2009-2010 Curriculum – Part 1 – Bible, Math & English

Do you ever wonder what all those other homeschool moms are using are using to teach their kids? When I first got starting homeschooling we didn’t have much money and we were really just doing preschool so I just made up as we went along. It never occurred to me that I needed a “program” to teach my daughters to read. Turns out you really don’t! I didn’t even know any other homeschoolers, heck I had never even had met one. I made my own lesson plans until my oldest was in 2nd grade and then I finally started looking at packaged curriculum. It was all so expensive so I just kept piecing things together. When our oldest daughter was in 3rd grade and the next oldest was in 1st grade, piecing together everything and lesson planning was getting a little overwhelming. I also had a toddler and a baby to look after. I was tired and overwhelmed, I was discouraged and worried that I wasn’t teaching them everything they need to know. We broke down and bought the Bob Jones prepackaged curriculum for both of their grade levels. It cost us a fortune, I felt guilty about spending that much money and I ended up hating it! There was so much prep work for each subject that I ended up letting it all go to the wayside. It was much more work than just winging it like I had been in the past. I went back to my method of piecing things together and finding things that I liked and complimented my children’s learning style. I think that almost every curriculum that I have and love, I have found by talking to other moms and going to homeschool conferences. I have really enjoyed researching curriculum and trying new things but after over 6 years of schooling my kids at home I think I have found what really works well. I was a little worried about having gaps by changing what we were doing each year and decided that I needed to decide on some more permanent plans. We are very hands on learners and we love reading and dislike worksheets. We love making art and being crafty our day is not complete without some kind of project. Above the normal hum of noise in our home you will hear stories on tape or music pieces being played by children learning instruments of different kinds in the background.

If  this sounds like you maybe you would be interested in what we use in our homeschool:

Our first subject of every day is Bible. It really helps to set the tone for the rest of the day. Of course the main book we use for that is..the Bible. We use different translations. I think each of us has a different one. Primarily we like the KJV. Sometimes it is a little harder for the little ones to understand and they will read us the verse out of their “easy reader” Bibles.  I came across a topical reference guide  a couple of years ago called For Instruction in Righteousness and it has been indispensable. This has been by far our favorite way to study the bible as a family. We can sit down with the kids and talk about maybe what we see them struggling with or with something the kids may see us struggling with. All the verses we need are just laid out for us. This week for us the topic was shifting blame…I didn’t mean to…Daddy did it….It’s not my fault…He spilled the fish food….she flooded the toilet..I forgot….you didn’t give me enough time…it’s not my fault.. This book gives lots of verses 50 topics of sin such as this. I will write the verses we are going to look at that day on a note card and then they will write them on note cards of their own(just the book, chapter, and verse number). Then we will look up the verses and talk about what God is telling us. The verses For Instruction in Righteousness outlines tell what the Bible says will, or should, happen to a person who sins in this way, what the Bible likens the person who sins in this way to and how God blesses the person who resists indulging in this sin. There are enough verses that you could visit the topic for well over a week if you wished. We usually work on memorizing one or two of our favorite verses from the topic during the week or sometimes just memory verses from Bible classes at church. The kids really look forward to this every morning and so do I. There is no better way than to start out the day in God’s word with my children.

For Math we are using Math-U-See. I used Abeka, Saxon, Math Mammoth all without much success. I want math to be fun and not some daunting task that we just have to suffer through. I was looking for a program that was visual, interesting, easy to understand with clear instruction. Not to mention that the material had to be presented in a logical progression. I was looking for something that based on the child’s previous knowledge and builds on it and didn’t skip all over the place. Oh, and actually working on memorizing the math fact families in the program was an absolute must. Math U See was it.

This is our first year using it and we absolutely love it. My kids went from suffering through math to actually looking forward to and enjoying the subject. My oldest daughter who always had a hard time with math is finally breezing through. She is no longer in tears because she is frustrated that she just “can’t get it” because she is getting it! You start out the week by watching an instruction video that shows you how to teach the lesson to your child. Or you could be like me and just watch the video with your kids. Then for the rest of the week they work on the one skill that they learned in the video and test at the end. Its just that easy. The lessons are fairly short so if you have a child that has a short attention span or would be overwhelmed with 50 problems on a page this is great for them. My son is in the Primer level and sometimes there may be only 3 problems on a page and that is all he wants to do that day. On another day he may do a weeks worth of work.

The manipulatives they have are a great visual help without becoming a crutch. It really helps them to see what they are doing in the problems. My older kids might only use them for the first couple of problems and then they put them to the side. If they have trouble they can just pick them back up and figure out where they are going wrong.

Math U See even has an online worksheet generator just in case your child needs a little extra practice and online drills to help solidify the memorization of the fact families.

Compared to many other math programs we have tried, Math U See is also much more affordable affordable. I bought 4 levels this year and 2 sets of the manipulative blocks plus a set of the fraction manipulatives (which are awesome by the way) and it didn’t break the bank. Especially considering I will be able to reuse the teacher’s manuals and videos for the next child.

For Language Arts we are using a couple of different things. I am teaching my 5 year old son how to read with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise. It is very slow going because he has no interest whatsoever in reading. And that is OK! He loves to be read to and loves to look at books and visit the library so it makes perfect sense that eventually he will want to read. I am almost sure of it. He and I also do a lesson every now and then in First Language Lessons also by Jessie Wise. He likes this a lot because it is ryming/games/ stories. I like them both because they are idiot proof. Seriously. You can’t mess it up. And it is fun. Jessie tells you exactly what you need to do and say and there is little to no prep work required. You just sit and spend time with your kid. And you can use both of these books for all of your children without buying another thing. Inexpensive and cost effective.  There are also no worksheets!! Yeah!

For the girls in 2nd, 4th, and 6th, grades we use Rod and Staff English. We have been using it for 3 years now. In my opinion it is the best English curriculum you can get. *Rod and Staff teaches grammar and mechanics (capitalization and punctuation) in a traditional way. You know like how your grandparents learned and knew more in 5th grade than we did in college. It takes a conservative approach in matters of usage. The lessons carry a Biblical tone and promote Christian virtues. Exercise sentences deal with a broad range of topics—Bible stories and concepts, Christian living, family life, and historical and scientific facts. The lessons are such that they get good practice in handwriting as well. To me it looked a little “dry”. But my girls love it. They love the little drawings of the Mennonite children and the bible characters that they are familiar with being someplace outside of their bible. I think it is wonderful that sometimes it even asks that they use their bible to find the answer. How is that for applying bible knowledge to real life?! My oldest loves the fun facts they throw in. We do not do an additional writing program, there is no need.  Any other writing they may do is in History and Science and book reports, along with journaling and writing letters. Did I mention it is dirt cheap? Don’t let the price fool you. It is a fantastic program.

Later to come in part 2 is what we use for:

Latin

Logic

Science

and in part 3:

History

Handwriting

Spelling

Do any of you use these programs? How many of you use the prepackaged curriculum? Do you just piece together different things like I do?

* as descripted on RodandStaffBooks.com