Have you ever tried...?

[RebekahnDavidMom]

Has anyone ever tried to use a complete homeschool program for afterschooling? My dd is only in Pre-K but starting in K I would like to either use Sonlight K spread over 2 years with some extra read-aloud thrown in or use HOD Little Hearts for his Glory in its entirity. This would include science, language arts, and math for the programs. Am i crazy to try this?

 

Andrea

[black_midori]

Logistically speaking - you are probably going to have problems with a very tired little one after a regular school day. This may not be as much of a problem in K, but by 1st I know that many ppl I know with kids in even Montessori programs are beat at the end of the day!

 

Also, my guess is that you won't be able to spread a K program over 2 years without hitting areas that she has surpassed what the K program teaches and needs more depth. In fact, you may find that by the middle of K she is ready for far more than you expect (this is happening with my youngest - he is only 5, but is solidly 1/2 way through 1st grade material and on easy track to zip through 2nd faster than I would generally schedule).

 

You may also find that she has particular trouble with just one specific thing and you'd be better off focusing fully on that rather than trying to hit everything (many have issues with math, reading, writing, etc that need more assistance than they get in ps).

 

As she gets older, you will probably also start involving her in a variety of after-school activities. This can get overwhelming FAST and eat up a surprising amount of your time!! :D

Unfortunatel

[caedmyn]

That's what I was initially planning on doing (well starting with Sonlight A spread over two years), but I've realized that I really want to pick and choose and not just use one program. Plus we're not doing every subject like we would if we were HS'ing instead of AS'ing, so a complete program would just be too much. And I also realized that doing Sonlight, even spread over two years, was going to take a lot more time than I have to spend on extra schooling ATM.

[bbkaren]

That's sort of what we're doing. (Not with Sonlight, but we're trying to afterschool with a somewhat complete program). We started out really ambitious and have trimmed it back considerably.

 

It's a lot of effort and after almost 2 months of school, we're pretty much at the stage where we're getting math and language arts done and science/history maybe on the weekends if we can squeeze it in. We do one of each on most weekdays: math, handwriting, a grammar/writing task, and read-alouds before bed.

 

We spend 1/2 hour before school on handwriting and math, then another 15 or 20 minutes on LA after dinner and then 1/2 hour reading at bedtime.

 

Definitely not a complete homeschooling program but our plan is to start homeschooling when we move next year, so our objective may be different from yours. (I'm trying to get us both used to the homeschooling curricula while he's still in public school...and then it'll seem a lot easier once we eliminate the publich school part. That's the plan anyway.)

Edited October 27, 2011 by bbkaren

[Josie]

That would be a lot for a little one. Pick one or two things and do it, but not everything. You might want to consider doing one or two things at a time and then switching out depending on her needs. IMHO, You would be asking her to do two full-time jobs if you do a complete program. Play is important, too.

[Carrie75]

I don't think Sonlight Core A would be too much spread out over the year. Especially with all the vacation days public school has. There is so much reading with Sonlight which can be done before bed and on the weekends. Kids love read alouds anyway. I would just take it sloooow and just plug along over a year.