Many thanks, STM4HIM. I've not heard of this ... Looks lovely!

We were part of a fairly liberal public charter at the beginning of this, our first year homeschooling. While there wasn't any 'free money' to be used at our discretion, they did order and pay for secular curriculum and offerred a full slate of enrichment classes. It was clear early on for us that it was not the right fit at all - liberal or not, we still had to answer to someone else and instead of spending our first months as new homeschoolers getting a sense of how best to work with one another, we spent our time anxiously chasing turn-ins and adhering to a schedule that wasn't in synch with our family's rythm. The classes looked good on paper but were non-starters with both children. Furhter, if the class schedule didn't work with our schedule, tough luck for us. We weren't able to benefit much from them at all. The experience was a total bust. We stuck it out until December, then filed privately and now homeschool legally, and independently. There are still bumps and tradeoffs, but we make our own choices and that feels right for us. There are many families who are comfortable with the public charter arrangement...they make it work for them, and are prepared to put up with the bits that chaffe in exchange for the benefits. However other homeschool mom's that I know who have their children in public charters that do offer funds for discretionary spending talk about how many bureaucratic hoops they need to jump through in exchange. Everyone's circumstances, situations and tolerances are so different that really, I think it's a question of choosing an option that works best for YOUR family. Ellie said it best - if you can't be at peace with it, listen to that. I wish I'd listened earlier to my own misgivings. Failing to do so cost us several months and an unfortunately rocky start to our homeschool experience. Best of luck to you!

Brilliant! Thank you so much! :hurray:

I've come across mentions of the Tangelwood School / Tanglewood education in my search for a history and literature-rich curriculum, but it seems to have disappeared. Does anyone know if it's still around? We're looking for a classically influenced curriculum (rigorous and history-rich) with a strong literature / living-books component - and I'm trying to find something as ready-made (i.e. minimal planning on my part) as possible due to my own time constraints. From what I've read about Tanglewood, it would fit the bill nicely. Suggestions welcome :bigear:

This is very good to know, Beausa....how disappointing for you! We will be in France in just a few months, so I'll be able to get some targeted resources for the kids then to augment what they already have. Have you ever done their 'une petite histoire' courses? They look interesting as enrichment activities and would allow me to cover off a supplementary topic while increasing their exposure to French....

Beausa - thanks for chiming in.....are your comments about the 'complete' CNED program or just the 'language studies' portion? I was looking at the 'a la carte' option which would allow us to do French language studies only. We speak French daily at home and the children read (and are read to) in French...but since leaving their bilingual school, we've done NO writing or formal study, and that is going to lead to a big gap fairly quickly....thoughts?

Wonderful, Emerald Stoker! I'm feeling just a bit more confident already with what you've all shared...thank you! :hurray:

Thanks Nan! :thumbup1: I will check it out!

Thank you so much! All of this is incredibly helpful. We have a lot of family in France, so we could get help procuring materials through them. Some (or all) of us will be in France in May, so there's another opportunity. Nan, I love your idea of the summer box - my kids are the same ;-) I am planning homeschool 'light' for the summer, and already have a box of American lit. ready to read through for this summer....not being American, it's not an area I've studied much. Thought we could dip our toes in during the 'off' months. I like the notion of the CNED giving us a ready-made framework to get the ball rolling...I run our (rapidly expanding!) business in addition to homeschooling, and have learned that my capacity to DIY curriculum is limited. It's been pretty overwhelming, but we're getting there :001_smile:

Thank you Nan and bibiche. Nan, the way you describe 'meshing' the English and French instruction dovetails nicely with how we work and how I could see incorporating French into our days. The transition to TWTM materials and approach has been quite easy for us as the history and arts tracks of the French school system is pretty much the same....the ancients, middle ages and modern times are familiar ground for both children, as are great painters, composers etc...so at least we're not struggling with new content! :thumbup1: Question - did you both purchase your materials from the French sites you've linked to? We're currently in the US and access to French language books is requiring some digging... I spent a bit of time on the CNED site last night and see now that they do offer courses 'a la carte'. It would be a bit more expensive then putting something together myself, but might be a good stepping stone to make life a bit simpler for this newbie-homeschooler (my goodness, this learning curve is STEEP ! :ohmy: :rofl: ). This would also include online support from CNED, which might be helpful. CNED also offers a series of courses called 'une petite histoire' - once each for music, art, philosophie, theatre - a book and CD-ROM targeted at my children's age range. My thoughts right now are to enroll them in the CE1 and CM2 French courses offered through the CNED, and supplement it with 'une petite histoire'...the total cost would be equivalent to 2 months of once-weekly tutoring. Will noodle it over the weekend, look through the materials we have on hand currently and determine what would make the most sense... Still open to any and all comments and suggestions!!! :bigear:

This is our first year homeschooling - our two children - aged 7 and 11 - attended bilingual (English / French) school from preschool through to this year, and both have grown up speaking both languages. DH is a native French speaker, while English is my maternal language. I do speak French fluently....however, I learned later in life and my knowledge of the mechanics of the language are not strong enough for me to confidently teach my children or assess their progress. I speak and read well, but never received much formal instruction and my writing is pretty awful :-( Our plans to continue their French this year haven't worked out and their French has definitely regressed since we began homeschooling. I want to nip this in the bud before they slide much further. I'm pretty much on my own to figure this out as DH - despite best intentions - simply isn't able to be consistently involved in helping to teach (aside from daily conversation, cultural TV, music etc - of which we already do a fair bit). I am looking for a way to re-incorporate French language instruction into their homeschooling, but am really stumped as to where and how to start. Rosetta Stone et al seem to be primarily about the spoken language (I think?) - I'm really looking to continue the strong grammar, spelling, writing work they began in their earlier years. I looked through the CNED a while ago, and will go back to see if there's anything there that could help. Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation, and if so, how did you address it? Should I simply bring in a tutor to help structure lessons then follow through with them on my own? I'm sure I could benefit greatly from improving my own French skills alongside them! Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all for so generously sharing your experience! Very helpful and encouraging - although I'll need to find that abbreviation sticky to make sense of some of the recommendations.....I am so very new! CrimsonWife....what is a "loop schedule"? And with that, we're off to the races :thumbup:

Thank you Reefgazer - very helpful. :001_smile: The R&S materials may be a better starting point given my newbie status with different-aged children (the more guidance and structure I have the better at this point). Both children have been privately schooled until now and have (I think) solid foundations, however they've been in a French-American school which had a fabulous French-language curriculum (following the French National Standards), but the English language curriculum was 'standard core', which I definitely found fell short. Big plus being that they're already bilingual...

Hello all. I'm brand new to homeschooling, with one child in 2nd Grade and the eldest in 5th. I am getting our materials together for the year (slow start, long story :crying: ) and 'think' I have almost everything chosen....except....I'm stumped on the Language program choice for my 5th grader. Some of this may be overwhelm on my part, so I'd really appreciate any guidance from those of you with more experience in this realm. WTM - which I am using as my core guide for this starting year - recommends Rod & Staff 'Following the Plan' for 5th grade, however I'm finding it a bit difficult to track down a set...and have read mixed reviews despite the strong endorsement from WTM. We are not closed to using a Christian resource, but are also open to a more secular program. I like the notion of having everything in one place (grammar, composition) etc. as simpler is going to be better for us in these early days. The other options WTM recommends include various combinations of Voyages in English, Shurley English, Writing Strands, and others (hence my slight overwhelm!). We will also be using the Spelling Workouts.... As information, my child is an excellent reader and an enthusiastic writer. She very much enjoys language and it shouldn't be a chore to have her take on whichever program we settle on. Any thoughts and suggestions would be wildly appreciated!

I've been following this forum for more than 6 months as I explored the options for homeschooling my 2 children. I am now in the early stages of our first year at home and decided it was time to get active. Newbe that I am, I will be posting quesitons shortly!