Part 4: Subjects to be Taught & Our Curriculum

This is the fourth post in a series about beginning homeschooling. In my first post, I talked about how to let your school district know that you intend to homeschool your child(ren) and assessments. In my second post, I talked about getting reimbursement for curriculum from your school district and applying for a tax exempt status. In my third post, I started talking about curriculum, and promised to continue in another post (which happens to be this one!) If you missed either of those posts, and are just beginning your homeschooling journey, you might want to go back and read those posts.

In Minnesota, you are required to teach these subjects:

- reading

- writing

- literature

- fine arts

- math

- science

- history

- geography

- economics

- government

- citizenship

- health

- physical education

(If you're in another state you may or may not be required to teach certain subjects, and if you are, your list may be different. To check out your state's law, visit HSLDA.)

Does that list seem overwhelming? I think it does, and I've been doing this for a couple years. But some things to keep in mind: all of these subjects don't need a separate curriculum, and you don't need to teach EACH subject EACH year. When you group some subjects together, and consider rotating through some each year, the list doesn't seem so long. 

Here is what I have chosen for our kids, why I chose it, and how it fulfills the required subjects that I listed above. I'll start with math since I've had some people ask for my recommendations on this particular subject since I was a math teacher before having kids. (For kids in kindergarten or younger, you can scroll past most of this to the bottom where I talk about ABC Jesus Loves Me.)

Math Mammoth (Light Blue Series) 

Subjects covered: Math

Math was probably the subject I spent the most time debating on. I had it narrowed down to Singapore Math and Math Mammoth. Both programs are very similar, but in the end, it came down to pricing. I could get Math Mammoth grades 1-7 in digital format to print as needed for $175. (You can also buy individual grade levels for less.) At the time we had three kids (we now have five and are expecting the sixth in November), so that would have been 21 workbooks for $175 (or a little over $8 a piece). With Math Mammoth, I could print out each grade level for each kid. I can also go back and reprint pages when I think a child needs review. 

Cathy Duffy Reviews compares Singapore and Math Mammoth quite nicely, "Both explain concepts thoroughly, generally using visual illustrations to present new concepts. Also, both programs employ a number of different ways to explain new concepts so they can reach different learning styles." 

While I think most kids can succeed with Math Mammoth, I know some kids may be only kinesthetic learners, and have trouble processing the visuals in Math Mammoth or Singapore. If you think this might be your child, Math-U-See is a great option and one that I considered in the beginning. It uses a lot a manipulatives that the kids can touch, feel, and move. The down side is that then you will have to spend more on these and find a space to store the ones you're not using. But, if it's going to work for your child, then it's worth it!

Purchasing Math Mammoth (Light Blue Series): Grades K-8 for $175. You can also buy grades 1-3 for $75 or grades 4-7 for $100 (Make sure you scroll down to the Light Blue Series, not the Blue Series.)

Handwriting Without Tears

Subjects covered: Writing

When my oldest first started trying to write letters, I pulled out that trusty old 3-lined set of papers. You know the one, where there's a solid top and bottom line and a dashed middle line. It was confusing for her to figure out which letters touched which lines. Someone recommended Handwriting Without Tears to me (not because she was crying over it, mind you), because it taught handwriting using two lines instead of three. It was a game-changer for her. If you child hasn't started a handwriting program, or is struggling the same way my daughter was, then I'd highly recommend this program. If your child is doing just fine with the program that your school has been using, you may want to consider continuing with it. If your school doesn't have a handwriting program, I'd consider starting one, and making sure that your child learns cursive. (You can find lots of research on why it's still good to teach, even in the digital age, but that's not the point of this post. I'll let you look into that yourself, if you're so inclined.) I have not used their Building Writers program, because I cover writing (sentence & paragraph development, etc.) in other subjects. I have only used the handwriting workbooks. 

Purchasing: I have always bought them directly from Learning Without Tears for $11.50 per workbook. 

Spelling Workout and Plaid Phonics

Subjects covered: Reading, Writing

These are two workbooks, spelling and phonics, that somewhat line up with each other and reinforce the phonics topics being taught in the spelling words being studied. I like that they work together, so the kids are being exposed to a concept from both the spelling side and the reading side at the same time. (For example, while they're learning to read long O words, they're also learning how to spell them.) The downside for me is that the pages aren't lined up with each other. We've decided to work through Spelling Workout in order, and I've lined up the corresponding pages in Plaid Phonics (so they're skipping around in their phonics workbook a little bit.) The upside for you is that I'm willing to share my hard work, so if you're using a grade level I've already used with my kids, I'll share it with you! Their workbooks aren't numbered by grade, but rather lettered by grade (so level A is 1st grade, B is 2nd, and so on). I have also made spelling test pages using the 2-line system that Handwriting Without Tears uses that I can share with you as well. 

Purchasing: You can find them on Amazon, which is where I had bought them in past years, but this year, my husband discovered that they're cheaper at The Curriculum Store, so that's where I'd recommend buying them. I have not ever bought the teacher's manuals or anything, just the workbooks. For the lower levels, chances are pretty good that you'll be fine without them, but it's totally your comfort level. 

Elemental Science

Subjects covered: Science, Writing, Fine Arts

Science was a tricky one for me in selecting. I wanted something that I could teach at multiple levels, so I could group my kids together. I didn't want to have to do 3, 4, or 5 science experiments each week. With Elemental Science, I will be having my 1st, 2nd, and 4th grader all working together this coming year. Since the reading levels are different, I do have different levels of reading for them. I also expect more from my 4th grader's notebooking than I will from my 1st grader's notebooking. My 4th grader will be writing several sentences about whatever topic we're reading about that day. My 1st grader will be writing one sentence that he found most interesting on the same topic. We have covered Biology, Earth Science and Astronomy, and Chemistry for the Grammar Stage books and will be doing Physics for the Grammar Stage this year. Then we will cycle through the four areas of study again, but my oldest will be using the Logic Stage and working separately from her younger siblings.

Purchasing: I think the only way to buy it is directly from Elemental Science, but I could be wrong. If you will be using this with more than one student, I would recommend considering the ebook package, since you can print multiple copies of the student workbook and keep it in a 3-ring binder. I like having the Teacher's Guide in a book format, so I have been buying the Printed Combo. But, I've emailed them, and they've been able to sell me the Student Workbook in ebook form for $10. The books that the students read from I've purchased second hand from Amazon (which I mentioned in my last post). 

Connecting With History

Subjects covered: Reading, Writing, Literature, Fine Arts (art), History, Geography, Citizenship, Government (in volume 4)

I hated history in school (other than map day... that was fun!), so I wanted an engaging curriculum. I also wanted it to make sense. To me, it makes sense to start at the beginning and work to the end, so I wanted a curriculum that started at the beginning of time (or as early as we have some records) until modern time. Connecting With History (CWH) has four volumes that starts with the early world through 63 B.C. in Volume 1, and ends with the 15th-19th centuries in Volume 4. As with science, I didn't want to have to be teaching five different histories, so I needed something that could do multiple levels together. Each level of CWH covers kindergarten through 12th grade. My kids are all learning the same topics at the same time, but from different books at different levels. While my youngest will reading easy reader books about Abraham Lincoln and others this year, my oldest will be reading several chapter books about many of the events that occurred during the same time period. We study, label, and colors maps of the eras and areas that we're reading about. And at the end of each unit, we do art projects, write about the people, places, and events they read about, and often times they do a presentation for grandma and grandpa on what they learned. I also love that it's a Catholic history program, so they are also learning about saints that lived during those times (like St. Joan of Arc, and how she led the fight to win France back from England). The down side is cost. History is by far the most I spend on curriculum. The reason being, your kids aren't reading boring textbooks, they're reading historical non-fiction books. Lots of them. But, they're interesting. They're learning stories, not memorizing dates. But, since they're studying it all in order, they might not have the exact date that the Great Wall of China was built memorized, but they know what other worldly events it fell between, and what was going on in the world when it was built. 

Purchasing: Like science, you have to buy the curriculum directly from RC History. She does offer all the books that go along with the curriculum on her website, but you can find many of them for less second hand on Amazon, or even from your local library. 

Drawing With Children by Mona Brookes

Subjects covered: Fine Arts

This book someone just gave me, and after looking though it, I realized that I'm pretty sure my middle school art teacher used something very similar if she didn't use this exact book. I remember some of the drawing exercises and instructions and pictures. I wasn't really looking for a separate art curriculum, but we are working through this together. I try to get to it once a week, but it doesn't always happen. If you're really interested in wanting a separate art curriculum, we are enjoying this one so far, but if there are art projects built into your other subjects, I wouldn't go out of my way unless it's a passion of yours. 

Purchasing: I would just get it from Amazon or a second hand book store. 

You may have noticed that we don't have a curriculum that covers some of the subjects. We didn't have a formal art curriculum for the longest time until I was given the book I mentioned above. We did (and still do) art projects all time though, sometimes together and orchestrated by me, sometimes they just grab their art supplies and go to town! We also don't have a health or physical education curriculum. But, we're teaching our kids good health habits by how we live our lives. We're eating fruits and veggies at lunch. Some times I'm asking them what veggies they want and we're talking about what are veggies and what are fruits or meats or carbs. We brush & floss teeth and go to the dentist regularly (okay, so we're overdue for a visit right now, but we haven't wanted to take all the kids to the dentist office during this pandemic!) For physical education, we're going for walks all summer long. We're playing catch in the back yard and teaching them how to hit a ball. They're exploring movement while playing on the play set in the backyard. We've had them in swimming lessons (again though, we're not doing this during the pandemic). For economics, our kids are earning allowances for chores and we're teaching them to save, spend, and tithe the money they earn. 

PRESCHOOL & KINDERGARTEN

Now for kids that aren't yet 7 years old, these aren't all required. I tend to start at age 5, if they're able to read, with just Spelling Workout, Plaid Phonics, and Math Mammoth. The younger kids often will sit with us when we're doing read-alouds or art projects for history or they'll watch our science experiments, but I'm not expecting any written work or anything from them. It's all just for them to have exposure, and because they like participating in these fun activities. 

ABC Jesus Loves Me

If you're looking for a preschool or kindergarten curriculum, I have used ABC Jesus Loves Me with all my kids to some extent. When I first started using her curriculum, she had Years 2-5, but has since added Year 1, which I have not used. I have used different parts of Year 2 with all of my kids. But, my favorite is Year 3 when they start to learn letter sounds. I make sure to use this part of it with each of my kids at age 3 to encourage them to start reading. Two of my kids taught themselves to read (at ages 3 & 4) after going though this. My third child wasn't as motivated about books, so we worked with him on learning to read. My fourth is currently anxious to learn to read. I haven't used much of Years 4 & 5 with any of my kids, since I take those years to focus on learning to read. 

Purchasing: This curriculum is free for family use, but you can purchase it so you don't have to print it yourself. I believe it then comes with some extras that used to be available for free.  

LEARNING TO READ

McGuffey Primer through All in One Homeschool

All in One Homeschool is a complete PreK-12 online curriculum that is totally free. While I did consider using it in the beginning (who could pass up a completely free curriculum?!), I didn't want my kids to spend all their school time in front of a computer. But, I do like using the McGuffey Primer they have online for when the kids first start to learn to read. Each day they're learning a few new words to read, and she often has a game from Starfall (another app/website I would recommend) to go along with what sounds they're learning. Some days it's a different learning game from another website. The games can be a great motivator for kids that aren't really excited about learning to read. 

Purchasing: While I have always used the online version for free, you can order it from Amazon. 

Here are quick links to the other posts in this series.
Part 1: Reporting to Your School District and Assessments
Part 2: Reimbursement and Tax Exempt Status

Part 3: Homeschooling Styles and Curriculum

Part 3: Onto the Guts of Homeschooling!

This is the third post in a series about beginning homeschooling. In my first post, I talked about how to let your school district know that you intend to homeschool your child(ren) and assessments. In my second post, I talked about getting reimbursement for curriculum from your school district and applying for a tax exempt status. If you missed either of those posts, and are just beginning your homeschooling journey, you might want to go back and read those posts.

In this post, I thought I would discuss choosing curriculum. The hard part with this is that it will look different for each family. But, I will try to give you some tools I've come across that have helped me in making choices for our family.

For our family, I wanted to go with a classical curriculum, and I found Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise's book, A Well Trained Mind, to be very helpful in guiding me with my choices. There are other styles of homeschooling though. The seven main styles are classical, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Unschooling, School-at-Home, Unit Studies, and Eclectic. Because others have already explained in length, much better than I could, all these different methods, I'll leave you with a link to The Best Schools that describes all these methods. You can read through it and decide which style best suits your teaching style and your children's learning styles. I would suggest to pick one style and go with it, and not try to fit a style to each child.

Cathy Duffy Reviews 

Once you've figured out what style of homeschooling is right for your family, start researching curriculum that fits into that style. My favorite site to helping to select what I want is Cathy Duffy Reviews. She has detailed reviews of pretty much any curriculum out there. I would suggest looking at her website on a computer instead of your phone. One of my favorite parts of her website is the "Instant Key" (on phones you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find this, which is why I suggest using a computer instead). This can tell you at a quick glace some of the key things you'll want to know. Another thing you'll notice is by many of the links to reviews have a little red apple next to them. These are her top picks. Many times they'll also be "endorsed" by other sources as well, such as "A Well-Trained Mind," that I mentioned above. If you're not sure where to start, these are some good ones!

If hand-picking curricula for each subject seems overwhelming to you, there are many "boxed sets" of curricula to choose. Cathy Duffy Reviews has a list with links to all of their reviews for boxed sets.

Once you have selected the curriculum you want to use with your children, you can being the search to buy it. When it's not a workbook, I like to buy second hand books. It's cheaper, and if you're friends with me, you know that that's how I roll! There are plenty of places to buy curriculum. Cathy Duffy does provide links for you, making it super convenient, but sometimes with a little looking around, you can find it elsewhere cheaper. Some curriculum is only sold through the publisher's website though, unless you can find it on Ebay or a Facebook curriculum re-sale site. A few places that I've bought curriculum from that aren't specific to just one publisher are The Curriculum Store and Amazon. With Amazon, when I'm looking at non-consumables (things that aren't workbooks), I always look at the used copies and select either a "Very Good," "Like New," or occasionally a "New" copy from a seller that has decent reviews. It can save you some money! Remember to use your sales tax exempt status and to save your receipts using an organization system that will work best for you as I discussed in my second post about homeschooling.

I think it's important to make many of these decisions yourself and choose what you think will work best for your family, so I don't want to list the curricula we use in this post. For now, start your own research. I know some of you have specifically asked me about math, since I was a math teacher before having kids. In my next post, I'll share my math recommendations and what we use for other subjects, along with why I chose them. If my reasons for choosing them seem like reasons that would work well in your family, then I'm happy to recommend it!

Here are quick links to the other posts in this series.
Part 1: Reporting to Your School District and Assessments
Part 2: Reimbursement and Tax Exempt Status

Part 4: Our Curriculum Choices

Part 2: Homeschooling... What's Next?

This is the second post in a series on beginning homeschooling. Here's the first part about informing your school district.

In my last post, I mentioned at the end that you should ask your school district liaison about reimbursement forms (Aids to Non-Public Schools). Each district has their own, so unless you live in my school district, I don't have an easy link to share with you. I simply email my district person each summer for the forms for that upcoming school year, and she emails them on over. Reimbursement will vary from district to district (and even if you get reimbursement can vary from state to state, but it's completely worth looking into). For us, in Minnesota, in our district, we get about $80 per year per kid in full day kindergarten through 12th grade. (Half day kindergarten gets half the amount.)

What does reimbursement cover? Curriculum and standardized testing (in Minnesota, other states may do it differently, so for more specific information on your state, I would recommend checking with your school district). At this point, you may not know what curriculum you will be using, but it will not cover "religious" curriculum. I'm not talking about Sunday School-type stuff, I'm talking about anything that may have a religious slant to it. (I will try to do another post about curriculum choices that may explain this more if you're just beginning to look into homeschooling.) From other homeschoolers I've talked to, most of us use this money to help cover the standardized testing (that I mentioned in my first post about filling out the reporting form). Many also use it on "consumables," such as workbooks. Since the school district is "purchasing" the curriculum for you, they are technically the "owners" of these books. Things that are "consumables" aren't things that they are ever going to want back. (Though, I've never heard of a school district asking a homeschooling family for "their" books back, so really don't fret over this too much.) Reimbursement does NOT cover supplies such as printer paper, pencils, art supplies, or the like. Something to keep in the back of your mind, is that for reimbursement, you will need receipts for what you have purchased to submit to your district. You will want to find some organizational system that works best for you. For me, I purchase pretty much everything on-line and I submit my receipts via email, so I have a file folder on my computer where I save a copy of my receipts for easy quick access. I have a folder for each school year with the amount we will be getting that year in the title, so I don't have to look that up again. Then when I save my receipts to that folder, I name it with what it is along with the amount, so I can easily add up my receipts to the total (on the name of the folder), and pick which receipts I'm sending in.

Receipt Organization (Click for a larger view)

Once you've got the reimbursement figured out, you can look into getting a tax exempt status. In some other states from what I understand, you don't have to worry about paying sales tax on your curriculum purchases anyway, such as Florida and California. In other states, I guess you're just out of luck. Heppner's Legacy Homeschool Resources has an excellent walk-through for Minnesotans to apply with links to all the forms you will need, and where to send them. With the tax exempt status, you not only don't have to pay sales tax on the curriculum you purchase, but also on school supplies that are used exclusively for homeschooling. (So you can't buy a computer for the family that will be used for things not related to homeschooling.) Keep in mind that if you live in a different state, the laws may vary on this if you have a tax exempt status for homeschoolers, so make sure you check your own state's laws. If you do get a tax exempt status, and you're purchasing some of your curriculum from Amazon or other online stores that you frequently use for other purchases, you will want to be careful when ordering other things. Sometimes your tax exemption will apply itself to things you're not purchasing for homeschooling. With Amazon, you can easily remove the exemption with the click of a button. I'm assuming other online stores are also as simple, but it's the only one I've used.

I think the next logical step is figuring out your curriculum, so unless I see other questions arise, that will likely be what my next post is about.

UPDATE:
Here are the links to the other posts in this series.
Part 1: Reporting to Your School District and Assessments
Part 3: Homeschooling Styles and Curriculum

Part 4: Our Curriculum Choices

Part 1: So You're Thinking of Homeschooling...

... Now what? Can you make it work? Here's a few things you might like to know when you're considering homeschooling.

Photo Credit: Woodbury Magazine

Homeschooling is as flexible as you want to make it. Whether you have a 9-5 job Monday through Friday or not, you can work around your work schedule. Maybe you only do school 3-4 days a week, instead of 5. That's fine. Maybe you homeschool on weekends. That works too. Some people homeschool year-round, and then take random days or weeks off when brick and mortar schools are in session. (Think of vacations with fewer people crowding the place!) In Minnesota, there aren't any requirements regarding the number of days in your school year. A brick and mortar school year is about 180 days, and most curriculum is designed around that, but that doesn't stop you from doing some of tomorrow's work, today. It's homeschooling. It's flexible.

So now you're thinking that it's more feasible than attempting distance-learning again this fall. What's next? Well you'll need to fill out a form, the "Initial Report to Superintendent," for your school district telling them that you're homeschooling instead of attending their schools this fall. Districts often have their own forms that are much longer than they legally need to be. MACHE provides the shortest form for Minnesota that fulfills all legal requirements. It is due to your district by October 1st. If your child(ren) have already been in attendance at a public school, then the district already has your child's immunization records and you can just note that on the form. If you child was enrolled in preschool and isn't 7 years old, then you don't need to include them in this report. If your child was enrolled in kindergarten or higher then you will likely need to include them on the form (this can vary by district, so you will have to check with your district). If your child is 7 years or older, then you have to include them, whether they were previously enrolled in school or not. You can read the specifics of the law here.

You'll also notice on the form that you have to tell the school district which "Assessment of Performance" you'll give your child. That's a standardized test. If your child is between 7-17 years old, they have to be tested yearly. You have many choices (CAT tests, PASS, Stanford Achievement, Peabody, or Woodcock Johnson to name a few). If you have your Bachelor's degree, then I've found that the cheapest, easiest way to fulfill this requirement is to use the Iowa Tests through BJU Press Homeschool. You can upload your information and be approved to be a test administrator. Keep in mind that these tests can be given at any point during your school year. You also don't need to report these scores to your school district. (If your child's total score is below the 30th percentile though, you are required to do additional evaluations to see if your child has a learning disability.) If you'd like to look at other testing options, you can check out MACHE's website for more resources.

(If you don't live in Minnesota, HSLDA provides great resources for getting started in every state.)

Now that you have your form all filled out, what do you do with it? Most school districts have someone in charge of handling all the homeschooling stuff (a homeschool liaison). Find out who that person is in your school district and send them the form. While you're emailing that person (or have them on the phone), ask them to send you the forms for reimbursement (Aids to Non-Public Schools) for any curriculum you'll be purchasing (more on that in another post, but for now, just get your district's form).

UPDATE:
In my following posts:
Part 2: Reimbursement and Tax Exempt Status
Part 3: Homeschooling Styles and Curriculum

Part 4: Our Curriculum Choices

New Crayons: When You Have a Kid That Breaks Them All

I've seen blog posts all over about how to make these. I'll just add mine to the ever growing list! When you have a kid that likes to peel wrappers off of crayons and also likes to break crayons... You end up with a lot of useless crayons!

Step 1: Give kids the project of peeling all the wrappers off of the crayons they broke. Some places said to break them or cut them even more. I'm lazy and they fit, so whatever.

Step 2: Spray cupcake tins, and fill them with broken crayons. Most posts I've seen talk about mixing nice colors together. Well, we had a lot of broken crayons. For the most part, I was able to fill each cup with a single color. I even separated out regular green from blue-green and from yellow-green (or green-yellow... They're basically the same, so they went together.) 

Step 3: This one isn't mentioned on other blogs... It helps with timing if they're all full to close to the same level.

Step 4: Melt in the oven at 275°F. Most places said for 7-8 minutes. I did that... And then added more time. Not all of the crayons I used were Crayola and took longer to melt (some didn't melt at all, but sunk into the melted ones), and the cups that were more full also took longer to melt (see step 3). I think I finally took the fullest tray out after 14 minutes.

Step 5: Take them out of the oven and let them cool on the counter. As they cool and harden, they'll release from the sides (This was the part I was most nervous about! They do actually come out!)

Step 6: Once they're cool, dump them out! Two of mine needed a little whack on the bottom, but still came out just fine. 

Step 7: Wrap up as a gift for someone, because if you're like me, the broken ones have already been replaced with a new set for each kid (thanks Easter Bunny or Santa or Grandma).