I have been looking at Weaver for this but was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions, to incorporate history, science and Bible, on a multi-level for my kiddos. I will have 3 in levels k4, 1st, and 3rd starting after our vacation this summer. We have done some unit studies before and being on a variety of levels they worked great but the problem is I want something that I can consistently do that without bouncing from one book to another to another
What an age span! You have the right idea about using a curriculum for your spine, especially with the age span you are dealing with. Weaver sounds like a good idea. You can always add to it if you want to have something more for the 3rd grader. Susan Wise puts out some type of history/science curriculum. I think it is called Story of the World. There is a book on activities. It may be worth looking into. It does not cover much Bible. Sorry I don't have any other ideas.
Have you looked at lapbooking? I keep my oldest seperate, but my younger two work together on most things they do that is schooly.. they just turned 4 and 5 at Christmas. DD(5) is ready to read so we work on that seperately unless DS(4) wants to work on it too. Science and Social Studies are usually really easy to combine, and then you keep English and Math seperate.. at least that is what many people do. I plan to keep my Irish Twins on a level together and my oldest on his own level and the little guy as he comes up will probably be on his own level. It does get easier as they get older because they gain some independance in their work.
I agree with the lapbooking idea. I currently do it with my three ages 9, 7, and 4. I just adjust what is expected for each grade level. We are doing a lapbook on Robin Hood right now and they are all really enjoying it.
Lapbooking is a great idea. I discovered it two years ago and love them. My son likes them as long as I do most of the cutting. You would probably have to do most of the cutting out. Some lapbooks may come precut. There is definitely different qualities of lapbooks. Some require very little work on your part, some require a lot. The first one I bought required a lot of confusing work. I was pulling my hair out and I am a crafty person.
Dana.. Five in a Row can be multilevel too right? I don't know much about many curriculums because we make so much up as we go!
I don't know - never used FIAR.... never saw it either - but it LOOKS like TOG can be??? It SAYS K-12 and you go through the history stuff every 4 years...
Humph.. now I have this "got to figure this one out" quirk going in my brain... what curric. can be multi level... but I HAVE to go make dinner!
Konos is one I have wanted to look at a million times and never have... now I have to let dinner burn.. thanks Dana :twisted:
Yeah well - I STILL have dinner on and even fresh bread being made...... I'm SUPER MOM - LOL Oh and we cleaned the house a lot today and some other "stuff"
Our family loved FIAR. It is definitely multi-level. The Prairie Primer is also one of our favorites. Unit studies were our most enjoyable lessons, but they always seemed to require so much preparation time. It got to be too much for mom.
Ok, only looked a second... is Konos religious based (seemed it, but I didn't go too deep looking, baby was screaming in my ear..lol). Sorry for the threadjack. Also to the OP, there are TONS of unit studies out there that aren't full curriculums.. you pick and choose the topics you want to cover.
We enjoyed FIAR a lot. I did it with my son. My daughter and I did KONOS with several other families. It took a lot of time on my part. The KONOS people have since packaged some of their unit studies as one unit or theme. This should save on a lot of prep time. In my mind KONOS seemed to cover more stuff. Perhaps it feels that way since it required a lot more of my time. You probably don't have a lot of spare time with three children even if you are SUPER mom. If I were you, I would definitely take into consideration the amount of prep time things will take. Happy searching.
Wow thanks for all the input now I don't know what to choose TOG looks the most in depth and kind of intresting from my perspective however lacks science FIAR Looks intriguing but I don't know if all of those books would be available at our library Konos looks great too fully comprehensive but has the same problem with book availability. I think me and DH need to pray and decide where to go from here I love HSing but every year buying curriculum seems to be more daunting!! Maybe just because I am adding more kids to the mix Thank You all again
I have never used TOG but seriously considered it. I have used FIAR and KONOS. FIAR--we never used all of the books because not all of the stories would appeal to my son. You are correct that finding all of the books at your library may be difficult. Many hard to find books can be found at www.abebooks.com. KONOS--many of the books are not at our little library. I would get the general idea of where the authors were going and find similar books. That almost always seemed to be good enough. KONOS sells kits for individual themes or character traits. I never used these kits but I believe they come with all the books. With KONOS I just picked what to do in each of the following four catagories--art, history, science, and Bible. IMHO it gave a well rounded education. You can't go wrong with any of your considerations
You know - you don't have to do EVERYTHING as unit studies!! History can be something like Mystery of History or Story of the World and do crafts around that. Copywork is grammar as well as learning handwriting. Younger kids don't have to do that. Science - Nature Study...... or Do units based on the weather or season. http://www.schoolexpress.com has some theme units my kids liked to do and they learned a lot about various things. Math - well that would be separate I would think Music can simply be listening to various composers! Literature - again LISTEN to books while coloring! Younger ages can be so much fun!!
I do unit studies together for K and 2nd for social studies and science and whatever else they get out of them while using separate things for math and language arts. I just come up with my own or find stuff on the internet. I haven't used FIAR but have used some stuff from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/levels.php and really like it.
