Curriculum Archives - Page 2 of 5

Seventh Grade Homeschool Curriculum for a Classical Charlotte Mason education

August 15, 2018Tracy

My young seventh grader is highly motivated with exceptional language skills. He thrives on challenge and uses his ADHD firing-on-all-cylinders brain to explore a variety of subjects and interests. Last year, he tackled Latin, Greek, and Spanish completely of his own volition. He loves to code on Scratch, play guitar, build in woodshop, write novels, and read voraciously. Choosing his seventh grade homeschool curriculum is always fun because he always so enthusiastic.

Fifth Grade Homeschool Curriculum for ADHD and Dyslexia

August 14, 2018Tracy

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from homeschooling dyslexia is to teach my child, not a grade level or a curriculum. I’m learning to just do the next thing, regardless of what the level is or what the number on the cover of the book says. I look closely at what my daughter is capable of, what the scope and sequence charts recommend, and what the table of contents show. Yes, I may look at a placement test, but the fact is my daughter doesn’t always test well. So these aren’t 100% accurate either. I have to do my research. But the result is a fifth grade homeschool curriculum that challenges her appropriately while inspiring her and instilling her with confidence that she CAN do it.

Our fifth grade homeschool curriculum for her is a mix of resources ranging from 3rd grade in some areas to 4th/5th grade in others, a customized learning plan for her success. And we are excited about it.

Our Classical-Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum for ADHD & Dyslexia

August 13, 2018Tracy

Creating a curriculum plan to fit my wild spectrum of learning needs plus the educational values and goals that we believe in can be quite an enormous undertaking, and one I’m constantly evaluating. I believe our family’s ADHD and dyslexia is a gift, not just a struggle, giving my kids unique strengths and perspectives. Can a dyslexic child pursue a literature-rich education? Absolutely! But I can’t force it to look like everyone else’s. Can a child with ADHD handle the rigors of a classical education? Absolutely! The discipline teaches some great skills to my kids with executive function challenges, but it also has to accommodate their creativity and need to move—energy under control. A Classical-Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum is the perfect combination for our ADHD/dyslexia family.

Classically, we’ll be studying the same time period together this year as part of our four year rotation (Early Modern: Colonial to Pioneers). While my oldest delves deeply into the logic stage, I’ll be keeping my fifth grader at the grammar stage, continuing to lay foundations for her and allowing her to make connections at her own pace. Here’s what our Classical-Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum looks like at each level.

First Grade Homeschool Curriculum for a struggling starter

August 13, 2018Tracy

My first grader is an active guy who loves nature study and the outdoors. And while he loves listening to a story, reading on his own has been quite a struggle. Remembering letter sounds and sequencing those sounds has been a challenge, and his writing skills were such a painful struggle last year. In the back of my mind, I’m wondering about dyslexia and/or dysgraphia, since it runs in our family. But I’m waiting to see how much is just developmental. After all, even if I knew for sure, there wouldn’t be anything in my current approach that I would change.

I’m customizing his reading and writing curriculum to match his struggle. I’m using the resources and strategies that helped his sister with her dyslexia challenges, and I’m making adjustments to fit his needs and his pace rather than strictly adhering to grade level. All the screenings for him have indicated an elevated risk for dyslexia but not profoundly so. It’s going to be a year of just doing the next thing and seeing what happens. Our first grade homeschool curriculum choices reflect this struggling start and the tension between his strengths and his weaknesses.

Our Top 5 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites of 2017-18

June 4, 2018Tracy

Do you ever feel as though you’ve hit a wall in your homeschool? Have you ever had to go back to the drawing board on just about every homeschool curriculum decision you’ve made? This past year has been one of those years for me. Even long-standing favorites that I’ve used forever ground to a shocking halt. Over and over again, I found myself back to the drawing board to research new homeschool curriculum. But all of those homeschool challenges and upsets led us to several of our new homeschool curriculum favorites, resources that both my kids and I have loved.

Our Top 5 Homeschool Curriculum Favorites for 2017-18 school year

When is it time to change your homeschool curriculum? 5 ways to know

April 23, 2018Tracy

For six years, I’ve used the same core homeschool curriculum with my three kids. For six years, I’ve loved it, promoted it, recommended it, and blogged about it. Then this year, we hit a wall. Navigating my daughter’s dyslexia, increasing demands on my time, adding another child to the mix of homeschooling multiple ages, graduating my son to a higher level of learning within that curriculum—there was a perfect storm of reasons. But bottom line, what has worked for so long absolutely wasn’t working any longer. I dreaded even opening the lesson plans, much less planning the weekly assignments. My son was in tears over the reading. I was constantly overhauling the curriculum to make it work. And we were all tired.

I’m extremely loyal by nature, so leaving a homeschool curriculum I had used for so long felt a little bit like betrayal, like giving up on a relationship. Even looking at other curriculum options felt a little bit like cheating. Saying goodbye was bitter sweet.

But when I finally made the leap, closed that curriculum for the final time, and made the next purchase, there was a huge sense of relief. For all of us! I hadn’t realized just how heavy and burdened we’d all felt by plodding through a curriculum that was no longer working. The difference was night and day. My kids enthusiasm spiked, and my relief quickly converted into increased energy and enthusiasm as well. As hard as it was to break up with our homeschool curriculum, it was definitely time.

5 ways to know it’s time to change your homeschool curriculum

When the homeschool curriculum is failing you—even after adjustments

It’s not uncommon to run into some issues with even the best curriculum. Making regular adjustments is a part of the normal homeschool routine. But when you can’t find success, no matter how many adjustments you’ve made, it’s probably time to look for a new homeschool curriculum. I’ve made adjustments with our curriculum before and found a method we had all loved. But this year, no matter how many times I made adjustments, there just was no good solution.

When planning and using the homeschool curriculum fills you with dread

Homeschooling is hard. There’s no way around that reality. It’s hard work. It’s a full-time job. And just like any other job, there are going to be days and maybe even weeks when you just don’t feel like doing it. That’s normal. But when opening up that curriculum becomes something you hate and dread day in and day out, when it robs you of your joy and enthusiasm for learning and teaching your children, it’s time for something different. We cannot inspire our kids to love learning if we hate it. And our kids will ultimately pick up on our sour attitudes if we continue with something we hate. That doesn’t even mean that there is something wrong with the curriculum, but different methods and curriculum options work better with certain personalities and at certain stages of life. Find something that gets you excited about learning again.

When everyone begins to hate learning

We can all get into a rut. Especially around January and February, there is a period of homeschooling blues we all tend to go through. But when you and your child(ren) both hate and dread each day, it’s time for a change. Maybe it’s just time for a change of scenery or pace, but sometimes it’s time for drastic changes. What does this look like? When something you’ve loved becomes something you hate, it might be time to change homeschool curriculum. For instance, when my son, who is an avid reader, was coming to me in tears about the content of what he was reading, I knew something needed to change. When planning (something I usually enjoy) was becoming something I dreaded each week, I knew something needed to change. When we all dreaded the start of a new week, I knew something was wrong. I’d tried my usual tactics of making minor changes, but in my gut I knew we needed to say good-bye to our homeschool curriculum and try something new.

When you constantly feel like you are failing

I think we all battle “failure syndrome” to some extent. Life is hard. Parenting is hard. Homeschooling is hard. It’s not unusual to feel like I’m failing at something. But when I feel this way, I’ve learned to take a step back and ask: is there a tool I’m using right now that’s failing me? If I’m preparing a meal and I can’t get the knife to cut through my meat, I don’t instantly assume I’m terrible at cutting meat; I sharpen my knife. As a homeschool parent, we have to approach this feeling of failure the same way. I feel like I’m failing because this curriculum is setting me up to fail. For me, that feeling of failure came because I could no longer devote the hours of prep work it took to make the curriculum a success. Because I didn’t have the time to do it right, there was this constant feeling that I was missing things and leaving things out (because I was). I just couldn’t navigate the 50-80 pages of teacher notes each week to pull things together properly. It was time for a change.

When your homeschool curriculum no longer helps you to achieve your goals

Knowing what you are wanting to accomplish with your homeschooling, what your ultimate goals are, helps you to evaluate when something is no longer moving you toward that goal. If your overall goal is to inspire a love for learning—and your kids are hating school—it’s time for a change. If your overall goal is to build character and values through each subject—and your curriculum is presenting a worldview that doesn’t support your own—it’s time for a change. If your overall homeschool goal is college and career—and your child is scoring poorly on assessments—it might be time for a change. We all have different goals, and our goals may change. But the tools that we use within our homeschool should be moving us toward the goals we have set. Curriculum is a tool, not a master. If your homeschool curriculum tool is no longer working, it’s time for a change.

Breaking up with our Homeschool Curriculum

I love Tapestry of Grace and the years of fond memories we’ve had using this curriculum. But for us, it was time for a change. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been using Heart of Dakota as a family, and it’s been such a relief. We love our guides. I love the Charlotte Mason style, the Christian values, and the clear lesson plans already laid out for me. My kids love the books, the projects, and having all the directions included in their daily assignments. Opening our guides each week to discover what’s next is a joy, and I’m no longer spending all my free time trying to plan the next lesson. Deciding to change our homeschool curriculum wasn’t easy, but using a tool that was no longer working wasn’t easy either.

Sometimes, breaking up with your homeschool curriculum can be the best thing you do for your homeschool.

Our Homeschool Curriculum for kindergarten

July 3, 2017Tracy

These young years are the best! I love all the hands-on games and manipulatives and dry-erase activities and stickers. My littlest is in kindergarten this year. Because there is so much available for free or for very cheap at this level (both online and at the local dollar store), I keep our homeschool curriculum for kindergarten pretty simple for the most part, with a few fun surprises sprinkled in. Phonics and math are our priority, while the other subjects he is enjoying simply because of the whole-family learning approach we take to those subjects.

Our Homeschool Curriculum for Kindergarten

Logic of English Foundations A and B
~~Math Mammoth 1a,~~ RightStart Math Level A
Star Wars Math K and 1st grade
Tapestry of Grace, Yr. 2 (Lower Grammar)
Science books and games (animals and the human body)

History and Geography

As I’ve mentioned in my other curriculum posts for 4th grade and 6th grade, we use Tapestry of Grace as our core for history, Bible and worldview, literature and writing. I love using Tapestry for whole family learning, and my youngest is enjoying this opportunity because my older kids are using the curriculum. The fun thing about whole family learning is that my youngest is already used to being part of our routine. Last year, he listened to our read-alouds, completed his own notebooking crafts, and made his own display board. He was right in the middle of all of it, and he has no expectation that it should be any different. So this year as he enters kindergarten, the only difference will be that he is more aware of what we are studying and more capable of completing the projects on his own. And he’ll have his own portfolio to show off at our unit parties.

While my older kids use a lot of the projects from Homeschool-in-the-Woods and History Pockets, my kindergartener will be using more of the Story of the World activities from the pdf I purchased four years ago when my older kids were little. Oh, and he’ll have some cool Usborne sticker books that have the older kids envious.

Littlest will also be tagging along in our Visualize World Geography curriculum, learning countries from around the world through stories and pictography. One thing I’ve learned over the years is to never underestimate my kids. As a preschooler, he learned his continents and could locate the pyramids and the Ishtar Gate on his Vtech globe we picked up from a thrift store. He fully intends to hang with the older ones during geography time this next year.

Phonics

I loved using Logic of English Foundations for my daughter. It was key in helping her work through her dyslexia challenges and learn to read. With my littlest, I knew right away I’d be using this curriculum again. I love it! Solid phonics—the best I’ve seen—and lots of fun kinesthetic activities to make learning to read busy, active, and fun. One of the greatest challenges of teaching busy young kiddos to read is having them sit still long enough to read the book or list of words. But Logic of English Foundations is very good at incorporating games throughout the curriculum that has my kids running the stairs to read a word, going on a “word hunt” around the house to find strips of paper to read, playing phonogram bingo, and tons of other engaging activities.

We started Foundations A toward the end of this last year, so we’ll be wrapping up Level A and completing Level B for kindergarten. While he is not reading yet, all of the tools and skills are in place. He understands sounds and blending. He’s just a step or two away from putting those skills together to read.

Math

My littlest loves math. He devours it. While I intended to take our time through preschool math, he took off. Consequently, he’s got a good head start on kindergarten math skills. I’ve chosen to start him with Math Mammoth 1. While it is technically first grade, it starts slowly enough that I think he will do just fine. Plus it will continue to challenge him throughout this next year. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’d be done with kindergarten math by November. Another perk is that I already own this curriculum as a pdf, so it costs me nothing right now to have both my fourth grader and my first grader working through this curriculum.

$homeschool curriculum for kindergarten | math mammoth$

As a bonus, I’ll also have some Star Wars Math on hand for him. Last year, he bought the Star Wars preschool math from Barnes and Noble with his own money, and worked the entire book in about a week. I’m telling you, this child consumes math!

UPDATE: While we did quite a bit in Math Mammoth 1 A, we did end up switching to RightStart Math.

Science

At this stage, I’m pretty laid back about science. My plan is to read fun science books together, either from our own personal library or from the public library, and then play science board games with his older sister. I picked up SomeBody game for our anatomy unit and Hit the Habitat Trail board game for our animal science unit.

My little guy is raring to go. He simply cannot wait for kindergarten. And the more I organize his homeschool curriculum for kindergarten—and counting bears, cuisenaire rods, sticker books, and phonogram tiles—I can’t wait either.

**Updated in June 2008 to reflect curriculum changes made during the year.**

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