I downloaded and printed through grade 3. I think I will purchase printed materials for the upper levels. Love the simplicity of this. Thanks!

I was just trying this out and thought maybe I should share it here (I am not affiliated in any way, just got an email about it): July 20-27, CompassClassroom.com has a special on their subscription courses. It costs $1 for the first month. You can cancel anytime. If you like it and want to continue, it is $7-18 per month thereafter, depending on the course. Check the website for details in case I've gotten something wrong. Anyone used Wes Callahan's Old Western Culture before? That's what I'm signing up for. It looks intriguing to me personally. I'm not sure I'll have my dc do it??? Any thoughts? Thanks.

Thanks, great deal I wouldn't have known about otherwise!

Saxon Math. I had a son who struggled with math, or so I thought, from the beginning. I had him in Math U See from the start because I thought, "How great, he can see how and why it works, he's going to be really math-literate, always understanding why..." :banghead: Absolutely hit a wall with it around Delta/division. Could not even struggle through it any further. I don't remember what caused me to try Saxon because it seems like the polar opposite... I think I had gotten into RC around then, and Robinson convinced me of its benefits. But in my heart I felt it was going to be a huge failure. As soon as I put him (and soon after everyone else) in Saxon, they took off. They can now do 2 lessons a day (odds only), rarely missing more than one or two per lesson. And they do "get" math. But for us, that understanding came with experience after the fact. MUS felt like trying to front-load the understanding, which for our family, was confusing. Just the way we work, I guess?

I don't know how familiar you are with the concept of loop schedules mentioned here. You can apply it to your overall schedule, or just parts of it, or various parts of each child's list of things to do. (Sarah Mackenzie has many different ideas/ways to use it to your advantage on her blog at Amongst Lovely Things - posts, podcasts, webinar. Its a very versatile tool that can salvage things you feel you must set aside because you just can't fit it in.) Part of the fear of "fitting it all in" comes from our deeply ingrained idea that every subject has to be studied regularly, rigorously, and systematically according to a proper scope and sequence, or it won't be "properly" learned. Again, some subjects maybe ought to be that way - math usually comes to mind. But I hope to encourage you by saying or reminding you that most true learning doesn't happen in nice neat scope and sequences, especially at grade-school levels. Instead, we tend to store away seeds and bits and pieces of things that stand out to us, and pursue interests, having periodic Aha! moments. And that encourages more searching, questioning, and learning and on it goes. This is the very reason why you do not have to control every aspect of every detail of each child's education. You can't and you don't have to. Their brains will assimilate things in particular to their own personalities and such, and will grow and accumulate to add to who they are and who they become someday. It's your job to provide a supportive environment and materials that expose, provoke, inspire them. And trying to cover every subject every day will do the opposite at this stage. I know this doesn't solve your day to day scheduling, etc, but I hope that offers you some relief to think about.

You are right no boxed curriculum will fit, only by degrees, and they are too expensive for that! Adding 3 at once means you have a fast learning curve, and its going to feel wrong or not as good, or unnatural. But your thrown together stuff is way better for them BECAUSE YOU KNOW AND LOVE THEM like no publisher could. Decide for each subject what you are willing to combine. Then decide how many times per week you believe each subject or combo of subjects ought to be done. Use the same time slot to alternate subjects, use their favorite subjects either as midwork refreshers, and or a reward to look forward to, you get the idea. Just dont let fear or comparison sabotage you.

Bible - History - Science: First, I'm sure you plan to keep what works. These subjects that you do together appear to work for you and you seem to enjoy them?? Language Arts - Math - Latin These subjects you listed by each child's grade. How do you feel about them? Are you concerned about these as well, or are they not as worrisome to you as the CM extras you listed? Just wondering. Recitation - Poetry - Music Study - Picture Study - Character Study - Art - Geography These things you list as "extras" that you want to do, but they seem so "sporadic". They definitely are if you try to do each one in isolation. Some suggestions: Depending on your edu. philosophy, either study Geography with Science or with History. If you do want it to be an isolated subject, let it be a fast, fun drill format that you do maybe 2-3 times per week for 10-15 minutes at a time. Quick ideas: point at maps & they shout out names, or states & capitals recitations, or a fast paper quiz, or look at this map of ___ for 1/2/3 minutes. When I take it away, you have ___ minutes to try to fill in the blank version with as much detail as you can, etc. My humble opinion: I would not study Character as a subject. Let the DC know what you expect in terms of their habits, attitudes, manners, etc. as a family. Read favorite books together. Then refer to those things at natural and proper teachable moments throughout your days, in school or not. I am not advocating "hounding" their every move, always analyzing them --- just allow character to develop in the natural ebbs and flows, with a compliment here, a correction there, pointing out strong character in books, stories, IRL, etc. (Am I making any sense?) Art & Picture Study go together. The picture study can count as art. If you/they want to create their own, let it function as a mental break/refresher between more intense subjects, or let them look forward to it after their other work is done. Poetry and Recitation go together. Memorize and recite poetry. Or just take turns having your readers read today's poetry aloud - that's recitation. (A lot of Art or Character discussions can come from reading poetry as well.) Music study can be a simple as, "Children, our composer this month is Mozart. We will learn a bit about him from this book or video, then for the rest of the month, we will be listening to his music while you work on your Math, during meals, or driving in the car. We will listen to a cd several times until we can start to recognize the songs..." Do as you please with this, but it need not be more than that. You can obviously assign a report if you want. If you want them to learn instruments, I don't know how to advise - it totally depends on so many things. Finally, remember: Don't do everything everyday, keep variety in your days. For instance: Monday: Do Math - Language Arts then Art & Picture Study then Bible - History Tuesday: Do Math - Latin then Poetry & Recitation then Bible - History Wednesday: Do Math - Lang Arts then Geography Drill & Recitation of other memory work then Bible, and call it a short day or a big art project, or instrument lessons today...??? Thursday: Do Math - Latin then Art & Picture Study - same picture again then Bible - Science Friday; Do Math - Language Arts then Poetry & Recitation - same poem or poet then Bible - Science That was totally off the top of my head, but I'm trying to spark ideas for how to combine/streamline and keep it interesting. It will require a willingness to have shorter, less structured lessons, and not do everything everyday in the same order. This may all be obvious to you already. Let me know if you need more specific help. But adding 3 DC all at once, along with the fact that you seem to do well when working together, along with stating above that you feel pulled from one to the other a lot... I thought this might spark a new perspective for you??? HTH.

I agree with the posters above. I have ten, soon to be eleven in May. My oldest is graduated, rest are stair-step 12th grade down to 2yo. We do breakfast then chores before school: Sometimes it means starting later, but everyone is more calm and content, things being in order. Your children are pretty young yet, but encourage the habit now and add chores as they get older. The most important thing is to get your house JUST to the point that YOU feel relaxed and feel YOU can leave off cleaning now, and focus on schooling for awhile. My biggest suggestions: 1. Take care of you. Get your house the way you require to be content and calm. Rest as needed. Eat well and take supplements. Get outside at least 10 min a day. Teach your children to mind your calmly spoken words, and have a general routine they can count on. This is investment for your future health, sanity, relationships, and joy. Without these, even the best curriculum and methods won't matter. 2. I would not schedule this child's day full of school subjects, organized activities, and curriculum, not even until lunchtime. I know the temptation to cover subjects, add electives, do tangible activities, etc is very strong. But you need to condition yourself to see all these as options, NOT what must be done to give your child a well rounded education. Keep it simple, less is almost always more. As for the actual schooling with a 6yo, 5yo, toddler, and new baby: Your children are very young, and only your DS6 might be ready to start any formal schooling at all. Your DS5 may be too, only you would know. I do not know you or your personality, or your circumstances, so I truly hope you can take my 2 cents for whatever its worth to you. My suggestions are based on how I got through it at various stages as my children came along. I do not mean to be offensive in discounting unusual circumstances you may have. _________________________ Here are my suggestions for DS6 school. Again, your 5yo may be ready to do some school with his big brother, only you would know. But don't push him to if he's not. There's plenty of time. Also, I am assuming here that you have not started school with DS6 yet, and are just starting out: Teach your DS6 to read. Spend 15-20 minutes once or twice a day. Use the reading instruction to provide penmanship/copywork for him, 10 minutes a day. Just words at first, moving into one or two sentences or a short rhyme. Work with math manipulatives and basic concepts for 30 minutes a day or 15 min twice a day. Don't start a math text/workbook until he knows basic addition and subtraction facts rotely to 10 or 12, and you know he's ready to write problems and fill in blanks. Get one history book and one science book from library once a week and read those to him 1-3 times through the week as convenient. He can just listen, or draw a picture, or make something if that is his thing, but there is no reason to feel you must have curriculum at this age, or do anything other than just simply read it to him. You could discuss it in a very brief, natural way, but at 6, don't worry. Don't make him hate it by making each book a test of memory. Just enjoy reading it, then put it away, and when you see something later related to it, say, "Hey, look! That's just like what we read in our ___ book yesterday..." You are planting fun little first grade seeds that will make his and your education and life easier, more fun and interesting in the future. That's all it is for now. I wouldn't bother with History or Science curriculum until 5th grade. _________________________ Doing these things, you have just covered Reading, Language Arts, Math, History and Science in 1 1/2 to 2 hrs per day at the very most. That's plenty. And it does not need to be consecutive, or all in the morning, etc. With all the little people, you only get 10-15 minutes at a time to do something if you're lucky. That's okay because that's all a 6yo needs. Lots of little bites throughout the day. You both get lots of breaks this way to tend to youngers, other duties, or just to play/rest. At this point, you can arrange these snippets around anything you've got to do. Use this to your advantage. For 2nd grade, I would maybe add 10 min in each subject area, maybe 2 history and science books per week, etc. Increase the time and complexity of his work very naturally, as your son shows ease with what he's currently doing, not what anybody else says he ought to be doing by a certain age/grade. I know because you are overwhelmed, you are thinking about it already, so here are some ideas for when your DS5 starts next year. 1. Have your oldest son work (just for instance) on his Math alone but nearby for 15 min while you teach your 2nd son his reading lesson. Then break and deal with the baby & toddler & house. 2. Next school snippet, your older son does Copywork alone but nearby while you teach your 2nd son his penmanship/copywork. 3. Later on, have your oldest son play with the youngest 2 while you teach your 2nd son his Math. Remember, these are 15-20 blocks of time. No biggie, squeeze them in when it works. 4. During a meal, at bedtime, read the history and science books to all of them together. By the time your 3rd child starts school, your oldest 2 sons will be well established in how it all works, barring any problems, they will be reading and writing somewhat independently, and old enough to be great helps around the house. This is how the magic happens, though it will always remain somewhat inexplicable. :thumbup: I hope this is helpful, doesn't sound preachy, and with you being in Belgium, I have no idea what your requirements may be. If I stuck my foot in my mouth, you have questions, or if I left something unaddressed please reply or pm me. All the best to you. (Edited for clarity)

Thanks for the detailed reply, and congrats to your 7th grader. As someone who needs to get the "writing ball" rolling, I am encouraged by your experience with this independent method without textbooks or workbooks. It feels non-intimidating to me, something I could handle to break the ice, at least, and see where it goes. Love your photocopy idea, too. I would have never thought of that. :hurray:

I don't have my children write as much as they should because when it comes time to correct, I feel I am drowning under all the things I could point out/correct, and I don't want to overwhelm them with my own stress over it. Something I'd love to try, and wanted to suggest to you, is the idea of letting them write-out the sentence/paragraph/page, but focusing on one area of correction at at time. Then when they are performing to where you believe they can/should be in that one area, you keep checking on that skill while adding another. My list of priorities might look something like this... maybe? 1. Capitalization 2. Punctuation 3. Grammar 3. Organization/Structure 4. Voice/Style/Idea/Argument/Creativity...??? This depends on the type of writing it is. This could be done very slowly, from 5th -12th, or on a yearly loop, or you could take the same piece of writing and just correct all the capitalization. Then go back and correct the punctuation, and so on through the list -- I don't know. It's just an idea that I think is a mental conglomeration of ideas from different curriculums out there. Something about it makes sense to me, though I may just be oversimplifying and idealistic. Any thoughts, or I'd be curious to know how things are going for you now, a few weeks later?

I check my youngers' work through about 4th grade. I give my older children the answers but not the solutions. Thus they get immediate feedback problem by problem, but they still have to figure out the solution on their own. For the transition, I may have them call out their answer and let them know right or wrong, and/or I will "check their checking" until I'm confident they are getting it. This has worked well for us, my children, once in middle school, average 1-2 missed problems per lesson, and those are usually careless errors.

I think K-4, the greatest benefit is penmanship, beginning capitalization and punctuation, and basic sentence/paragraph structure. From 5th grade up, it becomes a way to present excellent samples of writing, whether poetry or essays or speeches, etc, for the student to emulate and internalize as they copy.

I have been looking at CC memory stuff for a while. There's not a lot of previews of their materials. For foundations, what is the difference between the resource CDs and the audio CDs? And how necessary is the foundations guide if I am just buying for personal use, not to join CC? Thanks. Edit: Just realized I hadn't looked in the right places... Found my questions answered on other threads about various aspects of CC. Sorry if I stuck this in the wrong spot!