Homeschooling: the Ending of the Year

The year is winding down in one respect but in another it's just getting started. I'm starting to receive my some of the things I wanted for next year so it's kind of like Christmas in the Hassett House. The kids all gather around, even the older ones that are in college and you here things like "Is that for me?" "OOOO, I like that one!" "Why didn't they have this when I was young?" It's fun and everyone gets excited about the next year.

As for me, I enjoy the thrill of the chase. As some of you may have figured out, we are not the wealthiest family in the world so much of our curriculum choices come to us free or used. I enjoy finding a deal. It makes my money go farther and there is a certain amount of pride in finding what I want at half of less than I would have to spend new.

This year my husband had given me our state tax return for books. I also had put aside my check that I had received for jury duty and one that I had gotten as a refund from CBD. That meant that I had $275.00 to spend on school this year. That made this a really good year for me. On the other hand text books are expensive and when you are buying for two, well it's doubly so. I go through and use what I can from what we have but sometimes it's not always possible.

Add to that the fact that for a period of time my husband was in and out of the hospital a lot. When the boys were young that meant they had to come with us and bring their books. Textbooks can get pretty heavy when you are little and have to carry them all. So we switched to Alpha Omega. They use a mastery learning system called Lifepacs in which each class is divided into 10 worktexts. It was much easier and lighter to carry a tenth of the work from each year than to carry it all. Plus they liked it; so much so as a matter of fact that with the oldest we never changed and with the next we only changed his Math and Science.

Oh, one disclaimer though; There are at least three companies that use this system, Alpha Omega, ACE, and Christian light (I think). They are not the same. I have a hard time turning down free school books so when I was offered ACE for my son I said sure. It was a hard year for us so to be given almost a years worth of schooling was, for me, a blessing. My son, on the other hand hated it. So did my husband, he banned it from the house after that year.

Alpha Omega is very good at saying, this, this and this are true now how do you apply it to this problem. The boys really liked it; it was especially good for my second sons learning style. ACE, on the other hand is much more rote learning, to the point that answers come word for word from the text the students study. That might be fine for some kids, I have friends who's kids love it but it drove mine crazy. They were so board they began to hate school. Our school life has never been a take this book and answer these questions sort of thing so the problem is probably more a fit to our learning style than with the quality of their curriculum.

My Husband says I tend to be rather eclectic when it comes to our homeschooling. I guess that's why I like CM so much. That combined with the fact that I want more books that I can use from son to son is part of why we are using Ambleside Online now. It is more interesting that just memorizing cold facts like "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue." How much better to read a biography telling about his trials and how the crew was ready to mutiny and how the Lord intervened. Where Columbus failed in following the Lord and where he succeeded. The boys will remember that much longer than a paragraph or two containing a long list of date and events that they memorize for a test and then promptly forget.

I'm ranting again aren't I. Time to step down from My soap box and start school. I think I have the time wrong on my blog. Right now it's 9:30 (yes we're a half hour late; breakfast came slow,) but when I publish this it will read something different. I need to get one of the guys to come help me fix it.