Anyone not get there curriculum yet...

[garness]

I don't have ours yet. I have been blaming it on finances, things have been tight for a few months and I have been holding off on buying anything.

I think I also am just not sure about our homeschool decision. (we defaulted to it last year and this year I don't feel like there is a better option and than I shouldn't give it up after only one year).

We had a tough first year with me winging it and just pulling stuff together on my own. I am very bad at planning. Not very organized and a perfectionist. My daughter is also a perfectionist and I would say she is highly distractable. So the thought of "trying" to start schooling again soon is daunting.

We basically stopped doing school in May and have had a summer with mostly activities and her doing independent reading. She is ahead with reading, but behind in math and starting math again scares me.

I have been planning on buying MFW adventures for 2nd grade. My little one is going to do a church preschool two days a week and I am pregnant with my 3rd and having complications, so I feel overwhelmed, and just haven't made the decision to dive in.

Edited August 23, 2012 by garness

[duckens]

and I am pregnant with my 3rd and having complications, so I feel overwhelmed, and just haven't made the decision to dive in.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

 

Your number one priority is to take care of YOU right now. Your children are young enough that it will not matter if your second grader learns subtraction in the fall of 2012 or the spring (or summer) of 2013. Or even later. There are tons of veteran homeschoolers that will tell you stories of how one year, or even a few years, didn't make that much difference to their kids in the long run. This would be different advice if your kids were in 9th and 11th grade, but they aren't.

 

Three more things:

 

1) We had a baby 20m ago, and my pregnancy wasn't exactly "complications," (no hospitalizations, no spotting, no high blood pressure), but it was miserable (vomiting for 9 straight months, sore hips so only crawling instead of walking, gestational diabetes, exhaustion).

 

The biggest piece of wisdom from the hive about having a baby and homeschooling is that, "You WILL fall behind. Everyone falls behind wiht a new baby in the house. Don't worry about it." We did fall behind with the new baby....but we're still homeschooling, and my girls are still just fine. You will say the same thing 2 years from now.

 

2) I have most of my stuff ready for this year, but not everything. I lamented it to my homeschooling mentor (and veterinarian) when I took the cats in for shots last week. She said she used to worry about picking the right curriculum and having everything on day one until another experienced homeschooler told her that as homeschoolers, we don't need to be on time.

 

We are always adding things, cutting things, changing things. There is no reason why you can't just take care of yourself now, read lots of books to the kids after the baby is born, and do math next summer.

 

3) Just pick one thing. In your circumstances, for sooooooo many reasons, just pick one thing.

 

If finances are tight, just get a bunch of library books, and read them to the kids. If you want it to by curiculummy Look for BOB books at the library. Check out Caldecott winners. Work through a list of Zolotov award winners or Geisel winners.

 

Play games to teach math skills. Use two dice to teach your daughter addition...or subtraction when going around Chutes and Ladders.

 

Go in the yard, and draw pictures of what you see: flowers, trees, leaves, insects, bunnies. Write the name of item and date on the picture. Collect the pictures in a notebook for comparison later.

 

Example: leaves of the Ash Tree in August vs. leaves of the Ash Tree in September vs. leaves of the Ash Tree in November.

 

Our yard (August) vs. Our yard (December)

 

Bark of the Ash Tree vs. Bark of the White Pine Tree (rubbings)

 

There! You've done scientific Nature Studies.

 

But you don't get to pick all three. Just one for today. Just one.

[truebluexf]

I agree. :)

 

Take it easy, read, audiobooks, educational computer stuff your 2nd grader can do on her own, etc. During our harder times I focused on the three r's and anything else was gravy! 45 minutes max to get the main things done daily. Reax and have fun.

[UmmAbduRahman]

I don't have mine yet! Just had a baby 10 days ago :)

 

I second what was said above. Take care of you and your baby. The other kids will be okay.

[kristi26]

First, :grouphug: It WILL be okay. Second, a dear friend of mine JUST had her baby yesterday and wants to homeschool her first grader this year. They have little to no money and she will have little to no time to devote to it. I suggested she do unit studies around the American Girl books. She can get everything at the library and it's all laid out for her here: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/American_Girl_Lapbook.php

 

It sounds to me like your DD is a good reader and would likely enjoy something along the same lines. I wouldn't worry much about the math at first. Take care of you and the baby first. Worry about the math later.

[ELITEANDLOVINGIT]

Have you considered something pretty base like Time 4 Learning? I believe the monthly fee is 20.00 per month which isn't much. It tracks everything, so if you are at all good using the internet you would be fine.

 

Then just let her continue reading. If there is something that you feel particularly concerned about, you could always add some additional written copy work for math, with a test at the end of each month?

 

If you don't have the money for that, you could perhaps co-school with someone from your local homeschool group? Have a "sponsor" of sorts that will call each day to make sure you are staying on track and share weekly lesson plans?

 

I wouldn't stress much. We ordered our curriculum and it hasn't arrived. If you start even a month late it isn't the end of the world. I am in Wisconsin, so my plan is if I don't have my curriculum by the beginning of Sept. we will just enjoy watching the harvest and relax.

[garness]

I do need to say I'm not have serious complications, so maybe I was a little dramatic.

But I am constantly fatigued, have severe back/hip pain and I have an irritable uterus, so I can't really do much in the way of exercising or activity otherwise it sends me into contractions that are painful (not starting labor). The back pain is the worst and has me in bed a lot. I'm going to try yoga.

The reason I wanted a teacher guide (MFW) is because I am so unorganized and unable to come up with ideas.

Thank you for the encouragement and advice. Just what I need.

[happycc]

especially at first. Eventually you can wing it more but at the beginning it is nice to have something to follow to get you in the swing of things and in a routine. Everyone seems happier for it.

 

Can you find a curriculum that is free from online or something. It may not exactly be MFW but something similar online that someone put together.

 

I have found going to the library to get the books for the study we are doing doesn't work for us. I am not organized enough or my library just doesn;t have it.

 

I use half price books to buy it or look at thrift stores but in the meantime can your church donate books for you?

I was able to make some kind of curriculum out of whatever was given to me the first year. I just made do for a bit until our charter school money kicked in. Unfortunately if it were not for the charter school money homeschooling the kids THE WAY I WANT to would be next to impossible. The charter school way does not pay for religious materials though. So if that is the only route you will go then charter school may not be your best bet. However they can pay for consumables like paints, paper, hole punchers, art stuff as well as some computer programs/games which can save you some money to be able to buy the religious things out of pocket.

 

However with accepting the money you are expected to follow the schools rules and regulations/expectations/state standards blah blah blah

[sweetpea3829]

No, we haven't purchased ours yet either. *sigh*

 

DH broke his leg back in February and has been out of work since. We had expected a 3 month "vacation" but it has turned into this never-ending situation.

 

Anyways, money is really, really pinched so we're having to wing it. We're good for math, though I had really wanted to get ahold of the MUS manipulatives, and we're good, for now, for spelling.

 

But that's about it. We're using a free phonics program that I found online. And we're totally winging it with creative writing. Science and Social Studies are going to have to be really really informal this year, I think.

 

We had wanted to do a foreign language with DS5, but that's going to have to wait.

 

Sometimes you've just got to go with the flow and do what you can, kwim?

 

On the flip side...we are really, really thankful for the time we've had with DH since February! I'm telling you right now, when he goes back to work, I totally want a lunchtime nanny who can come in and prepare lunch while I finish up school lessons! ;-)

[Holly]

I went overboard last year on curriculum and we didn't get to half of it. :blushing: This year I created my own lesson plans using what we didn't get to last year and anything I'd purchased over the last several years but haven't used either. :lol: If you are anything like me, you have plenty around the house to pull together a curriculum. I get overwhelmed with organizing it all too, but I've just been planning one subject each day or two so it isn't such a big job.

 

I'm not sure the ages of your DC, but when I was pg with my youngest (and after she was born) I had a hard time HSing. We basically covered 3Rs, then I picked something from World Book's Scope and Sequence page for 1st grade. We either discussed it or looked it up on Wikipedia. It wasn't ideal, but it got us through that tough time with my pregnancy and a new baby. I also kept a large box of activities, free printed worksheets, file folder games, books, etc. to keep my older two busy. When I was busy with the baby, I'd have them pull an activity from the box to work on until I was available.

[BugsMama]

You can also write to the Book Samaritan - these are the kinds of situations they are THERE for.

 

http://www.thebooksamaritan.com/

[sweetpea3829]

You can also write to the Book Samaritan - these are the kinds of situations they are THERE for.

 

http://www.thebooksamaritan.com/

 

When DH first broke his leg, somebody here mentioned Book Samaritan to us and they were very generous in providing us with our math curriculum that we are still using, along with a preschool program for my Littles.

 

I kind of feel funny going back and asking for more, kwim?

 

We are hoping hoping hoping that DH will be back to work soon...right now it's looking like at least mid-September.

 

Thankfully, our kiddos are still young enough that we can skate by. Had they been older and needing more formal stuff...YIKES!

[garness]

I'm so tired and discouraged. I have literally been debating public school for the whole summer. But I cannot get my husband to "decide" either way. We are just both confused. He is concerned that I can't "handle" homeschooling right now. I want him to make an educated decision and pray about it with me, but he hasn't. It's literally last minute. Public school starts on Monday.

I feel like public school is like sending my daughter to the wolves. Even though I am not totally against public schooling. Also my husband works evenings and would never see his kid, except Saturday AM and Sunday. I feel like I want my daughter with me and I don't know if this is just a shelfish desire or what.

Tonight she told me that she wants to "try" public school. She likes lunch time, recess, making more friends and the fact that the teachers "make it fun". She says that she doesn't want to do homeschool because we fought about too many things last year. We did fight about math and writing and her general lack of ability to concentrate on ANYTHING. UGGG.... I was such a bad teacher last year. I never handled my frustration well and she always got upset because of it.

That is why I wanted the planned curriculum and to be much more conscious about making things more fun and being better organized.

I even went to a homeschool convention in May to get some encouragement. But has still been wishy washy about it all summer. It's like I dread it, but don't like the alternatives.

I even have my parents living close now and they both are educators and want to help with the schooling at least once or twice a week.

I feel like I don't want to give up after only one year, but If I make the wrong decision for Annabelle that all the consequences are on MY shoulders. And I really am worried about her. She seems depressed and wants more friends.

We live in the country and have a very unformal homeschool group fairly close, but they don't have anyone real close to her age and they don't do a coop or regular activities. Everything else is SO far away. I have her signed up for one enrichment art class that meets every other week. We have a very small group of friends that have been very busy this summer with there own lives and vacaitons ects... and my kids have had very little interaction with other kids this summer. We just moved to the area about 9 months ago and its been hard for me and the kids. We moved 3000 miles from "home".