but do they have curriculum that is multi age? I will have a 1st grader and 5th grader and really don't want to have to spend money for both every year.unless I have to..kwim?
What kind of curriculum are you looking for? My Father's World (www.mfwbooks.com) and Tapestry of Grace (http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/index.php) both work very well with multiple ages.
Winter Promise is another program that works with multiple ages. Unit studies are also a great way to go for history and science. You can easily incorporate literature into these as well.
Weaver, Konos, Sonlight too...these are all Christian, so I don't know if that will be what you want or not. I'm not sure of secular sources, but I'm pretty sure they exist!
I mostly taught Science and History across ages. Math and Language you need a bit more one-on-one, but last year I did grammar with my older two together, too.
Weaver does. (I have Volume 1 I'm going to put up for sale if you are interested..lol. I'm just too OCD for it to work for us.)
There are tons of things that are multiaged. I used living books for history, including Story of the World. I did buy the activity guides, but barely used them. I also bought Apologia for science and they have multi age levels too. You really need separate books for math and such. But mostly, you can pick whatever history topic, or they can pick, and just dive in to it. Research it and learn about it and watch shows on it and make up projects on it, and so on. My daughter dressed up like a pilgrim when we did the pilgrim stuff and dug her own garden.
AMEN!!! I can't imagine doing it any other way, and it's amazing at how much the younger ones pick up!!!
My 3 kids do Apologia Zoology 2 together as well as A Child's Geography. Doing history together last year sort of flopped but that was because my oldest is a true Sonlight kid and my middle is NOT!!!! So the oldest uses SL and the other two use Abeka (middle one prefers history in a textbook form). I hope to do history with the younger 2 together in the future though. My oldest is just too advanced to comfortably do alot together (when my middle DD has some processing deficits that requires shorter lessons and longer time to process the info.) The kids are enjoying the 2 subjects that we do together though. Alot just depends on the kiddos.
We did SOTW together, and a few other things. We used the Activity Book a LOT! I thought it was rather dry otherwise, but the activities really brought it to life! I have lots of pictures of all the hands-on stuff we did---my kids LOVED it! Let's see, the kids were in 2nd, 5th and 8th grades at the time, and we just did activities appropriate to their age/grade level. One thing that was interesting and covered a wider spectum of learning than I first thought, was making a nomad shelter. We have some trees and bushes in our back yard, so thought that would be a great activity, and it was! They had to cooperate to get it done! They had to work together, and share ideas together, work through arguments about how and where to put the shelter, and what to use to make it. They had to find an area to make it that would be big enough for the 3 of them to fit in. They had to figure out who would do what to get it built, and found out that one of them doing their own thing just didn't work! There were all sorts of learning experiences that came with that one, and they came out better kids because of it, I'm sure! They also had a greater appreciation for the nomads! Another thing we did together for US Geography/History was send a stuffed animal (dog) around the US and a couple of families in Canada. Each family took the dog with them to interesting and historical places near where they lived, wrote about it, and included some brochures or other things. As it went around, my kids did maps, flags and read information on the state the dog was in. It took 9 months for the dog to get back to us, and we were so excited to see all that was included! There are some people still on this site that joined in on that activity. Best wishes!
Deena, thanks for reminding me! I always said I wanted to copy your project when Phillip was old enough to enjoy it. So maybe next fall, which means I'd need to start planning this spring. I think maybe Brutus the Buckeye.....
Cool, Jackie! We'll join in on your project! Hey, I should send you copies of what you guys included! It'd probably be a hoot for your kids to see themselves as they were! Do you have copies of what you included in that?
Yes. We included pictures at the Butterfly Exhibit, at the Art Museum, and at the State Capital. Oh, we also took a team picture of Rachael and her first-place soccer trophey with Chinook, and pictures of our co-op's field trip to the Metro Park doing a pond study. Oh, and also at the COSI (Center of Science and Industry), which was impressive because you had sent info about Galloping Gerty, and there was a big display about GG at COSI!
Okay, then you don't need to send me copies of what you sent me in the books. How did you remember all that at YOUR age? (I'm SOOOOO much younger than you!) :lol: Hey, Maybe I should send Chinook over for a "for old times sake" visit! OOOOPS! Sorry, didn't mean to threadjack! But, it was such a fun project, and so worth doing!
