What do you do for homeschool?

[LarnaE]

I am trying to put together a plan for the school year. My two that are highschool age are all set, but I am looking for some more things for my 9 year old girl and 11 year old boy. If you can reccommend anything it would be great. I know my 9 year old wants to cook and sew and so we will be doing lots of that. My 11 year old boy wants to be a rock star. He has a guitar and long hair but that is about all. He is real cute if that counts.

[Julie]

This is what I do. I use Sonlight reading books and A Beka text books. I have used Konos too. The lapbooks would make good unit studies. I spent time in the temple to decide what to do and now I have kids who prefer certain ways. What ever you do the more fun you have the more they will remember. Hope this helps - Julie

http://www.sonlight.com/

http://www.abeka.com/

http://www.konos.com/index.html

http://www.liveandlearnpress.com/freebies.php

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/Default.aspx

[LoudmouthMormon]

We hang out with a bunch of abeka/sonlight folks - seems to be a pretty good way to go.

We are following the 'trivium' laid out in the Well Trained Mind book.

[arbilad]

We've been using Accelerated Achievement, but this year we also added some science and English textbooks that a school district bought for us. We're still considered homeschoolers by state law, but now our son attends classes once a week paid for by that school district in a classroom set up especially for homeschoolers.

[prairiemom]

We use a literature/timeline based approach, with a bit of Charlotte Mason/TJEd/WTM stirred in. That's the great thing about hsing, no rules!:l0 (20): I cannot recommend enough the book "All Through the Ages" by Nothing New Press. It compiles the reading lists from Sonlight, Beautiful Feet, Greenleaf Press, Robinson, several others, sorts them by grade, topic, epoch, etc. A little spendy ($28, paperback) but worth its weight in gold.

Have you seen timelinesetc.com? It's LDS. Again, a little spendy but quality, well-thought out materials.

[Julie]

Here is something fun from Konos. I used this program when my son was homeschooling and the kids loved it. My youngest has problems doing something different other than text books but I think I can convince her to do this unit study. I wished I would have found this while my son was serving in Russia. A sister had just got home from her mission to Romania and she explained how they taught about God there. The kids would gather for lunch and they would tell them to pray to God for their lunch and they would have no lunch then they were told to pray to Stalin for their lunch and they would get lunch. They would tell the kids that Stalin was greater than God. This is a unit study they will never forget a goes along with the advice from President Benson to teach our children about these evils. -Julie

"Russia: The Land of Endurance teaches the students ballet movements, so they can choreograph their own version of The Nutcracker, as well as all about the space race, the czars, the Russian Revolution, the wild life of the tundra and taiga, the Russian gymnasts and gymnastics, the Cuban missile crisis, the communist State, and much, much more all while listening to Peter and the Wolf and designing pysanky eggs and painting matryoshka dolls.

Most people would say that younger children cannot understand communism. It is too abstract and too old a concept for young ones to understand. Jessica would say nonsense…just make it hands-on and personal. Have all children get their lunches… not just any, everyday lunch, but a special lunch with treats. Before lunch starts, mom pins on the Soviet flag and informs everyone that she is "the State" and instructs everyone, "There will be no prayers today, because we are an atheist nation believing only in the material world." Further, she instructs everyone to pass his lunch to her. "There is no individual ownership in the communist state. That is not your lunch. It belongs to the State." If anyone protests, she sends him to exile in Siberia (aka the bathroom). Next, mom will begin "redistribution of the wealth". Each child gets one potato chip while "the State" feasts on Hostess Cup Cakes, Ding-Dongs, and ham and cheese sandwiches. Any protesting…off to Siberia. Do the students understand communism after having a KONOS communist lunch? You bet! KONOS takes abstract concepts and packages them in memorable, retainable, fun activities."

Here is another example of a Konos unit study. Sounds like a lot of fun and like I say when they're having fun they are learning and remembering. - Julie

How could ten pages in a textbook fully tell you about the Civil War? The answer is it cannot and it does not. You need to read Across Five Aprils; set up soldiers in battle formations reenacting major battles; memorize the Gettysburg Address; argue Dred Scot's case; sing Stephen Foster songs; read biographies of Harriet Tubman, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln; map the entire conflict on a big map; practice taking black and white photos; make a haversack complete with contents; read about gangrene; dress as Union or Confederate soldiers and have a bivouac; watch Gone With the Wind and Shenandoah; sketch the face of Clara Barton, and have a Civil War Ball. KONOS is about immersion into topics, not just grazing topics.

[hmscarrie]

OMGosh, Julie, I just happened upon this thread and I am so glad it did! I have heard about KONOS, but I had no idea this is what it was about. Thank you so much for the description!

Do you know if they have an immersion unit for the Constitution?

[Julie]

I recommend this book for the constitution. http://karenkindrick.typepad.com/courageous_beings_brains_/b1.html
This is from a previous post.
There is a book out there called "A Noble Birthright: Defenders of the Title of Liberty". I used it one year for school and it is the year my children call the funnest. The kids had to come in colonial costume and we had Captain Moroni come to a tea party and bear his testimony. We had visitors like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, etc... We lived like the colonials and learned what the scriptures had to say about our country. It is an excellent book and it is back in print. I would highly recommend it! Great for family home evenings too.
Chapters in this book are:
Land of Promise
The Lost Colony
Pilgrims
East of Eden - 13 Colonies
Abigail Adams
Colonial Daily Life
Benjamin Franklin
Colonial Town and Trade
Colonial Christmas
George Washington
Sons of Liberty
Patriots
Continental Congress
Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence
Revolutionary War
Articles of Confederation
James Madison
Constitutional Convention
Constitution
Government Today
Hanging by a Thread
Defending the Title of Liberty

NCCS has some good study materials for the constitution too.
http://www.xmission.com/~nccs/

[signseeker]

Is "A Noble Birthright" only a downloaded book? I couldn't seem to see where you can get a hard-copy of it on the website.

Oh, and thanks for saving me from laundry this afternoon... just spent it all on the websites on this thread!

[Julie]

They only have it for a download copy. What you do is down load it and put it on your thumb drive and take it up to a copy place and have them copy and bind it for you. Look for places that have sales on their copies.