Homeschooling

[fantasia]

Question: Have any of you homeschool alums ever done either Story of the World OR Mystery of History OR (Bonus) both of them? Just curious as to what you thought of the curriculum.

A couple weeks back I got to meet my current homeschool hero/fav speaker, Andrew Pudewa, who is the head of Institute for Excellence in Writing. (fledge1, look up his videos on YouTube and take notes. ) I talked him through where my oldest two kids were at and he recommended a few things which I went ahead and ordered. Once I get them I'll decide whether I want to incorporate them this year or save them for next year. A good friend of mine has the same stuff I do and she alternates semesters where she uses Logic of English for phonics and IEW for spelling/writing. I might look at that too as we totally burned through LoE last year.

[SnowAngel]

We didn't, for our history curriculum we had Abeka, Drive Thru History, and the American Heritage series plus library books. Those sound slightly familiar, so might have had friends that used them.

Congrats on finishing the year, fantasia!

SnowAngel

[mm1991]

We did not use either, but from a quick glance, I really like that The Story of the World seems to be specifically created to be enjoyed together as a family, rather than that being an after-thought. I haven't seriously looked into either though!

[fantasia]

Two more weeks until we start up again. What??!?

Has anyone seen the latest Drive Thru History series Acts to Revelation? I'm requesting the public library get it and trying to decide if it would good to go ahead and purchase it regardless of the price. We've really enjoyed all of the previous DVDs, and have recently been rewatching The Gospels.

Somehow I missed this post of yours Snow. No, I haven't heard of them but they look REALLY interesting. Did you get a hold of the DVD set? And if so, did you watch and were they good?

Back in April, I discovered a site called Homeschool Summits, where about every 8-12 months, a young couple hosts an online homeschool convention. It's free to watch for about a week, and then if you pay for it, you can have lifetime access to all of their videos. This in turn led to my finding a whole lot of audio recordings of my new favorite people at homeschool conventions, which I bought and have been listening to repeatedly all summer long.
I tell you what, I have learned a phenomenal amount from listening to these giants in the homeschool movement (like the importance of teaching a Christian worldview if that's what you believe, as well as teaching to mastery rather than just flying through things without understanding, just to name a few). And (bonus) I also learned about all sorts of curriculum that's out there which gives me more things to research and look into as my kids get older. This is certainly going to change my focus on how to handle school in the future as my kids get older.

But back to two weeks from now. I'm doing Sonlight as my primary curriculum again; that covers most of history, Bible, science, poetry, etc. We'll pick up with Shiller math, though I did do one lesson a week (minus a week here and there) to keep it fresh in my son's mind so he wouldn't forget his lessons. And then for phonics we'll continue on with Logic of English where we left off, and that's mixed in with Institute for Excellence in Writing. I did end up getting that curriculum because Andrew Pudewa (mentioned him above) suggested to go ahead and start my son on it because he's ready and I might as well do so.

The IEW curriculum is very interesting because they don't send stuff for your kids per se (though I did order one book to get started with and make my life easier), they send stuff for you, the parent. Then they teach the parent how to use any curriculum the child is using (or even things that the child is most interested in and passionate about) to develop writing skills. So I've mixed it in a little bit with my schedule and I'm curious to see how my kids do.

[SnowAngel]

No, I haven't yet. I'm going to submit another request to the library for it.

During Wretched's recent Reformers Sale I bought It's Not Greek To Me, the siblings are so excited. I printed a copy of the student's manual today and will probably try to start it next week. It seems like a good summer course.

SnowAngel

[fantasia]

Day 1 (Monday) was a bit rough. The kids were in shock from my suddenly ending their summer TV binge and I was flustered and couldn't quite remember how things flowed. So I was stressed, they were stressed, some tears happened, but then things sorted themselves out and by Day 2 we were back into our rhythm from the previous year.

My daughter Ariel insisted that she's in Kindergarten this year. I told her that was fine, she could do whatever she wanted. Hopefully she doesn't freak out when we start Co-Op in a couple months because based on age she's still in preschool.

We're reading Charlotte's Web. I didn't remember this book being soooo funny! My memory is the movie from the 70s.

Here's to a second great year!

[mm1991]

Good luck fantasia! Charlotte's Web sounds like a fun start to the year!

[fledge1]

Ok. We are finally joining the homeschool world. We are using My Fathers World. Hope it’s good!

[fantasia]

I'm very excited for your fledge1 You're teaching 2/3 of your kids correct?

I have a good friend in real life that uses MFW and really likes it, and I don't know if you ever knew wisewoman on here, but she uses the same curriculum for her oldest kiddo. I've heard all sorts of good things about it!

Thanks mm1991! We did floating in water experiments today. My bathroom was very wet.

[fledge1]

I'm very excited for your fledge1 You're teaching 2/3 of your kids correct?

We are actually going to do all three this year and see how it works out. My wife already has the whole year planned out, of course knowing things will change. However, all are excited.

[mm1991]

Good luck, fledge!

[fantasia]

How's your year going so far fledge1? I'm curious to hear what you think of My Father's World. I have a lot of friends that use it and love it.

I wanted to let everybody know that HomeschoolSummits.com is hosting another free online convention called Family Relationships coming up October 14-20. I can't recommend these enough, even if you only have time to watch one or two out of the 26 scheduled. (My favorite speakers I know of thus far include Voddie Baucham, Hal and Melanie Young, Steve and Megan Schiebner, Israel and Brook Wayne, and Rob Rienow.)

[fledge1]

Hey! It is going pretty good I think. I am at work most of the day but my wife seems to be getting a system going and my older two are LOVING it. My youngest is having a hard time but he did when he went to school as well. I have seen a difference in them for sure! Thanks for asking.
We will check into that summit!!

[mm1991]

It's almost halfway through the school year! How has it been going so far @fledge1 and @fantasia?

[fantasia]

*high fives mm1991*

Just wrapped up 2019! We're on break until January 6th.
The school year has been going quite well so far. Science in particular was fun the past couple days because we've been making solenoids and electromagnets. I vaguely remember studying them when I was in school, but certainly don't remember making one, so that was cool.
We've also been studying ancient China, and since I'm a Charlotte Mason girl we've read 'Year of the Baby' and 'Little Pear' to go along with it and both of my kids really liked both of those books.

[mm1991]

Winter break is over for most schools and there tends to be a bit of an influx of new homeschooling families mid-year. I'll take this opportunity to point out that the website for the Coalition for Responsible Home Education is a great resource for new homeschooling families. They have an entire section called For Homeschooling Parents. Two great articles I'd recommend starting with are: "Getting Started Homeschooling: A Guide" and "Advice from a Homeschool Grad Turned Public School Teacher." Welcome and good luck!