So why fight it? I'm not going to wake up tomorrow and not have ADHD. I will blog when I am inspired to blog, and I will not feel guilty about not blogging when I am not inspired to blog.
This past school year went really well, I thought. I tried many things with the children, and some of them worked. They learned many things from life, and in many cases they learned in spite of my efforts.
Overall, I have learned that we do best with structured but child-centered programs that are very interactive and don't involve a lot of busywork on the part of the teacher or child.
I will make a short list of what worked for us, what kind of worked, and what didn't really work. I will do more extensive reviews of programs that were our favorites:
WHAT WORKED:
- Homeschool Spanish Academy: Bee took lessons via Skype once a week from a native speaker in Guatemala. I will write more about this school later, but I really can't say enough good things about it.
- All About Spelling: I am still in love with this program. This will be my third year to use it.
It works well for my logical thinkers. I think that Bee is a more auditory learner, and it has helped him vastly, and Bug has learned a lot from it too, and he is a more visual learner and a very natural speller. I am so impressed how well the program works for both of them. - WriteGuide: I hired an online tutor through this company to help Bee with this writing, since I was tired of struggling to plan something only to have him sit at the computer for 2 hours and then find out that he had written nothing. He really responded much better to the tutor than he does to me, even though she tells him a lot of the same things that I have been telling him. I just think it's a lot more exciting for him to write to someone who is not Old Mom.
- Life of Fred Elementary Series: Bee LOVES Life of Fred. He will take several to bed with him and read them on his own.
- Field trips for history and science. Obvious, but yup. We found that we enjoy field trips more as a family. When we go with a bunch of our friends, the kids are much more distracted and just want to play.
- Documentaries for history and science: I'm amazed at how much my kids learn from these.
- Swim team at the YMCA: Great PE activity for noncompetitive homeschooled children. Had a great coach who is also a homeschooling mom.
- Private piano lessons: Great for any kid, homeschooled or not. We were lucky to find a great teacher who is also a homeschooling mom.
- LONG park days and beach days and afternoons at the bounce house place.
- Magic School Bus science kits. Bug is loving these! He also loves the videos.
- Math Minute workbooks. I had the 5th grade one for Bee, and it was a nice supplement to use with Life of Fred to make sure he is familiar with the math that kids in traditional schools are learning.
- Real Science for Kids Chemistry: I had the sense that I had failed at that, but I looked back on my blog and saw that we actually did 10/12 chapters. After that, however, my enthusiasm waned. I found the experiments took a little more time for me to prepare than I would have liked. Still, I do think it's a good series and may consider using it again.
- Crash Course History: We started the world history. Bee loved it. There are a few off-color jokes, but I'm pretty sure they went over his little head.
- Setting the boys free on their reading: They read books that they chose and lots of them. Bee has become a voracious reader; he especially loved the Warriors series this year. I can't believe that Bug was only doing BOB books a year ago! Now he giggles himself to sleep with Captain Underpants. They are both allowed to read after they go to bed, and they often get an hour or two of reading in.
- Lesson Tracker (app for OS devices). Best record keeping app I have ever tried. No, I didn't keep it up all year, but I kept it up more than I have anything else. I plan to use it again. I will write a more thorough review later.
- Learning from Life: Letting Bug (kindergarten) learn almost exclusively through living books, conversation, play, and life in general. I am sure that Bee learned more this way as well than from anything I did with him. The most important lessons will always come from life experience; they cannot be taught.
- ASK Science Kit: I started this with Bee, but he hasn't been too enthusiastic about it. I hope to pick it back up.
- BigBrainz Multiplication: Bee got bored of it. Still, he is getting better at his multiplication. Bug learned some multiplication from it and will probably master his facts with it one day.
- Handwriting: This is torture for both boys. Bee's print is getting better. Bug (who was only in K last year) was very resistant about it. Honestly, there are so many more important things for them to work on that I don't push handwriting as hard as I might.
- Speekee Spanish: I started it with Bug, but we didn't finish it.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
- Michael Clay Thompson language arts: I thought I should try this because my kids are gifted (so I believe anyway), and Hoagie's Gifted website said that gifted kids NEED Michael Clay Thompson. Bee calls him Boring Clay Thompson. And I can't blame him.
- A Little History of the World: Neither Bee nor Bug liked it much.
- History Pockets: Felt like it was too much work for me. I may try it next year but only with Bug because he is more interested in crafts. I hate going to so much trouble for Bee on something like that, only to have him plod through it painfully, so that he can get back to reading a book or playing Minecraft.
- Feltboard. I failed at using the feltboard.
Writing this all out has made me feel a lot better because I see that so much of what we did was useful and good. I am excited about next year!
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