Quotes, Updates, Curriculum, Unschooling, and Such

With all my inward inspection turned outward you might think my life has been all gray and dreary and serious.  Not so.  That’s only reserved for those quiet alone times.  And how often does that actually happen?  Besides that, I’m amazed at how my soul has lifted after coming clean with God.  Really, do I ever learn?  While I was so bogged down with all that guilt and worry – life was continually happening around me.  And I don’t want to forget, so I’ll spend a couple of posts dedicated to the kiddos and where they are in life right now.  We’ll start with the two oldest children and their schoolwork.

By the way, thinking about milestones and schoolwork, I saw last week that ABC did a Good Morning America show on unschooling.  Did you know there are people who are completely against even the thought of unschooling, however misinformed about the majority of delight-driven taught children they may be?  I heard the report was awful.  And not just in the homeschool blogger community either,  even The Huffington Post said it was “hack job” reporting.  It’s interesting to me because I’ve been known to be, at times, awfully close to being an unschooler.  *gasp!*  I’m further from it right now than I ever have been and find that the actual schoolwork part of learning has never been so dry.  My oldest still loves science and history the best.  Is it sheer coincidence that those are the two subjects I still let him lead us in?

Back to the oldest…

~He’s in third grade – 8 1/2 years old.  Took the state mandated test.  I feel like we’ve finally rounded a corner with his schoolwork.  It’s not a pulling of teeth, whining, miserable experience right now.  He can actually write out all the work that I ask him to write.  We’re using a language arts curriculum called First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (Vol. Level 3) (First Language Lessons) that we got from Marsha (oh, my goodness, thank you SO much!).  It’s heavy one-on-one work, which I fear will eventually be very difficult with all the kiddos, but well worth it right now.  I’m reading aloud History/Geography/Social Studies to all of them from several different books.  We’re using lapbooks to do science - right now he’s working on a weather lapbook.  We kicked off cursive handwriting lessons with a quick cute read aloud called Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary.  He was so inspired by the book that jumping into daily lessons from Handwriting Without Tears – Grade 3 Cursive Handwriting has been completely painless.   I’m still just pulling together math work.  Everyday we’re working on skip counting/multiplication and a worksheet on regrouping with an occasional fractions, word problem, chart thrown in.  Our read aloud is another Beverly Cleary book – Ramona’s World (Ramona Series).  He’s working through a spelling book  Spectrum Spelling, Grade 3.  I’m thinking we’ll stick with this plan for the summer and gear up for a much heavier curriculum/text book based year next year.  We’re not doing much art right now and I want to remedy that.  I really like the art book Marsha sent – The Lamb’s Book of Art II and I plan to start it before too long.  I’m thinking next year – 4th grade – we will continue read alouds of American History adding Mystery of History Vol 1.  I’m thinking hard about picking up Saxon Math, and either continuing the First Language Lessons or starting Reading and English from BJU Press (I have everything I need for these 2 except for his workbooks) – suggestions here?  I think we may still continue an eclectic approach to science – lapbooking, studying nature, and following his interests, though I sure did like those Usborne lessons.  And we’ll of course continue read alouds constantly.  

He still likes to be the boss, probably always will, he’s made for it.  He loves riding his bike and creating things.  He likes his alone time and tv shows; especially Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, Discovery Channel, and Bill Nye the Science Guy right now.  He likes to report back to me all the things he’s learned from them and wants me to explain them further. 

My just turned 7 year old is finishing up 1st grade. 

He sits in on our history read alouds and is doing his own science lapbooks – just finished up one on meerkats.  He’s doing Spectrum Sight Words, Grade 1.  But I’m not thrilled with it, I’ll likely be looking for something else next year.  He’s doing handwriting from Handwriting Without Tears – My Printing Book.  Math is still pulled from random workbooks.  His language arts is sometimes combined with TheOldest’s and sometimes pulled from different workbooks.  I’m having him go back through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons- he is not happy with this decision, I quit very early on before and taught him just from books around the house, but I really think now that he’s further along that it would be good practice to go all the way through it.  He has not had the same issues with reluctant and late handwriting as his brother so he’s done much more traditional amounts of worksheets than his older brother.  So, though 2 grades younger, I will probably start him on more traditional textbooks next year as well.  We’ve been so blessed by my sister-in-law to inherit her BJU Press and Saxon Math teacher’s manuals and textbooks that all we have to buy are the workbooks. 

He loves to play games – board, pranks, and video.  He loves to run and jump and pretend.  He’s cuddly and sensitive – very much a pleaser, but stands his ground if perceives he’s been done wrong. 

In their words ~

When I told the oldest we were planning to help his 3 year old learn to sleep in his own bed, he said, “You’re going to make him sleep in his own bed?  Alone?  You know he’s going to cry not sleeping next to you?  You can’t do that to him, Mama, you know that’s torture, right?”

After church the other day my Middlest said, “We learned 2 new big names for God today.  I don’t remember them, but they were something like the other one we know – Mighty Creative.”

Unschooling, delight-driven, eclectic, or traditional, we seem to be doing something right! 

What does your teaching style look like?  How do you feel about homeschooling if you don’t do it, and even if you do?  What stuff do you use?  Are you planning on teaching your own kids?  And if so, what questions do you have?