Just happy.

[LisaKinVA]

For the first time (in a while), I am happy with my children's curricula. All of it.

 

I've always been happy when buying it... happy when planning it, excited to implement it, but within the first month... something is really hitting a sour note.

 

About the only complaint I have is that we haven't moved yet, so there is still a bit of "not settled" in our routine (nothing like getting a call at 9am, as you're sitting down with lessons... to drop everything, pack everyone up and go to the house to let a sub in, or meet a contractor who forgot to call).

 

I really took a lot of things said in the PA mini-conference with MCT and SWB to heart. I let go of a lot. I dropped some subjects back in level, but increased the amount. I eliminated a LOT of busywork. And, I guess, we just found what is working (at least for now... things have a way of changing!)

 

I also want to thank the board members here who shared so much about subjects and curricula. It has been invaluable.

 

My oldest son is doing really well with Foerster's Algebra 1. He is enjoying it, and it's coming easy to him. He's enjoying MCT (loves the 4-level analysis, vocab, and poetics, and my other two love MCT as well), and Science is challenging, but at the right level (just not telling him that it's considered a high school level course). Latin is getting done... history is fun (YAY)... everyone is enjoying the Bible program, and I can't pull my middle two away from the VP on-line history! My dd is excelling in Latin (also on-line class with VP), and having a blast. Everyone is just so much happier.

 

Not that everything is perfect... far from it. But, we are all so much less stressed without all of the extra junk getting in our way these past three years.

 

I still have a little to figure out for next year (only my oldest... as far as history goes). But if this year keeps going the way it has been, we have a program/plan in place that will last for awhile. That makes me happy.

 

Thank you again.

[Osmosis Mom]

Glad to hear your update and looking forward to hearing when you move into your new house.

 

It was fun to meet you and your mom, btw. It took me a while to figure out if she was your mother or sister!!

[Woodland Mist Academy]

 

I really took a lot of things said in the PA mini-conference with MCT and SWB to heart.

 

I would be interested in hearing more about what was said.

 

If you feel up to sharing....

 

:bigear:

[Ritsumei]

I would be interested in hearing more about what was said.

 

If you feel up to sharing....

 

:bigear:

:iagree:

[JeanM]

I'm happy to hear that things are going so well! If you have time to share, I'd also love to hear about the mini-conference with MCT and SWB.

 

Also, just curious, what level of MCT did you start with? I debated switching to MCT this year, but didn't, and now I'm having regrets.

[LisaKinVA]

I'd have to find all of my notes to be thorough...and since I have no idea what box they might be in (packing to move), I'm sorry I don't have everything. The key things I took away from the conference had to do with composition, and dealing with a frustrated kid.

 

WRT composition, more is not necessarily better. My children had been doing K12's composition. It was like pulling teeth, and after several years (with my oldest), I was still seeing the same mistakes in ever-longer papers.

 

Essentially, my kids weren't ready to do what was being asked of them (which can be normal for any child...accelerated/gifted included). I don't discourage my children from writing (they are all writing their own books), but I don't assign *lots* of writing (or any creative writing). We're doing a lot more discussion, and less unproductive "busy work."

 

My son has his greatest amounts of writing in Science. He's dong Abeka's grade 9 Science of the Physical Creation text. He is outlining the textbook. He is also writing responses to the section review questions... however, I've given him the option of copying the question and writing the simple response or incorporating the question into his answer as a complete sentence. He usually chooses option (a), but occasionally chooses option (b). The content is at the perfect level, as are the assignments.

 

With MCT, we are going through Grammar Town, but starting with Sentence Island. I want the focus this year to be on writing good sentences and paragraphs. These are foundational skills that seemed to get glossed over in K12 (and other) writing curricula. Once they *can* write a sentence, instead of working on writing lots of good sentences the other programs just moved to writing a paragraph. Then, once they could write *a* paragraph, instead of working on writing a variety of *good* paragraphs, they had my children (the 7yo, too) write three... or a full page or more. So, my children were writing lots of uninteresting sentences and creating uninteresting paragraphs... riddled with lots of errors.

 

By going back to dictation and narration (which I finally *get* how to do), WWE/WWS, and using Sentence Island, Paragraph Town, Sentence Composing and Story Grammar, my goal is to focus on having an excellent foundation for formal academic writing (I'm not going to assign short stories, or lots of creative writing... but will focus on academic position papers/analysis papers in literature, science and history, introducing those in limited number in either 7th or 8th grade, and gradually increasing the frequency throughout high school. Both MCT and SWB stress academic writing, and writing lots of shorter papers, instead of a few long papers).

 

Dealing with a frustrated kid. My oldest was really hating school... especially history and English. Part of the reason was they were asking him to do things that he wasn't developmentally ready to do. While his math/science brain seems to continue in a standard progression, the logic-stage is running a bit behind for literature/history. Asking him to analyze things in those areas made him feel dumb, and was incredibly frustrating. He tends to be a pretty literal kid, too... So in these areas, I backed down a level and increased the frequency (SWB). In history, we didn't go on to "the next thing," instead, he is learning the VP history songs & timeline, listening to SOTW, and reading, discussing and narrating books. Every Friday, he also spends some time working on a timeline project. I wouldn't call what he's doing particularly challenging, but he's learning, and he's enjoying history again (the last 2 years of K12... he was burnt out, and hated it...made life awful). I also backed down from literature analysis, and programs that ask lots of deep, probing questions. So, we went with Abeka for Literature. The questions are basic comprehension, and I can lead some discussion, but nothing that takes it too far. We will be doing 4 novel studies this year with Progeny Press, and I hope to stretch him a bit there, but I decided I don't need to worry about doing lots of deep analysis until high school. He's reading more, he's enjoying more, and right now that is more important.

 

His frustration was more than an I don't want to... he's just not there yet developmentally. And, what I was doing was putting up blocks that were undermining learning those skills. He's one of those kids who can read high-level material, but just doesn't see the nuances a more mature reader would.

 

MCT/SWB essentially gave me permission to do things I thought should be done. I wasn't going to make my child fall behind, or be ill-prepared for high school or college if he wasn't writing incredible 10 page papers (or whatever) in Jr. High. They reminded me that development doesn't happen at the same rate for every child... or evenly across domains (math/science may be at one level, but it may be significantly lower in literature-based studies... and vice-versa).

 

HTH, a little.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this. It's given me much to consider. I am glad to hear studies are going so well now.

 

Good luck with your move!

[Ritsumei]

Yes, thank you - and good luck with your move!