Tuesday, October 8, 2013

2013-2014 Homeschool Curriculum--Skinny

It's October and well into our school year. Funny how life keeps thrusting its head into my intentions to blog more. It's a good thing I really don't care about readers or views or whatever. I just like to write down things that appeal to me. Blogging is sorta like my online very public diary that people are welcome to read. I am going to continue on in my 2013-2014 Curriculum series because it is nice to have it down somewhere. I honestly keep trying to write it down in my Homeschool Planner, but my little notes keep getting scattered. I am not the most organized of homeschool teacher moms.

My guy Skinny is supposed to be in the Second Grade. He is having some troubles. Mainly with his teacher who should be doing a lot more with him. (See a chagrined face here) He has a lisp and for the longest time didn't talk. He is doing much better now. I believe Skinny is also a little dyslexic. My father, sister and brother all have some form of dyslexia. Cowboy Preacher is also dyslexic. So it is a pretty good chance that some of our brood will have it. I haven't tested him yet, he just shows some signs.

I evaluated his work and we have come up with a curriculum that seems to be helping. Skinny is a very stubborn little boy and doesn't like to follow all the directions given to him, but he sure does love the extra attention. That is the most important item on our new curriculum list. Skinny is spending more one on one time with me. Already he is improving.

His English is "First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level One". Spelling is from the site k-12 reader, first grade. Math is "McRuffy Math Second Grade" with the manipulables. Reading is "Reading Made Easy". I bought the cd disc for Roosiers, but he taught himself to read so we never used it. We'll be probably doing some things from the Old Fashioned Education site.

Everyone will be doing "Story of the World, Vol 1", Apologia's "Astronomy", and "Who is God" for Bible Study. I love using the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System. Everyone will also be doing some form of copywork and handwriting.

I'm going to bring Skinny up to speed in his First Grade work first. I want him to get a firm grasp on the basics before really going through Second Grade. As you can see, he is doing quite well in math, so no worries there. I don't really like the McRuffy math in some places, but it isn't bad on the whole and Skinny really likes the manipulables.

The extra attention and starting at the beginning is helping immensely. Skinny is really sharp and I'm quite sure he will be caught up in no time. It is so wonderful to be able to move on to the next assignment as he gets a handle on them or just sit awhile and go over things again.