Thursday, April 2, 2009

School Work

I am trying to decide what to do for Grant's school work next year. He is not doing as well as I think he should be. Is it that I am biased because of my background? Sometimes I think being a teacher messes me up with homeschooling. I have seen what good readers the ABeka curriculum can produce, but at the same time I also know that not everyone learns the same. I also fear that if I switch curriculum, we will miss learning something or I will mess what Grant has already learned up. I know that different phonics programs teach in different ways.

Next year already worries me. Katie Beth will start Kindergarten and Seth will be more active. I will have to figure out a better schedule for everyone.

Here is what I am thinking for each child. Grant: Sonlight for reading and history, Explode the Code and ABeka for phonics, ABeka for Math, A Reason for Spelling or Abeka for spelling and ABeka for handwriting. I am not sure about science.
Katie Beth: Just about everything will be ABeka. I may add Explode the Code and we just started 100 Easy Lessons. We probably will not be finished with it when we start school next year.

I just started Katie Beth on 100 easy lessons. She is so excited about it. She will be my one that loves to do school, if I keep reminding her that I am the teacher.

1 comment:

SuzanneDeAZ said...

I too am a school teacher who homeschooled and found myself really involved in "schoolish" activities, moreso than the other homeschool moms. I do not think it is a disadvantaged. As far as reading curriculums it does not hurt to have more than one as each child learns differently.

The 100 easy lesson curriculum is the home school version of the public school Distar program which is still used in the ps system under another name, Reading Mastery. I was blessed to have been trained by Siegfried Englemann to use his curriculum over 25 years ago. The summer I took his course he shared with us that he was just finishing up producing a homeschool version of the DISTAR program. He said he believed that with his materials anyone person he met in a grocery store could be equipped to teach his child to read. That is so true. His curriculum is very script and it is easily usable to the non trained person. It was not till years later that I used the book homeschooling my daughter along with my sister's grandchildren. One does not have to be a trained teacher to have the skills to teach your child to read. I think Michelle Duggar may use this too as I think I have see it on her show. It was just a glimpse but I recognize the unique print.

Did you know on 9 11 when President Bush was reading to a group of second graders in a public school he was reading from one of the Distar, Reading Mastery books?