As I began to think about Veteran's Day and all that our soldiers have sacrificed over the years for the freedoms that we tend to take for granted, I was reminded of the new freedoms we are enjoying in our lives this year.
Since we began homeschooling in 2007 we have been involved in extra curricular activities, swim, dance, soccer, co-op, etc. Those things were fun but also kept us rooted to a strict schedule with no room for spontaneity, exploration or relaxation.
So when my Poogie injured her knee and my kids left the world of dance back in February I was at a loss. I could not grasp the idea of not being involved in an outside activity. What would we do? We have to do extra curricular activities! Our world has to be structured!
After 8 months of trying to find something for that extra curricular hole in our schedule we found one. Nothing. That's right nothing. We decided to enjoy life for the first time in 8 years. So we went to concerts, lots of concerts. We took day trips and explored. Took the time to try new activities and sports. But, above all we just took time to chill and enjoy life.
I still worried that our new found freedom was not appropriate. I thought that without those structured activities Poogie would not receive the experiences she needed to grow. Then, something awesome happened on our trip to Arkansas in October. Poogie told me that these last 8 months were the best ever. She loved exploring the world. Learning things first hand, not just out of a book. Experiencing everyday things like going to concerts, because her dance schedule had never really allowed for time to go or even hang with friends. Yes, she missed dance at times, but not the lack of freedom.
During all this time I was worried about loosing something, what we found is Freedom! It just goes to show that what you think is right for you and your family sometimes can be the exact opposite. You just need to have the courage to break away and try something new.
I know I have not completed my series on math curriculum chat. Time and life has just gotten away from me. I will add to the series in the near future. However, today I need to share about our first 6 weeks of the first trimester of 2015-2016 school year.
That's right we are doing trimesters this year. A whole new concept for us, but one I think we will like. I scheduled my trimesters in three, twelve week blocks with a week break every 6 weeks. I feel that week is much needed to recharge, reflect and prepare for the next six weeks.
I planned the year out using this calendar from the Donna Young website. If you never visited this site check it out. Great resources for just about everything.
Next week is our final week in this 6 week block. So far we have been happy with all but one of our curriculum choices and have been moving smoothly along.
As I said we are changing one subject in our curriculum. Poogie will be completing the last unit in her Chemistry text and we must move on. While we enjoyed the text the new material was quite and dry and a little overwhelming. Our new choice has brought us back to an old reliable curriculum that I used for T all the way through high school, Apologia.
We are secular homeschoolers, but I do use a lot of Christian curriculum. One, because it is cheaper, more widely available and has great supplements. I have created my own curriculum over the years due to a lack in secular choices. It tends to burn me out and leads to a very unhappy teacher and student. So what I do is take great curriculum like Apologia, Bob Jones and others and modify it to suit our needs. It is so much easier.
That said Poogie loves biological sciences and would love to study zoology and virology. Since there is a lack of, or any middle school curricula on virology, we have decided to focus on zoology of land animals. Apologia has a great curriculum for elementary and middle school. I will enhance and beef up the curriculum with videos, reading, my college zoology textbook, field trips and even some dissection. According to Apologia Poogie is suppose to be doing Physical Science this year, but since she will be doing physical science for high school I wanted to do one more year of fun science.
We will begin the new curriculum on September 28th, the first day of our next six weeks. Can't wait!
Today I want to share our experience with another math curriculum, Rod & Staff. I was drawn to this curriculum when we first started homeschooling by its conventional style and well-organized format.
It is a curriculum written for the Christian classroom, however it is easily adapted to homeschool. The lessons are well laid out and easy to follow. Although the chapters and lessons are set up in a mastery format, the authors threw in a great amount of review.
I would love to say that both of my children had great experiences with R & S, however I cannot. I started using this with T after using Math U See to get him caught up on basic math skills. He came home from public school very behind and lacking most basic skills. T and this curriculum were like oil and water. He didn't like the lessons, the timed test nor the pace. We made it through half the year and went back to Math U See.
Poogie thrived with this curriculum. We began with Math U See, went to Saxon (big mistake) and ended up with R & S. The only reason we have went back to Math U See is that he completed all the levels of R & S and is now moving into the high school years. I find it so interesting how one child can thrive with a curriculum and another just sinks.
Pros-
Through lessons with great review and supplementary materials.
Easy to use for teacher and student.
Low cost for such a high quality curriculum.
Cons-
Christian-based (for those who only want to use secular curriculum)
May be a little overwhelming for students use to a workbook style curriculum. The student has to copy from a textbook in this curriculum.
I'm sure there are many more pros and cons for this curriculum but these are the main ones I found to be true for our family. My next post will be about a few of the other curriculums we have used for supplement and reinforcement of skills over the years. Till then...
