Homeschooling has crossed the precipice from chaos into a pretty predictable schedule. Well, order for me. As an incredibly abstract-random learner and processor, I need lists and order. I don't like them, I need them. My personality is too easily distracted by new curriculums. So-and-so introduces something at the homeschool share and I have to
try it. If I don't, we are missing out. They will not develop appropriately! Yes, this phase passed quickly with a little thing called burn out. These are the things we went with:
Spelling:
All About Spelling alternating with
Rod and Staff Spelling. For my special needs, dyslexic child. I was convinced this child just would have to rely on autocorrect for the entirety of his life. Still, dyslexia does keep a constant obstacle (while finally reading with somewhat ease, he will come up with random backwards spellings. This program does wonders.
This method breaks down everything into phonograms, vowel/consonant teams, and diphthongs. The letter tiles are great. I cannot recommend this enough. Last year was the first year I had a decent homeschool budget. I think I spent about 75 for this program. Worth every penny. I even use it for my non-dylexic child.
For Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, it is so much more gentle than Rod and Staff spelling and includes your dictation for the day. However, because AAS has no word lists and I have one child playing catch up, we alternate on days when I need to dedicate time to teaching another child. AAS is parent/teacher led. No workbooks.
Math;
Math-U-See
We have stuck with this since almost the beginning. The blocks helped my dyslexic child finally understand place value. We use the blocks for Multiplication all the time. Still using them. I love Math U See because it explains the
why of Math. I never understood borrowing fully. (It was that bad.) Now I do! I love you, Steve Demme! Having said that, we will stopping at Geometry and switching to business math for practical reasons, unless one of my kids show a strong interest in that direction.
Reading: Sonlight and
Rod And Staff
While Sonlight would have been enough, Rod and Staff does reading through the Bible, so I couldn't pitch it altogether. My sons officially know the Old Testament better than I do. In a year or so, one of their readers will be an Abeka book. That will be the only time we ever utilize Abeka. I was drawn to this reader because its lessons are all through the
The Pilgrim's Progress.
Some of my highlights of literature: Any book by Richard Maybury
Recommended by Sonlight. If you get nothing else, make your kids read, "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?"
Little House on the Prairie Series (as it turns out, I never read these as a child??), Indian in the Cupboard Series, (So far, we are on the fourth book. The first three did not disappoint!)
Grammar: So, this category has definitely changed the most. I tried, I mean really tried to love Rod and Staff Grammar. It is so thorough, so organized, so wonderful. So why couldn't we pull it off? Oh, those traditional Mennonites. They know I want to be one of them. Alas, we are not. There was just that groan when I would pull the book out. There was no love of grammar, and I knew there never would be. I just wanted the boys to grasp cohesive sentences. This will be a real struggle with my PDD learner. We switched to Easy Grammar. So far it's been going well.
S3: Also alternating between
Rod and Staff (
Preparing to Build), and The Well Trained Mind's
First language lessons.
Science: My curiosity was piqued after reading
this review.
I was going to go with
Apologia's Human Anatomy, but since it has extra goodies, like copy work, scripture verses, and a lot of extra writing, I decided to save that for another year when we aren't attempting so much writing.
I am already looking forward to doing human anatomy after watching
this extensive review.
Edited to add: This year, we ended up shelving Apologia for another year and instead did a more unit study approach. Sources used were a- bit-of- this and a- bit- of- that. *
Simple Science Experiments with Everyday Materials, *
Science and the Bible (a personal favorite- Thank you, Church Library!, *
It Couldn't Just Happen (various reads), *
The Usborne book of Science, *
The Everything kid's Science Experiments Book.
Bible/Apologetics: Easy Peasy, And Josh McDowell's, "
Is Christ Really God?"
In homeschooling, a lot of these subjects overlap. Rod and Staff reading is still used once a week, and since that is entirely taken out of the Old Testament, I always know they are getting good Bible in. We start the morning now with
Easy Peasy. I tend to either over think Bible. I tried many various devotionals. Turns out, I rarely like devotionals. Easy Peasy is simply a chapter out of either the New Testament or the Old Testament (Proverbs) at a time with review questions at the end. So simple, yet I actually now look forward to it, knowing the boys will give it their attention.
D1 curriculum: We alternate these. Keep in mind, I'm lucky to get one of these in besides her reading lesson and practicing her writing.
Teaching Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Explode The Code (Phonics)
Rod and Staff: Bible Lessons to Read with Bible Pictures to Color
Rod and Staff: We Learn About God
Starfall
Curriculums that I didn't like:
Apologia- Botany
and, I hate to say it, because I tried: any textbook put out by the public schools. It is a hard thing to stick with Botany for a year. It was so dry for us.
All of these books except for
All About Spelling, and
Rod And Staff, I bought used on amazon. As many know, Rod and Staff is so affordable, it's just an added bonus that it's a wonderful curriculum!
Handwriting? Well, let's just say I was trying Pentime. It doesn't work for M for cursive. We are trying to just do the work mat. Cursive is a real struggle for my eldest.
D1, being a typical youngin', doesn't need much. Whatever we don't do in just reading and art, she is doing through
Easy Peasy, and I can't say enough about it, nor the creator Lee Giles. There is no other woman I have met that puts homeschooling in the right frame of mind for me. I wish I had known about her during the days when I felt alone in having zero dollars to put toward a homeschool budget. If you are having even a second of comparing your homeschool situation to others, or if you get depressed when people mention the classes their children are taking, the expensive curriculum they are doing, listen to her
interview.
While some curriculum choices come with picking and choosing, selecting, pitching-
Rod and Staff, and
Answers in Genesis - Not just absolutely wonderful content, they are EXCELLENT companies. I bought AIG on amazon used, and much to my dismay, found an essential teacher DVD was missing. I called them and they sent it for free- even thought I bought it used and not from their site!
Other than that, my goal this year is to take the pressure off the kids. Let them enjoy learning a little more. That is why we shelved Rod and Staff grammar, and with Rod and Staff reading, stopped doing the worksheets. More learning songs, and break up to activities.
