Kids' Curriculum and Why I Like It (or not)

I recently received an email asking me to review some of the curriculum we use around these here parts.  I've been meaning to post about many things, but the email was a good kick in the heiny to actually do it, so I will.

Miriam, grade 6

Math and Critical Thinking: We have been using Mathematical Reasoning books from the Critical Thinking Co for years now and I love them just as much today as when we started using them.  Miriam is in Level F (grade five) because I keep my kids a year behind in math on purpose.  I do that, for those of you wondering, because abstract thinking skills don't completely develop until a child reaches high school.  If you hit pre-algebra before the abstract thinking skills are in place necessary to understand it, you can experience a great deal of frustration.  Since it is hard to predict how developed each child's abstract thinking skills will be by grade seven, I play it safe and take things slower.  I have not yet encountered a reason to regret this choice.  None of my children have experienced any math angst up to this point (except the first few years when we were using Abeka math) and several claim that math is their favorite subject.

I supplement the Mathematical Reasoning books with some other "fun" math products from the same company.  My favorites are the Building Thinking Skills books.  Miriam finished Level One two years ago and was thrilled when I presented her with Level Two this year.  Note that when each books is listed as a "full curriculum" it means in critical thinking NOT math.  Don't be confused by that.

A list of topics on the front cover includes things like logical thinking, similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, analogies, spatial awareness (Miriam excels at these problems and I stink--it usually takes me triple the amount of time to correct her work, which is always right, than it takes her to do it), vocabulary development, map reading, etc.  

When Miriam was doing Building Thinking Skills Level One, I assigned her six pages daily from her Mathematical Reasoning book and then six pages out of her Building Thinking Skills book.  She would inevitably do 12 + pages out of her Building Thinking Skills book because she thought it was so much fun.

Another favorite from the Critical Thinking Co is Math Detective A1. I must point out that Miriam does not like this book.  She thinks it is way harder than her regular math book.  However, I see a great deal of value in making her stretch herself.  Basically, this book has a bunch of extended story problems that have to be answered with complete sentences.  It is challenging because Miriam can figure out the answers but she has to really stretch herself to come up with the "why" of the answer.  I think that is a healthy exercise for her brain.  However, to avoid contention, I only assign one "problem"--usually a two-page spread with about six questions--a week.  That keeps her muttering to a minimum.

I wouldn't get the Math Detective beginner book unless you have a really advanced reader/writer.  Otherwise, you're just creating a lot of work for yourself.


Language Arts: Ah.  This is a hard one.  I've flitted about more with this subject than math.

First, we are currently using Phonetic Zoo: Lesson Cards for spelling.  I did not buy the whole $99 program.  I only purchased the cards for $15.00.  It is a fine program.  Not spectacular, but not bad.  It might be stellar if you buy the whole kit and caboodle, but I've never found a spelling program I loved and I wasn't willing to invest in another failed effort.

There are three "levels" on the cards.  On Monday I give Miriam a spelling pre-test and have her write each of the fifteen words on one card.  I don't pay much attention to the levels with her.  Then she writes each word she misses three times a day for the rest of the week.  It works.

We use Handwriting Without Tears for handwriting.

For grammar we use Rod and Staff and I LOVE their program. Currently Miriam is working out of Building With Diligence: English 4.  It is aimed for fourth graders and it is way too easy for her and she is flying through it at breakneck speed, but it is a good review while I try to get my hands on the writing program I want her to be using right now but can't afford.

Back to Rod and Staff for a moment.  I think they do everything right with grammar.  They include sentence diagramming from the very beginning.  They build concepts in a logical and appropriate way--without jumping around too much.  They have manageable assignments that I hardly ever tweak to cut back on the amount of work.  I wholeheartedly endorse their grammar series as long as you realize that they excel at teaching grammar and not writing.

The writing program I want to be using right now is The Write Foundation: Sentence to Paragraph.  I haven't used this program but I have read several reviews that are very convincing.  Especially this one.    I really think this might be a winner.  I have tried other writing programs, including the Institute of Excellence in Writing and I just wasn't that impressed.  I'm hard to impress.  I'm a professional English teacher.  :)  That said, I have a hard time teaching writing because I feel like my children should just magically know how to write--much like I did.  Instead, I have kids whose favorite subjects are math and science and for whom writing doesn't come easily.  I don't have time to create my own curriculum right now and so I will eventually (too bad I can't sell plasma when I'm pregnant) buy this one and see how it works out for Miriam.

This year I bought Digging Into Diagramming .  I wanted a way to make sure my children were diagramming a few sentences every day--especially Miriam.  I think diagramming is the best way to teach grammar, other than learning a foreign language.  There isn't much on the market by way of straight diagramming.  This book is great in concept and how it builds from simple to complex sentences.  I can't give it rave reviews, however, because it doesn't have as many practice sentences as I would like.  When I say the book doesn't have enough sentences, I mean it.  Each lesson only has one or two example sentences with four practice sentences.  There are 41 lessons, which sounds like a lot until you realize that the kids will only have diagrammed roughly 164 sentences over the course of the year using this book.  It just isn't enough practice.  It does, however, supplement Rod and Staff nicely since those books already have diagramming included.  I still think Digging Into Diagramming is worth the purchase--just be aware of what you are getting.

Cowen, grade 4: Cowen is not an independent reader yet, so that makes everything I do with him a little trickier.  He's getting there, but at his own speed.  Also, I bumped his younger sister up a grade because her birthday was right around the cut-off.  And she's a girl.  And he's a boy.  SUCH A BOY.  Meaning that his development is crazy different than his sisters', or even his younger brother who is a little less of a stereotypical boy.  Cowen and Emeline (grade 3) do the same grammar.  It works.

Math: He's currently using Building Thinking Skills Level One and Mathematical Reasoning Level D.   The skills in his Building Thinking Skills book do not come as easily to Cowen as they came to Miriam, so I am focusing a lot of our math attention on that book currently.  I also started Cowen on learning his multiplication tables on xtramath.com and created a fake student so he could practice addition under a different name.  I did the same thing with Miriam.  We are hitting computation really hard with the oldest two this year.  Once we've finished the Building Thinking Skills book, I'll shuffle Cowen back into his regular math book.  By then he'll know enough of his multiplication tables that the multiplying and dividing work in the math book will be easy and math will remain angst-free.

Small sidenote: I just starting giving weekly first and second place awards to the kids who make the most improvement on their xtramath work.  The improvement in their effort has been downright astonishing.  Amazing what a $1.00 box of candy can do for a child's motivation.

Language Arts: Cowen is working out of the Rod and Staff Beginning Wisely Level 3 grammar book.  I already told you how much I love Rod and Staff.  I take two years to go through the first book--making sure they don't get overloaded.  We do one lesson a day, four days a week.  I don't worry about teaching writing at this stage.  I wait until grade five and with Cowen, I might wait until grade six.

Basically, I'm not really converted to teaching spelling to young children.  Miriam was a terrible speller for years and I kept wondering why she didn't pick it up from reading like I had.  Then, one day, she could spell.  It was awesome.  My son, though, has a harder time with all things verbal so I bought the Phonetic Zoo just to help him practice a little.  I don't insist on memorization of the words. I tried that briefly and it led to much, much heartache.  Instead, I show the kids (Cowen and Emeline) the spelling rule outlined on the card, pick six words, and have them write those six words three times daily for one week.  Then we move on.  My purpose?  To help my kids start to recognize when something looks right and when something looks wrong.  If they haven't miraculously learned to spell by the sixth grade, I'll get more serious about it.

They also diagram one sentence a day from Digging Into Diagramming.  Miriam diagrams four sentences a day, but I don't want the younger kids to get in over their heads too quickly.  They have barely started learning about nouns so I don't want them trying to diagram adjectives yet, for example.


Emeline, grade 3 

Math: Emeline has a September birthday so she's technically in grade two, but I bumped her up to grade three one year to suit other purposes, and now she's still there.  It doesn't really matter except she's flying through her math book (the younger grades have much shorter books).  She doing Mathematical Reasoning Level C which is one year higher than I meant for her to be in (it's the second grade level).  After she completes it I will have her switch to the Building Thinking Skills Level One book just to slow her down a little before putting her into the third grade level.  She'll still be farther ahead than any of my other children were at her age.  We might have to take some time off math books to work on Mind Benders or something if I feel she's getting grumpy about math.

Language Arts: See Cowen.


Eli, kindergarten

I don't really do much with my kindergarten kids.  I want him in the Mathematical Reasoning Level A book right now, but money is tight with the baby coming and I haven't been able to get it for him yet.  He works on xtramath.com and loves that.

As for language arts, he does the I See Sam program that I've reviewed before to learn to read.  Love that program!  Then he writes funny sentences that I make up like "Dad sat on the fat cat."

This was probably longer than you wanted and less helpful than I hoped.  If you have any specific questions, shoot them at me and I'll do my best to answer.

Artastic

Quite some time ago over at Latter-day Homeschooling there was a blog post about art.  Specifically, what do people do to teach art?   There were several helpful comments, but one comment--by Birrd of Tales From Toad Hall--has proven especially helpful for our family.  In her comment she said that she used Artistic Pursuits with her children and loved it.

Being completely and totally art handicapped, I looked up every suggestion given in the comments to that post and eventually decided to buy Artistic Pursuits for my family.  I'm so glad I did!  Here's a link to their website in case you want to learn more about the product from the source.  

Basically what I love about this program is that I don't do anything and my kids are still creating all this fabulous art.  The "textbook" is set up into three-page lessons.  The first page introduces the topic, the second page showcases a famous painting that demonstrates what the lesson is talking about, and the third page has the student assignment plus examples of the assignment done by kids.  

In our family it works like this: when the kids get their regular work done in a timely manner I tell Miriam to get down the art textbook.  She pulls it out, reads the lesson to everyone, they all study the famous painting, Miriam reads them the assignment and gets out all the materials needed.  Then the kids sit around the table and do the assignment.

I have a very important job in this process!  I am the official ooher and aaher.  When the kids show me their completed assignment I ooh and aah and tell them how wonderful they are.  And I mean it!  All of my kids produce better art than I could and I am impressed.

Another thing I like about this program besides how straight-forward it is and how well organized is that all the materials needed for every single assignment in the book is listed in the front.  You can buy a pre-put together bag with everything you need for 1-2 students from the website and I think I will do that next time, but I was able to take my list to the store and buy what I needed for 4 kids.  Now I don't worry about whether or not I have the supplies on hand.  I do!  And Miriam knows where they are!

Here is a small sampling of the artwork my children have created this year in conjunction to this art program:

Miriam's "Cyclops": Lesson 2, Artists Imagine.

Miriam's "Elf": Lesson 1, Artists Compose.

Miriam's "House": Lesson 3, Artists Look.

Cowen's "Bug".  I don't remember what lesson it goes to but it is very awesome.

Emeline and Cowen exploring soft pastels.

Cowen's "Ninja"--Lesson 1, Artists Compose.

Emeline's "Cat and Two Kittens": Lesson 4, Artists Communicate.

Emeline's "Giraffes": Lesson 2, Artists Imagine.

Emeline after creating with soft pastels.

Eli is three and already playing with watercolor pencils.  Love it.

Our system for showcasing art work.  The wire and clips were purchased at IKEA for roughly $10.

In short, I really, really, really love this curriculum.  I love that there is a famous painting for the children to examine with each lesson.  I love how short and focused each lesson is.  I love that art history is also incorporated (we bought this book out of the series because it has lessons on ancient art so it fits in beautifully with what we're doing in history).  I'm a very satisfied customer.  And so far, my kids seem pretty thrilled with the program as well.

Miriam's New Subject: Reading Comprehension

I added a few new subjects to Miriam's day this year as she is a big 4th grader and all.  One of the subjects is reading comprehension.  At first glance that seems silly as Miriam reads well above her reading level and has no problem comprehending what she reads.  However, I wanted to address two issues with this new subject: test preparedness and critical thinking skills.

Miriam has been doing critical thinking work since Kindergarten, but solving logic puzzles has gotten pretty simple for her.  We continue to bump up the challenge but she understands the process of reading the clues and marking a grid.  (I'm talking here about logic puzzles that have you find a solution based on a few clues.  For example, find 4 people's last names using a grid and clues such as "no person has a last name that is longer than their first name.")  Miriam adores logic puzzles and I think they are valuable so we continue to do them. (We use the Critical Thinking Co's Mind Benders for our logic puzzles.)

However, while that type of logic study is useful it isn't the best way to prepare for the English section of the ACT or multiple choice tests in general.  Well, I guess it is if a person knows to transfer the information.  Never mind everything I just said.  Instead, we'll just say that I wanted more specific practice for the English and science portions of the ACT.  I realize that is many years in Miriam's future, but the sooner you start practicing the better you get and the better scholarship you get.  I used to practice test taking with my public school students and the kids who understood the process, format, and strategies for test taking had such an advantage.

Enter The Critical Thinking Company.  Some days I feel like they should give me a kickback for all the nice things I say about their company.  They don't.  But they should.  :)  I bought Science Detective for 3rd and 4th grade because Miriam hadn't done anything like it before so I wanted her to feel successful and build up to harder problems.  While she reads and comprehends at a much higher level, she doesn't evaluate charts at a higher level or find the sentence that best answers the question at a higher level.  What I'm saying is, I'm glad we didn't buy the 5th and 6th grade book although I debated between the two for quite some time.

Clearly I'm tired because this post feels like it is all over the place.  I apologize.

Let me wrap up.  This workbook contains short passages of non-fiction based on science principles.  The sentences are numbered and the paragraphs are assigned a letter.  Following the passage are a series of questions about the information in the passage.  Most of the questions come in two parts: what is the answer to this question and which sentence best answers the question.  I really like that part because it forces Miriam to evaluate the passage even when she knows the answer already.

So far the passages have all included graphs of various types.  In the question section there are questions that can only be answered by evaluating the graph and for one passage Miriam was required to fill out 3 graphs similar to the one found in the passage.

This book really is a stellar reading comprehension workbook.  It forces Miriam to read carefully, to read the questions carefully and evaluate exactly what is being asked and how and where to find the answers.  It forces her to learn to decipher the purpose and information presented in a variety of graphs.

In short, it does everything I wanted it to do and does it very well.  Plus the passages and number of questions are a perfect and appropriate length for her age--it takes her 15 minutes to complete one passage with questions.  She is assigned two sections per week so she does reading comprehension on Tuesdays and Fridays.  I think it is just the right amount.  As she gets better at it I will probably start having her skip every other passage to get her through the book in one year so she can move to the next book in the series next year.  Then Cowen can use the book and do the passages Miriam skipped when he gets to 4th grade.  :)  I don't see any reason a child would need to do every single page in a book that size unless you did start the child in 3rd grade and expected him to take 2 years to complete the book, or the child really struggled with this type of work and needed the extra practice.

The only other thing I think I should mention is that the Critical Thinking Co markets this as a "core" textbook for science.  Yes, conceivably you could use this book as your science textbook but I wouldn't recommend it.  It doesn't build on itself well and the concepts are not delved into or layered enough to be a stand-alone science curriculum.  Plus, it would be boring.  No experiments.  But that's my opinion, for what it's worth.

Here's the link if you want to "look inside" the book on the Critical Thinking Co's website: http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?code=c&id=05001

Happy homeschooling!

PS  I'm feeling better.  More stable, happier, less nauseated.  Blessed second trimester.  Thank you so much for all your kind words via emails and comments and for your long-distance hugs.  It really made a difference in my outlook.  I'm so glad I have friends like you.

Dew, Frost, and Humidity

 We are alive and we have been doing school--in between hiking and splash pads and general summer stuff, and foot and mouth disease.  I like this year round experiment so far, but I do have to be extra diligent to make sure we get stuff done.  The last few weeks we've been working on our weather unit.  Science experiments really help take kids' minds off feeling sick and prevents quarantine boredom.

 In the top two pictures we were playing around with making dew and dropping the freezing point below freezing using salt.

 Here Cowen is showing you the sling psychrometer we made to measure humidity.  It actually worked really well and the kids liked checking on the computer to see how the humidity in our house compared with the outside humidity.  I, quite honestly, expected it to be a bust like many of the science experiments I attempt with my kids.

 I am lucky in many ways.  One of those ways is that my dad goes through the textbook adoption process fairly often (he works at WSU in the ed department and many local schools ask the university for their recommendations) and when he does, he gets to keep the textbooks and materials submitted for review.  When that happens, he often passes on the stuff to me.  I've donated quite a bit, but the science binders are awesome and cost a ridiculous amount (I have thought seriously of contacting Houghton-Mifflin and telling them to market these binders to homeschoolers with a reasonable price because I think they are put together perfectly for homeschool moms and I really love them--maybe you can buy them for a reasonable price and I just couldn't figure it out from their mind-numbingly inefficient website).  I also have hundreds of dollars worth of math manipulatives out of textbook adoptions.  Sweet.

The biggest prize, though, are these science binders.  They are set up to encourage a hands-on approach to science so every concept is briefly explained, followed by an experiment you can do to illustrate the concept.  I also really like the vocabulary and unit assessments.  The assessments are short but they cover the material really well and I like that there is some follow-up without me having to come up with it.  There are no textbooks with this program, which is another plus for me.  This way, I look through the binder at the topics covered and I go to the library and find the best possible books to supplement.  That is how I like to do things anyway, so it works out well.  Also, I like that it organizes everything for me.  Science is just not my strong suit, so I need more outside help and these fit the bill perfectly.

The binders are organized by different types of science (earth, life, and physical) and ages.  I don't have all the kindergarten/1st grade binders but it doesn't matter because I have the same topics covered in the 5th/6th grade binders.

Here are the binders they have available for life science in order of age:
Alive
Organisms
Life Cycles
Aquarium Habitats
Terrarium Habitats
Classification
Human Body

Life Science:
Earth
Weather
Rocks, Soil, and Fossils
Space
Rocks, Erosion, and Weathering
Exploring Space
Weather and Water

Physical Science:
Magnets
Matter and Heat
Sound
Air
Force, Motion, and Machines
Light
Energy and Matter
Electricity
Magnets and Electromagnetism
Chemistry

PS--You can get some of these from used bookstores for about $25 but it is really hit and miss.  Actually, I just went to the website again and some of the kits were very reasonably priced--I think I was looking at classroom packs?  Maybe?  If you are interested Houghton-Mifflin has a phone number.  I would try this first: 1-800-426-6577.  You can see some of the stuff in the binders here: http://www.eduplace.com/science/hmxs/.  Just click on the title of the binder in which you are interested.

And lastly, here is Miriam putting ice in her mason jar experiment.  She dyed the water inside yellow (I would have gone with another color . . .) to show that the water droplets on the outside of the jar come from water in the air and not in the jar.  If the water on the outside of the jar came from inside the jar, the water would be yellow.  You see?  Miriam did.  Cowen . . . we had to explain it a few times.  :)

Good luck with science!  Heaven knows I need all the help I can get in that area!

Rod and Staff Grammar: Curriculum Review

 

When my kids start grade 3, they add grammar to their daily routine.  I have strong feelings about the teaching of grammar and its importance to good writing and, by extension, good thinking.  Therefore, finding the perfect curriculum was very important to me.

I taught English to 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th grade public school students.  I've tried a variety of "exciting" curricula published very recently.  I wasn't impressed.  There are lots of bells and whistles, colorful formatting, and a lot of nonsense that tries to make grammar appear more exciting than it is.  Grammar is grammar and no amount of peacock feathers is going to change it into something else.  I found all the extras very distracting and time-wasting.

Then the teacher across the hall told me to teach my students sentence diagramming.  She promised me that it would do more good than anything else I taught.  She is an excellent teacher so I believed her and gave it a whirl.  Well, first I taught myself how to sentence diagram and then I gave it a whirl.  

The results were profound and outstanding.  It wasn't all rosy that first year because I wasn't that good at grammar (I'm one of those annoying picked-it-up-from-reading kind of gals) and so I had one student designated as a runner and if we (meaning me and the class--we usually worked as a team) couldn't figure out how to diagram a particular sentence the runner ran across the hall and asked the teacher there for help.  

We all learned more about grammar than we had ever learned previously.  I'm telling you, when it comes to grammar, sentence diagramming is where it's at.

Fast forward to me last summer, the homeschool mom trying to find a grammar program for her own darling student.  I combed the homeschool websites and talked with many homeschoolers about the pros and cons of various grammar options.  Many of them appeared to me as the bells and whistles variety of grammar instruction instead of the meat and potatoes.   

Rod and Staff is the meat and potatoes.  There are no bells and whistles.  No little thought boxes or cluttered pages.  It is just grammar in its true, beautiful, form.  I'm not saying it is boring (whatever boring means in relation to school subjects), I am saying it is complete, well done, and requires sentence diagramming from the very beginning.  

The first unit is pronouns.  Each section in the chapter starts with an explanation of what the section is about and some examples.  That is followed by student practice questions.  The sections are the perfect length to do one daily and Miriam needs very little instruction from me because the information is written clearly at the beginning of each section. 

On top of all that, the price is very, very reasonable.  $12.00 for the student textbook.  You can see some sample pages on the Rod and Staff website, here. 

In short, I am 100% thrilled with this grammar program.