Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is based upon two cycles of history
in chronological order with a strong emphasis on
character training and Biblical world view. I strive to
adhere to Charlotte Mason's principles by following
her suggestions in The Original Homeschooling
Series and am offering our (Ambleside inspired)
program and schedules to anyone who may be
interested. If you would liketo use the curriculum
and have questions, please feel free to contact me
and I will do my best to help you.
in chronological order with a strong emphasis on
character training and Biblical world view. I strive to
adhere to Charlotte Mason's principles by following
her suggestions in The Original Homeschooling
Series and am offering our (Ambleside inspired)
program and schedules to anyone who may be
interested. If you would liketo use the curriculum
and have questions, please feel free to contact me
and I will do my best to help you.
29 comments:
I am going to be homeschooling my son this next year. He will be in 2nd grade but tested at a fifth grade reading level. What level should I use for his reading books?
Melissa
Melissa,
My advice is to stay with his grade level. The books, for the most part do not correspond with a grade level, but a sequence. They will be plenty challenging and stimulating. Both my daughters tested above fifth grade reading level when they were in second grade, too. They were never bored with the year 2 books.
Warmly,
lindafay
Hi Linda,
What kinds of journaling do you have your children do in their Quiet time? I thought I had seen a post about it somewhere on your site, but can't find it now. I'm especially interested in Year 2 at this point...
Blessings,
Chay
They write in their personal journals once a week about anything they want concerning daily life. I don't grade these. It is just to establish the habit of journaling. I help them when in first gd. If you are just beginning with a second grader you may want to help them get started as well.
Maria said...
I have been feeling rebelious about using the Bauer History books, because everybody is using them and I am suspicious of the newness of the books. I have read some critiques of the accuracy in some of the books and I don't like how the language is often at a lower level than what I would like to read to my children.
I learned a lot from your site and I have searched your site for information on what you think of the Bauer version of history. But all I found is that you used the fourth book in conjunction with Hillyer's Child's STory of the World and also other books as well.
What do you think of the Bauer books? Have you met people who do know a lot about history and found her portrayal of history to be reliable? What do you think of the spoon fed style? Or am I being "no fun" and should enjoy the accessible style that a 4 year old can easily understand?
Thank you again for helping me with your blog.
M.
Maria,
I don't trust Amazon reviews very much. I often hear people claim 'inaccuracies' about the books I use but they don't give concrete examples or anything of importance.
Susan Bauer's books are not my first choice, but I think they are good and solid information-wise. They are also pretty accurate. Just because they don't mention the deeper issues behind events, but give a very simple picture of a historical event, doesn't mean they are inaccurate. The author is speaking to young children so she is choosy as to what she shares about some pretty awful events and people. Certain issues, imo, do not need to be addressed at an early age. However, I think her style is not conversational enough and rather fact-filled and dry for young children. None of my children cared for her books as much as Hillyer. They preferred his chattiness and comradeship he created with the reader. That said, I do not think Hillyer and Bauer's books are appropriate for children above a fourth or fifth grade level. They are ideal for younger audiences. I use Hillyer up to 3rd grade and maybe a little bit in fourth.
I used Bauer's book for the 20th century because I don't think there is another book available today for a fourth grader that explains this time period so well. It can be improved upon, but hasn't happened yet. So we use just her 4th volume.
Hello,
This is our second year homeschooling our son who is 12 yo. We are using the Charlotte Mason approach. I love your website, but don't know where to get some of the books listed for the 6th grade year...authors? resources? I appreciate the time you have put into helping others...this is new and exciting for me, but also overwhelming as I want to make good choices at the onset of the year.
Sharon
Sharon, almost all the books for sixth grade are available at my little bookstore link on my home page. Try that. Even if you don't plan to buy from there you can get an idea what they look like, etc...
I just wanted to say thank you! Thank you for freely giving out your resources. What a blessing!
Sheila,
You are most welcome!
Lindafay,
I am living in Turkey and was given your blog by a friend in Antalya. I love it and am impressed.
I cannot see anywhere to email you, so I am leaving a post here. There are so many books to get! Did you just get started with a few and then build?
Blessings Tammy Gun
Hi Tammy,
Nice to meet you. I'm so glad you alerted me to the fact that my profile was not working. You should be able to find my email address there now.
Yes, I have slowly been building. I found most at used book stores back in the States but many I have downloaded free from the Internet and printed when I couldn't get them over here.
Since we don't have a library near us, these books are the only ones my children have access to all year round. So they don't really seem like a lot to me. ;)
Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to email if you have any questions.
Warmly,
Still enjoying your blog. It's been very helpful in putting together my booklist for this year. My daughter, who is 8, will be doing mostly Y3 books from AO but we've chosen to do history on a different cycle. Science and Nature Study have me stumped at this point, though. At age 8 (Y3) how did you do science? I noticed that you have Considering God's Creation listed on your book list but not on the schedule. How did you schedule in science as well as history, history bio., nature study, and everything else? Also, how did you choose what topics to study in Science? Any help in this dept. would be wonderful. Hope your move is going well and you're enjoying TX!
Marcia B.
txqueenbee71@sbcglobal.net
Marcia,
Sorry this is so late. I've been moving : )
Have you looked at one of our sample daily checklists over at my file site?
http://www.geocities.com/ankaraacademy/
It may help you see how to schedule it all in. Look at year 2.
I don't schedule CGC in detail but just allow one day a week to work a few pages together. I like the detail she gives. Normally, I wouldn't use a work book like this but since my children don't use worksheets this is a nice little change for them and they always learn so much from CGC. I expect the pages to be really neat. We use color pencils and make a binder out of it eventually.
There are other science books for an eight year old in my curriculum too. Just look at the booklists. I think there is room here for different interests and learning styles. SOme families are very science oriented and do more together. I happen to have a shelf full of living science/nature books from my earlier public school teaching years. In order to make sure these books get read, I schedule one afternoon quiet time reading period as "science shelf." They get to choose from it and read at their leisure.
hth,
lindafay
I hope it's okay to ask this. I'm starting with your year one suggestions with my 7 yr old, and his 5yr old sister is pretty interested in some of the books. I just wondered if she is listening along with him, should I just move her up with him next year, or start her over with year one? Thank you so much for sharing all of this great information!
Stephanie,
I honestly don't know. You know your daughter best. Is she an 'old five year old' or a young one? How much is she grasping? Generally, putting a six year old into year two is quite a stretch for most children. I wouldn't say one should never do it, but you should assess her abilities and level of understanding before you make that decision. I'm sure you are trying to do that already. :)
Lindafay,
When I click "Our 12 Year Curriculum Plan" I get a "page not found". Can you check this out? Is it just me?
I would really like a look at it.
Thanks!
The Lloyd family,
I think I fixed the link. Try it and tell me if you still have troubles viewing it.
Do you combine years if you have more than one child? I currently have a 2nd grader and a K5er. Next year will be 3rd grade and 1st grade. Would we use Year 1 and Year 3 or just Year 3?
Hi Aimee,
I separated my daughters because I wanted them both to finish a complete cycle of history twice, but if that isn't important to you than I would put both children together in year 1, certainly not 3. That would be way too advanced for a first grader. Year 2 would be possible for a first grader, but personally I wouldn't do it. Year 1 is not too young for a 3rd grader. I doubt more than a book or two would be 'young' to him or her.
hth,
lindafay
Hello Linda,
The Truthquest History III you begin using in week 27 of Year 3, is that the American History for Young Students III (1865 - 2000)? Thank you again for all of your wonderful help!
Many Blessings,
Chay Bigger
Chay,
Yes. You are correct :)
You're welcome.
Hi Linda,
I have some gaps that I need your advice on! We haven't thoroughly covered the 20th century yet; my children are 4, 8, 9 and 11. Next yr. I wanted to move the 11 yo on independently and possibly the 9 yo as well, as far as history and science goes. I'd really like to just follow your schedule for yr. 4 and 6 for them (we're doing AO 2 all together this year, with some extras added in for the 11yo), but how do I fill in the gaps I've created?! I've considered having the 11 yo read through SOTW 4 over the summer - do you think that would suffice?
Thank you so much
Tresta
Tresta, I think having your 11 yo read SOTW4 is a good idea. I'd also have him/her read some books from the additional reading lists in the previous years.
Do you have a 3rd yr student read aloud to you (besides the one day a week when they're practicing their elocution)? If so, how often do they do this? My 2nd yr student is currently reading aloud one chapter a day; this helps me teach him things such as slowing down when reading, not skipping words, enunciating his words, and helps me check his ability to sound out words. -CMgirl
Hi Linda,
I really am impressed with all that I'm reading on here about how you put all this together. This year I have done AO Yr.2 with both my 2nd and 4th grader. I have seen some fairly big gaps that have concerned me. I really am thinking that I like your S&S so much better but am not sure where to start. I will have a 1st, 3rd and 5th grader next year. Will I really need to do three different schedules with History/science? This seems very overwhelming to me. Any suggestions?
Hello Linda,
I have been researching AO for several weeks now. I just found your site this morning, and have been on here for literally hours--this is fantastic. Way less confusing than AO.
I have upcoming 5th, 3rd, and 2nd graders, and have a question about getting started. I also have a K-er and 2 pre-Kers--but I haven't messed them up yet and can start fresh with them:-)
My question is in regard to my older 3 (especially the oldest). We have always been very relaxed in our homeschool, basically just covering the 3 Rs. So my grade schoolers have had very little history/literature/science except what has just come up in their reading choices. (And our "literature" selections have not been great up to this point:-(
Would it be terrible to put my 11, 8, and 7 yr olds in Year One together since I *know* my older wouldn't be able to handle the reading suggestions for yr 5. (She "reads" fine as far as the words, but I'm afraid she'd be totally overwhelmed and lost with the content).
Thanks for any advice you can give.
Anon,
I suggest putting your 8 and 7 year olds together in year 1 and your 11 year old in year 3 or 4. You should start off reading aloud some of the more difficult books to her just to help her get started. Some of the content of year one would be too easy for her. A CM education should stretch a child but still hold their interest.
(Don't have her begin Age of Fable until she has read Heroes or Tanglewood Tales.)
Anon,
Since you began with AO, I recommend you continue with it. You could supplement with some of my books where you feel there are gaps.
I have 4 children in 4 different years. It is not a problem for me. The key is good scheduling. Have you read my post called MY LITTLE SCHEDULING TIP?
Linda,
I can't seem to decide whether or not it would be better to put my 10yr. old in yr. 4 or yr.5? This would be the first year that I am pushing him to do the majority of his 'reads' on his own. My only concern with yr. 5 is that I don't want him to be burnt out and feel like he doesn't have much time left over for any reads of his choice. And yet, I don't want yr. 4 to not push him enough. Any suggestions for my dilema?
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