Robinson cirriculum??

[evansmel]

I was just curious if anyone had heard anything about this or used it and what your thoughts were? I am trying to get lined up for next school year, 2nd grade.

Thanks
Melissa

[Dianna]

I was just curious if anyone had heard anything about this or used it and what your thoughts were? I am trying to get lined up for next school year, 2nd grade.

Thanks
Melissa

Melissa, there used to be a review of the Robinson Curriculum at the Eclectic Homeschool Online website that really covered its pros and cons very well. It wasn't received very positively by the reviewer. I would recommend against the curriculum based on what I've read and heard from others who have used it. Children tend to spend too much time staring at a computer screen. Or it ends up costing a lot by printing out the stories for your children to read on paper. Many of the books on the disk are available free on the internet, too, from what I understand. Aside from those practical matters, there was a lot about the program that just didn't live up to what the users expected. I think there are some folks who use it as a supplement to what they're doing, but I haven't heard of anyone using it as their main curriculum in recent years. It just hasn't held up to their expectations after using it over the years.

Do you have any other ideas about what to use for your 2nd-grader? What resources are you using now? Would you like suggestions of other resources besides the Robinson program?

Dianna

[SChomemomof3]

Have you looked into Abecka or Rod and Staff?

[evansmel]

I would love to have other suggestions. I have looked at the Abecka. I am just trying to figure out the best way, trying to be prepared for the upcoming year (adventure).
Thanks for your replies.

[Dianna]

I would love to have other suggestions. I have looked at the Abecka. I am just trying to figure out the best way, trying to be prepared for the upcoming year (adventure).
Thanks for your replies.

Melissa, I used a mix of things for my first three children (all past 2nd grade now). My 4th child isn't quite there yet. :smile2:

The required areas for homeschoolers to teach are: reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.

For reading, I teach my children basic phonics, and once they get the hang of things we start reading real books together. Can your 2nd-grader read yet? If not, I can recommend a phonics program or two. If yes, then read Bob Books together, or beginning readers - not the regular Dr. Seuss books, but the very beginning readers that have phonetically regular words. Then you can build up from there to more complicated beginner books and then early chapter books. That's all I do for reading (I don't have a curriculum for it once they can read).

For writing (and language arts), I focus on handwriting at that age. I like the Italic handwriting workbooks for print, but I very much prefer the Zaner-Bloser handwriting style for cursive. (I think links to both of these are available on my resources and links page at http://www.carolinahomeschooler.com/links.htm). Once they're good at forming letters, they can practice writing sentences with proper punctuation. You really don't need to go much farther with writing at the 2nd grade level. However, I do really like the Rod & Staff English series. If you'd like to introduce traditional grammar and english to your children, this is really the best resource I've found. There's a link to samples on my links page, but I'd recommend calling Rod & Staff directly to order. You can wait on this until 3rd grade (or higher), if you'd like, and it wouldn't hurt your child at all (the textbooks don't build on each other until after the 5th-grade level). If you decide you'd like to use this, do most of the exercises orally.

For math, both the Miquon and the Singapore math series have worked well for my family. Miquon is great for learning the concepts behind math, and Singapore is great for word problems and learning how to tackle very challenging math problems. I use the first four Miquon work books (not the last two) and all the Singapore Primary Math (US Edition) workbooks. You can see samples of both of these by using the links on my links page. If you decide to use these, start with the first book in the Miquon series (the Orange book) and work up from there. It will seem too easy at first, but it will get more difficult quickly. Also get the Lab Annotations teacher's manual or you'll wonder what to do with some of the pages. For Singapore, it's usually recommended that children start half a grade level below where they are in American school systems. If you follow that advice, you'd start your child in the 1B books (first grade, second semester). However, there are placement tests at the www.SingaporeMath.com (http://www.SingaporeMath.com) website that will help you with placement. Their shipping is high (or used to be), so I'd recommend purchasing from someone else (let me know if you decide to buy it and I'll recommend a different supplier).

For science at this age, we read good library books and children's magazines on topics of interest to my children (my kids love the Cobblestone/Carus Publishing Group magazines). We also watch documentaries, check out science-related videos from the library, do experiments, go on field trips, etc. Science is way too interesting to confine to a textbook, in my opinion.

The same goes for social studies. We use most of the resources I listed for science. Social Studies covers history, geography, family studies, careers (being a fireman, a policeman, etc), etc. This is really a broad area, so have fun with it.

Well, I guess I went way overboard on this, but I hope it gives you a starting place. Take what you like and throw out the rest. :smile2: Let me know if you have any questions.

Warmly,
Dianna

[evansmel]

Wow, thanks for all that info, very helpful. She has already been reading chapter books and is wonderful at math. Thanks again, I am getting excited about starting next year, so is she. I will let you know if I come across anymore questions.
Melissa