Our Homeschool Curriculum for 2010-2011

We are often asked about the curriculum we use for homeschooling. It changes every now and then but I'll share this year's lineup.

For our humanities and social studies subjects, we had been using whatever was recommended in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. I still recommend that book highly for those thinking of homeschooling or supplementing.

After going through one four-year cycle of that, we have now switched to Tapestry of Grace for history, literature, Bible, art, geography, and writing. From their website, they claim to provide "a plan of study that helps parents provide a Christian, classical education using a guided unit study approach, with the history of the world as the core organizational theme." We are just in our third week but love it so far. If I could sum up the curriculum in a word, it would be convergence. We study the same topic through all  of the humanities and social studies disciplines, gaining a much clearer and deeper understanding than if we tackled each discipline individually. When I say "we" I include myself in learning with the kids. I am definitely on the journey too.


For math we use Saxon Math, currently at the end of levels 3 and 5/4. Different approaches to math work for different students but we appreciate how Saxon Math's incremental approach and constant review. For 5/4, we use the DIVE instructional CD.

We use Spelling Workout for spelling. I haven't used other spelling books so I can't compare but I am satisfied with the kids' progress. The teachers' books are sometimes hard to find but you can get by without them. If you really want them, you can find them used online.

For grammar, we are using Jessie Wise's First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, levels 2 and 4. These are great, but they require a lot of teacher time so we might switch to Daily Grams in when we are ready for new books later this year. (Any advice?)

We use Wordly Wise 3000 for vocabulary, but to be honest, the kids don't like it much. I'm trying to decide if we should try something else or just call it good with the vocabulary that the kids pick up from their reading.

The kids also study Japanese through a combination of reading library books, doing kumon worksheets, and working through the public elementary school textbooks.

I'd be happy to take any questions or ideas in the comments. (For the sake of disclosure, most of the links above have affiliate code in them. If you purchase anything through those links, I get a portion of the purchase price. The prices aren't any higher than they would ordinarily be.)

Edit: I forgot to mention our science curriculum. We use Real Science-4-Kids from Gravitas Publications. We are doing chemistry now. The lessons are simple and the experiments make use of commonly available items (except that we can't find purple cabbage in Japan to use an acid-base indicator. Grrrr). The kids look forward to our Friday "lab days."

Ancient Egypt Unit Study

This year we are using a unit-study homeschool curriculum called Tapestry of Grace. The first three weeks are about ancient Egypt. T and R are engrossed in their reading (Who knew that part of the mummification process was pulling the brain out piece by piece through the nostrils?). The activities are fun too. Below is the play dough land mass they made to learn geography terms. D contributed the island in the top right.

After dinner tonight, I shared what I know of Egyptian ambulatory customs.

There was dancing.

Ugly Animals

Mother Nature Network has photos of 13 of the world's ugliest animals. Here's an aye-aye to get you started.

Photo: Chris Corwin/Flickr

Whether you want to or not, you're probably going to click through to see the rest. 

(via challies.com)

D's First Day of Preschool

I've been wanting to get back to blogging for a while but needed something momentous to get me started again. Here it is.

Bible Reading Plan

Wow. First post in a long time. Sorry 'bout that.

It's the end of the year and time to think about my Bible reading plan for 2010. In 2009, I used the Discipleship Journal plan and I'm going to do it again next year. It takes you through the whole Bible in a year. Here are two thing I like about it.

1. The readings are from four separate places every day. For the internet generation's short attention span (I'm including myself), this is just right. If one of the readings is dry, another will be juicy.

2. It only calls for 25 days of reading each month. This kept me from falling behind and getting discouraged. Sometimes I did all 25 readings before the end of the month; then I just kept reading, went back and reviewed something in more depth, or read some historical background.

This Bible reading plan (including printable bookmarks) and many other plans are available here.

Sometimes when I have a checklist, the temptation is just to get something done to check it off. What a waste! It's important to remember that the reason I read the Bible is to know God better and to invite God to speak to me through scripture. Here's to rich time in God's word in 2010!

R's Blog

R started a blog.

Here it is: http://rina-grace.blogspot.com

And T's is here: http://timothykei.blogspot.com

How Not to Talk to Your Kids

This is an article on how general praise ("You're smart") can actually demotivate a child and prevent him from trying something at which he may not succeed. It's better to affirm effort, especially specific instances of effort ("You worked really hard on those problems"). It originally appeared in the New Yorker a couple years ago and is republished here at fishfulthinking.com. (Try to get past the corny template.)

Listening and Following Directions

Amy Anderson is at it again, this time with some tips about helping preschool-age children with listening and following directions.

Here’s a sample of what she says:

• Get down on your child’s level - eye contact is good, and it is also less intimidating to your child.
• Make sure you have your child’s full attention before giving directions. Be straight-forward: “I am going to tell you what to do now. Ready?”
• Keep your directions short and simple - preschoolers are not known for their extensive attention spans.
• Use visual cues if you can — point the direction you want him to go; touch her feet if you want her to get shoes on.
• Ask your child to repeat back the directions. My four-year-old likes to count on her fingers while she retells what she needs to do. Whatever works!
  
• Be predictable. If you always tell your child to first clear his plate, then wash his hands, he will have a better chance of remembering what to do.
• Have appropriate expectations. Don’t give your child a three-step direction if you know she is not capable of remembering three steps. Break it down step-by-step until she is ready.
  

For more, read the whole article here.

Initiative, Independence, & Responsibility

Amy Anderson at Let's Explore has a good article about fostering these skills in preschool childen. Her advice, in part is to:

Encourage your child to complete self-help tasks, such as cleaning up spilled juice or sweeping up paper from a cutting project.

Break complicated tasks into small steps and celebrate all the little successes along the way.

Praise the effort, not the task: “You didn’t give up and kept trying until you opened the toothpaste. Way to go!”

Build extra minutes into your daily routines to allow your child to complete tasks without being hurried — such as putting on his own socks, buckling her own seat belt, etc.

These are all great but I particularly like the last one. Chronic parental rushing stunts the development of initiative in children.

R's Graduation!

R graduated from kindergarten on March 18. I'm super proud of her. But now I'm wondering what it will be like teaching without at least one of my own kids in the classroom.