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JSchaaf
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| Posted: March 12 2007 at 10:40pm | IP Logged
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I posted earlier about our failed Calvert experience. I want to go strictly CM, but how?? This is what I have lined up so far
Horizons Math
Prima Latina
Copywork for handwriting practice and grammar
Read lots of library books for literature, history and science.
But WHAT should I cover in history and science? Can I do it without lesson plans and a curriculum to tell me what to do??
How do I know if I'm doing enough? Or if I'm even doing the right thing?
My girls are 7,6, and 4. The 7 and 6yo are reading on a 4-6th grade level-they love to read and probably spend 1-2 hours a day reading independently. That's the only thing that keeps me from full-blown panic-they read so much (and I'm picky about what they read) so I figure they have to be learning SOMETHING.
Jennifer
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Alcat
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 7:12am | IP Logged
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Hey Jennifer,
I understand your experience- I used Sonlight (which is wonderful, but, "it's not for us"  .
I say, keep it simple. I felt like I should be doing history and science but it REALLY isn't necessary. I have found that with children this young that there is so much hand holding that we only do science and history once a week- if that! If you have time, do more...
Some resources we have enjoyed is Hilaryers (sp) A Childs History of the World (a Calvert pic  ). It is witten in story format. We used How Our Nation Began, by Fr. Furlong- very text booky but still story like and ds LOVED it. It was a nice spine. The tricky thing I found was that before my son was 8yrs he had a hard time understanding time in history...
For science get some Usborne books. Sonlight K, I think, uses them and has made some worksheets to go with them... color, cut and paste the anwsers; we didn't find them that usefull, but take a look.
We just ordered CHC's Behold and See 3, to use as a science spine. It has all the basics: phyiscal sci, biology, earth sci, etc plus it's VERY Catholic.
Apologia has lovely CM inspired scince texts
"Exploring Creation" series. Here is a link:
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no =337002&event=CF
I hope this helps a bit...
God Bless,
Alison
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mom to ds15, dd13 ,ds11, dd8, dd6, ds4, & dd18mos
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 8:17am | IP Logged
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JSchaaf wrote:
I want to go strictly CM, but how?? This is what I have lined up so far
Horizons Math
Prima Latina
Copywork for handwriting practice and grammar
Read lots of library books for literature, history and science.
But WHAT should I cover in history and science? Can I do it without lesson plans and a curriculum to tell me what to do??
How do I know if I'm doing enough? Or if I'm even doing the right thing?
My girls are 7,6, and 4. The 7 and 6yo are reading on a 4-6th grade level-they love to read and probably spend 1-2 hours a day reading independently.
Jennifer |
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Oh my! Your children are sooooooooo young!
I can share with you my own goals for history and science before high school, if that would help?
K-3 just enjoy learning about different historical time periods through literature, a little bit at a time. Nothing formal. I am amazed at what mine know by the time they begin 4th grade just from using things like FIAR.
4th grade is transitionary for us. If the child has a strong interest in history, then I begin chronological history with American. If the child isn't ready for it, I do another year of literature based informal learning. If I'm covering American, I loosely base my plans around Sonlight's core 3, but without all the books or the schedule. If I'm continuing with unit based learning, I loosely use BYFIAR.
If the child began American in the 4th, I would probably continue with it for one more year, unless the child is passionate about History (I do have one of those). After American is covered, I like to spend several years covering chronological history. My goal is for the child to have heard most history at least once before high school, but I don't expect mastery, just exposure.
5th-8th or 6th-8th, I use the chronological cycle available through Sonlight cores 6 and 7, again, loosely, and again feeling free to ditch several books and to add in others. I add in extra readers along the way.
If it makes you feel any better, my 8th grader is not going to get all the history in that I wanted to cover before high school, but he has had more than enough just by trying to reach these goals. Even some the most rigorous Catholic schools and hs programs don't cover as much as we have using literature.
Science in our home is completely interest driven until mid Junior High. I find beautiful oversized books and schedule them to be read 2 pages a day, and I buy experiment kits for the children to do themselves. Before they are capable of doing the kits themselves, I just read a few science related books and let them dig in the dirt and try to get in a few science related field trips. My ds was interested in magnets, electricity, and technology. My oldest dd is much more interested in living science. By the time my ds was ready for a solid 'general science'book in Junior high, we happily discovered that there was almost NOTHING we hadn't covered informally and it was all review.  I will pass on the gen. science book with my second child, knowing how well things went with ds. I am less confident in my abilities to teach science than I am with history, so it was really my way of making sure I hadn't missed anything essential.
So anyway, I would say, don't worry so much??? If you set yourself a general goal of what you want covered before high school, then its easy to spread it out over several years and have some assurance that you are covering what is important.
__________________
Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Alcat
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 8:26am | IP Logged
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Hi Books,
What science kits do you use? I LOVE the idea of them doing themselves! I don't have the time between teaching them to read, write (copywork), math, and reading aloud to them...
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mom to ds15, dd13 ,ds11, dd8, dd6, ds4, & dd18mos
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Patty
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 8:27am | IP Logged
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Have you seen this curriculum? It's Catholic CM, put together by Michele Quigley and some other Catholic homeschooling moms.
www.materamabilis.org
Patty
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JSchaaf
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 11:52am | IP Logged
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Thanks, Books, Patty and Alison!!
You mean I don't have to have History and Science as subjects? Science we've been VERY informal with-I'll just continue with library books for the time being.
But history...I love history. We don't need to do the 3 4-year cycles ala The Well-Trained Mind? My kids will still turn out OK????  What about map work and coloring pages and all that??
I've been trying to do history per TWTM (we are on SOTW1 right now) but get so frustrated when the girls go off on tangents-wanting to learn about the Civil War and slavery and pioneers and China when I'm focusing on mummies and pyramids.
So do you think an eclectic history-using-living books approach is ok? Just picking and choosing whatever time period the girls are interested in? I'm thinking a timeline or book of centuries might be beneficial if we took this approach. It's sounding more and more like what I want to do. Tell me it's ok!!
Thanks for the hand holding...
Jennifer
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lapazfarm
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Joined: July 21 2005
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 12:39pm | IP Logged
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JSchaaf wrote:
You mean I don't have to have History and Science as subjects? Science we've been VERY informal with-I'll just continue with library books for the time being.
So do you think an eclectic history-using-living books approach is ok? Just picking and choosing whatever time period the girls are interested in? I'm thinking a timeline or book of centuries might be beneficial if we took this approach. It's sounding more and more like what I want to do. Tell me it's ok!!
Jennifer |
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It's VERY Ok!!!!
__________________
Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Lorri
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| Posted: March 13 2007 at 6:43pm | IP Logged
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We have really enjoyed Sonlight and have used their pre-k through Core 1. I use one history and science level for both my children, ages 8 and 6. History has been so much fun this year! I particularly like their science curriculum. They have made a DVD to go along with the experiments, so if you're not up doing them, you can watch instead. Or watch first, then see if you can get the same result. Or (LOL) try first, then see how theirs turned out. You can also buy a science supply kit which gives you almost everything you need to complete the experiments, which is really nice.
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Lorri
mom to   
The Mac and Cheese Chronicles
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Now what??
