Little Men in My Library

I was just working out how long we have been homeschooling and I had to double and triple check my figures. Believe it or not it’s been 6 years…well official school years. We dabbled for several years prior to that but my toddlers just wouldn’t stay at their desks. Hehehehe.

So like “Educating April” I though t I would look at the curriculum that has and hasn’t worked for us over the years.

Mathematics:

- We have always used Singapore Math and have no plans to change it.  We’re Math folk and love its focus on mental strategies and word problems.   Over the years I’ve looked at the various other popular programs and for me Singapore Math still wins hands down.

- I love Singapore Maths’ Challenging Word Problem books.   (They were out of print for a while there but it looks like they have a new version which is similar to the last…phew!).  I also bought the Singapore Math 70 Must Know Word Problems but I still prefer the Challenging Word Problems book.  Oh if I haven’t said this before somewhere on this blog – word problems are very important.  They are Math!

- We also use the “Intensive Practise” and “Extra Practise” books.  They are great if we just need to review or reinforce a concept.

- Every so often we used Excel workbooks and ordinary school textbooks, like Signpost Math, Go Math and Targeting Math but there is no guts (no challenge) to these books so we only use them for a Math holiday…when we feel like a change of scenery but don’t want to pay a lot for that change.

-  To learn our number facts and multiplication facts we’ve tried all sorts of fancy things – Times Alive, Wrap Up tools, Timez Attack and the Flashmaster.  These were all great tools for ‘practising’ our facts but I have discovered that the number one to ‘learn’ facts is to memorise them daily.

- I also use Math Resource Studio to create a little book (that we call our Dailies because we aim to use it daily) to practise solving algorithms.  This has worked really well for us.  Daily practise seems to be the key for my boys.

- I suppose we haven’t really used any Math stuff that we’ve totally ditched but there are things that we’ve used differently.  Oh I lie.  We no longer use “Mathletics” – way too easy and we rarely ever used it so it was just a waste of money for us, even with the HEA discount.

Language:

- IEW‘s writing program has been one of our very best curriculum choices.  I can’t imagine teaching writing without it.  My hubby, a school teacher, also now uses this program with his class at school.  I’ve also got my eye on “Teaching the Classics” for teaching literature analysis.

- Prior to IEW’s products we used Charlotte Mason’s narration, copywork and dictation techniques.  Narration was a very powerful tool for listening comprehension and recall of information, which we still use.  Copywork and dictation hasn’t worked as well.  While I can see that copywork is useful in teaching handwriting, in our homeschool I saw no evidence of copywork or dictation producing good quality writing.  We even tried Writing With Ease hoping that more structure might help.  It didn’t.

- For grammar we’ve always used Rod and Staff’s Grammar program.  We complete most of the exercises orally where we can.  I’ve never considered any other program and I’m very happy with the rigor of this program.

- Oh we did try another program.  Gosh my memory is fading in old age…or maybe ‘repression of the awful’ is responsible  .  We started out with First Language Lessons.  It was so incredibly simple and slow moving.  The boys and I both hated it.

- For spelling we have dabbled in a number of things.  From the beginning I had planned to use Spelling Power.  I did a research paper in University about teaching spelling so I knew what I wanted in a program and Spelling Power ‘seemed’ to have the right features.  But we didn’t like it and I can’t put my finger on why.  The spelling wasn’t sticking either.  The learning was there one week gone the next.   So I jumped in and bought the popular “All About Spelling“.  We persisted for 6 months.  But I didn’t like that either.  I’m not a fan of gimmicky stuff and after having  looked through the first three books I also felt it was too simplistic and wouldn’t be going anywhere fast.  So we abandoned another ship.  I’m picky, aren’t I?!  Yes, I often find myself going against the crowd too.

- After  researching spelling programs over the summer holidays I opted not to use one.  I watched Andrew Pudewa’s “Spelling and the Brain” and realised that I didn’t need a fancy-wancy approach to spelling at all.  For ages children learned their spelling (far harder words than modern day kids are expected to spell), by studying and drilling them.  Why did I need another approach (that consisted of expensive, confusing, time consuming materials) when we already had a perfectly good approach to spelling.  And guess what?!!  It’s the first approach that has really worked.  We’ve used it for six months now and Ethan can spell any word from the word families he’s already drilled and learned.  Finally!  I’ve been making up the word lists myself but I’ve just found Sequential Spelling and have decided to try out their word lists as their approach is fairly similar to the one I’m already using.

- At the same time we’re dabbling with learning the syllabary from Webster’s Blue Backed Speller.  It’s a bit of an experiment for us.  I’m really starting to value the teaching approaches of the past that schools have abandoned for supposedly ‘better’ things.  I’m curious to see the effects of using this approach.  So far it’s had a dramatic impact in Brayden’s sounding out of words, something which I was never really able to bring about in Ethan’s reading.  It’s also enabled Brayden to spell simpler words, far earlier than Ethan ever did, as he has be to able to read, spell and write each element of the syllabary before moving onto the next lesson.  It’s really interesting.  I can’t wait to see where it will take us.  And the bonus of it is that it’s now in line with the spelling approach that’s we’re using whereas the other new fan-dangled programs were not.

- If I had to teach another child to read I would abandon “Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading” and use the syllabary instead.  Not that we really used “Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading” much anyway.  It was more of a crutch for me to lean on when I was feeling unsure of what I was doing…which was often.  Hehehe.   The boys never liked it.  It was too cluttered for new readers.  More often than not we’d just play games with sounds and word families and then we’d practise these skills by reading phonically controlled readers each and every day.

-   We’ve used a lot of phonetically controlled readers for reading practise.  You can read about all the various sets we own here.  But after six years of using them we have come to love one set far more than all the rest – Jelly and Bean readers.  The stories and characters are lovable, which the boys like, and the phonetics and introduction of sight words are controlled, which I like.  (Oh I see they have some new books in the series.  Oh no.  Temptation knocking at my door!!!  Ahhh.)

-  To learn about letters and sounds we used “Letterland” and I don’t think I’d change that at all.  My boys had Letterland products from when they were quite small so by the time they were ready to learn to read they were quite familiar with letter sounds.   The dvds were particularly popular with my boys.  They also like “LeapFrog” dvds.

-  Explode the Code and Primary Phonics are the two phonics programs that we’ve utilised all along and loved.  Explode the Code was our main phonics program with Primary Phonics was our supplement for those times when the boys weren’t ready to move on.

- Handwriting…hmmm…should I even mention this.  We have not found something that works well for us.  But I suspect it’s my lax approach in the early years that  is the hurdle rather than the approaches we have tried.  Mostly we fall back on copywork and ordinary school handwriting texts.  My current solution has been to hint at “illegible son” that he will just have to start considering ‘doctor’ as his career focus.  Oh and definitely typing lessons in the future!

Latin:

- We’re currently using Song School Latin.   We make this program work for us.  We’re not musical people so the songs are not the appeal.  I chose Song School Latin as it was aimed at the younger crowd and there was an auditory element that we would definitely need.   The workbooks are fine but to save money I have created my own pages based on their ideas.  Just simple stuff like Latin and English cards to glue into their notebook and simple matching activities.   I think it’s ‘how’ we use the curriculum that works for us rather than the curriculum itself.  I’m pedantic about memorising the vocabulary before adding new vocab and moving on.  It has meant that we’ve taken a lot longer to move through the book but boy do my boys know their stuff!

- We’ve also used and will use Visual Latin.  The video component of Latin is a must have for us, especially as we progress.  I learn alongside the boys.

- I’ve also purchased Latin For Children.  I purchased it before I knew about Visual Latin.  I don’t know if it’s be a thumbs up or thumbs down product for us.  I’m not sure which program will be our core program when we’re ready to move on.  Stay tuned…

Science:

- I have all of Jeannie Fulbright’s “Exploring Creation” books.  We’ve completed the Astronomy book and loved it.  We started the Flying Creatures book and were bored to tears.  But I don’t think this is the fault of the books but a poorly picked topic for my audience at the time.   We’ll be started another book next term, and if I get the topic right, I know we’ll love the book.  There are now notebooking journals and junior notebooking journals to go with these but I prefer the Learn ‘N Folders from Live and Learn Press.

- For topics where there isn’t YET a Science title in the “Exploring Creation” range, I usually use books by Janice VanCleave with a good selection of books to read aloud on the topic.

-  We did use a Real Science 4 Kids for a Chemistry unit we did but we probably wouldn’t use them again.  They were fine but the activities were dull.  I was drawn to their books by their simple explanations of concepts but overall we preferred using store bought Chemistry kits to this text.

- Another Science resource we love is the Inquisikids Discover and Do dvds.  My boys watch and are inspired by these dvds all the time.

History:

-  We started our History adventures with “Story of the World”.  We used it for two and a half year but with experience I have learned that there is a better way to study History.  When History was new to us, “Story of the World” was a good resource to hold our hand and keep us moving forward.  We never really liked the activity books though.  They were too craft focused for our likings.  Looking through this post it seems I haven’t really loved any of the stuff that Susan Wise Bauer has produced.

-  I’m considering trying Mystery of History in the future but I don’t quite know how that will fit with our passion for living books.  Maybe it won’t.  Not sure.  But I do prefer its Christian focus.

Geography:

-  I’ve purchased  “A Child’s Geography” but I still haven’t used it.  It looks so good but I am a little disappointed that there aren’t more books in the series but that’s not why I haven’t used them yet.  I just find that Geography happens naturally in our day.

-  We use memorisation to learn about mapping.  No particular curriculum required.  Just print a map off the net and start memorising it daily.  Easy.

- To learn about cultures we read.  The country we choose to study is usually inspired by something we’ve read or a person we’ve met.  We find picture books, novels, songs and videos and we immerse ourselves into the culture making notebook pages as we go along.  We don’t need a curriculum for this.

Music:

-We have Children’s Music Journey but I have to be honest…we hardly use it.  Not because it’s not good but because we’re just not all that interested in creating Music.  It’s not our thing at all but as it’s a state requirement we do this…occasionally.  The boys do like it once it’s set up but they don’t love it enough to ask for it to be set up if I don’t think of it first.

- We do prefer listening to Music.  See, we’re not a totally lost cause.  We love the Classical Kids cds , the Opal Wheeler books and the Mike Venezia books.

-  We also love attending the educational orchestral performances at QPAC.

Art:

-  We have used Artistic Pursuits here and there.  I chose it because it had everything I needed in one product – information about  artists’ lives and their artworks as well as tuition on art mediums, techniques and concepts.    Everything you need is right there for you.  But just like Spelling Power it didn’t do it for us.  There was no spark, no ‘wow’, no ‘when can we do another lesson’.  It did however teach us to invest in good quality art materials and turn up our noses at “children’s” art materials.   Maybe we’ll come back to this curriculum at another time and gain more from it next time.

- We enjoy learning about artists from living books rather than snippets in Artistic Pursuits.  I just randomly select an artist and then find books about them.  Mike Venezia has lots of artist books and we often use these.  There are often great picture books about artists too like the Laurence Anholt books.  A quick search on Amazon will usually reveal a stash of titles to choose from, particularly for the most popular artists.   We also love books like James Mayhew’s Katie books and the Gallery Mice books.

- For art projects we prefer to find inspiration on Art blogs.  There are so many great ideas to select from.  You can find a list of my favourites here and the best part is that they are free.  No curriculum required.  Of course, having a fully stock art supply is helpful.

-  We also utilise cheap ‘how to draw’ books for learning to draw.  You can read why here.  This year we also purchased a 3 year subscription to Mark Kistler’s Online Art Lessons.  We’re really enjoying these and they do leave us wanting more.  We never complete just one lesson.

- We also have Mona Brookes’ Drawing With Children book and while the book is full of wonderful information, for a ‘non-arty’ person like myself I needed more hand-holding than the book had available.

Technology:

-  We have two dvds that Ethan loves to use “Web Design for Kids…and Curious Grown Ups” and “Excel @ HTML”.  We’re hanging out for the second “Web Design for kids” dvd…if it ever happens.

-  Recently I bought the Microsoft Small Basic for Homeschool 3 pack set for Ethan.  For the first few days I couldn’t get him off the computer!  I suspect we’ll steadily make our way through these books as programming is Ethan’s passion.  I’m lucky enough to be able to just hand him the book and say, “There you are”, his eyes light up and my role as the ‘teaching’ is complete.  Computers are his ‘thing’.  His brother…well when we teach him how to turn on the computer…hehehe…okay well it’s not quite that extreme but it’s close.

-  And of course, as all Queensland homeschoolers learn when they register with the HEU, Technology isn’t just computers, it’s also design.  There’s no need for a curriculum for this though.  There are so many great ideas on the net.  One of my favourites is:  Instant Challenge Gold Mine.

-  Oh and “Take on Technology” has also been a great little program for design ideas.

 

So there you have it – our curriculum choices – both good and bad over the years.

If you made it to the end of this post, I’m impressed.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2011 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Resources and Organising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.