Evaluating Curriculum: Our year so far

Once things got rolling we revamped some of our curriculum choices.

Reading:

We had PLANNED to use books from Sonlight and Veritas Press reading lists and use reading cup questions (an idea from a fellow homeschooling family) and use Reading Strands.

IN REALITY, I pick books that look interesting for Autumn by subject matter or level or she asks for certain books and then she reads them. With MANY of them (all but the last two actually) we found a website with free quizzes for children’s books. I figure if she can tell me about what she’s reading and do well on a quiz after the book is done, we’re good to go. I know we could be doing more and have considered “Beyond Five in a Row” but it seems like overkill since it’s meant to be a unit-study covering all subjects but math. We already cover all subjects. I tried (for a day) to use it anyway with something she was reading and just use the parts that didn’t interfere with our other subject work or that seemed interesting and fun. I believe with more preparation on my part, it would be a useful addition to our curriculum.

Spelling:

We had PLANNED to choose words from 1st grade spelling lists and her weekly writing. Write three times by: three mediums, rainbow writing, and using in a sentence. Test weekly.

IN REALITY we did this for about a month. After that I decided she would learn from what she was reading and when she made mistakes in her writing work, we would review the misspelled words, looking them up if need be, or reviewing phonics rules if applicable. I like this approach a lot more. I think it sticks with her better.

Writing:

We had PLANNED to do Writing Strands 2. I had high hopes for this program but felt it was a little beyond her. Maybe we can give it another go next year. IN REALITY, we went with a free Scott Foresman Writing & Grammar workbook for her grade. I think she’s learning although so far, writing isn’t her favorite activity. She loves math and science. (Hmmm…is that a reflection of the way I’m teaching? I hope I’m being more evenly spread than that…but I do love math and science myself.)

Math:

We PLANNED and IN REALITY are doing Saxon Math 1. This is going well. It seems to be very easy for her. I’m not sure she’s challenged, but she enjoys it and I don’t want to do more than one lesson a day.

German:

We PLANNED to do German with Rosetta Stone. IN REALITY, we are succeeding but need to be more consistent. We had about a month where we did it very consistently. Now, it’s been about a month since she’s done it.

For Heidi, I PLANNED to do Kindergarten (and this would be a year early) but IN REALITY, it was all I could do to do school with Autumn. I’m not sure how much of that can be attributed to me being pregnant. Obviously next year school for Heidi will not be optional. That alone will mean it WILL get done. I also had a very detailed plan for Autumn from the beginning but didn’t start thinking about what to do with Heidi until later. I think that influenced things as well.

Next year, I'd like improve on these things:

• Reading: Make sure beforehand that the books we've chosen have online activities or quizzes. Use "Beyond Five in a Row" to supplement or look into another curriculum. Notes for Heidi: Read with her more, allow less TV (this goes for Autumn too).
• Language & Writing: I feel like the writing workbook I've been using with Autumn has kept her on grade level, but all the same I think it's too simplistic. I'd like to find something else. I'm a little hopeful that we can use Writing Strands again - but I'm skeptical because I think the issue we had before was not so much that it was beyond her, but that it didn't do things in her style. I'd like to find a happy medium. I have friends that have used "First Language Lessons for the Well-trained Mind" but it sounds crazy with them having to repeat things to you x amount of times per day. I'll need to research this. Notes for Heidi: Work on penmanship with Zaner Bloser worksheets from first-school webpage. Find a writing program that will also help. Consider selling Writing Strands.
• Math: Look for inexpensive or household manipulatives. Get more thin dry-erase markers and in typical rainbow colors. Scan assessment pages & print so that we can actually write on them - or record their scores in my book. Preview each week of work to see what the teacher's manual suggests in the way of scripts.
• German: Be more consistent. (It will help when Rosetta is back on my computer.)
• General Note: Do a circle time where we can work on scriptures to memorize, songs they're learning in primary, educational songs, and scripture reader (when history sequence calls for it).
• Science: Print out pages provided by Noeo and add them to their notebooks. Use three-prong folders with looseleaf paper for science notebooks this time. Prep for science experiments. We have LOVED the Noeo program. We did not buy the science experiment kits and instead supplemented with our own from online or Janice VanCleave's books and that has been a much better option. I found many of the books inexpensively on Amazon. Others we will check out from the library.