I loved using School Composition for Use in Higher Grammar Classes by William H Maxwell. (Free resource) it is a very simple and elegant writing program. You could adapt that to make it more modern and user-friendly. . 🙂

https://www.coreknowledge.org/our-approach/core-knowledge-sequence/k-8-sequence/ I used the K-8 Core Knowldge Sequence (above) as a guide, though I didn’t follow it exactly. But it really helped me sort of like a checklist to make sure I wasn’t missing anything major. Sometimes I bought an extra workbook as a supplement to fill in something (esp a skill) I thought we might not be covering well enough.

Once per week we attended the CC meeting from 9am-1pm. The kids each had a class of about 6-10 kids of similar age, led by a “tutor.” During the class, they were introduced to the memory work for the upcoming week. Over the next week, we practiced the new memory work, and also tried to work on some review of past weeks. At the end of year, they had Memory Master testing day where the kids had to recite the entire year’s worth of memory work in one sitting with a tutor. If they passed, they received the Memory Master award. About 1/4 or 1/3 of the kids in our group usually tried for Memory Master. It required a great deal of time and effort for my kids to prepare for it, but they each did all three years of Memory Master. My kids felt quite a sense of accomplishment from earning this. They also found it quite useful as they reencountered the information in their future courses, including in some AP classes and when taking the SAT. I think you could organize your own group to do the same sort of thing if CC is not a good fit for you.

That may be a new thing since my kids were in it or else we might have tried. Haha! A clarification note about CC— I didn’t follow the CC Foundations program for my entire curriculum since I was using my own curriculum choices for all the subjects, and I agree that it is too light on its own. I considered that program as a supplement to my main curriculum, using their memory work and the CC class once per week as “extras.”. Doing it this way rubbed the director a little wrong (when she found out I wasn’t fully on board with the system), but it was a valuable resource not only for memory work, but also for classroom experience/practice listening to the teacher, great weekly public speaking, weekly art projects, game time with the other kids, and making a lot of new friends.

OP, you have an idea of what you want your kids to memorize and why it is important, but you are asking about how to get it done. My kids memorized the greatest volume of information during our time in CC because they were studying to earn the Memory Master Award. Having some type of competition or award to earn interests young kids and is especially helpful to motivate them. Most of the CC “Foundations” memory work aligned with what I was teaching in my programs (see my profile if interested), so CC worked for me when the kids were young. Maybe CC is not for you, but you could try to develop some sort of award or competition to give your kids a structure and purpose for memorizing.

I used 1988. It was one of the best homeschool choices we made!

I haven’t been here in a while, but I was just thinking this morning about WTM forums about how thankful I am for the curriculum we pursued K-8. It was quite heavy in the knowledge and memorization aspects, and my kids (16, 18, and 20 years old currently) have been reaping the benefits. My husband and I are appreciating the results because of the vast number of educational and future opportunities that are available to them as a direct result of our K-8 homeschool. I just want to say to the OP that you are on the right path! Even if you don’t execute your plan flawlessly, I think your future self will also enjoy the results. Here are two more books in case you have not read them already: Educational Philosophy:-Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children (E.D. Hirsch, Jr.)-Why Don’t Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom (Daniel T. Willingham)

I just looked at the health department update for our area. We have three active cases here. The contact tracing involves multiple locations including an international airport in our area—check in areas and other parts of the airport that many people pass through. Also there is an ER on the list—there was exposure potential at that location for a significant number of hours over days. There is no way on earth that the health department will be able to track down all those contacts, which is why this may become a dangerous situation in a short amount of time. The USA is set up for a measles epidemic because we have so many unvaccinated kids. I am writing this as a public service announcement so we can try to head this off and save lives. ❤️

You should find a different periatrcian, or else find a family medicine doctor who takes care of kids!

All, We have new measles cases in the USA. This is an extremely contagious disease, and it can be very dangerous, especially to the small children who are too young to be vaccinated. If your children are not vaccinated against measles, now would be a good time to get that done. (The first dose of measles vaccine is usually given to children at 12-15 months old.)

In my career field of medicine, there are a significant contingent of us who strive to make decisions and practice according to the best evidence—the best evidence of producing good outcomes. Someone made up a term for this called POEM: Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters. In other words, we try to avoid using treatments that are traditional just because that is what everyone has always done, or new treatments because they are the popular fad, or treatments recommended by experts just because some experts recommend them. We try to find studies that show which treatments produce good outcomes that matter to patients (reduction of disease and death, not just improvement in factors such as values of lab tests). We try to give the treatments that have real evidence to help patients live longer and healthier. I have tried to apply the same principles to homeschooling my children. What are the “POEM’s” (or perhaps “SOEM’s”—student oriented evidence that matters) regarding educational philosophy? Most of what is out there and currently being utilized by educators has no real evidence to back it up. However, I have found two excellent books which helped me craft the educational plan for my children, which I will list below and which have produced excellent results for my kids. If you are interested in using effective, evidence-based methods of education, I have found nothing better. You would do well to read and apply the principles in these books. —The Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children (E.D. Hirsch, Jr.) -Why Don’t Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom (Daniel T. Willingham)

Somebody on this forum (8? Was that you?) once said their general rule for number of hours to spend doing formal school work was equal to the child‘s grade. So a fourth grader would do about four hours of academic work per school day. I found that extremely helpful as a general guideline, and it worked well for us. Five to six hours per day was about our limit in middle school years.

I am so glad I did a formal grammar program with my kids. Knowing grammar gave them great help with their high school English classes, general writing ability (formal papers and informal emails), college essays, SAT verbal section, and foreign language classes. Many of their high school peers who had little formal grammar instruction struggled in those areas. (I used Rod and Staff English from grades 2-8.)

Good question! If you ask twenty people, you may get twenty different answers, but I will type out my personal strategy. If you are interested in specific curricula choices, I listed my favorites under my profile. Like I said, though, there is more than one way to skin a cat, so you could just as well use other programs to accomplish the same purpose. I structured my program into three tiers, with Tier One subjects being essential and Tier Three being extras that we could skip if needed on days when we got into a jam. Tier One: The Three R's (reading, writing, and arithmetic). I spent a significant amount of time researching to find out what the objectives were for these subjects each year, and then choosing programs which achieved the objectives. I tried to find good quality curricula which taught the subjects systematically. Unless something really wasn't working, I tried to continue with my programs consistently year after year rather than jump around to different programs every time a new fad came along. I made sure these subjects were done every day and were done well. Tier Two: History/Geography/Civics and Science. In K-8 grades, these are generally content subjects. There was no way on earth that I could teach my children everything there was to learn about history and science by eighth grade. Therefore, my goal was exposure. The more background information I could help my kids absorb, the easier high school would be for them. However, if there were some gaps in their knowledge of these subjects, it would end up okay because they would cover those areas in their high school courses. The rigor in this area mostly involves science. I tried to find science classes which were simple to implement in order to make sure it got done. History is usually a pretty fun and popular homeschool subject, but a lot of people find science more difficult to teach and then skip it when they run out of time at the end of the day. DON'T SKIP SCIENCE. Tier Three: Extras. This is where we really got to have fun and take advantage of our opportunities as homeschoolers. My husband and I studied our children and tried to figure out what their individual talents and interests were. Then we crafted specific subjects to help them explore their passions. One of my kids did extra work in writing, argumentation, and history. Another one did extra classes in computer programming and website and app design. Another child did economics and business courses taught by my husband (who runs his own business). In addition to these, I threw in some other things to round out their education or build certain important skills, such as memorization, public speaking, and logical reasoning. Options for this category could also include things like foreign language, music, and physical fitness. I didn't do all of these things every year, but I would choose a few of them to work on at a time. Is that sort of what you were asking? I hope that helps. :)

My youngest child finished middle school and will begin public high school in the fall. One day recently it hit me that I am no longer a homeschool mom, at least in the official sense. On one hand, I feel happy and relieved that I will have more free time. On the other hand, I think I will really miss some parts of homeschool—sitting on the couch doing read alouds with my kids and just laughing and laughing together at the funny parts, the rabbit trail philosophical discussions about life that somehow happened in the middle of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic lessons, and of course my years of being a curriculum junkie. Looking back, I am especially glad that we pursued a rigorous approach to homeschooling in grades K-8. I know about the popular movement in the other direction which is often promoted in both public school and homeschool circles, but I am glad we swam against the current. During the vast majority of our homeschool days, my kids worked hard and didn’t always have a lot of fun. However, once they reached high school, they really took off. It has been a great joy for me to watch them pursue lofty goals during their teenage years and achieve them. The rigor in our K-8 program gave them a tremendous academic foundation and confidence so that they can dream big dreams, and the goals they aspire to are within their reach. The joy my kids have experienced in high school (and now in college where our oldest is) has overflowed to me. Why am I writing this? I am not sure, except I don’t want to start another argument about rigor. I suppose I am writing it to encourage the young mothers out there who are just beginning to homeschool, and also to the moms who are in the middle of their homeschool years—to encourage you to press on, work hard every day, and finish the course. There is a great reward in the future for a job well done.