[Our AAS tile organization]

Looks great!

[Favorite science books for elementary!]

Anything by Seymour Simon

[For families with 3 + children]

I carefully try to plan out a schedule for each child so that I can be available for the subjects that I teach to them or subjects that I do with more than one child.

 

I have found that it is not really that important if THEY stick to their schedule, but I must stick to MINE. Meaning, if this is my time to do spelling with child #3, then I need to do it right then. They are a little more flexible, where I have to jump among 4 kids.

[Getting nervous about teaching w/AoPs]

My son has difficulty working independently.  I felt like the text was too difficult for him to navigate.  Too wordy.  We did prealgebra together.  First we watched the video for the section. Then, I skimmed the section in the book to see if there was anything that wasn't covered in the video.  We did a few practice problems together.  Then we worked on the section problems individually.

[SOTW Timeline Question]

We used SOTW in the younger years, but I didn't start doing a timeline with my children until logic stage. I believe that is what TWTM recommends as younger children's minds just don't work that way.

["I used to like science...]

Thanks, everyone. Great suggestions.

["I used to like science...]

...Now it is even worse than writing." 

This was just said with a sob by my almost 14 year old son.

 

This year we are doing our first science text book - Apologia Physical Science.  The part that is causing him distress, is the lab write-ups. This boy LOVES science with a passion, but is not good with words and writing. So I have always skipped any write-ups for experiments, or I wrote for him and helped with wording.  

 

Since he loves science so much, I wanted him to learn to do the lab write-ups the "right way," so I told him he had to do one for every "experiment." (These are also the instructions that come with the book.) This means that he will do about 3 every other week. I think that practice will make him better at it, but I don't want to kill his love of science.  Any thoughts?

 

(What is frustrating him as well is that the first "experiment" was actually a science demonstration. He loves doing them, but it makes it tricky to write up a lab report on a demonstration rather than a true experiment.)

[So, what do you do with last year's schoolwork?]

Most of it gets thrown away. I only save the history and science notebooks.

[Anyone else starting school tomorrow (8-4)?]

We are!

[Side dishes and a dessert for a diabetic.]

My mom and my son are both Type 1 diabetic. We do not do anything special or different for them.  They just count the carbs that they eat and give themselves enough insulin to cover it. 

If the guest has not given you any special instructions despite you asking, I would assume they are able to eat anything you provide and you shouldn't worry about making anything special.  If they have a problem with the meal that is served, it is their problem. 

[How did you use Fallacy Detective?]

My 7th grader read it and answered the questions on his own. I went over it with him once a week, discussing the answers.

[SOTW 4 Activity Book?]

This fall will be my second time through volume 4 of SOTW. For volumes 1-3 we used all aspects of the activity guides: the booklists, the review questions, the maps, the activities, and sometimes the coloring pages.  However, volume 4 is very different. The corresponding books jump greatly in difficulty.  The review questions are very detailed and difficult. The activities don't look fun.

 

Since I have it, I am using it for the literature suggestions. I will also refer to it for review questions.

 

We really like having a history project day each week, so I chose two Time Traveller CD's from Homeschool in the Woods. We will do that once a week in place of the SOTW activities.

[A Proclick question...]

There were a few things that I had first three hole punched, that I then bound with the ProClick. It worked out just fine :)

Thanks!

[A Proclick question...]

I bought a Proclick this week from Office Depot, but it is on back order.

 

Would it be ok to use a 3-hole punch on the stuff that I want to bind, then re-punch with the Proclick once it arrives?

[Totally unsatisfied with Jackdaw...am I missing something?]

I purchased just one Jackdaw Portfolio new and was confused about how to use it. We really didn't get much use out of that one. Then, I got a great deal on 10 used ones. I made lesson plans on how we were going to use them, and my kids love it.

 

They spend an hour looking through the broadsheets and another hour looking through the primary sources (along with the guide.)

I use the worksheets to generate discussion questions and we spend another hour discussing what we have read.

I also use the worksheets to come up with project ideas. They choose a project and use their history time for the next week to work on it.

 

This year they have made a globe, mapped our house and yard to scale, designed a poster to encourage people to fight in the revolutionary war, made a revolutionary Trivial Pursuit game, made a display board explaining Federal style architecture, made a display board of the electoral college, constructed a replica of a gold panning device, and written and illustrated a comic book of the California gold rush.

 

You probably don't need to have the Jackdaw's to have these discussions and do these projects. That is just how it worked for us.

 

We did not evaluate the primary sources the way that we are supposed to.

[Question about history from TWTM]

I understood it to be that the child picks a topic of interest and writes a summary of that.  From the book that was interesting, the child finds the most interesting page (or pages) and does an outline of that section.

[Biology experiments suggested in TWTM 5th grade]

We really liked the book that is recommended to start out the year.  I can't recall the name of it now...

We got a microscope that year, but have gotten much more use out of a cheap stereoscope. I think it was less that $40 on Amazon.

 

[SOTW narrations with 3rd and 1st graders]

"Tell me one thing you remember."  You write it down and they draw a picture.

 

Around mid-year, "Tell me two things you remember." You write it down and they copy one of the sentences and draw a picture.

[Like Right Start but Less Teacher Intensive?]

It is difficult when they are doing such teacher intensive stuff, but I think it pays off in the future.

 

I agree with previous posters, on your 2nd and 3rd time through you are a better teacher and are more familiar with the program so the teaching time is less.

[AOPS Pre-Algebra Grading]

I did not grade my son this year, but read in another thread about AOPS pre-algebra that someone made tests by taking a sampling of problems from the review sections of each chapter.  The grade could then be an average of the test scores for each chapter. 

[After SOTW, what next? Anyone doing it as per TWTM?]

We struggled with history in 5th grade doing it the WTM way. The history encyclopedia was so dry. It only gives a tiny bit of info. Then when we would go to the library to get more information, we often couldn't find what my son was interested in. I tried requesting books ahead of time, but even then it was hard because the books would be overwhelming.

 

In 6th grade we started using the K12 history books. I think they are like SOTW for middle school. We still do history TWTM way, but this is our "spine." The teachers guide helped me come up with discussion questions.

[Memory work]

We have always done it together.  When I tried to save the time in our school day and incorporate the memory work throughout the day along with the subjects that it matches with, it didn't work.  We were in such a routine for our other subjects I could never remember to add in memory work too.  

 

We do memory work mid-morning and incorporate a snack. The kids listen to each other's memory work and get a good review, or learn future memory work.

 

[SOTW volume 4 with a First Grader]

Hunter, Thanks so much for your thouhtful replies.  I really want to do something special for my little guy.  It's mommy guilt. I had time to do the "fun stuff" with the older kids.  I really feel bad that his school is just the basics.  

 

I wanted to update with what I decided to do...

 

I really liked Chris in VA's ideas about linking social studies themes to the months of the year.  As I was planning that, I realized that we had done a lot of this stuff while doing Five in a Row with my older kids years ago.  I got the book out and will try doing  a few of the activities each week.  He will join us for SOTW (with a clipboard and crayons) for practice sitting and listening, and hopefully will absorb a few facts.

 

[k12 Human Odyssey in 2 years instead of 3?]

Volume 3 has only about 26 chapters, but the print is small and the chapters are longer.

[SOTW volume 4 with a First Grader]

So many great suggestions!  Thanks so much. 

 

I love the idea of the monthly themes!