Mandy in TN
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Posts posted by Mandy in TN
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LLATL is a complete LA program with very light composition. EiW is a composition program that includes some grammar. I have heard of people using LLATL with Wordsmith. I guess in grade 5 they would use it with Wordsmith Apprentice. At any rate, I don't see why you couldn't use both LLATL and EiW together. Maybe drop the LLATL composition and let the two grammar components support each other?
HTH-
Mandy
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Bwahaha, zombie-based geography!I think I'm going to use Holt World Geography as my spine, because I already own it.
I found this and got really excited at first - Zombie Based Geography. I don't think it's quite what I want though, and it's pretty expensive. Even so, it's a neat idea! (There are samples on the ordering site for the printed materials.) I might pick up the graphic novel for the Kindle, since that's only $2.99 and add it to my plan just for fun.
Mandy
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As you can see from my homeschool philosophy, the things that I took way from CM have absolutely nothing to do with curriculum or schedules. CM wrote some things about children that are very well aligned with how I think about my own kids. I like to read those things and try to hold them in mind when I am choosing how I treat them, raise them, long-term goals that include but are not limited to education, and (as a small slice of the pie) what curriculum I choose and how I use it.
The thing about reading someone's method or a person's interpretation of someone else's method is that you have to take what will work for you and your child and use it. There is nothing in dealing with your own child in your own home that needs to be a slave to someone else's ideal theory of what they think it should ideally look like. Take what you can use and ditch the rest.
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Mandy
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I think authors like to take things to an extreme to prove their point. In reality, are you really going to tell your 6yo that he/ she can't study dinosaurs, because (multum non multa) it isn't on the short schedule, so you can do it in your free time, but I won't help you? Conversely, are you going to make fossil studies part of your CM feast, but then cut him/ her off after 15min? Theory and practice are two different things and authors talking about their method must speak of a theoretical child living only their method. It would be unusual for a real child in a homeschool situation to live a theory and only the theory. ;)
HTH-
Mandy
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Ok, I'll play. I don't understand why anyone would want to limit a child's exposure, and, frankly, unless you rope off sections of the library, refuse to allow Internet access, and don't take them anywhere, I don't know how you would do it. Conversely, I don't know how, after a child is exposed to things, you keep from delving deeply into them.
As far as CM specifically, my entire homeschool philosophy is derived directly from CM. The thing is that, for me, CM, isn't just a way to educate a child, it is about the whole child. To reduce CM to an educational feast and compare it to a simplified Classical education schedule doesn't work for me, because CM is about so much more than that. Here is the current (I update from time to time) my homeschool philosophy:
I want my child to be firm in his knowledge of appropriate conduct. I want him to learn the difference between what he wants to do right now and having a strong enough will to do what is appropriate/ right. He must also be taught to be careful not to rationalize something to be right simply because he wants it to be so. Along these lines, there can be no true happiness without first taking care of responsibilities. “…the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them.â€
"I am, I can, I ought, I will." is the place from which I instruct, because we achieve through diligence not through intelligence or imagination. I use habit training as a road to success, because I want him to be a responsible, decent, moral person who possesses positive and productive physical and mental habits. I want him to learn to apply these habits to whatever he chooses to do in life whether that is a tinker, a tailor, a soldier, or a sailor.
I exercise habit training alongside the idea that “perhaps the business of teachers is to open as many doors as possible.†I respect that he is born whole and that his mind is naturally designed to learn. I can provide the nourishment of education for his mind to grow healthy through a learning lifestyle where he is trained to be disciplined not in subject matter but in life for "education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."
However, my child is not a blank slate, but is a whole person complete with his own personality and capacity for good and evil. Neither my self worth nor his hinges upon what college he attends or whether or not he goes to college. (I say this, in part, because so many homeschool families decide that the success of their homeschool, the benchmark for their success as home educators and a parents, is determined based on if and where their child attends college. Alongside reducing their child to a product, this view has dire implications for their relationship with their child. They have placed the burden of a positive adult relationship with their child solely on a particular academic achievement whose attainment is not possible for all children and/ or may seem less desirable to the child due to the parents' relentless pressure.) I will for my part try to open doors and windows and widen chinks in the walls, but ultimately he will choose his own path. I hope that he chooses one that is fulfilling.
-quotes from Charlotte Mason
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Mandy
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You may want the x-post to the Logic Stage and General Boards.
Computer or online math
Khan Academy, TabletClass
Computer/ online Language Arts
Write at Home (composition)
Time 4 Writing (composition)
Online basic secular curriculum
Time4Learning
IXL has review- grade 7 math and language arts through grade 6. I don't have a clue when they will toss out some grade 7 content, but I know they do plan to have this available.
There are tons of online classes such as Derek Owens, AoPS online classes, and, of course, the new WTM Academy.
HTH-
Mandy
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Whew, glad that's not me! I wouldn't want to be trying to teach a 7th grade boy who didn't want to be home. Academically, I think I would also start with something like Natalie suggested. However, if the young man has an opinion about something he would like to do, I would try to include it. Also, while I was ramping up, I would be sure to work on attitude and relationship. Find him somewhere to do volunteer work- the zoo, the animal shelter, a nursing home, the library. Find him a social outlet with other homeschoolers- a teen group, an anime club, a mythology club, an engineering group, a robotics team. Homeschooling will involve both the mother and child taking on new roles. She may want to consider looking at homeschool contracts for teens. Even if she has no interest in using one, she may find it helpful to peruse one and look for things that may need to be discussed.
HTH-
Mandy
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A little after midnight last night I requested that ds at least get in bed. I have no idea what time he actually went to sleep, but, at that point, he was saying he wasn't tired. He had to be at a group music session at 9:30 this morning. When I went in his room a few minutes after 8:30 a.m., he hopped up without being asked and said we needed we needed to get there a few minutes early so that he could buy a new pick. Before we got in the car, he wanted clarification on the Park Day schedule. He wanted to remind me that we would need to come home, because he didn't want his instruments sitting in the heat in the car, but he does want to go to the park.My kids went to bed at 9-9:30 last night and it's 8:15 am here right now. They are all still sleeping. This is why we typically have them go to bed earlier because normally we like to have them up and eating breakfast before this time so we can begin school at 9.
Mandy
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We don't eat dinner until about 8:30- sometimes later. We don't go to bed until after midnight- sometimes hours after midnight. I strongly prefer that my alone time with dh be in the morning. I would rather have tEa then and I would rather have any meaningful conversations then.
My oldest, who is now 23, didn't sleep even as an infant. He didn't nap at all past about 2yo. He slept maybe 6-8 hours even then. At some point in adolescence, he reached a point where we were pretty in sync and slept about the same- about 5-6 hours rarely continuous. That was a bummer as far as alone time with dh, but I understood. He has my sleep patterns.
My middle went through a period in adolescence where he was like a koala bear. He could actually sleep more than 12 hours in a 24 hour period. My oldest and I were mostly amused, although occasionally irrated, by this behavior. He is now 20yo and doesn't usually sleep so much, but he has been known to come home from college and basically sleep for a week.
My youngest is now 11yo. He sleeps more than the oldest and less than the middle. He will sleep about 8 hours. So, if he goes to sleep at 1a.m., he is up at 9a.m. If he were to go to sleep at 9p.m., he would be up at 5a.m., and that would be unacceptable in our home. Not only would this interrupt our dh/dw alone time, but I really prefer to have a quiet cup of coffee before I start my mommy day.
I like that one of the benefits of homeschooling is that a family's schedule can be about how they function best rather than having to follow a school's schedule. For some families, a school schedule would mean no family time.
Feeling pretty lucky-
Mandy
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In the thread about video games, several people have mentioned for in their children to go to bed a 9 during he summer and there has been at least one 8:30. Last night, it was after 8:30 when we ate dinner. Families who put their kids to bed so early, do you have some place to be at 5 a.m.?
In our home, kids getting up before 8 is just not done, because we coordinate with my dh's schedule. Do you coordinate with the working party's schedule and that is why you put them to bed so early? Does that person need to be up super early?
I have not really ever tried to force my kids to go to sleep. My first one broke me of that by not sleeping. He still doesn't sleep, but then neither do I. If your kids go to bed so early, do you also go to bed early? I don't sleep much. I wouldn't want to be up for the day in the middle of the night. (My step father does this. He says it goes back to growing up on a dairy farm and that is how is programmed. I have no desire to be up for the day at 3 or 4.)
Is it that you are done for the day and are ready for them to go to bed? If so, doesn't that just mean that they get up supper early? I like my quiet mornings. Or- does your family just need a lot of sleep?
Just baffled at the super early bedtimes-
Mandy
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My Little Pony :D
My middle son and little man are both bronies. :D Obviously, the gore and violence in M games has not rendered them insensitive, as they realize friendship is magic. ;)
I don't care about ratings much, but my boys are not very interested in playing something like Wii alone. They are primarily online gamers. It is a social outlet. They play and Skype at the same time. So, I suppose the argument would be that gaming is a social outlet that doesn't involve me driving anywhere. And- since my middle son has been at college for two years- online gaming is the primary way they keep in touch.
I do wish that the little man, who is 11yo, wanted to do something else in his free time. Alas, he does not, and it is his free time. I refuse to micromanage every single minute of my child's free play. OTOH, his iPhone, that he has had for almost three years, does have minor parental controls in place.
Mandy
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I am down to one kiddo, so my responsibilities as a teacher are different now. I have also discovered that the little man doesn't want to read a list or look at a spreadsheet. When he was in grade four (9yo turning 10yo), trying to tell him what to do and when caused much head-butting, generally discontent, and less productivity. I was here asking for suggestions and discussing prepubescent male behavior.
Last year, in grade 5, I backed way off. I put some of his core work in folders and let him do the week in whatever order and as much or as little each day (as long as he finished by the end of the week) as he wanted. So, there is more physical planning of ripping everything apart and putting it in folders and less typing. Last summer, I did fall semester, and did spring semester during winter break. This year I am going to do the whole year during the summer, and I am including almost all of his core work for LA, science, and social studies, and review work for math. I only have one more thing to purchase (EIW). After that, whenever folders with fasteners are available at Walmart, I will start assembling weekly folders.
HTH-
Mandy
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I recently met a woman who incorporates Montessori into her homeschool and was very inspired to use some Montessori-esque things with my rising sixth grader. This thread has not inspired me to enroll my child in a Montessori program (not that I have any current intentions of putting him in any school), and it has not encouraged me to incorporate Montessori into my homeschool.
I have enjoyed Michael Olaf, Montessori Print Shop, Montessori Commons, Cultivating Dharma, and the many, many homeschool blogs of families incorporating or inspired by Montessori. I have been very excited about the Great Lessons and their similarity to the Big History Project. I really like the timelines, maps, nomenclature cards, and task cards that tie-in with the Great Lessons, and the science lessons that naturally flow from them. I enjoyed the Advanced Montessori Method and the language arts/ grammar chapter and the natural lead-in to diagraming. I enjoyed making the connections between Montessori Shiller Math, Montessori influenced math- RightStart, Montessori based math- Mortensen, math derived from Mortensen- Crewton Ramone's House of Math, math influenced by Mortensen- MUS, and math inspired by Ben (Crewton Ramone) Education Unboxed. All of this research I have found interesting and inspiring. This thread... Not so much.
Mandy
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I like to start organizing my thoughts in in Dec and by Jan/Feb have a pretty good idea of what we will be doing in Aug. This way I can start buying things, and it helps with the Feb blues. Also, since we school during the summer, it gives me more time to plan in free moments. So- it is just how I like to roll.
I have a good chunk of what we will be using, but right now we are in week 4 of summer session, so not a lot of planning going on at the moment.
HTH-
Mandy
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I am finally up.
Summer Session- Week 3 with ds 11yo
He also did math and reading comprehension, but that isn't very interesting. ;)
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This past year my ds who was in grade five used:
Composition- Write at Home
Grammar- Holt Elements of Language Introductory Course coordinating workbook
Grammar- Evan-Moor Daily Paragraph Editing
Reading- EMC Write-in Reader grade 6
Poetry- Evan-Moor Read and Understand Poetry
Spelling- Plaid Phonics and Spelling Workout (they are the coordinating MCP combo)
With the exception of Write at Home which was online, I removed the bindings from all of these, hole-punched them, divided them out by week, and put them in a weekly folder. At the beginning of the week, I would give him a spelling test. If he didn't miss any, he was allowed to skip spelling for the week. I went over the grammar. Generally, if he finished the first five sentences without error, I would let him skip the rest of the sheet. I didn't care if he did it all in one block or scattered throughout the day. I didn't care if he did all his grammar on Monday and all his poetry on Tuesday. I left that up to him. :)
Oh, he also read whole books, but most of them he just read. We didn't do any more with them.
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Mandy
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What to use to adhere it to the wall is the issue. What will hold the weight and not tear up the paper or the paint?
Mandy
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I would like to hang this sheet with the long side parallel to the floor. What is the best way to do this without putting holes in the paper?
TIA-
Mandy
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For many little peanuts who work elbow to elbow with mom, a student planner is totally unnecessary. ;)
When I had older children who worked independently in their rooms away from me, they needed varying levels of support to keep us moving forward. Sometimes a daily checklist for accountability was good. Usually, I created a weekly spreadsheet. I didn't create a two separate spreadsheets. The child and I used the same one.
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Mandy
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Both my big boys read the short story in jr high. It was on my long list of short stories for my 11yo for this next school year. It didn't make the final cut simply because I decided that for my purposes I only want to use stories that can be read and covered in one sitting. It is just too long. I cut The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for the same reason. However, I definitely want to cover it... and Sleepy Hollow.
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Mandy
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I agree with texasmomma and would add that when my big boys hit high school they had to continue with LA and math of course, but I pretty much let them decide things. As long as they were meeting high school graduation requirements and keeping the door to college open, I left it to them. Mostly they did what I expected, but there were some odd choices. My second son took two semesters of humanities through dual enrollment. I didn't see that one coming. :)
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Mandy
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The Random House Book of Poetry
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0394850106/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1402880146&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40
For that large of an age range, this is my favorite compilation.
Mandy
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Another person just jumping in to question why you are doing so much LA with kids who are not even reading well. Choose either handwriting or copywork and drop grammar until they can read.
HTH-
Mandy
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Mortensen was Montessori trained. Mortensen Math takes Montessori math and expands/ extends/ explains. Ben Rogers (AKA Crewton Ramone) was trained by Mortensen, so House of Math contains a lot of Montessori. Education Unboxed borrows from House of Math who worked with Mortensen who was trained by Montessori, so it is distantly Montessori and that can be felt in the presentations. MUS was inspired by Mortensen, so it also has roots in Montessori.So what would kids around 4th, 5th grade level be doing for math, for example?
ShillerMath is Montessori math. RightStart is Montessori influenced.
Montessori math is manipulative-based math where the guide will present the materials to small groups of children. After the presentation, the children can explore the manipulatives. There may be task cards with the materials that contain problems. The children would be encouraged to develop their own problems. The kids would have a journal/ notebook where they would write down whatever if necessary.
HTH-
Mandy
CM Spread a Feast & Multum non Multa
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
As I said, unless you refuse access to information, because it isn't on the schedule, I don't see how you can keep from having a feast and once there, short of refusing to let them continue, short lessons only so put that away, I don't know how you keep them from going deep.
CM definitely encouraged masterly inactivity and that mothers practice a good deal of letting alone. The children in her schools definitely spent time in the evenings researching, writing papers, and presenting to their peers.
Anyway, parents should use discretion and take what works in their home. It doesn't need to to be all one way or another. That's part of the benefit of homeschooling. :)
Mandy