Yikes - I have a middle schooler. Taking her lead in what she wants to do. Reading: Her choice and family Read Alouds Math: CTC Math Science: Bookshark Science E Typing: Typingclub.com Writing: Faltering Ownership/FreeWrite Outschool: Digital Art, Art History Club Extras: wants to try Theatre(if youngest can be vaxxed)

I just purchased a used IG for Sonlight Core G (World History Part 1 for 6th Grade) for a friend who is just beginning her homeschool journey. I also purchased the SOTW that goes with it, and she is going to use her library for the readers and read aloud. I did not have a Kingfisher Encyclopedia to give her, but I did give her my Usbourne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. Would anyone be willing to share any schedule they may have put together using the Usbourne book with Sonlight Core G? I know when I was homeschooling my kids I found all sorts of schedules that were a mashup of Veritas and TOG and other combinations. I was hoping that something already existed that I could send her. She is pretty overwhelmed right now and would appreciate any help I could send her way. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide. My kids are in college and my days of being in the loop regarding this sort of thing are behind me:).

We have always just let our days happen. We are not "unschoolers" as we always have a curriculum that we're working through for each child/subject. However, I feel like we never accomplish quite as much as we should. I would like to create a schedule for our days moving forward, possibly starting with the new school year in the fall. We will have 2 girls (1st & 4th grade). They will do several subjects together. What are your favorite books or resources to help understand scheduling and create a successful schedule for the family?

We have always just let our days happen. We are not "unschoolers" as we always have a curriculum that we're working through for each child/subject. However, I feel like we never accomplish quite as much as we should. I would like to create a schedule for our days moving forward, possibly starting with the new school year in the fall. We will have 2 girls (1st & 4th grade). They will do several subjects together. What are your favorite books or resources to help understand scheduling and create a successful schedule for the family?

I am trying to figure out how to teach a four children, ages 4, 7, 9, and 9 using the classical approach. The 9 year olds go off and read on their own assigned books with no problem. The challenge is when they need to take turns narrating back to me and discussing what they have read. One always seems to be waiting for a turn with a book or with me. The 7 year old is not a strong reader, so I must read aloud most things to her or work with her to slowly read it to me. It seems there is always one child just sitting there waiting for me. I use Primary Language Lessons for the 7 year old and Intermediate Language Lessons for the two 9 year olds, which are also time consuming and require much one on one. Then, there is the 4 year old who is learning to read and write and wants my focussed attention. This is our third year homeschooling, but the first year using the classical approach. I like that we got rid of the many worksheet/workbook based curricula I had been using in previous years, but I just can't seem to figure out how to use the classical approach in a way that doesn't consume so many hours. We work for 5 hours, with many times the kids waiting for me, and I'm exhausted and they have no time to play. Please advise.

Okay so in a few days we will be starting 9th grade! Last time we homeschooled was 5th grade I have posted in other threads what we are doing for curriculum but again here is a quick run down. Saxon Algebra 1 (1 unit) Power Basics Biology (1 unit) -with labpaq labs & extra bio texts for supplementing English 1 (1 unit) -EIL Intro to Lit -wordly wise 9 -easy grammar 9 Global History & Geography I the growth of civilization ( 1 unit) Artistic Pursuits High school ( 1 unit) - This will be drawing & some art history various resources PE ( 1/2 Unit) exercise, biking, archery & tennis lessons Okay so DD already has French I credit & also an elective credit for Rise of Nationalism. She does NOT want to continue French. Do you feel this is enough credits ?? or should we do a Home Ec class that would include nutrition/fitness lessons and we would do cooking/sewing etc.. for another Credit? I just don't want to overwhelm her with too much her first year home. She is going to do her 1/2 credit of health next year in 10th grade. Also any advice or tips on grading, scheduling etc.. to keep things simple and rolling for us as this is all new would be greatly appreciated. I have reviewed the grading forums etc.. but it still seems a bit overwhelming to me. I know we need approx. 3hrs a week for each full unit but would love to hear how you all break down your weeks. & your grading systems Thanks in advance for your input!

For the first time I have decided to try and schedule a school year out instead of winging it. Can experienced hsers tell me what they think. DS 9 Math-Saxon 6/5 LA-Phonics Road 3, Essentials Science-Anatomy History-VP Reformation, Middle Ages, Renaissance Social Studies-MP States and Capitols Memory-Foundations Bible-MP Christian Studies I Binder work Extra Curricular: Piano Violin Taekwondo DD 7 Math-Finish R&S 1 LA-Phonics Road 1 Science-Anatomy History-Finish OT and Egypt Social Studies-MP States and Capitols Memory-Foundations Bible- Who is God? Binder Work Extra Curricular: Piano Swimming DS 6 Math-R&S 1 LA-Phonics Road 1 Science-Anatomy History- Finish OT and Egypt Bible-Who is God? Memory-Foundations Binder Work Enrichment with DD 4 Extra Curricular: ? DD 4 MP K enrichment guide follows: Math, LA, Social Studies, Science, Art, Music, Poetry Bible-Who is God? Memory-Foundations Extra Curricular: ? DD 3 Follow others R & S workbooks

Just a little background...I had all of the kids plans up and running. Working decently but taking 8-9 hours of my time per day to just get school done with my 5. Around Christmas I found out I had 2 tumors - one inside my brain and one on the outside near it. Fortunately, it's benign and slow growing. Had the outer tumor removed and have, finally, recovered (for the most part). The other one is in a hard place to remove, so I am learning to live with it, for now, and working on trying to shrink it. So, all that has led to some major changes in our home and school. The kids got very little school done during the 3+ months this was going on. We are just now really starting back with everything. The 7th graders were able to work more independently but they were having to help with everything else while I was down and weren't able to get much past their Language Arts, Math and music done. I have figured out the boys - put them (pk/k, 2nd & 4th) into MFW-ECC and their math and language arts has stayed the same. The girls are where I am stumped. They are 7th grade. Currently, we are doing the following: History/Geography: BF-Early American & World Lang. Arts: Growing With Grammar 6, Lightening Lit 7, Jump-in Writing Math: their own grade appropriate/level appropriate thing Science: various reading and going thru physical science encyclopedia electives: 2 instruments each, Spanish, cooking OK, so on paper it's not too bad...BUT they don't like the lack of a spine, they are having a hard time keeping up with all the different writing assignments from history AND Light lit AND Jump-in, and they aren't liking Science too much (but are troopers). So, after much thought and reflection I decided I needed to make things easier for them to get thru this year without starting over again. I have done the following: History/Geography: Adding in Notgrass America the Beautiful for them to read with the BF Early American & World History (They have NEVER had American History, so I am really trying to bring out that focus without losing the world context.) They really liked these at the HS conference. They both want to continue with the BF as well - they love the thought-provoking questions and the global context of history. Lang Arts: Continuing with GWG7, Leaving my more creative writer in Jump-in as she loves the program, putting my other child in Essentials in Writing 7. Lightening Lit - want to finish but maybe stagger? not sure Math: Same Science: putting them in Apologia General Science w/ labs and letting them get used to structured and non-mom-directed science. electives: same since I don't really do much with these. ****So Here's where I need the help****** Is it too much to do both BF and Lightening LIt? They like to read, but I don't want to overwhelm them with essays (unless that's normal for middle school). I also don't want to do overkill on any one thing. I want to them to work efficiently and, frankly, don't want to invest in something that isn't needed. Now, to the rest of my frustration: 8th-12th. I need some help thinking this thru - at least with the next couple of years worth. I figure the rest of high school will be set with the pattern I establish in the next 2 years. I will just keep going from there. They really like Beautiful Feet and like how its laid out (except for the lack of a spine, which is why we are using Notgrass). They would like to keep on with BF BUT I am not sure how to do that and get thru US & World history thru 20th century. I was hoping to complete the "intro" years with them before high school so we can take 11th and 12th to delve into US & World on a more mature level. If I keep going with BF, they will be in the high school US & World for 8th and 9th grade. Then 10th-12th would be ancients-wherever and Govt/economics. That sounds like a weird setup to me. What I am thinking about doing is finishing out BF for this year and then just continuing on with the Notgrass Jr High history and just add in Kingfisher History Encyclopedia for the World content and add in some readers from Sonlight Core H. OR***** Should I just use the Notgrass with extra readers for reinforcement, set aside BF Early American and then use it for High school? If I did that, I would then do the following for History: 7th & 8Th - Notgrass America the Beautiful & Uncle Sam & You (together), Light. Lit 7 9th-BF Ancients/ Notgrass World History, Light Lit 10th - BF Medieval/ Notgrass World History, Light Lit 11th - BF Early American & World, start on US & World/ Notgrass Us History, Light Lit 12th - BFUS & World/ Notgrass US history, Light LIt Also, I have considered MFW for high school. I am even ok with not going back and doing ancients again - we've already done it twice and already done all the compare and contrast of ancients civilizations and bible Old Testament, so ... I KNOW I am making this harder than it needs to be! I know this is probably not worth the headache I currently have. I just can't seem to get my mind "unstuck" with the girls planning and I don't want to start over mid-year. My main goal is to give them some kind of overview of us history before high school history. We meant to do that last year, but got stuck on middle ages and renaissance era. Please, if I haven't overwhelmed you, do you have any ideas or suggestions? Things to consider? ways to simplify?

I seem to be getting worse at this as I go - and feel like I accomplish less and less. Even if I limit my board time, I'm not seeing huge increases in productivity (on my part)...corrections aren't always done, lesson planning falls by the wayside.... I used to do my best brainstorming at night, when the house was completely quiet. But then I wasn't always the most patient person. And now with early rising for driving, it's pretty impossible - besides wanting to have patience :-). When more kids were at home I did the "Managers of their Homes" type approach - scheduling every 15 min for everyone around me...over time that wore off.... I feel like I'm losing self-control somehow, for doing the most unliked tasks (like correcting geometry proofs)...and just never getting to planning very far.... How do you organize correcting time? planning time? teaching time? studying the subject you need to teach time? So how do you limit yourself - for online or email time? organizing activities for others? helping your neighbors? besides of course - cooking, cleaning, spending time with your spouse? I realize this could probably apply to parents for other ages but I wanted to specifically focus on parenting high school organizational skills... Thanks for any ideas! Joan

Has anyone ever heard of a book-swap co-op or is there one on this site? We are using Tapestry of Grace Redesigned, Year 1 this year. I was telling an lady that it's too expensive to buy all the books recommended just in the primary resource list for one level, let a lone two or three. She said that when she lived over seas there was a book-swap co-op. The way she described it was that one family would agree to buy a particular year plan/unit, and another family a different unit of the same year plan and then they would all swap books through mail to share expenses. I can think of a few different ways to do this, besides what she mentioned. If there is not a book-swap co-op that anyone can tell me about, how could we use this site to get one started? (Sorry, I'm not real familiar with how to use forums and this is my first time on TWTM.) TOG shares similar resources with several other curr. such as VP, MFW, and Sonlight. It would not have to be a book-swap co-op specifically for TOG, just a general book-swap co-op. If anyone knows how to use this site to set one up or can recommend a way to set on up online via another site, I can put together policies/rules.

I'm looking for suggestions. I've figured out that a loose routine is what works best for us. This system was MEANT to be a flexible schedule. But, we've found what works best is to take off the magnets, give them to the kiddos and then as they finish things, they put the item on the chart. It's nice because at the end of the day I can VISUALLY see what we've accomplished and it gives them ownership as far as actually seeing what they still have to do. It gives them a little freedom as well as what comes next. We still have our routine - everyone has outside time at once, nap isn't optional ;) but this is working good for us. This is the chart (minus several magnets, lol) The problem is I want some kind of hanging "cup" or "thingie" to keep the magnets separate. Grab your cup and go, kwim? I figure someone here has seen a good hanging "thingie" to keep small objects in for separate children whether on a blog or in a cup. :) Thanks! ~Kelly

As homeschoolers, we can be isolated from what others are doing technologically. We're so busy teaching reading, writing, arithmetic, while mummifying chickens, we may be unaware what our children's peers are doing technologically. If the school system fails our children to be technologically ready for college and life, that is one thing. If we as parents who choose to homeschool fail our children (due to lack of guidance), that is another. Does anyone have a "Pathway to Computer Competency" that they have used or plan to use? I'm really out of my depth for some of this. When I was in high school, they were teaching us Fortran and Basic. Please quit snickering at my age and my (lack of recent) experience. :laugh: My goal is that my daughters will not need to learn technology required for a class WHILE being in class. I have BTDT before. NOT fun. Some things I would like my daughters to learn (in no specific order): --surfing the web, --typing --Word --Powerpoint --Cutting and Pasting --Facebook --Web site design (on Blogger or comparable site) --Basic programming --Powerpoint --Excel --adding components to a CPU (extra memory, new video card) --exposure to any other programs that are used in college classes (of a specific major: for example, scientists use "EndNote."). --Blender? --alternative operating systems Thank you sincerely for any replies!

I've gotten frustrated with suburbia. This is probably more of a vent than anything else, since I can't think of one constructive way to broach the issue and I can't even vent to my friends, since they are the offenders. I have 3 kids and we decided before they were old enough to participate in any "extras" that we would allow each child 2 days/nights of extracurriculars. If the chosen activity required a practice and a game schedule, that would count as their 2 day allotment. Each of my children are in scouts and gymnastics. These 3 scheduled events take up somewhere between 1.5 -2.5 hours of our Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays including drive time. Except for Monday nights, all the activities are scheduled before public school kids even get out. Our afternoon/evening schedule is clear on Tuesday-Sunday by design. I'm so thankful that we only have 3 time commitments a week for our 3 kids, as they participate together in gymnastics. I don't think I could handle another day of rushing to this or that. We don't participate in coops because it's too stressful to have another scheduled day. Every other Sunday evening we participate as a family with a church group. We adults have other, less frequent commitments, but mainly, we make time for family, friends, and my sanity. Recently, my sister-in-law called to say her kids really want to see their cousins and to ask when could we get together? (they live 40 minutes away). Her kids go to a university model school on MWF, have soccer practice 3 nights a week, karate another night, soccer games all day on Saturdays, and a church activity every Sunday evening. Well...it doesn't sound like they have much time for us. (Their Wednesday night soccer practice was rained out, so we saw them then because we were available.) My kids wanted to play with the next door public school friends, but they are only available on Mondays for 1 hour (dinner hour) between activities. Our homeschooling neighbors organize their day differently (school in the afternoon, while my kids are playing) and have activities every night too. Even some people in our church group are not participating on Sunday nights because they are playing chauffeur for their teens activities on Sunday evenings. These are just a few examples of recent interactions that prevent my kids from forming and maintaining relationships. Though we have made a point not to over-schedule ourselves, others have not and my kids are suffering. Friends met in scouts and gymnastics are too busy to be friends outside of that scheduled time. Even our own cousins are so over-booked that we can't find an evening or weekend to spend together. Unfortunately, we also school year round, so my kids aren't available for some summer events, though we do our best to be flexible. I bend over backwards in the summer to make my kids available for friends and still get our school work done. I live and grew up in the Bible Belt. Sundays have always been family days, church days, and days of rest. I just don't understand the scheduling of so many activities on Sunday and it adds to the hurt that I'm feeling for my kids. My kids have many acquaintances, but no deep friendships. Fortunately, they are close in age and love to play together, but I need my daughter to have a girl friend. Even her female cousins are 4 years younger and too busy. Are most children suffering from this lack of friends like mine? If their acquaintances are too busy going from one organized activity to another, are they even building actual friendships? How do we meet children who actually have time to be friends?

or would have made if you had another to teach? Since dd is only in 9th, I still have several years to go and am curious how others have changed their program.... I'm finding some things so much easier with dd - in some ways I'm more flexible and in others more strict.... Some of the ways I'm less strict: We're using WEM much more! And other literature guides less... We don't always read the whole book. Nor do we go through every page of literature analysis guides...While for some books we will go through piece by piece, I find it more interesting to cover more books but some at a lighter level and some almost cursory (eg Moby Dick). Some ways I'm more strict: With R & S grammar, I'm going over the oral reviews for each lesson and through most of the exercises. We're spreading the lessons over several days sometimes to make sure that she has a thorough grasp. Her diagramming skills are great now. We haven't finished the 8th grade book because I realized that is really the last book about grammar in the series (9 & 10 cover a bit but other stuff mostly) so I realized this is really her last time through and she has to 'get it' now or never. Math - we're using a more difficult series starting in 7th grade already... Other changes: Talking more about various subjects.... Other changes but not necessarily for the better: She's doing AP HG in 9th and her bro did it in 10th....I'm finding that she is spending much more time on it than he did....But she is also writing more in her answers - being somewhat more of a perfectionist....Still, overall, not sure if it is worth the extra time and might have been better next year. But (you can see I'm going back and forth about this), it is making her mature in a way that I wanted her to be before getting into 10th grade, helping her be more aware of the world.... Joan

My oldest has a difficult time getting through his day. We talked some more and figured out what he needs. It seems so obvious now :glare: Is there a planner which has the daily schedule with hours listed down the left sheet and the Daily assignments with those listed down the right sheet or vise versa? It seems like planners are either one or the other or they have two separate sections. It may sound dumb, but he will not shift back and forth between sections. If not, I will make him something. I just don't have a printer currently because ALL THE NON-BREATHING THINGS are rapidly dying around me. It would be so nice if I could just order it.

I made a mistake way early in my elder son's life: I didn't establish a regular routine. He gets up when he wants, eats his breakfast when he wants, chooses what he wants to eat... THEN we finally get to start school. When it's time for lunch break, we go through this "what are you going to eat?" process again until he finally feels full. Then I usually give him some time to play with his brother until we can finally get back to work to finish our day. So the problem is multi-faceted: 1) no set wake-up time 2) I let the kids decide what to eat for breakfast and lunch which sometimes takes too much time making the decision and then "finding" enough to fill their growing tummies. 3) This sets us up for an irregular schedule making us feel rushed once we finally get started and putting us [or me at least] into a "mood" I'm looking for suggestions on how to gently establish a routine. The boys do go to bed at reasonably regular hours [though the elder boy often reads in bed at night; I hate to stop this, but....]. The younger one has been getting up REALLY early despite no changes in his going to bed time. But he's pretty good about going to the playroom and playing quietly by himself until one of us gets up to feed him breakfast and get him changed. I've tried before to suggest having a family breakfast ["We're all going to have X for breakfast."] but elder son balked, and I think younger will protest now. Still, I think that makes the most sense, unless elder is willing to get up earlier and feed himself. I know I need to have a family discussion about this, and come up with a family plan. I just want to be ready with suggestions for the inevitable objections. Thanks!

Can you share with me how you use it? I have the main book, and I plan on using it along with Visual Latin, I just don't quite understand what to do with it. Thank you. Alison

Am I missing anything? After researching and talking with a lot of you the past week, I have finally come up with what we are doing this year! Let me know if you see any holes please: 5 yo K Math: Saxon/FIAR L/A: Copybooks from Memoria Press & FLL Vol. 1 Reading: 100 Easy lessons/Realouds Art: FIAR/our one day homeschool co-op Science: FIAR/our one day homeschool co-op Social Studies: FIAR History: FIAR/CC Memory Work Latin: (Only if she's ready) Prima Latina Bible: FIAR/Realouds CC Memory Work every morning 7 yo 2nd Math: Saxon/FIAR L/A: Writing for Excellence (PeaceHill) & FLL Vol. 1 Reading: 100 Easy lessons/Realouds Art: FIAR/our one day homeschool co-op Science: FIAR/our one day homeschool co-op Social Studies: FIAR History: FIAR/CC Memory Work Latin: Prima Latina Bible: FIAR/Realouds CC Memory Work every morning Our 3 yo will just be observing and involved when she wants to be :)

I'm looking through my K12 Human Odyssey book 1 wondering if someone has already lined it up with SOTW 1. I've only skimmed through HO so far, but it's chronology seems to be quite different from SOTW. I was hoping to match parts & pieces of HO to SOTW chapters, but after looking at it I think that might break the logical flow of the book too much, yes? I use SOTW as scheduled in BP, and wanted to add readings from K12 HO for my logic stage child. Is this possible without completely mutilating it beyond usefulness?

So just last week some kind posters introduced me to Loop Schedules. I'd never heard of that before. I looked up some threads and thought I'd give it a try. But somethings not quite right with mine... Do I list for example, math just once on my loop or do I list it 4 times, spread out? Do I have ds continue his work in his freetime that day if he's dawdled all day? Do I have ds do work on Saturday if he's dawdled all week? Also, I figure it'll take 3 hours on an average day to get their personal loops done. Plus our science and/or history for the day. We wanted to start school at 9am to be done with their stuff by noon. Yet mornings are tough to get them mentally ready, plus if they do chores, animals, etc in morning how do you fit it all in? Weekly activities start by 1 or 2ish on our busy days. And by lunch they want a break. After activities we're all toast. OMG how do you fit it all in?! What am I doing wrong? On paper our schedule is fine but in practice the transitions alone kill us!

I have a Moth schedule. Stuff isn't getting done. Some of this is character issues. I am working on that. My dh and I are having marriage issues do to long term unemployment. Our kids are 14, 11, 8, 2, and 8 months. My oldest is a high functioning Aspie. He is smart and cocky. I need more time to teach him how to work like a HS. My 11 yo is getting lost because he isn't asking for help. My 8 yo has speech/learning difficulties. He isn't in therapy currently, although he should be doing online ST soon. He has ETC online and TT that he does alone. I help him for another hour a day on his other work. My 2yo is the only girl and she draws on everything. The baby has had some feeding problems. he is doing better. Any suggestions? I cannot let school go. We are finally caught up from when we let go in the past when I thought US was a good fit. I am tired. I do have a lot to deal with. HOW do I do it? We school 6 days a week. I have to keep on the kids all day long. Help me get my big girl panties on and get my home in order. I need to be a better leader. I need to be stronger.

I'm interested in the guide for scheduling purposes. I'm considering using the Westward Expansion guide as well, since there's so much overlap. I've been trying to come up with a schedule using Human Odyssey as a spine, with the WTM topic recs as a guide. I had been trying to use the Guerber/Miller books (Story of 13 Colonies/Great Republic), but I can see it's going to take a while for me to flip through them and come up with a schedule. We've been so busy this summer that I haven't had any real time to plan. Time is no longer on my side, which makes me lean toward the BF guides. Am I just exchanging one boatload of work for another, or will BF save me planning time?

The kind that shows what's planned for the day and/or week? Daily, does it show what subjects you'll be working on and what time? Weekly, does it show lessons, playground, assignments due? Is it a checklist? Words or pictures? etc etc DS is *constantly* asking me what we're doing next or what we're doing later in the week and it's driving me crazy! I don't blame him at all for wanting to know, and think maybe if he could see for himself what's scheduled, he wouldn't need to bug me about it! :lol:

Especially if you have two or more. We will use a combination of teacher-intensive (like WWE) and more independent (like Math Mammoth) curricula. How are you scheduling it all? TIA

Do any of you have the PERFECT weekly schedule form? I'm looking for one to use with dd8. Currently I'm using the TOG forms and they're just okay. I know you ladies are craftier and more clever than I am and have created your own. Share please!