I don't think I can do this... MFW not going well and can't afford the co-op I want..

[WaterLily]

I'm so hesitant to pour my heart out but I'm so desperate for help and encouragement. We just started our 3rd week of 9th grade using MFW and I want to throw in the towel.... on MFW.... on everything!!!! MFW is driving me nuts. I haven't seen anyone else say anything bad about it so I feel like I must be crazy but the jumping around is making me insane!!! I kinow it's a good thing to use multiple sources for learning but I'm still not even sure where the answers are for everything I'm supposed to be checking. Sure, I know if I spent more time with it I'd figure it out, but I just wish it wasn't so complicated. I'm a scatterbrained artist type and I need things simple and to the point. MFW probably is eventually but the learning curve is killing me... and ds. He doesn't like it so far but some of that is attitude. He's smart but doesn't like to work too hard. :glare: He's also still a little confused by the jumping around.

 

Today we were talking about things while I was trying to implement our first "meeting". We were talking about our frustrations and I explained that I'm having a hard time with MFW and I think it's just the way my brain works and so on. He then proceeded to explain to me that it's because I'm one person trying to teach multiple subjects, none of which I'm even trained to teach - unlike in public school where the teacher teaches one subject they know about. Mind you, he wasn't disrespectful but it hurt. I'm feeling low enough and that didn't help. Soooo.... maybe he's right. I don't think I can do this. Oh how I hate saying that.

 

What to do... I found a co-op over the summer that meets twice a week and I thought that would really be helpful for us but it was way too expensive. :sad: I thought that would've been such a good compromise. My husband feels strongly that we continue to homeschool - he's open to co-ops and whatnot but not public school. My ds has mentioned possibly wanting to go to public school but the thought makes my stomach turn. We live near a very nice public school but I just can't stand the thought. A Christian school? Maybe, but I'm sure we couldn't afford it. My son is VERY social and thankfully he's now in a great youth group so he does get that interaction but he's always shown an interest in going to "school" for the social aspect.

 

Having said all that, we're 3 WEEKS INTO SCHOOL and here I am talking about this stuff. I mean co-ops and all other schools have already started. I could consider dropping MFW but I wouldn't even know what to replace it with and like I said, we're already 3 weeks in and this is high school! I can't mess around! I'm at a loss here. I just don't know what to do.....

[Rosie Q]

Rebecca,

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one having a tough time with 9th grade curricula! Having said that, though - you can do this! The fact that you are trying so hard to assess how things can improve means you really care about your son's education - far more than a teacher at a school would. So here's a big, encouraging hug for you! :grouphug:

 

We're at week 6, and I've just kicked our science curriculum to the curb in favor of another book, lab manual, etc. and am using an e-book on a website (Scitable) until the new book gets here. That's one approach that you could try. We also had a terrible time with Analytical Grammar at first. Everyone here seemed to love it, but it wasn't working for us until I changed the way I taught it. Now, we're only doing every other problem, and I'm anticipating a two-year study of grammar instead of getting it over with in one. DS is actually enjoying AG now. That's another approach - just modify the material how ever you need to in order to suit the way your son learns best.

 

I'm not familiar enough with MFW's approach to recommend specific changes, but I'm sure some of the other parents on this board can do so. If you can't make it work for you, don't be afraid to head to the used book store, the library or the internet for something different. Week 3 is a great time to assess what's working and to make changes.

 

Teenagers have a way of deflating parental confidence with a few well-chosen words, and it sounds like that's what happened to you. Keep in mind that a teacher at a school would be much less able (or willing) to modify the curricula for one student. Your son has a huge advantage in having you as a teacher!

[cbollin]

Rebecca,

 

I guess I can say this since you're using MFW..... pray. I will pray too.

 

Now, when things in MFW make me go wacko (yes, I've used it since 2003, but high school can freak me out...), I pick up the phone and call one of their high school consultants. This one employee there, bret, knows his stuff when it comes to helping me organize. Maybe he or someone there can walk you through some of it.

 

I would try that.

 

For the weekly meeting, which some days is a daily meeting,

I go down the subject grid

Bible/history..... I have my daughter show me what she did. She gets it out in the order she does it.

 

the book OT Challenge -- does not have answers. They are thinking questions and absorb the reading. not right/wrong in most cases.

It is suggested that parent (maybe dad!) use the Bible reading and OT challenge during their personal quiet time to be a little familiar with it. That worked the BEST for me last year. When I did that book for 10 minutes in the morning with my coffee... it clicked,

 

next on the list is Journey Through Bible -- nothing to check there. it is reference material for seeing pictures and background info on Bible times

 

 

The Notgrass review questions have answer key. I don't teach at this level. I check work.

 

Notgrass routine is

student reads chapter

they give a simple answer to the Bible study question. Just look in their notebook for that (suggested answers are in exam booklet thingy)

Student does not do the grammar point in writing... but reads the information as review

Student writes short answers, fill in blank things for the notgrass review. I use the answer key.

 

You do not have to quiz them about each of the notgrass readings. You might pick one day to talk out loud.

 

New Answers Book: have your child tell you about each chapter each day. again.. it is not your job to teach from the book.

 

Now we're down to checking English. The answers are in lit/comp guide. My page number for answer key begins p. 146

In the daily grid, it tells you what lesson number the student is on.

turn to that lesson answer key.

 

I'm a bit scatterbrained too. So I found it helpful to take the few minutes to skim the book several times to get a general idea of the layout.

 

Now for math and science, I don't know what you are using... but if it's mfw recommendations, those have answer keys.

 

so, I'm happy to try to help. I know sometimes phone is better, so do call MFW office and ask for one of the high school consultants, maybe Bret or someone.

 

What specific books are you struggling with to check for work?

 

I had my child walk me through her day and show me what she does. Then, I stopped and checked each section.

 

not sure if that says what you wanted to hear or not.

 

I think your son was trying to be nice, but as a child he totally missed the point. You are not teaching the subjects. This is rhetoric level now.

He is now a big boy and able to read a syllabus and do the reading on his own and show you that he is doing it. :) You check the work and supervise, and have a tutor when he needs it in math/science.

You are there, and dad too, to help him digest the Bible and history information, and guide him, mentor him. Maybe suggest a service project or two. I am confident in your parenting ability to do that. I am hopeful that after you call MFW office and walk through it on the phone, you'll gain more insights into how it can be done.

 

 

-crystal

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

Maybe it is just the "third week blues"? And, I suppose, I've been going through the same thing.

 

We've got some new things this year that I'm not used to. One being Switched on Schoolhouse. There is a bit of a learning curve for me even though I've used it a bit in the past. This is the first year I'm using multiple levels, multiple subjects with SOS as our main curriculum for certain subjects. Just now today I learned how to delete projects and essays and certain lessons without it assigning my child an F !!

 

If you like the content of MFW (and I know several who LOVE it), then maybe you could ease off the assignments while you learn how YOU will use it. Maybe you need to tweak it to fit YOU! Maybe take 2 or 3 weeks to just assign the reading while you figure out the process.

 

I could not afford any outside class either. I would vote for continuing MFW tweaked to fit your family. Remember, there is nothing wrong with "just reading and discussing". :)

[Teachin'Mine]

:grouphug:

 

I'm not familiar with MFW, but personally, I would give it a lot more time than 3 weeks. A lot of the programs have a bit of a learning curve and it takes time to get familiar with how to organize things and where to find the answers, etc.. I hear a lot of good things about MFW here, but I know that's not helpful to you right now.

 

You've gotten good suggestions to call for help and maybe you could also ask if they know of others in your area using their curricula. Then you'd have someone local to get in touch with and maybe have a get together. Sometimes it's really helpful to have someone show you the ins and outs of a program.

 

I don't know if you've read any of the threads on coops here, but many seem to feel that for high school, they're not always helpful as they tend to be very time consuming. Of course they vary and I'm sure some are very good. You are qualified to facilitate his learning! You son may be trying to pull the guilt strings a bit if he thinks that ps is a possibility if this doesn't work out. Reassure him, and yourself, that this is just normal for beginning any program and in time, it will become routine. Give yourself at least one quarter to become familiar with things, and another quarter to figure out what works best for you, and be willing to tweak things as needed. Next year with be totally different. :)

[cbollin]

something else popped in my mind...

 

have you seen that MFW has a message board with some high school archives?

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=21

 

maybe something in there can spark some ideas on the learning curve? I like the idea of making sure you understand the in's and out's as much as possible before moving on.

 

Here is one example in the archives about using the OT Challenge book - in case that one gave you some head spinning moments on what to look up and check and all of that

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=6593&hilit=challenge

even that Bret guy responded on there with how it went with his own children. yeah, he works there, but he's a homeschool dad using the program so he knows parts that were a learning curve or challenge for him

 

edit to add.... with what teaching mine said... if you're in memphis area.. send me a PM.. I'll help.

 

-crystal

[Julie in MN]

Hi Rebecca,

I just want to send hugs your way, too. Some seasons are just stressful, for one reason or another. And sometimes with so many options out there, we drive ourselves nuts wondering if we should jump over here or over there.

 

Since you have all of your materials lined up and you've begun, I'd like to join the others in helping make this work for now.

 

I think Crystal took you thru the day pretty well, but I'll just agree that there's not a lot of jumping around. If you wanted, you could just streamline and use the Bible for Bible, and Notgrass for history, and read literature for English. But at the high school level, often there is room for a little more info on things. Even public school teachers rarely just use one book.

 

So, your student reads the Bible. At my house, we actually did that as a family. Then he has two things to do: (1) Look a little more at Victor's Journey for pictures of the area, maps of routes, etc., and (2) answer some thought questions.

 

If you need to, you could drop Victor's for now until you feel like you can fit that in. And you could drop the questions even, if you like. After all, reading the entire Bible is worthy of a full credit in Bible, I think. But at our house, we like to "do" a little something with it to keep us awake.

 

For history, Notgrass covers ancients very lightly. And MFW only schedules about half of it this year. So more is really warranted, IMHO. What MFW adds to Notgrass basically is apologetics, or worldview investigation. Notgrass tells your son what to think, but the Pharaohs book and the New Answers book help your son to think through what questions he might have about history, especially as compared to his growing understanding of Biblical history compared to secular history, and how those fit together. So, you could just let Notgrass tell him things, or you could let him explore the other materials and think it through himself.

 

Other things added to Notgrass on occasion are maps (5-6 over the year), timeline, and the Usborne book. I felt those were helpful, but I've known some folks who skipped the timeline or whatever. The Usborne especially covers some ancient history that Notgrass just doesn't spend much time on, such as the Peloponesian Wars and the architecture. Of course, your child doesn't have to know every single thing about those things, but Usborne is a relatively painless way to learn. He doesn't have any assignments with it, although I just looked at the page headings and said, So, son, what did you learn about this topic today?!

 

Literature doesn't seem to have a lot going on -- just reading and then doing a workbook or related writing assignment. Most writing does have to be corrected, but I'm not sure how you can get around that. Compared to some English programs that have separate components for writing, grammar, reading, vocabulary, and more, I think maybe you don't feel all jumpy on that subject??

 

Hoping that helps. I hate it when I feel the way you describe. And really, I don't call the MFW office often (don't call anyone very often :tongue_smilie: ), but when I have, they've been known to spend an hour with me sorting out how I want to adjust one subject. I'd try calling them if you can.

 

Julie

Edited September 7, 2011 by Julie in MN

[PeterPan]

Rebecca--I was really struck by your ds' comment about the qualified teachers. Sounds like he's a little unrealistic there and blameshifting. I had numerous teachers in high school who didn't teach at all for one reason or another and others who were pretty pathetic when they did try to teach. He's in high school, and your job is to be his FACILITATOR, not his teacher.

 

I don't use MFW, but from what I've seen of it, it looks like with a little adaptation you could work out the choppiness. Is this your first year homeschooling? Sometimes kids know something is wrong but don't know how to put it into words. You have to fish around a bit and try to figure it out. Maybe he would be happier using the books MFW picked but doing them a different way, without the MFW schedule. You have some flexibility there.

[Sue G in PA]

Having used AHL and having felt almost exactly as you did those first few weeks, I can honestly say that it DOES get better. You will learn the "ropes" and get to know the guide and where the answer keys are and such. Spend some time looking over the curriculum and the books yourself to get a "feel" for what is being taught. And as others said, PRAY! And call MFW if you need support. I will be praying for you as well and feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. Hang in there! You CAN do this! :grouphug:

[WaterLily]

I can't thank you all enough for all the advice and encouragement. Every one of these replies had something helpful and/or encouraging in it and I appreciate it so much! Thank you, Crystal, Julie, and Sue for your very specific help regarding MFW. I loved this program so much before we started using it LOL! Sigh... I don't to give up on it so soon but I have this fear that we will continue to dislike it and the longer we stick with it the harder it would be to drop it at all! I think we'll stick with it for now though. It's early in the year so I just pray that my ds develops a little more motivation and self discipline. I appreciate the reminder that he is a "big boy" and that it's ok for my role to mostly be facilitator. It's just getting him to that point where I don't have to sit on top of him to make sure things get done. Honestly, he was pretty independent last year so I'm hoping that he's just having a hard time getting back into the swing of things.

 

In general, I feel like we've done ok so far and he's gotten a good education up to this point. I'm just starting to feel some panic about this whole high school thing - especially since we're off to a rocky start.

 

I think I may have some more specific questions (about MFW) but I'm exhausted so I'll see what I come up with tomorrow. Since tomorrow is another school day, I'm sure I'll remember lol! I have been praying about it and so appreciate your prayers as well!

 

OhElizabeth... no, we've been homeschooling since the beginning. ;) I think that's part of the problem.... I am feeling so very burned out sometimes.

[PeterPan]

Yeah, I had this temptation to mention the BJU dvds, but I figured somebody would light into me as an evil influence. There's a time and place for it though. Much less than a christian school, still the christian education you want, very clear to implement and structured.

[1Togo]

You have gotten excellent and specific advice, but I wanted to emphasize the idea of a daily checkout for the first month or so and forging on with MFW as one way to help your son learn to work with a syllabus.

 

We will begin MFW in a few weeks, and when I first looked through the materials, I also was confused, but eventually, it made sense. To keep everything organized, I put together a shelf for dd's materials; i.e. math, science, and foreign language as well as the MFW books, syllabus, and lit guide, and I put my answer keys on another shelf; i.e. math, science, Notgrass, etc. Dd and I went through the materials together, and I can see that she will need a daily checkout to stay on track. I usually check math, English, and science after the subject is completed, and we will sit down with her MFW history, Bible and literature work at the end of the day. Dd has no problems coming to me when she needs guidance, but if your son is the type of student who hesitates to ask for help, then you will need to encourage that because it makes the end-of-the-day checkout better for student and mom.

 

For what it's worth, when our oldest son attended a local university, his profs often used muliple books for history, English/literature, and accounting courses, so as prep for classes, he had to read and take notes on many pages from several resources. Some profs tested primarily from class notes, and others tested from a combination of class notes, study guides, and textbooks or other resources. For the college classes, ds had to develop his own schedule for all the materials, but with MFW, the work is mapped out for your student, which is a good beginning step for college.

Edited September 7, 2011 by 1Togo

[LatinTea]

Well, I'm hesitant to write this too. I don't want to be the only dissenting vote. We did AHL last year, at least part of it. I too struggled with all the jumping around in Exploring World History. I understand trying to line everything up, but it didn't help with the continuity of the course as a whole. We have always done something like this (with Sonlight), so that part wasn't a problem to me, but jumping around INSIDE the text was bothersome. It sounds like you are having issues with ALL the resources being meshed together though.

 

My dd also needed more help with writing than MFW gives. And the literature was a bit boring for her (think Mara, Daughter of the Nile compared to the Epic of Gilgamesh.....). The bible reading looked wonderful, but she got behind early on so that was scraped. I had wonderful intentions and even considered doing the second part this year, but have shelved that idea. Well, we are doing part 2 of World History, just in another way.

 

I don't have the issue of my dd thinking someone else could do a better job though; that would be tough. Maybe that is where this all stems from and not just the curricula. Your son sounds capable of getting it done, but possibly you both need something like BJU with their teacher's manuals or Sonlight where it's written to the parent (and the student now). Or maybe just keep at MFW. Just think about what will work FOR YOU, because if you don't like it, it won't get done.

 

Margo

P.S. I have written this without reading any of the other posts, so I hope I don't sound too 'duh'.) :)

Edited September 7, 2011 by LatinTea

[LatinTea]

nt

Edited September 7, 2011 by LatinTea
Deleted post....double entry

[angela in ohio]

Have you visited the Christian school and the public school? It is hard to have peace when there are unknowns. I found that visiting all of our options, even having dd shadow at the schools, really helped us to come to peace about our homeschool. And if the Christian school is the right choice instead, they may have financial assistance. We did all of that a few months into ninth grade, when I was having the same feelings you are.

 

I wouldn't make curriculum decisions based on a lack of negative reviews here. Many of us have quit giving negative opinions of curriculum, because it just isn't worth the hassle from adoring fans. :D

 

I think you need to re-frame the way you are looking at high school. Ninth grade is just the next year after eighth grade. :001_smile: Yes, you are three weeks in. Now IS the time to work out any kinks, because it is four long years ahead. You are putting way too much pressure on yourself. :grouphug:

 

It sounds like your son wants more teaching and interaction, not less. I would discuss that more with him before I had him become even more independent. Some students are more social, and they will be unhappy without someone to discuss things with, challenge them, etc. There is a picture of the homeschool high school student with their stack of books, happily working along alone, but that doesn't work for every kiddo.

[cbollin]

Have you visited the Christian school and the public school? It is hard to have peace when there are unknowns. I found that visiting all of our options, even having dd shadow at the schools, really helped us to come to peace about our homeschool. And if the Christian school is the right choice instead, they may have financial assistance. We did all of that a few months into ninth grade, when I was having the same feelings you are.

 

I wouldn't make curriculum decisions based on a lack of negative reviews here. Many of us have quit giving negative opinions of curriculum, because it just isn't worth the hassle from adoring fans. :D

 

I think you need to re-frame the way you are looking at high school. Ninth grade is just the next year after eighth grade. :001_smile: Yes, you are three weeks in. Now IS the time to work out any kinks, because it is four long years ahead. You are putting way too much pressure on yourself. :grouphug:

 

It sounds like your son wants more teaching and interaction, not less. I would discuss that more with him before I had him become even more independent. Some students are more social, and they will be unhappy without someone to discuss things with, challenge them, etc. There is a picture of the homeschool high school student with their stack of books, happily working along alone, but that doesn't work for every kiddo.

 

 

agreeing with all of that... I just wanted to dispel the picture that learning from a textbook does not have to be happily working alone either. Nor is this an attempt to stop negative reviews of MFW. :confused:

 

My daughter comes out of her room all the time to discuss with me. We don't wait until Friday. I might not do the full check until Friday. But she will come out and talk and talk and talk my ear off until I wonder if I can finish math with younger sibling.

 

I just meant that in terms of a homeschooling parent -- we don't have to be experts in any of the subjects that our children are doing. That's all I meant.

 

and in terms of the notgrass book... again. I am not saying mfw is perfect or that others shouldnt' say how much it didn't work for them.. I'm just saying the majority of the book is done in order, even if the first weeks in AHL play it out differently. at least that's what we found last year and definitely into WHL. The idea of jumping around is mostly applied to the early part of notgrass sections then, it wasn't like that. but mileage will vary.

 

no hassle over here?:confused: and if the original poster prefers something else, use it. I just wanted to offer helps for using what she had. It might not be want she should use.

 

oh well. so much for wanting to help. I have no financial interest in what she does or doesn't do.

 

-crystal

[angela in ohio]

oh well. so much for wanting to help. I have no financial interest in what she does or doesn't do.

 

-crystal

 

Crystal,

 

I wasn't responding to your post, I was replying to the OP and her follow-up. :001_smile: I actually didn't read your posts or any of the others about MFW before I posted, because they aren't relevant for me, so there is no way my post could have meant what you seem to think it means. :grouphug:

[WaterLily]

I just typed a long post and then lost it.... that's so frustrating!!!!

 

I wanted to let you all know that today was a MUCH better day! It's not like we've got it all figured out, but today was just better. I appreciate the encouragement and prayers. It helped today! :)

 

1Togo - Thank you for the idea of putting my TM's on a different shelf. So simple but I think it will help me feel more organized. And we're definitely going to do daily meetings for now. I told my ds that for now I want to have shorter daily meetings instead of a long one on Friday and I think he actually likes that idea. And thanks for the reminder to make sure he asks for help when he needs it. He's not always good about that.

 

LatinTea - Don't worry about having an opposing view. I appreciate that. :) I'm struggling a bit with the jumping around between sources but also jumping around within Notgrass. I wanted to use Notgrass before I even found MFW and after these first couple of difficult weeks, I just wondered if it wouldn't be simpler to drop MFW and just use Notgrass. I like what MFW adds to it though so we're trying to make it work for now. I'm not sure about the writing either. The first essay had a good amount of instruction but now this second one (from Notgrass) doesn't seem to have any...

Anyone? :)

 

Angela - You're definitely right about one thing - I think my ds does want more interaction, not less. He's capable of being independent but he still wants to work with me, at least a little bit. I wish it was because he's so excited about what he's learning that he wants to discuss and whatnot, but it's really just that he's social and likes the general interaction. Anyway, when I asked him about online schooling he said no, that he wanted to work with me - he wanted me to be his teacher. (I guess I must not be doing TOO bad of a job. ;)) I want to make sure he has enough time and attention but I'm having a tough time balancing the teaching with all 4 of my kids. I don't know how everyone else does it!!! I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day! It's still early in the year - hopefully it will get better...

 

Crystal - No worries. :) Your advice has been amazingly helpful!!! I wish my ds was as passionate about what he's learing as your dd though!

 

OH! I have a Notgrass question! Where on earth are the answers (suggested answers or whatever) for the Bible Study questions??? I can't find them in my quiz and exam book! There is an answer key in the back but it's for quizzes and review questions. ?

[1Togo]

The answers for the Bible study questions are in the "Guide for Parents and Teachers using Exploring World History." It's a little booklet.

 

AHL assumes the student has the writing skills needed to write basic essays, reports, etc. There are brief instructions for argumentative essays in AHL during the first week, but AHL doesn't include comprehensive writing lessons. Most of the lit assignments are argumentative essays so your son should follow the first-week, AHL instructions and keep practicing the argumentative essay for those assignments. For the second writing assignment, you can choose either the expository essay or the Nation Project assignment, which is a report. In fact, most of the assignments for the Nation Project are reports. If your son is a strong writer, he could use a handbook like Writer's Inc. and follow the instructions for expository essays. If he is not a strong writer, he could do reports for the Nation Project all year and focus on the argumentative essay using AHL instructions.

 

Btw, if he needs writing instruction, you can still use AHL. Just skip the AHL essay assignments, do all the short answer work; i.e. Notgrass and literature, and add a composition curriculum in one of the elective boxes. AHL includes many options for writing assignments, so use the assignments that fit your son's ability or add a composition curriculum if he needs more instruction.

Edited September 8, 2011 by 1Togo

[cbollin]

on the Notgrass "writing" assignments..... I had to ask that to the mfw office what was the expectations they had in mind on that because I agree with others who say "what am I supposed to do????"

 

I was told it was more of a freestyle writing and did not not have to be "essay" in form. But rather to have open responses. Encourage getting thoughts on paper. Those are "history" assignments vs. "English/writing" assignments. Have fun with it.

 

Some people (not us!) might have chosen the 'nations project". ha ha I mean, come on.. we did a country report in ECC and country summary sheets, wasn't that enough for now?? I thought so.

 

I remember on one of those notgrass assignments in writing, my daughter did a basic compare and contrast chart on something. Another one she just wrote about some connections in her life to what other people were doing (in other words, how she fit on a team that was doing something important.)

 

I guess all I'm rambling about is that the notgrass assignments were writing thoughts down, but not a fully structured argumentative essay. Oh oh.. here's one that she had fun with... week 10 was a journal assignment through the desert. She wrote a journal pretending what it was like to be just one of the crowd listening to Moses and then to Joshua. and of course, being 15, she had her character be her age and it ended all romantic with strong female warrior character getting together with another strong warrior type to live happily ever after defeating the giants in the land. LOL LOL She typed all of those so she went on and on.

 

But I could see a journal from a less vocal writer being kind of dull "we got up. we ate manna, again. oh, like that's a surprise".

 

My impression for the writing is that students needed to know basics of sentence writing and forming a paragraph, and putting their own thoughts in an organized manner. I never got the impression that they had to know all about essays at the beginning. My kid sure did not. She had done Writing Strands and that was plenty to be ready.

 

oh... and for her final "notgrass essay"... she typed out an analysis. Her first paragraph starts:

"My assignment is to write a story, either fictional or real, about someone being in the right place at the right time. The first thing that came to mind was season1, episode 6 of Criminal Minds, called Derailed. Elle was in the right place at the right time."

 

then she gives a brief plot summary with the focus on several characters (Elle, Reid and random extra) each doing what had to be done at the right time.

 

At first I thought... is she nuts? Then I read the assignment and said "ok.. that's what it said you could do." Let me see the episode with you. (sometimes I can't handle that show, but that episode I could.) She analyzed another person's fiction story, which was ok by this teacher.

 

so, that's how we did one of the notgrass assignments and had time together to interact in school.

 

probably not at all the picture that people thought it was.

 

and of course her incentive to get school done this week? she gets to have sleep over at her best friends house after they attend the nature festival tomorrow. hopefully, I can get her awake in the next 5 minutes.... she's right. she needs a new alarm clock.

 

I say that just to paint a realistic picture of homeschooling over here.

 

-crystal

[Nan in Mass]

I haven't seen MFW, but I do use multiple resources and skip around, and I am scatterbrained and disorganized. I just wanted to tell you that in order to manage, I have to make liberal use of stickies on the pages. I use different colours to indicate things like "read from here (one colour) to here (same colour) and then here (different colour) to here (same different colour)". I can't manage unless I have a routine to follow for each subject. Crystal spelled out the sort of routine I'm talking about. Ours for history at the moment goes: read the top of the page aloud, copy the timeline, look up in atlas if need be, read the rest of the page, answer the questions orally, write the petit texte on own, show me the petit texte, read the relevent pages in Spielvogel, do the research if indicated in lesson. I also have a graph with the date down the lefthand side and the regular resources or tasks across the top. At the beginning of the year, I write in the target pages in blue. As the year progresses, I write what we actually did in black. As we get behind, I rearrange. This lets me anticipate some of the places where I know we aren't going to be able to work efficiently (like when brothers are home from college) and move the work around ahead of time so that we skip what I think is probably less important rather than whatever lands randomly on that spot. Things like his French history text and math get planned that way. Things like great books, which I am doing WTM style, just get done for a certain amount of time. I have a daily schedule that says from this time to this time we will do blank. We keep our school books in a plastic bin, and we have a shelf of the reference books. That way, it is easy to grab what we need. Any books that we consistently do together in a clump for a subject, I put in a plastic shopping bag inside the bin. That way, when we get to the subject, we just pull out the plastic bag and carry it over to the sofa. It looks messy, but it makes it easy. Between the stickies and the plastic bags and having the reference books all together where we can grab them and put them back easily, the time spent hopping up and down looking for the next bit and finding our place is minimized.

 

My son is in 11th grade, and we still sit together to do the first part of most subjects. We read (or I read) the book together and then he goes off and does the work himself. He pushes to do subjects independently but when left to do them for extended periods without checking in with me, he gets very sketchy and sloppy. And I can't help him, never having taught these subjects before, unless I read the book too, and I have a horrible time making myself do that on my own. I only do it if I sit down to do it with him. I wish that weren't true, but it is. Again, I don't know how MFW is structured or what other obligations you have, but perhaps you can do more of that together?

 

An enthusiastic, knowledgable teacher and interested, vocal classmates are a wonderful thing and I wish I could give my son that for every subject. I can't at home. I certainly am not that teacher. I am not enthusiastic or knowledgable. Most of the time, I am ignorant and barely interested. But that is not the only way to learn something. It is also a wonderful thing to explore and discover on one's own. It is wonderful to be able to do the minimum in the uninteresting subjects in order to make time for that exploration. It is wonderful to be able to learn some things in a way that suits you alone or a way that won't work in a classroom, like travelling or a research project that extends over several years. When you choose to homeschool, you gain some things and give up other things.

 

I went to public school. My husband did. Our oldest did. Each year, if we were lucky, we had one or two knowledgable and enthusiastic teacher who could teach. The rest were much less than that. It is easy to idealize school. A good private school can be wonderful, but it can also be very, very expensive, and it tends to require that one give up one's children in high school.

 

The same is true of the other parts of school, like friends and independence. There are advantages to both systems and when you choose one, you give up some things and gain other things.

 

I also wanted to tell you that it takes us longer than three weeks to get used to anything new. After three weeks, we still aren't even used to being home from vacation.

 

-Nan

[Melissa in CA]

on the Notgrass "writing" assignments..... I had to ask that to the mfw office what was the expectations they had in mind on that because I agree with others who say "what am I supposed to do????"

 

I was told it was more of a freestyle writing and did not not have to be "essay" in form. But rather to have open responses. Encourage getting thoughts on paper. Those are "history" assignments vs. "English/writing" assignments. Have fun with it.

 

Some people (not us!) might have chosen the 'nations project". ha ha I mean, come on.. we did a country report in ECC and country summary sheets, wasn't that enough for now?? I thought so.

 

I remember on one of those notgrass assignments in writing, my daughter did a basic compare and contrast chart on something. Another one she just wrote about some connections in her life to what other people were doing (in other words, how she fit on a team that was doing something important.)

 

I guess all I'm rambling about is that the notgrass assignments were writing thoughts down, but not a fully structured argumentative essay. Oh oh.. here's one that she had fun with... week 10 was a journal assignment through the desert. She wrote a journal pretending what it was like to be just one of the crowd listening to Moses and then to Joshua. and of course, being 15, she had her character be her age and it ended all romantic with strong female warrior character getting together with another strong warrior type to live happily ever after defeating the giants in the land. LOL LOL She typed all of those so she went on and on.

 

But I could see a journal from a less vocal writer being kind of dull "we got up. we ate manna, again. oh, like that's a surprise".

 

My impression for the writing is that students needed to know basics of sentence writing and forming a paragraph, and putting their own thoughts in an organized manner. I never got the impression that they had to know all about essays at the beginning. My kid sure did not. She had done Writing Strands and that was plenty to be ready.

 

oh... and for her final "notgrass essay"... she typed out an analysis. Her first paragraph starts:

"My assignment is to write a story, either fictional or real, about someone being in the right place at the right time. The first thing that came to mind was season1, episode 6 of Criminal Minds, called Derailed. Elle was in the right place at the right time."

 

then she gives a brief plot summary with the focus on several characters (Elle, Reid and random extra) each doing what had to be done at the right time.

 

At first I thought... is she nuts? Then I read the assignment and said "ok.. that's what it said you could do." Let me see the episode with you. (sometimes I can't handle that show, but that episode I could.) She analyzed another person's fiction story, which was ok by this teacher.

 

so, that's how we did one of the notgrass assignments and had time together to interact in school.

 

probably not at all the picture that people thought it was.

 

and of course her incentive to get school done this week? she gets to have sleep over at her best friends house after they attend the nature festival tomorrow. hopefully, I can get her awake in the next 5 minutes.... she's right. she needs a new alarm clock.

 

I say that just to paint a realistic picture of homeschooling over here.

 

-crystal

 

Thanks for this Crystal! :D

 

My ds will be starting week 3 on Monday and when I looked ahead at the writing assignment I want, "huh???" :lol: I decided to, instead, do a classical writing assignment in weeks 3 and 4, skipping the Notgrass one. Works for me!

 

To the OP. I really can't add anything relevant to what has already been said. My ds is a VERY independent learner and delights in doing school without me hovering over him....so, so far, MFW is working well for us. I personally like that it's MAKING him be organized with his assignments. He MUST answer his history questions in his history notebook, his bible questions in his bible notebook, Lit in lit notebook, etc., and he MUST label each assignment properly otherwise mom gets VERY agitated on Friday's when she looks over his work. ;) So, this is all a win-win here.

 

Since I am not doing his work with him, I honestly don't know how scattered his reading is. :confused: He has yet to complain. He has used mostly SL and TOG in his life though so he's used to reading from a variety of books. His top choice would be just using ONE history textbook though. That's just him. He's a textbook kind of guy.

 

Oh, one thing he did complain briefly about was reading Job for English and then having to get out the OT book AGAIN (after having used it for Bible) to answer the Job questions. But that was just a lil complaint and that will end once we are through Job.

 

Anyhow, I'm sure I could rattle on more but DH needs to steal the computer from me to check on auto parts. Hmmmph. :lol:

 

I say, give MFW a few more weeks. ;)

[3byzaz]

My son is using AHL also and loves it - PTL!! I so agree with Nan's post...my son does it all on his own and prefers it that way. I am like her - somewhat uninterested or unwilling to take the time to be as involved as I should be. However, I am trying not to feel guilty for that. I am involved in their lives and it other aspects. I am sure there are some teachers that just love a subject and would do a better job, but then there are a million other 'issues' that come along with ones teen being in school. I never experienced that in public school that I can remember.

 

I am sure you have gotten past it, but the main reason for this post is to say that WEEK 3 is always the worst for us and so many friends I have talked to recently. Weeks 1 & 2 are not so bad, but 3 & 4 are not good at all, then somehow by 5 everyone has accepted that it is not summer vacation anymore and we are doing school. No one here loves that - we LOVE summer break! So, pray through it and know that it will fly by and be over....at least until the February Homeschool Duldrums set in!! :tongue_smilie: