I am having a RARE moment of curriculum cleaning, here is what I am parting with:





Amos Fortune Free Man, Elizabeth Yates (SC) $3

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Sevenson Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith (HC) $8

America's Providential History by Mark A. Beliles & Stephen K. McDowell (SC) $18

Pocahontas by Ingri & Edgar d'Aulaire (SC) $ 8

Leif The Lucky by Ingri & Edgar d'Aulaire (SC) $9

Columbus by Ingri & Edgar d'Aulaire (SC) $9

Heidi by Johanna Spyri (SC) $3

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois $2.50

Konos Volume 1-3 $50 ea.

Konos Compass $10

"In The Beginning" Christian Cottage VOL 1 CD $35

Beautiful Feet Early American History Intermediate Guide (ONLY) $8

Beautiful Feet Early American History TIME LINE *missing first 3 pictures $5

*These Prices are BEFORE shipping!

Tiff
rockinc@ntin.net

Here are a couple websites to buy or sale used homeschool curriculum:

• www.ebay.com
  • *NOTE:  ebay does NOT allow the sale of teacher's manuals
• http://market.hslda.org/auction/xcAuction.asp
• http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com/default.asp
• http://www.thislittlepiggystayshome.com/auction/index.php?

As I stated before, with every season our house seems to change.  Summer is here & we have a new chore chart!  Here is what I have been busy working on.

As with most of my creations I need to explain a little . . . Taylor & Tyler have decided to rotate chores.  She misses working with the animals, but doesn't want to "pick up poop ALL the time!"  lol  So, we decided to rotate them every other week instead of every other day (which is what we did last summer).  So that is why you see 2 AM , Noon & PM boxes under their name.  One is for the 1st & 3rd weeks of the month & the other is for the 2nd & 4th weeks of the month.  The green you see next to each chore is a sticky pad that they move over the description after they have done that chore.  I think that's all!

Tyler is a very bright child, but a very busy boy . . . so teaching phonic's has been a learning process for me with him (great for the next 2 boys in line though:)  In Kindergarten I really didn't "push" him -- we explored a couple programs & ended up with Hooked on Phonics.  At the time that was GREAT & I would recommend it.  As he began to be able to read more -- he wanted more!  I realized along the way that he was wanting to read by sight (he is a great speller).  I picked up some of the Pathway Readers (*available by Rod & Staff).  We would do a story a day & add phonic's to eat for 15 minutes.  I realized in doing this that he was "done" about 5 minutes into the phonics.  About this time I picked up The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading (*available at Peace Hill Press) so I decided to make a plan for these great programs (there I go again) . . .

Monday:  1 Story in a Pathway Reader (Narrate back the story, answer my questions about the story, ect), work on sight words using flash cards, & do 2 pages of Explode the Code

Tuesday, Wednesday:  1 lesson from Reading Lessons, review previous lesson & any problem lesson, do 2 pages of Explode the Code

Thursday:  Corresponding "blends" in Hooked on Phonics workbook, do 2 pages of Explode the Code.

Friday:  Storytime

I know this sounds like "a lot" but I had to have variety for him to keep him from buring out on one program.  This works for us.

I'm not sure if I will use Hooked on Phonics again with my younger boys, I am very interested in the Veritas Press Phonics Museum.  I love the rich pictures they use!

Tiff

So this year I will have a 5th grader, 2nd grader, PK & Pre-PK . . . I am a little nervous about having both lower & upper elementary children & starting Tucker in PK & having a 2 year old!  WOW!  I know PK is not a "HUGE" deal, but it is for us b/c Tucker is in need of a plan -- which I have!  In fact, I think I have the wrest of their lives planned out.  lol . . . well, at least their homeschool lives! 

Now that Tucker has started school & Taylor is becoming more independent I really had to have a plan for the group.  I have been asked, "how do you teach them together?"  First of all, I don't teach EVERYTHING together; however, I do teach as much as possible together.  I have several reasons for this -- most importantly, there is only so many hours in a day -- we can get more done (I can cover more subjects) as a group & there is more free time for the children.  Second, I have been surprised at how much the little ones can learn from the bigger kids & even the two older children from each other.  Also, our children love being together, they love learning together.  Having said this, the topic is the same -- the work load is not (always). 

Penny Gardner, a mother of seven, author of A Charlotte Mason Study Guide and Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children offers this advice regarding how to combine subjects with a range of children:
“Subjects such as history, art appreciation, science, literature, nature study, and anything else that mom is reading aloud can be combined with two or more students. They may take turns narrating those topics. I have done this with three students who were between first and sixth grade. Older students (5-6th grades) may write some of their narrations independently, while mom listens to the younger ones.”

Subjects such as math, beginning reading instruction for the first grader (while the older child reads independently), and perhaps handwriting, including copywork and dictation, may need to be worked on with each child individually.

What subjects do I teach as a group?

• Bible/Character
• History -- using living books, non-fictions read aloud, historical fiction *using literature guides
• Science/Nature Study
• Art/Music Appreciation
• Geography
• Latin
• Vocabulary -- this is mainly from books we are reading or from literature guides to a history book.  If the definition is short & there aren't several I will have both children copy them.  Otherwise, I only have my younger child copy the important ones with shorter definitions.  OR I will have my older child look up & copy  the definition & explain it to my younger child & he has to copy the word & draw a picture to fit the definition.

What do my children do individually? (*Independently as well)

• Reading(UG*)/Phonics
• Language(UG*)
• Grammar*
• Writing
• Handwriting/Copywork*
• Art (Drawing)*
• Spelling*

To see what I use for all of these subjects please see my post on our curriculum.

Here is the History Plan for our house:

I know that "life" happens, new curriculum is developed, homeschooling views/goals change, ect., but this chart gives me an idea of where we are going with our history studies & which children I will be teaching together vs. independently.

Year

08-09

09-10

10-11

11-12

12-13

13-14

14-15

15-16

16-17

17-18

18-19

19-20

20-21

21-22

22-23

Taylor

5 AH (Expl. -1800)

6 AH (Westward)

7 AH  (Civil War)

8 AH (1865-Current)

9 Ancient

10 Middle Ages-1800

11 1800-1900's

12 1900's-Current

Tyler

2 AH Expl.-1800

3 AH (Westward)

4 AH  (Civil War)

5 AH(1600-1800's)

6 AH (Westward)

7 AH (Civil War)

8 1800's

9 Ancient

10 Middle Ages-1800

11 1800-1900's

12 1900's-Current

Tucker

PK Little Hands

K Little Hearts

1 Countries & Cultures

2 AH (Expl-1800)

3 AH (Westward)

4 AH(Civil War)

5 AH (1865-Current)

6 Ancient

7 Middle Ages/Renn.

8 Early American & World History

9 Ancient

10 Middle Ages-1800's

11 1800-1900

12 1900's-Current

Trevor

P-PK Little Hands

PK Little Hearts

K Countries & Cultures

1 AH (Expl.-1800)

2 AH (Westward)

3 AH (Civil War)

4 AH (1865-Current)

5 Ancient

6 Middle Ages/Renn.

7 Early American & World History

8 History of Science

9 Ancient

10 Middle Ages-1800's

11 1800-1900

12 1900's- Current

I don't know where I got the idea for centers, but once I had the notion I flew with it.  We have had such a great time using what we call "centers."  After starting this in our home I came across a homeschool booklet on the idea, "How to Set Up Learning Centers In Your Home" by Mary Hood, Ph.D.  This booklet helped me expand my ideas & gave me great ideas for the future.  Here are the Centers we use & a little about them:

Variestoys relating to topic, books, activities

Center	Where	What's There?
Reading	Everywhere	Books & magazines
Writing	Taylors Room	Dictionary, Journals, Stationary, envelopes, stamps, picture file (Pictures of ideas or people to write about/to), Writing folder from Write Source with creative writing starters.
Computer	My Office	educational games, internet, typing
Social Studies	School Room	maps, geography puzzles, books & games, atlas, state notebook, encyclopedias, globe
Math	School Room	text books, flash cards, cd's, wrap-ups, measuring instruments, solids (cubes, cylinders, spheres, ect), calculator, balance, manipulative, games, clocks
Science	School Room	A-Z Science Experiments, kitchen discoveries, magnifying glass, magnets, touch & feel items, books
Recycling	Outside	Just a huge bucket to keep cans in
Nature	Everywhere	Magnifying glass, binoculars, nature guides, nature books & magazines, aquariums, glass jars, nets
Gardening	Outside	Each child has their own above ground garden bed, plants, gardening tools, books on gardening
Outside Play	Outside	Carpentry Center (kids tools), Sand/Water Play, Playground
Drawing & Design/Craft/Paint	School Room	Table, stencils, stickers, colored pencils, chalk, water color, paint, any art/craft supplies
Sewing	My Scrapbook Room	Sewing machine, patterns, supplies
Creative Play	School Room/ Bed Rooms	Legos, blocks, puzzles, lincoln logs, trinkets
Listening	Bedrooms & School Room	books on audio, music cd's
Music	School Room	play instruments, karaoke
Baking	Kitchen	baking ingredients
Dramatic Play	School Room	dress up clothes, puppets, puppet stand
Pretend Play	Bedroom	plastic animals, castle & figures, pirate dock & boats, cash register, kitchen, market, play check book, "my office,"  "my school"
Unit Study	Varies	toys relating to topic, books, activities
Special Interest	Varies	toys relating to topic, books, activities
Seasonal/Special Occasion	Varies	toys relating to topic, books, activities
Toddler	Bedroom/ School Room	toys & activities special to their learning needs & abilities (Ex. lacing, pegs. Laurie toys, shapes, colors, ect)

How we started:  I started using this as a scheduled part of our schedule (ex.  math 8-8:30, center 8:30-9, reading 9-9:30) I would do center's throughout the day.  I would schedule & pick the centers or give choices to make sure that they were all being utilized & the kids weren't always at the same center.  Then I would let them pick their own center throughout the day. 

This year I didn't dictate the centers a part of our schedule.  Mostly, because after last year, the kids became accustom to them & were using most of their free time as learning play anyway. 

Next year because the tot's will be more active & I am going to attempt to get them on some sort of a schedule I am going to reintroduce the centers as part of our scheduled time (at least for the little ones).  Oh did I mention the plus of clean up from this?  The centers totally help with the clean up -- you can't go from one center to another until it is picked up!  Having a "place" for everything helps soooo much with the clean up.  I will post later on the organizing of our toys & centers.