Somebody suggested I post about homeschool curriculum (curricula?)–particularly Math, Science, and Bible.

{the sloppy homeschool shelf}

I don’t write about homeschooling a whole lot, for a few reasons.  A)  Even though we’re in our seventh year of it, I still feel very…rookie.  B)  I think homeschooling is a very dull topic.  Like, duller than the other dull topics I go on about.

But, whatever, I can still throw in my two cents.

We use Sonlight as our main curriculum.   Armed with my puny BA in Lit, I have this to say: Sonlight’s selections are way better than the crapola books I had to read in college, [and yes, I'm talking to you Professor BigStuff with your exaggerated lilt and your Marquise of O.  You probably sleep with little Eliot and Pound dolls, don't you?  You probably think you invented tea, don't you?]

For Bible, we mainly use The Bible.  I love the New International Reader’s Version (NIrV.)  We’ve been reading every school day for years out of the Adventure Bible, and it’s been wonderful.  That particular Bible has a lot of little blurbs about…interesting stuff.  I’m flipping through it right now…for instance, a cutaway illustration of an ancient house and courtyard, a blurb about how letter-writing materials have changed throughout the centuries, background information at the beginning of every book, a blurb about ship anchors, a “Did You Know?” box that talks briefly about “What did a high priest do?” and on and on.  Besides the extremely readable format, there has been a lot of other info and discussion questions to keep us occupied.

If you’re more of a “life application” kind of Bible reader, there is also a Kids’ Quest NIrV Bible that I have been impressed with.  My daughter has this one and enjoys it, but I prefer reading out of the Adventure Bible for school.

The key, I think, is to find a translation that your kids can understand and enjoy.  If I try to lay a bunch of thees and thous on them, they go to sleep.  And I’d just have to rephrase everything anyhow.

Sometimes, too, if I come across an interesting read, or am recommended one, the kids and I will do that too, but honestly, 90% of the time we just read from the Bible for our “Bible curriculum.”  Back in September/October of last year we read Max and Jenna Lucado’s You Were Made to Make a Difference, and it was really fun and relevant.  Like really relevant.  Like websites you can go to right now to get involved in your community and the world.

Ok, Science.  We’ve been using Switched-On Schoolhouse software for the past few years, and we’ve like it ok, but I don’t think we’re going to stay with it.  It’s very intense, I think, and dwells on minutiae.  I need to look at Home Science Tool’s Catalog and Curriculum Guide and see if maybe there’s a better fit for us out there.

And it goes without saying, right, that if we ever really want a certain curriculum, but it’s really beyond our budget, that we should really look on eBay for said curriculum, particularly in summer, or even post a “wanted” ad on Craigslist?  Or go to a used curriculum fair sponsored by our local homeschool co-op?  Or sign up to be a part of an online forum for our local co-op and then ask if any one of their hundreds of members has that curriculum lying around that they’d like to sell dirt cheap or trade?

And Math.  We are huge, huge fans of Math-U-See.  My son loved it from an early age–still can’t figure out if he’s more visual or more tactile in his learning style, but whatever, it’s well-suited for both styles, and my daughter is an auditory learner and Math-U-See works for her too because of the videos.  Note: It’s a very sequential program with a unique fundamental paradigm, so slipping into this program at an older age may be a bit tricky.  Math-U-See has an FAQ page that appears to address this.  Highly recommend.

Also, year before last, I think, we finally, as a desperate Hail Mary attempt to get our son to memorize his times tables, got Memorize In Minutes.   It worked.  It has some of the dorkiest, most ridiculous illustrations and rhymes, but it was exactly what he needed.   I had a really hard time with my times tables too.  Memorizing numbers is a really hard thing for visual learners, apparently.  I wish we had gotten that book two years earlier than we did, but oh well.

Total aside:  And this is my unprofessional take on things.  How do you know what kind of learner your kid is?  Well, when you ask your child something, does he/she pause for a bit before answering?  Does he doodle a lot on stuff?  Or seem to be staring off into space during a lesson?  Probably a visual learner.  All those pauses and stares and doodles are an attempt to create a visual image in his mind of whatever it is he’s just heard or read.  Give that kid as many pictures and diagrams as you can.  Or, do you have a kid that won’t keep his blasted hands off anything?!  In stores he touches everything, and pets animals, and gets his grubby hands on everything precious in sight and is always grabbing things out of your hands and always like Can I hold it? Good chance that’s a tactile/kinesthetic learner–experiences the world through touch.  Buy stuff he’s allowed to touch.  Let him hold as much as you can bare for him to hold.  Make sure he’s always got something to hold onto while he’s doing stuff; it will make him feel smarter.  Those kids…those kids have it rough.  Can you imagine going to a museum where it’s just one visual display after another and everything’s cordoned off and all you want to do is feel the painting, the sculpture, the glass, the fiber, but you have to just look, and looking doesn’t absorb into your mind the way it does with other people, and you know you will forget.  And you know you are always in trouble for touching.  And then there’s the auditory learner.  The kid who likes music on in the car and also likes to talk over the music–like it’s her own personal soundtrack.  When you ask her questions, it is not odd for her to sing her response.  When the house is quiet, and she’s supposed to be doing math problems, she starts to generate her own sound–little lip smacks or popping sounds or toe taps or table thumps.  Because when there is sound, things are real, memorable.  Anytime you can get that kid to learn through song, do it.  Give her some learning/homework space where she can have a radio playing–even just classical music.  If she gets her work done faster when she’s listening to her mp3 player, let her listen to it.  And when she creates her own noise, try to understand.

And read this book.

And now I’m really bored.

Bye.