Homeschool Curriculum: Self-Teaching
We are sort of unschoolers at heart, but also want our daughter to learn certain study skills and have an excellent, but flexible, plan of course. I have researched a lot of curriculum and methods and so far this strategy makes the most sense to our family. I also call us eclectic homeschoolers. Again, this is a self-teaching curriculum created by a scientist and his several children after his wife died suddenly. They had already been homeschooling with the wife/mother as teacher, but now they needed something more independent of a teacher. Though there are many homeschool curriculum available, this approach has some clear advantages that are good for the whole family. You can read more about the Robinson curriculum on their website, but some advantages are: The parent does not play teacher -Although younger children do need more one-on-one time, as they get older and can read and write, it’s beneficial for them to learn to learn and problem solve independently. It’s great that parents everywhere are willing to teach their children, but I think it’s greater that we have the opportunity and examples of families choosing to teach their children to teach themselves. This may seem scary when first entertained, but it really does make sense. Children are more capable than we sometimes realize and allow. NOTE: I believe that one of the best advantages of homeschooling is building strong family bonds. We will always spend time together; learning as a family. We enjoy it so much and all like having that connection. There are plenty of opportunities for family-togetherness and interaction without hovering and trying to teach every minute detail of every subject to your child. I encourage you to follow your heart and instincts and to follow a homeschool curriculum or plan that seems *right* for your family. The Robinsons helped to confirm what my daughter has already been teaching me which is the fact that I don’t have to constantly be sitting next to her teaching her what she can (and wants) to learn on her own. If they do not naturally want to learn independently (or fight it because they’ve been taken out of the school system and are used to being spoon-fed information), they can learn to do so. :) They learn to think for themselves -This goes along with the children teaching themselves and finding out answers for themselves. You are there to assist them, but only to the point of pointing them to the places where they can find out what they need to know. We already know that homeschooling itself typically raises more "thinking" children, but I can definitely see how this self-teaching strategy helps children even more in this area in the long run. It’s something I already do with my daughter as far as working out social problems, character training, etc. so why not apply it to academics? They focus on the 3 R’s: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. -You learn history, grammar, etc. from reading great, classic “living” books as opposed to often dry, shallow textbooks written by hired textbook writers. More time is spent on the most important subjects. Once they are done with those, they can pursue other interests and activities. The more strict aspects of the Robinson curriculum is that he suggests children work for up to five hours per day, six days per week. This is broken down into math, writing assignments, and reading many books. It also encourages a strict "no sugar, no TV" rule. We do personally greatly monitor TV-viewing and sugar, but do not do away with it completely. Don't get too stuck into someone else's regime. I know people who only homeschool a few days a week and others who homeschool for about three hours a day. Or you can homeschool all throughout the day, every day of the year because it's just life to you. Go to HSLDA to read the homeschool laws for your state and find a natural (and law-abiding) groove for your family to meet your educational goals. Our Homeschool Curriculum Plan This is currently what we are planning to do and we will see how it goes along the way. I love to homeschool kindergarten and look forward to the rest of our homeschooling journey. Actually, we don't grade-label our daughter, but it's a language many people use. I love the simplicity of this plan as well as the comfort of knowing that many others have done it and it works out very well. First of all, by five and a half years old, our daughter was reading at a second grade level or higher. Her writing skills gradually improve with practice and guidance and she has a good vocabulary. She understands addition and subtraction concepts and that leads to the beginning of our plan based on the Robinson homeschool curriculum. In 2010, at age five, my daughter started learning addition facts as part of the plan. However, I think a gentle and mostly informal approach to learning is best for younger children (up to roughly age seven), so I pay attention to how my daughter best learns. My total approach is also influenced by the Moore Formula which is not a homeschool curriculum but more of a philosophy putting at least as much weight towards learning character and responsibility as academics. My daughter told me outright at age five that she wants to only do math worksheets once in a while, but she prefers (LOVES) to practice math conversationally and using manipulatives (anything around the house). So, that's what we do. She also likes to do occasional drills (where I drill her and check off each completed problem or write in the answer) or the work herself from her Math Mammoth worksheets (more on that below). When you ask my daughter what she wants to be when she grows up, she always says, "a math teacher". I am convinced that this is encouraged by flexibility and a focus on natural math learning without pushing a child with too many worksheets and dry textbooks and too much formality. The Robinson homeschool curriculum recommends using flash cards to memorize math facts and Saxon Math 5/4 once the math facts are memorized (ideally around age seven). If you notice, this is fourth grade math for age seven. That’s what the Robinsons concluded the average seven year-old could do once they memorize the math facts. Saxon math is a very popular curriculum, however, I don't plan to use it. And, my daughter prefers methods other than flash cards for math. We use all types of resources for math at age five. There are many free online math games and worksheets. To help with addition facts, I purchased an Addition Wrap-up with workbook (10 Days to Addition Mastery) and CD. We have been using Math Mammoth homeschool curriculum once in a while. It works pretty well for self-guided learning. You can download curriculum very inexpensively (wait for a sale if you can) and then print the pages you want to use or you can pay more and buy a printed version. I bought the Bundle package of Grades 1-3. We plan to spend some months going over some of the material from Grade 1, then go into Grade 2 sometime after she turns six years old, maybe six and a half. Reading 
We will continue doing what we’ve been doing for reading, but being more mindful of the actual books read and how often. She already loves to read, but she will be moving into more “real, living” books about real people, places, and events and learn more from them as her reading level improves as it does quickly when they read interesting books and often. One book we chose so far is an original McGuffey's Second Reader (Reading level grades 3-5). I love how it touches on many subjects including history and focuses on character growth. It has vocabulary words and questions. Writing The same goes with writing. We’ll find more interesting ways to improve her writing skills and penmanship. I plan to have her do some copy work of scripture, parts of the McGuffey Reader, and vocabulary words, letters to family, etc. Right now, she prefers to write little stories, cards, letters, etc. She wasn't so much into structured copy work at age five and that's okay with me. I've always favored natural approaches and plan to keep her writing practice meaningful. She writes often throughout the day on her own. Science Homeschool Curriculum I invested in Apologia science books and notebooks/journals. I bought Astronomy and Botony and look forward to getting the rest as we complete them. These are my favorite because it's strong science, goes deep, and shares the truth and wisdom of God and His word throughout. When guiding your child towards self-teaching, include them in the lesson planning or outline of your goals. They will learn to take it up and be able to help plan and record their own course of study. Remember that much more learning goes on in life than what one actually plans and maps out. We don’t fuss over homeschool curriculum; we relax and enjoy our time together. Homeschool Curriculum UPDATE: As our daughter nears age seven, I've come full circle in our approach to and perspective on learning. We keep looking at the bigger picture. What is the purpose of education? The more I think about it, the less I think the learning process needs to look like an institution and the more confident I am to let our daughter learn naturally and to not force studies. We have some materials that are technically homeschool curriculum, but they are just one of the MANY materials and supplies available for our daughter to use. It's wonderful to witness her asking for, using, and LOVING these when she's ready and because she's not coerced. If only every child were allowed to benefit from natural, personalized learning the way our Creator intended. Some children want and ask for a list of lessons to complete, but the key words are "want" and "ask for". Meet their needs and learning styles, not someone's idea of what they ought to be doing on a given day in a given month of a given year. Even if it happens to look a little like "school", don't make it in to one unless that exactly what everyone enjoys. As a parent, you have a lot of influence over your children's view of learning. You can inspire them to continue in their natural drive to learn and help them to set goals as they get older. But if they are not internally motivated and share your goals, they may begin to resent the process. Again, challenging them is part of our job, not shoving them into an irregular shape that simply does not fit. We are all happy and learning like crazy (yes "we"). ;) We have a learning lifestyle which equates to learning without artificial limits.
|
