What's Working for Us

I enjoy reading The Homeschool Chick's blog, so I've linked up to her blog hop today. Honestly, I could get lost in blog hopping, so some days I have to keep it short, but tonight I have some quiet time to relax and see what's out there.

After a good six weeks of homeschooling for this year it has started to come to my attention the things that are working for us.... truthfully, not much isn't working, but I think that is because we started small and add on something new every couple of weeks. For my own records, I thought I would write a little about what our favorites are so far:

Sonlight Core 3

I can't say enough about this great program. My daughter began it last November. Right now we are finishing Carry On, Mr. Bowditch and also studying the US Constitution. Today my daughter wrote a preamble to the constitution of our household and completed a US Constitution crossword puzzle. Sonlight provides wonderful direction in its history and for a book lover like my daughter it is a perfect fit.

Horizons Math (K and 3)

I had heard so much about other math programs and many people had steered me away from Horizons, but I am glad I went with my instincts on this one. I am amazed at the difficult concepts my children are grasping, and without much difficulty. Horizons' spiral approach and constant review makes new concepts easy. Today, for example, we were working on fractions with like numerators and different denominators. I was illustrating to my daughter that the fractions with more parts (larger denominator) would always be the lesser fraction. She said "I knew that - we went over that already." Yes, we had - but just in a very brief introduction yesterday. I was impressed she made the mental leap.

The Kindergarten program is accelerated and engaging. My son is 1/2 way through, and I anticipate by the holidays we will be ready for level 1. We use the manipulatives daily, and both of my children like the colorful workbook and sophisticated approach to math.

Easy Grammar (Grade 4)

There are lots of different thoughts out there about grammar, but I believe in a rigorous approach that teaches the rules and teaches them early, so that my children have the tools to be good writers. Easy Grammar is great - understandable lessons and I'm shocked to hear my daughter say grammar is her favorite subject.

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind

I have blogged about this before and still contend it is a beautiful introduction to grammar. My five year old has memorized several poems, is learning about common and proper nouns, and is learning to narrate to me quite nicely. We do a lesson each day, and use our large (portable) dry erase board and lots of fun colors of markers to practice writing.

These are the "biggies" for us right now. I have other thoughts about science, handwriting, music, writing, etc..., but I just wanted to highlight the big ones. All in all I would say homeschool is successful for us. Sure, we have our difficult days and times when I would really love to have a whole day to myself like most other moms. But, those days and times are fleeting, and we wouldn't be normal if that didn't happen.

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Fun with Echoes

I love it when a story has such real-life applications. If you have a young child, you need to read Little Beaver and The Echo to them. It is one of the sweetest stories on our shelves, and no matter how many times I read it, both of my children laugh and say how much they enjoy the story. My sister gave it to my daughter when she was just a baby. Let me tell you how it came to mean even more to us.

Over the Labor Day weekend we received an invitation to visit Lake Martin (which is in Alabama, for those of you not from the south). We had such a wonderful time. It was so relaxing to swim in the lake with our family. We saw lots of different types of birds, several deer, and, one morning, a turtle swimming under the dock.

During one of our swims (we had gone out pretty far) I was with GMan and we were just floating and chatting. I think I must have hollered something over to someone else and we heard my echo. GMan said "just like little beaver, mom" (you see, in the story little beaver hears his echo, but thinks it is another friend across the water. So sweet.) There is also a turtle in the story, and we had just seen a turtle earlier that day.

So, we had lots to talk about. It was fun to play with our real echoes and think about the story while we were floating in the water. We hadn't read the story in a few weeks, but when we got home guess which story GMan pulled out for me to read? That's right, Little Beaver and the Echo. (click on the link for some teaching ideas)

I LOVE homeschooling - because I can take a moment like this and capture it, then expand on it at our leisure. My children are beginning to see everything in relation to what we learn, and how cool is that? Life is their classroom, and I'm just their guide.
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