Well, here we are in week number nine. The decision to homeschool has been one of the best we ever made. The boys are thriving. Benjamin has not had strep or any mysterious illness that no one can diagnose. Outside of the fact that my children are actually healthy, they have learned so much. We are taking a kind of laid-back approach. Not a whole lot of strict curriculum. Speaking of curriculum, I really feel like we made wise choices in what we picked. I was a bit worried at first about English. We ordered first grade english for Benjamin (who is in second grade) and fifth grade for Nathaniel(who is in sixth). Looking through the teacher's book, I was well pleased with Nathaniel's, but Benjamin's seemed a bit beneath him. For the first month he was supposed to classify pictures of things. We did that for the first week and he said, "Mom, this is kind of like Kindergarten stuff". Which is true. By the end of the week I decided we would skip the rest of that type stuff and move into the harder stuff, hoping it would better suit him. It did. He loves English. Also during the first week, Nathaniel made it very clear how much he hated our jingle time. (for those who are not familiar with Shurley English-you have little jingles to chant to help memorize the different parts of speech.) Being the super-dork that I am I like to give the little extra "oomph" into jingle time with motions and just really getting into it. Mr Serious however is not into that sort of thing. (He will not even sing at church!!) So we made a deal; if he could remember how to label his sentences he did not have to sing. If he got them wrong on a regular basis he'd have to sing "loud and proud" (as Samuel says)Needless to say, he committed every little part of speech to memory and rarely makes below 100.
Science is so cool!! Astronomy has always fascinated me. It is great to see the boys getting so interested in it. I love the way that Jeannie Fulbright has written this book so that it sounds like a conversation, rather than a textbook. The weird part of it that there is more information than what is found in some elementary textbooks. The fact that almost every page gives glory to God is wonderful!!
Konos is great. I can see why so many people say it is a lot of work and do not want to do it. I think sometimes good things are worth the trouble. Konos is definitely worth it. Our kids are learning about things like the electoral college (which might I point out I did not learn until 12th grade, and still did not really get it until later) and about all the presidents of the past. I love the way that Konos uses a character quality to jump start learning. And everything is done with God as the main focus. Wisdom (our current unit) comes from God, and should be used to glorify Him. I think that studying David and Solomon has caused em to examine myself. If they could mess up and do some really stupid, sinful things just because they got their focus off God, I need to be careful about what I fill my day with.
I never pictured myself saying this, but I really like math. Math U See, anyway. Wow, I have learned hows and whys that if I had known them when I was in school, I could have been considered a genius. Instead I lived in fear of math and hated it. I look forward to learning more. Who'd have thunk?
Adding Catechism to our Bible studies has been great so far. We are only in our second week of that. I have a book ordered that Annemarie suggested to me. It is called Training Hearts-Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. What is really neat is that Amazon has the first two questions available to read on their "look inside this book" feature, so we are able to go ahead and start using the book before we get it. The study that I am using only lasts through question 28, so I am going to have to find something else. At least I have most of the school year to do it.
Starfall is great for supplementing a reading program, but not so much as an independent, stand alone. We got Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It is not like anything I am used to. It seems to be working with Samuel, though. It is not a colorful book with all the bells and whistles of some reading programs, but he is learning. I say whatever works. Road signs for Nathaniel, shampoo bottles for Benjamin, this for Samuel. I almost got the Veritas Press Phonics Museum for him. I am sort of glad I did not. It says in the reviews I have read that it takes about an hour to do each day. Plus it costs almost $200.00! I have seen several on E-bay that said they still had the entire first grade workbook, and half the kindergarten workbook. When I saw the first one, I wondered why they did not finish the program. Then I kept seeing more and more like it. Kind of made me think that maybe it is not as awesome as it looked in the catalog.
We still do not have an art or music program in place. The boys all like to draw and paint. We all listen to music. Some of us sing. So that will have to do for now. We are happy, healthy and together. Who could ask for anything more?
The Joy of Learning about Space
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When a child looks up and sees the small dots of light shimmering against
the night sky, the moon shifting over the earth or the sun setting on the
horiz...
9 years ago
5 comments:
Yes, I have to say that the absence of the annual cold or flu is quite a blessing. Although we have really been blessed with good health.
Good for you for knowing to skip over some of the material that is beneath Benjamin. It usually takes new homeschoolers a year or so to understand that they have the freedom to skip stuff. Usually we all start with the 'I gotta do it all' mentality.
I absolutely HATED Shurley English. I'm sure there is some benefit in it, but I could only get through the first few chapters before I went screaming to eBay looking for something different.
We love science as well. And it seldom fails that when I am teaching a science or history lesson that I get all teary about how great our God is. The kids are always teasing me about it. They don't understand why it is so special to have God be our focus in every aspect of our school.
We have loved Math-U-See as well. Although when Hailey hit fourth grade, we switched back to Modern Curriculum Press. I had read that MUS eventually slips behind, and didn't want to lose ground. Funny thing was, when we went back to MCP, Hailey was ahead. So I guess it happens a bit higher up.
We did purchase a couple of the Life of Fred math books. If you haven't heard of them, you should google them. We have the decimals and fractions books. We will do them bit by bit over the next few years. They look like fun.
Okay, this comment turned out too long.
So sorry!
No problem about the comment being long. I welcome any advice from veteran homeschoolers.!!!
I will have to check out the Life of Fred Books. I had thought about using Sir Cumference books next year (we are doing a middle ages study next year) but I am not sure.
Glad to hear I am not the only one who get teary-eyed during lessons. I thought I was just goofy.
:)
All parents want to give the best for their child, and, of course, to protect their offspring from the mischiefs of the world outside home. That's why some parents decide to educate their children at home, instead of letting them to school.
Is it worth to protect your child from the world, knowing, that sooner or later he will have to face it? Does homeschooling give a full learning experience and can serve instead of school? Vote and tell us - http://www.votetheday.com/society-18/homeschooling-309
This comment is really for that votetheday person, although I doubt if they will ever read it.
I was watching that new show on TLC about the Duggars. They were hosting another very large family which homeschools their children, as well. One of the questions asked was whether it was wise to shelter children from the world when they will obviously be subjected to it eventually.
I have to say that her answer made me stop and think.
She said that it is not bad to shelter a small plant in a nursery until it is grown and strong enough to be planted outside among the elements.
I thought that was very wisely put.
And truthfully, with the way the boys were talking about the dangers of the internet, what with pornography, and all, it doesn't sound like they are so much sheltered, as being taught godly principles.
We don't have to NOT talk about drugs and pre-marital sex with our homeschooled children. In fact, that kind of sheltering would be wrong. They wouldn't know how to handle these things when they left our nest. But if we educate them about how God feels about them, they will be prepared.
Sorry, but I think people who judge homeschoolers for sheltering their children too much, are completely uneducated themselves. They have no clue what we are about.
Now that I have preached to the choir, carry on.
I completely agree with you, Rthling. The reason I went ahead and posted this spam was so that maybe others who homeschool or who are just not anti-homeschool could go go and vote on their little poll. Sometimes the youth at church are shocked and say "you talk about THAT with your kids?!?! And you won't let them go to school???" the subject could be anything-drugs, how babies are made alcohol, whatever. They are not sheltered just because they do not spend seven hours or more a day listening to ungodly hoodlums filling their brains with junk.
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