We're roughly 4 weeks into our school year! The transition has gone very smoothly for our family so far, with a few kinks here and there that need to be worked out. Here's a peek into what we're doing:
History/Geography and Reading
I've been intrigued with Sonlight for a long time, mostly because of the strong literature base. A lot of prayer, pouring over the catalog looking at Core F, and ongoing school absences last year combined to finally push me over the edge to homeschool. This Core is best suited for 10-13 year-olds, so we combined Micah and Rachel to do it together. So far we are loving it! The kids have real books for history, geography, and readers that all correlate. They use the World Book Encyclopedia for daily research projects and have a larger project due every couple of weeks for each region they study. We also do daily Read Alouds that correlate to the region we are studying. We do those right after lunch, and they are a great way to start the afternoon together.
Math
This was my biggest dilemma but so far it seems to be working out. Rachel is using Teaching Textbooks for 6th grade, because it's where she placed on their pre-test. This math curriculum is all on the computer; she just listens to a lecture and watches problems being worked on a "legal pad", and then does the assignment, entering all her answers into the computer. There's even a gradebook included! She's stronger in math than I expected, really just needing a bump with math facts practice. I try to work that into our schedule as well.
Micah is using Saxon's 8/7. I had him take a pretest early in the summer and this was where he placed. However, throughout the summer I caught him up on some missing skills and now I think it's a bit on the easy side for him, although it may get harder once we're beyond the first few weeks. We have the DIVE CD to go with it, which has a lecture for each lesson.
Fridays are our business math days. We have loved this, and the kids beg me for time to do more math, even though they generally work on it for an hour. I can't argue with that! We'll probably finish this about mid-year. We've thrown in a Critical Thinking book, too, and may use that more for our Friday math once the business math is completed.
Spanish
We're borrowing a copy of Rosetta Stone, a computer based curriculum that uses immersion to teach foreign language. The kids are enjoying this immensely and try to sneak Spanish into their morning routine even though it's really an afternoon subject. It is fairly easy for them after having Spanish in early elementary school, although I'm noticing the lessons are getting more challenging.
Language Arts
This is my favorite subject area (besides all the reading!), so it was fun to piece together a curriculum for the kids. Again, a friend is letting us borrow a copy of Institute for Excellence in Writing. I love the method of teaching--using excellent writing as a model to learn from, then adding "dress ups" to learn how to play with words. Right now the kids are learning to write key word outlines, and soon we'll be slowly adding in the dress ups. By the end of the year, I'm hoping they can both complete a fairly extensive research project. Micah has already done things like this, but it will be Rachel's first time.
I'm not a fan of DOL (Daily Oral Language) and have chosen the Charlotte Mason method of dictation instead. Why teach children to learn to fix mistakes when instead they can be learning from correct models? Spelling Wisdom is a very helpful resource although certainly not necessary to do dictation. Rachel is in Level 1 and Micah is using Level 3. It takes just a few minutes a day, and is a good way to practice spelling and punctuation with real models.
I've got one student who is not a strong speller, so after finding an inexpensive copy of Sequential Spelling at a homeschool book sale, I've added that to our daily routine. For vocabulary we are using Wordly Wise, but we'll reevaluate after this year to see if it's really sticking with them. It's the most "workbooky" thing in my arsenal. We are using Winston Grammar, too, which has been a lot of fun (for me, at least!) Language Arts is full, but most of these things don't take long and we don't do everything every day.
Science
Here is where I have the most kinks to work out. I thought for sure we'd love Sonlight Science 6, but it has its strengths and weaknesses. The kids are really enjoying Evolution: The Grand Experiment, where they are learning Darwin's theory of evolution in light of current scientific evidence. Yesterday Micah looked up from his book, shaking his head with the thought of hyenas evolving into whales. What we're struggling with is the vocabulary in the book, which is probably just right for Micah but a stretch for Rachel. Sometimes I think she may as well be reading it in Greek. Still, I can tell from our conversations that she's learning, and it will be an excellent reference book for years to come. Looking ahead, there is another core book that doesn't excite me at all (it's just not a good fit right now), so I'm looking to switch to Apologia for our Mon.-Wed. science after the first 9 weeks or so. We already have the 7th grade text for Micah (did I mention I have a friend who is letting us borrow things?) and the elementary books look great. I think we could even get Josiah in on the action. We'll see!
What we do love about science are our Thursday TOPS experiments and the Friday readings. Cool Stuff and How it Works is definitely intriguing. The Young Naturalist sounds like something written just for my kids.
P.E.
My kids had a very strong P.E. teacher in their later elementary years, and his influence is sticking with us. Micah is determined we not skimp on this subject, and I need his inspiration. So far we've been running laps around the basin behind our house (about a half mile, and even Josiah and I run!), biking, and even doing weights and the exercise ball when we have to be indoors. We're toying with the idea of joining a swim and gym class at the Y later in the year. They even have a class for Josiah once he turns 5.
Other subjects
Music has been fun: we are doing an introduction to composers and the instruments of the orchestra, and next will tackle the Classical Music Start Up CD's for a taste of musical compositions through the centuries starting at about 1500. Homeschool band for both kids and piano lessons for Micah round out the music curriculum. For Art we are using Artistic Pursuits 4-6 grade, which is easily adaptable to Micah's grade level. Rachel's working on handwriting; Micah does a typing program on the computer. For Bible we are reading through What the Bible is All About for Young Explorers, an adaptation of Henrietta Mears' book. It fits well with the E100 reading challenge our church is doing right now, and the kids are reading their Bibles first thing every morning. Well, almost every morning. The kids have daily chores to help out around the house. Finally, Micah just joined an 8 week long Toastmasters class with other homeschoolers his age on Thursday nights. There is a strong network here and we're enjoying getting to know people!
We pack a lot into our schedule, but are usually done by mid-afternoon. It's amazing how much can be accomplished in a day! As we ease into this new way of doing things, I'm intrigued by the Charlotte Mason approach and am trying to integrate more of her methods into our homeschool. The atmosphere of our home feels relaxed and full of curiosity. I'm hoping that carries on into the year.
Next up: our youngest student. How do you keep a preschooler busy while the others are doing their work? That is probably my biggest challenge!
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