So if you didn't finish the entire curriculum...

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

So for instance if you didn't finish your entire curriculum, do you move on to the next grade level when your year is up....or do you finish and then progress naturally?

[Sheila in OK]

We use Sonlight and still have four weeks left of Core 2 (today was our last day). We will just pick up where we left off in August. The "box-checker" in me would rather cram it in over the summer and start Core 3 in August, but I know from experience that won't work with my kids. :)

[King Alfred Academy]

I "try" not to think so much in terms of this year and that year, but my ps mentality keeps kicking in. Plus, we are looking into enrolling in a Charter School when we get to CA, and they are on a "traditional" school calendar. So, we do have some catching up to do this summer (while we are packing boxes!).

 

Here is my plan to get "caught up"...

 

History...dh is actually taking this over for the rest of the summer...YEAH! whatever he doesn't get finished, we will listen to on cd (SOTW vol1) and do the coloring pages in the moving truck as we move across country in August.

 

Right Start Level B...we changed to this mid way through the year so we have a lot of catching up to do. I am thinking about doing a lesson a day (not Sunday) to finish. I really want to be able to start Level C at the beginning of the school year.

 

Growing With Grammar...again, we changed programs, but are not too far behind. Besides, ds loves this subject!

 

Wow... not too bad now that I "see" it. I think that is doable.

[Carol in Cal.]

Saxon math--just keep going. History--likewise. They are both very sequential, and need that kind of continuity.

 

Grammar--I have jumped to the next level in grammar when it made sense to do so--when the material will be thoroughly reviewed elsewhere and I felt we needed to move on.

 

Science--same thing. If we don't finish, it's really not that big of a deal. High school science is really what counts.

 

Writing--I think I got tired of WS3 and jumped into WS4 when DD was 10 or 11. We had been doing a lot of other writing as well, and I just didn't feel that WS3 was serving us well. So we moved on.

 

Literature--Here I don't use a curriculum exactly, but we are in a Junior Great Books coop and sometimes skip the rest of a book, but not always. For literature I mostly use WTM anyway, and that is multi level. Next year we will probably do LLLOTR, and I plan to do that until it is finished no matter what it takes. I also have a literature group but don't use a curriculum for it. I teach the kids at their level and a little bit beyond.

 

Spelling--Continue.

 

Typing--Continue

 

For me, fundamentally, I teach my child, not my curriculum. This is a shift in thinking that has really freed me. So most of the time I'm making a cost/benefit analysis on the fly about whether to stick with something or not. Except for math, this could go either way at any point; which helps me to relax.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

I finish it when we start up again. I will have to do that with a few things this time. It will make for an easy transition from break, I hope.

[mama25angels]

we start in July so we will be picking up where we left off.

[Karen in CO]

If it is one of my "core" subjects, then I just keep going. If it isn't, then I stop and pick it up in the fall or not depending on whether we wanted more of it or were ready to move to the next planned topic or book in that subject.

[PollyOR]

For most subjects...pick up where you left off.

 

Math - look at the next level/book. For example, the first 30+ lessons in Saxon are review. We used Saxon K-54. We either skipped the lessons at the end of the book, or we skipped the first 30 or so lessons in the next level.

[Nestof3]

Well, if it's science for a second grader, and I had hoped to cover 5 biomes but only covered 4, I think it's okay to just move on -- just read a book and rent a movie about it but not do any of the hands-on stuff we normally do.

 

As for chronological things, like history, I just keep going through SOTW at our own pace, but I don't skip anything.

 

For math, grammar, things like that in textbook form, I finish throughout the summer. My oldest son finished every math textbook, grammar book, history and science textbook in highschool. Those are givens for me.

 

I personally am trying to be better about finishing things with my younger ones (compared to last year) because I was usually the reason we got behind in the first place. I just don't want to create a pattern of not finishing what we start and I also want to get on a better schedule as they get older.

 

Right now, this is what we have left to do before school starts up:

 

10 Italic handwriting lessons

 

science: beetles, ants, wasps and bees

 

history: Story of the World supplemental reading for Norsemen/Vikings

 

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

 

 

We have all summer to finish, though. But, I will feel a lot better if we do.

[Nestof3]

Oh, and with math, I think a little sprinkled throughout the summer really helps keep it fresh -- even my oldest son agreed with me on this one.

 

When we start the next book, I test him with the first few tests (since they are review) and if he gets an A, he doesn't have to do those lessons.

 

He usually tests out of the first 15 or 20 chapters.

 

I just prefer to finish the one year and get a jump start on the next.

[Laura Corin]

So for instance if you didn't finish your entire curriculum, do you move on to the next grade level when your year is up....or do you finish and then progress naturally?

 

This autumn, I think the only completely fresh books at the beginning of the year will be Hobbes' maths book.

 

Laura

[LisaCA]

For us it depends. If the next say math book has a lot of review and she is not struggling then we would just be finished and move on.

We work on weak areas over the summer by way of activities that we never seem to get to. (games, making learning books, art activities, field trips etc.)

 

If finishing the book is busy work and doesn't delight the child or will be remembered as anything but a summer bummer, throw it out!

[swellmomma]

we just carry on. I don't think too much about "this year" "next year" unless I am thinking about starting a new curric, for example, we are starting apologia astronomy in the fall, but our history we will just keep going rather than starting the next level. The same with math, we will start our next program in the fall as they finished this one up, but if they didn't we would just keep workng on it.

[Kelli in TN]

we start in July so we will be picking up where we left off.

 

Same here.

[sweetbaby]

I wish I could set it aside but I have problems with things left undone. My pet peeve.:D

[2cents]

This is one of the reasons we hs year round. While we have a very planned out schedule, I like that we don't feel we need to finish by the beginning of summer or any other end time. I like to finish our curriculum unless there is a reason we do not like it or it doesn't work for us. If we like it and begin it then the rule is we finish before moving to the next level.

[Parrothead]

The things we didn't finish are science, math and art. The science can wait until the next cycle. Art can wait until fall, and the math is going through the summer.

[Beth in Central TX]

This is a very difficult question, and I don't think an informed decision can be made without more facts. It really depends not only on the subject, but also on the student along with why the curriculum was not completed. There are so many factors involved that I think a separate decision needs to be made for each individual subject per student.