I am such a planner and I spent many months this spring and summer choosing curriculum for this our first, full year of homeschool. Last year, when we began in January, the process was much simpler. I went with a simple textbook approach (mostly Abeka) that I could find available used at a reasonable price. For History and Science I placed them mostly based on what topics matched most closely to what they'd been studying in public school. This year though we wanted to use a more classical approach that included lots of literature.
You can find a list of our current curricula in the sidebar. We're using many literature recommendations from Susan Wise Bauer's The Well Trained Mind to round things out. Our students are ages 12 (7th grade), 10 (5th grade), and 6 (first grade). For the most part I'm quite pleased with our choices. I'll categorize a few of the standouts for you based on our opinions so far (third week of school).
Happiest with:
Easy Grammar: (7th and 5th graders) This was a 'eureka' for our older girls. We love the prepositional phrase method. I also appreciate how little teacher prep. is involved.
Draw and Write through History:(all) Our 7th grader is technically studying the Renaissance, not ancients, this year but she's begged to join in on this one. Art has become one of the week's most anticipated events this year. This curriculum would also be great for cursive practice for an upper elementary student although we don't use it that way.
AVKO Spelling: (1st) We're modifying this a bit by breaking the daily lists into even smaller chunks for her, but we are seeing fabulous results so far. She also thinks that doing spelling daily on a whiteboard is much more exciting than the weekly paper/pencil tests she sees her big sisters do.
MCP Plaid Phonics: (1st) This is perfect for reinforcement and a bit of seat work for dd.
Mystery of History:(5th) We're studying Ancients with our younger two using Biblioplan as a rough schedule and for it's scheduled reading list. This text is awesome! I find it quite engaging ad readable, with just the perfect amount of information. I like most of all how the Christian worldview is emphasized. I almost wish that I was using it exclusively with both students. But now we'll have something to look forward to with our younger ones on their second trip through the history cycle.
Victor's Journey Through the Bible is also a great resource. We're referring to it almost daily. It really adds a lot to our readings from Vos' Story Bible.
Doing the job:
Saxon Algebra 1 w/DIVE:(7th) A good fit for my mathematically advanced student. I think it's a great, solid program overall but the text is unwieldy, the fonts too small (IMO), and the pages crowded. But it's working and dd is happy with it. She's been doing Saxon right along so we'll be sticking with it.
Latina Christiana 1:(5th and 7th) This text is also dry and I wish a few more practice/reinforcement exercises were included. I often find myself making my own and that's honestly dangerous. A Latin scholar I am not! But, like Saxon math above, we chose this based on scope and sequence. It's working, just not exciting anyone around here.
Wordly Wise 3000 book 7:(7th) I love this, dd doesn't. We're using it as both a spelling and a vocabulary program. We'll be sticking with it, at least for this year.
Disappointed with:
Story of the World Vol.1:(5th and 1st) I wanted to love this one, and fully expected to based on the many glowing recommendations it's received. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I can say that I did not realize quite how secular it was. As young earth creationists we don't agree with many of the dates thus far, so time lining has been complicated. Some of the literature recommendations don't suit our taste either. As we're following the BP schedule we are jumping around a lot, that could be part of the problem. Some of the map activities in the activity guide have been great. My 1st grader also enjoys the coloring pages. I hope that as we progress forward historically these conflicts won't be such an issue.
Singapore Math: (5th and 1st) This could really be posted in two categories... It's working great for my 1st grader. She's using 1B as she tested out of 1A prior to the start. We are coming to this program from Saxon. We made the switch for our younger students because they were not happy with Saxon and wanted something different. We chose Singapore as they often need less review than average for a given concept and we were impressed with their word problems. It's not working out nearly so well for our 5th grader. We are both highly frustrated. I didn't anticipate the handicap that we'd have starting the program at level 4A. We just don't have enough understanding of their method at times. Thus we're often unable to do many of the word problems (at least non-algebraically) which was one of the major selling points of the program for us in the first place! I'm hoping perseverance will pay off here, but if it doesn't get better within a few weeks we may be dusting off the Saxon for her.
You can find a list of our current curricula in the sidebar. We're using many literature recommendations from Susan Wise Bauer's The Well Trained Mind to round things out. Our students are ages 12 (7th grade), 10 (5th grade), and 6 (first grade). For the most part I'm quite pleased with our choices. I'll categorize a few of the standouts for you based on our opinions so far (third week of school).
Happiest with:
Easy Grammar: (7th and 5th graders) This was a 'eureka' for our older girls. We love the prepositional phrase method. I also appreciate how little teacher prep. is involved.
Draw and Write through History:(all) Our 7th grader is technically studying the Renaissance, not ancients, this year but she's begged to join in on this one. Art has become one of the week's most anticipated events this year. This curriculum would also be great for cursive practice for an upper elementary student although we don't use it that way.
AVKO Spelling: (1st) We're modifying this a bit by breaking the daily lists into even smaller chunks for her, but we are seeing fabulous results so far. She also thinks that doing spelling daily on a whiteboard is much more exciting than the weekly paper/pencil tests she sees her big sisters do.
MCP Plaid Phonics: (1st) This is perfect for reinforcement and a bit of seat work for dd.
Mystery of History:(5th) We're studying Ancients with our younger two using Biblioplan as a rough schedule and for it's scheduled reading list. This text is awesome! I find it quite engaging ad readable, with just the perfect amount of information. I like most of all how the Christian worldview is emphasized. I almost wish that I was using it exclusively with both students. But now we'll have something to look forward to with our younger ones on their second trip through the history cycle.
Victor's Journey Through the Bible is also a great resource. We're referring to it almost daily. It really adds a lot to our readings from Vos' Story Bible.
Doing the job:
Saxon Algebra 1 w/DIVE:(7th) A good fit for my mathematically advanced student. I think it's a great, solid program overall but the text is unwieldy, the fonts too small (IMO), and the pages crowded. But it's working and dd is happy with it. She's been doing Saxon right along so we'll be sticking with it.
Latina Christiana 1:(5th and 7th) This text is also dry and I wish a few more practice/reinforcement exercises were included. I often find myself making my own and that's honestly dangerous. A Latin scholar I am not! But, like Saxon math above, we chose this based on scope and sequence. It's working, just not exciting anyone around here.
Wordly Wise 3000 book 7:(7th) I love this, dd doesn't. We're using it as both a spelling and a vocabulary program. We'll be sticking with it, at least for this year.
Disappointed with:
Story of the World Vol.1:(5th and 1st) I wanted to love this one, and fully expected to based on the many glowing recommendations it's received. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I can say that I did not realize quite how secular it was. As young earth creationists we don't agree with many of the dates thus far, so time lining has been complicated. Some of the literature recommendations don't suit our taste either. As we're following the BP schedule we are jumping around a lot, that could be part of the problem. Some of the map activities in the activity guide have been great. My 1st grader also enjoys the coloring pages. I hope that as we progress forward historically these conflicts won't be such an issue.
Singapore Math: (5th and 1st) This could really be posted in two categories... It's working great for my 1st grader. She's using 1B as she tested out of 1A prior to the start. We are coming to this program from Saxon. We made the switch for our younger students because they were not happy with Saxon and wanted something different. We chose Singapore as they often need less review than average for a given concept and we were impressed with their word problems. It's not working out nearly so well for our 5th grader. We are both highly frustrated. I didn't anticipate the handicap that we'd have starting the program at level 4A. We just don't have enough understanding of their method at times. Thus we're often unable to do many of the word problems (at least non-algebraically) which was one of the major selling points of the program for us in the first place! I'm hoping perseverance will pay off here, but if it doesn't get better within a few weeks we may be dusting off the Saxon for her.
Those are the items that are our standouts so far. Adding time lining and mapping this year in History has also been great. We made our own timeline binders based on a suggestion I found here. For our first grader we're using a mix of SOTW review cards and MOH tidbits to help her assemble a smaller and more manageable 4x6 index card binder. We're drawing some of our own figures in art class and using a variety of other freebies. It's like scrapbooking and history rolled into one. We're really enjoying it!
I don't know that there's a specific scripture I'd reference for planning in particular. But I often find myself referring to several verses in Proverbs 3 ...
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
-Proverbs 3: 3, 5, 13
Then, of course, there is Deuteronomy 6:4-9.
All in all we're off to a great start. 2008-2009 should be a great year for our family!
4 comments:
I enjoyed visiting your blog. I like your blog layout.
God bless you!
I hope you have a wonderful year! :)
Lynn
Sounds like you have a great year ahead of you. Thanks for visiting me. :)
Thank you so much for sharing what works well and what doesn't. That definitely helps. I had also heard good things about the Story of the World. Have a blessed day!
Sherry
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