Curriculum & Books

There are many, many types of homeschooling styles, and so when I first gave homeschooling again some serious thought I looked into a bunch of different ways to educate my children. I wanted to be able to give them a quality education where they learned the process of using their brains to form logical (to them) conclusions. I didn't want them to just learn stuff to pass a test, so that the government could grade my community's public school system based on an arbitrary pass/fail number and then either pat the school on the back for a job well done, or kick them in the butt for failing to make the grade. That, to me, is not learning at all. I want my kids to learn how to find information, process that information, and then make their own assessment and opinion based on that information. I want them to know the difference between a primary resource and a secondary resource, and I want them to be able to carefully comb through the information they are receiving to see how accurate it is. All too often we believe things because we want to believe so badly that the person (or company) giving us this information is looking out for our own best interest - that is often just not the case. I don't want my kids to grow up easily bamboozled - I want them to be critical thinkers.

With the aforementioned goals in mind I settled on a type of homeschooling called 'classical education'. It is a very rigorous course of study that is very parent involved in terms of preparation and presentation of the material. I won't be giving my child a workbook, and then telling them to go and complete 4 pages of grammar on their own. Nope, not going to happen in this household. Classical education focuses on what I like to call old school education - I often call myself an old school parent because we are so not mainstream - that it shouldn't have surprised me that I was most drawn to this type of educating/learning - but it did. This program is very writing intensive which some may argue is going to become a thing of the past with technology. Technology, as far as I am concerned, can be a great learning tool, but should not, and will not be the end all be all in our home. We are becoming a society that relies on technology so much that we will follow a GPS system and turn right even though we absolutely know that our destination is to the left just because the technology says so. Our children are allowed to write their school assignments in Microsoft Word, but they no longer proof read them because the computer will do it! Yet, the computer will bypass the words 'their' and 'there' if they are spelled correctly even if they are not being used in the right context. Or, how about the fact that multiplication tables are becoming more and more obsolete as schools are allowing calculators and ipod and ipads into the elementary grades so that children can just use those to multiple 5x5. I don't want my children a part a system that glorifies technology in that way. If used properly technology is a great and wonderful tool, so I am not saying that it does not have a place in our society. I just worry about the emphasis that we are placing on the value of technology particularly in our schools.

Here is a list of the books and subject that I will be teaching/learning with the kids:

Math

Elizabeth: Saxon Math Grade 1

Sarah: Saxon Math Grade 3

Joshua: Saxon Math Grade 7/6

Andrew: Saxon Algebra 1/2

Science

Elizabeth: Biology*

(Main books: Dorling Kindersley's DK First Animal Encyclopedia, The Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia, Green Thumbs: A Kids Activity Kit)

Sarah: Biology*

(Same as Elizabeth)

Joshua: Biology*

(Main Books: Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia, Dorling Kindersley Visual Encyclopedia of Science, Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia, Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology Facts)

Andrew: Biology*

(Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method, Carnivorous Creations Terrarium Kit, Smithsonian Bio Dome Habitat, Blood Typing Kit, Fingerprint Kit, Mind's Eye Optical Illusions & Human Perception, Microscope & Biology Kit)

*(All 4 kids will be learning the same subject in both science and history although their assignments will be much different as they are in such different places academically. The girls will spend 20 weeks on the animal kingdom, 10 weeks on the human body, and 6 weeks on the plant kingdom (approximately). The boys will be using the scientific method to perform experiments one a week, and then using that information to draw diagrams, write reports, etc...Each of the above labs under Andy's name last anywhere between 1 - 16 weeks. The kids will also be required to go to the library with me once a week to pick up additional materials on the topic they are learning that week and independently read for an hour each day. We will be doing this all together to ensure that everyone is reading.)

Reading

Elizabeth: The Ordinary Guide to Teaching Reading

(This is more for me than for Elizabeth. She is in the beginning reading stages now, and I would like to move her along. I am most nervous about this because I epically failed at teaching my boys to read when I home schooled them before - although working full time 3rd shift could not have something to do with that.)

Spelling

Elizabeth: Modern Curriculum Press Spelling Workout A & B

Sarah: Spelling Workout C & D

Joshua: Spelling Workout F

Andrew: Spelling Workout F*

*(I am starting Andy out below grade level in almost all "language arts" subjects because he struggles so much with the subject.)

Grammar

Elizabeth: First Language Lessons 1

Sarah: First Language Lessons 3

Joshua: Rod & Staff English - Progressing with Courage

Andrew: same as Josh

Writing

Elizabeth: Level 1 - The Complete Writer

Sarah: Level 3 - The Complete Writer

Joshua: Rod & Staff - Progressing with Courage*

Andrew: same as Josh*

*(Progressing with Courage is a grammar and writing program which is why the boys are using the same book for both subjects).

Latin

Sarah: Memoria Press Prima Latina

Joshua: Same

Andrew: Same

*(Latin begins in the 3rd grade which is why Elizabeth was not included in this list).

Logic

Joshua: The Art of Argument -Classical Academic Pres

Andrew: Same

*(Logic does not begin until the 5th grade with this program therefore Sarah and Elizabeth will not be required to begin this subject yet.)

History

Elizabeth, Sarah, Joshua, Andrew* :

The Story of the World: Ancients, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History

*(Again, the kids will be using primary and secondary sources to learn more about the weekly topic, and they are all learning the same topics just different difficulty levels. For example, this week we are learning about ancient Egyptian societies so they have taken out books from the library about that time period and are writing summaries based on the books they have read.)

So, there you have it. This is what my kids will be doing this school year. As you can see, they will be pretty busy, and they will be working hard.