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morning memory work at the kitchen table |
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Liam giving a presentation on beyblades at our local CC community |
Other things that worked this year:
ABeka has been a tried and true curriculum for us since Silas was in prek-4. We have had great success with their phonics program for reading, their cursive writing curriculum, and their math curriculum. My boys did their fair share of worksheets, but not nearly as many as the curriculum recommended. We skipped all of the busy work and kept moving forward as the boys were able.
xtramath.com
Somewhere mid-year math was becoming a huge frustration for Silas. He knew how to do the work, but it was taking him much longer than it should have. I quickly realized that he hadn't fully mastered his math facts and that we needed to drill lots more than we had been. I found xtramath.com, and it has been a huge help and timesaver for me. Basically I can delegate the drilling to "Mr. C," who drills and keeps track of Silas' progress for me. And it's free! Seeing his progress charts motivates Silas to continue working hard. It's definitely a win for us.
Copywork
The biggest way we have streamlined our homeschool year is through copywork. If you're not familiar with copywork, it's basically the practice of copying well-written sentences from a variety of different sources (literature, poetry, Scripture, etc.) for the purpose of practicing handwriting, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Silas began copywork about mid-year. I had him start copying a 2nd grade reading book. His goal was to copy (in cursive) a few sentences a day straight from the book, including proper capitalization, punctuation, word spacing, and spelling. After he completed his sentences, we would go over his handwriting, capitalization and punctuation rules, and then pick a few spelling words to practice. The consistency of this simple work has proven highly successful. It helps us to knock out a variety of subjects all at once in a very natural way. It also models for him what proper sentences and well-written words look like.
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One of my favorite homeschool reads this year |
Things that didn't work:
Formal Spelling Curriculum
I had every intention of following a formal spelling curriculum for Silas this year, but we were never consistent with it. I took comfort in knowing that phonics was a natural springboard for spelling, and I knew Silas has a firm foundation in phonics, so I wasn't extremely concerned. And then copywork came along, and he was practicing spelling naturally, which was very helpful. My plan, however, is not to drop spelling altogether. While copywork reinforces spelling to a degree, there is nothing like good old fashioned daily drilling of spelling words. In these last few weeks of our school year, we will be drilling some commonly misspelled words, and hope to find something that we can be consistent with next year.
Following a detailed, time-based schedule
At the beginning of our homeschool year, I created a detailed, minute-by-minute time schedule of how I wanted our days to look. I was feeling highly motivated, and I let my idealistic spirit overshadow the reality of our daily lives-- the chaos, the messes, the meltdowns, the sicknesses, etc. My failure to put some margin into our days was a clear recipe for disaster. Add in the fact that I'm not a very scheduled person by nature, I felt like I was drowning only a few weeks in. So I sat back and took a good look at the basic rhythm of our days as well as the big picture goals I had for our homeschool. We ditched the time-based schedule, and chose a loop-style schedule instead. Basically we have a list of tasks to complete, and we work through them as the day allows. We don't focus on lesson numbers, but on actually understanding concepts. Our goal is to get through our list of subjects each day, of course, but if life gets in the way, we pick up where we left off the next day. So basically, there is no "first" subject of the day and "last" subject of the day. We follow our subjects in a circle and work at the pace that life allows.
Not waking up before the kids
Not only am I not a very scheduled person by nature, but I'm not a morning person either! I've had seasons where I was an early riser and seasons where I would wake up when the boys woke up. As of late, I've given in to the latter, and it has caused our mornings to be more chaotic that they should be. I am realizing more and more how critical it is to our mornings that I wake up before the boys to spend time in God's Word, clear my mind, and make preparations for the day. This is a discipline that I plan to work on in the coming months.
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morning Bible study with Silas |
So, we have about 6 weeks of schooling left before we end our year and take our summer break. I am praying through what next year will look like for us, carefully choosing curriculum that will move us toward our goals. But above all, I am praying that God will give me the wisdom to live a life worthy of the gospel in front of my children each day that I get to spend with them.
How is your homeschool year going? What would you do differently next year?
Love,
Beth