The End of the Holiday...

Almost all our school materials have now arrived. Woohoo! The kids are all ready and eager to begin schooling, so I reckon we'll kinda get going on Thursday, and hope some creases will be ironed out before we get a good start on Monday.
We tend to stop working over school holidays - not because we have to, but because we have so many cousins in and out that it would be really difficult to carry on schooling. So our term times loosely follow local school terms.

For the Wee Guy, we are using:

Maths


Abeka for Maths and Language. He's now onto his third year of Abeka Arithmetic and Language. It works well for us, the lessons are clear and very easy to follow. 


The girls are using Abeka's DVDs for Maths.


History


Mystery of History for, er, History! We haven't used this curriculum before, but it's set out in such a way as to be used with all three kids. For example, after Lesson 91 has been read (and talked about), these questions follow:

Activities for Lesson 91

91A—Younger Students
Write a story about what it would be like to have a pet elephant. What would you want him to do for you? Where could he take your family? Where would he sleep, and how much would he eat?  To make your story believable, read some information about elephants in the encyclopedia and weave these facts into your story.

Dictate the story to your teacher and include it in your Student Notebook 
under “Africa: Tunisia.” (Tunisia is the modern country in Africa where Carthage used to be.)

91B—Middle Students
Pretend you are a soldier with Hannibal’s army. Write a diary page of what it is like to travel with the elephants. Although it was not a funny expedition, you could write your diary page in a humorous fashion. Use your imagination. 
File your page under “Africa: Tunisia.”


91C—Older Students
1.  Write a synopsis of each of the three Punic Wars. These wars were considered pivotal to history, and the tactics of Hannibal were ingenious. Pay attention to the name Scipio. 
h ere was more than one. File your research under “Africa: Tunisia.”


2.  Are you a war buff ? If you like battle scenes, research the details on the Battle of Zama, Scipio versus Hannibal. It was quite a showdown.



And so, there are a variety of questions suitable for the different age groups. 


One area of study I am keen that they improve on is the ability to read, understand, chew over, and regurgitate - whether in writing or orally.


For Bible as a subject, the girls are going to use The Truth that Frees as a teaching tool. 


Much of what might come under the category of Language/English/Literature will be a selection of books and materials 


- they will listen to lectures, take notes and answer a question I've set them: this question may ask for an essay, for a summary, or for a discussion on the topic.


- we will read chapters of books together and, again, I will set relevant questions for them. We plan to carry on with Ruth: Her Story for Today, which I posted about here.


- they will read and write book summaries, reviews, or they will write essays connected with the book. Again, the synopsis of some of their reading books will be in the form of discussion - of questions and answers, of thought and opinions.


Again, we will be using Pudewa's Excellence in Writing materials to help with writing style.

Art

Katie is keen on drawing, and definitely has some talents in this area that did not come from me. She is going to use Artistic Pursuits to develop some of her artistic skills.


She will do Art with the Wee Guy too.

Science

The girls will use Abeka DVDs for Science. 


The Wee Guy is using Abeka's science curriculum for his age group.

Here's a selection of some of the books we'll be using this coming year.

And now, it's 'hop to it'... there's work to be done!

EPGY Math, a Review

I'm planning on starting more structured homeschooling with my boys this fall.  For the time being, the only subjects we are doing in a routine way are Bible and math.

Elijah uses an online math program called EPGY math.  EPGY stands for "Educational Program for Gifted Youth" and it is run by Stanford University.  As the name suggests, it is mostly geared towards gifted students, particularly high school students who are ready to move beyond the limited math and science offerings at their local high school.  However, EPGY also offers a comprehensive K-7 math curriculum (which is relatively affordable, compared to their other courses, which are quite expensive).

When we started EPGY, I wasn't really sure where Elijah stood in math, since we hadn't done any formal lessons together; so I started him at the very beginning, i.e. kindergarten level.  At first I heard the dreaded words "This is boring!" accompanied by lots of dramatic flopping around in his chair, but as he moved into more challenging material, he got more enthusiastic about it.

All in all, I would highly recommend it, especially for a child who is looking for more challenge in math.  What I like: the course is completely self-contained, no parental instruction needed (usually), and Elijah can move at his own pace through the material--faster when he already knows the material, and slower when he is having trouble grasping something.  They introduce some more advanced concepts (like variables and basic linear equations) at a very early level.  And they provide lots of nifty reports and charts so that you can watch your child's progress.

Elijah has really learned by leaps and bounds with EPGY math, and we plan to continue using it for a while, though we may take a break over the summer to do a little speed drilling.

The catch (you knew there would be a catch, right?) is two-fold:

First of all, it isn't free.  I'm homeschooling on a tight budget, so I'm trying to make use of as many free resources as possible (thankfully, I have access to my parents' bookshelves, which are well stocked with homeschooling materials from years past).  But I wasn't sure of my ability to teach math--as with grammar, I can do it, but I can't explain it--so I decided that for now, I would be willing to pay to have someone else do the teaching. 

Secondly, EPGY math is not available outside of the US.  Sorry. :(

Maths choices years 5 and 6/grade 4 and 5

I've written about how we chose our curriculum but not about the actual choices.

This is about what we have chosen for maths and English, how we use those choices and our assessment of them ;that is, how they work for our family.
This has to have a health warning: what works for our son may not work in another family or even for other children in our family.

This year, and last year, we've used books from Galore Park as our main maths and English books. 

Galore Park is an English, secular publishing company which mainly supplies private schools. The course of study is wider than would be taken if we followed the National Curriculum. Many home educators use Galore Park and they have a Home Educator section on their website and home educator e-mailings.

Galore Park produce Junior maths and English books 1-3 to cover years 3-5 and then "So you want to learn maths/English" 1-3 to cover years 6-8. 

Maths

How we use these books: Unlike many subjects, as will become apparent later, we use these books thoroughly doing all the chapters and most of the exercises. Some of the early exercises in a chapter are very easy so we will either do these aloud or I will set a few to check that ds can remember how to do them, otherwise, I find the exercises about the right length. If we have some difficulty with a chapter, I tend to leave it and return to it later or occasionally supplement with examples from the older maths text book on Mother's Companion (more about this later!) or from the internet.

I lik maths so don't have an answer book but there is one available. I can't comment about this.
Ds uses Schofield and Simms for mental maths about once a week. This is cheap and cheerful, same as he used when he was in school and does the job.

How Galore Park maths works for us: really well-A*. We plan to continue using the "So you want to learn maths" series for the next couple of years. My only, minor, gripe is that it would make the book more interesting if there was some explanation of how a particular topic is used in "real" life.

English

How we use the book: We use the English book in a completely different way to the maths book. The word that best describes our use of this book is loose.
The English book contains two comprehensions around a theme, an exercise with suggestions for creative writing, two punctuation exercises, two grammar exercises, sections on vocabulary and spelling and on speaking and listening, followed by suggestions for further reading and for further research around the topic used for the comprehensions.  We actually use one comprehension, occasionally the creative writing and the punctuation exercise. The speaking and listening portion has provided some helpful ideas.
Occasional comprehensions have been avoided on the basis of their content.
We don't use the grammar as this is covered in more depth in Latin. I try to set writing around our history or geography. We also tend to use the real life opportunities of letters, e-mails and a private blog.
We use Schofield and Simms workbooks for spelling.

I am much less confident about marking English, particularly creative writing, than maths. Maths is either right or wrong and the right or wrong answer may have been achieved by a correct or incorrect method. English is a bit more complex. In view of  this, I brought the answer book thinking that it would help sadly it is just an answer book for the exercises and I have hardly used it.

How Galore Park English works for us: Not as well as the maths. B+. We may not use this curriculum next year for English. I am open to suggestions!

Our Curriculum - Language, Primary 3/Grade 2

Hopefully, over the next few weeks I'll give some idea of what we use, or have used, for our children at their different stages. Here, I'll show what we use for Language for our youngest child.

Our youngest child is 7 years old just now. He would be on Pr 3 (Grade 2).

For Language, we use these

Along with the workbooks, there is a wonderful selection of reading books. We do not follow the curriculum down to the last jot and tittle, although we do the basic written Language lesson each day. We pick and choose the reading books, and use them as we wish. 

Sometimes, I read a story to CS; other times, I have him read it aloud to me. There are often questions after each story, and we often discuss these together. Sometimes, he writes a story connected with what we've read.

Apart from the Abeka materials, CS reads a lot on his own, and we read together as a family.

When we began our homeschooling journey, our eldest child was on Primary 3 (grade 2), and going on to Pr 4. We knew so little about homeschooling, and knew almost nothing of curriculum materials. We'd heard of Abeka, and sent for the whole curriculum from them for a Pr 4 child, a Pr 2 child and a Preschooler.

Having spent the money on Abeka books, which are beautifully produced (and still look as good as new!), we have used and re-used many of their textbooks for subsequent children.

Thoughts on curriculum

There is nothing special about a curriculum-it is just a course of study. It doesn't have to be bought. It doesn't have to involve books and certainly, the books don't need to be traditional textbooks. Having said that we have bought some books to help us along the way. In some subjects we follow the books closely-maths and Latin whereas in others they are used as a springboard-history and geography.

These thoughts are about decision making for our family-what works for someone else may be different. Many home educators have talked through curricular materials with me, generally, probably mostly, I haven't followed their choices but the discussion process has been invaluable in deciding about what would and what wouldn't work.

We decided, early in our thinking, to go for a formal approach. I loved Sharon's post about unschooling but I didn't have the confidence to go down this route as a new starter with a child just out of school. We have become more relaxed in someways as time has gone on but still have quite a formal approach.

These were the principles that we used
Christian worldview
I don't mean for a moment that we only use Christian books. We aim to teach our children from a Christian point of view and part of that is to treat the things of God with respect. I remember sitting in school, playing, with words. Not a problem if the sentence is "The cat sat on the mat" but it could easily become irreverent with a sentence about spiritual things. I don't have a problem with copying out the Bible but having some children who don't enjoy handwriting practice, I would prefer that they don't link the Bible with this!
We use Christian books for subjects which are usually taught from an atheistic point of view such as science, geography and history. We use a mix of books in history so that we can show that people do have different points of view-we are about the cover the English Civil War and want to explore the reasons for people choosing to be Cavaliers or Roundheads.

We are English
No disrespect to Americans! Our history interlinks but is different. Our spelling is different. Phonics are different-I completely missed a riddle as we pronounce "ant" and "aunt" distinctly. Word usage is different just think of the way that the verb "to visit" is used on different sides of the Pond.
We hope that our children will take UK exams, so do keep an eye on the National Curriculum.

Books had to look familiar
This was only an issue as we took a child out of school but did influence our choice of handwriting book and mental maths.

Cost
A minor issue-if the curriculum is right we hold that education is important and we should be prepared to sacrifice for it. Having said that, we don't have an issue with second hand books providing they are the current edition. After all, that is what children get in school! We found that buying books from publishers outside the UK is significantly more expensive and so decided it should only be done for a good reason.

Home educator friendly
Whilst many/most of our books aren't written specifically for home educators, it is helpful not to have to buy the rights to 30 copies. I don't know anyone with 30 children. More important, activities and experiments can use difficult to obtain and expensive equipment,if designed for schools.


Helpful teachers' manuals
I don't bother with teachers' manuals for some subjects. I quite enjoy working out the maths and think that it is useful to check that I can do this. However, manuals can be helpful. The availability of a through teachers' manual and online resources was a determining factor in deciding about a Latin curriculum. My Latin is distinctly rusty and I need all the help that I can get!

I was going to write about what we actually use but that would make this post far too long!