choosing curriculum Archives - Growing In Grace

The 2014-15 Curriculum Reveal

June 20, 2014Tracy6 Comments

Disclaimer: This post contains one affiliate link, which means that if you make a purchase through that link, I get a small compensation. You can read more in my disclosure.

So, I’ve been busy. Plotting, planning, scheming, conniving, imagining, dreaming, wishing, purchasing, drooling, planning some more, etc. Many of you can probably relate. And I’m finally—FINALLY—ready to share next year’s vision.

Are you ready for this reveal?

Here it is: our 2014-2015 School Year, in all it’s glory!

Tot Time

For my toddler, I’m mostly keeping him occupied. But I did pick up this super easy and cute activity book that I happened to notice at the A Beka Materials Display in our area.

Nursery Arts and Crafts

I loved that the activities were pretty easy, AND they were organized by week. Glory! Which made them very easy to file into my weekly file folder system. He’ll do 2 to 3 of these activities a week. And I’ll probably recruit Middlest to help him with what he can’t manage on his own.

First Grade

Middlest is entering first grade. I can’t believe it! Her curriculum is pretty simple.

Foundations C (Logic of English)

A Beka Arithmetic 1

When she finishes her phonics book, which she will probably do pretty quickly based on her progress this last year, I’ll either have her begin Writing with Ease or English for the Thoughtful Child.* (See my notes on this below)

Third Grade

The bulk of my time has been spent on researching third grade books. Oh, my goodness, the hours I spent on this! But I am happy with the results.

CLE Math 300 series

I’m switching from A Beka to Christian Light this next year. We did a trial run with a couple of the 2nd grade math books from this company, and we both loved it. My primary reason for switching was that I needed a curriculum less teacher-dependent. Even though many use A Beka as a student-led curriculum, it isn’t designed to be used that way, and I could foresee problems with that. What I loved about CLE is that it is very much like A Beka in content (it’s still very challenging), and yet it is designed for independence. The teaching instruction is included right in the student’s book. Oldest loved this, too. He always found the A Beka explanations to be too brief and confusing. As an added bonus, CLE is strong in geometry and critical thinking, two areas I always felt we were a little behind in with A Beka.

Visual Latin I (lessons 1-12)

Winston Grammar

A Beka 3rd Grade Cursive Writing Skillbook

English for the Thoughtful Child*

This link is not actually to EFTC book, because I found an older ebook version of the same text. It’s dated and not in textbook format, but I love the style. Not to mention, I love FREE! The name of this is actually Lessons in the Use of English. We started using this at the end of this year, just so I could see if I was going to like it. And I totally do.

I also picked up the A Beka cursive book. This is a huge surprise for me because I have NEVER liked A Beka handwriting. But when I saw this book, it was everything I wanted to accomplish with our Charlotte Mason-style copywork, already done for me! This is a really amazing book. Short excerpts from historical documents; character traits, quotations, Bible verses; state information; short science sentences with an animal glossary to teach alphabetical order—it was a dream come true. And Oldest is stoked. He wanted to begin this summer, but I’m being mean and making him wait.

Combined Studies

We always have several subjects that we do all together. To help myself, I’ve divided all of our subjects into subjects of Discipline (math, grammar and usage, foreign language) and subjects of Inspiration. The Discipline subjects are grade-specific; but our Inspiration subjects are more relaxed and inclusive. They include history, science, art, music, poetry, reading, etc.

Tapestry of Grace, Year 3 (lower grammar and upper grammar)

Activity Supplements include Time Traveler pak Early 19th Century, Draw through History: Napoleon, and History Pockets Civil War.

Kinderbach Level 2

See the Light Art Class (affiliate link)

Artist Study: Frederick Remington and Winslow Homer

Ecology and Biomes (various library books and memory work from the Classical Conversations apps 1 & 2)

That’s our year in a nutshell. It’s always so exciting to start putting the pieces together and seeing the plan unfold. And I’m unfolding it a little differently this year, truly customizing Tapestry to the max. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Disclaimer: This post contains one affiliate link, which means that if you make a purchase through that link, I get a small compensation. You can read more in my disclosure.

Implementing Charlotte Mason, baby steps

April 9, 2014Tracy

We’re applying Charlotte Mason in our homeschool these days, implementing some of the methods in baby steps. And since I’ve waxed super philosophical lately, I thought I’d take a break for some practical thoughts today.

The nice thing about CM is that it is a method not a curriculum, so I’m really not making huge curriculum changes mid-year. I’m using all the same materials; I’m just using them differently.

Short Lessons

I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but this has been #1 on my list of changes. In order to require strict attention to lessons, short lessons are recommended, before your child’s attention is lost. What does this look like?

We still do A Beka Math. We still do Logic of English (Foundations B for Middlest, Essentials for Oldest). We still do Tapestry of Grace. However, I’m making intentional decisions to keep each individual lesson no longer than 15-20 minutes. For some of our Tapestry reading, that means that we may come back in an hour to read some more, but my kids get the brain breaks they need. For some Essentials lessons, that means it may take us more than a week to get through a single lesson. That’s okay. He’ll actually learn more by doing less.

Copy Work

We’ve started doing copy work lessons 3-4 times a week. Copy work reinforces good handwriting, spelling, and mechanics as the kids copy passages from quality books. What does this look like?

Well, for Middlest I cheat and actually have her writing the sentence that is a part of her Foundations lesson. It’s a start, and she is only kindergarten after all. For Oldest, I downloaded the free copy work lessons from the AmblesideOnline yahoo group. Even though he’s technically 2nd grade, we are just starting copy work, so I have him copying from Book 1. The passages he’s copying are from a favorite book of his that we read earlier in the year; he loves it. And on the days we are not doing copy work, I let him illustrate his copy work page. It’s a win for both of us.

This takes us 5-10 minutes. That’s all! I know some kids may take longer to write, but I was blown away by how little time it really took us to implement some of these things.

Living Books

I’m much pickier about our books, even our “Tapestry” book selections. I’ve seen the difference between fact-filled books (even the ones with all the cool pictures—think Usborne and DK Eyewitness) and really, truly living books—books that have a storyline and an enthusiastic author, books that make the facts come alive with people and narrative and ideas. What does this look like?

I double-check my book selections through the SimplyCharlotteMason.com bookfinder. If it’s not on that site, I find an Amazon preview and read a few pages. I’m getting better at detecting the good stuff. And IF I get a book from the library that is not living, it’s only for the pictures. The kids can look through those pictures while I read the living books. The difference is that my son tries to steal these books to read on his own; he devours them. The other kinds of books sit on my shelves, unless someone’s in the mood for pictures.

Narration

I’ll probably delve into this a little further in future posts; it’s a huge part of both classical and CM, though the technique is a little different in each method. For the Susan Wise-Bauer method, you ask specific questions to elicit a specific answer. You’ve chosen the key ideas you want your child to retain. With the CM method, the child retells the story back to you. He does the mental work of remembering, of selecting the points that resonated with him, of putting that information in order. It is the process of composition, but it occurs in the child’s head. What has this looked like?

I’ll be frank—Oldest has resisted this a little. The open-endedness scares him because he’s used to giving me what I want. That, and he’s not much for change. But I’m sold on this aspect of the CM methods; I totally see the value, especially as preparation for composition later on. So I’ve mentioned the value of what he’s doing to him, and then reassured him. The reassurance is gradually drawing him out. And I’ve been creative with how we do it. Sometimes, he retells. Other times, I’ve let them draw pictures or act out the stories. And though I have not required anything from Middlest (because she’s only 5), she has whole-heartedly jumped on board with it.

That’s it. That’s all we’ve changed right now to make CM a part of our homeschool. It’s nothing scary, nothing drastic or expensive or traumatic. But it has been revolutionary. I can sense it changing not just how we do things, but who we are. And I love it! I feel like a caged bird set free.

A Year in Review

May 3, 2013Tracy

How do you evaluate a year? How do you look back on 180+ days, 36 weeks, and determine if it’s worth repeating?

I’ve been asking myself those same questions as I reflect back on our year. I know almost intuitively what went well and what didn’t. But my struggle has been how to articulate what is almost a gut-feeling. What do you ask to know if a subject or curriculum got a passing grade?

Is failure the only indicator?

Boy, that’s tough. Sometimes things are a clear FAIL. Your child isn’t learning; you hate teaching it; the lessons are a nightmarish struggle.

But sometimes, the answer isn’t as obvious. Sometimes FAIL isn’t stamped at the top in big red letters. Maybe all seemed to go well on the surface, but perhaps your kids didn’t learn as well as you had hoped. No terrible struggles, no tears, no apparent problems, but it just didn’t match your vision. Maybe there was some struggle, but nothing that would appear terribly abnormal. After all, we all have areas where we struggle. Do you switch curriculum or give it another go?

The answer can only come if you have a clear vision. What are your goals for your homeschool, for your year, for your child, for each subject? You’ll have no idea if you missed the mark without a mark to aim for.

From experience, the answer could go either way. We struggled terribly with Kindergarten math. My son fought and struggled to understand every new concept. Mid-year, he confessed as a kindergartener that he hated math. I made some mid-year changes to how I taught our existing curriculum, and we survived. He even managed to like math again, but I was burned out and ready to try a new program. My husband encouraged me to give it one more year, and he was right. This year was totally different. The program was much more organized and consistent, the changes we had made the year before were already in place at the start of first grade, and the year went very smoothly. It was the right decision to stick it out.

On the other hand, I’ve had an unsettled feeling about our kids’ current language program all year. No obvious problems or huge struggles. My son didn’t learn some things as well as I would have liked; my daughter had some melt-downs, but nothing extremely alarming. Then, the Lord brought along an answer I really didn’t even know I was looking for. We are switching programs, even without a clear FAIL. And I’m confident that the new program for next year will be an absolute success.

Bottom line, know what “FAIL” really means for you.

Is success the greatest aim?

Great question. And it all comes down to how you define success. Is it acing the standardized test? Is it a thrill for learning and discovery? Is it character-lessons and godly living? What is success?

I can’t know that we have had a successful year until I know the answer to these questions. For us, I had a vision of teaching the Bible within the context of history, of teaching geography that brought a greater understanding of the Old and New Testament, of tying in all of our learning within this framework.

So was this year a success? In some ways, absolutely! In a few places, not quite. But because I know what my vision is and what success would be, I’m prepared to make the adjustments for next year.

Need a little more direction? Download this FREE evaluating sheet to take a more in-depth look at your curriculum choices.

Coveting Curriculum

April 19, 2012Tracy

I read a post awhile back that was really convicting. It challenged me to realize that just because I can resist impulse buying doesn’t mean I haven’t coveted. Sometimes, covetousness lurks in our minds and hearts, a desire waiting for the right opportunity to be fulfilled.

And I’ll tell you where I’m most guilty—not in shoes or clothes or bags or even jewelry, though occasionally something might catch my fancy. Truthfully, my greatest temptation is school curriculum. As a matter of fact, let’s broaden that to anything education-related. A new catalog, a sale email, a link in a blog post—suddenly I’m ushered into a realm of utter delight and ecstasy, running my mouse over the virtual image in nothing less than desire and covetousness.

I don’t click “finalize order.” I don’t always “add to cart.” Sometimes, I can even resist the “add to wishlist” button. But I dream. Read more…