Curriculum
So, after a month of homeschooling, I've tweaked my curriculum and I think I have a very doable program, relaxed yet rigorous. Three days a week, four hours a day (an hour of which is taken up by recess and lunch).
- Aesop's fables. Barnes & Noble edition illustrated by Milo Winter. I think I paid $9 for this very beautiful book last year.
I pick out a short fable which she copies into a college-ruled notebook. She uses two lines instead of one, thereby turning it into a jury-rigged "kid's" notebook. After she copies it, I read it over for any errors, and then she reads it aloud to me. She then narrates the story back to me in her own words, and I write that down in a separate notebook.
This covers spelling, vocabulary, handwriting, reading comprehension, and basic written grammar rules. It takes about 40 minutes. She writes slower than molasses, but I have noted a remarkable improvement in her handwriting already.
I'm thinking of switching this up with a children's book of poetry. She likes lyrics, and often makes up her own songs. So I think she might really like poetry. - Kumon math workbooks. I picked up a couple at Barnes & Noble last year and gave them to my sister, but they never got worked. So I'm using them, and I really, really like them. She's already worked through the subtraction and multiplication workbooks and has a good grasp of those. She's now working a "geometry and measurements" book and a word problems book, both for second grade. These are $6 bucks a pop, so not inexpensive. On the other hand, they are working very well.
Kumon, as it turns out when I started doing research this month, is an international company that licenses tutoring centers. They charge about $150/month. So I figure it's a bargain if it only costs us $12 to 18/month in workbooks (especially since Colleen pays for it).
This takes us anywhere from 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours depending on how fun math is that day. We're also going to start drilling multiplication with flashcards next week. I know there are some at Colleen's house somewhere. - The Story of America - A National Geographic Picture Atlas. This is a used book that we must have picked up at a yard sale or a thrift store a couple years ago. It seems to be aimed at upper elementary students, maybe grades 5-7. It has lots of great pictures and info. But I'm really only using it as a "spine." We look it over, read any interesting captions from the pictures, and then we check out biographies from the library for her to read concerning the pertinent events. Right now we're covering the explorers: Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Coronado, de Champlain, John Smith.
She reads them aloud to me, and we both enjoy that. She's very good at reading aloud. She would probably make a good actor. Great pacing, emotion, etc. We spend maybe 15-20 minutes on this. - Free Reading. She can read to herself any chapter book she wants. 30-45 minutes. Thirty minutes if she can see the clock, 45 minutes if I can distract her from looking at it.
She finished her first chapter book ever! Yea! We are recording these in a little mini-notebook. I anticipate it will be years before she fills it up. She is NOT an enthusiastic reader. She has great skill, reading years above her grade level, but she does not like to sit and read. At all. So while she is capable of reading and understanding the Bible, a book I consider to have a high degree of difficulty, I am overjoyed that she actually finished "The Mouse and the Motorcycle." She is now working on "Fairest" by Gail Carson Levine who wrote "Ella Enchanted." It's a take off of Snow White. - Minimus - Starting Out in Latin. This was my big expense. For the Teacher's Guide, student book, and CD (which I felt I needed for pronunciation), it set me back $100. I paid for it, because I wasn't sure I could sell Colleen and Alex on Latin, but if I paid for the materials, I knew they wouldn't care. And they didn't.
Latin will cover vocabulary and grammar. We LOVE this program. It was designed for 7 to 10-year-olds in British schools. It will take us about three months to get through this. I will then re-sell all the materials and use the money to buy the next set. That will take another three months. At that time, if she is still homeschooling, we will start with a "serious" program. I wanted her to get excited about Latin before I hit her with a lot of heavy-duty grammar.