2012-2013 schedule

The Atkins Home School is definitely flexible.  We have started as late as September and as early as June (this year).  Our summer vacations have also varied.  At first we kept a more traditional school year, but then I realized that when we lived in FL, I would rather work through the summer in our AC house and be off in the late-fall, early-winter time!  This year our summer has only been two weeks long, but we have made the most of it!


I thought you might like to see what each girl will be studying this year. (If you want to know more about our curriculum choice, you can look here.)  I got my first taste of teaching 3 levels this past year, but K is pretty light.  This year Lydia will be doing a little bit more.  She is definitely ready!


Bible (Daily)
Y1 reads one page of her child's Bible daily to me.  This is very short, but she enjoys it.  Then she and Y4  will read Big Book of Questions and Answers about Jesus, by Sinclair Ferguson with me.  This simple 34 question catechism has suggested readings and activities for the week.  Y7 girls will read a chapter from their Bible and enter a favorite scripture or question or thought in their Bible notebooks. (These are not the same notebooks I spoke of in the previous post.)  We may discuss the chapter some weeks but mostly we will dialogue through the notebook.  This will be moving them to more independent study.


Bible History (One reading per week)
All will listen while I read aloud a story from Trial and Triumph, which is a book on the heroes and martyrs of the early church.  (This will probably be done as part of family worship since Daddy and Memaw like to learn church history too!)

Bible Devotional (One reading per week)
Y4 will read a short devotional passage to Y1 at bedtime.  The book we are using this year is The Little Girl's Treasury of Precious Things compiled by Annie Brooks.  This was given to Sarah by dear Mrs. Ruth from church.  The Y7 girls will be reading Raising Maidens of Virtue by Stacy McDonald.  This will be read and discussed with Mom, possibly at bedtime.


History
Year 1 -- early history, focusing on people rather than events.  I will read to Lydia one or two stories per week from the books An Island Story by H.E.Marshall and Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. She may narrate if she likes.  We may put a picture or two on our timeline on the wall each week.
Year 4 -- 1700's up to the French Revolution and American Revolution.  Mary's main history book is This Country of Ours by H.E. Marshall.  But as this will only have one reading per week, she will also be reading some historical fiction for the time period.  She will read Betsy Ross by Ann Weil, and The Will Northoway Series by Susan Olasky which has 4 books. These 5 books will be spread over the year. I will also read to her from George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster.  This is a wonderful book telling in story form about all the other major world events during the lifetime of George Washington.  She will be making a folding time line of the years this covers and placing photos of significant people and events on the timeline. We also buddy read one night per week an historical fiction book.  During the year we will read The Sign of the Beaver, Calico Captive, and The Reb and the Redcoats.
Year 7 -- 800-1400's Middle Ages.  This is the second pass (for a few major events it is the third) at this part of history for the oldest girls so hopefully some of what we have studied will be familiar to them.  We will be building on and adding to this previous learning! We started a Book of Centuries that year so it will be fun to look back at it and add to it or even redo it.  The girls will be using mostly historical fiction for history, but one book that will be used all year is The Birth of Britain by Winston Churchill.  This is the first volume of a 4 volume set.  It covers from Julius Caesar's conquering of Britain up to the discovery of the New World.  Along side this, we will be reading 2 books per term.  Many of these historical fiction books are from G.A. Henty since we love his books:  In the Days of Alfred the Great, The King's Shadow, In the Days of William the Conqueror, Winning His Spurs, In Freedom's Cause, The Daughter of Time, and Ten in Time (a great book written by a local author and given to me as a gift from my favorite teacher, Becky Hancock).


Geography (1-2 days per week)
Y1  will listen as I read to her from the book, Paddle to the Sea, in which "a young Indian boy carves a little canoe with a figure inside and names him Paddle-to-the-Sea. Paddle's journey, in text and pictures, through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean provides an excellent geographic and historical picture of the region."
Y4 will read Minn of the Mississippi by the same author about a turtle, Minn, as she travels downstream in the Mississippi. The big girls have read both of these and Mary "heard" them also but I wouldn't be surprised if they all want to listen in on it again.
Y7  On the AO page for Y7 are some links to maps for the time period.  The girl will be using these as we read about the events.  Also we are learning the countries of the seven continents.  So far we have completed North America (learning the 50 U.S. states also) and South America.  We will begin with Europe next since this is the region of the history they will be studying.  I am really enjoying this too!


Science/Nature Study (2-3 days per week)
All- 1 day per week we go outside (backyard, park, etc) and study something in nature).  The girls have these beautiful Nature Journals made by sweet Maralena and her daughter. 
 
Y1 will listen to Burgess Bird book stories and other animal stories (1 per week).  On the other days she can color a picture or look at picture books for the bird or animal.  The girls love to visit Wild Kratt's on the web.  We also had a subscription to Discovery: Scripture and Science for Kids.  I will probably read one story per week to Lydia from these.
Y4 AO recommends the Story Book of Science by J. Fabre.  We will probably read two stories a week. The older girls didn't use this in Y4 so they will join her for this.
Y7 Sarah received a chemistry set for last Christmas.  I have been terrible about helping her do the experiments.  We will be doing a couple each week until we have completed them. This will only be for the first term.  Following that we will use Rod and Staff Science as the spine for science.


Literature/Poetry/Shakespeare (1-3 days per week)
Y1  Lydia will read an Aesop Fable and narrate it.  Every three weeks we will read a Just So Story by Rudyard Kipling.  She will also read a phonic reader story to me from Pathway Readers.  For poetry, we will read together a poem from A Child's Garden of Verses by R.L.Stevenson.
Y4  Mary will listen to (librivox.org) and follow along with 2 chapters per week of Robinson Crusoe, Kidnapped, and The Incredible Journey (one book per 12 week term). 
 Y7 The girls will read a chapter a week from Ivanhoe for the first two terms and Little Men for the last term.
 Y4 & Y7 I have a copy work book for big girls which is mostly poetry so we will use this to combine poetry and copywork. 
ALL-  Also once a week they will all listen to a fairy tale from H.C.Anderson or a Shakespearean tale retold by the Lamb's. (This is one area I do not follow AO.  I do not care to use the actual plays at this point.) This will probably be at snack time.  Nothing like "tea time" and a short story! ;)


Grammar/Spelling/ Copywork (Daily work - 10 min. lessons)
Y1 Daily copywork - very simple word lists basically at this point.
Y4 Mary will listen to one chapter per week of Grammar Land and will complete the spelling Y4 from Rod and Staff. Weekly copy work poem as mentioned above. Mary will be beginning dictation this year slowly. 
Y7 The girls will complete spelling Y7 from Rod and Staff.  They will also do one or two days of grammar lessons from Rod and Staff. One day per week, they will have a poem for copy work and study it for dictation later in the week.


Math (30 minutes per day)
Y1 Lydia will continue working on Saxon 1 which we started in K.  We are working very slowly and using other workbooks and games to reinforce as we go along. I have some Saxon 2 pages that we may use to bridge between Saxon 1 and Rod and Staff 3.  
Y4  Mary will finish Rod and Staff 4 and begin Rod and Staff 5 at her own pace.  I don't rush math. We just work slow, steady and consistently.  
Y7  Hannah and Sarah will be finishing Saxon 76 and then will begin Saxon 87.  Again, I don't worry if we aren't finished with a book by the end of the year.  I like them to work at their own pace and master the concepts before we go on.


Foreign Language (20-30 minutes daily)
Y1 Lydia has her own Spanish workbook for next year.  She will also do many vocabulary games/flash cards with us as we continue to learn together.  We love the Salsa videos so we will be watching one per week again this year!
Y4 Mary also has her own Spanish workbook to work from.  She will do many of the games/flash cards with Mary as well as Salsa.
Y7 The biggest difference will be for the big girls to try a more formal approach with the middle school level spanish books I bought.  We will see how it goes.  I am still praying for a native/fluent speaker to help us with this.  Also the big girls will be completing Vocabulary Bridges (Latin and Greek Roots) from Trivium Pursuit.  I was able to get this download for free.  


Picture Study/ Artist  and Composer/Music (30 min weekly)
ALL - We have loved picture study for the last several years doing AO, but I really wanted something more this year.  We will still have a main artist for the term whose work will be displayed and discussed during the 2 weeks per term, but we will also use the book Discovering Great Artists to study about more than just 3 artists per year.  Likely we will do artists around the same time period as the main artist.  This is something we all do together as much as each one is able.
 Similarly, I enjoy the composer study as well, but wish to do more.  We love to listen to Classics4Kids for the composer for the term.  I also have been teaching the girls to read music and play piano.  This will continue and I plan to start teaching harmony singing for voice.  


Other school related activities are handicrafts (sewing, plastic canvas, etc.), typing, free reading, and home economics.


This will keep us very busy in the weeks to come!  We are looking forward to a great year!


With All My Heart~

Our Curriculum: A bit of why and how

We use AmblesideOnline for our curriculum.  It is founded on the principles of Charlotte Mason who was an educator in England at the turn of last century.  She ran a school called Ambleside.  I came across other CMers at Home School Blogger and was intrigued by the things they mentioned.  I am so thankful to have found this source.  I was doing a classical style education but finding some things weren't quite the right fit.  Finding AO has been the best for us.  I know God led me to it.

One of the reasons I felt drawn to CM is that all content areas are to be studied with story-type books versus a text book.  CM believed that one author who is passionate about the topic would create a much more accurate and interesting account of the material.  For this reason, most of school feels like reading time.  We might be reading from 6 to 7 books to complete history, science (nature in early years), literature, and even grammar!  This literature-based learning fits right up my alley and I think is especially suited to girls. (Though many CMers of boys have no complaints!)

One of the best things about CM is that young children learn to narrate the stories, which means they retell as much as they can remember of the story.  When they are young, the stories are very short so they can remember the details.  You also don't have them narrate for everything at first either.  You give them time to get used to that, but they still listen to the readings.  Lydia is already narrating events or stories without being asked.  She has heard the girls do it for a couple of years now so she just thinks it is natural.  The other day Mary was so excited to narrate about what she learned from a book called "If You Lived in Colonial Times", and as Lydia listened she was enthralled.  She asked me after, "Will I get to read that book too?"  Isn't it wonderful that she is already excited about reading this book!  Unlike curriculum where the child reads a portion and then answers questions, narration forces the child to organize the events in order and to recall important (to them) details.  This not only increases the likelihood that they will remember more of the presented information, but it also helps them to make their own connections to the material to discover what is helpful or needful to remember.

While narration is building their skills of organization and description like pre-writing, copy work is building the grammar base.  CM students spend time each day copying in their best handwriting quality words, sentences and eventually paragraphs.  Of course there are many options of quality writing.  Our girls often copy scripture they are working on for memorization or catechism questions which discuss answers to questions about God and the Bible.  Sometimes I have them spend time copying short classic poems, or portions of their reading that they really enjoyed.  Sometimes it is famous quotations from the people of the history they are studying.  In any case, the physical practice of spelling the words, placing the commas, capitalization of certain words and so on teaches many wonderful grammar lessons!  Think of it like the toddler who keeps walking around the same room over and over to build his muscles.  Or the preschooler who sings the same songs over and over to learn the sounds and the words.

So as the children continue to read (or listen to) quality literature, and copy quality writing, and narrate the information that has sparked interest in their minds, they are building muscles which will help them to become communicators, writers, logical thinkers, inventors and problem solvers.  I am still very early in this process, but I am starting to see the beginning of this in the older girls.  Hannah was reading a book for fun the other day.  I asked her if she was enjoying the story.  She said the ideas were pretty interesting but the writing was not very interesting as if it were written very simply for a little kid.  This book is about Rose Wilder the child of Laura Ingalls.  Rose never wrote about her life, but the author knew how so many loved the Little House books.  I am not saying he is a poor writer at all.  I have read the book.  But I know what Hannah meant.  Compared to some of the classic literature she reads for school, it is simple language.  I am glad to see that she can appreciate the more complex writing.  I related this to her own writings.  I mentioned that this is a good lesson for her to remember as she chooses her vocabulary or the way she writes things.

One of the other things I love about AO curriculum is that the recommended books are usually older classics that are so popular you can find them at most thrift stores or they are in the public domain so you can find them for FREE!  This is such a big help!  I try to carry the book list with me when I know I will be visiting a thrift store or yard sale, so I can pick up any I am still missing.  Any books I buy, I mark the AO year on the spine so we can tell at a glance to what year it belongs.  I have never had any of the girls whine about time to read the books.

AO has curriculum for up to year 11.  They have never done a 12 level because 8 through 11 is high school level anyway.  There is a yahoo chat group that is so helpful if you are using AO.  Actually there are several and I won't list them all here, but if you visit the link I put above, a link is given in the first paragraph of the curriculum page for the email support group!  I have gotten so many wonderful links, hints, and encouragement from these moms (and some dads!). I am not sure if I would have enjoyed this near as much without this group!

I have much more to say about AO curriculum, but I will leave this for now and see if anyone asks any questions.  I would be happy to update with those answers!

Most importantly, seek God and His guidance for your curriculum.  Don't just use what you can get from a friend, or what other homeschoolers are using, or even what looks easy.  Seek God and research to find the best fit for your teaching style and for your children to learn. Most of all you both need to be enjoying it.  Yes, we all have days when we think we can't do this, but if most of your days are happily spent teaching  and you see the fruit you desire from your labors, then thank God! :)  I do!

With All My Heart~

Why I think home educators should get more credit (tax credit, that is)!

Before you read this post, please know that I support public education for those who want and need it, though I may not support all individual programs of a school system.   I also support freedom of choice for those who don't want or need public education.  I have many dear friends who are public school teachers, and I joyfully substitute in our local schools, so this is not a reflection on their ability to educate the students.

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I love homeschooling.  The only thing I find frustrating about homeschooling is having enough money to buy the materials that I need or want. I found our current home school curricula because I was searching desperately online for a less expensive way to home school. I find this especially frustrating when I think about how much would be spent on my children if they went to PS.

New York state spends around $18,000 per student per year, and Utah "only" $6,000.  Here is one of the many articles I read on the cost of public education.  Just to make it easy, lets assume that it is $10,000 per child on average which is probably pretty close, will be easy to calculate,  and will certainly demonstrate my point!

I have 4 children (4 x 10,000) so per year the state would pay $40,000 to educate my children.  Did you see that number??  I could pay completely (with some left over) for a new van for the price to educate my children for one year.  





Okay if that isn't mind-boggling enough, let's see how much the state (taxpayers) would pay to educate my children for all 13 years.

 $40,000 x 13 = $520,000

WOW!  The state is going to spend over a half million dollars to educate my 4 children and my girls won't really be able to get more than a minimum wage job when finished.  I am not sure whether to laugh or cry.  I am just still reeling from thinking about all the money that the state must pay each year for all the kids in VA alone!

Okay, back to my little world. LOL
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One of the best all-in-one-box, Christian curricula that I have seen is Sonlight.  This program averages $800.00 per grade level. I would need to buy it each year for the oldest, but then I could reuse it mostly for the others only having to buy replacements for workbooks and such.

Let's assume I would spend an extra $200 per year following the first year to buy the consumable parts.  Let's just round up to $1000 per year for the entire 13 years of educating all 4 of my children using Sonlight.

$1,000 x 13 = 13,000

Did you see that?  I could buy 13 years of a read-set-go curricula for all of my children for the equivalent of a year and half in public school.  If the state would pay me for just one year what they would pay if my children went to public school, I could easily fund all the years my children will be home educated.

So what do families that sacrifice to stay home and educate their children get from the state or federal government?
 Tax credits?  No!
Vouchers?  No!
 A thank you?  Not even that.

Usually we get suspicious looks that we are abusing our kids or teaching them some harmful ideas.  Occasionally we get mild curiosity mixed with statements like, "I could never teach my kids." Or "Don't you think a qualified teacher would be better?" or "What about socialization? (which translates "Your kids won't know how to be normal because you don't let them in the real world.  As if a room filled with their peers and one adult is the real world, but I digress.") 

I have never had anyone thank me for taking on a job that they would have to shell out big bucks to do for me! 

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So on a modest single-income, we needed to find a way to afford the materials.  As much as I loved the looks of Sonlight or Veritas Press, I just couldn't swing the costs.  As I was searching, I found this wonderful site, AmblesideOnline and discovered that some other dedicated moms had been in the same situation.  They collected and organized these resources outlining a program for K-12th grade.  The charge?  $0.00  Nada!  Zilch!

Okay, nothing is free really, is it?  Here is the nitty gritty:
* you need internet to locate many of the resources they use, but most families have that anyway
*you need a computer to be on the internet
*most of the books are either in the public domain and therefore free to read from the internet (and now the Kindle or other e-readers) or they are classics that are easily found at thrift stores, book sales and especially at the library
*you must have the time to locate these resources
*math is separate though they do make recommendations

As I researched this site, I realized that it was very reasonable for us to use this each year.  Again, like other programs, my largest expenditure would be for the older girls materials that would be reused for the younger girls.  I am thankful to say that we have never spent more than $250 per year (not including internet service or computer replacement). 
 

 Not only were these materials affordable and lesson plans free, but the methods and style of a Charlotte Mason education were a wonderful fit for our family.  I will share more of this in a future post.

So do I wish that home school families would get a portion of the taxes collected for education? YES!    If anyone ever proposes a bill to give home school families a tax credit for expenses incurred homeschooling, I will vote for it! :)


But I am okay without it too.  I know God will continue to supply our needs!

With All My Heart~

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