This was sent in by Sharon, a friend of the list
I'm looking for some help and suggestions. Due to my situation I am unable to attend homeschool fairs or hold curriculum in my hands to evaluate it for myself. I am asking if you could be eyes for me.
I have an 8yr. old boy/3rd. grade and a 6yr. old/1st. grade girl. My specific questions regard science, art and Bible teaching.
I am not sure what I want to do for science. We have sonlight grade 2 but just wondering what others use. Sometimes I find maybe we only have time for some nature observations, ect. hmmm maybe that is not all bad. thoughts?
I have Sister Wendy's Story of Painting. Good book, but was wondering how to use it. Suggestions? Also does anyone have other suggestions on how to teach both the skill of art as well as appreciation/history.
Finally, we are not attending a church with a strong Sunday school program. I need to teach my children Bible doctrine at home. Any suggestions? Also if you have any good titles to recommend for family devotions I would be happy for those also.
Thanks for taking the time to help me out. It is sincerely appreciated.
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Here are my favorites that we have used for Bible at the elementry ages so far and I have been pleased with them and the kids seem to have enjoyed them and learned something.
ReplyDeleteDiscovering Jesus in Genesis:Covenant Promises for Covenant Kids (focuses on God's covenant to his people and how we live that out in community, great at displaying faith applied and cross generational aspect of a functioning body of believers etc. also has a lets talk and lets pray section at end of each short story)
Discovering Jesus in Exodus: Covenant Promises for Covenant Kids (continuation of above title, same basic format)
Note: My kids loved these stories and used to beg me for more, I think they are excellent resources.
In a more sort of Workbook/Devotions type thing we have also used Gotta have God series of Cool Devotions for Boys by Legacy Press which are spiral bound devotion for kids it comes in 3 age levels (ages 2-5; 6-9 and 1-12) each age range has two volumes of about 80 give or take individual lessons. Each lesson is 2 pages consisting of a concept, a verse, a little 1/2 page story to illustrate the concept, a couple of short answer questions to get at comprehension/discussion and a prayer, the facing page is a little easy activity (maze, drawing, dot to dot etc.) vaguely related to the concept taught and sort of just for fun thing to end the lesson.
they hae a comperable set for girls called God and Me Devotions for Girls same age splits format etc. as above just with stories and graphics etc. more geared to girls.
Note: these were first introduced to me by my mother inlaw and we have enjoyed them and my hope is that in addtion to the faith content it has helped show the kids application and has helped theme develop a "devotions" mentality, at least I hope that.
Three other primary resources for our family as readaloud/family devotion time things are the following all of which in different ways are "retellings" of basic bible stories and themes allowing for fresh perspective in language that might be at a better kid level and for discussion. (though they don't replace just reading scripture stories themselves and all include the reference from which the chapters draw)
-The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos
-Devotions for the Children's Hour by Kenneth N. Taylor (each devotion includes verse citation, questions, prayer and hymn suggestion)
(both of these are ones Paul was raised on and has enjoyed using with his own kids)
-Grandpa's Box: Retelling the Biblical Story of Redemption by Starr Meade (I am currently using this as a long term readaloud with kids enjoying it)
OOPs, somehow lost the first paragraph of the above response on bible resources, here it is sorry for the confusion.
ReplyDeleteSusan Hunt and Richie Hunt
-Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching your children to live for God (uses the Children's Catchism to provide a frame work for stories about "Cassie and Caleb" and their family and friends that illustrate a living out and learning of faith by kids/families", includes a lets talk and lets pray section after each short 3-4 page chapter.
Discovering Jesus in Genesis:Covenant Promises for Covenant Kids (focuses on God's covenant to his people and how we live that out in community, great at displaying faith applied and cross generational aspect of a functioning body of believers etc. also has a lets talk and lets pray section at end of each short story)
Discovering Jesus in Exodus: Covenant Promises for Coenant Kids (continuation of above title, same basic format)
Note: My kids loved these stories and used to beg me for more, I think they are excellent resource.
Here are just a few thoughts from my experience -- I'm homeschooling my 5th grade- & Kindergarten-aged daughters.
ReplyDeleteScience -- we didn't do too much formal until 2nd grade. My older daughter LOVES biology, so we listened to the Lyrical Science Vol 3 (Human Body) music and read a little from the book (book is waaay too advanced for that level, but CD is great fun) I think we started the creation-based Apologia science books (Jeannie Fulbright) in 4th grade, which for a good reader, might've been too late. They have great pictures.
Art -- I didn't do too much with this, probably because I'm not artsy. I relied on a local one-morning a week co-op to cover this base for me. I have heard good things about Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes, but it was too teacher-intensive for me.
Bible -- I'll second the vote for Catherine Vos' book. The kids have LOVED that book. We've used Veritas Press' Bible curriculum. The cards alone, to me, are a wonderful resource. We also used the Big Picture Bible Timeline (nice because it's reproducible for all kids), which I use in the younger years (K-1) as something to color as I read the story aloud to them. Then we post the pictures and it forms a nice timeline around the room.
Hope that helps!
I don't know if it's helpful to anyone out there, but anything we own that we're not using, anyone on this list is welcome to borrow! We use Veritas Press' as our core (Saxon Math, Shurley Grammar, IEW writing, etc.) with a few addition/subtractions here and there -- it's a classical approach and would follow along the lines of Susan Wise Bauer's Well Trained Mind or Doug Wilson's philosophies in taking the classical approach to education.
Here are my science thoughts from what we did.
ReplyDeleteEarly on we just did outside obeservation and discussion, trees, rain, clouds, stars etc. sometimes doing drawings or writing about what we saw etc. For a couple of years we used this calander book for recording weather. It had a coloring picture for each month and a thing you were supposed to observe and record for each month, like coldest temp, warmest temp, cloud type, rain fall etc. then in the back there was a place for each month were you made some sort of graph using the data you had collected. It was great because it combined observation, weather, charting, record keeping and calander skills it was from some menonite group at the CHAP homeschool fair and were like $5 or less, I would be happy to pick them up for you. I always wished we had a homeschool friend in another region of the country who we could get to do it too and then compare and contrast our regional data for even more learning fun!
During k-2 or 3 years we also just did a lot of reading of books with science info in them, like Magic School bus books and video and learned and discussed what was there and visited science and natural history museums when possible, in addition to reading about animals and observing things around us. Good animal readers are the the Christian Liberty Nature Readers in 6 volumes for different reading leels they are story narrative style with a focus on various animals and insects, what creatures are included varies from volume to volume.
Now (kids grade 3 and 5) we are using, and used last year, A Beka Science for their grade level. It covers all the basic things at each grade level with more emphasis on nature and animals at younger levels it seems. Each year adds some depth and breadth. There are checkup questions at periodic intervals in each chapter and a chapter end review questions. Teachers Edition, Quizes and Tests are also available. I find that the teacher addition can be managed with out if you have a text answer key (lower levels you could figure answers out anyway but might be helpful for higher levels) which is cheaper and less bulky. This year we got the 5th grade quizes and have been using them as tests but did not buy the tests just to save on expenses etc. That seems to be working fine for me.
One more science thought though it is a website not a printed curriculum. I know online doesn't work for some people but I love this man's stuff and it has been a core of our science for the last few years. Some of his material is free but it is well worth the $20 for the full access! He has wonderful videos and weekly written experiments for you to do at home please check him out, I don't think you will be dissapointed, we love it!
ReplyDeleteRobert Krampf, The Happy Scientist http://www.thehappyscientist.com/
Here are my Art suggestions
ReplyDeleteArt Adventures at Home: A curriculum gide for homeschool Level 1 a foundational art program geared toward the early elementary grades by Pattye Carlson ad M. Jean Soyke
This contains 3 years of lessons, each with 5 units of about 7 lessons each covering Drawing, Print Making, Painting, Sculpture and Crafts. Well laid out lessons with info. on the "big idea", "goal", "main elements" "materials" "Strategy" and "questions for evaluation and review" section for each lesson. I found this very helpful as an art challenged person. Also good materials lists. We did not fully use it though because once we joined a co-op which offered good art course we didn't take as much time for this sort of art lesson at home. I would be happy to pass it on to you if interested, could post the materials list so you can see what that would entail, my guess is that the book would still be useful even if some materials were hard to find or too expensive or that you might be able to substitue materials.
We have also used and liked I Can Do All Things by Barry Stebbings The pages of this curriculum can be reproduced for in home use, it's 200 plus pages include over 140 lessons divided between Drawing skills, using colored pencils, using markers painting and studying the Masters (black and white repros. of some famous works of art and info on artists and how to study the pics.) The main materials you would need would be pencils, colored pencils, markers and acrilic paint in primary colors and white and brushes. Access to a copy machine to copy lessons for multiple students or to do a lesson more then once for practice would be good but not essential if you don't mind comuming the material.
For learning about artists and art we have looked at color copies of famous works of art, often as part of our history studies. We have used short Artist biographies by Mike Venezia and then had the kids write a short artist bio or try to draw/paint a picture in the style of the artist.
Art book suggestion: Doing Art Together by Muriel Silberstein-Stofer. This book was written by the woman who designed the parent/child workshop at Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book helped me greatly when I began teaching in the classroom and I've gone back to it for teaching in co-ops and at home. It gives you some great project ideas (more ways to explore an area instead of step-by-step instructions), has beautiful images from art history as well as examples of student work. More than that, organizing your materials and making it work in the home.
ReplyDeleteI also have used Art Smart and Culture Smart by Susan Rodriguez. These books are a collection of projects based on works of art and cultural crafts. Each book includes a sheet of 20 slides so that you can inspire your children by looking at the work. Note that Rodriguez is very accepting, shall we say, of all world religions so you will have to sometimes have to take things from a different angle....Rodriguez has also written an excellent book that helps you adapt projects to a children with different special needs.
To increase my collection of prints by different artists, I buy calendars at the beginning of the year. They are usually 50% off. I cut them up and laminate them. This gives my kids and students many examples from art history and is much cheaper than buying prints. I use them to introduce them to different artists, medium, genres of art and to inspire their own work. I also have students draw from them.
If you go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Educational Resource Center (Pearlman Building), they have a lot of great resources for homeschoolers. They have files full of thematic lessons that you can download. There are also, videos, dvd's and resource packs that you can check out. In addition, you can sign up for a program called ArtStor which is free. This allows you to access images of art work from museums all over the world. Say, for example, you are reading about Native Americans, you could call up countless examples of portraits, photographs, and examples of their crafts and art work.