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3 week trial almost over! My hybrid curriculum is working!

Guest Dulcimeramy

By Guest Dulcimeramy,
in K-8 Curriculum Board

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Guest Dulcimeramy

Guest Dulcimeramy

Posted
Posted

Hallelujah. I'm combining Sonlight, Apologia, WTM, TOG, Heart of Wisdom, Ambleside, Charlotte Mason methods and a few other ideas.

 

I was on the verge of catastrophic burnout. I was desperate for a way to combine my children but I had no money for a huge curric. switch. I wanted to use the best and favorite ideas from many resources. I also wanted to keep my beloved Sonlight books and instructor guide notes but ditch the schedule. My middle children needed more hands-on activities, my oldest son need heavier academics...I was about to pull out my hair.

 

I went out on a limb. I made lists of things to add and things to drop. I divided the desired work load into a year's schedule. I addressed each child's age and stage and figured out their specific needs.

 

I didn't sleep or eat for days. I didn't vacuum the floor, either. At the end of the angsty period I emerged triumphant, half a dozen three-ring binders in hand. DH looked scared. I think I probably looked a little wild.

 

That was three weeks ago. We're finishing up our trial run. Success! I'm happy, kids are happy and challenged, gaps are closing, I love homeschooling again. The days are a little longer but we're all happy with our workload.

 

Thanks for listening!

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CookieMonster

CookieMonster

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Posted
I didn't sleep or eat for days. I didn't vacuum the floor, either. At the end of the angsty period I emerged triumphant, half a dozen three-ring binders in hand. DH looked scared. I think I probably looked a little wild.

 

:smilielol5:

 

Ok, that part really cracked me up.

 

How wonderful for you that you have made something that works! And good for you for taking the time to put it all together. I bet the peace you feel is worth the fasting and insomnia. :)

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JenniferB

JenniferB

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:smilielol5:

 

Ok, that part really cracked me up.

 

Me too! I'm FOTFL :smilielol5:

 

Care to share your schedule? That is, if it's even possible to type it all out to share. I'm a visual person and a scheduler, and I'm very interested to see how this all works out. I combine several methods and resources too, but I only have 1 who is school age (4th grade), everyone else is K or below.

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Lovedtodeath

Lovedtodeath

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Congratulations! Good job!

 

You have a way with words. I was the same way at the beginning of the year, and you cracked me up!

 

I am good at making SL looking schedules for one or two subjects, but I don't know how you all organize everything. My organization consists of piles of books and a one page schedule. Is there more to it that I am missing?

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JenniferB

JenniferB

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Congratulations! My organization consists of piles of books and a one page schedule. Is there more to it that I am missing?

 

I used Excel up until a few months ago when I switched to The Homeschool Tracker, and my daughter's schedule looks like this (copied below). I hope it comes through once I hit "Submit Reply", but on my screen at the moment, it shows the lines, etc. that are in Excel. The first 5 lines are done with me, and the rest is done independently. I keep a "To Do" binder for her with her assignments, and any printouts she needs to complete her independent work. Her narrations are done into a digital recorder, which I check at the end of the week, or on Sunday before the next school week. I'm guessing if I had several school aged children, that I would have one of these for each child, but I'm not sure how that will look down the road. I'm curious how that looks with other mom's who make up their own curriculum with several school aged children.

 

OK, it didn't show up with the lines once I hit "Submit Reply" so I erased it. I can e-mail it, if you're interested in seeing my schedule with 1 child.

Edited by JenniferB
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Hen

Hen

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Posted

the part about you emerging cracked me up,too. I'd love to see a sketch rendition of that..."it lives!" kind of moment.

 

I am curious about what you came up with...can you share what one of your days looked like?

 

I haven't found anything I can work with, TOG is the closest I've come to, I do it in my own way...and use STOW some weeks.

 

good for you for coming up with something!

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Guest Dulcimeramy

Guest Dulcimeramy

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Ah, so nice to be understood! :lol: Before you read this, believe me when I say that the 4 year old only does what he wants to do. I don't schedule anything for him, but I don't tell him "no," either. Some days he does nothing.

 

This is how I'm homeschooling four boys (ages 4, 8, 10, 12), beginning with the combined lessons:

 

Solfege singing. Charlotte Mason style. Daily. Shape-note hymnal.

 

Bible, Heart of Wisdom style. Daily chapter reading, discussion, map, timeline, character study, cross reference work, etc

 

History, combo of SL cores 1 and 6, SOTW, kingfisher and usborne encyclopedias, wtm logic suggestions, Heart of Wisdom style notebooking

 

Poetry one poem each to memorize each week

 

to be continued

Edited by Dulcimeramy
The house is now quiet enough for editing
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Guest Dulcimeramy

Guest Dulcimeramy

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Literature, Sonlight/Charlotte Mason style, extra reading from WTM suggestions, ambleside, 1000 Great books. SL instructor guides, narrations, summaries

 

English, Beechick, Charlotte Mason style. McGuffey readers and speller, writing handbooks for the kids, Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons, Simply Grammar. Copywork, narration, dictation. Writing across the curriculum.

 

Math: Rod and Staff

 

Science: Heart of Wisdom, Sonlight, Charlotte Mason. N12 does Sonlight science. The others do CM-inspired unit studies. We use apologia elem. when possible and create our own studies for other topics. We do nature walks and nature notebooks to please Charlotte Mason.

 

Picture Study Charlotte Mason style. Once per week. I found help in Karen Andreola's book and online for directing our picture study. They all love this. The older boys study architecture along with our history, too. They copy buildings and structures for their history notebooks.

 

Music family tradition style. We are folk musicians. We belong to a club and perform frequently in our city. H8 plays appalachian dulcimer, J10 plays guitar, N12 plays fiddle and mandolin. (I play autoharp and dulcimer, DH plays guitar) We all practice our instruments daily.

Edited by Dulcimeramy
first edition way too long
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Guest Dulcimeramy

Guest Dulcimeramy

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The boys have other electives such as Greek, Hebrew, drawing, watercolor painting, running and swimming, woodworking, etc. For those things we just figure how far we want to advance in a year and divvy the workload into weeks. Then they find the time to do it, which works for me as long as it is done by Saturday night. They belong to a few clubs but we keep it simple.

 

Whew! This looks like no fun when I see it all typed out! :001_huh: But it is fun. I am working harder than before, but I'm truly enjoying it. The boys feel that it is rigorous but useful. They used to feel that some of their work was just "busywork," wasting their time. This more cohesive plan makes more sense to all of us. We're on the same topics, so field trips are pertinent to all.

 

Now that I'm the groove it doesn't take too long to plan. I plan a 3-week section at a time and put all related notes in one binder. The boys have one "drafts" binder and one final portfolio. Simpler.

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Guest Dulcimeramy

Guest Dulcimeramy

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:001_huh:

 

Quick show of hands, who here is sorry they asked for my schedule?

 

(I couldn't write succinctly. I can only do that in a stress-free environment, which this is NOT. In a pile of kids, supper, legos and schoolbooks, all I can do is blather. Sorry!)

 

Edited: previous posts have now been edited. Someday I will try to put it all neatly on my blog a la Trivium Academy! How does she do it? .

Edited by Dulcimeramy
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Lovedtodeath

Lovedtodeath

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Amy, I think it is awesome that you get all of that done and I see it as inspirational. We did school for most of the day today including projects and DS 1 helped with them. We had a blast and I got my chores done after school. I have been stressing over accomplishing things and cutting school down and down and it didn't help. There is nothing like a fun day and some motivation. I am glad we got more schooling in as well. :)

Edited by Lovedtodeath
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