Lapbooking + math: could it be enough?

[Wee Pip]

Having a rough year:

screamy baby that doesn't take good naps

+ sick of workbooks

+ unmotivated kids that do shoddy work (& I don't have the "whatever" to enforce quality work)

= lousy homeschool year

 

Could doing lapbooks (or similar projects) + math maybe cover our school year? My 9yo enjoys them & can do independently. 7yo still needs help but might enjoy reading up on topics & writing about it (rather than making minibooks). Is this enough?

[Karen in CO]

Reading, Writing, and Math. That is the most important things to focus on with the age of your kids. (and my girls). Let me tell you what we do everyday - and I use that term generously - Copywork and math. That gets done everyday that I count as a school day. In addition to that, the reader reads for an hour, and I read for an hour at bedtime. Everything else is really extra. This year I have been having a tough time finding my will to homeschool since my oldest went away to college. It seems that I focused most of my energy on him, and I'm having trouble making the transition to being an elementary teacher. :)

 

Anyway. My dd reads history and science and E. Nesbit and Little Women and Alice in Wonderland. We talk about it and look up stuff together and talk about it. I don't like workbooks; I don't do crafts. I love to talk. And we have some good museums that we visit often.

 

So, I think that as long as you are covering the three R's, that you are great. Now if you wanted to skip reading or writing or math all together, I'd have to tell you to "man up". :D

 

Is that baby sleeping yet?

[abbeyej]

I would not personally be comfortable forgoing language arts instruction. If the 7yo is a good reader, then yes, I think you could take off (maybe just through Christmas, then reevaluate?) for a period of time and do only math and an hour or two of "reading time" (either to themselves or listening to audiobooks) with a variety of types of books and they'd still learn a lot. But I'd probably continue with some basic writing and mechanics instruction in the mean time. Perhaps Rod & Staff English grade 3 for combining the kids? Then just math and reading? (If they want to do lap books, fine, but I don't think they're particularly efficient for learning or particularly easy for a harried mom...)

 

But if you want to pare down to math, some basic language arts, and having the kids read on their own daily for a few months while you adjust to baby and get things calmed down... Well, I think that's fine. And your kids are young enough that a few months won't have any negative impact...

[Karen in CO]

About language instruction - I don't advocate using copywork as just handwriting practice. I always point out the nouns and verbs and such plus the punctuation in what we are copying. We also discuss what makes the sentence work - strong verbs, descriptive phrases, and such.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Just a thought on your baby: do you use a wrap or other baby carrier? I so wish I would have had one with my high needs son. I think it would have made a big difference. I used it a ton with my youngest and she loved it.

[Wee Pip]

Some answers:

7yo is a great reader, almost same level as 9yo - both read longer chapter books & 9yo just read her 1st full novel (Percy Jackson book 5, which was my book)

Kids are doing NANOWRIMO this month for writing, plus our math/LA curric everyday. We also do AWANA (Bible memorization) & a co-op every 2 weeks. Even so, I always feel like I could be teaching so much better! We either drag thru school all day, or rush thru & have it done in 1.5 hrs. I think our work is sub-standard (my teaching & what I allow, especially).

Baby: she was born 2.5 mos early & NICU nurses called her "feisty". I don't think she slept well for them, either! I've used the sling a lot, but she lets herself get overtired (even in the sling) & starts going bonkers (arches back, screams, grabs & pulls) It is a real feat getting her to settle. She finally sleeps but wakes 30mins later, overtired & grumpy (even in a sling). Sometimes she'll take a good nap (1.5-2.5hrs) in the afternoon IF I sleep with her, my arms wrapped around her at all times & I cannot sneak away. Nighttime sleep is: she'll sleep 2-3hrs at a time as long as my arms are wrapped around her or she is on my chest. Or she'll demand to be nursed back to sleep all night, even tho I know she isn't hungry. The sling did help in the early days, but not so much now. She's 6mos & so far I can't see this getting any better anytime soon.

[LunaLee]

I think it would be okay for a year or until you get your feet under you.

 

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ has a ton of different premade lapbooks for all subject matters.

 

Also, http://jimmiescollage.com/, is an amazing resource for lapbooking. I think she does most of, if not all of her daughters education with MFW and lapbooking.

 

I think you should cut yourself some slack too. It's sounds like your overwhelmed and I think we forget sometimes that it's okay to forgive ourselves when we have these ebbs in our homeschooling journey.

 

:grouphug:

[lauracolumbus]

I agree that you'll be ok w/math and reading. We use dvds from the library a lot too when I'm crunched for time. We watch one several times a week during lunch or snack time. We just got the whole Schoolhouse Rocks dvd. It was a lot of fun to watch. Lots of history dvds.

 

I also went through exactly what you're going through w/my oldest and youngest. I thought I was going to lose my mind w/the sleep deprivation and the constant holding of my baby. She was only happy when she was being held--by me. No matter what, sleep when the baby takes that long nap (a

great time for a dvd). Books on cd are also a great tool for the older two.

 

Laura

[LittleIzumi]

:grouphug: Your baby sounds like my youngest, who was a (barely) preemie, in the NICU, SUPER high needs, even with babywearing/cosleeping, etc. I cannot imagine doing a lot of HSing when she was little. Wow. (She turned out to have sensory issues, which seems to be more common in preemies, and is much better now with therapy. She is finally starting to sleep through the night sometimes... at age 2.... :001_huh:) I think your plan sounds fine, esp with things like NaNoWriMo and a coop. I wouldn't worry about it. (*cough* kids do learn even with unschooling....) ;)

[Sue G in PA]

I feel your pain. We are in a similar situation, minus a screamy baby. But, we have an ornery toddler who is in to everything! Luckily he does take fairly good naps. Could you try a program like FIAR? That has everything...science, history, geography, some math, some literature, art, etc. Plus, there are great books to read. You can all cuddle together and read, do the activities with each book, add in your own math and perhaps some gentle la (like PLL) and have your older dc read a bit each day. Done. FIAR is a great program.