Orthodox Christian Homeschool - 3rd/4th Grade - Beginning of Year Curriculum Review - Special Needs Accommodations - PART 2

It was sometime in May or June that I realized that the knowledge that my youngest son "might be on the spectrum" wasn't enough, and that we needed to know for sure in case there were actual changes we needed to make in how we did things.

So, all that to say, I have changed almost everything about my son's curriculum in the past couple of weeks. I think a few things have stayed the same, but over half of my curriculum plan has changed! One of the biggest overall changes was a shift to using Simply Classical by Memoria Press, which is a classical curriculum for children with special needs. The biggest modification in the curriculum is that it requires less handwriting, and also seems to have more repetition in the lesson plans. (I am also going to use some non-Simply Classical Memoria Press as well.)

Math - Though I had said we were switching to BJU Press Math, after the first chapter my son started to have a really hard time with the program. I hadn't realized that they used "new math" for subtraction and addition. We have always used traditional borrowing and carrying for addition and subtraction, so telling my son to keep doing it the normal way, when the worksheets were expecting a different way, wasn't really working. There was also some expectation in mental math for which my son wasn't ready. All that to say, we are back to CLE Math, and I think he will be grateful for the program this time around having tried another one. I had to sometimes try different programs with my older son, too, when he got tired of CLE Math, but we always came back to it because it works and does not cause tears like other programs do.

English - Though we had successfully used BJU Press English 2 and BJU Press English 3, the writing in BJU Press English 4 was not working for my son. The first chapter called for writing an acrostic poem, which also caused tears. I decided to pull out Writing and Rhetoric Fable by Classical Academic Press instead, thinking that the classical writing approach would be better for him. Since Simply Classical by Memoria Press recommends Rod & Staff English for its special needs curriculum anyway, I just decided to order that instead of using just the grammar from BJU Press and call it a day. So instead we are using Rod & Staff English 3, and Writing & Rhetoric Fable.

Latin: We are using Latina Cristiana as planned with the Simply Classical (Memoria Press) 5/6 Lesson Plans. It is working wonderfully! I have added in the Latin Cursive Copybook so that my son can have a bit of cursive practice while he practices Latin.

Bible: We are using Christian Studies 1 with the Simply Classical (Memoria Press) 5/6 Lesson Plans. It is also working wonderfully!

History/Social Studies/Geography: The social studies curriculum I purchased by Discover! Curriculum was a bust in our house. After a few lessons in, the writing felt shallow and hollow. Since we are having so much success with Memoria Press/Simply Classical with my son, I decided to get their suggestions for these subjects instead. We are going to do the States and Capitals workbook, their History Timeline Program, and read alouds instead (i.e. Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, etc.). I'm hoping this works! Since we are attending Catholic Schoolhouse one half-day a week, these programs will also fit in nicely with their Tour 1 content.

(Catholic Schoolhouse is similar to Classical Conversations, but run by Roman Catholics. Having done both programs, and not feeling comfortable signing the Statement of Faith now required by the CC groups in my area, Catholic Schoolhouse is a much better fit for Orthodox Christians. The way the program reinforces our beliefs, and traditional Christian content in general (i.e. learning prayers in Latin), far overshadows the very few mentions of doctrine we do not hold, or teaching on non-Orthodox saints. Not to mention that many of the Catholics saints mentioned are also significant historical figures that we should learn about anyway (i.e. Junipero Serra, Elizabeth Seton, etc.).

Literature:

We are using a mix of Progeny Press and Memoria Press study guides. We are not going to move forward with CLE Reading. It's a bit sad to say goodbye to a program we have used so much in my home. It's just amazing how different my children are! My older son did CLE as much as he could, but my youngest is thriving with Memoria Press style curriculum, especially the Simply Classical version. One aspect I like better about Progeny Press study guides is their strong Christian focus. The end of each section includes reading Bible verses and discussing various themes within the book with regards to how it follows the Bible's teachings, or does not. The Memoria Press guides however, are a bit more age appropriate in how they are set up since they are made for a specific grade level.

Science - At least science hasn't changed! CLE Science 4 is working well. My son likes to do the worksheets before I read the textbook as a pre-test to see how many animals facts he already knows! That might not work for the later chapters, but he's enjoying that! I especially like the Teacher's Guide, because it includes challenging critical thinking questions, with answers, related to the lesson, along with various organizers to draw on the board to help the student visualize the information in the lesson.

Spelling:

I am still using Building Spelling Skills for general word lists and some reinforcement worksheets. However, I don't use the workbook as written. First, I give my son a pretest, and if he gets at least 16 words right, we don't do the entire lesson. Instead, I just have my son study the words he missed and write sentences using them. I attached an example! Sometimes I also have him some of the workbook if is seems very useful. You can also get an idea for why the Simply Classical curriculum that limits the amount of writing is helpful for him. His handwriting issues are related to his special needs, and not lack of practice. Though he can do better when he really focuses on it, it's just not a sustainable thing to require of him during the whole school day. Rather, I worry about his handwriting during cursive, and other than that, make sure he has all the correct letters, capitalization and punctuation. I'm hoping his handwriting will get better with age, but I have a lot sympathy for him because I too have a similar handwriting issue.

Art : We are successfully using Studio Articulations 2 as planned. I am planning to do 12 art projects this year, and 12 next year. We are doing 2 sessions of art a week, and each project takes 4 lessons. It works out perfectly because we can do Studio Articulations Level 3 his 5th and 6th grade year.

I feel like quite a bit has changed in my son's curriculum since I first thought I had it planned this past February!

(The above list does not include what we are doing for our Orthodox Morning Time though, just the academic work.)