First off, this portfolio post will look different because I am trying out an umbrella group after 15 years of doing our reviews with our county school system. The short story of why I switched: Yes, I was always getting positive reviews, but they were changing things constantly, including who was interviewing me...during the interview. That was enough for me! I'm now trying out Tower of Ivory with a few close friends who are long term home schoolers.
Keep in mind, these are resources that worked for me, but my experience has been that God will put in your path what will work for you.
Religion: Here's something new: I'm getting reviewed on teaching religion for the very first time!Besides these books, we did a bunch of Ascension Presents DVDs.
We started out with The Bible Timeline, then did Altaration (on the Mass), and No Greater Love during Holy Week. Of course we also did a bunch of Fr. Mike Schmitz podcasts on our Lenten Video Retreat.
If you're wondering how I afforded that many programs, I was sharing them with my mom and sister.
The Emperor was doing sections of the Docat after dinner with all the kids, similar to the way he went through the Youcat.With Zorg and Leena we also did selections of our favorite religious books to expose them to some of the books that had important effects in our religious lives.
Choclo and Oob did more saint stories and the Education in Virtue stuff. And altar serving! And all the Lent and Advent stuff, of course.
We also do a daily prayer time and Bible time together, often using the Gospel of the day. What I hope to pass on to my kids: Sacraments, Scripture, Service!
English: This is a bit weird because Zorg and Leena took a bunch of college classes that checked this box (Drama, Expository Writing, and Speech) but also Philosophy and Business Management which also required research papers.We also did a deep dive with Frankenstein and watched and discussed a total of seven Shakespeare movies (thank you BBC).
For younger kids we did tons of reading and writing, and lots of fun workbooks.We have a set of the excellent Language of Literature textbooks, and we enjoyed going through the grade 6 and 7 volumes.
Plus I like poetry, so, you know how that goes.
And then all 4 kids did pages and pages of creative writing, because everyone is always writing a book. I have nothing to do with this, it just happens.
Math: Older kids did Math U See's Stewardship and reviewed Geometry and Algebra 2. They also did the Accuplacer Math Test Prep book, since the computerized test determines which math class you can take at college, and doing math on the computer looks different when you've only done it on paper.
Younger kids did Life of Fred: Fractions and Life of Fred:Decimals, plus a variety of math workbooks, test preps, and games.
More tomorrow!
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