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Homeschooling6

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Posts posted by Homeschooling6

  1. Joanna,

    I don't know why you are upset. Maybe take a deep breath and re-read. This has been quite a civil discussion about whether or not TT is behind and if so how far behind. Some gave you the opinion it is behind, and just how far so, and others have said no it is not behind, it is on level.

    As happens with discussions, other questions came up along the way and were answered. I really did not read anything defensive in this post. Someone asked why TT tends to get passionate responses, and those of us who are passionate about TT gave our reasons. I am not being defensive when I am calmly defended a program. There is healthy debate and discussion (which I believe this thread has been) and there are the nasty, horrible threads that devolve into negativity. I don't believe this thread has done that.

    Nicole

     

    I agree with Nicole, I didn't see anyone being defensive. I see people giving reasons as to why it did or didn't work for them.

  2. Hm. That was interesting armchair psycho-analyzing, but I most definitely don't feel like a failure as a parent or have any sort of "less than" feeling over my choice of math curriculum no matter what the "math gurus" on this board think of it. In fact, I probably couldn't even name more than one of the "math gurus" on this board" as I've only paid attention to what works for my child when it comes to math and shared that experience for no other reason than to hopefully help others who might also benefit from it. If people get something out of that (and I already know for a fact some have), great! If not, they'll move on to something else, and that's fine, too. I'm glad we all have options open to us and the opportunity to hear about these different experiences in making our decisions. Why question those motives? I don't get it.

     

    :iagree:with the whole post. Just wanted to 2nd that I don't feel like a failure as a parent or have the 'less than' feeling for choosing TT math for three of my dc.

  3. I'm excited about Bigger, I took time to look through it a little. I need to purchase the rest of the books because now I want to read them. I see the lessons talking about this person or that person. Maybe next month I can get this book first-history.jpgand stories-americans.jpg. I have many of the other :hurray:. I need to hurry and clean the house, so I can cuddle up with my Bigger guide and some hot coffee coffee2.gif.

  4. Linda,

     

    Thank-you for sharing your list and for the wise counsel. It has taken this very difficult year (2011) to bring me to the end of myself with home schooling. I was ready to QUIT and I was very very serious about it. I suppose my unruly heart skewed my HOD experience because I simply did not have anything in me to press on with schooling my children. I'm feeling better physically now and my foggy head is clearer. :001_smile: I was looking around for anything that would make home schooling EASY (the elusive Easy Button) and, well, it's only found at the local public school :D. I am the key in our homeschool and my choice of curriculum is only part of the formula for success. A lot of it is discipline mixed with perseverance, patience, and joy! And, lest I give the wrong impression, God gets the glory for any good that comes from any of my efforts.

    Very true, amen to that:001_smile:

     

    You are right that it takes a lot of mama and it is exhausting! Oh, and I have allowed myself to be enslaved by curriculum. I'm learning that I am teaching my children and not a curriculum! It sounds so simple and so obvious but I was not living that out. I am now and we are enjoying everything so much more. It will be fun to see what summer brings and whether or not we can stay with HOD or we do something else! I'm fine either way... there are many wonderful options for us. Oh, and I NEVER forget my daily coffee . Wish I could figure out how to copy that adorable emoticon. I'm going to work on that!

     

    Katrina

    blissysmile.gifthat is the key to happy homeschooling.

     

    I also wanted to add that I had three HOD guides in my possession four years ago but I didn't use HOD. At the time (and I know you've heard my story) I was exhausted from having 6 babies in 6 years, even though Lance was already two. I just couldn't use something like HOD at that time. I truly believe it wasn't my season. I needed the textbooks for my two older children to get school done. I had three boys learning how to read and lots of young boys. Think thisstarwarsfight2.gif. :D

     

    Now I feel I'm ready and up to it for this year (and hopefully next year as well) and I think that is why I'm really enjoying it, even though it's exhausting.

     

    I can say that the last four years I have really grown as a homeschooling mom. I have learned to let go, move on, use textbooks, and just say it's okay.

     

    And along the line of what you said, I know God is for us, it will be okay. I know at the end of the day, God is in control Yes%2520Smiley.gif.

  5. AH! Where do you get these?! And why don't we have them right there on the smiley short list beside the reply box?!

     

    I see them in emails, blogs, forums and such. I copy and paste them to word wink.gif. I like using smileys and would love for this forum to have more of a selection cooldude.gif.

     

    I have two more little ones coming along too, so we will do it 2 more times.;)

     

    596392.gif

     

    Linda,

     

    Your smilies are AWESOME! Please let us know how you feel about Bigger after you have perused your guide. I love reading through HOD guides. For me, they hold such promise!

     

    For what it's worth, despite our many bumps in the road, my oldest son LOVES Bigger. I told him, very officially, that he can finish this guide. It works well for him. We are enjoying MCT and Writing Tales alongside it because we CAN and he can handle it. If we are, by some miracle, able to stay with HOD then we will eventually drop MCT (after two levels) and we won't continue with Writing Tales. For now, this combination is working for us quite well. My middle two are combining with an MFW program. We are going to decide our path for the fall in summer. It will either be HOD again (this time with kids in different guides ) or we'll shift over and enjoy some MFW for a year. Who knows!

     

    You inspire me Linda! :001_smile:

     

     

     

    Katrina, your'e too kind . You know what really helps with using two guides and getting it done?

    1. I write down what I want to accomplish (which is my block schedule).

    2. If we don't finish everything in the guide that day, I'm okay with it. Really. I use to stress and let the TM/Guides run my day but I no longer let that happen. Instead it's my check list of school subjects tha need to get done, if that makes sense.

    3. If we only do 1 narration a week, then it's one more narration done. Better than not doing them at all. Same with other subjects. It had been a few years since I had the children do narrations and copywork because I kept saying 'I'll add it in'. Finally I told myself, 'just do it' if only once a week.

    4. Again, I'm okay if my block schedule gets intrurrupted. For instance if I have to go over WWS with Annette, I'll maybe not do AAR with Lance or do a shorter lesson with Lance or do it at night but just have him read from his frequency chart.

    5. With HOD if it takes two days to completed a day, then so be it or if I have to double up on reading or Bible because I couldn't get to it one day, I'm fine with it.

    6. With HOD I skip and rotate. Meaning, I skip something every week with my Beyond boys (sometimes Preparing) but I don't skip the same box (thus skip and rotate wink.gif.

    And you can't forget the daily coffee coffeecute.gif. Oh, and one more thing, homeschooling is exhausting and does take a lot of mama time.

  6. I was a drop out a few years agoConfused_3.gif but am now back Thumbsup.gif. I started this year using it with three of my children.

     

    Level 1 has 24 lessons. Level 2 has 25. Level 3 has 28. Each lesson can take one day or more. Sometimes I'll park one of my children on a lesson for a few day. Other times, I'll review a few and yet at times I'll do one lesson a day.

     

    Caleb and Brent, who used Phonics Road in the past and know many of the phonograms and rules have completed levels 1 and level 2 (or will be done with level 2 this coming week) and will start level 3 in about a week.

     

    Ethan, who has not used any other OG spelling program is going at a slower pace. He is using level *one.

     

    Our lessons take between 20-30 minutes, just depending on how much time I have. Usually I set a timer for 15 minutes. Once it goes off we finish up and will continue where we left off the next day.

    17EB4FF31B058A78E975F63C2A080002.png

  7. Background: My oldest uses R&S and always has; she uses it a year ahead. She does well with the no nonsense approach. That's just her personality. She is going to be using Dolciani prealgebra next year for 7th (I think).

     

    Soooo, I thought R&S would be great for my almost 9 year old, and so far, it's been fine. I don't think R&S gets enough credit because it truly is a great solid math program. Anyway, Emma (3rd grader, almost 9) struggles with math. She is more of a writer/thinker/grammar girl, lol. I wonder if it's me, the curriculum, or her personality. It's so hard to know! I've always known she wasn't mathy, but this year she is learning so many facts and new things (multiplication tables, division, fractions, triple digit addition and subtraction, word problems, measurements, etc) that I think she might be getting information overload, kwim? I would love to stick with R&S because I really like it, and no matter what some say, it's a really good curriculum, in my opinion. But, of course, if it doesn't work for her, it doesn't. I don't know if she needs more hands-on or what. I'm at a loss. I keep thinking it's going to click. Maybe I should give it more time before throwing in the towel. It's so hard to know!

     

    I've read about TT. I'm not too crazy about her using a computer based program, but if that's what she needs, that's what we'll do. Is the parent totally hands-off with TT?

     

    With my oldest, he reads the lesson and does it on his own using only the workbook (he doesn't like the cds). I correct it in the evening and sit with him the next day to go over the missed problems (this is my child that struggles with math). I look at the next lesson and sometimes we go over the instructions together, than I let him loose.

     

    With my two other boys (who don't struggle), I check to see what they missed and if needed go over the work. When double digit add. and sub. is introduced I'll pull out my MM and 'show' them. We don't use the MM worksheets, I just go over how to teach it using MM and we work on problems from TT.

     

    Then there are weeks, when I just let them pop in the cd (like nowConfused_3.gif) and do it on their own, but I do keep track of their progress.

     

    I like that TT doesn't have 180 days worth of math, because I can add to it, linger or combine another program without feeling 'behind' or overwhelmed.

  8. I'm using Beyond for the second time and Bigger. We love them both! My ds really likes the Eggleston books and hasn't had any trouble with them.

     

    How fun to be going though Beyond a second time:001_smile:. I will go through Beyond and Bigger once. If we contiue with HOD I'll get to go through Preparing on up two or more times:001_wub:

  9. I actually liked the Science in RtR. Carrie chose Apologia Astronomy to use for the first few month. I am not familiar with Queen's science so I don't know how involved it is to say whether or not you could do both. Fridays are "free" days in HOD so you "might" be able to use both. OR...you could omit the experiments (usually day 4) in HOD science and use Queen's on those days. OR...if she really enjoys Queen's...do it over the summer and then use HOD during the year? I wanted to add also that in the newest guide coming out in the summer (Missions to Modern Marvels) Carrie is using Barry Stebbing's NEW Nature Study art proram. I am SOOOOO excited. :D
    Yes%2520Smiley.gifwith regards to using Barry Stebbing's new Nature Study art.

     

    Also pondering your ideas about science.

  10. I used Beyond and I am currently using Bigger.It works for my son .I struggle a little with some of the descriptions on Native Americans in the Eggleston books,so I heavily edit some chapters.

    Thanks for a heads up on this. I'll most likely read these before we start as I'm slowly collecting the books. Still waiting for my Bigger guide to arrive upssmiley1.gifIt's out for delivery.

  11. I am currently using Preparing with two of my boys. We do both study dictation and AAS. We were doing both before we started using HOD. I was using Simply Spelling for our studied dictation.

     

    Ethan, who is using Beyond is doing both as well. I do two or three days of AAS and use the HOD spelling list. I may not do all the spelling excercises with him but we use it. Usually with the Beyond spelling list I have him copy the words. Another day I'll ask him to spell them orally and other days have him write the words. The words he spelled correctly I put in a 'spelling jar' and the words that were he misspelled I paperclip them to my Beyond Guide and just go over them through the week informally. Once mastered I put the word in the spelling jar.

    With the 'spelling jar' which is in the kitchen, I pull out a word every so often and ask him to spell it orally. I do this to keep him on his toes ;).

     

    With my two Preparing boys who will start level 3 next week or the week after, I plan to either stop at level three or four but that's not set in stone yet:tongue_smilie:.

     

    I would like to continue with Ethan all the way through but again, I'm not sure.

     

    Lance is using All About Reading and I haven't had the time or energy to fit in AAS as well. I should start him on the HOD spelling list :blush:.

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