For those of you who were starters-in-the middle with multiple kids: can you advise?

[yellowperch]

My children left public school in early April. I've been reading/thinking/talking about hs for a long time so while the timing is unusual, I know something about what I am undertaking.

 

My question is about planning/organizing. I am finding I am spending as much--or even more--time planning and prepping for the next days lessons as my children spend at school work. I know start-up costs are to be expected. Did you find this, too? When does things grow more balanced?

 

Any other advice is appreciated. I'm having a nutty day and need some support from BTDT.

 

Thanks!

 

PS. Editing to add: by start-up costs I mean time-wise, not $-wise

Edited May 25, 2010 by yellowperch

[Carrie12345]

:grouphug:

Pulling mid-year has got to be tough! I made the transition between 4th and 5th and my littles hadn't started yet, so I'm sure I had it easier.

 

If you're sticking to a traditional school year, I would try a bit of deschooling/unschooling until the fall. If you're planning to do year-round, I'd consider taking a break first.

 

At least go as light as you can possibly make yourself feel comfortable with before going full-force!

 

I'd also put the most focus on the eldest and work my way down. My soon-to-be-7yo was nearly neglected when she was 4/5, but she's worked her way up to her older sister's level just fine!

 

As tedious as it can be, I prefer to block out several days to devote to lesson planning for X amount of time (I can't do full year- it kills me!). Starting practically from scratch each night will suck the motivation out of you, and probably isn't the best time management situation.

 

You don't have to jump into the deep end right away! Step in from the shallow end. Enter some analogy about cramps after eating here. (I'm not feeling very creative today!)

[Carrie12345]

P.S. My expenses haven't really leveled yet. First dd is about 4 years behind first ds. Second ds is about 4 years behind second dd. I dang well better see a big drop of in expense 4 years from now!!!!

[Maureen]

I pulled my kids out of school in Feb. four years ago. I spent the next year reading all about homeschooling (I didn't have any preparation before I pulled them). I also did a lot of reading aloud to them for the rest of that school year. With two boys on top, I'd recommend you just focus on reading with them and encouraging them to read on their own between now and next fall.

With regards to planning - I have had lots of trial and error over the 4 years, picking and choosing books and then rethinking things that don't seem to work. I will say that I mostly keep coming back to SWB's recommendations after I've been lured away by something I've heard about elsewhere.

I really wish SWB had written her WWE program a few years earlier so I could have used it all the way through. I think it is fabulous.

 

Good luck with your new adventure!

[Susan in KY]

Maybe you could do fun stuff with them (science experiments, nature walks, library, etc) for a while while you work out new ground rules for family life. Make the schedule you'd like to keep during the year (get up at x, lunch at y if you room is picked up, free time until z, quiet time and whatnot later) and work on family stuff and fun things until they've decompressed from school. You can start in with the other stuff in the fall.

[yellowperch]

Well, I'm feeling better already.

 

We are all read-a-holics. Actually most of us are, with my oldest being a reluctant and formerly remedial reader. Now (because we have so much more time) he's spending hours (maybe 2) just reading. And I read aloud. But less now that I am trying to "do school". Hmm.

 

We did start at the begining of WWE, but we do a week in a day and skip some weeks. I just want to give the bigger kids a better foundation. My kindergartener is not getting much. But she's a good reader (Henry and Mudge, for eg.) and has a nack and interest in math.

 

I don't want to de-school because DH is not on board. Also my kids do expect to do work. I also like seeing how it feels so come September I do have this little trial run under my belt.

[delaney]

I dont know about your schools but ours are essentially done by late May due to testing. I would just enjoy the time you have and do things before the "standard" population is out of school and it gets crowded.:)

[momofkhm]

And then I chose a program with the planning done for me.

 

Lots of things are do the next thing - math, grammar, spelling, Bible. So planning those was easy.

 

Then the core program, I started with My Father's World. It was open the book and go. It was planned week by week. I just looked at the library for books on Wednesday for the next week. In the middle of the second year, we switched to TOG, again it was planned for me by the week so I just had to locate books and figure out what we actually would do.

 

Science - if you are part of the publisher yahoo groups, you can find schedules for how many pages to read a day so that was easy too. MFW has science integrated in. Then we use Apologia science. There are yahoo groups with schedules but donnayoung.org has schedules as well.

 

Costs - we started with 6th, 4th and 1st. Now we have 10th, 8th and 5th. I have to buy grammar this year for one. Math for 3 (switched programs). Spelling workbook for 1. Hand Writing for 1 (youngest needs more practice than the girls did). Science for 2. Vocabulary for 1.

TOG books for the kids - I have to buy 3 levels of books this year and next. After that, I should be able to book for just oldest. I'm almost to that point with other subjects as well, as long as the same program works for all three kids. I'll have to buy workbooks but that's it.

[yellowperch]

Bumping, because I need to hear from others who have done this. Please tell me your story. thank you!

[Melissa in Australia]

when I took mine out of school. I had a grade 5 ,3 ,1, K and a baby. I started off with just doing grammar, spelling and math. along with a lot of craft and cooking. I added a new subject every few weeks or so. It took me 6 months to get up to all the subjects. but we haven't looked back from there.

[In The Great White North]

I started in January with my then 4th grader. I also had a 9th grader at home and a 6th grader at school. They had been in a Waldorf school, so my only expense for her was art supplies! And I had her older siblings Main Lesson Books as examples, so the day to day lesson plans weren't done for me but the big picture was.

 

Actually most of us are, with my oldest being a reluctant and formerly remedial reader. Now (because we have so much more time) he's spending hours (maybe 2) just reading.

 

This happened with us also. Reading was like pulling teeth when she left school. Within two weeks at home, she was reading "for fun," for hours.

[Elfinlady]

I pulled both my kids mid-year this year. The 7th grader never went back after Thanksgiving break. I enrolled him in an online middle school. He was doing so poorly in public school that we started 7th grade over from the beginning. He has teachers he can email with, and he submits his assignments online. He needed to be accountable to someone besides me. We've been very happy with Keystone, and will return for 8th grade.

 

The 2nd grader I pulled at the end of January. I promoted her to 3rd grade (she was more than ready), and we are using the Calvert program. It's all right, and it's helped me learn how to schedule and teach, but I've found that I want to change or supplement too many things, so for 4th grade I'm putting together my own curriculum.

[Peela]

I pulled my 2 out mid year 8 years ago next month (thats mid year here in Australia). It was pretty chaotic for quite a while. I definitely spent a LOT of time planning and researching- for a long time. In retrospect..I could have spent less time on the computer, more time taking them for field trips and just using the first curricula I bought! But, its a huge learning curve and you need to cut yourself some slack for the journey you are on now. It's time consuming, but it does get easier. I don't like to say how many years till I felt I knew what I was doing, but it does get easier :)

There are ways of planning and setting up that don't involve much nightly preparation. It might be the books you are using or the system. I use a weekly workbox system. workboxsystem.com . I use the basic workbox system, which I have set up in drawers for my kids, and I put a week's worth of work in each drawer- but they are older. Even the daily workbox system can help streamline and keep things ordered. It has made quite a different for us and I didn't start using it till this year when my kids are already teens.

 

Read to your kids a lot, and make sure you are having fun as well as doing the work. Not that it's all fun...but you are setting the tone for their childhood and there should be plenty of warm fuzzy bonding and fun times as well. You will also be dealing with deschooling your kids- getting the school out of them. It takes months. Let everyone unwind as well as set routines.

[mrbmom77]

I pulled my kids out in the middle of 4th and 6th grades last year. At first, I spent huge amounts of time planning every detail - very stressful - then I figured I needed to relax a little. Now, I have some subjects that are open and go. This year, I sat down for an hour or two every weekend and jotted down a plan for the coming week. I just wrote up a page for each child with subject headings and then what pages/projects/whatever we would cover. I found it less stressful to block out time on the weekend than try to do it every evening. It also gave me time to check out what supplies would be needed and make sure we had everything.

A month or so ago, I bought HomeschoolTracker Plus. I'm plugging in lesson plans for next year now and I'll just have to assign them to the scheduled days when the time comes. Hopefully it will save me time and stress in the long run.

Also, the kids each have a crate with their notebooks and texts, and I have a rolling crate with my manuals and books used for both of them. This solved the problem of hunting stuff down 5 times a day.

[yellowperch]

"you are setting the tone for your children's childhood"

terrific words to consider

today it was 90 degrees here so we did spelling, a bit of math, grabbed our fun reading, boogie boards and some snacks and headed to the beach. We got there at noon and left at 7 pm. Our PS friends arrived en masse at 3:30. Great fun.

 

Rain tomorrow so we will be back at it.

 

Thank you for all this advice. I'd love to read more about middle of the year starters if you were so inclined.