I
thought I'd share some of my favorite resources and materials I use for
our cottage school/home school. (I teach my own three boys and a
handful of others at the church everyday.) My own children have
learning issues. My twins have autism and are developmentally delayed
by about three years. So I am very much into modifying and adapating
things for them and for my other special needs students. I have
students who have ADHD, MR and other emotional problems that keep them
out of a typical classroom.
We study in a one-room-school
environment, are classical/Charlotte Mason/Trivium in our approach and
philosophy and it is very easy to teach multiple grade levels using all
the following materials. I have students from Preschool through 10th
grade. Here is what we do and use!
1. Nature notebooking. We do a lot of nature walking and studying
what we find and draw, etc. Every student has a blank sketch pad at
the beginning of the year and we fill it up! I glue a big envelope to
the back inside cover for them to put their finds in and study them
when we get back (things such as leaves, twigs, nuts, etc.) They also
have bug boxes that I got at the dollar store. These have little
magnifying windows in them to look through.
2. Grapevine Bible Studies. (http:// Grapevinestudies.com)
3. Math U See (http://mathusee.com)
4. Art of Eloquence (http://artofeloquence.com)
5. I have used so many different things I love for for English and language. Spelling Power,
Daily Grams,
and Writing Strands,
6. Fallacy Detective (for logic). (http://triviumpursuit.com)
8. Hey Andrew! Teach me Some Greek! (http://greeknstuff.com)
and Latin
11. Empty notebooks for journaling daily. Sometimes I give a topic and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I give an opening sentence.
12. Empty notebooks for copying quotes from great writers and thinkers and for dictation.
13. I use the SAT vocab list that you can get on to practice vocab.
14. Thomas Kinkaid's art currciulum from Alpha Omega publications.
15. Suzuki violin method.
16. Mystery of History; Timelines; History of the Ages; Notebooking pages (I just ordered an ebook full of great templates), History Scribe (love this program -- my kids wrote their own history text books last year), and I use Story of the World by Susan Bauer as an extra resource.
17. Christian Kids Explore Biology from Bright Ideas Press. This is a really fun program. My kids loved it.
(I pretty much design my own science and history program from "real" books. For 10th grade this year I think we might look into Switched On School House. I haven't decided yet!)
18. Doorposts -- all their stuff is wonderful.
19. I like everything and anything from Bright Minds.
20. Hold that Thought products -- we are going to use their ancient history cut outs this year and their world timeline book is so reasonably price for this year's timeline.
21. I read out loud a LOT. I read out loud several hours a day-- usually out of two different books. We usually read the classics. I haven't chosen my classics for this year. What do you recommend for a read aloud for ancient history? (Historical fiction.) The Henty books are awesome, and since I have mostly boys in my cottage school, they work out wonderfully. I also like Nancy Rue's books but they are out of print now.
We love the Thornton W. Burgess books for nature and Gene Stratton Porter's books are also my favorites for nature studies here in Indiana since this is where she lived. I actually live not very far from where she grew up. We go to the state forest a lot and the kids love imagining they are in the Limberlost.
I want to be able to afford to give my kids cameras they can use that take good pictures. I think that's such a great way to notice details around you.
These are just a few of my favorites. I have so many!
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