Mid-Year Curriculum Review (4th and 12th Grade), including Sonlight D

 Mid-Year Curriculum Review for 4th Grade

Sonlight D US History 1 with Readers 3

We are working through the new Sonlight D with some of the older books added in from the 2017 version.  We're also reading the regular readers + the advanced readers.  So, it is going to take a big chunk of time to get through this Sonlight level.  I'm expecting to be finished by the end of next summer.  I'm ok with that, because some of the books in this level are some of Sonlight's best selections.

I am not using Sonlight's Bible selections this year - I substituted 100 Bible Stories (Concordia Publishing House), My First Catechism (Lutheran) and The Apostles (Adventures in Faith).  We are almost finished with 100 Bible Stories and My First Catechism.  Both are excellent.

Some of my son's favorites from Sonlight D this year are:

• Explore Native American Cultures!
• Pocahontas and the Strangers (this is from the 2017 version)
• Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims
• The Corn Grows Ripe

Math

We switched from Wild Math to Beast Academy + IXL 4th Grade Math Workbook.  I should've stayed with Wild Math.  He enjoyed that program so much more.  We're using the online version of Beast Academy and the timers in the exercises stress him out.  He did learn a lot from the IXL workbook, but he doesn't like the repetitive exercises.  I've resorted to teaching math without a curriculum, adding in some project-based math (which he really likes) and using Beast Academy as a supplement.  In other words, I really messed up his math this year, but he is still making progress with it.

Language Arts

Early on, we dropped Masterbooks LA, because it was a terrible fit for him.  There's also no real support in their Facebook group for parents who are having difficulties with their curriculum due to dyslexia or learning issues.  I taught him the parts of speech without a curriculum.  We are also using Mad Libs for fun.  He's doing free writing, which he loves.

All About Spelling is a giant thumbs up.  Very dyslexia-friendly, also.

Handwriting without Tears = no complaints.  Super self-explanatory and simple to use.

I have stopped using Barton at level 4, because his reading has just taken off.  Barton got him reading when no other reading program could.

Science

We are using Abeka's 4th grade science textbook, Understanding God's World.  This is super simple to teach from.  I just have the textbook, which I understand there's a workbook and teacher's manual, but he is not going to want to fill out workbook pages.  I read the lesson with him and we do the short lab/demonstration at the end of each lesson.  We do the review questions out loud together.

I have really enjoyed teaching from this textbook.  My son loved the birds unit.  We took a rabbit trail from the animal unit to read a bunch of library books about animals, but we will return to the textbook afterwards.  

All of the labs/demonstrations have worked and they use simple objects from around the house.

French

We're watching the French with Mr. Innes series on Youtube and I think this is my son's favorite subject.  These videos are excellent for elementary-aged kids.  He has a more complete curriculum on his website that we intend to subscribe to when we finish the YouTube series.

Art

Artistic Pursuits Book 1 is going well.  Sometimes, he does not want to do the exercises in the book, but wants to do his own art, which is fine.  He's filled up an entire sketchbook this semester.

Mid-Year Curriculum Review for 12th Grade

My 12th grader is actually supposed to be an 11th grader (if she went to public school - she just turned 17 a couple of weeks ago).  But, she started taking college classes in August and is only doing three home made courses with me this year.  I'm graduating her in May.

Personal Finance

We use Mathusee Stewardship for this subject and it's also excellent.  No complaints.

Classical Literature

We put this list together ourselves and it's been a great list of books.  She's read almost the entire list at this point, so she will probably be finished in January.  Her list includes:

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Sophocles' The Three Theban Plays
• Beowulf
• Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
• Shakespeare's Poems and Sonnets
• Shakespeare's MacBeth --> she's currently here in the list
• Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream

Dual enrollment courses at the college

She's taking English 1301 (Composition 1) and Kinesiology 1164 (Intro to Health and Physical Fitness).  She has 100% in both classes.  Since it's almost time for finals, I'm assuming she will end the semester with a 4.0.  She's registered for English 1302 and US History 1 for the spring semester.

The one thing I would be wary of with dual enrollment classes is adult content in the classes.  My student is a minor, so that was a topic I was concerned with.  So far, we have not had any problems and she likes her professors.  

Review of Sonlight C with Hands-on History Box

 We are finishing up Sonlight C World History 2 with the Hands-on History Box (five day version).  I can't find a publishing date in the Instructor's Guide, but I purchased the guide in 2023 from Sonlight's website.  This level is meant for ages 8-10 or grades 3-5.  

Things We Liked

• A Child's History of the World - he really enjoyed listening to this book last year and this year
• Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky
• Time Traveler
• Red Sails to Capri
• Sticks Across the Chimney
• Tales of Robin Hood
• Watching the old Kevin Costner/Morgan Freeman movie Robin Hood after reading the book - he loved that movie
• Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great - this was his favorite book of the year
• Captain Nobody - another favorite - even I liked this book
• With Two Hands
• The Hands-on History Box - he loved the projects in here.  He would get excited every week when there was a project scheduled
• Reading outside - we read a lot of the read-alouds in the driveway when the weather was nice and that was very enjoyable

Things We Had a Hard Time With

• The reading pace - we are never able to keep up with the Instructor's Guide.  It's just too fast.
• Sonlight 2nd Grade Readers - Because I used Sonlight's Language Arts the year before, I tried to use it again this year and was unsuccessful.  My 3rd grader has severe dyslexia and he needs to use a dyslexia-specific reading curriculum.  We switched halfway through the year to Barton Reading, which is a program written specifically for dyslexia.
• The Timeline Book and figures - I like the Timeline, but I can't get him interested in it
• AudioMemory's Geography Songs - This might have something to do with dyslexia, but the songs in this book stressed him out and we had to stop about halfway through

Thoughts on Getting Through World History 2

• It took longer than a school year for us to get through the level.  We spent almost a calendar year on it and that's ok.  They're great books and I don't want to be stressed out while reading them, worrying that we won't catch up to the pace in the Instructor's Guide.
• We skipped a couple of the books after I looked at samples of them and that's ok, too.  He's dealing with dyslexia and after looking at a sample of Strawberry Girl, I knew he would struggle with the language and how it was written (even just listening to it).  I don't think anyone is able to follow the Instructor's Guide exactly and do every single thing written in the schedule.  
• Some of the Hands-on History Box projects were very difficult, like the Wright brothers' glider.  I basically put that entire project together while he watched.  However, it wasn't a waste, because he was at Cub Scouts and the leader asked a question about the Wright brothers and my son was the only scout able to answer, because he remembered the glider.
• Supplements - I used this website a LOT: https://roadstoeverywhere.com/homeschooling/supplementing-sonlight/supplementing-sonlight-core-c/  She lists supplemental activities for each of the Level C books.  For example, when we read Red Sails to Capri, we looked at actual pictures/videos of the Blue Grotto and it makes the book come alive.  My son became interested in the grotto after seeing the pictures and we ended up watching YouTube videos about it and reading about the Roman archeological finds in the grotto.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable curriculum.  I would've loved to do "school" like this when I was a kid.  I have already bought Sonlight D American History 1 for the fall.

Sonlight B World History 1 End-of-Year Review

 My 8 year-old is finishing Sonlight B World History 1 this week.  We used the History, Bible and Literature portion of B.  He also finished Sonlight Reading/Language Arts 1 and has just started Reading 2.

For Sonlight B, he really enjoyed the Hands-on History Box.  The glue that came in the box was not very good, but we easily used a hot glue gun.  Every project worked and the instructions were really good.  His favorite projects were:

• the Chinese dragon
• the Trojan horse
• the Roman chariot

Our favorite from the Bible portion:

• The Ology - this was a great book.  As a Lutheran, I was worried about it conflicting with what we believe, but it didn't.  We both enjoyed this book

Our favorites from the History portion:

• A Child's History of the World - he retold some of the stories I read to him from this book.  I thought these stories might be too complicated for him, but he liked them and understood them just fine
• Tut's Mummy, Lost and Found
• The Great Wall of China

Our favorites from the Literature portion:

• National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
• Mr. Popper's Penguins
• The Year of Miss Agnes
• Word of Mouse
• Henry Huggins
• Charlotte's Web
• Happy Times in Noisy Village

He had a hard time telling me which book was his favorite (I think he liked almost all of them), but he says Henry Huggins was his favorite.  

Timeline Book

• I liked this more than he did, but I think it's because he can't quite grasp time periods in history yet.

Books he had a hard time with:

• Mountain Born
• Catching Their Talk in a Box
• Sing the Word: A New Commandment (music CD)

More Planning 2023-2024 3rd Grade

 I'm looking through my plans for the fall after the results from the dyslexia assessment.  Here's what I'm thinking:

Math

• Singapore Math (continuing, because he's doing well with it, but we are both missing Wild Math.  If he gets tired of Singapore, I'll go back to Wild Math)
• Math board games (using math games really made a big difference this year)

Reading/Language Arts

• I decided to continue with Sonlight Reading/Language Arts
• Handwriting without Tears 
• Explode the Code (adding this back in there)
• All About Spelling

Sonlight C World History 2 (Bible, history and literature)

• I bought the 5-Day program and I think I'm going to allow us to spend longer than one school year on it.  I think maybe I might stretch it out to 12-18 months, so we don't feel rushed.  That would give him time to catch up in learning how to read, because the next Sonlight level has readers that match the history.
• I bought the Hands-on History Box for C and we're still using the Timeline book

Science

• Apologia's elementary series (currently in Land Animals of the Sixth Day)

Fine Arts

• Draw Write Now series
• Piano class

Using Sonlight for Kids with Dyslexia

 Since the 8 year-old's dyslexia assessment results last week, I'm reading as much as I can about using literature-based curricula (specifically Sonlight) for kids with dyslexia.  Here's some blog posts and links I've found:

https://blog.sonlight.com/literature-rich-homeschool-dyslexia.html

https://blog.sonlight.com/dyslexia-myths.html

https://learningabledkids.com/reading/first-year-overcoming-dyslexia-through-homeschooling.htm

https://www.bfbooks.com/Homeschooling-With-Dyslexia

https://homeschoolingwithdyslexia.com/wp-content/uploads/Homeschool-Curriculum-Guide-Homeschooling-With-Dyslexia-1-1.pdf

https://homeschooling4him.com/homeschooling-your-child-with-dyslexia/

https://raisingtheextraordinary.com/dyslexia-literature-curriculum/

https://growingngrace.com/2017/04/13/literature-rich-curriculum-with-dyslexic-adhd-kids/

I need to make a giant cup of coffee and read through all of these.  Part of my brain says using a literature-based curriculum would be a terrible idea for someone with severe dyslexia, but he's been using it all year and really enjoys it.  I'm worried about what happens with HBL D when the readers match the history and you can't choose readers from different reading levels.

The Screwtape Letters - audiobook and extra resources (free)

 We are finishing up The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  In the book, Screwtape is a demon/devil who is writing letters to his nephew, Wormwood.  In the letters, he's instructing Wormwood on how to corrupt a particular human and commenting on different aspects of the human's life and events that occur.  Themes in the book include relationships, marriage, war, compassion, cowardice, hell, temptation, humans' relationships with God, the ultimate goal of demons and Satan, etc.

This is about my third reading through the book.  This time, we decided to listen to the audiobook version.  

On Youtube, there is an audiobook version of the book narrated by John Cleese and it is excellent!  This audiobook is an abridged version, but it's really only condensed by a couple of chapters.

We used Sparknotes to get through the book.  Several of the chapters are difficult to work through and we needed some extra help.

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/screwtape-letters/

This website has a book summary, individual chapter summaries, literary devices, essay topic suggestions, and in-depth character analyses.

The audiobook + Sparknotes turned out to be excellent.  I'm working though this book with the 14 year-old and she has been able to follow everything with no problem.  She said this was her favorite book so far this year.

If anyone would like to hear C.S. Lewis actually speaking, go onto Youtube and search for "C.S. Lewis' surviving BBC radio address."  He's giving a talk about how God doesn't experience time like humans do - where we have a past, present and future timeline.  God and Heaven doesn't experience time the same way.  It's fascinating.

Planning: Late 1st grade/Early 2nd grade

 This is going to be a series of posts about planning, since we are finishing lots of things and starting new things.  I'm going to start with the 6 year-old 1st grader, who is turning 7 in a few weeks and would be a 2nd grader in the fall.

It's important to remember that we school year-round, so we usually start/finish curriculum at odd times.  I also drop/change things if the kids don't like something.

I do not know how long it will take to get through these things, but I plan to take a full calendar year to get through the Sonlight core.

Math

• Mathusee Alpha  
• I am switching him from Miquon.  I love Miquon, but it's not quite right for him.  I need him to slow down a bit.  Mathusee is similar, in that it uses the blocks.  He really needs the blocks/Cuisinaire rods.

Language Arts

• Handwriting
• Just keep chugging along with Handwriting without Tears workbooks.  The workbooks are cheap and get the job done.
• Funschooling's Storytelling Book- this is a book with nothing but cute pictures of different scenes.  The idea is, your child looks at one page per day and tells you a story based off the pictures.  You can then transcribe your child's story onto paper.
• Funschooling Curious Creatures Notebook - this is basically a blank journal full of pictures he can color, lines he can write on, etc.  I'm just going to try this to get him writing/coloring. He can write whatever he wants in it.

Reading/Phonics

• Explode the Code - we're continuing this series.  It's like spelling, phonics and handwriting altogether in a workbook
• Sonlight 2nd Grade Readers

Bible/History/Literature/Geography

• Sonlight Core B (World History 1) - I bought the Instructor's Guide and the Bible, poetry and history spines.  The rest of the books I plan to get at the library, if I don't already own them.  I also bought the Timeline Figures, the Timeline and the Hands-on History box.  I'm going to do the 5-Day a Week + 2nd grade Readers.

Science

• Interest-led - we'll do whatever he wants to do - read library books, do some Magic School Bus kits, whatever he thinks looks like fun

Links:

Mathusee Alpha

Handwriting without Tears

Funschooling

Explode the Code

Sonlight Core B