For this year, we are going to try to be more un-schooling than we had in the past, more relaxed, more interest based learning. I guess you could call it relaxed-schooling. My kids love the idea and my son dragged me to the library to get 5 books on the Titanic, both non-fiction and fiction. I LOVED the excitement on his face and am going to surprise them both with a trip to the Titanic Museum in Branson, MO, when we finish all those books 🙂
I really like to think of our school as 1/3 Un-Schoolers, 1/3 Classical, and 1/3 Charlotte Mason. We pull things from all three and use the ideas that work for us. We like the laid-back, interest led learning from Un-schoolers, the organization and planning of Classical, and the Living Literature of Charlotte Mason.
Turner will be a 2nd grader, and Lilly a 1st grader. However, we have them working what is comfortable and challenging to them, not based on grade level. Generally, they are a little ahead of PS kids in most subjects.
Math: Khan Academy and Miquon. I have my eye on Beast Academy once they finish up Miquon. They both work 1 grade level above where they need to be, Turner will be 2 grade levels above by next summer.
History: Story of the World Ancients and A Child’s History of the World (they LOVE these books and find them very interesting). *Update: I am actually starting with Child’s World History and when we finish up we start SOTW. It was too confusing to try and match the 2 books, so I think CHW will be nice to introduce all of history and then start diving in deeper.
Science: Easy Peasy for this year (Biology, The Human Body, and Zoology).
Spelling: Explode the Code, Love these books for spelling and reading concepts. Have used them since day 1.
Reading: We keep a reading and audiobook log. The kids each read to me daily. We also have a CLASS BOOK that I read aloud.
Foreign Language: Turner asked to learn Spanish, so I just signed up for an online program, PetraLingua. *Update: Used for 3-4 times, Turner and I don’t like it, boring and not really retaining much. Lilly, however likes it, so I will continue to let her use it until she feels the same. Searching for another option for Turner.
Critical Thinking Skills: Both kids are using products from Critical Thinking Company a few times a week. They really enjoy them so far: Spider Riddles 1 and MindBenders. I also just purchased Building Thinking Skills from the same company that they will do 1-2 times a week.
Code: Turner will start Scratch this year, and Jason is helping him with his own website.
Music: Both kids take weekly piano lessons. Practice on our keyboard almost daily.
PE: Turner is active in BMX; Lilly in ballet. Both kids run and bike with us almost daily. We all compete in 1-2 competitions a year. The kids do Youth Triathlons and seem to really like them. Find one in your area, TRIFIND
Other: BrainPop Jr. (Kids love it!), misc. documentaries, Chess, Magic Tree House site, board/card games, online typing (2015)
Turly HomeSchool 