Moving forward....

[stephanie]

I won't bore y'all with the long details of my family's past couple of years, but they have definitely been life-changing and changed the course of our home schooling. They've caused us to get off track for each "set back", but we've managed to somehow "finish up" the school year to start each one fresh. However, as I posted before, we lost all of our school curriculum in a fire in February, leaving us very lost and disorganized. We re-ordered math, but have not finished it. We're a good month behind leaving us with just about no summer break. (we love to take off summer with my older ds who goes to PS)

The fire really "took the wind out of our sails" to say the least. So since then I've managed to continue reading history, watching documentaries, doing AHA science, and math. We are ready for the summer break...to start fresh and focus this summer on rebuilding our school house. So I'm wondering what y'all think on my plan to finish up...here goes..:tongue_smilie:

 

Continue math through summer doing 2-3 lessons per week until done, knowing we might never get a break from math before we start again. :glare: Also, Continue reading our history and watching netflix documentaries just for fun.

Of course the kids prefer to quit math now...starting the next grade level in August. The 4th and 6th grader have about 15 lessons left, but the 7th grader has probably 25 lessons left. I just don't think I'd feel comfy not finishing up that many lessons.

 

So tell me what y'all think on this plan or any other ideas you might have. Honestly, I don't have it in me right now to do much. I know that sounds sorry, but I'm completely stressed at our lack of organization and normal schedule. I just want to start brand new after our summer break. :o

[yvonne]

It sounds like you could really use the time off, even more so than your children. :grouphug: I know how that feels.

 

If it were me, though, and if I could at all pull it together to do so, I would continue math through the summer. All of your kids, like mine, are at the age where they can do most of a math lesson independently. 30-60 mins./day of math is not asking too much of them, even over the summer.

 

We continue math every summer anyhow, though, so it's not a big deal for us. It's more of a pain for me than for the children because I'm the one that has to correct their math pages, and because I certainly have more other things that I have to do over the summer than they do. I think that may be one reason they don't complain about doing a lesson of math/day. It really only takes an hour at most out of their day. Then they have the whole rest of the day to themselves. It takes a bigger chunk out of my day bec. I have to correct three children's worth of math as well as sometimes teach it, if it's something new.

 

If the children were K-3, I'd let it go and get a break. But, since you're already feeling "behind" on math, and since the children are at a level where math starts picking up, I'd keep going. If you take a break now, you'll also lose ground over the summer. You may, however, be at a point where the time completely off is worth more than the catch-up you might have to play in the fall. You can only do so much.

 

yvonne

Edited May 29, 2012 by yvonne

[stephanie]

It sounds like you could really use the time off, even more so than your children. :grouphug: I know how that feels.

 

If it were me, though, and if I could at all pull it together to do so, I would continue math through the summer. All of your kids, like mine, are at the age where they can do most of a math lesson independently. 30-60 mins./day of math is not asking too much of them, even over the summer.

 

We continue math every summer anyhow, though, so it's not a big deal for us. It's more of a pain for me than for the children because I'm the one that has to correct their math pages, and because I certainly have more other things that I have to do over the summer than they do. I think that may be one reason they don't complain about doing a lesson of math/day. It really only takes an hour at most out of their day. Then they have the whole rest of the day to themselves. It takes a bigger chunk out of my day bec. I have to correct three children's worth of math as well as sometimes teach it, if it's something new.

 

If the children were K-3, I'd let it go and get a break. But, since you're already feeling "behind" on math, and since the children are at a level where math starts picking up, I'd keep going. If you take a break now, you'll also lose ground over the summer. You may, however, be at a point where the time completely off is worth more than the catch-up you might have to play in the fall. You can only do so much.

 

yvonne

 

Thank you, Yvonne. You're right about continuing math. I think it might be more of an issue for me than the kids too just because I enjoy NOT doing school! I also use our summer for me to work part time because I am an RN who works home health...it's my way of keeping fresh with what I love to do. But I really should continue with Math. I'm sure once they accept their fate the gnashing of teeth won't be so bad!:tongue_smilie:

[ktgrok]

I'd look at the math carefully, and see if you can present it in a way that they get the gist, but dont' worry about mastering it. That's what I'm doing to finish out the year at double pace. I have my son do only some of the problems, and I'm not testing. We are doing two lessons a day that way. I'm actually doing two separate topics, to keep it more interesting, each day, and cut out everything else but reading.

[fiddle]

We're going to be homeschooling year round and including this summer because we just started hs'ing mid year and we're a bit "behind" also. BUT, I wanted to jump in and give you a couple thoughts- I had a couple tips from others that I want to pass along to you:

 

1) I got this from the homeschool convention seminar on "distractable" or ADD kids that might work for your summer--- Give the kids an incentive by telling them that they only have to do the odd problems in math, and if they get them all right they don't have to do the even!!! This may help you zip through math a bit faster?!?

 

2) I got this tip from a veteran homeschooling mom in my group= Look at the next level in your respective math books for the kids. Often the first bit of math is spent reviewing what they learned last year, giving you options of ending now--or if you school year round to advance to the part in math where the new material is and you might be ahead the next year!;)

 

Hope it all works out for you!

Paula

[elegantlion]

I was thinking about you the other day. :grouphug:

 

We're behind on math too, sigh. My deal with summer work usually is we stop on our traditional last day of school, take two full weeks and do no school work, then start back. It gives us enough of a break and we usually start with better focus.

 

I also think the greater life lesson is that sometime we get thrown off track and it is a daily choice to keep moving forward. It's easy to just stop, but it takes time and effort to re-reach normal after a setback. I know you know that already. :grouphug:

[stephanie]

We're going to be homeschooling year round and including this summer because we just started hs'ing mid year and we're a bit "behind" also. BUT, I wanted to jump in and give you a couple thoughts- I had a couple tips from others that I want to pass along to you:

 

1) I got this from the homeschool convention seminar on "distractable" or ADD kids that might work for your summer--- Give the kids an incentive by telling them that they only have to do the odd problems in math, and if they get them all right they don't have to do the even!!! This may help you zip through math a bit faster?!?

 

2) I got this tip from a veteran homeschooling mom in my group= Look at the next level in your respective math books for the kids. Often the first bit of math is spent reviewing what they learned last year, giving you options of ending now--or if you school year round to advance to the part in math where the new material is and you might be ahead the next year!;)

 

Hope it all works out for you!

Paula

 

Great ideas...you would think after this long I could come up with something! Geesh!! Only odd or even will totally get them pumped!

[stephanie]

I was thinking about you the other day. :grouphug:

 

We're behind on math too, sigh. My deal with summer work usually is we stop on our traditional last day of school, take two full weeks and do no school work, then start back. It gives us enough of a break and we usually start with better focus.

 

I also think the greater life lesson is that sometime we get thrown off track and it is a daily choice to keep moving forward. It's easy to just stop, but it takes time and effort to re-reach normal after a setback. I know you know that already. :grouphug:

 

Thanks, EL. I sure do miss you!

[Trish]

We never take a break from math. We have to be physically out of town. :lol:

 

We just do a little less math over the summer.

[2_girls_mommy]

I would figure out if there is any new material they need to know and make sure you go over that a few lessons a week. I might not try to finish the whole book. We won't be finishing ours. The last chapters are review for the year anyway and that will be gone over at the beginning of next year. I have inspected both our current books and next year's to decide which lessons at the end of the books are completely necessary and we will do them over the summer a few a week like you. (And we didn't have a fire.. It just takes us that long to finish a math book.)

[Lori in MS]

We are not taking a break from math, just approaching it differently. I found www.aleks.com last week and did the 48 hour free trial. They give each child an assessment, than work on the weak areas. The nice thing is that it is totally independant with no papers to grade. After the 48 hour free trial they sent me an email link for a free 2 month trial. We are doing that now.