Science Shepherd News and review

Science Shepherd is releasing new one year curriculum for elementary kiddos in 2020 and I’m so excited to let my readers know!

We just started using Science Shepherd a few days ago and I wasn’t planning on doing any actual science curriculum until she finished her last year of preschool. But really as far as material she knows concepts and skill wise she’s doing anything from preschool level to 1st grade material at 4.5 years old. Science Shepherd is creation based science researched by the author himself. It is DVD friendly and lessons are just 2-5 minutes long with up to 2-5 questions to answer.

It’s written for grades 1-6 and 2 different workbooks for parents to choose from depending on difficulty and understanding.

It’s engaging and keeps v interested in science. You can see how well she grasps it either on my Facebook page hihomeschool or Instagram.

Starting new homeschool curriculum for 4 year old/last year of preschool

Today we started a bunch of new curriculum and it turns out I am not using Heart of Dakota Little Hearts For His Glory because I switched out too many things but I am an electric homeschoolers who doesn’t do Common Core. What I didn’t know until later is their editions of Singapore was before Common Core. But what’s done is done. The other reasons I didn’t use it is I am not a fan of reading kids chapter books before they even do sight words/beginning to read and I,personally,believe that Geography and History should be alternated year to year.This year we’re doing some geography. We didn’t finish up all of the Little Hands to heaven but if we need something from it we can go back to the guide.

Just today Vicki did Bible(Horizons Preschool for 4 year olds),Devotions(Preschool level understanding Devotions),Math(LOF/Horizons),Writing(Write Shop Primary A), and Art(Artistic Pursuit).We also did some Art(Artistic Pursuits Preschool) which is really easy so far. We looked at the picture and found whatever was asked. Then I had her draw her reflection of the picture we went over. Her drawing was a vase. Kind of looks like one too. I also made an Artistic Pursuits Group on Facebook for homeschooling families that use it because I have not seen a group for Artistic Pursuits.It is a closed group but all homeschoolers are welcome. Artistic Pursuits Support Group

Here is what V covered/mastered so far:

This year she’s gotten better at

*coloring,

*tracing,

*cutting,

*gluing,

*drawing a bit,

*recognizing her ABC both upper and lowercase,

*able to write her nicknames(Vicki/Alli),

*knows her birthday, c

*can count to 5,

*rote counts to 4,recognizes numbers 1-10,

*able to do up to 4 piece puzzles

*tries to follow with her finger while reading.

*Continues to know her primary/secondary colors though we’ve not touched on gray yet.

Bible,(Horizons),Devotions(Preschool level devotions)Art(Artistic Pursuits Preschool),Geography(GeoMatters),Math(Horizons/LOF unless it becomes too challenging for V)Science(Science Shepherd Introducing Science),Writing/Copywork/Literature(Write Shop and Learning Language Arts Through Literature) Goal is to take it slow for mastery so about two years I think but that’s just an estimate. This is actually going to be her last year of preschool then we’re just going to call it school since we do not go by grade levels. By the time she’s done she’ll be around 5 or 5 going on 6. January will make 3 years of homeschooling v. On her birthday we will also take a walk to her local elementary school and file our letter of intent to homeschool that same day. Exciting!

We also have All About Reading and All About Spelling level 1 for both.

We will do everything in small increments or as long she remains interested. Every day will be different too.Will post a review later as we move through the curriculums.

2018/2019

Ok so here’s v’s curriculum for 2018-2019/2020 whenever she finishes the core curriculum . She’s pretty sharp so I’m not sure how fast she’ll zip through these curriculum but I’m not going to push her. However she’ll have more than enough to keep her occupied and challenged.

Alpha Omega Publications Homeschool Division Horizons for Fours(Touch of traditional bookwork just to see how she takes to it)

Handwriting:Common Sense Press Literature Through Language Arts Blue Book(Primarily for writing as I love it has more italic practice than Getty Dubay. If she catches on to other things great)

Queens Homeschool Primer Printing with Pictures

WriteShop Primary for a gentle approach to writing just to see if she takes interest in any form of writing other than letter tracing in the next year. Otherwise we’ll give it a try the following year)

Science:Science Shepherd Homeschool Science Curriculum Introductory Science Level A

Geography;Geography Matters Galloping Around the world

Art:Artistic Pursuits Inc. Preschool

Phonics:All About Learning Press Pre reading/Level 1,phonics/sight word ,rhyming books/readers games etc

Spelling:All About Spelling Level 1

Before you even say anything yes I already know! It seems overwhelming for a 4/5 year old child and I get it! My daughter is pretty sharp and can catch on fast if it’s presented in the right way. So I always try to stay one step ahead of her. As many know our goal in our homeschool is mastery based.

For the core the plan was to do Heart of Dakota Little Hearts For His Glory but I didn’t care for the way the Science The World God Made was written. It was too textbooks of a feel. It’s fine for 8th grade or later for textbooks but I would prefer literature based or other ways of learning prior.At least for me it was too jumpy so for an ex: On day 2 read pages 56-58,87,54 and day 3 read pages 34-36,68,32.(Just for reference these are random examples from my head not the guide itself) so I have had my eye on Science Shepherd Introductory Science for quite some time now. The lessons are very short.

The Toddler’s bible by V Gilbert beers

One year devotions for preschoolers by Crystal Bowman

As mentioned above the plan was to do HOD LHFHG solely along with Alpha Omega Publications Horizons Preschool for review or extra practice. I’ll go more in depth later.

Why I chose Horizons Preschool is if you’ve been following my blog for awhile you already know I don’t like common core at all. I looked through the scope and sequence sequence,skills/concepts,how much bible is incorporated and lastly how mastery based it is alongside BJU and Abeka. BJU has some Common Core . Not only that it’s difficulty find textbooks for BJU after 1/2nd grade written prior to 2009 do I threw it out automatically. I know some homeschool moms don’t mind Common Core so those who do I’m not going to judge because we all have the our own convictions when it comes to it.Between Abeka and Horizons I felt there was more bible connection in the Horizons curriculum. It could be used as a sole curriculum but that’s not how well use it . Not this year at least. Depending how she grasps concepts and how much review she’ll need I **might** order MFW God’s Creation A to Z the guide,student sheets, cousinerre book and rods for ABC. If she doesn’t need that extra practice I won’t order from them. An ex: She can recognize 1-5 with 80% accuracy and rote count up to 5 60% of the time. She can identify 6-10 but not on random request. My goal is to have her rote count up to 10 at least.

Next is handwriting: I chose Common Sense Press LLATL Blue Book mostly because I love the extra practice of italic manuscript they have. In my opinion at least they teach it more slowly and give the child more practice before s/he is expected to try write it independently. Also I love the literature part of it. Getty Dubay doesn’t give much practice and the way the workbook is set up is confusing at least to me it is. If she needs more practice there’s two or three other curriculums she could use for more practice though it’s secular not Christian.

Write Shop Write Shop Primary A is to introduce her to a love for writing. I’m not sure she’ll grasp any or even take interest but we will see. If not this year we’ll try next year.

Science: Science Shepherd as mentioned above the lessons are short and fast. We’re also using the DVD set plus the workbook and answer key for me. I think she might be able to grasp some concepts but we’ll see.

Geography: Geography Matters Galloping the Globe Why Geography? To be very honest I don’t know but I think it’s important to learn both geography and history. I read on a blog that both public and homeschoolers alike don’t emphasize geography a lot. Like for me, I didn’t learn geography until 4th grade and even then we didn’t touch much on it prior to learning history. So I’m thinking of alternating Geography then history every other year up to high school if possible.

Art: Artistic Pursuits Preschool Artistic Pursuits My mom has been telling me to get V on an Art Curriculum prior to K but technically speaking when she’s 5 she’ll be doing 5/6 year old work skill wise but as with most she’s going to be doing various levels of skills/grades. As you see we don’t do grades only mastery based only P or M which means progress or mastery with 80% accuracy. Just recently she’s started to try make a shape so we’ll see how she does or if she takes interest.

Phonics: We are going to continue All About Reading Pre Reading/Level 1

Spelling:All About Spelling Level 1

Of course we’ll continue reading Fred,manipulatives based on where she is skills wise.Phonics,rhyming books

That’s our curriculum for this year! Thanks for reading!

2019-2020 School Year(Tentative)

It is kind of premature to think about what we will use next year for P4(last year of preschool) but providing V continues at her current pace I think Heart of Dakota Little Hearts For His Glory will be too difficult for her.She is just learning her numbers up to 10 and HOD LHFHG goes up to 100. Winter Promise(WP) has a curriculum CM friendly and Unit Study friendly(not as much as HOD but close enough for me) and has a PreK/K curriculum that will teach and build upon her current skills/concepts.I think after that curriculum she will be more than ready for HOD LHFHG.

Phonics and Spelling will be  continuing All About Reading Level 1 and All About Spelling Level 1 unless things change.

Math:Continue Life of Fred Elementary Series  and Eden Series

Reading:Continuing to read books ie rhyming books, short stories etc.

Note on My Father’s World:It was clarified by a former teacher and current homeschool mom that MFW is only Unit Study friendly up to 2nd grade and thereafter it becomes textbookish. That was the vibe I was getting after looking at ECC.They also have a FB pageMFW Official FB Page.

I love to plan ahead and look at different curricula but of course our homeschool is mastery based so I will modify my choices for curricula depending where she is skill wise.I will never push her more than she can handle.Anyone else have an idea what they will be doing for curriculum next year?For a lot of homeschoolers they’re just about done with the year until Fall I believe.Us,we go year around so that doesn’t apply to us,

Happy New Year!

Happy new year!! We have enjoyed our holidays with family even getting A to take picture with Santa. I have a few books about Santa but not a lot. Most are about Jesus’ birth.

We are currently on unit 2 of HOD LHTH and on week 5 of MFW VOD. Surprisingly she’s catching on really fast. Recently she has started to read a book and while that’s only happened once it’s really encouraging! I have a feeling she’ll be reading before 5 possibly.

Whike there’s been a lot of talk about snow I thought we’d do a fun snow activity,Fake Snow

I think she’ll enjoy it!

Language Arts

So,I have some final decisions for Vicki’s language arts. I am trying to keep it as close as I can with no common core and it being a Christ centered as possible.For language arts we are going to be using Queen’s Homeschool Language Lessons For Little Ones and probably for the foreseeable future unless something changes and the other onte is still up in the air but still considering Language Arts through Literature which isn’t as Christ centered as I’d like.For copywork we will be using English Lessons Through Literature Italic(Both Print and Cursive),Language Arts through Literature(Italic).I like Kathy De Vos mostly for the copywork, CM approach and the literature stories behind the subjects + the italic model of handwriting. I am finding that Vicki is really learning well with lots of hands on and through reading literature not to mention we love reading so more reading is a bonus! The Queen’s Homeschool Language Lessons For Little Ones I almost didn’t even consider it. I mean,I considered it because of the CM approach and the short lessons but to be honest some of the reviews for the language lessons for little ones was a bit on the negative side that “it tends to jump around” and the samples on the website wasn’t enough for me but a lot of people have raved so well like any homeschool mom will say you hear the bad and the good…So,upon hearing/reading good reviews and the importance of keeping it Christ centered/biblical if you will,I decided to try look online to see if I could take a look at it by purchasing it used. Well, I just got it and let me tell you,I can understand why some parents feel like it jumps all over the place but as I looked through the books,I can see why its’ written like that.For an ex,’c’ and ‘k’ make a similar sound so it’s grouped together.Or you might see words that begin with the letter t and need to look for words with at and identify t.The lessons are really short literally like 5-10 minutes so it doesn’t take long to do at all.

Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven

This past week Vicki started Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven and My Father’s World Voyage of Discovery. It is going very well so far though we have been using HOD LHTH as the primary core we’re doing almost everything in HOD and about 60% of what’s in MFW Voyage of Discovery.

I really like the way HOD is set up. With HOD it is super easy to teach but unfortunately I think if I were to start it last year with Vicki it would’ve been a bit premature for her as developmentally even for hand games/puppets would ‘scare’ her so in that sense MFW All Aboard The Animal Train was a good choice. It did teach her a lot. I loved that the All Aboard The Animal Train curriculum was in units. In fact, I will admit it is the primary reason we went with it along with the Charlotte Mason Philosophy. But now that I look back and though in HOD Little Hands to Heaven we are just on day 2 of Unit 1 I can say with confidence that she IS retaining way more information from the way HOD is laid out than she ever did with MFW.How can I tell? We’ve done a number of activities since starting HOD and already she can tell me on her own that God created Ba(her blanket),God created me(herself),God created sippy cup,God created Peppers(pepperoni),God created Mom,Grandma and Grandpa…That is not something she did as quickly with MFW.The fact she is retaining information so well already makes me encouraged HOD might be the one to stick with. One thing I’ve seen consistently at least on the website and I expect that through Preschool up to High School will be Charlotte Mason friendly and Unit Study friendly. I am pretty confident that whatever is in the curriculum will work though I will likely edit out a few subjects/books.One thing I saw on Cathy Duffy’s review on MFW after the 2nd grade is that it is not “tightly knitted” into Unit Studies. However even before that I can see it’s not “unit study” friendly as I thought it was. The only one I can say with certainty is Charlotte Mason friendly and Unit Study friendly is MFW All Aboard The Animal Train.IF we do continue with MFW after Voyage of Discovery it will only be up to 2nd grade as I originally intended to do.Something kind of told me to not continue after that so I think that’s probably what we will end up doing.

Vicki recites her bible verse word for word

What a surprise! Today during preschool time we were cutting out a paper dog and I told Vic we’re going to write your bible verse… before I could say a word to start saying her bible verse this girl goes …”Proverbs 17:17 A friend is always a friend “. She got it exactly right! Word for word! It blew me away because she’s never ever recited a bible verse that accurate

Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven

Today Vicki’s Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven came in the mail. Of course as soon as she saw that there was a box it had to be opened.For the HOD LTTH we got the Little Hands to Heaven Guide,the A Child’s First Bible for ages 2-3(1st run through) and The New Bible In Pictures for Little Eyes for ages 4-5(2nd run through).What we chose not to get was the Big Thoughts for Little People and that is because it is also included in the MFW Voyage of Discovery Deluxe Package which is what we are waiting on to arrive…For the 2nd round of HOD LTTH we would need 2 additional items but that is still a way off.I have heard of homeschooling moms who use HOD LTTH through a 2 year span but when that time comes I will see if we can do another year of HOD LTTH or go to the next guide for HOD. That will also depend which we use as the main curriculum and which will just be extra.I *think* it will be MFW VOD but I’m not sure until I look over everything.

Just by looking at it briefly the program looks fantastic. It has little boxes that can be done through the day for an estimated amount 30 minutes a day. For V,I always did child led so even when it comes to preschool I encourage her to do at least 5-15 minutes of preschool whether it’s coloring, flash cards, reading and sometimes through games/play time. More often than not she doesn’t realize she’s doing preschool so with every play (games, toys) it’s very educational and beneficial for her.

I like the format because of the boxes it feels more “relaxed” to use vs MFW’s ‘typical’ schedule. Though I never exactly follow the entire curriculum and do everything that’s suggested I pick and choose what might suit her that day or over a span of several days we do on one day if she’s up to it.We don’t always follow a schedule though we do year around homeschooling.What I often end up doing is marking it finished in the manuel with the date, sometimes I will write notes and review notes as well in there.I could adapt to both ways.

It looks very fun and though it is still somewhat repeatitive it is a lot more fun and games than ABCJesusLovesMe.So, we are probably going to ditch ABCJesusLovesMe and not order the 4 year.We barely use it now so no sense in continuing.I think HOD LTTH and MFW VOD will be more than enough but I will look over MFW VOD just to be sure my decisions are accurate from my notes and what I might expect from Vicki this coming year.

Next year’s curriculum 2018-2019

As Vicki is almost half way finished with My Father’s World All Aboard The Animal Train…I have ordered more books for Units 5-12 that will encourage the concepts and character it teaches. Once she is done with All Aboard The Animal Train we will continue on with MFW Voyage of Discovery but I think it may be a little easy for her so to “bulk” it up I’ve ordered Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven. She’s very sharp and if she’s not challenged she shows no interest.

Main Curriculum:Finishing up MFW All Aboard The Animal Train then move on to MFW Voyage of Discovery
Heart of Dakota Little Hands to Heaven ages 2-5
ABCJesusLovesMe 3 year(Finishing it up, not sure we’ll order the 4 year depending how well Heart of Dakota fits)
Reading:All About Reading Pre Reading(Continuing with the rhyming cards and books)
Considering: Queens Homeschool Language Lessons for Little Ones or All About Reading level 1
Spelling:All About Spelling OR Queens Homeschool Spelling(Undecided)
Unsure of when we will start:Handwriting will be Getty Dubay Italic Manuscript Book A(When she’s ready)
Math:Life of Fred continues
I’m trying to keep everything as Christian and biblical as possible so we’ll probably do Queen’s Homeschool first before we continue further with All About Reading or All About Spelling more than likely.