I think it's time to ask for help planning my curriculum! I have three kids, currently 1st, 4th and pre-k (4y/o). I pulled them out of ps last week, am considering starting now, and lightly working through the summer. Anyway, so far, I think I like, for the pre-k: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading Earlybird Math *She'll be attending a 3-day Parent Cooperative Preschool in the fall. I am going to stick with this plan, as it'll give me some time to get on my feet with the older boys, and her some play time with other kids. For the 1st (2nd in the Fall) Grader: First Language Lessons 1/2. Explode the Code Primary Mathematics Real Science 4 kids For the 4th (5th in the fall): **this is the one I'm having the most issue with, as he's been in Public School the longest. I don't really know where to start with him, and which subjects. I am also doing some back-tracking to get him caught up. What I am considering: Primary Mathematics Real Science for Kids (I hear a lot of people don't push science at the elementary level, but they loves science, and to leave it out would break their hearts) First Language Lesson 3, if it moves too slow, we'll go to FLL 4 when it's released What am I missing? Do these programs look ok? Do I need vocab/writing/spelling for my oldest, and which ones are user/beginner friendly? Oh, and I am also looking at SOTW for all of the kids. Can someone explain how to use the SOTW program? I think they have activity guides and cds? What do I buy? Will it work for all?
I don't have any advise on mixing curriculum as we used Abeka and Abeka Academy for 13 years. But, I just wanted to say welcome and wish you well in your homeschooling career with your kids. Good luck and have fun!
Hi there! in the fall I will have a preschooler, a 2nd grader and a 4th grader! For my 4th grader I'm using Alpha Omega Lifepacs for Language Arts, Math and Bible. For my 2nd grader I'm using First Language Lessons (finishing part 1 and doing part 2), Math U See Alpha/Beta for Math, Nest Family Videos/Workbooks for Bible. For BOTH... Considering God's Creation for Science (a friend lent me both books for free!). And for history we're going to use the Time Travellers' series from Homeschool in the Woods (www.homeschoolinthewoods). It's basically Explorers thru American History. Not sure about the preschooler yet...I will probably pick up Before Five in a Row and find an easy math for her. And let her particpate as much as she wants in the other stuff - or coloring pictures and such. We are also going to be involved in a co-op this year that is 1 day every other week, and it's going to cover Art, Music, Gym and the elective this year is Spanish.
Hi, Mallori! I've never used SOTW, but I did use Mystery of History, which is similar in many ways. I can tell you how I did it, and from what I've read about SOTW, it works pretty much the same. When I started with Ancient History, my children were 4, 7, and 10. We would all sit and listen to me read the lesson. Then there would be mapping or an activity. Each lesson would have an "younger", "middle" and "older" activity. You could pick whichever was most appropriate for you children. You could have your little one doing one thing, and your older ones doing something different. VERY FLEXIBLE!!! There's no right or wrong way!!! And I'm pretty sure that SOTW is the same. There were mapping activities, and sometimes my little one would color a map. A lot of times, I would draw the boundaries, and tell him to color a certain section a certain color. But some of the mapping activities were too much for him. Also, I THINK SOTW has coloring pages. If so, you might give your little one a coloring page to keep him busy while you read. MOH has a literature list included, I assume SOTW does, too. Again, you can find books at various levels. I also posted a book list on here that goes along with Ancient History. We did take our time, and spent a year and a half going through this. I have also done Considering God's Creation with all three kids. Again, you will find some activities too much for your youngest, but that's OK! You can adapt. I bought a workbook for my older two, and xeroxed pages for the younger, as I knew there would be so much he couldn't do. Also, I sometimes enlarged some of the pages, especially the cut-out stuff, or would cut them out before hand. A lot of the cutting and pasting is a bit tedious! BUT!!! He was four, and we went to my mom's to plant flowers. Dad brought out a bucket with fertilizer to put on them. Phillilp asked, "What's that, Grandpa?" "That's plant food!" "No, Grandpa, you don't understand!" Phillip explained. "Plants make their OWN food from the sunshine!!!" So I guess he had a good understanding of photosynthesis, lol!!!
Jackie's right, SOTW runs about the same way. There are book lists in there for further reading and study. There are maps and other GREAT activities in the SOTW Activity book! There are a lot of hands on things that your little one could participate in just for fun. We took 2 years to do SOTW Vol. 1: Ancients because there were so many books to read, activities to do and things to explore and make! We had a GREAT time! We didn't get the cd's, but a lot of people get them and play them in the car while they're driving places---not a bad idea! You would need to get: the reader, and you HAVE to get the activity book--it's just so great! The cd's are up to you, they may be a good reinforcement for what you do at home. With the Ancients study, we also did our own Bible stuff and made a timeline on the wall of both Bible stuff and world stuff that happened at the same time. It was fascinating to study those things together! We used the timeline figures and some info. from www.timelinesetc.com for that, as well as other things we had at home already or found on line. I also wanted to say---especially with your oldest, don't do too much schooling for awhile. He needs to de-school....get the ps system out of HIS system! Remember you don't need to do "school at home". Homeschooling can be much more relaxed, and less rigid because you're dealing with so many less children! You can school whatever hours you feel like. Some people have one parent working nights, so they school at night and all sleep more during the day, then spend the afternoon evening together before the parent goes to work again... So many possibilities of scheduling, so please don't feel you're not doing it right if you don't start at 8:20 and end at 3:10! Welcome to the board, btw, I hope things work out well for you! Please keep coming with any questions you may have---that's what we're here for!
