NarniaWeb Community Forums

SnowAngel and I are in danger of taking over the books thread with our homeschool talk, so I thought I'd start a new thread.

My son Evan, who is five, is graduating out of his preschool program (today actually) and my husband and I decided to homeschool him next year. Hence the discussion.

I figured I'd start this thread so everybody can offer all of their tips and ideas, curriculum suggestions, memories of their awesome or horrible experiences, etc etc. I'm absorbing all the advice I can get.

The curriculum that I picked out are:
Sonlight for pretty much everything (Bible, History, Geography, Science)
Logic of English (Phonics and Writing)
Shiller Math

Now, here's the thing. Evan is already reading at a first or second grade level. I suspect we'll burn through his English program, especially if I can get his handwriting caught up to his reading skills. I know this is a benefit of homeschooling, that you can go at your own pace, so did you or your parents order a new curriculum halfway through the year if you completed one early? Kansas requires 186 days of teaching in the school year, so I figured if I DO run out of material, I can just order next years' stuff and start that.

SnowAngel, in the books thread wrote:You definitely have to time to experiment with curriculum since you just getting started.

Absolutely. I hear of so many people switching up curriculum from year to year and with each child. I suspect I'll switch things up once my second kiddo hits kindergarten, if for no other reason than she'll have heard all of these stories already.

SnowAngel wrote:I think the problem is never really the number of books, but the lack of time for the number of books.

Hahaha, yeah. I finished up my rough lesson plan last night, and this is my number one concern... the amount of time I'll be reading out loud. It wouldn't be a problem if Evan was my only child, but he's not. I have a toddler (and a three year old), who will be vying for my attention while I'm trying to teach Evan.

SnowAngel wrote:Oh, if you like science/math then Timberdoodle is definitely for you.

Yeah, I'll probably look into some supplementary stuff from them in the future.

SnowAngel wrote:Most of my cousins and many of my friends growing were homeschool, and everyone had a slight different group of curriculum.

Whereas when I grew up, I didn't know ANYBODY who was homeschooled. Several private school attendees, but no homeschoolers. But I sure know a lot of them now! I don't know about nation-wide, but here at least it's taking off big time.

Some other thoughts I might mention, I've joined a field trip group officially already. We've been on two field trips with them, which is great. I'm unofficially part of a co-op group which will meet for 10 weeks this fall, also looking forward to that. Evan is and has been in gymnastics for several years and I'm starting him (and Ariel) in swim lessons again this month. What other social things have homeschoolers been a part of?

Well, as a homeschool alumi I'm probably not the best one to give advice on curriculums, since my family hardly ever stuck to just one for everything. The curriculums we did use tended to be for math or science. However, we did acquire a large number of non-textbooks on numerous subjects. I would recommend Holling Clancy Holling's books, (Minn of the Mississippi, Seabird and Pagoo, were the ones we had). They're fiction, but there's a lot of information about animals, plants, ecosystems, history and innovation. Plus they have great illustrations!

Thanks Lady Haleth, I'm not familiar with that author, I will have to look up some of his books to see what age level they are.

SnowAngel, since you're into Timberdoodle, I have to ask if you and your family have ever ordered anything from KiwiCo? I LOVE them. Since I've ordered their project crates in the past from them, I get emails with freebie suggestions on projects.
On the docket for the weekend is making a Solar Oven out of one of their boxes to cook S'Mores.

Lady Haleth wrote:I would recommend Holling Clancy Holling's books, (Minn of the Mississippi, Seabird and Pagoo, were the ones we had).

Ah yes, we had those along with "Paddle to the Sea" and "Tree in the Trail." They're really neat.

I just popped over into the Spare Oom for they first time in a while, and what do I see but a homeschooling thread! So excited for you FK!

My older and younger brothers and I are all homeschool graduates from start to finish. My older brother is an mechanical engineer, and my younger brother just started his second year as a business major. I'm currently overseas on a mission trip that involves teaching. Homeschooling is great, it works, and it's worth it! The best summary I've heard on what homeschooling does it that it teaches your child to learn. Even if they have to re-take certain classes in college, they are equipped to handle them and be responsible and motivated about their own education.

Some of our favorite curriculum are:
"Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" (sounds like you have that covered, but you may have other reluctant readers. This was what worked for my little brother.)
Apologia Science
Saxon Math
"History of the World" history series
ACE English (very thorough and the workbook style is great for this subject)

Rainbow Resource is one of the main sources we used for curriculum. Timberdoodle is great and Christian Book Distributors carries a bit as well.

What's this KiwiCo that apparently has Nothing to do with New Zealand! That's our national bird that they have horribly stylised in their picture.

*waves at Anfinwen* It's amazing how many homeschoolers there are on this site. I bet 90% of the homeschoolers I know are people I've met on here. And I like almost all of you so that bodes well.

@coracle, I'm sorry you had a negative reaction solely based on the company's logo. As I know you have a background in teaching, I would encourage you to actually take the time to look at the company. I love them (as I said above) and the kids love them too. They sell science and engineering boxes with all of the supplies included to build projects, and they also send out free emails with ideas for other projects, but you have to provide your own supplies. I've used them twice already for science experiments in the six weeks I've homeschooled.

Well, as an update, everything is going well so far! I try to keep a fairly loose schedule because it allows my kiddos to get up, move around, play for a while, and then come back to it. Instituting a rule of "No Screens Until School is Done!" has been a great motivator and I've only had to fight a couple days to get my son to finish up. But even after the first few days had started I knew I made the right decision. He just can't sit still long enough and I can't imagine he would have done well in a classroom setting with so many distractions.
We're motoring through Phonics and Math, and I think we'll finish Phonics well before Christmas break (So much for lasting a year.) We'll be done with the first math book in another 6-10 weeks as well I bet. Eesh! But at least I have two more of those.
For reading we've made it through The Boxcar Children (which my son loved) and My Father's Dragon which my daughter loved. Now we're on Winnie-the-Pooh and they're both thoroughly enjoying it.

Here's a question for you homeschoolers. Did you learn cursive? And at what approximate age did you learn?
Both of my kids are expressing interest in learning how to write in cursive and the curriculum I got actually encourages learning cursive first! I didn't do that, I started with manuscript, but as we're finishing up Part A next week (Part B is supposed to take us through the end of the year ) I was thinking doing cursive once we're done. Thoughts?

I did learn cursive, though the good form never stuck. I think it was around second or third grade; we had to learn and practice printing first. But I do know there are programs out there that recommend starting with Italics (something between printing and cursive), so it doesn't surprise me that there are also programs that start with cursive.

I also learned cursive... probably around second grade? I remember being excited, it always looked so cool. Having motivation to keep up with the daily practice helps.

I think third grade was almost entirely just learning cursive. Even after all that practice my manuscript was more legible than my cursive so I have ended up using cursive only to sign my name.

It was third grade for me, too. It was challenging for me because reading and writing in general were difficult back then. I wonder if I would have done better starting first with cursive, but I kind of doubt it. It probably depends on the child, though, and if they're more interested in learning cursive first, I think that it would be great to follow their lead on that!

We are currently talking about doing this with our kids now too. Kinda getting fed up with schools. We looked into Maize Virtual Prep School, which is based out of Kansas but not sure how good it is. Anyone heard of it or use it?