The Homeschooling Journey: What has worked for us

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Years ago I heard Steve Lambert, the publisher of Five in a Row, say that "Homeschooling is a marathon, not a sprint." {I would have to say parenting is the same deal.} For a person that likes to race through all her tasks, these were words I needed to hear. Raising kids is not something you do and then check off your list. It's a lifetime of teaching, helping, and guiding. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes patience and care...and a whole lot of guts!

Over the years, I have tried to remind myself that it is a marathon. I wouldn't be able to teach my boys all they needed to know in a short amount of time. It was going to be fine if they didn't get a concept the first time out. I didn't need to fret if we had a rough day, week, or YEAR. Over time, they would learn and grow. It wouldn't be perfection, but rather a gradual moving forward. These days I have one son in college and the other will be a sophomore in high school in the fall. What Steve mentioned all those years ago is true. It has been a marathon in which to finish you just have to stay to course. We have had successes and failures. I have had to learn that my boys don't learn in the same way. We have had to switch methods and curricula to fit their needs. It hasn't always been pretty, but we have flourished. I am so thankful that we have had the opportunity to grow and learn together...

So as I look back to what has worked, I thought I would compile a list of what we have used to help us along our journey. Not all programs and materials fit all families, but it is my hope that some of these suggestions may help you if you are in the "marathon of homeschooling."

By far, Five in a Row will always be the curriculum I look on in fondness. It is the one that created memories for us in those early years. If there was only one homeschool item I could recommend this would be it! Five in a Row takes  wonderful children's books like Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, Cranberry Thanksgiving , and Truman's Aunt Farm and uses them to teach lessons for five days {Hence, Five in a Row}. Each day you do a different lesson in a different subject {Social studies/Geography, Applied Math, Science, Language Arts, and Art}. It's best for ages 4-8. All that really needs to be added to your day is math and phonic/reading instruction. I loved this curriculum so much that I have kept the books and the teaching manuals for them! Maybe I will get to use them with grandkids.

Language Arts

Explode the Code- We used books one through six to help the boys learn to read. I loved these books because they were straightforward and easy to implement. The only other thing we added was reading practice with mom.

{Reading Bob Books}

Bob Books are great for new readers! Both my boys read their first books with these. They are simple enough for young readers and yet entertaining!

Reading Rescue 1-2-3: Raise Your Child's Reading Level 2 Grades with This Easy 3-Step Program-One of my boys struggled with reading fluency early on. I read this book and followed the system. It greatly improved my son's reading! Today he is an avid reader! If you have a child that is struggling, this book is worth checking out.

Institute for Excellence in Writing- I LOVE this writing curriculum! We started using it when my oldest was in fourth grade. It has even taught me to be a better writer. By teaching kids ways to "dress-up" their writing, student learn how to vary their sentences. Another key element in this program is learning what information is important and how to take notes. We have used several of the theme-based writing books after teaching my boys the basics of the system.

Progeny Press-We have used these for some of the novels the boys read in junior high and high school. I love the Biblical perspective that is brought out especially if a book touches on hard subjects. However, we haven't used these for every novel. Take a look here at how I teach literature in high school.

Math

Math-U-See- We used this curriculum in the elementary years. It is excellent for the simple fact that kids really get to focus on a concept and learn it well before moving on. We didn't, however, use it in the upper grades. While I think it gives a wonderful foundation for kids, we decided to go with something more rigorous in high school.

Teaching Textbooks- I used this with one of my boys during high school who struggled with math. The teaching is done on the computer {through a set of CD's}. I loved that the program did the grading for me! If you have a student that is struggling in the later years I would highly recommend Teaching Textbooks!

Saxon Math- Ok, I am about to be real...I HATE math. When I was in junior high and high school some of my math was done with Saxon. I detested it! But here's the thing...we are not all the same. Some people do well in math. They don't struggle with it like I did. They can handle a rigorous learning program. If that is the case for your child, then Saxon is the way to go! I have one son that has flourished and done well with Saxon. He has used the  DIVE teaching videos that go along with it, and it has worked for him. Be flexible if you have more than one child...what works for one may not work for another. Also, what didn't work for you in school may be the very thing your child needs!

Social Studies

Biblioplan- When the boys were younger we used this four year plan for history. We loved the literature selections that went with it! I loved that it gave you different options for the "spine" (the core text) that you would read along with the literature. You could choose from programs like Story of the World, The History of US, and Mystery of History.

Notgrass History-We have loved this program for high school. We have done World and American history, economics and government. All of them have been great and come from a Christian perspective. While they do incorporate literature and writing, we have only used them for the social studies aspect.

Science

Apologia- When my boys got too old for Five in a Row, we moved on to Apologia science and have never left. In the early grades, there are the "Exploring Creation With..." books which cover different topics. We have also found the junior high and high school materials to be well worth it! We have used the lab kits that go with each book from Nature's Workshop Plus!

Foreign Languages

I am a certified Spanish teacher, and for years people have been asking me what language curricula I would recommend. We have used Muzzy and Rosetta Stone. While certain aspects of them have been excellent, we struggled with both. Learning another language works best if you have a teacher who knows the language. I know there are some online programs that have language teachers you can access or if you can find someone in your area to teach your kids the language of your choosing that is ideal. For years now, I have taught homeschoolers Spanish. I do have a blog on teaching Spanish. You can check it out here. If you are teaching your kids the basics of Spanish my blog might help give you some ideas.

In the future...

I only have a few more years of homeschooling to go. The marathon is almost over. Here are a few things I am looking at for my youngest as we near the finish line...

Philosophy Adventure-My son will be using this next year to go along with his World History. I have read through big portions of the curriculum and love it! Through looking at the lives of philosophers, students learn more about what it means to have a Biblical worldview. There are great writing exercises in it also! My son loves everything to do with social studies so this is going to be a great fit for him!

Lightning Literature-I am toying with the idea of using this program {only for the novels we choose} to do British Literature with my son next year. If you have an opinion on it please leave me a comment!!

So what has worked for you and your kids?

A New Start

In a few short days we start school again.  I love this time of year!  My boys may not be as excited though!  I am even more excited this year because I have really decluttered the house and gotten our supplies ready better than I ever have before.  My motivation comes from the fact that I have a heavier work load (I teach Spanish lessons in the afternoon after homeschooling the boys).  I wanted to make sure that all was ready to go not only for them, but also for my Spanish classes.

I cleaned out one of the shelves on our computer desk.  This was a BIG event for me!!!  That shelf had been home to all of our Five in a Row curriculum and books.  I couldn't bear to put them in storage even though we haven't used Five in a Row in a long time. Those books bring back so many memories. Call me sentimental!  But I finally did it and so glad that I did.  The shelf now has my school supplies, my planning calender, and some other miscellaneous items (stapler and hole punch).

I also have the boys' textbooks all ready to go.  My oldest's books on the left and the younger's on the right.  I have never been this organized!!!

Here is our plan for the year and the curriculum we will be using:

11th Grader

British Literature

Consumer Math using Math-U-See's Stewardship Math {I love that there is a devotional with this and that the focus is teaching the student how to deal with money appropriately.}

Chemistry {An outside class that he will be taking}

Economics and American Government using Notgrass

Health {Just using a basic textbook here by Prentice Hall}

Spanish III {Classes by me that he will be taking with another homeschooler.  This is what we will use to read REAL Spanish literature.}

Service Learning {He has already finished this by serving at a local camp all summer.}

7th Grader

Language Arts {IEW's Economics-Based Writing lessons, Spelling Power, Daily Grams, and various chapter books for reading}

Pre-Algebra {using Math-u-See and Hands-on Equations}

General Science {using Apologia}

Economics and Government {using Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? with the study guide and
Painless American Government }

Spanish {lessons by me}

Piano

We will do Bible together which will consist of memorizing verses, adding to our gratitude journals, and Bible reading (we are going to start with Psalms).

So are you ready to start school?  What's on your agenda?

Looking Back: Our Favorite Homeschool Curricula

We are by no means done with our homeschooling journey, but with my oldest we are getting to the end as he will be a junior in the fall.  Here is a look at some of the curricula that we have enjoyed and learned the most from...

Our homeschooling journey started with Five in a Row when the boys were in early elementary.  Of all the products that we have used this has been my favorite.  My fondest memories come from FIAR.  There were so many neat activities and precious learning experiences that we had. Basically, Five in a Row is a literature-based curriculum.  For one week you read the same picture book, like The Duchess Bakes a Cake
or How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World and pull a lesson from five different subjects based on the book.  Each week there are lessons in language arts, social studies, science, art, and applied math.  My boys gained so much knowledge about the world through these lessons.  The lessons are gentle, yet deep and are memories in the making!  Starting at 3rd or 4th grade we moved from FIAR to other programs for history (Biblioplan) and science (Apologia).  See below for information...

Another similar resource (that is FREE!) are the lessons and lapbooks at Homeschool Share. There are unit studies at Homeschool Share that are similar to Five in a Row.  There are also numerous lapbooks.  We used several units and lapbooks from here and loved all of them!

For math we used Math-U-See and Teaching Textbooks. We used Math-U-See in the younger years.  I loved the hands-on approach and the way of teaching place value.  This year my oldest will use their Stewardship program which deals with personal finance.  Honestly, though, for the high school years I prefer Teaching Textbooks.  This program can mainly be done on the computer. The beauty of it is that every single problem, yes, every single one is done step by step for the student.  So as your child is working through his or her lesson and misses a problem he/she can go back a review the problem. Teaching Textbooks also grades their work.  Since I am very weak in math I felt like this was the way to go when we got to higher levels.

Apologia has awesome programs for both elementary and high school levels. The elementary levels are engaging and fun.  There is also a notebook that you can buy to help review the concepts they have learned. The notebooks include crosswords and notebooking pages with mini-books. My youngest son did every single one of the elementary books and loved them!  The high school levels are rigorous and challenging.  I love that creationism is explored along with why evolution doesn't work based on what we know of the world.

Biblioplan is what we used at the elementary level for history. Biblioplan is a four year program which you can cycle through a couple of times if you homeschool all the way through. It incorporates "spines" (history texts) like Story of the World, Usborne history books, etc. and literature to read as you go through the centuries.  We didn't use the other aspects of the program except for doing maps. I love that we could use literature to cover history!

We used Notgrass for high school history (world and American).  I liked that there were review questions and quizzes and tests to keep my son focused on the material. Literature is also incorporated into the program (although we did literature separately). There is also a book with original documents and speeches that your student can read. Notgrass comes from a Christian perspective which I appreciated.

For writing we used Institute for Excellence in Writing. I loved this program because it teaches good outlining skills and how to dress up your writing.  This is basically the only writing program that we used.  The only problem?  After using it for several years with both boys we got kind of bored with the system.  However, even with that, this is the BEST program out there that I have seen for writing simply because it teaches how to make your writing interesting.

We used Progeny Press and Teaching the Classics from Center for Lit. for teaching literature.  Teaching the Classics is a manual for the parent that teaches how to discuss literature with your student.  Invaluable!!!  I love the list of questions that can be used for any book at the end of the manual.  We used Progeny Press for some of the books that we read.  These are literature guides that come from a Christian perspective. I loved using these when we came to books that have hard topics in them like To Kill a Mockingbird.

So what have you used in your homeschool?

History Firsthand

{Bessie and Sadie}

I recently finished reading Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, a delightful "oral history" about two sisters (Sadie and Bessie Delany) that lived into their 100's.  Sadie and Bessie were born in the late 1800's and lived into the 1990's.  What I loved about their story was getting to see how two sisters survived together with completely opposite personalities.  Sadie was the sweet one, and Bessie was the blunt and feisty one. As Bessie says in the book, "If Sadie is molasses, then I am vinegar!"  Both sisters dealt with life differently, and yet they lived during the same history. Their viewpoints on what went on in their lives could be polar opposites, but for the most part they coexisted and thrived with each other.

It is fascinating to read history through their eyes, firsthand.  Their father was a slave. The sisters lived through the Jim Crow laws, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement.  They met and/or knew many key historical figures (within the African American community) during their lifetimes.  Their wit and wisdom come through like when Sadie says, "Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet."  Or when Bessie explains how they lived past a hundred years with, "Honey, we never married. We never had husbands to worry us to death." 

Currently, my oldest is reading Having Our Say because I thought that it just couldn't be passed up.  Their story, their humor and their wisdom makes it well worth the read.  Besides, I would love for my sons to get some of their history through stories...stories of regular people who lived through amazing history. Because when it comes right down to it, that is how history happens.  We live our daily lives all the while history is being created around us.  It happened to the Delany sisters. It happens to us all.

 

HippoCampus

I just recently came across a great website for high schoolers that is totally FREE! HippoCampus has teaching videos for several subjects (mainly science, social studies, and math). I am planning on using some of them with my oldest who is a freshman this year.  Check it out!

Lapbooking the 17th Century

Noah and I are going through Biblioplan 3 this year.  We recently finished the 17th century. Since most of what we do is read or listen to The Story of the World, I thought we would lapbook some of what we learned. I received for free from Journey through Learning a 17th century overview lapbook several years back. These lapbooks (17th-20th centuries) cover American history.  With Biblioplan we do both world and American history, so we won't be reviewing any world history as we go through this process. I am eager to review with my son! Will post pictures soon...

Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines

Over the years while homeschooling the boys we have read several books about the Renaissance and the Reformation.  I have to admit that many of them have been dry. They have just not captured the interest of my boys. 

I think we have finally found a book that they have been begging me to read a bit more.  That normally doesn't happen with this subject matter. Rats, Bulls & Flying Machines: A History of the Renaissance & Reformation (Core Chronicles Ser. 1) makes the Renaissance and the Reformation come alive!

For example, here are a few tidbits we have gotten from this book that we haven't learned before in our other readings on this period in history...

*Do you know who John Gooseflesh (Johann Gensfleisch) is?  Johann Gutenberg's real name was Johann Genfleisch.  But he must have been ridiculed or something for his last name....so he took his mother's maiden name, Gutenberg.

*What is the floating city and how it played a part in the strength of Italy during the Renaissance?  I bet you could guess that the floating city is Venice.

*Who wrote, "My beard points to heaven and my paintbrush all the day does drop a rich mosaic on my face."? Michelangelo (when he was painting the Sistine Chapel).

Anyways, if you are looking for a good book to share with your kids on the Renaissance and the Reformation, try Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines.

Mystery of History

A few weeks ago a friend of mine loaned me her copy of Mystery of History Volume 3.  For the elementary and Jr. High years we use Biblioplan for history. Biblioplan is really just a reading plan that uses Story of the World, Greenleaf Guides and some history encyclopedias.  I had noticed that Mystery of History was scheduled with Biblioplan, but I really thought, "Do I need another history program or book?" Well, I have to say that I will be ordering volume three!  We borrowed my friend's copy for one week and were hooked!  I love the way it is written from a Christian perspective!  There are also more connections that are made...like did you know that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had a daughter (Catherine of Aragon) who married Henry VIII and that their daughter was Bloody Mary?  I had never made the connection!

These books (volumes one through three) will be valuable for us in high school, too.  I am planning on using TRISMS with Zach next year and he can use Mystery of History to do his research.

I am only bummed that the last volume isn't out yet, and that is the part of history that we will be entering into sometime next year.

So if you are looking for a history curriuculum from a Christian perspective you might want to check out Mystery of History!

America: The Story of US

This past summer I signed up for a free (yes, free) DVD set from the History Channel. Well, last night I finally had a chance to watch the first episode.  It is really well done!  I think we are going to add these DVD's into our American history studies next year.  What I also like is that there are activity guides for teachers and families for this series.  I am thinking I need to look into more History Channel DVD's!

Family Viewing Guide

Classroom Activity Guide

Diane Stanley Biographies

Over the years we have read many of Diane Stanley's biographies that are in the form of picture books.  We are currently reading the about Joan of Arc.  This is a rather long picture book filled with historical information.

Here are some of the others we have read while working through our history program called Biblioplan.

To see the complete list of biographies she has done thus far, check out this link.

Our History in Homeschooling

Here is the question for this week at The Homeschool Village....

When did homeschooling touch your timeline? Did you know you'd be a homeschooler at conception, or like me ... you had never considered it (and was talked into it by your spouse)? Did someone help you get started?

We started homeschooling as soon as my oldest was preschool age and have been ever since. This is our ninth year. It wasn't my original plan to homeschool, but I noticed that as my oldest grew that traditional school wasn't going to work for him.  He was very auditory and didn't like to pick up a pencil to write.  He also learned quickly (if information was given to him verbally) and would have been bored in a Kindergarten class.  So we decided to look into homeschooling.

I had a dear friend help me get started.  She sat me down and we went through different types of curriculum and what would work for Zach.  She has been there ever since guiding me and giving me advice.  There have also been several women in our church that homeschool.  I have gleaned ideas and help from them along the way.

I am so glad that we made the decision to homeschool.  While it isn't always easy or perfect, it has been a tremendous blessing!

Weekly Wrap-up: Our Curriculum Choices

For the Weekly Wrap-up this week we are supposed to talk about what we will be using for the coming school year.

I have two sons: one will be in 8th grade and the other in 4th. You will notice that there are lots of subjects, but I tend to only have the boys work on certain subjects each day...only math, reading, writing are done five days a week.  Here is a breakdown of what we will be doing together and what they will be doing separately...

Subjects Done Together

*Bible and Life Skills with Plants Grown Up

*History with Biblioplan 2: Medieval and Renaissance

(To read more about Biblioplan, see this.)

*Geography withTrail Guide To World Geography (Geography Matters)

The 8th Grader's Curriculum

*Bible reading using this plan called SPECK

*Math with Math-U-See (Algebra I) and the Life of Fred books for review

*Writing with Institute for Excellence in Writing: Medieval History

*Grammar with Fix-It also from the Institute for Excellence in Writing

*Vocabulary building with WORD ROOTS SOFTWARE LEVEL A2

*Spelling Power

*Readers: Suggestions come from Biblioplan

*Apologia: General Science

*And finally, Spanish with Rosetta Stone

The 4th Grader's Curriculum

*Bible Reading with Day by Day Kid's Bible: The Bible for Young Readers (Tyndale Kids)

*Math-U-See (Finish Delta and begin Epsilon)

*Institute for Excellence in Writing: Fables

*Fix-it

*Getty and Duby Italics

*Spelling Power

*Readers: Suggestions from Biblioplan

*Apologia: We are halfway through Botany and then will start on Human Anatomy

*Spanish:Rosetta Stone