Working hard and hardly working.
There’s nothing a homeschool parent loves more than reading and/or talking about curriculum! Actually, maybe they love talking about schoolroom renovations a little more. I can’t be sure. Regardless, I’m here today to talk about the curriculum we’re using with Levi for the next few months, probably through May. We use the pre-made curricula as guides, and explore whatever topics interest Levi in greater depth using our science and history encyclopedias, books from the library, and videos from YouTube or Amazon.
So without further ado, I present the winter/spring 2015 offerings for Lone Pine Collegiate School. (This post contains affiliate links.)
Math:
- Math Mammoth Light Blue Series
- Khan Academy
- WatchKnowLearn
Social Studies / History:
- Spectrum Geography – U.S. Regions
- Kansas History (I’m writing this curriculum)
- Kids Kansas Activity Book (Kansas State Historical Society)
- The Big Kansas Activity Book
Science:
- Supercharged Science Human Body
- The Lab of Mr. Q Classic Life Science
Language Arts:
- Abecedarian
- Sequential Spelling
- Common Core & So Much More Reading Fluency Passages
- Audio books from LearningAlly, which I highly recommend if your child is dyslexic (you must submit documentation of visual disability to subscribe)
- Read, Write & Type for keyboarding, to help work around dysgraphia
- Handwriting Without Tears Cursive (he loves it, so we keep at it)
Critical Thinking:
Electives:
- Alfred’s Drum Method
- Russian (Duolingo, vocabulary cards that I make up)
- Concordia University Art Lessons
- Life skills (cooking, chores, repairs, budgeting)
- Agriculture (with Dad & Grandpa)
- P.E. (football, wrestling, baseball, personal health)
You might be thinking, “how many years does all of this take to accomplish?” Truthfully, Levi is often finished with his main schoolwork by lunch time. It takes a lot less time to do all of these subjects with one kid than it does with a classroom of kids. Also, we don’t do every subject every day. He does math and language arts every day, without fail. Science and history are 3 to 4 times per week.
I try to tie art in with history. He does his handwriting lesson, mind bender puzzle, and task cards first thing in the morning to get his brain going. These are quick and take maybe 15 minutes.
Drum practice, typing practice, and listening to chapter books usually happens later in the day. Don’t tell Levi that counts as school work. He thinks it’s just for fun. Same with his sports practices. The life skills, agricultural learning, and Russian are not scheduled, formal schooling. They happen as part of our regular life.
Collin has joined our little school recently. He’s quite mad that he doesn’t get to ride the school bus every morning like his older siblings. I’ve placated him by telling him he has his own awesome Guppy School (the siblings call him Guppy), and have put together an alphabet and numbers study for him with crafts and online games. He’s 3, so the majority of his learning is through play, and books, and songs. Collin’s fall birthday means he still has two full years before he’ll enter kindergarten. He already counts to 15, has a killer vocabulary, and is making outstanding progress on the alphabet. I suspect I won’t get away with the lack of formal curriculum for long with him. The kid wants to learn! Of course, he wanted some books like Levi has, so I’ve procured some coloring books and preschool skills workbooks from Dollar Tree and Target. Guppy School is Guppy-approved. For now.
