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!



 

 

 

Sonlight: Box Day and Organization

We had our first Sonlight box day last week! I may have been even more excited about this one than our My Father's World box day since it was the box days on the Sonlight blog that got me drooling over the curriculum in the first place. It was such a treat to have our own finally! And of course, I got right to work on organizing it :) Looking through the books, I saw that many of the titles weren't ones I would immediately go to if I were shopping for them individually. But after sitting down and reading through some of them, I can tell we are really going to enjoy them. The stories are different and interesting and involve great life lessons. We can't wait to start!

 

 

Here is how I have organized. I am a bit of a color addict and needed something a little prettier than Sonlight's binders, so I grabbed a pretty green 2 inch binder and some numbered dividers. The pocket in the front houses the LA games, while I put each week's P4/5 and LA K schedule/info in the dividers.

 

 

 

For the LA K student sheets, I added those to the files I had started for the MFW K student sheets. So now I have 36 unit files, a file for letter games, a file for reference charts (ABC, numbers, & blend ladder), and a file for other miscellaneous resources. Behind the files I am keeping the MFW guides and Lauri letters.

 

 

 

Finally, here is a shot of our shelf where I'm keeping all our books and other homeschool stuff. We do technically have a homeschool room, but with the house on the market and a major move coming up, I probably won't do more than this right now. Hopefully by the time we get started this summer I'll have a new homeschool room to debut!

Top shelf: large books, map puzzle, bin of craft items, CD's, Cuisenaire rods, etc. Middle Shelf: SL IG, misc. binders, misc. homeschool stuff. Bottom shelf: all of our beautiful books!

 

 

 

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!