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Previous post from last July here.
This post coincides with iHomeschool Network's Annual Blog Hop. This week (which I'm late on!) is Curriculum Week. Check next week for School Room Week.
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Olivia started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. Joshua started "Preschool" on Sept 6, 2016. We don't follow specific grades but Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 6-10, Olivia is anywhere from Gr. 1-3, Joshua is preschool/Kindy.
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 6 mths-ish I'll post what we are currently working on. We use a mishmash of traditional homeschool curriculum, workbooks bought at teacher supply stores, stuff made up completely in my head and most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books. In a nut shell, we're eclectic homeschoolers.
Joshua:
He's juuuust starting out so is mostly using left overs from Olivia as we see what he like/works well for him. Some of the more common printables that we're grabbing are from 1+1+1=1, Our Little Monkeys, Homeschool Creations, Confessions of a Homeschooler and Teachers Pay Teachers.
He's still working on speech with his speech therapist. At the time of this writing, he is approx 1 year "behind" in his speech for the typical 3 yr 3 mth old child. This is WAY better than his completely non verbal-ness from a few months ago, so we'll take it! We still make use of sign language. He still uses it for words he doesn't know and we'll use it when we are trying to figure out his gibberish.
Once he has a better grasp on constant language we'll start ABCMouse with him. Olivia really liked it and he loved watching her when she did her lessons so is already familiar with it.
Olivia:
English:
We're playing around in Brave Writer's "Jot it Down" program which focuses on dictation for Olivia's age group. We do dictations for Brave Writer's Friday Freewrite and to write her Brownie Journal (basically, what she did at Brownies on a given day).
We're almost done 1+1+1=1's You Can Read program. Olivia picked up a lot of the more "sight" words with that. We feel that phonetic learning is highly important over memorizing sight words so we're spending a lot of effort on letter sounds, blending sounds and sounding out short words. We have oodles of early readers that we share in reading and Olivia is reading more and more of the words in each book.
In the spring started Reading Eggs, an online program like ABC Mouse, but instead of learning sounds, she's now using it to read. She loves it and asks to work on it even on the weekends.
Math:
Olivia is almost done Early Math on Khan Academy. Her main curriculum is Math Mammoth, in which she just started the Gr. 2 level. It worked well for her for Gr. 1, so I hope it continues to!
With our ReadingEggs subscription came a subscription to MathSeeds which is meant for 3-8 year olds. MathSeeds starts out really young (Olivia was being made to identify numbers), but she doesn't seem to care. I'm not sure (since she didn't care) if there is a test out area to start at a higher level.
Extra Curricular:
Olivia just finished her 2nd year of soccer. She has grown so much in it since last year. Last year she would pick grass and stare off into space. This year she actively took part in drills, actually went after the ball on the field and even scored 2 goals!
Olivia joined Brownies this year. I was a Brownie as a girl, so was super excited for her to start. For some reason, she's picking up on Brianna's "I can't sleep away" and is nervous about the possibility of camps. She's slept at a friend's house several times with no issue, so I don't think it'll be a problem, but she sure thinks it will be!
Brianna:
Math:
We really like Math Mammoth. It's almost self-teaching once a kid can read. It breaks the new concepts down into step by step instructions. However, she's been struggling so much with math that we're trying something new altogether. We've started Time4Learning. She responds really well to "computer school work" so I'm hoping this helps with her math. We're also slowly working our way through Khan Academy. Brianna really likes the videos explaining new concepts.
Brianna struggles a lot with math so she's "behind", only doing Gr. 6. But that's the beauty of homeschooling. She can be working on Gr. 10/11 science while being years behind in math. Math is something that we spend a lot of time trying out different things for.
English:
We're semi-using Brave Writer's "Writer's Jungle" (bits and pieces, at least) Brianna especially enjoys their Poetry Teatimes. For spelling, as always, we don't do a lot of focus on spelling because of Brianna's Dysgraphia. Her spelling HAS improved on it's own through the use of texting, social media and using spell check on her typed work. We'll be doing NaNoWriMo for the 3rd time. The first year, she struggled to hit 12,000 words. Last year she did an impressive 20,000 and wasn't even done her story! We use CNN's Student News for daily writing (we watch the clip and she picks one topic to write a summary about).
French:
Brianna is almost done her first year of Rosetta Stone. My grandma bought the kids the full 5 year lesson set, so she'll be good through high school. Duolingo has an app for her phone for extra, on-the-go practice. One of our neighbours tests Brianna's French periodically.
Arts:
Brianna wants to learn guitar and we have a child's guitar and a great book - The Complete Guitar Manual, hopefully we can get around to that. She also wants to get back into playing the flute (which is currently under repairs). Hopefully she can be encouraged to put in a stronger, more frequent effort this time.
She has expressed interest in learning about some Shakespeare, so we'll learn about him and read/watch some plays.
She wants to do some basic art lessons to improve her drawing, so I'm looking into some good lessons for that. She also wants to learn to sew. She took a crochet class in the winter and will hopefully look to improve further in that.
Phys Ed/Health:
Brianna normally runs with the Cornwall MultiSport Club. This year I had back to back surgeries, one being major abdominal surgery, so her coach was out of commission for the summer. Brianna is very much not self-motivating, but we hope to get her back into basic training now that I'm almost 100%. She is still walking/running/biking 10k for Terry Fox this year. She does youth yoga classes a couple times a month and yoga videos at home. Because she is overly flexible, she loves it and it greatly improves her balance and fidgeting.
Civics:
We took part in our town's first Pride parade this year, so there will be a lot of diversity learning going on in the near future.
Life Skills:
Brianna babysits and does random jobs for neighbours. Because of the sudden influx of money, she's learning about comparing prices and smart spending. She's looking forward to being able to get a "real" job in a couple years. She's also becoming more responsible for getting her schoolwork and chores done with less interference from us.
Extra Curriculars:
Like Olivia, Brianna is signed up for Girl Guides this year. For her age group, she will be in PathFinders. As she has anxieties about sleeping away from home, she is super nervous about camps, but we will be trying to get her to sleepover more in the coming months at various friends' so she can try to get used to it. She also joined a Teen Tuesday program through the library where she gets to hang out with kids her age and do various activities.
Both Girls:
History/Geography:
We're are going to start doing Country Studies again. The kids really enjoyed them. We read about the countries, find them on maps, watch videos about them and make a bunch of food from that country. I made both Brianna and Olivia's country reports on Microsoft Word because I couldn't find anything I liked that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. If I can figure out how to share them here, I will. We'll be reading through History of the World and Geography of the World as our his/geo base outside of the Country Studies.
Science:
We're currently finishing up on our Biology course. After that, we'll be taking a break from a set topic while I can put together a Weather unit. Since we live in Canada and winter is coming, it works lol Both girls went to science camp over the summer and had a blast.
Arts:
I want to work on art some more. Brianna loves it but is fairly terrible lol So she wants to learn little ways to make her art better. Olivia on the other hand, has this idea that her drawings aren't good enough. No telling her otherwise changes her mind :( So for both girls, we'll be doing some basic art lessons, using a variety of mediums and styles.
Reading:
I made a post here about our reading plans for the year, with book titles and links.
Showing posts with label Lesson Plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lesson Plans. Show all posts
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Current Curriculum July 2015
This post contains NO affiliate links
Previous post from last Sept here.
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Olivia started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. We don't follow specific grades but Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 6-10 and Olivia is mostly Gr 1, a little Kindy and some Gr. 2.
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 6 mths-ish I'll post what we are currently working on. We use a mishmash of traditional homeschool curriculum, workbooks bought at teacher supply stores, stuff made up completely in my head and most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books. In a nut shell, we're eclectic homeschoolers.
Olivia:
We have a subscription to ABCMouse.com and Olivia really likes it! It has all the way from Toddlers to the end of Kindergarten. This program added on a couple more levels, but only lists levels not grades, so I don't know where the program ends after Kindergarten. Olivia is still learning to control the computer so she's a little slower going here than in her paper school work.
For printables we mostly use 1+1+1=1 (there's also great tot school and preschool printables here!). Confessions of a Homeschooler also has great printables. I love 1+1+1=1 as they have a lot of themed units. They cover a wide variety of skills but under one theme (Olivia has done cats, pizza, Octonauts and more). Even though most of them are below her skill levels, she really enjoys them so we keep doing them. 1+1+1=1 now has literature units as well.
English:
We'll start dabbling in Brave Writer's "Jot it Down" program which focuses on dictation for Olivia's age group. We'll start up 1+1+1=1's You Can Read program once Olivia is more comfortable in phonics. We feel that phonetic learning is highly important over memorizing sight words so we're spending a lot of effort on letter sounds, blending sounds and sounding out short words.
Math:
Olivia has started Early Math on Khan Academy. She is super proud to be doing Khan just like Brianna. Her computer skills are still lacking, so Khan is definitely something that we do together, though she is getting better at navigating.
Olivia loves to help take care of Joshua, cooking and household chores. We, of course, encourage her as much as possible!
Phys Ed./Health:
Olivia has started running like Brianna. This year, like last, she ran in the fun run this month and will be taking part in the Cornwall Triathlon, doing a duathlon, next month. She's also in U7 Soccer this year. The kids play weekly and Olivia seems to really enjoy it.
Brianna:
Math:
We really like Math Mammoth. It's almost self-teaching once a kid can read. It breaks the new concepts down into step by step instructions in a way that really gets through to Brianna. Math Mammoth goes only to Gr. 7, so once she's done that, I'll be looking for a new curriculum for Algebra and the like. We're also slowly working our way through Khan Academy. Brianna really likes the videos explaining new concepts.
English:
We're using Brave Writer's "Writer's Jungle" again this year. Brianna's especially enjoys their Poetry Teatimes, which we'll be starting again in the fall. For spelling, I keep track of words she has spelled wrong in her general school work and base spelling practice off of that. We'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year. She took part last year and wrote an impressive 12,000+ words. Amazing who someone who often struggles with writing a few pages. This year, we'll be starting early with NaNoWriMo's educator's lesson plans.
French:
We will be doing Rosetta Stone now that Brianna has her own laptop to install it on. Brianna already knows more French than I do, so thankfully Rosetta Stone is a self-teaching course! We'll be using Living Languages for extra activities. Duolingo has an app for her phone for extra, on-the-go practice. One of our neighbours has offered to test Brianna's French periodically.
Arts:
Brianna wants to learn guitar and we have a child's guitar and a great book - The Complete Guitar Manual, hopefully we can get around to that. She also wants to get back into playing the flute (which is currently under repairs). Hopefully she can be encouraged to put in a stronger, more frequent effort this time.
She has expressed interest in learning about some Shakespeare, so we'll learn about him and read/watch some plays.
Phys Ed/Health:
Brianna runs with a local MultiSport club. Her last run of the year is her Terry Fox run on Sept 14th. She actually bikes the Terry Fox run, but as she chooses to do the biggest route (10km), it's certainly nothing to laugh at! Once that is done, she's done until May. She'll spend that time doing training at least twice a week (running, yoga, strength training, cardio) and of course, we live in Canada, so there's always snow to shovel!
Computer:
Brianna and Olivia both have Minecraft accounts. I'm currently looking for cool educational ideas for it as I know many are out there. But for now, both girls are just working on computer skills and building. Brianna is learning to use the MinecraftWiki to research how to do or use various aspects of the game.
Civics:
This fall we're doing a study on Canadian government and our Prime Ministers from Confederation to present. We have a federal election this fall and will be tracking the candidates and their platforms. We're using various books and sites like Canada Votes, Exploring Canada and a cool Prime Ministers of Canada set that I got from the Library and Archives of Canada
Life Skills:
Brianna has taken on babysitting and dog poop scooping jobs from our neighbours. This is teaching her a great deal about responsibility and money. Because of the sudden influx of money, she's learning about comparing prices and smart spending. She's also becoming more responsible for getting her schoolwork and chores done with less interference from us.
Both:
History/Geography:
Lee and I are driving across country at the end of August and the girls will be tracking us and learning about various places as we go.
We're continuing to do Country Studies. The kids have really enjoyed them so far. We read about the countries, find them on maps, watch videos about them and make a bunch of food from that country. We'll be using History of the World and Geography of the World at home and whatever oodles of books we can snag from the library. World Atlas is fantastic for maps and National Geographic Kids has a bunch of videos and articles I made both Brianna and Olivia's country reports on Microsoft Word because I couldn't find anything I liked that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. If I can figure out how to share them here, I will.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We'll be doing a lot of interest based topics. Both girls want to do the human body. We'll have to do a refresher in a few years for Olivia, but with the random stuff she picks up on of Brianna's school work, I'm not worried about doing a joint class with them. Brianna got an ant farm for her birthday and the girls are fascinated with watching it.
Arts:
I want to work on art some more. Brianna loves it but is fairly terrible lol So she wants to learn little ways to make her art better. Olivia on the other hand, has this idea that her drawings aren't good enough. No telling her otherwise changes her mind :( So for both girls, we'll be doing some basic art lessons, using a variety of mediums and styles.
Joshua:
He will to continue to be cute and get into stuff and steal school work *wink*
Linking up with the iHomeschool Network
Previous post from last Sept here.
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Olivia started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. We don't follow specific grades but Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 6-10 and Olivia is mostly Gr 1, a little Kindy and some Gr. 2.
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 6 mths-ish I'll post what we are currently working on. We use a mishmash of traditional homeschool curriculum, workbooks bought at teacher supply stores, stuff made up completely in my head and most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books. In a nut shell, we're eclectic homeschoolers.
Olivia:
We have a subscription to ABCMouse.com and Olivia really likes it! It has all the way from Toddlers to the end of Kindergarten. This program added on a couple more levels, but only lists levels not grades, so I don't know where the program ends after Kindergarten. Olivia is still learning to control the computer so she's a little slower going here than in her paper school work.
For printables we mostly use 1+1+1=1 (there's also great tot school and preschool printables here!). Confessions of a Homeschooler also has great printables. I love 1+1+1=1 as they have a lot of themed units. They cover a wide variety of skills but under one theme (Olivia has done cats, pizza, Octonauts and more). Even though most of them are below her skill levels, she really enjoys them so we keep doing them. 1+1+1=1 now has literature units as well.
English:
We'll start dabbling in Brave Writer's "Jot it Down" program which focuses on dictation for Olivia's age group. We'll start up 1+1+1=1's You Can Read program once Olivia is more comfortable in phonics. We feel that phonetic learning is highly important over memorizing sight words so we're spending a lot of effort on letter sounds, blending sounds and sounding out short words.
Math:
Olivia has started Early Math on Khan Academy. She is super proud to be doing Khan just like Brianna. Her computer skills are still lacking, so Khan is definitely something that we do together, though she is getting better at navigating.
Olivia loves to help take care of Joshua, cooking and household chores. We, of course, encourage her as much as possible!
Phys Ed./Health:
Olivia has started running like Brianna. This year, like last, she ran in the fun run this month and will be taking part in the Cornwall Triathlon, doing a duathlon, next month. She's also in U7 Soccer this year. The kids play weekly and Olivia seems to really enjoy it.
Brianna:
Math:
We really like Math Mammoth. It's almost self-teaching once a kid can read. It breaks the new concepts down into step by step instructions in a way that really gets through to Brianna. Math Mammoth goes only to Gr. 7, so once she's done that, I'll be looking for a new curriculum for Algebra and the like. We're also slowly working our way through Khan Academy. Brianna really likes the videos explaining new concepts.
English:
We're using Brave Writer's "Writer's Jungle" again this year. Brianna's especially enjoys their Poetry Teatimes, which we'll be starting again in the fall. For spelling, I keep track of words she has spelled wrong in her general school work and base spelling practice off of that. We'll be doing NaNoWriMo again this year. She took part last year and wrote an impressive 12,000+ words. Amazing who someone who often struggles with writing a few pages. This year, we'll be starting early with NaNoWriMo's educator's lesson plans.
French:
We will be doing Rosetta Stone now that Brianna has her own laptop to install it on. Brianna already knows more French than I do, so thankfully Rosetta Stone is a self-teaching course! We'll be using Living Languages for extra activities. Duolingo has an app for her phone for extra, on-the-go practice. One of our neighbours has offered to test Brianna's French periodically.
Arts:
Brianna wants to learn guitar and we have a child's guitar and a great book - The Complete Guitar Manual, hopefully we can get around to that. She also wants to get back into playing the flute (which is currently under repairs). Hopefully she can be encouraged to put in a stronger, more frequent effort this time.
She has expressed interest in learning about some Shakespeare, so we'll learn about him and read/watch some plays.
Phys Ed/Health:
Brianna runs with a local MultiSport club. Her last run of the year is her Terry Fox run on Sept 14th. She actually bikes the Terry Fox run, but as she chooses to do the biggest route (10km), it's certainly nothing to laugh at! Once that is done, she's done until May. She'll spend that time doing training at least twice a week (running, yoga, strength training, cardio) and of course, we live in Canada, so there's always snow to shovel!
Computer:
Brianna and Olivia both have Minecraft accounts. I'm currently looking for cool educational ideas for it as I know many are out there. But for now, both girls are just working on computer skills and building. Brianna is learning to use the MinecraftWiki to research how to do or use various aspects of the game.
Civics:
This fall we're doing a study on Canadian government and our Prime Ministers from Confederation to present. We have a federal election this fall and will be tracking the candidates and their platforms. We're using various books and sites like Canada Votes, Exploring Canada and a cool Prime Ministers of Canada set that I got from the Library and Archives of Canada
Life Skills:
Brianna has taken on babysitting and dog poop scooping jobs from our neighbours. This is teaching her a great deal about responsibility and money. Because of the sudden influx of money, she's learning about comparing prices and smart spending. She's also becoming more responsible for getting her schoolwork and chores done with less interference from us.
Both:
History/Geography:
Lee and I are driving across country at the end of August and the girls will be tracking us and learning about various places as we go.
We're continuing to do Country Studies. The kids have really enjoyed them so far. We read about the countries, find them on maps, watch videos about them and make a bunch of food from that country. We'll be using History of the World and Geography of the World at home and whatever oodles of books we can snag from the library. World Atlas is fantastic for maps and National Geographic Kids has a bunch of videos and articles I made both Brianna and Olivia's country reports on Microsoft Word because I couldn't find anything I liked that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. If I can figure out how to share them here, I will.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We'll be doing a lot of interest based topics. Both girls want to do the human body. We'll have to do a refresher in a few years for Olivia, but with the random stuff she picks up on of Brianna's school work, I'm not worried about doing a joint class with them. Brianna got an ant farm for her birthday and the girls are fascinated with watching it.
Arts:
I want to work on art some more. Brianna loves it but is fairly terrible lol So she wants to learn little ways to make her art better. Olivia on the other hand, has this idea that her drawings aren't good enough. No telling her otherwise changes her mind :( So for both girls, we'll be doing some basic art lessons, using a variety of mediums and styles.
Joshua:
He will to continue to be cute and get into stuff and steal school work *wink*
Linking up with the iHomeschool Network
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
4 Ways to Ease Curriculum Planning
Tis the season! Even year-round homeschoolers like myself, spend at least part of the summer planning new curriculum (watch for my current curriculum post come Sept). Here's some of the ways I don't lose my mind.
1. Do not try to do it all at once.
Spread it out over a few days or even weeks. It ain't gonna go anywhere. Sure, I'll get into spurts where I'll spend 2 hours looking over various English stuff, but if my eyes start glazing over or I'm getting easily distracted, I walk away.
Spreading it out also makes it easier on the pocket book if you have several new items to purchase.
2. Look at what you already own before researching new curriculum.
Who's a curriculum hoarder? *raises hand*
If you're anything like me, there's a good chance you've already got at least some of what you need for the following grade/level. Especially for the younger set. Whether it's hard copy paper books or PDF files or stuff bookmarked on the net, I bet you've got a lot of what you need.
Even if you aren't a hoarder, go through what you've already got any way. Chances are, you can find at a few things you can use for at least supplementing and it won't gather dust any more.
3. Break it down by subjects/goals/children.
What do you need for English? What grades are you covering? Do you already have any usable curriculum? Are there trouble areas (spelling, grammar, ect...) that you should look for supplements in? Did you and your kid(s) enjoy the last curriculum that you used? Do you need something less detailed or more intensive? Now how about math? Science?
By spitting it up by subject or goal and even each individual child, it doesn't seem so overwhelming. If I sat down one day and said I need everything for both Brianna and Olivia *right now* I'd be in the looney bin.
4. Keep track of your plans.
Whether you're a paper and pencil person like me or want to fill in a fancy spreadsheet, keep track of the planning you've done. That way you aren't researching the same science curriculum you just looked at 3 days ago. Or even worse, actually ordering and paying for the same history text you just bought.
Linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Real Life at Home
If you're anything like me, there's a good chance you've already got at least some of what you need for the following grade/level. Especially for the younger set. Whether it's hard copy paper books or PDF files or stuff bookmarked on the net, I bet you've got a lot of what you need.
Even if you aren't a hoarder, go through what you've already got any way. Chances are, you can find at a few things you can use for at least supplementing and it won't gather dust any more.
3. Break it down by subjects/goals/children.
What do you need for English? What grades are you covering? Do you already have any usable curriculum? Are there trouble areas (spelling, grammar, ect...) that you should look for supplements in? Did you and your kid(s) enjoy the last curriculum that you used? Do you need something less detailed or more intensive? Now how about math? Science?
By spitting it up by subject or goal and even each individual child, it doesn't seem so overwhelming. If I sat down one day and said I need everything for both Brianna and Olivia *right now* I'd be in the looney bin.
4. Keep track of your plans.
Whether you're a paper and pencil person like me or want to fill in a fancy spreadsheet, keep track of the planning you've done. That way you aren't researching the same science curriculum you just looked at 3 days ago. Or even worse, actually ordering and paying for the same history text you just bought.
Linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Real Life at Home
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Year-Round Homeschooling
Otherwise known as "OMG! You make your kids do school in the summer!?"
We school year-round. That is, we don't "do" summer break. Sure we may take a few days to a week off here any there, but for the most part we school all summer.
We homeschooled through the summer even when Brianna was still in public school. Summer learning loss is very real and the results of it can be seen every September in public schools (or Aug for my American counterparts). The last year Brianna was in public school she complained daily about the amount of stuff they "taught" in school that she already knew. I brushed it off at first because we had actually moved into the following grade in some of the work we had done over the summer so I figured she had just already learned it. But then, she filled me in. They were doing stuff like counting to 100. She was in Gr. 3. She had learned to count to 100 in Kindergarten/Gr. 1. They were "learning" to add single digit numbers. They were reading through Gr. 1/2 readers. This wasn't simply review, this was over a month of dragging them back a few grades!
This is because of summer learning loss. A lot of parents leave the schooling to the teachers and don't have their kids so much as crack a book for up to 3 mths. This is not to say that they're bad parents! It's just society's norm. And the schools then have to do a month (or more) of review going up to a few years back to make up for it.
Well, I've always been known as a mean mom! So since that first summer between Kindergarten to Gr. 1, I did homeschooling with the kids. Because it was all they ever knew, they didn't complain. Sure there were certain topics that they didn't want to do, but there was never "why do I have to do school when everyone else doesn't".
Once we started homeschooling, I knew we'd be year-rounders. We do a lot more during the summer now than we did when Brianna was in public school, but still on a much lighter schedule than the rest of the year. We also do a lot more interest based stuff that I just sneak English and math into and Brianna thinks it's all great fun.
Brianna doesn't do well with very long breaks any time in the year. We school a lot more than the average homeschooling family simply because Brianna is very routine set. If we take too long of breaks or too often of breaks she tends to get her entire routine upset. So we generally do only 3-4 full weeks off per year and 6-8 long weekends (4-5 days including the weekend) per year. Otherwise, it's just a day here and there and with reason (like a race day or a set field trip).
This year, Brianna will be continuing through her math curriculum though as it's her 2nd round through it after a mix of troubles with the work itself and also not putting any effort into what she could do. But otherwise, we'll be working on our country studies, gardening, doing some household projects and other non-school "like" stuff.
She has a science camp this year that is a week long. She is to the moon and back excited about that. She does "Park Leaders" Tues-Fri mornings and swims most afternoons with friends. I DO want her to enjoy her summers, especially since most of her friends are public schoolers who have the summer off. So I work around her programs/activities as much as possible. We do most of our week's schooling on Monday when there's no Park Leaders. We do a bit when she comes home for lunch. We do some after swimming (or if it rains and swimming is cancelled). We do some after the neighbourhood kids (and herself) are called home for the night. She does complain some days, but for the most part is really quite ok with it.
It may not work for everyone. Hell, I know many homeschoolers who drag their feet through May and sometimes June to just drop everything for the summer. But it's what works for us.
We school year-round. That is, we don't "do" summer break. Sure we may take a few days to a week off here any there, but for the most part we school all summer.
We homeschooled through the summer even when Brianna was still in public school. Summer learning loss is very real and the results of it can be seen every September in public schools (or Aug for my American counterparts). The last year Brianna was in public school she complained daily about the amount of stuff they "taught" in school that she already knew. I brushed it off at first because we had actually moved into the following grade in some of the work we had done over the summer so I figured she had just already learned it. But then, she filled me in. They were doing stuff like counting to 100. She was in Gr. 3. She had learned to count to 100 in Kindergarten/Gr. 1. They were "learning" to add single digit numbers. They were reading through Gr. 1/2 readers. This wasn't simply review, this was over a month of dragging them back a few grades!
This is because of summer learning loss. A lot of parents leave the schooling to the teachers and don't have their kids so much as crack a book for up to 3 mths. This is not to say that they're bad parents! It's just society's norm. And the schools then have to do a month (or more) of review going up to a few years back to make up for it.
Well, I've always been known as a mean mom! So since that first summer between Kindergarten to Gr. 1, I did homeschooling with the kids. Because it was all they ever knew, they didn't complain. Sure there were certain topics that they didn't want to do, but there was never "why do I have to do school when everyone else doesn't".
Once we started homeschooling, I knew we'd be year-rounders. We do a lot more during the summer now than we did when Brianna was in public school, but still on a much lighter schedule than the rest of the year. We also do a lot more interest based stuff that I just sneak English and math into and Brianna thinks it's all great fun.
Brianna doesn't do well with very long breaks any time in the year. We school a lot more than the average homeschooling family simply because Brianna is very routine set. If we take too long of breaks or too often of breaks she tends to get her entire routine upset. So we generally do only 3-4 full weeks off per year and 6-8 long weekends (4-5 days including the weekend) per year. Otherwise, it's just a day here and there and with reason (like a race day or a set field trip).
This year, Brianna will be continuing through her math curriculum though as it's her 2nd round through it after a mix of troubles with the work itself and also not putting any effort into what she could do. But otherwise, we'll be working on our country studies, gardening, doing some household projects and other non-school "like" stuff.
She has a science camp this year that is a week long. She is to the moon and back excited about that. She does "Park Leaders" Tues-Fri mornings and swims most afternoons with friends. I DO want her to enjoy her summers, especially since most of her friends are public schoolers who have the summer off. So I work around her programs/activities as much as possible. We do most of our week's schooling on Monday when there's no Park Leaders. We do a bit when she comes home for lunch. We do some after swimming (or if it rains and swimming is cancelled). We do some after the neighbourhood kids (and herself) are called home for the night. She does complain some days, but for the most part is really quite ok with it.
It may not work for everyone. Hell, I know many homeschoolers who drag their feet through May and sometimes June to just drop everything for the summer. But it's what works for us.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Current Curriculum May 2014
This post contains NO affiliate links
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Olivia officially started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. We don't follow specific grades but Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-8 and Olivia is generally Kindergarten, some Gr 1.
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We use a mishmash of traditional homeschool curriculum, workbooks bought at teacher supply stores, stuff made up completely in my head and most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books. In a nut shell, we're eclectic homeschoolers.
Olivia:
We've just bought a subscription to ABCMouse.com and Olivia's loving it so far! It has all the way from Toddlers to the end of Kindergarten. We're starting from the pre-school path, only because Olivia has had very little use of the computer mouse before. She knows most of the activities they show her, but she's also learning how to control the mouse, so it's a win-win.
For printables we mostly use 1+1+1=1 (there's also great tot school and preschool printables here!). Confessions of a Homeschooler also has great printables.
We have a stack of assorted workbooks but those are totally on a "if Olivia feels like it" basis. Some weeks she'll do 20+ pages, other weeks she'll do zero. As she's only "supposed to be" (by her age in public school) in Junior (or 4 yr old) Kindergarten, I don't feel the need to focus on seat work. I do, however, encourage her any time she's in the mood for it!
Olivia will also be running in the kids fun run again this year. She loved doing it last year and was soooo happy to hear that I would "let" her do it again! She keeps wanting to do Brianna's training runs with her, so I've made a *much* smaller route for her that Brianna runs with her. She thinks it's just great!
Olivia loves to help take care of Joshua, cooking and household chores (unless it involves cleaning up her toys lol). We, of course, encourage her as much as possible!
We're going to be reading through the Little House series (and probably again in a few years) along with repetitively reading through her first readers.
Brianna:
Math:
We're really liking Math Mammoth. It's almost self-teaching once a kid can read. I like it so much I've actually bought every grade from 1 through 6 of it! Hopefully it works well for Olivia and Joshua! We're also working our way through Khan Academy. Brianna really likes the videos explaining new concepts. And of course, the math review in her daily binder. She is currently doing Gr. 5 math, again, as she had a long period of shoddy work ethic going on. I've heard a few people sarcastically state that the reason why homeschoolers score higher than public schoolers is because mom would of course give top grades. Not here! Brianna'll tell you how mean I am lol
English:
We're using Scott Foresman English for Gr. 6, but it ends there so we're in search of a new English curriculum. We're running through McGraw-Hill's spelling just to get back into it, but otherwise, for spelling I just follow her work. I keep track of words she has spelled wrong in her general school work and base spelling practise off of that.
Daily Binders:
Each day she has a math review (10 questions of varying math problems/vocabulary), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that she has misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), and journal (with various writing prompts).
History/Geography:
We're going to do a quick review on Canada and general mapping then move on to Country Weeks! We're going to pick a new country each week and learn all about them. Some of what we're using are History of the World, Geography of the World and Animals of the World. We'll also be using a print out from Scholastic called Cool Country Report.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We'll be doing a lot of interest based topics. Human biology and natural disasters being two of them. She will also be doing a week long science camp in July, which is is over the moon excited for!
French:
We will be doing Rosetta Stone and using Living Languages for extra activities. Rosetta Stone is a new one for us, but I've heard rave reviews from many people on it. She's done Living Languages with my sister before, but due to extenuating circumstances has not been for the last year. Now, we'll be getting back into it.
Art/Music:
Brianna wants to learn guitar and we have a child's guitar and a great book - The Complete Guitar Manual so we'll give it a shot. I also need to fix my flute as Brianna was learning to play that. Later this month, she'll be taking an all day class (or two) on stained glass making.
Phys Ed/Health:
Brianna runs with a local MultiSport club. I posted about her running season for the year. We'll be hitting the public pool during off hours to work on her laps as that is her sore spot for her triathlon. Grandma is also doing a Nutrition class.
Computer:
Brianna loves Garfield's Typing Pals which focuses on speed and accuracy, so we'll be continuing with that. She's also be champing at the bit for a Minecraft account, which is currently up for discussion.
Life Skills:
The garden is going in in the next couple weeks, so Brianna will be doing a large part of that. She's also cooking more and more, learning new recipes and techniques. It helps that Grandma recently graduated culinary school (with honours!), so she is the main teacher there. Brianna is still working on her cross stitching and knitting, but is also starting to learn to crochet and sew. We'll be replacing the walkway this year, so she'll help and learn how to do that properly. It is hopefully in our plans as well, to wall off her play room in the basement to turn it into a bedroom for her. She'll help with the drywalling and such there.
Adding this to Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap Up and planning is what I've been doing all week!
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Olivia officially started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. We don't follow specific grades but Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-8 and Olivia is generally Kindergarten, some Gr 1.
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We use a mishmash of traditional homeschool curriculum, workbooks bought at teacher supply stores, stuff made up completely in my head and most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books. In a nut shell, we're eclectic homeschoolers.
Olivia:
We've just bought a subscription to ABCMouse.com and Olivia's loving it so far! It has all the way from Toddlers to the end of Kindergarten. We're starting from the pre-school path, only because Olivia has had very little use of the computer mouse before. She knows most of the activities they show her, but she's also learning how to control the mouse, so it's a win-win.
For printables we mostly use 1+1+1=1 (there's also great tot school and preschool printables here!). Confessions of a Homeschooler also has great printables.
We have a stack of assorted workbooks but those are totally on a "if Olivia feels like it" basis. Some weeks she'll do 20+ pages, other weeks she'll do zero. As she's only "supposed to be" (by her age in public school) in Junior (or 4 yr old) Kindergarten, I don't feel the need to focus on seat work. I do, however, encourage her any time she's in the mood for it!
Olivia will also be running in the kids fun run again this year. She loved doing it last year and was soooo happy to hear that I would "let" her do it again! She keeps wanting to do Brianna's training runs with her, so I've made a *much* smaller route for her that Brianna runs with her. She thinks it's just great!
Olivia loves to help take care of Joshua, cooking and household chores (unless it involves cleaning up her toys lol). We, of course, encourage her as much as possible!
We're going to be reading through the Little House series (and probably again in a few years) along with repetitively reading through her first readers.
Brianna:
Math:
We're really liking Math Mammoth. It's almost self-teaching once a kid can read. I like it so much I've actually bought every grade from 1 through 6 of it! Hopefully it works well for Olivia and Joshua! We're also working our way through Khan Academy. Brianna really likes the videos explaining new concepts. And of course, the math review in her daily binder. She is currently doing Gr. 5 math, again, as she had a long period of shoddy work ethic going on. I've heard a few people sarcastically state that the reason why homeschoolers score higher than public schoolers is because mom would of course give top grades. Not here! Brianna'll tell you how mean I am lol
English:
We're using Scott Foresman English for Gr. 6, but it ends there so we're in search of a new English curriculum. We're running through McGraw-Hill's spelling just to get back into it, but otherwise, for spelling I just follow her work. I keep track of words she has spelled wrong in her general school work and base spelling practise off of that.
Daily Binders:
Each day she has a math review (10 questions of varying math problems/vocabulary), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that she has misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), and journal (with various writing prompts).
History/Geography:
We're going to do a quick review on Canada and general mapping then move on to Country Weeks! We're going to pick a new country each week and learn all about them. Some of what we're using are History of the World, Geography of the World and Animals of the World. We'll also be using a print out from Scholastic called Cool Country Report.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We'll be doing a lot of interest based topics. Human biology and natural disasters being two of them. She will also be doing a week long science camp in July, which is is over the moon excited for!
French:
We will be doing Rosetta Stone and using Living Languages for extra activities. Rosetta Stone is a new one for us, but I've heard rave reviews from many people on it. She's done Living Languages with my sister before, but due to extenuating circumstances has not been for the last year. Now, we'll be getting back into it.
Art/Music:
Brianna wants to learn guitar and we have a child's guitar and a great book - The Complete Guitar Manual so we'll give it a shot. I also need to fix my flute as Brianna was learning to play that. Later this month, she'll be taking an all day class (or two) on stained glass making.
Phys Ed/Health:
Brianna runs with a local MultiSport club. I posted about her running season for the year. We'll be hitting the public pool during off hours to work on her laps as that is her sore spot for her triathlon. Grandma is also doing a Nutrition class.
Computer:
Brianna loves Garfield's Typing Pals which focuses on speed and accuracy, so we'll be continuing with that. She's also be champing at the bit for a Minecraft account, which is currently up for discussion.
Life Skills:
The garden is going in in the next couple weeks, so Brianna will be doing a large part of that. She's also cooking more and more, learning new recipes and techniques. It helps that Grandma recently graduated culinary school (with honours!), so she is the main teacher there. Brianna is still working on her cross stitching and knitting, but is also starting to learn to crochet and sew. We'll be replacing the walkway this year, so she'll help and learn how to do that properly. It is hopefully in our plans as well, to wall off her play room in the basement to turn it into a bedroom for her. She'll help with the drywalling and such there.
Adding this to Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap Up and planning is what I've been doing all week!
Friday, April 25, 2014
New Schedule!
My niece, Tanya, has left our homeschool earlier than planned so I'll be implementing our new, totally different school plan sooner than July! I will be taking the next week to move stuff around and get prepared, but I'm totally excited to start this new chapter! Watch for a new "Current Curriculum" post soon!
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Current Curriculum (Aug 2012)
After a loooooooong hiatus I'm back and joining the iHomeschool Network Not Back to School Blog Hop!
This week is all about Curriculum, so I figured it would be a perfect time to update my Current Curriculum tab!
See my last curriculum post from March 2012 here
This post contains NO affiliate links
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Tanya started Feb 6, 2012 coming from 6th grade in public school. Olivia formally started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. But as we don't follow specific grades, Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-7, Tanya is anywhere from Gr. 4-7 and Olivia is PreK/K. Olivia obviously has her own work, but majority of Brianna and Tanya's work is the same thing, at the same levels (really the only exceptions are Math and English).
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We are currently mostly not using traditional HS items, but regular workbooks you can buy at the bookstore/teacher stores. Most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books.
Olivia:
We use a variety of educational toys with her, some of our favorites being:
Discovery Toys Busy Bugs
Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center
Basic magnetic letters and wooden blocks
Pretty well anything from Leap Frog
For printables we mostly use tot and preschool curriculum from1+1+1=1 but also Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Online, our favorite sites so far are StarFall and PBS. She also plays a numbers app and a drawing letters app. I'm always searching for more recommended Android apps for the kids
Books we're working out of are Hooked On Phonics ABCs,Fisher Price On the Road to Learning, Fisher-Price Watch Me Learn, School Zone Counting 1-10 and School Zone Preschool Basics.
Brianna:
Math:
Brianna has discovered that the is both good at and even enjoys math a lot more than she thought! We've started Check and Double Check Math 5. She's now using the Market Math that Tanya was earlier. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some English)
English:
Her regular curriculum is English and Grammar Gr. 5 from the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill website. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some math) and Total Reading.
Tanya:
Math:
We're currently working on Math Made Easy 5 and additional worksheets in struggle areas, mainly decimals and fractions right now. Also adding in Menu Math which is a great set of workbooks that take real life situations and learn math from them.
English:
I have Tanya fast tracking to "catch up" with English. Right now she's using the Complete English Smart 4 book as well as the Practice and Grammar ebooks from this site. She does roughly double the work I'd normally have her do until she at least catches up to Brianna as she feels really low about being a grade level lower than Brianna who is almost 2 years younger (and as much as my sister and I try to explain to her that this doesn't matter, she feels the same).
Brianna and Tanya together:
Daily Binders:
Both girls have what we call their daily binders. Each day they have a math drill (adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing, depending what they need extra work in that week), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that they have misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), Boggle spelling (they're given a "boggle board" of 16 random letters that they have to make as may words as possible with and the more letters in a word, the more points it earns) and journal (with various writing prompts).
Spelling:
We don't really do a formal spelling curriculum. Normally I just track misspelled words in the girls' school work. With them, I have them copy, alphabetize and make sentences with the words.
History:
We're working through basic Canadian History and Geography right now. Sadly, neither of these seem to be of big importance in public school any more (and we LIVE in Canada!). We're working out of 3 books: Canadian Provinces & Territories, Canadian Geography & Mapping Skills (which no matter how I search for it, I can not find this book to provide a link!) and Exploring Canada.
Geography:
See History.
Math:
Nothing specific together right now.
English:
We're doing novel studies over the next while on Holes, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Secret Garden and Jungle Book. Most of them are a little young, but fun classic books. We currently have a list of 13 books we'll be studying and those are the first 5. For anyone interested in the others they are: Underground to Canada, The Cay, The Outsider, Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows, Shiloh, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Whipping Boy. We're also doing various writing prompts to tweak grammar/writing skills.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We will be picking ideas out of Science Made Easy and Habitats Environmental Series.
French:
My sister is covering French. We picked up Living Language which has 3 books and 9 CDs and some free stuff online.
Art/Music:
We're going to be learning some interesting techniques I found on Pinterest
Phys Ed/Health:
During the warmer months (approx April - October) the girls run. They've done 3 big races this year and still have their Triathlon and another 5k to do before the end of the season. They're up to running 1 mile at a time, twice in a day (either on the treadmill or on the bike path next to my house) and run typically 3-5 days a week.
With the girls' ages, puberty is running rampant, so that is the big Health Class focus right now.
Computer:
Nothing specific at the moment. I recently bought a Kobo Vox that I've downloaded some educational apps on like math drills and a geography program, but it's more of a reward than part of our schooling
Life Skills:
The girls have their own garden boxes this year. With the drought much of North America has been in this summer they didn't do too well, but we'll continue working on them. We're also working on more detailed and not often done cleaning, like the cleaning of walls, ovens, fridge/freezer backs, taking things apart to clean properly, ect...
This week is all about Curriculum, so I figured it would be a perfect time to update my Current Curriculum tab!
See my last curriculum post from March 2012 here
This post contains NO affiliate links
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Tanya started Feb 6, 2012 coming from 6th grade in public school. Olivia formally started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. But as we don't follow specific grades, Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-7, Tanya is anywhere from Gr. 4-7 and Olivia is PreK/K. Olivia obviously has her own work, but majority of Brianna and Tanya's work is the same thing, at the same levels (really the only exceptions are Math and English).
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We are currently mostly not using traditional HS items, but regular workbooks you can buy at the bookstore/teacher stores. Most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books.
Olivia:
We use a variety of educational toys with her, some of our favorites being:
Discovery Toys Busy Bugs
Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center
Basic magnetic letters and wooden blocks
Pretty well anything from Leap Frog
For printables we mostly use tot and preschool curriculum from1+1+1=1 but also Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Online, our favorite sites so far are StarFall and PBS. She also plays a numbers app and a drawing letters app. I'm always searching for more recommended Android apps for the kids
Books we're working out of are Hooked On Phonics ABCs,Fisher Price On the Road to Learning, Fisher-Price Watch Me Learn, School Zone Counting 1-10 and School Zone Preschool Basics.
Brianna:
Math:
Brianna has discovered that the is both good at and even enjoys math a lot more than she thought! We've started Check and Double Check Math 5. She's now using the Market Math that Tanya was earlier. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some English)
English:
Her regular curriculum is English and Grammar Gr. 5 from the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill website. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some math) and Total Reading.
Tanya:
Math:
We're currently working on Math Made Easy 5 and additional worksheets in struggle areas, mainly decimals and fractions right now. Also adding in Menu Math which is a great set of workbooks that take real life situations and learn math from them.
English:
I have Tanya fast tracking to "catch up" with English. Right now she's using the Complete English Smart 4 book as well as the Practice and Grammar ebooks from this site. She does roughly double the work I'd normally have her do until she at least catches up to Brianna as she feels really low about being a grade level lower than Brianna who is almost 2 years younger (and as much as my sister and I try to explain to her that this doesn't matter, she feels the same).
Brianna and Tanya together:
Daily Binders:
Both girls have what we call their daily binders. Each day they have a math drill (adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing, depending what they need extra work in that week), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that they have misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), Boggle spelling (they're given a "boggle board" of 16 random letters that they have to make as may words as possible with and the more letters in a word, the more points it earns) and journal (with various writing prompts).
Spelling:
We don't really do a formal spelling curriculum. Normally I just track misspelled words in the girls' school work. With them, I have them copy, alphabetize and make sentences with the words.
History:
We're working through basic Canadian History and Geography right now. Sadly, neither of these seem to be of big importance in public school any more (and we LIVE in Canada!). We're working out of 3 books: Canadian Provinces & Territories, Canadian Geography & Mapping Skills (which no matter how I search for it, I can not find this book to provide a link!) and Exploring Canada.
Geography:
See History.
Math:
Nothing specific together right now.
English:
We're doing novel studies over the next while on Holes, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Secret Garden and Jungle Book. Most of them are a little young, but fun classic books. We currently have a list of 13 books we'll be studying and those are the first 5. For anyone interested in the others they are: Underground to Canada, The Cay, The Outsider, Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows, Shiloh, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Whipping Boy. We're also doing various writing prompts to tweak grammar/writing skills.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We will be picking ideas out of Science Made Easy and Habitats Environmental Series.
French:
My sister is covering French. We picked up Living Language which has 3 books and 9 CDs and some free stuff online.
Art/Music:
We're going to be learning some interesting techniques I found on Pinterest
Phys Ed/Health:
During the warmer months (approx April - October) the girls run. They've done 3 big races this year and still have their Triathlon and another 5k to do before the end of the season. They're up to running 1 mile at a time, twice in a day (either on the treadmill or on the bike path next to my house) and run typically 3-5 days a week.
With the girls' ages, puberty is running rampant, so that is the big Health Class focus right now.
Computer:
Nothing specific at the moment. I recently bought a Kobo Vox that I've downloaded some educational apps on like math drills and a geography program, but it's more of a reward than part of our schooling
Life Skills:
The girls have their own garden boxes this year. With the drought much of North America has been in this summer they didn't do too well, but we'll continue working on them. We're also working on more detailed and not often done cleaning, like the cleaning of walls, ovens, fridge/freezer backs, taking things apart to clean properly, ect...
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