Bible

Since we are a Christian homeschool, we do teach Bible in our school day.  I love having the freedom to teach my children about our faith.  When choosing curriculum though, I don't necessarily choose it for Biblical content, but for academic content.  Now I do use Christian curriculum, but don't get tied up in which translation of the Bible is used or how many Bible lessons in each subject.  I don't think my kiddos are going to be hermits who sit under a rock for the rest of their lives quoting the King James Bible.

I do love that their Apologia science makes them look at information on the internet about teachings on evolution and compare them to the Bible and make their own conclusion.  I love that sometimes in Life of Fred, Fred mentions something from the Bible and in Learning Language Arts through Literature, they have a hymn and Psalm in each year's poetry unit.  I also enjoy that Life of Fred talks about Socrates and Learning Language Arts Through Literature has them reading Shakespeare.  

Until 9th grade, I have not purchased an individual Bible curriculum.  And actually we are using Notgrass history which has Bible curriculum built in and parallels it with history.  We instead have read Bible storybooks and then started reading the Bible out loud.  I had this chart in a Sunday School curriculum extras book published by Gospel Light.  There have been several goodies that I've taken to use for homeschool.  We started a reading plan and are on our 4th year.  At the end of this school year we will have read the entire Bible out loud by reading about 2 chapters every school day.  I've colored in the books we have completed.

I really enjoy this method of Bible teaching for my kiddos.  They read out of their own Bibles and sometimes off an electronic Bible.  My son prefers NASB and daughter NLT.  It can be hard to follow along, but I think that is good practice as well.  Sometimes if something doesn't make sense, we switch translations and read the confusing part out of the other translation.  If my kids have a question or comment, we discuss it right then.  Sometimes I know an answer, sometimes I look it up and sometimes I just tell them that I don't know.  I didn't want some curriculum telling my kids what the Bible means by this or that.  It is exciting to hear them discover these things on their own and in that, I'm learning more about the Bible that I love so much!

There are stories I heard as a child from the Bible and had a certain impression about them because of the way I was taught and now that I've read on my own I see sometimes, that is not what was really meant in those passages.  Here is an example.  As a child, I always thought that the fish swallowed Jonah to punish him for running away.  Now as I read it on my own and read the prayer that Jonah prayed, I see it differently.  The storm was a punishment and Jonah was thrown out of the boat as a punishment.  Jonah was drowning and was getting tangled in seaweed and the great fish was sent by God to RESCUE Jonah, not punish him!  Wow!  That is an incredible difference!

Now I don't claim that I have complete understanding of the Bible because I've read it through 10 or so times, but each time I read it I learn more.  Sometimes I need to read a commentary to get it.  Sometimes I just have to trust God about it and not attain complete knowledge.  I guess I just want my kids to learn to read it for themselves.

This is just my way of doing things and I know that there are other parents who love their curriculum and how it gives the children groundwork for their Christian heritage.  We have done read-alouds that help with that as well.  They also learn some of that in Sunday School.  We are not neglectingit completely.  I just find more value in knowing the Word for what it says, period.

One last thing.  I think that reading out loud is a good practice for the kids.  I read aloud to them a lot when they were younger and wish we had time for me to keep doing that.  With the kids in different grade levels and using different curricula at this point, I believe the Bible is a great way for them to read out loud every school day.  I've stepped up the expectation this year as well.  I want them to read to me with expression and keep me from falling asleep or getting so bored that I want to check my phone or email while they're reading.  In the past I had only done that with poetry or individual assignments.  Not every passage of the Bible is easy to be expressive in while reading, but I think it is good to push them further each year.

I'm not sure where we are starting next year with more Bible reading, but I think it would be great if my kids read through the Bible out loud 2 complete times before they graduate high school!

Life of Fred after 2 years

There are so many crazy philosophies out there about how math is to be taught.  Okay maybe they're not all crazy, but there are several approaches and I do not believe there is a one-size-fits-all program.  I don't like common core.  I don't like strictly old school math either.  What can I do for my kids that will help?  When my daughter was in kindergarten at a Christian school, her teacher wrote that she loved math on her report card.  We brought that same curriculum to home school and by the end of first grade she hated math. 

They used Everyday Mathematics which is aligned with Common Core, but was around before the implementation of Common Core.  There was a lot of busy work and teaching it in first grade was not terrible, but my third grader at the time was lost and behind.  He had fallen behind by second grade and never really caught up.  He never had concretely learned his math facts after addition and that really slowed him down.  It wasn't necessarily his teacher's fault, but what I discovered was that he struggled with the timed tests.  He wouldn't move on to the next problem until he got the first one correct.  I tried to tell him to skip that and do as many as he knew and then come back to the ones that were harder.  That wasn't in his grid.  I started on flash cards and then I found a program called Xtramath that allowed them to practice the harder problems at their own pace.  It works with speed, but wasn't as stressful for him.  The goal is to have a child know each math fact in 3 seconds or less.

Our next leg of the journey took us to Horizons Math by Alpha Omega.  I really appreciate that it gives straight forward instruction and the consumable books have great pictures.  My kids still hated math.  There are a lot of practice problems there, but that really drove them nuts.  I started having them do the odd numbered problems or even numbered problems.  If they missed a type of problem, I had them retry using the opposite answers.  And I am one of those SHOW YOUR WORK parent-teachers.  If you can do it in your head and get it right most of the time, then fine, but if you're getting the answer wrong, how can I help you figure out what you did wrong if you don't show your work?  I found that it was better to give the kids less busy work when they understood the concepts and then drill math facts with Xtramath. 

The year finances were tight, I put the kids on Khan Academy for all their math, but that took us back to Common Core and they were getting confused from switching back and forth.  We did continue with that as our curriculum and they just made it work.  Also Khan keeps adding little things (updates are not necessarily a bad thing).  I took all of the math myself to see what my kids were being taught and I completed first through eighth grade math on Khan Academy as well.  You get to skip concepts that you pass, so NO I didn't sit through hours of 1+1.  A few months later, I went back to Khan and it said I was only 97% complete with second grade and similar with a few other grades.  What???  I went in and the things I had to do to complete each grade were really pointless and I thought, "No wonder some kids come home crying!"  I wish I could recall specifics, but it has been a few years and my memory doesn't want to be jogged right now!  Really I wouldn't make my kids redo the updates, I'm just anal and hate to leave things unfinished when I feel like they've already been accomplishments.

Enter Life of Fred.  One thing I did learn from switching is that each type of curriculum teaches different things at different age levels.  Switching means there were concepts taught that we didn't get to see if we start at the age-appropriate levels which would be in the middle type of curriculum.  I believe this was the concept of Common Core and that is great, I am just not a fan of the implementation and path.  Sorry, I keep getting close to that threshold of making this blog about something different than Life of Fred.  Back on task ... I decided to start my children at the very beginning of the Life of Fred Curriculum.  They were in 5th grade and 7th grade. 

There is a suggestion of when to start this curriculum and I will let you read that on your own if interested instead of trying to retype much of what they've already said well.  The first series is A-J Apples through Jellybeans.  I started my 7th grader on 3 chapters a day and after he completed Apples (19 chapters), I gave it to my 5th grader to do 2 chapters a day.  She worked on math facts until she got the first book.  I think my son did 3 chapters a day clear through Jellybeans and then slowed to 2 and then 1 when he started learning multiple new things.  He was definitely doing only one a day by Fractions.  Since we are beginning our third year for 2 students, I had bought Apples through Jelly Beans,  Kidneys through Mineshaft, Fractions, Decimals & Percents, and Pre-Algebra 0-2.  This year I added Beginning Algebra and I purchased the practice problems for beginning algebra book, though we haven't needed to use it so far.  This was just over $300 to get 2 children through junior high math.  If I were to have to start my kids in kindergarten again, I would probably start them in Life of Fred in the third grade.  We would have just worked on math facts like crazy until then as well as counting and living math and number recognition.  Maybe just use some elementary consumables that you can pick up at any educational store or free printables on the computer.  I would still have used Xtramath.  I may have even supplemented with Khan Academy for some things.

Top favorite things about Life of Fred:

1. Price

2. It is COMPLETELY reusable

3. No busy work

4. No rush to get through it

5. If you have to repeat a concept, it doesn't put you behind in grade-level

6. Until high school, it is not divided by grade level ... even high school is just high school math

7. Fred does some crazy things

8. My daughter once again says that Math is one of her favorite subjects!!!  WIN!!!!

Basically, in Apples to Jellybeans you learn about this boy name Fred who is smart in math and teaches college mathematics.  He is not street smart and has to use math to get out of problems a lot.  His story continues through the rest of the curriculum as well.  You read his story and then you have a segment called "Your turn to play."  There are a few (2-10) questions to answer and then, the STUDENT grades his or her own work.  That is one day of math.  Very little stress!!!  The child should know how to read and these problems are easy enough that a parent can guide them through with ease.  

The next series Kidneys, Liver and Mineshaft are in the same format.  The problems become a little more complicated.  The reason I didn't just jump into the intermediate level with my 7th grader is that there are terms like domain, codomain and function that weren't used as much in other curricula we tried.  Starting at the beginning made those terms less scary for my kids than they are for me.  My son completed all of these books by the end of his first year with Life of Fred.  That was 13 books.  It gave him a sense of accomplishment for sure.  He also completed The next 2 books in his 7th grade year.  He was motivated as he wanted to start high school in the high school level books.

The next two books changed their format a bit.  They are Fractions, and Decimals and Percents.  The student reads the story and then it's their turn to play.  After 5 lessons, they encounter something new, a bridge.  Each bridge has 10 questions covering the material from the beginning of the book up to that point.  They are given 5 opportunities to cross that bridge into the next lesson.  Crossing the bridge requires them to get 9 out of 10 answers correct.  If they can't get the concept they are to repeat the previous 5 lessons and try the bridge again.  They grade their own bridge, but the answers are not at the turn of the page as they are with the "Your Turn to Play," segments.  The answers are at the back of the book.  I already said that my oldest completed these two books along with the other 13 in one year. 

My youngest did get through Fractions and then a portion of Decimals and Percents by the end of 6th grade.  It was more of a struggle for her, though.  She doesn't like to ask questions and when she is tired of learning something, she just guesses at answers to say she finished her work.  Sadly, I think I was like that a bit as well.  While the grades she got were passing last school year, I asked if she wanted to try doing both books again in 7th grade.  She was excited and said, "YES!"  So far she has done 15 lessons and crossed 3 bridges on the first try.  She has only missed a handful of points since we started and last week said, "I think math is one of my favorite subjects!"  Finally!!  It has clicked!

Some of our collection

The next set of books that my oldest completed in 8th grade are the Pre-Algebra 0, 1 and 2.  His least favorite was Pre-Algebra 0 with Physics.  Yes, with Physics.  And they do teach about friction and mass and buoyancy.  It was good for him!!  He missed the part in the intro (that he said he read) that tells you to write down every formula you encounter.  The format of these books is the same as the previous 2.  The author suggests that one should easily get through the 5 intermediate books in 1 to 1 1/2 years.  I would agree.  

Finally, as far as our school goes, we are starting our final series of math books this year.  Beginning Algebra so far is working well with our 9th grader.  He even sat at his desk laughing and when we asked what was so funny, he said, "Fred is going to ... ."  My daughter, who enjoys Fred's adventures started laughing with him.  So if you clicked on the link about when to start, the algebra section mentions that the student should have hair under their arms before starting algebra because it is proof that they are physiologically ready to grasp algebraic concepts.  That cracks me up, but it seems appropriate.  So far my high schooler is making great grades and has not needed any assistance with his math.  There are no bridges in high school math, but there are cities that they visit.  After every 5 lessons, they do about 20 practice problems a day for 3 days to ingrain the concept before moving on.  I am pleased with their progress!

Because there is no teacher manual, it may make one nervous to teach this curriculum.  Well, it really doesn't need to be taught.  Sometimes I will have to read a few chapters to catch up to what is expected, but each answer is explained well and if it still doesn't make sense, we utilize YouTube.  I'm not ashamed to say that conversion factors confuse me and as soon as I watch a YouTube video with them, I remember what the point is and can help them out.  We rarely need to go that route, though.  I'm grateful!

This review is strictly my opinion of this math program.  I am in no way associated with Life of Fred.  I do not receive discounts or anything for reviewing the product, I just wanted to share our experience.  But if the makers of the books want to donate, I would not turn down the next 3 high school books!  

Spelling ..... Noooooooo!

Our first week of school was really good!  We started into all of our subjects except spelling.  We use the curriculum Spelling Power for spelling.  My kids are using Learning Language Arts through Literature (LLATL) which has a good spelling approach, but I like Spelling Power even better than that.
When my kids started school at an excellent Christian school, they used a certain curriculum and it was decent enough that I continued using it for a while in our homeschool.  The more we worked with it, I discovered what I liked and what I definitely did NOT like.  I would say that by far, spelling was the worst portion of it (OK I disliked the math almost equally).  It reminded me of the spelling that I did in grade school and while it has been in effect for years and years, it doesn't help you understand spelling.  It makes you memorize a list of words and how to spell them.  If you are good at that, you're good at spelling, if not you have to rely on spell check.  Judging by Facebook and Twitter and other online resources, spell check doesn't even work for some people. 
The approach through LLATL is having the child write a sentence or paragraph that you read and whatever misspelled words are on their papers becomes the beginning of the spelling list.  I am not going into the details of their method, but it is a good plan.  We even tried it for a little while and I felt like it was more beneficial than a random list.  Then I came across Spelling Power through www.paperbackswap.com.
Here is this HUGE book that covers spelling from early grades through high school.  I opened the cover and after the table of contents and introduction there is 100 pages of teacher instructions!  They recommend that you read it before beginning the program and it is very important.  Part of the reason I didn't start it right away is because of that 100-page non-entertaining reading that I needed to do.  I think they have a video now to explain everything. 
I started my kids out on the placement test provided.  It was very accurate in placing the kids where they needed to be.  The next year I did the pre-test and it placed the kids nearly where they left off the year before.  This is our third year, so I opted to just start out with the lists that we left off on last year.  It is working out well and though my kids complained on Monday when we began spelling again, they really didn't have any complaints in doing it.  They are quick to go through the proper steps and it is like this is just part of their expectations now.
Spelling Power takes 15 minutes a day for the kids and just over 5 minutes of my time per child per day.  They are placed in a level by letter and not by grade.  They get groups of words that all follow the same rule.  Every few groups they get a review test without hearing the rules.  There is a midlevel test and end of level tests.  During the daily portions, I set the timer on my phone for 5 minutes.  I read a word, give a sentence and they write it down.  Once they've written it, we grade it right then.  If they missed the word, they cross it out and write the correct spelling in the space provided.  If they get it right or they've finished writing the correctly spelled word, we repeat the process with the next word on the list.  This continues until the timer goes off.  I mark in my book where we left off and they move on.  There is a 10-step method for the child to learn his or her missed words and then he or she has to make up a sentence using the missed word(s).  This takes about 5 minutes and then they do an activity to help them remember the rule which takes another 5 minutes.  I purchased the activity task cards that are optional.
When we're doing other writing projects, I can use the rules to help them with a difficult word because I know the rules now.  It has been quite beneficial.  I've always been a fairly good speller, so I desire to pass that down to my children as well.  I know that the curriculum gives strict instructions, but I do modify them as I do with most of what I teach.  I feel that if I use my own words that I can explain things better. 
Cost seems an issue, but really is not.  The initial might seem a little steep, especially if you want to buy the deluxe pack for $175 from their website.  The book alone is $65 and activity cards are $30 and student books are $8 each.  The deluxe pack includes a lot of cool things that I don't have and can't speak for.  The thing is, once you've made the initial investment, all you have left yearly is the Student Record Book to purchase for each child.  We generally have been using 2 per child per year and I get them from Amazon.com with my Amazon Prime subscription so that I can get free shipping.
I'm not compensated in any way for writing what I did.  This is just a product I believe in and will use until I'm done homeschooling.

Changes

This school year began with changes in our curriculum.  We decided certainly that we wanted to continue with Story of the World, Spelling Power, and Apologia Science.  We struggled with liking the other subjects, and I had been exploring Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool since last school year and decided to go with it.  It is a great program and it is free!  We used it for every subject except the 3 I first mentioned.  It was the perfect choice for us to begin with.  The kids learned about self-motivation and I got a break from planning.

The longer we did Easy Peasy, the more disconnected I began to feel as a parent-teacher.  My passion for homeschool is partly a passion to teach my kids.  It was turning into the computer teaching my kids.  Let me clarify.  I think Easy Peasy is awesome and the work that Lee put into it is incredible.  I do believe that if you are not called to be a teacher, but called to homeschool, this might be a great option of curriculum for you.
The literature choices that my kids were reading are great pieces, but I did not grow up with literature because our small town didn't have a library.  If you have a local library, you are blessed!  I had never read Gulliver's Travels or Swiss Family Robinson and the further my kids got into the books, the more disconnected I felt from their work.  We were headed into Penrod and The Peterkin Papers which not only had I not read, but I had never heard of these books.  At the conclusion of one child's book and in the middle of another, I made the decision to drop Easy Peasy from our curriculum.  I still use it as a guide for our daily Bible reading and it helped me organize my education planning.  I just purchased a grammar program and a writing program that I can use with both of my children at the same time and I have chosen 4 books at each of their levels to read for the rest of the school year.  I'm going to have us read the books and have discussion with them, but we are going to enjoy reading for school.
Well that's just language arts, what about other important subjects?  Because this is my children's 3rd math program, they quickly got overwhelmed by math.  They started in Everyday Mathematics and as I went to homeschooling from Private school, I chose not to continue it because the teacher's manuals were too expensive.  I didn't care for the fact that they don't teach long division at all and really lack in math facts.  I just about went into a rant about Common Core, but I will stop with that.  I took my kids to Horizons Math with a false presumption that they were advanced in math because of the previous curriculum and didn't want to dumb it down.  Horizons may have been perfect if we had started with it, but it assumes that you've had a foundation in that style of math so there were areas that my children felt lost in.  Easy Peasy math came with many games which they liked, but there were concepts that frustrated or confused them.  BUT she, the author of Easy Peasy, recommends Xtramath to those struggling with math facts.  WE DO THIS every day.  I've seen so much growth and we haven't even gotten past addition facts yet.  For middle school, she recommends a few programs including Khan Academy.  I had heard of this before, and played with it a bit last school year as well.  I completely put my 6th grader on Khan academy about a month ago and assigned 6th grade math to him.  He works on it for 30 minutes a day and at the end of the year, he should have complete mastery of 6th grade concepts.  Currently he's mastered about 40%.  Last week I did the same for my 4th grader and she is already flying through mastering 4th grade concepts.  This is at their pace and if they cannot understand something, there are a series of videos to help.  When they are really stuck, I go through things with them.  Another fun thing with Khan is that I am doing it too so that I can know what they are working with.  I have currently mastered 100% of Early Math and about 80% of 3rd grade math.  I have chosen to start at the beginning so that there will be nothing that I can't help my kids with when they're stuck.  Yes, I love to learn as much as I love to teach.
Computer skills.  I know that these are imperative to teach and I know enough about computers to be dangerous.  I have computer common sense, and a little more, but I want my kids to know more.  It just so happens that Khan Academy has a computer programing tract as well, so I have them do a lesson and practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Easy Peasy also recommended a free typing program called Good Typing that we began to use early on.  They have to practice typing every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  How are they going to be good at computers if they can't type?
Finally, because of the author of Easy Peasy's fantastic organization, I have decided to do music on Mondays, PE/Health on Wednesdays and Art on Fridays.  We get a little of those things mixed in with other curricula, but I wanted to have a specific pattern of these things with intentional time dedicated to these subjects.  I am teaching my daughter to play the piano with some books I got on Amazon.com and my son is learning guitar through tutorials and I am learning it with him because I was hoping to do so anyhow. 
It was recommended to me not to keep changing things, but I am seeing my children thrive with each step of change that we do.  I appreciate the perspective of other seasoned homeschool moms, too, so I'm praying about each step.  This week as I wait for my new language curriculum to arrive, I've cut out Language arts except that I'm doing a read-aloud every day for them and we read the Bible together every day now.  Our classroom schooling has been done in record time this week.  My kids are happier and I'm happier.  They are excited as they are going to start A Wrinkle In Time and Meet Addy this weekend to prepare for next week's lessons.  And I'm excited because I have a great excuse to use Pinterest now!

Why haven't I heard of this before?

First of all, we went to an AMAZING presentation with our local Christian Family Educators group.  The kids learned about Antarctica from a woman who traveled there, and then they (we) learned interesting things about the attack on Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field from another woman whose father was in the Army Air Corps at the time of the attack.  I love it when my kids can learn from others' experiences.  Due to our crazy family issues and schedule, we haven't been able to attend many group meetings and it is such a pity because we learned a lot this time.
It is good to have a community to learn things from and to bounce things off of.  I have done a couple of things on Facebook where I would post thoughts, I've found educational videos and websites by search engines and I've talked with a few homeschool families, but I really like the idea of this group.  I found that the kids are more social than I am.  DUH!  I have a hard time meeting people face to face and don't know who I should talk with or how to strike up a conversation sometimes.  Thankfully there are a few more outgoing types at the places I visit.  I look forward to more meetings with our group.  As the faces become more familiar, I think I will anticipate each meeting more too.
Now for the great resource that I never knew was out there...  (drumroll please!) .......................  can you hear it????  The Old Schoolhouse Magazine  I can get it free on my iPad and phone.  I liked it on facebook.  I can order paper copies (for a cost)!  I'm pretty sure this will be a new favorite for me.  I admit, not all of the articles are appealing to me, but most of them are.  I may get tired of ads at some point, but I really like the fact that curriculum companies advertise here.  I am looking for a new math program for next year and my daughter is finished with her 2nd grade language, so I'm debating on moving on to 3rd grade or supplementing with another curriculum for the rest of the year.  I would not have found it if I were antisocial and stuff.  A member of the homeschool group was kind enough to share the info with us all.  Thank YOU Mrs. C!
A fun thing the ladies are looking at is a mom's night out and they want to call it a teacher's in-service or something like that to make it sound too important to miss.  Isn't that great!  Well that's my fun inspiration for now.... for parent's week out ... coming soon to an ocean near someone.  ... to be continued...