Homeschool Review

Kim over at Mercy Days is doing a homeschool review. If you've posted a review of your homeschool year, go on over and link up. Or you can see what she did and read what others have as well.

Here's what our year looked like.

Bible: We went through Nancy Ganz's book "Genesis" from her Herein is Love series. We started out the year having Emily listen in too, but it proved to be more a time for training to sit still and quietly than a time to learn about God's word. So we changed things around and now read "Genesis" during nap time and read a smaller more little kid friendly book with Emily. Some of our favorites with her are "The Big Picture Story Bible" and "Leading Little Ones to God". The big kids and I love Nancy Ganz's series and will be going on to "Exodus" in the next week.


Math: We stuck with Saxon this year. Amy is just about finished with book 3. Evan is close to finishing book 6/5. I think I've gotten too lax on the drills and this has made math quite a bit harder for both of them. We never really got into a good pattern for when to do math. Last year Emily was still taking a morning nap and that was math time. This year, we tried having math during her afternoon nap, but the kids were too tired out. So we switched it to the morning, but it was harder to balance all three kid's needs. So we ended up dropping some of the drill work that we've done in the past. Oh, well.



Next year, Evan is going to try Teaching Textbooks for math. He is just having too hard of a time with Saxon. I'm hoping to do some flashcard drills this summer to brush up on the speed factor. I think Amy will stick with Saxon because we already own it and Teaching Textbooks doesn't start until the 5th grade. If it goes well for Evan we'll order it for her as well.



Grammar: Evan finished up the grammar book we bought last year from Rod and Staff called Building Diligently. It was a very through grammar and writing book so rather than rush him last year, we took it a bit slower, and finished it up this year. Next year we're going to try Easy Grammar on Fishmama's suggestion.



By far, my favorite grammar book has been the First Language Lessons series by Jessie Wise. Evan still chants all the helping verbs. I didn't know that they had more than just the first book at the beginning of the year, so Amy went through English for the Thoughtful Child. I had bought it the first year we homeschooled for Evan do in first grade. It wasn't right for him, but I saved it and Amy really enjoyed it. Not as through as the First Language series, but a nice book to practice writing and grammar as well as penmanship.



But I was so excited to see that Jessie Wise is continuing the FLL series! So we ordered the 3rd grade book and Amy is working through it now. We'll probably do a bit in the summer so she doesn't lose ground, and then just keep with it next year and move on to the 4th grade book when she finishes.



Spelling: After doing 2 years of the Phonetic Zoo and still not finishing! I decided to move to a different program for Evan. He worked through a little book called Apples to Apples. It's just one page a day to reinforce spelling rules. He likes it, it only takes about 10 - 15 minutes a day so we're happy. The fact that he still is a horrible speller has more to do with my genetics than any homeschool curriculum. I was in honors English all the way through, yet only learned to spell after I started teaching my kids phonics. Praise the Lord for spell check!



Amy started going through the Phonetic Zoo after finishing up her Modern Curriculum Press book. She is flying through. She learned one lesson in 3 days! For more of a review of what this program is, click here.



Literature: We have always tied reading and literature with History and Science. I don't really have a formal approach to this. I just borrow a ton of books from the library on whatever subject we're on (Ancient Greece and biographies of Famous Botanists being the most current). Or if I can find them cheap at a book sale, I buy them. Then we try to work in 30 min to an hour of reading time a day. Some days there isn't time for any reading, and other days, when Emily is sick, we have 2-3 hours of reading time. Now that both older kids are reading well, this has been easy. I just have to remember to have them read to me once in a while to check on words they are missing and just guessing on!



Writing: We started this year using Ancient History - based Writing Lessons. It's a great curriculum, one I'd definitely recommend to go with Ancient History. But we didn't get very far with it. Hmm. Not sure what happened.



History: After going through all 4 Story of the World books, this was our first year branching out into something new. We used The Mystery of History. And for the first time SEAN taught history. I had asked him to teach a subject and he graciously agreed. He loves history so that helped. While he is extremely knowledgeable about current history, ancient history isn't something he's very familiar with. So I think he enjoyed it as much or more than the kids. The Mystery of History's first volume is also very heavily weighted with Bible history. Most of the prophets as well as the main Old Testament characters are talked about in their proper time frame. This is what drew me to the curriculum and I think Sean (and the kids) are learning quite a bit. Because of Sean's crazy schedule, we went a couple of months without history (scary for me, but good to give up control!) so we'll be having history lessons in the summer.



Science: This year we went back to studying Biology. For the first part of the year we used The Body Book. It was so much fun! Evan used his "body" as part of his science fair project talking about human anatomy and many of the different systems. We also used various book from the library and The Human Body - God's Design for Life series as supplements.



Instead of using a book on zoology (studying animals) , we started using a basic biology book called Christian Kids Explore Biology. There are lots of great activities to go with the lessons. We're going through it a bit fast, but it would be a great spine to work off of and take a bit more time with.



For botany, in addition to what is covered in Christian Kids Explore Biology, we, of course, are growing a garden. Last week we dissected flowers. Great fun!





Latin: We're a classical homeschool so we study Latin. However, we're a flexible homeschool family. So when crisis arises, Latin is one of the first to make the cut. We only got half way through Latina Christiana 1 this year. Evan seemed to really get it this year. All the grammar that was introduced he really took to, but Amy was lost. I think she would have done much better with Prima Latina, but I just couldn't teach two Latin classes! So I'm not sure what to do about this one. Sean has never really understood the need to teach Latin. And the kids are begging me to take Spanish. Begging. So this will need to be a matter of prayer over the summer.

Logic: This year Evan started doing some Logic studies. I ordered A Case of Red Herrings, Equilibrio, and Mind Benders. They are really, really, fun! The kids both get them out to "play" with quite a bit.

At the beginning of the year, a man from our homeschool group offered to teach a logic class using The Thinking Toolbox. Evan absolutely loved it and did well considering it was a class for junior high students, primarily.

Out side Classes: For PE our kids have been doing Karate for several years now. I really like the Shotokan style. It is very traditional. But really the strength of a dojo lies in the Sensei. We feel very blessed that the school we go to has not one, but 5 outstanding teachers.

We also take Art class. Miss Brenda now, Mrs. Brenda is wonderful!

Amy finished up her second year with the CC Children's Choir. Being involved with a children's choir has been a great way for Amy to learn music and develop her voice.

Preschool: Emily has loved the Kumon preschool books! She has developed her fine motor skills working on cutting and tracing. I picked up a bunch of preschool "workbooks" at the garage sale yesterday. My goal for next year is to train her to work quietly for at least a little bit, while we work on something else.