[Math program that is easy to use for a parent?]

Math mammoth

 

I started with Singapore for k and 1st, and was really impressed with it. However......I found we were falling behind because I struggled to keep track of all the moving parts. The teachers manual with all of its extra activities and instruction. The textbook. The workbook. I switched to math mammoth after finishing Singapore 1a, and we get a lot more done. I'm better able to manage my 5 and7 year old together in it. The k'er spent the past year very slowly going through MM 1st grade along with manipulatives. My older daughter is almost ready to move on to MM 2

[Latin for lower elementary]

I'd like to start Latin with my nerdy 2nd grader (along with a tag along wild adhd type 1st grader) but my brain has been reduced to a puddle while trying to consider my options.

 

I thought I was settled on prima Latina, but I don't know. And classical academic press looks so nice and shiny. But I can't decide which of their options would work best, or what out of all their product add ons and options I'd really need. And then when I research them on Amazon, bunch of other stuff from other publishers pops up, and soon I'm like "GAH, beer me!"

 

Please, please. Crowd source me your favorite Latin resources for lower elementary. I tried and failed to find a definitive thread on here about it, though I'm positive it exists.

[How do you keep your toddler busy?]

Just wait until your baby starts getting Into everything too- 2 littles is even more fun during school time;)

Oh lord. Yes.....I know it's coming. My first two are only 18 months apart, and I've had the baby/toddler dream team of chaos before. Just not while trying to be productive on a regular basis. Help me.

[How do you keep your toddler busy?]

I know it makes for a different looking schedule, but we had lots more luck doing the bulk of our school during the toddler's afternoon nap. We had low key mornings where I could tend to the toddler in between read alouds and activities she could participate in, and then hit the books hard when she went down for her nap on things she was even less helpful with, like math and phonics. ;)

 

I would totally be planning to do school while he naps, but he doesn't nap anymore. He's at the awkward stage where he still needs a nap, but if he gets one he's up until 10:30 at night and then wakes up early the next morning. So he's either tired and wild in the afternoon and evening because he hasn't napped, or he's tired and wild the entire next day because he DID nap and then stayed up too late. Can't win.

 

The toddler is definitely not helpful with math time. Haha So true. On Tuesday when I was trying to sit next to my five year old to work on subtraction, he was climbing my body and standing on my shoulders while laughing triumphantly. Then he'd jump from me onto the work table. :001_unsure:

[How do you keep your toddler busy?]

This question comes up fairly often. Each time, the first thought that pops into my head is duct tape. :P This year I'll have my fourth younger sibling toddler. Since I haven't been able to actually use duct tape, we deal with them in other ways. Sometimes we take turns with the toddler. Sometimes the toddler has to learn to be quiet. Sometimes the toddler gets to watch a show. It depends on the needs of the family as a whole.

OMG. Duct tape has definitely crossed my mind. Actually, my most successful containment tactic so far is to strap him into the baby's car seat in the living room so he can't beat his sisters with swords or stomp all over our books. : /

 

I really like the idea of people taking turns entertaining the toddler, but the kid I most need to do school with (7yo) is the only one who's any good at getting along with him right now. My 5 year old just fights with him. I try to combine as much school as I can too, which means having both girls at the same time.

 

I'm thinking I'll have a school box for him with some special Legos (he loves them), a kumon "school" book just for him, and some special art supplies. That and an endless supply of homemade Popsicles might work for a little while at least.

 

Toddlers are crazy, man.

[How do you keep your toddler busy?]

I've got an almost 3 year old boy who just recently developed a disruptive/destructive streak (new baby in the family, turning three, losing his nap....lots of reasons to choose from).

 

He used to be easy to do school around, but now it's a bit of a nightmare doing anything. Even reading aloud. I'm starting up 1st and 2nd grade with my daughters in August, and haven't come up with any great ideas for how I'm going to handle baby brother.

 

Has anyone had any successful toddler diversions they could inspire me with?

[Michael Clay Thompson vocabulary and Spanish]

If you want a light reading book that explains how English got words from Latin and Greek, look at Our Greek and Latin Roots. Perhaps if you read aloud with your students, it will give them a clearer picture than just MCT's Building Language will.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic, but I just had to say that your avatar is the best. Hahaha. ^_^

 

FWIW, I haven't used the MCT vocab, but if my kids weren't familiar with Spanish, I'd find all of the comparisons kind of irritating if they were used too much throughout the book. I'd also find it more helpful to have a few other languages showing the same Latin root.

[Share your curriculum lineup for the next year]

I feel like I am trying to cram too much in. Likely.

 

2nd grade science-lover:

 

Math: Rightstart B (last few lessons, then C)

Spelling: AAS at whatever pace

Handwriting: Rhythm of Handwriting cursive, then copywork

LA: Copywork, dictation, narrations for most readings, loooosely maybe following WWE main book for progression. We'll see. Mad Libs, Grammaropolis, and Schoolhouse Rock thrown in.

Science: BFSU, nature study, reading nature lore, Intelligo Astronomy unit study (was a freebie on the coop awhile back and I'm hoping the links save me some prep time), on his own reading/experiments/whatever

History: Truthquest 1

Independent workbooks when I feel like getting them involved: Maps, Charts, and Graphs; Vocabulary Workshop Green; Process Skills in Problem Solving (math)

 

 

Kindergartener, lover of beautiful things, somewhat resistant/combative over sit-down stuff so this might happen much later:

 

Morning time

LA: Logic of English Foundations A

Math: Rightstart A

- Some read-alouds tailored to her, maybe from My Father's World K? I used part of it with my firstborn, maybe I will do Bible, book, and certain activities with her.

- Field trips, nature study, time to PLAY

 

2yo, turning 3 in September:

 

- lol.

 

Morning time on a rotation of some kind. Not all every day, or every term:

- Bible with Long Story Short (continuing); maybe switching it up with Jesus Storybook Bible or Gospel Story Bible

- Hymn

- 1 poem a day

- Various lit: nature lore, history, science topics, fables, tales, lit, etc.etc.

- Picture study

- Vocabulary Cartoon of the Day

- Art Class DVD lesson

- Classical Kids podcast episode

- Song School Spanish

 

Car school:

- Just some selections of audio books at the ready, music, poetry, etc. Stuff for while we're driving about if we wanna

Omg. I'm laughing over my breakfast at your 2yo curriculum. So true.

 

I've got a rising 1st and 2 nd grader, and your homeschool dreams sound a lot like what I'd want mine to be like. Especially with morning time. We always have an audiobook in the car too. Right now we're doing the Penderwicks, which my super picky 5year old loves.

[Honest thoughts on Classical Conversations?]

Let me also say that one of the attractions of a coop or CC or other form of cottage school is that it feels more authoritative than picking the books and reading to your kids yourself.  There is a perceived safety in that authority.  I think it is a lot of the reason why very specifically detailed homeschool curricula are popular (and why some people struggle with adjusting them to their own situation).  I'm not sure that the perceived safety is really there though.  I also think it makes homeschoolers underestimate their ability to discern what their kids need and what can be adapted.  When you hit later grades, you may want to have a couple years of experience working directly with your kid and your materials to fall back on.

 

I think you can have an amazing homeschool experience for K-6 without needing someone else to do teaching for you.  Maybe when you get to higher grades you will want to outsource (we have for Latin in particular), but it doesn't have to happen at the beginning.  Think about why you want to homeschool and consider if Classical Conversations (or any coop) will add to your time with your kids or be a drain on your resources (time, money, energy).

 

FWIW, I will add that there are some amazing books and materials out there that won't land on a current homeschool curriculum guide, because they are out of print and cannot just be ordered new from Amazon.  But they may well be on your local library shelves or at a used bookstore (or available used online).  When we started homeschooling, we lived overseas, where most of the English language resources for history and science were from the UK.  They were great books, but they had never been published in the US and didn't show up on American homeschool booklists.  This experience (and a general love of books) helped me learn how to work with what I have at hand, to bend it to my needs, rather than buying very specific booklists for a particular curriculum.  Spending a lot of time working with my kids helped me hone this skill.

 

This is so true. It feels more safe to have someone else dictate your school year to you. I find myself fighting against two homeschool moms in me: the one who was public schooled and wants the familiarity of rigid, predetermined curriculum, and the rebellious anti-most normal things in society mom who wants to make her own decisions about what's good for each of her kids.

 

When I was trying really hard to want to be a CC family a couple of times over the past 3 years, that was most of my motivation. I was trying to tell myself that it might be a good fit for us (which it completely isn't), and that the major expense it would be was worth it (which it wasn't), because I just wanted to feel like I was doing the right thing by doing what the other people were doing.

 

My oldest two are going into 1st and 2nd grade this coming year, and we still haven't really found a homeschool tribe to call our own here. All in good time I guess.

[Do you use a laminator?]

I found a laminator at Costco for pretty cheap. Then laminated all the things.

[Bravewriter arrow - is it sequential?]

Anyone who has experience with BW might be able to help me out. I'm looking at the quiver of arrows and the arrow for next year with my rising 2nd grader, and my biggest question about the arrow is whether each "season" of the releases for it follows a sequence of accumulated knowledge. For that matter, is the same true of the quiver of arrows?

 

Like, does the knowledge of each issue build on the previous one, or it is scattered randomly? You can pick and choose issues to use, but I'm not sure if I'd be missing something.

[Scholé groups?]

I have never heard of them before, but your post made me chuckle. Schole and co-op and not 2 words I would ever utter together! :)

Do co ops not immediately strike you as restful? Hahahaha.

Looking at their website, the Schole groups are classical at the core, but with restful learning as an emphasis. At first I just thought they were groups you could start up to have as a support and activity group, but it looks more involve than that.

[Scholé groups?]

I'm intrigued by the scholé groups thing, but not sure totally what to make of it. Is anyone part of one? It looks to me like you need a director, and the group is actually a co op that does classes together. Is that right?

[Honest thoughts on Classical Conversations?]

We did two open house days in two different groups when my kids were 5 and 6, and I just couldn't see how it would be beneficial for Them. It was very hard to sit through. None of the random bits of memory work had any meaning to the kids aside from being a piece of information to master. Most kids in the class looked like they were just getting through it. I get that having the community is a major draw, but the benefit of that was far outweighed by the price and methodology for my family. Cc would have ruined learning for my younger daughter because it goes against everything in her. She was physically freaking out by the end of the class. My oldest probably would have done fine with it, but fine is not enough to justify the price for me. I think I'm just way too Charlotte mason to do CC. Haha.

 

I really wanted to love it too, because I wanted a community and to feel like I was doing "the best" for my kids. It just wasn't us though.

[What's on your Teacher Training to-do list for the summer?]

I attended the Teaching from Rest seminar that Circe put on locally, it was great.

 

I scored a used copy of "Teaching the Classics" which will hopefully arrive this week so I can get started watching/reading. It is so expensive! I feel lucky I found it.

 

Also to read: How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare and Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition.

I really liked Consider This. Great book!

[Share your curriculum lineup for the next year]

I'm not the one you asked, but I started BW Arrows last year when my twins were 2nd graders. She has a whole set of Arrows aimed specifically at the 1st and 2nd graders who are reading and handwriting well, but not quite ready for the longer copywork and dictation passages in the regular Arrow units called the "Quiver of Arrows". They are really fantastic for 2nd grade. There is a sample week from the Charlotte's Web Quiver of Arrows unit on the Brave Writer website. That would give you a good feel for how the units are structured. LMK if you have any more questions about them! I'm a HUGE Brave Writer fan. :thumbup:

Thank you for that but of info! Ok so since you're a BW person, have you had any experience with the partnership writing stuff? I'm planning on doing jot it down with my 1st and 2nd grader in the fall, but partnership sounds like it might be good for after that.

[Share your curriculum lineup for the next year]

DS 9th grade:

-Oak Meadow World Geography

-Holt Earth Science

-Prentice Hall Algebra (2nd half) and Geometry (as far as we get)

-McDougal-Littell English 1 + world lit

-Holt Psychology (1 semester)

-Civics (1 semester)

-I'd like to make a composition credit using Art of Argument + Writing with Skill 1

 

DS 3rd grade

-World Cultures - Western Hemisphere (homemade)

-Science: A Closer Look 4 + Tinker Crates

-Beast Academy 3/4 and/or Math in Focus 5 + Math Minutes

-The Arrow literature guides & Moving Beyond the Page 8-10 selections

-CAP Fable + GWG 4

-The Fun Spanish + First Steps Español

-Home Art Studio + Doodle Crates

-Recorder for music

Have used any of the arrow issues before? I was considering working a few in with my 2nd grader, but feel like maybe I have to just buy one before I can tell if it's something that would work for us. She's used to doing copywork at this point, but I don't know if the other parts of the arrow are going to be too much.

[What's on your Teacher Training to-do list for the summer?]

I've been tryyyyyying to get through A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte mason. But I keep getting distracted by all of the other books in my towering piles of things to read. I also wanted to learn to bullet journal to keep my brain more organized. And, not educator related, but I discovered that my library gives free access to Lynda.com and I was poking around their graphic design section!

 

Has anyone else read How To Read A Book by Mortimer Adler? I just picked it up at a book sale yesterday because I've been wanting to read it.

 

I never really learned much about how to write well, logic, rhetoric, or anything else classy like that in my awesome public school experience. So I've been wishing I could begin teaching myself before teaching the kids, but I totally don't know where to start!

[Share your curriculum lineup for the next year]

I'll play.

 

Together:

Child's history of the world, just the chapters in the middle ages (same time period as SOTW 2). Continuation of last year. Except last year I read both SOTW and CHOW. I'm dropping SOTW.

In the days of Alfred the great, William the conqueror, queen Elizabeth books (these are new to us)

RSO chemistry

Bible, opal wheeler composer books (haven't picked which ones yet)

Swimming

Drawing lessons

Nature study

 

5th grader

MUS, beast academy (continuing)

ELTL 3 (new for us)

RLTL 3&4 (continuing)

Books to go with history

Piano

 

3rd grader

MUS (continuing)

ELTL 1 (new for us)

RLTL 2 (continuing)

AAR 3&4 (continuing)

Books to go along with history

Violin

 

Kindergartner

Miquon orange, Singapore 1 (continuing)

HWOT K book, second half (continuing)

Afterwards, spelling you see jack and Jill

AAR 3&4 (continuing)

Picture books, both classic and focused on continents, habitats and animals (I should almost out this under together, because i know every one will listen. Lol)

We were going through child's history of the world this past year, and I figured I'd pause that when we started up MYstery of history this coming cycle. But now that you mention it, I could totally add in some appropriate chapters along with what we do in MoH

[Share your curriculum lineup for the next year]

Oh, wonderful! Thanks!

[Share your curriculum lineup for the next year]

Anyone want to share what they have planned for each of their kids during this coming school year? And maybe what they're keeping/ditching from the previous year?

 

I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, and now I'm swimming around in a sea of curriculum options for now and the distant future, and feeling confused. Nailing down what works for us as a family seems like it will be a multi year adventure.

 

As of now, the things I *think* I'm settled on (ha. Might change by this afternoon)

 

2nd grader

Math mammoth (finish 1st level, start 2)

Story book of science

Mystery of history ancients plus read alouds

IEW poetry memorization

Bravewriter jot it down projects

Bible reading from the Message

Prima Latina

Lots of read aloud time

 

I'm going back and forth on what to do with the rest of language arts. She's a very advanced reader, and likes writing her own stories and poems. I'd like to help her spelling and writing skills catch up to her interest level. Considering starting michael clay Thompson island level, but I'm not sure. I'm also looking at rod and staff spelling. I'd also considered bravewriter partnership writing, but will probably hold off on that.

 

We did a variety of things this past year, including first language lessons and copywork from simply Charlotte mason.

 

For art and artist studies, I haven't really decided on doing anything in particular. She loves to draw. We do art hub sometimes, and are using meet the masters over the summer for free.

 

1st grader (turns 6 in the end of August)

My younger daughter tends to tag along disruptively during whatever I'm doing with her older sister. She learns through osmosis a lot of the time, and has a hard time staying still for anything. Tends towards adhd type behavior, but is very bright. So I don't want to saddle her with too much to do that will turn her off of learning.

 

im pretty much planning to have her join in on all of her sister's stuff as she's interested. She loves poetry, and I'm mostly doing jot it down for her. She's already doing 1st grade math mammoth. And I'll give her her own copywork selections.

 

Please share your plans too!

[thinking about quitting]

I don't have a lot to add after all of the great advice above, but I can just give you a virtual hug and say that sleep deprivation, wild kids, life swallowing you whole....those are all things I can completely relate to. We have 4 kids, and there are days where I just feel like shutting down and sinking into the reality that I obviously was not cut out for this. It's hard when you're deep within exhaustion and nothing working right. You need some form of rest to allow you to power through the rest of life. Find some way that you're comfortable with to enjoy some time where nobody needs anything from you (except the baby). It helps just to get a mental break from playing referee to all of the craziness constantly.

[Wayfarer's Schedules]

I tried to use it at the beginning of this past school year with my 6 year old 1st grader (and K sister tagging along), but I realized that I was substituting so many things that I might as well not bother even trying to follow the schedule anymore. I like the idea of CM and Classical inspiring the curriculum, as well as the usage of modern books, but it just didn't work for us this year. The reading selections were getting way too long for my kids to sit through. I even had to abandon ELTL partway through, even though I LOVED it to start with because the reading was getting too long every day, and I didn't have time for other read alouds.

[Placement in Shurley + general LA conundrums]

I haven't used Shurley, but it appears many use it somewhat ahead and/or only do the odd or even levels.

 

Phonics can be taught to a fluent reader through a rules based spelling program. So All About Spelling instead of All About Reading. My personal favorite is Rod and Staff's Spelling by Sound and Structure. It starts at 2, which is a very gentle introduction to spelling. 3 is slightly more challenging, and 4 really kicks it up a notch. The word lists may seem light, but the strength of the program is in the exercises themselves. I wouldn't get more than a grade ahead in this program regardless how easy the word lists are.

 

For second grade last year my sturdy reader did use First Language Lessons, the old combined 1/2 book. We doubled and/or skipped redundant lessons and she went through the whole book in a few months. She started out using Primary Lessons in Language and Composition by Maxwell (vintage, free to download on Google Books if you're in America), which we were both very content with. When she finished FLL 1/2  we started doing some Rod and Staff English 3 lessons, and she liked the change so well we ended up just doing that instead of Maxwell. So there are a few more options for you. She also used Rod and Staff spelling 2, some cursive penmanship workbooks, and a pile of high quality children's literature to round out her language arts.

 

Thank you for your input! I'm looking up the Rod and Staff spelling for consideration.

[Placement in Shurley + general LA conundrums]

I feel more motivated to do spelling of some sort, just to expedite the process of my daughter being able to get her thoughts onto a page. She has such amazing stories!