if you don't use a curriculum for content subjects

[lorrainejmc]

forget it, I didn't ask for the wording of my post to ripped apart.

Edited July 26, 2011 by lorrainejmc

[Ellie]

But see, you *do* have curriculum. You know what you want to study, what the content should be, have a sequence in mind. That's what curriculum is.

 

You're using trade books (books you'll find at the library or purchase, as opposed to textbooks), hands-on activities, and other methods, instead of buying a published product written by someone else.

 

So don't worry for an instant that you don't have curriculum. :001_smile:

[lorrainejmc]

.

Edited July 26, 2011 by lorrainejmc

[Sahamamama]

This is what we're attempting for next school year, in particular for History and Science -- to compile a Resource List by topic, and read through it. I don't want a rigid, box-checking schedule. For us, I don't want to feel obligated to complete weekly map work, timelines, projects, notebook pages (though I would with a 9 year old), recipes, costumes, music, art projects, websites, and on and on and on... :tongue_smilie: Too much for Kindergarten and 2nd Grade, IMO. We probably will have a simple notebook with very basic "Books We Read" and "What We Did" pages, but that's about it. We'll also probably have sections for "State Pages" and "President Pages," adding those in as we come across them in the sequence.

 

We plan to study U.S. History for two years, using a topic-based resource list. I'm trying to put the topics in roughly chronological order. Each topic list can accrue resources as I come across them, and then I'll go through and figure out what to purchase and what to borrow from the library. Ideally, we'll get enough on the shelf that we could keep the library runs to a bare minimum. My husband calls it "homeschooling through a blizzard." :D

 

Here's how I might organize my topic lists:

 

A) Read Alouds + Audiobooks

B) Book Basket/Readers

C) Core Texts (aka "spines")

D) DVDs

E) Extras--websites (too good to miss), music, something else I haven't thought of yet ;)

F) Field Trip ideas

G) Games, recipes, other hands-on ideas that are not paper-based

H) History Pockets and/or Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers CDs

 

When I come across a resource that (IMO) would work for us, I'll assign it to a list, under the appropriate category. For example, A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin would go under (B) Book Basket/Readers, while D'Aulaire's Ben Franklin would go under (A) Read Alouds. Not every list will have resources in each category. All resources will be "optional," in the sense that we will do our best to move through the American story in two years' time, mostly through reading aloud. What is really required for a 5 year old? We're under no compulsion to "do it all." I do know that if we have it on the shelf at home, we'll be much more likely to read it than if we have to haul it out of the library. So the topical lists will help me to narrow down what to buy. HTH.

Edited July 26, 2011 by Sahamamama

[Sahamamama]

But I don't know what exactly we will study, and I don't have sequence in mind. I know what our areas of interest are and I have curriculum that could support those interests as they arise, but the curriculum is not the spine. That's what I meant.

 

What are they? :bigear:

 

Ancients?

 

Middle Ages?

 

Exploration & Discovery?

 

Modern Times?

 

American History?

 

Something else?

 

FWIW, Ellie is right in saying that you do have a curriculum, in terms of self-selected materials. I get what you're saying, though (I think): You feel like you have random body parts, but no systematic "backbone" to get you through them.

 

What's your focus for History next year?

[campmom]

This sounds so wonderful to me. This is exactly the sort of thing that I have planned. I have purchased MFW Adventures but I am planning to use it very loosely. Adding in many items/resources for "discovery". My goal is to foster a desire to learn along with the ability to know how to learn on your own, which I hope to begin casually teaching them while they think they are just having fun doing cool things.

[Ellie]

But I don't know what exactly we will study, and I don't have sequence in mind. I know what our areas of interest are and I have curriculum that could support those interests as they arise, but the curriculum is not the spine. That's what I meant.

It doesn't matter. "Curriculum" doesn't mean "that textbook there." It means "the subjects offered by an institution of education." You'll figure out scope and sequence as you go along, and that's fine. It is still your curriculum. :-)

[5LittleMonkeys]

I've thought about doing something like that too but then I found a program that I like. When I was considering doing it I was trying to decide what would be the glue to bind all of the studies together; the jumping off point.

 

I toyed with the idea of creating country mini-unit studies. For each country we would explore the culture and religions, geography, topography and natural resources, indigenous plants and animals, basic history (nothing in depth on this...just a major event timeline), important people, major industries and current events.

 

Each week we would focus on one or two topic groups and part of the learning would come in making a list of what we wanted to learn and finding resources to aid us in answering our questions (library, internet and netflix would have been our main sources). This would prevent me having to gather all of the resources together and scheduling it all out and then having my plans dashed because we decided to focus on a different path. The product of our learning would have been the creation of a large project display board for each country, with posters, drawings, poems, reports, maps, vocabulary, photos, graphs\charts, recipes....the list could go on and on. Nothing was set in stone in the beginning though; it would all be open ended and flow from the direction our curiosity took us.

 

The plan was for each country to take about 4 to 6 weeks and the countries studied would depend on our interest at the time or simply by spinning the globe, closing our eyes and picking a location.

 

I don't know if that is something like what you are thinking but I thought I'd put it out there.

[5LittleMonkeys]

It doesn't matter. "Curriculum" doesn't mean "that textbook there." It means "the subjects offered by an institution of education." You'll figure out scope and sequence as you go along, and that's fine. It is still your curriculum. :-)

 

Keep a journal of what you do each week...what skills your covering and what content you are studying. At the end of the year you'll have an amazing scope and sequence.:tongue_smilie:

[2squared]

:grouphug: I don't know if this helps, but we read books and discuss for content areas and add in nature study for science. We look at maps when the mood strikes. That's about it. My dc absorb a lot this way, and we don't miss all the associated activities and experiments.

 

My dd's highest scores on her standardized tests were in content areas. :confused: Obviously our approach is working, but I'm wondering if I'm not a very good teacher with pre-planned curriculum.