Razorback Academy

What we are using currently

Posted on April 13, 2011 by razorbackmama

I plan to do another post soon that will list the curriculum I’m planning to use next year.

Because of dyslexia in one child, suspected dyslexia in another, and questionable phonics instruction in 2 others, we have started using Barton Reading & Spelling. I do have one that taught herself to read for the most part, but I figured since I was already using Barton with 4 of them, I might as well just use the same thing with everyone LOL. The goal is to get them through all levels as quickly as possible. I expect the older 3 to be through them all sometime this fall. Barton is expensive and time-consuming, but it’s also FANTASTIC and easy to implement. And WOW – the customer service is out of this world. I called once with a question, and they put me through immediately to Susan Barton herself. I felt like I was talking to a celebrity. LOL

Writing is currently on hold until we get through level 4 in Barton (which should be in the next month or so) for the older ones.

For math the younger 4 use Math Mammoth. C also uses Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents for some extra “fun” math. G has just started using Lial’s Basic College Mathematics for pre-algebra.

For Bible, the older 3 are using the Discover 4 Yourself series by Kay Arthur. I’m reading through Leading Little Ones to God with J and S. We also have a short Bible time together, and we are going through Our 24 Family Ways.

G and C just finished Season One of Analytical Grammar, so they will just be doing periodic reviews for the rest of the year. L just finished Jr. Analytical Grammar, so she is done until next year. All three of them are thrilled about this LOL!

G and C are using Wordly Wise 4 to help with vocabulary development.

C and L use Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. G doesn’t do typing anymore – he progressed through Mavis Beacon until he could type about 45 wpm. Now he just uses Facebook to practice ROFLOL!!! J and S use Handwriting Without Tears – J is finishing up Printing Power, and S is finishing up My Printing Book.

For science, G is currently using BJU Press Online 6th grade. His language issues make grade-level texts somewhat difficult at times, so while we’re working on the language issues, he’s using this. It’s still quite meaty and challenging! He and I both really enjoy the distance learning format – I just wish it weren’t so pricey! The younger kids are working through Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Botany. I do it with the younger 3, and C does it independently, since he’s in 6th grade. I use the notebook pages that are available free on the Apologia website, and I also use the Apologia Botany Learn ‘N Folder by Live & Learn Press.

We are currently finishing up medieval history, after spending over a year using My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures. Since we entered back into the history cycle in a strange spot, we are using Story of the World and the accompanying Activity Guide as our spine. Then I used some recommendations in The Well-Trained Mind for what to actually DO. I have the older 3 doing timeline work, some mapping, reading extra books, and occasionally evaluating primary sources. The younger 2 do a little bit of mapping and short narrations after I read aloud to them from SOTW.

L finished Building Thinking Skills 1 this year, and C finished Building Thinking Skills 3 Figural. These are both available from The Critical Thinking Company. The older 3 are also working through Mind Benders. C loves them. G and L…not so much LOL!

For sort of “fun” music exposure (nothing serious), I have the kids do about 30 minutes of Piano Wizard Academy everyday.

C and L take Taekwon-Do through a program our city offers. C is a green belt, and S is a yellow belt.

I THINK that is all we are doing at this time. I feel like I’m leaving something out. Feel free to ask any questions!

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Favorite homeschooling links

Posted on April 7, 2011 by razorbackmama

I have 42 gazillion bookmarks for curriculum and other stuff. Some of them I’ve used, some I haven’t. Please do not take this as an endorsement of any, though I’ll add in comments here and there if I have personal experience. Some I don’t like, but I know that others love them, so I’ll go ahead and list them even if I don’t recommend them personally. These are in pretty much no order, though I’ll try to categorize them somewhat.

A Beka Book
Alpha Omega Publications
Ambleside Online (free!)
Bob Jones University Press – we have used this, including their distance learning. Overall I did like it, though I do not recommend their phonics instruction at all. Their later reading curriculum yes, but not their initial phonics. (I’m having to remediate too much!)
Bright Ideas Press – They publish Mystery of History and the Christian Kids Explore series (along with many other things)
Calvert
Simply Charlotte Mason – lots of help using the Charlotte Mason approach, including free curriculum guides and a message board
Memoria Press – classical education materials
Oak Meadow
Peace Hill Press – one of my FAVORITES – Well-Trained Mind, Story of the World, First Language Lessons, Writing With Ease – I recommend them all!
Rod & Staff – Rod & Staff does not have its own website, this is a company that sells their materials
Saxon Homeschool – math, phonics, and grammar instruction. We have used their phonics, and I highly recommend it since it’s Orton-Gillingham-based instruction.
School Specialty Instruction – not specifically homeschool curriculum, but many of their products are VERY easily adaptable to homeschool use. Explode the Code, Megawords, Wordly Wise, and more! We have used several of their materials throughout the years.
Sonlight Curriculum – literature-based curriculum. Their primary curriculum is for social studies, but they offer everything – science, language arts, math, etc. Great stuff!
The Critical Thinking Company – we use several of their materials. My kids often don’t like them because they make them THINK.
Trivium Pursuit – classical education products
Christian Light Publications – very effective and a favorite of many, particularly their reading, language arts, and math
Five in a Row – literature-based unit studies
Winter Promise – literature-based instruction. I kind of describe it as “Sonlight with hands-on activities,” but that’s probably a very poor description LOL!
The Great Courses – fantastic lectures on audio/video on a HUGE variety of subjects
Core Knowledge Sequence – a helpful list of “what my child needs to know when.” I’ve heard that some people develop lesson plans of their own based on this sequence, though I personally do not have the time for that!
McRuffy Press – phonics, math, and science curriculum – I’ve heard lots of good about them all but have never used them.
Digital Interactive Video Education (DIVE) – videos teaching Saxon Math and high school science
Letter of the Week – preschool and kindergarten curriculum
Heart of Dakota – primarily social studies, but they offer everything as well
My Father’s World – offering curriculum from preschool through 12th grade, a very comprehensive curriculum. We have used this in the past and really enjoyed it.

Bible:

Bible Study Guide for All Ages – the name says it all. We have used this in the past and liked it overall.
Homeschooling Bible Curriculum

Language Arts:

All About Reading – a new phonics program based on Orton-Gillingham. Not all levels are out yet.
All About Spelling – by the same author as All About Reading, but it’s been out longer so there are more levels available. A great Orton-Gillingham-based spelling program. Highly recommended!
Analytical Grammar – I cannot recommend this grammar program enough. Love it love it love it!
Reading Made Easy
Writing Strands – a comprehensive writing curriculum
Sequential Spelling – we used this for a while. It didn’t go well for us, but many people like it a lot. It can be especially effective if your student recognizes patterns easily and can then repeat those patterns elsewhere.
Spalding – The Writing Road to Reading (phonics instruction)
Phonics Pathways
Spell to Write and Read
Classical Composition
Climbing to Good English – reading, writing, and grammar instruction
Progeny Press – literature study guides
Growing with Grammar
Handwriting Without Tears – this is the only handwriting curriculum we have ever used
Michael Clay Thompson – a unique approach to grammar and writing instruction
Sound Foundations – reading and spelling instruction
Training for Triumph – They offer Character Quality Language Arts, which is a complete language arts curriculum. You can also purchase just the composition component, which is called Meaningful Composition.
Classical Writing
The Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling – They also publish The Latin Road to English Grammar
Writing Tales
Institute for Excellence in Writing – they also offer spelling and phonics materials
Easy Grammar
Lightning Literature
Smarr Publishers – literature curriculum
Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings
Movies as Literature – an introduction to literary analysis using movies

Math:

Mathematics Enhancement Programme (MEP) – I am not sure if this can be used as a stand-alone curriculum or if it’s best used as a supplement. I know lots of people really like it though.
Singapore Math
Chalk Dust – video instruction
Homeschoolmath.net – a great website with lots of math advice and recommendations
Cybershala – video instruction that goes along with Singapore Math
Teaching Textbooks
Math Mammoth – this is what we use for grades 1-6. Very affordable and very high quality math instruction.
Math Without Borders
Art of Problem Solving – I believe these are geared toward more gifted math students, but don’t quote me on it.
Math on the Level – we have used this in the past, but it’s kind of hard to use with several children. I also found it somewhat difficult to make sure that we were comprehensive enough with it. However, the author is very accessible and willing to help.
Ask Dr. Callahan – video instruction for math textbooks
Math-U-See – we used this prior to Math Mammoth
Life of Fred - a unique story approach to math. We use this as a supplement for my more gifted, “mathy” student.
RightStart Mathematics
VideoText – video-based math instruction
Khan Academy – a bajillion videos on all sorts of math topics

Science:

Apologia – primarily science, though they have some other materials as well. We have used the elementary science for several years and love it.
Rainbow Science – science for 7th and 8th grade. They also have a high school chemistry course and are developing a course for late elementary.
Home Science Tools – a great place to get all sorts of science STUFF
Lyrical Learning
Science Excursion
Elemental Science
Red Wagon Tutorials – video instruction for Apologia’s upper level science courses

Social Studies:

Biblioplan – literature-based instruction using a 4-year history cycle
Homeschool in the Woods - timelines timeline figures and activity packs
TruthQuest – literature-based history
State History from a Christian Perspective
Geography Matters
Nothing New Press – published reprints of H.A. Guerber’s history books and All Through the Ages, a fantastic historical literature resource!
A Child’s Geography
Tapestry of Grace – we used this for 2 years but could never quite get into the groove with it. Lots of people love it though!
Veritas Press

Feel free to ask any questions. Not sure if I’ll know the answers, but you never know!

Posted in general homeschool | 3 Comments

So much has changed in a year!

Posted on April 15, 2009 by razorbackmama

Well I have pretty much fallen off the blogging bandwagon, but I’m hoping to at least be able to blog about our school stuff a bit more regularly.

Key word: hoping.

Our biggest changes occurred in the sort of curriculum we use. We used to use BJU HomeSat for the 3 Rs, Tapestry of Grace, and Apologia for science. Well for some reason, this past fall that whole plan was just a disaster, after having worked just fine for the previous 3 years! After several months of experimenting and basic craziness, I think we have finally arrived on something workable!!!

We are using My Father’s World: Rome to the Reformation for history, and We. Love. It. We jumped right into the events after the fall of Rome since we had gotten that far in our other curriculum, and it’s going very well. This week we are studying Charlemagne, the Celts, Britain, and Augustine. We began a unit on chess, and that is a lot of fun. I think it’s pretty cool that chess is school.

I have put together my own geography/world cultures study using the Trail Guide to World Geography as a spine. We are just finishing up the United States and are about to embark for Mexico.

For science we still use the Apologia elementary series. This year we are learning about Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. So far we have learned about whales, seals and sea cows, aquatic herps, and aquatic primeval reptiles. We were supposed to start our chapter on fish today, but C and J have fevers. So maybe Friday!

As a way to transition G to more independent work, he is working through the book on his own. So far it’s going really well. He’s always been interested in marine life anyway, so this was totally up his alley.

We attempted an experiment to see if temperature affected the growth of tadpoles. Wellllllllllllllllll…….now our goal is to have our tadpole (note the singular noun) reach adulthood. I guess it’s a lesson that sometimes experiments don’t go the way we’d like them to.

At this point in time I’ve foregone formal reading curriculums and am just having the kids read chapter books and narrarate to me. This is an experiment, since I’ve still got lots of questions about narration, particularly when I have no idea what the book is about and the child doesn’t really understand the book either and therefore narrates the wrong information LOL!

We have found a great new spelling program, All About Spelling. I started everyone out in level 1 just for the foundations, and it’s going really well. I have the older 3 doing it at the same time, so this saves on time. We do 1-2 steps a day rather than having it take a long time. J is still working through step 1 of level 1, but I think he’s about to move to step 2. Yay!

Another Big Hit this year is our new writing curriculum, Writing With Ease. Wow. There again I started everyone at the beginning to build the foundational skills necessary to move onto higher writing, and I’m so glad I did because I can see where those skills were lacking. So they are moving through at a faster pace, but they are building some really great skills. I just wish Susan Wise Bauer had her upper levels of The Complete Writer written! Once we get done with level 4 of WWE, I’ll have to find something else, though at this point I’m leaning toward Classical Writing.

Our last Big Change was in math. We are now using Math-U-See. My kids have always done fine with whatever math curriculum we’ve used, but the more I learned about MUS, the more I liked it. So once BJU HomeSat went by the wayside, we switched. I’ve been very pleased so far! G is working through Epsilon. He’s had some fraction work before, so some lessons take him no time at all. But he has to spend a lot more time in other lessons. C is flying through Gamma. He’s had plenty of multiplication in the past, but he still needed some work on his facts, and I think all this extra practice is helping him with that. L is doing the same thing with Alpha for the same reason. J is in Alpha as well, just moving way slower.

I’ve been trying to narrow down our selections for next year. I think I’m just about done except for G’s science.

Posted in English, general homeschool, math, science, social studies | 2 Comments

Not TECHNICALLY school, but…

Posted on May 6, 2008 by razorbackmama

R has learned a new skill. And I did shoot this video during school time today (note the spelling list on my lap LOL). So I guess it can count as “education?”

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/w1-lv32yFGQ" width="425" height="350"/]

Posted in general homeschool | 2 Comments

Have you seen my bat pup?

Posted on April 18, 2008 by razorbackmama

We recently finished a chapter on bats in our Zoology 1 (Flying Creatures of the 5th Day) book. We learned that bat mothers leave their babies in a nursery, with many, MANY other bat babies. When the bat mothers return, they are able to find their own babies by smell. So we became “bat mothers.”

We took 20 cotton balls and put different smelly substances on them: vanilla extract, toothpaste, vinegar, laundry detergent, perfume, etc. The the kids took turns choosing a cotton ball to be their “pup.” Then we would blindfold them and hold different “pups” up to their noses. When they smelled the smell they had chosen, they would say, “That’s my pup!”

They loved it.

Posted in science | 1 Comment

Our bird

Posted on April 4, 2008 by razorbackmama

We have been learning about flying animals this year in science, and the first part of the year was spent learning about birds. We hung a suet feeder right outside our front window, since we spend most of our time in the school room. We have noticed a particular bird that likes to eat it, and we used our bird field guide to figure out what it is!

We have a Red-shafted Northern Flicker!

We also discovered that a smaller bird may be building a nest in a birdhouse we have on our front porch. We haven’t been able to get close enough to figure out exactly what kind it is, but maybe we’ll have some babies soon!

Posted in science | 1 Comment

A week in Tapestry of Grace

Posted on March 30, 2008 by razorbackmama

I thought I’d share what a week looks like for us for history.

Tapestry of Grace recommends a Monday-Friday week. I’ve also heard of some families doing Friday-Thursday so that the children can read over the weekend. At this point in our school, we have found it best to just be flexible, so we don’t have a set length of how long we spend on a TOG Week. Sometimes it only takes us 3 days to get through the material, and other times it takes us 7 days. It varies. It’s a bonus when I can plan a week Monday-Friday, but sometimes we’ll finish things up the next Monday or Tuesday and then go ahead and start the next Week in TOG.

I try to read the Teacher’s Notes over the weekend prior to starting a new Week. This past week we did Week 15 in Year 1, which is The Promised Land: Conquest and Settlement.

Day 1:

I literally copied this from the Student Threads from the yellow Overview section. I do not include the people/vocabulary words because I learned early on this year that our reading assignments may or may not cover those people/vocabulary words, and I got tired of dealing with that. So I gave up LOL.

I read this aloud off the board.

Then we moved on to geography. I used the geography assignment from the Student Assignment Pages. I try to do the geography assignments earlier in the week so that as we read, my children already have a vague familiarity with the locations. This also allows us to refer back to any maps that we have worked on.

I broke down and bought this earlier in the year:

It is a rhetoric level resource, but IMO it’s a necessary one for even LG. I wish they would list it as such. My UG child filled out his map according to the assignment:

while I helped my LG students fill out theirs. Usually I print out the teacher’s map from the MapAids CD, but this week’s teacher’s map is wrong (I have been told they have corrected CDs available, but I don’t have one), so this week I printed out maps for them and then filled it out for them as we all did it together. (Too much writing.)

Then we did a color-coded map for the tribes of Israel:

There is an example map in the Teacher’s Notes, but no black-line map, so I had to make my own. I have Uncle Josh’s outline map book, so I copied an Ancient Israel map and drew in the tribal boundaries with Sharpie and then copied them all for my dc. We did all of this together, using the map from the Teacher’s Notes as a guide.

(Come to find out there is a tribal map on the MapAids CD for week *16*. I will have to mark that in my IG for week 15 so I know to look there next time around!)

Day 2:
Read from

TOG recommends another child’s Bible, but I hated it and started using this one instead.

Day 3:
Read from

and put together a salt map of Israel (instructions are in Old Testment Days):

They will paint it next week after it dries (this is included in the TOG assignments).

There were a few other hands-on activities we could have done, but I’m not a very “hands-on” mom, so my kids thought I was awesome for letting them do this.

Day 4:
We filled out the booklets for our Unit 2 lapbooks: