irizarry4 Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Hello, all! I am new to homeschooling. I recently pulled my 2 children out of PS (1st and 4th). I am spending the remaining weeks of school discovering and filling in gaps, and catching my children up to whatever curriculum I decide to use next year. Which brings me to my big quandary. When I first set out on this venture, I never imagined there would be so much to choose from out there, and I never counted on feeling so overwhelmed. Here is my philosophy: I want my children to be taught from a Protestant Christian Biblical Worldview. I am a fully bilingual native Spanish speaker living in Texas, so my children (whose native language is English) will be taught to read and write Spanish from early elementary (they already speak it). I am a linguist by training and Language Arts are critical to me. I want my children to have a working understanding of the mechanics of the English language (grammar), and strong skills in effective oral and written communication. Solid foundation and good understanding of math as well as science. History - I want to try ToG Yr1 -- we'll see some love it, some hate it! Apologia Science (start with Astronomy) - any opinions? Bible - Is ToG enough, or would you use a Bible curriculum too? Saxon Math, Singapore Math, Horizons, Teaching Textbooks??? - math is such a polarizing subject! I want my kids to be challenged, but don't want them to hate it. At first I was just going to use Saxon, but I've read so much now I feel confused. Lang Arts - ToG recommends Easy Grammar, but does that cover all of Language Arts? or will the non-grammar portions be covered by the writing assignments in ToG? This is a key thing for me. Spanish - Serie Amigos by Editorial Santillana (specifically developed for Spanish speakers living in the US). I have been very negatively impressed by the Spanish and bilingual curriculum widely available. The material is lame, and in many cases very poorly translated. Okay, that's it for now. I'm ready to receive your knowledge! Ivette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misty Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Welcome to homeschooling! I would like to make a recommendation of Right Start Math for a good solid understanding... http://www.alabacus.com Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brindee Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Hi there, Welcome to the WONDERFUL world of Homeschooling! We are finishing up our 11th year, and though there are struggles sometimes, we LOVE homeschooling! I love that I get to be with my children about as much as humanly possible! :) First of all, it would really help us offer suggestions if we knew the ages of your children! I also suggest that you look up "Learning Styles" and try to gauge what your childrens' learning styles are, then let us know. Theat helps in deciding which curriculum is best for each one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara in WA Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Welcome to the world of homeschooling! If you haven't done so, do get a copy of The Well-Trained Mind (the new edition is just out!) and read up. It gave me a great starting point in homeschooling. A strong language arts component of education is key to classical education and something you mentioned wanting to focus on. A couple suggestions from your list: * Singapore Math - I love how it teaches how to think mathematically. We add drill and math games. The Home Instructor Guides give great ideas. * Language Arts - We follow and have benefited from SWB's First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease. Oh how I wish we could glean from your Spanish knowledge and teaching! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irizarry4 Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 Sorry! I pulled my children out of 1st and 4th grade, therefore: just turned 7 daughter and an almost 10 son. My daughter is VERY independent, loved school and was quite successful at it. My son is a very sweet, sentimental child. He is very bright, but painfully sloppy if not supervised. For instance, I gave him the Saxon placement test the first time, and if I had used that score he would be rated a slow 4th grader. I gave it again and told him he needed to be careful about it, and now scores to start Saxon 65. He is a Lego freak, and can make anything out of Legos. My son is probably a much more concrete/tactile thinker and learner, whereas my daughter will do better with abstractions. They boty LOVE to read. Currently, my son's biggest distraction as we start homeschool is that he would rather read the book of Job than do anything else. ha, ha, ha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brindee Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 :) Job is an interesting book! Thanks for the info.! Rod & Staff is VERY solid in their English/Grammar! We love it! It includes great teacher editions, and some writing. I don't love their writing, but we've done some of it. This coming year we are using Write Shop http://www.homeschool.com/resources/WriteShop/default.asp for writing. If you are wanting to do Greek or Latin with them lightly while they are young, or see some bible ideas, this site, by a homeschool mom, has some easy to learn/use products! www.greeknstuff.com My dd did the Apologia Astronomy when she was 9/10 and loved it! It didn't take all year, so you'll need to stretch it out with more projects, or have a supplement or something else planned to do when it's done. Both your children could do that one together, which would be great! I think we're in a minorty, but all three of my kids hated Saxon math! I tried, because I liked the program, but it just totally bogged them down, and my dd, especially, took awhile to come back around after we stopped that and started something else. The work wasn't hard for her, it was just too repetiious or something. She did Saxon 7/6 in 4th grade, TT Pre-Algebra in 5th grade, and this year, in 6th, she did Life of Fred math, which she loved. She enjoyed TT math as well, but LOVES the LoF math! She'll be doing the LoF Beginning Algebra next year. Here's a link to LoF http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html I think your son could probably do the Decimals & Percents and Fractions books. That's what dd did this year. We supplementd some with Singapore and R&S maths. The cost is cheap, and it's been researched, and the books, though written in story style, cover everything a "normal" curriculum would. THey are NOT supplement only, though some people use them that way. Can I be in your homeschool for Spanish? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaBlessedThrice Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Well, I'm relatively new--just finishing up our first year--but I can tell you what has and hasn't worked for us. I'm a former English teacher and secondary-level English textbook editor, so I feel more qualified to recommend language arts stuff than math. I'll tell you what I like and tell you why below. :) Language Arts: Spelling: The Writing Road to Reading, 5th edition by Romalda Spalding and Mary North Spell to Write and Read (based on Spalding's book) by Wanda Sanseri OR one of the other Spalding-based programs (All About Spelling, for instance--supposed to be easier to use, I've heard) Writing: Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer Grammar: Shurley Grammar Homeschool kit (we don't plan to do the writing, though) Reading: I compile lists from the "1,000 Good Books" list at classical-homeschooling.org as well as from several other resources: Honey from a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt (booklists graded by age from a Christian perspective) and ideas borrowed from the curriculum pages of web sites of member schools of the Association of Christian and Classical Schools (accsedu.org) Math Singapore Primary Mathematics (we're changing from Saxon--see below) Science God's Design series from Answers in Genesis, supplemented with "living" books on science topics (especially the "Let's Read and Find Out" series, which is great for K-3) and a good animal/plant encyclopedia (Usborne or Kingfisher) for photos Bible A Child's Story Bible by Catherine Voss (excellent--about grades K-3, I'd say) **I haven't used them, but I'm very interested when the kids are older in Memoria Press's Christian Studies--a three-year series covering Salvation history, with a Teacher's Guide. It looks serious and beautifully done. Here's the "Why": About spelling/phonics: If you'll look around, you'll see that lots of people complain that Spalding-based phonics/spelling programs are difficult to use because they're not well-organized, don't have daily lesson plans, etc. and that's TRUE, I think. As a textbook editor, SWR (which we used this year) drove me crazy. However, it's worth wading through because the research behind the Spalding method is solid. I started my kindergarten daughter in September, and she was reading cereal boxes, road signs, and anything she saw--correctly--in six weeks. She's reading at a fourth-grade level now. You continue in the spelling lists all the way through eighth-grade, though, teaching words phonetically using the marking method. It's multi-sensory, and works SO much better than the way I learned spelling: memorize the words each work by writing them ten times, with no idea WHY they were spelled one way and not another. About writing: I feel a little presumptuous to recommend a writing curriculum I've never used (!), but the reason I do is because I LOVE the philosophy/rationale behind teaching writing conventions and narration separately. When I was teaching middle/high school English, I cannot tell you how many kids I saw who had had years of paragraph writing, creative writing, reports, etc. and still struggled to write a page at all, much less express anything coherently. By the time they got to me, it was well-nigh impossible to try to remediate them in a year. Read the sample pages at PeaceHillPress.com if you're interested in learning more. I'm excited about starting this in the early years. I'm not sure what to recommend for your third-grader--I'll leave that to more experienced moms! About math: We did Saxon 1 this year since it seems to be the default choice for so many classical schools (despite the recent switch to Singapore by many). It seemed okay at first, although kind of boring. There's too much repetition; we only did one side of the worksheet and after a while cut the "meeting" part of the lesson to three times a week. Now, in April, I'm beginning to see that although my daughter is learning her math facts, she has no idea WHY 8+6=14; she just has to memorize it. If you try to give her any kind of math problem set up in any different way from how they appear on the worksheets, she's confused. She's also bored by the overkill on the repetition and the slow pace. I've been staying up nights researching (obsessing!) math curriculums and have heard that Miquon, Right Start, and Singapore are great for teaching concepts if you make sure you use something else to drill math facts (Singapore is short on review, I've read). We're starting with Singapore because it looks like the best bet for the long haul. I can't wait to start. I went back and re-taught my daughter some of her math facts using just one approach I saw on some of the Singapore sample pages, and now she understands them and can figure them out without just blind memorization or counting tally marks. About Science: I've just come to the end of a month-long research ordeal regarding what to use for science. I like the looks of Apologia, but I can tell it's over the head of my soon-to-be-first-grader, plus I don't want to go that in-depth for that long here in the early grades. I want to make sure I'm "covering" everything. I'm more or less following the WTM suggestions for a four-year science cycle, but I didn't want the burden of having to put together something on my own. (Besides, I'm not a science person and didn't trust myself to do it right.) I decided to go with the God's Design series as a "spine" because it has experiments/activities built in for each week and is easy to supplement with "living" books from the library to flesh it out with more pictures. I'm leaving out some lessons for first grade because otherwise it's just too much material, I think, for a little one. This is an obviously Christian series from a Creationist POV. This got a little long--sorry!--hope some of it is helpful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 You might want to get The Well Trained Mind 2009 edition, coming out soon. She talks a lot about grammar and writing. We like the ABEKA grammar and Rod and Staff is rigorous. It has been a great help to my dd 15 having a good English grammar background while studying Spanish. Enjoy your homeschooling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 (edited) You may be interested in teaching them syllables in both languages, that seems to me a good way to compare the phonetic structures. Webster's Speller is linked below, it starts with syllables in a syllabary (ab, eb, ib, ob, ub; ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by) then later incorporates those into multi-syllable words: ba-ker, ab-stract, bi-ble I am teaching my children Spanish, I found a program that uses syllables called "La Pata Pita" (OOP, but you can find copies) Here's how it works: "Mm: ma me mi mo mu Mamá mami mima me mÃa mi mime mÃo Mi mamá. Mami. Mamá mÃa. Amo a mamá. Pp: pa pe pi po pu Papá pipa popa papi Pepe Pepa papa Popi pÃa pie pÃo púa Mi papá. Papi. Papá mÃo. Mi papá. Mi mamá. Amo a mi papá. Amo a mi mamá." Later on it gets tougher, I'm going to have to break out my Spanish dictionary: "Jj: ja je ji jo ju Jota moja faja ojo José teja deja abajo jirafa jefe lujo ajo ajà Jirafita, el que se queja a todo aleja. No, te quejes, no des lata, rÃe y rÃe: asÃ, jirafita, te verán bonita. Jirafita rió, rÃo, no dio más lata ni se quejó La jirafita se miró en el rÃo y se quejó. –¡Qué fea soy! La vio un jabalà y le dijo: –¡Fea!" Edited April 25, 2009 by ElizabethB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Start with Real Science 4 Kids. Buy both the pre-level 1 and level 1 materials. That way you are covering generally the same material with both children but teaching each at his own level. As a former chemical engineering, RS4K Chemistry is the best curriculum I know of to teach the concepts of chemistry without requiring the advanced math knowledge. If you take this approach, you will cover some chemistry, physics, and biology, and you'll have time to figure out your longterm strategy. The other best option that I can think of is to use RS4K for your older one, and not have a curriculum for the younger one. This has some advantages. Chem, Phys, and Bio can be pretty abstract for a little one. I think that instead of those for the younger, using Magic School Bus books and reading them to her over and over would give a good grounding in a lot of areas. Also, joining a Natural History or Children's Science museum and visiting at least twice a month would be a great fit for both of them. Really spend a long time there, making sure you dig up some new material each time you visit. Then look for library books about the same topics so they can delve a little deeper. At this age, the hands-on material at a place like that can really trump little experiments at home; and a family membership is a very good value spread out over the long run if you use it in this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irizarry4 Posted April 25, 2009 Author Share Posted April 25, 2009 Elizabeth B said: "I am teaching my children Spanish, I found a program that uses syllables called "La Pata Pita" (OOP, but you can find copies) Here's how it works:" I have been looking for La Pata Pita just as a reading tool. I am familiar with it, as we used it when I was growing up. It is an expansion of what we all used to first learn to read: "La Cartilla Fonética", which is Spanish Phonics (which by the way are much more straightforward than English phonics!! ha, ha). Where did you find Pata Pita books? Ivette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAberlin Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 If you google it several options come up. I found this for the cartilla one http://www.bilingualjourney.com/carfon.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessedmother Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 I really like Apologia! I think the Astronomy book is a great one to start with and then maybe Flying Creatures of the 5th day next. Jeannie Fulbright offers free notebooking pages on her site and on the Apologia site for the books. However, she is in the process of producing notebooking journals for her books. Astronomy has already been released and the others will be released this summer. The journals include notebooking pages, crossword puzzles, mini-books to make, etc. You can see samples of it on Apologia's website. FYI she is publishing an Anatomy book this summer and then next year Physics/Chemistry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted April 25, 2009 Share Posted April 25, 2009 Elizabeth B said: "I am teaching my children Spanish, I found a program that uses syllables called "La Pata Pita" (OOP, but you can find copies) Here's how it works:" I have been looking for La Pata Pita just as a reading tool. I am familiar with it, as we used it when I was growing up. It is an expansion of what we all used to first learn to read: "La Cartilla Fonética", which is Spanish Phonics (which by the way are much more straightforward than English phonics!! ha, ha). Where did you find Pata Pita books? Ivette Alibris. There is only one copy for sale right now, and it's $20. There's a "La Pata Pita Vuelve" for $9.80. My La Pata Pita was cheaper, there were several copies available when I looked. Spanish Phonics are more straightforward! :) But, Webster's Speller does do a good job of making English phonics more understandable. He taught school for a while and wrote a dictionary, that gives him a great background to write a reading/spelling book, which is how Spellers were used--to teach reading and spelling. I've used Webster's with my daughter and with several remedial students with great success. I had 2 remedial students who were ESL but very fluent English speakers, they had been speaking English in school since preschool, Webster's Speller was especially helpful for them, they had a bit of trouble sounding out multi-syllable words with the proper accent. In Webster's Speller, the words are arranged by accent pattern. After reading through several lines of words with the same stress pattern, they would start to get it and started pronouncing them correctly. I had no idea how accent dependent English was until I started using Webster's Speller--and I had been tutoring with phonics for 14 years before I started using Webster's Speller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.