Just Rambling

Yesterday we had a curriculum browse with our homeschool group. It was good to be able to see in real life some of the programs I had been hearing about online. For example "Rod and Staff" grammar. Although we're not using it this year, I got to preview it and I think it will work for us.

For one of the first times I'm very settled in our curriculum. I don't feel like changing anything. Usually I get ancy and unsure at these browsings because something is just not fitting right. I think we have found what works for us. That makes me really happy.

Today we will be going to Tiny Town, Colorado. It should be lots of fun. It's in the mountains so it will be a tad cool. It's cool here now. I think we got a good rain last night. Again, another day without watering or the cooler. Yay!

We've been so off this week as far as scheduling. I think that's been the blessing of the blogroll. It kind of keeps you accountable, for those who need to be kept accountable, like myself. LOL. I was just checking out some of the blogs last night. I love to catch a glimpse into other families and "see" how they are using the program and what their school days look like. We'll be back to a more solid schedule next week as we have a pretty laid back week socially. We need to get back to our schedule, though, before it goes out the door.

Another Sick Day :(

Another sick day finds me perusing the Internet. One forum of interest a fellow hs'ing friend turned me on to is The Well Trained Mind Fourms. One of the thread asks "Do You Have the Fall Planned Out." This kind of made me giggle because I feel like we're just getting into the groove with things for this year. :P Rest assured, my child isn't studying the greater mysteries of Scooby Doo. Between trying to figure out his learning style and battling off Urgent Care viruses, we're actually progressing along somehow.

So, just for kicks & giggles, I thought I'd try to see what we would do for next year and it looks a little something like this:

History/Geography Okay, we're going a little against the grain and not doing Story of the World this year. I wanted to teach C a little something about American History, so we've been playing with that. Next year, I thought I might explore Winter Promise's American History II, but when I looked it over I got irritated (as I do with most boxed curriculum) and figured I would do it myself. So, there we are. As for Geography, I'm still wrestling with that one. I like the Map Skills for Today http://rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?sid=1204660050-1880730&subject=&id=003716 workbooks. So, we'll probably do something like that.

Math We have been doing Math U See. C has been flying through the last half this year. So, I figured we'd grab a Singapore Math 1A book & see how that works for us.

Language Arts I just ordered First Language Lessons for this years studies of grammar. We're doing Explode the Code and Spelling Workout as well. C is doing very well with this method, so I don't know if I'll mess w. it, although I did buy Learning Language Arts through Literature Red intended for next year. He's independently reading books now with great comprehension & we'll just move that up a notch.

Handwriting I'm not stressing on this too much. I'm hearing that a lot of kiddos his age & learning style have difficulty w. handwriting. His is not bad, but not John Hancock, either. I'll give it another year before adding cursive.

Science Noeo, still. We love it. Also, interest led Science is still going strong here.

So, there's C's schedule. We'll start Before Five in a Row w. I. Maybe with Ordinary Parents Guide for teaching her reading & Handwriting without Tears for Handwriting. She keeps herself busy with Kumon books for the interim.

The anti-curriculum

Okay, maybe not really, but it's getting pretty close to that. We have moved on from My Father's World. It's been sold and it's quite liberating, actually. After getting only about 1/8 through Exploring American History, I felt a bit ill. It seemed far too ethnocentric for my taste. So, after much thought and discussion with others, I've given up on using one set curriculum for our homeschooling. We are still using Math U See and Story of the World. But for the most part we are reading A LOT of books. They like it, I like it, we're learning, it's all good.

One of our favorites as of late is God's Paintbrush. It's very inclusive of all Christian and Jewish faiths and asks really enlightening questions about how do we think God feels about certain situations. Of course no one can answer those questions completely, but it's good to spark conversation with children about God.

Another of our favorite books thus far are the Anansi books. We've recently read Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock. The children LOVE it. It's such a pleasure to have them ask you to read a book over and over.

We are loosely following a list of classical literature books. Cristian has always enjoyed Beatrix Potter, to name just one. Also, he is reading the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel, and he gets a kick out of them.

For science we are just doing our own thing. Wow, that's fun! Cristian is deeply interested in science, so we just kind of let him lead us. Right now, it's rocks and minerals.

So, that's a summary of our path thus far this year. I'm sure I'll be blogging more as to our progress and changes/challenges.