Education

For a while now I have been bothered by the fact there is so much that my kids do not know. There is so much information out there! I myself am interested in so much, like teaching history from the beginning of time to the present, focusing on the documents written by the founding fathers (like the Federalist Papers), reading all the classical literature titles and more. In some ways, I believe I failed my eldest son by not homeschooling him thru high school. But due to his disabilites I was fearful he wouldn't be able to succeed in life without a high school diploma. I have since altered my thinking. He is actually "smarter" than I realized, and I can actually carry on a great conversation with him. I remember at one of his ARDs that I was told while he read on a low level, he had the speaking vocabulary of a 12th grader (he was in 5th grade). I think this is attributed by the fact I talk to my kids normally, if I use a word they don't understand, they freely ask what does that mean, and I explain it at that time. (Another example is we have had the Eagle Cam on the past few days, non-stop. Lauren or Hannah will ask a question about what they see and will automatically look up in Wikipedia or do a search online for more info and pictures.) While they are very smart, I could be doing more, especially in the areas of math and science. I love science, but have always been fearful of math, so will work more in these subjects.

Over the course of 18 years I have also come across so many good ideas and curricula that I would need 20 kids to explore them all. I started out with the books "What your nth grader should know" by E.D. Hirsch. I really like these books, and used them exclusively when homeschooling Taylor in the 2nd thru 4th grades. I used Abeka for Lauren for two years, and I really like their work books but they are costly. I have also used a variety of texts, books, workbooks, etc., but have never really been happy. I still really like the E.D. Hirsch books, as well as, the OFE lessons, but I have been having a change of heart over the amount of time that the girls spend on school work. I have been proud of accomplishing a day's worth of school work in about 2-3 hours, but think Lauren needs more. Hannah at five I am still okay with....

So, once again I think I will try out a new curriculum. I really like Dr. Robinson's ideas (google Robinson Curriculum) and plan to purchase his curriculum plus pick up the next in the series of Saxon Math. I really like the Saxon Math.

The premise of his ideas is no TV and no sugar. That will not be happening, as I am not the only parent in the house hold, and this is DEFINITELY a TV house, but I will limit the amount of TV that is watched. The "plan" is to only allow TV in the evenings.

I like the plan of 2 hours of Math, a one page essay, and then 2-3 hours of reading history and science texts, plus a multitude of pleasure reading material (carefully scrutinized by me to weed out the trash). This is a self teaching curriculum, especially for older students. I will still need to work with Hannah to get her to reading better, and I'd like to start cursive writing in the Fall. I regret not going straight to cursive like Lauren did, but hindsight and all. (sigh)

I have always just believed in reading to find information. I love to read and plan to read everything the girls do, and finish their math books (I am not a very good math person, so can use the refresher). My mom was always really good at telling me to "look it up" when I had a question. We had an old set of encyclopdeias (the world book of knowledge??) and I read most of them. I have an old set (minus the B volulme) and would like to read the entire set. I'd LOVE a set of Encyclopedia Britannica's (an older set) but they are way too much mulah.

We will start this in the Fall, and I will post how it is going later on.

P.S. I also really like the Charlotte Mason philosophy of study, but don't think the two curriculas are mutually exclusive. I did purchase two sketchbooks and one journal bound book (for Lauren). I gave these to the girls and told them they were their Nature Journals. I asked them to draw anytime they wanted anything at the land they saw (birds, frogs, flowers, trees, etc.) For Lauren she is to go further and document about the weather, questions she has or info she has researched, and include things she finds like flowers, grasses, insect wings or parts, feathers (nothing stinky though). We already have quite a collection for our own Natural Museum so she can add to that also.