Something has to change-advice please about energizing our homeschool

[Meadowlark]

I have 5 kids, next year will be in 4th, 3rd, K, PreK and Pre. This year, the 2 preschoolers go to actual preschool. Next year, I'm keeping everyone home.

 

Like many moms, I feel like my littler ones get the short end of the stick. I'm so worried about getting it all done with the older ones that I feel like I'm always just trying to get them to "go play"....I need to feel like I'm giving them what they need next year.(not meaning academics, but just general attention)

 

I am trying to decide on history/science/theme for next year. I REALLY REALLY want to teach ONE them (at various levels of course) so that we feel like a cohesive family, all learning and growing together.  This year has been an epic fail in that regard. I want to nurture relationships, see their curiousity aroused, hear discussions, do activities together, etc.

 

Problem is, I just can't find a curriculum that I feel I can do that with. This year, we are doing Ancients. I'm not set on continuing with chronological history though. We also did NL science, but I can't afford this particular science program again so that is up for grab's too.

 

I recently found Connecting with History, a Catholic classical history program that I'm debating on. Similar to MFW, it has plans for each age group. BUT-it doesn't seem to get rave reviews, and again, I'm not sold on chronological history.

 

Then, there's Winter Promise which has been calling out to me for several years.  I found their Animals and their Worlds program, which looks to be everything I want, except I'm not sure if I can handle a whole year of animal study.

 

I don't know....I'm rambling, but am I missing something? I just want this homeschooling thing to feel like I always imagined it would be. Right now, we are just getting it done and checking off boxes. There's no curiosity blooming, projects drying on our table, or cohesiveness between subjects. Anything you could offer is appreciated.

 

ETA: I know it's confusing to know what I'm asking. I have academic curriculum that I'm happy with for the content areas and for my little ones...that's not really what I"m after. It's the other part-the FUN part. The science, history, read-alouds, projects, dvd's, etc. That's what we're not doing well here. Also, I should mention that I'm very visual. I like color, beautiful books and media when appropriate. I also need there to be some kind of output. I don't want a bunch of reading and that's it. I'm intrigued with notebooking and hope to incorporate that into it. We did MFW in the past, and that's close to what I want but that didn't really satisfy me either. Former teacher here, hard to please I know.

Edited April 28, 2016 by Meadowlark

[sunshineslp]

Biblioplan has all kids on one level

 

 

Homeschooling mama of 4... Preschool 3, preschool 4, 1st, and 2nd:)

[boscopup]

Have you looked at Wayfarers? I haven't used it yet, so it could very well be horrible. :lol: But I'm really enjoying her language arts program with my 3 school aged kids, and I notice that Wayfarers has preschool activity/book suggestions built in (basically reading and doing little activities to develop motor skills). My daughter isn't old enough for the preschool activities yet, but I could see really liking that when she's closer to 3!

 

I know the English curriculum has been really nice in my household, cutting out a lot of daily angst over doing "all that work" in separate workbooks 5 days per week. Now it's 3 days per week, working with Mom, reading good literature and poetry, discussing grammar, doing some copywork/dictation/narration, adding in literary analysis for the older kid (my 6th grader is doing level 5). It really has made my homeschool a bit calmer since we started it a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes when the newness wears off, of course! I'm planning to add in Wayfarers after we finish Medieval History with Biblioplan.

[mamamoose]

We started Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons and I think it's a lot like the program about which the above poster is talking. My very reluctant 2nd grader asks for more almost every day. I am in the same boat for the most part--it all feels like work, and I am frustrated. I am looking into Biblioplan. They just came out with a new book for the younger ages (Medieval) and it looks really fun!

 

Sorry for typos--using the phone!

Edited April 28, 2016 by mamamoose

[ExcitedMama]

What about MP Enrichment? It's basically a list of different things for the week. It's definitely not a pretty book though! All black and white. There's a book of the week with reading comprehension questions, an art to look at, a music to play and a poem to read. Some weeks have a theme and recommend extra science books or other books to read. It's great for me to have a list to work from and add to if there is something interesting. You could adapt it to do an art project related to the art.

 

What about a fun science? DD loves tagging along with DS projects. What about a few in a box? Like Clifford or Magic School Bus? I'm astounded at how much DD picks up when I'm explaining something to DS but not expecting her to retain it.

[Vintage81]

Mystery Science - aimed for kids ages 6-12, all online, no lesson planning required. Supplies for experiments are needed, but it's nothing too complicated. The videos are engaging and they could be watched by many different age groups (my kindergartner enjoyed them). How you expand on each mystery, whether it's through additional reading, lapbooking, additional experiments or whatever else is fun, is where you can customize based on age/grade. They have a free trial going on now through the end of June.

[TriciaT]

I think there are a few things you could do whether you do science and history together or not to give you a sense of connectedness as a homeschooling family. Here are some things that lend themselves easily to that:

Read aloud time- I just pick a book I really want to share with my kids and we read that, no schedules and not part of "school"

Poetry tea time- we do this weekly. Sometimes I buy snacks or sometimes we bake something. We just get out our pile of poetry books and all pick out poems to read. :) easy!

Art- we use artistic pursuits, but also sometimes just a Pinterest project. We do this weekly and all draw or paint together. It's great!

 

Some other things that we have loved but don't always make it into our week are: nature walks and then journaling, classical music exposure- sometimes watching an orchestra, ballet, or opera on YouTube,; or sometimes just dancing around to whatever music we want.

 

All that to say, if you end up not finding history or science curriculum for everybody, you can still have some great shared learning experiences!

 

 

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Edited April 29, 2016 by TriciaT

[mamiof5]

We do MFW, but since it's not Catholic we also do lots of Catholic materials. We do Religion, sometimes science, and reading through Seton. Add Math, grammar, spelling, handwriting, vocab...no time to energize anything else. It's a little crazy, and not everything gets done every day...but it's a nice, crazy combination :)

[Lori D.]

That's a pretty big age spread to cover… My thought is that rather than look for one program that works for all those ages, switch up your schedule to give you family learning time.

 

For example, your DC are young enough right now and for another 1-2 years, that you could do longer school for the older two DC on 3 days a week with core academics (LA, math, and reading to go with their History and/or Science), and on the other 2 days a week do a shortened time for academics so that you have 2 to 2.5 hours to have family time learning -- projects/hands-on for History, Science, and Art (each at their own level). Sometimes do fun things that everyone can do together like dressing up in the time period, playing a game or making a food or listening to music of that time/culture; or watch a Magic School Bus episode or a short Brain Pop video on your science topic. Other times do "parallel projects" -- everyone has a hands-on on the same Science or History or Art, but does a kit at their own level.

 

What History/Social Studies and what Science would you like to do? Let's see if we can come up with some age-appropriate hands-on so all your DC can do hands-on together! :)

 

[Ellie]

I have 5 kids, next year will be in 4th, 3rd, K, PreK and Pre. This year, the 2 preschoolers go to actual preschool. Next year, I'm keeping everyone home.

 

Like many moms, I feel like my littler ones get the short end of the stick. I'm so worried about getting it all done with the older ones that I feel like I'm always just trying to get them to "go play"....I need to feel like I'm giving them what they need next year.(not meaning academics, but just general attention)

 

I am trying to decide on history/science/theme for next year. I REALLY REALLY want to teach ONE them (at various levels of course) so that we feel like a cohesive family, all learning and growing together.  This year has been an epic fail in that regard. I want to nurture relationships, see their curiousity aroused, hear discussions, do activities together, etc.

 

Problem is, I just can't find a curriculum that I feel I can do that with. This year, we are doing Ancients. I'm not set on continuing with chronological history though. We also did NL science, but I can't afford this particular science program again so that is up for grab's too.

 

I recently found Connecting with History, a Catholic classical history program that I'm debating on. Similar to MFW, it has plans for each age group. BUT-it doesn't seem to get rave reviews, and again, I'm not sold on chronological history.

 

Then, there's Winter Promise which has been calling out to me for several years.  I found their Animals and their Worlds program, which looks to be everything I want, except I'm not sure if I can handle a whole year of animal study.

 

I don't know....I'm rambling, but am I missing something? I just want this homeschooling thing to feel like I always imagined it would be. Right now, we are just getting it done and checking off boxes. There's no curiosity blooming, projects drying on our table, or cohesiveness between subjects. Anything you could offer is appreciated.

 

ETA: I know it's confusing to know what I'm asking. I have academic curriculum that I'm happy with for the content areas and for my little ones...that's not really what I"m after. It's the other part-the FUN part. The science, history, read-alouds, projects, dvd's, etc. That's what we're not doing well here. Also, I should mention that I'm very visual. I like color, beautiful books and media when appropriate. I also need there to be some kind of output. I don't want a bunch of reading and that's it. I'm intrigued with notebooking and hope to incorporate that into it. We did MFW in the past, and that's close to what I want but that didn't really satisfy me either. Former teacher here, hard to please I know.

 

So, you'll have a 9yo, an 8yo, a 5yo, and two bitties. :-)

 

KONOS might work. It does history, geography, science, arts and crafts, drama, literature--everything except English skills and arithmetic--while studying godly character traits such as obedience, oderliness, responsibility, and more. Vol 2, which I think would be best for you, does a chronological study of American history, beginning with the early scientists and explorers, and ending with the writing of the U.S. Constitution. I don't think there's anything anti-Catholic, and I think it would be easy to embellish stuff with Catholic.

 

KONOS is particularly good with mixed ages of children. Activities are not described or grouped by ages; you can tell which ones your dc can do together, which ones you can let older ones do with a little instruction/direction from you, and so on.

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Another option that isn't quite the same as combining ages would be incorporating some of the Bravewriter lifestyle stuff into your life:  poetry teas, free write Fridays, party school, movies, art appreciation...

 

 

And maybe circle time with group work?

[kalusignan]

I like Wayfarers or Layers of Learning as a framework for combining history, geography, science, read-alouds, and art. I'm planning on using Wayfarers next year, but Layers of Learning is very colorful and inviting and includes a lot of projects, so that sounds like something you might like.

 

SOTW - all ages can listen and complete map work and projects at their level. Then complete additional reading, writing on their own as needed.

 

Science - nature study is great for combined ages. Simply Charlotte Mason has some great nature study guides.

 

Art - Artistic Pursuits is excellent and children can be combined, completing the same project at their level.

 

Also - agree with PP about Bravewriter Lifestyle activities: Poetry teatime, nature journaling, free writing, party school, movies, art.

[sunshineslp]

Have you looked at Wayfarers? I haven't used it yet, so it could very well be horrible. :lol: But I'm really enjoying her language arts program with my 3 school aged kids, and I notice that Wayfarers has preschool activity/book suggestions built in (basically reading and doing little activities to develop motor skills). My daughter isn't old enough for the preschool activities yet, but I could see really liking that when she's closer to 3!

 

I know the English curriculum has been really nice in my household, cutting out a lot of daily angst over doing "all that work" in separate workbooks 5 days per week. Now it's 3 days per week, working with Mom, reading good literature and poetry, discussing grammar, doing some copywork/dictation/narration, adding in literary analysis for the older kid (my 6th grader is doing level 5). It really has made my homeschool a bit calmer since we started it a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes when the newness wears off, of course! I'm planning to add in Wayfarers after we finish Medieval History with Biblioplan.

May I ask why you're switching from Biblioplan to wayfarers? I'm considering both [emoji4]

[Meadowlark]

That's a pretty big age spread to cover… My thought is that rather than look for one program that works for all those ages, switch up your schedule to give you family learning time.

 

For example, your DC are young enough right now and for another 1-2 years, that you could do longer school for the older two DC on 3 days a week with core academics (LA, math, and reading to go with their History and/or Science), and on the other 2 days a week do a shortened time for academics so that you have 2 to 2.5 hours to have family time learning -- projects/hands-on for History, Science, and Art (each at their own level). Sometimes do fun things that everyone can do together like dressing up in the time period, playing a game or making a food or listening to music of that time/culture; or watch a Magic School Bus episode or a short Brain Pop video on your science topic. Other times do "parallel projects" -- everyone has a hands-on on the same Science or History or Art, but does a kit at their own level.

 

What History/Social Studies and what Science would you like to do? Let's see if we can come up with some age-appropriate hands-on so all your DC can do hands-on together! :)

 

Well, that's the thing...I can't seem to find a History or Science program. I'm looking at both Winterpromise and RC History. Other than that, I just have no idea. My kids do go to coop on Wednesdays so I'm really schooling 4 days a week. 

[boscopup]

May I ask why you're switching from Biblioplan to wayfarers? I'm considering both [emoji4]

 

I like that it schedules more than just history, and since I'm using ELTL, that's scheduled to. I like the layout better also - it's easier for me to see what we need to do. BP, I keep forgetting to do certain things that I originally wanted to do. I also like that Wayfarers includes a preschool schedule (basically, reading good books and doing some fun preschool activities that build motor skills), so I can include my daughter later on when she's ready - she'll already be on the schedule in an age appropriate manner. :)

 

I do like the BP Companion (which is basically a textbook), but only my oldest is reading it right now. The younger two were listening in, but some sections get very long, and I'm not good at picking and choosing. They say to pick and choose sections to read together, but when I tried to do that, I would think one section would be interesting, yet the kids had no clue about it because we hadn't read the previous sections. So I really needed to do all or nothing.

 

My advice to you would be to print out the samples of both, so you can look at the layout and see how you would use it. Also, see if you're needing the extras in Wayfarers, like science, logic (middle grades), art, etc. You can sub your own things for those subjects pretty easily (especially art, as it's not scheduled - it's just on the list to do one of the choices, with no page numbers listed).

[8filltheheart]

Here is my suggestion, fwiw. I would have the 2 youngest playing in the morning while I did school with the older 3. I would start with the Ker while the 4th and 3rd grader work independently on either math or silent reading. I would spend about an hr with my Ker and then send him/her off to play with the younger 2. I would then rotate between the older 2 on math and language arts. My goal would to be done with all school work by lunch time.

 

I would the decide how I want my afternoons to run. I would probably do tea time, art, story time, nature hikes, park time, bike riding, etc bc that is how I function. If I wanted something structured, I might consider something like Before Five in a Row and just do it a couple of days a week, picking out specific stories and activities that I liked.

[Tita Gidge]

I own Connecting With History and while I like the idea of it, we never officially used it. I reference it from time to time but it wasn't intuitive to me. FWIW, I attribute that to my own processing style which doesn't seem to line up with most curricula, and not to any fault with the CWH program. But it's still an unfinished program, which is a turn off for me. That might be why there aren't many reviews.

 

The chronological history was a very big factor for me. I'm sold on it and I love it.  So with that disclaimer, I'll throw out a suggestion for Schola Rosa (Catholic). 

 

It's a full curriculum and all of your kids would be in the Elementary Bundle (grades PK-6).  They'd be studying subjects together, at varying levels.  And because K-6 is offered as a single bundle, you have plenty of flexibility to place them where they fit for any given subject - there's no buying different levels or guessing where to place them. It's very convenient for a bigger family. 

 

It is divided into a 3-year history/literature schedule: Ancients, the Age of Christendom, and Modern Times.  The year is scheduled into 30 weeks, which one friend does weekly as outlined, and another does on her own time around their son's travel hockey schedule (spreading out the year longer). A number of my friends are very happy with it. Included in the cost are digital copies of many resources required or suggested.

 

Here are the book lists for each cycle (and for each subject): http://www.scholarosa.com/bookstore/book-lists/ My hockey mom friend says even though they say "required purchases" ... not all of them truly really are, as some are only used for a week or two of lessons and can be skipped or found at the library. She chose to continue with her own penmanship program, to use maps she already owned (for CCM), and to only buy those history books which were used more than 2 weeks.

 

Samples weeks/lessons are found here: http://www.rollingacresschool.org/rollingacresschool/scholarosa/course/index.php?categoryid=7

 

I looked into it, but decided against it because I don't like the online thing - the digital library saves money, but I'd end up printing everything and going broke on ink. I don't like to read on screens and I don't have a printer that would make for economical printing.

[Meadowlark]

I think there are a few things you could do whether you do science and history together or not to give you a sense of connectedness as a homeschooling family. Here are some things that lend themselves easily to that:

Read aloud time- I just pick a book I really want to share with my kids and we read that, no schedules and not part of "school"

Poetry tea time- we do this weekly. Sometimes I buy snacks or sometimes we bake something. We just get out our pile of poetry books and all pick out poems to read. :) easy!

Art- we use artistic pursuits, but also sometimes just a Pinterest project. We do this weekly and all draw or paint together. It's great!

 

Some other things that we have loved but don't always make it into our week are: nature walks and then journaling, classical music exposure- sometimes watching an orchestra, ballet, or opera on YouTube,; or sometimes just dancing around to whatever music we want.

 

All that to say, if you end up not finding history or science curriculum for everybody, you can still have some great shared learning experiences!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can you tell me more about how you use Artistic Pursuits? My kids do get art through a coop, but I'm sure it's just surface level stuff since the whole class is only 30 minutes long. Could I do one project with all 5? Is it easy to follow?

[Meadowlark]

I own Connecting With History and while I like the idea of it, we never officially used it. I reference it from time to time but it wasn't intuitive to me. FWIW, I attribute that to my own processing style which doesn't seem to line up with most curricula, and not to any fault with the CWH program. But it's still an unfinished program, which is a turn off for me. That might be why there aren't many reviews.

 

The chronological history was a very big factor for me. I'm sold on it and I love it.  So with that disclaimer, I'll throw out a suggestion for Schola Rosa (Catholic). 

 

It's a full curriculum and all of your kids would be in the Elementary Bundle (grades PK-6).  They'd be studying subjects together, at varying levels.  And because K-6 is offered as a single bundle, you have plenty of flexibility to place them where they fit for any given subject - there's no buying different levels or guessing where to place them. It's very convenient for a bigger family. 

 

It is divided into a 3-year history/literature schedule: Ancients, the Age of Christendom, and Modern Times.  The year is scheduled into 30 weeks, which one friend does weekly as outlined, and another does on her own time around their son's travel hockey schedule (spreading out the year longer). A number of my friends are very happy with it. Included in the cost are digital copies of many resources required or suggested.

 

Here are the book lists for each cycle (and for each subject): http://www.scholarosa.com/bookstore/book-lists/ My hockey mom friend says even though they say "required purchases" ... not all of them truly really are, as some are only used for a week or two of lessons and can be skipped or found at the library. She chose to continue with her own penmanship program, to use maps she already owned (for CCM), and to only buy those history books which were used more than 2 weeks.

 

Samples weeks/lessons are found here: http://www.rollingacresschool.org/rollingacresschool/scholarosa/course/index.php?categoryid=7

 

I looked into it, but decided against it because I don't like the online thing - the digital library saves money, but I'd end up printing everything and going broke on ink. I don't like to read on screens and I don't have a printer that would make for economical printing.

Wow thanks! I am excited to look into Schola Rosa. I can't believe there's a curriculum that I haven't heard of, lol.

 

Can I ask why RC HIstory wasn't intuitive for you? I guess I'm not sure what you mean by that. Also, is it just the last volume that isn't finished? As far as I could tell, volumes 1-3 are solidly done, but I will have to look into that. Anyway, definitely interested in your thoughts about RC History as it seems to be a frontrunner for history.

[TriciaT]

Can you tell me more about how you use Artistic Pursuits? My kids do get art through a coop, but I'm sure it's just surface level stuff since the whole class is only 30 minutes long. Could I do one project with all 5? Is it easy to follow?

Artistic Pursuits is so easy to use! You just buy all the supplies and the book at the beginning. Each week gives you a picture study and some basic instruction for an art technique. Then it has an open ended art project. (Like arrange 3 objects and use watercolor crayons to paint a still life.) I am using book 1 of the k-3 books and it has been great for both my kinder and 3rd grader. I know of a family using it with older kids as well.

 

 

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