Hello ladies!
I'm new here, and new to homeschooling. Reading through this forum the past couple of days has been so inspiring. I have so much respect and admiration for you ladies! You are a smart, accomplished bunch!
I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Odalys. I pulled my 10 year old out of public school this year. I have been wanted to HS her since she was in First Grade but my DH had reservations and I wanted to have him 100% on board. My DD10 has been a perfect student with straight A's. She genuinely loves studying, homework and school, which for a long time made us doubt whether we should pull her out. If it isn't broken, why fix it? However, this year I observed her slowly losing spark. She was just going through the motions. I just have this gut feeling that I can do better at home. Her favorite subject is Science. she wants to be a chemist when she grows up :)
I also have a sweet, creative DD who is five and homeschooling Kindergarten. A little budding artist :)
My questions for you today are:
1. Can you suggest a great Biology program/ textbook for my fifth grader? Any great Science Kits?
2. Can you give us some feedback on our planned daily schedule? We want to keep it as simple as possible, since this is our first year homeschooling. I'm a little concerned about doing History and Science only twice a week for 1.5 hours each instead of more frequently. I'm following TWTM. Is anyone else out there doing the longer, 1.5 hr sessions for History and Science successfully? Also, is Math only four days a week ok? Here is what our schedule looks like:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Math (1hr). Math (1hr). Math (1hr). Math (1hr). Logic (1hr).
Spelling (15). Spelling (15). Spelling (15). Spelling (15). Latin (1hr).
Break. Break. Break. Break. Art (2hr)
History (1.5hr). Science (1.5hr). History (1.5hr). Science (1.5hr)
Break. Break. Break. Break
Grammar (15). Grammar (15). Grammar (15). Grammar (15)
Latin (45). Logic (45). Latin (45). Logic (45)
The above is about 4.5 hours of instruction per day. She also has:
2 hours a day of independent reading and creative writing.
30 minute violin lessons a week with daily practice.
Swim-team.
We are a bilingual family, so she will be doing some Spanish reading at her leisure as well.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!