Robinson Curriculum

I have posted before about how we use the Robinson Curriculum as the base for our home education. Here is the link to the first part of a series about the Robinson Curriculum. If you are looking for a curriculum to use or maybe you think it might be time for a change, check it out!

Introduction to Robinson Curriculum

I talk about our use of the Robinson Curriculum here:

Self-Taught Education

Rush Revere Giveaway!

School Planning

School Planning

As I have mentioned before, I am pretty much set with our schooling for this year. We plan on starting September 17th. One of the things I had been putting off was creating our schedule for the day. It is usually one of the most stressful things to try to figure out who will practice piano when, the individual lessons for the younger children, who will cook meals on what nights, etc. so I just kept procrastinating. Well, I knew with us starting in two weeks and the baby possibly deciding to arrive before then that I shouldn't put it off any longer.

So, earlier this week I poured myself a glass of Plexus Slim and sat at my computer and got to work. I am surprised at how quickly I was able to work out all the details. What normally takes me an hour to start with and then a week of revamping, I had done in about an hour. I did have two of my older girls look over it to see if I had missed something or made any mistakes, and I had made a few small mistakes, but those took less than 15 minutes to figure out and fix.

The interesting thing is that I did this in the afternoon. For as long as I can remember (for at least the past 20 years), afternoons have always been the hardest for me to accomplish anything. I usually hit the wall around 2:30 in the afternoon and need to take a nap (and by nap, I mean at least an hour nap). I used to figure if I don't get it done before lunch, it wouldn't get done because after lunch I just slow down. I didn't sit down (which means I had been busy until then) until about 3:00 in the afternoon to start working on the schedule and I was alert and could think clearly. Even after finishing the schedule, I worked on some laundry, picked up around the house, and helped get dinner ready.

I attribute this change to my body healing and to the natural energy that comes from the natural ingredients. I never had the sustained energy I now experience from drinking a cup (or two) of coffee! I'm sure my family appreciates how much more I am able to accomplish in a day. One would think that a mother of soon to be 13 would be experiencing more and more tiredness, not more and more energy. I am so thankful God led me to Plexus to help me with the ministry of motherhood to which He has called me.

For those who are interested in what we do for schooling, here is a brief explanation. We use the Robinson Curriculum as the base for our education. I have taken the Robinson book list and adapted it for our needs. Some of the books I replaced with books on the same topic that we already owned. I also added some books that I feel are important for my children to read. We also do not follow Saxon math all the way through as so far my girls aren't planning on college, but rather would like to own their own businesses or hope their future husbands own their own businesses. Instead of the higher level Saxon math, we have them do a year of personal finance (using Dave Ramsey's Financial Foundations) and then a year of business math (Rod & Staff's Recordkeeping). We also always do a separate Bible class, but we have not decided for sure what we are doing for this year. I am waiting for my husband to make the final call on a particular study. If he hasn't decided by the time we start school, I have a few options of short studies we can do until he decides.

I kept my oldest (who graduated this past summer) on the schedule for this year as she will be helping around the house and possibly with some of the schooling when she isn't working outside the home. I decided not to add the baby on the schedule because the baby will just be eating and sleeping most of the day and we'll just work that in our schedules (that and I'm running out of space if I want to keep it all on one page!).

If you have any questions about Plexus or our schooling, please feel free to ask!

Self-Taught Education

About five years ago, I was introduced to the Robinson Curriculum. While I don't follow the curriculum exactly as it is intended, I love using it as my base.

The Robinson Curriculum was born out of a need because the wife of a college professor died while they still had young children in the home. The books provided in the curriculum were because they were quality books already in their personal library. For that reason, I "replaced" some of the books with books that we already owned on the same topics. Also, having an English major and being a former public school English teacher, there were some books that I desired my children to read that weren't on the list and of course, I needed to add books for our state history and constitution.

Also, because our children are not desiring to go to college (at least at this point), I have altered the math curriculum a little bit by not going as high in the Saxon math and incorporating some personal finance and business math (because they do plan on having home-based businesses).

Another difference, is that with the younger children, I tend to lean toward a Charlotte Mason/Notebooking approach with them.

With the curriculum, they are to write every day. I then check them for grammar, dictation, etc. They can choose to write on anything they desire (except I require them to write on whatever they are reading for school on Fridays). Sometimes they choose to write stories, sometimes they ask if they can copywork out of the Bible, sometimes they will do extra research and write on a topic of their choice.

I have loved how they choose what they "study" and will go much further than I expect them to go. I am also surprised at what interests them. They may be introduced to something in their reading and then choose to study more (like Cora studied spiders!).

Another surprising side-effect is that they will continue to explore topics outside of school as well. Sabra has been reading about David Farrogut in Fifty Famous Stories (which is included in the Robinson Curriculum) and she is enjoying learning about him. Every day she was coming to me telling me something that she found fascinating. Yesterday, she took it upon herself to start writing her thoughts about him. She wrote 5 pages and this is in addition to her normal, daily writing!

David Farrogut is someone who I don't think she would have encountered in other curriculums, but I'm glad that she is reading about him because it is sparking a love of learning.

Do you homeschool? What do you like about homeschooling? What do you love about the curriculum you use?

Rush Revere Giveaway!

As some of you know, I am a former public school English teacher and now an home school mom. Both of those aspects of my life add to my love for books--good books!

We use Robinson Curriculum as our base for our school, but with being a book lover, I, of course, have my favorites that I have added to our required reading list (and I'll probably continue to add books as I find new favorites!). I have also taken books that we already own and "replaced" books from the Robinson list on the same subjects to keep me from having to either print the books, find them in thrift stores, or download on the kindle.

Here is what our reading list currently looks like:

To see the entire file, go here.

If you would like to see all the grades an the books listed, click on the link in the caption of the photo above. The first column says whether the book is original to the Robinson book list or what I've added. The second column is the grade level (although I may be changing the grade level of a few books--I'm still contemplating). The next column is the book title and the next the author. The fifthe column is what "subject" I have placed the book although some of the books can fit into more than one subject. The sixth column just lets my children know where to look for the book in our personal library (my two oldest have their own kindles, we have one family kindle, and I also have a kindle reader on my iPad). The last two columns is for my children to fill out when they start and end a book.

I have shared this information on part of our school (our mathematics program isn't here), as an introduction to a giveaway!

If you click and open the entire file, you will see that in 9th grade, I have my children read Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims by Rush Limbaugh. It is an entertaining book on the subject of colonial times. My oldest is the only one who has read it so far and she wrote a brief review of the book.

Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims is a good book. It makes you look at what the pilgrims did and felt instead of what happened to them. It also teaches not to look at the outward appearance--look on the inside. 

The only thing I dislike about this book is the magic. Other than that, it is a great history book. ~ Dara, age 14

Rush Limbaugh has other Rush Revere books already in print and I will most likely find them at some point and if they are as good as this first book, add them to our reading list as well.

I have a copy of Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims to giveaway!

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