Guest MrsMaonaigh Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Hello! My name is Christi and I'm mom to three girls. I JUST learned that there was a title to how we plan to educate. However, I have no idea where to start. My oldest daughter is in middle school. My middle child is about to start Pre K. I want to supplement their public school education with the things that their program has cut out. Music, arts, secondary language, most sciences. Where do I begin though? I'm completely new to this so I need to be baby stepped through it LOL! Are there any good links or books on how to get started? Thank you for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 First, I suggest checking out a copy of The Well Trained Mind from your library, if you haven't read it yet. That book has been so helpful to me. I can help you out with your younger one a bit. I blogged what I did for kindergarten with my daughter here. Here's a link to our read aloud list. We just started Real Science Odyssey Life which is designed for 1st-3rd grade, although we haven't gotten too far yet. My daughter is really getting a kick out of The Story of the World Ancients. A book that I really like for art is Making Amazing Art. I know a lot of people like Artistic Pursuits for art as well. We haven't done anything with foreign language or music so far. I'm sure some others will weigh in with some suggestions as well. Good luck! There is a lot of support on this forum. Very cool blog! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 When my son was in middle school we did an art study. I picked artists who had pieces in our loc art museum. We studied the artist and the genre, and then we visited the museum to see the work in person. I also suggested books for him to read for outside reading, and these were all classiscs. He had a good Spanish teacher, so I didn't worry about that. For history and science, we just read deeper on the subjects he was covering in school. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erika Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I agree with starting with the Well Trained Mind. I like many of their suggestions for the 3R's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 (edited) I homeschooled for several years, so for me afterschooling was more of a continuation of the things we were already doing, then making adjustments and incorporating the academics at the school into my overall educational goals. To get started, I also recommend taking a look at The Well-Trained Mind. I also still use Rebecca Rupp's Home Learning Year by Year for ideas and inspiration, though some of the recommended resources are out of date now. I think it's helpful to jot down what your personal goals are for your kids' education (some of which you've already shared here) and what you want to make sure they learn, and then revisit this each year. In some cases, the instruction they get at school will be sufficient to meet those goals, and in other cases it will not. We have a lot of art supplies and love ARTistic Pursuits and various Usborne arts and crafts books. We're also involved in 4-H and several of those projects tie in with our afterschooling. My biggest area of concentration as we're afterschooling is history, as our school does dry textbook social studies. We're using Story of the World, a Sonlight timeline book, real books, and various other resources. Edited July 31, 2011 by WordGirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 (edited) I agree with getting the Well Trained Mind. It will have TONS of information for you. For your preK kiddo, I have some ideas on my blog. Edited August 8, 2011 by jenbrdsly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof2:E&T Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 I am new to this too. My kids are 6 and 4 so to start we are focusing on the 3 Rs and then adding history and science. For anything other than the 3Rs, I am asking the kids what they want to learn and focus on that by using unit studies and books from the library. I am also adding documentaries, shows, and movies from Netflix something fits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 To Mom of 2: Do you know about the website http://instantwatcher.com/? That's a great place to find netflix instant streams that are not on the main site of netflix. I'd be so lost without it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 Hello! My name is Christi and I'm mom to three girls. I JUST learned that there was a title to how we plan to educate. However, I have no idea where to start. My oldest daughter is in middle school. My middle child is about to start Pre K. I want to supplement their public school education with the things that their program has cut out. Music, arts, secondary language, most sciences. Where do I begin though? I'm completely new to this so I need to be baby stepped through it LOL! Are there any good links or books on how to get started? Thank you for your help! Yes, this is a WTM board, so I would start with WTM :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 I don't think I've been more than a hundred yards away from my copy of WTM since I brought it home. It's my BFF in paper form. :) Just love it. It's been so long since I've run across a text that presents ideas to me that are brand spanking new, with words and concepts I've never seen. I spent like two hours in study on one word/concept last night. The word was first seen during the WTM discussion on rhetoric and the five attached fields in the study of rhetoric..or canons. I first found this in chapter 24 of WTM, starting on page 465. The word was epideictic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epideictic That really threw me off and I had to know more. I went to how to pronounce it properly, through the roots, then the overview of the concept, to actual practice examples and understanding where this "epideictic" fit in the theory of rhetoric stages. 2 hours later, my brain was just melting in new thoughts, new names, new ideas. Then I opened the door to my dd bedroom, watching her play with a doll and wondering to myself.. "Would she ever learn this in PS?" Probably not. The responsibility fell square at my feet. WTM makes me feel small yet powerful and engaged in a way I can't quite describe. Very challenging at the core of motherhood and personal duty. Reading WTM has really opened intellectual doors for me and is inspiring. But who to talk to about these things? It makes me throw my head back in laughter and really appreciate the forum. If I wanted to engage in a week long discussion on epideictic rhetoric stages as it relates to elementary education of a child (more personally, my child), this is probably the only place in the entire world to do it. How blessed is this place? A whole bunch! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Word Nerd Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 This is the third or fourth time I've picked up TWTM, and I get something new out of it every time. Granted, I've never read it from cover to cover but rather focus on the sections that apply to my children's current stages of learning. But I notice things in the sections I've already read previously that are more meaningful or that jump out to me on a later reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted August 8, 2011 Share Posted August 8, 2011 I don't think I've been more than a hundred yards away from my copy of WTM since I brought it home. It's my BFF in paper form. :) Just love it. It's been so long since I've run across a text that presents ideas to me that are brand spanking new, with words and concepts I've never seen. I spent like two hours in study on one word/concept last night. The word was first seen during the WTM discussion on rhetoric and the five attached fields in the study of rhetoric..or canons. I first found this in chapter 24 of WTM, starting on page 465. The word was epideictic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epideictic That really threw me off and I had to know more. I went to how to pronounce it properly, through the roots, then the overview of the concept, to actual practice examples and understanding where this "epideictic" fit in the theory of rhetoric stages. 2 hours later, my brain was just melting in new thoughts, new names, new ideas. Then I opened the door to my dd bedroom, watching her play with a doll and wondering to myself.. "Would she ever learn this in PS?" Probably not. The responsibility fell square at my feet. WTM makes me feel small yet powerful and engaged in a way I can't quite describe. Very challenging at the core of motherhood and personal duty. Reading WTM has really opened intellectual doors for me and is inspiring. But who to talk to about these things? It makes me throw my head back in laughter and really appreciate the forum. If I wanted to engage in a week long discussion on epideictic rhetoric stages as it relates to elementary education of a child (more personally, my child), this is probably the only place in the entire world to do it. How blessed is this place? A whole bunch! :) We should start WTM for public schools movement :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted August 11, 2011 Share Posted August 11, 2011 It's not too early to introduce talk or gather the material, nope... Formally reviewed studied/concepts probably..but I've sketched out parts of it and involved my 8 year old in conversations about it. If you were to ask her the basic parts of rhetoric, she could talk about it and use the right terms and some expression on point. Naw, not too early for first exposures here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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