Schooling At Home

My friend Jessica introduced us to the world of blogging. (Thanks Jessica!) She also introduced me to an encouraging blog called Girl Talk, and her circle of blogging buddies. One of them asked her homeschool readers to post about their homeschooling philosophy and curriculum choices. So here it goes... I hope it's helpful to any of you who teach at home or are thinking about it.

I follow a Classical Christian approach to Homeschooling. Since we are still in the early stages(2nd and 4th grade next fall), we are in what classicalists call the "grammar stage" where students learn the "grammar" or building blocks of each subject. They then build on that foundation in later years.

We started homeschooling three years ago when my son was in 1st grade. I don't qualify for "veteran homeschooler" quite yet, but there are some things that have been working for us that I am really excited about. I won't bore you with the flops!


Bible: We started out using Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History. This guide takes you through the history of Israel by reading one or two chapters a day from Genesis through Nehemiah then asking a few inductive questions to get your kids discussing the chapter with you.
Another series we have enjoyed is Susan Hunt's ABC Bible Verses, Big Truths for Little Kids, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, and Discovering Jesus in Exodus. When we were through, Evan asked if there were "Discovering Jesus" books for all 66 books of the Bible! Solid doctrine, scripture memorization, engaging stories and even a recipe for Miss Jenny's Shortbread made this devotional series a favorite for our family. It's one we will come back to again when Emily is older. By then she will have learned (hopefully) that our "A" verse is "A quiet answer turns away wrath." Proverbs 15:1 (Just a note, in Big Truths for Little Kids, she talks about infant baptism. I thought it was presented in a way that we were able to talk about why some Christians practice this and it wasn't a big deal. But I wanted to mention it.)

Math: One thing that we have been doing this year to help with multiplication is a timed multiplication table drill. My husband did it in 3 and 1/2 min. with no practice. I give the kids 5 min. to see how much they can fill in. We do it every day in the morning. Evan is now up to 120 out of 144 possible. You can click here for a link to a blank multiplication table.

Language Arts:

• Reading: We have used Phonics Pathways to teach reading skills. It was simple, inexpensive and thorough. To jazz it up a bit at times, we would play the kids favorite games but switch out the dice or cards with flash cards that had the words or sentences they would have read in the book. My kids loved that. We would also go through readers each day. Evan really liked the ones from Veritas Press. (You can order them separately if you call and ask.) Amy liked Modern curricular Press. I would also recommend Educators Publishing Service's Primary Phonics readers. They are phonetically based and my kids really liked the stories.
• Spelling: This year Evan started Phonetic Zoo, a program put out by Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). It was a little expensive, but well worth it. It comes with flash cards of all the spelling rules with the words they will work on, an instructional video, CD's for the kids to listen to for their lesson practice, and reward cards. Basically, the child listens on CD and spells out the word and writes the word correctly everyday until he can get it right two times in a row for mastery. Evan really liked working with a CD player, and he is learning to spell! The auditory approach works well for him. It is recommended for 3rd grade and up.
• Handwriting: We have been using Italic handwriting with a lot of success. It has even improved my handwriting!
• Grammar: We really like First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise. It covers two years worth of material. My kids really liked it because they got to do fun chants to learn things, and memorize poems. I liked it because it is scripted and required almost no prepwork. It has beginning writing assignments that start with copywork, move to dictation, and end with the student writing his own paragraph.
• Poetry: This spring I ordered Developing Linguistic Patterns Through Poetry Memorization from IEW for next fall. We started listening to it and my kids have already memorized 4 poems and are working on their 5th. They love it! The program is laid out so it's easy to understand, and we are enjoying the poetry selections.

Latin: Last year Evan started Prima Latina by Leigh Lowe. He really enjoyed learning the prayers in Latin. I thought it was fairly easy to teach. The CD really helps with pronunciation.

Science: We are following The Well Trained Mind's suggestion of doing Biology the first year, Earth Science and Astronomy the second, Chemistry the third, and Physics the forth. This year I had Evan keep a science notebook of the experiments we did. I purchased a black and white composition book and had him write definitions, observations, results and draw diagrams when appropriate. We have had a lot of fun with science. It is probably one of the easier things for me to teach since my major in college was a scientific one. (Nutritional Science) I loved organic chemistry! If anyone is interested in more specific science ideas just let me know, and I'll post more.

History: We have been using Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World. It has been a lot of fun for me and the kids. It is probably their favorite subject. I really like the activity book with reading lists, crafts, maps, coloring pages and games that all correspond to the lesson. We started with book 1, Ancients in first grade. Next year we will finish up the series with book 4, Modern History.

Art: Amy has enjoyed the Draw Write Now series. Step-by-step instructions are given for simple drawings that can be expanded on. There are handwriting exercises too, but we haven't used them.

My weakest area as a teacher is writing. It was my weakest area as a student also. I'd love to hear any suggestions, especially for boys.