It's summer! Time to think about all things school. What!?! I thought it was time to forget there ever was such a thing as school. Except that I am a veteran homeschooler. We have been homeschooling for over 10 years and there are a few things I have learned along the way. One thing I have learned is that it is a lot easier to plan for the next school year at the close of the current one. Everything is still fresh on my mind. I still remember the areas in which my students need to grow, what worked and what didn't. By the end of the summer, my brain has baked in the summer sun too long. It seems like ages since I thought about whether Jr. remembered the rules of capitalization and whether he hated or loved math. To prevent the problems associated with complete brain atrophy, I plan my next school year around March or April of the current school year.
Another thing I have learned is that it works much better for me if I can make my curriculum orders in June. When I order my books early, I have the whole summer to review them and plan out how I will implement them. If you only have one or two kids, this may not matter much to you, but I have four kids ranging in ages from pre-school through high school. I may not have to plan for 30 kids, but in many ways I essentially have 4 schools to plan -- pre-school, elementary school, middle school and high school. Somehow I have to plan these into a cohesive and harmonious whole. That takes some time. Ordering early gives me time to hear my heart on how the next school year should go.
I get a lot of questions about the materials I have used over the years. I finally just wrote my favorites into a letter, which I update from time to time. I thought some of you might be interested, so here it is:
Dear Interested Homeschooler,
Here is my list of personal home school favorites. For preschool and kindergarten, I take a very relaxed approach. I teach them to read with 100 Easy Lessons. I read lots of high quality books to them. (I have used the Five in a Row series as a starter for this). I let them paint and have many hands-on activities. We also spend a great deal of time observing nature. We raise tadpoles and monarch butterflies, we take nature walks and we have fun. This keeps their joy of learning alive. Then when they are older and ready, we are able to have a more vigorous school program. You will find information on the above mentioned books in this list.
There is so much more that I could write about, and this is by no means an exhaustive list. Below are just some of my most used resources which I have previously compiled for families who were interested in home schooling. Each family has its own dynamics, and much of this information may not apply to you. These are simply some of the things that have worked in my home. If you have any questions let me know and I will see if I can find an answer for you.
Homeschool Help and Encouragement Resources:
Things We Wish We Had Known Diana Waring -- a gathering of articles from various home schooling families.
Beyond Survival Diana Waring -- a great book about bringing the life and fun back into school and home.
Honey For a Child’s Heart Gladys Hunt -- terrific library building resource. This book gives a short synopsis of many good children’s books. A great help in choosing reading materials.
Charlotte Mason Companion Karen Andreola -- This is a fantastic resource for those that are interested in the “gentle art of learning”. Utilizes “living books” (books written by authors who were passionate about the subject they were writing about) to teach history, science, etc. Brings nature study and home life into harmony with school. This is a good “how to” resource for home schooling.
Don’t Panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer Susan Martinez, Vanda Howell & Bonnie Garcia -- Let’s face it, even after home school, ministry and all the other demands on our time, we still have to feed the family. This book has some great make a head meals that can be popped into the freezer. Many very good recipes. The ultimate in home cooked fast food!
Once a Month Cooking Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg -- Along the same lines, but also teaches a system on how to cook up a lot of food in a short amount of time, so that you have more time for all those other things.
Homeschool Enrichment Magazine -- Encouraging magazine that also keeps you updated on new resources, etc. www.HSEMagazine.com
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine -- Great magazine for homeschoolers. Offers free subscriptions for pastors and missionaries. Just call to set it up -- 1-888-718-HOME.
www.organizedhome.com -- Lots of ideas to help keep the home running smoothly so we can be efficient with our time.
www.thehomeschoolmom.com -- a great internet resource with all kinds of tips and tricks to help the home school mom. Lot’s of good forms, planning pages, etc. Good resource.
Resource Catalogs:
Rainbow Resource -- This is a 2” thick catalog -- an extensive selection of home school materials that consistently has the best pricing I have found anywhere on most products. It also reviews each product, so it is a good help in deciding if a product is right for you. Free shipping on orders over $150 in the US. www.rainbowresource.com
Tobin’s Lab -- Great resource for science supplies. www.tobinslab.com
Veritas Press -- I use their book reviews to help me select extra reading material for our history studies. www.veritaspress.com
My Father’s World -- Where I used to get my base curriculum. Multi-level approach, incorporates good reading materials, teaches chronological world history with Bible history as well, & has well thought out, easy to implement daily lesson plans. www.mfwbooks.comWe went through the whole 5 year program and enjoyed it.
Some of my other favorites:
The Child’s Story of the Bible Catherine F. Vos -- Probably the best story Bible I have found. Recommended by Ruth Graham Bell. In elementary school, our kids read a chapter of the NIrV each day and I used the story Bible for our Bible reading in school. They do scripture memorization from the KJV or NIV. Later, when the kids are older, we switch entirely to a regular Bible, but this worked better for the younger ages.
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox & Elaine Bruner -- Simple straight forward phonics lessons using the Distar Method. Lessons are short and effective. The child is able to read short sentences after only a few lessons, and is solidly on a 2nd grade reading level by the end of the course. We have had three successful readers using this (our youngest child is a bit too young for reading lessons). I have skipped the writing assignments in this for 2 of my children because they were not yet ready for handwriting at the time we used this book.
Five in a Row Jane Claire Lambert -- A unit study approach that we have used for all our children during their pre-school and kindergarten years. Basically, you read the same picture book to your child for 5 consecutive days and do different activities each day related to the book. The activities cover geography, math, science, history, etc. We also use the Five in a Row Cookbook to make a meal relating to the book at the end of each week. Our older kids still talk about the time they spent doing this. Very gentle and effective. Also, the books are great library builders. Some of our favorite storybooks are the books used in this series.
Kumon Workbooks Kumon Publishing -- Hands on activities for young children that facilitate self-acquisition of skills. Everything from skills in cutting, folding and pasting to telling time, math skills and handwriting readiness skills. They are colorful and clever. My children loved these activity books. www.kumonbooks.com Also available through Rainbow Resource.
102 I-Can-Do-It-Myself Activities for Preschoolers Leslie Retchko & Peggy Zorn -- This is a great book for activities for preschool & kindergarten. Many are quick activities to pull out when I need to work with the other children or get something done. Other activities are more educational. Many would be suitable for toddlers also. I pre-prepped many of the activities and put them in gallon bags. When I needed an activity, it was ready for us.
Preschool Activities in a Bag Paula Reetz & Sherri MacLean -- These activities are educational and great for preparing a young child for more difficult concepts. I pre-prepped the activities and put them into a file box. When I was ready to sit down with the older children’s schooling, I would give our youngest several these to “play” with. He enjoyed them and learned at the same time. www.activitybags.com
Singapore Math, US Edition -- (The only difference between the US edition and the regular version is that the US edition includes instruction on US measurements, and some of the names are changed to something the average American can pronounce.) This is the same government curriculum used in Singapore schools that caused Singapore to outpace the rest on the world in math for so long. It is fast paced, but leans heavily on teaching the child to understand the concepts, not just do the math. It allows each child to work at their own pace, so your math whiz can just keep moving up, while another child continues to work on a concept. If you are looking for something that has a lot of review, this is probably not for you. We love it precisely because it doesn’t bore us with tons of unnecessary review (my math whiz is actually turned off to math if I review too much. It becomes counter-productive). They do have supplementary products with more review and teaching helps.
Italic Handwriting Getty & Dubay -- This is a wonderful program. It is a short, simple and straight forward handwriting program that has produced neat writers without tears. We love it.
Paddle-To-The-Sea, Seabird, Minn of the Mississippi, Tree in the Trail, & Pagoo Holling C. Holling -- These are all fantastic books for reading and/or unit studies. They are stories, but they are full of beautiful & accurate pictures, and packed with science, history and facts. Our kids love them. They don’t even realize how much they are learning. These are also a good example of one form of “living books”.
The Rosetta Stone -- This is a highly recommended language course -- we study Spanish, but there are many other languages available. We have previously used The Learnables, which served its purpose, but we were ready for a stronger approach. Life of Fred These are math textbooks from a totally different approach. You need to be brave to use them because they move fast, are funny, and don't contain a much review. They follow the life story of Fred, a 5-year-old math genius who teaches at Kittens University. Your job is to do the math Fred needs to figure out the things he encounters throughout his day. This series will suck your kids into Fred's world, and they will definitely see how math applies to everyday life. We really liked this for middle school. When we started getting into higher math, we needed something that gave us more step-by-step instructions, but the kids still love to get the Fred Books. Harold Jacobs Algebra -- A thorough and comprehensive course that we used for Algebra. Although it is technically a textbook, it is much more interesting than the average textbook. Apologia Science These are the science books we have used for our upper middle school and high school science courses, well written, engaging and well-repsected. Nature's Workshop Plus carries companion science supplies already packaged and labeled for use with each lesson. Well worth the price if you don't have time to make your own experiment kits and the idea of running all over the house looking for the needed materials makes you want to skip science all together. Times Tales - Times Tables Made Easy from Trigger Memory Systems This is an easy, painless way to teach your child multiplication. It uses pictures and stories to trigger the child's memory. Once they get the story down, they will know the equation. Before long, they don't even need the story to remember. This is great if you have a child who is having trouble, is reluctant to learn, or has trouble sitting still long enough to learn, or if you just want to introduce the multiplication tables in a fun way.
Nearly everything I have mentioned can be purchased through Rainbow Resource with the exception of the magazines and My Father’s World. I even think the cookbooks can be purchased there. We use lots and lots more books and curriculum, but these are the ones that stick out to me. Again, your home has its own dynamics. What has worked for us may not necessarily be a good fit for you. Hopefully you will find some of this information helpful. God Bless!
This year we will be using some new things, like Diana Waring's History Revealed Series, Teaching Textbooks Geometry, Artistic Pursuits and Parallel Texts Shakespeare. We are also testing a new planner system (The Ultimate Homeschool Planner) that eases your students into independent learning and responsible time management. I'll let you know how they work for us once we have had a chance to really try them out.
