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Fresh Start in January?


Medieval Mom
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We will be adding AAS in January, when I can afford it. ;) My DD will be starting MCT in February.

 

We will also be starting a combined science day with hands on from RS4K with the kids using their respective texts for chemistry and physics, and then coming together for a "lab day" once or twice a month. We are doing this as something new for the youngers and a review for my older. They are all doing Life Science/Biology as their main science this year so this is a fun extra. :)

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My current plans are...

 

to start LfC A with my 3rd grader at a slower pace, to have my 5th grader add in The Greek Alphabet Code Cracker from CAP, to slowly start increasing the amount of time I do phonics with the Ker, and to start fresh with a new science topic for the semester (I'm leaning towards chemistry but haven't made a final decision yet).

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Well, we've JUST started using Famous Men of Greece and we'll finish the school year with FMO Rome.

 

We're going to start Prima Latina. I'm hoping that since my kids have a little Latin already that they'll be finished by June or July.

 

I've had plans to use the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker as part of our Greek studies, but we'll probably wait til January.

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We always kind of start dropping subjects and such starting in October and do the bare minimums in December then get a nice fresh start in January when they seem ready to focus again.

 

We pretty much get the bulk of our learning done January to April and then get another good go-around June-September.

 

As far as starting a specific "new" to us curriculum--no. But last year we started out the year with Lively Latin.:001_smile:

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The plan is to start Elementary Greek, RS4K, and Around the World in 180 Days (which I hope to get soon). I'm also planning on doing a little FIAR w/my youngest. We're also going to try FFL after my 2 oldest finish their LC books.

 

I'm hoping to get into a really good routine in January. It seems like Jan-April is our best time as well. Fall sports are our craziest.

 

Laura

 

Laura

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Galore Park Latin too-taking a break from Cambridge. Rightstart D starts for third grader December or January-but he is just finishing up level C, it's not a change of curriculum for him.

 

I agree it's a good time to start something fresh, especially if what you are doing isn't working-that's the case here.

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We are -- we were using Oak Meadow 6th, 4th, and 1st. It really bombed for my 4th grader and was just way too easy for my advanced 1st grader. It's working OK for my 12yo , but I feel like it's not teaching her the skills she needs (i.e. it asks her to write, but doesn't TEACH her to write). So we are going to pick up some new things this January - Prima Latina for my 1st grader (who will most likely also listen in to everything the 4th and 6th graders do), Latina Christiana I, Famous Men of Rome and/or Greece and CW Aesop for the 4th/6th. I'm also going to try to up our science study, which has been negligible this year. Probably with Apologia Land Animals, since it's on the shelf.:) Math (TT) will stay the same!

 

ETA: I forgot to say we already added some extra LA pracitce for my dyslexic 12yo recently - Apples and Pears and How to Teach Spelling.

Edited by amyable
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Yes. January is a big breaking point in our year round hs, so we'll have lots of new things. Dd is ready to move on to a 2nd grade LA program and I'm trying to decide between SL, Pathway/Climbing to Good English or VP First Favorites and ETC. Ds will be starting DITHOR and the VP 2nd grade comprehension guides. Dd will be finishing up Math Mammoth Subtraction 1 and some Miquon in December and we'll start SM 1B in January. We'll also be finishing up our World History through Ren/Ref in December and starting American History loosely following WP's 1-3rd grade level. I'm also trying to finish the last 3 FIAR books we have left (we've done 52 of 55 from Vols. 1-3).

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We will be starting some sort of new writing curriculum to accompany the tweaked version of IEW I use.

 

Teaching Textbooks 6.

 

Finishing up our U.S. history studies, and then starting some sort of world history.

 

Starting up a year or two of religious studies, Judaism in our case.

Michelle T

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I am hoping for a fresh new start in January. My cancer (I found out in Sept.) put a gaping hole on all of my plans. The cancer is gone now but I am having difficulty in getting my sea legs back. I have no desire nor energy to go back to my original plans.

 

I recently read Chasing Vermeer and thought it would make a great unit study. I think we are going to do this for the month of Dec. If this works out well, I just might do these kinds of unit studies for the rest of the year. If not, and I am still feeling exhausted, then I guess we will continue with the survival mode of teaching that have gotten us through the last three months. ;)

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We'll be adding a baby to the family sometime between now and New Year's so I imagine January's goal will just be to adjust to homeschooling with a newborn!

 

Actually, if we really work hard for the next three weeks, we'll be up to the American Revolution and I plan to take it easy and just read lots of history books, maybe do a few projects, and immerse ourselves in that time period for a month or so while we work our way back to our normal schedule (which is really going quite well) in February.

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I am going to use Christmas break to plan out our African study more thoroughly, since we are blowing it off way too many Fridays. I also have not really started Latin! Want to get that going this week.

And, I think I need to do more science--field-based sounds great, and our bird study was fun, but I think we may actually need a curriculum. I'm looking thru Rainbow R for something we will actually do--tried Apologia, but I don't want it that heavy--I want something that contains the text and doesn't use a spine, and is hands-on.

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Yes! I *love* January! :001_smile:

 

We're starting back over with How to Introduce Your Child to Classical Music in 52 Easy Lessons (which I have been failing miserably to implement this year). I figure if we start this one in January it will work out well since it's 52 wks instead of 36, like the rest of our school schedule. Wish me luck.

 

M is starting on Fairy Tales for the 2nd half of the year using the comp guide from VP. I'm planning on doing the full VP program for her next year, so this will help ease her in. And I'm hemming and hawing over re-starting Prima Latina in January... it was a bust this fall and I put it to the side. I don't know if PL just isn't for her, if they're latin-ed out from CC, or what.

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Austin and Ceilidh will start hey andrew level 1 now that my backorder has finally shipped, they will also start mission monde 1 which I had planned to start in sept and didn't. By February I want to be starting their sonlight cores, we just started an explorers unit that we will finish up in January.

 

Hunter will start his sonlight core and science in January. Thie first term I focused on basic math and opgtr so now it is time to start the rest of his stuff.

 

Isabelle will start B4FIAR as part of her totschool

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We always kind of start dropping subjects and such starting in October and do the bare minimums in December then get a nice fresh start in January when they seem ready to focus again.

 

We pretty much get the bulk of our learning done January to April and then get another good go-around June-September.

 

As far as starting a specific "new" to us curriculum--no. But last year we started out the year with Lively Latin.:001_smile:

 

How does this work out for you? Do your children ever forget things over their "break"? Do you feel fresher as a teacher when you've taken that time off?

 

I'm considering taking off the month of December, as my plate has become very full recently, but I'm worried about my K'er forgetting things and my 7 year old losing her math abilities.

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Well, we've JUST started using Famous Men of Greece and we'll finish the school year with FMO Rome.

 

We love FMO Greece! We're using it to supplement SOTW, and it is working really well. We'll use FMO Rome the same way, starting in January.

 

Other than that, not much is changing! Oh except we'll be doing Meet the Great Composers! And ds will start cursive writing (he's doing d'nealian now).

Edited by momto2Cs
spelling, etc.
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How does this work out for you? Do your children ever forget things over their "break"? Do you feel fresher as a teacher when you've taken that time off?

 

I'm considering taking off the month of December, as my plate has become very full recently, but I'm worried about my K'er forgetting things and my 7 year old losing her math abilities.

 

In our case (I know you didn't ask me, but...:tongue_smilie:), "bare minimum" in December means math and reading. I'll drop other other stuff, maybe do a unit study like Christmas around the world. But math and reading to me stays.

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In our case (I know you didn't ask me, but...:tongue_smilie:), "bare minimum" in December means math and reading. I'll drop other other stuff, maybe do a unit study like Christmas around the world. But math and reading to me stays.

 

We've decided to drop down a bit and I've decided this is a comfortable bare minimum for us, as well.

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I'm considering several things and *trying* to be realistic about time and money considerations.

 

--MCT-how could I not be considering this at this point? It's the hive's fault.:001_smile:

 

--Elemental Science Earth studies

 

--Meet the Masters

 

--Math Made Meaningful

 

all are just in the maybe stage right now.:)

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We love FMO Greece! We're using it to supplement SOTW, and it is working really well. We'll use FMO Rome the same way, starting in January.

 

momto2Cs, how do you schedule this in? I have FMO Greece, but I can't seem to make it fit. (I know it shouldn't be that hard, but for some reason I'm struggling. Lame, I know.)

 

Thanks!

Holly

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We'll be starting SOTW, which I've been dying to use since last spring. :)

 

We'll be easing into FLL/WWE, we've done a few lessons this summer and they went well, but I wanted to wait to get further into OPG.

 

Finally, I would love to start either Song School Latin or La Clase Divertida, but not both.

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We'll be moving from afterschooling my older daughter to homeschooling in January... We'll be moving up in levels in Math Mammoth and continuing with history (Galore Park Jr. History). We'll have finished our chemistry book and I think we'll start biology. Plus I'll add in some language arts (maybe MCT... still thinking). This website is an awesome resource for the new homeschooler!

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We are starting Dr. Q's Life science, FFL-2, WWE-2 and SWO-B. We will have met our goal to finish first grade language by Christmas. This means I should have him fulling up to Grade level by the end of 3rd grade at least! I have no delusions that we'll finish 2nd grade by June, but we should be able to finish it and 3rd grade by the end of next year and I'll have him caught up in Language! Yay!! Our language program was weak last year, a lot of FLL1 he already knew, but there was enough to build on that I'm glad we did it and he definitely needed SWO-A(which we have been working on since summer).

 

Next year I'm going to put him in the recommended level of science and I'll be happy if we can finish all four book STOW by the end of elementary school.

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We will be switching from animals (we've been doing all fall) over to the human body for science (following WTM plan for science and SOTW).

 

We will be starting Ambleside year 1 after the new year. We've been using the methods with the materials we have and tweaking our schedule to work with Ambleside. Now it's time to do the real thing using their reading list, and I think we're ready for it.

 

Things we'll be continuing as is are our core - reading, spelling, handwriting & math. We've already implemented the littles from CM - composer study, art, artist study, music, poetry and such so we will be continuing that as well.

 

We actually started homeschooling last January. I did a half year "kindergarten" and started first grade. Actually, it was more like we started various subjects one by one and were up to full speed by the time we officially began first grade in July. So it's kind of a fun time of reflection for us right now, thinking of all the things we've accomplished in the past year. We'll transition to 2nd year history and science in the summer with WTM so that will give us a fresh start then as well.

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This is our first year and we started from the beginning. We've finished up FLL 1 and will be getting into FLL 2 for real in January. Starting Singapore 2b (it's in the mail). Finishing up WWE1 and starting on WWE2. We're behind in history even though we all like STOW so more of that. Adding Prima Latina. Working through Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Nebel. Looks cool.

 

We need more reading. He used to come home from school and read. Now that he's home he's not inclined to read much on his own.

 

The real change needs to be mine; finding a schedule that allows uninterrupted school time. And I need to decide if I want (well I want to but should I) purchase IEW and Teaching the classics. I want to do too much.

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