Help! I need a secular comprehensive LA program ideally w writing

[babygemma]

I think my ds age 9.5 bright 5th grader is getting a kick out of goofing off when learning with me that a simple explanation takes a long time. I'm losing patience and feel I need to remind him often to stay focused. Finally when I nicely excused myself he begged me to come back to teach him and I just told him to do the work himself. I went outside to call my dh to vent and came back in and ds just finished the work with no mistakes. He is very able and an indy learner. My ideal hs scenario is collaboration and he likes it too but it takes too much time right now with the goofing off. This is our first homeschooling and so far I don't enjoy it too much and just want to make this as bearable as possible for me. I have other thing things to do around the house and I feel offended wne ds is purposely wasting my time. Homeschooling, btw, is his choice after years of ps. So, I need your help in choosing another lang arts curriculum that is open and go, worksheet type is okay, ds reads well and is able. So far we are using wwe level 4. While we both love the passages, it takes too much time for us. We are also using all combining it with mct grammar town. All is super easy for my ds and yesterday I made him read the instructor part himself and he did and answered the questions in the student section. Grammar town is far more challenging and ds enjoys the clever stories. We are also using cesar's english 1 which is teacher intensive it's so great I don't think I can give it up and we are also using red hot root words ds likes the latin derivatives as he loves english. I feel ds is not getting enough wiritng practice with wwe 4, the retellings that he needs to do is short and i'd like him to do moew writing. I own sentence composing for es by kilgallon but haven't started. He needs to work on learning how to vary his sentences and I don't know if this is possible for him to do it all alone without much help from me. Please could you recommend a secular comprehensive lang arts program and includes writing. I know of saxon grammar but I heard the writing portion is not regular enough and comes after 10 lessons. If I can't do this at home, I'll outsource this. Also, we are not doing anything for literature yet. My ds reads a ton but we're not discussing the books. I bought lightning lit 7 but I don't know if this is can be done independently. My ds is a natural speller. Right now were no doing anything with spelling, occassionally I would test him on the words from cesar but I haven't done it regularly. Thanks so much in advance for your suggestions. I'm really tempted but hate the idea of sending him back to ps. At least I know he won't be wasting my time!

[hsmom2011]

n/m

[wapiti]

Maybe consider moving on to WWS instead of WWE4? There's more writing, and it seems fairly open and go. I am very happy with it so far (my dd is in week 8).

[TKDmom]

SWB said somewhere that you could skip WWE4 and move on to Writing With Skill. It's written to the student.

 

I don't think you really need to study spelling with a natural speller. You could just get a notebook to jot down any spelling mistakes that he makes in his writing and then go over them weekly.

 

For literature, you could try Classical House of Learning. It's free, and has some light discussion questions, summarizing, and literature analysis. It's also written to the student at the logic stage level (assuming you will take the time to go over the discussion questions together.)

 

You'd still need to use something else for grammar, but if you're liking Grammar Town, you can keep going with Practice Town (which my dd always did on her own).

[Dolphin]

I get the frustration with time wasting. A few times a year I have to tell my ds "I am happy to give you my time, I am not happy for you to waste my time."

 

I think that you said that this is your first year with homeschool. Our first year was last year. It really was a learning curve. You need to learn what type of teacher you are, and what type of student you have. Your ds is also having to learn this, as even though he was in school before, it is totally different to homeschool.

 

I had trouble finding a good LA program that was independent. I use MCT, and I like it. I have made some other subjects more independent. History. We are doing SOTW4, I give ds a print out with instructions for the mapwork, activities and outline. Then, I give him the test at the end of the week. It has resolved a lot of conflict. We have also switched to TT for Math, which is practically no work for me. I have found that freeing up some of the subjects has made us enjoy the collaborative subjects more.

 

Best of luck

Nicole

[Momling]

I like the WWS idea. You can try the download.

 

Another thought would be Galore Park, though you'd want to add in a writing component.

http://www.galorepark.com/product/home_schoolers/109/junior-english-book-3.html

[redsquirrel]

Part of it is the age. he will grow out of it. I get the feeling of not wanting your time wasted, but at times like these it can help to remember that homeschooling is your job. If my son went to PS I wouldn't expect his teacher to be doing laundry or taking calls for another job while she taught my kid. I am a teacher and my job during lesson time is teaching my students. If I remember that, it helps me to fend off that anxious feeling when I feel like I am 'wasting my time."

 

It is not uncommon for new homeschoolers to be surprised at just how much of your day (and energy) homeschooling demands. The first year is the hardest. Both of you are feeling your way through and learning how to do this, learning what works and what doesn't. By the second year you will have a groove and feel more comfortable.

 

I found making a list on a white board and putting my son in charge of getting the subjects wiped off really helped to keep him focused. I would tell him that I had nothing better to do all day and we were just going to get it all done. It went a long way to keeping him focused.

 

Have you considered having an afternoon activity? I am not above telling the kids that we are going for a hike in the afternoon if we can get through school work. That can work miracles.

 

And finally, make sure he is getting enough movement time. If attention is wandering then it is time for 50 jumping jacks etc. I actually bought a mini-trampoline and the boys will jump on it while learning a dictation or listening to a lesson. It is amazing what expending a little energy can do for concentration.