What to Learn and How to Learn It

What are We Doing?

We are dabbling in homeschool here at T-haus.  Lu is still enrolled in the public school system, but we anticipate moving her to homeschool next winter when my husband will move from his job here in Korea to a short-term assignment in an area with a failing school system.  I have always wanted to homeschool so I am thrilled to finally have a chance to try it out.  

One of the first things I wanted to do was get a feel for a few different types of curriculum before I commit to a system.  Since our Lu was on a long break from school during the winter holidays it felt like the perfect time to try it out.  We will delve into homeschool again briefly during spring break and seriously during the summer.  So far we have focused on mathematics, reading, writing, and history, with a smattering of science and whatever else comes along in the day.  

Curriculum

Math

Here are some of the curriculums we are testing out this holiday break:
I know there are many formal mathematics curriculum packages such as Saxon Math, but so far we have been thrilled with IXL, a math learning website that adjusts to the student as he or she grows (offering them more questions in one subject area until they achieve mastery, for example) and has the parent-friendly addition of very specific reporting and tracking.  Parents can see how much time their child has spent on each type of problem, where trouble spots requiring more instruction may be, and even compare their child's progress to state standards for each grade.  I also really love that IXL is flexible, allowing a child who is progressing quickly to move into the next grade's content without having to pay for (and wait for shipping of) a new year's curriculum.  After less than four months of IXL (and no formal prior instruction), Lu has progressed to the next grade level in math with just the click of a button.  It doesn't hurt that the IXL system of tiered problems and frequent rewards has her begging to "please do just a little more math today."  I love it!  

History

The other curriculum we are using right now is The Story of the World, which comes from the Well Trained Mind publishers.  This group of curriculum elements deeply appeals to me because I feel a strong connection to Antiquity and I feel that that continuity has guided world leaders and policy makers for thousands of years, and I would like my children to have a part in the world of knowledge that understands Shakespeare and Milton and their references to Greek Mythology as well as whatever is going on in music and literature and art at present.  My husband, whose degree was in Business, doesn't always share my enthusiasm for "culture," but so far he seems pleased with the combination of sensible, grounded math and reading and my love of geography, social studies, art, and music.  The Story of The World takes dry historic information about the Ancient World (in the first volume) and tries to personalize it for students by breaking historic events and movements down into short narratives, sometimes creating fictional characters to live in a historic period to explain how people lived at that time.  To be fair, we did not purchase the textbook (which we will definitely purchase if we choose to pursue this curriculum for the school year), but we listen to the audiobook chapters and then answer comprehension questions and review and do enrichment activities (such as building a scale model of the wall of Jericho - yay math! at the end of the Hunter-to-Farmer transition in Chapter 1.)  This subject does engender more frustration and work for the parents than many others we do, but I think this may be in large part due to the fact that we did not choose to shell out the extra money for the activity book and the text book and instead do careful lesson planning and research ahead of each lesson to have support and enrichment materials available (all found on the internet for free).  I suspect that even if we did buy the activity book it probably wouldn't be quite as much fun as making our own shaduf from things around the house to learn how early farmers watered their crops (and also a little bit about physics and simple machines!).

Reading, Writing, and Literature

To reinforce writing we practice, practice, practice.  Lu has a bible memory verse each week, so she copies the verse (writing as neatly as possible) in a notebook, and then re-writes any portion that is sloppy or illegible.  For reading, she only has to read one Level 2 reader each day, although she is encouraged to read as many "baby books" to her little sister as she can.  We also read from a chapter book together - her reading until she gets tired or frustrated, and then I read the rest.  

Extra-Curricular

Charlotte is involved in Tae Kwon Do for one hour three times a week and violin lessons for 30 minutes once a week, so we maintain those lessons and practice at home for about 30 minutes every day for violin, only on non-lesson days for Tae Kwon Do.  The kids always have access to crayons, stamps, markers, and other art supplies, but have no formal art instruction (other than art history).  Many of our reinforcement activities for history, however, involve applied arts such as pottery or painting.

Well, that's pretty much what we are doing right now.  I hope that by the end of summer we will have had enough experience to make a choice for a curriculum system for the winter.  Have any of you tried some of the other curriculum programs?  Have you used Saxon Math (one I've heard is good)?  What about the Well-Trained Mind system - I think I'd lean towards it if I heard good things about it.  Let me know what you think, and I'll try to keep you updated (although I am simply awful about doing things regularly so I might not stay on top of the blog - we'll see).