Soooo tired of piecing things together myself!!

[creekmom]

I've never bought a boxed curriculum, but at this point, it sounds so inviting. I'm so tired of spending hours planning for school each week. I don't want a complete curr. like Sonlight or Abeka, but I'm looking into online options, dvds - open and go type core classes for my upcoming 6th and 8th graders. I should also mention that my budget is limited. What are your favorite "no planning for me/ my weekends are relaxing" curricula?

[Chris in VA]

Have you followed WTM? Most of the recs for the younger grades are open and go, but I don't remember about the older ones (loaned out my copy and it isn't in front of me).

 

I found Omnibus (used 1 and 2 in 9th and 10th) to be open and go, for the most part. That covered Theology, History and Lit. I also find Saxon to be just a do-the-next-thing curriculum, as well as Rod and Staff grammar. SWB's recommendation for vocab, Vocabulary from Classical Roots, is also open-and-go, as are the Apologia Science texts. We used all of this for high school--but you can use the same companies for middle school.

 

HTH.

 

ETA: Wanted to add that Apologia, Saxon, and Rod and Staff are all recommended in WTM for that age.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Chris in VA

[Parrothead]

Pretty much everything we use is do the next thing.

I'll list them:

MUS

CW

CW poetry

The Story of Science

LL8

Latin Road to English Grammar

 

Since we do some much do the next thing I spend a few hours in the summer planning out the year. Lesson one starts on day one and continues forward in that manner. If the book is small and has 36 lessons then that is a once a week book. If it has 196 lessons then we do double lessons for the first 16 days.

[momteaches2]

I'm in the same boat, and I'm looking at a boxed curriculum for the first time in 10 years. This year, I homeschooled 12th/8th/3rd grades, and I am burnt out on planning. Next year, it will just be my youngest at home (my oldest will be at college and my middle starts high school at a local charter school). I so desperately want a year that I don't have to plan! I'm looking at Illuminations (from Bright Idea Press - MOH). I know I don't 'need' the lessons planned for me, but I'm thinking it will be worth it to pay for the convenience so I can :chillpill: on the weekends instead of planning!

[Alyeska]

MFW is open and go.

 

 

 

The problem comes in when I start tweaking. lol!

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited April 21, 2023 by SilverMoon

[2_girls_mommy]

Using almost all WTM recs has been pretty open and go for me, even doing science their way.

 

The most helpful thing for me is prepare in the summer. I make detailed weekly plans as to what subjects we will do each day of the week. I preprint all of SOTW student pages. I read all of my T.M.s.

 

I have a regular library day in the schedule for picking up and ordering books for the next week. I spend a few minutes at the end of a lesson to see if there are supplies I need for next week's lesson.

 

If something comes up and we don't get to what I had planned, we just pick up where we were during the next session usually. Occasionally when we are getting a little too behind we work on weekends.

 

I am not a super big planner, yet feel I am fairly organized. I think the preparing in the summer gets the bulk of the work done for me. I do not try to schedule which read alouds we will get to each week and whatnot. If we get to them we do, if we don't we don't. They read plenty.

[walkermamaof4]

I'm trying HOD next year.

[LittleIzumi]

Right now all of mine are open-and-go individual programs (in siggy) but for elementary years.

[arcara]

I think it's interesting that a couple of you have listed Classical Writing as open and go. I'm considering switching my current 6th grader from CW Homer to WWS because we are just not progressing much with Homer. My dd loves it, but it seems she's always having to wait for me to look up how to do the assignment in the Core Book. Even then I'm never completely sure that we are doing it right. Maybe I just have too many kiddos around here to devote enough time to it. WWS appeals to be because I'm sure it's a good program since SWB wrote it and it's written clearly with day-by-day instructions. My dd is working through the free WWS lessons now, so we will see how it goes

I am a little sad, though, to leave a program that my dd was enjoying and succeeding with.

[tuzor]

Been there, but found out the open and go was just not for me, so here I am still planning. Good luck.

Edited April 25, 2012 by tuzor
Needed to add more.

[G5052]

I didn't mind planning when I did it, but we had a major family medical crises and multiple out-of-state eldercare issues hit one summer, and that was it. I mostly used cores bought used that were several years old, and took advantage of good library systems and borrowing from friends. So we did Sonlight for history/lit for about $100/year.

 

We have since gone to various other things for middle school and high school, but I have no regrets.

[5 Hikers]

I'm going with Winterpromise for next year. I am going to have 4 different people helping me homeschool my children, so I wanted something all written out for me. I needed something I can just hand over on those days. I got their LA and their Themes. I am adding SOTW for my 3rd grader. My 7th grader is doing Exploration Education for Science, which is planned out already as well.

 

I usually piece together from several different resources, but I dont have that time available right now to make lesson plans.

[pbb119]

I feel the same way...but I have tried "boxed" curriculum and didn't like it. For less planning, I **love** SOTW, and LLAL (though I did NOT like that for my 1st grader). I am looking at Word Voyage on line for next year, and LOF looks like there would not be hours and hours of pre-planning. Science is my most difficult for pre-planning, and of course w/o buying into a whole curriculum, you are stuck making up all the tests. That part alone takes up a good bit of time and would love to see more hs based books have test books available as well. I purchased schoolhouse technologies for test making, though I am not totally convinced it was worth the $$, but saves a little time I suppose. At the 6th and 8th grade levels, perhaps a co-op would be available for some of your most work intensive classes?

[lea1]

The only time I spend 'planning' is when I look ahead in the SOTW AG to see what library books are coming up and order them using our online library catalog. Everything else is open and go.

 

Math Mammoth (I have to print pages but I print a bunch at once)

SOTW (order library books two weeks in advance; if we happen to see a project that looks like fun and we don't have everything we need, we will do it the next time we do history.)

WWE 1

FLL 1

AAS 1 (I do a quick glance at the lesson and decide what method to use (chalkboard, whiteboard, tiles, paper, etc.)

Apologia Astronomy (usually do the next thing; if we happen to see an experiment we are interested in doing and we don't have everything we need we will do it the next time we do science.)

[iamrachelle]

Would it be possible to do all of your planning in advance?

 

I'm a little too OCD to just open the book and do the next thing. I like to know where we are and how far we have to go at any given time in our school year. I took a week (fed the kids pop tarts for dinner), and lesson planned for the entire year next year a couple of weeks ago.

 

(I've got a rising 7th grader and 4th grader.)

 

It's nice because if for some reason I get sick or need to go out of town to help care for family, my DH or my parents could look in my lesson planner and know exactly what the kids need to accomplish for that particular day. It's just, I dunno, peaceful maybe??.... knowing that I have everything finished and planned out for the year.

[raceNzanesmom]

What have you been using- and like other than the planning?

 

With my oldest I used donnayoung.org's plans for Apologia. We used R&S english and TT math, so it was just do the next lesson. We used Progeny Press guides (or similar) for lit, one per quarter then a basket of other books for free reading. We used Truthquest for history, which did take planning, but it was only one class so it wasn't so overwhelming.

 

We use HOD now for the youngest. I hope to never have to plan again.

 

ETA: And, I found doing my plans as day 1, day 2, etc was MUCH easier than assigning an actual day. That way if he got off a day it didn't ruin the plans. He just kept going until all the school days for that subject were complete.

[iamrachelle]

I use an eclectic mix of curriculum..

 

Let's see...

 

CLE 7 & 4 - Math, LA & Reading - These are really easy to plan.. it is definitely open and go and "just do the next lesson" but I go through and writie it all out in a lesson planner with the tests scheduled out.

 

WWE4/WWS - Writing

 

BJU 4 & 7 - Science. I'll be teaching year 4 myself and my daughter is going to use the DVD program for Life Science. There's a suggested lesson plan in the TM... I do skip most of the planned experiments and plan on having my daughter watch them on DVD. If there's one that seems especially interesting we'll order any needed lab supplies and perform the experiment at home.

 

Social Studies - Veritas Press's online interactive history. I will also have them read the optional literature selections that go with each lesson.

 

Bible & Spanish - I teach whatever I feel like out of the bible. Usually a topical study. And for spanish I use a combination of Visual Link and Pimsleur.

 

None of these are hard to plan out, but I find it extremely helpful to list out assignments for the week so the kids know what will be expected of them. They'll know if they have a test on Thursday, and thus need to put in some extra study time. It's great and there are no surprises for any of us. I know some families are very successful with "just doing the next thing" but my dc would have a stroke if I did that and said, "oh yeah, you have a test today... grab your pencil."

[m0mmaBuck]

I'm pretty much open and go...

 

R&S English

Spelling Power

LLATL (I just buy all the books for book units when I get the curriculum)

CLE Math

CLE Learn to Read

Complete Book of Maps and Geography

Young Scientists Club (once you have the materials)

RS4K (once you have the materials)

Artistic Pursuits (again, buy all the materials when you buy the curriculum)

SOTW (my most involved and it really just means getting library books, printing pages, and gathering supplies for a project if we choose)

[woolybear]

I leaning heavily toward using Sonlight for next year. I am considering G/H and core C for my younger. I won't combine them.

[momto2blessings]

I spend a couple weeks or so (not continually) over the summer planning. Then I pretty much don't need to plan all year, except a bit of tweaking w/what's not working well, etc. I just schedule my kids to 'do the next thing.' Two pages of math, list of lit. and history readers w/how many ch. per day for ea. book then move on to the next, detailed history plan for what I read day-by-day (not week-by-week), next writing assignment, etc. Hope you find a good groove! Blessings, Gina

[creekmom]

Thank you all for such great advice! Most of my planning happens on Sunday when I go through all their books and write in their planners what I want them to accomplish for the next week. My oldest is doing CPO science and Human Odyssey for history. It takes so long to figure out how many pages he should read/ what questions he should answer/ what video clips will go with science or history/ etc. Some subjects don't require as much (algebra, vocabulary, grammar, etc.). Then with the younger children, most of it is open and go, but I'm always trying to add in a game or something else to break up the monotony of it all. Then I get on Startwrite and type up copywork and handwriting practice. I usually spend at least an hour staring at my bookshelves full of curricula that I've spent a fortune on and don't use. :tongue_smilie: I try to pull some things from the different books to ease my guilt, but it never works and we never get around to it all. I also spend quite a bit of time catching up on all the grading I didn't get done during the week. Before I know it, I've spent several hours in the basement, and I'm ready to poke my eyes out and send them to ps!!! Anyone else go through this every weekend???

[honeymommy4]

yes... i used to do this...

 

the handwriting makes sense. if u arent using a workbook then u have 2 do the work 2 make & print them. can you just make it simpler for the other subjects? I would not make detailed planners for everyone. Just know how many pages or lessons you want them to do in each subject, each day or how many times per week. You can plan all this at one time over the summer and be done.

 

then have modified workbxes which are like small file boxes for each kid with file folders for each subject. then spend the time each weekend filling them if you have individual worksheets. DS does 2 pages Math per day, 1 lesson in grammar, etc. and just print all the pages ahead of time or put a sticky bookmark in the workbook? After a while the kids will know how much of each subject to do and they can remind you.

 

I am only schooling 2 so I have one file holder for both my kids and I give them the work as we go but they are young and not doing a lot of independent work yet.

 

as for games, can you just have the games in a cabinet or on a shelf then just let the kids pick what games you will do that day? '

 

simplify!

Edited April 28, 2012 by honeymommy4

[curriculumhoarder]

You mentioned Sonlight as an all-in-one, but that is just for the multi-subject packages which I never recommend anyhow. SL is more broad now that they've added LA and Bible to the Core, but at the heart it's history, literature and geography.

 

You can get an Instructor's Guide (new or used) and then use the library for the majority of the books. The planning switches from curriculum to library books, but it's doable for quite cheap. Or, find a complete used Core (probably without LA or Bible) and have everything you need all at once. I have seen them sold pretty cheap at times.

 

We use Noeo science for it's open and go format, as well as living books. I totally like having a detailed schedule, with each day planned out for that subject. I don't need one for certain subjects like math or art, where we go at the student's pace.