Homeschooling has been a mixed bag for me. It was something I never had a desire to do. Even today at the grocery store, the cashier quizzed me on when my kids start school and I kinda cringe when I say we homeschool. I cringe because then she goes on to say how she's not structured and she's better with summertime. As my neighbor here in the mobile park said to me this summer " If I home schooled my kids, they'd be dumb." So I cringe, because I feel like people are putting me and my kids into a box, but I'm not shy about it. The weirdest change, is that I am excited about it. I searched out and sorted through curriculums. I've looked online and went into stores. I had all of my books put on hold and then purchased them on a day when I knew everything was 20% off. When I checked out, the gal at the counter asked me " Where do you even start? How do you start off homeschooling? " I wanted to look behind me to see who she was talking to! It's frickin crazy to me , that I'm going on three years of independent schooling . Other people are asking me about it too, what I am using and how I do it. I am really excited about this year. It's the first year I am really taking things into my own hands and it's a little scary but really exciting.
The first year, we went through a charter school for both boys that was completely online. It was great because I felt so insecure in my teaching ability and I didn't want any responsibility for my kids education....but that's not really how it works. Even when you have a teacher in an online format, the parent is still there everyday making sure every task is accomplished and scanned in. There were areas that I found lacking and some tedious projects enhanced. When it came to 6th grade and there were multiple teachers to email and scan to, it got to be too much and we looked for something else. Our second year homeschooling, I paid for a private online school for my 6th grader and I found a great homeschooling resource in Colorado called CHEC. I purchased all of my 2nd graders curriculum through them. I felt that my second grader wasn't being challenged with the online format and his handwriting was a joke, since he was on the computer all day. So last year I got to experiment with a few books and see what worked for us. You will find what we used under "My Homeschooling Research" on this blog. At the end of last year I felt like I knew what books worked for us and what didn't. I got the hang of how classrooms are run online and through traditional books. This year we are only homeschooling through traditional books. I have always been the one that wanted someone to tell me exactly what to teach in each grade, but this year I made all of my own decisions and I'm so eager to see what's in store for us. I purchased most of these books from Mardel Christian Book Store or through Veritas Press. I will tell you how or why I came up with each item in hopes that it will help you someday...or so I can remind myself in 3 months when I am saying "what the heck was I thinking?" This is what I have come up with :
3rd Grade
Saxon Math 3- I have always heard homeschoolers speak highly of Saxon Math. I was really happy with our Math book last year but apparently they don't make one beyond 2nd grade. Saxon is notorious for repeating concepts. This bothered me when I picked up the enormous book and realized that we have already gone over half of this stuff. When I looked at the next year it was a bit too advanced. So I see that each year seems to be a lot of review but this is the thing that I have come to realize. That is what school is. Each year we review the same things and build upon them. Sometimes, we review the same thing with even more detail. This is how we learn.
Science- LifePac by Alpha and Omega Last year my youngest wasn't given a lot of material to work with in his Science books and my oldest struggled with his Science online. I randomly picked up this curriculum and it turned out to be identical to what his very expensive online school taught. LifePac's come in unit studies. It comes in a box with 10 small books, that are each unit studies. Each small book has lesson reviews, experiments and Tests included. I loved this arrangement for Science, not all of their subjects. So everyone is doing LifePac's for Science.
History Heritage Studies 3- This book is by Bob Jones or BJU as the homeschoolers call it. I found this one the old fashioned way by comparing every history book in the aisle. I loved the pictures, which I think history books should have plenty of. It came with a workbook which I like for reinforcement. Also, it had a test packet. Very handy.
English 3 Writing and Grammar by BJU We used the second grade version of this book last year and I was really happy with it. This year I went a step further and bought the test packet to go with it for both boys. I didn't know they had a test packet last year. Live and learn and moving on.
Spelling Grade 3 by Purposeful Design- I'm a softy for colorful textbooks that we can write in. I chose this one by comparing it to other options and it looked like something I knew my kiddo would like or at least not fight me too much on.
Explode the Code 3 1/2 - This is a phonics book. Nothing was wrong with our last years book but the boy disliked it greatly. This one seems the same but looks different. I'm hoping to trick him into liking phonics. I did like that they had 1/2 years. Year 3 looked like ground we already covered so I opted for year 3 1/2.
Handwriting without Tears- WE....yes we worked really hard last year on handwriting. We went through multiple books and free worksheets. I was referred to Handwriting without tears from a kindergarten teacher and I'm really excited to try it out.
7th Grade:
Elementary Algebra by Harold Jacobs- I found this book in a magazine called Veritas Press. Parents raved about how simple the concepts of Algebra were presented in this book. Then I found out it was out of print and that kinda thing really sets off my inner geek. I must posses those treasured textbooks that are irreplaceable. Of course Veritas Press is apparently buying all of the copies they can get there hands on, so I ordered through them. I will let you know if it's all it's cracked up to be. I even went on half.com and read some pretty amazing reviews about it there too. I ordered the enormous textbook, the test packet and the answers to the tests ,which apparently have the work to show how the answer was reached. That sounded invaluable to me, but it hasn't come in the mail yet.
Science- LifePac by Alpha and Omega- see notes above
America the Beautiful by Charlene Notgrass I started using this book last year to supplement the boys learning because I felt they were both saturated in World History and knew nothing about American History. Eventually my enthusiasm dwindled because there was real school work that needed to be done. What drew me to this book was again the amazing pictures that I believe all history books should have. Less Words and more pictures or at least 50/50. I want to visualize it y'know? Also this book has a map workbook so the kids can locate the area they were learning about and draw things indigenous to the area . I like that to reinforce and picture which area of our country we are studying. This year I bought the lesson review book too. I also realized that this book is broken up into 30 units. Even though this is actually two enormous books we are going to get through it by doing 1 unit a week , 1 lesson a day. They really mapped it our beautifully for me.
English Writing and Grammar 7 by BJU- see Notes above
Reading Detective B1 by the Critical Thinking CO.- This book was referred to me by someone who apparently has a brainiac child. It reminds me a lot of state testing. It has reading passages and questions to answer. The promise of this book is to develop independent thinkers. The answers are not word for word in the story , the child will actually have to use their mind. I will tell you how it goes.
Vocabulary from Classical Roots A by Norma Fifer and Nancy Flowers- My seventh grader is an awesome speller, so instead of a spelling book, we are learning Latin. Hear me out! He's the kind of kid that reads books way above his grade level but then he will pronounce a word he read completely wrong. So we are learning roots of words, which I am hoping will help him for the rest of his life. He will not be speaking latin but he will know where some words come from. Lesson one starts out with the word mono- meaning one : think monologue, monarch, monopoly etc.
Health from Horizons- I had every intention of teaching my son a health class last year and since I didn't , we will do it this year.
Typing: I have heard of www.typingweb.com but I haven't really looked into it yet
I am also armed with my amazing planner, " A Well Planned Day" It has room to plan your lessons, track attendance, grades, shopping list. It was my saving grace last year. I actually purchased one for the 7th grader too. I'm not sure I'll get my monies worth out of that one...
So that's what we will be tackling next week. When I put it all down, it makes me want to take a nap. If you're thinking about homeschooling , talk to some homeschool moms. We come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. We have some very different ideas of what school should be like. That doesn't mean that it's not for you. I have taken small steps to get here, but I'm glad I'm here. My goal is to have educated children, who think for themselves and like to learn(or at least don't hate it.) I may have accidentally wandered into homeschooling but I am intentional about their learning. Good luck and may the odds ever be in your favor.
