We love reading…………….
All you homeschoolers know there is a plethora (I love that word) of curriculum and non curriculum choices out there. The best you can do is keep looking until you find something that fits your goals and your children's learning styles. Louisiana Sue and I both have a love of reading, this appears to be the case for our children now, and this is one of the reasons both of us have ended up with curriculums that are a Charlotte Mason - Classical education style for our geography/history/English.
So what is this style? In a nutshell, it rolls reading (great literature), history and geography into one experience. You read stories to your kids, and they read stories themselves, about a specific time in history. From this reading, you ask them reflective questions. This improves their listening skills, their comprehension, their vocabulary, their geography and their understanding of history. Indirectly it also gives a good grounding in grammar and composition.
They mark these specific historical times on a time line. This puts the historical period in perspective and gives them an idea of the flow of events through time which saves them having to memorize dates. You mark the location of specific events on a world map to give them a geographical knowledge that underpins the history. The older you get the more original literature from those time periods that you study. What better way to convey the urgent need for relief troops during the Civil War, than reading a letter from a General to his Commander in Chief?
The curriculum guide I used for teaching kindergarten and grade 1 (learning to read and beginning math) was mainly the Montessori Method. Along with this from grades 1 to 5, I used The Sonlight Curriculum. I have thoroughly enjoyed using it. I am now switching to The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer, which is what Susan has used up to grade 9 so far.
The difference? Not much! Except that with Sonlight you get a box that contains ALL the books you and your kids will read, and you get a day by day guide for a 4 day week or 5 day week school schedule for the whole year.
With the Well Trained Mind method, you need to be at one with your public library or with ebay to source the books needed. Also, with the Well Trained Mind method, you specifically study logic and Latin - and if you can, (lucky us!) Greek. And there is a slightly different reading list. Sonlight Curriculum actually uses The Story of the World (by the Well Trained Mind authors) for its history text for grades 6 and 7.
The Charlotte Mason method has been interpreted by many. She promoted a literature rich tapestry with reflective questioning as the best way of learning.
Want more information on some of these curriculums? Here are some useful website links on these methods, and a couple of other related sites:
The Well Trained Mind - they sell "The Story of the World" (child friendly recap of history) in 4 time periods (Ancients, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern), with matching student pages (maps, questions on readings). Their website has a summary of the curriculum for each grade level grouping, and the reading lists.
The Sonlight Curriculum - they have a great catalog, with a brief synopsis of each book they use for each year. They are the ideal option if you do NOT want to plan anything. The literature includes original writings and all the related Newberry and Caldecott etc winners related to each time period. It is a well rounded curriculum, which is particularly good for anyone just starting homeschooling. They have a great option of a 4 day a week school year, a little less reading, but they go over the same material.
The Robinson Curriculum - this curriculum recommends 5 hours a day, 6 days a week all year (about 10 months/year). Every day is the same: 30 minutes of math problems, 1 1/2 hours of (Saxon) math, the child then writes a one page essay, and the remainder of time (about 2 hours) is spent reading Science and History texts. The emphasis here is on independent learning. Dr Robinson runs a household with no television (or handheld electronics) and no sugar. The schooling is done first thing in the morning (after chores). He sells a computer CD which contains a great majority of the literature and some reference books and his curriculum for $195. You can see his book list here. He's just a little bit too rigid for me, but you can't beat the simplicity of the system!
The Charlotte Mason Method has been interpreted by many, a book by Karen Andreola is a quite good explanation of this method. She promotes extensive reading and reflective questioning as the road to a good education. The Bluedorns have created The Trivium also based on the Charlotte Mason approach. They have some interesting articles on their site. Here are some more book links for this method: Charlotte Mason
If you know of any other curriculums along this line feel free to add them in the comments section with your views on if it works for you or not.
. This adheres to the poison when you lather it on your skin and poison and all goes down the drain with it when you wash it off. It's also not a bad idea to squirt some in the washing machine with your contaminated clothing. You can get it in small quantities from some of the drug stores, or walmart, but for some reason the bottles seem really small. Way too small for Mississippi anyhow - I get the bulk size online.
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