[8th or 9th grade best time to start public school?]

I've been encouraging my kids to "decide" what they want to do by 8th grade, because I would really love for 8th-12th to be in the same situation.  My state also begins counting required classes in 8th grade (state history, for example, ONLY being offered in 8th).  And like others have said, it gives a year to adjust before grades start to matter.

I feel similar to 5th grade, in that I'd hesitate for a child to start public for the first time in 6th (in my area this is the first year of middle school and a huge jump in responsibility).  

So our big switch years tend to be 5 and 8.  So far I've only had one choose to transition to public.

[Self-directed P.E.]

I've never had to push this for 5/6 of my kids.  But one (currently 11 yo girl) has "PE" 3 times a week on her checklist because otherwise she would not move.  Ever.  And it shows pretty rapidly in her attitude tbh. 

We do hike as a family once a week and she is allowed to use that as one PE day as long as it isn't cancelled for some reason.  As for the other days, we made a list of ideas for her to pick from but she needs to be active for at least 30 minutes.  Things off the top of my head that are on her list: take the dog for a walk, roller skate, ride a bike, jump rope, do a yoga video via youtube, swim (we have a pool, though obviously this only works in summer), jump on the trampoline, take younger siblings to the park and play with them, turn on some music and dance.  We have some free weights and that would be a great option too if she would do it.  She wont, but yours might.  Obviously my goal isn't sports skills or even muscle building as much as just general activity.     

[Seven Ecumenical Councils Memory Work>]

Also following.

[Duolingo offers Latin]

It's been in production forever, and every time they hit their estimated date it gets pushed back another 6 months to a year.  

That being said I only know that because I've been watching it the past few years hoping it's actually going to be finished!  So I do hope you are right.

[what's missing in my 5th grader's schedule?]

Agreeing with others that while I don't see anything missing, per se, I'm surprised he can get done in that time.

I had two 5th graders last year.  My struggling daughter also uses TT, but our rule was that she had to spend at least 30 min.  Sometimes, especially in the early review lessons, this meant 2 in a day. Then they both spent at least an hour on language arts; a writing lesson or project daily and alternating grammar and spelling.  That's an hour and a half right there.

I'd also agree that at this age 20-30 min a day may not be enough history and science, and he could possibly go above and beyond his siblings.

That being said I wouldn't add things just to add them.  Especially if he's keeping himself healthily occupied during his free time and learning at a level you are happy with, awesome.  2 hour school days it is!

If he's bored, or not using his time wisely things you could add in are: a second math program (TT can be light), a foreign language, art, music appreciation, an instrument, a skill or craft like baking, computer programming, logic, geography and cultures, government (an election is coming up and kids this age pay attention), a physical exersize like running or archery, or really any interest.

[Grammar portion of Treasured Conversations]

TC includes some grammar but not a ton, and not at the level you are describing. 

[Help me with 6th grade plan - everything is changing at my house]

On 7/6/2019 at 1:55 PM, AmandaVT said:

 

Thoughts?

I have two sixth graders next year.  Personally, our biggest focus for both is increasing independence/self-organization.  It's a lot of "Toss them in and see how they do".  (After years of me organizing everything, and then a year of doing it together).  They will be switching from a daily checklist to a weekly, for example, which feels huge and gives them a lot of space to screw up. 😜

As for your plan...

Math looks great.  If he likes AOPS pre-al there's no reason to leave.  My son felt like it was too much/took too much of his time, and we are moving on to Keys to and Jacobs.

I can't speak to reading as we've never done any formal lit.  We are a read, narrate, discuss family 🙂

We are doing middle ages for history too, and there are so many good/great books in that time period!! Beowulf, Arthurian legends, Robin Hood, so yes, look at WTM selections.

Science I'd honestly go interest-led.  There are SO MANY amazing living science books and now that my middle schoolers can read at an adult-level it's a whole new world.  Ambleside has excellent suggestions.  

PE and music looks covered.

I find CAP easy to teach, personally.  But since public is the plan I'd find out what they expect as far as writing goes and make sure you covered that.  Our schools seem to focus a LOT on free-flow creative writing at this age, for example, while essays are still barely touched.

Cooking would be cool!

Honestly it looks like a great year.

[Does this look good for 7th grade?]

This is super similar to my middle schoolers' year.  The only thing we add is a required reading list (I read too so we can discuss but it's very informal).  

I'm finding that I can't pile on as much as I expected to when they were in the grammar years.  Partly puberty makes learning hard.  Partly they are both so busy with their own (worthwhile) interests.  So I appreciate Momto6's comment.

[Suggestions for a child who is having a rough year?]

This sounds like both of my 11 year olds- easy to offend/upset, easily overwhelmed/frustrated, snappish and rude to siblings, lethergic and not interested in exercise.  The only thing you left out is inability to think, mine forget what a fraction is, forget how to spell things, forget their own name basically.  

I think you are doing great to get him outside.  Fresh air and exercise is huge.  So is getting enough sleep and regular healthy snacks.  Honestly I just pretend they are toddlers again.  How would I react to this meltdown if they were 3?  Probably a snack, a nap, and a trip to the park.  🤣  Stay calm and wait it out mama.  You arent alone.  

[How do you plan your school year?]

I behind by deciding on goals for each child. So for math maybe that's finish 5th grade in 5th grade.  Or be ready for Algebra at the end of the year.  Or be confident manipulating numbers 10 and under.  For writing that may be learning to form letters or become confident in essays.  It might even be as simple as "exposure to and appreciation of botony".

Then I pick curricula or make a plan that will achieve said goal. 

I split that plan or curricula into three.  One for each season (sept-nov, dec-feb, mar-may).  I then split each season into 10 weeks, leaving off two weeks for breaks or holidays or catching up.  

I look at that and then adjust or combine kids as necessary to reflect reality.

I do all of that in the spring.

Then I plan in the minutae 5 weeks at a time.  Hopefully during one of those handy 2 week breaks.  

[Thoughts on CAP Latin for Children Primer A?]

I would do SS2.  We did both SSL abd then LFC A.  The three SS books took us 3 years, as we moved slow with lots of review.  When we started LFC my kids were 10, 10, 9, and 8.  Honestly, my 8 year old struggled a bit.  It's a LOT of grammar, and very quickly.  SS is much more fun and gentle.

[How long are CAP W&R lessons?]

They have very generous samples in their website, including schedules.  If I'm remembering correctly, they have a 3 and 4 day a week option (with the 4th day being largely rhetoric and sharing of work), to cover a lesson a week. 

I found the first two books easy to split into 2 days a week.  The first day we covered the Talk About It and shorter grammar/writing exercises, the second day we did the longer writing project and the Speak It portion.  Those took about 20-30 minutes, working with two kids at once. 

The next couple books I've found require 3-4 days per lesson, depending on the week.  The 4th day is Speak It and any necessary finishing up.

My oldest two kids did start skipping the Speak It, which made it 3 days, as they are both very involved in theatre.  But I have my middle two kids do that section to help with enunciation, breath control, and all that other public speaking goodness.

We only ever do 2 books a year.  We spend the extra weeks polishing our favorite writing projects from the program, and doing other "fun" side writing.

[Has anyone turned their basement into a homeschool space?]

I've done it twice, with very different results.

The first time was a "sunlight" basement that had teeny tiny windows (so no sunlight). It was only partially finished and while we put up bookshelves and a carpet, it wasn't inviting. I also had toddlers/babies.  It lasted a week...maybe.  it was dim and cold, and I needed to be able to multitask (watch littles out of the corner of my eye, feed snacks, do dishes, ect).  

The second time was a new split level home with a large room available off the backyard.  It had real windows, a sliding glass door, and good heating.  My kids were all 6 and over.  I wasnt miltitasking anymore, tbh, because teaching 6 kids was enough!!  I adore our school space now. 

[What if you have a kid who needs mastery AND spiral math?]

I have one of those (also 11).  Our perfect mix has been Math Mammoth for mastery and Teaching Textbooks for review.  At first we did both every day, as a TT lesson only took about 15 min.  But then TT started getting harder so we are now doing MM on M/W/F, and TT on T/The.  TT does run about a grade below MM, it's worth noting.  That works great for us as it's solid REVIEW, but if you want the same topics Id suggest going a grade up in TT.

I've tried to use Math Mammoth alone, using pages from different sections to self spiral.  It was a total fail, somehow not enough mastery OR review.  🙄.  

[Why is talk of CC banned on the WTM facebook page?]

Probably because in my (relatively short) 7 years homeschooling I've never seen any topic get hysterical and mean faster than the CC debate. 😂 

People have STRONG opinions.  And moderators don't have time for it.

[What does your 2/3 grader do indipendently?]

With 6 kids some independance is necessary.  I start giving my kids daily checklists in 2nd grade, with a lot of handholding.  By 3rd I really do expect those items done by the end of the day (although I still CHECK every day).  By 6th grade I'm checking weekly (and they can move items around).

My current 3rd grader has:

Daily reading minutes (30)

Audiobook assignments 

Copywork

Piano practice

Latin review on Headventureland

Typing practice 

Chores

Hygene items like shower reminders

My older kids have done math facts review either by game, flash cards, or worksheets (he already knows his facts) or written narrations (he's not ready) at this age.  We had workbook spelling one year done mostly via checklist (it wasn't successful).

I'll also start them off onath or a writing project and write to finish it up.

[CAP W&R - need opinions from those who have used several levels]

Im only a but further than you, level 4.

I guess it depends what you are trying to improve.  For me, in level 1 (fable) my goal was just getting thoughts on paper, and the general idea that you could do so in several ways.  It fulfilled that goal well in all 4 kids I've had use it (for the record in 3rd or 4th grade as reccomended).

In the next two levels (narratives 1 and 2) I increased my goal to interesting writing.  Varied sentences, use of description and dialogue, ect.  My natural writer succeeded at this much more than my struggling writer.  I can see her using the tools learned in other writing, but he needs to be reminded to use them.  I've only used these books with these 2 kids, both in 4th (narrative 1) and 5th (narrative 2) grade at the time.  Next year I'll have my upcoming 4th and 5th use them.

The next level after this (Cheria) switches gears to essay writing.  We had never done any essay writing before so this was the biggest seen improvement.  I feel like both my kids can churn out an ok essay using this template with little stress or effort, and a good essay with a couple days and maybe for my struggler some sweat and tears.  They were in the last half of 5th grade.

The next book is another form of essay, and I'm looking forward to some variety from the praise, interpret, explain, compare, contrast, finish up format.  I'm happy with, and plan on continuing the series.  For the record I think it works best with kids on the later age of their recomended spectrum, though.  

[How do you create book lists?]

For non-readish 9yo girls I'd reccomend lots of fun books, with an emphasis on longish series. 

Tuesdays at the Castle series 

Half Magic series

Roald Dahl books

A Little Princess 

The Secret Garden

Understood Betsy 

Little House Series 

All of a Kind Family series 

Any Edith Nesbit, but maybe on audio because they can be harder.

[After Beast]

13 hours ago, craftyerin said:

I have twins that have been using BA 3rd through now (3/4 of the way through 5th). My son is rocking along in Beast, and I'm leaning toward letting him try AOPS pre-A when he finishes BA5, sometime mid-way through next year.  I *just* moved my daughter out of Beast 2 weeks ago. She had gotten to where it was frustrating for her and she needed more direct instruction and more independence. I was having to talk her through too many problems for her liking.  She was not having any trouble with the MATH, but with presentation and pre-teen angst. 😉 I moved her to MM6. She's able to skip over some chapters because we've covered the content in BA5 already, and I suspect she'll finish MM6 about the same time her twin finishings BA5. I expect her to do MM7 for pre-A at that point. I guess we'll see how the next few months go, though... 

That's funny, my same-age daughter (not twins, adopted) is in MM as well.  It's not Beast but  MM is a strong program imo.  It has a good balance of conceptual learning with a lot of algorithm practice and I like the focus on word problems.

[How do you create book lists?]

I always create yearly booklists for my kids.  They are also allowed to free read/pick their own but this cures a lot of "I don't know what to read next". 

I pull from several sources.  Ambleside online has great lists and is my main resource.  But I'll also check bookshark and Goodreads lists for their age group.  

I try to have a wide variety of options.  Classics, absolutely.  Modern best sellers, sure.  Genres I know they enjoy (fantasy for one, mystery for another, "18th century girls" for another).  Historical fiction as long as it's also worthy. Next year we're doing middle ages and you bet there's a lot of Arthur and Robin on the lists!  I also try to throw in some science and a few audiobook suggestions.

[Would it be terrible to pull out of school 6 weeks to the end?]

Id pull her.  I know this because last year I pulled my 3rd grader in April 😉

Either take an extra month of summer, or do some fun interest based stuff, and a few placement-finding activities and exams for next year, or just do a month of whatever you will do next year and have a head start.  Personally I just folded mine into my already homeschooling kids.

But don't stay in a miserable situation just to potentially save the teachers hurt feelings and cross some invisible finish line.  No way.

[Spiral Pre-A options?]

13 hours ago, hollyhock2 said:

 

IMO, TT starts to scale up about halfway through 7. Pre-algebra isn't that easy, except for the first few chapters where it's mostly review.

Thank you, that's really good to know.  Right now she mixes TT with Math Mammoth because while she loves it, TT alone just doesn't seem like enough to me (not deep enough, not conceptual enough).  But she's only in 5.  It would be nice if she could use it at her high school math w/out a ton of supplementation. 

[After Beast]

3 hours ago, calbear said:

I went to Jousting Armadillos and then AOPS PA. We came from SM5 and he only did half of BA5. Then he said he wanted to move on. He went through JA in 6 weeks if I remember correctly. He was about to self-study AOPS PA and got through it in about 7 months. We are now doing Jacobs MHE before we start Jacobs. I am planning to do two passes through Algebra since we aren't in a hurry. 

Jacobs MHE?  I'm also considering two passes through algebra, maybe doing the entire (or first 7) the Keys To Algebra before starting Jacobs...

[After Beast]

My plan is Jacobs (supplementing with Key to Algebra books as needed)....but as for how it will go no one knows.  This is my first Algebra student 😱

[After Beast]

Just curious what most Beast users use after Beast 5.  

How many continue into AOPS pre-algebra?

Or use a different Pre-Algebra?

Or go straight into Algebra?

What did you do and how did that go?