Hello again! I know I just posted last week about my anxieties dealing with this, but now I would like more guidance pointing me towards curriculum ideas! For my 2nd grader, I am looking for suggestions in all subjects. Whatever math I decide on will be used with both children, because their skills are roughly on the same level. I plan on starting my 9 year old with "2nd grade" math. I did buy the BYL curriculum for 5th grade, but I'm going to be using that mostly for reading and copywork. I don't know if I'm going to purchase the suggested science curriculum that she uses. I also need to email her and see if she will resend the link, because my laptop suffered water damage and I'm not sure if my hard drive survived. I'll kind of list off what I'm "looking for" in terms of curriculum. Math~ Something that is not too teacher intensive. I kind of plan on "learning with them" in this category, because math is also my weak spot and I have a hard time with a lot of the same things my 9 year old does. I'm barely exaggerating when I say my 7 year old is better at math than I am. I might be interested in MUS, but I know that TT's doesn't start until 3rd grade. I was thinking of Right Start until I was told how teacher intensive that is. I also am thinking of getting LOF, because my 9 year old is a voracious reader, and I just think it will be a good way to make the material interesting to her. I also don't want too heavy of a computer curriculum. Reading/Writing~ I'm more concerned about this with my 7 year old. Both of my kids went to PS up until this year. We brought our 9 year old home in January, where she attended a virtual school until April. We took her out of that program and now plan on hs'ing completely on our own. Our 1st grader finished up the year at her PS and Friday was her last day. Micaela (9) learned how to "read and write" at school. Kayman (7) is just learning those skills. She knows how to "read," but at 1st grade level. She can write fairly well, and one of her favorite things to do is copy down what she's reading. I'm looking for a curriculum that will help me further teach those skills, besides reading with her. Science~ I'm looking for a good science curriculum that kind of starts with the human body. Right now I'm starting history from the first Americans (pre-historic) and continuing until we've gone completely through American history and the states. Then I will add in other time periods/countries. I want to do science with the same kind of spin~ start with ourselves and then expand into other categories. History~ The BYL curriculum that I bought is heavy on the American history and recommends The History of US by Joy Hakim. I thoroughly enjoy these books, and plan on using them as a spine for what I want to work on with the girls. Lots of movies and books will flesh out this area. I'm looking for more secular resources than Christian, just because our religion is not a factor in our choice and we aren't choosing to incorporate it into our schooling. Am I missing anything important? Any good ideas out there? I can't afford to buy an entire curriculum like OM or MBTP, although I like both of those A LOT. I do have a little budget for supplies though, so it doesn't all have to be free. Cheap is good though! Thank you!
For math we are MUS fans. We would switch to teaching textbooks in the future if for some reason my son started having trouble with MUS. But for now we're sticking with MUS. For language arts in 2nd grade we did grammar and reading comprehension - we used Scott Foresman free grammar which can be found online and printed out - and is free. Book adventures is a website someone else recently linked on here. It's also free and has tons of quizzes and we'll be using that for our reading comprehension this coming school year. For history and science I'm no help. We are Christian and while that isn't the main reason we homeschool we don't try to separate the two either. This year we're using Road Trip USA - this is geared towards k through 4th grade so we'll all do this together. Next year I plan to move into the MFW cycle with Exploring countries and cultures. We're not doing a formal science program at the moment. We add in fun science activities for some beginning exploring. I guess my biggest tip with the science and history - keep your girls together for these. It will simplify and streamline things to do as much together as possible. Also pinterest is great for finding activities, recipes, worksheets etc. Anytime I need a specific resource I search pinterest first.
I purchased the Road Trip USA curriculum too. I love it and it fits right in with the history plans I want to do this year! Thanks for the suggestions!
For math, again I will suggest McRuffy. Yes mom teaches it, but it's like no brainer for mom. Everything is there for you in the teacher book. Also, You may want to look at Teaching Textbooks, yes it starts at 3rd grade, but many kids work a year ahead in TT. Have your 7yo do the placement test for grade 3. Samantha's LA plans are good, what I planned to use actually but changed my mind... we will be using McGraw Hill Treasures reading books along with their On Level Practice (phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension), Spelling and Grammar... all 3 of these can be found online free. I have to go for dinner but will add more later
I'm also going to recommend Teaching Textbooks. We started out in Kindy doing MUS and it wasn't a good fit. My daughter just wanted to build houses with the manipulatives like they were legos. We used CLE for 1st and 2nd and about 2 months ago she tested into the second half of TT 4. I was very happy with the CLE, but she wanted to do TT, which my older daughter used for 4 yrs.
I don't think there is enough teaching in MM. I'm mathy and hated trying to teach it. It teaches in weird ways, and doesn't give explicit instructions for mom. Ok other things to look at for language arts that are popular: Growing with Grammar, Winning with Writing and Soaring with Spelling and Vocabulary. We tried these they were ok, but boring and redundant. Easy Grammar and Daily Grams is pretty popular. I really like Writing Strands for writing. I love the Caught'ya Grammar books, they are fun and silly and kids like them. There are also things from a different method like Queen's Language Lessons or Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons (these are FREE on google!). As far as reading, read, read and read some more. Take tests on bookadventure.org Science, we are doing our own thing. It's a combo of "living books" like Let's Read and Find Out Science and Magic School Bus and videos like Bill Nye the Science Guy, Magic School Bus and Beakman's World. We also explore the life that surrounds us outside our home, we live in the country, we border several thousand acres of forrest and also have some crop fields and livestock available to us (family land). History, I think you are ok there as well as with Geography.
It may be a good choice for a person (teacher or student) who hasn't connected with math very well in the past because it teaches in a different way. I use Singapore and I believe Math Mammoth is similar in style.
For the human body I put together my own collection of library books, activities, and videos. If that sounds like something you would like you can view what I used/did here.
Math is going to be the trickiest subject to get taught around here! My oldest daughter kind of adopted her math attitude from me, and we both tend to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to it. It amazes me when my youngest comes home with new skills that I barely understand. I skirted through school doing the bare minimum, and now I am REALLY paying for that choice! I am going to look into the McRuffy curriculum. I guess math is just going to be the one area where I'm going to need the most "hand holding." I am not confident in my skills at all and I don't want it to be tears and headaches all the way around. At the same time, I don't want to kill my other daughters love of math with my poor attitude or feelings. I guess my ultimate goal in math is that Micaela gains and learns all of the missing math skills she has while ensuring that she gains new ones (along with me) and that we don't squelch Kayman in the process. I've kind of looked at using Easy Peasy for an entire curriculum, but I don't like the idea of sitting on the computer to do lessons the entire time and I can't quite figure out the site enough to "get" the premise. And knowing my kids, it will be hard to keep them focused on older material, no matter how great it is.
For math, maybe you'd be interested in Math Tutor (their Basic Math) until they are ready for Teaching Textbooks. For science we are going with Noeo. They have different levels of Biology, Chem, and Physics. Some awesome looking science kits (but a bit pricey) are Little Professor Science Kits. Sounds like you have history figured out already. Another idea I'll throw at you is Beautiful Feet. I've been told that it's easy enough to skip anything that isn't secular in their guides. We will be using their Early American History Primary next school year. For reading, maybe Victory Drill Book to help with fluency. More info on that book is here. By the way, just in case you aren't aware, Rainbow Resource sells the MBtP literature units. We will be using some of those this coming school year too.
I don't think I'd recommend math mammoth. I think it's a strong program but it's written to the student rather than the parent for the most part and that could be a problem for ya'll. We used Math Mammoth for first grade - and will continue to use it with our other children since it's only one year and it's stuff that I can help them learn if they aren't getting the curriculum. My oldest son's issue with it was the amount of repetitiveness in it. Math isn't a problem for my children. Though it isn't my strongest area - I much prefer learning and teaching history - my children ALL seem math inclined. My husband is an accountant by trade so I do think they get it naturally from him.
I agree about not recommending Mammoth Math, unless your child gets math easily. We tried it at the beginning of 3rd grade (our first year homeschooling) and it was just awful! The teaching points were not made clearly enough that my daughter could grasp it (although the auther does offer some videos on youtube), and the methods seemed to jump around so much, not really making a sense of flow, at least to my non math inclined daughter. We had to drop it real fast and find something better for her. She did way better with Singore Math.
Teaching Textbooks is a no-go this time around. I had my oldest daughter do the placement test, and I am going to have to work on some skills with her before she can do the 3rd level. I want to use the same curriculum for both of them, especially in areas where they will be learning the same things. With McRuffy, do they have other grades besides 1st for math? When I go to the website, that is the only math I see. Maybe I'm just missing what is glaringly obvious, but I can't find it.
On the McRuffy site, click homeschool. Then there is a row that says Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, Fourth Grade Then there is a row right below that that has Fifth Grade on it. He plans on doing through 6th, he has stayed a few steps ahead of me for years..lol. Once you click on the grade, below that row of banner, you will see a line of arrows pointing your attention to Phonics and Reading, Handwriting, Math, Science, and Spelling Those are clickable, you have to click to get to the math, it's on Reading when you click on the grade. You may want to start with their first grade level, It is kind of advanced... but starts out nice and slow. I'm going to do 2nd with my rising 3rd grader this coming year, we tried to use it when we finished 1st in Feb, but she needed to review for a while. My mathy rising 2nd grader is about half way through 1st, but he grasps things so fast I think I'm going to put him right into 2nd when we begin our year next month.
Yep, I see what my problem was! I wasn't looking at the screen hard enough and didn't see the little links that say "reading/phonics/math..." Like Rafiki says "Look HARDER!" LOL! Is McRuffy a curriculum that I can just buy one set of and use with both children? Or do I have to buy individual sets for each? You know what, I might just go with 1st and 2nd grade. Because there's a lot in 1st that I know they know... but some place value and subtraction that I want my oldest to go over again. But I don't want to have Kayman working below her skill set. Haha, I think I just had a conversation with myself!
LOL you just had your first teacher parent confrence. I have them all the time. They each need their own workbook, but they can share the manipulatives.... buy the big kit for multiple grades it's cheaper in the long run and a good price for things they can use for years. My kids get them out and play with them all the time.
You. may want to look around for used sets. You will probably still have to get the manipulatives and workbooks new and also maybe the resource package since some just let their kids write on the copy masters but it should still be cheaper. Once I'm on my computer I will look for some used for you.
OK still haven't made it to the computer but looked on homeschoolclassifieds and there is a complete new 2nd for under 90.. didn't read to see if it has manips. also there were several 1st grade teacher manuals with resource kits for 35.
I took an easier way for curriculum. I'm using beestar. It includes all subjects (ELA, math, science...) for 1st to 10th grade. The online worksheet is an excellent idea and my kids like it very much. Lisa
