Category Archives: Homeschooling

Homeschooling

What did we use and what did we drop? ~2019-2020 Curriculum RECAP

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I thought I would give an update on what curriculum worked well for us last year. This is the original post with my thoughts on the curriculum added in bold. Let me know if this was helpful to you.For Kindergarten this year I am trying out Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

*I dropped this right away, way too complicated. I ended up subscribing to Reading Eggs and Math Seeds to make my day easier. It worked! She is now reading easy three letter words.

I am still using Handwriting Without Tears for now but might start using something else.

*We did not use this much. She was just not ready for it.

I went back and forth between RightStart and McRuffy Color Math for her math but in the end RightStart won.

McRuffy is a lot easier for me to teach but RightStart just teaches number sense so well!

So she is doing RightStart Level A this year and it will be my third time teaching it!

*Nope, dropped this also. She did Math Seeds until I got fed up with all the counting and then I tried Singapore Math to finish the year out but did not end up loving that either.

I got God’s Design for Science Plants for Beginners for both my Kindergartener and my 3rd grade twins this year.

*We loved this science! It was easy to understand and all three of mine enjoyed it! We did end up finishing the year with Super Charged Science’s free facebook classes though and they loved those as well.

3rd Grade

I am going to continue using The Good and the Beautiful Level One for reading for the twins.

*This did seem to help my twins progress in their reading. We continued it through the year but pretty slowly.

I printed out my own practice pages for writing and might be using PreScripts Cursive Letters and Coloring World History if I decide to teach them cursive this year.

*We did not tackle cursive last year. I instead bought “Print Handwriting Workbook for Teens” on amazon and loved all the extra print practice it gave them. I ended up getting several of their books.

They are also doing All About Spelling Level 2 this year.

I love how All About Spelling teaches spelling.

*We continued through this program but I slowed way down with it when I realized they kept forgetting older words.
We switched from RightStart to McRuffy Color Math halfway through the year last year so we still need to finish up the Second Grade book this fall.

I think RightStart does some stuff better but McRuffy is a lot easier for me to teach and the girls have been doing better with it so we will stick with this for now.

*They made it through the second grade book and the third grade book! 

I have not been real happy with 1st Language Lessons for a while and have been keeping an eye out for an alternative.

The Winston Grammar Program is supposed to be hands on and less teacher intensive.

I also got a hands on grammar book that I might take from during the year.

*We did not end up using either of these. I just decided it was not a priority to push grammar hard in the third grade.

8th Grade

The boys are doing Masterbooks General Science 1 this year!

*The boys did well with this curriculum and learned a lot!

We started Masterbooks Biblical Archaeology later in the year last year so they still have a ways to go on that.

That will put us at the time of Jesus and I am still deciding what we will use next.

I have enjoyed Masterbooks though.

So far Biblical Archaeology has had a lot of geography included also.

*This was a bit repetitive and the boys were very ready to move on when we finally finished this. I made my own unit for the early church history and we tried several things after that. Not really loving any of them. I will share what we landed on in my new curriculum post.

We are using these Spencerian Penmanship books for the boys handwriting to try to improve their cursive.

*Nope, ended up not finishing this.

The rest of their curriculum is online.

Grammar is Brave Writer

*Ended up not continuing the full year with this. I just needed a break.

Math is VideoText although I am really looking forward to moving on. We are going to try Teaching Textbooks Geometry next I think.

*They have been using Teaching Textbooks for a while and seem to enjoy it.

I need something with more help for them and less checking work for me.

*It gives me this! No more constant test checking!

They will be continuing Duolingo for Spanish and Khan Academy for programming.

*We pushed Spanish back a year.

I am trying to keep it simple this year but might add more as the year goes on!

*We added Intro to Logic through Masterbooks and they really enjoyed it. Especially my oldest!

History, Homeschooling

World History ~Middle Ages 8th grade

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I did buy a Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum for our Middle Ages study but ended up not using it.

The book list was good but did not cover all the world, mostly Europe.

And the reading plan did not fit my boys reading style. It had you read small amounts from several books instead of reading one book all the way through.

I ended up buying a PDF overview of the middle ages that had a few worksheets and tests to go with all the books I was having them read.

I have just not found a good way to grade reading and find tests easier to grade.

But again it was mostly European history.

Then I became somewhat obsessed with finding books that covered different parts of the world during that time.

I will share what I found and also a curriculum that seems to cover it all.

These are some of the books we got that covered Europe. The Cathedral and Castle book and movie by David Macaulay were again so good. We have enjoyed his books and the movies made from them. My oldest son really liked these books by Winston Churchill on A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

They were suggested by another blogger Nicki Truesdell.

The White Stag was recommended by the Charlotte Mason Curriculum and is about Attila the Hun.

Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali was a good book to introduce my boys to the greatness of Africa during this time.

The Golden Age of Islam was going on at this time as well and had a huge impact on the history of the world!

Arabian Nights was written during this time as well!

My boys were not into the Beduins’ Gazelle, it is a love story which they both gagged at but it does give you a glimpse into the life of a Beduin at that time.

The Walking Drum is definitely more my boys speed. Lots of action but I love how Louis Lamour talks about how advanced the middle east was at that time.

The Usborne book on the left was a great resource for what was going on in the world at that time.

I do wish I had gotten a newer version which is called “Medieval World” but this still gave a great overview that was diverse.

The Silk Road book was nicely written even for me to read to my 6yr old. And it has projects you can do at that time.

So if you are studying the middle ages and want to cover some of the big things going on hopefully that will give you a starting point.

This is what I laid out after looking into a lot of different information for studying next time.

Week 1-2
Europe, Vikings
Week 3
Africa, Mansa Musa
Week 4
Middle East, Islam. Banu Musa
Week 5
Asia, Khan, Silk Road, Marco Polo, Confucianism, Mongols
Week 6
North and South America, Cahokia, Incas, Toltec’s

We liked to watch the Crash Course to World History videos on youtube with John Green as well.

He is not a Christian perspective but he does cover what was going on all over the world.

I did find the Masterbooks Curriuculum “The World’s Story 2” covers this time frame and does seem to cover it all which was so nice.

I am not sure why so many of the other programs did not.

Maybe I was just looking in the wrong places.

Ha

Have you found a diverse curriculum you like?

Homeschooling

Early Church History

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In the midst of the uncertainty it seems silly posting what the boys learned for Early Church History, especially since libraries are closed.

But part of me still wants to hold on to any normal I have so here it is.

After using a curriculum for the boys history, I needed a break from a traditional curriculum.

I did look but did not like anything I found at the time so decided to write my own.

I was reading this book, The Story of the Christian Church that I got while attending bible school on our way to Minnesota and decided that it was so interesting that I wanted the boys to read it.

So I made a study that worked around this book, as well as a worksheet that went with it.

 

I did add other books to our study also.

I really wanted them to read Ben Hur but after I started it, I thought it might be asking too much.

I found the Focus on the Family Audio Drama of it though and decided to give that a try.

It ended up being amazing!

And it was not too scary for my youngest three!

It was so good that both boys went ahead and asked to read Ben Hur!

Then they both told me all the differences between the audio drama and the book.

It was my favorite part of this study.

I also ended up getting a free study guide on the G.A. Henty novel “Beric the Briton” from Nicki Truesdell and the boys really liked it.

She has some amazing information on teaching history also so check out her site.

“Ides of April” and “Beyond the Desert Gate” by Mary Ray are so good. My boys really enjoyed reading them again.

My 5yr old liked “Spend the Day in Ancient Rome.” It follows a family in their daily life in Ancient Rome with lots of fun project ideas.

We own three books in that series.

Another favorite are the books and movies by David Macaulay.

They go into the architecture of the cities and are so interesting.

Actually as I was looking up his name for this post, I decided to buy his book on castles and cathedrals to go with our current middle ages study.

They are just so interesting.

I was really happy with how our study of church history went!

Do you have a favorite book that is on early church history, fiction or non-fiction?