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What are you doing to make homeschooling simpler next year?


Jonibee
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Combining history and science for my kids! Making one planning book (instead of two) with everyone's lesson plans in one place. Quiting my part time job since it was interuppting our schooling. We changed our school year to be only off 6-7 weeks in the summer and take more breaks during the school year. And I did better research to come up with a new plan in areas we were struggling. I am excited about school right now! I wasn't feeling that way at the beginning of the year.

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Guest jab300

I definitely second the combining subjects with kids. I tested that out some late this year and it worked great, even with such a large gap (1st and 4th grade.) I'm also planning on having a 4 day week...that way there is always a day for errands (dr visit, library, park, etc.)

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I am combining history and science. I wanted a 3 year history cycle because my kids are all 3 years apart so they would start 1st grade in the Ancients. I picked out my spine and then I have living books appropriate for each level to read also.

 

Science is still up in the air as far as doing something formal or continuing with our nature study/student directed science.

 

Kelly

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I definitely second the combining subjects with kids. I tested that out some late this year and it worked great, even with such a large gap (1st and 4th grade.) I'm also planning on having a 4 day week...that way there is always a day for errands (dr visit, library, park, etc.)

 

 

Mine have the same gap, except we're one year younger. I'll have a K'er and a 3rd grader. What science did you use this year? Also, if you do Bible, what did you use?

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I definitely second the combining subjects with kids. I tested that out some late this year and it worked great, even with such a large gap (1st and 4th grade.) I'm also planning on having a 4 day week...that way there is always a day for errands (dr visit, library, park, etc.)

 

My boys are 1st and 4th too and not until January was my youngest even ready to do school with his brother. He finally matured enough and now I think they are ready to go. I was spending way too much time on planning, so I am looking forward to less with them doing just about the same stuff!

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Forgot to add that we schedule a make up day every other Friday. Helps to catch up if we get behind or extra/unplanned study on anything that needs more work than expected or study something that we didn't know would be so interesting and want more.

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Enrolling my middle schoolers in "electives" using FL Virtual School. DD wants to take Spanish and since I don't have time to teach it, there ya' go! Other dd is taking a Critical Thinking/Study Skills class so I can pay less attention to that dept. I'll probably use them for math, too for the high schoolers. I'm cutting down on my teaching responsibilities.

 

Making grammar school science 2 days a week and pretty much independent. In other words, retention is not my goal in science this year. That way, I can actually teach, not cram, drawing and music.

 

Moving up my son to TOG UG so he'll be more independent, even if only a little.

 

Enrolling ds in CC in the spring.

 

I've taken on a babysitting job ---- and actually getting paid this time! A small miracle for me! Hiring a house cleaner in the fall for 2x/month do do the floors and bathrooms and probably paying dd to do my laundry.

 

Forming a TOG co-op so I'll stay motivated to keep the hands-on activities moving forward.

 

I may also decide to buy more convenience foods instead of cooking from scratch. OR, and more likely, I'll do cooking marathons and really utilize my deep freezer!

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We swapped curriculum's! I was using two different curriculum's that required alot of teacher prep lesson planning. Most of my week was spent planning for the next and alot of times we could'nt find what I needed.

We went specifically to MFW and a couple of other things and it has made things so much easier for us!! It has made both dc and mom very happy! :)

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Guest jab300
Mine have the same gap, except we're one year younger. I'll have a K'er and a 3rd grader. What science did you use this year? Also, if you do Bible, what did you use?

 

At first we tried Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding but that didn't work out for us. I just started putting together units on various topics and finding stuff online. Our best was a human body unit using Usborne Internet Linked as the spine and Easy Make and Learn for activities.

 

ETA: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey is great for multi levels as well.

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This year is we're taking a break from BFSU, and continuing it next year. It is teacher intensive, and I want something easier to put together for ds this Third Year. Hence, we're using Singapore's My Pals Are Here Science. I hope to review some concepts and fill in gaps. I'm also planning my own American History curriculum this year, and we want to have more FUN.

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Enrolling my oldest in public school, lol. Ok, that's not the answer you're looking for, but it will greatly reduce the stress level around here.

 

I'm also going to change the way I write out the daily schedules and actually put "time limits" on subjects. They will get x amount of time for each subject. I will teach what I need to teach and they will have the rest of the time to complete the work. Anything they don't finish will be "homework" later that evening. I'm tired of them playing around and taking 2+ hours to finish math.

 

I'm changing up a lot of our curriculum and combining on some of the subjects (not sure I could do them all with a 1st, 4th, and 6th grader).

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Next year won't be simpler because I'm adding so much, but I've dropped formal spelling for next year. That will allow me to add in what I need. We'll cover spelling informally with dictation. It'll hopefully be quicker and I'll reevaluate next spring to see what we'll do for spelling in the fall of 2012.

 

My 'next year' always gets more complicated as I add children (both in the 'giving birth' and in the 'doing school') to the chaos. I just have to be more organized & work "smarter" - not harder. (Whatever that means.)

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I am combining a little bit of lang. with my oldest and middle son, and combining history and art with my middle and youngest son. I dropped civics for my 8th grader, and added a couple of subjects that can be independently done for all. I'm looking forward to next year because of these changes.:001_smile:

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For me, picking something and staying with it! we start so much stuff and then switch and start again.

 

Combining all lang arts into The Phonics Road. Choosing to teach either history OR science. I cannot keep up with both.

 

Using Five in a Row.

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Only do world history once a week, science once a week, & American history once a week (as described on charlottemasonhelp.com), with one science experiment or history project (if we so desire) once a week.

 

Use AO levels 1-3 as a booklist for family read-alouds instead of doing each level completely for each kid. I loved year 1, but the thought of reading all those books again for the next kid.... no way. I want to really enjoy the books with the kids rather than read a certain story because the schedule says so.

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I combined kid 2 & 3 for history this year and that worked out pretty well, so I plan to continue that, and also combine kid 3 & 4 for science this coming fall.

 

Elder ds MUST get his driver's license this summer. Riding along with his this year two days a week was a time & energy sapper that can NOT continue.

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I have focus the early years on developing good habits. Forming good habits was more important than making school fun. :svengo: Now that he is approaching 4th grade, he is SOOO easy to homeschool. He works diligently and isn't afraid to work on hard subjects. No whining or dawdling!

 

I have found a pre-planned curriculum that works well for our family. No more tedious lesson planning! I can add in LA and math for each individual child but 95% of the lesson planning is done. This means when school is done for the day for the kids then I'm done with school for the day as well. I actually get school breaks too. Makes me happy!

 

Since we can focus on school in the morning and I don't have to spend anytime planning for school, we have our afternoons free! :hurray:

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Well I have one graduating. I will have two leaving each day to go to school. And I will have only two at home each day! ;)

 

I've always felt my youngest never got a lot of attention, so I'm excited to focus school more on their needs. We will focusing on nature study per my youngest request. For me just being able to be outside and the slow nature of studying nature will make my days seem simplier!

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I'll be using Teaching Textbooks for math, cutting down the one-on-one time I have to spend explaining math. I really like the looks of the program, so hopefully it'll work for us.

 

I'm going to be using an organized phonics/reading program with dd for the first time (McRuffy). I haven't used anything that all inclusive before, so it'll be nice not piecing together spelling, phonics, reading, and writing.

 

We're also ditching our pathetic attempts at formal history and science. We are so much more unschooly people in this area, at best unit study people. I do have a loose plan for children of the world (dd) and ds is pondering Beautiful Feet's History of Science (again, all organized for me).

 

Also, with ds going into (gulp) 5th grade, he is much more independent, and will be doing more work on his own, leaving me free to work more with dd.

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More independent work. Switching DS from FLL, AAS, and HWT to CLE LA, and probably DD1 as well, even though I do like FLL. She loves doing independent work so I think it will be a better fit. She will still start WWE next year though for writing. Probably WS for DS also, with WWE style work in history. Oh! SOTW for history! History won't be our "focus" anymore so we have time for science, woohoo! Spanish will be online (Powerglide.) This all takes SO MUCH off my plate! Both kids will also use MUS.

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More independent work and programs with get her done worksheets. :)

 

Switching from PR 2 which requires 100% teacher interaction to Building Spelling Skills 4, Growing With Grammar 4, WWE 2

 

Switching from Math Mammoth, which is hard on vision LDs to Teaching Textbooks.

 

HOD Bigger Science which is wishy washy to SL Science 3 which has worksheets to complete, experiment kits and DVDs to watch.

 

Also programs that I know we have enjoyed more in the past than what we have been forcing ourselves to grit through this year. We really enjoy WWE and I dropped it to go with all in one. We enojoy science and I dropped it as a separate subject as well. I think that enjoyment and excitement helps to get things done, kwim?

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combining my kids for the bulk of their subjects, and only keeping LA & math separate.

 

 

What method are you (or anyone else) using to combine subjects? Unit studies or something else? I would love to do this!

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We are taking a more relaxed approach. Math and LA (inc latin) daily plus either science or history, not both and unschooling the balance. Plus we are spreading the load over 7 days a week.

 

WOW! See, if I did that we'd all be burnt out the 1st week! LOL

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We are starting MFW and putting most of the kids in the family cycle (my 1st grade and K ds will do very minimal but will sit in on parts of ECC) Its just to much for me to have all 4 kids in separate history and science. Just to much. This will be much better for our families needs!

Not to pick on you, but why do people have their kids in different places in history and science to begin with? TWTM says to combine them.

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Not to pick on you, but why do people have their kids in different places in history and science to begin with? TWTM says to combine them.

 

 

I didn't hear about the WTM until after the first year of homeschooling. My oldest dd had just done Ancients Via Abeka Old World History and my then 1st grader just did the Abeka 1st grade history (:ack2:) So I started my youngest dd in Ancients in 2nd and my oldest dd in AAH 1 in 6th (because I already had it) Then put her in MOH 2 this year and dd now in 3rd read SOTW 2 and is starting 3 this year. It just kinda happened but now with having all 4 in school next year I would go out of my mind. I kinda rushed my now 3rd grader to get her "caught up" in the history cycle. But I am done with that. After re-reading WTM doing what we are doing I just don't see it doing any body any good. So we will all start ECC next year (K, 1st, 4th and 8th) Then they will all be in Ancients the following year, only with my oldest using MFW high school Ancients. I am planning on really making this super rich by using a TON of read alouds. It was basically my ignorance of not doing enough research my first year of homeschooling. All I knew about that year was Abeka, BJU and ACE. Since I absolutely HATED Abeka history I made it my mission to find out what is all out there, a friend introduced me to Rainbow Resource and WTM. That is my story and I'm sticking to it ;)

 

Also I have a local friend that combined kids using Abeka, so an example is 1 year she had all her kids doing 4th grade abeka, she had that year a young K'er, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader. The youngest was so lost she was in tears alot. The oldest was so bored out of his gore. He absolutely did not learn anything. So that kinda scared me away from combining kids until I learned how to via WTM and the classical history cycle. ;)

Edited by wy_kid_wrangler04
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:bigear: I'm jealously reading the posts about people combining their kids. I can't much at all! I have one starting high school and another going into 3rd. They will at least be studying the same history time period, but even a read aloud would have to be in-between their levels. Oh well...at least I didn't have 2 in diapers at the same time!

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I'm also going to change the way I write out the daily schedules and actually put "time limits" on subjects. They will get x amount of time for each subject. I will teach what I need to teach and they will have the rest of the time to complete the work. Anything they don't finish will be "homework" later that evening. I'm tired of them playing around and taking 2+ hours to finish math.

 

This is what I started doing before Christmas. Works great.

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This is how we're combining....

 

my 8th grader will do SL core 100 independently, then sit in on the core D+E RA's. My 6th and 4th (as much as she can) will do D+E together. My 2nd grader will not get much out of that core, so I am going to do a run through of the states will her and the 4th grader using Cantering the Country - very low key and fun. All of them will memorize states, capitals, and presidents. Not really combined in one program - but doing the same time period and memory work. We'll see how it goes!

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Not to pick on you, but why do people have their kids in different places in history and science to begin with? TWTM says to combine them.

 

Mine are too far apart to combine and have them each at the appropriate level. My oldest has very different needs going into both science & social science than my middle guy, so ack, yeah, I have to have them separated AND studying different topics.

 

 

Simplifying... our big thing is dropping back on some of our outside-the-house activities. Dd isn't doing Master's Academy next year, and the only other during the day activities/classes that they are registered for are music/band on Friday afternoons. I'm sure we'll have late afternoon/evening stuff, but nothing else during the day, hooray!

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I'm also going to change the way I write out the daily schedules and actually put "time limits" on subjects. They will get x amount of time for each subject. I will teach what I need to teach and they will have the rest of the time to complete the work. Anything they don't finish will be "homework" later that evening. I'm tired of them playing around and taking 2+ hours to finish math.

 

 

This sounds like a very good idea!

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We will be heading into our second year of HS'ing. We're going to use most of the same curriculum (SM, WWE, FLL, AAS, SOTW) which should make September easier as we won't be trying to figure out what we are doing.

I also plan to use Elemental Science so I don't have to come up with my own topics, activities, and experiments.

I have also started making my boys a checklist for each day. This way they have their own copy of what they have to do and don't have to search through my lesson plan book or ask me what is next.

I also am going to avoid co-ops to keep our life simplier.

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Our lives are already pretty simple and streamlined. I guess the biggest thing that we are doing to simplify school is that I am scanning all my IGs and putting them on my Kindle. Then my IGs leave my home and the clutter goes down. It is like having a weight lifted off of me. I am going to do this with books that tend to get lost all the time, too (for example, a certain child's Spelling Workout book). It just takes the stress off of having to track down necessary books and then allows us to school on the road a little more easily.

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What method are you (or anyone else) using to combine subjects? Unit studies or something else? I would love to do this!

 

My 9th & 6th grader will continue with American History together using Joy Hakim's History of US books 6-10. (This year we used All American History vol 1.) I will consider next year's course a credit for the high schooler as I am adding US History based writing lessons vol 2 from IEW + some extra required reading from Core 100 & some books of my own choosing. 6th grader will not be writing quite as much. I'll be adding lots of documentaries which they both enjoy.

 

I am planning on combining my 3rd & 6th grader for science using Elemental Science Biology for the Logic Stage. I'm a little iffy on this one... It remains to be seen how well my 3rd grader handles this. I don't expect as much writing & sketching from him. He might surprise me though. No science I've chosen for him yet has been quite enough.

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You know what else I realized, I'm not uber planning this year. I'm grabbing the materials I use daily and simply using them. We get the work done, so why do all the writing and typing out.

 

I am printing and copying like crazy, ahead of time, but that's it. No color coded schedules that I'm gonna change 6 times throughout the year. We're writing things down and looping them out. That's it. SIMPLE planning!

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I'm keeping things very basic. We only cover history, science, math, and reading. My six and five year old will do history and science together, and we will have a three year old tag along. For those, we are just reading books on the topic that will hold their interest, and if we are in a projecty mood, we'll do a project.

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You know what else I realized, I'm not uber planning this year. I'm grabbing the materials I use daily and simply using them. We get the work done, so why do all the writing and typing out.

 

I am printing and copying like crazy, ahead of time, but that's it. No color coded schedules that I'm gonna change 6 times throughout the year. We're writing things down and looping them out. That's it. SIMPLE planning!

 

 

Amen to that!! :001_smile:

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This is kind of silly but I'm taking almost all my IGs and workbooks to Staples to have the spines cut off and comb bindings put on. It's costing a fortune, but not having to turn to a certain page in every book will save us a lot of time next year. My kids also hate trying to write with a big, bulky spine in the way. The six-year-old is kind of compulsive about it, actually.

 

So, you finished your lesson? Turn the page and put it away. Tomorrow you just pull the book out and GO!

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