Our Robinson Curriculum Progress
I wanted to share an update on how we are doing with the Robinson Curriculum which we began early summer 2009.
Pros:
Self educating
Cost effective
Minimal parent preparation for lessons
Three subjects
Self paced
Used with multiple students and multiple grades
Cons:
Takes time to print books
Takes getting use to, especially if you didn’t begin this way when the kids were young.
This all I can come up with. I think the pros out weight the cons. Most of the books can even be purchased if you prefer that route.
So far we have slowly evolved into a routine that is doable. The kids still have a hard time getting started every day, but we are still working on them being more independent in that area.
One challenge was completing a Saxon math lesson a day. For a few weeks we did half lessons. If their error rate was high, I also cut the lesson down to half. The kids are both in Saxon 54, and are doing very well. I did have to learn to keep away because I tend to want to help. The kids were use to asking me for help for every little thing. For a while I would help them, but when I re-read the introduction, it reminded me that the kids need to go back and find out how to do something if they get stuck. So I let the kids know that they needed to go back and look at the examples and read the lesson again if they don’t understand.
MaryEllen did hit a spot where it was getting difficult, but I realized it was because she didn’t know all her multiplication & division facts. So we have stopped Saxon for a few weeks and we are drilling on these until they can complete all of them in five minutes. I stopped Donnie too, because I figure he might hit the same spot. Mr. Robinson does recommend that the kids know all the facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) before they begin Saxon 54. I understand why now.
The other challenge was reading for 2 hours. We still aren’t there yet, but we have slowly worked up to an hour. We started at half an hour. I assign pages to make sure they are reading and not day dreaming or talking during this time. I now join them and read an hour too.
During reading, the kids read out of a science book, history book and a literature book, 20 minutes each. Right now we are using Christian Liberty Nature Readers for science, for history and literature, we are using what we had in our personal library. Once we deplete this, we will begin to read more of what is on the RC list.
Here is a post where I mention their booklists and how I substituted books on the RC list for ones we had at home. http://albright-news.com/blog/2009/11/back-from-vacation/
One area that was, and still is, hard for me, is putting aside other curriculum I had bought. I had purchased quite a few of the Beautiful Feet Packs and am planning on using all of her studies. After much thought, I decided to keep them and either do them together as a way to spend time together researching different eras, or assign the books and use the discussions questions as book tests and some of the assignments as writing projects for their writing time.
We do have read aloud and bible time after dinner most days. I usually read for about an hour to an hour and a half. The kids draw usually.
So basically, Robinson is the 3r’s, reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic. We add bible to that in the morning also. The kids practice their memory verses before beginning their studies. I also have them read out of a devotional in the morning too.
Anything else you want to add such as music or language, comes after the 3r’s are done. I eventually want to add music, sewing, maybe latin or Spanish.
I hope that was a little insightful. The RC YahooGroup is very knowledgeable too. You do not have to be using RC to join, but simply have to have an interest in learning more about it. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RobinsonUsers4Christ
