Considering Homeschooling, Any Advice or Suggestions

[Wife.of.Gabriel]

Looking seriously into Homeschool.

There’s Traditional & Classical Educational options. Like how do you determine which is best for your individual child? I wonder, is there a test out there that can determine with which the student would learn best?

I’d like to hear any advice or suggestions any current or former Homeschooling moms may have.

I have a child entering 2nd grade. Math is her favorite subject and she wishes to learn Science, Spanish, Latin, French & Italian. Of course, she’d also need to learn Reading, Grammar and Social Studies as a minimum in our State, but I’d also like to ensure she learns Religion, specifically Catholic Apologetics, History, Art, P.E., Music, Writing & Spelling.

How would teaching a second grader differ teaching Traditionally vs. Classically? Any examples that could be shared would be helpful.

 

[Irishmom2]

@blackforest might be able to help.

 

[midori]

I really enjoyed reading the Well-Trained Mind book (and reading their forums) when I was looking for recommendations.

With math, there are two different approaches to learning math. One is the spiral method, and one is the mastery method. With the spiral method (ie, Saxon math), you basically teach kids scattershot. Maybe a couple of telling-time problems, a couple of fraction problems, a couple of word problems, a couple of pattern problems, and so on. You gradually build upon the concepts you expose them to, and by the time they’re in sixth grade, you figure they’re going to be solid in all the concepts, because they’ve been exposed to them so frequently.

With mastery method, it’s more like drills. You add, add, add until you’re confident in addition. Then you subtract, subtract, subtract, until you’re confident in subtraction. You memorize all your multiplications until you’ve got it through 12x12. You move on to division. It’s orderly and it’s focused— and you don’t move on to the next concept until you have the previous one down pat.

As a sub in the local public school, I found that they used Saxon-- which is a great, solid program-- but I hated the Saxon approach. So when I was mommyschooling for prek and k, and afterschooling during their elementary years, I used a mastery-based approach so that they could get enough exposure to concepts to make them more solid, vs what they would be if they were just spiral-method-only. (I ultimately went with Math-U-See.)

As far as languages go— I took Spanish in high school and Latin in undergrad. It was hard for me to keep the two languages from getting mixed up in my head-- I’d try to decline my Latin nouns with Spanish verb endings. Pick one language at a time, and focus on it, unless she’s a genius linguist, like Heinrich Schleimann, who could become fluent in a new language in about six weeks. That’s a superpower I don’t have!

WTM was good for reading lists and older textbook recommendations.

I didn’t like Charlotte Mason for her reading approach, but I did like her for her handwriting, and for her emphasis on character/habits. She was a good read.

One of the things with the Classical approach is that you do the same material three times through the course of 1st-12th grade. The first stage (1st-6th), you go over it for exposure to facts, memorization, and so on. The second time (7th-9th), you go over the “why” of it all. The last stage (10-12th) is more the thinking-- “What do you think about it, and how do you communicate that?”

You might check out some online Catholic schools, look at their textbooks and resources for different grades, and use those to help build up your own curriculum for things like history, religion, and so on.

 

[midori]

For music, I started off with “Themes to Remember”, to expose them to the most recognizable passages of about 40 famous classical songs from a variety of periods. It made the kids really excited to be able to pick them out in the wild— “Mom! They’re playing the Alla Hornpipe!” Later on, we moved to online piano lessons through Hoffman Academy on YouTube, until we stretched past what I could keep up with. Then we picked up a local piano teacher to get us beyond that bump.

Good luck! The curriculum development is the fun part.

 

[blackforest]

There’s Traditional & Classical Educational options. Like how do you determine which is best for your individual child? I wonder, is there a test out there that can determine with which the student would learn best?

Thanks @Irishmom2

There’s no test that I know of for the student, but here’s a fun one for the parent. What Kind of Homeschooler Are You? – Eclectic Homeschooling

It’s up to you how seriously to take the results, but it give you a great overview of the different options!

My first year, I took on far too many subjects. The burn-out killed us all, lol! For this reason, consider doing just one language. Spanish is a good one because in my experience, it’s easiest to find homeschool co-ops and library story times that cater to Spanish learners. Depending on where you live, you can also take her to Mass in Spanish.

I’m not sure what you mean by “traditional.” If it’s what the public schools are teaching, there are a number of free online public school programs like Connections Academy and K12. I opted against them for a number of reasons - namely to give my kids a Catholic education and to avoid the obligation of meeting a ton of bureaucratic benchmarks.

For Classical, I second reading The Well-Trained Mind. Research Charlotte Mason learning, as well.

I used Catholic Heritage Curricula for quite awhile ( chcweb.com ) but lots of parents find it heavy on the worksheets. Other options include Kolbe, Seton, St. Thomas Aquinas Academy, Queen of Heaven, and Angelicum Academy. (I’m sure I left out something). Most of these emphasize classical Catholic education. A great secular one (you’d have to supplement with religious ed) is Calvert. Mater Amabilis is a free online Charlotte Mason curriculum that requires a little parental legwork. Mater Amabilis™ – A Charlotte Mason Style Curriculum for Catholics

(I ultimately went with Math-U-See.)

Me too. In my experience, it’s the child who chooses the math curriculum and not the parent. That’s fine in my mind because each child connects with a different approach. It took us some trial and error through MCP, Right Start, and Singapore, but Math U See resonates best with my children.

 

[EZweber]

Our family went with homeschooling and I would definitely recommend it. So far our track record is the 5 oldest all graduating college with honors and me (the youngest) looking at taking the ACT in 3 weeks at age 15 (prayers please). We use an amalgamation of curricula. We started with Seton for math, but it was time consuming and very dry, so we switched to Math u See. I hope that whatever you choose works well!