Home School Open House

For today's Homeschool Open House, I thought I'd share some of our curriculum with you.



If you want to peek in at other Homeschool Open Houses, visit Tammy's blog for the links to the others!

Our core curriculum that we use for Bible, literature, history and reading is Sonlight. I can't say enough good thngs about Sonlight! It is literature rich. Since we LOVE books, living books in particular, or books that make learning come alive, Sonlight is just wonderful! We ALWAYS look forward to our reading! This is the way I wish I could have learned. You've saw this picture on what we call our box day (the day our Sonlight books arrive at our door), but I thought I'd show you again. These are the books that we will read by the end of this school year.





This is our schedule book. It serves as a guideline for us as to what we will read and do everyday in the above subjects. Since it's very common to hear, "Mom don't stop....keep reading!", I often read two or three days worth at a time. That allows us to do the same thing in say, the history readings the next day. That's what I love about the instructors guide...it's a guide and I use it to my advantage. But I do love having the guide! It keeps us on schedule! If we go out of town, we can read ahead a few days, and accomodate our long weekend, or we just take it along and do the readings there.



For Math, we use Math-U-See. We used this with Colt when he was schooling, and we just love it! It's exactly as it claims, it uses blocks to SHOW the kids WHY we do what we do in math, and it has the teacher on DVD, so Joy and I watch it together. I especially like this in math, because although Jason is a math whiz, it's probably one of my LEAST favorite things to do! (I'd rather be reading or doing something creative).



For Handwriting, we use Handwriting Without Tears. She also gets practice on her handwriting with any copywork she does or letters she sends to friends.



For Spelling, we use Sequential Spelling. This is not set up by grades. You begin in book 1 regardless of what grade you begin and just work your way through it. We will be ready for book 3 in a few days. We do ours orally. It really is a simple, but effective way to teach spelling. It starts with shorter words and builds upon word patterns.



For Grammar, we are using Daily Grams, along with daily practice in writing. This book has short lessons focusing daily on the different categories of grammar such as sentence structure and combining, punctuation, capitalization, alphabetizing, parts of the speech, verb agreement and more...very painless grammar lessons. She also has a couple of penpals, including Tammy's daughter, Allyson. This is a natural way to learn the mechanics of writing, spelling and grammar. Besides that, it's fun!



For Science, we use the God's Design for Science Series. The book we are presently using is the God's Design for the Universe. However, we also love the Magic School Bus books and experiment books. I really like the looks of the Elementary Apologia too. We might add the Astronomy one to this to enhance our study on the universe. We used Apologia with Colt from 7th grade up.



Weaved in among these is also the use of many living books. Joy learned to type from the computer software program, Kids Typing Instructor. After she learned the basics and built a little speed, I allowed her free time to email friends and "use" what she learned. It's amazing how quickly they pick up things when it's useful and fun for them! She now wants her own blog. I think it might be a great avenue (if closely...very closely monitored by mom) for some of her creative writing assignments. We'll see.

And speaking of creative writing assignemnts, I love this little book, If You're Trying to Teach Kids How to Write, You've Got to Have This Book. It's packed with tips and ideas for kids to write. This was one of my favorite books to use when I taught a small co-op class when Colt was younger, and it's still one I pull out for fun writing assignments for Joy too.



As far as what we're working on now...Let's see....Our main read-aloud is Toliver's Secret (we're studying the American Revolution) and Joy is reading Martha Washington independently. We're preparing for our homeschool group's geography fair in early March. Joy chose India as her country to study and exhibit. We're presently in the read and research stage. Maybe at the next open house, her exhibit will possibly be completed or far enough along to share.



And one last thing I'll leave you with is a writing assignment Joy wrote yesterday. I gave her the words "I know" and asked her list things that would follow behind those words....as few or as many as she would like. This is what she came up with.

I know...

1) I know multiplication.
2) I know God is real.
3) I know that nobody's perfect.
4) I know that we are in tough times.
5) I know that we wouldn't be in as much hard times if McCain had been elected.
6) I know God loves me.
7) I know that my parents love me.
8) I know taekwondo.
9) I know dance.
10) I know that I love my parents and family.
11) I know alot about reading.

Thanks for stopping by! And for those of you that aren't homeschooling your children, and you're STILL with me reading this...thank you for hanging in there! Homeschooling is another part of our daily lives that just comes natural for us and from time to time, I like to share what we're doing in that department!

Please remember to pray for our new President, all of our leaders in Congress and the Senate and for the American people in the times ahead. I urge everyone to be alert and active in the issues that lie ahead. The future of our country is at stake and we are going to have be involved and sometimes be ready to fight for our freedoms!

Have a great day! :)