September 3, 2013

Curriculum Choices 2013-2014

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Homeschool Curriculum Choices

See other curriculum posts here:

See our Weekly Wrap-Up posts here where I share more about what our group time together looks like, as well as a peek into Krash and PacMan’s homeschool life! I plan to start these up again soon this year!

{disclaimer ~ affiliate links are used below}

Learning with Ladybug Preschool

Ladybug ~ Pre K, age 4 1/2

Krash ~  2nd Grade, age 7

PacMan ~ 6th Grade, age 11

   Family

FAQ ~

I heard your boys are enrolled in a cyber school, how does this work?

Yes, they are and we have a VERY unique situation.  We are enrolled in a cyber school but we traditionally homeschool just like someone using Calvert who bought it from their site.  The only difference is that my kids get their supplies, curriculum, computer, printer, and MUCH support for free.  We are so incredibly blessed to have this option, it is working for us right now.  I teach them every single subject, and we use traditional Calvert texts and books…hardly anything is done online for my boys-except fun games and such we have access to.  This is another perk for us we have free access to: First in Math, Study Island, Let’s Go Learn, Brain Pop, and more.  These sites are amazing.

If you are wondering what state we live in, you can email me privately.  I just don’t publicly share the name of our specific school and location online.  Let me emphasize that all sates are different and ALL cyber schools are different. I personally do not know ANYONE else who has a situation like mine, most are much more controlled from what I have heard.  Here is a place on Calvert’s website that allows you to seek out using Calvert with a partner school in your state.

Would you use Calvert even if you didn’t get it for free through your state? 

I am not sure.  I specifically have really enjoyed Calvert from grade 2 on, which is the beginning of where I am not as comfortable teaching!  I absolutely loved Calvert last year {5th grade} and am really benefitting from the box approach in a grade I am so uncomfortable teaching! I would definitely stick with it for PacMan, it is a great fit.  For Krash I would probably change, not sure about Ladybug yet!

Why are you using All About Reading for Krash if Calvert has a good reading program within it?

Honestly-I got AAR to review and decided to review it fully to help my blog readers.  I do not need a program to teach reading, I have done it with hundreds of children and it just comes naturally for me {I am a former Kindergarten teacher for any new readers}.  Something I truly love.  I followed Calvert’s program with Pac, but still basically did my own thing, which is what I have done with Krash too.  BUT, I get tons of questions from moms who tell me that teaching reading does not come naturally for them!  They want me to recommend a program and up until now I couldn’t since I had no experience with any homeschool reading program {other than Calvert}.  I can’t recommend Calvert’s reading program separately {it is great, but it only comes with the complete box curriculum}. When given the opportunity to review AAR Level 1, I jumped at the chance, knowing this would give me the experience I needed to give my readers an opinion on this reading program-which so far is amazing and definitely what I recommend!  I used All About Spelling Levels 1 & 2 with Pac and loved it.  We went to AAS when he began struggling early on.  He has now went back to the Calvert spelling program and does fine. Our great experience with All About Spelling led me to want to review All About Reading. We loved it so we still use it to supplement!

Why are you using a secular based curriculum if you are Bible believing Christians?

Honestly we decided to give Calvert a try and we liked it, so we stuck with it. The science and history texts are definitely not Christian based, but the teacher manuals are written in a very open way, meaning they encourage you to discuss with your children based on your own worldview.  This has worked for us even better than we thought it would.

We have decided to stick with Calvert and use it as a springboard for awesome discussion about the differences in worldviews.  This has already proven to be an awesome choice for our family.  We are slowly adding Christian world view supplemental texts; we added Who is God? last year, and Evolution & Building Blocks in Science  this year.  We use these for reading, not doing addition “work” from them.  Pac is really enjoying learning both sides of the spectrum regarding beliefs about historical science and the history of our world. We feel discussing and being knowledgeable on both sides is important and will deepen our children’s faith as they learn all about the people they will be living around {who might believe differently than they do}. 

Will you enroll Ladybug in the cyber school when she is in PreK or Kindergarten?

Nope! I am handling Pre K and K on my own.  Being a former K teacher, I just really, really enjoy doing my own things for these lower grades! I will possibly enroll her in Calvert 1st grade when I feel she is ready, or I may not.  Not sure at this point when that will be. We are in no rush!

Will you always homeschool?

We believe in making this decision on a year-by-year, kid-by-kid basis.  We had no idea we would ever be homeschoolers, so we realize that we have no clue what God has in store for our family.  For now, we cannot imagine not homeschooling, and are very thankful to have been led here. Read my "Never Planned to Homeschool” post to see more of how we ended up homeschoolers!

Are you against public/private school?

Absolutely NOT!  I believe that the decision of schooling needs to be made by individual families based on so many different circumstances.  I NEVER thought we would homeschool, but now am so glad we do {although it was very rough for me the first year}.  Some homeschooling families need to go back to group education for various reasons or during different seasons of life and who knows-that may be us one day.  I know the Lord will guide us each year in making this decision and I trust He guides families individually in this area. 

Why do you homeschool?

Honestly we started because of the area we live in.  We are inner city missionaries living in one of America’s toughest neighborhoods and the schools aren’t anything to jump for joy about.  We looked into private school but it just wasn’t in the budget, and it wasn’t something we really felt called to.  We have fellow missionaries on our team who homeschool and even though at first I thought they were a bit nuts-ha ha, I now adore them and the knowledge they have shared with me.  Although the decision to homeschool was made due to circumstances, we now feel we would continue even if we had the opportunity to send our kids to a great public school.

Do you have a daily schedule or routine? How do you “do it all”?

See our A Day in Our Homeschool Series Here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

We have a daily routine with anchors.  This is the most scheduled we have ever been for our school day, but I have to be or I can’t get it all in with a 6th, 2nd and Preschooler!  I give Ladybug 1 hour individually, Krash gets about 1.5 hours with me, and Pac gets 2 hours with me. They also work independently when it’s not their turn with me.

We still use a lesson plan blog for PacMan, and Krash is pretty easy going with following my lead for school, so we don’t have a super cool plan, we just get things done.  PacMan is VERY independent now and I am oh so grateful. Calvert 6th grade begins to transition students into independent learning and the manuals are written to the student.  He is thriving with this, I am very encouraged

I often get asked how I “do it all” and I wrote a post about that here if you’ve wondered my thoughts on this topic.  The post is older but still applies!

I will share our current daily routine for 2013 soon!

If you have any other general questions about our curriculum, please leave in the comments below and I will do my best to add the answers to this list!

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