Adventures with Our Curriculum

3 Reasons Not to Push School Too Early

February 23, 2015 by Tawnee Leave a Comment

With the influx of early childhood programs, preschoo, and early learning classes, it is easy to get caught up in the early education whirlwind.

However, no matter how good it sounds, there are many good, well-reserached reasons why you don’t want to push school too early.

There are the 3 main reasons we have decided not to push our kids into schooling too early.

#1 – They are only young once. They have all the time in the world for formal school. Why rush it? They are learning every day, absorbing words, vocabulary, nature, people, and manners. Mastering language and developing critical thinking skills. Formal school can wait. Let them play!

#2 We want to instill a love for learning. Making them do formal schooling before they are developmentally ready and mature enough only makes them hate school, which they may or may not come out of. Why take the chance that they don’t come out of it. We want long time life-learners, not reluctant learners.

#3 We don’t need to keep up with the public school. Though there are plenty of studies showing early formal education is unnessary – that learning by play is most important, that especially in the case of bosy, early formal education can cause long term issues, the pbulic sector still wants early child care disguised as early education. I don’t need to keep up with mainstream education. So I can let my kids learn through curiosity and play. Read to them and talk with them. Let them develop their love for learning.

There are porbably a dozen more reasons to not push early formal education. These are just a few that we feel are important.

What reasons do you have to not push early education?

Filed Under: Adventures with Our Curriculum, Preschool · Tagged With: early education, preschool

Online Courses and Printables – How We Use Them

October 14, 2014 by Tawnee Leave a Comment

Every homeschool is different. We tailor them to our needs, our lives, and our children’s individual learning styles. Our homeschool is no different.

We use many different mediums to conduct our homeschool. And it changes with what we are studying and our time of life – you know, toddler running around or babies demanding our attention can change what we need at home. This the case for us.

Right now we are utilizing some great online courses and printables through CurrClick to enhance our Classical Conversations and overall homeschool. If you are looking for some great ways to get inexpensive, quality curriculum into your homeschool, be sure to checkout CurrClick.

And starting today through (October 14, 2014) through October 21, 2014, CurrClick is having their Autumn Sale, which makes their already excellent prices even better. So if you have ever thought you would like to checkout some curriculum on CurrClick, or an online course or club, now is a great time.

Here’s what we are currently using on CurrClick:

Beginner Mandarin Chinese 1 - As my 4th grader continues her Mandarin studies, we are using an online, live course in Mandarin Chinese through CurrClick. You can read about her course here.

American Girls Club – My daughter loves American Girls and we have been enjoying the CurrClick American Girl book club for almost 3 years now.

Bats Speedy Lapbook – My son loves Bats and thought it would be fun to study about bats during the October season approach Halloween. Be sure to check out the Bats Speedy Lapbook, and some of the other fun Speedy Lapbooks on CurrClick.

Human Body Speedy Lapbooks – We are using the Human Body Speedy Lapbook series to correspond with our anatomy studies in Classical Conversations. The kids are both work on this one but our 4th grader is doing the reading to the Kindergartener. It is working out well and they are enjoying the series.

Classical Conversations Learning Activity Books – We are using A Journey Through Learning’s Cycle 3 Learning Activity Book and Junior Learning Activity Book this year to go along with our Classical Conversations memory work in the Foundations program. It is a great way to work through the memory work for each week. They have some great holiday lapbooks and copywork books available for Thanksgiving too if you are looking for something. We did the Thanksgiving Lapbook and Study Guide last year and loved it!

Blue Diamond- The Curiosity Files from TOS – We just completed our study of Blue Diamonds with The Curiosity Files from This Old Schoolhouse. It is a great series and my daughter loved it. You can check out other Curiosity Files here. You might find one that works with what you are studying.

There are lots of great ebooks, curriculum guides, printables, lapbooks, and notebooking pages on CurrClick. Be sure to check them out if you haven’t looked into them latest. Their live classes and clubs can be a great addition to any homeschool.

Be sure to check out their great prices during their Autumn Sale – remember its only going on for 7 days and the sale will be over on October 21, 2014.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Filed Under: Adventures with Our Curriculum · Tagged With: autumn sale, currclick, homeschool courses, online, printables

Our 2014-2015 Curriculum Choices

August 18, 2014 by Tawnee 1 Comment

Though I’m a big believer in enjoying the summer these days. And feel one of the advantages of homeschooling is that I can start school after Labor Day like when I was a kid – a good indicator that its fall and time for school, I am in the throws of preparing for our school year.

With our recent move things are in a crazy mess but its coming together. We have fixed the scanner and printer, got the computers up and running and I’m in the process of unpacking and organizing the homeschool room.

However, I am aware that many people are starting their school years (or already have) so I thought I would move forward with sharing our 2014-2015 school year curriculum choices. This year I have a 4th grader, a Kindergartener, and a baby in tow. So, here’s the plan for another great Classical year.

(And be sure to scroll to the bottom and see what some of my IAHE friends are sharing about their upcoming school year.)

4th Grader

Classical Conversations – Classical Conversations is our primary curriculum. (Check out this post about why we love Classical Conversations and find it an essential component to our homeschool.) It involves Math, History, Geography, Science, Latin, English Grammar, and Timeline. We have one community day and the rest is working on memorizing the facts and expanding on some of the concepts.

Language Art- This will be our first year with Essentials program through Classical Conversations and we will be doing the very basics of the EEL and IEW programs to work on grammar and writing this year.

Math - Math U See Gamma. We took the summer off of Math. Saying that, we did work on math games and math facts online regularly. We will supplement with math fact games includes UberSmart Math and CTC Math Speed Skills.

History -We are reading from This Country of Ours and Story of the World vol 4 this year. Additionally, we are working through Diana Waring’s America: A Heart of a New Nation to learn folk songs that go along with various historical times we studying.

Latin - We are using Visual Latin 1 this year to step up our Latin studies. This will be our first year with this.

Chinese - We have been using Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese for the past 2 years. This year we are going to be joining an online class through CurrClick – Mandarin Chinese 1 by Mandarin Chinese Now. We are excited to do this as we have done a few short term classes with Mrs. Hong and found them to be excellent. We have decided that we want to add the conversational element to our Chinese studies this year.

French - We will continue using French Essentials this year. We started with it last year and then decided to take a break from French. My daughter has requested we start back with French this year.

Science - We will be using Supercharged Science to work through Anatomy and Chemistry components to correspond with Science sentence in Classical Conversations.

Keyboarding - We are still determining our plans for keyboarding this year. We are considering Keyboarding without Tears as we have used the free BBC Dance Mat Typing in the past.

Handwriting - We use copywork from our Classical Conversations sentences to work on handwriting. Cursive has been our focus last year and this year, though we will continue to work on printing as well.

Bible Study - This year we will be working through Bible Study Guide for All Ages. We are excited to start back up with this and include both children in the same study.

Music - In Classical Conversation we study orchestra, various classical periods and pieces, as well as famous composers. We have a subscription to Classical Composers Monthly that we will use to focus our studies. (Review coming soon.) We look forward to using this to expand our music studies. Additionally, our daughter will be taking piano lessons again as well as continue her studies on the tin whistle with classical conversations.

Art - In Classical Conversations we study art, art periods, famous arts, and work on different basic art styles. We will continue this practice at home after being introduced on community day. My daughter has a love for art and we are considering other avenues to develop art but haven’t made a final determination yet.

Free Reading - We will have several books we plan to get through this year. She will have time to read some that she picks from the library as well as go through a list that we have made for her to read this year. She is a great reader and this is her favorite part. From time to time she is asked to do a presentation, report, or paper on a book she has read. Look for a post soon about our reading list for this year.

Home Economics – My daughter is joining American Heritage Girls this year so we will be working on badges in our spare time. She will continue working through her 4-H cook book as well. She has taken up crocheting and she is hoping to keep working on it and expanding her sewing and crocheting skills.

Kindergarten

Our son is starting Kindergarten – this is very exciting and I’m looking forward to the new challenge of integrating him into our day more.

Classical Conversations – Classical Conversations is our primary curriculum. It involves Math, History, Geography, Science, Latin, English Grammar, and Timeline. We have one community day and the rest is working on memorizing the facts and expanding on some of the concepts. Including geography drawing and science videos and experiments at home.

Math - Our son started working on Math U See Primer at the end of last year and will continue working through the book. We will likely wrap up Primer and begin Alpha before the end of the year.

Bible - This year we will be working through Bible Study Guide for All Ages. We are excited to start back up with this and include both children in the same study.

Chinese - We are using Muzzy Mandarin Chinese videos for Chinese. We also you You Tube for additional Mandarin videos (see how here.)

Handwriting - We are using handwriting sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler to work on handwriting.

Science - We are using Magic School Bus videos that correspond with the science topics. We did this with my daughter her 1st grade year when we did Cycle 3 with Classical Conversations last time and it worked out great. We are looking forward to doing it again. (Look for my science pair up posts to follow through the year.)

Reading - We are using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for reading. We are about 1/4 through the lessons at this time and plan to finish up before the end of the year.

Extras - We use ABC Mouse for extra fun practice as well as Ubersmart Math and Reading Eggs from time to time. My son enjoys computer time and earns computer time by doing his other chores and school.

Whew – It seems like a lot when you write it all out but actually its pretty low key. About an hour a day for the Kindergarteners and about 3 hours to 4 hours a day for the 4th grader. They will do Classical Conversations memory work and games together. Magic School Bus videos are usually what we watch at lunch time together. They will do Bible Study together in the morning. We will have reading lessons during the baby’s naptime because that takes the most dedicated time for me. During that time my daughter will be doing her independent work. She will have my dedication attention after reading lessons while my son is playing and, God willing, the baby is still sleeping.

I’m looking forward to a great year. I’m excited to watch my son grow and my daughter develop into a strong student. This is going to be a great year for sure.

Overall we didn’t make any drastic changes this year (other than drastically adding to the day with a Kindergartener ) but otherwise this is pretty much what we have been doing. We have found a pretty good rhythm. I’m looking forward to seeing how it works when we begin our year.