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I Just Figured Out My Challenge with full curriculums...Now what to do to solve it?


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Keri,

 

We are considering something similar to what you are doing although I think my ideas for this year look a little like LCC 1st edition with an American studies thread, a Christian studies thread, and a history overview/geography thread (rather than Classical studies). My oldest is in 4th and I'd like a fun, varied, yet strong year before hitting middle school. I have a plan coming together.... :001_smile::tongue_smilie:

 

:hurray:

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Lisa,

 

I just wanted to tell you dropping LA from AWOA will not affect the program. We just finished ANWOA. The first 1/2 we did it all. The second 1/2 we only did Bible, literature & History. We loved it. I will be doing the same with WOW this year. The LA/Spelling/Writing was not working for us so we do other things that suit him better. This was, by far, out best year.

 

Oh, how I wished I had heard this earlier! I've had a feeling that AWOA would be such a breath of fresh air in our homeschool and yet I didn't feel it would work, so I've already bought SL 6. Maybe I will take another look at it, though. I do remember one of the other problems I had is that we'd read a number of the books not that long ago.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing that. I always thought it looked like a fantastic program.

 

Lisa

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Oh, how I wished I had heard this earlier! I've had a feeling that AWOA would be such a breath of fresh air in our homeschool and yet I didn't feel it would work, so I've already bought SL 6. Maybe I will take another look at it, though. I do remember one of the other problems I had is that we'd read a number of the books not that long ago.

 

Anyway, thanks for sharing that. I always thought it looked like a fantastic program.

 

Lisa

 

Bummer! We absolutly love it. With ANWOA I used the SL 3 Readers for his free reading. It worked wonderfully!

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  • 1 month later...

I piece mine together. It is not as hard as it sounds. I gave my son placement tests where available and bought separate math, grammar, history, spelling, language, and lit programs. I looked at boxed curricula and could not see how It would work for us.

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I know where your coming from. We tried Sonlight, and it was too jump, I tried using wtm recc's and "tweaking" and it was too jumpy (even with all the thought out schedules, extras my kids need etc)

 

Now I'm piecing the whole thing together properly myself, with no reccs. I will NOT make a 36 week schedule, as we end up dumping it all the time.

 

We'll use Winter Promise as our theme for the year, and work around that (WP suits my childrens styles, they'll have fun, and it takes care of one subject at least) everything else will be worked round it. I will not tweak WP at all (except secularising it), and will do it as is. Even the full program is less than what I would end up making myself with WTM + extras +supplements lol. Maths & LA will be worked on in some form or another daily. WP will be used 4 days a week and the 5th day shall be for the things WP doesn't cover (so this year, it would be science, next year will be Australian History) I will be keeping things easy, and simple, and will have overviews for each subject (showing what needs to be completed for the year for that subject, and will list "supplemental" items I have in case they need a change or need to work on a skill (i.e. SM for Maths, but we also have Pattern Blocks & Activity Books, Peggy Kaye book etc)

 

I need a record keeper, so am using a Natural Learners Journal. I write things down only after we have done them (with the exception of doctors appointments which we write in advance). I put post-it notes on the bottom (3 part ones) that show what school stuff needs to be done, what I need to do, and anything DH needs to do. It also has notes pages, reading log, and Chart for Atlas' Diabetes. I will be getting it edited to add the subject items.

 

Theres a lot more than that to it, and it sounds more complex than if I listed what I did before, but this way will work a lot better for us. Even though I am a super planner/organizer, and always want to schedule everything, its apparently not the best way we learn. I will HUG my winter Promise and lovingly stroke it if I need to look at a schedule :lol: (even thats loosely done, just shows deets for the one subject, and we'll just mark it off as we do a day)

 

Its hard to figure out what works for you, I probably won't fully figure it out until the end of this year...then the kids will probably change or something will happen and all my beautiful plans will be in the dust again :tongue_smilie:

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I like the structure of a full boxed curriculum but only if it includes extras like teacher grading, progress reports and stuff like that so I can focus on just teaching my kids and trying to make it as fun as possible. I've done both the "boxed" curriculum and putting together everything on my own but I ended up preferring what I'm using now which is the Seascape Private School program. Im not sure if it would be considered a boxed curriculum since they use a variety of different publishers in each curriculum program and they tailor it to my kids levels and interests. When I started with them they sent me all the textbooks and workbooks, a schedule that I could base my day on and there was teacher help in case I needed it. When I received the programs I knew right off the bat that two of the textbooks were not going to work because the levels were off so I contacted the school and they promptly exchanged them for different levels and even changed the publisher to one they believed would work better for us. It worked out great and I've been really happy with them ever since. They give credits for our field trips and my kids really enjoy sending in their work for someone other than just me to see. They also love getting their progress reports after all their hard work. :001_smile:

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Yep.

 

That's why we are eclectic. My kids both have high IQs (I'm guessing the 130 range). Add to that my dedication to reading aloud to them 3 hours per day ages 2-6, their own voracious reading, our family hobbies (challenging board games and documentaries, and logic puzzles),

 

And then add to that their creative writing desires and ability (see my recent post RE: meaningful Comp)

 

Add to that my son's Asperger's (meaning he is 2E)

 

Boxes programs just don't work for us.

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