I'm baaaaaaack!
Oh, I'm such a slacker.... bad me. My only excuse is that life has turned into new territories and I've been preoccupied with it all. (I'll let everyone know when my novel comes out...LOL) Anyway, as for school, not much is being done lately. Swimming, playdates, and watching movies have been our top priority. Fun! Fun!
Updates?
I went to the homeschooling convention in Florida and FINALLY was able to put my hands on many of the well-known programs. I found a few new treasures but basically learned that my instincts have been spot on with what I've chosen so far. My intuition works well. I had intended to look mostly for Ainsley. All the hands on curriculum such as
Right Start Mathematics, Math you See and
All About Spelling, I wanted to see if they would work for us and found out quickly... they definitely would not. They are either too complicated or too scripted or just wouldn't work now. (I abhor scripted... I really do... I prefer to figure out how to teach myself) AnyWAY... I did find a math program that, when she's ready, I think will work for her. Aidan uses Singapore's
Primary Mathematics as well as
Aleks math (Thanks Amanda!). But although I love the way Primary Mathematics teaches math in a very well-rounded way, I just know the faster pace would not work for Ainsley. Soooo, dum dum duuuum, I found at the Saxon table... a math called
Math in Focus... its based off Singapore math as well but uses more manipulatives and moves at a slower pace. Perfect! The books are attractive, simple, and engaging. Loved it!
I also discovered a few gems I hadn't heard of before.....
Little Passports : subscription based FUN, they send information, pictures, and a toy from one country a month. The stuff is cute and can easily be used as a spine for learning about other places.
Great Musician Series from Zeezok publishing: Fun little novels about the composers that correlate with the cd of their music. I want to research the novels more to make sure they are fairly accurate in their details but if they are... they'd be really cool to have.
Word Build from Dynamic Literacy: This can be easily adapted to the way I teach. (
I seem to adapt everything. I have yet to use anything like I'm supposed to!) It's a word study using Latin and Greek roots. A quicker and easier way to introduce them at the younger ages. Much easier than most of the programs I've looked at that require long lists and heavy memorization.
Writing Strands: I'd read of this before but never payed a lot of attention to it. Although I would not use it as intended (I'd probably keep it on a shelf and use it to spur ideas of my own from it) I'd still enjoy having it.
As for other subjects....
History.... I looked at a lot of history programs and although a few came close to what I'm wanting... I realize that none of them are
exactly what I'm looking for. I think my original wish to use a timeline spine and then to find "living books" to use with the timeline is how I'll go. (
Here is the nod to The Well Trained Mind) Of course, a lot of other programs already are using this concept (ex. Sonlight) so I'll probably cheat and peek at their lists of books.
Phonics/Language Arts/Grammar... I will continue using books from
The Critical Thinking Company and
Explode the Code but in general... I'll be personally teaching them grammar and other concepts myself... while they write papers and paragraphs. This is my strongest area and am quite confident my girls will turn out to be excellent writers. I'll use random workbooks and stuff to ensure I'm not missing anything important. I wouldn't want them to reach the age of 20 without knowing what a conjunction is.
Well, that's it for now. Schooling right now is strictly on the computer. Aleks, Time for Learning, ABCya, Cool Math games, Dreambox, IXL.... etc.
