Being relatively new to homeschooling (1 3/4 years) it is amazing how much we ALL have already learned, including myself. I jumped in during the most stressful year of my life, bringing home my 5th grade son 2 weeks after school started while leaving my 1st and 4th grade sons still in public school. This was 3 months before we traveled to Kazakhstan for what turned out to be 2 1/2 months while adopting our 2 daughters, ages 11 and 10 who spoke no English :-) Yea, it was a wild ride. We came home, sons finished out the year in public school while I got my game on for the 3 at home and figured out how to settle the butterflies in my stomach as I tried to teach English and so much more to our daughters, and create a plan for having all 5 home. Whew! So glad I am past all of that! Here is what I would do differently, and it will be interesting to see what I would add or change from this list 5 years from now. 1) Trust myself and homeschooled from the very beginning with all of the kids. 2) Would recognize that my way IS the right way, regardless of how others find success with other methods, programs, curriculum, etc. What works for one family will not necessarily work for another. 3) I would quite feeling as if we are not doing "enough", for we certainly are when I look back and it is FAR more than public school accomplished in a year. 4) I will not (and would not) allow myself to get caught up in the feelings of inferiority when reading others posts about how far ahead their children are, how classically they are being educated, how they are destined for college at 14. For as many families as there are out there for whom this is wonderfully true, there are as many just like us doing the best we can and being equally, wonderfully middle of the road. We have unusual deficits with 3 of our 5 kids, and the progress we are making is as extraordinary, even if measured on a different scale. 5) I would recognize earlier that there is NO pressure about college unless I place it firmly in our lives. We can escape the SAT/ACT, acceptance fiasco if we allow ourselves to, by planning on junior college first, which in all likelihood is what we would be able to afford at first anyway. Worrying about college acceptance for their entire childhood ruins the experience of homeschooling for me, so I have to let go and let them explore and learn while making sure the basics are covered. 6) I would "get it" that a curriculum has to be not only engaging for the kids, but workable for me to teach as well. The best curriculum in the world is not good if the teacher is not enthusiastic and comfortable teaching it. I count too, because my attitude rubs off. 7) We'll read more and worry less about "language arts" work with reading. Twice in the last year and a half I have succeeded at doing that for periods of time and seen enormous gains, only to drift back to feeling something is missing if we aren't writing book reports or doing literary analysis. I never did much of that at this age, and was reading at a college level in 4th grade because I was left to my own devices to just read and enjoy. Why can't I get this through my thick skull??? Everything doesn't have to be analyzed or beat to death to be educational. I'll get it eventually... 8) I'd embrace "Eclectic" with arms open wide :-) Cindy Mom to the Kazakh/Kyrgyz 5 ages 12, 12, 11, 11 and 8 http://www.lajoyfamily.blogspot.com

Rhonda, sorry you have had no responses to this thread. Our family has used CTT for about a year, and it is my kids' absolute favorite subject. We tried it out with the manners program, using it as more of a discussion guide so I could get a feel for it myself, then I decided I liked what I was seeing with it so picked up the history for elementary kids (7-8 year olds). This was far younger than my 5 kids ages of 8-12 years old, but I have English language learners in the group and felt this level was most appropriate. I did print out the lower school version for my then 10 year old, but he overheard what we were doing with the other 4 and asked to do it together, so he joined us so we all do the same thing. Don't let the lower age level fool you, I know of no other curriculum that introduces such deep level thinking about philosophers, world religions, and big ideas in history. I am actually glad my one son bumped down to this level, as we are learning such key information and digesting it at such profound depth that it was perfect. The writing component has been a super sneaky way of getting our kids to write tons and tons of material without having a clue it is actually writing!! hahaha! Totally fooled them! While they don't hate writing by any means, they would not give me this much at all if I asked them to sit down and write. But this curriculum is very different in that it truly seeks to have the student provide their opinions and perspectives, and everyone loves to give their opinion about a topic! As suggested, we do not correct it, and it has done wonders for their desire to write, therefore giving them a lot of practice without feeling cramped by being judged over it. I figure we have enough arenas in our HSing to work on correcting writing, but this has them practicing over and over again, and it has made a huge difference. I have asked the kids about this now that we have used it for 6 months, and they all agree they only want to do CTT history all the way through HS, and I think that is a fabulous idea. It is well thought out, balanced and does the job quite well without being textbookish at all. As for the religiously neutral piece, I am Christian but homeschool secularly. I am not bothered as some are by the mere mention of anything Christian, just as I would not be at the mere mention of other faith's components either. Proselytizing is another story, or presenting faith matters as fact is big no no for me. I find that CTT is extremely neutral and appears to have no religious or atheistic agenda either, instead presenting the world's religions from a reasonable perspective and using it as a necessary piece in the framework of understanding events in history. So much of what has happened in the past was motivated or driven by religious beliefs, and it is important that we all have some basis for understanding such things. The CTT author does an admirable job, and in fact the way the material is presented is perfect for us...not ignored completely as many secular programs do, nor passionately pushed towards Christianity as others do as well. Hope this helps! Ask any other questions should you need to! :):) Cindy

Our family is using Connect the Thoughts and it might fit beautifully with what you are hoping to find! We use it for 5 kids all aged 12-8 (one almost 13), and are purposely using a lower level for English learners but man, is it awesome. Very much along the lines you are describing and I think both of your daughters could use it together very easily. Cindy

We are using them this year, and it has helped tremendously. With 5 kids all in a different level (of course!) it has been difficult to help them reword the problems they missed to make certain they have grasped the concepts. With the CD, every single problem, including the test problems and investigations, are all explained in a clear and easy to understand way. Do you HAVE to have them? No, we did it for a year and a half without them. Are they a bit of a lifesaver for larger families? Absolutely and they do encourage a child to be more self-directed. My kids all love having something to turn to immediately for help rather than waiting for mom to get done explaining something to a sibling. Hope this helps!:iagree:

We are new to homeschooling this year and I am having to learn a lot about what are the key things to teach kids..and how deep to go with it. I have 5 kids, 3 are ELL learners and older adoptees, so this is imperative for us. I am finding that deeper and more reflective seems to "stick" more than broad across the board. I'd rather my kids truly have a strong understanding of something rather than have been exposed a little to a huge variety of things. Now my biggest problem is prioritizing what is on the "must know" list and what can be let go of! Cindy

Thanks to you all...your encouragement and insight have helped already. This is so incredibly challenging...and terrifying! And then letting go of what I read everyone else is doing and helping my kids reach their specific potential based upon their own need to revisit certain stages, their need to explore, their need to go back and relive some of the preschool experiences all the while trying to help lift them up to grade level means I need to LET GO of a lot. That is easier said than done. It also is difficult when others do not understand why you would even attempt it with this situation, and think we are ruining our kids. They don't see that our children absolutely don't fit in public ed even when we tried it! Poor Kenny was feeling worse and worse about himself and not a single "expert" knows what to do with him other than move him on so eventually, one day, he is in high school still reading at a 1st grade level. And our daughters...can you imagine them with little language skills, going to middle school still carrying around dolls and reading My Little Pony books? I am utterly, supremely grateful they still have retained their innocence, as that was a big fear of ours, but I have to laugh out loud at the thought of them being in a typical middle school classroom. And that has nothing to do with the academic struggles they would face. I have yet to easily figure out how to balance our our school days when so many kids need one on one instruction on so many subjects, but we are gradually getting there. Most importantly, they LOVE school...all of them...and that was not the case just a few months ago for any of them. They never hated it, but it was not something to look forward to. I think I need to embrace what one poster wrote about letting go of teaching them everything and get them to the place where they love to learn and have the tools to teach themselves anything they want to learn. If I can do that in our limited years together, that might spell success. It will have to look different for us than for other families. We are currently using Modern Curriculum Press Plaid Phonics as I needed the actual photos for building vocabulary, and it is working well. Also using MCP's Spelling Workout workbooks. We use leveled readers right now from Readinga-z.com but only a little as I prefer using real books as much as possible, and so do the kids. All are using Saxon math at varying levels, Steck-Vaughn reading comprehension workbooks at varying levels, but mostly reading library books with a smattering of the workbooks filling in. For science we are using Nancy Larson's new Elementary Science curriculum, and started at the beginning with Science 1 as the reading level is perfect and I liked the basic topics taught in that level and the way it allows for lots of discussion. For my 6th grader he is working with us but then doing a Science Detective workbook to supplement. I thought it would be too easy for him with Science 1 but he said the material is stuff he never got in elementary so he wanted to review it quickly with us as we go through it. Since we are hoping to go through 2 years worth each year, we should be getting to harder material even by the end of this year. He had almost NO science exposure other than small, easy reading books here and there and a unit on recycling and habitats...that is it. I created a geography notebook system based loosely on Around the World in 180 days. We are cherry picking through it, as well as using a workbook for map skills, but mostly using some DK books and an atlas for learning culture/people/landmarks. We plan on this taking a year and a half or more, then move on to World History one time thoroughly, then American History once and government. Of course, we will be reading and doing activities here and there on American history and holidays, etc. all along but a one time thorough walk through later on is all I think we will have time for. We are also using a lot of Critical Thinking Company materials as our 3 older adoptees lack in this area in a big way. Already seeing improvement, and all of us are doing them together as more like a game/competition and they get a kick out of it. For my 6th grader, we are also doing Reading Detective and Progeny Press book study guides, and are going to start on EIW Structure and Style writing curriculum in a month or so. I am wondering if anyone has any other suggestions...and when you think I ought to formalize writing skills with my other 4. Right now I am just having them journal a couple times a week in addition to any writing they do in their workbooks, and we go over it and see where we can correct it. We are also doing Growing with Grammar with everyone at appropriate levels. I am open to any and all suggestions, ideas, thoughts about what we are doing right now or a game plan for the future. Thanks again for your support. I have no one nearby who understands our unique challenges or whom I have met who is not using more standardized curriculum. Warmly, Cindy LaJoy http://www.lajoyfamily.blogspot.com

We use EdHelper.com more frequently than Enchanted Learning. Similar but I agree with the other poster that it is better for older kids. Enchanted Learning is great for younger elementary or preschool, but I like tailoring things on EdHelper.com for my upper elementary/middle schoolers.

Hi everyone! New to the boards here and new to homeschooling this past September. We have a complicated homeschooling situation, here it is: Matthew, age 11, beginning 6th grade, working at or above grade level Angela, age 12, and her bio sister Olesya, age 10,adopted from Kazakhstan 4 months ago, ELL learner and big gaping holes in their base knowledge...but bright. Kenny, age 12, adopted 3 years ago, ELL learner, recently diagnosed with auditory processing disorder/severe memory challenges, speech delays due to cleft, reading at 1st grade level and "stuck" there but a really bright kid as well working at grade level in math. Joshua, age 7, beginning 2nd grade, working at or above grade level. Matthew and Josh came home as infants and are actually quite excellerated in some areas. The others are all over the map! Hahaha! I am struggling internally with letting go of how I wish I could educate them all, because A) We started too late with homeschooling to do rotations of things and even in my excellerated students I am stunned at what ground was not covered and B) It is impossible to go back for 10-12 year old kiddos and give them all they missed. We will never be where I wish we were with history/social studies, and it will easily be a couple of years...if we are lucky...before we can be where we can do some serious reading. I am finding it hard to let go of what I know my kids would have been capable of, and of what material we will miss. Looking at planning out years in the future, we will barely cover all the basics at a more basic level..which they need...and will have to rush through some areas to cover what we can. It is almost a little bit of a grief process, which sounds silly, but is accurate for me. I have a 12 year old daughter who is very sharp, but whose life was so limited she thinks mermaids and pirates are real, and that you can drive from Kazakhstan to America! I have a 12 year old son who until 3 years ago had never even turned on a light switch or ridden in a car. There is so much foundational work that needs to be done, it is almost depressing, and yet homeschooling IS our best answer and a gift! I wonder if there are suggestions out there from you about how I can view their education from a different perspective. I read all the great curriculum others are using and know we can't even touch what some are doing in 3rd or 4th grade until some of ours are in high school. I am trying to gain a new perspective about covering material at certain levels rather than as deeply as I might if we were starting from scratch, but it is HARD and I feel like a failure often. Thanks for any encouragement or advise! Cindy:grouphug: