We are so excited about adding a new baby to our family this summer. It seems like perfect timing as far as staying on track with our lessons without it all being too stressful. It also made me wonder how other homeschool moms do it all during the summer. Do you school year round? Do you choose just a few things to keep the kids fresh? Or do you use your summer to just have fun? What do you do when you are expecting a new baby?

Generally we homeschool year round. Instead of taking a long summer break we usually take frequent breaks during the year, it helps us prevent burn out. But since this summer we are expecting a new baby , I have been thinking that it would be good to take a little more of a break. We aren’t going to completely stop doing lessons. Every summer we do a math facts memorization and refresher course and I feel like the kids math skills would slip without it. We don’t do any other math. We just focus on facts. We do flashcards and math minutes and online games to help reinforce it all. The other thing we would like to do this summer is an intensive geography course. We use The Story of the World as our main history/ geography curriculum but the kids have shown a huge interest in learning the geography of the world. We figured summer would be a good time to pause from our regular curriculum and do this. I haven’t found anything that fits what I am looking for so I am going to develop my own (which I will be sharing on here) using books that I like and blank maps. The kids are begging to continue doing science so we are thinking about letting them do the Switched on Schoolhouse program for that. We will stop lessons a couple weeks before the baby is born and then continue them once everything has settled down. Our regular school schedule will start in early August.

I have been encouraging the kids to work extra hard to complete this year’s curriculum before the summer begins. I also needed enough time before the baby gets here to plan for next year. We have planned our spring break as an 8 day trip to Disneyland as our last “family of 7″ trip. Talk about motivation!

Congratulations suburbangranola.com You won the blog contest ” “Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines”

Please email me your address so I can ship.
I was in shock for a minute. Seriously. I cannot believe that I actually won something.  Take a look at what I won! I just can’t wait to get it and start using it in our lessons. I am sure it will get a lot of use from my 5 kids.

I love the Heart of Wisdom website. Robin is a super smart, homeschool savvy lady with a heart for God. She has some great stuff on there. Robin has all kids of stuff on teaching methods, freebies, homeschool helps and my new favorite, lapbooks. So head on over and check out http://heartofwisdom.com. I am sure you will like it too!

We have used a computer based curriculum by Alpha Omega called Switched on Schoolhouse. I was very excited about getting it and really liked it for the first couple of months we used it. It did everything for me. It teaches the lesson, keeps up with the time the kids are actually working and even keeps the grades. You hear that? It grades for you! It seemed to be so simple and wonderful. I was picturing myself watching t.v and eating bon bons being able to keep a spotless house while the kids dutifully did their school work. Ok, not really.. but you know what I mean. I really thought it would help simplify a large portion of the homeschool process.  Have I mentioned that I really like trying new things?

So we are using the program and I think everything is just dandy. Every once in a while, I would go on to the program and just check to see what the girl’s grades were looking like and I would ask what they had been learning about. Their grades always looked good but they never could tell me what they were learning about. Uh, oh. Red Flag. Then I started to worry.  The kids were always able to tell me or their dad about what they had been learning when I was teaching and doing our hands-on activities. I started to sit next to them while they worked to see why. It was *yawn totally uninteresting!! No wonder they couldn’t remember anything! After 15 minutes I was bored to tears.

After some serious thought about what I was going to do since I just dropped close to $1200 on this program that was going to essentially be a complete waste of money. I realized that Bible should be just that, sitting down with God’s word a real Bible in your hands talking face to face with your child about God, sharing your experiences and knowledge. There should be no substitutions.  Science is not nearly as fun on a screen as it is in real life. History was just..blah..on the computer when in fact history is fun and exciting and full of interesting stories and characters. The math worried me especially, it seemed to have no orderly sense at all. It was all over the place. My kids love to use the computer, they love learning games and “doing research” and they liked some parts SOS, just not that much. Definitely not enough to get them excited about what they were learning about or to keep their love of learning alive.

So we went back to our hands on approach to learning. The kids became excited about learning again and couldn’t stop talking about what we were doing. I was thrilled my children were thriving again. At the same time, I was quite sad. I have always struggled with keeping up with lesson planning, grading ( and reporting my grades on time) and I loved that SOS did it for me. I had to figure out a better way to keep up with that. I had to stop being so lazy laid back about it.

We do still use the computer for learning.

I have really had my eye on Power Speak French. It looks like a really good program to me. Maybe they will see this and send me one to review. I can hope. Right?

These are some of the programs that we use to enhance learning:

There is an award-winning drawing program called Tux Paint that you can download for free.  My kids also like to use it as a word processing program. They love when I let them write their reports with it.

The time tested Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor.

Math Facts in a Flash a great way to supplement learning of the math facts. It even has progress reports for each child.

We also have quite a few educational websites that we like to visit.

All sites are free unless noted otherwise.

For Teachers:

www.bakersbookstore.com This is my Usborne book store where you can get all those wonderful Usborne books everyone keeps recommending to you. Books on just about every topic for every age. Usborne internet linked books with safe sites for your kids. These are the best resource books you can have.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com The cost is $20 per year subscription. Enchanted learning has TONS of fun stuff for kids in the lower grades. You will want to have a great printer for all the things they have!

http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php pretty much anything you need for homeschooling

http://www.col-ed.org/cur/math.html basic lesson plans done for you

http://www.abcteach.com/ over 5,000 free printables

Especially for Pre Schoolers:

http://www.youcanteach.com/

For Math:

http://themathworksheetsite.com make your own worksheets or use theirs

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/math-drills-minute.html minute math drills

For Science:

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/index.htm weather related

http://www.answersincreation.org/geologylessons.htm geology related

http://www.tvakids.com/index.htm conservation

http://kids.discovery.com/ great site with tons of topics

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

For Reading:

http://www.starfall.com/ This is a fantastic site for beginning readers and up. Interesting and easy for even the youngest of children.

http://www.readinga-z.com a guided reading program with downloadable books.

For Geography/ History:

http://www.netstate.com/ U.S

Broad Topics:

http://www.si.edu/ The Smithsonian Institute

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ Time Magazine for Kids. Also has lesson plans for grades K-6.

If you own a website dedicated to the education of children and would like to have it on this list let me know.

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

I love History.

And I really love The Story of the World. by Susan Wise Bauer. It is by far the best History curriculum I have come accross.  It is a chronilogical study starting in 5000 bc that goes all the way up to 1994.  It is broken into four volumes that take about a year each to complete. You could take longer if you get really into a unit and study it really in depth. There is a chapter that you read. Or you can buy the wonderful audio cd. We use the cd and love lying in the floor of the office with our pillows and blanket to “do history”. Then afterward there is a narration exercise, map work (so no need for additional geography!) and usually some kind of coloring activity. It also has some really great crafts, activities and additional reading recommendations. I can’t even tell you how well put together this is. I use the curriculum for my children that are in Pre-K, 1st, 3rd, and 5th all together. It saves me from having to teach them all separate thing because I am able to adjust the lessons and questions for each child. They love it. Along with the HOW goes the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. The lessons correspods perfectly and Susan Wise Bauer even tells you exactly where to look. And if you have the internet linked encyclopedia you can go even that much further into the subject.

The best way to teach a young child to love to read is to read to them often, starting very young. I read to my kids even if I think they are not paying attention. Toddlers will mimic everything you do (good and bad) and it is no different with reading. There are tons of “teach your baby to read” and learn to read quick type things out there but I have found the very best tool to be books. Don’t waste your money on those silly programs! They are usually quite expensive and you don’t need them anyway. Stock up on good books instead!

You can make or buy flashcards with the alphabet on them and start teaching them a few letter sounds at a time. I usually shoot for a goal of 1-2 per week. I plan all kinds of fun stuff pertaining to that letter. I find books that start with the letter of the week. I make foods that start with the letter. Make it fun! There are all kind of crafty things you can do with letters. For example- cut a piece of green construction paper into four squares. Write the upper case B on one and the lower case b on another. Give the kid some glue and some beans and let them glue the beans over the lines of the letters. Viola, green beans. Get it? ! Green beans…beans start with B…B….B  Also when teaching kids the letter sounds don’t add -uh to the end like as in B says buh, or D says duh. Because they really don’t. Its an extra sound tagging on the end. Just say hard letter sound. It makes it easier for kids to sound out words if they do not develop that bad habit . Think bat. b-a-t  not buh- a -tuh . It takes much longer in my experience to be able to understand how to put the sounds together if they are in that habit of adding -uh to their letter sound.

When they know them all grab one of those beginning reading books and show them how to sound out the words. We absolutely love the Animal Antics series. I have taught 3 of my 5 to read out of them almost exclusively. Be patient when you are teaching them to sound out words. It can be very frustrating to a parent and then it only serves as to frustrate them. Label things in your house such as doors, windows, cabinets. Even if the word is too hard for them to read, they see that words are important. And put their name on everything that they use a lot, their cups, clothing, books, bedroom door..Kids love to see their own name.

I don’t think you need and English curriculum until about the second or even third grade. Before that they just need to learn to read and then be able to understand what they are reading. Once they are reading for understanding then you are rolling.

So lets talk about what I use.

Language Arts:

1) We are currently using Rod and Staff Reading and English curricula- this may seem a little dry or boring to adults but it doesn’t seem to have any problem keeping my kids attention. It is very thorough. It is easy to teach. And its cheap. They love it. I love it.

2) We have also used and loved Switched on Schoolhouse

4)  We use Spelling City for spelling work. Spelling is not the most important subject to me. I feel like if they can read well they will be able to spell well also. But if I need a few minutes of “busy work” I will have them hit the computer. Its fun, its free. I build the lists based on what the kids are learning across their curricula. Hubby thinks its fun to think of crazy hard words and see them freak out when the see their list.

5) One very cool writing program is called Writing Strands. My kids like it far better than anything else because they can be creative. I would happily use it and nothing else if I were not required by law to have my children take standardized tests.

6) The library is your friend! Use it! Plan a weekly trip. Go to story time. I let my kids all choose their own books but encourage them to choose books from different sections. I also pick a required reading book for them that is generally a little above their reading level. Usually it will be a classic. And I will ask them to write a report on it.

7) Books on tape are awesome. We have lots and lots. Sometimes they can be expensive. Look for them on sale or make your own! You can record a story your computer and burn a disk or even video tape yourself. Great for nights you may not be at home. ITunes also has a good selection of kids books you can download.

To be continued…Part 3 will contain information for History and Geography

When I started homeschooling , NumberOne was only about 2. I didn’t actually know that I was homeschooling, in fact I had never heard of it. One is a super-smart kid and totally in to everything so I was just trying to keep her occupied and out of trouble. By the time she was preschool age she was reading and knew her numbers and all that jazz, just from playing. She also could speak quite a bit of French thanks to the wonderful French family we befriended at the park. Hubby and I were starting to wonder where we should send her to school. At this time we were living in the bay area in California. We looked into the local schools and we even tried out a Montessori Academy. She already knew all the stuff that they were teaching, but all kids have to go to school, right? Honestly I felt like she was too little to be off at school all day. I missed her. At this point I had heard the term homeschooling but wasn’t sure how it all worked. I really started looking into it. I went online for most of my information because I didn’t know any other homeschoolers. In fact there weren’t any around! I gradually built up the courage to talk to Hubby about giving it a shot. At first he thought I was nuts. Seriously, I will never forget the look on his face. He was not going for it one bit. But I laid out all of the pro’s I could think of and quoted all the statistics that I had read online about how much better that homeschooled children fare on standardized test and such. That had his interest. Who doesn’t want their kid to be the smartest around? He finally conceded and decided to let me try it for one year.

That first year was pretty great. I didn’t have a curriculum. I didn’t know there was a such thing. I just made up little activities teaching her what I thought she needed to know and it was great! Hubby was convinced that this was the best way to educate our children. He was very pleased with how things went and was totally sold. The only problem was that it took a lot of time to plan all of the lessons. The next year I learned about this fancy thing called curriculum and I picked one up. That was the worst year ever. We decided to hang in there and try to find a curriculum that would work for us. I started curriculum hopping (for the next couple of years) and hated most of what I picked up. A lot of them were intended for schools and require too much preparation for just one student. Some of them were boring, some of them were too “New Aged” and some were just plain stupid. I spent hundreds of dollars on so many different programs that were supposed to make it easier for me. After all ,I was spending a whole lot of time planning all those lessons and by our third year I had four children so time was at a premium!

I spent many a sleepless nights planning out our schedule. I would plan for weeks in advance, and then someone would get sick and we would miss a few days and I would have to revise the whole schedule! On the other hand I didn’t want to unschool. I am really too much of a control freak for that! I just had to find something that would work for us and not be totally stressful. So after many trial and errors, I would like to share with you what has worked best for us.

Here are some of the things that have stuck and that we absolutely love to use:

* italics indicate quotes from the publisher

Math:

1) Rod and Staff This is a bible-based curriculum that is our top choice. It is hands down our absolute favorite. It teaches in the old

fashioned way. If you want your children to be able to understand math in a practical way, this is the way to go. And is also extremely

inexpensive in comparison to most others. Especially if you plan on using it for more than one child.

2) Switched on Schoolhouse Switched-On Schoolhouse is a comprehensive, Bible-based curriculum that offers computer-based learning

for grades 3-12. With 3-D animation, video clips, and other fascinating multimedia, Switched-On Schoolhouse is the perfect

homeschool curriculum for today’s generation. With this flexible, best-selling curriculum, you can customize student learning to fit

individual educational needs. This is great if space is limited or if you spend a lot of time travelling because all you really need is a

computer. It even keeps up with the amount of time children are spending on the lessons and most importantly it keeps up with grading!

We also like this website for fun, free activities:

www.arcademicskillbuilders.com

Part 2 is coming soon with tips on teaching your children to read and our Language Arts curricula.