For a great number of people, this may not interest you at all. Still, I feel led to write this post due to how life has turned upside down in recent months. As you know, we are a homeschool family. This was not a choice I planned on making. However, my son presented valuable reasons for why he needed to be homeschooled, and it has been the best thing we could have done.
During our time of learning, we were presented with multiple curricula from a variety of people in our life. It was both helpful and overwhelming. Then, as I explored a local teacher shop, I found even more materials that I could put my hands on and flip through. As I purchased, online and in person, these different pieces of material, the emails and catalogs came to me in waves. Again, this was exciting and overwhelming. If there is one thing I want to be sure of, it is that my children have learned everything they need to learn and then some throughout each and every school year. So this post is going out to those of you that have asked what curriculum Sweeney Scholar Academy uses, or even those parents that are thinking, "This quarantine has shown me that homeschool rocks! I want to do it next year!" Here's our general plan: DO WHAT WORKS FOR EACH CHILD. Man, that's crazy. Honestly, that's what so many people choose when it comes to doing school at home. Somewhere parents said, "What the school is doing, isn't working for my kid." That could be by scheduling, teaching style, structure, or material. But even with my two children, they also have variations in material. Why? Because they aren't the same kid! They don't learn the same way. Give Caleb a book and he will give you everything you need to know. He can be cliff-notes in human form. (Hmmm that would be a great Halloween costume. Someone remind me in October.) AJ, sweet thing, does not necessarily learn from reading. She loves to read, but not in a way that she remembers every crazy detail. So we do things differently. So, how about our more specific plan? In our first year, we packed so many school days in (while others were on break) that I figured out from February through May we didn't need to have school on Fridays. Unfortunately, that meant that my kids got too comfortable with Fridays off. Because of this, we only work Monday through Thursdays from August to May. But all of those Fridays need to be made up, and so we work through the summer. (Just so people know, I give my children the option to have the summertime off and go back to Fridays and they vote no.) Teaching through the summer also keeps my kids moving forward and we don't lose time reviewing previous material. Typically we work Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday in June and July. We take two to three weeks off between the end of the year in May and the beginning of the school year in June, as well as a week or two off in August before public schools go back. The material we use is a hodge podge. We were given curriculum from ABeka. The material was fine, but my son didn't find it challenging enough. Also, I felt that the health and science was so focused on God within science that we missed the great microcosms of creation that God made. I'm not against God in curriculum, but it just missed the mark for my taste. My kids also do a daily Bible study and have Bible curriculum during the school year, so I feel confident in letting them learn about cells through naming the parts, learning the function, etc. We were also given material for reading comprehension through Veritas Press. These, I fell in love with. Each year, we allow my son to choose his reading comprehension guides/novels. His involvement helps with his engagement of the assignments. We take the catalog sent to us by Veritas Press and move to his upcoming grade. Together we look at the novels on his grade level and then make a decision. We choose three to four a year typically. My aunt was the one to turn me on to these. She sent me the first few and asked that Caleb not write in the books so that she could use them with her granddaughters after. Well, that is brilliant! What Caleb has done, AJ can now do. When AJ completes them, we send them up to my aunt. Multiple uses! This aunt (with 28 years of homeschool experience) also showed us these great math books called Life of Fred. They read a chapter and then answer a handful of questions based upon the reading. It builds each chapter, and each book. At this point, we have some of the kindergarten books, second grade books, and middle school books. For some reason, we didn't purchase them for Caleb in 2-4th grades. When we bought him the 5th-8th grade books, he about flipped his lid. Excitement overflowed through his pours. We have now seen that we will own the rest of the series for AJ, because she loves them as well. What about the rest? Well, we love the company Evan Moor. We use workbooks with Daily work, Skill Sharpeners, and pockets. The books are typically "easy" workbooks, but they are so engaging. For some reason, my children could sit and do these books all day happily. When our shipment arrives, they cannot wait to get into the books. That is a good sign. We use these books for ELA, Science, Social Studies, Reading, Math, and Critical Thinking. In the summer time, I allow my kids to use the Brain Quest workbooks. They love them, and they offer a great deal of basics that kids should know. For Caleb, I found some books from Teacher Created Resources based on history. They have a variety of options. I allowed Caleb to choose three. Within the books, they have reading, language, book reports, maps, history, science, and more. The lesson plans are laid out for you. There are answer keys and even quizzes for the reading comprehension. I use these in between semesters. It is so different from what we do normally, that we both love it. Additionally, for Social Studies, we will read books where I will then ask questions and hold discussions. Our studies on civil rights have been mainly in this fashion. It will take more from you, and is definitely worth it. For the younger grades, Complete Curriculum is also very useful. What I like about this, is that they have the variety of subjects, but are heavy on writing. Both of my children despise writing assignments. They love to write stories on their own. But the moment you tell them to write anything, it's terrible. The weeping and gnashing of teeth. For some reason, when this book comes out, they will write letters, stories, and whatever else the directions say to. We have also been given some materials that were used in the local public school. We will add these books in. Things like My World for Social Studies, or Interactive Science. I use spelling bee lists for spelling words. They have spelling tests. Caleb has vocabulary. Basically, we piece things together. I love to create my own curriculum. I love to read alongside them and discuss the books. I enjoy doing science experiments with them from various books. And for every time I create a great series of lesson plans, I need the workbooks to refresh my brain cells and give us some separation. As we wrap up our third year of homeschool today, I know that we have made the right decision. I also know that my freedom in teaching has allowed them to learn things they wouldn't in the walls of their local school in ways that wouldn't be available. I'm not against public schools, but I'm sure glad Caleb begged me to homeschool him. It's an incredible journey. P.S. It makes "after school" activities so much easier! Have to stay out late, no problem, there's no alarm to get you on a bus. Dance competition and we need to leave Friday? No worries there. Let's hit the museum and have a field trip while we're gone. Class starts thirty minutes after the bus would drop you off? No rushing here. Just throw your stuff on and go. Definitely the best decision I've made as a parent.
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May 2023
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