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What changes will you make in the new year?


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We're on Christmas break (yay!), but I am thinking of things I want to do to make our days go more smoothly once we start back up.  

 

The biggest thing I'm planning is to adjust how our mornings look.  Right now I let the kids get up whenever they get up, and we lazily move into breakfast and getting dressed, and then eventually we start school.  I am pretty sure that DD's attitude will be much better if I put more structure into the start of our days - plus, we'll get finished with things earlier so she'll have more play time!

 

I've also finished up with the weekly letter sounds with DD#2, and so I'm planning some new stuff for her, but trying to keep said planning flexible because she's young.

 

 

So what are you changing up in January?  

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haha, I actually read your post earlier and thought "sh*t, I know I have to change things but don't know how to yet!"

 

My biggest struggle right now is figuring out how to teach my nephew effectively.  He's in 3rd grade, first year not in public school, and I'm his teacher 4 days a week.  He's very behind and has learning issues that make it hard for him to retain information so catching up isn't happening.  We're moving very slowly with everything, which is fine, but right now it just feels like I could be doing something better for him.

 

I think the first thing I'm going to change is doing this all without a written daily plan.  That method works so well with my 6 year old because he has a curiosity for everything so he seeks learning out.  My nephew does not, so I need a clearer plan of where we need to end the school year for him to not continue to fall behind.

 

The only other thing I am changing is to add back reading to the kids during the day.  I stopped when my nephew came in the picture because I was reading books like Alice and Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio and he just can't follow them, whereas, my 6 and 4.5 year old can.  I don't want to hold them back because of him.  So I'm going to pick up the books they enjoy and just take them much slower so I can help him follow along.

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Nope. Not thinking about it. Got my fingers jammed in my ears and singing at the top of my lungs.

 

Actually though, I really don't have much I want to change. I'm actually pretty pleased at the pace we are going, and aside from working in a few things that we just don't get to as often as we'd like, I'm not wanting to mess with things that are working.

I would like to get to some state history and go a few places when the weather gets nice in the spring. We are starting our CW Homer in January, but that was planned, as was starting animals for our Life Sciences. Got that book in today, so I'll be getting ready to teach with it and gather some resources but I'm not in a huge hurry. We've got a little botany to finish up, so I've got time.

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We finished Elemental Science's Biology and will be going into their Chemistry.

We finished Writing Strands 2 and will be going into Writing Stands 3.

Still trying to decide whether to do Memoria Press' Latin or Lively Latin.

 

I have also planned to do some subjects year around.

Math, literature, latin and science. 

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I'm going to revamp DD8's schedule (I print out weekly lists) to suit her Potter sensibilities and add a bit of whimsy.

 

English -- Ancient Runes

Math -- Arthmancy

Science -- Potions

History -- History of Magic

Programming on Scratch -- Transfiguration

Personal Research (weekly library trip to research a topic of interest) -- Defense Aganst the Dark Arts (why not?)

 

I may combine the 6yo with the 8yo since they are getting along well lately.

 

My 10yo is going to switch to a more unit study type of approach.

 

The 12yo doesn't want to change anything. The 14yo is going to add a couple of subjects.

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Science:

Towards the end of January, the way we approach Science will change. So far this year, we've finished up some Science Pockets, finished up Health & Safety, and worked on Daily Science lessons. We really enjoyed this, especially our magnet unit! In 2015, the girls will take a Read/Do & Report approach to any science topic that interests them. They will choose the topic, select resources from our "Science Center," gather materials for any hands-on aspects, study those resources and/or do an "experiment" or observation, clean up any hands-on work, and write a report. My three main objectives here are: (1) to approach Science with the motivation of personal curiosity (i.e., asking questions, finding answers or more questions), and (2) to learn how to select and responsibly utilize resources and/or materials needed for that inquiry, and (3) to learn how to maintain a personal Science notebook.

 

Grammar:

We've been doing our Grammar lessons together so far, since I thought we could combine the lessons on using a dictionary, oral usage, contractions, and so on. That went well, but now it's time to split them up into 4th and 2nd grade levels.

 

Composition:

We already hurled CAP Fable and CAP Narrative I at the wall (actually they are in the basement). We went happily back to WWE, and plan to work our way through more of that and perhaps get into some of WWS 1 (Unit 1?). WWE is a much better fit!

 

Other than that, we are content with everything that's planned and lined up for this year. It's all going along well, better than I could have imagined. Amazing, really. It's nice when you find jeans or shoes that fit, you know? It's even nicer when what you plan for school actually "fits" as well as this. Amazing.

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Ummmm....everything?  :)

 

Actually, not really, but there will be changes.  We are adding in an on-line class for both kids (same class, actually) on Marine Science.  And adjusting the math thing again since we hit some additional snags I am trying to work out.  And DS wants to study the Middle Ages as he starts wrapping up his study of the Ancients and continues his dabbling in WWI/WWII.  History nut so he can't get enough.  He also wants to add in swim lessons.  Trying to work out where.  And DS and I may do the Harry Potter lit thing that another boardie is working to complete right now.  DD and I are going to do a lit study on Dystopian societies, more for fun than anything.  8th grade so next year we know we need to ramp up.  etc.  Trying to do a bit more interest led for this last leg of 8th grade.

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We are not loving science or history, we are moving at a snails pace. We are using text books, Elemental Science and Human Odyssey. 

 

I either need to buckle down and make it more of a priority or switch things up. Can we simply do unit studies based DDs (12) interests?

 

This is our first year home schooling and we are trying to find our groove!

 

 

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We are not loving science or history, we are moving at a snails pace. We are using text books, Elemental Science and Human Odyssey. 

 

I either need to buckle down and make it more of a priority or switch things up. Can we simply do unit studies based DDs (12) interests?

 

This is our first year home schooling and we are trying to find our groove!

 

What about picking an interest led topic then just running with it?  Documentaries, hands on experiments where needed, maybe a biography of a related scientist, some historical references from the time that particular scientist lived, etc.  You might be able to find a unit study that does that but if not you might be able to pull something together on your own just based on whatever inquiries you and your child find appealing...

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Right now these are my goals for January. Subject to change, of course. :)

I know I want to start adding specific school time with my 5 yr old the 3 days he doesn't attend preschool. I want to experiment with the right schedule for working with both of them.

 

I need to think about how to fit in history. We haven't gotten to it often this semester.

 

I want to start giving my son some practice in organization and management - I need to figure out the best way to do that.

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I'm at the end of my rope with writing.  My older two have been using IEW, and their writing just isn't getting any better despite specific instruction to focus on the content and not on making sure the dress ups are in there.  They focus on the darn dress ups and put them in where they just don't work.  I also am not loving the snails pace Fix-It Grammar has us going at and how it ties in so much to IEW writing.  So those are out.  

I'm going to be using WWS and AG for them, I may have to drag them through it holding hands and making them work as a team to do the work, but we're at the cliff now and we have to buckle down on those subjects.  I have to figure out a better way to do literature with my oldest too.  

History has been a bust so we're going back to ancients and will do them a la mom with random things pulled from all over. 

 

Math, foreign language, and Science are fine so those will stay what they are.  

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we moved cross country in late August/early Sept, so our year has been all weird.  Add in my illness for 6 weeks, dd's tonsil recovery 2 weeks, grandma visit 1 week....and well, I finally had to go through the schedule and figure out how to accomplish what I want them to this year.  I think we have it figured it.  We are dumping the schedule for SL Core H and just doing the SOTW books/encyclopedias.  No GW world or AL world books.  Will do the readers at their pace.  We were putting together science for spring, so culled back our topic list.  Reality is we won't finish anything but math this year, but it's all good.  So not really dumping anything, just reworking the schedule/books to get done what we want. 

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I think this is one of the only years I *haven't* had to change things up! (which is good since I'm getting older ready to go off to college and have enough other things to think about!).

 

However, here's a series of blog posts I did that might be helpful to those changing things up--starting with Priorities and Passions, then creating a workable routine, implementing, a typical day, and creating a teacher binder. Christmas vacation is a great time to take stock, see what's working and what's not, and revamp a bit where needed. 

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I have LDs that I am dealing with so I have been brainstorming on how to rectify some problems.  What I have thought of so far is to focus on Language Arts for a bit.  We will be focusing on grammar, writing and copywork (for the youngest.)   We will still be doing the basics for the other subjects but we will cut out the extras for a month or so, see where we are and then go from there.

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Well, first of all I'm going to be organized. That'll be a change right there. :-P

 

One big change we're making is that we're adding in more outside activities. We're looking at martial arts, a sign language class, spring sports, maybe swimming and an art class. We think our empty schedule is making us a bit lazy so my DH and I have decided to fill our days up a bit more in hopes that the busy-ness will get us moving.

 

I'm going to plan ahead more so that we get in Science, History, and Spanish more often. This fall I tried just writing done what we did each day. I was trying to be more relaxed about our days but we only managed to accomplish about a month's worth of those three subjects since September.

 

I'll also be changing a few things for each child.

 

DD10 - We'll be focusing more on writing and spelling. I want to get her writing something everyday. Time to tackle the pencil allergy head on.

 

DD8 - We'll be focusing more on math drill work and CWP.

 

DD7 - Reading, reading, reading! I'll be making a definite priority of this as well as some phonics drill work. She loves math and I've let math take priority lately but we really need six days a week of reading practice. I'll also be paying closer attention to her progress and researching evaluation options in case we still don't see progress by this summer.

 

The girls will also start BA. We're all looking forward to that! :-)

 

DS5 - We'll be starting a "letter of the week" phonics program. I plan to put that together myself but since I haven't started working on that yet we'll see what happens. Good thing he's a November baby....

 

Everyone - We'll be starting more memory work. We've been doing Scripture memory but we'll be adding in a poem, Greek/Latin roots, and states and capitals.

 

The beginning of this school year was a total bust for us. It just really didn't work out like I had hoped. There were some big schedule changes with my DH's job and my plan didn't mesh well with his schedule. I'm considering January as my chance for a do-over. I think I've figured out some key areas where my previous plan fell flat and some solutions that I hope will remedy those problems.

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I want us to get back to an earlier start. At the beginning of the year we were starting school by 8:30/9:00. We did about an hour and a half and then the girls had free time to play together until my toddler's nap around 1 when we did the rest. (per my 6 year old's request, she wanted her free time to be with sister, not during her nap.)

 

Now we're not getting started until after 11, then we don't get far before we have to stop for lunch. Toddler is also giving up nap, so after lunch we still have most of our stuff left to do with a slightly cranky but not sleeping toddler. More cranky for not getting as much direct attention.

 

I want to get back to starting around 8:30 and do all of school in the am. Then we can be done with school before lunch and they will have the rest of the day free.

 

I also want to get back to *my* priorities with what we do during school instead of working around what the charter we are with wants to see. I think that will come with the better schedule, though.

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we moved cross country in late August/early Sept, so our year has been all weird.  Add in my illness for 6 weeks, dd's tonsil recovery 2 weeks, grandma visit 1 week....and well, I finally had to go through the schedule and figure out how to accomplish what I want them to this year.  I think we have it figured it.  We are dumping the schedule for SL Core H and just doing the SOTW books/encyclopedias.  No GW world or AL world books.  Will do the readers at their pace.  We were putting together science for spring, so culled back our topic list.  Reality is we won't finish anything but math this year, but it's all good.  So not really dumping anything, just reworking the schedule/books to get done what we want. 

 

Tess, we moved in late aug too, weren't you in VA?  We moved from VA to TN and didn't get to start school until mid Sept.  We've had some illness and wisdom teeth removal, I'm just glad we've gotten 12 weeks worth of school in at all.  That was with a lot of long days and a lot of weekends in there too. 

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We start a new school year in January, but I'm basically continuing all the things we have been doing since they were working so well.

 

One area that I know I need to work on is helping the kids develop their own personal Bible study habits, so I've come up with a plan for that.

 

We'll see if it works as well in reality as I think it will in my head! 

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Im considering assigning "homework" to my first grader in the form of a clipboard with 1-3 items to accomplish before any screen time can be had.  It seems a bit counter-intuitive to the whole homeschooling gig, and he also seems young but... 

As it is right now we do a 15-20 minute lesson, then he works independently for a bit while I sit there and wait for him to finish (or do dishes, change a diaper, ect).  Then another 15-20 minute lesson on the next subject, then waiting for him to finish independent work again.  I feel like doing all of our lesson parts in one sitting and waiting for all the independent work for later in the day would be a better use of MY time.  

It might also blow up in my face.  

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I need to take a look at our daily schedules and readjust some things to find better balance.  Some days are feeling looooong and others relatively short.  Hopefully now that we're 4 months in I can shift things around in a way that makes the days more evenly weighted.

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We do semester blocks here, so the only things that won't be changing are the online classes and Algebra 2 for dd. Dd will be taking her first class at the local CC this spring. She finished Biology, Psychology and Personal Finance. She'll add Chemistry, Photography and Sign Language.

 

Ds is cutting back his workload. He is burned out and wants to be finished. We talked to admissions at the University where he has already been accepted and asked if he could drop Advanced Chemistry. He already has 4 science credits and is going to be a writing major. She said, absolutely, it won't have any effect on his acceptance or scholarships. He finished Psychology and Government first semester. He will continue his 2 APs, and add a half credit speech class and another half credit elective (podcasting). I'm hoping it helps him feel more in control of life and have more free time which he desperately needs right now. 

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Our changes are reflecting prep for our baby due in the spring. DD wanted to add writing so I got EIW Level 1 and of course she wanted to start right away, so we already are several lessons in. I picked that one for price and DVD tutor. So it doesn't add to my workload with the new baby.

 

We are also ramping up science lessons so we can finish our formal science curriculum before baby. Then we'll switch gears to some light gardening, which she can include in her personal nature study/ journal. We are also going to do some shopping for bird feeders and seed and whatever else we need to observe birds through the window while its cold out. A bird guidebook, perhaps? I don't have that totally figured out yet.

 

I was relying on car rides for audiobook time using cds from the library but the CD player broke. So I need to shift gears and get DD some headphones. I've already set up an Overdrive account for library audiobooks and loaded the Kindle app with lots of good stuff. I will probably get an adapter for the car since we live in a small town have to drive quite a bit to get to major attractions, shopping, medical, family, etc. Gotta have something decent to listen to!

 

Other than that, EG, HWOT, MM, SOTW are all going well and we are just going to try to not fall behind so we can take off a couple weeks when the baby comes. Thanks for this thread. I have a to-do list now that I've had to think about it. I need to get crackin!

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Some changes-

1) more structure for our days - which is tough with a baby

2) slowing down history pace to add more to history but cover over two years- will be tying in Portraits of American Girlhood to our MFW Adventures

3) cutting down science, art & music, literature related activities, family / life skills & crafts, etc to 1x a week

4) switching out our Wednesday morning riding lesson to Thursday afternoon so we have 5 mornings a week dedicated to doing school - allow more wiggle room to spread out a bit

5) Gradually increase dd's independent work a bit

6) reinstate quite time for all

7) push our official start time to a half hour later

8) get our chores done in the morning

10) rotate days between seat work / read alouds / Bible and activity days

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No changes in curriculum, but we need a change in pace & atmosphere.  When basketball season is over (mid-Jan), we will be spending more time at the library.  Writing needs to ramp up a bit more...OK, a lot more! 

 

I'm reconsidering how I organize.  I need my dc to do more independently b/c I have 3 students and 1 toddler.  My older 2 are capable of much more than they are doing right now.

 

 

It's Dec....time for my annual re-read of the FILING thread, the WORKBOX threads, etc... :lol:

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Im considering assigning "homework" to my first grader in the form of a clipboard with 1-3 items to accomplish before any screen time can be had.  It seems a bit counter-intuitive to the whole homeschooling gig, and he also seems young but... 

 

...

I do something similar with my first grader. Or did when my toddler still napped. I gave her a list of things to do while I was getting little one down for a nap. She did really well with it. I usually wrote it on the white board so she could cross off or erase as she completed things. Once finished she had free time until I called her in to do whatever else we needed to finish. A few times I've "assigned" her math pages to be done sometime before bed. DH usually helps with reminding her to do it at some point. There's no screen time until all of school is finished, her list and any math 'homework' is included in that.

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We have some changes coming.  We school year-round, so some of my kids are actually pretty much done with their stuff.  We're also having another baby, so I plan to take a BIG break if we need to/get overwhelmed.

 

My changes: I need to get more organized.  I think I need to have the 3 youngest ones working on math/writing/reading at the same time in the morning.

 

7 yro:  She finished everything already!  I've started working through that Mensa booklist with her and she's reading books on her own now, too (Finally!).

9 yro: Still chugging along with Ambleside Online.  I'm just keeping her with that program.  She really likes it.  It will take us forever to get through those books.  She'll be in college and we'll still be trying to read Year 5.

11 yro: Still reading through his big box of literature selections.  He's also doing really well with Lial's, so we're going to continue with that.  We're coming to the end of Intermediate Language Lessons, so that'll be off the table soon.

 

3 youngest kids together:  I need to combine them more with the baby coming.  I need to have them do their math/writing/reading together in the morning and then we can do a unit study together.

 

13 yro: Pretty much finished a lot of her stuff, too.  Finished all of her lit.  TOPS science has been a flop.  I love TOPS, but she seriously didn't learn anything from it.  She's going to start self-directed learning after this school year.  I'm going to do Algebra with her in the morning, periodically work on writing with her throughout the year (we bought the Lively Art of Writing) and the rest is up to her. 

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Changing up the schedule, but we knew it was coming. The co-op we're in and the hybrid high school program she uses for some classes are on semester schedules, so English and career/college prep will be switched for Latin 1 and honors biology, while Classical mythology, classics book club, and photography will be swapped for government, creative writing, and 2 art classes (one drawing, one painting). This almost full-scale swap is new to us this year---the only thing that stays the same is math at home. One of the classes (Latin) will also be with a new provider for us.

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We're adjusting our schedule . . . again. We always work our schedule around the toddler's naptime, so when he needs something new, we all adjust around him.

 

I'm not making any curriculum changes, but I feel like this has been a learning year for me with my oldest in middle school. We had a huge curriculum miss at the beginning of the year that has already been replaced, and I may have gotten a little ambitious and planned too much. We are continuing with our current pace until the end of the year, but I'm already making mental notes of what I will do differently with her little brother. Poor first child. I'm always trying things out on her first.

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I *think* our school is going really well. Not a lot to change really.

 

But I would like to add in more art and "artsy things" especially for DSD8. She would adore that. And since her handwork class is done, they really have no art instruction right now . . . I have Artistic Pursuits but have yet to even crack it. I'm just not into crafty things. The only time we reallly do anything crafty is right before Christmas because we like home made decorations for the tree. She has a ton of kits and stuff but isn't quite independent and they end up just sitting :( Oh and they used to have a big craft room full of stuff but we've closed it down for a while cause it was always like a tornado whirled through lol.

 

She'd also like more baking and cooking. . . ruminating.

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I do something similar with my first grader. Or did when my toddler still napped. I gave her a list of things to do while I was getting little one down for a nap. She did really well with it. I usually wrote it on the white board so she could cross off or erase as she completed things. Once finished she had free time until I called her in to do whatever else we needed to finish. A few times I've "assigned" her math pages to be done sometime before bed. DH usually helps with reminding her to do it at some point. There's no screen time until all of school is finished, her list and any math 'homework' is included in that.

My 2nd grader is doing that! She has assignments during quiet time.

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We're changing some things.  For Shannon, she has asked for one day a week during writing time to work on creative writing projects.  She is also finally starting the Compass Classroom Filmmaking class that I bought her this summer.  We threw out my lit plan, and we are going to do some short stories and Movies as Literature, and read and discuss books she wants to, and a couple more Shakespeare plays.

 

For Morgan, we are changing up how we do writing.  Many more choices, and skipping around among the writing programs that we have so she has more variety and more practice on different skills.  Everything else is going ok, although she would like to do more science projects/kits.  I'm hoping to do a bunch during break, I have such a hard time doing them during the regular school week.  

 

For both of them, I've added in an after lunch read-aloud time, where I read them a nonfiction book that is related to what we're studying, and a level that they both can enjoy.  We're reading through various Evolution books right now.  We might add poetry once a week during this time - I know they'd like that, but for some reason I'm not excited to do it.  Why is that, I wonder?

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I was sick with a fever and coughing for a week or so a couple of weeks ago, and to keep my 1st grader satisfied that we were still "doing school" even though Mom was sick I pulled out "My Body Book" and read the paragraphs to her while she colored and put them up on the wall, which was easy peasy for me and I could sleep after reading the paragraph while she colored and cut and glued.  That night she excitedly told my husband, "Science is my new favorite subject!!!" which is definitely NOT something she had ever said before. 

 

I'd been just having her tag along with her 5th grade older sister in science and this conversation made me realize that she really would like and benefit from some science lessons geared to her own level, not just letting her soak up whatever she could from her sister's lessons.  So I bought some Magic School Bus DVDs and kits and we're going to do that for her science.  It might take a little bit more of my time separating the two of them out instead of lumping them together, but I think she'll learn a lot more this way.  I think the gap in their ages was just too big.

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Everything is working pretty well for us.  We just need to be consistent.  We moved in October and had a baby in November so we took some scheduled time off.  Our goal for the new year will be to stay consistent so we don't fall behind as we really don't have any more time to take off if we want to finish our curriculum. 

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We're changing some things.  For Shannon, she has asked for one day a week during writing time to work on creative writing projects.  She is also finally starting the Compass Classroom Filmmaking class that I bought her this summer.  We threw out my lit plan, and we are going to do some short stories and Movies as Literature, and read and discuss books she wants to, and a couple more Shakespeare plays.

 

Rose, I just finished reading Out of the Holding Tank and The Reader's Odyssey by Dena Luchsinger, and both are influencing the way I am thinking about literature with my boys for the middle grades. She really emphasizes choice by the student as key to the plan, and there is a great deal of choice and collaboration with the parent regarding writing projects. Might be something you would be interested in.

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Rose, I just finished reading Out of the Holding Tank and The Reader's Odyssey by Dena Luchsinger, and both are influencing the way I am thinking about literature with my boys for the middle grades. She really emphasizes choice by the student as key to the plan, and there is a great deal of choice and collaboration with the parent regarding writing projects. Might be something you would be interested in.

 

Yep, I have The Reader's Odyssey (as well as Writing With a Purple Crayon).  I even read them this summer.  But at the time, Shannon didn't really seem to have any preferences about what we did for lit, so I went ahead and made a plan.  (Have I mentioned that I like making plans?  ;) )  When I realized that she wasn't feeling the love, we sat down and had a heart to heart, and threw the plan out.  Our new plan has changed repeatedly in the last couple of weeks, but what the heck, it's a flexible plan!  ;)  :D

 

It's kind of all coming together into a perfect calm (anti-storm?) - now that the play is ending, she decided she wanted to write and film a screenplay with her theater buddies.  That made her decide she was ready to tackle the filmmaking class, which will help her with the technical aspects.  So I decided to go ahead and jump in with Movies as Lit, which I had been eyeing for next year, to help with the storytelling part.  Plus, I like the composition assignments, and I think we'll be doing those for our lit writing for the rest of the year.  So it all kind of grew together naturally.  Which is the best, I think!

 

So we're kind of just studying 4 things:  Math(Algebra/Geometry/Statistics/Problem Solving), Spanish, Big History/Big Science mashup, and Lit/Fine Arts/Writing/Filmmaking.  I love that!  It's a simple plan with many flexible pieces.

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Let's see..

 

For me:

I am working massively on organization.

 

For ds13:

What's working

He'll continue with Jacobs Elementary Algebra... he loves it!

And Hewitt's Conceptual Physics is still a big hit... even though we're on "winter break", he's been studying it. I even caught him trying to take notes from it in German, but then he decided his German skills are not yet up to that level.

And reading whatever he wants... he's very much into dystopian lit this year, so currently he's reading the Maze Runner series. After that, I might suggest City of Ember, or ???

 

And what we're changing

Writing. I am trying desperately to decide between a return to WWS, which he actually enjoys for its straightforwardness, mixed in with  ; Kilgallon; or simply making sure he does more a la a  some Bravewriter Lifestyle stuff.

German - he's been doing Duolingo, but needs more. And we don't have much money for anything. He might also try out Latin, since I have GSWL and Wheelock's.

Adding: He wants to start learning more about computer science/programming -- this one from edX.org. And I want to add more hands-on to his physics studies, so I'm researching TOPS, etc.

 

For dd11:

What's working

Math Mammoth

PH's Science Explorer Animals + Library books, documentaries, and hands-on for zoology

She's reading more, as long as I don't try to "force" any reading materials on her! :glare: She asked for the Hunger Games series for Christmas - first time she's ever asked for books!!!

 

And what we're changing

Again, writing: IEW? Bravewriter combined with Diana Hanbury King's Writing Skills  ? Grrrr. (any advice welcome! She's reading at a 5th grade level now, overall)

And she's talking about wanting to start Spanish.

 

For both:

We're still loving our Afternoon Basket approach to many subjects (afternoon simply because that's when we do homeschooling), so we'll continue with that. We ended up going back to K12's Human Odyssey for a history of the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, with occasional supplements (movies, books, documentaries).

Edited by momto2Cs
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For us, some of our changes are logistical.  For instance we are rearranging our school room and moving to one large table in here instead of two student desks.  I think we're going to change up our routine a bit too - my parents bought us a gym membership for CHristmas, so I think a few mornings a week the boys and I will go work out/run/shoot hoops for 45 minutes before we start school and hope the extra activity gets minds moving a little bit better.

 

For DS12 we need to focus on math attitude...and math.  ;)  Also going to try and do at least one research paper so he has some exposure to that. 

 

DS10 I need to work on getting him to read more often.  He probably needs a little more challenge in some areas as well.

 

Wish I could find the perfect balance of pursuing both academics and passions, but this is a continual work in progress.  Next year I hope to stop the pendulum from swinging so far back and forth!  ;)

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^^attitude! This! I recently switched HS planners to The Ultimate Homeschool Planner and it me be more mindful of character goals, family goals, and long term academic goals. I am definitely more aware of attitude / heart issues that need work and am now prioritizing differently. I am asking at the end of the week, did we meet out character and academic goals even if the week did not go as planned? If not why? What changes need to happen?

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I am changing everything for my 7yr old. He was using Abeka math, SOS for LA, Bju science, lifepac history. After Christmas break he will be using math mammoth and cle la and unschooling everything else.

 

For my 6yr old we are adding in FLL and WWE and trying a different phonics program.

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Gah!

 

I scrolled over most of the replies due to how crappy I feel about the whole subject.

 

*sigh*

 

All that has been happening since October has been math, phonics, copy work and informal spelling for first grader, and math, Latin, reading and freewriting/copy work/journaling for third grader, some educational apps and television, and a lot of independent activity with Legos, clay, pens, paint, coding websites, etc. My Ker has thankfully been teaching himself to read, add and multiply, letting me know what he can do or asking for information as he pleases.

 

It almost sounds like we've been living productive lives when I actually feel like we've been slacking. Now that I'm thinking about it, the reality is that the children have prossibly been doing fine and it is just me that has been slacking. Maybe the changes I need to make are for myself. I need to be learning or creating something new. HmmĂ¢â‚¬Â¦

 

I do need to recommit to read alouds. I was trying to do too much and burned myself out. A sustainable plan is in order. I did just add Progressive Composition to my third grader's day.

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For olders:   Work on driving lessons and test prep.

 

For youngers:   Gather a list (and implement) of movies/shows to supplement history and science (and any other subjects I can)---I had done this for my older kids, but so many new options are available that we haven't yet tried.

 

For me:  Get up earlier (that's a permanent entry in my "things to change" list :glare:

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This has been a chaotic year that included two moves on top of many other stressors. I'm rather shocked at how well school has gone in the midst of all of it.

 

That said, I want to make Spanish a priority beginning in January. I think the problem was part lack of motivation and part lack of a plan. I had a few books and thought I would wing it. Nope. So, I'm taking some time to plan Spanish over the holidays in the hopes that I follow through.

 

I'm also in desperate need of a schedule or, at least, a morning routine. There is entirely too much freedom (and, therefore, fighting) in our mornings.

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