Question of the day- What is your homeschool style?
SO, after reading all the different homeschool styles, and finding I was a failure at all of them.... I made up my own. Now, just to clarify the word "failure" I mean, I couldn't stick with doing all of the ideas of any one theory of education, and my kids... were no help. My little free spirits find the idea of unschooling great, but it turns out, they still expect me to help them figure out how to feed their brains tons of interesting stuff each day. And if I had to put in all the work to come up with what we were going to do, I was just going to do it.
This, below, is the first draft of my new theory of education, based on child development, and not making myself or the kids insane. Because really, at the end of the day, my goal is to not be made crazy, or to have to pay for tons of therapy for the kids later. Please feel free to post suggestions for what to name this new theory of education in the comments.
Kindergarten-
Read great books to your child. Read easy readers with your finger under the words, read harder books out loud, read picture books, and if your child will listen, chapter books.
Read books and then do things that go along with the books- a craft, food, map or game all make books come alive.
Go on adventures- the library, the zoo, museums, a pet store, the bank, any outing can be an adventure to a small child.
Make things with your hands- paint, use clay, glue things together, string beads, finger knit, whatever.
Sing songs- learning to memorize and sing songs strengthens memory skills.
Do a lot of playing.
Have playdates and let your child learn to get along with other people.
Play with learning some words in a foreign language, keeping doing some of this every year, just so the brain gets the idea and is ready to learn more languages later. This will also show your child that there can be many ways to say the same thing, and prepare them to have a great vocabulary.
First grade:
Learn to write all the letters - not just draw them.
Once she can copy all the letters, have your child copy sentences and point out the punctuation and capitalization and everything.
Have your child tell you stories, and help him learn to do it in a way that makes sense, so he learns to communicate clearly. Write down those stories so he can see his words in writing.
Learn to add.
Have a wall calendar with dates, classes and events on it, help your child start to find the date.
Do things your child is interested in, whether that is math, history, art, science or cooking, but be sure you are doing it a few times a week, at least.
Learn to loom knit.
And keep doing everything from the Kindergarten list.
Learn to recite simple poems or nursery rhymes, at a rate of one every week or 2. This prepares the brain for further memorization later.
Second grade
Keep working on nice handwriting. Start the year with more copy work. Add in having your child write something as you tell it to them- dictation, when your child is ready. Hopefully, by the end of the year they will be ready to write their own sentences, but if not, they can tell you a sentence, you write it, and let them copy their own words.
Keep reading lots of cool books to your kid, kids never get too old to be read to, and the huge number of random things your child can learn from books is amazing.
Have your child read out loud to you from a book that isn't too hard for him, a few times a week. I am an expert in handwriting, but not in teaching reading, here, it seemed to happen by magic. If your child hasn't learned to read yet, this is the year I would really start working on that skill, but there is nothing wrong with reading out loud to your child until he or she is able to do it well.
Learn to subtract, and keep practicing adding. Experiment with larger numbers and interesting math terms and symbols.
Do art appreciation by looking at cool art- I take apart calendars to hang up the art work.
Do music appreciation by listening to lots of different kinds of music, and talking about it.
Add one formal subject- whatever works for your child- I do History and like the program from Story of the World. We read the lessons and do go along activities from the activities book, or from Pinterest.
Do random, real life science- like grow plants, read books about the human body, have science experiments and kits. There is nothing wrong with random, real life science of watching the seasons change, and melting snow with a hair dryer.
Keep doing everything that was working from kindergarten and first grade, but don't overwhelm yourself. If your history project has to double count as your art for the week, no big deal.
Third grade
Learn to write in cursive (can put this off a year, if your child needs to), but please don't skip it. Learning to write in cursive will allow your child to write faster, possibly neater (learning to write for the second time sometimes goes better), and be able to read all the amazing documents of history that are written in cursive. You should plan to start again with copy work, working toward dictation and then self writing in cursive. Allow your child to continue to print until they have the hang of cursive.
Learn spelling as a subject- I like Spelling Power, but you may find something else that works for your child
Learn to multiply.
Learn to tell time, if you haven't already.
Keep doing whatever was working from last year in art and music, or find a new way to explore those, a well rounded education involves the arts
Keep doing History
Keep learning about whatever your child wants to
Add some household skills, like basic cooking
Memorize and recite a few longer poems
Fourth grade
Keep working on handwriting- cursive takes practice.
Spelling
Grammar- a formal lesson on this is new this year
Learn to divide, and practice all previous math skills. Learn about graphing or other random interesting math skills
History
Science- could be done any way that works for you- lap books, co-op classes, experiments, etc. but this is the age I make sure I have added a formal study. For us, that means asking my child what science topics interest her, and finding a program that focuses on things she is interested in.
Fourth grade is when I feel it is important to start to be more formal about my kid's education, but I still don't want to have an overwhelming day. Most of our subjects are done on a rotating basis, so we never do all our subjects in a single day. I generally opt to do Science on Tuesdays and Thursdays, History on Mondays and Wednesdays, and use Friday for experiments or hands on projects from one or the other. Spelling and Grammar alternate with each other as much as possible. Even math is not an every day subject for us, I find a few times a week is enough at this age.
Fifth Grade
Hand writing
Spelling
Grammar
History
Science
Math- review all the basic stuff, then move on to fractions, decimals, graphing, etc.
Loom knit a hat- or try another hand work task, beading, crochet, knitting, and sewing.
Add music lessons if you can- I got lucky and could add a band program for homeschoolers.
Memorize something that is a little challenging- like the preamble to the Constitution.
Also of note, I never, ever, do all these subjects in one day. My weekly schedule breaks up most of the subjects into having only about 3 subjects each day, and subjects rotate. I also feel free to take time to do whatever other things I think will help my children learn about their world, themselves, or just seem fun and worthwhile. Most of us remember very little of what we learned in elementary school. We learned to read, write, and do basic math. Sometimes we did some cool stuff that stayed with us, but much of the days were full of random stuff we no longer recall. Don't sweat all that stuff. And know that they really only have to know how to read, write and do math, by the time they are done with elementary school, so if it takes longer than other kids, they are still just fine.
For handwriting, I have used and like the program by Handwriting without Tears, for my 2 reluctant writers. The work books review how to make each letter, helping to develop good writing habits, and the letters are made simple and straight, without fancy slants or curlicues to confuse a child. My youngest child has a stronger interest in writing, and I may choose to teach her a prettier form of cursive when the day comes, because HWT is not pretty, but very functional handwriting. Most people, only need functional handwriting.
In history, science, grammar and writing, we don't always finish the book we start in a single school year. If the book is still working for us, I just roll it over and continue it the next school year. The 4 year cycle of Story of the World took me about 6 years to do with my oldest, partially because we took extra time to explore some of the time periods, partially because at one point, she was too young for the material (we started it earlier than I recommend above) so we put it on the shelf a while, and partially because I kept misplacing the darn book. I am now starting the cycle for the second time, and all 3 of my kids are doing it with me. I have no regrets about it taking longer last time, and the only thing I hope to really do differently is to loose the book less. Personally, my goal is never about finishing a book, it is about making sure my kids are learning all the foundational skills they need to develop, so that when they start middle school- they can write a good sentence with proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Middle school is when I want my kids to start writing short essays and understand higher level math. The elementary years are just about laying a foundation to put a higher level of education on top of. Their understanding of history and science are also a foundation, created to put higher level concepts on top of. When, as an older student they see a story about Vikings, I want them to have an idea who the vikings were and where they lived, not already know all the stories. And I expect my middle school age kids to do middle school age work, that prepares them for high school. I never want to push down skills from a higher level onto younger children. I want to create a knowledge base and set of skills that my children can climb up and stand on when they get to the next level of their education.
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