Cindy's Porch is so helpful with money saving kitchen tips. Her motto is , "Shop at home first." Using an inventory is the first step to stop wasting money with repetitive purchases. This year, I'm going to adapt that method to our curriculum planning.
I'm trying to pare down our school budget this year. Over the years of our homeschool, I've acquired lots of useful books and materials from used sales, friends who've generously "donated" to the cause, and interesting books that could easily be the basis for unit studies. Time to pull all these together into an orderly unit is hard to come by. This year in particular, though, it seems wasteful to buy brand new materials when a better plan with our current items could be just as effective. Has anyone else come to that conclusion too?
I typically write our Bible, reading, and handwriting courses, but this will be my first year in pulling together my own science course using materials we have on hand. Our texts will be How Science Works by Judith Haan [ISBN 0-7621-0249-7] and Men of Science, Men of God [Morris?] . While not strictly a textbook, the How Science Works book has two-page spreads on a topic and usually includes an experiment. Many sections include neat facts from history, a short bio of a famous scientist, and very clear photos demonstrating the experiments. We are going to be reading each 2-page spread, doing vocabulary words, a short paragraph reporting our experiment results, and reading about famous scientists. We'll check to find each scientist listed in HSW in the Men of Science, Men of God book. The projects look like fun. I still have to look over our books and see what we could use for supplemental reading. Our Answers in Genesis magazines will be very helpful this coming year, too. The plan so far is to have a binder for science divided into tabs for vocabulary, biography, experiment reports (with an emphasis on following the scientific method), supplemental reading, field trip reports, and diagrams [from the book].
History is still my bugaboo subject. I LOVE it, but the kids aren't as into it as me. I'm still undecided on whether to use Mystery of History 3 or concentrate on American history for a while. This subject still needs to "click" with the kids. I'm praying for guidance.
And then there are the electives--art and music. Yikes, we are not very good at covering these. Tips are appreciated! Tentatively, we are going to try to do the "Lamb's Book of Art" again. The problem with this is that art just doesn't click with me! I have some music workbooks from Rod and Staff, so perhaps I just need to combine these with some "appreciation" resources. That part won't be hard.
The biggest problem with doing my own course plans is determining which good books to use, and which ones can wait. Ah, it's tough being a book nerd! :-) |
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Jun. 22, 2009 - Untitled Comment
I wanted to jump in and offer a few suggestions as far as curriculum. I, too, have wasted so much money over the years and often thought about just doing a better job with what I have.
For History, especially kids that don't have a passion for it yet - I think Mystery of History is good because it's in small doses. However, Sonlight would be a sneaky way of introducing them to history. Kind of like sneaking spinach into their food somehow - reading historical fiction gives them the facts - without them feeling like they are getting a history lesson! You can buy it used or just get their catalog and find the books at the library.
Sonlight has an overkill number of books for each grade level, so you could just go through the catalog, look at the descriptions of the books and pick for yourself, the ones that go with the time period you want to study. Some of the best memories I have are of us sitting on the couch reading great stories and learning history at the same time.
For a great - easy going music program - I used Music Ace. It is a computer program that teaches all aspects of music to older elementary and middle school ages.
For art - we used Draw Write Now for years. This is great for basic art and handwriting practice at the same time.
We now use Alpha Omega's Drawing Basics. This is a DVD/workbook combo that was created by Thomas Kincade. He is on the DVD and guides them through the art lessons. It has alot of basic instruction and eventually gets into art history.
Hope some of this is helpful.
I'm going to add you to my friend list.
Have a blessed day!