How I Homeschooled The Elementary Years
Homeschooling the elementary years were good years.
I wish I had enjoyed them more by just chilling out and not being so stressed out about all of it.
Of course I didn’t know what the final result of our homeschooling would be so I was worried. But now I know that any diligent parent really can’t mess these years up. There is an abundance of resources out there. It really is very easy to homeschool the elementary years and it’s easy enough to do with limited financial resources.
When I first decided to try homeschooling, I went to the library and borrowed over a dozen books on the subject. Only one book stood out and that was The Well Trained Mind by Susan Bauer and Jesse Wise (the first edition). I can honestly say that this book changed the way I viewed children and development.
This book was my homeschooling Bible. I reread it numerous times and found a great deal of comfort in it’s recommendations. Something about that book made me feel like homeschooling was within my reach.
While reading it, confusion started clearing and a vision began to form. The book helped me to see what an education COULD be. I loved it.
I know it’s been through a few revisions so I can’t attest to what it may say in the current edition, especially because I know that Bauer has since produced several curriculum programs herself.
If you are familiar with the classical education method, you will know that history (taught chronologically) is the foundation on which the child’s education is built on. Everything the book said made complete sense to me and I knew that was what I wanted for my kids.
In the beginning, I tried to perfectly follow the book’s recommendations but as the years wore on, I definitely dropped and adapted most of it. Nonetheless, the principles of classical education stuck with me. I took it’s methods and made it work for me and my family.
History
So, if you want a short answer for what I used for history, I would say Sonlight. We really loved the book selections and I bought most of what they offered. Die hard classical education people would point out that Sonlight is not considered to be chronological history. This is true but this was one of the first concessions I made. I am an avid reader and my kids are too. We just loved the book selections that Sonlight put together.
We read the books in the order that Sonlight put them in, but I didn’t use the teacher’s guides. I found them to be too detailed and fussy. My kids and I always had in depth discussions about what we were reading (which I later found out there was an official name for what I did: the Socratic Method) and I just let our conversations flow. It just felt more natural that way.
In an effort to give more classical structure to their history, we also used Susan Bauer’s Story of the World series. I bought the audio books and we would listen to them in the car or at night as bedtimes stories and my kids loved them. The series is very well done and gives a great overview of history.
I also appreciated how Bauer tried to be as objective as possible when writing. The one thing I have learned about history is that none of us were there and everyone has their own opinions, views and motives. This all makes “studying” history very difficult as you constantly have to keep in mind the human being who is writing what you are reading.
So I tried to avoid authors who clearly had an agenda to push. Life is not black and white. Life is full of struggle and uncertainty and I want my kids to know that.
The elementary years of Story of the World have student activity sheets you can buy to go along with the books, but I don’t think they are necessary, unless you want more workbook activity for your kids.
English/Language Arts
For grammar, I still think Rod and Staff is the best and most thorough curriculum out there. It is so affordable and very easy to use. The directions are straightforward, my kids were able through the books themselves and I checked their work. It is published by the Mennonites for use in their schools. Their grammar is very complete, easy to understand with no frills and taught to a level you will not see in the public schools.
Writing is my strongest subject so I never found a program I actually used. I just did my own thing until high school. When I struggled with the decision to homeschool the two subjects that I was most worried about was math and science. But it turns out that math and science are the easiest to homeschool because the answers are specific. It’s either right or wrong. But with writing, there is great deal of subjectivity, personal preferences and writing styles to consider.
People have trouble with writing because a student needs regular and frequent feedback in order to improve. The most important thing to do when they are young in order to develop good writing later on is to read, read, and read. Make sure 70-80% of what your child reads is quality literature. As they get old enough to truly write, they will mimic what’s in their head.
Copying good writing (like Benjamin Franklin did) is also another good way to get writing practice.
With spelling, I have found that people either have it or they don’t. My daughter is just not a good speller. It’s crazy because she is a voracious reader so I could never understand why she could not spell. No matter what program or book I bought it just never improved. So my last ditch effort was when she got her first phone. The deal was that she was not allowed to use texting language. She had to write everything out using proper grammar and punctuation. I also disabled auto correct and spell check on phones and computers. Other than that, there wasn’t much I could do.
Handwriting is still important, including cursive. When my boys were little, I didn’t really push cursive because 1. they’re boys and didn’t like handwriting to begin with and 2. everyone said cursive was dead so I was uncertain if I should spend so much time pushing something if it was going to be dead.
But then one day as we passed the mall, my one son asked me what the scribble sign was and I realized he couldn’t read Lord & Taylor because it’s in cursive! haha! So I taught them cursive.
As of now, handwriting is necessary because when they take standardized tests, the essays are still all written by hand. I am assuming a time will come when essays will be done on the computer but I have no idea how they would deal with the logistics of that so I don’t think it will be any time soon.
There are plenty of handwriting books out there. There are all good as is just getting a notebook and writing out letters for your child to copy.
Which also leads to, find a kid typing program/game and start typing lessons YESTERDAY. Speed and accuracy are absolutely vital!!!
Math
Horizons and Saxon.
I have tried EVERY SINGLE math curriculum available but these two are the traditional and thorough ones.
I tried all the fancy, cutting edge, how-to-teach math books out there and have owned just about every available math manipulative, but they are all sorely lacking in one thing or another.
And no matter how many times I would try the newest(!) from Asia(!) top scores(!) math program, I always came back to Horizons and Saxon.
I used Horizons and Saxon simultaneously because I was afraid one would miss something. If you read curriculum reviews, you know the helpless feeling you get because there is so much conflicting information out there. So I figured that by using two I’d have all my bases covered. And honestly, the early years are pretty easy and lessons go fast, so it’s easy enough to get two done.
If I had to pick only one, it would have been Horizons. It’s more colorful and my kid enjoyed it, particularly in the older elementary years. Saxon can get really dry.
Science
Apologia is usually the gold standard for homeschoolers. IMO, science in the younger years falls more on the enrichment side.
To do well in high school science, you just need a very strong math foundation. So during the younger years, science is more about nature study and following the childs interests. This is where I do think child-led works fine.
Personally, I really disliked the younger sciences because doing science experiments and the accompanying clutter and chaos drove me nuts. And as my husband pointed out, it was a poor use of my time causing me intense stress.
I could spend a whole day (or days) preparing, executing and cleaning up from just one science project. And I was miserable to boot because it went against my clutter free ways! This is where co-ops and homeschool activities came in very handy. There was always someone in one of my many groups organizing a field trip so we went to plenty of those. My kids would see their friends, make new ones and could do all the messy stuff there!
At home, we read lots of science books and I would also buy them big science kits and toys and let them play with them on their own.
Extra
And now, one more thing I would add, considering our times, would be coding. With our children’s generation (and I’m sure all future ones) coding is like writing. So I would absolutely have my kids learn that. You can find tons of resources online.
Then there are music lessons (piano and guitar are useful), sports and clubs of all kinds.
When they are little, think about what kind of activities will help to shape the kind of people you want them to be. Have a dream and vision of what kinds of skills you want your kids to have and use that as a guide as you choose activities.
Just remember that you too are learning. You will take time to figure things out. Mistakes will be made and that’s OK. One of the best things about homeschooling is that it’s so easy to change course. If something doesn’t work for you or your child, just get rid of it and try something else! You don’t need anyone’s permission to change anything.
Good luck!
