’s my understanding that there is some crossover in the booklists. What I appreciated the most about Living Heritage was the Bible, which is treated as a full and important subject. The books under “Bible” were so rich and theologically deep. I was especially nervous that the 8th grade Bible read would be too tough for my oldest, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much he understood and retained. It taught me that I shouldn’t underestimate my kids’ abilities to understand and enjoy even hard books.
This ended up being one of my favorite years of our homeschool, but not because it was easy. We combined Living Heritage with other curricula for science and math, as well as different “spine” books for our co-op classes. It was challenging to balance everything we were doing, but I think it stretched and grew my kids, and raised my own confidence in what we can accomplish if we manage our time well. We spent a lot of time on meaningful learning, and it wasn’t a burden to me or the kids because we really enjoyed so many of the books.
I did make adjustments as we went - I dropped one classic that was proving too much of a burden, and a couple books slipped off the list merely because of time. But when I look at the stacks of books we did read, I’m left with alot of satisfaction. We will adjust the curriculum to work with our high school plan for the fall (I still can’t believe my oldest is in high school), but it wasn’t even a question that we would be doing Living Heritage in some form again. You can check out Living Heritage here.
2. We rejoined a local co-op.
After taking a four-year break from any kind of co-op group, we re-joined a local co-op this past fall. We were part of this same group when my oldest was in 3rd and 4th grade, but at that season of life with young kids, I found it too challenging to attend a weekly co-op. I was floundering and recognized I need to spend some time developing my own homeschool discipline and direction before considering a co-op again. My goal was to wait until my youngest had learned to read - and after she finished her kindergarten year, we visited the co-op again.
The timing was right for us to give co-op a try for multiple reasons. My kids were more academically independent, we had good homeschool routines established, and my youngest was reading. Over the past several years we also had several of our core homeschool friends either move away or stop homeschooling all together, and we were in a place of needing a group we could connect with locally.
It’s been new for me to balance having a vision for our homeschool days at home and keeping up with our co-op work, but it helps alot that our co-op is mom-run and flexible. All the kids’ co-op leaders are also homeschool moms with their own things going on, and we recognize that mom makes the final call on what work needs to get done and when. My kids get the most out of it when we stay on schedule with co-op, but if we have a bad week or choose to drop an assignment in favor of something else, we have freedom to make adjustments.
Socially, it’s been a lovely thing for the kids, and I don’t take it for granted. They have made friends, they have just the right balance of structure and visiting time, and the kids in this particular co-op have seemed to mesh together very well. It was what we needed this past homeschool year to keep us encouraged.
Most homeschool moms would tell you that you often have to re-learn how to homeschool every year - there are always new challenges and adjustments that need to be made! This year we took a risk on changing our homeschooling style for over half our subjects with Living Heritage, and adding a big item to our weekly schedule with co-op, but both of those changes ended up paying off, by God’s grace. I’m thankful to end this homeschool year feeling satisfied instead of burned out.
How did your homeschool year go? Did you make any major changes, or was it a year of staying the course?
(This is not a photo from the homeschool conference - just two of my kids on a recent hike.)
Last week my family and I attended our state homeschool conference. Every year I learn something new, find great curriculum deals, discover curriculum that is new to me, and leave encouraged.
I’ve written before about why you should attend a homeschool conference if you get a chance. I think I may do another version of that article someday about why you should attend a Christian homeschool conference, even if you don’thomeschool. If a homeschool conference is a good one, at least half of the sessions would be uplifting to any Christian family, and I love that about our local conference. The focus is on raising our children and discipling them, and then also practical/academic tips - but the meat of it is a biblical philosophy on child-rearing that would benefit any Christian parent.
I received a conference-recap email from one of the many homeschool blogs I follow, and I really enjoyed it and was inspired to share a few takeaways from the conference we attended (including some interesting curriculum finds).
My Main Takeaway
A big theme of our conference this year was passing on the faith to our children. If you are not aware, the statistics on youth leaving the church in Protestant denominations in the United States are very grim. A full 70% of Christian youth leave the church, and these statistics haven’t improved in years - if anything, the situation has worsened. There were a couple different lectures about this topic (from Israel Wayne and George Barna), and though I only attended Wayne’s talk, from what I can tell the bottom line was the same - taking your children to church every week isn’t enough. Sending them to a Christian private school isn’t enough. Even homeschooling isn’t enough!
Kids need to have a good relationship with their parents, and they need to be trained by their parents. No one has as big of an impact on the faith of children as their parents do. Children need to know the tenants of their faith, see it being put into practice by their parents, and receive focused teaching about biblical doctrines (the truths of the faith) and a biblical worldview (how those truths should affect the way they see they world and the way they live).
You obviously can’t pass on that kind of knowledge and faith if you don’t have it yourself! Alot of Christians think we have a biblical worldview, and we don't realize that in many cases, we actually don’t. Wayne shared the PEERS test, which is a biblical worldview test - he said that though he quibbled with the phrasing of a few of the questions, it’s not a difficult test. The statistics among different groups of students who have taken this test are very interesting (and scary, honestly).
(This is a graph from the Nehemiah Institute website, the organization that produced the PEERS test. That blue line represents a TINY number of Christian private schools that have a high focus on biblical worldview training, as opposed to those that focus on academics - only about 2% of Christian kids are in those types of schools. The green line represents homeschoolers, who only started being included later. Honestly, I think we homeschoolers could do better. The traditional Christian private schools and public school lines should be sobering. Keep in mind that all of these lines represent ONLY youth from Christian households.)
The benefit of homeschooling as it relates to all this can be summed up in one word - time. Parents have the biggest influence on their kids, but that influence can be diluted by a lack of time spent with our kids. Homeschool parents have an advantage because we are not lacking for time - we are with our children nearly all day, every day!
Homeschool children (should) have an up-close look at what a Christian life should look like, because they see it playing out in every situation we encounter daily. Scripture tells us that “everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). That’s a little sobering, isn’t it? It means as homeschool parents we need to be careful that we ourselves are living out a truly biblical worldview. Our strengths in this area will likely be passed on to our kids, but also our weaknesses.
Time is also a crucial ingredient for building any strong relationship, including with our children, and having strong relationships with both parents provides a distinct statistical advantage in passing on the faith to our children.
(This chart is from the Gen2 survey, which is a general survey of churched Millennials and the impact of their upbringing on their practicing of the Christian faith as an adult. You can look at all the findings from that survey here. They are up-front about the fact that more people who were previously homeschooled took the survey than those schooled in other ways, despite trying to specifically advertise to those who went to public or private school. Despite the sample being a little uneven, it’s still pretty interesting.)
Homeschoolers, we have alot of things working for us! The trick is not to squander all these advantages, which can certainly happen. This whole discussion was simultaneously heartening and challenging to me.
For Further Reading
Though the website is a little old-school, I recommend exploring the Nehemiah Institute - they are the organization that produced the PEERS worldview test, and they have alot of interesting documents and resources.
For more information specifically on the exit of youth from the church and what we might do about it, I highly recommend the books Already Compromised and Already Gone by Ken Ham.
Israel Wayne has a couple helpful books about parenting and education that I’d recommend: Raising Them Up and Education: Does God Have An Opinions? (don’t be put off by the title, it’s a great book - I even had my oldest read the chapter on math, and it greatly improved his attitude!). He also has a systematic theology and biblical worldview curriculum for middle and high school that we picked up for our 8th grader this year.
George Barna also has a new book related to this topic, and I haven’t read it yet, but I might pick it up: Raising Spiritual Champions.
Other Interesting Sessions
“Why Americans Can’t Read” - Alex Newman - It’s shocking how illiterate we have become in America - half of American adults are functionally illiterate, and those statistics are coming from the Department of Education itself. I couldn’t find an article from Newman related to this topic that wasn’t behind a paywall, but the answer to this problem comes down to one thing - we need to ditch the “whole word” method and go back to actually teaching phonics.
“The Problem With School Choice” - Alex Newman - There are alot of unintended consequences with allowing the government to fund ALL school choices via vouchers and other forms of funding, which is a big push in many states right now. You can read this document if you are interested, which includes alot of the information Newman shared in this talk.
“Help! The Highschool Years Are Coming!” - Jan and Roger Smith - This session included so much encouragement for the high school years! I couldn’t find any articles about this specific topic online, but you can hear from the speakers on Zan Tyler’s podcast.
“Is Homeschooling Just For Women? - Israel Wayne - My husband went to this session and came back inspired and challenged in his role as a Christian (and homeschool) dad! I’d personally recommend anything by Israel Wayne, I’ve been encouraged by his resources many times. You can check out his ministry here.
Interesting Curriculum
Homeschool In A Box - I didn’t get to explore this booth much, but this company is on my list to research - their booth had a bunch of themed, hands-on learning boxes that I think my kids would find so fun!
Homestead Science - This is a family-run homeschool company from Idaho, and I am particularly interested in their survival study, which seems right up our alley.
Math Without Borders - We spent a good amount of time talking with the man who owns this company about this high school math option - it’s on my list to research for next year! But I wanted to point out “The Grandpa Project” on his website, which includes a bunch of videos he put together for his elementary and middle-school grandchildren to learn more about math - and this page in particular is the best math facts flashcard system I’ve ever seen online. All this is free on the website, and we’ll definitely be using it this summer! He also has a “bonus topics” page with a bunch of fun math videos that we’re going to explore.
New Generations Resources - Generations is a curriculum company we’ve been exploring for history mainly, but my little girls have also been enjoying their science books - they have this new science curriculum coming out for 3rd grade about the human body that I’m considering getting! They also released this adorable catechism book for the littlest learners - I really love that all the answers to these catechism questions are an actual Bible verse.
There are so many other interesting tidbits I could share, but I’ll leave it there! I would love to hear if you’re ever been to a homeschool conference, how it was helpful for you, or your thoughts about any of the topics or resources I shared here! Comment below, or hit reply if you are receiving this in your inbox.
One of the things I decided to add to our homeschool this year is a study of one of Shakespeare's plays. I was a little trepidatious to start with the kids, but over the last few weeks we have really gotten into it, and I wanted to share what we've been doing!
First, why study Shakespeare? There are a few reasons to consider studying Shakespeare in your homeschool, and these are some of mine.
Why Study Shakespeare With Elementary Kids
Rich Language. The language of Shakespeare is challenging and rich. It’s so good for kids to hear and see that kind of complicated language and feel comfortable with it. This will help them later with reading comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, etc.
Familiarity With Idioms, Etc. Shakespeare added so much to our vernacular in the form of idioms, cliches, figures of speech, etc. Knowing the background enriches our understanding of English, and will allow them to use these sayings with confidence in their future writing as well! A good Shakespeare quote can't help but elevate an essay, right?
Character Elements. There are interesting character, moral, and "social norm" elements that are presented by the characters in Shakespeare’s plays. For instance, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, we are learning a bit about the foolishness of braggerts from the character of Bottom.
Historical Tie-Ins. There are alot of interesting historical tie-ins in Shakespeare plays that give you a richer understanding of Shakespeare/The Middle Age - from both directions.
Knowing Shakespeare Literary References. There are a ton of references to Shakespeare and his plays in literature, and even just in pop culture, and being acquainted with Shakespeare will allow them to be "in the know" when they encounter those references elsewhere.
Avoid Intimidation. If kids familiarize themselves with Shakespeare's plays when they are young, they won't be intimidated to dive in if or when they study the Bard in high school or college courses.
What We're Doing
In the past we have memorized Shakespeare passage from the book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig, and I still think that book introduces a really great rhythm method for memorizing some lines of Shakespeare! One benefit is that it is really easy and fun to do even with younger kids.
However, I wanted to get into the plays a little more, and I was getting hung up by our memorization work - should we finish memorizing the passages, and then get into the play? Or should we do both at the same time?
I decided to just dive right in with these resources:
Simply Charlotte Mason: Shakespeare In Three Steps
This is a series of guides to various Shakespeare plays, and I love the method used in the guides. We are currently working through the guide for A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is a great play to start with for elementary kids, I think.
First we read a short version of the story to get an idea of what is going to happen, which is included in the guide.
Then we listen to a dramatization of the play with a transcript in hand. This guide gives summaries of each scene, so the kids know ahead of time what is going to happen when we listen to the actual play. We are in this stage now, and I have to say, it's been a delight! I gave them highlighters and told them to keep an eye out for certain key lines from each passage, as mentioned in the guide - but I also told them to highlight whatever lines stand out to them or lines that they particularly like. It's so fun to see what lines my kids choose to highlight! It's also been gratifying to watch Shakespeare's humor click with them, which is a huge benefit of listening to gifted actors perform the actual play, as opposed to just reading a short story version. My oldest even declared he thought his cousin should listen to A Midsummer Night's Dream because it's so funny!
The final step is to watch the play, which we will do when we finish listening to/reading it. I love that this guide also includes summaries of the different movie versions out there, so you can pick one with no objectionable content for your child's age group.
Arkangel Shakespeare Productions
I followed the guide's suggestion, and purchased the Archangel audio production of A Midsummer's Night Dream, and I can vouch that it is excellent! These audio versions are also on Audible, which is convenient.
How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare
As we have been reading about and then listening to A Midsummer Night's Dream, it's been fun to see the lines my kids remember from our memory work using Ludwig's book, and I think after we finish the play we will continue to memorize some of the lines using his method!
I did want to note that I think Simply Charlotte Mason's method is really easy to do, but I do think kids will get more out of it in 4th grade and up, when their reading skills are really strong. I you are anxious to jump in with younger kids, I think Ken Ludwig's book and some good picture books are a better place to start.
Shakespeare Picture Books and Stories
As I said, I think there is a huge benefit of listening to Shakespeare's actual words, instead of just reading a storybook version of his plays. The humor that is in his actual writing just doesn't translate to a storybook the same way, in my experience. However, we have used storybooks to familiarize ourselves with the play before we listened to it, and these are the ones we've used so far. Please note, I haven't read through all the play stories in these books, just a couple, so screen your chosen story before reading it to your kids!
A Stage Full Of Shakespeare Stories - Really cute, whimsical illustrations in this one.
Shakespeare Retold by E. Nesbit - These are good, quick retellings of seven Shakespeare plays, with more suggested resources in the back!
Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield - I really like this book for myself - it gives a really thorough telling of each play, with some of Shakespeare's actual words incorporated. As far as I can tell, these version tries to keep to Shakespeare's general scene order as well, which is nice. I'm going to use this version for myself to screen which plays I want to cover with my kids, since it seems pretty thorough.
Other Books
DK Eyewitness: Shakespeare - This book is full of info about Shakespeare's times, as well as information related to different aspects of theater, with lots of pictures to make it interesting.
Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed The Way You Talk by Jane Sutcliffe - This is a fun picture book about some of the phrases that Shakespeare introduced or popularized in the English language.
Before I close this post, I just wanted to say that if the idea of covering Shakespeare with your kids seems overwhelming - then don't do it! It's totally okay NOT to study Shakespeare. It doesn't have to be taught in elementary school, or even at all if you and your kids are not interested. Shakespeare is very much an extra. I think it's helpful to be somewhat familiar with Shakespeare, but you are the homeschool teacher of your own family, and you get to decide when or if you will study Shakespeare with your kids! But if you do decide to dabble into some Shakespeare together, I wanted to encourage you that it can be really fun if you want it to be, and not as hard as you think!
If you have any other good resources to add, I'd love to hear! Leave a comment below.
For the next few years we are taking one continent to study in-depth in our homeschool, and this year the continent is Africa! I wanted to share a few of the resources that I am looking at including in our studies this year - there are so many good ones, and I'm sure I'll end up finding more than appear in this list!
Curriculum:
Taking Africa For Jesus by Generations - This is our core book for our Africa studies. We started the year strong on this book, and we are already six chapters in! We have learned about Ancient Egypt through this resource, as well as the beginnings of the spread of Christianity in Africa. What I love about these elementary history/geography courses from Generations is the focus on tying everything in with biblical history and church history. For example, we learned about some of the Pharaohs in the chapters on Ancient Egypt, but the focus was on the pharaohs who were in power during the time that different biblical figures were in Egypt, such as Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. It also give archeological evidence for why they believe different pharaohs to be the pharaohs associated with the biblical accounts. My kids were so interested in the biblical connections! I also think this would be a really great resource to introduce Ancient Egypt to younger kids, because it doesn't get too deep into their pagan religions and practices. We read this one all together, even with my first grader.
Ancient Egypt & Her Neighbors by Lorene Lambert - As far as African history goes, alot of the history that is easily available is going to be Egyptian, since we don't know very much about what went on in the rest of Africa for much of it's history. It also seems like Ancient Egypt is one of those topics that everyone has to learn at some point, so I figured this was the year to dip our toes in. The thing I like best about this book is that it is written in such an engaging way! So much information is given, but when I read it to the kids, none of us get bored. What I don't love (but what really can't be helped) is that it does give more detail about the pagan religions of the Egyptians, in the context of explaining some of their odd customs - there is not too many details, but enough that I make sure we spend some time talking about it and comparing what we're learning to the Bible (which, ultimately, is a good thing too). I usually let my little girls skip this one - I think it's better for upper elementary and middle school.
The Boy Of The Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones - This is a mystery story set in Ancient Egypt, and it gives an engaging picture of the way that the Egyptians might have lived on a daily basis. Not too much is included of a religious nature, which is also appreciated! Slavery was very common back then, so slavery is also a big part of the plot. Because of that, I'd save it for mid to upper elementary.
The Things They Made: Egypt - This is a great picture resource that I got from Simply Charlotte Mason, and it adds some beautiful visuals to go along with Ancient Egypt & Her Neighbors, printed on high-quality cardstock!
Coloring Books:
Dover Coloring Books: For my little girls, who can't take notes very well yet, I thought it would be nice for them to have something to color instead. I am ordering this coloring book of the African plains, but also think this one on Egyptian fashion looks fun!
Missionary Stories:
I feel very strongly about including missionary stories as we study history and geography - there are so many great ones, and I love to see how God works to bring His gospel to the different areas of the world through ordinary men and women.
Trailblazer Series - I haven't finalized which of these biographies we will read yet, but I am eyeing the one on Helen Rosaveare, Mary Slessor, Robert Moffat, or a different book about David Livingstone. I don't know a ton about any of these individuals, so I'll do a little research and then decide!
Twins' Adventures In Africa by Janice and Faye Rostvitt - This is a collection stories written by missionaries that my childhood church supported, and the Rostvitt twins visited us many times! I can't link it because I don't believe it is sold online, but it will be neat to be able to read their experiences to my kids, since I grew up hearing their stories when they came to speak at our little white church.
African Pearls: A Story Of Faith From Uganda by Pastor Aloys Ntamugabumwe and Jenifer Ntamugbumwe - Speaking of personal connections, I was sent a copy of this book by my dear friend, Heidi Brompton, who is the editor and illustrator! She has personal connections with the Pastor and his daughter whose story is told in this book. It's so neat for us to be able to read stories from friends of a friend! The kids and I started reading this in the last few weeks...first off, let me just say the illustrations are gorgeous. Each page is a work of art! For the pictures alone I would love this book, but Heidi and the Ntamugbumwes beautifully weave in African history with the experiences of missionary life and with testimonies of people in Uganda who have come to know Christ. I am biased, as a friend of Heidi's, but even if I wasn't, I think this would be one of my favorite resources as we study Africa this year.
A giveaway for African Pearls is coming to my blog very soon, so stay tuned! I'll also give you a closer look at the illustrations inside - they are gorgeous.
I'd love to hear any other homeschool resources on Africa that you've liked! I'd especially like to explore books related to other countries in Africa, since alot of our book are Egypt-focused so far. Comment below if you have suggestions for me.
Making A Plan
I already wrote about how I am using a notebook planning system this school year, and this is the method I am using on the road to keep our school on track. Before our trip, I mapped out all the days we will be driving, and then tried to set reasonable expectations for each day in to-do list form. The difference between this and my normal planning is that I am going to be the keeper of the notebook, since most of our car school subjects will be done all together. I made a list of resources I want to use on our trip, and for each car day I included "all together" lessons, and a few individual learning activities as well. Here are some of the things I'm bringing:
Masterbooks States Unit Study
Since we will be driving through so many states, I figured this would be a great time to learn some United States geography and state history! We are going to try this resource from Master Books, which came with a free student workbook when I purchased the PDF. I'm going to print off the work pages for all the states that we will be driving through, and we'll learn about each one as we go!
Audiobooks
I'm loading up my phone with audiobooks that I would like to listen to on the road, and I am hoping we will get through at least one or two audiobooks. I specifically downloaded some titles from the two companies below, which have some really solid and rich historical books on audio! Both narrators read the text in an engaging way, and I'm really looking forward to listening to these books with the kids.
Uncle Rick's Audiobooks - I remembered seeing this website at a homeschool conference, and was pleasantly surprised to see that you can sign up for a 30 day free trial and get two free audiobooks! There is a wide selection of historical books, character stories, and Bible resources for kids. I chose "With Wind And Tide" (sea adventures, since we'll be going near the ocean), and "America First Vol. One" (great stories from American history).
Jim Hodges Audiobooks - I remembered this audiobook company at the homeschool conference as well, and was pleased to see another opportunity for a free audiobook! The freebie I got was "Under Drake's Flag: A Tale Of The Spanish Main". Though this particular novel does not fit with our history studies for the year, I did a little research and found some other titles from Jim Hodges Audiobooks that I am excited to dive into with the kids!
All-Together Subjects
Though I could bring several of our all together subjects, the main one I will bring for our car schooling is our history curricula. Both our history texts (Our Star-Spangled Story and Taking Africa For Jesus) are easily done in the car, with just a couple workbook pages that I can easily bring along. I also have an excessive collection of read-alouds that I will be bringing, including various picture books that relate to our destinations, The Horse and His Boy, The Trolley Car Family, Pilgrim's Progress For Young Readers, and African Pearls: A Story Of Faith In Uganda (which was published by a friend of mine, and which I'll be writing more about later...there may be a giveaway coming!).
Language Arts and Math Workbooks (and Apps)
Math is the one subject that I am hesitant to leave behind for two weeks in the middle of the school year. I want my kids to keep practicing their math facts, and not to lose their momentum with math. Though our main math curriculum (Rightstart) is too bulky to take on our trip, I have found some math coloring workbooks, math drill workbooks, multiplication fact apps, and flashcards that we'll bring to review each day that we are on the road.
For language arts, we will be leaving the writing and reading curricula behind (too bulky), but the kids Masterbooks Language Lessons For A Living Education books have pages that are easy to tear out. I will bring enough work pages to last the duration of our trip, and it won't add alot of extra weight!
Handicrafts
I've decided that lanyards 100% count as handicrafts. You know, those plastic-cord weaved keychains that we made when we were kids? Was that just me? I rediscovered them recently, taught my kids how to make them, and they've been weaving up a storm. This is a great activity to keep hands busy while we read in the car. Here's a post with some lanyard tutorials.
Getting Organized
Once I decide what to bring with us, the next step is to keep it all organized without loading our car down with too much bulk. As I mentioned, I am able to print off worksheets for most of the subjects, or tear work pages out of our curricula. Certain textbooks I will bring, but some of my resources are also in digital format (such as PDF's and audiobooks), and won't take up any space. The main thing I need to do is keep track of the kids' individual workbook pages and remember what I want to do each day.
My daily plan will be kept in our scheduling notebook for the week. For the kids' individual work, I bought them each a plain folder with the tabs inside for holding loose papers. I am going to hole-punch all their loose papers, and make an individual, custom "workbook" for each of them to use on vacation! I'll use sticky notes to separate the work pages into sections that they have to complete each day. I think this will keep everything in one place, and I'll be able to look through their work without alot of mess or a huge homeschool book bag to tote around.
Planning For Field Trips
Since we'll be driving through some pretty interesting areas and exploring a state we don't get to visit often, I am excited to take my kids to all the local historical sites! The husband and I are mapping out a plan for the things we would like to see (or that we can reasonably see) on our trip. Once we have our completed list, I'll bookmark websites and interesting resources that relate to those places. We will be reading about some of the related historical events as we drive, and then I will use field trip journals for the kids to record what they saw and learned after each stop. I hope this will be a fun way for them to look back on our trip in the future!
One Last Note
One thing I am trying to remember is not to get so rigid in our driving and schooling schedule that we miss interesting stops along the way! Sometimes those impromptu stops are full of interesting tidbits. Once I stopped along the side of the road in my own state on a whim, and read a plaque on a monument honoring one of our governors who stood against the Japanese internment camps during World War 2. I had no idea! Our summer waterfall hike was another random, side-of-the-road destination that we spotted, and it ended up being so memorable! On our trip to New Mexico, we took an hour detour to see the Manhattan Project site in Las Alamos, and it was a great learning experience. Those opportunities to stretch our legs, learn something, and make a new memory are things I don't want to miss.
I am really excited to report back on how my system for car-schooling works out, and what things I will do differently if we ever take such a long road trip during the school year again! I'll update this post and share on Instagram how it went - if it goes terribly, you can look for a future post about how we'll do better next time!
History is one of my favorite homeschool subjects. It was not always so - as a homeschool student, I didn’t hate history, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it either. The curriculum we used when I was a student was thorough, but a little dry, and the real joy of history came to me more through experiences. We went on field trips to historic reenactments of pioneer times, we went to museums and historical sites on vacations, and I enjoyed reading historical fiction. My mom provided a wide range of history-related experiences for us, which made it all more real to me.
But I came to love history the most when my dad explained different historical events to me - the big picture of what happened, what these events and people meant, why they were important. There are cultural contexts and political atmospheres and real-life impacts of history that textbooks have a hard time conveying, and my dad gave all that to me when he told me the story of some historical event. He made me love history.
Because of those experiences of mine with dry history curriculum and real experiences and stories, I really wanted to take care not to suck the joy out of history for my kids. When I choose history curriculum, I try to make sure the text is written in an engaging way, and I re-tell certain aspects of history to my kids to help them understand the significance, as my dad did for me.
The three history curricula we’ve tried have been Beautiful Feet Books (Early American History primary set, K-1st grade), Master Books (America’s Story, 3-6th grade), and Notgrass History (Star-Spangled Story, 1-3rd grade), and Generations Providential History For Children collection (Taking Asia For Jesus, 3-5th grade). We also briefly used Story Of The World with our co-op, and I have opinions about it, but we didn’t use it long enough for me to write about it here.
Beautiful Feet Books
I initially was drawn to Beautiful Feet Books because it used living books to teach history, through picture books and chapter books. I got their Primary American History set about seven years ago, and we have very much enjoyed alot of the books that came with that set.
However, I am not confident in recommending them at this time, at least not for their Early American History set. The last time I looked at their website they had released a 2nd edition of the primary curriculum and changed many of the read-aloud books (there were some great ones that have been removed), de-emphasizing the founding fathers and emphasizing more minor historical figures, and including at least one controversial pick about Christopher Columbus.
My personal thoughts on teaching historical controversies (like Columbus) are this: my kids will be introduced to the Christopher Columbus controversy at some point, but I don’t think 1st grade is an appropriate time to do it. Kids at that age need heroes, and I think they need to be presented with the good and admirable aspects of history so they have some grounding before things are muddied up for them. If you don’t want to present Columbus as a hero to your kids, that’s fine, but no need to drag them into darker aspects of history at such a young age.
For that reason, I am more hesitant to recommend Beautiful Feet Books these days. I still look at their site for potential read-aloud ideas, but I do a little more research on the titles first.
Our Star-Spangled Story is the history curriculum I chose for my 2nd grader last year, as kind of a transition history curriculum from historical picture books to more of a textbook style. We unfortunately did not get very far into it because I tried to do too many history curricula at once last year, but we probably got one lesson done a week. What I enjoyed most about Notgrass was the way they included more obscure, but still interesting historical details, while still presenting the big picture and covering all the big historical names and events as well. The curriculum also comes with a great timeline book, and a book of songs from each period in American history, and my kids loved hearing the stories behind the songs! On top of that, each unit includes a fun and easy craft project, and my kids loved it when we did those! I am planning on using this more proactively this upcoming year with my 3rd grader and 1st grader, and I think we are going to really enjoy it!
Our main history curriculum starting in 3rd or 4th grade is the America’s Story series from Master Books. There are three levels covering America’s Story, and then the curriculum goes on to The World’s Story from there (we haven’t use World’s Story yet). I love this curriculum! The text is written in an engaging way (think “living book” style), and each chapter comes with a variety of worksheets with short answer questions, a drawing activity, vocabulary words, and map practice. Students are also encouraged to create a prayer book, praying for different aspects of the country that may relate to what they learned in history that week. There are also timeline pages included in the student’s book.
It’s alot of activities to choose from, so we often don’t get to them all. Usually my kids read the week’s chapter on Monday and/or Tuesday, and then do at least one worksheet each day the rest of the week, and ideally adding a note to their historical timeline (although we did fall behind on the timeline, I’ll be honest). I think alot of information is sticking for them because it’s presented in such an interesting way. My oldest will be starting on America’s Story 3 this year, and my 4th grader will be starting on America’s Story 2 (I started her on it a year early because she was so anxious to learn more). My 4th grader does get more out of it when I read the chapters aloud to her, and she enjoys history more when I am there to add my two cents. My 6th grader is old enough to do most of the work himself, and I just check over everything when he is done and talk about it with him.
Generations Providential History For Children
A really fun addition that we did as a family this year was Taking Asia For Jesus from Generations. This curriculum series is an overview of world history and geography, but it focuses specifically on Christian history and missions efforts in different areas of the world. We read so many inspiring missionary stories this year because of this curriculum! The end of each chapter also prompts us to pray for the country we just learned about, and it was so sweet to hear each of my kids praying for the people of different countries to come to know the Lord. There is a student workbook with additional geography and writing activities, but this year we just read the book aloud together and enjoyed the stories. I thought it was a great and gentle way to introduce a big-picture view of the what God is doing in the whole world through history. My oldest specifically said this was his favorite subject last year! We will try Taking Africa For Jesus this fall, and I bought the PDF of the student workbook this time so my older kids can get a little more geography practice.
My main goals for history (at these ages, it will shift as they grow) is that my kids will get a big-picture view of different historical periods, have a general knowledge of important names and events in American history and Christian history, have some experiences that will bring those things to life for them, be able to recognize how God is working through the flow of history. And finally, overall to just enjoy history! I hope we are well on our way to that.
(What does a sunflower picture have to do with math? I don't know, symmetry or something. I didn't have time to take a better picture.)
This year it became clear that we need to do something different for homeschool math.
Overall, I have been really satisfied with our math curriculum, Rightstart Math, up to this point. When my oldest was in kindergarten, a friend told me she was using Rightstart Math with her kindergartener because it included lots of games to help the kids retain the information. I knew that would be something we would enjoy, and when I did a little research on Rightstart I was very impressed. I could see that it would be a really thorough program, present the information in a variety of ways and help the student apply it through alot of manipulative use.
I also liked that it was a spiral program as opposed to mastery - meaning that instead of being stuck on the same type of math concept for weeks on end, it presents a math topic for a week or two, then moves on and circles back through the concepts, from different angles, throughout the year. I knew that would keep things a little more interesting for my kids and we wouldn’t get so bogged down in one concept, trying to “master” it before we could move on. The program would keep things moving, and I could rest assured we would come back to difficult concepts for more practice and review throughout the year.
In addition to all that, when I looked at how Rightstart emphasized teaching the student how to do math in their heads, it matched up with how I myself think about numbers. It was a perfect fit!
We have really enjoyed using Rightstart ever since 1st grade, and my kids haven’t struggled with grasping the math concepts. My kids have done really well with it, and can all do some pretty large math problems in their heads, which I think is a skill that will serve them well in life.
However, something shifted this past year, and we got to the point where it was taking one of my kids an excessively long time to finish math lessons. My child understood how to do the problems, and mostly got them right every time. However, Rightstart itself becomes much more intense as you get to higher levels. The worksheets become more complicated and require alot more abstract thinking. Though time expectations for math lessons obviously increase the older kids get, we really started to get bogged down in the complicated worksheets, and it was beginning to lead to alot of frustration on both my part and my child's.
When I started hearing "I hate math" on a daily basis, and it started to become something we both dreaded, I knew something probably needed to change. My main goal with my kids and math has always been to not push them ahead too fast - I never wanted them to get to the point where they either got frustrated and felt like they weren’t “good” at math, or ended up hating it. There is a certain level of struggle and frustration that comes with math anyway, and I don’t want to add into that unnecessarily.
Righstart is a pretty rigorous math program, and unfortunately I think we have fallen into that category of pushing too hard on math right now. So for this upcoming year, not all my kids will be doing Rightstart. I read once that around 4th-6th grade, alot of math programs end up merely repeating the same concepts in different ways, waiting until the kids’ brains catch up and grow enough to understand the more abstract concepts of algebra. So if there is a time to try something different for math, I think right now is it, before we start getting into higher math in the middle school years.
We decided to start with Teaching Textbooks for math this year, after doing their free trial for the last couple of weeks of school this past spring. It is a computer-based math program that has a tutorial for new concepts, practice problems, and periodic speed drills and review. My main thought on this is that even though it’s an “easier” program in some ways, a less intense program is actually what we need for math right now. I like how Teaching Textbooks doesn’t take all afternoon to complete. As my kids get older, other subjects are going to start to become more involved, and we don’t need to be getting so bogged down in math at this stage.
I also really like that Teaching Textbooks has built in speed drills and multiple practice problems, presented in an engaging and more lighthearted way. We are looking forward to getting through math a little quicker this year, and I think that will give us more time to grow in other areas. We may very well go back to Rightstart in the future, but for now, a less involved program is what we need! I think it will be great for us during this season.
Some of my children will continue with Rightstart Math, because I do think it provides such a great foundation of teaching kids mental math, which is something I think will serve them all well. But part of homeschooling is to know when to push ahead and when to ease up, and this is an easing up year for us. I’m looking forward to a hopefully more joy-filled homeschool year, in math and in general!
What do you use for math? Do you (and your kids) like it?
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