August 18, 2007

Back To School Time

I hardly ever talk about homeschooling, as it’s just a part of everyday life, like laundry, and cooking, and naptime. But the season is upon us and it’s time to figure out some goals and a schedule so we can get back to the books. This year I’m adding the fourth and final child to the mix so I will have a 6th, 5th, 1st and Pre-K kid.

I can feel the sweat popping out on my forehead already.

So obviously I’m gonna need a plan to keep my self sane as well as, you know, TEACH them something and make sure the dust bunnies don’t take over the house.

This year will be our first time attending a Co-Op. It will be just one morning a week and I have to stay there the whole time so don’t be thinking I’ll be getting any great alone time or anything.

I wish!

Then we’ll hit the books at home the other 3 or 4 days of the week. So here is where I list the stuff we use and I know I have some readers that don’t homeschool so just ignore this other part. But for all you curriculum geeks out there…..here goes.

Singapore Math – I love this program because there is absolutely NO prep for me. It explains things in such a natural way and doesn’t kill the kids with a gazillion problems per page.

Evan-Moore Phonics Fundamentals – I’ve used this with all the kids and again, NO PREP! It focuses on a letter each week and uses poems, puppets, cut and paste and word games to teach the phonetics for each letter. It even slips in reading and spelling. Gotta love the multi-task thing.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature – No Prep…are you seeing a theme here? I really like this program. It’s so hard to find a good, complete LA program but this one has it all; writing, spelling, grammar, reading comprehension, and I’m sure a bunch of other technical words could fit in there.

Beautiful Feet Geography – This one takes just a little bit of prep but it uses Holling C. Holling books to teach geography, some history, cartography, science and vocabulary. His books are incredible and it’s a really fun way to learn. You follow one of his characters as he travels through the USA, or in one book the World, and then follow his progress along a blank map, filling in the places he visits.

Then we do lots of reading and discussion of Biographies, The Bible, and lot’s of non-fiction science related stuff. The kids read fiction stuff on their own time or if we are tempted by a good series we’ll read it together. Throw in a few science experiments, a couple of field trips and plenty of time in sports, with friends, and pondering the meaning of the universe and I think the kids are pretty well rounded.

So if you don’t homeschool and you stuck with it this long, insert applause here!

If you do homeschool, now you know what we use and it’s probably pretty familiar stuff.

10 comments:

Halfmoon Girl said...

i am doing the same thing right now- figuring out a schedule and how to make it all work. I am going to try to figure out a way to do things differently this year. I will blog about that soon...

Anonymous said...

You sound like me! I have 5th grader, 3rd grader, 2nd grader and a Kindergartener. The other 2 are too young for schooling just yet. This year I had to get a little serious about a schedule too. Last year homeschooling took over our lives completely and this year I am striving for a healthy balance. We attend a co-op once a week in the mornings as well. The kids love it and the parents also stay and participate.
I enjoyed reading your post!

Cindy-Still His Girl said...

I usually am quite bored by curriculum posts, but for some reason, I loved getting a peek into your world. I spose that is because I just love you so and what matters to you matters to me! Sounds like we might be a bit similar in our methods even though we use different stuff!

Leanne said...

What co op are you going to, I need to know...We've been thinking about a co op at New Life......

We are also looking into Beautiful Feet this year. I guess people out there who use it really love it....

Thanks for the informative post!

Leanne

Anonymous said...

I always wonder how I am going to add anything else to the schedule when it's time to start school. I am adding our 3 yr old, since she always wants "her" work to do. Your little guy is so funny. Anyways if you're ever in NW Indiana, my Cameron and Gabe can do their hair together or for each other. lol
I usually cant' comment on yours, so I am a little long winded. I am not sure why, my computer isn't a blogspot fan???

Rochelle said...

Reading through your blog makes me miss homeschooling SO much. We put Keilani in the church school, which uses ALpha and Omega, in January. This will be the first beginning of the year that I didn't get things ready for homeschooling and it is hard. She is a very shy only child and we were just "trying it." She has done well, and I volunteer at the school a lot. But it is still hard!

Kathy in WA said...

Gayle - you'll have to post your schedule once you figure out how you are going to run your homeschooling days.

We LOVE our co-op. It's definitely a commitment and keeps us busy. I usually get carried away with ideas for teaching and end up busier than the kids (well, practically). This year I convinced (begged and pleaded) dh to come and teach a programming class. I'm so excited!

Thanks for sharing your curriculum.

Duckabush Blog

Mary@notbefore7 said...

Thank you! This is my first year and I have a PreK'er. We aren't doing much, but she is almost 5 and ready for some math and phonics. I'll have to look into some of this. It is amazing how much is out there!

Anonymous said...

Our kids LOVED Beautiful Feet Books! We all loved learning through reading real books. The geography taught ME so much!

Enjoy!

Becky said...

There are a couple of books that do an all-inclusive curriculum for Pre-K through maybe second grade (I don't remember which--I gave my books away). Mary Ward is the author and she relies heavily on using your public library for teaching resources. Another resource to look at is the Little, Brown Paper Bag School House series. There will be something there to meet a need for every child. Check them out of your library before you invest in them. Some of the titles are: The Book of Think, I am not a short adult, Gee Wiz (mixing art and science), I hate Mathematics, Math for smarty pants, It's about time, Beastly Neighbors, there is even one about personal history and genealogy. I used these a lot for supplementing my children's public education (gasp!--but I wasn't the one in charge of making those decisions, sigh)

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