Friday, June 1, 2012

Show and Tell May TEACH Meeting

We had a small group, but so many great ideas and suggestions for curriculum, record keeping, and general homeschooling.  Thanks to all who came and participated and to those who couldn’t make it, here is some of what we learned:

Recording/Documenting Ideas:

Homeschooltracker.com – there is a free version that works well

Homeschoolskedtrack.com

Donnayoung.org has templates you can use to make your own

Carla also made her own and is willing to share if you have Publisher.  She took what she liked from other planners and made it her own.  (She even has a 12 year plan – wow!)  It includes planning, documenting, fieldtrips, books, goals, curriculum and more.

Carla also used cards on a notebook ring with different activities and chores.

Bible:

Bible Study Fellowship – moms and kids do the same subject, but kids have their own bible study lessons.

Scripture Memory Fellowship:  Has scripture memory for all ages.

AWANA:  Offered through churches, scripture memory

Languages:

Visuallatin.com:  A Latin program that is fun, and not real expensive.

Language Arts:

Daily Grams:  short, daily grammar lessons

Shurley English:  grammar that uses jingles to remember grammar rules

PAL Primary Arts of Language

Christ Centered Phonics cards teach biblical doctrine and phonics

Spelling:

Spelling Plus

All About Spelling:  uses multisensory approach to spelling.  Very easy to use lesson plans.  Requires about 20 minutes a day

Writing:

IEW All Things Fun and Fascinating (excellenceinwriting.com) for grades 3-4 or early/late writers.

Math:

Math-u-see:  hands on math, focuses on the basics

Teaching Textbooks:  Student does lesson on the computer and gets immediate feedback of answers

Science:

Go Science Videos:  gosciencezone.com covers a lot of areas of science. 

Christian perspective, younger and older children enjoy.  Relatively inexpensive.  Can be purchased at Library and Educational Services.

Christian Liberty Nature Readers:  different levels have interesting facts about nature

Nature Friend:  a kid’s magazine that is creation based

Exploring Creation Series used with the Junior Zoology Notebooking Journal.  Author writes in a conversational style.  One book in series is “Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day” which covers birds, insects, and anything else that flies.

Unit Studies:

World of Adventure:  History based, but includes all subjects but Math.  For grades 4 – 8.

Prairie Primer:  Uses the Little House on the Prairie series.  This was done as a co-op and was a lot of fun. It also includes most subjects.  They also did lapbooks.  The co-op met once a week and covered about one book per month.  For grades K-6. 

Pre-School/Early Elementary:

Hubbards Cubbard:  teaches character, bible study, songs.  Designed for pre-k, but could be used with early elementary.

Classical Conversations:

A formal co-op that meets once a week.  It is Biblically based and covers a full curriculum. 

Games and other fun educational stuff:

Map of the world shower curtain (purchased at Target) used similar to the TWISTER game.  Carla uses cards from the dollar store that have famous places on them.  They have to identify where the place is located on the map.  (very creative!) 

Pilgrim’s Progress game that includes a child’s version of the book

Kingdom Builder:  for older kids and adults – challenging

Librivox.org:  more than 4000 audio downloads.  Books are in public domain which means most are 75 years old or older.   These are done by volunteer readers so some are better than others.  There are many classics, G.A. Henty historical novels, Ballantine adventure novels, and more.  It is a great way to get through those reading lists for auditory learners.

Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory:  easy to understand

Wendy shared with us about her experience with fostering children.  She would love for other homeschool families to consider this as a possibility for your family.

Never too Early by Doreen Klagett is a book on homeschooling

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