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[Paisley Hedgehog]

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Edited July 3, 2013 by Paisley Hedgehog
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[TKDmom]

I keep looking at TOG. Do you want to sell yours to me? :lol:

 

I'm starting to feel like SL is not meeting our needs, but I'll probably just omit things that don't work for us, and accelerate through the rest, getting done in March instead of June.

 

I'm also dying to drop Spelling Power, because all together the curricula for dd's LA is too teacher intensive. I bought SWO, but dd took one look at it, remembered doing it right after I pulled her from ps, and announced that she hates SWO. Grrr...

Edited November 6, 2010 by bonniebeth4

[....]

We also made gigantic changes in our school this fall. But, they're good changes. ;)

 

- I've done away with grade levels for the older two and are completely combining them (which is what they really wanna do anyway :glare:)

 

- we've been going through the poems, art and music topics in the Core Knowledge Sequence and ACTUALLY doing art (this is a first for us)

 

- I've finally found a math sequence that works for us: CLE Math+Singapore Lite

 

- I've started going through the history topics in the CK Sequence and we've been reading tons of books about Vikings, Norse Mythology (which my kids think is fun), the Aztecs, Incas, etc (things we weren't covering in depth before)

 

- we've been delving into some Unit Studies that are free online (my son responds very well to unit studies)

 

- I've tried to relax with curriculum/schedule and let them explore more subjects they are interested in

 

- last year, we did about 2 hours of school, this year - school is pretty much all day, but more fun and less Angst

 

Yep. Our school is dramatically different this fall. But, it's a good thing! :D I think homeschooling is like an evolutionary process. :tongue_smilie: Next year, we'll have a working NASA space station hovering above our house. :lol:

[Outdoorsy Type]

I'm not giving anything the boot, but I plan on adding at least Spanish and P.E. My 8yo finishes up with his bookwork quickly in the morning and needs about 30 minutes more before lunch.

 

I'm also considering rotating a few subjects every other day instead of doing Science, Read Aloud, and History every single day. We're ending the day at 4pm most of the time. :tongue_smilie:

 

Also thinking of adding another CoOp.

[walkermamaof4]

- I've done away with grade levels for the older two and are completely combining them (which is what they really wanna do anyway :glare:)

 

- last year, we did about 2 hours of school, this year - school is pretty much all day, but more fun and less Angst

 

Us too! I'm so glad you said this about doing school all day but fun. I keep reading posts about folks doing an hour of school per grade level and then I feel guilty! My kids school all day altogether, but we love what we are doing. Yet, if they had their druthers, they'd be 2 houses down playing with cousins. School could never be fun enough to surpass cousin-time! Sometimes the cousins do ask to join in our water coloring, sentence family, nature study, and other stuff though! Anyway, thanks for saying that. It helps me feel better about the path we've chosen this year!

 

The scary thing is that I'd add in even more if it were up to me alone. But I think at that point I'd burn our kids!

[Smithie]

We'll be needing a new math program, I think. When Singapore 1B got to multiplication and DS was nowhere near memorizing his addition and subtraction facts, I realized that the Singapore people and I just have different values on this issue. :D No doubt my teaching was part of the problem, so we're going for a program that's a better fit with Mommy's brain. I'm open to suggestions. Between now and January, I'm pretty sure that all our math time will be spent on memorizing the =/- facts to 20. I'm thinking of incorporating some money worksheets during this time as well.

 

Other curriculum is going pretty well, but I do wish I didn't have so much out-of-the-house stuff. Next year, when the younger kids are out of preschool (big girl starts K5 at home, little girl will still be a toddler, and she's only been going because her big sister does), I really need to reevaluate our out-of-house activities - including shopping and whatever else I do that breaks up the rhythm of our schooldays. I may try to make changes starting in January - SIL will have a new baby, and I'd love to to a childcare trade with her so that we can both not drag all our kids on multiple errands, and the kids can have playtime together more regularly.

[mama25angels]

I won't be changing much of anything, but I sure would like to. Everything is working fine, and that's why I won't be changing, but i'm a little bored with it, even though the kids are learning fine. I do plan to add in more hands on stuff for my 8yo.. I am thinking of switching from AO Civics to something else.

[AnointedHsMom]

We might be....sigh...I haven't had any history this semester and I am leaning fairly strongly towards Diana Warings stuff. I have always been drawn to HOD curriculum and I remembered that HOD uses the Diana Waring CD's starting in their ancients guide. So of course I've been at HOD's site alot yesterday and this morning and I think it's just time to bite the bullet and do HOD and be done with it. I swear she picks so much of the same books & curriculum that I use independently anyway.

 

So who knows right now but it looks like a change is coming.

[mama25angels]

I swear she picks so much of the same books & curriculum that I use independently anyway.

 

 

 

 

:lol: because I seem to pick most of the same things used in MFW, i've been drooling over it for a long time just can't afford it even though I have most of the books already.

[Crimson Wife]

I'll have to figure out what to do with my DS in math once he finishes MEP Reception. I've got RS A and Saxon 1 sitting on my shelf. There's also the possibility of continuing on with MEP Yr. 1. Decisions, decisions...

[tricia]

I just did a blog post on this exact subject. You may benefit from it. I hope anyway. It's my goal as a veteran homeschooler to be able to bless others. Just click the family blog link below if you are interested!

 

I'm not flipping curriculums in January but that is the time I normally incorporate a new schedule. We use ambleside and we can usually finish a year by January. We school year round and that is simply because I like to keep things neat and simple.

 

I hope you find what you are looking for.

[justamouse]

I just did a blog post on this exact subject. You may benefit from it. I hope anyway. It's my goal as a veteran homeschooler to be able to bless others. Just click the family blog link below if you are interested!

 

I'm not flipping curriculums in January but that is the time I normally incorporate a new schedule. We use ambleside and we can usually finish a year by January. We school year round and that is simply because I like to keep things neat and simple.

 

I hope you find what you are looking for.

 

what a great blog you have! and thank you for posting that sorting tool

[GoVanGogh]

We start our school years in January, so our changes probably don't apply. :lol:

Lately, I have been reflecting over our past school year and rethinking how I structure our year and what I can do to lessen my stress going into the final stretch and getting everything wrapped up. We use a mixture of Latin-Centered Curriculum and Ambleside Online and - this past year - I just planned too much for the fall term and didn't realize how much time a few books would take to read. We had a good, laid back, summer session, which we needed this year. But next year I am planning on doing our harder studies during the summer and save the 'lighter' stuff for fall.

[rieshy]

I'm going to have to do something different with my 8- almost 9 year old. He's had a developmental leap and much of his present school work is just too easy for him- especially his writing and language arts.

 

He's started sitting up in bed, and doing all the next day's independent work ahead of time. Which is sweet- but having him sword fighting about the living room while his 11 yo sister is trying to concentrate on her grammar lesson isn't that helpful.

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet...

[abbeyej]

Two years ago we had a rough (for no particular reason) year and had major curriculum changes half-way through. This year though, things are going well. Younger kiddo will be finishing a few things and adding new ones at the semester, but no major shake-ups.

[dm379]

I'm going to be adding in MCT. They sped through LNST and should be done by Jan. so I'll be switching to LfC. I'm sure I'll change up a few other little things too.

[Tidbits of Learning]

We aren't waiting until January. I am making a few changes sooner than later so we can hopefully not have to school too far into the summer.

We are stopping weekly spelling lists and going with Sequential Spelling. We are also going to try moving dd10 into R&S 5 and have R&S 4 on hand should she need to review topics. She is in 5th and needs to catch up in math this year.

[mom31257]

My big question will be what to do with ds in math. He is finishing up LU 208 in CLE math. He will be finishing up LU 210 sometime in January, so he'll be ready for 3rd grade. He has really been bored with math lately. I think he hit a spot where he really needed spiral math (when I changed to CLE a year ago), but maybe it's just too much review now.

 

I had a set of US Edition Singapore books here that I've added in. I also still had the last half of BJU 2nd grade math that I'm supplementing with as well. He really is liking the BJU lessons.

 

I am really torn because I would like for him to have more review than BJU but not quite as much as CLE.

 

I may go with BJU but find review and drills online somewhere.

[Aurelia]

We're still finishing up a few subjects from last year (mainly history and science - we didn't start SOTW until the end of November last year) and as soon as that's wrapped up we'll be switching to OM. I think it will be good, especially where writing is concerned, since Ariel just finished WWE1 and I feel isn't quite ready for level 2, and OM seems to be in between. Plus OM2 is all about animals, which she loves. Here's hoping school will be fun and intriguing again!

[nukeswife]

We've finally found our groove with the 3rs so the only change there will be to Saxon when my son wraps up TT6. We'll also keep going with Story of the World 3.

 

Science is where I'm wavering. We were using RSO at first this year, but we only had a few units to work through before we were done with those books. Then I bought NOEO biology 2 and although the kids are enjoying the books they are getting bored with the "Read 2 pages, write a summary/draw a picture of what you read" So I may just chuck all the science curriculum and go with unit studies based on interests of my kids. They enjoyed a lapbook we did a last year so I may use those and lots of library books.

 

I loved Mommyx12's blog and it's made me really think about those content areas of history and science.

[Heather in OK]

It's not January yet but we're already making a switch.

 

We are dropping TOG. Love the curriculum but there is SO much that we aren't getting all done, feeling like we need to stay on task to get it done (yes, I know that's my own Type A personality fault there), and the kids aren't retaining or enjoying it. So we're going to do our own thing. I am going to let them pick topics and we will study them until we are ready to move on. I already have a Thanksgiving unit study written that we'll start on Monday. Then we'll probably break from history altogether until January. That will give me time to put some more units together.

 

We have also flipped our school day around. What's worked up until now was to do our "together work" (i.e. Bible Study, history, science) in the morning and individual book work after lunch. I found that we would get done 1-1.5 hours before lunch and everyone would just wander. So I thought, why not spend the morning doing individual work? Then our other things take 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon and we are done for the day! So far it's working ok. My youngest needs some time to play (read: jump, climb, yell...lol) before sitting down to do his stuff. But he's only 5 so it's not a big deal.

[justamouse]

I think I'm going to be switching to AO, but I'm still researching.

[justamouse]

My big question will be what to do with ds in math. He is finishing up LU 208 in CLE math. He will be finishing up LU 210 sometime in January, so he'll be ready for 3rd grade. He has really been bored with math lately. I think he hit a spot where he really needed spiral math (when I changed to CLE a year ago), but maybe it's just too much review now.

 

I had a set of US Edition Singapore books here that I've added in. I also still had the last half of BJU 2nd grade math that I'm supplementing with as well. He really is liking the BJU lessons.

 

I am really torn because I would like for him to have more review than BJU but not quite as much as CLE.

 

I may go with BJU but find review and drills online somewhere.

 

Do you have the home instructor's guide for Singapore? In the back there is Mental Math, extra practice.

[BatmansWife]

I haven't had time to read all the responses. I can't say that we will be changing curriculum starting in January....but we will be starting our new school year in Jan. So...for us it will be all new curriculum and we are all excited.

[FO4UR]

Nope. :001_smile:

 

This is a record for me.:lol:

[Ali in OR]

Not really a change, but I am so enjoying MCT Town level with my 5th grader that I may start Island level with my 2nd grader. She'll probably be done with FLL 2 sometime midwinter and will be ready for something new. My 5th grader is doing Paragraph Town for writing which I think is just excellent--it's making me wonder what was in Sentence Island. I may go through that quickly with her after Paragraph Town.

[5LittleMonkeys]

We are changing quite a lot actually, but not because we didn't like the programs we were using but because I began to realize that I had lost site of one of the main reasons I wanted to homeschool...an individualized education. Because it was easier for me, I had lumped all of my dc into the same programs and styles of learning. We had become slaves to the schedule that each curriculum had us on and became so intent on checking every box that we had no time for exploration or pursuing interests further.

 

I'm dropping formal history and science curriculums for my dc, and we are going to be doing interest\project based learning. Each dc will be allowed to pursue her own path. I will be available to facilitate, gather resources and help in any way they need me to but I'm not directing the learning. The only requirement I have is that they have to be actively working on 1 science and 1 history project\topic\interest per six weeks. I don't think that will be a problem as they have already come up with a lists of 6-8 topics per subject. They are super excited and I'm excited to see all of the cool things they have already been planning on doing.

 

Dd11 and I will be starting a new math program\method in an attempt to deal with her math issues (I won't call them LDs becuase I haven't had her formally diagnosed). We are going to be dropping MUS for now and moving back to the 2nd grade level in MM. I will incorporate games from RS and also some methods from MEP.

 

Dd7 will be switching from a MUS\MEP combo to a MEP\MUS combo. She has become enamored with MEP. I'm not sure this will be a permanent switch but I told her we would try it.

 

Dd12 and Dd11 will also be starting Classical Writing...finally! After me drooling over it for over a year, deciding to just do WTM methods across the curriculum, and waffling between the two I have finally decided that I will have no peace of mind until I just take the plunge and try CW. We had been doing Aesop style rewrites for a long time and my girls love doing those so I'm hoping that enthusiasm carries over when we start Homer.

 

Ds4 has decided that he will learn how to read in January.:lol: He heard me telling my MIL that he learned how to count all the way to 50 in September (I was making a big deal about it for his benefit). So he told me it should only take him January to learn how to read. I guess I'll be pretty busy in January.:tongue_smilie:

 

Well, that was longer than I expected.:blushing:

[5Wizards]

Things are going really well with my 4th grader, so no major changes there. However, my plans for my 5 year old have changed dramatically. I have dropped the curriculum I was going to use already (stuff I had used with my oldest) and am making this year more fun for her. We are doing reading and math, but she is doing well with both of those so we are just continuing with what we were doing before our "school year" started. She loves to "do lessons," but nothing is scripted and there are no boxes to check. I feel so much more confident with her than I did with my first (experience I guess). We go with the flow, play games, get messy, do projects, and have fun learning. We do some seat work, but she does enjoy that. I will also probably start MM1 with her sometime within the next couple of months, but no pushing. Anyway, I just feel really good about where we are right now. :001_smile:

[scrapbookbuzz]

If I can convince my husband that it's 'doable', we'll bring our kids OUT of the public school, and back home for schooling. I really want to go through Sonlight Cores K & 5 with them, starting in January.

[mazakaal]

No major changes in January. We've already changed our math, though. I had the 8yo & 6yo doing MEP, but I've had to give up on that and have switched them both to MM which seems to be going better. The 6yo will soon be finishing OPGTR, and we'll then add FLL for him. Other than that, we're pretty much sticking with what we've got. I rarely change mid-stream though, because once I've got my materials brought from America, I'm stuck with them, can't return them, and don't want to pay international shipping for new stuff. I love that I could just download MM, so that switch was easy.

[HollyDay]

Why wait!!!?? I've already made a few changes. The last time I did a major January overhaul was 6 years ago when dd was in 3rd grade. I pitched the entire program and went over 100% to BJU. We stayed with BJU completely for 2 (3rd and 4th grade) years. It was the best decision I could have made. But other than that year, we have only needed to tweak and adjust things.

[Closeacademy]

I did a big change last January and it was the best thing I ever did for our homeschool. So for January we are just moving to the next level in our curriculum. No big changes for us. :001_smile:

[....]

We'll be needing a new math program, I think. When Singapore 1B got to multiplication and DS was nowhere near memorizing his addition and subtraction facts, I realized that the Singapore people and I just have different values on this issue. :D No doubt my teaching was part of the problem, so we're going for a program.

 

Hi! I should probably just pm you...but we're in Singapore 3a, so I've been through 1b. It is confusing when they start introducing mult/division before you feel like your student has mastered addition/subtraction. I don't think Singapore will expect your student to memorize the multiplication facts until later (around 2b/3a), they're just trying to show how multiplication is like an extension of addition.

 

Also, we do CLE Math in addition to Singapore and that's more like a traditional math program. My kids have made great strides with CLE Math - in terms of math facts, geometry, little stuff that singapore wasn't covering (like calendars :tongue_smilie:, pairing, temperature)... But, Singapore has some great word problems. So, we do both programs.

[cin]

We are starting MUS officially tommorrow. But the girls have already done the first 2 weeks of it last week and so far, LOVE IT.

 

I'm also starting a new Latin curriculum tomorrow for dd9.

 

Both of the programs are DVD lessons, which I think will be good for my oldest. Our relationship is sometimes rocky, so I can somewhat remove myself from these two subjects. :)

[Night Elf]

I'd like to but I think I'm going to have to wait until May. The materials I chose for dd12 at the beginning of the year just haven't worked out the way I thought they would. The only thing she is left with from the stuff I bought for her is MUS. She's taking 3 homeschool classes, biology, literature and writing. None of have alot of outside work, but I'm afraid if I add to it, she will have too much work. And we've decided to just start her in high school classes anyway, which is why I'm afraid it would be too much. So basically her school days are extremely light, like 60 - 90 minutes. It's actually driving me nuts. :)

[Guest Cindie2dds]

No, but for some reason January has always been our change month. :lol: I did add most of Ambleside Online Year 1 to do in conjunction with Oak Meadow for so many reasons; mostly our lifestyle choices. I did add a Saxon 2 math workbook (got it free) for repetition of math facts she has learned. That's it. :)

[momto2Cs]

Here's a link to another post I wrote about this.

 

1. We dropped Saxon Math in favor of Math Mammoth, supplemented with games, card playing, puzzles, good "mathy" books, etc.

 

2. We dropped formal history and science. The kids are choosing what they are interested in and we go from there. Right now they are really into science documentaries and experiments on various topics. And mythology.

 

3. No spelling program, and while we use Explode the Code and Intermediate Language Lessons, we use them in conjunction with other activities (like ds working on a comic book this week).

 

4. We dropped formal art and music history. Instead, we listen to music, are going to the symphony, and art museums. Plus they create a lot of art.

 

Overall, we have just... relaxed. We don't unschool really, because I do require the Three R's, but other than that it is all child led.

[momto2Cs]

We are changing quite a lot actually, but not because we didn't like the programs we were using but because I began to realize that I had lost site of one of the main reasons I wanted to homeschool...an individualized education. Because it was easier for me, I had lumped all of my dc into the same programs and styles of learning. We had become slaves to the schedule that each curriculum had us on and became so intent on checking every box that we had no time for exploration or pursuing interests further.

 

I'm dropping formal history and science curriculums for my dc, and we are going to be doing interest\project based learning. Each dc will be allowed to pursue her own path. I will be available to facilitate, gather resources and help in any way they need me to but I'm not directing the learning. The only requirement I have is that they have to be actively working on 1 science and 1 history project\topic\interest per six weeks. I don't think that will be a problem as they have already come up with a lists of 6-8 topics per subject. They are super excited and I'm excited to see all of the cool things they have already been planning on doing.

 

:iagree: :iagree: :iagree: Exactly.

[Annie Laurie]

I think we might start SOTW 1 in Jan. We've been doing AS1/SL 3 since uhhh.... Februrary, I think. We've been slow going, finally chucked the schedules and just read what we want, and I'd like to finish up soon if we can. (New baby due any day though, so I might be dreaming).

 

But we're all bored and they have been asking and asking for Ancient history again.

 

That's it- our skill subejcts are going well. Oh, actually, I have been thinking about Math Mammoth instead of RightStart since it seems a tad less teacher intensive, and I'm worried what will happen when baby arrives. But still not sure I want to leave RS, and it would only be for my 6 and 8 yr olds, my 10 yr old is very stuck on doing RS and didn't like the MM samples.

[CoastalGal]

We're making some changes now...well in about 2 weeks actually. :tongue_smilie: (I have to fulfill a commitment and then lookout!!)

 

We're giving up on TOG -- we'll be starting SOTW w/ Usborne Encyclopedia for the 11 year old and Notgrass Exploring World History with the 14 year old.

[mama25angels]

We are changing quite a lot actually, but not because we didn't like the programs we were using but because I began to realize that I had lost site of one of the main reasons I wanted to homeschool...an individualized education. Because it was easier for me, I had lumped all of my dc into the same programs and styles of learning. We had become slaves to the schedule that each curriculum had us on and became so intent on checking every box that we had no time for exploration or pursuing interests further.

 

:iagree: I think this may be my problem and is probably why even though the curriculum is working or appears to be, i'm still not that thrilled with it. I don't know if i'll be making any changes, but this does give me something to think about. Thank you for posting

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I'm considering changing and adding a few things. DD seems to be ready for her grade level bumps in January. Still pondering what we will do.

[Tree House Academy]

For the first year, EVER, we are perfectly HAPPY where we are! We will continue on and maybe actually finish something this year!

 

Years past, I could have written your post word for word. I hope that you will find great fits for your kids in Jan! :)

[Momma H]

I already dropped TT for MM. Also, we switched from IEW to Write Shop and I hate to say, I stopped doing Dynamic Literacy (swoon haha) because I figured out we will be covering that stuff in PR! (by the way, I have DL for sale on the for sale board!) :tongue_smilie:

[rafiki]

.

[Beth in SW WA]

If my plan works out, in January (or sooner) Dd 13/8th will take Spanish 2 at ds's private high school. (We'll drop her Spanish tutor & weekly conversation class for this daily class). She wants to attend there for high school so this could be an excellent transition phase. She loves Spanish and this is an opportunity I don't want to pass up.

 

The little dds will continue with our current plan.

[kalanamak]

We will be done with WWE 2 this month, and I don't feel quite ready to start 3. We will be done with GWG3 in Feb, and I'm not sure what to do.

 

I may bridge the gap and start up MCT Island and see if it fits us.

 

We should finish RSO Chem by Christmas, and instead of doing a whole year of chem, I'm going to try half a year of physics, and then in 4th gr do 1/4 of a year each of chem, physics, review of bio and earth science, and history of science.

 

After SWO C is finished around Christmas, I'm going to try the spelling program written by our GWG mother. Kiddo loves the books with the spiral on top, it seems fairly independent, has more review written in, etc.

[Guest]

Lots to think about...

[snickelfritz]

We've already made the changes, and they feel good...so far.

 

Ditched Saxon for MEP as our 2nd math program.

Ditched R&S spelling for AAS.

Ditched formal history.

Kept science, but put it on a backburner.

Made violin practice a higher priority.

We all took up crocheting. :lol: Seriously, I've made utilizing our museum memberships and following dd's interests (including crocheting) a higher priority.

[fastforward]

I won't be making changes to curriculum that we're already using, but I will be "officially" adding subjects to the schedule that seem to get pushed to the back burner right now. Rather than try to fit them in now and feel stressed, I'll let them go and start fresh in January. SOTW2 fits into this, as well a foreign language other than Latin. Music studies were temporarily put on hold and might begin in the new year, as well.

 

- I've finally found a math sequence that works for us: CLE Math+Singapore Lite

 

Would you mind sharing how you mesh these together? :)