Homeschooling for Free - Elementary Grades

I would like to share our plan for homeschool this year for my elementary students. It is my hope that you will see that with just a bit of preparation that it is possible to homeschool primarily from free resources from the internet and the library.

Bible

The children and I will take turns reading a story a day from the Bible using this reading list. We will discuss the scriptures and then the children can draw a picture or do a craft related to the reading. The quickest way to find a craft is to type the name of the story followed by the word "craft" in Google. For example, you can search for a "Noah's ark craft" or a "Daniel in the lions den craft".

English/Language Arts 

We will use McGuffey's Readers for about 15 min a day. You will find more information on how I plan to use them on my post about returning to McGuffey Readers. For grammar I have three living books that we will be reading, one of which is Grammar-Land. This is a humorous book where each of the nine parts of speech must stand trial and prove why he is justified in "owning" the words that he does. And I will supplement the book with grammar songs found on YouTube. 

For my five year old, I will continue checking out alphabet books and beginner reader books from the library and work out of the McGuffey Primer a bit.

I will hand write copywork for my two children in a notebook that has the dotted middle lines and solid top and bottom lines. I'll print some sheets on both sides from Donna Young and make our own homemade notebooks. I will either have the children copy Bible verses or sentences from their readers. 

Arithmetic

Originally I was going to use Ray's for math this year. But after carefully considering what Don Potter had to say I have decided to use First Lessons in Numbers instead. Mr. Potter actually strongly recommended teaching with First Lessons in Arithmetic -which he has links to on his site; but, he said that the two books are very similar. (Mr. Potter is an educator that I respect very much. He incorporates old fashioned public domain texts into his classroom to successfully teach his students arithmetic, reading through phonics, cursive, and grammar.) After comparing the two along with Ray's, I feel that FLIN will work best for our homeschool. I like the abundance of illustrations and I like that the lessons are short.

Also, we will read living math books from the library, use our math fun box, and play plenty of math games.

Science

We will do nature studies using Ana Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study. And we will read several living books from the public domain pertaining to animals, insects,  birds, plants, and gardening. (Here is our reading list for this year.) Also, we will watch Beakman's World on Netflix and attempt some of the experiments from the show.

It took me a few weeks to put all of the resources together.  But I feel that it was time well spent. 

Here is how we are homeschooling high school free this year.

Menu Plan Monday - 7/30/12

Menu Plan Monday

We are starting school back on August 1st. There is always an adjustment period at the beginning of the school year that can last for over a week. So most of our meals will easy to prepare. That way I won't have to spend as much time in the kitchen as I usually do.

Breakfast

cold cereal~hot cereal~eggs and potatoes~homemade muffins~pancakes

served with fruit

Lunch

grilled bacon and cheese sandwiches~homemade granola~PBJ~leftovers~canned soup

served with fruit or veggies

Dinner

french bread pizza~hot dogs~spaghetti~chicken fried steak~homemade Hamburger Helper~bbq chicken~tuna tacos

served with grains/bread (if needed) and veggies

Snacks

cheese and crackers~popcorn~trail mix

2012 - 2013 Homeschool Reading List

Last year I attempted to follow Ambleside Online's reading list. I printed out quite a few books and stapled them together with my handy dandy, heavy duty stapler. And then I made myself weekly schedules based on AO's suggestions. This is no slight against AO but I just did not manage to keep up with the reading like I thought I would be able to. 

After some self-reflection I have come to the conclusion that our schooling experience turns out the best when I put the curriculum together myself. For years I have started out that way but at some point I would doubt my efforts and switch to something that some "experts" had put together. My husband has been telling me this for years but I finally believe for myself that I am a great teacher to my children. 

There can be a lot of self doubt when you homeschool. I have definitely had my fair share of it. But I am done with that. I know that God has uniquely gifted me to make sure that my children get a quality education. I am the expert for my children. I refuse to doubt myself any longer. And that's the end of it.

What does any of this have to do with our reading list for this year? Well, this list has been compiled by me based on the tastes, needs, and beliefs of my family. We don't do fairies, witches, or magic in our house. So there are no books with any of that content (to my knowledge) on this list. And we love the Lord; so, many of the books mention God.

Most of these books can be found for free by doing a quick search on Google Books. Otherwise, I have provided a link.

Drawing

Willie's First Lessons in Drawing

English/Literature

Aesop's Fables

The Child's Own English Book

Grammar-Land

The Play Grammar or The Elements of Grammar Explained in Easy Games 

History

The Boy Lincoln

Broad Stripes and Bright Stars

Fifty Famous Stories Retold

Hans Brinker

Letters from Colonial Children

Mary of Plymouth

Ten Boys Who Lived on the Road from Long Ago to Now

Math

Everyday Number Stories

Living math books from the library

Number Stories of Long Ago

Science

The Burgess Animal Book for Children

The Burgess Bird Book for Children 

The Insect Folk

Seed Babies

The Storybook of Science

When Mother Let Us Garden

Additional Reading

Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks at the Circus

Resources that I used to compile my list:

Accelerated Achievement book list

Ambleside Online

Graded List of Books for Children - 1922

Homeschool Freebie of the Day

Old Fashioned Education

Robinson curriculum

Homeschooling High School for Free - 11th Grade

This year my soon to be 14 year old will be in the 11th grade. I am grateful to God for the years that I have been able to homeschool him. And I am a little sad that he is almost done. These years teaching him have been both challenging and extremely rewarding. But my intention with this post isn't to reminisce. I want to share the free resources that we will use this school year for my son's core classes. 

An Invaluable Website

Once my son started middle school I began purchasing textbooks for him because I had a hard time finding free resources for the classes he was taking. But in recent years, I have seen a plethora of great material become available online. My favorite place to use for finding upper grade courses is Free-Ed.net. It is not the prettiest looking site but don't let that stop you from finding some wonderful resources there.

Here are the classes and materials that my son will use for 11th grade this year. 

Math

I can't believe my son will be learning Calculus this year. It seems like only yesterday that I taught him how to skip count and made homemade flashcards for him so that he could memorize his addition and subtraction tables. But I digress... Last year we used MIT's open courseware for the first time for Calculus; so, we will continue on with a Calculus II  course taught by the same professor. The used book we bought last year for just a few dollars covers both courses, so no need to be buy another one.

Geography

In our homeschool, history and geography have always gone hand in hand. I taught my son to learn the geography of the locations that he is studying in history by using maps and atlases. But my husband feels that it is best that my son takes a separate, in depth geography course. Originally, I was going to use the Geography for the 21st Century video course along with the textbook which I was going to purchase from Amazon for under $10, including shipping.

But for the time being we are only able to access the Internet from my iPad. Apple doesn't support flash so we are unable to access any of Learner.org's videos. So we will use the course outline and reading lists from one of MIT's geography classes. If we can't get the titles from the library then we'll make appropriate substitutions. 

Science

Physics! Need I say more? Well actually, I probably should. The number one question I get when I share some of the high school classes that my son is taking or has taken is, how do you teach that subject? My answer is that thanks to the internet  I don't have to teach it. And I couldn't even if I wanted to because I never went above Earth Science or Algebra II/Trigonometry in high school. So once again, I am turning to a more-than-qualified MIT professor to teach physics in our homeschool. And I'll buy the least expensive used textbook from Amazon.

English/Language Arts

There is a McGuffey reader to cover every year of school. So, no worries there. And our Englsih classes are always heavily based on classic literature. So, my son will read several, quality works of fiction from the library, of his choosing. And he will be required to write a few book reports. Also, we will focus on quite a bit of essay writing.

Foreign Language

This year D is taking Spanish III. he will have a lot of conversations with fluent Spanish speakers and we will utilize the college text Poco a Poco.

I am Enjoying Read Alouds with the Children

A mom reading to her children

The children and I finished with our first two read alouds, Willie's First Lessons in Drawing and Number Stories of Long Ago. And you know what? We are hooked! Of course, the children have always like to be read to. So I guess I should say I'm hooked. Because really, the only one who was a bit  skeptical of the whole process was me. I like to read to the children but I tire quickly of the books that we get from the library. Particularly since there almost winds up being a favorite that I am asked to read over and over and over again.

But I am finding out that living books are so interesting that they draw you into the story. Even books that are written specifically for young children are still quite amusing to me. At the moment one of the books we are reading is Grammar-Land. It was definitely written for little ones but both my 13 year old and I are finding the book to be very comical.

For the past few days I have been compiling a reading list for our upcoming school year. I know that reading aloud will continue to be a success in our homeschool as long as I utilize the following guidelines for myself.

Pick books that I find interesting.

There is no sense in trying to get through a book that I find boring. After all, I am the one who is doing the reading. There's no way I will be able to read a book with expression or enthusiasm for very long if it doesn't appeal to me. Just saying...

Only read one chapter a day.

This is for the children's sake and for mine. I don't burnout from doing too much reading; and, the children are left hanging  waiting for the next chapter. Charlotte Mason explained that this sparks additional interest in our children. If the chapters are too long then I will divide them up over a couple or a few nights. But, I haven't encountered that yet with the few books that we have read so far.

Allow a moderate amount of "on topic" discussion.

I don't mind if the children ask questions as I read or if they add a few relevant comments along the way. If they start saying something that is clearly unrelated to what we are reading then I remind them that we need to stay on topic. Or I might tell them to save what they have to say until we are completely done with our reading time.

Read at certain times a day.

I will definitely need to establish a routine in order to make sure that we get all of our reading in. Right now I am working on establishing reading times before breakfast, before quiet/nap time, and before bed. The Word is always our morning selection. So that leaves room for us to read two living books at a time. 

Menu Plan Monday - Week of 07/08/12

I know that by Jesus' stripes I was healed of all sicknesses. By faith I know I'm healed and I am resisting all diseases knowing that illness has no choice but to flee from me. Today I found a great website all about believing, claiming, and receiving healing. I know that God has done His part and I will continue to do my part by taking care of the body that the Lord has blessed me with.

I had a great week of eating mostly plant based meals. I did have some homemade gluten free pizza at a friend's house on Friday. And on Sunday the children and I ate at the new Popeyes that we had been waiting to open near us. And you know what? I'm fine with that. I enjoyed delicious food with friends and family. But the rest of the week I ate the way that I prefer to eat.

I also exercised last week after not doing so for over a month. I walked a mile to a Leslie Sansone video on YouTube. This week I am moving up to 2 miles. Slow and steady wins the race.

Menu Plan Monday

(Mostly) Plant Based Meals (for breakfast, lunch, or dinner)

• Salads with mashed avocado and lemon as dressing
• Black bean soup
• Guacamole
• Black bean burgers
• Egg, veggie, and bean scramble
• Microwaved sweet potato with nuts and raisins
• Crustless vegetable quiche with nutritional yeast (cheese substitute)
• Fish and veggies steamed in the microwave 
• Tuna salad in a corn tortilla

Dinner for the Children - served with vegetables and bread (as needed)

• Loaded baked potatoes
• Cheese pizza
• Hot dogs 
• Taco bake
• Spaghetti
• Hamburgers on homemade buns, French fries
• My version of chuck wagon chow, where I use ground beef instead of steak and put all of the ingredients in homemade gravy

I have been missing my Honey who is in CA; and, since we have been staying with friends I haven't had much desire or drive to make any bread dough by hand. I've only done it twice in almost 2 months. But I WILL make some this week for the pizza, hamburgers, and sandwiches for lunch. Praise God for a kitchen to bake in regardless of whether it's mine.

HEBuddy Summer Reading Program - 2012

I found out about HEBubby's Summer Reading program in 2001 when I moved back to San Antonio from Virginia Beach. That year I only had one child participate. But by 2007 that number had grown to 4. And we have participated every year; except, there was that one year when the t-shirts awarded were of HEBuddy dressed as a wizard. The children still did a lot of reading that summer but we skipped sending away for that prize.

With moving from our house almost 2 months ago, my husband going to CA, and us staying with friends waiting to join him, I had completely forgotten about the reading program this year. I must really have a  lot on my mind because I usually start talking about summer reading before school is even over with. Thankfully, a few days ago my children spied a stand at the front of  HEB that reminded us. So we picked up 3 submission forms and went on our merry way. Sadly, my eldest who is now 13 feels that he is too old to wear an HEBuddy shirt. How did that happen?

We will be completing our reading and have our reading lists mailed in pretty quickly in hopes that we will still be in town when the t-shirts arrrive. In the past, it has never taken more than three weeks for us to receive them.

The San Antonio Public Library system also has a summer reading program each year ending with a big library party. I used to let my eldest participate in those but the themes changed from cute and kid related to magic. I tried to ignore it the first year and let my son do the reading so that he could pick out a free book. But surprise, almost all of the choices were books about magic. Maybe they have since changed their ways, but we decided to just stick with HEB's program.