As we begin our second year of homeschooling, I realized there was some curriculum choices I had to tweak for Amber. That is likely a scenario every homeschool family will got through at least once, possibly yearly or maybe even multiple times per year! I suspect it will be a yearly task for me.
Thanks to being on the Maiden Voyage of The Old Schoolhouse Crew (where I got to review all sorts of products from lots of companies), I was able to solidify how Amber learns and what type of materials work best for her.
Things That Worked
Sequential Spelling – This is a spelling program that did not reduce Amber to tears! This is a good program for weak spellers and can be used with multiple children at the same time.
Aleks Math & Teaching Textbooks – Both of these math programs worked for Amber. Aleks math is an online program that is subscription based. Teaching Textbooks is a complete math program and the word problems and teaching are fun and imaginative for the kids to learn from.
We did an eclectic mix of Language Arts material last year, none of which we were completely sold on. Amber enjoyed using Further Up and Further In, a type of unit study for the Chronicles of Narnia books. This year we are going to try Alpha & Omega’s Switched on Schoolhouse curriculum. I’ll weigh in on that next year!
Things that Didn’t Work
Math – we used some for the Math Mammoth materials and viewed two of the Math Tutor dvds. Neither of which the teaching worked for Amber. The Math Mammoth program is a very good one however I suspect for it to be effective you have to use it right from K or 1st Grade.
Homeschool Co-op – The concept of a co-op is great and Amber loved the social side of it. Ours however, provided too many academic choices and not enough elective courses for our liking, so we put attending one on the shelf for this next year. Something we’ll revisit in the future I’m sure.
We are still exploring curriculum for Social Studies and Science. There are a lot of good choices out there and I suspect with each High School subject one has advantages over others.
Of course real life lessons are always welcome and enjoyed! Just a couple of weeks ago, Amber had a chance to be interviewed on South Dakota Public Radio for an essay contest she won. No academic text could replace the learning experience of that.
Photo by Barbara L. Slavin
Tammy’s blog is located at Three Different Directions, where she does product reviews and giveaways. She has a couple of giveaways running there right now. Visit her blog to see how you can enter to win.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the vote of confidence in Sequential Spelling. My oldest really struggles with spelling, and we have Sequential Spelling ready to go for next year – I figured it was worth trying! It's wonderful to know that it does work for kids who struggle! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing this! I myself am in the middle of drastically tweaking my homeschool plan. We are jumping from using a pre-packaged curriculum (Calvert) to a more "customized" format. I have also heard many good things about Sequential Spelling, so we will most likely be using that for 4th grade. If you have any suggestions for Science texts and/or books, I'm all ears! Thanks again!
We're going to be trying Sequential Spelling next year! I don't think we'll do it everyday though. Did you do it every single day?
I have been interested in Aleks, but we like the math we've been doing (Horizons), so I figure there is no reason to fix what isn't broken. But, I may definitely look into it for the future!
Multiple Personalities….I'm all about a challenge, so watch for my next post, I'll try and highlight some science material!
Angie…..We did try and use it everyday as that is the way the program is designed, it is so quick and easy, so it's not a problem to get in. There is nothing to study and no word lists to memorize, it's just building on family word trees with a zinger thrown in every now and then. I admit to not always using "all" the words on the list, as some of them I would never use, and often they have both the American & British way of spelling (which I didn't mind since I'm Canadian and that's what "looks" correct to me anyway! lol)
I have two kids who have struggled with spelling always. Yikes, I wish we'd been exposed to Sequential Spelling.
This might not be an issue for you, but I think it is for some teachers and homeschool parents. I've recently come across "The Wolf Pack Classroom Management Plan," by Janis Gioia, who's a teacher and specializes in classroom management and teaching children how to get along and relax. It's easy to implement and helps all kids reach their full potential, which is what we're all after!