Homeschool
The Corbins have a variety of things they do. Often, the first question they’re asked by others is what curriculum they use. Nikkie cringes at that question because she knows that others are probably thinking that her kids are getting an inferior education when she says that she creates her own.
As an education major in college, Nikkie learned many different teaching methods. Her favorite was to teach using theme cycles where all subjects are built around a particular theme. It’s not always easy to do this, and supplementing may be required. But, their predominant method has always been theme cycles. Some people refer to this as units.
Therefore, Nikkie writes most of their lessons based on a theme. Their curriculum includes library books, Internet resources, field trips, and everything else they can get their hands on. And they love hands-on activities. They take more time but they have lasting effects. Most of what Nikkie remembers from her school days were things that involved hands-on activities.
Below is an example of how a theme cycle might work…
If they are studying animals, they would read lots of books about animals, write stories about animals, discuss sizes and measurement in math, learn lots of facts about animals in science, study locations of particular animals in geography, and so forth.
To supplement, the kids do each have an English and a Math book that Nikkie created using various worksheets from Internet sources and different teaching books.
They also have a “Fun Work” notebook which is filled with all kinds of activities for the various seasons and holidays. These sheets include some difficult activities like Math and Reading practice, and some fun things like coloring and word searches. These sheets also come from various sources but mostly the Internet.
And they also have a “Travel Journal” where they keep records from their field trips.
Nikkie creates all their quizzes and tests.
Nikkie also uses the state standards for schools to make sure that they are learning everything that they should be learning. As different items are accomplished by a particular child, his/her initial is placed next to the standard. They do not confine themselves to one grade level. As standards are fulfilled for a particular grade level, they move on to the standards for the next grade level.
The rate they move along is totally up to them and sometimes, they spend longer on a subject than at other times. They are completely flexible.
