Forgiven
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Posts posted by Forgiven
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This will be my third year HSing. The first year, I tried to do a daily schedule for each kid. It got tedious to write it all out each week. This year, I gave it all up--no schedule, but I noticed that my kids missed having something to check off.
So, this year, I'm prepared. I've gone through every curriculum for my kids and have written out a schedule in Excel, but not by date, just by lesson. The plan is that they will have a daily schedule, well a list of things they need to do each day. As they go through their list --mostly in any order they want, but there will be a few things we do together, so those will be at set times--they will look at their master schedule for whatever subject they're working on and just do the next thing. When they finish a lesson, they mark it off and the next time they do that subject, they'll do the next lesson, etc. That way I'm not writing it out or printing anything out each week, and if we get behind or delayed, there's no adjusting on my end.
I'm all set to go and feel such a relief!
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We tried to do both SOTW and MoH this past year. In the end, I found SOTW boring, but loved MoH, so we continued with that one only, but I did buy the SOTW on CD and made the kids listen to it in the car. I found this to be a good mix. I actually enjoyed SOTW better in the car than when I would read it to my kids. What I did like about MoH is that it weaves biblical history in with everything so you can see what else was going on in the world when certain prophets were being used by God.
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For us it takes about a half an hour as well. We do the Grammar book first and once we're about half way, we start doing the practice book. We do two sentences a day (there're 100 sentences). Once we finish the Grammar book, we start in on the Vocab book. Vocab for Island didn't take too long, but we're finding CEI to take longer. Maybe I'm expecting too much for my kids--I don't know. I have it scheduled to that it will take 20 weeks to get through the CEI book--a week per chapter (and this is for 4 days a week). For Island, we started the Sentence Island book after we finished vocab, but with Paragraph Town, we have to start it before we finish. Once Paragraph Town is finished, we'll start the Poetry book.
We do as Chrysalis Academy does. We read until I feel they are ready to stop. Some days they are interested for a much longer period of time. Other days, it's only a few minutes. I just follow their lead.
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Thanks for letting us know!
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I have six years of dance costumes. We keep each one because my daughter will play dress-up with them. Her friends also love to play dress-up with her dance costumes when they come over to play. Some of her older ones don't fit her anymore, but I've got an idea in my head to make a quilt out of them someday...
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Awesome idea. I just got finished binding my kids' Math Mammoth pages. Wish I had thought of this myself. Thanks for sharing. I still have stuff to bind--just bought some spiral spines last night...Can't wait to do this with your idea. Thanks!
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Would you do the vocabulary if you are also doing Latin?
The Latin Roots book in Island was okay--a good introduction for my kids who hadn't had any Latin experience. Since your child already knows some Latin, I don't think it would be worth it to get the Latin book from Island. Caesar's English, however, is awesome. So, if you're going with the Island level books, I'd skip the Latin portion, but if you're going with the Town level, definitely get Caesar's English I.
Just my $0.02. ;)
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I agree with PP as far as MCT being teacher intensive. But it's more discussion than lecturing, and definitely worth it. As for where to start, I'm not sure as my kids didn't do FLL.
Last year is when we started with MCT. My dd was in 4th grade and I had purchased Voyages in English for her as that's what she used in 3rd grade and I loved it. Note that I said, "I loved it." My dd did not like it one bit. I pre-tested her in the vocabulary section and she aced it, so I started looking into vocabulary alternatives, when I found MCT and fell in love. I debated where to start my dd, as she was in 4th and had a solid foundation in grammar. In the end, I decided that I'd feel better if she went through Island level fast and then started Town instead of skipping Island and realizing too late that she should've done Island first.
For my 4th grade dd, it was best to start at Island. I'm very glad that I did and do not regret the decision one bit. She's half way through the Town level, and then she'll start Voyage.
As for which components we use, well, we use it all. I love it all. The kids (DS also did Island last year and will be starting Town in the fall) loved all components. I've read on these boards that some do not like the poetry books, but my kids and I loved the poetry book in Island. I think it's all good. Yes, you can choose parts that you want to do versus those you don't. I think they could easily be used separately, but they do all flow nicely together.
Best of luck in deciding!
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Pretty much the same experience here. Red works for my child and that's why we keep going. The predictable format each week helps him. He also needs way more handwriting instruction than what was offered in Red. So instead, the handwriting became our copywork practice. Spelling is something that also needs work, so we supplement. My only other complaint is all the cutting and pasting. My son is not the artsy color, cut and paste type. So we tend to do those exercises orally instead.
We had the same experience with the cutting and pasting. My DS hates that type of stuff. Overall, I will say that my son liked LLATL red. We started it this past year, when he was in second grade. I was so psyched that we had found something that he looked forward to each day.
Then my DD started MCT Island. My DS got a look at it and wanted to try it too. I was sad because he loved LLATL. Absolutly loved it--except for the cutting and pasting. Anyway, we stopped using LLATL because I thought MCT and LLATL was overkill. I was sad to not do it anymore, but at the same time, if my kids lead me a direction, and it works, I stick with it. I still look at the LLATL Red books that we have and wonder about my youngest...maybe he'll like it. ;)
From a mom's perspective. I wish my son had stuck with it--hadn't seen my daughter's MCT Island books. But oh well, he likes that curriculum too and learned so much, so I can't complain. I can't let go of my LLATL though. It brings back happy memories (my DS also liked MCT a lot and looked forward to it, so it's not that he hated MCT, just that LLATL was the FIRST thing this DS of mine enjoyed doing), and I hope that some day my youngest will enjoy it.
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Ugh. Posts like these make me second guess my decision to start with Island instead of Town for DD (rising 3rd). Maybe I should go with Town after all and just get the Island poetics and vocab to do for an intro at the beginning of the year...
She has finished WWE2 and R&S 3 and is a very advanced reader with an excellent vocabulary. I was about to place the order and now I am suddenly undecided again. Aaaaah!
I debated between the Island level and the Town level for my 4th grader last year. In the end, I went with the Island level and am not upset that I did. My 4th grader loved it and learned so much. My 2nd grader wanted to try MCT too, so I let him, and he learned so much as well. My 4th grader moved a lot faster than my 2nd grader, but that was to be expected. Either way, they both enjoyed the Island level and I'm so glad I didn't skip it with any of my kids.
I would definitely go with your first instinct and start with the Island level. There's so much to learn and enjoy. Some people on these boards don't like the poetry books as much as the rest, but my kids loved the poetry. My 2nd grader, who "hates" school couldn't get enough of the poetry book and started to write poems just for fun--he's still doing this even though it's technically "summer". LOL
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Math Mammoth is the only one I actually use. I've purchased many others, but I forget they exist. I need a hard copy on my bookshelf or I just forget. :( My goal this summer is to go through the plethora of efiles that I have and print off everything that I think I might need and then put them on my shelf. Otherwise, they'll never get used--what a waste of money.
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We read the whole Apologia series as bedtime stories. Worked great for us! There are actually several subjects that are done as bedtime stories. :) Frees up our day a bit. :)
Ooh, I realy like this idea. I'm going to see how this will work with our schedule. I think it would work better, freeing some time during the school day.
Angie
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Oh, yeah. All three of mine sing while doing school work--well anything that takes their full concentration. Two of them are the worst offenders. If it's just one doing it, I'm fine--no problem, but when you have three different songs going on at the same time, and I'm trying to work while they're doing their thing, I can't concentrate. Ugh! I feel bad that I have to tell them to stop because it's obviously something that helps them to think, but I can't think when they're all doing it.
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I buy the notebook journals and we never use them (although we've use Zoology 3's journals every day so far--crossing fingers it sticks this time). Well, as you can guess, we're doing Zoology 3 right now, over the summer when we can go to the zoo once-a-week. We've finished Zoology 1 and 2. Each time I started out having them do some of the notebook/journal pages, but each time we ended up with them just listening while I read. We did some of the experiments in Zoology 1, but only the ocean box in zoology 2. For Zoology 3 they will be going to the zoo after each lesson and studying the animals we just learned about. They'll have to draw a picture of the animal and write some facts about the animal. We have a zoo pass to the Brookfield Zoo, so it makes it easier to do this.
My kids have learned a lot from just reading to them. They enjoy Apologia's books and my youngest comes up with the most fascinating questions. My middle son asks very detailed, factual questions, and my dd wants to write a report about every animal we learn about. It's amazing how different each kid is. LOL
Anyway, I hope your family enjoys these books as much as we do. ;)
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I highly recommend History Revealed by Diane Waring. I fell in love with this curriculum and decided to do it with my 5th grader. After receiving it in the mail, I've decided to use it for all three of my kids. Take a look at it. It's designed for 6th - 12th grade. It can be made easier for younger kids, and she has a student book for younger elementary kids (which is what I'm using with my 1st and 3rd graders).
Oh, I purchased mine from Christianbook.com. I think it's the same price on answersingenesis.com
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I work full time, but that means I could work up to 60-80 hours a week. I have set hours and many conference calls. I plan for the kids to do independent work during my busy times, and times that I know are not too busy (7-9 am), I plan things that I need to be involved with (ie: phonics, reading for my 1st grader, etc).
There are times that I feel I'm losing my sanity, but it's more rewarding than not. I would love to not have to work anymore, but unfortunately, my job is more stable than my DH's, so it would make no sense for me to not work as we could find ourselves with two unemployed adults. Not good. My DH and I make the same amount of money, and there have been times that he's been laid off and we've had to live on one salary. It's doable, so I do have that dream of quitting. We just need to make sure his job is secure first. His company just laid off a guy who'd been with them since they started up, which is scary. Apparently, they lost a big account. What happens when they lose the next big account? Will my dh lose his job then? Ugh. Because of this, I can't quit. :(
Work gets done. School gets done. Housework and cooking do not get done. I need to get better at cleaning and going to the grocery store. I'd cook if I had food in the house.
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I feel it's my responsibility to make sure that my kids are involved in activities that will introduce them to other kids. I also do not believe they have to have friends that are their exact same age. We go to the park a lot, to the library, and I enroll my kids in classes where they can meet others. Am I worried about socialization? No. What I don't want, though, is to hear my children say, "I don't have any friends." I want them to have someone--at least one good friend--that they can build memories with, so I feel your plight.
I also agree that the kinds of kids that hang out at your park wouldn't be the ideal for friendships. Our park is very similar. We actually go to the park when I know those kinds of kids won't be there. My youngest, 6-year-old boy, makes friends with kids of all ages. My other two will play alone, and if someone close to their age shows up, they'll play with them, but they do stay away from the real young kids.
Since beginning to homeschool, my kids haven't made many new friends, but they were lucky enough to be involved in different activities before we started to homeschool, so they already had a set of friends, that they still hang out with. They have made a few new friends, but you can't force friendship. They'll click with some kids, and not with others. Out of all the new kids they've met from homeschooling over the past two years, they've only become good friends with one family. That's it.
I would just say to get them involved with something. I have found that there are tons of things to do. I never realized how much there was to do for free in our area until I started homeschooling. It's amazing to see all the opportunities, especially at the libraries, but also at stores like Home Depot, Lowes, and Lakeshore learning, and Bass Pro Shops. If you have any of these near you, they each have free workshops for kids. Some are once a month, some twice a month, and Bass Pro Shops is three days a week.
Just getting out once a week is good for my kids, but I only have one extrovert. The other two are introverts, so they're happy to stay at home all day. My extrovert is the one who bounces off my walls if he doesn't get out of the house regularly. LOL
Do you have any homeschool field trip groups in your area? We got sick of our homeschool group and joined a field trip group instead. They don't have regular meetings or anything, it's just an email group that plans field trips. Anyone can plan a field trip and email it to everyone else and then anyone interested in joining, does so. There's no pressure to meet every week or to plan anything in advance. You do the things that interest you, and maybe plan something yourself--you don't need to plan anything if you don't want to. You can just join others...
Even if you just find a group of moms that meet up, you can sometimes form a friendship with a woman who has kids that your kids could become friends with...My daughter's best friend is my best friend's daughter. They aren't the same age. My oldest son's best friend is two years older than him. My younger son doesn't really have a best friend, but he's also my extrovert who makes friends with everyone and anyone. Wherever he goes, he's the center of attention. I find it to be quite annoying, to be honest, because I want him to make a real, true, friend, not the superficial, surface-level friendships that he tends to make everywhere he goes.
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LOL Thanks for the heads-up. We'll be studying the Medieval ages this coming year as well. I guess we'll have to wait to watch this then...well, if it's a good movie my kids will want to watch it over and over again. We studied Swimming Creatures this past year and my kids watched Nemo almost every week! They never got bored of it, and since we would learn about new creatures every week, they'd see more and more in it each time we watched. ;)
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I have a son going into 1st next year. I do not correct his spelling unless he asks for me to. Of course, he usually does ask me if he's correct. When he does, I ask him to say the word and then tell me the sounds he hears. Sometimes he figures it out on his own, but sometimes he spells the word wrong because he just hasn't learned the spelling rule needed for that word, so I tell him the rule and then he can apply it to the word and usually gets it right. Sometimes it's just a matter of how he pronounces a word and then we can work on that, which corrects his spelling.
If I ever correct his spelling without him asking me to first, he would get mad and shut me out. That's his personality though. He has to do everything on his own.
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I ordered these the other day and they arrived this afternoon. I'm so excited!
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I've read on these boards that many people use Zaccaro's Challenge Math as a supplement. I went ahead and purchased both the Primary Grade Challenge Math and the regular Challenge Math books. I do love them and hope to find a way to incorporate them into our school year. However, I'm not exactly sure which is the best way to do so.
One idea I have is to have my kids do a problem a day and put these problems in a "Math Journal", which may include other things as we go along (ie: multiplication tables for my DS(8), Gallon Man, etc). The problem I'm having is how/when to schedule the reading portion at the beginning of each section.
So, can you tell me how you use Zaccaro's Challenge Math?
Thanks a lot!
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My DD(10) is moving to MM5A/B next year and we've chosen to stay with the older version. For some reason, I have the newer versions of MM1 and MM2, but the old versions of MM3, 4, 5, and 6. My DS(8) will switch from new (MM2) to old (MM3) this year, and my youngest will do the same when he gets there.
I agree with the post above me. Decide which route you want to take and go from there.
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I buy through them all the time too.
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I purchased the downloads too, but print in color. There isn't a lot of color on each page. This year I printed off A and once we finished with it, I then printed off B. Next year, I'm printing them all off at once and binding them.
Our Local Home School Group wants to...
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
No, thank you! One of the many things I like about Homeschooling is that I don't have to put my kids in uniforms. Ugh. I thought uniforms were cute when my DD started Kindergarten at a private school. Over the course of the year, I learned to loathe them.
On another note, one of my friends makes t-shirts for her kids each year. They wear them to any field trip or function that they go to so that she can easily spot them. They're bright colored and decorated by the kids themselves. I was thinking of doing that this year because it's sometimes hard to keep up with three kids. Especially when my youngest doesn't understand the concept of "stay with me".