Brenda

Brenda is a homeschooling mother of 5, who has a wonderful husband encouraging her to be the best woman that God has created her to be. Together they are very intentional about spending time together as a family. She considers her daily life with her children as her ministry and has found many avenues to encourage others to live a lifestyle of learning. She is the founder of an online homeschool community, Our Lifestyle of Learning and a curriculum review site authored by a group of well-known homeschool bloggers, Curriculum Choice. She blogs about their homeschool journey and family traditions at Tie That Binds Us.

Math On the Level

 Mathematics  No Responses »
Oct 312011
 

Math On The Level is a pre-K through pre-Algebra math program designed to accommodate families teaching multiple children of various ages.  It is a relatively new curriculum on the home-schooling scene.  The authors, Carlita and John Boyles, developed this wonderful math curriculum as they home-taught their own children.  With advanced degrees in several Education fields for Carlita and Electrical Engineering for John, they are well-qualified to teach mathematics!

The philosophy behind MOTL includes:

  • Teaching math through real life
  • Teaching concepts when a child is mature enough to learn them
  • Continually reviewing previously learned material
  • Staying flexible to meet the needs of your family.

The curriculum is composed of 7 main volumes.  Four of the volumes cover the bulk of the actual material, with the remaining three volumes containing supporting and record-keeping resources.  The four main books cover Operations, Money & Decimals, Geometry & Measurements, and Fractions.  In the supporting materials, Carlita and John have developed various charts and tracking tools to help you keep track of what each child has learned, what they’re still reviewing, and what topic to introduce next.  The back-bone of MOTL is the 5-a-day review.  Rather than learning a concept only to forget it a few weeks later, the 5-a-day review and tracking system provides a way to keep concepts alive.

I’ve used MOTL for one full year now, so here is what a day in the life looks like for me:

I collect the notebooks of my two children who are using MOTL (I have other older and younger children).  Looking at the tracking chart I can easily see which concepts my child needs to review.  The charts are all color-coded with four main books, making it easy to select the right book.  Each book has lessons in the front half that explain how to present a concept.  The back half provides a page of practice problems (with solutions!) for each concept.  I select the problems I wish my child to do, copy 5 into their notebook (usually from several books – covering several review concepts), and let them start working.

While they work, I take note of the new concepts to be taught that day, and briefly familiarize myself with the way Carlita explains topics.  I trade off teaching one child, then the other.  Carlita has a handy “suggested teaching sequence” that I love – but you are free to veer from that.

What I Love -

I love that it takes virtually no prep work.  Hey!  I’m a busy mom!  I love that the children are given manageable portions of review problems – and that they get review problems.  I think the teaching instructions given by Carlita are phenomenal.  If I find my child struggling with a topic I’ve been teaching, a quick review of Carlita’s instructions helps me see what I’m doing wrong (the fault is usually in my presentation) and clears everything up!  The Yahoo Group is active and a wonderful resource – Carlita and John are active moderators and participants.  I love knowing that I can ask a question and receive a timely reply.

What I Don’t Love -

Honestly, there isn’t a lot to say here, but I will mention some things that might be turn-offs to others.

First, the cost.  If you consider the cost of the curriculum spread out over multiple children for many years, it’s very reasonable; however, the upfront cost may seem prohibitive.  To help with taking the plunge, Carlita and John offer a great 60-day refund if you try the curriculum and are not satisfied.  It’s nice to be able to take things for a test-drive before committing!  Also, you can order the curriculum in chunks without affecting the overall quality (though you would eventually want all of it).

Second, the record-keeping, while thorough and very well done, takes some getting used to and can seem onerous.  I honestly don’t do all of it and I’m fine with that.

Third, some might feel that 5 problems a day is not enough review.  Obviously, you can do more.  You can write more problems yourself, use more of the ones in the book, or print off free worksheets from the internet (or buy workbooks).  I find the amount of work to be satisfactory for my children.

A Final Note –

If you favor a living books or unit studies approach, you will find that this curriculum would dovetail nicely as you can easily select books by concept and have your children doing problems of varying difficulty in that concept.

After I spent nine months wishing (and saving), I was able to purchase Math On The Level.  A year later, my family still loves it.  Both my children are at or ahead of grade level, and most importantly, math is a subject we all enjoy doing together.  For more information, or to see samples of the program, please visit www.mathonthelevel.com

-Written by Kelly Richardson is the 9-year, accidental home-schooling mother of five amazing children (13, 11, 8, 3, 2).    She is a voracious reader, regular break-baker, sometimes runner, and rare artist .  Her passions are learning about education, home-making, and playing her piano, but her all time favorite thing is spending time with her husband and family, especially in the redwoods or at the beach near her home.  She chronicles her family’s adventures at www.coastcrew.blogspot.com.

All About Learning Press Readers

 Elementary, Language Arts, Living books, Preschool, Reading  No Responses »
Oct 072011
 

My beginning readers are children who have been raised on a wide variety of literature, from Dora the Explorer books (which do not really count as literature) to classics like Heidi and everything in between.  As they have begun learning to read one thing I have tried to find are beautiful books on their level.  I’m sorry, I’ve seen those beginning readers where the whole story is 3 or 4 words repeated in different combinations with varying punctuation.  You know, ones that say:

“A cat?
A cat.
A mat.
A cat sat.
Cat on mat.
Cat sat.”

My children very quickly made it clear that those insipid readers were not worth their time and effort.  I heartily agreed.  On the other end of the spectrum you find beginning readers that include a whole list of ‘sight words’, words the child is simply expected to memorize by sight so they can read a story.  Most of these sight words are, in fact, able to be decoded once you learn the spelling rules, but with a beginning reader I want to find beautiful stories that do not depend on a list of sight words outside the child’s reading level.  Imagine my excitement two years ago when I discovered the readers put out by All About Learning Press, publishers of the All About Spelling curriculum.

We own all the readers available at this point.  They are beautiful!  The illustrations tell an often funny story, one that goes beyond the beginning reader text.  Even at this very early level a story is not limited to 3-5 words repeated over and over.  Currently there are 3 readers for level 1 and two available for level 2.

Our most recent purchase is the Run, Bug, Run! reader.  In the 157 pages the only words that were not ‘short vowels’, and therefore completely decodable for my beginning readers, were “the” and “A”.  A quick talk about open syllables and closed syllables explained why the vowels had long sounds.  My 5 and 6 year old both love these readers.  Even the 3 year old is beginning the sound out letters from this reader.  The artwork is simply beautiful, and the stories are original and sweet.  (You can read a sample story HERE.)

Every family has different tastes in reading material.  Finding books for beginning readers can often be frustrating.  If you are looking for beautiful books for a beginning reader be sure to check out the samples for each book in this series!

Tristan is the happily homeschooling mother to 6 blessings age 9, 6, 5, 3, 1, and 2 months old.  You can drop in and visit anytime over at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

Beginning Readers from All About Reading

 Elementary, Language Arts, Phonics, Reading  1 Response »
Apr 212011
 

My beginning readers are children who have been raised on a wide variety of literature, from Dora the Explorer books (which do not really count as literature) to classics like Heidi and everything in between.  As they have begun learning to read one thing I have tried to find are beautiful books on their level.  I’m sorry, I’ve seen those beginning readers where the whole story is 3 or 4 words repeated in different combinations with varying punctuation.  You know, ones that say:

“A cat?
A cat.
A mat.
A cat sat.
Cat on mat.
Cat sat.”

My children very quickly made it clear that those insipid readers were not worth their time and effort.  I heartily agreed. On the other end of the spectrum you find beginning readers that include a whole list of ‘sight words’, words the child is simply expected to memorize by sight so they can read a story.  Most of these sight words are, in fact, decodable, once you learn the spelling rules, but with a beginning reader I want to find beautiful stories that do not depend on a list of sight words outside the child’s reading level.  Imagine my excitement two years ago when I discovered the readers put out by All About Learning Press, publishers of the All About Spelling curriculum. 

We own all the readers available at this point.  They are beautiful!  The illustrations tell an often funny story, one that goes beyond the beginning reader text.  Even at this very early level a story is not limited to 3-5 words repeated over and over.  Currently there are 3 readers for level 1 and two available for level 2.

Our most recent purchase is the Run, Bug, Run! reader.  In the 157 pages the only words that were not ‘short vowels’, and therefore completely decodable for my beginning readers, were “the” and “A”.  A quick talk about open syllables and closed syllables explained why the vowels had long sounds.  Here is a peek at a page from this book: My 5 and 6 year old both love these readers.  Even the 3 year old is beginning the sound out letters from this reader.

Here is a picture from one of the level 2 readers, The Queen Bee.  As you can see, the artwork is simply beautiful, and the stories are original and sweet.  In this book the facing page often has a few short paragraphs of text, combined with this text above the illustration.  (You can read the rest of this storyin the sample HERE to see more.)

Every family has different tastes in reading material.  Finding books for beginning readers can often be frustrating.  If you are looking for beautiful books for a beginning reader be sure to check out the samples for each book in this series!

Tristan is the happily homeschooling mother to 6 blessings age 9, 6, 5, 3, 1, and 2 months old.  You can drop in and visit anytime over at her blog, Our Busy Homeschool.

Merry Christmas!

 Uncategorized  1 Response »
Dec 202010
 

All of the authors here at The Curriculum Choice would like to wish you a wonderful Christmas as you celebrate the birth of our Savior with your families!   We’ll be back with great new reviews January 3rd!

 Posted by at 6:00 am

Science on a Tracking Expedition from the Young Scientists Club

 Elementary, Hands On, Middle School, Nature Study, Science, Unit study resources  3 Responses »
Dec 132010
 

One of the issues I’ve struggled with over my years of homeschooling is the desire to do hands-on science projects with my children and the time/effort/inconvenience needed to gather all of the materials to do so. While I adore doing hands-on projects with my children, I do not enjoy gathering up all of the needed materials, running out at the last minute to purchase that one thing I thought I had but I actually don’t, and realizing that I can’t do the desired project because I just can’t find or purchase a required object.  Therefore, all in one hands-on kits have always greatly appealed to me!

Given my love of the convenience of hands-on, educational kits, I was thrilled when I was contacted by a representative from The Young Scientists Club to review one of their new kits.  I chose Science on a Tracking Expedition from their Nature Series.  Science on a Tracking Expedition is geared for children ages 4 and up.  I am using it with my 9 and 12 year old sons, and I also plan to include my 14 year old daughter in some of the activities as well.  Most of the materials in the kit can be used multiple times, making it quite practical for more than one child to use at once.  As well, the materials that may need to be replaced with multiple users (dirt, plaster of paris, paints, and plastic bowls) are quite easy to gather or purchase.

The primary focus of this hands-on kit is on learning to identify and appreciate animal tracks. Children (and adults) learn to identify many different animal tracks such as Black Bear, Great Blue Heron, Gray Wolf, Raccoon, Opossum, Wild Turkey, Whitetailed Deer, and Striped Skunk.  Utilizing the materials included in this kit, children learn about animals tracks through a wide variety of hands-on activities. The very clear instruction manual included has directions for the adult and also has directions written directly to the child.  Hands-on activities include:

  • Making animal track prints using the plastic animal track molds
  • Matching the animal tracks to the animals using stickers and a big poster perfect for a child’s room or schoolroom
  • Writing a short story based on the arrangement of animal tracks at the bottom of the poster
  • Making animal casts using the materials provided
  • Making animal casts from real tracks found on a nature hike
  • Attracting animals to a specific area of one’s yard and identifying the animal tracks
  • Playing a matching memory game in which animal tracks are matched to the animal

While there is definitely enough educational material included to spend at least a week of science lessons exploring the activities, this kit could easily be the beginning of a unit study about animal tracks.  Additional books, videos, or field trips could be added to learn more about the featured animal tracks.

If you would like to learn more about Science on a Tracking Expedition or other educational science kits, you can visit The Young Scientists Club website to learn more about the wide variety of products they offer.  Science on a Tracking Expedition is available for purchase at The Young Scientists Club website for $29.99.

Samantha has homeschooled her three children since her oldest child was in first grade.  She uses a wide variety of curriculum in her homeschool to best meet the needs of her children.  Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy At Home.  Samantha received the Science on a Tracking Expedition kit free in exchange for her review of the product.  No other compensation, monetary or otherwise was given for her review.

Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar

 High School, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Literature, Middle School, Writing  3 Responses »
Nov 152010
 

My oldest child is in 8th grade this year and is taking a Literary Analysis class for the first time.  The class involves writing many literary analysis essays.  Rather than dive right into the Literary Analysis class, I thought it would be prudent and fruitful to first teach her how to write a literary analysis essay.  Even though I feel confident in my own writing, I wasn’t sure how to go about teaching her how to write this specific type of essay.  Therefore, I was completely delighted when I attended a presentation about Teaching the Essay by Analytical Grammar at last year’s MidWest Homeschool Convention.

After listening to the representative explain the Teaching the Essay unit, I knew that it was exactly what I was looking for to teach my daughter how to write a literary analysis essay. More than anything, the very best way to describe Teaching the Essay is CLEAR.  Even if you have absolutely no background in expository writing, Teaching the Essay will teach you, the parent-teacher, how to teach your child to write a 5 paragraph expository essay focusing on literary analysis.  Teaching the Essay is designed for the secondary student – junior high age and above.

As Robin Finley, the author of Teaching the Essay, asserts, writing a literary analysis essay involves fluency, mechanics, and structure.  Fluency has to do with the “gift of gab” and the ability to put words on paper.  Some children are natural writers and will find fluency easier than those who struggle to put words on paper but ALL children become more fluent writers with practice.  Mechanics has to do with grammar and is taught separately from this unit by whatever grammar curriculum you choose.  Lastly, writing a literary analysis essay involves STRUCTURE and Teaching the Essay focuses on the structure of a 5 paragraph essay.  After finishing this teaching unit, your child should have no doubt about what a literary analysis actually is and how one should look.

Teaching the Essay comes with all of the notes and reproducible hand-outs you will need to teach a 4 – 8 week course on writing literary essays.  My daughter is a fluent writer and was able to catch on to the concepts fairly easily so we completed the unit in 5 weeks.  Depending on your child, you may need more or less time to finish the unit.  In addition, a CD is included for the teacher.  Listening to the whole CD gives you a big picture overview of the whole teaching unit so that you feel prepared about how to go about teaching the unit.  As well, the CD is divided into tracks by teaching days so that you can listen to the specific teaching day that you are on to prepare for that day’s teaching.

How does this teaching unit work?

  1. In this teaching unit, all students start with reading The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe.  Then, a thesis statement is given to the child to build a literary analysis essay around.  For this first essay, the parent-teacher and student work together every step of the way to complete this first essay.
  2. For the second essay, the child reads “Wheldon the Weed” first.  Then the student is given a choice of three thesis statements to choose from that correspond to the included short story.  This essay is completed more independently with the parent-teacher giving help as needed.
  3. For the third essay, the child reads “Bargain” first.  Then the student is given a choice of three thesis statements to choose from that correspond to the included short story.  This essay is completed more independently with the parent-teacher giving help as needed.
  4. Lastly, the student chooses his or her own short story and thesis statement.  This last essay is written independently.

After writing four essays in this unit, the student should feel comfortable writing other literary essays.  In my own experience, after writing the essays, my daughter was able to easily apply the knowledge and the structure to her writing assignments in her literary analysis course.  If the student needs more or less practice, the teaching unit can be easily adjusted to the needs of the student.

In addition to all of the detailed instructions given on the CD, Teaching the Essay also includes the following tools to help teach the unit:

  • A very clearly written hand-out titled “What is a Literary Essay?”
  • A graphic organizer hand-out to further explain the structure of a literary essay titled “The Keyhole Structure of the Literary Essay”
  • A completed literary essay of the Tell-Tale Heart for the teacher
  • An outline hand-out of the whole writing process for a literary essay – “How to Write a Perfect Essay:  It’s All in the Process!”
  • Teaching the Essay teaching notes - A Step by Step Guide for the Teacher
  • All the needed texts for the literary essays written in the unit (The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, Bargain by A. B. Guthrie,Jr., and Wheldon the Weed by Peter Jones)
  • Reproducible worksheets to help the student write each part of the essay
  • Very detailed grading rubric.

To learn more about Teaching the Essay, you can visit their website and watch an informational video about the teaching unit by Robin Finley.  As well, I have found the representatives from Analytical Grammar very easy to talk to and quick to respond to e-mails.  I am sure that they would be glad to answer any additional questions you may have about Teaching the Essay.  Teaching the Essay is available online for $15.00.

Samantha has been homeschooling for 8 years and currently is homeschooling her 8th grade daughter, 6th grade son, and 4th grade son.  Samantha is an eclectic homeschooler using a wide variety of curriculum to best meet the ever-changing needs of her children.  Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy at Home.

Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons from IEW

 Elementary, History, Junior High Language Arts, Language Arts, Middle School, Vocabulary, Writing  No Responses »
Oct 062010
 

After trying many different writing programs, I am using a writing curriculum this year with my 4th and 6th grade sons that I KNOW I will continue using year after year.  I am absolutely thrilled with the writing curriculum I purchased from the Institute for Excellence in Writing.  More specifically, we are using Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons.  Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons is one of many theme-based writing programs available from IEW.  While this review will focus exclusively on Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons, the use of this curriculum assumes that the parent/teacher has attended (either live or via DVD) IEW’s Basic Seminar on Teaching Writing Structure and Style.  An overview and review of IEW’s Basic Seminar can also be found here at Curriculum Choice.

Basically, Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons takes the nine units of writing instruction covered in Teaching Writing:  Structure and Style and applies them to specific writing assignments that pertain directly to Ancient History topics. For example, three lessons cover IEW Units I and II (Note Making and Summarizing from Notes).  More specifically, three lessons focus on writing from key-word outlines using articles about ziggurats, the Sumerians, and ”The Epic of Gilgamesh” story.  Within those three lessons, several aspects of writing style are practiced as well:

  • creating titles
  • sentence openers (starting with an -ly word and very short sentences)
  • appealing to five senses

A wide variety of writing assignments are given in this curriculum including:

  • Poems
  • Writing paragraphs from key-word outlines
  • Writing narrative stories
  • Writing critiques
  • Research reports
  • Formal essays and reports
  • Writing from pictures
  • Creative writing.

To learn more about the writing skills and history topics covered in Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons, the entire Table of Contents and the Scope and Sequence can be viewed.

The program consists of a Student Book and a Teacher Book.  Not only do I highly recommend purchasing both components, I highly recommend purchasing a Student Book for each student.  To make things even more convenient, it would be beneficial for the parent/teacher to have a copy of the Student Book as well.  Much of the material in the Student Book is simply not included in the Teacher Book.

Advantages

  • The program meshes very well with our history studies in Ancient History.  I adore that the boys’ writing lessons are related to and reinforce the topics they are learning about in history.
  • Many of the assignments include a picture as part of the assignment.  This element particularly appeals to my artistic sons.

  • The expectations for the assignments are clearly given in Final Checklists.  My boys appreciate knowing exactly what they need to do to do well on their writing assignments.
  • Four vocabulary words are introduced almost every week.  The cardstock vocabulary cards with pictures on the front and definitions on the back are wonderful for learning the new words.   Since the program encourages the vocabulary words to be used in the writing projects and quizzes are included, my sons are internalizing the vocabulary words.
  • The program can easily be used with multiple grades at one time.  Instructions and suggestions are given for Level A students (3rd-5th grade) and Level B students (6th-8th grade).  As well, the lessons can be adjusted according to the readiness level of the child rather than the grade level.  For example, I am teaching this course to my 4th and 6th grade boys this year but they are both working at Level A.
  • The Student Book includes many very helpful pages in the Appendix including:  Stylistic techniques chart, Quality adjectives, Strong verbs, -ly words, Five-senses words, Proofreading marks, and Vocabulary words.

The program does require quite a bit of parent/teacher involvement but I am finding that the time investment is paying rich dividends in improved writing skills for my sons.  After years of searching for a writing program that is a perfect fit for our family, I feel confident that I’ve finally found a great fit with IEW’s Theme Based Programs.

For the 2010-2011 school year Samantha is teaching her 4th, 6th, and 8th grade children at home.  Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy At Home.  In addition to her own blog, she writes for The Homeschool Classroom, Curriculum Choice, and is a member of the TOS Review Crew.

Flat Stanley Unit

 Elementary, Language Arts  1 Response »
Sep 082010
 

Often in our schooling, I find myself working hard to remember and actively teach our “middle” students!  This year, we have worked together with another family once a week to join forces on several subjects we wanted to teach our different aged students, and I loved having some focused time with our “middles.”

To have a direction of study, we chose to use the Flat Stanley unit study published by Blackbird & Company.  We’ve enjoyed the Flat Stanley books with our older kids, and when we discovered this study we thought it would be fun to do with our early elementary students.  My son is seven, and we taught the unit with him and his friends, siblings 5 and 8.

I loved Blackbird’s Exploring Poetry unit, and was looking forward to exploring this one.  At the same time we received it, we discovered the Flat Stanley project, which involves kids sending letters and pictures to far away places and sharing his adventure.

The book itself is recommended for grades 1-3, so it was right on for readability and subject appropriate for the group we worked with.  To be honest, though, I found the literature guide to be a bit off-putting for our students in this age.  It’s primarily a workbook that includes literary analysis (which I firmly believe in as important), but the repetition and dryness of the format left us doing much more oral discussion as our younger students weren’t up to the amount of writing required.  Instead, I used the questions as a discussion guide, and our students did a hands-on scrapbook of Stanley’s adventures using cameras and the custom Stanley figures they created (along with that of Salvatore, the made-up cousin grandma took on her Vegas trip!).

In addition, I felt the level of analysis attempted and the length of study expected was stretching it a bit for the length and content of the Flat Stanley book.  It could have easily been read aloud to the students in one or two sittings, and it felt like it was more than stretching it out to keep them waiting through the number of assignments in the curriculum.

In all, I am impressed greatly with Blackbird, but felt that this particular unit tried to do too much with the level of book that is Flat Stanley.  It would be a great several-page discussion starter, but for our personal use, at $16 for the study and $20 for the study with book, it is not a cost or time-effective investment for this age of student or “literature.”  Rather, I would have preferred to see a more streamlined selection of analysis questions combined with hands-on activities so needed for this age group.

-You can find Angela blogging at Dancing with my Father.

Sew Teach Me Sewing Curriculum Review

 Hands On, Highschool, Home Economics, Middle School  4 Responses »
Sep 062010
 

Since my daughter is in 8th grade this year, I was eager to start some formal home economics classes with her as part of her school day.  Not only do I feel that home economics classes teach valuable life skills, I think they are a wonderful, hands-on break from the more academic subjects which compose her school days.  My daughter had shown interest in learning to sew, so I wanted to add a sewing course to her schedule this year.  Given that my seamstress skills are limited at best, I was nervous about putting together my own sewing course.

Thankfully, I ventured into the Sew Teach Me booth at the Midwest Homeschool Convention.  After talking with the helpful folks at the Sew Teach Me booth, I decided that the sewing curriculum was exactly what I had been looking for in a beginning sewing course.

I purchased the entire course on CD for $89.95 which includes patterns for a few of the projects and pattern design software from which all of the other patterns can be printed.  If you prefer to purchase the curriculum printed and bound which also includes the pattern design software, the price is $159.95.  The curriculum is recommended for ages 8 and up but I think you would really need to consider the maturity level of your child.  My daughter definitely would not have been ready for this course at 8, but at 13, the course is a perfect fit for her.

Sew Teach Me includes 8 chapters covering a wide variety of basic sewing skills.  My favorite part of the curriculum is that chapters 2 through 8 all include a great sewing project to complete at the end of the chapter.  My daughter’s enthusiasm for the sewing course increased dramatically when she had successfully completed her first project.  All of the projects are items that could be given for gifts or kept for oneself.

Most chapters offer a choice of projects so that your child could choose his or her favorite project to complete or complete all three projects if desired.  For example, your child can choose between a ski hat, pet planket, or tic-tac-toe board at the end of the chapter on straight sewing.  My daughter chose the ski hat.

More specifically, each chapter in the Sew Teach Me sewing curriculum covers basic sewing skills with a project or projects at the end of the chapter designed to practice the newly learned skills.  Here is a brief overview of the contents of each chapter and the sewing projects from which your child can choose.

  • Chapter 1 – Learning the parts of the sewing machine.
  • Chapter 2 – Straight stitching.  Projects include a ski hat, pet blanket, or tic-tac-toe board.
  • Chapter 3 – Stitching curves.  Projects include a candy swirl pillow, oven mitt, or hand puppet.
  • Chapter 4 – Fasteners (sewing in a zipper, sewing a snap, sewing hook and loop tape).  Projects include a book bag, hanging organizer, or wrist wallet.
  • Chapter 5 – Survival sewing (replacing buttons, repairing hems, mending tears and rips, re-sewing seams, replacing zippers, pressing, laundry).  The project for this chapter is a laundry sorting bag.
  • Chapter 6 – Decorative stitching.  Projects include a lap quilt, computer mouse pad, or a visor.
  • Chapter 7 – Field trip to a local fabric store, learning about patterns.
  • Chapter 8 – Putting it all together.  Projects include a picnic tablecloth, iCare bib, or apron.

Sew Teach Me is written directly to the student in simple, clear language.  While the class is clearly designed to be primarily an independent study, I am working through the class with my daughter.  If at all possible, I think it is quite helpful to have somebody available to help work through the sewing projects.  Expert sewing skills are NOT NEEDED to help your child with this course.  I have some experience with sewing but I am no expert.  With my limited knowledge and the excellent instruction in this course, I am learning right alongside my daughter.  In the very first chapter, I learned that I’ve been removing the thread from my sewing machine the wrong way for the past 17 years!

My only complaint about the Sew Teach Me curriculum is that I find piecing together the patterns after we’ve printed them out to be difficult.  Using the included pattern design software, patterns are printed right from your computer.  Then, all of the pieces of paper need to be matched up, taped, and then the pattern pieces need to be cut out.  Therefore, I will be purchasing a simple apron pattern for my daughter to use in the last chapter rather than trying to piece together the pattern pieces for a large project like an apron.

You can learn more about the Sew Teach Me curriculum at their website.  As well, you can see pictures of each of the chapter projects.  Fabric kits for each project can also be purchased on their website but I find it much more fun to pick out the fabric of my daughter’s choice at our local fabric store.  If you are not close to a fabric store, though, this may be a convenient option.

Samantha has been homeschooling her three children for the past 8 years.  Currently, she is homeschooling a 4th grader, 6th grader, and an 8th grader.  Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy At Home.

Saxon Math (K-2)

 Elementary, Mathematics  4 Responses »
Aug 232010
 

When I began homeschooling, I chose to use Saxon Math curriculum. We’ve gone through Saxon K, 1, and halfway through 2.   It has proven to be a great fit for my family.

At first, I thought Saxon Math K started out a little slow.  It feels like there’s more playing with the manipulatives than actual work.  But I came to realize that for a kindergartener, that is the work.  As they’re doing this, they’re becoming familiar with numbers, shapes, and patterns and how they work.  This provides a really critical foundation of understanding a lot of basic concepts the students will need for more advanced skills.

There’s a lot of thought put into the scope and sequence of the lessons. Playing with pennies and dimes leads to counting by tens, which leads to understanding place value, which leads to addition with regrouping.  (That’s carrying if you’re old school.)  Even the order in which addition facts are learned have been thought out carefully.  Students don’t just blindly memorize the addition facts.  They are taught to learn them by the relationships between the numbers.  First you learn doubles, such as 3+3.  Later it’s doubles plus 1, such as 3+4.  It’s easier to learn 3+4=7 once you know 3+3=6.  I didn’t see it when we first started, but now after a few years, I can see that there is a very well thought out plan behind all these lessons.

I love the use of manipulatives. This was what drew me to Saxon in the first place.  Math is one of those subjects that students usually either love or hate.  It’s a lot harder to hate a subject when it feels like you’re playing with toys during the lessons.  Manipulatives can give students a deeper and truer understanding of a concept since they can see it and touch it.  The manipulatives make the lessons much more accessible to visual and kinesthetic learners.  It has also been a diversion for my preschoolers more than once when I’m trying to work with my older daughter!

There’s a lot to Saxon Math.  Maybe too much. If you did everything  provided for each lesson, it would probably take a good hour.  But we don’t have to do everything, and we’re still doing just fine. Saxon uses the spiral review method, so students can keep their skills fresh.  Even though we skip some of this, I’d much rather have a curriculum that gives too much to do than one that leaves me feeling like we’re missing something.

One thing I would change about Saxon is that the skill taught in the lesson is not always immediately reinforced in that day’s worksheet.  I don’t think 25 or 30 questions is appropriate, but three to five questions or problems on that lessons skill would be a very good tool to check for the student’s understanding.  Most lessons do contain this built-in check, but there are definitely some inconsistencies in this area.

Saxon Math is a bit on the pricey side, but I think it is worth it. The Saxon Math Homeschool kits cost $96.50 ($63.50 for K).  Additional workbooks can be purchased for additional students for $27.50 without having to buy the whole kit again.  The manipulatives set costs $77.50 which is used for the K-3 curriculum (and occassionally preschool).

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