Today's freebie is for Rod and Staff English 4 users. I have typed up the oral quizzes and written practice exercises in the teacher's manual. These are intended for the teacher to give orally by writing them on a dry erase or chalk board. I find this tedious. If I relied on giving my kids their quizzes this way, it would likely never happen. So, I typed these up last summer so I could print them for my boys and reprint in the future when the other children are in R&S English 4.
These quizzes should not be printed on both sides of the paper. They are designed to be cut in between each quiz. (There are usually two to a page.) If you print both sides and then cut, the quizzes on one side will be cut in two.
I hope you find these to be helpful in teaching your children English this year. Happy teaching.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1A6Dmn7UHuzl8fjw9Qlmjkw_9-6Dp8zor51FtFSZAcTU
Friday, September 9, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Objections to the Use of Textbooks in the Homeschool Answered Part 2
This is the second part of my previous post answering objections to the use of textbooks as a central curriculum choice in the homeschool. Now I will cover objections four through seven. If you have not read Part 1 of this series you can find it here.
4. If you are going to use textbooks as your primary curriculum source, you might as well put your kids in school.
In other words, there is no point to homeschooling if you choose curriculum that teaches in a similar format to the school environment. This is a straw man argument and is rather silly. I will address it anyway as I read a comment on The Bates Family blog that stated this as a question. You can read that comment here. The idea that a family using Abeka DVD may as well just enroll their children in school suggests that they only reason to homeschool is to "do school" in a format that is radically different from the format used in a public or private school. While some families may homeschool because they prefer their children to be educated in a format which is radically different from the schoolish format which presupposes the use of textbooks, this is not the only reason to homeschool. People choose to homeschool their children for many reasons. The use of textbooks, with or without DVD's, does not invalidate their reasons for doing so nor does it compromise the quality of education in their homeschool. In many cases it actually drastically improves the quality of education in the homeschool as stated my Mrs. Bates in the article referenced above and Mrs. Maxwell in her post about her switch from unit study style homeschooling to textbook style schooling here.
5. Textbooks do not integrate learning between the subjects.
This is generally true of most textbooks, but there are some exceptions. Something I do in our homeschool to try and mitigate this is to have a child study American Literature in the same year they study American History. If we were going to include some form of Art appreciation I would have the child use the portion of the book that applies to American artists. I do likewise with World History and Literature. A child studying the history of the Romans can be assigned to concurrently work on a bible curriculum that focused on the gospels and Acts, etc.
I will say that curriculums that do integrate the subjects generally rely on lots of teacher involvement and advanced planning on the part of the parent. Such programs will not be effectively taught without mom always being there to do lots of work to pull it off. They also tend to be very pricey. If you have the time and fortitude to pull all of this off as well as the resources, then by all means do so. Such programs I have found (at least in our experience) seem to be most effectively taught by an outside source like an online course or co-op like Classical Conversations or Veritas schools. This is true for me due to time restraints with 6 children.
6. Textbooks alienate the student leaving them to work alone.
I was reading a discussion thread on a forum several months back about Rod and Staff textbooks I was interested in purchasing. The reviews and opinions were mixed which is to be expected. One comment in particular was quite disparaging not only of Rod and Staff but also the traditional textbook/workbook instructional method. The reviewer talked about how she used this curriculum with her child and felt like it was geared in an alienating manner. She said that you explain the lesson to "Orkie" and then send "Orkie" to the table to do his work. The tone of her review showed a disdain for sending children to work independently on a lesson in a book at the table once they understand the concept taught in the lesson.
"Orkie." Really? "Orkie" is going to sit at the table and complete his work on his own and this is viewed as bad? I think a child working on his coursework diligently and independently is a wonderful thing. Why would anyone condescendingly refer to a child who works on this program as "Orkie?" Why not Johnny, Jimmy or Sally?
What do we as homeschooling moms think we are withholding from our children by teaching them to learn to work as independently and diligently as they are able without interference from us? Yes, I am calling it interference. When a child does not understand something and comes to you with questions, this is help. When he understands perfectly fine, yet you think you need to be involved every step of the way lest he be lonely, this is interference. You see, now Johnny is distracted and he may begin to think he should never have to work alone. Mom should keep him company and entertain him during his school hours.
I really wonder why independent seatwork is viewed so poorly throughout the cyber homeschooling community. How well can a child function as an adult if they always rely on mom's involvement in order to get things done--in order to learn? Many children have gone on to succeed in life without feeling scarred or neglected during their school years by the lonely experience of completing workbooks independently.
7. Textbooks will cause students to "miss out" on the richness provided in a "living books" or "great books" education.
The assumption behind this objection is that students educated with textbooks will not read "living" books. They will only read textbooks. While this may be true in some homeschools, it is certainly not true in all. It is also not true of all public or private schooled children. While I did not read nearly as many books as I wish I would have in school, I was required to read three Shakespeare plays in their entirety and many novels. The use of textbooks does not prohibit or dissuade one from including a healthy dose of living books into a students curriculum. Some textbook users choose to require summer reading of their homeschooled students. This is a time when many living books may be read for pure enjoyment.
On the other hand, if a mom is so busy that she begins a school year with literature based studies and good intentions yet the intentions never pan out, textbooks would provide a much richer education for her children.
4. If you are going to use textbooks as your primary curriculum source, you might as well put your kids in school.
In other words, there is no point to homeschooling if you choose curriculum that teaches in a similar format to the school environment. This is a straw man argument and is rather silly. I will address it anyway as I read a comment on The Bates Family blog that stated this as a question. You can read that comment here. The idea that a family using Abeka DVD may as well just enroll their children in school suggests that they only reason to homeschool is to "do school" in a format that is radically different from the format used in a public or private school. While some families may homeschool because they prefer their children to be educated in a format which is radically different from the schoolish format which presupposes the use of textbooks, this is not the only reason to homeschool. People choose to homeschool their children for many reasons. The use of textbooks, with or without DVD's, does not invalidate their reasons for doing so nor does it compromise the quality of education in their homeschool. In many cases it actually drastically improves the quality of education in the homeschool as stated my Mrs. Bates in the article referenced above and Mrs. Maxwell in her post about her switch from unit study style homeschooling to textbook style schooling here.
5. Textbooks do not integrate learning between the subjects.
This is generally true of most textbooks, but there are some exceptions. Something I do in our homeschool to try and mitigate this is to have a child study American Literature in the same year they study American History. If we were going to include some form of Art appreciation I would have the child use the portion of the book that applies to American artists. I do likewise with World History and Literature. A child studying the history of the Romans can be assigned to concurrently work on a bible curriculum that focused on the gospels and Acts, etc.
I will say that curriculums that do integrate the subjects generally rely on lots of teacher involvement and advanced planning on the part of the parent. Such programs will not be effectively taught without mom always being there to do lots of work to pull it off. They also tend to be very pricey. If you have the time and fortitude to pull all of this off as well as the resources, then by all means do so. Such programs I have found (at least in our experience) seem to be most effectively taught by an outside source like an online course or co-op like Classical Conversations or Veritas schools. This is true for me due to time restraints with 6 children.
6. Textbooks alienate the student leaving them to work alone.
I was reading a discussion thread on a forum several months back about Rod and Staff textbooks I was interested in purchasing. The reviews and opinions were mixed which is to be expected. One comment in particular was quite disparaging not only of Rod and Staff but also the traditional textbook/workbook instructional method. The reviewer talked about how she used this curriculum with her child and felt like it was geared in an alienating manner. She said that you explain the lesson to "Orkie" and then send "Orkie" to the table to do his work. The tone of her review showed a disdain for sending children to work independently on a lesson in a book at the table once they understand the concept taught in the lesson.
"Orkie." Really? "Orkie" is going to sit at the table and complete his work on his own and this is viewed as bad? I think a child working on his coursework diligently and independently is a wonderful thing. Why would anyone condescendingly refer to a child who works on this program as "Orkie?" Why not Johnny, Jimmy or Sally?
What do we as homeschooling moms think we are withholding from our children by teaching them to learn to work as independently and diligently as they are able without interference from us? Yes, I am calling it interference. When a child does not understand something and comes to you with questions, this is help. When he understands perfectly fine, yet you think you need to be involved every step of the way lest he be lonely, this is interference. You see, now Johnny is distracted and he may begin to think he should never have to work alone. Mom should keep him company and entertain him during his school hours.
I really wonder why independent seatwork is viewed so poorly throughout the cyber homeschooling community. How well can a child function as an adult if they always rely on mom's involvement in order to get things done--in order to learn? Many children have gone on to succeed in life without feeling scarred or neglected during their school years by the lonely experience of completing workbooks independently.
7. Textbooks will cause students to "miss out" on the richness provided in a "living books" or "great books" education.
The assumption behind this objection is that students educated with textbooks will not read "living" books. They will only read textbooks. While this may be true in some homeschools, it is certainly not true in all. It is also not true of all public or private schooled children. While I did not read nearly as many books as I wish I would have in school, I was required to read three Shakespeare plays in their entirety and many novels. The use of textbooks does not prohibit or dissuade one from including a healthy dose of living books into a students curriculum. Some textbook users choose to require summer reading of their homeschooled students. This is a time when many living books may be read for pure enjoyment.
On the other hand, if a mom is so busy that she begins a school year with literature based studies and good intentions yet the intentions never pan out, textbooks would provide a much richer education for her children.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Objections to the Use of Textbooks in the Homeschool Answered Part 1
In this post I will follow up the discussion I started in my previous post Are Textbooks in the Homeschool Really THAT bad? If you have not read that post, you can find it here. I will now address three of the seven commonly heard objections to the use of the traditional textbook as a central curriculum choice in the homeschool. Objections four through seven will be in my next post which is part two of this series.
1. Textbooks are boring.
Well, that depends on many factors and there are some textbooks that are in fact very boring. I have a two part response to this objection. First of all, not every textbook is boring. If you have a textbook that is truly terrible, you can very confidently choose not to use it and keep looking for another. There are plenty of very interesting textbooks available for homeschoolers to use. Apologia Science is my absolute favorite. These textbooks are interesting, fun, education and did I say interesting and fun? Yes, I did and so do my children. My kids LOVE their science books. We also have two Bob Jones science books that a friend gave me. My children love them too. The one thing that really draws my kids to the Bob Jones books is that Apologia science books were all we had before getting these. The Bob Jones books are different and they have chapters about information not covered in Apologia like weather and rocks. My kids like both and use both with great enthusiasm. Shhhh...don't tell them textbooks are boring. They don't know.
My next response to this objection is simple. Just because a child finds something boring doesn't mean they don't need it or that it is a poor curriculum choice. I did not enjoy math growing up. The math book was boring (according to me). Should my teachers have looked for a new book because I found the ones I was given to be boring? Should I have been given an easier math curriculum so I could enjoy it more? Of course not. I think that as homeschooling parents, we often need to allow our children to "suffer" a little boredom every once in a while. Education is a process that should be enjoyable over all, but it is done with a purpose. The purpose is to give a child what they need to be prepared for life. However you want to tweak the purpose, this is the core of why education is so important. If you can't do your math facts, you can't do Algebra. If you can't do Algebra, you can't graduate high school and get into college. I "suffered" through my boring math books during my school years, and I learned a lot in the process.
Education can be rewarding and fun, but fun is not the factor on which I base my curriculum choices. Well, if we are talking about art curriculum, fun is a big factor. Art is supposed to be fun. But if we are talking about math or grammar, fun is not the driving force which determines my curriculum choices. Fun is a nice and a welcome bonus, but fun alone is not a deal breaker in our homeschool.
Think about it this way. Do you let your children eat chips and candy and McDonalds chicken nuggets for every meal because this is fun and it is what they like? I sure hope not. This would be very bad for your child and cause some pretty serious health complications later in life. Your children would end up with serious nutritional deficiencies. They may be having the time of their life now, but they will not thank you for this when they are grown! School can be thought of similarly. We want our children to enjoy their education, but there are times when our kids have to learn to "eat their vegetables" so to speak and continue working through a good textbook providing a solid foundation in its subject area even when they find it boring. If a delight directed school philosophy causes mom to choose an easier or more exciting curriculum that is not as academically sound as the current curriculum, your student may end up having fun now, but they probably won't thank you for it when they are grown. They will likely find deficiencies in certain subject areas and struggle unnecessarily in college.
2. Textbooks only have short selections of books in them, which deprives a student of reading books in their entirety.
In our homeschool we use Abeka readers for fourth and fifth grades. My son's fourth grade reader titled Salute to Courage contains a selection from Heidi. Last week my son decided to read his reader selection for the day aloud to his youngest brother. The little guy came to me excited and told me how the Heidi story is in big brother's reader. We were in the process of reading Heidi aloud with only two chapters left in the book. The boys love Heidi. They were so excited to see part of a book they have enjoyed so much in this reader. No one felt cheated because only a portion of the book is present. My boys were excited that the day's selection was something they were familiar with. My fourth grader noticed differences between the Abeka selection and the original. Now he is excited to keep reading his reader to see if there are other selections with which he is familiar.
This same fourth grader had another selection to read which came from Alice in Wonderland. I encouraged him to start reading the whole book after he reads the reader's selection if he finds it interesting. We already have the book. I am hoped this portion of Alice in Wonderland would spur the interest in my son to read the whole book! If not, at least he got some exposure to the story. It did it's job. He is in process of reading the whole book on his own after school hours. He is reading for fun in his free time!
On another note, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is weariness to the flesh." Ecclesiastes 12:12. While the choice to use textbooks in the homeschool most certainly does not mean that students in such schools can not or will not be well read, one must also acknowledge that even the most avidly literature based homeschool program will leave much reading undone. My job as a homeschool parent is not to make my children read all of the classics before they graduate and leave home. No, my job is to instill in them a love for reading and to give them the tools to continue learning once they are graduated.
Finally, a reader or textbook which offers selections of well known literature can expose a student to a larger variety of literature and genres of writing than he might be exposed to if he never uses a textbook. If I let my children choose all of their reading based on their interest, my oldest son would skip poetry altogether. He is a math and science oriented guy. A textbook will not allow this.
3. Textbooks don't teach children of different learning styles.
This objection is not necessarily always true though sometimes it is the case. For example, our 2nd grade English book by Rod and Staff publishers has extra activities at the end of each unit that allow for some hands on learning that applies to the part of speech covered in the unit. My boys have enjoyed these activities and find them to be a nice break from the regular lesson's format. If there is time for us to do such an activity we definitely try to make it happen. If life is nuts and we can't, we just move on. The activity is optional.
I will say that there are many children who have a hard time just reading a book and working from it without some verbal teaching. Chalk board lessons often help these children connect what they are reading and improve their performance in their school work. A parent can give such lessons to the student from the textbook (especially if the text has a good teacher's manual to accompany it), or DVD's can offer such instruction. We use Art Reed DVD's with our Saxon math books to teach upper level math to my boys. Our DVD's have a real person that can be seen explaining the concepts in each lesson and demonstrating them on a dry erase board. Mr. Reed has been a wonderful blessing in our homeschool. Upper level math is not my cup of tea. Some of my kids use the DVD's while others get it well enough by reading the book on their own that they don't bother. It takes longer to watch the DVD. We still use our trusty textbooks, while Mr. Reed gives the extra help needed for students needing a lecture.
1. Textbooks are boring.
Well, that depends on many factors and there are some textbooks that are in fact very boring. I have a two part response to this objection. First of all, not every textbook is boring. If you have a textbook that is truly terrible, you can very confidently choose not to use it and keep looking for another. There are plenty of very interesting textbooks available for homeschoolers to use. Apologia Science is my absolute favorite. These textbooks are interesting, fun, education and did I say interesting and fun? Yes, I did and so do my children. My kids LOVE their science books. We also have two Bob Jones science books that a friend gave me. My children love them too. The one thing that really draws my kids to the Bob Jones books is that Apologia science books were all we had before getting these. The Bob Jones books are different and they have chapters about information not covered in Apologia like weather and rocks. My kids like both and use both with great enthusiasm. Shhhh...don't tell them textbooks are boring. They don't know.
My next response to this objection is simple. Just because a child finds something boring doesn't mean they don't need it or that it is a poor curriculum choice. I did not enjoy math growing up. The math book was boring (according to me). Should my teachers have looked for a new book because I found the ones I was given to be boring? Should I have been given an easier math curriculum so I could enjoy it more? Of course not. I think that as homeschooling parents, we often need to allow our children to "suffer" a little boredom every once in a while. Education is a process that should be enjoyable over all, but it is done with a purpose. The purpose is to give a child what they need to be prepared for life. However you want to tweak the purpose, this is the core of why education is so important. If you can't do your math facts, you can't do Algebra. If you can't do Algebra, you can't graduate high school and get into college. I "suffered" through my boring math books during my school years, and I learned a lot in the process.
Education can be rewarding and fun, but fun is not the factor on which I base my curriculum choices. Well, if we are talking about art curriculum, fun is a big factor. Art is supposed to be fun. But if we are talking about math or grammar, fun is not the driving force which determines my curriculum choices. Fun is a nice and a welcome bonus, but fun alone is not a deal breaker in our homeschool.
Think about it this way. Do you let your children eat chips and candy and McDonalds chicken nuggets for every meal because this is fun and it is what they like? I sure hope not. This would be very bad for your child and cause some pretty serious health complications later in life. Your children would end up with serious nutritional deficiencies. They may be having the time of their life now, but they will not thank you for this when they are grown! School can be thought of similarly. We want our children to enjoy their education, but there are times when our kids have to learn to "eat their vegetables" so to speak and continue working through a good textbook providing a solid foundation in its subject area even when they find it boring. If a delight directed school philosophy causes mom to choose an easier or more exciting curriculum that is not as academically sound as the current curriculum, your student may end up having fun now, but they probably won't thank you for it when they are grown. They will likely find deficiencies in certain subject areas and struggle unnecessarily in college.
2. Textbooks only have short selections of books in them, which deprives a student of reading books in their entirety.
In our homeschool we use Abeka readers for fourth and fifth grades. My son's fourth grade reader titled Salute to Courage contains a selection from Heidi. Last week my son decided to read his reader selection for the day aloud to his youngest brother. The little guy came to me excited and told me how the Heidi story is in big brother's reader. We were in the process of reading Heidi aloud with only two chapters left in the book. The boys love Heidi. They were so excited to see part of a book they have enjoyed so much in this reader. No one felt cheated because only a portion of the book is present. My boys were excited that the day's selection was something they were familiar with. My fourth grader noticed differences between the Abeka selection and the original. Now he is excited to keep reading his reader to see if there are other selections with which he is familiar.
This same fourth grader had another selection to read which came from Alice in Wonderland. I encouraged him to start reading the whole book after he reads the reader's selection if he finds it interesting. We already have the book. I am hoped this portion of Alice in Wonderland would spur the interest in my son to read the whole book! If not, at least he got some exposure to the story. It did it's job. He is in process of reading the whole book on his own after school hours. He is reading for fun in his free time!
On another note, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is weariness to the flesh." Ecclesiastes 12:12. While the choice to use textbooks in the homeschool most certainly does not mean that students in such schools can not or will not be well read, one must also acknowledge that even the most avidly literature based homeschool program will leave much reading undone. My job as a homeschool parent is not to make my children read all of the classics before they graduate and leave home. No, my job is to instill in them a love for reading and to give them the tools to continue learning once they are graduated.
Finally, a reader or textbook which offers selections of well known literature can expose a student to a larger variety of literature and genres of writing than he might be exposed to if he never uses a textbook. If I let my children choose all of their reading based on their interest, my oldest son would skip poetry altogether. He is a math and science oriented guy. A textbook will not allow this.
3. Textbooks don't teach children of different learning styles.
This objection is not necessarily always true though sometimes it is the case. For example, our 2nd grade English book by Rod and Staff publishers has extra activities at the end of each unit that allow for some hands on learning that applies to the part of speech covered in the unit. My boys have enjoyed these activities and find them to be a nice break from the regular lesson's format. If there is time for us to do such an activity we definitely try to make it happen. If life is nuts and we can't, we just move on. The activity is optional.
I will say that there are many children who have a hard time just reading a book and working from it without some verbal teaching. Chalk board lessons often help these children connect what they are reading and improve their performance in their school work. A parent can give such lessons to the student from the textbook (especially if the text has a good teacher's manual to accompany it), or DVD's can offer such instruction. We use Art Reed DVD's with our Saxon math books to teach upper level math to my boys. Our DVD's have a real person that can be seen explaining the concepts in each lesson and demonstrating them on a dry erase board. Mr. Reed has been a wonderful blessing in our homeschool. Upper level math is not my cup of tea. Some of my kids use the DVD's while others get it well enough by reading the book on their own that they don't bother. It takes longer to watch the DVD. We still use our trusty textbooks, while Mr. Reed gives the extra help needed for students needing a lecture.
Are Textbooks in the Homeschool Really THAT Bad?
I will begin by stating that I love living books. I love reading aloud to my children and I love to be involved as a teacher in my homeschool. That said, I have read numerous articles, catalogs and blogs disparaging the use of textbooks in the homeschool. Such articles insinuate, and sometimes overtly state, that the use of textbooks will leave homeschooled children wanting educationally. Their education will lack life and interest and be just as dull and boring and lacking as it would be if the child were put in public school. Homeschooled kids are supposed to have it better. If you read the average homeschooling blog or article you might begin to believe that textbooks just can't or won't deliver any better an education than the public school system has to offer. I am here to say that this is simply not true!
While I do not use a traditional textbook for every subject and every child in my homeschool, I certainly use textbooks and with great benefit. My children are not hindered by my use of textbooks. Their education is not lifeless and stilted as a result. I have some voracious readers on my hands as well as one who reads only when it is required. Using textbooks in my homeschool has not kept my children from reading "living books".
So, in this post I will outline what I believe to be the benefits of using textbooks. I will address the usual objections I have heard against them in my next post.
What benefits are there for those of us who employ the use of Textbooks in the homeschool?
1. Textbooks are easy to use.
With a textbook curriculum, I can quickly and easily plan what each child will do. Each of my children know exactly what is expected of them. This makes things run smoothly, especially as children become old enough to do the bulk of their work independently. This is a big deal when there are several children in the home. Once you hit four, you qualify as having several, in my opinion. The ease of planning with a high quality teacher's manual is wonderful. Mom doesn't have to run to the library every week or pay library fines because she didn't make it back in time. Tons of lesson planning and project planning can be avoided and children still get quality teaching from their books. This has become a huge deal in our homeschool as we now have 6 children of school age in our home. I have the time to do what I need to because I can let the books work for me and help my children when they need it.
2. Textbooks provide continuity.
My kids have been my guinea pigs in regards to curriculum choices and teaching methods, the oldest more so than the others as we have tread the waters of homeschooling these past 8 years. My eldest son has expressed preference for his textbooks over the mom directed "living book" curriculums. The main reason for this is that the textbooks provide incremental consistency and they allow him to move at his own pace without having to wait on me. He also has noticed that when we did "our own thing" and then went to a textbook in a certain subject that he had some holes in his learning that he had to close up, which he found "annoying". Sticking with a particular textbook for a particular subject over the years helps to avoid the issue of "holes" in learning.
3. Textbooks don't have to be "traditional" to be textbooks.
This may sound like an odd benefit to using textbooks in the homeschool. The wording is weird, but I think you will understand what I mean. We love and use Apologia Science in our homeschool. This is a science curriculum that teaches in a Charlotte Mason style in the elementary school years. Although it is meant to be used as a read aloud (which we have done), it doesn't have to be. This year, two of my boys are doing two different Apologia books with their Notebooking Journals independently. I help them with experiments when they come up, but the books are laid out in a way (with the schedule in the student journal) that a child able to read the books alone can do so. This allows them to pursue learning according to their own interests (one studies animals and the other botany). If we did science in a read aloud fashion this year, we would only do one book and one or both boys would be disappointed they didn't get to study the book they preferred. So, this textbook user can still take time for nature walks with her boys and make room for some fun Charlotte Mason style science by using this wonderful textbook curriculum (when time allows).
4. Textbooks provide a painless and honest way to keep records and make the high school transcript.
When my oldest was coming up on his first year of high school, I scoured the internet for information about high school record keeping and making a transcript. At the same time I was shopping around for curriculum for different subjects, namely history. I love using a narrative history book as a read aloud with my younger children and adding history based literature to that spine for the boys to read independently as a supplement to our read aloud. I do so love this. But with high school I was completely stressing out. I drooled over Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum, but I knew that I didn't have the time to teach that to my son, nor did we have the funds to do the self paced course online. I had five younger children, four of which were school age at the time. My number one stressor was that I wanted to choose well so that I could reuse whatever I bought for the oldest with the youngers and not hop around. I looked around and found that different curriculum options that are living books or great books oriented are hard to know how to give an objective, fair grade to put on a transcript. Moreover said curriculums were through the roof in regards to price.
I went to a local bookstore similar to Half Price Books. I found used Abeka history books for $6.00 and the quiz and test booklets and their corresponding answer keys were $1.97 each! I flipped through the books and grabbed them. For $14.00 + tax, I had a complete World History curriculum for my son and it counted as a full high school credit! No more stress over what we will do for high school history. The tests and quizzes provided me a very easy way to record grades and give an honest and accurate grade on my son's high school transcript. We have happily used Abeka's Economics book and we have their American History and World Geography as well. My son's records are easy to keep. His grades are an honest reflection of his work and study habits.
5. Textbook learning prepares students for learning in a college setting.
We can have all kinds of philosophical discussions about the purposes and goals of education and this kind of discussion certainly has its place. However, one of the many things a homeschool education should do is prepare a child to do well in college. College classrooms across the country use textbooks without shame. If textbooks are harmful to children, college professors are apparently completely unaware and need to be informed! I know personally a young man who is incredibly intelligent. He was homeschooled and now has a Master's degree. This young man was not made to take tests growing up. His mom figured that they were a waste of time as she knew that he knew the information. She was right. He did know it. However, time came to take the SAT for college entrance and his did not do so well. What? This guy has the brains to blow the top off of that test! How is this possible? Well, he had never taken a test in his life. He most certainly never took a timed test! There is an art to learning to study for a test and do well on it. This is the main mode of learning and receiving credit for what one has learned in the college setting. I am not addressing whether or not this is the best mode of learning. For better or worse, it is THE mode of learning in college, and our college bound children need to be prepared to succeed in this environment. They need to know what it is to study a chapter or unit review and take an exam over it in a specified time frame. The young man above not only lost out on much desired scholarship money due to his SAT scores, but he also made lower grades in some of his college courses because he didn't always finish his exams by the time class was over. He missed problems due to running out of time. His homeschool never required him to get his work done in a certain time frame. Textbook learning helps prepare students to handle this aspect of the college environment well.
6. Textbooks are a joyful means of learning in our homeschool.
My children have simply not been informed that learning from textbooks would rob them of joy in their learning. They don't all like all of their textbooks as much as others, but this is the result of one subject being preferred over the other rather than a textbook killing their joy of learning any particular subject. My children enjoy lessons in their books when presented in manageable chunks and with adequate instruction to give them what they need to succeed and do well in their lesson. No child wants to do poorly. A good textbook that presents the material well so that my children, with proper effort, are able to succeed is a winner in our home. Every child likes to see an A+ on their paper with an encouraging sticker at the top praising his efforts.
7. Textbooks foster self discipline and independent learning in the homeschooled child.
The final benefit to present to you that textbooks bring into the homeschool is self discipline, which creates an independent learner. I know a family that used Abeka Academy for first through sixth grades. The children were enrolled in Classical Conversations in seventh grade for the Challenge program. These kids have and are still doing wonderfully. Abeka's textbook based elementary program prepared these students to excel in the very popular Classical Conversations program which is considered to be a heavy load by many. What did Abeka give these students to help them do so well? Self discipline that has trained these children to have good study habits and a strong work ethic. These students don't need mom to harp on them in the morning to get started on their school. They pull out their books and get to work. While other students in beginning Challenge programs struggle to get all of their work done, my friend's kiddos are excelling in Classical Conversations' Challenge program. They are getting a lot out of it and they are doing so independently for the most part. This is true of many textbook educated children. This discipline crosses over into other areas of life and grooms a child to be a responsible and hardworking spouse and employee. Let's face it, no one wants a lazy husband, wife or employee. Using textbooks and teaching our children to be as independent as they are able will pay many wonderful dividends as they get older for mom and for them.
In Conclusion, know that many families successfully use textbooks as the primary source of their homeschool curriculum material. I have also found that this method of homeschooling is put down and disparaged in many blog posts and homeschool articles. I am here to say that using textbooks will not harm your children in any way. Your children will benefit greatly from their textbooks when used consistently with proper supervision from their teacher. They will do well in college and in life.
Now it's your turn. What benefits have you reaped in your homeschool through the use of textbooks? Which textbooks have been your favorites and why? Feel free to comment below!
While I do not use a traditional textbook for every subject and every child in my homeschool, I certainly use textbooks and with great benefit. My children are not hindered by my use of textbooks. Their education is not lifeless and stilted as a result. I have some voracious readers on my hands as well as one who reads only when it is required. Using textbooks in my homeschool has not kept my children from reading "living books".
So, in this post I will outline what I believe to be the benefits of using textbooks. I will address the usual objections I have heard against them in my next post.
What benefits are there for those of us who employ the use of Textbooks in the homeschool?
1. Textbooks are easy to use.
With a textbook curriculum, I can quickly and easily plan what each child will do. Each of my children know exactly what is expected of them. This makes things run smoothly, especially as children become old enough to do the bulk of their work independently. This is a big deal when there are several children in the home. Once you hit four, you qualify as having several, in my opinion. The ease of planning with a high quality teacher's manual is wonderful. Mom doesn't have to run to the library every week or pay library fines because she didn't make it back in time. Tons of lesson planning and project planning can be avoided and children still get quality teaching from their books. This has become a huge deal in our homeschool as we now have 6 children of school age in our home. I have the time to do what I need to because I can let the books work for me and help my children when they need it.
2. Textbooks provide continuity.
My kids have been my guinea pigs in regards to curriculum choices and teaching methods, the oldest more so than the others as we have tread the waters of homeschooling these past 8 years. My eldest son has expressed preference for his textbooks over the mom directed "living book" curriculums. The main reason for this is that the textbooks provide incremental consistency and they allow him to move at his own pace without having to wait on me. He also has noticed that when we did "our own thing" and then went to a textbook in a certain subject that he had some holes in his learning that he had to close up, which he found "annoying". Sticking with a particular textbook for a particular subject over the years helps to avoid the issue of "holes" in learning.
3. Textbooks don't have to be "traditional" to be textbooks.
This may sound like an odd benefit to using textbooks in the homeschool. The wording is weird, but I think you will understand what I mean. We love and use Apologia Science in our homeschool. This is a science curriculum that teaches in a Charlotte Mason style in the elementary school years. Although it is meant to be used as a read aloud (which we have done), it doesn't have to be. This year, two of my boys are doing two different Apologia books with their Notebooking Journals independently. I help them with experiments when they come up, but the books are laid out in a way (with the schedule in the student journal) that a child able to read the books alone can do so. This allows them to pursue learning according to their own interests (one studies animals and the other botany). If we did science in a read aloud fashion this year, we would only do one book and one or both boys would be disappointed they didn't get to study the book they preferred. So, this textbook user can still take time for nature walks with her boys and make room for some fun Charlotte Mason style science by using this wonderful textbook curriculum (when time allows).
4. Textbooks provide a painless and honest way to keep records and make the high school transcript.
When my oldest was coming up on his first year of high school, I scoured the internet for information about high school record keeping and making a transcript. At the same time I was shopping around for curriculum for different subjects, namely history. I love using a narrative history book as a read aloud with my younger children and adding history based literature to that spine for the boys to read independently as a supplement to our read aloud. I do so love this. But with high school I was completely stressing out. I drooled over Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum, but I knew that I didn't have the time to teach that to my son, nor did we have the funds to do the self paced course online. I had five younger children, four of which were school age at the time. My number one stressor was that I wanted to choose well so that I could reuse whatever I bought for the oldest with the youngers and not hop around. I looked around and found that different curriculum options that are living books or great books oriented are hard to know how to give an objective, fair grade to put on a transcript. Moreover said curriculums were through the roof in regards to price.
I went to a local bookstore similar to Half Price Books. I found used Abeka history books for $6.00 and the quiz and test booklets and their corresponding answer keys were $1.97 each! I flipped through the books and grabbed them. For $14.00 + tax, I had a complete World History curriculum for my son and it counted as a full high school credit! No more stress over what we will do for high school history. The tests and quizzes provided me a very easy way to record grades and give an honest and accurate grade on my son's high school transcript. We have happily used Abeka's Economics book and we have their American History and World Geography as well. My son's records are easy to keep. His grades are an honest reflection of his work and study habits.
5. Textbook learning prepares students for learning in a college setting.
We can have all kinds of philosophical discussions about the purposes and goals of education and this kind of discussion certainly has its place. However, one of the many things a homeschool education should do is prepare a child to do well in college. College classrooms across the country use textbooks without shame. If textbooks are harmful to children, college professors are apparently completely unaware and need to be informed! I know personally a young man who is incredibly intelligent. He was homeschooled and now has a Master's degree. This young man was not made to take tests growing up. His mom figured that they were a waste of time as she knew that he knew the information. She was right. He did know it. However, time came to take the SAT for college entrance and his did not do so well. What? This guy has the brains to blow the top off of that test! How is this possible? Well, he had never taken a test in his life. He most certainly never took a timed test! There is an art to learning to study for a test and do well on it. This is the main mode of learning and receiving credit for what one has learned in the college setting. I am not addressing whether or not this is the best mode of learning. For better or worse, it is THE mode of learning in college, and our college bound children need to be prepared to succeed in this environment. They need to know what it is to study a chapter or unit review and take an exam over it in a specified time frame. The young man above not only lost out on much desired scholarship money due to his SAT scores, but he also made lower grades in some of his college courses because he didn't always finish his exams by the time class was over. He missed problems due to running out of time. His homeschool never required him to get his work done in a certain time frame. Textbook learning helps prepare students to handle this aspect of the college environment well.
6. Textbooks are a joyful means of learning in our homeschool.
My children have simply not been informed that learning from textbooks would rob them of joy in their learning. They don't all like all of their textbooks as much as others, but this is the result of one subject being preferred over the other rather than a textbook killing their joy of learning any particular subject. My children enjoy lessons in their books when presented in manageable chunks and with adequate instruction to give them what they need to succeed and do well in their lesson. No child wants to do poorly. A good textbook that presents the material well so that my children, with proper effort, are able to succeed is a winner in our home. Every child likes to see an A+ on their paper with an encouraging sticker at the top praising his efforts.
7. Textbooks foster self discipline and independent learning in the homeschooled child.
The final benefit to present to you that textbooks bring into the homeschool is self discipline, which creates an independent learner. I know a family that used Abeka Academy for first through sixth grades. The children were enrolled in Classical Conversations in seventh grade for the Challenge program. These kids have and are still doing wonderfully. Abeka's textbook based elementary program prepared these students to excel in the very popular Classical Conversations program which is considered to be a heavy load by many. What did Abeka give these students to help them do so well? Self discipline that has trained these children to have good study habits and a strong work ethic. These students don't need mom to harp on them in the morning to get started on their school. They pull out their books and get to work. While other students in beginning Challenge programs struggle to get all of their work done, my friend's kiddos are excelling in Classical Conversations' Challenge program. They are getting a lot out of it and they are doing so independently for the most part. This is true of many textbook educated children. This discipline crosses over into other areas of life and grooms a child to be a responsible and hardworking spouse and employee. Let's face it, no one wants a lazy husband, wife or employee. Using textbooks and teaching our children to be as independent as they are able will pay many wonderful dividends as they get older for mom and for them.
In Conclusion, know that many families successfully use textbooks as the primary source of their homeschool curriculum material. I have also found that this method of homeschooling is put down and disparaged in many blog posts and homeschool articles. I am here to say that using textbooks will not harm your children in any way. Your children will benefit greatly from their textbooks when used consistently with proper supervision from their teacher. They will do well in college and in life.
Now it's your turn. What benefits have you reaped in your homeschool through the use of textbooks? Which textbooks have been your favorites and why? Feel free to comment below!
Are Textbooks in the Homeschool Really THAT Bad?
I will begin by stating that I love living books. I love reading aloud to my children and I love to be involved as a teacher in my homeschool. That said, I have read numerous articles, catalogs and blogs disparaging the use of textbooks in the homeschool. Such articles insinuate, and sometimes overtly state, that the use of textbooks will leave homeschooled children wanting educationally. Their education will lack life and interest and be just as dull and boring and lacking as it would be if the child were put in public school. Homeschooled kids are supposed to have it better. If you read the average homeschooling blog or article you might begin to believe that textbooks just can't or won't deliver any better an education than the public school system has to offer. I am here to say that this is simply not true!
While I do not use a traditional textbook for every subject and every child in my homeschool, I certainly use textbooks and with great benefit. My children are not hindered by my use of textbooks. Their education is not lifeless and stilted as a result. I have some voracious readers on my hands as well as one who reads only when it is required. Using textbooks in my homeschool has not kept my children from reading "living books".
So, in this post I will outline what I believe to be the benefits of using textbooks. I will address the usual objections I have heard against them in my next post.
What benefits are there for those of us who employ the use of Textbooks in the homeschool?
1. Textbooks are easy to use.
With a textbook curriculum, I can quickly and easily plan what each child will do. Each of my children know exactly what is expected of them. This makes things run smoothly, especially as children become old enough to do the bulk of their work independently. This is a big deal when there are several children in the home. Once you hit four, you qualify as having several, in my opinion. The ease of planning with a high quality teacher's manual is wonderful. Mom doesn't have to run to the library every week or pay library fines because she didn't make it back in time. Tons of lesson planning and project planning can be avoided and children still get quality teaching from their books. This has become a huge deal in our homeschool as we now have 6 children of school age in our home. I have the time to do what I need to because I can let the books work for me and help my children when they need it.
2. Textbooks provide continuity.
My kids have been my guinea pigs in regards to curriculum choices and teaching methods, the oldest more so than the others as we have tread the waters of homeschooling these past 8 years. My eldest son has expressed preference for his textbooks over the mom directed "living book" curriculums. The main reason for this is that the textbooks provide incremental consistency and they allow him to move at his own pace without having to wait on me. He also has noticed that when we did "our own thing" and then went to a textbook in a certain subject that he had some holes in his learning that he had to close up, which he found "annoying". Sticking with a particular textbook for a particular subject over the years helps to avoid the issue of "holes" in learning.
3. Textbooks don't have to be "traditional" to be textbooks.
This may sound like an odd benefit to using textbooks in the homeschool. The wording is weird, but I think you will understand what I mean. We love and use Apologia Science in our homeschool. This is a science curriculum that teaches in a Charlotte Mason style in the elementary school years. Although it is meant to be used as a read aloud (which we have done), it doesn't have to be. This year, two of my boys are doing two different Apologia books with their Notebooking Journals independently. I help them with experiments when they come up, but the books are laid out in a way (with the schedule in the student journal) that a child able to read the books alone can do so. This allows them to pursue learning according to their own interests (one studies animals and the other botany). If we did science in a read aloud fashion this year, we would only do one book and one or both boys would be disappointed they didn't get to study the book they preferred. So, this textbook user can still take time for nature walks with her boys and make room for some fun Charlotte Mason style science by using this wonderful textbook curriculum (when time allows).
4. Textbooks provide a painless and honest way to keep records and make the high school transcript.
When my oldest was coming up on his first year of high school, I scoured the internet for information about high school record keeping and making a transcript. At the same time I was shopping around for curriculum for different subjects, namely history. I love using a narrative history book as a read aloud with my younger children and adding history based literature to that spine for the boys to read independently as a supplement to our read aloud. I do so love this. But with high school I was completely stressing out. I drooled over Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum, but I knew that I didn't have the time to teach that to my son, nor did we have the funds to do the self paced course online. I had five younger children, four of which were school age at the time. My number one stressor was that I wanted to choose well so that I could reuse whatever I bought for the oldest with the youngers and not hop around. I looked around and found that different curriculum options that are living books or great books oriented are hard to know how to give an objective, fair grade to put on a transcript. Moreover said curriculums were through the roof in regards to price.
I went to a local bookstore similar to Half Price Books. I found used Abeka history books for $6.00 and the quiz and test booklets and their corresponding answer keys were $1.97 each! I flipped through the books and grabbed them. For $14.00 + tax, I had a complete World History curriculum for my son and it counted as a full high school credit! No more stress over what we will do for high school history. The tests and quizzes provided me a very easy way to record grades and give an honest and accurate grade on my son's high school transcript. We have happily used Abeka's Economics book and we have their American History and World Geography as well. My son's records are easy to keep. His grades are an honest reflection of his work and study habits.
5. Textbook learning prepares students for learning in a college setting.
We can have all kinds of philosophical discussions about the purposes and goals of education and this kind of discussion certainly has its place. However, one of the many things a homeschool education should do is prepare a child to do well in college. College classrooms across the country use textbooks without shame. If textbooks are harmful to children, college professors are apparently completely unaware and need to be informed! I know personally a young man who is incredibly intelligent. He was homeschooled and now has a Master's degree. This young man was not made to take tests growing up. His mom figured that they were a waste of time as she knew that he knew the information. She was right. He did know it. However, time came to take the SAT for college entrance and his did not do so well. What? This guy has the brains to blow the top off of that test! How is this possible? Well, he had never taken a test in his life. He most certainly never took a timed test! There is an art to learning to study for a test and do well on it. This is the main mode of learning and receiving credit for what one has learned in the college setting. I am not addressing whether or not this is the best mode of learning. For better or worse, it is THE mode of learning in college, and our college bound children need to be prepared to succeed in this environment. They need to know what it is to study a chapter or unit review and take an exam over it in a specified time frame. The young man above not only lost out on much desired scholarship money due to his SAT scores, but he also made lower grades in some of his college courses because he didn't always finish his exams by the time class was over. He missed problems due to running out of time. His homeschool never required him to get his work done in a certain time frame. Textbook learning helps prepare students to handle this aspect of the college environment well.
6. Textbooks are a joyful means of learning in our homeschool.
My children have simply not been informed that learning from textbooks would rob them of joy in their learning. They don't all like all of their textbooks as much as others, but this is the result of one subject being preferred over the other rather than a textbook killing their joy of learning any particular subject. My children enjoy lessons in their books when presented in manageable chunks and with adequate instruction to give them what they need to succeed and do well in their lesson. No child wants to do poorly. A good textbook that presents the material well so that my children, with proper effort, are able to succeed is a winner in our home. Every child likes to see an A+ on their paper with an encouraging sticker at the top praising his efforts.
7. Textbooks foster self discipline and independent learning in the homeschooled child.
The final benefit to present to you that textbooks bring into the homeschool is self discipline, which creates an independent learner. I know a family that used Abeka Academy for first through sixth grades. The children were enrolled in Classical Conversations in seventh grade for the Challenge program. These kids have and are still doing wonderfully. Abeka's textbook based elementary program prepared these students to excel in the very popular Classical Conversations program which is considered to be a heavy load by many. What did Abeka give these students to help them do so well? Self discipline that has trained these children to have good study habits and a strong work ethic. These students don't need mom to harp on them in the morning to get started on their school. They pull out their books and get to work. While other students in beginning Challenge programs struggle to get all of their work done, my friend's kiddos are excelling in Classical Conversations' Challenge program. They are getting a lot out of it and they are doing so independently for the most part. This is true of many textbook educated children. This discipline crosses over into other areas of life and grooms a child to be a responsible and hardworking spouse and employee. Let's face it, no one wants a lazy husband, wife or employee. Using textbooks and teaching our children to be as independent as they are able will pay many wonderful dividends as they get older for mom and for them.
In Conclusion, know that many families successfully use textbooks as the primary source of their homeschool curriculum material. I have also found that this method of homeschooling is put down and disparaged in many blog posts and homeschool articles. I am here to say that using textbooks will not harm your children in any way. Your children will benefit greatly from their textbooks when used consistently with proper supervision from their teacher. They will do well in college and in life.
Now it's your turn. What benefits have you reaped in your homeschool through the use of textbooks? Which textbooks have been your favorites and why? Feel free to comment below!
While I do not use a traditional textbook for every subject and every child in my homeschool, I certainly use textbooks and with great benefit. My children are not hindered by my use of textbooks. Their education is not lifeless and stilted as a result. I have some voracious readers on my hands as well as one who reads only when it is required. Using textbooks in my homeschool has not kept my children from reading "living books".
So, in this post I will outline what I believe to be the benefits of using textbooks. I will address the usual objections I have heard against them in my next post.
What benefits are there for those of us who employ the use of Textbooks in the homeschool?
1. Textbooks are easy to use.
With a textbook curriculum, I can quickly and easily plan what each child will do. Each of my children know exactly what is expected of them. This makes things run smoothly, especially as children become old enough to do the bulk of their work independently. This is a big deal when there are several children in the home. Once you hit four, you qualify as having several, in my opinion. The ease of planning with a high quality teacher's manual is wonderful. Mom doesn't have to run to the library every week or pay library fines because she didn't make it back in time. Tons of lesson planning and project planning can be avoided and children still get quality teaching from their books. This has become a huge deal in our homeschool as we now have 6 children of school age in our home. I have the time to do what I need to because I can let the books work for me and help my children when they need it.
2. Textbooks provide continuity.
My kids have been my guinea pigs in regards to curriculum choices and teaching methods, the oldest more so than the others as we have tread the waters of homeschooling these past 8 years. My eldest son has expressed preference for his textbooks over the mom directed "living book" curriculums. The main reason for this is that the textbooks provide incremental consistency and they allow him to move at his own pace without having to wait on me. He also has noticed that when we did "our own thing" and then went to a textbook in a certain subject that he had some holes in his learning that he had to close up, which he found "annoying". Sticking with a particular textbook for a particular subject over the years helps to avoid the issue of "holes" in learning.
3. Textbooks don't have to be "traditional" to be textbooks.
This may sound like an odd benefit to using textbooks in the homeschool. The wording is weird, but I think you will understand what I mean. We love and use Apologia Science in our homeschool. This is a science curriculum that teaches in a Charlotte Mason style in the elementary school years. Although it is meant to be used as a read aloud (which we have done), it doesn't have to be. This year, two of my boys are doing two different Apologia books with their Notebooking Journals independently. I help them with experiments when they come up, but the books are laid out in a way (with the schedule in the student journal) that a child able to read the books alone can do so. This allows them to pursue learning according to their own interests (one studies animals and the other botany). If we did science in a read aloud fashion this year, we would only do one book and one or both boys would be disappointed they didn't get to study the book they preferred. So, this textbook user can still take time for nature walks with her boys and make room for some fun Charlotte Mason style science by using this wonderful textbook curriculum (when time allows).
4. Textbooks provide a painless and honest way to keep records and make the high school transcript.
When my oldest was coming up on his first year of high school, I scoured the internet for information about high school record keeping and making a transcript. At the same time I was shopping around for curriculum for different subjects, namely history. I love using a narrative history book as a read aloud with my younger children and adding history based literature to that spine for the boys to read independently as a supplement to our read aloud. I do so love this. But with high school I was completely stressing out. I drooled over Veritas Press' Omnibus curriculum, but I knew that I didn't have the time to teach that to my son, nor did we have the funds to do the self paced course online. I had five younger children, four of which were school age at the time. My number one stressor was that I wanted to choose well so that I could reuse whatever I bought for the oldest with the youngers and not hop around. I looked around and found that different curriculum options that are living books or great books oriented are hard to know how to give an objective, fair grade to put on a transcript. Moreover said curriculums were through the roof in regards to price.
I went to a local bookstore similar to Half Price Books. I found used Abeka history books for $6.00 and the quiz and test booklets and their corresponding answer keys were $1.97 each! I flipped through the books and grabbed them. For $14.00 + tax, I had a complete World History curriculum for my son and it counted as a full high school credit! No more stress over what we will do for high school history. The tests and quizzes provided me a very easy way to record grades and give an honest and accurate grade on my son's high school transcript. We have happily used Abeka's Economics book and we have their American History and World Geography as well. My son's records are easy to keep. His grades are an honest reflection of his work and study habits.
5. Textbook learning prepares students for learning in a college setting.
We can have all kinds of philosophical discussions about the purposes and goals of education and this kind of discussion certainly has its place. However, one of the many things a homeschool education should do is prepare a child to do well in college. College classrooms across the country use textbooks without shame. If textbooks are harmful to children, college professors are apparently completely unaware and need to be informed! I know personally a young man who is incredibly intelligent. He was homeschooled and now has a Master's degree. This young man was not made to take tests growing up. His mom figured that they were a waste of time as she knew that he knew the information. She was right. He did know it. However, time came to take the SAT for college entrance and his did not do so well. What? This guy has the brains to blow the top off of that test! How is this possible? Well, he had never taken a test in his life. He most certainly never took a timed test! There is an art to learning to study for a test and do well on it. This is the main mode of learning and receiving credit for what one has learned in the college setting. I am not addressing whether or not this is the best mode of learning. For better or worse, it is THE mode of learning in college, and our college bound children need to be prepared to succeed in this environment. They need to know what it is to study a chapter or unit review and take an exam over it in a specified time frame. The young man above not only lost out on much desired scholarship money due to his SAT scores, but he also made lower grades in some of his college courses because he didn't always finish his exams by the time class was over. He missed problems due to running out of time. His homeschool never required him to get his work done in a certain time frame. Textbook learning helps prepare students to handle this aspect of the college environment well.
6. Textbooks are a joyful means of learning in our homeschool.
My children have simply not been informed that learning from textbooks would rob them of joy in their learning. They don't all like all of their textbooks as much as others, but this is the result of one subject being preferred over the other rather than a textbook killing their joy of learning any particular subject. My children enjoy lessons in their books when presented in manageable chunks and with adequate instruction to give them what they need to succeed and do well in their lesson. No child wants to do poorly. A good textbook that presents the material well so that my children, with proper effort, are able to succeed is a winner in our home. Every child likes to see an A+ on their paper with an encouraging sticker at the top praising his efforts.
7. Textbooks foster self discipline and independent learning in the homeschooled child.
The final benefit to present to you that textbooks bring into the homeschool is self discipline, which creates an independent learner. I know a family that used Abeka Academy for first through sixth grades. The children were enrolled in Classical Conversations in seventh grade for the Challenge program. These kids have and are still doing wonderfully. Abeka's textbook based elementary program prepared these students to excel in the very popular Classical Conversations program which is considered to be a heavy load by many. What did Abeka give these students to help them do so well? Self discipline that has trained these children to have good study habits and a strong work ethic. These students don't need mom to harp on them in the morning to get started on their school. They pull out their books and get to work. While other students in beginning Challenge programs struggle to get all of their work done, my friend's kiddos are excelling in Classical Conversations' Challenge program. They are getting a lot out of it and they are doing so independently for the most part. This is true of many textbook educated children. This discipline crosses over into other areas of life and grooms a child to be a responsible and hardworking spouse and employee. Let's face it, no one wants a lazy husband, wife or employee. Using textbooks and teaching our children to be as independent as they are able will pay many wonderful dividends as they get older for mom and for them.
In Conclusion, know that many families successfully use textbooks as the primary source of their homeschool curriculum material. I have also found that this method of homeschooling is put down and disparaged in many blog posts and homeschool articles. I am here to say that using textbooks will not harm your children in any way. Your children will benefit greatly from their textbooks when used consistently with proper supervision from their teacher. They will do well in college and in life.
Now it's your turn. What benefits have you reaped in your homeschool through the use of textbooks? Which textbooks have been your favorites and why? Feel free to comment below!
Monday, August 29, 2016
Man Makes His Plans But the Lord Directs His Steps
As our school year has gotten off to a rocky start with a summer virus interrupting our rhythm quite early in the game, I am reminded that I am not in control. I had such wonderful plans in place to be sure that this year would be smooth and organized. I made my file box organizer with copies of all worksheets, tests and quizzes for the year. I got each child their own school crates and attached binder rings with laminated task lists for each subject on each child's crate or workbox cart. We were so ready to jump into the year and move. We went to our first day at co-op, and one of my guys caught a lovely beast of a cold. All of us, save my oldest son, ended up sick. Ugh!
Well, God is in control and He has His ways of reminding me of this. All of my planning and organizing was not in vain, but it is not what will get us through the year. Getting sick three weeks into our school year was not in my school planner! Only by his grace, can I teach my crew of half a dozen.
We are entering week 4 of the school year and we are doing much better this year than last in regards to getting things done efficiently. My push for some older middle children to become more independent is bearing fruit! My little laminated index cards seem to be a bigger help than I anticipated. I wish I'd done something simple like this sooner!
I hope the Lord blesses your homeschooling endeavor this year as we are nearing the end of August. He is your strength. It is only by his grace we can give our children all they need!
Well, God is in control and He has His ways of reminding me of this. All of my planning and organizing was not in vain, but it is not what will get us through the year. Getting sick three weeks into our school year was not in my school planner! Only by his grace, can I teach my crew of half a dozen.
We are entering week 4 of the school year and we are doing much better this year than last in regards to getting things done efficiently. My push for some older middle children to become more independent is bearing fruit! My little laminated index cards seem to be a bigger help than I anticipated. I wish I'd done something simple like this sooner!
I hope the Lord blesses your homeschooling endeavor this year as we are nearing the end of August. He is your strength. It is only by his grace we can give our children all they need!
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Curriculum Considerations
When a new homeschooling family is looking to purchase curriculum for their first child, there are a few key things they should really think about and consider. I list these considerations because they will impact what style of education and or teaching will most likely fit your situation and serve you the best.
1) What size of a family do you have or plan to have?
If your family will be small (3 children or less), you will have the time to be more involved with face to face teaching with your children. This means that teacher intensive methods and curriculums will be able to work for you, if you prefer them. For example, you will be able to do a project based curriculum that may assign your child to make and paint a paper machie globe much more easily than the mom with six or ten kids. Read aloud literature programs will be more easily doable for you than for the mom with a large family.
If your family will be large, you will need your children to learn to be independent as soon as they are able and to take ownership of their work once they are independent readers. You will guide and manage their work, but they will need to do lessons on their own when possible so you can help your non-readers gain a firm footing in reading. Your curriculum choices need to foster the learning environment that you need and/or desire for your family in the long term.
2) How much money do you have to spend on curriculum?
This may seem basic, but it is very important. If money is tight, I would strongly suggest choosing materials that are reusable rather than consumable as much as possible, especially if your answer to question number one is "large". Reusable resources can be used for all children in the home and can be sold as used on websites such as Ebay or Amazon. Speaking of Ebay and Amazon, you can also purchase reusable gently used resources on these sites. If they are taken care of, you can still resell them when you are done with them.
Games/ Flashcards and such are expensive and can be made at home. Weigh the cost of the product against the time it would cost to make it. Maybe the kids can make their own flash cards on index cards? This saves you time and impresses the concepts into their minds as they write and as they review. Ask yourself honestly, will you really make time to do the games or projects? Curriculum that sits on the shelf without being used is a waste.
Some curriculum providers will allow teachers to copy consumable resources for use in their classroom or home only. Check into this before purchasing. Cursive First by Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Rod and Staff English worksheets are two examples of this.
Free quality resources can be found at places such as Librivox (a site with public domain audio books) and Project Gutenberg (a site with public domain electronic books) to save money. Books from either site can be downloaded to an SD card and put on an electronic reader such as a Kindle or a Nook if you have one. (Your reader must be able to play audio books if you will put Librivox resources on it).
3) What style of teaching suits your personality and family environment?
Only you can answer this, really. I would suggest being honest about what is possible in reality versus what you would like to do in an ideal world. For examle, I like to be involved in teaching my children. I am attracted to teacher intensive programs that would involve me with my kids, but I do have six, two of which are non-readers and another is a struggling reader. So, reality dictates that reusable textbooks and independent learning must be dominant in my curriculum choices until more kids are reading fluently. My personality wants to do projects and hands-on learning with my kids. However, my life situation proves that hands-on curriculm purchases will sit on the shelf and end up undone. If I pursue the hands on route, I will set myself up for failure and feel like a terrible homeschooling mom before we get far into a school year. If you really want a little hands-on learning to happen when life is crazy, then consider choosing only one teacher intensive thing to do (outside teaching reading to non-readers) that can involve everyone and recruit older kids to help you organize and set up.
4) What are your goals for your child's education?
If you have a big picture in your mind for where you want your child to be when they graduate, you can work backwards and develop a rough plan about how to get him there.
If a complete education in your household means that a child is able to function as a productive member of society on his or her own before they graduate, you will want to make sure your child has some money management skills, and basic character traits like being punctual and responsible.
With this goal in mind, you can purposefully make allowances in the child's schedule to learn these things. When they are young, you might teach them to do basic chores and keep your standards high. When they are older, you may choose to have your child work part-time jobs during the summers or after school hours during the school year. You may make them responsible to pay for their own entertainment as well as their own car and insurance and any other expense outside what is necessary.
If the above plan is something you want to pursue, you do not want to have them work on curriculum eight hours a day, then go to work for six hours or so. Plan a curriculum that will give the child everything they need educationally and allow the child to pursue part-time employment or consider schooling some in the summers to make up for what the child can't do during the traditional school year.
These are very basic, but important. These are the things I have learned to think through over my mere 6 years of homeschooling. I hope they help you as you sift through the vast array of curriculum choices on the market. I will post reviews in the future comparing different curriculums to each other to point out what I consider their pros and cons to be and how they may best fit different categories mentioned above.
1) What size of a family do you have or plan to have?
If your family will be small (3 children or less), you will have the time to be more involved with face to face teaching with your children. This means that teacher intensive methods and curriculums will be able to work for you, if you prefer them. For example, you will be able to do a project based curriculum that may assign your child to make and paint a paper machie globe much more easily than the mom with six or ten kids. Read aloud literature programs will be more easily doable for you than for the mom with a large family.
If your family will be large, you will need your children to learn to be independent as soon as they are able and to take ownership of their work once they are independent readers. You will guide and manage their work, but they will need to do lessons on their own when possible so you can help your non-readers gain a firm footing in reading. Your curriculum choices need to foster the learning environment that you need and/or desire for your family in the long term.
2) How much money do you have to spend on curriculum?
This may seem basic, but it is very important. If money is tight, I would strongly suggest choosing materials that are reusable rather than consumable as much as possible, especially if your answer to question number one is "large". Reusable resources can be used for all children in the home and can be sold as used on websites such as Ebay or Amazon. Speaking of Ebay and Amazon, you can also purchase reusable gently used resources on these sites. If they are taken care of, you can still resell them when you are done with them.
Games/ Flashcards and such are expensive and can be made at home. Weigh the cost of the product against the time it would cost to make it. Maybe the kids can make their own flash cards on index cards? This saves you time and impresses the concepts into their minds as they write and as they review. Ask yourself honestly, will you really make time to do the games or projects? Curriculum that sits on the shelf without being used is a waste.
Some curriculum providers will allow teachers to copy consumable resources for use in their classroom or home only. Check into this before purchasing. Cursive First by Elizabeth Fitzgerald and Rod and Staff English worksheets are two examples of this.
Free quality resources can be found at places such as Librivox (a site with public domain audio books) and Project Gutenberg (a site with public domain electronic books) to save money. Books from either site can be downloaded to an SD card and put on an electronic reader such as a Kindle or a Nook if you have one. (Your reader must be able to play audio books if you will put Librivox resources on it).
3) What style of teaching suits your personality and family environment?
Only you can answer this, really. I would suggest being honest about what is possible in reality versus what you would like to do in an ideal world. For examle, I like to be involved in teaching my children. I am attracted to teacher intensive programs that would involve me with my kids, but I do have six, two of which are non-readers and another is a struggling reader. So, reality dictates that reusable textbooks and independent learning must be dominant in my curriculum choices until more kids are reading fluently. My personality wants to do projects and hands-on learning with my kids. However, my life situation proves that hands-on curriculm purchases will sit on the shelf and end up undone. If I pursue the hands on route, I will set myself up for failure and feel like a terrible homeschooling mom before we get far into a school year. If you really want a little hands-on learning to happen when life is crazy, then consider choosing only one teacher intensive thing to do (outside teaching reading to non-readers) that can involve everyone and recruit older kids to help you organize and set up.
4) What are your goals for your child's education?
If you have a big picture in your mind for where you want your child to be when they graduate, you can work backwards and develop a rough plan about how to get him there.
If a complete education in your household means that a child is able to function as a productive member of society on his or her own before they graduate, you will want to make sure your child has some money management skills, and basic character traits like being punctual and responsible.
With this goal in mind, you can purposefully make allowances in the child's schedule to learn these things. When they are young, you might teach them to do basic chores and keep your standards high. When they are older, you may choose to have your child work part-time jobs during the summers or after school hours during the school year. You may make them responsible to pay for their own entertainment as well as their own car and insurance and any other expense outside what is necessary.
If the above plan is something you want to pursue, you do not want to have them work on curriculum eight hours a day, then go to work for six hours or so. Plan a curriculum that will give the child everything they need educationally and allow the child to pursue part-time employment or consider schooling some in the summers to make up for what the child can't do during the traditional school year.
These are very basic, but important. These are the things I have learned to think through over my mere 6 years of homeschooling. I hope they help you as you sift through the vast array of curriculum choices on the market. I will post reviews in the future comparing different curriculums to each other to point out what I consider their pros and cons to be and how they may best fit different categories mentioned above.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Rod and Staff Math and 3rd Grade Standardized Testing
When shopping for a math curriculum, every homeschool mom has a list of things she wants the potential choice to meet. Is it s spiral or mastery based curriculum? How much teacher preparation does it require? Is it colorful or not? How do kids using this curriculum fare on standardized tests?
There are enough choices available to make one's head spin and add to this the fact that not every advertisement for any given curriculum is accurate. Choosing a math curriculum can be frustrating for any homeschooling parent.
I have successfully used Saxon math with some of my children and Rod and Staff math with others. The reason behind our family having two curriculums are in another post titled My Experience With Saxon and Rod and Staff Math. Today, I would like to address the last question mom's and dad's might ask if they are considering the excellent mastery based math curriculum published by Rod and Staff. How do kids using this curriculum fare on standardized tests? While I do not have a definitive research based answer for you as I am not aware of any studies done on this specific question. I can tell you what my experience has been in this area after using Rod and Staff Math in my home for grades 1, 3, and 4 over the past 2 years and counting.
How did my kids do on their standardized test for third grade after using this curriculum? They did okay but they would have done better had some things been included in the curriculum that are absent. Like what? Well geometry concepts like symmetry and congruence, perimeter and area. Things like rounding numbers to the nearest 10, reading graphs and calendar word problems.
So, does that mean that Rod and Staff should not be used for third grade math? I don't think so. I will not be posting this curriculum on EBay and searching for another. What I realized after looking through the curriculum to use again with my next child is that some of the concepts missing in the pupil text that are on the standardized test like rounding numbers and even some basic adding of fractions with like denominators are in the worksheets I failed to use the first time around. I know better now, and I will use them with my son who is now a second grader when he does Exploring Arithmetic 3 next year. A word of caution: Do not confuse worksheets with blacklines. They are not the same. Blacklines are more review of facts and concepts taught in the textbook for kids having a hard time getting the material presented. Worksheets are a separate book covering extra concepts that are not included in the textbook. They are very different. I will also supplement Exploring Arithmetic with either Spectrum Math 3, which has a section on calendars and geometry and measurement which is expected to be covered on standardized tests, or the Kumon Geometry and Measurement workbook for 3rd grade. I think that doing one page a week in the Kumon book or a couple of concepts once a week in the Spectrum book would keep their exposure consistent enough to be sure they aren't lacking in this area on their ITBS or CAT. Spectrum covers graphs, but we already use and like Modern Press Curriculum's Maps Charts Graphs workbooks for geography and map reading skills. All graphs covered in any standardized test are included in these books.
Am I worried about the test scores? Not at all. My boys did well even though some things were missing in geometry. I know my boys will have all of the skills they need by sixth grade to do well in the geometry portions of their next standardized test. Rod and Staff covers area, perimeter, rounding and graphs in their Progressing in Arithmetic 4 book. However, testing was frustrating for my boys when they saw questions about things they were never exposed to. This is understandable. Who wants to have problems about things they've never seen on an important test? That won't happen next time. Spectrum or Kumon workbook supplements will fill in the gaps for testing. Meanwhile, Rod and Staff will continue to provide my children with a solid, systematic foundation in arithmetic so they can succeed in higher math.
There are enough choices available to make one's head spin and add to this the fact that not every advertisement for any given curriculum is accurate. Choosing a math curriculum can be frustrating for any homeschooling parent.
I have successfully used Saxon math with some of my children and Rod and Staff math with others. The reason behind our family having two curriculums are in another post titled My Experience With Saxon and Rod and Staff Math. Today, I would like to address the last question mom's and dad's might ask if they are considering the excellent mastery based math curriculum published by Rod and Staff. How do kids using this curriculum fare on standardized tests? While I do not have a definitive research based answer for you as I am not aware of any studies done on this specific question. I can tell you what my experience has been in this area after using Rod and Staff Math in my home for grades 1, 3, and 4 over the past 2 years and counting.
How did my kids do on their standardized test for third grade after using this curriculum? They did okay but they would have done better had some things been included in the curriculum that are absent. Like what? Well geometry concepts like symmetry and congruence, perimeter and area. Things like rounding numbers to the nearest 10, reading graphs and calendar word problems.
So, does that mean that Rod and Staff should not be used for third grade math? I don't think so. I will not be posting this curriculum on EBay and searching for another. What I realized after looking through the curriculum to use again with my next child is that some of the concepts missing in the pupil text that are on the standardized test like rounding numbers and even some basic adding of fractions with like denominators are in the worksheets I failed to use the first time around. I know better now, and I will use them with my son who is now a second grader when he does Exploring Arithmetic 3 next year. A word of caution: Do not confuse worksheets with blacklines. They are not the same. Blacklines are more review of facts and concepts taught in the textbook for kids having a hard time getting the material presented. Worksheets are a separate book covering extra concepts that are not included in the textbook. They are very different. I will also supplement Exploring Arithmetic with either Spectrum Math 3, which has a section on calendars and geometry and measurement which is expected to be covered on standardized tests, or the Kumon Geometry and Measurement workbook for 3rd grade. I think that doing one page a week in the Kumon book or a couple of concepts once a week in the Spectrum book would keep their exposure consistent enough to be sure they aren't lacking in this area on their ITBS or CAT. Spectrum covers graphs, but we already use and like Modern Press Curriculum's Maps Charts Graphs workbooks for geography and map reading skills. All graphs covered in any standardized test are included in these books.
Am I worried about the test scores? Not at all. My boys did well even though some things were missing in geometry. I know my boys will have all of the skills they need by sixth grade to do well in the geometry portions of their next standardized test. Rod and Staff covers area, perimeter, rounding and graphs in their Progressing in Arithmetic 4 book. However, testing was frustrating for my boys when they saw questions about things they were never exposed to. This is understandable. Who wants to have problems about things they've never seen on an important test? That won't happen next time. Spectrum or Kumon workbook supplements will fill in the gaps for testing. Meanwhile, Rod and Staff will continue to provide my children with a solid, systematic foundation in arithmetic so they can succeed in higher math.
My Experience with Saxon and Rod and Staff Math
Like many of you, I have spent hours over the years trying to determine which math curriculum to use in my homeschool. Which one is "the best"? Which one is less expensive? How much teacher time does it require? These are some of the questions I ask myself when looking for any curriculum.
I didn't always ask these questions about math. In the very beginning of my homeschooling years, a family I knew nearing the end of their homeschooling years told me that they'd used Saxon math successfully with all five of their children and to great success. Their oldest son was an engineering student at the time and has now completed a master's degree in Nuclear Physics! Saxon was his only math curriculum. is mom taught him all of his math facts before 4th grade and then he jumped into 54 and progressed through calculus. So, I bought a copy of Saxon 54 with tests and answers on EBay for a steal (1st edition) and gave it a go. My two oldest children followed the process described above to great success and I was thrilled. The choosing of math curriculum was easy for this homeschool mom...
Then came child number three. My family had previously lived in Texas where standardized testing was not a requirement for homeschoolers. We moved to Georgia. Georgia law requires homeschooling families to test every three years starting in third grade. So, I made sure to use a formal curriculum before Saxon 54. I started my third son on a formal curriculum in 2nd grade. I chose Horizons 2 since it utilizes a similar spiraling pedagogy that is used in Saxon. My plan was to progress from Horizons 2 to Horizons 3 and then move him into Saxon 54. This seemed very logical and would have been for my two older boys. With this child, it was a major disaster.
Why? Is it the fault of the Horizons 2 curriculum? No. The curriculum was good. I looked through it before giving it to my son. I was very happy with it. So what was the problem? Why did every math lesson turn into 45 minutes of crying and misery for both my son and myself? Well, I was not crying (usually), but I was on the brink of pulling my hair out. Math, a subject that was once peaceful in my home, became something I dreaded on a daily basis. Why? I asked my son this question one day after he cried out in frustration that he hated his math book. He didn't say he hated math. He hated the book. His response left me surprised. It was quite perceptive for a seven year old boy.
"They (meaning the book) teach me something new, and then the next day they teach me something new again. I don't understand what I did yesterday but they want me to learn this too. There is stuff in here they want me to do today that they stopped teaching me a long time ago, and I forgot how to do it. They are not teaching me anything about how to do the stuff I forgot. I still don't understand the new stuff from yesterday but I'm supposed to do this too!"
He was sad. He felt like he was dumber than his younger brother who was doing just fine in the same book. (They are only a year apart and do school together). He wanted to be able to learn something and really understand it before having a new and unrelated concept thrown at him to learn and do. He was introduced to something weeks before that was dropped from the lessons soon afterwards and then put back in with no instructions for how to do it. He was expected to remember how to do it on his own (He thought he was. His little brother did). At that very moment I knew in my heart that Saxon, the curriculum I'd planned for all of my children to use from 54 through Calculus, was NOT going to work for him.
I got online and began to search for a different curriculum that would better fit my son's needs. I looked on discussion boards to find out why Saxon doesn't work for some people. The words spiral versus mastery kept coming up and it hit me that my third son needs a mastery based curriculum. The spiral was driving him bananas. But what curriculum should I buy? There are so many.
I chose Rod and Staff Math. Rod and Staff math has been a blessing for this child and his mom. It allows him the time he needs to let a concept sink in. Much attention is given to mastering the basic arithmetic facts and other fundamentals necessary for success in upper level mathematics. Peace with math has been restored in my home.
I didn't always ask these questions about math. In the very beginning of my homeschooling years, a family I knew nearing the end of their homeschooling years told me that they'd used Saxon math successfully with all five of their children and to great success. Their oldest son was an engineering student at the time and has now completed a master's degree in Nuclear Physics! Saxon was his only math curriculum. is mom taught him all of his math facts before 4th grade and then he jumped into 54 and progressed through calculus. So, I bought a copy of Saxon 54 with tests and answers on EBay for a steal (1st edition) and gave it a go. My two oldest children followed the process described above to great success and I was thrilled. The choosing of math curriculum was easy for this homeschool mom...
Then came child number three. My family had previously lived in Texas where standardized testing was not a requirement for homeschoolers. We moved to Georgia. Georgia law requires homeschooling families to test every three years starting in third grade. So, I made sure to use a formal curriculum before Saxon 54. I started my third son on a formal curriculum in 2nd grade. I chose Horizons 2 since it utilizes a similar spiraling pedagogy that is used in Saxon. My plan was to progress from Horizons 2 to Horizons 3 and then move him into Saxon 54. This seemed very logical and would have been for my two older boys. With this child, it was a major disaster.
Why? Is it the fault of the Horizons 2 curriculum? No. The curriculum was good. I looked through it before giving it to my son. I was very happy with it. So what was the problem? Why did every math lesson turn into 45 minutes of crying and misery for both my son and myself? Well, I was not crying (usually), but I was on the brink of pulling my hair out. Math, a subject that was once peaceful in my home, became something I dreaded on a daily basis. Why? I asked my son this question one day after he cried out in frustration that he hated his math book. He didn't say he hated math. He hated the book. His response left me surprised. It was quite perceptive for a seven year old boy.
"They (meaning the book) teach me something new, and then the next day they teach me something new again. I don't understand what I did yesterday but they want me to learn this too. There is stuff in here they want me to do today that they stopped teaching me a long time ago, and I forgot how to do it. They are not teaching me anything about how to do the stuff I forgot. I still don't understand the new stuff from yesterday but I'm supposed to do this too!"
He was sad. He felt like he was dumber than his younger brother who was doing just fine in the same book. (They are only a year apart and do school together). He wanted to be able to learn something and really understand it before having a new and unrelated concept thrown at him to learn and do. He was introduced to something weeks before that was dropped from the lessons soon afterwards and then put back in with no instructions for how to do it. He was expected to remember how to do it on his own (He thought he was. His little brother did). At that very moment I knew in my heart that Saxon, the curriculum I'd planned for all of my children to use from 54 through Calculus, was NOT going to work for him.
I got online and began to search for a different curriculum that would better fit my son's needs. I looked on discussion boards to find out why Saxon doesn't work for some people. The words spiral versus mastery kept coming up and it hit me that my third son needs a mastery based curriculum. The spiral was driving him bananas. But what curriculum should I buy? There are so many.
I chose Rod and Staff Math. Rod and Staff math has been a blessing for this child and his mom. It allows him the time he needs to let a concept sink in. Much attention is given to mastering the basic arithmetic facts and other fundamentals necessary for success in upper level mathematics. Peace with math has been restored in my home.
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