When I was pg with JM, way back over a decade ago, I had never heard of homeschooling...but well, really I had. See there were 2 kids who were "taught by Mom at home" during my high school years. But, they were kind of "weird." Then, right after JM was born, someone on the parenting forum I was on mentioned homeschooling.
I looked into it, and thought it sounded interesting. I mentioned it to Dh, and he thought it was weird. I shelved the idea for 3 years, but I would read anything that I came across online when I stumbled upon it. When JM was finally ready for pre-school, I mentioned it to Dh again because I could see that JM was not going to exactly thrive in a traditional school environment. Dh had a "compromise" for me.
I enroll JM in a 3 day a week Mother's Day out preschool program (or did I do the two day a week?), and I "homeschooled" the other days. The catch was that I had to homeschool a Kindergarten curriculum because I would need to keep him 1 year ahead in case we sent him back to a public school, so he'd have a year to "acclimate" without having to learn new subjects. He THRIVED with the academics, didn't do so well with the preschool program due to the things I was worried about (he didn't want to sit still at all).
So, we took the leap for Kindergarten, and I picked up a 1st grade curriculum (he was there academically). It was Sonlight Core1 with Singapore Math and A Reason for Writing. I think that was all I did that year. Anyway, we liked it okay and continued with the same plan for his 1st grade year (except everything was for 2nd grade level). We were really enjoying homeschooling, and JM took his first standardized test. I had noticed something...but I attempted to play it off because I loved Singapore Math so well due to my background in Math.
But it showed in testing. While JM KNEW the mental math from Singapore Math and he could figure out how to arrive at an answer, he did NOT know the facts at all. He was struggling with things in math because he'd learn something for the time it was shown in Singapore Math, then it would not be touched on again for quite awhile (like months)...and we'd struggle to re-learn something I knew he'd known previously. It was frustrating to us both, and caused many tears on both our parts.
I loved Singapore Math, and it was so hard to admit that it was NOT working for JM. Not at all. I did some more research, and thought we should try Horizons Math. I was appalled at where JM tested on their preliminary tests. While he was okay in some areas, he was behind in others. It was a struggle for us, but we chose to go with a 3rd grade curriculum for the next year and we did LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of Math catchup work.
I also found out about a lack of knowledge in Language Arts, the Sonlight curriculum was just not working for us in their Language arts. That one was probably more my doing than the math as I had not concentrated as hard on making him learn phonics rules, grammar rules, and I did not make him write 8 sentences a day as a 1st grader!
It was so hard playing this "catch-up" for his 2nd grade year. But the test scores showed our hard work had paid off. Luckily. We were moving on to 3rd grade for JM and Samuel was entering Pre-K.
JM got a 4th grade curriculum, with supplemental stuff here and there...it was all through Alpha Omega and some we liked and some we didn't like. Samuel we picked up Alpha Omega's Horizon's program for Kindergarten. It was more "workbook" than I had done with JM, but I was more distracted too with Katie's referral, traveling to China and then settling in....we finished that year somehow...and made the decision for this year.
JM was using 5th grade curriculum for LA, science, Bible, and History. Math was Horizons 4b/5a (we have still been plagued by the Singapore Math non-cyclical learning pattern and have had to work very hard on a few things), and Handwriting was 4th grade.
Samuel used the Horizon's 1st grade curriculum this year.
Both have done fairly well. JM has struggled here and there with things, and we are finally seeing his writing skills catch up to where we would like them to be. His math is improving greatly...and Samuel, well, he is definitely ready for that 2nd grade curriculum.
Next year...I think we're returning to Sonlight. I've just missed the history too much. Bible for JM will be the same curriculum he is using now. Bible for Samuel will be from Sonlight. LA for both will continue with what we are using now. Math will continue with what we are using now (JM will be 5b/6a while Samuel will be 2a/2b). The only thing I'm trying to figure out is Science. Samuel might do Sonlight while JM does his current curriculum but for 6th grade.
Over the next couple of weeks though I will re-explore all the possibilities available to us for curriculum. I will research and see if there is anything that might possibly be a better fit for our kids.
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5 comments:
My sister left Sonlight for a year, but then returned to it as you are considering. She's happy she switched back, too!
As for us, I LOVE and HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Sonday Reading Curriculum for anyone teaching their child to read. It's a multisensory approach that works SO WELL. And I say that as a momma and a former kindergarten teacher.
oh I LOVE to explre the curric possibilities:)
I have been looking at Heart of Dakota some and a bit interested in it for next year. We do BJU math with some supplementing. We are using Sonlight readers but not real crazy about the history program so that is why I was thinking maybe HOD for next year. I have looked at Winter Promise as well. I love to go to the well trained mind forum and read on the curriculum board for ideas.
All afternoon I have sat and researched links for us to make a 50 state lapbook/notebook. Chloe is artsy and will enjoy doing this.
Hope you have a wonderful Easter tomorrow.
C
I know this will probably come from Left Field, but have you ever heard of Calvert School?? My mother used it for both of my brothers, for several years, and LOVED it. Everything you need for the school year, including paper and pencils, comes to your house in one large white box. The history is really fun (my brothers still know more about Greek Mythology than I could ever hope to). Her favorite part was that the school work was sent in to be graded by accredited teacher, so she didn't have to worry about state laws regarding the ages that a mother could homeschool her children. (We moved a lot when I was younger.) I might look into it for BBJ. My head is spinning right now - I had already decided not to send her to preschool (she's still two, and will turn three in September)...and I just received her acceptance letter for preschool! Gah. I was hoping they'd reject her so I wouldn't have to make the decision! LOL
We've tried a couple different curriculums, but we keep ending up going back to Bob Jones... It's what works for us. :)
Oh so interesting to see someone else's curriculum vacillations!
Interestingly enough we saw the same issue with Singapore! We did it in conjunction with Saxon but still the computation was not there on the ITSB results for one child!
This year we have switched to Math U See and love it so far, although as I'm preparing for ITBS in May, I'm of course seeing gaps and the need for re-teaching. I hate to teach to the ITBS but I never know if we are coming or going out of this homeschool arena so I feel bound by test scores. (Isn't that pitiful in so many ways?)
We use a lot of the Well Trained Mind stuff (grammar, writing and history) and my boys love it so much. But we've been there slogging through Shurley Grammar and MacMillan before, too.
It's so hard to know. Thanks for sharing your stories!
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