Learning to Love Latin

Once upon a time, Latin was a central part of students' education.  Students not only learned to conjugate verbs, but to read and enjoy literature in Latin as well.  Unfortunately, Latin has slowly been pushed aside to make way for other subjects.  Many schools only offer Latin as a lower-level course, making it a poor option for students concerned with their GPAs.  Luckily, as afterschooling parents, we have the option of giving our kids what the schools do not provide.  Even if you don't know a bit of Latin, you can learn along with your kids!  Here are some fantastic reasons to teach your kids Latin:

• Your child will increase his vocabulary and increase his ability to understand unfamiliar words.  (SAT skill!)
• Latin teaches grammar explicitly, which helps kids comprehend confusing English grammar concepts.  (SAT skill!)
• Understanding Latin makes learning other Romance languages easier.  Since most college-bound students will study a Romance language in high school, this could be a huge help!
• The ability to read Latin opens up a door to a world of Classical literature and culture. 

Convinced?  There are many wonderful Latin programs out there designed for homeschoolers.  While it is nearly impossible to teach your child a spoken language if you aren't fluent yourself, it is possible to teach Latin!  Most classical homeschoolers and afterschoolers start Latin instruction around third grade.  At this age, kids have the ability to read and write in English and understand basic grammar rules.  They are still young enough to memorize easily (a skill that fades as we grow older) and see learning a "secret" language as exciting.  

One Latin program I've looked at is Visual Latin.  It's a lively video Latin program that takes the pressure off nervous parents.  I've heard nothing but positive reviews from parents in the Well-Trained Mind Forums.  (Although I can teach my daughter Latin now, I know she'll probably progress faster than me as she gets older.)  And right now, it's 30% off!  Check it out below.

 

Buying Curriculum Without Going Broke

At some point, once your signed onto the idea of afterschooling, the big question is going to hit you: How am I going to PAY for all of this?

Homeschool curricula, art supplies, project materials, and educational aids can be expensive.  But you can afterschool without going broke.  Here's how:

1.  Use your library.
 If you haven't been in a while, you'll be amazed at how much your library has to offer.  Most libraries also offer interlibrary loan, where you can borrow materials from other local libraries and pick them up at your own library.  This should be your number one stop for read alouds, independent readers, non-fiction resources, magazines, documentaries, etc.


2.  Decide what you need.  Then decide what you really need.
Once you've realized what your library has to offer, you should be able to narrow your list down.  What else can you do without?  Many curricula publishers offer all sorts of extra materials you don't really need.  For instance, I don't need videos and cds to accompany every book I have.  Could you use free online resources instead of pricey ones?  Join a forum like The Well Trained Mind Forums, and you'll find that many members have already created great materials and are willing to share free of charge.

3.  Buy used.
Amazon.com, Paperback Swap, and library book sales are great places to find cheap materials.  Check if your local homeschool organization organizes a used curriculum sale too.  Last month I found half the Smart About Art book series and all the early readers I could ever need at my town library's sale.  I walked away with a huge bag of books for under $10.  I also collected 20 Illustrated Children's Classics at a yard sale for just $3!

4.  Visit the dollar store.
You can buy cheap craft materials, workbooks, flashcards, and more dirt cheap.  I also use this as a resource for those one-time-use project supplies.  I don't drink coffee or iron, so when I needed coffee filters and spray starch for an art project, I purchased them cheaply at the Dollar Tree.

5.  Rack up points.
Lately I discovered a great site called Swagbucks, where you can earn points to redeem for Amazon and other gift certificates.  In just a week I've earned $20 in Amazon gift cards.  Just by downloading the Swagbucks toolbar you can earn points for doing your normal, everyday searching.  If you have extra time to take surveys, you'll earn even faster!  (My daughter swims for hours every day, which is normally wasted time for me because I have to be by the pool.  Lately I've been taking surveys on my cell phone to better use the time!)

Do you have other great money saving ideas?  Let me know!  We can all use a little help.

Math Mammoth Success!

 

After carefully reviewing way too many curriculum samples, I settled on Math Mammoth.  I like that it's a mastery-based curriculum.  Your child won't just touch on a subject then rush off to something else.  I also liked that it's affordable!  Other deciding factors were it's easy open-and-go format and the fact that it's easy to either speed up or slow down depending on your needs.  Although some parents have complained that there are too many problems per page, the curriculum is designed so you don't have to do them all.  Once your child demonstrates that understands the concept, you can skip some of the problems.  If your child is struggling, you can do them all.

So far, it's been a big hit!  Crazy Bug successfully learned to tell time in two days!  The addition chapter was a little slow for her, and she's spending plenty of time practicing her facts on Xtra math, so I let her test out of that chapter.  (Testing out is when you let a child take the end of unit test before studying the material.  If the child can demonstrate mastery, he is able to skip the unit and move on or do enrichment work.)

We've also been spending plenty of family time playing the addition and subtraction games suggested in the curriculum.  They're super easy to create if you just have a deck of cards and a couple of dice on hand.  We've also been playing Smath, a Scrabble-like math game I found at a yard sale.  You could also try the vintage math game Quizmo if you can get your hands on a copy.

            

Diving Into Ancient History

We've finally dived into our world history curriculum and I couldn't be more thrilled!  We are using The Story of the World: Volume 1 , which is part of a four volume cycle that takes children from the earliest people through modern times.  There's nothing textbook-y about this book!  SOTW treats history like an intriguing story.  The author, Susan Wise Bauer, stresses that at this age we shouldn't aim for mastery of the subject.  Instead we are simply exposing our children to world history in order to give them a background they'll later build on.  The book is supplemented with a wonderful activity guide and many outside reading recommendations.

Some people might feel that a world history curriculum is too dry for this age group.  I've hear many people say that they'd rather their children have time to play and just be kids.  These things are not mutually exclusive!  After reading the chapter on cave dwellers, Crazy Bug spent hours pretending to live in a cave.  As we played, she frequently asked questions about how the cave dwellers ate, cooked, and made tools.  Before this, she hadn't played make believe games for a while because she'd grown bored with all the scenarios she could imagine.  Learning about history actually enlivened and reignited her creative play!  To me, that's exactly what education is about!  It gives children the skills and information they need to enjoy their world.

As you explore the activities shown on my blog, try to keep that goal in mind.  I don't teach my daughter about Chihuly and Matisse so she can recite their biographies back to me.  I teach her about them so she can discover new styles and materials to create with.  She doesn't get bored by pulling out the same watercolor set over and over again.  Instead she is constantly inspired by new ideas!  Likewise, I don't teach her how to write just to make her seem smart.  Her head is filled with so many ideas and thoughts that she wants to share.  Learning to write allows her to express herself clearly so she can communicate her thoughts to others.

Don't be afraid of education.  No, we should not sit our young children down at desks and overwhelm them with worksheets, drills, and rote memorization.  But that doesn't mean we shouldn't teach them!  Instead, do a little teaching, then let them use and explore the knowledge they've learned.  The result?  Happy, eager, curious kids who have a strong foundation for their creative pursuits!

Math Enrichment Resources

A few weeks ago I asked Crazy Bug what she wanted to do this summer.  I expected the typical responses: swim, go to Six Flags, camp.  Instead she said, "Math! Lots and lots and lots of math."  So math it is!

We are currently using Math Mammoth 1b as our basic curriculum.  It's a nice, steady, easy to implement mastery-based approach to math.  I love that you can just open it up and go because I don't have time for lots of planning.  While its nice to know the basics are covered and Crazy Bug is not missing any concepts, I have to admit that Math Mammoth is a bit dull.  So I supplement with other materials that increase critical thinking skills and mix up the material a bit.

Here are some terrific supplements:

Sunshine Math is a program created by the Florida Department of Education to challenge advanced students.  The worksheets are available for free online.  Each worksheet has a mix of concepts and problem types, and many explore concepts outside of the general grade-level curriculum.

Singapore Math's Challenge Word Problems is another great resource.  Word problems ensure that your child not only understands how to do math, but also when and how to use each concept.  These problems are a little tough, so you may need to go down one level from your child's general math level.  Be prepared to provide support and assistance while your child adjusts to this type of problems.

Critical Thinking Company offers a large variety of math and non-math resources.  They all challenge children to expand their ways of thinking about and solving problems.  This year I'm using Mathematical Reasoning Level B and Building Thinking Skills Level 1, as time allows.

Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math: Book 1 is the first in a series of three books for elementary school children and their parents.  The three books span the entire elementary school math curriculum with easy, hands-on math activities to do at home.  If your child is a tactile learner, then this is a great place to start.  Personally, we have only used Book 3, which focuses on non-arithmetic math: geometry, problem solving, probability, graphing, and more.

Thump-Free Bible Curriculum

 
Let me just state now that I'm a liberal Episcopalian from Massachusetts.  I support gay marriage.  I support birth control.  And bible thumping makes me very nervous.

But that doesn't mean I'm not a Christian.  I want my daughter to have a relationship with God, a strong sense of right and wrong, knowledge of the bible, and an understanding of our religion.  With that in mind, I set off to find an appropriate religious curriculum.  It was a scary journey.



I finally narrowed it down to three curricula widely used by the Episcopal church: Catechism of the Good Shepherd, Godly Play, and Episcopal Children's Curriculum.  The first two are Montessori based and require fancy materials.  And so I turned to the Episcopal Children's Curriculum published by Virginia Theological Seminary.  ECC is available, in its entirety, online and free of charge.  It has lots of options for each lesson including activities sheets, cut and paste crafts, more creative crafts, and serious bible study.  It covers bible stories, prayer, sacraments, Episcopal liturgy, and more.  For non-Episcopalians it could be easily adapted by skipping the "church" units to focus on the bible units.  My daughter loves it because each lesson has a collectible review card to accompany it, and she'll do anything that allows her to collect stuff.  And did I mention it's free?

The only problems I've found is with the crafts.  Crazy Bug and I are Serious Arts-and-Crafts People.  So I've scoured the internet and my own brain and added our own thematic crafts.  We're currently using the Shell Year of the Primary curriculum.  I'll share the crafts here as we create them.

What is afterschooling?

I am a huge proponent of afterschooling.  Afterschooling is an idea that grew out of the homeschool movement, but is used by families who send their kids to traditional schools.  Very simply, it means that you don't hand your child's education over to the school and hope for the best.  Instead, you make a conscious effort to continue educating your child outside of school time.  Most of us actually do this to some extent whether we realize it or not.  Do you require your child to read?  Do you do the occasional kitchen science experiment?  Have you played a math game?  Guess what: you're an afterschooler!

There are, of course, all different extents of afterschooling.  Some people do more than others, some people use formal curriculum and others don't.  I personally take it pretty easy.  I read a great post at  Teaching My Baby To Read about afterschooling.   Jennifer calculated out that if you do just 20 minutes of afterschooling a day, but the end of high school your child will have had the equivalent of two full years of additional schooling!  That's massive!  I suddenly realized that my daughter probably spends at least 2 hours in front of the TV and computer each day.  Surely we could fit in 20 minutes of education!  (Okay, I promise no more exclamation marks for at least five sentences.)

Here's our current afterschool curriculum:

Reading
We read to our daughter for about 1/2 an hour every day.  We also require that she read to us for 10-15 minutes.  This is usually done at bedtime.

Art
I feel very strongly that the arts are missing from schools, so I make sure to make up for it at home.  We look at paintings from famous artists and discuss things like line, color, texture, and style.  Then we experiment with the artists techniques.  (I'll be sharing some of the ideas soon)  We probably spend a 1/2 hour on art 2-3 times a week, because both my daughter and I love it so much.



Religion
I'm an Episcopalian and I want my daughter to learn more about our religion than she's going to learn in a 25 minute Sunday School class.  Familiarity with bible characters and stories is also important to understanding literature and cultural references.  We're currently using the Episcopal Children's Curriculum from VTS which is free online here.  I alter it to fit my daughter.  (Much more extensive crafts than the ones suggested)  We spend a 1/2 hour on this one to two times a week.

Math / Science
I'll admit, I'm not a big math and science person.  But we play math games, study nature, and do the occasional science experiment.  Nothing formal or highly organized. 

Summer
Since we have more time in the summer, I'm planning to add some history using The Story of the World and grammar using First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind.  We'll also do some more organized math with the Life of Fred series.



What could you add for 20 minutes a day?  What do you think your  child's school is skimping on?  What is you kid behind in?  What does your child love to learn about?  Don't think afterschooling has to be drudgery.  Most kids love to learn new things, as long as there aren't any workbooks in sight!