These are my two cuties who are growing up way too fast and turning into the most amazing people I know.
I have 4 children total, but they are grown and for the most part have moved out (yes, they are equally amazing!) For this page's purpose, I will only focus on these two, because they are the ones getting homeschooled.
A little bit about our homeschooling journey. They started normal public school in kindergarten - they are only one year apart. I started having troubles with the school and my daughter who the older one in 2nd grade. It was a nightmare - my daughter was a straight A student, always was given high marks for helping, being sympathetic, etc, etc. Gag worthy really. This 2nd grade year however, her teacher and long term sub called her uncontrollable, with an inability to learn from HER teaching (with straight A's mind you) and when I told the teacher that she had been recommended for gifted and talented, she laughed in my face, telling me my daughter as not only NOT gifted, but probably remedial.
I had enough, I almost pulled her right then and there, but hubs talked me out of it. Ultimately, we made it one more year. I pulled them both out of school after Laney's 3rd grade year and Koen's 2nd grade year.
It was bliss homeschooling them for 2 years, then puberty hit my daughter and she wanted to go back to school. I started that 3rd year, but by January, they were back in public school. They finished the year there and started the next year, but they were back at home by spring break. No more public school no matter what.
NEITHER ONE LEARNED ANYTHING THAT YEAR! I feel like we lost an entire year. I bet they can test better though.
So, I half-heartedly finished the year with them - they got math, grammar, writing, reading, no history or science. Even the first part of this school year has been tough due to my business exploding.
As the 2017 started, we made some decisions - we are most definitely homeschooling through high school!
Deep breath! I can do this! Or rather THEY can do this!
The biggest change is I will be graduating them together - they are the same curriculum level for everything aside from grammar and writing. It will be like one is honors and one is regular. I will not keep Koen an extra year just for an English class, when he more than likely will be going into a tech oriented school.
People are always curious about curriculum and I am no exception, so here are our curriculum choices.
Math - Saxon all the way! We will do the Algebra 1, 2, then Advanced Math that incorporated the Geometry. I am not at all concerned about timing for the SAT or ACT - they can take it their senior year if they want.
History - Sonlight, American History, Church History, 20th Century World History, Government and Economics.
Science - Mr. Q's Advanced Biology, Chemistry, Physics and then we are doing a year of Astronomy.
Foreign Language - Classical Academic Press, Latin Primer A, B, C
English/Literature - Classical Academic Press, Writing and Rhetoric series, Sonlight Language Arts and Literature. The literature coincides with history, but Laney (who is interested in the liberal art field, specifically writing) will have more advanced literature and analysis work, including British Literature. Also, Wordly Wise - all the way through book 12.
Logic - Classical Academic Press - The Art of Argument, Discovery of Deduction, The Argument Builder, Everyday Debate, Rhetoric Alive 1 and hopefully 2 (if they come out with it before we get to it!)
Electives - their choice as we get there. Default of Driver's Ed and Personal Finance
Arts - We are doing a year of learning about the histories of different types of arts and then seeing them - an art museum and local gallery, the ballet, the symphony, the opera, a play, a musical, performance art, modern dance, a concert - rock, country, jazz, etc. Photography exhibit, and also the big one - we plan on going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during this time. Basically, any type of art we can think of, we will research it, write a paper, go see. We are not limited to just these things.
PE - We have not decided officially, but we are doing a semester of 5K training and runs, then they can chose yoga or golf for the next semester.
That is the high school plan! I am still going to take it year by year and allow ourselves to seek help if we need it for a class or two. I am not considering dual credit at this time. Both my husband and I are ok with them taking their time with the education - there is no rush. Our curriculum is already pretty intense, and college is for more things than getting a degree. It is a transition time that is important!
Please ask if you have any questions! This is a ever morphing adventure we are on, and I would love to hear from you!
Dear ASC,
ReplyDeleteDo you still have your curriculum syllabus/calendar from Grade 2 and up (or any really) that you'd be willing to share? I'm just getting started and would love to get a high level overview of what you did.
Besos Sarah.
I know some of what we did, but I am going from memory.
DeleteHistory/Literature: We used Sonlight Level B - the start of American History and it was fabulous. We did cut out some of the very religious things - now, if you are interested in the Literature based History - Book Shark is a sister company of Sonlight that is not Christian based. However, it is diffidently not secular.
Math - at the time, we used Singapore with extra word problems I think from Horizon.
Spelling, Grammar and Writing was Soaring with Spelling, Growing with Grammar, Winning with Writing series appropriate for that age.
Handwriting without Tears - for penmanship
Latin - Song School Latin from Classical Academic Press.
Science was Elemental Science - whatever the level was at that time - I think Biology or Earth Science for the Grammar Stage.
We also took science classes at the Science Museum.
Art was on and off - mostly off. Though, I had them in piano lessons at the time.
It is a very similar curriculum to what I have them on now. I changed math to Saxon around 5th grade. We still use Sonlight, continued with the Latin on up, stopped Spelling in 7th grade, but switched to word studies with Wordly Wise. For Writing, we started the Writing and Rhetoric Series about 4th grade, we are working our way through the series. We did Bob Jones science one year, but did not like it and are back with Elemental Science.
I hope this helps - I researched the heck out of everything, but got my start at Sonlight. My personal favorite companies are Sonlight/Book Shark, Classical Academic Press and Saxon. We have more of a Classical Style of homeschool without so many religious overtones.
I urge you to find a group in your area. For the young age, especially - moms talk all the time about their curriculum choices and how it is working for them. Our choices are very individual and it takes time to get it right. Don't let one bad curriculum choice get you down. We abandoned plenty mid way or even right away!