Sunday, December 30, 2007

Curriculum Ordered

I went and spent much money this past week. As if I haven't been doing that for the past month, eh? But this is good, virtuous, educational money spending as it all went to new curriculum for Catherine.

Language Arts - We're dumping Easy Grammar. Easy Grammar is effective but we're both bored silly with it. Instead, I'm picking up Winston Grammar. I would really love to get Cozy Grammar but that's waaay out of our price range so Winston it is. Winston looks good anyway with activities that go beyond simple workbook stuff.

Greek - A Greek Hupogrammon


I'm getting this because Catherine's interested in Greek but without any kind of structured approach I've done absolutely diddly-squat to help her with that. So the Hupogrammon it is! It looks interesting, has good reviews and was only $15.

Math - From Singapore Math I got Primary Math Challenging Word Problems 3 and Brain Maths Volume 1. Though I'm following the Singapore scope and Sequence I'm not using their curriculum but rather Math Mammoth and the Key to series. I've finally got enough confidence to shape our own approach to math. However, if there's one Great Truth in the universe it's that there's nothing like Singapore math word problems and so I picked it up. Brain Maths just looks fun. And I was at the site anyway because I was ordering curriculum for...

Science - Yeah, I know, I know. I've said in the past that our science wasn't going to be based on curriculum but i had forgotten that both Catherine and the husband have a say in this whole homeschooling thing. Catherine wanted a more consistent approach to science and Shannon thought it was time for curriculum on the subject. Ah well. So I choose the only reliably secular company I knew of and then the most affordable science curriculum it offered and now I-Science from Singapore Math is winging it's way to us. We're starting with the Grade 5 books simply because anything lower seemed to be stuff we'd dealt with many times before.

And that's it. It was all less than $200 (bless the current US/Canada exchange rate!) so it will be a pretty affordable spring. The only other curriculum I would LOVE to get my hands on is Math U See Alpha but that's about $100 just by itself in part because Math U See is still charging Canadian customers substantially more than Americans despite the current exchange rate. Alpha would be for Harry to play with but Catherine also loved the Math U See demo DVD so I'm thinking she'd enjoy it as well (as review) and might even like to help Harry with it. What better way to shore up her skills then by teaching them?

That's the roundup. This time last year I was still a radical unschooler. Now I'm swept up in curriculum fever. But that's the great thing about homeschooling, the flexibility and ability to change your approach.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We used Easy Grammar with the older kids. I still have the book with about 1/4 finished. The kids did not like it.

I love Trivium Pursuit stuff and you made me look at their catalog again. yikes...

Our kids seem to like English From The Roots Up . Latin and Greek roots presented in an orderly and interesting way with their derivatives and teaching notes that give some historical background. You can expand as much as desired. I like books like that.

Dawn said...

I've looked at from the roots up but we made some homemade flashcards and went that way. Besides, Catherine honestly wants to be able to read ancient Greek. I think it's because she really likes the myths and Homeric epics.

Anonymous said...

The flashcards would have worked perfectly for us. Rainbow Resource had a scratch and dent sale and I couldn't resist Roots. That's why we could use a new bookshelf with all of my 'saving money' buys. :-)

Good wishes for Catherine. That's a great accomplishment. I wish I knew how to read Greek and Latin.

Anonymous said...

Hi Dawn,

I've been reorganizing and have some stuff that I thought I'd just give to anyone who'd like it. Haven't got around to making up the list (and posting it on my blog), but I have the Singapore 2A and 2B textbooks, if you'd like first crack at them. I'm sending stuff out free, free, free - because the clutter is driving me insane.

Also, Gatto: A Different Kind of Teacher. (For some reason, I have two.)

Sam said...

You said: "I'm swept up in curriculum fever" that will be me in May when we have our annual Curriculm fair here in San Antonio...its like being in a paper store oooooo-ohhhhh-awwwwww
:)