Curriculum Round-Up

So we wrapped up our school year at the end of May. In many ways, it was more successful than I had hoped. And in some ways, it left a lot to be desired. Being that this was our first year, my focus was mainly on the 3Rs. We didn't make it as far in history as I had hoped so we're going to have to dedicate some of our summer to getting caught up. But that's ok - history is a subject my children enjoy so it won't be hard to get through it.


The Girl has some math to get through as well - I'd like her to get through her 4th grade math (remember we started her off back in 3rd grade math to firm up her multiplication skills at the beginning of the year) so that she will be on grade level at the beginning of 5th grade in the fall. She has about 10 lessons left so we'll aim to do 1 per week to get her caught up and keep her math skills fresh throughout the summer.


Which leads me to my assessment of our curriculum choices for the year. Overall, I was pleased. And The Boy and The Girl were pleased.


1. First Language Lessons - This curriculum was probably my favorite of the entire year. I'm a grammar nazi so that predisposes me to liking this curriculum but I really enjoyed how EASY it was - for me and for my children. Both of them used it this year - The Boy working his way quickly through Level 1 and into Level 2 and the The Girl working through Level 4 (their last...sadly we will have to move on to a different language curriculum for her next year).
The lessons in the 1/2 book (Levels 1 and 2 were combined in this edition...Peace Hill Press has since separated them from what I recall) were short, sweet, and to the point. Lots of repetition - both in practice and in theory - helped cement the concepts in my son's mind (and mine...it's been a while since I had an English lesson!). Plenty of practical application and copywork as well which worked nicely for my son who is very much a hands-on learner. And the curriculum draws from works of literature that he is familiar with so that was a bonus as well! And, given the fact that he is a 1st grade boy, the short lessons worked well with his developing attention span. He especially enjoyed the lessons in which a picture is given and we get to dissect it, using the parts of speech being studied as our guidelines for discussion.
Level 4 was much more in-depth than level 1/2 but my daughter enjoyed the challenge. I grew up in a district that (as far as I can recall) did not teach sentence diagramming. FLL is HEAVY on sentence diagramming (not as heavy as Abeka, from what I understand, but heavy nonetheless) which helped her (and me) solidify her understanding of the various parts of speech being studied. I almost wish I had started her at Level 3 just so that we'd have one more year of FLL for her! There are plenty of practical applications in this level as well, including addressing an envelope properly, writing a proper thank-you note, an introduction to creative writing, summarizing, and reports, and contractions. This was one of the subjects she and I looked forward to each day. As a teacher, I appreciated the "script" that came in the teachers' edition - with no formal language instruction training, I was a little hesitant in this area. Even though I am strong in language, I'm not sure I know how to articulate that knowledge for my 9 year old. So that helped a LOT.


2. Writing With Ease - For The Boy, this curriculum was PERFECT! His penmanship was atrocious coming into first grade. Part of this was due to the fact that he was a 6 year old boy and part of that had to do with the fact that the district here starts kindergartners off having them write original sentences once they learn their letters. To expect a child to be able to master the motor skills of penmanship AND come up with original sentences and thoughts on their own at the same time is expecting a LOT of a 5 or 6 year old brain. The human brain is better at handling one thing at a time when it comes to development. That's why children who are learning how to walk will often regress in their verbal skills (or vice versa) - the brain compartmentalizes it's abilities, focusing it's energies on one thing at a time. And, not only do the schools here teach children these two skills concurrently, the expectations of quality are high from the get-go. Needless to say, Kindergarten was frustrating for The Boy in this area.
However, WWE separates penmanship and creative writing/original sentences. Each week, the focus is on a different piece of childrens' literature: two days of the week are copywork, one day involves the teacher reading a piece of the literature and having the child dictate a narrative of the passage, and the final day has the teacher read a different passage, the child dictate a narrative, and then the child is to copy the dictation. I found that The Boy's narratives were MUCH more detailed when he was dictating to me as opposed to being asked to write down his own narration. The most obvious example of how well this curriculum worked is the difference between his first few assignments and his final, year-end evaluation. His penmanship improved DRASTICALLY. I'm sure part of that was simply a part of his physical maturation but a part of it came from the ability to focus solely on his writing mechanics throughout this year.
WWE for The Girl was much more challenging than I had expected, especially for her. She is above average in her verbal and language abilities but this was a CHALLENGING curriculum. Her level combined original sentence construction/summarization/narration and dictation. And let me tell you, the dictation was significant in it's difficulty. So much so that we stopped doing it about 1/2 way through the first semester. I think, had we started off in Level 3, it wouldn't have been so difficult. She would have been more familiar with it and the length of the dictation pieces would have been less.
Our plan for next year is to actually have her start over with The Boy when he starts dictation as part of his WWE curriculum. Her confidence was shaken by her inability to keep up and I'd like to get her more comfortable with it so we're going to go slow, just like we did in math. I think the dictation exercises are INVALUABLE in life and I want her to gain this skill so we will make sure not to shy away from it.


3. Spelling Workout - Both of my children liked this curriculum, though it was The Boy that really enjoyed it and begged me to give him his completed workbook so that he could re-read the stories in each lesson. The lessons are short, the words are challenging without being too difficult, and the format (a newspaper format) was engaging. The Boy started off at the first grade level but the first 10-15 lessons were too easy for him so I would test him on the words before having him actually do the lesson. If he spelled them all correctly, we skipped that week's lesson. I did the same with The Girl - if she scored 100% on the pretest, she didn't have to complete the lesson. The fourth grade book was too easy for her so I bumped her up to the 5th grade book. The one thing that I didn't do this year that I will do next year is have them keep a spelling journal (a composition book) where they will write down the lesson's rule (each lesson has a rule that applies to the words in the lesson), take their pretest and final test, and write down the words they misspell for future reference.

4. Wordly Wise 3000 - I started this one during the second half of the year because I realized that my children didn't really have much in the way of vocabulary. I tried creating my own, based on our Science and History lessons but that just wasn't enough. The activities in WW3000 are varied enough to keep my son's attention (we broke each lesson in to 4 parts and completed it throughout the week but did not test on the words) and give him plenty of different contexts for each word. The workbook format allowed my daughter to work at her own pace and she tore through the book (again, I bumped her up a grade level because the fourth grade words were too easy) at her own pace.


5. Math-U-See - This is probably my second favorite curriculum of the year. Mr. Steve and his approach to math is incredibly simple and straightforward. His reliance on manipulatives helps my son get a grasp of the concept and gives my daughter something to "fall back on" in case she can't work it out in her head. My biggest complaint is that he sometimes moves too quickly in his lesson the DVD but that's the beauty of the DVD - we can pause it and rewind it. The Boy is getting ready to move into the third level (3rd grade - Gamma - multiplication) and I still have the DVD and instructor's guide. Obviously The Girl used up the majority of the worksheets and the tests but MUS offers the ability to generate additional worksheets on line so, rather than order a new student workbook, I will just generate worksheets for The Boy. Saves us some money!


6. Story of the World - We love history. LOVE. IT. And this curriculum is incredible. The text itself is a great read - a wonderful story of history and something that I'd have no trouble sitting on the couch and reading on a rainy afternoon. The activity guide that goes with it is in-depth, varied, and an incredible resource. I love the different literature suggestions offered for each lesson - selections that the kids can read on their own and selections that are better suited to be read aloud. The activities are varied in their complexity and the materials are pretty easy to find, using many household items. Sadly, this is one subject that was pushed aside in order to get through the 3Rs. We are hoping to make headway with it this summer and then be able to move into Volume 2 at the start of the next school year. We did not use the tests this year - I'm mainly interested in exposing them to the material at this point. They are both sponges and retain most of what interests them and ancient history definitely interests them!


7. Explode the Code - I grabbed this after The Boy ripped through his spelling in one semester. I didn't really feel like pushing him on to the second level (though, in hindsight, I could have and he would have loved it because he loves the Spelling Workout Curriculum) so I found Explode the Code. It was a nice accompaniment to his spelling and reinforced a LOT of the spelling rules that he had been taught in Spelling Workout. It's repetitive but easy enough for him to do completely on his own - something that I think is important for him to learn to do in small doses. So much of The Boy's curriculum (given the fact that he was in first grade) is teacher-involved so it was nice to have a few things that he could do independently.


8. Real Science 4 Kids (Chemistry) - We did this with our homeschool co-op and it went quite well. The curriculum is quite narrow in scope but there are dozens of experiments that allowed them to really get down and dirty with the subject matter. And what child (or adult, for that matter) doesn't enjoy blowing things up? Doing this subject with our co-op was great because the moms traded off teaching each lesson so the kids were able to experience different approaches to the same subject matter. And some of the moms enlisted the help of the older teens in performing some of the experiments which was a lot of fun! They dressed up as "mad scientists" and did all kinds of crazy experiments (think Mentos and Diet Coke, Alka Seltzer in a film canister, etc.). My only concern is that this subject was so narrow in scope and, as much as I liked it, I'm wondering if - at the lower elementary level - they should be doing something a bit more broad in scope.


9. Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) - This was another subject covered with our co-op and The Girl participated in this one. It was a great curriculum and it really pushed my daughter to develop her writing skills beyond what her normal language curriculum expected of her. The stories that she came up with were creative and really stretched her imagination. She learned alternatives to "banned words" (words like said, go, eat), descriptive words (-ly words), paragraph structure, openings, closings, and the like. Because this class was only held in the first half of the year, she did not make it through the level so we will be pickup up with it again in the fall as an add on to her regular language curriculum. I might have The Boy start coming up with his own stories to dictate to me as well.


10. Handwriting Without Tears - This one was really important for The Boy. His penmanship left a lot to be desired and this curriculum was a gentle way of helping him with it. The mechanics are presented in an incredibly straightforward fashion - so much so that I did not need to consult the teachers' manual other than when I first received it. The pages were engaging and easy enough for him to follow on his own - again allowing him to work independently. For The Girl, it was great practice for her developing cursive and she did so well that I don't think it's necessary to continue this with her next year.


11. Typing Instructor (online) - Another great program that both of my children were able to do independently! The set up is engaging, the skills are challenging but reasonable, and kids move on quickly enough so as to not lose interest. In this day and age, keyboarding/typing skills are as important - if not moreso - as penmanship and this program teaches them those skills easily. Both of my children enjoyed seeing what their goal (WPM) was and by how much they had exceeded that goal. What a fantastic motivator!


12. Pianimals - We were blessed to be offered FREE piano instruction by a friend of ours from church. She is a piano/keyboard player for one of the Praise and Worship teams at our church but is not trained as a music teacher. However, she has the heart of a teacher, her fundamentals are incredibly strong, and this curriculum is FANTASTIC! The progression is not only easy enough for a 5 year old to learn (though their hands are so small) but easy enough for ME to learn (I'm following along in the books with my children)! The Girl took to the piano instantly and has literally plowed through the books more quickly than any of us anticipated. Our friend had to stall with other books until the next level book arrived in the mail! The Boy is making solid, steady progress and I am excited to see him begin to love music. His listening skills (auditory learning) are weak and I really think that music instruction will help him in this area. We started lessons just shortly before we took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (he scored in the low end of the average range for listening skills when every other skill was far above average) so I am curious to see what his listening skills scores are next year after he's had a year of piano lessons.


13. Song School Latin - What an amazing little program! It's the basics of Latin - our first language - set to music. Such an easy way to remember things, especially when you're young! The worksheets that come with the CD are easy, engaging, and fun! My kids look forward to this subject every day and begged me to upload the music to their iPods. We listen to them in the car and sing some of them at night when they go to bed as their melodies are sometimes quite sweet.


14. Daily Geography - I didn't know until I put together our "Independent Folders" that either of my children would love Geography as much as they do! They dove into this and would literally gobble it up like it was Turkish Delight. The Boy, instead of completing a section per week, completed a section per DAY. Which necessitated me purchasing the next level of Daily Geography before the end of the first semester. But that's ok - he thoroughly enjoyed it, as did The Girl! During Christmas break and Spring break, we put their newfound map-reading skills to the test. We took off to the zoo one day and each of them had animals to which they were required to navigate using the zoo's map. I also introduced them to a map of our community and had them both help me navigate to go get ice cream! Their map-reading skills came in handy during Cub Scout camping trips and day camps as well!


So there you have my thoughts on our curriculum for the year. The Girl will be entering 5th grade in the fall and therefore, based on the classical education structure, will be entering the Logic phase of learning (The Boy remains in the Grammar stage) so there will be some changes necessary in The Girl's curriculum. I'm not yet sure if I plan to change anything for The Boy but I'll be looking into that this summer as we make plans for next year. I'll post more about that once I've made my decisions.


Right now, I'm off to enjoy some ice cream!




Pau.



- hfs