What to teach??

Art class

So last Spring, I went through 100's of curriculum for our grade 1 school year.  I ended up going with an expensive program, and it really has not worked out.  I ended up removing or taking away lessons and things that were boring the stink right out of us.   A bored student, is a student who taps out and does not want to do her school work.  This results in a mommy who bangs my head on the table repeatedly.  I however feel bad that we spent all that money on Curriculum, however it was a fraction to the cost of Christian Education in Ontario.  We have made some adjustments, and we are now seeing our grade 1 Lady Tor Tor finally take off in her reading, and spelling, with out a fight...This is amazing to a mommy who was feeling so defeated, and worried ..Because I was worried she was falling behind.  

Making addition more fun!

My Aunt, a Homeschool coordinator in Alberta reassured me that homeschool kids rarely fall behind, because they are working at their own pace anyway. In the end they are ahead because we spent the time to master something that was not getting absorbed, till it is.  Giving them confidence to tackle the next challenge, and not tap out.
The Homeschool world is actually growing by leaps and bounds, trying to get into a local homeschool group, I am currently on 3 waiting lists....CRAZY!  The majority are Christian families, and for that I am thankful.  We are most certainly learning the ropes and hopefully we will get into a local co-op homeschool group for the fall.  We have lots of exciting things happening in the next few months, and we are looking forward to our summer, which we will be doing school through as well, but just a lot more basic, and getting outside, and camping and enjoying our new baby.
So back to my Title question how do you know what to teach?   Well, here in ontario, as well as many of the other provinces puts out a guide for the Grade studies.  I glanced at it, and got the gist, and because there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE range of curriculum choices out there for each grade and homeschooling gives you the option of combining your studies to a bunch of grade levels, and so forth.  I am doing a preschool curriculum with Emi-lou, and it has memory work, and Tor Tor does it too. So they are going to be doing it together.  Then Emi-lou will do her work sheets While Tor Tor does her Bible lesson, and then It's Tor Tor's time to get mommy's attention for school...we hope...going to be some adjusting adding a new baby to mix, but we will adjust as we need to.  I have gone with a much simpler curriculum this coming fall. With Each subject being from a different brand of curriculum, and that is because, I found that Lady Tor Tor Loves a certain kind of math, but the Reading program for that brand, was not working.  Science, Tor Tor loves doing experiments, so we went with a Very hands on program, verses the programs we had this past year, which was mostly book work and reading....Magic School bus Chemistry set will be our science this fall.  Bible we keep it very simple,  as she is still learning to read, as she gets more advanced we will increase the challenge level.  Right now Mommy has to do a lot of the school work with her, she is not quite ready to be more independent so as she advances in the grades we will adjust to her likes and dislikes as well...Homeschooling gives you that freedom.  It also gives us freedom to take winter blue holidays on our own schedule and we are not bound to school schedules, because school can come with us.  There is great freedom, but there is also some responsibility as a Parent, to be accountable to your child's learning.  Now many Homeschoolers do "unschooling" which gives the student absolute freedom of their learning, at least that is my understanding of it.   I am not going to be ever doing that,  because I still think its important to have some structure to their learning, because should they decide to attend university they will need to know how to roll with structured learning.  Its quite the adventure we are embarking on, but I am enjoying it more as time goes on.

Blessings!


Mommy AK