Curriculum Update for 2014-2015

So last time I posted about curriculum choices, it was our initial 2014-2015 line up. I blogged about it here. Now that we have been homeschooling for about 7 months, we are learning our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to teaching and learning styles so that has resulted in several changes. I'm not 100% happy with everything but it is much better and will see us through to the end of the year. Here are the changes we have made:

Math. We originally planned to use the math in MFW and supplement if needed. I guess I'm not quite as Charlotte Mason as I'd hoped when it comes to teaching certain subjects because I just wasn't satisfied with how integrated/scattered throughout the curriculum math was. After a few more duds, we finally gave Horizons a try and are not looking back. We love it! It gives me the structure I was lacking and helps me feel like I'm doing things right. It is simple and straightforward and the worksheets are laid out nicely without being overkill on the color/pictures like some programs. I also really like the spiral method at this age. Kids learn so many things at so many different paces so I love the little bit of review in each lesson. I like knowing that even if they didn't grasp everything 100% the first time, they'll be exposed to it again and be able to get it on their own pace while still being able to move forward in other areas. And Selah (4) is actually able to keep up with the worksheets as well which is really nice. I'm sure I'll have to slow her down at some point, but for now it's nice to be able to do math with them together. We still do the math worksheets from MFW but I don't teach it from there at all.

 

 

Phonics. We started out using LA K and My Father's World to teach Solomon to read. As a newbie, LA K was confusing for me so we dropped that. And then just like with the math, we weren't loving the phonics approach. Solomon was ready to go but it seemed that the blend ladder was confusing him it felt kind of scattered like the math did. So I picked up The Reading Lesson and within a week he was blending. We have since thrown in some Bob books and flash cards and he is doing great. I also started using it with Selah recently, not expecting much, and to my surprise she is moving right along! I couldn't believe it when she started blending!

 

 

 

 

Handwriting. We gave Handwriting Without Tears a try and both kids struggled with it. They really prefer the lines over the boxes, and I like the more straightforward approach (clearly I've narrowed down my teaching style!) that we have found in A Reason for Handwriting. Both kids do these workbooks as well and enjoy them.

 

 

 

 

As for everything else, we have dropped the IG for SL P 4/5 and many of the books. It just wasn't getting done and it felt a bit disjointed. That being said, I still love Sonlight and still plan on using it next year! Despite dropping the phonics and math instruction, we still use MFW K for the bible, the science topic, and student sheets. The kids LOVE those student sheets!

 

Our long term plans have changed a bit too. I had originally planned to stretch this year out over 18 months but we will finish this summer and move on in the Fall. More on that later.

 

We have made a lot of changes but we are finally finding our groove and hopefully things will continue working for a long time to come. Feel free to ask any questions if you want to know more about the choices we have made!



 

 

 

Blog Resurrection

I started this blog with all the best intentions of keeping up with it. Let's ignore the fact that this is like the 5th blog I have started. But hey, my posting streak lasted longer than any of them, and I haven't deleted it yet!

So anyway...it's been a long time since I posted. Like 8+ months. Oops. Well, I have a good excuse! Last time I wrote I mentioned that we had accepted an offer on our house in Kansas. Well, I am very happy to announce that it all went through and we have been official North Carolina residents since June 23rd. YAY! This year has been so incredible. I have wanted to move home for so long and wasn't sure it would ever happen and not only did it happen, but we were immensely blessed through it all. My husband got a better job than we could ever have dreamed of. We joined an awesome church where we feel at home. I am making so many new friends. Our marriage is growing stronger. It has just been so amazing. There were some hard times, some very hard times, but through it all God has been blessing and establishing us. We have also been very busy! Despite the awesome job, Matt is working longer hours and has a commute. We moved into a small apartment when we first got here so we ended up moving again in December. 2 moves in 6 months with 3 children is not for the faint of heart!

We also started officially homeschooling in August! It has taken a lot of adjustment as far as scheduling and getting our curriculum right, but we are LOVING it. It is so amazing to go from nothing to hearing your child read his first words. Such a confidence booster! And to see how quickly my 4 year old is catching up to her older brother.

So that is what has been going on. Hopefully I'll stick around and keep blogging this time! Our curriculum line up has changed some since I last shared our choices for 2014/2015, as have my plans for next year. I'll be blogging about that soon. Oh and something else really exciting...I have a homeschool room now! It's been made over once and probably will be made over again once I save some money for an Ikea trip :) I'll definitely be blogging about that!

Products We Love: Erasable Gel Pens

It has been a while since I posted last! We have been very busy because something very wonderful happened: we accepted an offer on our house! So if all goes through we will be closing June 20th and getting moved to NC sometime shortly thereafter. I am so very excited but also a little nervous! When you want something so bad it is hard not to be a little scared. So far everything has gone well, just need to get through the appraisal which is taking forever but should hopefully be done in the next week or so. Once we make it through that I am packing!

So anyway, for my post today I wanted to talk about one of my absolute favorite products I have found for homeschooling and just everyday use. Enter: erasable gel pens! I heard about these guys on a blog somewhere and just had to find them. I found a little pack at Office Depot and put them to use right away. You may be wondering how an erasable pen is possible, I did too. But seriously...these work. They leave far less marks and residue than any pencil I have ever used. Like nothing. And they are such pretty colors! Perfect for scheduling, homeschool planners (you can use a different color for each child!), anytime you want a pretty color and brightness of a pen but with the ability to erase. Apparently they make erasable markers and highlighters too! (Maybe y'all already know this and I'm just behind. Either way, I'm still pumped about these.)

 

 

 

Oh boy and now I just saw the Amazon has even more colors. Might be doing some shopping soon! If y'all didn't know already...I'm a bit of a color addict :) This meme might have been made for me. It really is an issue sometimes. Sometimes I'll be looking at curriculum and think "That one doesn't have any color, forget that.". And then I have to remind myself that it isn't about color, it's about content. Hopefully I'll get better about that. 

 

 

Anyway, if you don't have them yet, treat yo'self to these awesome pens. (Yes that was a Parks & Recreation reference. Love that show.)

 

Thoughts on Common Core (from a regular homeschool mom's limited perspective)

So if you have spent any time on homeschooling chat boards or facebook pages lately, you will have seen a lot of discussion regarding the Common Core. I had seen enough criticism of it from Christian organizations that I respect to go ahead and assume it wasn't a good thing, but I still wanted to know more about it. I started researching recently and then yesterday, the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) released Building the Machine, a documentary that does a great job breaking down the issues with common core. I already highly respected HSLDA for their work on the front lines of protecting parents' educational rights, but I gained a whole new respect for them from their work in this movie. Not only did they share great information, but they did it without slandering and bashing those that created and support Common Core, which, to me, speaks volumes about their integrity as an organization that we trust to protect our rights.

So for those that don't know what Common Core is, it's basically a set of educational standards that the government wants to see implemented in every school in the country. Sounds good, right? I mean what could be bad about equal standards and an organized system for all students? And what does that have to do with homeschoolers?

Here are the major issues I have with it.

1. From what I can tell, Common Core was created by government representatives and people with PhD's that work at big name universities. American parents and K-12 teachers were NOT invited to be a part of it. That is really concerning to me. Who knows what kids need, the government? Or parents and teachers? To me this is a perfect example of the government thinking they know what is best for everyone. This is not democracy. If parents and teachers don't get a say in what kids are learning in school, we are heading down a very scary road as a nation.

2. The main goal of Common Core is to have kids "career and college ready". Sounds like a good thing but unfortunately the approach to this will most likely snuff out creativity and individuality. Kids are not cattle. We are not machines. We can't all be programmed the same way to do what the government thinks we should do. Not everyone wants to go to college or have a career. Some kids need more time. Some kids can and want to go sooner. "Career and college ready" creates a system with very little wiggle room for unique paths to education and jobs. One size fits all simply does not work for education and is NOT the answer to education issues in this country. Heck, I knew that in elementary school!

3. Beyond all of that, I have heard of SAT's being dumbed down, anti-Christianity agendas, teaching methods that have never been proven to work, shady dealings with the implementation of it and getting states to accept it, discouragement of parental involvement, and more. None of that sits well with me.

4.You may still be wondering how this affects homeschooling. For one thing, I think we should all be wary and alert when the government tries to step into education this way. If they are trying to manipulate the public school system to this magnitude, what is to stop them from encroaching on homeschool rights? There are also many homeschool curricula that are switching over to Common Core standards, so you can't just ignore it. On top of that, changes to the SAT's and ACT's may be promoting certain ways of thinking (alternative lifestyles, welfare mindsets, evolution, etc.) that are pushed in the Common Core. You see...this isn't just innocent basic math and grammar standards. There are other agendas being pushed here!

I think my biggest issue overall is that it appears to me that the government is truly trying to "build a machine", as the title of HSLDA's documentary so well puts it. It honestly makes my stomach hurt! I am absolutely not OK with sending my children into this kind of environment. As someone on the IndoctriNation movie said so well "You are sending your children into a pagan environment to have their minds molded by strangers". That was said BEFORE Common Core. Now it is even worse.

I thought about trying to write more of an unbiased post on this, but the more I learn about it, the more disturbed I am. Even if most of these issues don't bother someone, I still don't see how someone can agree that this is the answer. To me, the answer is MORE parental involvement. Individualized learning. Less time doing busy work and more time exploring. We can't send our kids away from us 40+ hours a week and dump 30+ kids on one teacher and assume they are going to thrive.

So what do we do? I know that I will not support it in any way, so will definitely be doing my homework on all curriculum I consider. I would encourage those who are involved in schools do all they can to try and stop it. But most of all, I would pray. So many people get into an "end-times" mindset and seem to just settle for America going down the crapper. Even if Jesus is coming back in a week, God CAN and WANTS to turn this nation around! We have to stop bashing our politicians and start speaking life and love over them. Pray for the teachers and students. If all Christians would come together and pray for this country, I believe we would see immediate changes.

As a closing, I would like to say that I have no judgment for those who send their children to public school. I can't put God in a box and assume that what is best for my family is best for yours. But so many people just don't know or understand the implications of something like this. I just know that when the government starts stepping into things they have no business in, I start to get concerned. Love to all.

Have other thoughts on Common Core? Please feel free to comment and share what you think!

For more information on the Common Core:
http://www.hslda.org/commoncore/default.aspx

 

How We Organize My Father's World Kindergarten: Part 1

I find myself often floating between being something of an over-achiever and just plain impatient. When I am excited about something I have a hard time not going after it. So even though we still have months before we are ready to start our new curriculum, and are hopefully God-willing moving to North Carolina between now and then, I couldn't help but get going on some of our curriculum organization. I got my ideas from blogs off Pinterest so hopefully they are tried and true :) I know I would have been completely lost with that big stack of student sheets without seeing it organized online already. So here is what we did.

I got a hanging file crate to hang files for each unit in (and then realized the new pack I bought was the wrong size so we are still in production here until I get the right size!). I then printed out slot labels for each unit, Creation to Yy-Yellow. In each file, I am putting all of the work sheets for each unit into each file, as well as any coordinating worksheets from our Sonlight, math, and handwriting programs. So in total we will actually have 36 files for units. I also plan on adding a file for extra sheets, such as the bingo cards, blend latter chart, 100 chart, etc.

 

Obviously this will be much more full with files when I'm done, but hopefully behind the files I'll have space for large items, such as the Lauri letters, Teacher's Guide, etc.

 

 

I also got to try out my new laminator yesterday! I have never used one before but I am SO glad I got one. So far I have laminated the blend ladder chart, bingo cards, vowel song cards, alphabet game cards, and the number and letter reference charts. I wasn't sure what else to do at this point, I guess I'll have to wait and see once we get going.

 

 

 

Selah working on her bingo! (In her Frozen dress as usual)

 

 

 

That's what I have so far. I'm sure it will grow and change as we get going in the lessons but I will definitely post what we do and what works!

 





 

 

Products we used: 

 

 

Box Day #1: My Father's World Kindergarten

We had our first official box day today! I don't know about you but for our family, there aren't many things better in life than big boxes of books coming in the mail. So we were super excited! Poor Selah fell asleep on the way home from running errands though and Solomon and I were too eager to wait, so she missed out. We got the deluxe package, the literature package, and a few extras. Everything is pictured except the teacher manual and A-Z cards!

I am so happy with everything we got and am definitely happy with my decision to get the literature package, especially thanks to a sweet mama on a swap page who sold me a like-new set for a great price! We can't wait to get started. Solomon is already diving into the dinosaur books! Now I'm just ready to start organizing everything.

                                                                

 

                                                                
                                                                Literature Package

 

 

                        

 

 

Products We Love: Melissa & Doug Wooden USA Puzzle

I am a huge geography nerd. I find so much satisfaction in knowing where different countries, cities, etc. are. So needless to say, I plan on passing that onto my children if they'll allow me. So far so good, especially thanks to our awesome USA puzzle from Melissa & Doug. My children were already fairly familiar with several state names thanks to our numerous road trips around the country, but this has just taken their knowledge to the next level. Not to mention enhancing those fine motor and visual discrimination skills! The pieces are small and can take a little patience, but they are getting really good and putting this thing together. Within a few times of doing it, they were remembering all of the larger states and locations (California, Alaska, Texas), as well as our special states, Kansas and North Carolina and several of their bordering ones. Solomon is even starting to get his directions down! So if you are looking for a great introduction to USA geography and a way to get your kids doing something hands on, this is a great puzzle. I just ordered their world one too!

 

Curriculum 2014-2015

This is our first official year of homeschooling, yay! I plan on starting sometime this summer, at the latest in September. Solomon will be 5 and Selah will be 3 1/2. So we are technically doing Solomon's Kindergarten year and Selah's Pre-K year. Since they are only 16 months apart, I want to combine them as much as possible.

So I have seriously been researching curricula for years now and finally narrowed it down to 2 main ones that I really like, My Father's World and Sonlight. I decided on using Sonlight for the most part and definitely wanted to do their Pre-K program for 4 and 5 year olds, adding in K math and language arts for Solomon and then seeing if Selah could keep up with that or if she would need something else. But that beautiful My Father's World Kindergarten set just kept calling my name. So after much deliberation and prayer, I have decided to use both! I think it will work out really nicely because I want to wait until Selah is 5 to start Core A from Sonlight, so if we start this summer, we have 18 months to fill with schooling. Doing both will help stretch us out and hopefully give them a nice gentle Pre-K/K year (and a half!). And maybe it will allow me to not only solidify my decision to use one or the other (or make it harder choose!), but also give me multiple tools to figure out their learning styles.

So here is the line up (for now...things could still change, except I do already have a few things ready to go).

Bible/History/Social Studies/Science: Mix of MFW & SL
Math: Starting with the integrated math in MFW and adding in Singapore Early Bird if we feel we need more
Phonics/Language Arts: MFW, SL Language Arts K
Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K and K
Spanish: adding in Spanish alphabet and vocab to go with MFW units

I realize that seems like a lot, but this is for 2 children over 18 months...more if we need it. I'm guessing we'll have some trial and error but hopefully this will give us a solid start and help us figure out what works and what doesn't. I am so excited to get started!

Here is what we are getting with Sonlight's P4/5. Love all the great books!

This is what we'll be getting with MFW, including the literature package. We are going to have a crazy amount of books, but I'm somewhat of a book addict and there is so much value in reading to your children. Plus, we'll be able to save these books for Esther and any future children!

 

Why We Chose to Homeschool and Other Thoughts on Education

I began to think about and research homeschooling when I was pregnant with Solomon. I knew from my own public school experience that I wanted better for my children. As I have gone deeper in my research and simply being a mother, I have found several more important reasons for us to homeschool, as well as develop an educational philosophy. That being said, I'm a total newbie at homeschooling. I'm sure my philosophy will change and grow over time. And these reasons and philosophies are for MY family. Others see and do things differently and that's fine. So not in any particular order, here we go:

1. I feel a personal calling to be home with my children and to be the one that is nurturing them in every way. Of course I believe that there is a benefit in my children learning from others, but ultimately, the shaping of their hearts and minds should happen predominately in our home. I also struggle with the idea of sending them away for 8 or so hours a day, 5 days a week. For us, that's just too much time for them to be out of our care and influence, especially when there is rampant anti-God agendas, sex, drugs, etc. going on in public schools. Now does that mean I'm going to shelter my children from the realities of the world? No way! I don't hide much from my kids and I'm guessing they know more about what goes on in the world than most their age. I am honest because I want to equip them to be prepared for what they may face, as well as learn how to pray for those matters.

2. I believe (HOPE!!) that I can give my children a superior education. From my personal experience, and many others I know, the atmosphere of public schools is not conducive to growing a love for learning. I am an intelligent person and when I apply myself, I know I can succeed at anything. But I was a C average student in school. Why? For one thing I was more interested in my peers and their opinions of me than grades or even my family. Being taught with the pressures of tests, mountains of homework, potentially failing or falling behind, etc. did not encourage a healthy appreciation or interest in what was being taught. Beyond that, I don't believe in a one size fits all instructional model. With homeschooling, I can tailor my children's education to their individual learning styles. I also spent a lot of time doing NOTHING in school. We can spend more time learning and playing at home or wherever we go. I have also read numerous studies showing that homeschoolers do better on SAT's so that is encouraging to me.

3. Freedom of schedule. I love not being tied down by anything. I love that with homeschooling, we can do it anywhere, anytime, and take breaks anytime we want. If we feel led to serve in Africa for a few months, we can pack up our books and go. If we start a unit on elephants, we can go to the zoo everyday that week and get to know them in real life.


4. This is more for me than my kids...but my giftings are administration and teaching. So for myself personally, I absolutely love setting up school, planning curriculum, and teaching my kids!


That's everything in a nutshell. I could go into a lot more but I'll save that for another time.