The WTM and do you follow it to a T?

[Retrocutie]

I just finished reading the Well trained mind and I love the whole idea of classical education- I'm so excited...but a little daunted as well at the sheer amount of hours and books and things they recommend the students to do. Does anyone here follow it to a T? If not, how do you decide what to keep and what to throw out? (Help?) :p

[Laura Corin]

What to keep and what to throw out will be based on what you think is important. This is an abbreviated list of areas where I differ - yours will be different:

 

- WTM has too much stress on English grammar and mechanical writing skills for me.

- I like the history rotation, but do two, rather than three, so as to fit in more UK, Chinese and US history

- We start a modern foreign language early, then follow it with at least one ancient language

- Up to about age ten, I aim to get all school finished by lunch time. I like to see my kids having lots of time to play and read

- I insist on my boys getting at least an hour of exercise a day

 

I use very few of the recommended curricula - there are just other choices I prefer. I suppose you could say that I am WTM-influenced.

 

I would suggest sitting down with a blank sheet of paper, and trying to work out your own goals. Then you can look at WTM again and see how to fulfil them.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

[Karen in CO]

I felt overwhelmed the first time I read it and decided to go another way. I found myself back a few years later wishing I had tried harder.

 

A couple of things I have learned:

• It was never intended to be followed to a "T", but it is a good place to get started.
  
• After reading it all, go back with a pencil and a notebook and a highlighter (if you do that to books) and take notes just about the grades your children are in.
  
• Focus on doing the basics first and doing them well before you plan out twelve years of material for your kids.
  
• Figure out what is basic and essential from your POV.
  
• Reading, Writing, and Math are mine. My dd would tell you it is history, science, art, cooking, and anything else that doesn't require her to be in a chair.
  
• You will get lots of advice here from many people, take it all with a grain of salt. We are not the parents of your kids.
  
• You can NEVER have the perfect curriculum and you can spend a lot of money and time looking for it.

Now that my unsolicited advice has been given, what ages /grades are you looking at and we can give you lots of examples of how we have / will do those grade.

[Cathy in SoCal]

I understand your concerns and agree with Karen in that WTM gives you the whole bananas in one book, but not even Susan Wise Bauer says she follows it to a T every day (and didn't when she was homeschooled herself). However, I have to say, 98% of the suggestions in curriculum/methods I have found are nothing short of excellent if you desire a classical education. Each time I have entered a new stage with the kids (unknown territory) I have started with WTM's suggestions for texts, etc. because I have come to trust their brand of excellence.

 

We started out, 7 years ago, with your oldest in a Classical school for Kindergarten. It was a wonderful school, however, I saw in the upper grades how rigorous it really got for them. We wanted rigor, but also wanted our kids to be kids, and therefore decided to do it on our own. So, I have chosen to scale back in some things each time I can tell it is too much. I really appreciate that control. My 7th grader does a solid 6 hour day of work every day. If he were in the regular Classical school, he would also have 2-3 hrs of homework a night as well.

 

The hard part is that it takes a few years to experiment with time/child to see what is too much and when you can challenge more.

[Melissa in Australia]

hi, follow WTM as closely as I can, I am just a little behind. I pulled my children out of school when the oldest was in grade 5. I started him back at grade 3 grammar. he is now in year 8 and doing grade 6 grammar ( rod and staff)

I would say we follow it about 85%, I use only curriculum recommended in WTM.

MElissaL

[Rosie_0801]

I'm not actually homeschooling yet, my daughter is only little. I've read a lot and intend to use The Well Trained Mind as my spine. Once you have that, you can add what you need and take away what you don't. Once you have a plan, you can modify it as needs be. For example, I'm going to drop a lot of the American content in favour of Australian, and I don't place such a high value on memory work. I've found their approach very helpful to keep in mind when planning how I'm going to teach subjects like religion; and it's given me ideas on how to tie other subjects together. I can teach maths history using the same timeline as normal history, to provide a context for mathematics. That sort of stuff :)

Rosie

[Trivium Academy]

I felt overwhelmed the first time I read it and decided to go another way. I found myself back a few years later wishing I had tried harder.

 

A couple of things I have learned:

• It was never intended to be followed to a "T", but it is a good place to get started.

• After reading it all, go back with a pencil and a notebook and a highlighter (if you do that to books) and take notes just about the grades your children are in.

• Focus on doing the basics first and doing them well before you plan out twelve years of material for your kids.

• Figure out what is basic and essential from your POV.

• Reading, Writing, and Math are mine. My dd would tell you it is history, science, art, cooking, and anything else that doesn't require her to be in a chair.

• You will get lots of advice here from many people, take it all with a grain of salt. We are not the parents of your kids.

• You can NEVER have the perfect curriculum and you can spend a lot of money and time looking for it.

Now that my unsolicited advice has been given, what ages /grades are you looking at and we can give you lots of examples of how we have / will do those grade.

 

1. You have to teach your children with the curricula decisions you make. Pick something you'll be happy to teach with and fits your kids- no matter who is or isn't using it.

 

2. I don't agree with how in first, second grade grammar and spelling are added in. We did a WTM first grade and finally in second grade I realized we needed to change something for my dd to move forward.

 

 

- Get phonics instruction done first, once they are reading well on their own and able to read chapter books fluently then add with the time you were doing phonics instruction, change that to spelling and writing mechanics.

 

 

 

- Grammar is an individual decision, even First Language Lessons says that a child will forget and will need lots of review for the abstract concepts of grammar to stick. Formal grammar is not needed until later grades but it is an area that some feel is very important in the early years and others feel it's best to wait until a child is applying what they learn in grammar.

3. I guess my advice is to realize that the WTM is not the end all of good selections and how to teach your children. It seems like it is the authority and best homeschooling book out there but really, you are the authority. If you want to study science in a different way, you will not fail. If you choose to do something different than the way it is laid out in the WTM, you have the freedom to do so. This is the best board for homeschooling advice :D but each of us is so different, we're speaking from different perspectives.

 

Welcome to the journey, and it is a journey filled with turns and twists- even if you feel like you're failing, it's just a call for change in some way. Take on each challenge knowing that you doing the best thing for your child, teaching & parenting them as you were naturally designed to do.

[PeterPan]

I started reading about homeschooling when my dd was very little, so I read, fell in love with, and pushed aside a broad variety of approaches (first unschooling, then the Moore's better late than early, then...). WTM is the one thing that has really stuck since I started actually homeschooling, and here's why: it resonates with me. You AREN'T going to do everything (or even necessarily anything) exactly the way she says, but if it speaks to your soul and gives you a framework that helps you make decisions, a road map for academics, or has some value, you'll find yourself going back to it. And what I've found over the last four years (having I really been doing this four years?!?!) is that the best way to find myself is to get away from everything. I leave the boards, my dd, etc. Sometimes it's just for an hour-long hot shower, but I get away. And I search my soul about what *I* am trying to accomplish, not what the book says to do. The WTM steers me with specifics (oops, we're supposed to be doing more paragraphs, whatever), but my goals as a teacher come from my heart and my soul, knowing my dd. Then I write those out on planning forms from http://www.donnayoung.org Then I go back and reread the applicable chapters from WTM to see if I've hit the academic things that need to be covered. If I chose NOT to do something WTM lists, I know why. If I need a curriculum option to help me do something it suggests, I start with the WTM option, see if I like it, and keep looking if I don't.

 

Are you looking at an old or new edition WTM? Didn't the new edition toss the times? I find them helpful just as relative guides and actually realistic for what it takes us, NOW THAT WE'RE HOMESCHOOLING, but I remember being blown away by the stringency of them on the first read. So close your eyes to that. Your dc will take as much, or little, time as he takes. Homeschooling is a full-time job.

[KarenNC]

I like the term "WTM-influenced" as that seems to describe our family well. I use it as an overarching strategy and follow some of the curricula recommendations, but not others.

 

A few of the changes we made:

We tried 100 EZ Lessons and Phonics Pathways for working on reading, but neither fit my daughter. We had success with Explode the Code, Bob books, Dolch sight word flashcards and Dick and Jane (even though that seems pretty heretical :)).

 

We have gone with Spelling Power for spelling (once we were done with ETC).

 

In kindergarten, we did a focus on basic American history---major stories, major figures, etc--to tie into a trip we were taking to Boston. We've added in specific unit studies on places we are planning to visit (marine and arctic animals before going to SeaWorld, DK's "Children Just Like Me" before going to Epcot, My World Science unit on coastlines before back to back trips that had us on both the Atlantic and Pacific shores within two weeks of each other, etc)

 

We tried the science rotation, but as a young elementary student, she does better with a mix of topics in the year rather than a focus on one discipline. This coming year we are going with My Pals Are Here Science from Singapore.

 

I'm going to focus on Latin and Greek roots next year for vocabulary as Wordly Wise 3000 is not really working well for us this year (can't remember if that is included in WTM or not right now). We will do this prior to starting Latin itself.

 

My daughter also loves workbooks for many subjects and they help keep us on track.

[Janice in NJ]

I've read it too many times to count. I've dipped into it for input many more times.

 

The biggest thing that I wished that I had done was to explore the rhetoric-stage education a bit more on my own when my oldest started marching through 1st grade. The curriculum, the plan, the hours, the books to read - the lists were all great. But they were just ideas to me - a set of lists on pages. In reality they are all real books and programs that are designed to lead me into rooms that I had always heard about but had never explored on my own.

 

It sounded good on paper. The Odyssey. Logic. Plato's Republic. Hitler's autobiography. Tocqueville's text on American government. Rhetoric. Strunk & White.

 

I had HEARD of all of this "stuff." It seemed like a good education.

Yes, we should learn all of this stuff.

We should study it.

What a great idea!

 

I just wish that I had DONE it. When my kids were little.

All of the steps - between that first decision to homeschool and cracking the Republic and reading the first paragraph with my oldest - would have made SO much more sense to me if I had taken the time to explore it earlier (when my kids were little).

 

Yes, the book lays out a great plan - a terrific set of ideas. But I constantly tweaked the plan because THEIR plan didn't make sense to me so many times. There was always something else that seemed like a better idea - we wandered down lots and lots of rabbit trails. BUT I still expected the same end result. I wanted to have a 9th grader who was ready to tackle The Republic. I mean REALLY tackle it! With the confidence and enthusiasm that seemed to be hiding behind the lines in TWTM.

 

I wanted that result even though I wasn't DOING what the book said we should be doing. I had tucked in so many other things around the edges! Things that were good. Things that were important to me. I'm glad that we did them! Really! But if *I* had taken the time to explore the rhetoric-stage education on my own, I would have known IF I even wanted to go there - for real - not just in theory. And our rabbit trails would have been more purposeful - a running toward something.

 

That self-education really has made all of the difference in the world! Those rooms are real places; I think that many folks are bummed when the actually step into them and decide that this is SO incredibly boring to them that they would almost rather be scrubbing toilets that reading the "great books." :) Sometimes I think that it really isn't just a matter of not understanding them. Sometimes I really do think that it is a "just shot me now and put me out of my misery!" analysis of the material. It would be better to know that you feel that strongly about the target BEFORE you launch your arrows. There's no sense aiming at the wrong bulls-eye just because everyone else thinks that it's worth chucking arrows in that direction. ;)

 

And it has been important for me to remember that the "target" is a LONG way off. My children are not going to close their brains when they turn 18 - at least I hope not. My role is to orient them in a direction and then to assess their progress in that direction.

 

Is it enough for this year.

Yes? Then we can take a side-trip. Yahoo!

No? We need to focus on THIS thing during March. Once it's handled (the child is back on track - marching toward the goal), we are free to dabble elsewhere.

 

Because I am exploring some of the "end of high-school level material" on my own, it is SO much easier to see where the middle-school steps are located. TWTM showed me where the sign-posts for 5th - 8th grade WERE, but I still didn't know how to spot them. I didn't know when we had reached those mile markers, so I didn't have the confidence to create that tension that David Hicks mentions.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/historyaslit.html

 

He calls it a "no-man's land." It certainly felt like one! Especially because I hadn't explored the area on the OTHER side of the no-man's land on my own. Creative tension? No - we just had cranky-momma tension! :o I stood there. Looked at the child's progress. Glanced around and waited for someone else to tell me that it was good enough - because I JUST DIDN'T KNOW. And then when I realized that I was ALL alone in the assessment-business. I panicked. I'd run for the nearest inhabited location and try to find SOMEONE to tell me something encouraging:

 

The public schools are failing. Surely you're doing better.

I'm sure that you're doing enough.

Maybe you just need a new curriculum.

Maybe you just need a break.

Maybe you need to work harder.

At least your kid is a good kid. He's so nice.....

 

The list goes on. Forever. But what I REALLY wanted was an assessment of our progress. A calm, clear assessment. Are we on track to meet our goals or not? Period. That always eluded me! (Remember - I didn't really even know what the goal looked like. TWTM had told me HOW TO GO AND SEE what it looked like; but I hadn't done that.) I finally started exploring this stuff on my own.

 

Oh! OH! THAT makes so much more sense now!

 

I've spent the last two-three years really ramping up my personal education. It has been time well spent. I can honestly tell you that my 5th grader is getting a VERY different education than his older brother did four years ago. I do not fear when he whines. I know when I need to challenge him, and I know when I need to step back.

 

I frees me to teach. And that is a wonderful place to be!

 

I'm sorry this got so long winded. My advice? Begin exploring the WTM's targets on your own. Pick up a copy of WEM and begin reading the great books. Begin the Oxford Guide to Writing. The lessons are good. If you get it, move on to Corbett. If you're stumped pull back to the logic-stage programs. Learn how to diagram sentences. Explore logic. WTM is a plan, but I embraced the plan as an ideal. But it really does become a reality; time brings that down upon you. High School comes; it doesn't always stay in the comfortable realm of "someday."

 

It's easier to shoot an arrow if you know what direction the target is - AND IF you've explored the world of the target rather than just listened to someone tell you that it's just over the next hill. It helps to have seen it and touched it - for yourself.

 

Have fun! It's a GREAT RIDE! WOO-HOO!

 

Janice in NJ

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

[Janice in NJ]

Sorry. This should be under the original post. I don't know how to move it. And I just don't have the time to figure out how to use these new board properly. So I'm a hack. Sorry. :-)

[Beth in Central TX]

When I first started homeschooling, I followed TWTM as closely as I could. As I became more confident in homeschooling, I developed my own preferences and adjusted our homeschool accordingly. Now that I have almost 5 years of homeschooling under my belt, I can read about a new product and know whether or not it will be a good fit for me to teach or a good fit for my boys' learning styles. Our homeschool has been a work-in-progress to this point, but I credit our solid beginning to TWTM; without it I don't think I would be homeschooling today.

[Wendy in ME]

I don't follow it to a T but I refer to it often for guidance. I really love how clearly it is all explained.

[Retrocutie]

WOW! Thanks for all the replies! I will take your advice to heart and come up with goals and things I want to accomplish and then decide what I want to do with the WTM spine.

My son is just entering Kindergarten and I know I have some time, but I wanted to really know what I was doing before I began WTM strategies officially. Any further advice directed at Kindergarten/1st grade is also appreciated.

You guys are awesome!

[mcconnellboys]

Naw, we just mess around with it until we find a good, snuggly fit for our families. Make a start with basics, perhaps, then add in the extras until you find your maximum comfort level.

 

Regena

[LlamaMama]

Janice, your post was especially helpful. I find that I am running to places for affirmation, but the helpful encouragement doesn't satisfy me. It doesn't help to hear it from someone else that my children are on target. On target with what? Public school, Waldorf/Montessori schools, with children that are especially gifted/disabled?

 

My children are unique individuals given to by the Lord. Raising and educating them is a burdening responsibility. I need to have clear goals set for my own children. While I can respect somebody else's standards for their family, it doesn't mean I can simply adopt those standards for own family without modification.

 

I love the guidelines set out by the WTM, but it would be immature for me to use the lists without giving it thoughtful consideration whether they were appropriate for my daughters. I can't even begin to start making some of those decisions without learning this material for myself. I have great hunger for learning at this time to create a fuller picture of our goals.

 

Just recently, I read some original fairy tales to my four year old. I was apprehensive about introducing her to but I had heard various reasons, even from trusted resources on why it would be advantageous. I didn't listen to my own intuition. My sweet four year old starting crying half-way through "Tom Thumb"! Oh, I felt like such a wicked mother to scare my daughter to tears during our read-aloud time. Perrault's stories are not a good match for my young children.

 

I'm currently reading "Teaching the Trivium" and find that their guidelines for reading literature are a good reminder that I will have to make many thoughtful decisions for my family. I will not be able to take any reading list and meander our way through it.

 

Though it will be strenuous, devoting myself to my own education will be necessary during this stage while my daughters are young.

 

LlamaMama to three lovely baby girls (4, 2, and infant).

[prairiegirl]

I first read WTM before my oldest started K. The WTM gave me a blueprint of what to do, when to do it and how to do it at the beginning of our journey when I was so afraid of messing my kid up. Over the years, I have gained confidence in my teaching ability that I don't rely on WTM quite as much anymore. I flew off in my own direction, so to speak. But I am very grateful to WTM for giving me a great foundation.

 

 

Julia

mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[Osaubi]

I like the term "WTM-influenced" as that seems to describe our family well. I use it as an overarching strategy and follow some of the curricula recommendations, but not others.

 

same here!

 

I loved the idea of TWTM, but my ds didn't like the learning style. So I checked out Cathy Duffy's book to see what would fit my ds. I am glad I did. I found out his learning style, and what would work best for us. Then I combined what he likes with TWTM.

 

HTH,

Kim

[Jami]

Fantastic post, Janice!

 

Thank you for being one of the voices encouraging "teaching the teacher". I've heard this increasingly from people I admire as teachers and feel a good sort of guilt (hopefully the kind that creates action and change) about not using these early years to educate myself!

 

Jami

[MelissaMinNC]

I LOVE your posts. I wish there were more of them. Thank you for reminding me of what I'm supposed to be doing - I AM the oldest student in my homeschool.

 

I have some reading to do - RIGHT NOW.

 

Thanks, that was beautiful!

 

Oh, and to the OP - no, we don't use WTM to a T either; we're still finding our way here.

 

:)

Melissa

[Janice in NJ]

Fantastic post, Janice!

 

Thank you for being one of the voices encouraging "teaching the teacher". I've heard this increasingly from people I admire as teachers and feel a good sort of guilt (hopefully the kind that creates action and change) about not using these early years to educate myself!

 

Jami

 

A voice that inspires me to action - especially those that spark that encouragement that comes from within are great. Just great!

 

But guilt? That can be a yucky motivator. Really try to ditch the guilt. Mommas of very little people ROCK!!!!! ALLLLLLLL THE TIME. They just plain ROCK!!!!! I mean it. I remember how relentless the pace was. Ditch guilt that comes your way - especially if you feel it coming from me because I truly have so much respect for mommas of babies and toddlers!

 

My life was so very busy when my little people were little. So don't try to be a super mommy. Looking back though I suspect that if I had just dedicated my "worry time" to self-education, I would have made plenty of slow-but-steady progress.

 

Remember that this journey is a very, very long marathon. I was so very busy when my kids were little; but I was also very mentally bored most of the time. I think a bit of philosophy here and there might have been a nice way to combat the worry and the mental-boredom.

 

For what it's worth....

Janice

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

[Janice in NJ]

I LOVE your posts. I wish there were more of them. Thank you for reminding me of what I'm supposed to be doing - I AM the oldest student in my homeschool.

 

I have some reading to do - RIGHT NOW.

 

Thanks, that was beautiful!

 

Oh, and to the OP - no, we don't use WTM to a T either; we're still finding our way here.

 

:)

Melissa

 

Yes. I should be reading too. Just checking in though. My dh is home this weekend so we've had a wonderful weekend! Work has been so very busy for him; I miss my bestest friend - but I'm on top of the world this evening. It's just been so nice to spend time with him.

 

He's upstairs working with my daughter for her voice lesson tomorrow, so I have a minute.

 

I am behind on my personal reading-to-do list but I just keep plodding ahead. Life is good!

 

Peace to you and yours,

Janice

[Janice in NJ]

Janice, your post was especially helpful. I find that I am running to places for affirmation, but the helpful encouragement doesn't satisfy me. It doesn't help to hear it from someone else that my children are on target. On target with what? Public school, Waldorf/Montessori schools, with children that are especially gifted/disabled?

 

My children are unique individuals given to by the Lord. Raising and educating them is a burdening responsibility. I need to have clear goals set for my own children. While I can respect somebody else's standards for their family, it doesn't mean I can simply adopt those standards for own family without modification.

 

I love the guidelines set out by the WTM, but it would be immature for me to use the lists without giving it thoughtful consideration whether they were appropriate for my daughters. I can't even begin to start making some of those decisions without learning this material for myself. I have great hunger for learning at this time to create a fuller picture of our goals.

 

Just recently, I read some original fairy tales to my four year old. I was apprehensive about introducing her to but I had heard various reasons, even from trusted resources on why it would be advantageous. I didn't listen to my own intuition. My sweet four year old starting crying half-way through "Tom Thumb"! Oh, I felt like such a wicked mother to scare my daughter to tears during our read-aloud time. Perrault's stories are not a good match for my young children.

 

I'm currently reading "Teaching the Trivium" and find that their guidelines for reading literature are a good reminder that I will have to make many thoughtful decisions for my family. I will not be able to take any reading list and meander our way through it.

 

Though it will be strenuous, devoting myself to my own education will be necessary during this stage while my daughters are young.

 

LlamaMama to three lovely baby girls (4, 2, and infant).

 

LlamaMama,

Enjoy your babies. Three beautiful girls - what a wonderful family you must have. I miss the smell of the back of a baby's neck! :) Give them a kiss on their damp, sweaty necks from me, OK?

 

Peace to you and yours!

And joy for your journey!

Janice

[Storm Bay]

Not to a T. In our case, the rote learning style didn't fit with my older two dd's by the time we got to it, (one of them was 5 and one was 8--my 8 yo started in public school) although it works better with ds as he has a different learning style. We vary based on each child, but I would say we are very influenced by WTM. I have the first edition, not the second, so the course recommendations were more limited.

 

While I think there are many benefits to this, I suspect that back in the classical days some kids didn't work well with it, either. There is no one size fits all. What I like most about it is the emphasis on teaching children to be able to think and reason.

[kalanamak]

I'll make mine short: I use WTM as a starting point for all subjects. If it needs adapting, I do. If I seem lost, I go back to the book and start again. I use the book lists. I also ask a lot of questions here, and read all about other curriculums.

HTH

[Colleen in NS]

I just finished reading the Well trained mind and I love the whole idea of classical education- I'm so excited...but a little daunted as well at the sheer amount of hours and books and things they recommend the students to do. Does anyone here follow it to a T? If not, how do you decide what to keep and what to throw out? (Help?) :p

 

What I've learned from WTM is that there are principles to stick to. Like, in grammar stage - teach English language skills like grammar, reading, spelling, writing. Teach math. Teach Latin to support English skills. Then use these skills to help the child learn in content areas: science, history, literature. Art and music skills and content if you can. I have found that these content areas come alive, when the skills are learned and practiced upon the content areas.

 

As for how to decide what to apply from WTM......I find that WTM serves as a series of reviews for products/books that support the principles. Example: in the 2nd edition, I perceive that the authors feel that R&S English is a thorough grammar/writing program. Because I have been convinced of the principles laid out in WTM, I tend to go with WTM recs for English grammar/writing, because of the authors' review of R&S and because I don't want to do further research. The review of R&S English in WTM was enough for me.

 

I use a lot of the recommended teaching methods/techniques/resources (otherwise I would not know what I was doing!), but have found that I can structure the day differently - but the schedules in WTM were just samples, so keep that in mind. Also, every kid will finish skill subjects in varying amounts of time. Some kids zip through math and slog through spelling, or zip through spelling and slog through dictation. But if you keep the principles of WTM in mind, you can work out your own schedule for your family.

 

Have fun! No regrets here and we are in the 4th year of using it.

[dfrecore]

I LOVED TWTM, and it is what solidified in my brain how I was going to homeschool my kids. It is also what finally convinced my husband that I was actually going to give my kids a great education (I think he pictured us unschooling because that's what he saw with me for baby/toddlerhood/preschool, as it should be!).

 

When we first started last fall, I had a plan for what we'd be doing. We had tons of curriculum, and I was ready to start. But, my dd5 couldn't really do 3 hours a day of sitting-down, book-work type stuff. And, she's really good about sitting down and doing her work. So, I had to rethink the timetables in the book, and change the plan.

 

I decided to use the book as a guide. I know where we are (at the beginning), I know where we want to be when we're at the 12th grade, and I just have to have a reasonable plan for how to get there.

 

It will be a work in progress over the next 12 years, but if you have a plan, and refer back to TWTM to make sure you're on the right path, I don't think you can go wrong.

 

That being said, I don't plan on using all of their recommendations for curriculum, just because I have to do what works for my kids. Like, we started with Saxon Math, and HAD to switch after a month. My daughter actually said "I'm not learning anything, am I?" during a lesson. That day, I went and got Math-U-See, and have never looked back. If I had continued with Saxon just because TWTM recommended it, I think I would have lost it a long time ago (it is very tedious, in my opinion). So, you have to find the balance there.

 

And remember, she doesn't even really address kindergarten in TWTM. So, I figured we'd get a head start on the 1st grade plan, and we really focus on phonics and math. My dd wasn't ready to listen to SOTW, so we've put it off until next year. And, she really didn't like FLL at all, so we've had to put that aside as well. We just do really informal grammar with our books that we read. Next year, we'll kick it up a notch for everything, and each year thereafter, adding new things, adding more time, etc. There's nothing wrong with easing into it, especially if you're starting at the beginning.

 

Good luck!

Danika

[JessMcG]

Janice...thank you so much for your first post. That was truly helpful.

[Musical Belle]

I read WTM in the spring before my ds started kindergarten, and I was so excited about we we actually started school in May! He is now in 4th grade and we have stayed fairly close to the suggested curriculum (Phonics Pathways, Saxon math, Spelling workout, R & S grammar, SOTW, etc.). We have done the maps, the narrations, the projects, the works! (Although I must confess now that memorization has been a weak area -- I don't push it like I should.) It fit perfectly with his learning style.

 

Then dd came along and we've strayed a bit. She is so math-minded that she was helping ds with his facts when she was three and four, so we followed Veritas' recommendation to start with Saxon 1 in kindergarten. She is also slower to read, so we are having to spend more time with phonics and basic reading skills and are postponing grammar until second grade (she is in first). We are making adjustments to fit her style.

 

If you are wondering if the idea of it is do-able, it truly is! When you read through it can sound daunting ("Latin in 3rd grade?"), but it isn't unreasonable. You will know fairly soon if it's a good fit for you and your dc, and if it isn't there is no reason to feel guilty. Use what you can and adapt as necessary! We draw ideas from a number of sources including Veritas, Sonlight, Biblioplan, and suggestions from veteran homeschoolers.

 

Whatever you choose to use, best wishes to you and your family as you embark upon this adventure!