The Deputie’s have started out first week of our “school year”!
* Our Curriculum
* Busy Life and “School”
* Block Scheduling
* Notebooking and Teaching to kids to LEARN
OUR CURRICULUM
Here is what each child is doing:
Ahavah & Alecia – 10 years old – 5th/6th Grade
Language:
Eclectic Foundations Level D, E
McGuffey Reader Readings and Study
Independent Reading
Math:
Math-U-See Delta, Epsilon
We also have a subscription to Math CTC and MathAndAlgerbra.com from reviews we are doing or have done – we supplement with these programs
History:
Drive Through History American History
Notebooking
Participating in US Election Process First Hand 🙂
Science:
Journey Homeschool Academy Biology
Apologia – Junior Astronomy & Aquatic Animals
Hayven – 8/9 years old – 4th/5th Grade
Language:
Eclectic Foundations Level C
McGuffey Reader Readings and Study
Independent Reading
Math:
Math-U-See Delta
We also have a subscription to Math CTC and MathAndAlgerbra.com from reviews we are doing or have done – we supplement with these programs
History:
Drive Through History American History
Notebooking
Participating in US Election Process First Hand 🙂
Science:
Journey Homeschool Academy Biology
Elias – 7 years old – 1st/2nd Grade
Language:
Reading through the Bible (Easy Reader) as well as progressively more challenging beginning readers
Writing passages from books that are being read
Math:
Math-U-See Alpha/Beta
We also have a subscription to Math CTC and MathAndAlgerbra.com from reviews we are doing or have done – we supplement with these programs
Aryeh (4 years old) & Evelyn (2 years old)
Learning letters, colors & shapes
Hands on Activities
Learning through play and books
Willow (Turning 1 in February)
Learning to crawl, walk, talk and feed herself
Independent Readers: We are doing a point system for Independent Readers this year. For every book they finish, they get one point per page. The books they select have to be approved by me or Alex and have to challenge them and they have to FINISH the book to accumulate any of the points. We have slowly over time filled their book shelves with historical novels, Lamplighter Ministry books, and other good-quality chapter books. Each point they earn translate into $.01 that they can chase in a few times a year at Half Price Book Store.
Bible: In our church, the kids read systematically through the Bible, just like the adults do. I print their CKC (Calvary Kids Club) calendars and they read ahead for their studies that they have in class. We also read through the Bible as a family. Currently we are studying the book of Nehemiah as well as reading a Proverb a day.
Busy Life and “School”
As you can imagine, living in a very small apartment with 7 children and 2 adults, plus campaigning and managing coffee house gets a little crazy at times, but we are GREATLY enjoying life right now! We are a very close knit family and enjoy the busyness of everything. My kids LOVE serving behind the coffee bar and cleaning up the Coffee House after we drank WAY too many airpots of coffee at 1am in the morning. They love bringing all their instruments down weekly for Jesus Jams in the upper room at Sojourner’s Cafe. We love our Wednesday nights meeting constituents from our district, and Saturday morning encouraging volunteers that want to door knock or literature drop. We love door knocking or holding signs in busy intersections every evening.
Our school schedule is flexible.
BLOCK SCHEDULING
We also decided to do block scheduling with a 4 day school week this year.
i have found that trying to fit 4-5 subjects in every day was stressful. My children wanted to delve deeper into certain subjects, but due to time constraints, they never got around to those pictures they wanted to draw, or those stories they were writing that were only supposed to be one paragraph, but turned into 5-6 pages.
So we are taking 2 subjects a day!
Mondays we take off as our Sabbath.
Tuesdays & Thursdays we focus on History in the morning and Language in the afternoon
Wednesdays & Fridays we focus on Science in the morning and Math in the afternoon
Language and Math are afternoon subjects because the littles are sleeping so the house is quieter and I can be of more assistance to them. History and Science are in the mornings so we can ALL watch the videos, discuss things, and notebook or color pictures about what we learned.
We started this last year and found that our kids had tremendously better recall of information they learned when they had a several hour block for a subject. Their handwriting got better. Their frustration on math problems lessened. Their joy in subjects grew because they were free to take their time or dig deep into something that interested them. They expressed what they were learning in new and creative ways such as science projects, history drawings or skits, and even writing fully illustrated books.
NOTEBOOKING
I LOVE our notebook approach to school. No tests or “assignments”. Instead we draw pictures, take notes, write essays, have debates with each group taking certain sides, give speeches, read living books, and relate what we learn to things happening around us. It’s so much fun and my kids have such a desire to learn and study. They pick up reference books or read biographies because they are so hungry to know MORE! They are being equip with the skills they need to LEARN, not simply being taught information. They can take notes, communicate facts, and form their own ideas and opinions. They can use this information to influence and relate to the world around them, finding solutions to problems, or answers to questions. I am so excited about this!
