Is this enough? Losing my mind trying to choose the right path.

[Annabel Lee]

As I look at all the LA options that I'm having trouble deciding between, this is the simplest. But, is it enough? What about lit. analysis? What about some type of phonics review my son sort of needs (how to spell & sound out harder sounds and how to spell pluralizations, tenses, etc. of words)? Would this cut it?

 

Proposed LA:

FLL (finish up 2 & do 3 before Sept. '10)

WWE (finish up 2 & do 3)

AR & FR (assigned reading and free choice reading - keep in mind I have no training or natural ability for how to go about any type of Socratic discussion)

Spelling (AAS finish 1 and do 2 & 3 or SWO C-D)

Written & Oral Narrations for lit, hist, sci

Letters written per WTM (2x/mo.?) to family, friends, etc.

 

I've done it before, but without requiring him to write down his narrations or do any letters to family & friends. I started thinking that a strong phonics-based spelling method with lots of word work, memorizing what the sounds say and how to spell them, would address the issues he has with phonics/spelling. That got us into this:

Current LA:

FLL 2-3

WWE 2-3

Abeka complete LA, minus most writing composition

Assigned Reading

Free Reading

 

This, as others here have agreed, is taking up too much of our day. Besides math, we haven't gotten to other subjects much. For his issues I mentioned above, I've thought of adding to the 1st schedule (the proposed one, not the current one) the following:

 

• review of some later lessons in OPG - used as both a phonics/spelling review
  
• continuing some of the Abeka Language workbook - more for the word-work than the grammar, but also to put a workbook to his FLL2
  
• keeping some of the Abeka Read & Think (not their readers, this is for comp. + speed) or adding CLE reading, TtC, or Reading Strands... something so that his "reading" has something more to it
  

If I go and add all this to the 1st schedule, then we're again doing so much that I might as well stick w/ the current one. So, do you think we'd be OK doing only what's in the 1st schedule for LA? What says the hive? I haven't been this anxious over curriculum in quite awhile, but this has really been getting to me. TIA! :)

Edited November 28, 2009 by Annabel Lee
format

[Ellie]

Girlfriend, you are spending way too much time thinking about this!

 

Go with your proposed list, sans the assigned and free reading. Do NOT add the stuff you're thinking about. He's just little. That's more than enough for a little person who is so young.

[Annabel Lee]

Ellie, you made me laugh because you have no idea how much this is eating at me (or maybe you do, if you've BTDT). I have all of our "options" laid out on a spreadsheet - but that didn't make it any easier to choose. :P

[Colleen in NS]

I just want to make sure - you are talking about your younger children, right? If so, I think you're making it too hard on yourself. If you pick something good for:

 

- grammar (FLL)

- spelling/phonics (AAS, and did you previously say OPG?)

- writing (WWE - which *incorporates* writing in lit/sci/hist, letter writing)

- reading (picking from lit/sci/hist and any other really wonderful books you come across)

 

then you will be doing just fine. FLL, AAS, and WWE are all excellent programs. They incorporate what you want to do. You can speed up or slow any of them down, depending on the child's needs at any given day/week/month. Need help in phonics? Slow down the spelling/phonics program. Or take out his old phonics program and review whatever he needs to review. Then pick the spelling back up again. Keep it simple so his brain doesn't fry. :D Yours, either. :lol: It might seem like they are too simple right now, but they will help you to teach him the skills he will need later. WWE does, later, cause the brain to work harder at processing reading.

 

About lit. analysis - you don't need to do anything in depth at those young ages. And, WWE incorporates lit. analysis. I can't remember where, but it starts helping children to pick out important characters, pick out main events, and weave them together in order in a simple narration. It's in there, if you go all the way through WWE 4. And it prepares them to go just a little more in depth with the WTM logic stage lit. questions - which, BTW, can *also* be gradually introduced over grades 5 to 8. Lit. analysis then becomes a little more in depth in high school, if you teach them to use the skills in WEM - but again, it's a gradual process. When I heard SWB speak a few months ago on this, the big thing that stuck out to me was "Preserve their love of reading," and I agree - it's why I started homeschooling in the first place. She said this over and over again, in trying to convince us that kids don't need to analyze the life out of their reading, esp. when they are young (all the way up to high school).

Edited November 28, 2009 by Colleen in NS

[lovemykids]

I just want to make sure - you are talking about your younger children, right? If so, I think you're making it too hard on yourself. If you pick something good for:

 

- grammar (FLL)

- spelling/phonics (AAS, and did you previously say OPG?)

- writing (WWE - which *incorporates* writing in lit/sci/hist, letter writing)

- reading (picking from lit/sci/hist and any other really wonderful books you come across)

 

then you will be doing just fine. FLL, AAS, and WWE are all excellent programs. They incorporate what you want to do. You can speed up or slow any of them down, depending on the child's needs at any given day/week/month. Need help in phonics? Slow down the spelling/phonics program. Or take out his old phonics program and review whatever he needs to review. Then pick the spelling back up again. Keep it simple so his brain doesn't fry. :D Yours, either. :lol: It might seem like they are too simple right now, but they will help you to teach him the skills he will need later. WWE does, later, cause the brain to work harder at processing reading.

 

About lit. analysis - you don't need to do anything in depth at those young ages. And, WWE incorporates lit. analysis. I can't remember where, but it starts helping children to pick out important characters, pick out main events, and weave them together in order in a simple narration. It's in there, if you go all the way through WWE 4. And it prepares them to go just a little more in depth with the WTM logic stage lit. questions - which, BTW, can *also* be gradually introduced over grades 5 to 8. Lit. analysis then becomes a little more in depth in high school, if you teach them to use the skills in WEM - but again, it's a gradual process. When I heard SWB speak a few months ago on this, the big thing that stuck out to me was "Preserve their love of reading," and I agree - it's why I started homeschooling in the first place. She said this over and over again, in trying to convince us that kids don't need to analyze the life out of their reading, esp. when they are young (all the way up to high school).

:iagree:

 

AR & FR (assigned reading and free choice reading - keep in mind I have no training or natural ability for how to go about any type of Socratic discussion)

Written & Oral Narrations for lit, hist, sci

Letters written per WTM (2x/mo.?) to family, friends, etc

Abeka complete LA, minus most writing composition

I don’t believe you need any of these. Please don’t worry about Socratic discussion; simple narrations will suffice. If you are using WWE, you can use the method Susan describes for drawing out narrations for literature and history. For science, the narrations are much easier. They consist of: What did we do? What did we use? What happened? What did we learn? Or something along those lines…

Letters are nice, but two times a month seems excessive. Is that what’s recommended? Well, I guess it can’t hurt anything.

I think you will be fine! I do know how curricula decisions will drive you crazy. I have had quite a few sleepless nights and multiple plans drawn up. It’s so nice when you finally come to a decision.

:grouphug:

[Colleen in NS]

For science, the narrations are much easier. They consist of: What did we do? What did we use? What happened? What did we learn?

 

We use these questions for writing up a science experiment, whenever we can get to that. For our regular science narrations, we just use the WWE method of picking out the most important details in the passage we just read. This applies to science or history. Lit. narrations, in WWE, take the path of asking questions about the storyline and characters.

 

So, whenever there is a narration day in WWE, I rotate between hist/sci, or lit style narrations. It means she doesn't write two or three narrations in all three areas every week, but she does get consistent writing practice done, and she does read a lot in all three areas during her regular reading time. And tells me at various times about what she is reading. With the consistent and variety of writing practice, plus all the reading, I'll be able to lead her into more involved writing/reading later, and she'll learn how to read and write about her reading, on her own, later on. I'm starting to see this with my ds11. All this seemingly simple activity in the younger years is laying a wide, strong foundation for later years.

[JennW in SoCal]

Just chiming in here in support of the "less is more" school of thought. Not that I recommend anyone be as relaxed and unschoolish as I was, but my kids made it all the way through 5th grade without FLL or WWE (they weren't even published yet) or even the methodology of the WTM. We read together, I read aloud, they read on their own. We talked about all those books, did crafts, played vocabulary games and Mad Libs. My kids worked on handwriting and spelling, wrote letters to the grandparents and kept travel journals for themselves. And that was it.

 

And you know what? They turned out just fine. We started narrations in middle school which quickly turned into short research reports and essays. We didn't formally analyze literature until high school, but they had all the tools and understanding they needed from all the reading we did, all the plays we went to see, all the discussions we had.

 

As I said, I'm not advocating this path for anyone, but bring it up to illustrate that picking the perfect curriculum is not a make or break decision. And, the best laid plans can get undermined quickly and easily. It is far better focus on a love of reading and learning, and little by little work on all the details -- grammar, spelling, vocabulary, copy work and dictation.

 

Hope that helps you relax, Arcticmom. And Colleen, it's good to see you being the one now telling others to relax about their decisions after all the years of your own worrying!

[lovemykids]

We use these questions for writing up a science experiment, whenever we can get to that. For our regular science narrations, we just use the WWE method of picking out the most important details in the passage we just read. This applies to science or history. Lit. narrations, in WWE, take the path of asking questions about the storyline and characters.

 

So, whenever there is a narration day in WWE, I rotate between hist/sci, or lit style narrations. It means she doesn't write two or three narrations in all three areas every week, but she does get consistent writing practice done, and she does read a lot in all three areas during her regular reading time. And tells me at various times about what she is reading. With the consistent and variety of writing practice, plus all the reading, I'll be able to lead her into more involved writing/reading later, and she'll learn how to read and write about her reading, on her own, later on. I'm starting to see this with my ds11. All this seemingly simple activity in the younger years is laying a wide, strong foundation for later years.

 

 

Yes, good point. Technically, you are right, I suppose. I guess I should have clarified that those questions are for experiments. I slipped up, thanks for calling me out on that one. :tongue_smilie:LOL. That’s just pretty much all I do for science at this age. Or I may only ask them what they remember about our lesson, and leave it at that.

What I was trying to get across was the point of relaxation as this young stage. I personally don’t make my children narrate for science much at all, unless we are experimenting. When they are excited about a science topic, retention is obvious. The same goes for other reading…I don’t require it all the time. Nor do I require any type of review of science topics. Everyone does things differently. We lean a little towards unschooling in this subject, and CM, it has worked so far for my children; and my kids LOVE science. So, I guess something is working.

 

Actually, my dd was unschooled in science, for the most part, and she is fine with written science papers now at the age of 10. She did do narrations, copywork, and dictation in other subjects though.

Anyway, have fun!

[lovemykids]

Just chiming in here in support of the "less is more" school of thought. Not that I recommend anyone be as relaxed and unschoolish as I was, but my kids made it all the way through 5th grade without FLL or WWE (they weren't even published yet) or even the methodology of the WTM. We read together, I read aloud, they read on their own. We talked about all those books, did crafts, played vocabulary games and Mad Libs. My kids worked on handwriting and spelling, wrote letters to the grandparents and kept travel journals for themselves. And that was it.

 

And you know what? They turned out just fine. We started narrations in middle school which quickly turned into short research reports and essays. We didn't formally analyze literature until high school, but they had all the tools and understanding they needed from all the reading we did, all the plays we went to see, all the discussions we had.

 

As I said, I'm not advocating this path for anyone, but bring it up to illustrate that picking the perfect curriculum is not a make or break decision. And, the best laid plans can get undermined quickly and easily. It is far better focus on a love of reading and learning, and little by little work on all the details -- grammar, spelling, vocabulary, copy work and dictation.

 

Hope that helps you relax, Arcticmom. And Colleen, it's good to see you being the one now telling others to relax about their decisions after all the years of your own worrying!

:iagree:

 

Just don't let those basic skills slip and you will be fine. Writing, reading, etc. :)

[Colleen in NS]

And Colleen, it's good to see you being the one now telling others to relax about their decisions after all the years of your own worrying!

 

:blushing: Thanks...it's only because of all the help I've received here, plus finally being able to "see" from beginning to end at SWB's talks last spring, that I have been able to relax a lot! I'm the kind of person who needs to see the big picture, and then how the details achieve that.

 

thanks for calling me out on that one. :tongue_smilie:LOL.

 

Everyone does things differently.

 

Eek! I didn't mean it come come across that way - sorry! :) I just mostly wanted to point out to arcticmom that narrations from those three areas, including science, can easily be incorporated into WWE lessons, and that those experiment questions can be used for fun at times.

 

I don't do review of my kids' content writings, either. I figure if they are reading and writing and talking about a variety of topics, things will be absorbed (and they are). I care more about the consistent writing/grammar/spelling *practice*, in little bits. And that they love to read good books.

[Annabel Lee]

Colleen, yes this is for my 3rd & 1st graders. The AR & FR (assigned & free reading) are just the words in my house for the history/science book basket (AR) and good lit. they get to choose from (free reading - but no comic books during this time). I know WWE can be incorporated into the other subjects more by just using the textbook, and that's what I'd do ideally, but I have the workbooks for 1-3 and do end up using them instead of planning out lessons. :tongue_smilie: I too rotate the narrations between subjects so that there isn't more than 1 in a day. I need to push my 3rd grader out of his comfort zone and start making him write them himself more.

 

Lovemykids, I only make my kids have "free choice reading time", for which I just let them read for the pleasure of it - no discussion required, b/c WTM recommends it. Dep. on age, it's something like a min. of 30 min. per day during quiet time. ETA: I have no idea how many times per month they're supposed to work on writing letters, so that's why I put a question mark next to that. Now that I think about it, if I'm just starting to have him write more for other subjects, this can be worked on on the side. Amounts of writing add up quick for little guys who aren't used to it. I need to transition them, not dump them into the deep end. Thanks for helping me see that.

 

Honestly the basic skills (3 R's), other than making my older boy write as much as he probably should, are all we've really been consistent w/ this year. We've only skimmed the surface of hist & sci, and that pretty much came to a halt in Oct. when I thought I was switching to Abeka but then couldn't let go of the other stuff and decided to do it all for LA. :001_huh:

 

Do any of you have experience w/ SWO - I'm thinking of doing that instead of AAS, only for the reason that workbook stuff seems to get done more here than stuff I have to be 100% involved in. I was hoping I could sub at least something out to the more workbookish approach.

 

Thanks for the :grouphug:, and for not laughing. I know from anotoher angle it must seem like petty, minor details. When you feel like your kids' futures hang in the balance, it doesn't feel like that though.

Edited November 29, 2009 by Annabel Lee

[Annabel Lee]

Thank you all so much for your continued help w/ this; not just in this thread. We've pared things down quite a bit and today was like a breath of fresh air. Less pressure, less rush, less "hurry up and get that done because you have a million other things to do". In case anyone really cares to know, I'm going with FLL, WWE, AAS, and reading good books (hist., sci., or lit. related) for my 3rd grader and FLL, OPG, reading good books on his own and oral reading practice for my 1st grader. 1st grader will have AAS & WWE added on in Jan. when he's finished w/ OPG.

:grouphug: to all of you.

[Colleen in NS]

Thank you all so much for your continued help w/ this; not just in this thread. We've pared things down quite a bit and today was like a breath of fresh air. Less pressure, less rush, less "hurry up and get that done because you have a million other things to do". In case anyone really cares to know, I'm going with FLL, WWE, AAS, and reading good books (hist., sci., or lit. related) for my 3rd grader and FLL, OPG, reading good books on his own and oral reading practice for my 1st grader. 1st grader will have AAS & WWE added on in Jan. when he's finished w/ OPG.

:grouphug: to all of you.

 

YAY! You won't regret it.

[2squared]

I'm going with FLL, WWE, AAS, and reading good books (hist., sci., or lit. related) for my 3rd grader

 

:iagree: I love your picks! I'm using almost the same with my 2nd grader.