What are YOU using for Science this Year? *Science 2018 Edition*

That is a great question!  First of all we have tried several different programs - K12 Science, Apologia, and Bookshark.  I wanted to tell you, briefly, about each of the ones we've tried and why we aren't using them this fall...

1.)  K12 Science:  We used K12 for about 5 years and although I loved the curriculum for the most part, I absolutely ended up hating the public school at home.  It wasn't what I wanted for our homeschool, and wasn't what I had envisioned when we started this journey.  Now, of course, you can buy the courses individually, but it is extremely expensive to do so.  So, we have moved on from K12.

2.) Apologia:  This was the very first curriculum we used when we started putting together our own curriculum.  That year we used Botany for my older daughter and Zoology 2: Marine Biology for my oldest son.  It went really well, and they seemed to enjoy their studies.  One thing we really did enjoy was that Apologia talks about creation, but what we didn't enjoy was the young earth philosophy.  Plus doing one whole subject for an entire year was tiresome to everyone.  

3.)  Bookshark:  The next year we tried Bookshark.  We were drawn to this program because of all the beautiful books!  Plus, it just seemed like a good fit - unlike Apologia which had only one subject per year, this program had many subjects to cover.... many, many, many, many, subjects to cover.  This program went in the complete opposite direction of Apologia and just seemed to jump everywhere.  You hardly were on a topic for more than a couple of days; plus, it didn't fit well with our block scheduling.  We got further and further behind, and more and more frustrated.

Last year we went back to Apologia... because, although it wasn't the perfect fit... it was better then Bookshark.  Again, the same issues we didn't like the first time around, came back the second time around.  SIGH.  What did we want?  What did I want?  I wanted a program that gave us an introduction to a topic, and then we could add in more living books, and more activities and more research.  I wanted a curriculum where we could spend as much time on a subject as we wanted to, and move on when we wanted to.  I wanted a curriculum where we could set the schedule in anyway.  Why couldn't I find a curriculum that did this?  Was it really that hard?  Would I have to create my own curriculum?   ...

ENTER:  The Good and the Beautiful Science Curriculum:

(First unit we are learning about:  Arthropods)

(I also bought Nature Notebooks for the kids to use every Friday.  These are from The Good and the Beautiful as well.)

I decided to buy just one science packet and see how it went.  We went with Arthropods.  So far it has been really really fun.  We started at the beginning of summer, so we haven't gotten very far.  We did the first two lessons as a family, then skipped to the lesson on spiders, and now that we are finishing up our spiders unit, we'll go back to lesson 3.  So far, I am impressed!

What we love:

*Family Style curriculum!

*Open and go with easy to collect supplies!

*Beautiful pictures!

*Creation based!

*No theories involved - THANK YOU and FINALLY!

*Quick introduction for each lesson - leaving plenty of time for lots of living books!

*Lots of topic to choose from in any order you want for your school year!

(Books we added in for our spider unit:  notice we did use Apologia - but only for the older children, and only the part about spiders.)

To wrap it up, my younger students:  ages 4, 7, 9, and 11 will be working together on science projects using The Good and The Beautiful, and then we'll add in activities and books to go along with it.  My oldest, 13, will have the option of sitting in.  For now we are going to finish up Arthropods, and then go into the Weather unit, followed by the Water unit that they offer.

For my oldest son, who going into 8th grade, we wanted to supply a little more for him since this is his last year before he starts high school next year: 

 (Apologia:  Chemistry and Physics.  Chemically Active.  Forensic Science.)

With my son's input, we went with Apologia:  Chemistry and Physics - (I did go back to Apologia for this subject, because this will cover lots of topics:  light, sound, magnets, etc etc.)  I have a Chemically Active book that he used briefly with Bookshark - that he may want to use to explore more experiments.  He also wanted to learn about Forensic Science - and we'll be using an Usborne book for that topic.  

(Chemistry and Physics supply kit.)

Side note:  Always get the supply kit for your science curriculum if one is available!  It makes life so easy - Apologia is especially great when it comes to supply kits - they label each lesson - so you just have to grab it and go.  Everything is ready.  The best deal I found this year for supply kits was on Rainbow Resources.  This is the kit for the Chemistry and Physics book. 

(Robotics and projects)

The last topic he wanted to cover was robotics.  So, we have a neat book called Robotics that has several projects that he can complete.  I also love these DK Find Out! books, and thought it would be a nice supplement for him.

Each child also brainstormed with me on other topics that they wanted to learn about for science during the year and this is what they came up with for independent, self-directed learning:

(My oldest daughter wants to learn more about Planet Earth and Space.)

(My middle son wants to learn more about the human body, microscopes, the ocean and bacteria.)

(My youngest son wants to continue learning about animals.)

(My youngest daughter in starting "preschool" this year and although we don't have a preschool curriculum we use, she is interested in learning - so I found a neat First Illustrated Science Dictionary to use, as well as these really fun sticker encyclopedia's.  It gives you a fun story to read, while your child adds stickers.) 

So, there you have it!  The answer to the question: What we you using for science this year?  Up next:   What are you using for HISTORY this year?  Until next time:  have a Hats and Chickadees day!  

What Are You Using for the New Homeschooling Year?

Good Morning, everyone! 
...
I have a confession to make.  Here I am on the eve of my 9th year of homeschooling and I still have no idea what I am doing.  9 years of doing this thing.  My son, is going in the 8th grade this year and I've been homeschooling him since he was in Kindergarten and I still don't have a clue.... Whew right?  I hope that makes you feel better. 

I am so not like those big name blogs you read that have it all figured out.  Nope, and I probably never will be.  So, if you want all sorts of answers, you probably won't find it here.  What you will find is me trying to find my way in this big, crazy, wonderful thing we call homeschooling.  You'll find understanding and some advice that works for us... at least for a couple of months.  And you'll find all my weird ideas that I just want to share.

Also, I have another confession to make.  I have tried this blogging thing before, and maybe it was because what I was posting wasn't that fun.  Or maybe, I'm just not cool enough to make it in the fashion blogging world  (OK, that is probably completely true.)  And I'm probably not cool enough to make it in the homeschooling blogging world either.  Like I mentioned - I am new and trying to go up against big name bloggers that have hundreds of thousands of followers.   Sigh.  Yeah, most likely not going to happen.  Oh, well, here I am giving it a try, folks. 

So, if you've stuck around long enough to read all that... and you've decided to share this homeschooling journey with me - I say, "WELCOME!"  I hope you have fun on the ride. 

(Here I am - ready to give you advice on all things homeschool.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.)  

First order of business of the year... new curriculum.  (HIT THE PANIC BUTTON!!)  Do any of you second guess yourself at all?  I sure do.  ALL THE TIME.  It's July 2018.  It's time, people.  Time to figure out what in the world you are going to teach your children in the upcoming school year.  

This is the scary part.  I still don't know what I'm going to do.  Honestly, I'm easily distracted and I see something new and shiny and think... oooh!  That is going to be so much better than what I have planned / am doing.  (It's drives my hubby insane, and isn't very friendly on his pocketbook!  Eep!  Sorry, dear!)

We've tried lots and lots of curricula.  For the first couple of years (5 YEARS!!!) we tried K12.  In fact, I was a huge advocate of K12.  But then it became public school at home and I rebelled.  Really rebelled.  I'll try and share our experience with K12 in a later post, but not today.  Next, we tried piecing together our own curriculum.  I collected Story of the World, Apologia Science, K12 Phonics and Literature, etc.  While it went well, I still felt like something was missing. 

Then I stumbled upon BookShark.  BookShark was like a reader's dream.  My dream!  Tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of books?  (Did I mention, ton's of books?)  Yes, ton's of books!  It was like heaven!  Right?  Wrong!  We barely got through 1/2 of the books during the year.  History became just books.  I was supposed to read 4 different read-alouds since my kids were in 4 different levels?  Forget about it!  HISTORY ALONE was taking up 2 to 3 hours everyday.  Science was pretty much non-existent.  Plus, they have lessons scheduled every single day for every single subject.  That was something that we just couldn't do and we found ourselves falling further and further behind.  Plus, I do not like skipping about so frequently during the day.  

After that we even tried a couple months of self-directed learning or unschooling.  And do you know what?  My kids did ok.  But mostly all they wanted to do was play video games.  Talk about video games.  Watch videos about video games.  Yes, it was that bad.  (I really did try to LET THEM DO WHAT THEY WANT WHEN THEY WANT!  For us, that was a bad idea.) 

This year we went back to our original pieced together curriculum.  Again, it has been fine.  Four different kids in four different levels?  It's worked, but it hasn't worked well.  And I don't want "just fine."  I want something better!  

At the end of the year I was introduced to a curriculum called The Good and The Beautiful.  I've really looked into them and I am really hopeful they will be a good fit for us.  I've also looked more into the Charlotte Mason method, self-directed learning, and unit studies.  

So here it is... my tentative plan for the upcoming school year... drum role, please...
I am going to combine several different methods into my very own method.  We'll call it the Sugar Method!  (hehe) 

I want to try and combine the kids together as much as I can.  I am planning on making unit studies of different subjects and studying them more in depth.  I want to use living books as much as possible for that touch of Charlotte Mason.  I also want to try and be done in a good amount of time so that my kids can have time to partake in their own interests. 

My one rule for the year is going to be:  no screen time AT ALL until 7:00 p.m.  Then they can choose to watch a movie, or play a video game.  But with that rule comes another rule... during the day, they can't do anything that has a video game, movie, or TV show at its core.  For instance:  NO, you may not make pictures of all the characters in a TV show.  NO, you may not pretend you are in a video game.  NO, you may not look up how to program your video game.  NOPE, they have to FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO!! 

So, that's about it!  1.) Unit Studies 2.) Charlotte Mason 3.) The Good and the Beautiful 4.) with a touch of Self-Directed Learning.  I'm crossing my fingers that I've found the right fit for us!  (Finally?)

I'd go into more depth for each subject, but this blog is getting awfully long, so that'll be a post for another day.  For now, have a beautiful Tuesday, July 10, 2018!  Happy planning and have a Hats and Chickadees day! 

(A Slavery / Civil War Era Unit in the works?  Maybe... stay tuned!)