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Raising Scholars:  An Overview
Raising Scholars: The Grand Plan

This phase of “Foundation and Fun” is exactly that:

Establishing a FOUNDATION of academic skills
while
hooking these eager young children with FUN!!

This phase consists of two parts:

The Journey Begins: The Basics (Pre-K – 1)

The Journey Continues: Laying the Foundation (2 – 3)

The Journey Begins:
The Basics (Pre-K to Grade 1)

How fun to sit down with your eager young children
so excited about spending time with mom (or dad)
to read fun and interesting books,
play fun games (they don’t know the games are educational!),
and solve mental puzzles!  

This phase should be all about hooking them into the fun and excitement of learning,
a fun that has no beginning and no ending. 

Learning doesn’t just happen during “school,” learning is a part of life!
That is the focus of this stage – enriched fun!

So what do these eager young children learn?

Learning to Read:

Phonics and learning to read opens the door to the knowledge of the world, so this is an emphasis of these early years. 

The Explode the Code series systematically teaches how to sound out letters and put together words of increasing difficulty.  

Beginning readers that use phonetic words allow young children to actually gain confidence reading even from the very first page.   We began with the Bob Books then progressed on to other beginning readers such as Biscuit books and Frog and Toad books.  Though we did not use them, many friends used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with great success ~ this would have been my second choice.

There are so many early reading series out there, fiction and nonfiction ~ let your children pick some from the library that they want to read.  

When they were able in 1st grade, my budding scholars loved reading Magic Tree House books as they related to our history study.

Learning to Write: 

Alongside learning to read is learning to form letters, both upper and lowercase, and then stringing these letters into words.  Some of this occurs naturally in the Explode the Code workbooks.

We tried to make a game out of writing whenever possible.  It is amazing how writing on the whiteboard was “fun” whereas writing the same thing on paper was “boring” and “work.”     We had a small lap whiteboard that the kids loved using.  Often I would say a letter or word and they would write the letter or word.  This would progress to stringing together words into sentences.  Working together in game-like fashion was always more interesting and fun than sitting at a desk copying letters and words in “penmanship” exercises.  

Once writing letters and words became easier, my budding scholars were introduced to basic grammar, namely the different types of words (i.e., parts of speech) and basic punctuation.  This set the stage for writing sentences.  While we did use a workbook, we also made a game out of the grammar and punctuation on the whiteboard.

Games mean fun!  
Anytime writing could be made a game, it was!

Learning Basics of Math: 

Even before kindergarten, as part of everyday life,
our young children were introduced to numbers –
counting,
adding (“how many are there all together?”),
subtracting (“if you give two Easter eggs to your brother, how many do you have left?”),
and fractions (“you can have half a cookie”). 

When we started more structured math, we used and loved the elementary Singapore math series (called Primary Mathematics). 

Miraculously, in a challenging but fun manner, Singapore math gets even young elementary children adding, subtracting, and even multiplying without them even really thinking they are “doing math!” 

The best part of this series, especially in the later elementary grades, was the focus on mental math and logic — this was an essential aspect of any math resources for my children. 

My kids looked forward to their math activities each day. During levels 1 and 2, they learn numbers, shapes, adding, subtracting, lengths and weights, time, money, and an introduction into multiplication and division. 

I tried to get them to use their math skills when we would play games.  We had a money dominoes game, a mental math race game, a shapes matching game (Quirkle), and a scrabble game that used numbers instead of letters (Equate). When my kids were old enough, they were the banker in  Monopoly, Jr., then Monopoly.  As banker, they had to take money and make change — they had no idea they were practicing their math skills!  

Learning about Our History, The World, and Great Stories: 

Reading, reading, reading together!  
Those warm, cuddly, cozy times are treasures. 

We would sit outside whenever the weather was decent.  So many great age-appropriate books are available to read to your children ~ they will clamor for more.    I wanted high-quality books in our repertoire and tried to avoid twaddle.  I used several literature-rich curricula for book ideas including Sonlight, Veritas Press, and Ambleside Online. 

History/Culture:

Without pressing the kids to remember a lot of facts or details, we would read about history and cultures from ancient times to the modern era ~ just an overview.  

My goal was for them to be intrigued and fascinated with other places, people, and historical events, gaining an appreciation for a world much bigger than where we live and an expanse of time many years/centuries prior to us walking this earth. 

When possible, we would incorporate hands-on activities, partly to make it FUN and partly to reinforce what we had just read.   My kids have made Lego ziggurats, Plaster of Paris Egyptian pyramids, Cretan frescos, Roman mosaics, 3D castles, and Native American village dioramas, to name just a few.

Science: 

In Pre-K and Kindergarten, we read many many short science-related books.  Anytime we could do hands-on/experiential learning, we would.  Nature walks on our property and at the state parks in our area, looking at things through the microscope, doing experiments with water, air, magnets, and light all made science interesting.  

In 1st grade, we began the Apologia Young Explorer series which is very engaging to read, has questions to discuss with your children, and provides projects/experiment ideas with every chapter. 

Exploring Creation with Astronomy was the first one we did, spreading it out over the whole year. 

What fun looking at the night sky,
identifying constellations, planets,
and phases of the moon! 

Strong binoculars or a telescope allow you to see even more.

My kids loved this book, and I was amazed at their retention of the information when they would talk to others about astronomy, even at age 6.

Literature:

The amount of good children’s literature available is more than we could ever read. 

Every day, we would cuddle together to enjoy great books, focusing on classic children’s tales and award-winners.  The RESOURCE LIST below contains all the books we read during these early years.

These cuddly reading times were some of my favorite. 

Faith & Character: 

While academic deficiencies in the school system were the impetus for our family’s journey in self-educating, I relished being able to spend some time each day nurturing our budding scholars’ faith life and building character.   After all, if my children received the best academic education yet their faith life was empty and their character devoid of morals and values, they would not be able to fulfill their purpose on this earth. 

That was my ultimate goal:
provide them with all the tools, resources, and moral fortitude needed
to carry out God’s plan for their lives.

Like the other subjects, at this age I just wanted them to enjoy the stories of God’s incredible love for them and all his people, and to sing songs celebrating this. 

We would read a devotional and say prayers – The Beginner’s Bible, My Big Book of 5-minute Devotions, and My Bedtime Prayers were some of our favorites at this stage. The Francis Hook Picture Book has beautiful pictures in it. 

Little Boy after God’s Own Heart and the Joy Berry “Help Me Be Good” series on behaviors were a staple in our daily together time. The kids would even read the Berry books on their own!  

Sometimes we would role-play making good behavior choices and play “What Would You Do?” given various scenarios – the kids loved this.   

Last but not least, William Bennett’s Children’s Book of Virtues was a wealth of moral and character-building stories, a resource we read a number of times and one I highly recommend.   

Hero Tales provided an introduction into many amazing heroes of faith, as well as character qualities to emulate — we loved this so much, we read the second volume just for fun!

Music: 

During preschool years, the young ones developed an appreciation for music by listening to classic children’s music and singing our favorites – during playtime, in the car, while getting ready for bed to name just a few times music was playing.   

Around age 5, they would start learning to play the piano.  We used the Bastien series for learning piano basics.  The goal was to work through the first two levels (Piano for the Young Beginner A/B and Level 1) during these two years. 

I liked it because the kids felt like they were playing music within the first couple weeks.  By the first Christmas, they could at least play a very simple version of Jingle Bells and Silent Night.  By the second Christmas, they would add Deck the Halls and Away in a Manger with full chords accompaniment.   

My young children really enjoyed playing the songs in this series ~ my musically-inclined middle child would play through the books for fun!  

(NOTE: Even though I as parent-teacher knew how to play the piano, the Bastien series is written in such a way that the parent-teacher does not have to have pre-knowledge of piano to use the series.)

LOGISTICS:

Practically speaking, at this stage, much of the learning occurs with the parent-teacher ~ reading, discussing, doing activities, and playing writing games.  

A written assignment sheet feels too formal for this “fun” stage.  Instead, at the beginning of each day, I would get out all the materials/resources we were going to be using on any particular day and ask the budding scholars,

“What would you like to do first?” 

This allowed them to have some control over their schedules and also allowed me to gain insight into their favorite and least favorite subjects.   

However, for some young ones, especially in 1stgrade when they are beginning to read, it is helpful for them to have the academic goals for the day written down, as well as their morning responsibilities ~ an example of one that we would use is linked below. 

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: 

Academics and learning are important, but so are so many other things like making friends, helping others, and sharing gifts and talents. Finding out what your child enjoys and nurturing those interests are important. 

Lots of playdates, park days, little league sports, visits to the elderly, and church activities were just some of the activities we pursued in these very early years.

FIELD TRIPS:  

The best way to bring learning to life is through Experiential Learning activities.  (See Experiential Learning at its Best.)  

During the very early years we did as much hands-on learning as we could through science activities, history projects, nature explorations, and field trips to local places like the zoo, nature parks and preserves, science museums, and living history museums to name a few.  

We also loved to camp, immersing ourselves in nature, day and night ~ we could observe creepy-crawlies, flying creatures, various plants, and the broad night sky for days on end. 

RESOURCES USED & BOOKLIST

RESOURCE LIST ~ “Foundation & Fun:  The Journey Begins – The Basics”

EXAMPLE ~ Daily Academic Goals (K-1)

The Journey Continues:
Laying the Foundation (2 – 3)

Your budding scholars have come so far!  

They have an overview of the peoples and cultures from around the world from ancient times to more recent times,

they look forward to listening to stories, both fun fiction classics and nonfiction accounts of people and places,

and they feel comfortable with the basics of reading, writing letters and words, and foundational math skills. 

As this exciting journey continues, they wake up looking forward
to the new adventures that await them each day 
with eagerness and anticipation!

It is during these years (roughly grades 2 & 3)
that the foundation is laid
for future learning.

These budding scholars explore American History for the first time, increase their reading skills to be independent readers, and learn the fundamentals for writing cohesive paragraphs. 

Vocabulary programs are introduced to provide a range of words with which to communicate ideas, and word roots are studied to better understand the origins of many English words. 

Mental math and logic are incorporated into a math program where budding scholars learn advancing math skills without even knowing it! 

Elementary science explores the wide world of animals.  What child isn’t fascinated with bugs, sea creatures, and zoo animals? 

This science topic lends itself to fun fieldtrips!

In our academic world, I really try to minimize the number of subjects these budding scholars have ~

partly due to time constraints,

partly to eliminate “busywork,”

and partly so one subject reinforces another.

For example, typing is used for compositions, readers coordinate with and reinforce history, handwriting is used for answering comprehension questions related to other subjects, vocabulary is incorporated into compositions, and logic is part of math.   

This strategy streamlines their education.

So what do these budding scholars learn?

Faith & Character: 

Each day began with “together time,” during which spiritual enrichment and character building took center stage.  How better to start the day than focusing on what is most important in life ~ inspiring morality, good character, and manners in my young men?  

In the previous years, we had read Bible stories from the Children’s Bible.  At this age, they were old enough to understand a little more.   So we spent some time talking about lessons from the Bible ~

      •  Ten Commandments,  
        • Lord’s Prayer,
          • Fruit of the Spirit,
            • Sermon on the Mountain,
              • Jesus’ parables, and
                • Proverbs.  

During these years, we also began reading stories of missionaries and Christian heroes, a trend that continued for many years. 

It is one thing to read God’s Word, it is something very different to hear how regular people did amazing things with and through their faith, even unto death. 

These missionary stories had a profound impact on me as parent-teacher
and were some of the most meaningful components 
of what we did. 

The pattern we fell into at this stage and continued for the rest of the academic journey was focusing on Biblical foundations in the fall, and reading missionary stories or apologetic books in the spring. 

One other component added this year was memorizing Biblical gems – I had my favorite verses of comfort, strength, and inspiration, so it was with these that we started.  

Interspersed throughout the first year was Little Book of Manners for Boys.   

Introduction to American History:    

I think it is so important for even young children to understand history and our place in it.  History provides a context for understanding our current world and current issues.  

While the previous two years exposed the budding scholars to world history and culture, these two years introduce them in more detail to American History ~~

pre-Columbus civilizations,
colonial America,
and the people and events that led these immigrants
from English colonies to an independent nation,
and from an infant nation to a world power.

While learning should still be interesting and engaging, comprehension and memory of important facts become important, though assessing this can still be in a fun manner. 

Verbal quizzes,
games like scavenger hunts for history questions,
acting out scenarios from history
all make these assessments fun. 

We have a little set of American Revolution and Civil War soldiers we use these to demonstrate notable battles (e.g., Yorktown, Gettysburg) solidified the information in their young minds. 

We also have set of trivia cards about different times in history – the kids enjoyed trying to answer the questions during mealtimes. 

Watching historical documentaries aimed at kids can also enhance their knowledge.

These are just a few ideas.

Reading & Literature: 

Reading opens the door to vast amounts of knowledge.  So many great people educated themselves just by reading profusely. 

Now that your children have learned how to sound out words and can read simple books, they begin reading books of increasing difficulty.  Many of these are historical fiction aligned with their history study, some are biographies of famous historical figures, and some are children’s classics. 

These should be easy enough so that they enjoy reading them ~ now is not the time to discourage their reading with books way beyond their reading or comprehension level. 

To make sure my budding scholars were actually reading and understanding the books, I would ask them very basic questions about:

      • the people in the book (characters),
        • what happened (plot),
          • what problems the people faced (conflict), and
            • the most exciting part (climax),
              • as well as what they learned about history. 

Little did they know, they were learning about elements of a story as well as history as they casually told me about their books!

More advanced literature (children’s classics and historical books) were saved for reading aloud with the parent during that special cuddle time.       

(NOTE: Though the list of readers in the RESOURCE LIST appears long, remember that this list is for two years and many of these are short books.  Some can be enjoyed over the summer as well.  After all, reading should not be just for “school” ~ we want to inspire a lifelong love of reading and learning.)

Writing/Composing:  

I believe the earlier the scholars learn and become comfortable with writing,
the better off they will be.  

Now that your children can write letters, words, and sentences, they can now embark on stringing those sentences together to express their thoughts.  

This takes two forms at this age: 

1.  answering comprehension questions (to assess comprehension and retention) and

2.  expressing their own thoughts and ideas through informal paragraphs/compositions.

Comprehension Questions:  

These can come from ~

      • science (questions are provided in the Apologia Young Explorers books),
      • history readings (Story of the USA has questions include),
      • or their own readers, fiction and nonfiction. 

At the beginning, just one sentence answers suffice, but as they get better at answering questions, longer answers in complete sentences may be expected.   

Since these answers will not be long, this is a good opportunity to practice handwriting (neatness is required!).  

This is a good example of how one assignment can cover multiple subjects – spelling, penmanship, history/science.  

Free-Style Compositions: 

At this stage, composing should be just be about the budding scholars putting their thoughts on paper ~ little structure or style is required. 

However, correct grammar and punctuation as they learn these skills should be used. 

Three ways to incorporate compositions into other subjects are

(1) have them write (or type) what they learned/remembered from history (or what they found interesting) that week,

(2) have them write about a book they read, or

(3) have them write a short narrative on something of interest.  

Though little is required at this stage (we just want to increase their comfort level with composing), these budding scholars can be strongly encouraged to use the words they are learning in their vocabulary and word roots study – making a game out of how many they can use makes practicing their vocabulary fun! 

Cursive: 

Some consider learning to read and write cursive archaic, and many public schools are moving away from teaching it.    With computers, so much less actual handwriting is done now than in ages past. 

However, I consider it important to at least know this skill, if nothing more than having the ability to read historical documents as originally written as well as letters from grandparents. 

At this stage, the budding scholars can fluidly write printed letters and words.  So we proceeded to learn cursive letters, both upper and lower-case.  

We didn’t use any formal program.  I found my favorite cursive style on the internet, printed out a template, then made a game out of learning to write the letters using the whiteboard and erasable placemat. 

Once the letters were learned, some of their shorter writing assignments had to be completed in cursive. 

Nothing complicated.  Keep it simple.

Typing Skills:  

With modern technology and computers, typing has become an essential skill. 

Learning to type young makes composing so much easier, especially when one can type quickly.  Correcting typos and editing compositions is simple. 

We used a website that had many typing games from which to choose, each increasing in difficulty.  Search “typing games” online and you will find a plethora of options. 

Though my kids were learning to type, for them this was “fun” time.    They became proficient within a few months.

Grammar & Punctuation, Vocabulary, Word Roots: 

With the budding scholars learning to write and compose, learning correct grammar and punctuation becomes important. 

Along with the importance I placed on beginning to write and type early, I placed equal importance on learning correct grammar and punctuation early.  While some may not recommend formal study of these until later years, being introduced to correct grammar usage prevents having to undo bad habits later.  Besides, what they learn can naturally be incorporated into their writings and compositions.  

I have never found a grammar and punctuation curriculum about which I can rave.  I was moderately pleased, however, with the Easy Grammar series.   This series was very repetitive from year to year, so we just used levels 3 and 5 with some grammar games we did on the whiteboard. (For example, I would write incorrect sentences on the board and challenge my young scholar to find all the errors). 

We also had the Complete Book of Grammar and Punctuation, and Complete Book of English & Language Arts lying around, so one of our budding scholars used these. 

To help memorize the prepositions, we found some songs on YouTube.  Even my high schooler still remembers those preposition songs!  Overall, I think the best way to learn grammar and punctuation is by using them.

Grammar and punctuation are important for writing well; so is having a vocabulary base.  Wordly Wise is the vocabulary-building series we began at this age and continued into high school.  We always found the words in this series to be ones that our kids could and would use, and the words were a nice blend of familiar and unfamiliar ones. 

At the beginning of each week, we would go over the Wordly Wise words together.  The budding scholars would complete the exercises on their own.  At the end of the week we would review their completed work, read the accompanying story together.  You can buy a quiz book as well, which we did; the kids would take the quiz on Friday. 

Latin and Greek word roots, prefixes, and suffixes form more than half of all our English words.  By learning these, the budding scholars are able to decipher even unknown words – what an invaluable skill! 

By studying one or two word roots during together time each week, they build quite a repertoire in a few years.  Many curricula options are available, but we ended up with Word Roots series.  We eased slowly into word roots study beginning in “grade 3” with level A-1.   The other levels (A-2, B-1, and B-2) are completed in later years.  

Math:

I’ll say it again, I love Singapore Math elementary series (called Primary Mathematics).  Their incremental mastery approach that subtly teaches even advanced topics amazes me ~ the emphasis on mental math and logical processes solidifies it as my favorite. 

For levels 3A/3B and 4A/4B, we used the following:

      • Textbook (for teaching the concept),
      • Workbook (for independent practice),
      • Extra Practice (for reinforcement), and
      • Challenging Word Problems (to strengthen their skills).

During level 3 and 4, scholars learn so many things:

        • numbers to 100,000,
        • adding and subtracting up to 4 digits (including mentally),
        • length and weight with metric and standard values,
        • multiplication and division with and without remainders,
        • fractions and decimals,
        • advanced time and money, and
        • geometry with shapes, area, perimeter, and angles.  

Word problems, a hallmark of this program, are introduced!   

While my kids did look forward to doing math with Singapore, they really looked forward to playing math games on the computer ~ this was a privilege at the end of the day.  Their favorite for remembering the multiplication tables was TimezAttack.

Science:   

This is a great age to study biology, namely animals and plants!

Apologia’s Exploring Creation Young Explorer series divides animal study into Land Creatures, Flying Creatures, and Swimming Creatures, with just one for plant studies Botany. 

As I previously noted, the writing is interesting and easy to understand, comprehension question prompts are included, and hands-on project/experiment ideas are provided.  

Our family enjoyed reading these books together, then I would often have them write the answers to the questions or type a summary of interesting things they learned.  Depending on your children’s reading skills, they could read the books independently and then you could discuss the questions together.  

We loved watching videos about the animals we were studying ~
the Planet Earth series is amazing! 

Nature walks to observe these animals and plants, trips to the zoo and aquarium, and hands-on activities in the books made the subjects come alive, especially for this age.

Piano: 

Young pianists continue building their piano skills with the Bastien series, which incrementally teaches and incorporates new skills. 

We used the Theory, Technic, Piano, and Performance books for levels 2 and 3. 

(PERSONAL NOTE:  While I love this series, I disagreed with the order in which they presented the keys – they presented all the keys with sharps before introducing keys with flats (for example, students were playing songs with 5 sharps before songs with 2 flats even though songs in the key of B-flat are much more common than songs in the key of B).  Since I still really like the series, we just switched the order of when the different keys were introduced. )  

By the end of Level 3, the young pianists have learned most of the basic piano skills and some intermediate skills.   In the next phase, they begin using these skills beyond these teaching books.

LOGISTICS: 

There is still quite a bit of “together time” during this stage:

    • developing their faith and character,
    • reading children’s literature,
    • reading and discussing American history and science,
    • going over the new vocabulary words and word roots, and
    • listening to the piano practice. 

However, the budding scholars also begin some independent work. 

On Monday of each week, I would give them a chart that had their academic goals for each day of the week with checkboxes.  As much as I would have liked our education to be free-flowing and open-ended, the reality was that I, as much as my children, needed to know when tasks for the day had been completed.  Learning didn’t stop, but the specific assignments for the day did end. 

After all responsibilities and academic goals for the day were accomplished, they were allowed privileges (computer time, screen time, free time, etc.). 

Working diligently on their academic goals
and completing their daily responsibilities
were critical to these budding scholars
earning computer/screen time and allowance. 

(See Teaching Financial Responsibility 
for how and why academics was tied to allowance.) 

EXTRACURRICULAR:   

Making time for physical activity was always a challenge in our intellectually-oriented home, so the kids participated in a local homeschooling P.E. class once a week for 3 hours during which they played a lot of physical games and made some great friends.  This also gave me, the parent-teacher, a chance to run errands and have some personal time. 

Cub scouts, weekly parkdays, wilderness programs, and community theater filled out our week.

FIELD TRIPS~ROAD TRIPS:

During the first four years of our budding scholars’ independent academic adventure, they learned all about the earth, nature’s wonders, and all kinds of plants and animals.  

To top off their study, we went on a two-week road trip through the Southwestern U.S. seeing and experiencing “Nature’s Wonders.”  As described in Experiential Learning at its Best, these trips and experiences made the book learning come alive!   

Southwestern “Nature’s Wonder’s” Tour has complete details including itinerary and packing list. 

RESOURCES USED & BOOK LIST

RESOURCE LIST ~ “Foundation & Fun:  The Journey Continues – Laying the Foundation”

EXAMPLE ~ Weekly Academic Goals (2-5)

NEXT:  Raising Scholars ~ Phase 2:  Establishing Roots