The Robinson Curriculum

I was asked to tell a little about the Robinson Curriculum (RC) since I had linked to it on my sidebar. I found out about this program through friend who discovered the website online. I had been looking for a curriculum that would help me better teach our children, taking in the fact that there were several grade levels, reading levels, and learning styles. RC is basically a collection of Cd's put together by Dr. Robinson, on the Cd's are printable books. The printable books start at a kindergarten level and continue through a 12th grade+ level. By reading these books the children are learning everything they need, inluding their history and science. A quick summary schedule suggested by Dr. Robinson would be: Start the day with Math (he suggests the Saxon Math, which I highly recomend), then go to the writing, then required reading, finishing the *day* with some free reading time. The time for each is set by the parent and decided based on the age of the child. The Saxon Math the only thing not on the Cd's but ordering them through RC will get you a discount.

Dr. Robinson created this program with the help of his 6 children after his wife died. He needed a way to ensure a quality education for his children and be capable of working from home. My summary of what RC is about is incredibly lame compared with the wealth of information and detailed explanations that you will find on his website. He answers tons of questians and gives reasons, explanations, examples and stories all about the how and why. Far better than I can. I studied his site for days.

I can tell you what RC is going to do for me. All my children seem to have different learning styles according the their different personalities, likes and dislikes, and temperament. Some love workbooks and would rather read about and work the pages, while others would rather do something more hands on and write about it. All my children do love to read and be read to. So, instead of trying to wear myself out teaching different styles from several different books, and so forth we have come up with RC. I love the idea that the children are learning to locate info and work through things themselves no longer dependant upon me or a teacher to spoon feed them.

For my older children this year our schedule will be as follows:

Saxon math lesson- about 1 hr

Writing assignment- about 1 hr

Required Reading (from book list) - about 2 1/2 hrs (this includes time to memorize the

vocabulary words from the book)

Free Reading- about 1 hr

The time will increase as they get older and desire more time to write and read. For the younger children that are reading on their own, they will follow the same schedule but with lesser time for each area, again the time will increase with their age and ability.

For pre-reading children, Dr. Robinson suggests that you choose a good phonics program and begin teaching them their reading skills. (He is more detailed on his site.) I am using the Abeka K-4 and K-5 programs, I enjoy all the games and hands-on flashcards, charts and games that help to strengthen the learning making it fun. I make this take as little or as long as I need it too, fitting the curriculum to the needs and time table of my child. Some are slower than others and require more time, but all will be reading at the end of these programs. I also use the on-line program Click-N-Kids (100 lessons) to make reading fun and exciting.

For early math, Dr. Robinson suggests teaching them their numbers. Then using flashcards to teach the adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division tables. Once they can do this they are ready for the Saxon 54 book. Again He is more detailed on his website and flashcards are included on the Cd set.

The best advice I could give about homeschooling, is make learning a way of life. Not a list of things to memorize and copy. Education for us is giving the children the tools they need to learn and find out about anything they will ever desire. The three R's: Reading, (R)Writing, and R'ithmitic, once a child has mastered these tools the *world* is in their hands.

Please, like I stated above, go over the website for a complete understanding of the RC curriculum, how it works, the whys of his methods, etc.... Make it work for you. I don't use, do or agree with absolutely everything in his site but I have made it work for us.

BTW- I have also used and enjoyed the ACE- School of Tomorrow paces, Rod and Staff Publishers, ABEKA, and Bob Jones. Using these in a way that best fit the style of my child.

If there are any questions, you want me to answer specifically just ask, and I will do my best. Goood Luck!!!! Katie

Picture: Our children love to read, and our Daughter wanted a picture of her and her new books last Christmas.