RC...
and what our year looked like...

Go HERE to for the details of what RC is.

This is what RC looks like in our home.

There are no textbooks...
no lapbooks...
no quizes...
nearly no tests (we do have spelling/vocabulary tests).
No more loose papers,
nor stacks of workbooks,
nor stacks of papers to correct,
and no more CHAOS!

What do we do, you ask?

...simply read.

We read good old fashioned books. The quality of the content in these books has opened my eyes at how much the educational system has been watered down over the years, both in education and morals. Not to say that all curriculum out there is bad; I'm just saying that we have found a better choice for our family.

Someone asked about boredom. No thrills, frills, etc... We are only a year into this new journey called RC, but thus far boredom is certainly not something we have ran into. Instead we have discovered that letting go of busy work lets us focus on content, and the quality of the books keep them interested.

Our Classroom Schedule:

Morning:
1/2 hr writing
1/2 hr English (grammar, punctuation, & vocabulary)
1/2 hr Science
1/2 hr Literature
1 hour Math

Afternoon:
1/2 hr French
1/2 hr Fine arts

Evenings:
1 hr history(reading, map work, & sometimes history related activities)
This is intended as a family read aloud. I missed out on so much details of our history, that I am enjoying learning so much more through these quality books.

Fine arts is broken into days:
(this is not RC, but I feel it completes what I want out school years to look like)

Monday is our official Bible lesson,(w/ scripture review the rest of the days)
Tuesday is our composer study.(we continue to listen to the musical piece all week)
Wednesday is our artist study.
Thursday is our poet study.
Friday is our Nature Study.

I do have a scope & sequence I have created to sort the extensive list of books that RC has on a list. The original RC way is to just simply start reading at the beginning of the book list, and work your way through. They do have different "levels" as you go through, but they are not to be considered grade levels as the easier books can be challenging in content at level 1 for a typical 1st grader, and level 12 is more of a college level reading. Non-the-less, I wanted an guideline to go by. So I sorted books by not only levels, but topics (subjects), and tried to find common ideas amongst the topics & grade level put together.

I will share the scope & sequence on a following post, along with how we implement the McGuffey Readers that are provided in the Robinson Curriculum.

What about the cost of printing & binding books?
I like printing out the books. Admittedly, many books can be found in the local city library. Many folks opt for e-readers and download all the books from the RC list for free.

Our printer was worth the investment; binding for me is pennies (duct tape & staples);
ink & paper are a cost, but compared to the money I was using for this curriculum or that, or this workbook or that, or this cool new method or that, the $$$ we will save in the long run for this quality education is far worth it! For me, I will be getting 41 years worth of education out of this curriculum (counting each students years left in home education)...discs, printer, ink, paper, staples, duct tape, & few late fees at a library might eventually add up to a $1000 over the years, but that is one inexpensive route in the long run.

And if I am really blessed, I will be able to pass it along to my own grandchildren some day...

education is a legacy worth leaving, eh?