Do-It-Yourself School

I became disenchanted with regular school a number of years ago.  However, it wasn't until my oldest child was in 5th grade that I decided to take my children's education into my own hands and do it myself.  That was 4 years ago.  I really just got tired of conforming to the public school system (conforming just isn't my thing).
Recently, I've been thinking I should post the curricula I'm using as a way to organize my own thoughts and, perhaps, help someone else make a decision about some aspect of their child's education.

Math:

Singapore Primary Mathematics US edition, Books 1A through 6B
I have been using this curriculum my children starting in Kindergarten, finishing by about 7th grade.  I say "about" because I slow down or speed up based on my child's readiness.  My oldest daughter, who is starting 7th grade this school year, is finishing up book 6B. By the end of this series they are ready for Pre-Algebra.

Life of Fred
I haven't used this yet.  I was looking for a math curriculum to follow Singapore Math.  I feel it is important to be consistent for the Algebra 1/Geometry/Algebra 2 math instruction, since sometimes geometry is integrated throughout algebra and sometimes it is not.  After a great deal of study, I narrowed it down and let my daughter choose.  She decided on Life of Fred.  We will see how it goes.

Spelling:

Explode the Code
 I buy books 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 when each child starts kindergarten and go through the books in that order, finishing about 3rd grade.  I buy the "1/2" books if a child needs extra help before going on to the next book.

Spelling City and Spelling Workout
After completing Explode the Code, I have been using the Spelling Workout workbooks for the activities and the Spelling City site for spelling tests.  Over the last year or so, I have relied more on Spelling City for activities as well as tests using their premium account.  This allows me to create assignments for the children and it keeps track of everything for me (a big time saver).

History:

Story of the World
We have been through all 4 books now and are back to the first book this year.  I really like this series.  I bought the books on cd and we listen to history while driving to our weekly Tae Kwon Do class.  I created notebooks for the children using my preferred activities from the Activity book (I made copies and had them spiral bound for each child).  I don't use the tests and we will be using a timeline with everything on it already.

Grammar:

First Language Lessons 
I bought FLL 1&2 when they came together in one hardbound book. I like it a lot and continue to use it.  I ended up creating a supplemental poetry booklet, illustrated by my children, to give easier access to the poems we memorize.  I like the poetry memorization and the memorization of grammar definitions and lists.  Initially, I was not thrilled with the memorization of word lists (like the prepositions and helping verbs), but I have found it very useful as we progress in our grammar studies.  Even the older children will chime in when we chant the helping verbs.  FLL 3 & 4 are more time consuming for me, as the instructor, than I would like, so I have looked into other options. I also found the leap from FLL 2 to FLL 3 is not gradual enough.  If I were only teaching 1 or 2 children, I might have stuck with this series, but I have 7 children and just can't spend as much teaching time as FLL 3 & 4 require.  (I like that there is no prep time, though)

Climbing to Good English
I used Good English to bridge the gap between FLL 2 & 3 and also used it for my older students who were beyond FLL 4.  This relatively inexpensive and fairly comprehensive curriculum was less time consuming to teach, but after using book 2, two years in a row with different children, it burned me out and became tedious for me as the teacher.  I think that having 3 of my children complain about it all through the first year of using it didn't help.  So the search continued to find a good grammar curriculum for our family...

KISS Grammar
I found a reference to this on a forum I visited while looking for a used Junior Analytical Grammar book for my 7th grader.  It intrigued me, first, because it is free.  As I investigated it more, though, it excited me due to its unique approach to grammar, as well as the fact that it has materials for various levels enabling me to teach my 3rd, 5th, and 7th grader grammar all at the same time (yes, as a mother of 7, time is a huge factor for me).  So, no JAG for dd for now and we will see how things go.  As I mentioned above, I will still use FLL 1&2 for my first grader, but, if I'm still using KISS in two years, ds will join his older siblings.

The Sentence Family
This is a delightful way to teach basic grammar concepts.  I use it as a supplement and will go through it with the kids again this year.

Writing:

Writing With Ease
This is the first writing curriculum I used.  I plan to continue to incorporate some of the concepts, but I will be moving away from the workbooks this year using Science and History for topics on which to have the children write.  I liked the ease of using the workbooks with everything ready with no teacher prep time, but, once again, when I had multiple children all at different levels, I just didn't have the one on one teacher time to keep up and one ore more children tended to fall behind due to my lack of time (I'll probably write a whole separate post about my time issue, if I have the time).  I liked that the little excerpts from literature created a desire in my children to read the whole books from which the excerpts were derived.  I didn't like that each level takes a whole 36 weeks to complete.  Things always come up, whether illness, field trips or life in general that sometimes interrupt a school day and prevent us from accomplishing all that we set out to do.  I prefer a curriculum designed for 34 weeks, or less, giving us more flexibility in our school, yet still enabling the feeling of having completed a curriculum in our school year.

Conclusion:

I have not included all subjects in this post, but it is late.  I will see about posting more.  It helps me organize my brain to put my thoughts in writing.  I hope this is of some use to someone.

Narnia: Queen Susan

I moved this post to my Sew Pleasing blog:

http://sewpleasing.blogspot.com/

Mr. Nobody

My son, Andrew, is learning a poem called, "Mr. Nobody".

I know a funny little man,
As quiet as a mouse,
Who does the mischief that is done
In everybody's house!
There's no one ever sees his face,
And yet we all agree
That every plate we break was cracked
By Mr. Nobody

`Tis he who always tears our books,
Who leaves the door ajar,
He pulls the buttons from our shirts,
And scatters pine afar;
That squeaking door will always squeak,
For, prithee, don't you see,
We leave the oiling to be done
By Mr. Nobody

The finger marked upon the door
By none of us are made;
We never leave the blind unclosed,
To let the curtains fade.
The ink we never spill; the boots
That lying round you. See
Are not our boots they all belong
To Mr. Nobody.

One of the Mr. Nobodys in our house is... you guessed it... Peter! My mischievous 3 year old kept dumping the shoes out of the very large shoe box we have for all the kids to keep their shoes. With six children, the box is quite full. After the fourth time I found the contents all over the floor, I sought out Peter and asked him if he dumped out the shoes.

Very innocently he responded, "It wasn't me, mom!"

I replied, "I think you did it, Peter."

He said, "I didn't do it, mom!" Then holding out his hands towards me, "It was my hands!"

Don't forget to respond

My two year old is now three and continues to provide me with things to write about. I was trying to get my house ready for my tea party and was working on cleaning the living room when a projectile intercepted my leg. Feeling a bit stressed, I was more than a little annoyed at the brief pain I felt.

"Owww!" I said, looking for the source of my discomfort.

My son immediately said, "I'm sorry, mom!"

I hadn't noticed his playing in the room that I was trying to clean, but this brought the situation to my attention and I called my husband's name, hoping to get him to come and redirect my son's playing to another room.

My son burst into tears, ran to me and threw his arms around my legs, crying, "I said I'm sorry, mom, I said I'm sorry!"

He thought I had called his dad out to punish him, since I hadn't acknowledged his apology. I gave him some hugs and attention for a few minutes and sent him elsewhere to play. The heartache and time I could have saved by responding when he apologized to me, but really, this precious memory is priceless.

Pictures

Just trying to get some pics on here...

I'll have to do more later.

Bits of Paradise

I started home schooling my children this fall. It has been an adventure and has forced me to improve my mothering skills and face some of my less than admirable facets of my personality. Spending the majority of each day surrounded by my children is like having six mirrors running around (or crawling, as the case may be) my home showing me my every weakness and flaw, showing me the stuff I'm truly made of.

I've learned that it's not all about me, though. I've come to appreciate more of my children's talents, interests and capabilities. I think I've sadly underestimated what they can learn. For instance, I've taught my six year old to do his own laundry. It hadn't occurred to me he was capable of such a thing until I conversed with a friend who suggested it. He also can make grilled cheese sandwiches for himself and his siblings. I discovered that he loves to learn poems and the opportunity to recite them for others. After observing his older sister learn to ride a bike without training wheels, he decided he wanted to do it, too. So he took off the training wheels of his little sister's bike and taught himself to ride it.

My eight year old is well on her way to being a capable cook. She can make and serve a meal for the whole family. She can memorize and recite poetry faster than I can teach it to her. She seems to know intuitively how to calm her baby brother. Her creativity in art knows no bounds.

My four year old has learned to recite various tenets of our faith. She also loves to learn to read and do math drills. She hasn't yet learned that she really should wear panties, especially under her dresses. She ties with her six year old brother as most like "Curious George". She has some sort of obsession with food and has come up with ingenious ways to get to the foods she most likes, no matter how I try and hide it or remove it from reach.

My two year old has learned all of the letters fo the alphabet and their sounds and likes to quiz his brothers and sisters and me to make sure we know them, too. He also likes to tell knock knock jokes, but is still working on which parts he's supposed to say and which parts the other person should say.

My eleven year old gobbles up anything computer related, playing games, programming games, etc. He loves to joke around with me. When I'm in a bad mood, he seems to know exactly how to organize his siblings to make things better, or when he's feeling a bit contrary, he know which buttons to push to try my patience. He's taken to riding my bike, since I guess his is inadequate for the purpose.

All in all it is satisfying to be the one to witness my children's education, to learn with them and see the world through the eyes of a child again. No more stress about homework deadlines and what untoward thing the school has decided my children should know. No more living with this sense that their education is somehow lacking, but not knowing exactly how or in what way. No more trying to fit myself into the mould of education for the masses. Finally, the merging of my ideas of how my children should be educated with reality and making it happen on a personal and individual level.

What's in a name?

I can't get enough of my two-year-old right now. He says the greatest things. For instance, the other day we were at a family gathering and I was talking with my mother-in-law when Mr. 2yr-old comes along and says something that I just can't figure out. I start to question him so I can figure out what he's trying to say and he replies angrily, "No, mom, I'm talking to grandma!"

One of my favorites from last week:
Mr. 2yo and I were talking and I discovered he knew his first and middle names, Peter Michael. Great, I say to myself, now he just needs to learn his last name. So I proceeded to tell him his whole name and got him to repeat it to me a couple of times. I then went on to discuss his age with him. Then, as any parent would do who wants to know if what they've tried to teach their child has stuck, I asked Mr. 2yo his name. His reply, "Peter {here I'm getting really excited}, Peter {okay, it's all right if he says his first name twice, he just wants to make sure everyone understands}, Pumpkin Eater!" Well, at least he didn't say "Stinky Pete".