Our 2017-2018 Curriculum Review
- Annie Schrader
- Jul 25, 2018
- 5 min read
We made it through our first year, and let me be very honest. This homeschooling gig is fun! We had some difficulties to work through for sure. Tears, fights, struggles, toddlers climbing on the table and getting into EVERYTHING. But we did it, and we did it all together and I couldn't be more thankful. Sibling relationships are just so very important to me, and being able to foster them each and every day is a complete privilege. My kids are learning how to be patient with each other, and why it's so important. They are learning to show grace where needed. And most importantly, they are learning not only to be okay with the fact that God created them with different personalities, but to actually appreciate and love those differences. Our Schrader Schoolhouse was loads of fun this year and as much as I'm trying to relax and enjoy a break, my mind can't stop turning with all of the fun ideas I have for next year!
We used several different pieces of curriculum this year. Some we loved, some we didn't. Some we finished, some we threw to the side and decided they weren't for us. Some we realized were just not the right timing. However, for those of you that are also looking for curriculums or love hearing how others used them, here's my review of what we used!
Konos :: You guys! They got a new website since the beginning of the year when I first mentioned them and gave a quick disclaimer, and it just makes a world of difference. This curriculum is just so darn good. I absolutely loved it and am planning to continue with it next year. The focus is Godly character traits and growing those in your children, while integrating ALL subjects. Konos also encourages discovery learning. This is what their website says about discovery learning:
"KONOS activities asks kids to explore and then evaluate the world considering what God has made. In the Attentiveness unit, children examine bird beaks and guess the kind of food each bird eats. After they reason an answer, the children then observe the birds to check their answers. True discovery learning is more interested in the process of thinking than it is in the product of an answer. If children are fed step-by-step instructions, they never learn to think...Discovery learning fosters not only thinkers, but creative thinkers."
Even my preschooler was able to learn and participate at her own level with so many of the subjects we touched on. We had so much fun with these unit studies and are super excited to continue with them next year!
Handwriting Without Tears :: This resource was helpful for sure. I am a big believer in having good penmanship. I think it shows good discipline. I think initially that is why I purchased the first workbook in this series. It shows how to properly write each upper case and lower case letter in the alphabet, and while my kindergartener already knew how to write each letter, I had noticed that there were a handful that she wasn't writing quite right. I think if you have a child that hasn't learned how to write yet, this would be a great place to start. However, I found it to be repetitive in our situation, and I strongly believe that handwriting can be practiced by simple copy work, which we were already doing several times a week.
Explode the Code :: This curriculum is a great resource for phonics lessons. It's a series of short lessons that help blend sounds to continue to be more proficient in reading. Super easy to use! My only complaint would be that sometimes the pictures are hard to decipher. They all look like the above image except in black and white. Every once in awhile we couldn't quite tell what the picture was of. Haha!
240 Vocabulary Words Kids Need to Know - Grade 1 :: I didn't like this one. It was fairly boring to use, so we put it to the side half way through the book. I have a new vocabulary resource that we will be using next year that I'm excited to share about soon!
Life of Fred :: This math curriculum was honestly really cute and fun. Ivy really loved it. The lessons were short and interactive and she had a lot of fun with it. However, we only used the first book, which took us through about November. After we finished the first book in this series, I feared that it was a bit too vague and loose in its instruction and I wondered if we needed something more traditional, which is what led us to Math Lessons for a Living Education. That said, I really loved this curriculum and can see us returning to it in some fashion down the road. I think it would be a great math supplement for the summer months for sure! A way to keep kids in the game throughout summer but without it being too much.
Math Lessons for a Living Education :: I loved this one! It teaches math lessons through a creative story and it made math so much fun! It's the story of a twin brother and sister that spend the summer on their grandparent's farm. Using this curriculum, Ivy actually asked to do math! You really can't ask for more!
The Peaceful Preschool :: This one is another total win! It is literature and project based and so very easy to use! It includes weekly lessons, a sample daily schedule, memory verses, book lists, supplies lists, and several printable files. It is, hands down, one of my favorite curriculums I have come across so far. I used it fairly consistently for the first couple of months before I realized my three year old just wasn't interested in sitting down with us to do school. And I was okay with that! So I set it aside and hope to start it up again this year.
So there it is! Researching curriculum is one of my favorite things to do. There is so much out there and narrowing it down is so difficult! So I really appreciated being able to read reviews from people as I finalized my list for the year. But the very best part about curriculum? You can change it up whenever you want and as often as you want! I'm not married to any one thing and I love that if something isn't working, we just go back to the drawing board.
I have almost all of my curriculum and resources purchased for the 2018-2019 school year, and will be doing a post on those soon! Hope everyone is having a fun and relaxing summer break!
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