Our Homeschooling in 2017

Today, I had a friend over and we dove in to all of my homeschooling curriculum. I realized, she's one of many lately who have wondered what I use, what I like, and what works for us and doesn't. I've written a post like this in the past, but as many things do, life has made me change many things. At this point, I"m really happy with what we use, so here is what we use and why we like it:

Math - Until this year, we have used MCP Math. (Side note, that links to Cathy Duffy's website. If you're doing any curriculum research, check out her site, as she compares almost every curriculum and gives you a great review on them.) I have really liked this MCP Math, as it requires little to no teaching. There is a teacher's manual, but I've only used the manual with kid #1 in the very beginning. It became more helpful with grade 3 when checking the answers.

This year, I decided to try out Teaching Textbooks. I had seen many people rave about it, and decided it was an easy option to use in the middle of our overseas move. Conclusion: We love it. It involves a lecture teaching the lesson to the kids, and many problems to solve. I can log in and see their grades. It's also easy to pass on to the other kids. There is a limit of 3 times, but then you simply call the company and they reset it for you. There are books that can go with the CDs, but I found them not useful or necessary.

My complaints about it- It's on a CD. So that means #1 and #2 are taking their cd in and out of the CD drive every time- meaning it's prone to getting scratched over time. Also, if they start on one computer and switch to another, as we recently had to do, the grades do not transfer. Teaching Textbooks does not start until 3rd grade, but I've heard it's about a year behind compared to public schools, so in the future, I will start TT 3 with my 2nd graders.

Religion- For years, we used Faith and Life with the Teacher's Guide. I loved it. The teacher's guide had so much 'more' to it to really help my children apply what I was teaching to their lives. However, by the 3rd or 4th year I was teaching it, I really felt like i was just repeating everything year after year. Yes, repetition is important, but I was now bored teaching it. And... I now needed to teach 2 years instead of just 1 (Kid 1 and 2 were learning at the same grade), and it just wasn't happening any more.

So, I decided to try Seton Religion. I felt that something was better than nothing. These are simply workbooks, by grade. The older two read the lesson and answer the questions each day. We hadn't done much religion last year, so I purchased grade 3 for both of them, even though they're in 4th. We are a few pages from the end, and I just ordered grade 4. They also have a review page at the end of each week, so last night I typed up all the 3rd grade review questions, and plan to spend next week doing a religion game with them, to see how much they really grasped. I also just ordered the 1st and 2nd grade for kid #3, and we'll start doing that together, as I haven't done much religion with her yet. (However, since we live the faith constantly in our home, she is getting religion in many other ways.) These books run about $15, and cannot be passed on. Seton also has a Bible History book that looks good, but we use another program for History that I don't want to quit, so I have not used their Bible History.

Grammar- I have tried grammar books from Catholic Heritage Curriculum or Seton in the past, but having a strong back ground in English, especially with a degree in Public Relations, I never truly felt that grammar was being taught through these programs. Then I discovered Fix It Grammar and I love it. First, you pay $19 for the teacher's book, and then you get the download to print the student book, for however many kids you have. We print them and put them in a 3 ring binder. Each day has a sentence that the student then diagrams, marking nouns, verbs, adjectives, contractions, apostrophes, etc. After so many lessons, they learn a new part of grammar, Each new piece they learn comes with a grammar card that they keep in an envelope and look back at for reference. After diagramming, they get their notebook and rewrite the sentence in their notebook, the correct way. When the entire book is done, in theory, they would have the story written out perfectly. Also, each lesson has a vocabulary word, so they also write the vocabulary word and look up the definition. Therefore, through this program, they are getting vocabulary, grammar, research skills and handwriting. The lessons are done with one sentence per day, 4 days a week, but I usually have them do two lessons a day.

Typing -  This year I decided the older two were old enough to start introducing basic typing skills. I've seen too many adults do the hunt and peck typing, and wanted to be sure they know how to have proper typing, knowing the home keys and able to look at the screen or a book or a teacher while typing. So, we began using Typing Club and it's been great- and free!

Spelling - In the past, I have used spelling books from Catholic Heritage Curriculum or Seton. However, I felt this method of memorizing spelling words wasn't working for kid #1, and we needed to figure out a good phonics based program. I had it narrowed down to The Writing Road to Reading with this guide or All About Spelling. I went with TWRR for this year. Long story short, I've come to realize, it's just not working for us. I like the idea behind it, but it required teacher prep and teaching, and it just wasn't happening. So, I just bought All About Spelling, like it arrived this week. However, I've only heard positive things about it from others, so I think it'll be great for us.

Science- Let me be honest, I hate science. This makes it incredibly difficult to teach. I've tried science workbooks from a few companies and found them boring or dry or I simply didn't want to teach them. This year, I decided to jump in on Apoligia. My biggest caveat in recommending this is to let people know it is young earth based and Creation based.  know not everyone believes that, so I throw that warning out. I believe God is the Creator, but I don't believe the earth is only 6,000 years old. However, we make it work. We talk about how this is a theory, and there are other theories as well. The reason I like this program is I can teach it to all of the kids, no matter their grade level. There are notebooks that go along with it, and the older kids get a notebook that is more involved. This year, we chose to do birds, because someone had given me an Apologia birds book, and I felt that it was very little money lost if we did not indeed like it. We haven't done much, due to the move, but so far I like it better than anything else we've tried.

Art- This year I decided to start using Catholic Schoolhouse's Art program. We haven't done much, but it's super simple and easy and I can do it whenever we have an extra moment to do a bit of art, and all the kids can do it. I actually like a lot of what I've seen of Catholic Schoolhouse, but have only purchased this from them. They do offer a full curriculum.

Reading - With kids 1 and 2 I used Little Stories for Little Folks, which I really liked and had planned on using with all my kids. However, a few years ago, I enrolled in St. Thomas Aquinas Academy and they had me using Little Angel Readers, which I completely fell in love with. This program has one teacher's guide, 4 books, and then 4 workbooks. The guide and books can be passed on to each kid (**Side note, if you plan to do that with curriculum, get contact paper and put it on your books to preserve them**) and then I purchase each of the workbooks for $9 for each kid. Each book builds on itself, and it includes sight words, vocabulary, some general phonics, spelling words, handwriting, hands-on spelling (Making words out of tiles), and even some small art projects. There are some things i pick and choose, like I don't always do the art projects, or if #3 is having a rough day with it, i won't make her write the spelling words 3x each, etc. But I love this program, and we will be done with book 1 for kid # 3 tomorrow and we're all super excited!! (It's been a long road for this one)

Music -  Kid 1 and 2 are in the choir. They also previously took piano, and it looks like on Monday, we're starting it back up! I'm not sure who's more excited. I am waiting until #3 can read a bit better before starting lessons with her, as she's not as interested it seems.

Physical Education - Sometimes during our day, we will stop and do some videos from GoNoodle to get us up and moving and get the wiggles out. We also just joined a homeschool PE program through the local parks and recs program, getting us out of the house once a week in these cold winter months. The kids have loved the one class they attended.

Writing - Someone gave me a box of these Writing Prompt cards, level 2. So, a few weeks ago, I started pulling one out once or twice a week, and making the older two write an essay based on the prompt.

That's a lot for one blog post, so I'll end there. Soon, I will write a blog post on our history program, which is my favorite part of our homeschooling day honestly. I'll also share some of the curriculum programs I've explored, and what other supplemental things we use in our family to help us learn, especially about our faith. Feel free to ask me any questions about the curriculum I've listed.