seemesew
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Posts posted by seemesew
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25 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:
What about a condensed version (D+E, B+C etc). Then spread over 2 years
I am considering it!
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I have been researching for next year and I'm realizing every history curriculum I use I add a ton of PERSONAL readers on that topic for my kids and after really looking into Sonlight I'm wondering if that is actually what I'm trying to do on my own. Now I'm seriously considering using it for my kids. I have always preferred history with lots of books but hate having to search for them! I'm thinking about Sonlgiht because it seems to be what I want with a few modifications, hopefully. ETA: I'm Only looking at using the history/literature part not the whole package.
So Please tell me if I can tweak from reading bits of several books everyday to the kids finishing one book before moving on to the others or if the bits are okay.
Also, I wouldn't use all the read alouds I know that I wouldn't be able to from previous experience, but with the personal readers can they get the history mostly from them if I cut back on the read alouds to 4 or 5?
Can I get by without both student and parent guides or are there teachings in them? The samples have not been helpful at all.
Final, question are there any activities in the guides like crafts? my kids like them but I don't want a ton just a few.
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We really enjoyed TGAB's bird unit!
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Math u see is a book with videos.
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Brighter day press ahs some great monthly book lists! here is a link the them but you'll want to search each month for those. I have really loved all of them! https://brighterdaypress.com/pages/booklists
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On 2/24/2023 at 3:10 PM, caffeineandbooks said:
The original thread that @cintinative referenced is here: https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/706624-psa-it-is-february/#comment-8891193
If you think what you're experiencing is burnout, though, don't just wait and see. You might find some helpful advice in SWB's burnout lecture, in which she says she herself has had multiple burnouts and talks about what to do about it.
Good on you for backing off the pace already. Last school year, I also got to mild burnout stage and after our spring break we just never went back to our books. The older kids had almost 4 months off even their math (I still tried to do a bit of reading with the youngest), and we did things that I find lifegiving and hung out with people that I find refreshing. My energy and enthusiasm have returned, and I'm being more aware this year of keeping margin in my week.
Health problems + teenagers + mid life transitions + long cold winters is a lot to deal with all at once! Hugs to you. May you find some light for your path again soon x
Thank you! I'll look at her lecture for sure! You summed up how I'm feeling pretty succinctly ❤️
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6 hours ago, Tanager said:
That’s great that they like it. Not being able to do it is hard, take a break and relax, maybe they have an idea of something they’d like to do for a moment instead that is self directed (or grandma or sibling directed with your youngest). If funds are available you could try outschool with things they are passionate about. Once things calm down a bit you could reconsider, or slide something else in and see if you and they like it more.
Grandmas are the best! Maybe she could have more time with the kids, let her know how nice it is for you right now. 🙂
These are all excellent ideas! I'll definitely ask her and I hadn't thought about outschool maybe I'll look into that.
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1 hour ago, ScoutTN said:
Take your vitamin D, get outside as much as possible, exercise, try some new foods or simplify meals, watch fun documentaries.
I’m on my phone and can’t see sigs. How old are your kids?
I have had big health issues this winter too. It is hard! Hope you have progress and healing soon!
My kids I'm homeschooling are 16,14, 9 & 6 😊
18 minutes ago, Tanager said:Health problems are hard. They are draining. It’s okay to take a break when you need it. My kids have thrived despite my health issues. During rough patches I give them tons of library books or send them outside, watch a documentary with them, have them bake while you oversee from a comfortable place, just enjoy each other. And I have to say I’m super impressed by my kid’s friends who are unschooled, those kids are awesome. I am guilty of not checking my kids work all the time 😉 Sometimes it doesn’t get checked and sometimes I give them the answer book and ask them to check it. We do the best we can, maybe we are too hard on ourselves with what we think we should be doing. I agree with just do the basics when life is hard, which for me are: math, reading, and writing(even if you don’t read it, sometimes we write letters as then they know someone else will read it.) My oldest just did the basics and followed her interests for elementary school science and history and it worked out great. My youngest is using curriculums and I feel they are so watered down and silly, but he likes doing them. How do your kids feel about what they are doing? Do they enjoy it?
I’m sorry life feels burned out. Long winters are hardest of all, putting health on top of it is a lot to handle!
First and foremost concentrate on you and finding a path to what works for you, get help if you need it. I zoom with a pain therapist who gives me suggestions, things to try, lets me vent... Sometimes we just need to vent, let it out, throw it down and stomp all over it!
They do like and want to do it but I just haven't been able to.
Thanks for the advice! I think venting is exactly what I needed. Its just been hard and I'm tired. My mom took the kids today so I'm getting a good break and its honestly been nice.
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23 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:
Curious, what history/science? I’m tired of all the curriculum for history and science (I have a lot). I wish I would have went with no curriculum until highschool as my DH recommended (elementary teacher). Not sure what to do with it all 😂.
We're using the Playful pioneers for my youngest two's history, it has some science in it as well but our science group uses the good and the beautiful science units which is our main science. TPP is mainly a book list and some suggestions of things to talk about with a few activities like we dyed some handkerchiefs when we read about it in Farmer Boy and things like that. The activities are not more than 1x a week and not every week has something.
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6 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:
It’s February.
Do the basics and see how you feel in April.Very true! It just feels more than usual February blues but maybe not, it has been a long wet winter for this area.
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Well, after rereading what i wrote i changed my mind, I'm definitely in burnout mode 😆
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Long story short I've had some pretty severe health problems the last 6 weeks and I'm tired. We have been doing the basics for my youngest two in K and 3rd so math and their multi-subject language arts but not much else. Oh and a science co-op.
My 2 older kids are doing their stuff mostly independently and i try to check it but honestly I'm not doing that great of job and only have been able to do it like 1x a week. Their math is graded online so that's actually been going really well since i get emails and can see what they need help with or need to redo. But everything else... Who really knows if they are doing it because I've barely been able to check it.
All my kids are reading a variety of books, some I've assigned and some they enjoy.
I'm telling myself this is just a hard season and things will feel more joyful later but in all honesty I want to quit doing anything! I'm not thinking of sending them back to school but more just totally unschooling till next school year. I'm just tired and i don't like anything right now. The history i loved at first is now a drag, the language arts we've used for years is feeling confining suddenly, science is dry and... well, you get the picture. I probably won't do it but man I'm sure tempted to.
I'm not sure where to go for the joy I've always had in homeschooling but I'm feeling burned out on everything, even just plain old life. Sigh.
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On 2/9/2023 at 12:50 PM, 8filltheheart said:
I have never used a history curriculum, all the way through K-12. I have always selected the books we read.
I've always loved that about you! I never used one myself as a homeschooler and have felt I knew more than my peers on surface history! but somewhere I started one with my kids and just have gone with it all these years , now I'm tired of it.
On 2/9/2023 at 12:03 PM, kirstenhill said:I've mostly not used a history curriculum. Sometimes I've done a "spine" that I read along with reading other history non-fiction and historical fiction. But that's a lot different than using a curriculum with a schedule and lots of bits and pieces. But I've been just as happy when I've picked out a series of non-fiction books that covered the topics/time period I want to study, and using historical fiction as well. I think it has been just fine! Without ever taking any tests, and with writing only a couple history-related essays or papers in middle school, my two older kids that went to public school felt very well prepared for their high school history classes, and thought their freshman world history class was a cinch because they were already familiar with a majority of the material.
this is definitely what I'm leaning towards. I'm just not seeing the value in doing a curriculum when they have so many interests they'd rather learn about that week! But I do like the idea of a spine so I can find ideas of topics they may like that we haven't learned yet.
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I'm kind of burned out on history curriculums. My kids are spread a bit too far apart to find any that works and I can't do 2 programs my older kids are doing some individual programs for highschool, but for my younger 2, (6 and 9) I'm kind of just wanting to read books. I used to do that with my older kids and we all enjoyed it quite a bit. Have you always used a history curriculum? How did it go if you didn't?
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On 2/1/2023 at 5:43 PM, HomeAgain said:
My favorites are the Sing, Spell, Read & Write books. 3 levels, with small increases between each book so that the kid is reading fluently by the end of level 1, and for information through level 2 & 3.
I like these books too! they are some of the best I've found. We also like the good and beautiful booklist books I know all their level 1 or 2 or whatever books are about the same level. I also like the AAR books they are good! Dash into reading books are excellent as well but a bit pricey.
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4 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:
tThe hows of homeschooing are highly variable and really depend on the reasons for homeschooling and the needs of the student as well as the needs of the parent taking on the responsibility of being the primary educator.
I can share that as someone who has been homeschooling for almost 30 yrs that neither the programs or their approaches would have worked well for our family. Our reason for homeschooling is to provide a higher quality education that meets our children's individual needs better than a screen or a teacher in box one-size-fits-all approach. Those are pretty much moving from an inflexible classroom at school to an inflexible classroom at home.
However, I have the time teach and interact with my students. Meeting their academic level exactly where they are and challenging them to function at expectations that they are capable of achieving IS the primary objective. For some families, that is just not even a goal. For some families simply rescuing from a toxic environment and having them safe is the only thing that matters.
One caution I would raise for you to be aware of for your ds is that homeschooling, especially one that is independent screen focused, can be isolating. Teens really need conversation and lots of human interaction. Unfortunately, computer-based education can also put them in a position where without direct supervision that cheating, internet consumption, etc are serious temptations.
I can second and third this! From the programs not working for us to the teen isolation of being totally online.
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I'm going to throw another one at you to look at because my daughter who is 5 is loving it so much! the good and the beautiful math! The K book is really easy but my daughter loves it so it may be worth it to look into for preschool. I like that it incorporates a lot of thinking and logic it feels more conceptual all while being traditional in some ways too.
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6 hours ago, EmilyGF said:
Hi all,
This is for my 5th grader who has been pretty tired recently (run a lot of medical tests, everything is completely normal thus far).
Normally, I implemented Book in Bed mid-day for the kids to spend an extended time reading. He just falls asleep.
He is required to read a chapter or two every day for school, which he does fine and can tell me about afterwards. I am implementing a short read aloud daily because I realized how stilted his oral reading was (first paragraph of a book I am reading aloud to him). He can read silently alright, if very into the book, but it is hard to get him very into a book.
Suggestions? Or, is this normal and am I just biased by my older kids?
Emily
Sounds like he is going through a growth spurt? My boys get super tired when that happens it almost like they are drugged, lol!
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On 11/30/2022 at 7:58 AM, sweet2ndchance said:
TGTB just updated their language arts recently. To me, it does seem like a lot of moving part with the new reading cards and the reader and the worktext. Not overwhelming but still, a lot of parts to keep together for a lesson. It is free even for the kindergarten level now though so it might be worth checking out just for a change of pace if necessary.
It is not a lot of moving parts at all. There is only 3 things to have for the whole program 😉 I've used others that were less but ended up being more with all the "extras" I ended up needing at various times. and others that were more because they had all kinds of parts, lol! I think its a really good balance.
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I am currently using TGAB Kindergarten with my youngest and have used Abeka in the past with my older kids. I can honestly say we love tgab ❤️ It is easy for me to navigate and my daughter loves it! It takes no more than 15 minutes for her and we only do 1-2 booster cards a time so its not overwhelming at all. There are fun teaching videos for various subjects and audio stories (not every lesson or even every week), there are art projects, and crafts, again these are not every day but are interspersed enough to be exciting all without being hard for this non crafty mom. I highly recommend it! A big bonus is you can download the whole program (pdf) completely free before buying to see if you like it :0)
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On 11/14/2022 at 3:28 PM, Momof3sweetgirls said:
Maybe too simple but I like Playing Preschool by Busy Toddler. It has a poem, song and letter of the week. A themed booklist and daily activity.
I forgot about this one! It is a really fun program and we got most of the books at the library!
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Well, I liked The Good and the Beautiful Preschool curriculum, fun stuff but super easy for mom to do. There are games, songs and letter sound videos to watch too, but again its very easy to use and you don't do all those things every day. Its honestly the best I've used for my 5 kids thus far.
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23 hours ago, maryode said:
I'm a little bit at a loss for what to do...
My 6th grader is very bright, but she strongly dislikes math, and has for several years--basically, ever since she started to have to work at it. She was doing MM for a couple years (mainly because it's both rigorous and mostly self-teaching). This year I switched her to The Good and the Beautiful Math 6 since she'd liked their language arts and I thought she'd enjoy the games/pictures, plus it still seems pretty rigorous.
She likes it better, doesn't want to switch curricula, and has a slightly better attitude, but still gets suuuuper distracted if I don't sit with her and point to each problem to make her do them. Even then, it takes forever. The lessons are supposed to take 45-60 minutes, including the video, but for us it's a good day if she gets done in less than an hour and a half.
Except for minor calculation mistakes, she understands the material and I feel like it's pretty much the right level--pushing her, but at a reasonable rate. If math ever gets too easy, she scorns it and doesn't necessarily finish that much sooner because she gets even more distracted. I tried taking her down a level and she was super annoyed. I tried to give her more "living" math, and she rolled her eyes and called it out--it's still math, just disguised. So I don't think the problem is that she can't do the math--it's more that she's unmotivated, works slowly, and gets distracted.
I've tried putting her in a boring place (facing the wall, in a corner) and keeping it really quiet, but, as she says, "my brain still distracts me!" She's good-natured and wants to succeed, but has trouble mucking through the problems. Sometimes I let her do a few verbally, but that only works for a few types of problems.
Breaking it up into two sessions doesn't seem to help because it takes her a while to "get into it." She usually prefers just to push through and finish. I even told her to alternate math problems with writing, but that also didn't work. Giving her a deadline just stresses her out and she gets emotional and loses confidence.
According to an online test (I know), she doesn't have ADHD, but is much more likely gifted (which is reflected in other areas of her life), so I don't think anything like ADHD is the problem.
My question is, am I off in thinking that a 6th grader can complete a math lesson in 60 minutes, or is 6th-grade math that hard for everyone? Is anyone else doing TGATB 6? is it even possible for a 12-year-old to complete it in 45 minutes if they're not a motivated math whiz?
If it should be doable, do I just schedule 1 1/2 to 2 hours for math every day?? Or shorten the lessons? Or make her go into the summer, which would feel like punishment to both of us? 🙂
Any thoughts?
We had a similar problem with level 3 math and I found that if I covered up what my son was working on with sticky notes so he can only see what he is currently working on it goes much faster. Also, this supplement is working wonders! I know my son isn't adhd but focus was an issue for school and this supplement has made a 100% improvement for him! I didn't think it was working until I let it run out and oh boy then I saw how much it was helping. Its not mlm just something I found. https://ontasknaturally.com/
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Usborne Hey Jack series is really cute and I think he would like it! It looks like more grown up books but they have bigger words and are easier to read. Also the Kingdom of Wrenly is good!
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Sonlight tell me more
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I guess I should have said I'm really only looking at the History/literature part not the whole package.