I am going to do something Voddie Baucham says NOT to do…
I am going to divulge what our homeschool curriculum choices are for the upcoming year.
I understand his reasoning (we might use a particular curriculum in a different way and for a different purpose and thus receive much different results than if you were to use the same thing), but I also see merit in offering ideas so that others can see what is working and what is not working for you in order to aid in their curriculum decisions.
So I don’t overwhelm you with everything at one time, I’m going to give you a list of just what I will be doing with my littles.
These are the littles:
ages 6, 5, 2, & 9 months
{my 5 year old has yet to learn what a “normal” camera smile looks like!}
I do not school my 9 month old nor my 2 year old. The 9 month old is usually napping during school hours and the 2 year old plays with his Toddler Box until his older brother is done with school and can go play cowboys or soldiers with him.
While I could have put my 5 and 6 year olds in the same school books at the same time, I chose not to. One reason is my 5 year old has speech delays and I wanted his speech to be a little better before I added him to the school day. For that reason, he spent last year working his way through The Rod & Staff ABC Series.
These are the books we ALWAYS start with. Wonderful resource and great start to school for little ones!
After that, we move to Horizons Math…
(You can buy directly from Alpha Omega or from CBD.)
and Phonics Museum from Veritas Press for phonics/reading/handwriting. (The link is to the Combo Kit, but you can buy everything individually.)
This is a bit different from what I did back in 2009 when I wrote my post on homeschooling preschoolers and toddlers, but I still cover the same basic areas and it takes us about the same amount of time.
This is all done in the morning after Family Bible Time (fondly known as Bible & Breakfast) and the littles Bible Study time with me.
{Our current Bible & Breakfast selections are Mighty Acts of God and Truth and Grace Bible Memory Books and the littles’ Bible Study is from A is for Adam.}
In the afternoon, our family meets back up corporately to dig into History/Geography/Literature. This is something new this year (yes, our school year has already begun…or rather, it never stopped because we homeschool year round).
Remember, I said I was writing my own History curriculum? Well, this is what we are doing during the afternoon hours and we are LOVING IT!
EXCITING NEWS!
I will be making each unit available FREE of CHARGE to Raising Arrows subscribers! These will become available as we tweak and complete each unit in a very simplified format via a link in my posts that come to your inbox or your feed reader {I anticipate the first unit being available sometime in the next couple of months}. Sign up today!
Note: I only ended up putting together one unit before realizing this was a project that was way over my head. You can still find that unit in the Subscriber Bonuses here on the blog which you can get access to by SIGNING UP HERE, but I did end up going back to Tapestry of Grace. You can find all of my posts on TOG –> HERE!
I’ve always done History during the afternoon hours, but I’ve rarely included the littles. The reasons for not including them has been everything from not enough age-appropriate material, to not enough time. The way I have solved this issue is to make up two lesson plans {one for bigs & one for littles} that coincide at different points. If the littles have done all the things listed on their lesson plan and it is not yet time for their lessons to coincide with their older siblings’, they simply don’t have History that day.
You also might notice we don’t do formal Science lessons with our littles. At this age, I prefer my children to be naturalists and observers. There is time enough to cram oodles of information into their brains.
So, there you have it…the Littles Version of the 2011-2012 school year here at Heritage Arrows Homeschool!
abba12 says
THANK YOU!!!
You’ve just helped me out a heap without even meaning to. I’ve been browsing what we have available here in Australia for christian, homeschooling-friendly pre-school books. Postage these days is scary so I wanted to source from my own country if possible. I came across the ABC series, but it never credited who produced it or linked back or anything. There wasn’t enough info about the series for me to purchase it online without seeing it (the prices are bumped up because anyone here has to import the books themselves anyway) so I had given up.
Now I know not only was it rod and staff, but the rod and staff books store has a ministry to discount postage for international customers for exactly the reasons above. It should end up cheaper than ordering from my own country, and more reliable too! Not that I need any books for awhile but it’s good to know the resource is there. I was starting to wonder if I would have to start from scratch or get the state school workbooks when the time came!
Amy says
Wonderful! That is so great they have a program like that too. Sounds like there is a definite need for that type of thing in other countries.
Kristen says
I used the ABC Rod and Staff preschool books with my oldest, and am using them currently with my 2nd. I LOVE these books and highly recommend them to all my friends looking for a preschool/pre-kindergarten curriculum. They are fabulous. I definitely plan to use them with all my kids!
Michelle G says
Amy,
I’m excited to see your history curriculum! I’m skipping it with my twins this year because our main focus is going to be on learning to read and basic math:)
Michelle
Faith on Fire
Kristen says
I also can’t wait to see what you have come up with for history. I have all littles right now, but have not found anything at all that I would feel comfortable using straight from a curriculum company.
Emily says
Amy- So glad to see someone using the Rod & Staff preschool books. I have been eyeing them for some time! Did you see they now have the GHI set, another three books?
Amy says
I did see that last year, but decided to stick with what I had been using all these years. Let me know what you think if you end up getting GHI!
Rachel @ finding joy says
Love this list of resources!! It’s always so great for me when I get a peek into other homeschooler’s worlds of curriculum choices.
I think I’m going to have to join you with doing the history curriculum on our own. 🙂
Jenn says
Thanks for this post! We are in the very early stages of figuring our own curriculum choices so it is good to hear the experiences of others -both from your post and reader comments! A couple questions if I may:
1) We have chosen to wait in K this year with our son since he won’t be 5 until October, but he is ready and wanting to do some “school”. I am very interested in the ABC series. The thing is though that his sister is only 17mo younger than he is and she is most likely to be wanting to do some school too -do I need two sets of the materials if I am going to take them both through it(maybe at different paces?)
2) Can you talk more about why/how you are keeping your 5&6 yr olds separate? At this point we desire to keep the above 2 children in separate “grades” as they go through school -but not sure it will happen naturally as they are so close in age and the youngest is a girl. I am pretty sure that when our almost 6yr old son starts K next year his 4.5yr old sister will be ready too. If we start them together -will they naturally “separate” as they get older & subjects more difficult(and I fear my daughter jumping ahead of her brother)? Is there value in holding her back just for his benefit, not having younger sister ahead of him in school? These are some of the questions we are working through on this issue. Hearing how others operate often helps us flesh out our own thinking.
Thanks!
Amy says
My 5 & 6 year olds are 16 mons apart, so very similar situation. Besides the speech delays in my 5 yo, I wanted to keep them separate so that I was working individually with them on subjects…especially phonics. I did not want one to feed off the other in their work. Does that make sense? I wanted to know beyond a doubt that they were each learning and not just copy-catting the other sibling.
And yes, I would get 2 separate sets of the ABC series because they have many cut and paste activities and it would be too much to try to photocopy all those pages. Much cheaper to just buy 2 sets. 🙂
Teresa says
Our oldest two children are a 11 year old girl and 12 year old boy (13 months apart). I started them seperate, but at 2nd grade she was able to do what her brother could so I combined them. Now she is ready to pass him up. I will keep them together as she is so far advanced for her age and give her more music and arts to take up some of her time.
If she still continues to push ahead I will consider letting her advance without him, but I really like having only 4 grades to teach is enough and adding another one would make it much harder on me. If I didn’t have two little ones it would be different. It would also not be so much of a problem if she was not in 9th grade and that would put her ready for college at 15.
Being ahead has advantages but also brings many problems. We have her time well managed so she is still learning, but she is such a self starter that I find myself having problems keeping up. Her brother is advanced as well, but need pushing to get things done. I have found the competition of being together has keep him going at times. Who wants there younger sister to get ahead of them.
I am making more of my own lessons this year, so we can add things that go more in depth with our countries history and way more Bible. We do homeschool most of the year round. Take off April most years as we have so much to get done outside with gardens and the large yard. Then do math and Bible the rest of the summer. I find the kids do best with some daily school structure. To much time left to there own has been a problem in the past. So I teach about two hours a morning in the summer. Then during the school year we can do about 4-5 hours a day plus music. This takes some of the pressure off during the regular school year.
I find with every year we try something different. I guess it changes so much depending on how many babies are in the house. That is what is so great about homeschooling. We can change what does not work and try something different.
Jenn says
Thanks for the thoughts! I hadn’t really thought about the copy-cat thing Amy, so that especially is a good point. They already do that in other areas and I do want to make sure as you say that they are really learning it, so thanks for bringing that up!
I looked a little more at the Rod & Staff books and my guess is my son will go through it quite quickly because I have done much of that with him already but not so much with my daughter so she will probably need to work through it more slowly. Now I am thinking maybe I won’t even start her in it -just try to give her stuff on the side if she wants so she is learning but doesn’t feel she is at the same level as him.
We currently have two younger(well they are all young, lol!) children as well, girl 2yrs, and boy 6mo. Some days I wonder if the girls wouldn’t be better “grade buddies” as they are only 14mo apart but I don’t want them to grow up feeling like we tried to make them twins and resent that. I also struggle with the balance between what is easier for me and what is best for them -because they aren’t always one in the same!
abba12 says
While they have the ABC series, they also have a set of books before that, the first of which is called ‘about three’. Perhaps these would work well for the younger child?
Erin says
Thanks for sharing! I have 4 boys 8,6,2 and 10 months. Can you please tell me what you do with your little littles while you school? This last year it felt like the 2 year old just milled around looking for something to do. We included him in story time etc, but he didn’t stay engaged long enough in other activities we had available for him. And this year we’ll be adding the baby really to the mix (most of the time this last year I just wore him on my back while we did school)
Could you tell me what you include in your toddler box and how you keep them occupied? Thanks!
Amy says
Sure! How about I just write a post on it 🙂
Liz says
We are currently using the Rod and Staff ABC series with our 4-year-old and I love it!
We just do a page or two each day which gives plenty of time (for us) for the concepts to sink in, and there is enough repetition that young children remember what they’ve done.
We also did the About 3 series – also good.
100% recommendation – the company was so helpful in sending out samples beforehand so I could see for myself and decide on the content, not just the covers. And great value for money – by which I mean inexpensive as well as good quality.
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
We are focusing on project-based learning right now, primarily with my daughter (3.5), though my son (2) sometimes “plays” along. And sometimes we work together in the evening when Daddy has the boy.
Lately we’ve been reading any “alphabet” book we can get our hands on — and my daughter’s picked up almost all the letters now. We’re in the middle of writing our own alphabet book using words that are meaningful to her. We want her to basically learn her alphabet well this year and then we’ll start working on a phonics/word sounds type thing, maybe with flashcards (I hate them, but she gets so excited about her “cards”).
For science, we’re studying animals (via the zoo; we’ll take pictures and make collages of all the animals we find, then learn where they came from, what they eat, etc.) and gardening. She is learning how plants grow, what they produce, etc. Science is very important to us and we’re not teaching it with any particular “bent” except that of course God created all of these things. We can study the world around us heavily without making it into what too many have made it into today (the opposite of religion, basically).
We do some Bible reading at home and will be sending the kids to AWANA at church this year.
We are working with money in math as well as basic counting skills because she is just fascinated with money and buying things, so we are teaching her budgeting. She has her own flashcards with words and pictures of her favorite (mom-approved) snacks and $ amounts. She can read all the numbers. We’ll help her count, plan, and shop.
I really love to create these projects for her based on her interests, much more than choosing any particular curriculum. I’ll be blogging about some of the projects we do as we go along! We have local friends who are homeschooling similar-aged kids and we (the adults) have different skills so we get together and take turns planning fun projects for the kids!
Amy says
Kate,
Your homeschool sounds so wonderful! Thank you for sharing such inspiration! 🙂
Kristina Best says
I am excited to see you use Rod & Staff. I just found out about them. I have a son that will be 4 this month so I will be using these books with him. I have also decided to use Grade 1 with my 8 yr old son. My oldest son has been in and out of regular public school. He should be entering the 3rd grade but with moving between states and have a local public school that isn’t up to par we have decided to start with Grade 1 so we can continue. I have also thought about once he fished it that we can just go on to Grade 2. Have you ever used any of the other Grades from Rod and Staff?
Amy says
I’ve only used their Spelling (short time) and their grammar. They weren’t my favorites, but they were educationally and Biblically sound. 🙂
Lauren says
This is a great post and helping me to determine what to do with my youngest! At what age / level / ability would you introduce the Rod and Staff books?
Amy says
4 is a good age 🙂
Kristen says
I agree, the two kids I have used this series with I started at age four. My daughter flew through the books, my son took a bit longer. This seemed to be both a gender and personality difference, but the fine motor skills required for writing would be more difficult with a younger child.
Dalie says
Thank you for your page, it is very helpful. I have been looking into homeschooling my middle schoolers but I’m new at this and I’m researching curriculums. What do you think of the Robertson Curriculum? Any feedback is helpful. Lord bless you and yours.
Amy says
I don’t know much about the Robinson curriculum except that a lot of families who have found themselves in difficult circumstances have been able to turn to it and make it work (I believe that is why he created it..due to his own difficult circumstances).