Recomended Resources

[Valerie]

Let us all know what resources you're using for homeschool, would you recommend this for others? Why or why not?

[Valerie]

I'll start...........I use Little Hands to Heaven by Carrie Austin. I love it because of it's ease of use, and both my 4 year old and my 2 year old can participate in it. It's really easy just to pick up and start teaching from it, with little prep work. If you want to know more about it, check out www.heartofdakota.com and you can download the first weeks lessons free. There are also titles for older children as well.

Anyone else using Little Hands? Or something else you like?

Valerie

[DP]

Hi all, I just wanted to recommend a GREAT Pre-K/K curriculum for "school readiness", pre-writing, and handwriting skills: Handwriting Without Tears/Get Set for School curriculum at www.getsetforschool.com

If you have a child that is already printing, but needs extra help or is ready to start cursive, check out the printing and cursive curriculum at www.hwtears.com

I've used Handwriting Without Tears with MANY children of all ability levels and always had GREAT success with it (I'm an occupational therapist) I've also been using the pre-K curriculum with my own 4-yr.old that I'm homeschooling, to instill good writing habits (even before picking up a pencil to write). It is multi-sensory (involves music,movement, "wood pieces", play dough, etc.), good for kids that have ADD or SPD, and is FUN! I HIGHLY recommend it! :)

Delia

[DP]

Hi all! I just wanted to share a couple of free online resources:

http://www.hwtears.com/files/Letter%20Formation%20Charts.pdf
These letter formation charts are GREAT! Even if you don't use the whole Handwriting Without Tears program, it's important to teach your child to form their letters the same way every time, to encourage speed and legibility. You can use these charts as a guide! Print and cursive guides are included.


http://www.hwtears.com/educators/classroomextras
Scroll down to "Teaching Guidelines" for a day by day/week by week guideline for teaching sequence regarding letters and numbers, print and cursive, for grades pre-K thru 4.

Hope this helps!

Delia

[Sheila]

We use:


Alpha Omega Math life pacs--My kids love these! It is a very complete curriculum very thorough, I just get bored with them perhaps it's the tedious workbook method, I like Math U See but, the kids like This One must use what the kiddos like.

Alpha Omega Language Arts life pacs--I like these because you have grammar, handwriting and spelling all in one book so it does make it easier on mom. I like it because you don't have three different books or having to think about did we cover that? oh handwriting? or we only did spelling such and such...I like the fact it's all in one place and section by section.

Mystery of History--I love this History Program. I have learned more history this year then I have since I have been homeschooling. Linda Hobar author of Mystery of History did a wonderful job. I asked for history from beginning to present and it's like I asked and I am receiving it. I love this program not only because I now understand history better but, I am understanding the Bible better also and those people in the Bible.

Apologia Science Zoology 1--We did this first semester, My boys enjoyed it although I thought it was okay. A little boring, not with the information just experiments aren't really facinating and lots of reading and kids well, you lose them. It is a wonderful informative science but, defintely for a older audience that is reading well on their own for our other children I did purchase a lapbook to bring lessons 1-6 alive. Lessons 7-14 were more um to their interest I suppose.

Apologia Science Zoology 2--We are in this one now almost completed with lesson 1 it is more interesting than the first one but, this one is covering water or swimming creatures so perhaps that's the difference. The experiemnts are okay more interesting so far and more fun I would have to say, we are going to be building a ocean diorama so defintely better than zoology 1 in my opinion. It is very informative and alot of reading though. There is a lapbook you can purchase with this one also. (not sure if we will though).

Christian Kids Biology--We haven't started this one yet but, it does look like fun. It's not as wordy or as much reading but, to the point. They have coloring sheets while the kids listen which I thought was great. We are blending or intertwining the two sciences together meaning one day this and another day that. Should take us through a year of science. We are doing this because our boys cannot get enough of science that is the only reason why. The experiments in this science look more fun, or eye catching and exciting will see. We start this one on Tuesday or Thursday next week.

Bible--We use lapbook lessons, Awana's and Alpha Omega life pac level or grade 1 for our daughter but, bring it up for the older kids. (we are mostly memorizing verses and books of the Bible).

[mommy to 3 duckies]

HI, I'm Jasmine and I homeschool my 3 duckies-ages 6, 4 and 2. For our core curriculum, we use Abeka. I found a super great deal on vegsource.com on a complete first grade set-teacher's books and everything! I really like how their grammer program is laid out and gives children a firm foundation on proper grammer. For ds (4)we use first-school.ws for letter of the week handwriting skills, and a fun phonics program from the Phonics Factory. WE make it fun by using magnets, flashcards, games, etc.

For math we use Abeka and MUS. My ds is a tactile learner, so MUS is perfect for him. My dd (6) loves the color and variety of Abeka's math, so that's what works for her. We throw in ffg's, free worksheets and other fun online freebies to just about every subject.

For History and Science we use our Abeka books as a jumping off point and go from there. We lapbook alot of these subjects, use alot of library books and of course online teaching resources. We usually go with a theme for the month with science; and for history, we're focusing on early America this year. I am really looking into Considering God's Creation for next year for science. It opens itself up for great lapbooks and is a Biblical based approach to the world of science for elementary-age children.

One thing my children have taught me is that each child learns at their own pace and not every child learns the same way. My ds's small motor skills are just now beginning to surface, whereas my dd was writing her alphabet, name and just about anything she could before age 5. I've learned not to push, but to allow them to bloom in their own time and cultivate a love of learning in a positive way.


Bible time is basically studying the Bible from Genesis through the apostles. We also work on Character training, Scripture memory(-we are memorizing one verse for each letter of the alphabet this year-)and discipleship.

As most homeschool mom's know, homeschooling is an all day, every day experience. Even when you're not writing in a textbook you're teaching and they're learning. It's a lifestyle of learning for life.

Jasmine

[Full Hands with 3]

I am currently using the website:

www.abcjesuslovesme.com

to homeschool our preschool children. I highly suggest this website as it was created with the busy mom and active preschooler in mind.

[Valerie]

Wow, that site is wonderful! I'm adding it to my list of links for sure!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Blessings,

Valerie

[Penney]

A yahoo group called The Printable Preschool has neat worksheets about phonics and beginning handwriting and other topics suitable for preschoolers. Another yahoo group is Creative Kingdom for Learning. It's a Christian group. The members create their own games, like file folder games and card games, etc., and share them. I've found some helpful resources. I haven't made up my own game yet, but I'm getting ideas. Maybe I'll get brave (and creative) and try to come up with one of my own.

[Penney]

Notebookingpages.com has some free notebook templates and even templates for lapbooks, shape booklets, etc. She has products that she sells there, too.

[Penney]

I love Heart of Wisdom curriculum for my older kids. It helps me to keep the Bible first in our homeschool. I work the younger kids into the same topics we're studying by using coloring pages and printables from Valerie and DLTK-bible.com, etc.

[Dawne]

I highly recommend Ruth Beechicks books: The Three R's and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully, regardless of which curriculum you use. Dr. Beechick is so sensible, practical, and has a very Godly worldview. Even though she was a public school teacher and curriculum developer for many years, she truly believes that parents are the best teachers. :-)

She strongly advocates teaching the child, rather than teaching the book or curriculum. Personalizing your methods to suit your children, and your family. She advocates using textbooks very sparingly, and then only as a tool. You are the teacher, afterall. ;-)

In that vein, for our homeschooling (children ages: 13, 11, 9, 7, and 4) we use the Bible, Devotional books, McGuffey's Readers along with Beechick style lessons, Ray's Arithmetic along with Beechick style lessons and games, Life of Fred Maths for my two olders, Learning Language Arts Through Literature, and the library and lapbook for science, as well as good, quality living books for a chronological history study as a family.

[hewittmom]

I am very new to the home school scene. So I am trying different things.

Right now I am teaching my 4 y/o (almost 5) with "What Your Kindergartner Needs To Know"

And then I saw the link here that Full Hands with 3 posted! And this is exactly what i have been looking for.

Thanks so much for this topic!