https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 18 Apr 2026 15:44:06 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918478 Fri, 21 Aug 2020 15:07:10 +0000 bhbee 2918478@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@JCCovi: thank you for listing all your setup out! I'm going to check out history of the world. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918476 Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:58:14 +0000 JCCovi 2918476@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bhbee: @LemonJack: For the first 6 days ours ended up running 9-11:30 (at the latest) and there were play breaks built in. Definitely goes way faster when it’s 1 on 1! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918475 Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:55:15 +0000 JCCovi 2918475@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>2nd:</p> <p>Singapore Math + the computer game Prodigy for 10-15 minutes of reward at the end of the day.<br /> History: Story of the World’s read aloud curriculum.<br /> ELA: Handwriting without tears plus just tons of reading and book reports. My daughter is reading 1-2 chapters a day and answering a worksheet with questions. Then at the end of the book we’re doing book reports.<br /> Science: I’m letting my kids choose topics and then using Teachers pay Teachers to find curriculum (our first unit is frogs and I found a great PowerPoint with worksheets) and we’re supplementing with nonfiction books on the topics and documentaries. I’m adjusting the worksheets to the kid’s levels but they’re learning the same material.</p> <p>Kinder:<br /> Singapore Math<br /> Story of the World<br /> Bob Books and Handwriting without Tears<br /> I bought a spelling curriculum from Teachers pay Teachers and my little guy had his first spelling test today. He misspelled ‘’come’’ and he cried 😭 I realized it was his first ever graded assessment (even though I didn’t assign a grade.)<br /> Same science as his sister above.</p> <p>We’re on day 6 and it’s going really well so far! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918467 Fri, 21 Aug 2020 11:46:15 +0000 bhbee 2918467@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I started Kindergarten Math with Confidence today and I’m excited about it! Flipping through it looks really great. </p> <p>For now, he still has about an hour of zoom with a few storybook videos from his school class. They’ll have small group too next week. But we were able to get through the rest of my stuff pretty quickly, we did a couple writing prompts (he is copying for now) with a drawing, finished a lesson in the reading manual, did 2 math lessons (since the first are very simple). We were supposed to discuss what characters are, so we did that during breakfast using last night’s stories. We reviewed the calendar and all our sight words and word families during snack (I always think learning during eating works well because they sit still). He’s also been really engaged with all the laminated stuff I put on the wall - like he voluntarily counted to 100 using the chart and skip counted tens. My $20 laminator is getting a good workout! And he is very excited about getting stickers for each task and hitting our old Staples “that was easy” button. :grin: </p> <p>@LemonJack: I know first grade is a little more complicated but as I practice more homeschool really does feel manageable and flexible time-wise. Right now I’m thinking I can leave him in his school class also, because his teacher is doing a great job and I think she’ll be flexible if I want to sub assignments. Being prepared is a huge piece of making it run well and as a teacher I’m sure you could do that well!</p> <p>Third grade I haven’t waded into yet. But her teachers have not been engaging and doing both that and supplementing sounds terrible. She’s so disengaged and checked out it’s sad, but supposed to change classes next week so we’ll see. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918416 Thu, 20 Aug 2020 12:39:04 +0000 bhbee 2918416@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LemonJack: I know what you mean - despite teachers’ best efforts our district is a hot mess and what a way to have to start. But trying to give it a little time ... I really like our K teacher (she taught my 3rd grader also) but it’s going to come down to whether I want to try to make zooms work and still deal with supplementing ... just don’t know yet. My kinder boy was not happy to hear he had to zoom again today, but in the end I think he liked it ok and the teacher is doing a great job with what she has ... just it’s still really weird for kindergarten! </p> <p>Actually surprisingly to me, third grader is far less happy. Her zooms have not been engaging and they’re chaotic and she’s so over it. Maybe the teacher is going to be the deciding factor for how much zoom is tolerable, which I guess is like any class, just amplified online. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918410 Thu, 20 Aug 2020 09:45:36 +0000 LemonJack 2918410@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bhbee: That time frame sounds super manageable. Please keep us updated on what you decide and how it’s going, and I may end up making the switch. I’m so nervous this year is going to turn so many children off from learning. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918404 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 20:56:12 +0000 bhbee 2918404@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsSRS: their social studies bundle for k-3 looks amazing! I’d love to use a single resource for both kids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918403 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 20:50:25 +0000 bhbee 2918403@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LemonJack: for our situation I am hoping homeschool may take less time. An hour of focused 1-1 with some work time vs trying to manage all the constant little (and usually not valhe adding) needs of virtual.<br /> I hope they have a better setup than you are expecting! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918400 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 20:09:22 +0000 LemonJack 2918400@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Following. I’m a middle school teacher and found out our middle schoolers are supposed to be on zooms from 8-1 every day, and then spend more time in the afternoon online as well. If it’s like that at elementary I might have to pull DD (1st grade). I don’t know how we’d have the time to do it though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918394 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 15:33:37 +0000 Baby Boy Mom 2918394@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm still in the brainstorming phase but we are going to take a mostly unschooling approach, so probably won't use a specific curriculum. They are in 4th, 2nd, and pre-K, but with a baby at home we need to keep the schedule loose. ;)</p> <p>Their previous school emphasized project based learning, so I think that's what we will focus on. Essentially- they choose a topic. Then they do research via books, interviews, etc. (will require me to help gather materials but I'm ok with that). Then they need to create something, or multiple things (drawing/sculpture/movie anything really). Finally they need to be able to present it and teach someone else about it. I saw this was an incredible way for them to learn and they really retained the information, along with learning new skills. </p> <p>I am currently trying to think of specific skills I would like them to learn this year, and am less worried about staying with traditional curriculum as both were doing math and reading above "grade level". If I have learned anything the last few years, is that kids are super adaptable, and even if we go back to traditional school next year, it will be fine! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918393 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 15:19:32 +0000 ilovepie 2918393@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have a first grader and pre k. We were doing Logic of English last year. I liked how it was layed out and the cursive first was really helpful for my reluctant writer. However we hit a wall and have just been playing all the review games since because I'm waiting for it to actually click. I really don't think it's the curriculums fault and I'm not ready to spend $$$ on another one. </p> <p>I did the good and the beautiful math last year but didn't love it. This year I am doing Miquon and quite happy. I've heard really good things about Singapore math too. </p> <p>Everything else is Classical Conversations and reading a ton of books on pretty much every topic you can think of. Oh and primerry kids art lessons and a Book shark lap book on the election cycle for my first grader who is a history nut and was begging to learn about our government. </p> <p>PreK I'm pretty much just winging it with some writing/tracing work and he joins his brother for a lot of games and activities. </p> <p>I've read good things about brave writer. Cathy Duffy reviews is another good place for checking out curriculum. I found that it the end (last year) I really just needed to start somewhere and see what I liked and then be willing to move on or change things. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918392 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 14:55:47 +0000 MrsSRS 2918392@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I like the Explode the Code and Beyond the Code workbooks for phonics. For social studies look at Teachers Pay Teachers. Especially the accounts Read Like a Rockstar and Education With an Apron. They also have great lessons to pair with books. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918391 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 14:18:23 +0000 JennyPenny 2918391@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't have any specific suggestions, but I was on a local homeschool webinar recently and they mentioned a local store that carries homeschool materials (both new and used). They said it was great because you could flip through the actual materials and get a better sense of them than you could online. Plus buying used was definitely a plus! Maybe see if there's a physical store close to you like that that you could check out? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/homeschool-curriculum-especially-past-k#post-2918387 Wed, 19 Aug 2020 11:58:59 +0000 bhbee 2918387@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I read a similar thread from two weeks ago, but it seemed mostly focused on kinder curriculum choices, and those posts were a bit buried so thought I'd start a new thread! What curriculum choices are you making, especially for older kids? (but still interested in kinder also)</p> <p>My heart has been with homeschooling this year, we're on day 1 of virtual and I just can't - it is so inappropriate for them. Giving it a couple days but pretty sure we're out so trying to think about piecing it together.</p> <p>I think I'm going to have my 3rd grader do Singapore math, she's doing 4th grade math and I hope it'll be a good fit. I think we're going to buzz through 3B to make sure she gets the method and doesn't have gaps and then move to 4. I'm not sure what else to look at for her level - I've bookmarked Brave Writer's Arrow and Dart to look into more.but don't know much about them. I also ordered the Usborne Creative Writing book as a supplement. Her reading is excellent so we'll do a lot of that. </p> <p>Kinder boy - I've ordered K Math with Confidence, we're working through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons (on 78 but not going as fast as we used to) and then I think we'll try Logic of English Foundations B? And handwriting without tears workbooks maybe. We have a lot of good leveled readers already.</p> <p>Science I'm not sure if we need a set curriculum - we have a lot of good Usborne books, we signed up for the Magic Schoolbus monthly kits and we get Tinker Box monthly. And we own a couple different coding robots, Botley and Lego Boost. I'm thinking both K and 3 can interact with all that (our public K doesn't actually teach science anyway??).</p> <p>Social studies, zero clue for either . . .</p> <p>Show me your plans!! I know it has to fit the kid but love to have a great review to start researching. I know it may take a while to get some of the curriculum off backorders. </p>