What To Teach?

I have tried to teach nature study to my children before.  When my oldest was a toddler I took her outside and showed her, “There’s a tree.”  But then what?  After I had told her it was a tree, I really didn’t have anything else to say and I sure couldn’t think of any activities to make that tree interesting.
I need help.  Lots of help.  Fortunately, there are some really good products on the market to help parents just like me!  I thought I would take a few minutes to share the resources I am using with my children…

If there was one book I would recommend for every beginning homeschooler, “100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum” by Cathy Duffy would be it!

The problem with buying curriculum is that you are often buying it “sight-unseen” and it scares me to invest a lot of money into what is going to shape my children when I don’t really know what I’m buying!  Cathy Duffy eliminates that risk.  I started by getting her book from the library.  (I checked it out so many times that I finally just bought my own copy!)  This book is so helpful because in addition to reviews of top-of-the-line curriculum, the first FIVE chapters bring you through the process of expressing your personal Philosophy of Education in words.  Whereas I was completely overwhelmed by all the “good stuff” out there, Cathy Duffy helped me to zone in on exactly what I want to teach my children and how I want to teach it.  That process in itself eliminates so many options that are good, but not the best for our situation.  She also has quizzes to help you figure out your teaching style and your child’s learning style.  That’s a really important step.  For example, my little Miss-Perfectly-Organized Daughter loves to sit and do workbooks by the hour, but if I try that approach with my little Wiggle-Worm son, it will drive him around the bend in no time flat.  And I confess, I am more like my son than my daughter.  (She might have been switched at birth!)  These programs that involve intense teacher preparation followed by a lot of seatwork, well, I’m just not going to be very motivated to teach something like that.  And what’s the point of purchasing a curriculum – no matter how wonderful it is -  if I personally find it burdensome to teach?  “100 Top Picks” has helped me zero in on some great choices that not only meet my children’s learning styles, but also my own personal teaching style.  So we are all happy!

 So what am I teaching?

Bible:  We are using some lovely little devotional books called “A Family Devotional Guide:  Read the Bible By Its Stories.”  I found them on this website.   Each day gives you a rather long passage to read directly from the Bible.  So the bulk of the day’s devotional comes directly from the Bible.  The little booklet contains 5 follow up questions about that day’s reading.  There are 12 booklets in the set, each booklet covering one month.  By the end of the year the children and I will have read all of the major stories in the Bible, directly from the Word of God rather than from a devotional or a storybook.  This set is exactly what it claims to be:  a guide.

Nature Study:  Our main “textbook” will be nature itself, of course, but I need some help knowing what to observe and when, so I am turning to “The Kids Nature Book” by Susan Milord.  It has a different nature activity for each day of the year!  Not all of the activities are age appropriate for little ones, but I’d say 3 or 4 activities each week are appropriate for them.  This is a book I expect to be referring to for several years to come!  And the best part is, it’s really not an expensive book at all and its widely available used on Amazon or Paperback Swap!

We will also be using The "Outdoor Hour Challenge" and the corresponding book “Handbook of Nature Study” (which is totally reference!!!  Full of great information, but don’t expect to be reading this one to your kindergarten student for hours on end!) by Anna Botsford Comstock.  The handbook can be purchased here:  Handbook of Nature Study twenty-fourth Edition or here.

Phonics:  The Rod and Staff phonics program is a good fit for my workbook-loving daughter and her “I want something different every day” mother/teacher.  The workbooks are thorough and predictable but have enough variety and are enjoyable enough to keep me happy too.  Surprisingly, I like the teacher guide.  It is well enough illustrated that I don’t necessarily have to read every word and there are suggestions for little games or activities to go along with the lesson.   (Well, so far… But we’re only on week #1)  Written and published by Mennonites, it is constantly drawing the children’s attention to nature, which is nice.  The only drawback is that it does have those bland black and what phonics cards, so I just substituted the alphabet wall cards and phonics cards from Christ Centered Curriculum.

Math:  We are using Math U See.  It’s not nature oriented, but I want my children to have a very strong foundation in math.  I don’t have one and I don’t feel able to teach math in a way that excites the children.  Math U See is a mastery program (meaning you have to MEMORIZE your addition, subtraction, multiplication tables and any other mathematical concepts before moving on to the next stage.  My daughter will love that.  But, they also have these great little manipulative blocks that make the purpose to math clear and obvious.  I mean, I’ve done a thousand quadratic equations and I never understood what they were accomplishing until I watched the demonstration video for Math U See.  Mr. Demme makes math make sense!  I am looking forward to learning a lot through this program with my children (and yes, I bought enough blocks for us to share!)

 

I must insert a word to the frugal here…  Getting started with Math U See is expensive.  The blocks are expensive and the container to put them in is expensive.  (And let’s face it, who really wants hundreds of little math blocks scattered around the house?  They really need a home!)  So I put a wanted ad up on Craigslist.  It took a couple of months, but a lady contacted me and sold me her entire Primer set for $50.  That included the complete set of blocks, the student book, the teacher book, the DVD, and the skip counting songs CD.  Great deal!  Then another lady on Craigslist was selling an incomplete set of blocks for $5.  I picked those up in case we lost any and needed replacements.. and also so that eventually both children can do math at the same time without running out of blocks.  That probably wasn’t necessary… We have more than enough blocks now!  Then I got a great carrying container from the Container Store that houses the blocks perfectly:  The regular price is $14 and I got it on sale for $9.  Great deal, all around!

When I was choosing a math program I was torn between “Math U See” and “RightStart Mathematics.”  Rightstart has a great abacus and abacus activities that I think will really help solidify the concepts of math.  It probably isn’t necessary with Math U See, but I have decided to supplement with the book “Activities for the  AL Abacus.” Rightstart has a lot of card games and I don’t believe that teaching my children to play cards is a good idea if I am trying to raise Christ-centered adults.  But their abacus is fantastic!  So I’m hoping their abacus book will be as good as it promises.  It hasn’t arrived yet, so stay tuned….

Music:  I play the piano and flute, so naturally my children are interested in those two instruments.  I didn’t start piano until I was 12 years old, so I don’t feel like children must be playing an instrument by the time they are 6 or else…  But they want to play, so I want to encourage that!  I am using “Alfred’s All In One Sacred Course for Children” with my daughter.  It's really just Alfred's regular program with the illustrations and the words to the songs  and an old program with my son called “The Very Young Pianist” by Jane Smisor Bastien.

                         

I was in the flute store one day and the sales lady there talked me into purchasing little Fifes made by Yamaha.  I hate the sound of recorders, but these were so cute, so I purchased them against my better judgment!  But look how adorable a little fife player is!

It turns out that they sound much better than a recorder and the children are both able to get a fairly decent sound out of it.  We will be using “The Fife Book” by Liz Goodwin to learn to play Fife (which is a precursor to flute, if we choose to move on.).  This is one of those “Don’t judge a book by its cover…” books.   A really neat teaching tool to help the children develop their embouchures (the way they hold their lips to get the best tone possible) is the “Pneumo Pro”…  I haven’t purchased it yet, but plan to soon.

Art:  We will be using the preschool book by Brenda Ellis (who wrote the “Artistic Pursuits” series) called “The Way They See It,”  That book arrived yesterday and it looks wonderful!  It uses art (reproduced in the book for the children to look at) and nature to teach the children to observe the world through the eyes of an artist.  Lots of information in this book for the non-artist parent trying to teach art (that would be me!)  =)  Right now they are on sale at Lamppost Publishing.

Miscellaneous Preschool Activities:  While my older daughter is “doing school” there will be times when my son wants to “do school” with her, but is really too young for some of her activities.  “Preschool Activities in a Bag” from www.activitybags.com to the rescue!  I will be converting several of the activities into file folders so that he can easily pick and choose his activities from our hanging file folder holder.