Getting ready to throw some afterschooling into the mix..

[Jennifer]

My kids returned to public school (on an Army post) last October. Ages 12 (middle school 6th grade), age 11 5th grade, age9 3rd grade, and age5 prek.

 

No complaints about the school. There are focused on the new Texas state test, the STAAR. But not to the complete exclusion of other subjects.

 

There is very little homework that comes home in the evenings. I would like to think that this is because the teachers are so efficient in covering the material in class that homework itsn't necessary. But on the other hand I am worried that the teacher is covering "just enough for the test" and not really facilitating learning about these subjects (history and science come to mind) And what school in San Antonio doesn't teach spanish to it's non-native Spanish speakers and young as possible?

 

So I'm ready to start afterschooling with my kids. Just not quite sure of where to start. I'm thinking Spanish and Latin for all the kids, and then reading through science and american history with the older girsl. Their school textbooks are watered down piles of twaddle.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions from anyone? Should we just read and discuss, or do more formal programs for History and Science. Writing is another concern-no one writes anymore. It's all fill in the blank and multiple choice.

 

Thanks for all your help!

Jennifer

[jenbrdsly]

Hmmm... I'm trying to think of things that would work for multi-age, and wouldn't be too expensive to get started.

I think you couldn't go wrong with Story of the World. We've listened to SOTW1, SOTW2, and SOTW3 the car so far. You could probably check out the books from the library for free, if you didn't want to go the audio route. There are fun activities that go with SOTW that Fairytale Mama has on her blog.

For writing, you could also have each kid keep a journal, or start writing letters to grandparents or pen-pals. You could also do some writing with math activities, and that would be free too. A fun thing to do with math that might work on some level for your 11, 9, and 5 year old would be peanut buttering fractions.

A free science curriculum that we have used for Afterschooling is Science Without a Net.

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head. Good luck!