Math & Science

We're trying something new for both math and science this year...

Math. To date, we've mostly just used Singapore Math and were pretty satisfied with it. (Read more here and here.) This year, though, we're switching to Teaching Textbooks. We're doing so for three reasons:

1. Asher, in particular, would benefit from more actual instruction. With Singapore, I'd been in the habit of just handing the books to the boys and letting them loose, being available for questions if necessary but not doing any structured lessons. That was still fine for Micah but, as the work was getting more advanced, both Asher and Noah were having more questions. (Yes, Singapore has teacher textbooks and such so that I could have taught the lessons, myself, and I have the math background to do so but...)
2. Noah finished the Primary Math program so we needed something new for him anyhow. (For the record, Noah finished through book 6B, Asher finished 4B and Micah finished 3B. (Micah could/would have been further but we deliberately slowed him down, lol.)) and...
3. The idea of a subject where the boys can be mostly self-sufficient is incredibly appealing to me, and they love the idea of having something they can do on the computer rather than in a workbook. ;)

So. After much thought and research, we're trying out Teaching Textbooks this year. We'll let you know how it goes. (Upon reviewing the various levels and reading up on reviews and all, we're putting Asher and Micah both in Math 6 and Noah into Pre-Algebra.)

Science. Last year, we didn't really do anything structured in the way of science (just lots of documentaries, science fairs and field trips, lol). Before that, we used Real Science 4 Kids and finished that. This year, we're going to try Elemental Science. I like how it follows the classical schedule that Story of the World (which we use for history) uses and has different levels as you repeat the cycle. We'll, then, be jumping in to coordinate with where we are in Story of the World this year. Since we'll be going through volume 2 of Story of the World (for the second time with the older two) this year, we'll also tackle Earth Science & Astronomy's intermediate level.

And that's math and science. Would love any input if you've used either of these programs or have other recommendations!

Our coming school year...and spelling

Well, the local public schools (middle and high school) started back today. The elementary schools start back tomorrow. We'll be starting our own year next Wednesday with the first day of our one-day-a-week enrichment program (used to be Options, now called LEAP...which stands for Loveland Enrichment Access Program). In the meantime, I thought I'd do some of my somewhat regular curriculum reviews. ;) (look back through June 2010 and June 2011)

To start with, here's the background about our homeschool journey. Amazingly, most of that post still holds true. But, Noah's now 11 and will be starting sixth grade. Asher's 10 and is "technically" fourth grade this year (though he's listed as a 5th grader at LEAP...given his summer birthday, he could be either). Micah's 7 and is technically second grade this year (though he's listed as a 3rd grader at LEAP...given his summer birthday, he'd be either a first grader or second grader this year...yes, he's precocious and is listed as a third grader because he's already taken the second grade classes there). 

So. Spelling. A couple years ago, we started the All About Spelling program. We also used it the following year. And, we're still using it. That review from June 2011 is still pretty much spot on. It's a keeper for us!

We're mostly done with Level 5 now, though. We're still having issues with boys who hate to be wrong. ;) And I'm still working on separating out the boys so they're at different levels. This past year, I stuck with this routine...

• Tuesday, I'd give them a pretest and had each boy in a different step. (Each book/level is divided into steps.) So, for example, all three would do the ten words for step 11...the older two would also do the ten words for step 12...and the oldest would also do the ten words for step 13. So, there was both review of past words (for the older boys) and a preview of coming words (for the younger boys). (This is the part where we'd have the regular lectures about how mistakes are good.)
• Wednesday, we'd go over the steps, themselves, and the spelling rules and all...basically just following the curriculum plan.
• Thursday, I'd dictate sentences to the boys. Similar to the first day, I'd start with the lowest step and build...so that the youngest was writing a few sentences, Asher had about 6 and Noah had about 9. (I should probably make them write more sentences.)
• Friday, we'd have our final tests for the week. (If, though, the boy had gotten all the words correct the first day, they didn't have to take the final test...this likely contributed to the issues about missing words that first day.)

Right now, then, I'm debating how I want to change this up for the coming year.

I'm thinking I'll do away with the pretests. They seemed like a good idea at the time...a way to remind them that we're learning new stuff...but it's not working that way. I'm not sure what the value of the pretests is otherwise and it just seems to cause strife. Ideas on what to do instead? 

I'm also wondering about whether keeping the boys in three consecutive steps is the best route. I think it's holding Noah back and that the younger two could use more review. I also figure that the way it was working meant that the younger two were actually getting less review. Perhaps I need to switch to having every boy do the two steps before along with his current step? Hmmm. Yup. I think I'll do that...have each boy do the two steps before and his own step...and will do away with the pretest in favor of something else (a word search?) that actually just presents the words to the boys so they're not so worried about learning what's coming up so that they don't get any wrong.

What do you think? Seriously...would love to know what works for you!

Curriculum Reviews: Everything else.

Lastly, this week, here are some of the "other" programs we use...

(I wrote about some of these last year, too.)

LATIN: I don't think I have much to add beyond what I wrote not long ago. So, look here. ;) We plan to just keep going with Visual Latin next year. We generally do this altogether one afternoon a week. I'm working on making some vocabulary flash cards to help us. I love that, in a pinch, we can do this in the van on the way to run errands and such. ;)

ART: Yeah. I dropped the ball on this one this year. Oy. I console myself with the fact that the boys did get at least some art instruction at Options on Mondays. And I worked in some art with other subjects. I just didn't do a great job of doing art for the sake of art on a regular basis. Honestly, I haven't figured out how I'm going to tackle this next year. Ideas?

CRITICAL THINKING: The boys did things like Mindbenders and Code Breakers books, solved Encyclopedia Brown mysteries and just plain challenged each other constantly with riddles. There wasn't a set schedule for these...just used them as time allowed, often to occupy one boy while working with another. I'll probably just continue along this same path next year. 

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Well, this year we had...

• fall soccer (for Asher and Micah),
• PE each Monday at Options (for all three),
• karate (twice a week for Asher and Micah all year except during Asher's broken arm...during good weather, Noah and I walk during these sessions),
• hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park, Canyonlands, and Arches (as a family),
• archery lessons (for all three),
• swim lessons (for all three),
• swim team (for Noah), and
• the Healthy Kids program (with one mile fun runs for all three).

That's not including the daily backyard and basement play, the walks to the Farmer's Market, the bike rides, and the park play with friends. So, yeah. I think they got enough PE.

Next year, other than the soccer, will look pretty much the same I think. :)

MUSIC: We used to do weekly music classes with all three boys. We loved those. Then we started soccer; and, after a year or two of doing both, it just became too much (and a scheduling hassle). So, sadly, we stopped the music classes. With Options, though, the boys gained a weekly music class again. Noah and Asher both took the music and drama class and got plenty of singing and some music reading for the first two years (2008-2010). Last year, they did the same but Asher also added recorder/chimes. At home, he'd practice recorder and Noah started playing piano again just on his own (using a variety of Carol Matz favorites song books that he loves). Next year, Micah is excited to take the music/drama class that his brothers have enjoyed...Asher will take keyboarding (piano)...and Noah will take recorder/chimes and also bells. 

And that, friends, in a nutshell, is what we've used and will use. (I'm sure I've missed some little things but am fairly sure I covered the main things, lol.) I hope at least some of it has helped some of you in your own searches for materials (either for homeschooling or supplementing), and I'd love to hear about any materials that you use and enjoy! In the meantime, happy weekend to you!

Curriculum Reviews: History & Geography.

Just quickly before I get to today's reviews...

• Yes, I've tried Easy Grammar with the boys. I *thought* it was going to be a great fit...not too much handwriting involved, quick easy lessons each day, only five questions each day, etc. Unfortunately, the boys disagreed. They found it ridiculous to only have five questions a day and couldn't retain the "rules" from one day to the next enough to not need a full review/lesson each time. Sigh. (I'm thinking that they might fare better now, having had more of the basics for a year...when I tried Easy Grammar, we'd not really done much in the way of grammar yet.)
• I forgot to mention another math resource that we use. It's called Times Tales and it's for helping to memorize multiplication tables. Noah and Micah don't really see the point (as they memorize things pretty easily and know their times tables) but Asher finds it incredibly useful, as having a story to associate with each math fact greatly increases his odds of remembering it. It's great and definitely more engaging than simple flashcards!
• Noah thought up another science unit idea he'd like to do...earthquakes, specifically building model buildings (out of a variety of materials) and testing their earthquakeproofness (yes, I know that's not a word, lol). Any leads on how to make a table to test that? :) 

Now on to history and geography...

(Previous overview posts about these subjects can be read here, here and here.)

HISTORY: History, like math, is another of those subjects where we've used basically the same thing since we got started back in the fall of 2005 (the year before Noah would have "officially" been kindergarten age). Though we've had rough patches where life with three young boys took precedence over schooling, lol, we've managed to continue to progress through the Story of the World. We'll finish book 4 this summer.

In a nutshell, I love that Story of the World travels chronologically through history. I love that the activity books offer supplemental reading suggestions along with potential activities. I love that the chapters are short enough to hold young boys' attention yet long enough to impart significant information.

Right now, we don't do all of the activities in the activity books (though I have them all and think they're great resources and do still check out a number of the supplemental reading suggestions each chapter). We've been reading two chapters a week as we're aiming to finish our first go-round through all four books by the end of the summer.

After that, my plan is to go back to book 1 and go through each one more slowly, delving more deeply into the areas of interest and creating our own timelines as we go. (I ordered these timeline books last year but haven't started using them yet. I plan to rectify that next year.) I plan to do book 1 next year, book 2 the year after that, and so on. (The program is set up to begin at first grade with book 1 and finish book 4 in fourth grade. I figure we've followed the "schedule" in keeping with Noah's age and now will repeat it for Micah. The hope is that going through it all a second time will help it sink in even more...and will allow us to follow some of the threads that we didn't the first time around.)

Now. Next year, I'm thinking that I may also add another day of history. Right now we do history one afternoon a week. The boys, though, have requested more US history, as that's not been overly covered in Story of the World, being as US history is a relatively small slice in the grand scheme of things. I'm currently toying with the idea of adding another afternoon session just for US history and roughly following America: The Story of Us by the history channel. The program is a 12 part documentary about the history of the US. Since we homeschool year round, taking a part each month will work. I'll use that section of the documentary as a starting point and supplement with additional reading and activities. Or at least that's the plan. ;) We'll see...

GEOGRAPHY: For geography, this year, we've done a mish-mash of things. I've talked about layers of the earth, landforms, oceans, natural disasters, the breakdown of city/state/country/continent and the like. I've started quizzing the boys on continents and countries and bodies of water. We've completed a number of Junior Ranger programs at national parks. We've created our own countries.

(That last one was my favorite part and isn't quite finished yet. Each of us created our own country, complete with flag, motto, form of government, specific laws, economy, currency, etc. based on the awesome book How to Build Your Own Country. I'm still working on actually documenting all the stuff we've come up with.)

For next year, I'm planning to use Expedition Earth and learning about all the different countries. I'm also planning to use more maps in our history studies (now that I finally bought the corresponding maps on CD so that I can just print out three rather than trying to convince three boys to share or buying three whole Story of the World activity books for each level). I'm toying with the idea of also doing a unit on the US states, using The Little Man in the Map and The Star-Spangled State Book as starting points.

Whew. You still with me? ;) Almost wrapped up with these curriculum reviews. Come back tomorrow for the last one... 

(Note, Knowledge Quest is having a June sale right now...only until this Sunday. They're my source for many geography and history materials, so check it out! (Again, not affiliated in any way. Just think they're cool.))

Curriculum Reviews: Math & Science.

Now I'll step away from the language arts to talk about math and science. 

(You can read previous posts here and here from about a year ago to see what came before...)

MATH: We've been Singapore Math users from the start and I see no reason to change as of yet. ;) Right now all three boys use the Primary Math Standards Edition books. Micah will finish up book 3A this summer (yeah, he's got quite the mathematical mind and has been flying through his books). Asher is just starting 4A, and Noah will finish up 6A this summer.

The program is designed to finish two books (so, 3A and 3B, for example) in a year, doing roughly 4 lessons a week I think. (I could be wrong on this...I've not gone by the suggested course, but have just had the boys doing as many lessons as I felt was challenging to them. This has, I believe, worked out to about 6 lessons a week (completed over three days...about 20-45 minutes each day) for Noah and Micah and a bit less for Asher.) 

Each level has a textbook, a workbook, a teacher's guide, a home instructor's guide, and supplemental tests and exercises if desired. Personally, we've only used the workbooks so far. I have a decent handle on math and Noah and Micah do as well, which has meant that I haven't really done much "instructing" but have tended to simply hand the boys their books and set them to work, answering questions as needed (and in some cases reading the story problems when math abilities exceeded reading abilities).

This is one of the things I like about the program. It's clear and easy to follow without unnecessary repetition for the sake of repetition. But. I'm figuring out that I'm going to need to change the way I do things for next year with Asher, as we get into more complicated matters. I'll be working on actually doing a lesson with him before tackling the exercises. Noah and Micah will likely just continue as we've been doing since it's working for them.

Beyond Singapore Math, we've also used Life of Fred this year. Noah and I will finish the second Life of Fred book shortly. To date, we haven't really relied on this as an actual math curriculum per se. We just enjoy reading the stories. :) I do make Noah do the math questions at the end of each chapter. But, if I were truly going to use this as a curriculum, I'd supplement with more problems and do a better job of making sure Noah had a concept down before continuing. Right now, it's more about exposure and just enjoying seeing how math can apply to real life situations. Next year, we'll probably read the next book, Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra I with Biology. Depending on how things progress with Asher and Micah, I may start the first book (Fractions) with them as well. I definitely foresee some more directed units on fractions in the coming year for both of the younger boys (and a review for Noah). 

To that end, I've also picked up the Key to... series. I have Key to Fractions and Key to Algebra and anticipate using them as supplements for the boys during the year.

And, of course, we get plenty of math in our everyday life through allowances, games, books and random questions that I pose to the boys just to mess with them. ;)

SCIENCE: Ah, science. Last year we used (and loved) Real Science 4 Kids.

Having finished Chemistry and Biology the year before, we completed Physics in the fall...generally completing one chapter a week. After the holidays, we worked on our homeschool group science fair for a couple months. Then, we spent a month reviewing Chemistry, a month reviewing Biology and a month reviewing Physics. Right now, we just finished building toothpick bridges using supplies ordered from LegoEducation.us. (I have absolutely no idea what we'll do for science in July & August, lol.)

Science is one of the subjects that I don't really worry about. My boys are all very interested in science so naturally seek it out on their own. A very science-oriented dad, plenty of science-oriented field trips, and access to the science channel and science shows via Netflix, lol, means that they rarely lack for exposure to science. 

We tend to "do" science one afternoon a week and altogether. Even given their different levels, they manage to work together on experiments just fine...each doing the portion that is best suited to him (which often means having Noah re-explain things since I didn't understand, lol). For next year, I'm planning to take a unit studies sort of approach to science. I'll dedicate each month or so to a different topic. Right now, I'm thinking about the following units:

• renewable energy (specifically wind turbines with a possible field trip involved...and Lego has some nifty resources on this as well),
• astronomy (actually, I'll use Real Science 4 Kids' latest release for this),
• genetics,
• cooking (I may buy this book to hopefully appeal to my boys),
• and the like.

I've just started brainstorming and am definitely open to any other suggestions! (All three boys also will have science classes at Options, our one-day-a-week-school situation. These include classes like robotics, electric circuits, anatomy and forensics.)

Stay tuned for history and geography tomorrow!