review...
About us:
We began our home-
school journey 9 yrs ago, and we love it! To get a quick recap of those previous years, go HERE
This year we homeschooled:
Nick- a senior
TJ- an 8th grader
Katie- 3rd grade
Andrew- kindergarten
Bryson- TOT school
First, I want to share a post I placed on the Robinson Curriculum group recently~
"Does anyone else read TOS (The Old Schoolhouse) Magazine? I use to read it a lot. Great folks. Helpful ideas. I have gleaned fabulous information from them for 10 years now...
but guess what? Today's topic from the Homeschool Minute?
~Choosing Curriculum For Your Kids~
and what could interest me about that?
NOT having to read it!
Instead...
I am doin' the Happy Dance...
and singing
"I'm free, I'm free, I'm free,
Thank God we've found RC!"
And that is exactly how I feel. *smile*
Here is a letter I shared with someone who wanted a sincere opinion of the Robinson Curriculum.
"Dear Friend,
May I be completely honest with you? Indeed, I found much more than I expected through RC. I am stunned at the quality content of the books. I, personally, have learned more from reading a few of the History Autobiographies (on the booklist), than from my full 12 yrs in the public school. All those years glossing over the facts every holiday *sigh*...
Here have been the effects of RC in our home in the past year...
ds 17- struggled for years with reading comprehension and became a reluctant reader. He has read more books (willingly) this year than all his previous years put together. The lack of pressure to do fact checks, quizes, tests, worksheets, etc, left him to actual just read; to get lost in the story w/o the fuss of the other stuff.
ds 14 is our reluctant writer. I couldn't pull a sentence out of this child; I tried multiple writing programs, all w/ rave reviews, and he continually looked like a frightened deer staring into the headlights...currently we have slowly progressed from copywork to random writing on his own. I never realized the importance of copywork (I though it was about penmanship, oy!). Most importantly, his attitude has been positive w/ this approach.
dd 9 is a voracious learner =) The girl is devouring books as quick as she can. The intelligence of the books are displayed in her vocabulary. These books are of quality content from the very beginning; do not underestimate the earlier part of the list if you have older students.
ds 6 (kindergarten) has Asperger's thus this direct and simple approach has been best for him. Ofcourse he is just beginning this journey so his *time* requirements are much lower thus far.
After gaining some real structure and calmness to our days (I am of the over-planning kind of mom) by RC's simple, yet effective format, I can truly say we have gained much more from our education this year! A few hundred dollars investment for a lifetime of education is astounding. I now view (from my own perspective; not judging others) conferences, and curriculum fairs, and homeschool catalogs, and other curriculums as mass money makers. Oh sure, they provide and offer what they say they do; I am not particularly against any one of them; yet so much fluff, and complication, and rules, and continued purchases are in my past now, and I am thankful not only to the quality of my children's education, but that I can also be a good steward of my husbands hard earned paychecks. "
So there's my perspective ;^)
I will follow up with a post of how we implemented The Robinson Curriculum to our daily life, along with a few other details...
4 comments:
I love your enthusiasm! I know you are on the Beechick yahoo group, as am I. I'm wondering how you think the robinson curriculum lines up with Beechick's way of learning? Thanks so much!
Blessings,
sara
Actually, they are quite complimentary of each other. Beechick promotes natural learning from living books rather than textbooks, which is what RC is. Also her approach to grammar, copywork, etc fits perfectly in alignment with the use of the McGuffey Readers (provided in the RC list). Beechick is more of a mentality approach, where RC is the content I use for that method (especially in the earlier years).
Hope I make sense =)
Great question!
Sheri
Good evening, you must know that I am at this point tired of reading hundreds of comments and blogs about the RC and A2 programs. I am glad I did stumble upon yours. I have read almost all your posts about homeschool and your journey. I have a question about implementing grammar and language. Currently I am using Rod and Staff and loved the detail, but it is a lot of book work, that had all of us so tired of school that I did not want to read the good literature that I had. I just wanted to nap! My almost 8yr old can read and do most of her book work on her own now. My 6 year old can read really well, but has not really finished a full phonics system. She basically did all the left over pages from the 8yr old, and some help from me. I also joined Classical Conversations last year and we do enjoy the memory work. I would love to try RC, but I am concerned about my own knowledge of grammar and writing. English is my second language and I am not so familiar with all the grammar and sentence structures. That is why I joined CC so that the children will get good writing instruction. They use IEW, and from next year they are using "The lost tools of writing". I am scared to go without a teachers manual! Help
I am considering RC for my kids (the oldest is 3, I still have some time), but I am really concerned about the amount of violent things (military stuff) in the very first book after the readers (the life of George Washington)... it concerns me for the rest of the list....any input on that ?
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