Homeschooling

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One of the most frequently asked questions when homeschoolers get together is “What curriculum do you use?” I sometimes hate to answer this question because I know our tendency as moms is to compare what we do to another mom and then start questioning the way we’re doing things. Or it can often open ourselves up for criticism from someone who thinks their way is the right way. That is not what I want to accomplish by sharing with you our homeschooling technique. Homeschooling is just as individual as each of our families are…Actually it’s even more individual than that. It is as individual as each student in the family. Each child may need a different type of schooling. So, I in no way want to try to tell you that my way is the right way. It is right for us, right now.

However, I am going to tell you how we currently school at home and what curricula we use, but only in hopes of

1) answering the often asked question
2) encourage you if you are already looking for something different in your homeschool
3) getting advice from you on how we can possibly improve our method

When we first started homeschooling we very much used consumable, textbook curriculum – ACE, Alpha Omega, ABeka, BJUP, and Christian Liberty. Those are great curricula, but as our homeschool grew, I quickly found myself falling behind with all the teacher’s manuals, teaching, grading etc.

After doing quite a bit of research in the middle of one school year that was particularly stressful, I came across the website of the Robinson Curriculum. I had been searching for a curriculum that was similar to the idea of ACE – self instructional. But I was also searching for a curriculum that would encourage them to love learning and not just view school as subjects and something to check off their list. Rich and quality reading material was another priority that I felt most of the other curricula lacked. The Robinson Curriculum addressed all these issues.

For sake of time, I will not write here an exhaustive review of Dr. Robinson’s curriculum. I found their website informative and it answered most of my concerns, but it did leave me wondering how other families actually implemented his ideas and methods. I had never heard of the Robinson Curriculum, let alone knew anyone that used it, so I was left only with the Course of Study and Dr. Robinson’s example. It wasn’t long before I realized we weren’t the Robinson family, and that a lot of what I was trying to implement wasn’t going to work in our family. Not really any different than trying to use the teacher’s manuals in the other curricula – what works in the classroom, taught by a certified teacher whose only job is to teach a classroom of students in the same grade will obviously not work in a homeschool.  So I began tweaking the methods and ideas to our family. What I will share is the result of that tweaking – what we have done and are currently doing for each child.

Kindergarten

We focus on teaching the basics. In math we use flashcards and counters to teach them simple addition and subtraction. This is also the year we try to teach the children to read. For our twins that was no issue. They basically taught themselves to read, it was almost no effort. I used Christian Liberty’s Phonics for all three of my children I taught to read and intend to use it for the other children. I found that it gave them all they needed to read well and it was not necessary for them to continue with a phonics program. They are all good readers and read well above their grade level. Once they learned to read, we just provided them with books – plenty of them! We would occasionally do read-alouds, but mostly they read to themselves and each other.

Grade 1

Because of the learning styles of our twins we decided to use ACE for all subjects in the first grade. We felt it was important for them to get the basics and they did well with the workbook style.

Robinson recommends that during the 1^st and 2^nd grades you learn all the math facts – addition, subtraction and multiplication, division. We felt that they weren’t ready for multiplication and division so in an effort to follow as close as we could to Robinson, we did ACE math while doing extra flashcard memory work in addition and subtraction.

Grade 2

We dropped all the other ACE subjects and kept the math for one more year, again still doing extra flashcard memory work and drill sheets. They were slow in learning their math facts so we held off on the multiplication and division facts.

Math: They do daily work in their Paces as well as flashcards.

Copywork: They write a full page of copy work. We are currently using Greenleaf Press’ Handwriting By George. They love to do creative writing so occasionally they will write a story instead of copywork. The handwriting must be neat or else it has to be redone.

Vocabulary: They are given about 10 words from one of Robinson’s vocabulary lists, whether or not they are currently reading that book. They are to write each word and definition one time a day. After about a week they are given a test on spelling and definition. Any word not mastered carries over to the next week with the new words.

Reading: They are to read at least an hour a day. In the course of a whole day they almost always read more than this. We try to follow the Robinson reading list, but have found that we supplement with our own reading choices fairly often for various reasons. When they are done with a book I have them fill out a book report form. This helps me know that they comprehend what they are reading.

Grade 3

Math: We decided to continue with using a math curriculum. Because we wanted to focus on math facts and yet also use a textbook, we used Rod and Staff math for 3^rd grade. It really cemented math facts for our twins.

Copywork: They write a full page of copy work, grading for handwriting, grammar, and spelling. Occasionally I would have the student do exercises in a grammar or language curriculum.

The rest of the subjects will be the same as 2^nd grade – copywork, vocabulary, reading.

Grade 4

This was the grade we started our daughter in several years ago.

Math: We took the first couple of months of the school year and did flashcards only. She timed herself each day and she tried to beat her time from the day before. We recorded the time so I was able to see that progress was being made. After this was accomplished we started in Saxon 5/4. Generally the goal was to do 1 lesson a day, but if she was struggling to keep her error rate up we would cut it down to ½ a lesson. I never allowed her to grade her own math as recommended by Robinson. Mastery is the goal, so each problem she got wrong she had to redo until correct. If there were too many errors the lesson had to be redone. Usually anything below a 90% had to be redone. This discouraged sloppy, careless errors.

Writing: One page of writing a day on whatever she chose to write about. I only graded for spelling, grammar, punctuation and handwriting.

Vocabulary: She had to write each word from one of the Robinson vocabulary lists one time each as well as do one of the activities (crossword and word finds). After a week a test was given and if the words were not mastered she was either given the list again for a couple of more days or they were carried over with the new list.

Reading: 2 hours of reading from the Robinson reading list unless we felt a need to substitute. In any grade when they are done with a book I have them fill out a book report form. This helps me know that they comprehend what they are reading.

Grades 5 – 8

For the most part these years have looked similar to grade 4. We have occasionally had them work through a grammar or language workbook, but we generally have followed this basic schedule:

• Math – 1 lesson from Saxon
• Writing – 1 page of an essay, creative writing, copywork, book report etc.
• Vocabulary – memorize
• Reading – 2 hours minimum

Grades 9-12

As to the life style changes Dr. Robinson recommends we are hit and miss. While most would be good and helpful to implement, they’re not exactly practical or realistic for us.

He says no sugar or honey – we do consume both and sometimes more than we should. It would be great to cut out sugar and I am certain we would see the positive effects of no sugar in our children’s behavior and performance in school, but it’s just not something we have felt the need to cut out completely.

No T.V. is another thing he says is crucial to success. I do agree that television is a hindrance to adults and children alike to loving to read – at least in our family. So for this reason (and others!) we do not have our television hooked up to any type of cable or satellite service. We also monitor what we watch very carefully, most often we watch science or nature videos and history documentaries. But even those can be watched in excess so just recently we’ve instituted a monthly family movie night where we all watch a movie or documentary.

No computer before 16 years old. We do allow all of our children computer time, but not on a daily basis and rarely to just “play.” We do not want our children to think of the computer as another play-thing so we encourage them to view the computer and internet as a tool. Our 13 year old has learned a lot about computer programming and can fix most any problem we’ve had so far. He is learning to use Excel spreadsheets, does our bulletin at church each week thus knowing how to use Microsoft Word very well, he has created power point presentations and made “movies”, edit pictures etc…I don’t believe he would have learned to do these things had he been allowed to “play” on the computer. So I totally agree with Dr. Robinson on this point, but I think each family has to make this decision themselves and find the right balance for their children.

He also says that if possible it is good for parents to be an example to their children and do some manner of desk work while their children are doing school. I have found that hard to do especially in different seasons of life – newborns, toddlers etc. However, it is a goal of mine to use the school day as the time I catch up on e mails, bills, grading schoolwork, menu planning, blogging etc. But having a toddler and a newborn it may be awhile before this goal is reached!

This is just a smattering of ideas and thoughts that hopefully will answer the question “What curriculum do you use?” Perhaps all this does is create more questions…? If so, I’d love to try and answer them. Please leave me a comment with your question or you can also e mail me.

Word of explanation: It’s often asked just exactly what is the curriculum?! The curriculum is a set of computer disks. It’s a one time purchase that is used for all the students in your homeschool for all grades. The only thing you will need to purchase is the Saxon math books in the years you use Robinson. It does not contain “lesson plans.” The Course of Study gives a thorough explanation of how a day should be planned and what subjects should be included – reading, writing and arithmetic.

All the books on Dr. Robinson’s reading list (250) are on the cds to be printed out and put into binders. So an investment in a quality printer would be important. It can be time consuming to print out each book for several students, but if you are careful to take care of each book you print, it can be used multiple times with different students. There shouldn’t be a need to print out a book more than once. You can also help defray the cost of ink and paper by making use of your local library. Also, I carry the book list with me so I can double check when I am out shopping at used book stores.

Happy Homeschooling!

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