Homeschool Curriculum

by | Aug 24, 2011 | homeschool | 8 comments

Monday was our first official day of homeschooling. Yes, yes, we’ve been doing it all summer, but I now we are official (that is, I told the state, so Monday started our 175-days-and-counting for the year).

So far it’s gone pretty well. I’m still figuring out our organizational system. Also I didn’t really realize that you can have a class clown if you’re homeschooling (Eli), so that’s been something to contend with. But kind of fun, too, I’ll admit.

Now, this post might be boring to a lot of you, but I for one love curriculum posts, so here you go. Here’s what we’re doing for the year:

Math
Teaching Textbook for Henry, Saxon Math for Eli (and for Zuzu when she feels like joining in).

Reading
I was using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons but Eli and I thought it was a total snooze, so now we’re just working on BOB books and random board books we have around the house.

Science
R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life plus extras from books like Exploratopia and the Science Snackbook.

History
History Odyssey Level One, Ancients

Latin
Song School Latin, Minimus, and Getting Started with Latin.

French
French is Fun with Serge the Cheeky Monkey! Also Play and Learn French, and lots of singing from Chantons by Michael Parent.

Handwriting
Handwriting Without Tears (printing for Eli and Zuzu, cursive for Henry)

Art
Art is Fundamental and The Usborne Art Treasury

Plus: flute lessons for Henry, and (soon, I hope) fiddle lessons for Eli. Daily forced physical activity. Daily reading of some fun-but-slightly-advanced book (so far we’ve done James Herriot’s Treasury for Children and Holling Clancy Hollings’ Seabird and Minn of the Mississippi). I’m looking forward to doing thinking projects from Teach Your Child How to Think. I’m making Henry read some things that are a bit more challenging, and he’s going to start doing monthly research papers. And we use a ton of resources in all subjects from CurrClick.com. Plus all the intangible stuff we did anyway that now maybe counts as school, like going to the library, hiking, making beds, cooking, and writing thank you notes to grandparents.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470481862/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=worldofjulie-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399369&creativeASIN=0470481862History

8 Comments

  1. Liz

    i am personally looking forward to hearing more about serge the cheeky monkey.

    Reply
  2. Julie

    You know I pretty much bought that only because it was called “French is Fun with Serge the Cheeky Monkey!” Luckily it’s a learn-to-speak French product. It could have been an ironically-titled dark tale of life on the streets in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, and I still would have bought it.

    And that Serge! Boy, is he ever cheeky!

    Reply
  3. emily

    so, how do you organize the day? when does everyone do what? how do you keep them out of each other’s hair? is that already just part of the culture of having 4 kids? where do you all work? do you feel like laura in littlehouse, working the room?

    Reply
  4. Robyn

    No cheeky wolf for Latin? (oh, wolf)

    Reply
  5. emily

    oooh! you’ll be able to read asterix in french AND get the latin parts too when the romans talk! wonderful!

    Reply
  6. Julie

    Em, our ideal day is: homeschool from 9-12 (or, even better, 8:30-11:30), and then the girls nap, and the boys entertain themselves while I get time to do my own own thing. I am amazed that, here, on Day 9 of Official Homeschoolin’, we have actually achieved this three times. I’m imagining that, as we get our groove, we’ll be able to do it more often than not.

    Oh, R, I do so wish for a cheeky Latin animal of some sort to teach us. But I didn’t even think of Asterix, Em! I think it will be a while before we’ll be able to read it in French, but that’s a goal if ever there was one.

    Reply
  7. emily

    I have two asterix’s in french when the time comes!

    Reply
  8. Lisa

    This is really inspiring! Looking forward to hearing more as the year progresses…

    Reply

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