New School Year

This school year certainly won't be dull at our house!

This year, for the first time, all 3 children will be "official" students. Noah will start Kindergarten this year. What that means for him is that in addition to "sitting in" on his sisters lessons when he chooses too, he will have around 30 minutes each day of his own lessons.

Noah's lessons will consist of games played on his JumpStart Kindergarten cdrom, 1 lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and one page a day from a BIG colorful workbook that I bought at Wal-Mart. It covers just about everything that needs covering in Kindergarten.

All 3 children will study science and history/geography through unit studies. On my last trip to our local used book store, I found copies of Abeka's 1st and 3rd grade history textbooks~the smae books I used in 1st and 3rd grades.

We won't be using these textbooks as such. I studied the chapter titles in each of these books, then shopped for "real" books to build unit studies about those topics.

I"ve done the same thing with science. I found a VERY inexpensive copy of Abeka's 4th grade science book at a used book sale~again, the same text book I used in the 4th grade. Then, I bought "real" books and other materials to build unit studies around the chapter topics.

The text books are for ME, not for the kids. They are my guide for building this year's units. I will probably only show the textbooks to the kids so they can see the pictures in them.

Both girls will practice reading aloud daily, and Noah will have his reading lessons as I mentioned above. Outside of that, I wasn't sure what to do about Language Arts for this year. I've always leaned toward a Charlotte Mason type of philosophy as far as the use of text books, length of lessons, etc. Charlotte Mason doesn't teach grammar as a subject unto itself until around 8th grade or so. Up to that point, children just "absorb" grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc, through copywork. I have no problem with that, but now Rachel, who is 9 and entering 4th grade, wants to do some writing on her own. To be able to do that well, she needs at least the basics of sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, etc.

So, at the recent curriculum fair, I wasn't sure what to look for. I looked at several grammar curriculums, but to me, they ALL looked dull, boring, and expensive! Then, I had the opportunity to talk to a Mom of 12 who has been homschooling for more than 20 years. She suggested I get my daughter some Mad Libs Junior books, and then some Mad Libs.

Do you remember Mad Libs from childhood? I do, and I loved them! These are silly stories with lots of blanks left in them. The child is instructed to insert a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc into each blank, then read the story. The difference with Mad Libs Junior is that instead of having to come up with a word on their own, the child is given a list of nouns, adverbs, etc from wich to choose. Each one is labeled as the part of speech that it is, so it's a great learning tool.

The Mom I talked too suggested starting out with these, then moving into the regular Mad Libs, and perhaps looking into a grammar curriculum for next year. She has successfully homeschooled 12 children, so my guess is that she knows what she's talking about! :)

We won't use a Bible "curriculum" but will use Day By Day Devotions by Karyn Henly, along with our Bibles, for our family devotions each evening. This won't be so much a part of our "school day" though. It will be something we do in the evenings when Roger is home. We will, of courseregularly attend Sunday School and church, and the children will most likely be involved in AWANA or some similar program.

So, that's the plan for this year. It will, of course, evolve and change as the year goes on. But at least for now, I think we've got a good starting point.

Blessings,
Vicki