ErinD
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Website URL
http://www.theusualmayhem.com
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Biography
Mother, homeschooler, blogger and co-author of Farmschooling
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Location
Rural Northern Ontario.
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Occupation
attempting to corral various moving bodies....and sometimes I get paid to write stuff elsewhere.
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You might want to take a look at how the Waldorf method uses block scheduling; it's similar to what you describe and can be very effective.
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Apologies if someone has already thrown this out there, but my internet is lagging and I can't read previous posts today! You might want to consider a year of www.allinonehomeschooling.com It's free and written for a child to work on independently. It's all done online with links, so your 5th grader could do her schoolwork wherever you are.
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I hope it's ok to share here, but I thought that some fellow Hive members might find it useful! I just finished reviewing CTC Math online with my 9 year old and he hates math but loved this! They're offering a 4 week free trial, no credit card required, and if you like it they'll upgrade you at 60%off. Otherwise, your trial just ends and that's it. Anyway, here's my post about it if you'd like an overview: http://www.theusualmayhem.com/2017/06/stop-summer-slide-online-math/ I'm happy to answer any questions. (P.S. No, not an affiliate! Just got a free membership for a few months to test it and my son was raving about it to his grandparents the next day!)
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Dh wants an overarching plan/watch me figure out K-8
ErinD replied to vorbarra's topic in K-8 Curriculum Board
You might take a look at Wee Folk Art's seasonal Preschool plans. With hands-on manipulatives for math and AAR PK level, you'd have a wonderful year with a lot of learning and tons of time to be a kid still :) -
Not exactly what you describe, but possibly a great option for you: www.happyhedgehogpost.com mails out monthly kits with crafts/instructions, tutorial video links, recipes and stories. We've been using them for a couple of years and been very happy with the quality. She offers discounts for siblings, too.
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I agree with other posters that there's nothing wrong with Lifepacs. However, there are a few other curricula you might want to check out with your daughter that may interest her outside of the basics: Beautiful Feet Books' History of the Horse literature based curricula Farmschooling (I wrote this one with another blogger, and it's learning based around farms and farm animals but can be done anywhere) Horsing Around unit from Homeschool Legacy Not farm animal related, but we have used and really enjoyed a lot of units from Intellego unit studies, with internet links for the users to explore. HTH! I know how difficult it is to find the right curricula for a 13 yo girl with a strong mind of her own :)
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Geography, if you don't tie it to history
ErinD replied to CadenceSophia's topic in K-8 Curriculum Board
For years we had a world map shower curtain, and I was amazed how much geography my kids picked up from it. People would call for a "bathroom break" in the middle of a movie to go and look up a place that was mentioned! They'd also come out of the shower with questions or comments and it often led to further exploration on a wall map. We also own and love Bright Ideas Press's WonderMaps and use them regularly for explorations, especially because we can print topographical data or not as desired. I can also print historical maps so we can compare with current maps. -
Need suggestions: online geometry summer intensive
ErinD replied to VirginiaMomof7's topic in K-8 Curriculum Board
We were lucky enough to review Mr D's math (in our case Algebra II) on my blog last year for the iHomeschool Network, and my daughter really liked it. His explanations are clear, the videos don't use up all of your bandwidth, and you get enough to learn it well but not a lot of busywork. It might be a really good fit for your independent learner. -
S/O Minimalist Schooling - Poverty Schooling?
ErinD replied to frugalmamatx's topic in General Education Discussion Board
Just a thought: When we first moved to our current home, we had no internet available in our home for almost 2 years and the nearest library was 30 mins away. I bought Intellego's science and history courses on currclick.com (about $15 each), and once a week we hit the library and used a free YouTube downloader to download and save all the videos for the upcoming week. They incorporate writing assignments, so you could knock off 2 subjects in one. They're made to fit all learning styles. Also, for inexpensive science labs you might consider talking to a butcher or abbatoir about obtaining hearts, lungs etc for dissection. Ours were amazing once we explained what we wanted them for and they charged us only pennies apiece. The labs we did that year were incredibly interesting and remains one of our favorites. HTH -
Materials for 5 year old who likes to tinker/build/invent
ErinD replied to Nart's topic in General Education Discussion Board
Sigh. Sorry. The internet is messing with me and posting multiple times. It won't let me delete them. -
Materials for 5 year old who likes to tinker/build/invent
ErinD replied to Nart's topic in General Education Discussion Board
Schoolhouseteachers.com has an online class called the Tinker's Club. I think the subscription is under $10 per month. -
The two that I find I come back to with each kid are Vol 1 and then Vol 4 after we run out of books for Volume 1 (which takes a couple of years for us anyway). But as a PP said, they are all excellent - you can't go wrong with any of them, I don't think.
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No help but lots of sympathy....my daughter was the same way. I can tell you that she seems to have outgrown the math issues now, if that helps. I did a LOT of head banging a few years ago, though!
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Help me figure out what to do with the boy
ErinD replied to DragonFaerie's topic in General Education Discussion Board
Just a thought, but have you looked at project-based learning for the non-math subjects? Take a look at Lori Pickert's Camp Creek Blog for inspiration.......if you could discuss with him and let him choose an aspect of a subject that catches his interest, help him to get library books and find videos on Netfilx or something, and let him loose, he might amaze you. That's not to say to move away from the cycles of classical learning, but you could let him choose what parts of the subjects really engage him and see if it gets him excited about learning again. -
We're trying to sell here and buy/move 12 hours away at the moment. We are down to the bare-bones schoolwork, only because I have a 12 year old who needs to keep plugging along. Your kids are so young that even a few months off wouldn't damage anything. I vote for take a break.