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!

Curriculum reviews: Reading & Grammar.

Continuing in the language arts...(see my previous post if you'd like my take on spelling and writing or if you'd like a wee bit of background about the levels my boys are at)

BTW, rather than reinvent the wheel, read my posts here and here for my thoughts on language arts about a year ago, so you have an idea of where we started from this year. 

READING: Given the thoroughness of our spelling program, this year our reading curriculum got a bit more streamlined. Noah didn't really have one. Asher and Micah worked through a couple books of Explode the Code, doing about two exercises each week (working on them three or four days...about 5-15 minutes each day). I like Explode the Code (and I like that they're mostly self-sufficient books...I could just hand them to the boy and he could work through the pages on his own with only the occasional question). By about January, though, we realized that it had turned into just busy work for the boys. (Micah finished out book 3 and Asher finished out book 6. Thinking about it right now, I may bring these back out now and again next year just for practice for Micah, though.) 

After shelving the Explode the Code, we moved Asher and Micah to Beyond the Code (a companion series to Explode the Code with an emphasis on reading comprehension). 

Given their similar reading levels (yes, Micah's a bit ahead ahead of the curve, lol...which meant that a number of resources I started the year with went unused as he picked things up significantly faster than I'd anticipated), we ended up just getting both boys the same books and they work through it together, doing a story each week over the course of a couple days. This works well for us, as Asher can help Micah with his reading aloud skills (things like pausing at punctuation and inflection) and Micah can help Asher with some of the spelling. I think it's a dandy program, but they'll finish it this summer. I'm not sure yet what we'll do in the fall (and am open to suggestions!).

Beyond these, the boys also had plenty of reading, itself. I worked on reading more chapter books to them all. We averaged about one a month...with me reading just whenever we ended up waiting for appointments or in between other tasks. I started out working from lists in Deconstructing Penguins (which I very much like and will continue to use as a resource) and am branching out according to the boys' interests. I'm hoping to work this in as a more intentional part of our schooling next year, perhaps using the reading as the basis for our writing assignments?

They also had "assigned" reading each week...either a set number or type of books or a set amount of time. (Unlike other families we know, my boys aren't naturally drawn to reading so still require the "assignment" in order to actually read on their own.) We'll continue this next year as well, again potentially working in our writing...maybe tackle book reports.

GRAMMAR: Grammar has been a struggle for me. I've tried a number of programs and finally settled on First Language Lessons for this past year. I worked through Level 1 with Micah and Level 3 with Asher and Noah (though Micah ended up listening in on most of this and probably could do at least some of the work). 

Here's what I liked:

• It's quick. Each lesson is super fast. We tended to do about 3 lessons a week for a total of about 30-45 minutes. With Micah, I just did his lessons verbally with him. With the other two, we'd talk through the lessons and then I'd have them do some exercises on dry erase boards or in their notebooks. (I initially purchased the workbook that accompanies the instructor text but ended up not using it as I didn't want to buy two copies. It worked to have them write it on their own.)
• It's well organized. If you know me, you know that any curriculum that is well organized is one that will catch my attention. Even though not all my boys "need" the organization to learn and thrive, I (as the instructor) do. ;) I'm considerably more likely to use and stick with a program if it's organized in a way that makes sense to me. This is laid out with a plan for how many (and which) lessons to cover each week for a year...depending on whether you plan to work on grammar three times a week, whether you want to include supplemental lessons, etc. Each lesson reminds you what to review and then takes you into the next lesson, providing a script for the instructor. And, the lessons flow in a logical order, not jumping around from topic to topic as many of the other programs I looked at did.
• It's straight-forward. Yes, it covers sentence diagramming. Yes, I once thought that seemed unnecessary and old school. ;) Yes, I now see the value of diagramming and am thankful for it. By working through sentence diagramming, the lessons drive home the parts of speech and how sentences are built. Lovely.

So. It worked. I'm not in love with it, though. It's, well, rather boring. Still, I do think that it's done its job. I'm currently debating between doing this again next year (but using Level 2 and Level 4 instead) and trying something new like Growing With Grammar. From what I've heard about Growing With Grammar, it might be a good fit. It will provide a bit more hands-on work to help drive the points home. I realize, too, though, that if I'd just use the actual workbooks from First Language Lessons I could do this same thing. Hmmm. I've also been looking at Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts Curriculum after reading this review.

Again, I'd love to hear your thoughts and/or questions on this and will be back tomorrow with more!

(Also, before I forget, allow me to clearly state that I am not in any way associated with any of these products I'm reviewing. I'm not being compensated and don't have any stake in anything. ;) I just felt like sharing because I know I've benefitted so much from similar reviews elsewhere. This goes for yesterday's post, today's and the rest of the week. Thanks!)

Curriculum reviews: Spelling & Writing.

Finally. ;) As promised, this week I'm going to do a run down of our curriculums...what we've been using this year, how it worked for us and what we plan to use next year. I'll cover a couple subjects each day, in no particular order.

Insert small note here for those not familiar with our homeschooling situation. I have three boys...

• Micah, who's 5 (just completed kindergarten at our one-day-a-week-school, though he took first grade classes there and still found them too easy...he's a very young kinder (as in, with public school, we may not have sent him to kinder this past year given his late July birthday) but likes to think he's about 10)...
• Asher, who's 8 (just completed second grade technically but was in third grade at our one-day-a-week-school for the increased class options) and
• Noah, who's 10 (just finished fourth grade technically).

SPELLING: We started using All About Spelling in February 2010. (It's the only spelling program I've used with the younger two boys. We tried a couple others with Noah but they didn't last longer than a month or so.) We started with Level 1 and are currently almost finished with Level 4. For various reasons, we've treated this as a group activity and have just worked with all three boys altogether...working through about 2-3 steps a week, with a review/test over the covered material at the end of each week. I LOVE this program.

• It's quick. We can work through a step in about 15-30 minutes. Each step has a quick review and then a straight-forward lesson, usually with a list of 10 new words. The program also deliberately does *not* specify grade levels or indicate how many steps "should" be covered in a set time...emphasizing that you should simply go as fast or as slow as you're comfortable with.
• It's easy for the instructor. Everything's written out for you and all the materials are well organized. I don't always use the "script" but very much appreciate that it's there. Really, this program is just so nicely organized.
• It's easy for the student. The program makes it easy to cater to all different learning styles...using magnetic tiles to spell out the words (visual and kinesthetic), asking kids to spell the words out loud, providing sentences for context and practice, providing flash cards for recall, etc. I have boys with each of the different learning styles, so this is fantastic.
• It's cool. This may be my personal bias coming through, but I find this program to be cool in that I keep learning things right alongside my boys. Rather than just spew random lists of words to be memorized (like the other programs I've tried), All About Spelling builds spelling skills through actual rules (many of which I had no idea existed, and I'm a decent speller!). The boys responded particularly well to this...they much prefer to have a reason behind the list of words rather than just a random set that they're told to memorize for the sake of memorization. Having these reasons, too, means that they're able to tackle a greater variety of words sooner.

Overall, I don't see us switching to anything else any time soon. :) I do plan to slow things down a bit (at least for the younger two). We're running into retention issues when we go through the steps too quickly. I don't think this is a flaw with the program at all...we've just started getting into things that are more difficult, which requires some creative supplementation to cater to the learning of the child. I mix in dry erase "tests" and make them use the words in sentences and the like right now. (Actually, though, I also have some issues with boys who absolutely hate to get anything wrong, so our weekly reviews turn into repeated lectures about how learning is based on mistakes and how I don't care if they get it right on the first try so long as they're trying and paying attention. Sigh. Still working on this obviously. Would LOVE any suggestions!)

So, for next year, I'll focus on taking just one step each week and drilling it better. The boys "get" the spelling rules just fine. We're just having issues (understandably given the English language, lol) remembering when to use which rule. ;) I think I may also need to separate this out and move Noah through quicker than the younger two. Still sorting that out. :)

WRITING: Until this past year, we've not used a specific writing curriculum. Let's just say that getting the boys to write anything by hand was a challenge. ;) Last fall, we started using Writing With Ease. I started out with levels 1, 2 and 3 and we worked through the lessons each week as outlined (each week has four lessons...each lesson takes about 5-15 minutes). 

• It makes sense. What drew me to this curriculum in the first place is the logic behind it. Each week has a combination of copy work (though this is mainly for the younger levels), dictation, and narration. It takes baby steps to help students feel comfortable with copying sentences, writing sentences they hear and summarizing passages they read...emphasizing that it's not something that comes more naturally like learning to speak or read. I really like this aspect of the program and it's spelled out nicely in the primary instructor text. 
• It's quick. Each week follows a single passage, with a day for copywork, a day for dictation, a day for summarizing what you've read and another day of one of these skills (depends on the level). The day's lesson takes about 5-15 minutes. 
• It's easy. The way this program is set up, you can either buy the workbooks (which lay everything out for you) or create your own program using literature and passages that you select. This past year, we bought the workbooks. I liked that it was already set up and that it would expose the boys to literature that I might otherwise not get to. (Note, there's the primary instructor text that I mentioned before (which spells out the hows and whys of the program) and then also a teacher guide and workbook for each level. If you're going to use the workbooks, you don't really also need the primary instructor text. If you're going to create your own program, just the primary instructor text will be enough.)

Given all of that, I do think this is a valuable program. I'm not sure, though, whether we'll continue to use it next year in the way we've used it this year. I think it worked fine for the boys...I think they did learn more about writing and am glad for it. I don't think, though, that it held their interest enough. I'm leaning toward following this same system but using our own passages next year. I may also just take these ideas and apply them during, say, history lessons or some other subject with plenty of reading. I'd like, too, to branch out a bit and start covering more extensive writing assignments with the boys but will probably work those into other subjects. I know that this isn't our strongest subject and would like to work on that.

Note, neither of these programs today are the type where you can hand the book to the student and leave it to him to do the work on his own. Both definitely require parent involvement, though the lessons are short and instructions are well explained for both teacher and student.

So. That's what we've done and will do for spelling and writing. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions about these programs and how they've worked for us. I'd also love to hear about any other programs that you've used and liked... :)

More tomorrow...