Posted in My Ramblings
JESUS IS COMING SOON! MARANATHA LORD!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
*****************************************************************************************************
When I first got this blog, made an entry at least 3 times a week, often more. Now I go months between entries! I am not completely without excuse, it has been a busy time for my family and tumultuous for my marriage. We have survived as a family and a couple, and we have grown through the things that have happened. We still have a lot of ground to cover, but I have faith in God that we will cover this ground.
I don't want to go into a lot of detail about the issues we faced, I just praise God that we are moving forward.
I realized today that the year is almost over, and I never even made an entry about the curriculum we were using!
Well, with my younger children this year I started out using Galloping the Globe which is a unit study that covers Geography, science, literature, art, cooking, some history, and some Bible. However, it didn't take long for me to get bogged down with all there was to do, especially considering the stuff going on in our family. So we cut it down to the basics for the younger kids, we worked on Phonics, Math, and Bible... and that was all we did at home. The kids went to co-op once a week, and there they did Nature Study, Geography, and drawing, so the other subject areas were not completely neglected.
We are still not done with the school year, partly because we had such a crazy year, and partly because we usually homeschool year round, taking extra time during holidays and my husbands vacation days, rather than following the set schedule of the school system.
For Bible we have been going through Jesus My Shepherd, which is a continuation of what we used last year: And It Was Good. I like the series, it is a good introduction to the major stories and flow of the Bible.
For phonics we have been using The PHONICS Road to Spelling and Reading, level 1 I must say that I like this approach! My son has always struggled with reading, and while he still struggles some, going back to the beginning and re-laying the foundation has helped a lot. My son (who was in 3rd grade this school year) and my daughter (who was in 1st grade this school year) both worked on level 1 together. The seem to enjoy making the readers, which have the text only, the kids illustrate the story as they read.
I will upload photos of some of those readers later, right now all of my belongings are packed in boxes because we had to move out of our house while some remodeling was being done.
For math the younger kids have been using Horizons Math my son in the 3rd grade level and my daughter in the 1st grade level. Both are doing very well in math as far as grades, but my son took FOREVER to complete lessons, even though I let him do every other problem in the book. My daughter completed her lessons faster, but complained the whole time. So for next year I am considering other options, which I will get into in a minute.
Geography, My older daughter did Teaching Textbooks Geometry, Write Source English, Apologia Biology, A BekaA beka World History, Online French lessons, Western Literature at the co-op, and PE.
I am still making plans for next year, here is what I've decided on for sure:
My son needs to develop some independence in his work. This is an absolute necessity because I am going to have to work more hours outside the home. His reading skills are still below grade level, and this in turn prevents him from being able to work alone on subjects such as History or science. So he needs more practice in reading throughout the day. Next year he will be getting two science classes at the co-op, on is a life science class and the other involves chemistry experiments. So the hands on part of science is taken care of at an appropriate level for him, my daughter will also be getting the chemistry experiments class. At home we will do co-op homework, which is not supposed to take more than an hour a week. Beyond that, I am wanting to cover Social Studies and Science at my sons reading level, not so much for the Social studies and Science content, but as a tool to train him to work independently. So my son, even though he will be in 4th grade next year, will be doing 2nd grade science and social studies along with his younger sister. We will use LIFEPACS for these two subjects since they are designed to encourage independent work. Again, I know that the content of these courses is far below what he is capable of understanding, but he cannot read the ones that are at his level in content. The main point in doing this that he learn to work on his own, and that he practice reading and answering questions at a level that is appropriate for his skills. I believe the LIFEPACS will help to meet both goals.
I like what we have been using for phonics, so next year we will be going on to level two of PHONICS ROAD. This is one thing that my kids will NOT be able to do independently, but I feel it is worth it because of the progress my son is making.
For math, I know that my son is going to do Grade 4 of TEACHING TEXTBOOKS, I think he will do better with the computerized format, and it will be one more way to teach him independence. However, for my daughter I am not sure what to use. She will be in 2nd grade math, teaching textbooks doesn't have 2nd
For Bible both of my younger kids are going to be enrolled in Awanas and will work through their books at home, plus I will have them read "The Beginners Bible" for more reading practice.
My older daughter will be doing Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2, Apologia Chemistry, A Beka U.S. History, Online French, Write @ Home classes plus reading classic literature for English. She will follow their recommendations for students starting in 11th Grade, which are Composition 1, Research Paper Workshop, Essay I Workshop, except she will take Essay 2 instead of Essay 1, because she already took the first one. For PE she will continue to keep doing activities such as Wii Fit, bicycling, etc. In addition, at the co-op she will take Guitar, and Foundations in Personal Finance. If we can we will complete U.S. History in 1 semester, and then get a jump start on U.S. government so we won't have to worry about it the next year, or we'll take both simultaneously. I am trying to get as much completed as possible so she can begin Running Start in fall of 2010 and I won't feel like she is missing anything that we should have studied at home.
So that is what we have done so far this year, and our plans for next year. I will try to do better about blogging, I have lots of photos waiting to be uploaded, lots of ideas to share, but precious little time to do any of it! grade. I've tried Saxon and wasn't thrilled. I have the teachers guides for HORIZONS... so all I would need is the student books, and she DOES do very well in them, even if she isn't terribly thrilled to do it. So I might stay with Horizons with her. Just not sure.
I don't want to go into a lot of detail about the issues we faced, I just praise God that we are moving forward.
I realized today that the year is almost over, and I never even made an entry about the curriculum we were using!
Well, with my younger children this year I started out using Galloping the Globe which is a unit study that covers Geography, science, literature, art, cooking, some history, and some Bible. However, it didn't take long for me to get bogged down with all there was to do, especially considering the stuff going on in our family. So we cut it down to the basics for the younger kids, we worked on Phonics, Math, and Bible... and that was all we did at home. The kids went to co-op once a week, and there they did Nature Study, Geography, and drawing, so the other subject areas were not completely neglected.
We are still not done with the school year, partly because we had such a crazy year, and partly because we usually homeschool year round, taking extra time during holidays and my husbands vacation days, rather than following the set schedule of the school system.
For Bible we have been going through Jesus My Shepherd, which is a continuation of what we used last year: And It Was Good. I like the series, it is a good introduction to the major stories and flow of the Bible.
For phonics we have been using The PHONICS Road to Spelling and Reading, level 1 I must say that I like this approach! My son has always struggled with reading, and while he still struggles some, going back to the beginning and re-laying the foundation has helped a lot. My son (who was in 3rd grade this school year) and my daughter (who was in 1st grade this school year) both worked on level 1 together. The seem to enjoy making the readers, which have the text only, the kids illustrate the story as they read.
I will upload photos of some of those readers later, right now all of my belongings are packed in boxes because we had to move out of our house while some remodeling was being done.
For math the younger kids have been using Horizons Math my son in the 3rd grade level and my daughter in the 1st grade level. Both are doing very well in math as far as grades, but my son took FOREVER to complete lessons, even though I let him do every other problem in the book. My daughter completed her lessons faster, but complained the whole time. So for next year I am considering other options, which I will get into in a minute.
Geography, My older daughter did Teaching Textbooks Geometry, Write Source English, Apologia Biology, A BekaA beka World History, Online French lessons, Western Literature at the co-op, and PE.
I am still making plans for next year, here is what I've decided on for sure:
My son needs to develop some independence in his work. This is an absolute necessity because I am going to have to work more hours outside the home. His reading skills are still below grade level, and this in turn prevents him from being able to work alone on subjects such as History or science. So he needs more practice in reading throughout the day. Next year he will be getting two science classes at the co-op, on is a life science class and the other involves chemistry experiments. So the hands on part of science is taken care of at an appropriate level for him, my daughter will also be getting the chemistry experiments class. At home we will do co-op homework, which is not supposed to take more than an hour a week. Beyond that, I am wanting to cover Social Studies and Science at my sons reading level, not so much for the Social studies and Science content, but as a tool to train him to work independently. So my son, even though he will be in 4th grade next year, will be doing 2nd grade science and social studies along with his younger sister. We will use LIFEPACS for these two subjects since they are designed to encourage independent work. Again, I know that the content of these courses is far below what he is capable of understanding, but he cannot read the ones that are at his level in content. The main point in doing this that he learn to work on his own, and that he practice reading and answering questions at a level that is appropriate for his skills. I believe the LIFEPACS will help to meet both goals.
I like what we have been using for phonics, so next year we will be going on to level two of PHONICS ROAD. This is one thing that my kids will NOT be able to do independently, but I feel it is worth it because of the progress my son is making.
For math, I know that my son is going to do Grade 4 of TEACHING TEXTBOOKS, I think he will do better with the computerized format, and it will be one more way to teach him independence. However, for my daughter I am not sure what to use. She will be in 2nd grade math, teaching textbooks doesn't have 2nd
For Bible both of my younger kids are going to be enrolled in Awanas and will work through their books at home, plus I will have them read "The Beginners Bible" for more reading practice.
My older daughter will be doing Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2, Apologia Chemistry, A Beka U.S. History, Online French, Write @ Home classes plus reading classic literature for English. She will follow their recommendations for students starting in 11th Grade, which are Composition 1, Research Paper Workshop, Essay I Workshop, except she will take Essay 2 instead of Essay 1, because she already took the first one. For PE she will continue to keep doing activities such as Wii Fit, bicycling, etc. In addition, at the co-op she will take Guitar, and Foundations in Personal Finance. If we can we will complete U.S. History in 1 semester, and then get a jump start on U.S. government so we won't have to worry about it the next year, or we'll take both simultaneously. I am trying to get as much completed as possible so she can begin Running Start in fall of 2010 and I won't feel like she is missing anything that we should have studied at home.
So that is what we have done so far this year, and our plans for next year. I will try to do better about blogging, I have lots of photos waiting to be uploaded, lots of ideas to share, but precious little time to do any of it! grade. I've tried Saxon and wasn't thrilled. I have the teachers guides for HORIZONS... so all I would need is the student books, and she DOES do very well in them, even if she isn't terribly thrilled to do it. So I might stay with Horizons with her. Just not sure.
