One More for the Road

So, here's another curriculum decision under the DONE list: Science. I had forgotten that the mom at the Co-Op who is teaching the Science Enrichment had shown me this book. It is Apologia's Exploring Creation With General Science. Man is it packed with information!!! I didn't really like the lay out of the textbook but the content was impressive. Another thing I like about this curriculum is that the same book is used for both sixth and seventh grade. So one less thing to think about or spend next year. YAY!

Curriculum: Some Peace of Mind

So in my quest for the right curriculum for my children, I have some sound peace of mind in two areas. One, writing and two, religion.

I'll start with writing. Of all the programs I used as a Language Arts teacher in both in

elementary and middle schools, the simplest and most versatile one I've seen is the Four Squares Writing Method. I love it because it can be used from Pre-K to Middle School and you can build it up as the years go by. It is also pretty cost effective as you can create a lot of the promp

ts/topics on your own as well as making the organizers (to brainstorm) either by hand or using a program like Publisher.

If you are interested in using this method, you would start with their basic book, The Four Square Writing Method. There is a book for grades 1-3, another for 4-6, and yet another for grades 7-9. I used the 7-9 in my sixth grade classroom. It worked just fine! In retrospect, I wish I would have been able to use this program solely in my classroom but I had to follow the grammar book in addition to teaching Writing so I could only use it as a supplement. For my home school, I will be using it as the curriculum. You can pick up a copy of this method on eBay or at your local teacher store (sometimes expensive).

Now for religion, my husband and I love the Baltimore Catechism so we will be using that for the kids as well. The Baltimore Catechism, used in most parochial schools until the 1

960's, was written in the 1800s. Come to think of it, while my son used the Loyola Press book in class at the Catholic school he attended, my husband and I supplemented with the Baltimore. So it is definitely a no brainer as to what we are using for Religion. My eldest would be doing first year Confirmation Prep-can't believe it!!! Didn't he just make his First Communion? I'm so in denial!

In addition to the Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism we will be using the New Missal Latin Book 1 to learn the parts of the Extraordinary Mass as well as learning Latin. So it gives us a two in one. I know that others really recommend Prima Latina to teach Latin, I have to look into that one.

Taming the monster that is Curriculum!!!

So, I'm officially overwhelmed! I've seen and tested programs and curriculum for the past seven of the eleven years I taught in a formal school setting. The advantage - samples! I am accustomed to ordering samples from publishers and being able to hold the book(s) in your hands is so much a better experience than just looking at a picture of the cover online! There has to be a better way to present this information to home educators than to expect them to blindly accept the book you are selling them. I know, word of mouth is always a great way to find out about curriculum...but I just wish I could order some samples and be able to sit down at my kitchen table and spread them all out so that I can, I don't know, use a rubric to select what would fit our children best. Is that asking too much? Maybe I was just spoiled by publishers in the past?

Worksheets

I'm not a big fan of worksheets, but I find that for reviews or other occassions, we might need them in teaching. I got this website from a Yahoo Group I belong to and thought to pass it along since they are easily customized and they create a PDF for you to either save or print, pretty neat!

Hope this is helpful. Enjoy!

Schooling: What to do???

By profession, I am a teacher. By heart, I am still a teacher. It is very difficult for any parent to make the decision as to which school to send your child(ren) to these days. There are so many options: charter, public, private, religious, etc., that it makes it even harder to make this important decision. My eldest son has always attended a Catholic school in Florida. Actually, he attended one prominent one until third grade and transfered him out when the tution sky-rocketed to $10,000 a year (not a typo) for elementary education (if you go to the link of this school you will find a fancy flash website with tons of features but don't let this site fool you into thinking it was as flashy or fancy in real life...it was definitely, in my opinion, not worth the price we were paying. We switched him to another Catholic school, near our neighborhood for only $4,300 per year (we were saving at least $5,700 with this change). Plus books, uniforms, fees, etc., etc., oh yeah, and the building fund...donations to the Church (which we would make already). It is amazing how it all adds up. Even after the change we were spending $5,500 a year for Catholic schooling. If you know public schools in Florida, you'd understand why my son was no were near them! So now that he is finishing his last year of elementary school and we have invested close to $50,000 in his schooling from pre-kindergarten three until now, fifth grade. Where do we go from here?

He could continue at the current school; a great school by the way. Well worth the money! A new building will feature state of the art technology and a beautiful Media Center. Very exciting!!! Their Middle School is fantastic, teachers are dedicated and love what they are doing. I know this first hand because I had the priviledge of teaching in their MS for four years. Their sports program is great, their Art and Music program as well. But what are these schools lacking in? Not quantity, but quality! First of all, their teacher to student ratio is at the minimum requirements about 30:1. Have you ever been in a room with 30 sixth graders trying to teach grammar? Not fun...or I should say not fair; and I'm not talking about the teacher, it's the kids that don't receive a quality education because it is nearly impossible for the ONE teacher to spread him/herself that thin. Ideally the number would be half but then you'd have to add more buildings and increase tuition. So, what next?

I've been contemplating the idea of homeschooling for a while now. Not that I have anything against homeschooling. I've seen the nicest, most polite kids from homeschooling families (usually at church). My heart tells me it's a fantastic idea but my mind sometimes plays tricks on my heart and the educator in me tells me I might be underexposing my kids by making this decision. My husband has a similar mentality with the exception that he thinks it would be okay to try it for a year and if works great! if it doesn't, we can explore other options. So what do I do? The only thing left to do, pray about it all the time and then be silent. Wait for God's voice to guide me to make the right decision.

Homeschooling involves a lot more dedication and support from the parents of these children. They are their teachers during and after school hours. No longer would I be able to allow someone else to guide my children in the learning process about seven hours a day then I play catch up when he got home.

So what are the pros and cons of this? Lets see:

Pros: no wasted time with aimless worksheets, waiting for others to "catch up", cost efficient (I'm sure we won't spend $5,500 in books and supplies per year), time efficient (more things can be learned in less time), more time for extra-curricular activities, no worthless homework assignments, no negative influences from other kids (or teachers) that don't share the same values as our family, I could go on but just these couple of things is enough to see why I'd select homeschooling as my choice for the best schooling possible for our children.

Now to be fair, the possible Cons: no other adult interaction, less resources (art, music, PE, or gifted classes), no other kids to socialize with on a daily basis (other than my own children), involvement in religious activities such as Living Rosary, Stations, May Crowning, and other school related activities such as D.A.R.E. (drug prevention), Spelling and Geography Bees, etc.

So how do you remedy the "cons" of homeschooling? First, one perfect, or pretty good, solution is finding a Co-Op in your area. In our case, we were looking for one that was Catholic. I'm sure there are others in this city since there is a good homeschool population in the area. In my area there are two great Catholic Co-Op groups to choose from. For peace of mind I looked for the one closest to home. This fantastic Co-Op (a group where the parents involved contribute in teaching classes), there are a total of 12 families, 27 kids, 3 babies, 4 toddlers. The kids range from n rising newborn (lol, still cooking in Mama's tummy) to 7th grade. This group will also aide in the, very important, socialization process all children need to survive in this world. So this is my solution to homeschooling's cons, find a Co-Op and you'll have a happy school year! (I hope!) As I begin to get more involved I'll post more about this group. But I can definitely say that it has been a blessing in my decision making process for the future of our children. Thanks to Katie and Liz (the moms who founded the Co-Op) for all your hard work and dedication in making this group possible! KUDDOS!

So to end, we have decided that this is the best scenerio for our children. We pray the Lord sends us the wisedom and strength to continue this important task.

Pax Christi!