Homeschooling

Well here it is—another school year is upon us. Last year I managed to hardly spend any money on school supplies, this year caught me by surprise by the expense. The really expensive part is that my daughter will be taking Biology this year. Hopefully we can use some of this stuff three more times for all the younger people.

We have decided to take a slightly different approach to some things this year. My oldest starts high school this year and my youngest is now four and I’m getting pulled a lot of directions. We have purchased some prepackaged curriculums that were put together by homeschool families. We are not going to be combining everybody into one unit study. This is partly because my kids are taking interests in different directions and also because I decided that studying the ancients with my 7 year old last year didn’t go as well as I liked. This means that we will have two different history time periods being studied and two different sciences being studied. We will continue to do our Bible class together.

Here it is.

Zippy — age 14

1. Bible: Desire of Ages
2. History: Beautiful Feet Ancient History (starting in the middle as we did part of the Beginnings/Ancients by Truth Quest History last year) then Beautiful Feet Medieval History
3. Mathematics: Saxon Algebra 1, third edition, probably with a tutor
4. Science: Apologia Biology with the new DVD course
5. Language Arts: Student Writing Intensive Level C in conjunction with history
   also Spelling Power for spelling.
6. Music: Piano and violin lessons
7. Other electives to be determined by real life!

JD — age 11

1. Bible: Desire of Ages
2. History: Beautiful Feet Ancient History (starting in the middle as we did part of the Beginnings/Ancients by Truth Quest History last year) then Beautiful Feet Medieval History
3. Mathematics: Saxon Math 8/7
4. Science: Noeo Physics 2
5. Language Arts: Student Writing Intensive Level B in conjunction with history
   also Spelling Power for spelling
   and Italic Handwriting Book F for penmanship
6. Music: Piano and violin lessons
7. Etc.

Ace — age 8

1. Bible: Desire of Ages
2. History: Beautiful Feet Early American History for Primary Grades
3. Mathematics: Math 3 by Teaching Textbooks
4. Science: Noeo Physics 1
5. Language Arts: Rod & Staff and Christian Light Readers
   and Italic Handwriting Book C for penmanship
6. Music: Piano and cello lessons
7. Lots of nature study

So there you have it. That doesn’t count everything, I guess. It counts everything that I had to spend a lot of time and money on. If you looked at our curriculum choices last year, you will notice a few changes—Saxon math from Teaching Textbooks, Beautiful Feet History from Truth Quest History and Noeo Science from Apologia Elementary Science. It’s not that we disliked our choices last year. We were happy with all of the things we used last year, but for various reasons, we decided to do something different.

The reason that we chose Saxon is because my oldest is in high school and we had always intended on using Saxon for high school. You’ll notice that my 8 year old will still be using Teaching Textbooks. From the reviews we’ve read, it seems that Saxon is a bit more thorough than Teaching Textbooks, and better prepares kids for college and hopefully scholarships.

The reason we went with Beautiful Feet History is because, I needed something that my older two could more easily follow on their own so that I could spend more time with the younger ones on American History. I will be doing history with the older two, but they will need to be somewhat independent. Beautiful Feet just lends itself more to that for several reasons—it has a schedule; the specific books are chosen; the activities are already planned out. The reason that I have used Truth Quest History for so long is that it made it easy to not use fiction. I will still be substituting non-fiction for the fiction books assigned in the Beautiful Feet program.

The reason that we switched to Noeo science is that we were ready to read some other authors. We have enjoyed the Apologia Elementary books that we’ve done, but I like variety. Also last year, we read a lot from the book The Way Things Work, and my boys wanted to do  more physics and learn more about electricity. Noeo is a bit for Science like Beautiful Feet is for History. They gather up books from several different publishers and authors, which we hope will add to the interest.

Okay, I love homeschool conventions. For some reason, it’s where I get my homeschool recharge each year. Just as I’m finishing up a school year and bemoaning the things that I wanted to do that we didn’t do, I get all excited about the next year and what we will do then. If you need a little homeschool encouragement, go to your local/state homeschool convention it. It’s great!

I remember the first homeschool convention I went to. I was so scared. There were so many people. I wondered: What should I look at? What shouldn’t I look at? Who should I listen to? Should I take all my kids? (I did.) What should I buy? Which programs were as amazing as touted? I was so overwhelmed.

But I loved it and was hooked, even though that first time: I had gotten out of wearing a boot on my broken foot just the day before. (There’s a lot of walking to do for an injured foot. My foot was killing me.) I took all three of my kids and the youngest one was in a front pack. (If I’d have known how much I wanted to purchase, I would have at least brought a stroller for my purchases, even if I didn’t intend to put the baby in it.) And my little kids and I all skipped lunch because the food at our convention is just plain nasty. (I’m a vegetarian for starters, and secondly I don’t like food that just drips with grease.)

I have continued to go almost every year since. I haven’t taken my kids every time. I have sometimes though. Now I pack a lunch and bring a water bottle. I have continued to bring a backpack to haul my purchases in, and wondered why I didn’t bring a rolling suitcase, because my back is breaking by the end. (I have this addiction to the neat art supplies that Miller Pads and Paper sells, and they’re heavy.)

So it’s that time of year. My state homeschool convention is just a few weeks away. This time I did a little planning and I’m taking my new roller suitcase that I purchased at one of those super duper sales from Sierra Trading Post. (See picture.)

I’ve made a list of everything to take, so I don’t forget anything:

• Comfy shoes
• Sweater/Light Jacket
• Water bottle
• Packed lunch (Go light, because you have to carry it and you don’t want any leftovers.)
• Babysitter for the kids, if possible (I took my 6 year old last year. He was a great partner and talked me into purchasing all kinds of things, that went into my backpack!)
• Backpack (It’s a great way to turn the day into a workout and also a great way to force yourself to stay within your budget!) or a roller suitcase
• Small pad of paper and a pen
• Printed address labels with name, address, and email address (This is so that you don’t have to write your address down fifty times for all of the mailing lists and drawings that you want to sign up for. Maybe even grab a few 3×5 cards to stick them to in case you make/meet a friend that you want to keep in contact with.)
• Camera (This is especially important if you take a backpack. This way you can take pictures of everything you want to purchase and the company’s website address and then go back later and order, when you’re feeling a little more sensible or not feeling heavy laden from an overstuffed backpack. I just use my phone for my camera.)

Well, happy conventioning everybody! Can’t wait to spend a day at mine, which, by the way, is the Washington Homeschool Organization, known affectionately as WHO. If you are going to that one, let’s find each other and say “hi”.

School began in earnest for us last Monday, as we took a deep breath and cracked open new books and started away.

This time of the school year is always so fun and new. We all wonder how it will go this year; if the new science curriculum will be as fun as the pictures look; if math will be as easy as the first lesson; what we will learn; who we will learn about; and what memories we will make this year.

Here is a rundown of what we are doing this year. I’m listing the things that we are all doing together first.

Bible: Finishing Patriarchs and Prophets and starting Prophets and Kings. We will also be working on Bible memorization. We now have a Bible memory club at our church, so we are also participating in that. Currently we are all memorizing Isaiah 51.

History: History of Science by Beautiful Feet for first semester, Ancient Greece by Truth Quest History and Famous Greeks by Great Courses for second semester (We decided to take a brief interlude from a our chronological study of history and do the History of Science, just for fun.) We continue to work on our Record of Time timelines.

Science: The (New) Way Things Work

Art: See the Light video course

Now to where the subjects diverge.

Zippy (grade 8)
Math: Pre-algebra by Teaching Textbooks
Writing: Student Writing Intensive Level B by Institute for Excellence in Writing
Spelling: Spelling Power

JD Boy (grade 5)
Math: Math 7 by Teaching Textbooks
Writing:  Student Writing Intensive Level A by Institute for Excellence in Writing
Spelling: Spelling Power
Penmanship: Italic Handwriting, Book E, by Getty & Dubay

G’tums
Math: Math-It and Math-on-the-Level
Phonics: The Reading Lesson & various readers
Penmanship: Italic Handwriting, Book B, by Getty & Dubay

Other things we plan to work on this year is copy work from random age-appropriate sources, poetry memorization, artist studies, composer studies, hymn memorization, nature study, home-ec, and instrument lessons.

There is more, I’m sure, that I’m forgetting. I’m a homeschool mom after all, and everything is school, right?

I have three kids to plan for this year: Zippy (girl, age 12), JD Boy (boy, age 9) and G’tums (boy, age 6). I have to plan for the two year old too, but that kind of planning changes from day to day. I’ve found it to be a challenge to figure which subjects can all be done together and which ones can’t. Here is the curriculum as it stands now, anyway.

History/Bible (combining) – Ancient History using Patriarchs and Prophets and Beginnings by Truth Quest History for the whole family

Composition/Grammar – Writing Strands

Math – Teaching Textbooks for Zippy and Math on the Level for the boys

Spelling – Spelling Power for Zippy and JD Boy

Phonics/Reading for G’tums – Three R’s by Ruth Beechick and Phonics Pathways by Delores Hiskes

Science – Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy & Physiology for Zippy and Exploring Creation with Creatures of the Fifth Day (Zoology 1) for the boys

Music – music lessons (violin and piano for Zippy and JD Boy), and Charlotte Mason style learning of hymns and composers (which hymns and composers still to be determined)

Art – See the Light Shine DVD’s and Charlotte Mason style artist appreciation (which artists still to be determined)

Nature Study – follow the Handbook of Nature Study blog

Scholastic is having another one of their Dollar Deals. I had fun shopping the sale yesterday. Here is one of the things I purchased.

This is from the book: File-Folder Games in Color: Alphabet. It is game to practice matching lowercase letters with uppercase letters. My kindergartener and I have been having fun playing it.

The sale only lasts until March 28. So get over there and check it out.

I happen to think that I have one of the cutest kindergartners on the planet living at my house. Here he is with his scooter. He spends hours on that scooter. He tries to keep up with his older siblings on their roller blades, but scooters are hard to get to go as fast as roller blades. But he’s mighty cute with that scooter anyway.

I’m quite proud of my little kindergartner. He just loves life and loves learning. And he’s learned so much over the last few months. One of those things was how to ride his bike. One of my education theories happens to be that kids should learn to ride bikes before they learn to read. I know, that’s just an opinion, but it’s a good one.

Here is a video of him riding.

He got a bit frustrated with me for procrastinating in taking his training wheels off. I kept saying, “I’ll get to it, when I get time.” (That’s a bad thing to say to kids.) Then his 8 year-old brother gave up on me too and went and took them off. So this video is the first time I even saw him try without his training wheels. According to the big brother and sister, he didn’t even fall over once, he just started riding. He was a very happy boy that day, as you can see in the video.

He also lost his first and second tooth this fall. That’s also an important event. (Although, I don’t try to make that happen before my kids start learning to read.)

We have so much fun together learning. I think kindergarten is my favorite time to teach. I don’t feel any pressure, because I think kindergarten was an invented grade just to take kids away from their parents earlier. But it is also such a fun time, because the lightbulbs are turning on. G’tums loves to add and count and draw and paint and especially loves to learn about nature. I haven’t started him on reading yet, although when you’re a third child, sometimes the older siblings step in where mother isn’t. So his big brother has been teaching him letter sounds. It works well, gets those phonics more rooted in my third grader’s mind.

I just have to share one of my favorite quotes from a book that I have read multiple times. “Mothers, let the little ones play in the open air; let them listen to the songs of the birds and learn the love of God as expressed in His beautiful works. Teach them simple lessons from the book of nature and the things about them; and as their minds expand, lessons from books may be added and firmly fixed in their memory.” Ellen White, Child Guidance, p. 34