The END--Our First Year Homeschooling--how'd it go?
I have droned on and on about our homeschooling experience this past school year so now it's time to put down on "paper" what we'll be doing next year! I'm really excited for next year. 1) I feel I have a much better idea as to what is/isn't working for our family and 2) I really enjoy teaching Cora! Also, Ben will begin preschool and be gone in the morning 3 days a week, and Rebekah will be older and hopefully more entertained with paper and crayons! We shall see...I'm sure I'll have more to say on that LATER!
One thing I have learned is there is really no ONE curriculum that covers every single subject you need. There are a few that will provide every subject for you, but they tend to be quite pricy and they're just pulling from other resources anyway. It's taken time to look at and research what we wanted to use. If you're new at this I would suggest reading Cathy Duffy's description of the different approaches to homeschooling. Just looking at those different approaches will give you a good idea as to what model will work best for your family and then you can see what kind of curriculums fit that model. Anyway, here's what I plan for our year to look like starting in September.
AOP publishes 4 different curriculums, and we'll be using Horizons. We'll be doing the following subjects from Horizons: math, penmanship, phonics/reading and spelling/vocabulary. Horizons also has electives for different grades, health being one of them for 1st, but we're not going to take that on just yet!
I have started using the K reading program for Cora, and she LOVES it!!! It's full of color and pictures, and she really seems to respond well to that. And, right now, they incorporate the Bible into the lessons, though I don't feel like "it's in your face." I'm looking forward to adding the other subjects for 1st grade!
We'll be using TOG for all of the humanities subjects: history, writing, geography, literature, church history, government, philosophy, and arts. TOG was recommended to me by 2 different friends and so I thought I better check it out! Both had used it for several years and loved it. TOG is quite involved. However, what I like about it is that it is easy to use for when you have several children all at different grades. It's laid out in such a way that part of the lessons you do as a family and then there are separate age-appropriate activities/assignments for each child.
They've also developed their Primer, which is what we'll be using this next year. It is a snapshot of all 4 cycles of the "normal" TOG curriculum. It's designed for new homeschool families, specifically ones who have a younger learner. After talking to one their people at their exhibit booth I knew this was for us, and the Primer would be perfect. Instead of intensely learning about ancient history for a year we'll learn all of history for the year. Less intense and will get our feet wet for what's to come! We also really like how the Bible is incorporated in the whole thing. It's important for our children to see that God is intertwined throughout history and is just as relevant now as he was "back then." I'm most excited to start this! Plus, the weekly/daily lesson plans are very well laid out and that spoke to me!
I have to admit that doing science has been quite overwhelming for me to think about. I always loved science as a child so it's exciting to think about teaching it, but also I feel most lost here. I had no idea where to even look or how to even look for a good science program. Thankfully, while at the homeschool convention I found something! NOEO Science by Logos Press. I was so impressed by it! It's split up into 3 levels--level 1 being grades 1-3; level 2 is grades 4-6; and level 3 is grades 7-8. Each level does biology, chemistry and physics. We're going to start with biology for Cora and go from there! I'm excited to be teaching/learning all about weather, plants and animals with her. I think it's going to be so much fun!!!
So, there you have it! It's our "best-laid plan" so you can only imagine what that means! I'm sure we'll make adjustments and changes throughout the school year, but for now, we have a good starting point! Oh, when February comes around remind me of this post so I'll look back and remember that I WAS/AM excited to be teaching Cora!
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