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I'm looking for a curriculum like Sonight, except it would be ...


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Tapestry of Grace?

 

Biblioplan.

 

It is not as scheduled as Sonlight.

But you can definitely make it work like Sonlight and use it for the whole family.

 

There is no science component or language arts component.

 

It is History and Literature.

 

I have explored these options some. They are certainly possibilities. :001_smile: I'll check them out again.

 

I have a friend who has used TOG (original version). Maybe I'll see if I can see her guides...

 

I'd really like something that's as open and go as Sonlight, and that the books are scheduled and can be purchased along with the teacher's guide.

 

It's totally fine if there's not LA component, although it would be nice if Science, History, and Literature were all included.

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MFW?

 

With MFW, do you really lose out if you don't add extra books from the "book basket" list? With a newborn coming very soon, I'm just not sure I'd be adding anything to the package that I purchase.

 

Also, how much of a big deal would it be if I didn't start with MFW's ECC year?

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You really will be just fine not doing the book basket. I have done 4 of the 5 years and never really did book basket. (I am not good on maintenance things like that) They really like you to start with ECC but you really can do what you want. There is not a MFW police--unless Crystal is under cover. It is a great program, we loved it.

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You really will be just fine not doing the book basket. I have done 4 of the 5 years and never really did book basket. (I am not good on maintenance things like that) They really like you to start with ECC but you really can do what you want. There is not a MFW police--unless Crystal is under cover. It is a great program, we loved it.

 

Thanks, Stacey. :)

 

I'll look at some samples on the MFW website...

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I had a really hard time with MFW EEC. I had to supplement it so much, it seriously wasn't worth it to me. I felt it wasn't nearly rigorous enough, and the science was woefully inadequate and boring.

 

YMMV, but I was very unimpressed with the curriculum.

 

Hi, Diane! :)

 

I have a friend who also did not enjoy her ECC year with MFW. I sometimes wish that I could physically have a huge assortment of curricula right here in my family room to actually browse and explore. It would really make it easier to choose (at least maybe a little!).

 

The one thing I've noticed when I looked at MFW in the past is that it seems like they are covering a lot of history in a short amount of time ... as in one day on some important event or figure. I really don't want to rush through history. I'd much rather spend more time on a smaller amount of events/people even if it means not covering everything (as if you really could anyway!).

 

I still am hoping to find the groove that will work for my family...

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You could try a unit study from StewardShip. Those are not as open and go as Sonlight, but they are multilevel K-8, and if you have a chance to take the seminar that the owner teaches, you will learn how to do this more easily than even an open and go set up, IMO.

 

Thanks, Carol! I had not heard of these unit studies before, and there are lots of great topics to choose from. I don't think I could take a seminar, but she has a book all about teaches unit studies. Maybe that would be a pretty good substitute for a seminar.

 

I'm having some trouble finding samples online ...

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I have explored these options some. They are certainly possibilities. :001_smile: I'll check them out again.

 

I have a friend who has used TOG (original version). Maybe I'll see if I can see her guides...

 

I'd really like something that's as open and go as Sonlight, and that the books are scheduled and can be purchased along with the teacher's guide.

 

It's totally fine if there's not LA component, although it would be nice if Science, History, and Literature were all included.

 

Could you use SL but modify for the material you don't find conservative enough? I'm not really sure what you mean by conservative - pretty sure not political. Do you find the science books not a good fit or something else? I've used SL for years and find it very easy to swap out individual books, religion, science, etc. Unless the majority of the material is problematic, then it's very easy to adapt.

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Could you use SL but modify for the material you don't find conservative enough? I'm not really sure what you mean by conservative - pretty sure not political. Do you find the science books not a good fit or something else? I've used SL for years and find it very easy to swap out individual books, religion, science, etc. Unless the majority of the material is problematic, then it's very easy to adapt.

 

Hmmm ... let me see if I can describe how I'd like SL to be more conservative.

 

For one, I don't want to introduce other religions to my children before they are well-grounded in our own. I especially wouldn't want to address that before the age of 9 or 10.

 

I also would prefer that most of the books we use do not assume evolution to be fact. I don't mind if a small number do, but it seemed like so many of the SL books in Core 1 were evolution-based.

 

I guess I also felt like some of the read-alouds were too emotional/dramatic/graphic for my children. I really disliked "Mary on Horseback" for that Core 1 age group.

 

I should look again at their American History cores and see how much would need to be switched out. I do so love the read-aloud model!

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It's not too hard to put together your own Sonlightesque curriculum. We are Orthodox Christians, so no packaged curriculum works for me to instill the faith, history, science, art, well mostly everything the way we see things, especially emphasizing the things I want to emphasize. For me, after several years of homeschooling and several kids I realize that I only have so much time to instill the things that are most important to our family, and no packaged curriculum will cut it. If you are interested in learning how to construct your own Core, I'd be happy to write more. We have together time in the AM, and individual skill based learning in the afternoon.

Edited by JenniferB
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Thanks, Cat!

 

I think my concern with these would be that I couldn't teach my children all together. My oldest is in 5th and my youngest school-age child is in Kindergarten.

 

You're welcome!

 

I think you're going to have a similar problem with most of the planned curriculum options, because some of the subject matter that's OK for a 5th grader may be inappropriate for a Kindergartner, and some of the stuff that's perfect for your little one could bore your oldest child to tears.

 

Have you checked out Ambleside? You might be able to pick and choose from a variety of reading lists and put together your own set of books to use with all of the kids.

 

FWIW, I was completely gung-ho on Sonlight for a while, and I went a little hog wild, buying several years worth of Cores (one from Sonlight and the rest on eBay,) and then I started leafing through the book choices and I think I hated more of them than I liked. I can't remember which core in particular I'm thinking of, but it was for younger kids and it was filled with depressing books. No thanks!!! It was an expensive lesson to have learned. I did like some of their books, but not enough of them to allow me to use the complete curriculum and the IG, so that was the end of Sonlight for us.

 

As I recall, WinterPromise had happier books. It has been quite a few years since I bought their American History set, but I seem to remember liking the books a lot better than the Sonlight options. Things could have changed a lot since then, though!

 

Are you completely sold on the "living books" idea? I will warn you that if you're not used to doing a LOT of read-alouds, programs like Sonlight can become positively overwhelming. Also, when I tried Sonlight, I remember having to read a few pages from one book, then switch to another and do some reading, and then on to another one... and it seemed disjointed to me.

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Hmmm ... let me see if I can describe how I'd like SL to be more conservative.

 

For one, I don't want to introduce other religions to my children before they are well-grounded in our own. I especially wouldn't want to address that before the age of 9 or 10.

 

How can you teach history if you don't want to mention other religions? :confused:

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How can you teach history if you don't want to mention other religions? :confused:

 

And for that matter, aren't other religions mentioned in the bible, especially the Old Testiment, but also the New Testiment with the Roman Centurians? I don't see what the issue is by mentioning other regions/cultures worshipped different gods. The important factor is that you, the mom, are doing the introduction and description.

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How can you teach history if you don't want to mention other religions? :confused:

 

And for that matter, aren't other religions mentioned in the bible, especially the Old Testiment, but also the New Testiment with the Roman Centurians? I don't see what the issue is by mentioning other regions/cultures worshipped different gods. The important factor is that you, the mom, are doing the introduction and description.

 

 

I was wondering about that, as well. We never shied away from mentioning a wide variety of religions to our ds, and he never found it confusing, nor was he particularly influenced by any of them. If nothing else, you can touch on the basic beliefs of a different religion, and then say, "But that's not what we believe. We believe... and give a very simple and basic explanation." We used to have to do that all the time when we used BJU, and it was a complete non-issue for my ds.

 

As has already been mentioned, the important factor is that you're the mom, so you can offer your own explanations about the different religions.

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Hmmm ... let me see if I can describe how I'd like SL to be more conservative.

 

For one, I don't want to introduce other religions to my children before they are well-grounded in our own. I especially wouldn't want to address that before the age of 9 or 10.

 

Mentioning that the various ancient civilizations had other gods is historical information, not religious training. You don't have to go into any more detail than you desire.

 

I also would prefer that most of the books we use do not assume evolution to be fact. I don't mind if a small number do, but it seemed like so many of the SL books in Core 1 were evolution-based.

 

Have you actually read the books from core 1? Chapter 1 of Children's History of the World (CHOW) can be easily skipped (and it's not scheduled in the IG to read anyway). Frankly, I have more trouble weeding out the Young Earth books and DVDs in the science materials than finding the evolution information (which is usually a page or two in a book).

 

I guess I also felt like some of the read-alouds were too emotional/dramatic/graphic for my children. I really disliked "Mary on Horseback" for that Core 1 age group.

 

Have you looked at the new cores (not called by number anymore, so perhaps you haven't checked out the new titles)? Mary on Horseback was an amazing story of frontier nursing. Could easily be held until American history cores.

 

I should look again at their American History cores and see how much would need to be switched out. I do so love the read-aloud model!

 

We've really enjoyed the American history cores. I love the open and go IGs and the history and read-alouds. I'm not pushing SL by any means, but it's hard to find something as easy to use and as easy to adapt.

Edited by wintermom
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Thanks, Carol! I had not heard of these unit studies before, and there are lots of great topics to choose from. I don't think I could take a seminar, but she has a book all about teaches unit studies. Maybe that would be a pretty good substitute for a seminar.

 

I'm having some trouble finding samples online ...

 

I have that book, and it does contain most of the material in her seminars. However, it is not as well organized as the presentations, so I recommend that if you get it you plan on reading it a couple of times to really get your arms around the material.

 

The beauty of those unit studies is that each one is fairly short, so if you decide that you don't like the approach, it's easy and not too expensive to switch, and also they make great short term studies in between other curricula if you have a time gap, in addition to being pretty decent for overall use.

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How can you teach history if you don't want to mention other religions? :confused:

 

And for that matter, aren't other religions mentioned in the bible, especially the Old Testiment, but also the New Testiment with the Roman Centurians? I don't see what the issue is by mentioning other regions/cultures worshipped different gods. The important factor is that you, the mom, are doing the introduction and description.

 

I was wondering about that, as well. We never shied away from mentioning a wide variety of religions to our ds, and he never found it confusing, nor was he particularly influenced by any of them. If nothing else, you can touch on the basic beliefs of a different religion, and then say, "But that's not what we believe. We believe... and give a very simple and basic explanation." We used to have to do that all the time when we used BJU, and it was a complete non-issue for my ds.

 

As has already been mentioned, the important factor is that you're the mom, so you can offer your own explanations about the different religions.

 

Mentioning that the various ancient civilizations had other gods is historical information, not religious training. You don't have to go into any more detail than you desire.

 

:001_smile: I really didn't start this thread to have a discussion about how my husband and I have chosen to handle introducing other religions to our children. :001_smile:

 

Our children know that there are people who believe differently that we do. It's that I don't want all religions to be presented in a neutral way, which in my opinion, is how SL handled it in Core 1.

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It's not too hard to put together your own Sonlightesque curriculum. We are Orthodox Christians, so no packaged curriculum works for me to instill the faith, history, science, art, well mostly everything the way we see things, especially emphasizing the things I want to emphasize. For me, after several years of homeschooling and several kids I realize that I only have so much time to instill the things that are most important to our family, and no packaged curriculum will cut it. If you are interested in learning how to construct your own Core, I'd be happy to write more. We have together time in the AM, and individual skill based learning in the afternoon.

 

I would love to hear more! Making my own core would be perfect, but I feel unsure how to do it.

 

I'm hoping to do the individual skills in the morning, and history/science in the afternoons.

 

Thanks so much!:001_smile:

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:001_smile: I really didn't start this thread to have a discussion about how my husband and I have chosen to handle introducing other religions to our children. :001_smile:

 

Our children know that there are people who believe differently that we do. It's that I don't want all religions to be presented in a neutral way, which in my opinion, is how SL handled it in Core 1.

 

I think what we were suggesting is that even if the material is neutral, the way you explain it to your kids doesn't have to be. :001_smile: When we used BJU, the DVD teachers were anything but neutral, but we still managed to work around it.

 

Have you considered doing Story of the World with your kids? We used the audiobooks, and my ds really enjoyed them. SOTW covers a lot of history in an entertaining way, and it works well with a variety of ages.

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:001_smile: I really didn't start this thread to have a discussion about how my husband and I have chosen to handle introducing other religions to our children. :001_smile:

 

Our children know that there are people who believe differently that we do. It's that I don't want all religions to be presented in a neutral way, which in my opinion, is how SL handled it in Core 1.

 

That's the whole point. YOU lead the discussion. You don't have to let a picture book define the information as "neutral". There will be no perfect curriculum for you and your dh. You have to take the information and present it to your children the way YOU wish.

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Well, Sonlight's book choices for a single Core are not ever going to easily work for a really wide span of ages (although my oldest loves to re-listen to books from Cores he remembers from years ago, the content of his Core isn't appropriate for his younger sibs AND they'd be bored).

 

And it will never be as conservative as you want if by that you don't want any discussion of other religions or of "hard topics."

 

But if you read the IG notes and use them to tailor the discussions you have with your children about other religions mentioned in books Sonlight uses, I think you'd find it very hard to call Sonlight neutral on the subject. Sonlight's view - and the view they'd typically expect their target customers to have - is unabashedly Christian. They don't expect you to present the information in the read-alouds or history books as neutral, or without discussion or without your own viewpoint (which, again, most conservative Christians will find dovetails nicely with the views laid out in the IG notes).

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I guess you decided against Konos or Weaver? I was also thinking Ambleside as someone suggested, or you making your own program with Charlotte Mason lists and materials from places like Simply Charlotte Mason or Queen Homeschool. We just started using History Revealed last week so I'm no authority lol, but so far it has been perfect for teaching my daughters together and yet allowing them to learn based on their interests. It covers all ages for history and Bible.

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I would love to hear more! Making my own core would be perfect, but I feel unsure how to do it.

 

This might seem like a lot, but it's not really. We do a little bit here and there, but not everything every day. It's like Sonlight, some days you have a little of this book, and some days a little of that book. It keeps the lessons short and varied, which keeps it interesting for me and for the kids.

 

First I choose some basic ideas/subjects I want to cover, which I can do with all the ages together. Here's what we are doing this year with 4 children ages 13, 9, 8, and 5:

 

Faith: Church Calendar of Feasts & Fasts, Russian Saints, Bible Stories

Literature: Analysis of Classics

Geography: General Exposure America & Russia

Writing: Practice Outlining, Summarizing, Paragraph Writing, etc.

History: Russia & Eastern Europe (pre-communist era)

Science: Nature (animals, plants, seasons)

Poetry: General Exposure

Fairy Tales: Old Russian Fairy Tales

Art: Masterpieces of Russia & Icon Drawing

Music: Russian Composers, Operas, and Orchestra Music

 

Then I choose the very best book/s for each subject. Some subjects require a curriculum, some just require a read aloud. Here's what I'm using for each subject/topic:

 

Faith: Bible, The Twelve Great Feast Days for Young People, Saints of Russia, and Tomie DePaola's Book of Bible Stories

Literature: Teaching the Classics Reading Roadmaps Kindergarten Level

Geography & Writing: Beautiful Feet Geography & IEW Writing Component

History: A Short History of Russia & With the Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem

Science: A Forest Year

Poetry: Favorite Poems Old & New

Fairy Tales: Old Peter's Russian Tales

Art: Icons: Masterpieces of Russian Art & A Brush with God

Music: Read about & listen to music from 6 composers throughout the year

 

Then I spread out the reading for the year and lay it out on a spreadsheet like Sonlight. I use Excel and make cells across the top for the days and cells down the left side for the subjects, then I plug in what we will do each day to cover each book for the year. To figure this out, I just look at the book and based on how many pages it is, I decide how much can I read in 20 mins or so, and based on that I decide how often I need to read each week. For each reading, I usually do some recall from last time before we read, then I read aloud for about 20 mins, then some sort of narration after (written or oral).

 

I set aside the following amount of times for each subject:

 

Faith: 1 hour (5 days a week, for us it's from 9-10)

Literature/Geography & Writing/History/Fairy Tales & Nature Study/Art & Music: 1 hour (once a week for each one, we do this from 10-11)

 

These subjects + Latin take up our morning hours. Then we take a lunch break, and after lunch the kids do math (Teaching Textbooks - easy for mom), Language Arts (grammar & reading), and my oldest also has Science, Logic, and IEW lessons on her own level rotated through the week.

 

If you want to go this route and need a little help with the spreadsheet, I'd be happy to e-mail a template for you, that you can fill out with your own subjects. PM me if you need/want any more coaching.

 

Here is a blog that resembles very closely how we do our school. It's called Wildflowers and Marbles. I love her style, very Charlotte Mason.

Edited by JenniferB
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I think what we were suggesting is that even if the material is neutral, the way you explain it to your kids doesn't have to be. :001_smile: When we used BJU, the DVD teachers were anything but neutral, but we still managed to work around it.

 

Have you considered doing Story of the World with your kids? We used the audiobooks, and my ds really enjoyed them. SOTW covers a lot of history in an entertaining way, and it works well with a variety of ages.

 

That's the whole point. YOU lead the discussion. You don't have to let a picture book define the information as "neutral". There will be no perfect curriculum for you and your dh. You have to take the information and present it to your children the way YOU wish.

 

Well, Sonlight's book choices for a single Core are not ever going to easily work for a really wide span of ages (although my oldest loves to re-listen to books from Cores he remembers from years ago, the content of his Core isn't appropriate for his younger sibs AND they'd be bored).

 

And it will never be as conservative as you want if by that you don't want any discussion of other religions or of "hard topics."

 

But if you read the IG notes and use them to tailor the discussions you have with your children about other religions mentioned in books Sonlight uses, I think you'd find it very hard to call Sonlight neutral on the subject. Sonlight's view - and the view they'd typically expect their target customers to have - is unabashedly Christian. They don't expect you to present the information in the read-alouds or history books as neutral, or without discussion or without your own viewpoint (which, again, most conservative Christians will find dovetails nicely with the views laid out in the IG notes).

 

I understand what you are saying and I appreciate the encouragement. :grouphug:

 

This would be less of an issue if I was just teaching my oldest two, but I'm trying to find a way to effectively teach soon to be five children ... and I'm not finding that easy to do. I'm very comfortable talking about certain controversial with my oldest and sometimes 2nd oldest, but those same topics I might not be ready to introduce with my six year old. My children are with me all day, so I find it hard to really delve into a challenging topic with my oldest without my younger children listening in too.

 

I will certainly consider all your suggestions. :001_smile: Thanks!

Edited by Heart_Mom
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I have that book, and it does contain most of the material in her seminars. However, it is not as well organized as the presentations, so I recommend that if you get it you plan on reading it a couple of times to really get your arms around the material.

 

The beauty of those unit studies is that each one is fairly short, so if you decide that you don't like the approach, it's easy and not too expensive to switch, and also they make great short term studies in between other curricula if you have a time gap, in addition to being pretty decent for overall use.

 

Thanks, Carol! This is so helpful. :001_smile:

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I guess you decided against Konos or Weaver? I was also thinking Ambleside as someone suggested, or you making your own program with Charlotte Mason lists and materials from places like Simply Charlotte Mason or Queen Homeschool. We just started using History Revealed last week so I'm no authority lol, but so far it has been perfect for teaching my daughters together and yet allowing them to learn based on their interests. It covers all ages for history and Bible.

 

I've pretty much decided against Weaver, although I'd still like to get my hands on a volume to be able to really evaluate it.

 

I'm still considering KONOS. The thing I really like about KONOS is that I can use it with all my children from ages K-8th grade. The things that make me hesitate are the planning aspect and the project-based nature of the program. I'd love to do lots of projects and activities, but I want to be realistic about what I will actually reasonably be able to do (especially with a newborn coming in the next few weeks).

 

I have looked at Simply Charlotte Mason, but had forgotten about their book/topic lists. I'll check them out again.

 

I've never heard of History Revealed before, so I'll check that out.

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This might seem like a lot, but it's not really. We do a little bit here and there, but not everything every day. It's like Sonlight, some days you have a little of this book, and some days a little of that book. It keeps the lessons short and varied, which keeps it interesting for me and for the kids.

 

First I choose some basic ideas/subjects I want to cover, which I can do with all the ages together. Here's what we are doing this year with 4 children ages 13, 9, 8, and 5:

 

Faith: Church Calendar of Feasts & Fasts, Russian Saints, Bible Stories

Literature: Analysis of Classics

Geography: General Exposure America & Russia

Writing: Practice Outlining, Summarizing, Paragraph Writing, etc.

History: Russia & Eastern Europe (pre-communist era)

Science: Nature (animals, plants, seasons)

Poetry: General Exposure

Fairy Tales: Old Russian Fairy Tales

Art: Masterpieces of Russia & Icon Drawing

Music: Russian Composers, Operas, and Orchestra Music

 

Then I choose the very best book/s for each subject. Some subjects require a curriculum, some just require a read aloud. Here's what I'm using for each subject/topic:

 

Faith: Bible, The Twelve Great Feast Days for Young People, Saints of Russia, and Tomie DePaola's Book of Bible Stories

Literature: Teaching the Classics Reading Roadmaps Kindergarten Level

Geography & Writing: Beautiful Feet Geography & IEW Writing Component

History: A Short History of Russia & With the Russian Pilgrims to Jerusalem

Science: A Forest Year

Poetry: Favorite Poems Old & New

Fairy Tales: Old Peter's Russian Tales

Art: Icons: Masterpieces of Russian Art & A Brush with God

Music: Read about & listen to music from 6 composers throughout the year

 

Then I spread out the reading for the year and lay it out on a spreadsheet like Sonlight. I use Excel and make cells across the top for the days and cells down the left side for the subjects, then I plug in what we will do each day to cover each book for the year. To figure this out, I just look at the book and based on how many pages it is, I decide how much can I read in 20 mins or so, and based on that I decide how often I need to read each week. For each reading, I usually do some recall from last time before we read, then I read aloud for about 20 mins, then some sort of narration after (written or oral).

 

I set aside the following amount of times for each subject:

 

Faith: 1 hour (5 days a week, for us it's from 9-10)

Literature/Geography & Writing/History/Fairy Tales & Nature Study/Art & Music: 1 hour (once a week for each one, we do this from 10-11)

 

These subjects + Latin take up our morning hours. Then we take a lunch break, and after lunch the kids do math (Teaching Textbooks - easy for mom), Language Arts (grammar & reading), and my oldest also has Science, Logic, and IEW lessons on her own level rotated through the week.

 

If you want to go this route and need a little help with the spreadsheet, I'd be happy to e-mail a template for you, that you can fill out with your own subjects. PM me if you need/want any more coaching.

 

Here is a blog that resembles very closely how we do our school. It's called Wildflowers and Marbles. I love her style, very Charlotte Mason.

 

Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful to me. :grouphug: I really appreciate that you took the time to type that all out for me ... and now I'm seeing how I could put something like this together on my own.

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I understand what you are saying and I appreciate the encouragement. :grouphug:

 

This would be less of an issue if I was just teaching my oldest two, but I'm trying to find a way to effectively teach soon to be five children ... and I'm not finding that easy to do. I'm very comfortable talking about certain controversial with my oldest and sometimes 2nd oldest, but those same topics I might not be ready to introduce with my six year old. My children are with me all day, so I find it hard to really delve into a challenging topic with my oldest without my younger children listening in too.

 

I will certainly consider all your suggestions. :001_smile: Thanks!

 

If you and dh are that sensitive about many subjects, then it may be worthwhile deciding a strategy on how and when to discuss certain subjects now while your oldest is still fairly young. With a baby on the way you will not have a child over age 6 before the 11 year old is ready for college.

 

I would want to have multiple opportunities to talk about many different subjects while my children were pre-teens and teens. There are ways of having the youngers be safe and in another room while specific books and issues are covered with the older(s).

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If you and dh are that sensitive about many subjects, then it may be worthwhile deciding a strategy on how and when to discuss certain subjects now while your oldest is still fairly young. With a baby on the way you will not have a child over age 6 before the 11 year old is ready for college.

 

I would want to have multiple opportunities to talk about many different subjects while my children were pre-teens and teens. There are ways of having the youngers be safe and in another room while specific books and issues are covered with the older(s).

 

Thanks for sharing this, Deanne! :001_smile:

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I guess you decided against Konos or Weaver? I was also thinking Ambleside as someone suggested, or you making your own program with Charlotte Mason lists and materials from places like Simply Charlotte Mason or Queen Homeschool. We just started using History Revealed last week so I'm no authority lol, but so far it has been perfect for teaching my daughters together and yet allowing them to learn based on their interests. It covers all ages for history and Bible.

 

Hi, Ginger!

 

I just wanted to thank you for mentioning Simply Charlotte Mason. I was looking at their history curriculum, and it looks promising. Thanks! :)

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That's wonderful! Sonya and her husband are such sweet, kind people. I have used her curriculum model and several of her materials and have been very happy with them. :)

 

Have you ever used one of her history module guides? I really like how I could teach all the children at once! I'm also thinking of purchasing her one day DVD conference.

 

I just noticed your siggy that says classical, CM, and unit study mom! (That made me chuckle.:001_smile:) We're a mix between unit studies and CM here, although we lean very much toward reading aloud, so I think we're more CM. I really want to be a KONOS mom, but I'm just not sure that's my speed.

 

Thanks again for your help!

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Yes, I used her first history guide and its recommended books several years ago, and I liked the way all ages were taught together, along with the Bible things, her spelling (easy and effective), and science (precious for the youngers), too. They were so very easy to use, and the lessons were relatively short as are most CM inspired things. I bought the next guides and used them along with some SL and TOG, too, because I needed a lot to keep dd19 busy. :) I did use the SCM curriculum online guide to help plan out my weeks and days, and my older dd's high school years (along with the WTM), and she read all the literature listed. I plan to use her beautiful art prints in the spring. As I am typing this out, I sound like a mad scientist. :D It all works out somehow! Blessings as you choose the Lord's best for your family.

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  • 4 months later...

Honestly, I think your best bet would be TOG. Easiest in my opinion to combine and the LG levels are kept pretty pure, but upper levels are challenging and discuss Gods view vs world view. I have used TOG 2 and am currently in unit 3 of TOG 3. We plan on using it long term.

 

HOD would be a good option for little ones as they do not really discuss other religions at least until about 4th grade or so, however you could not really combine k an d 5th grade.

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I have explored these options some. They are certainly possibilities. :001_smile: I'll check them out again.

 

I have a friend who has used TOG (original version). Maybe I'll see if I can see her guides...

 

I'd really like something that's as open and go as Sonlight, and that the books are scheduled and can be purchased along with the teacher's guide.

 

It's totally fine if there's not LA component, although it would be nice if Science, History, and Literature were all included.

 

 

I would advise looking at the online samples of TOG. If your friend has the classic version of TOG, it is very different from the re-designed. I love TOG, but I don't know if I would have been sucessful with it when I had my 5th child.

 

MFW has a seperate K program, so I would check into sample of that as well. When I was expecting #4 we did MFW, and it was not a sucess in our house.

 

I would advise a different approach which you may dismiss as completely unacceptable. But, as a Mom who has btdt, I would choose something easy to do for history, literature, and science. For me set schedules written by someone else were not helpful when I had a newborn, toddlers and older children to keep up with.

 

I would pick read alouds that you want to cover, for lit, history and science and make your own schedule on how you want to cover them. I would read lots of bible stories and pick great memory work to do. If you like hands on, I would pick some things to do ahead of time for history and science. I would get all of the supplies you need together now and put them in really big ziplock bags so that you can just pull one out and do it. I put together some file folders for my youngest children to keep them busy check out Confessions of a Homeschooler's website.

 

Put your focus on the 3 R's, focus on skills and don't worry so much about content. I found once I start following a curriculum, I start to stress on how we are falling "behind"... not a good place for a sleep-deprived Mama who is juggling a newborn etc.

 

If you are interested, I would listen to some of the Circe talks and Society for Classical learning. I found them very helpful in keeping my focus on why we are home educating . I now try to remember to keep our focus on our faith, knowing that education is more than filling the mind with facts.

 

I hope that some of this is helpful to you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think you sound like a KONOS Mom in the style I have used it. You can even just use the built in schedules. My units were more booked based. We usually did a poster/bulletin board for the trait. Hang up things you do or pics and the out the trait across the top. I did just a few projects a month and maybe more if they were very simple lessons. You can spend a little time and plan out at least a few months. Put any supplies for each month in a box and label it. Buy the books if you were thinking about Sonlight anyway. She has book lists for the trait and topic, plus in the schedules there are books listed for each grade level that are must read or classics.

 

I remember Jessica Hulcy say in a talk that she didn't do a classical rotation till High School for the very reason you mentioned.

 

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about it. We have been through SOTW several times and I am so ready to give KONOS a go again. My older two had a lot of fun with it.

 

 

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As I recall, WinterPromise had happier books. It has been quite a few years since I bought their American History set, but I seem to remember liking the books a lot better than the Sonlight options. Things could have changed a lot since then, though!

 

 

 

WinterPromise definitely has happier books. :-) WP is also more conservative than Sonlight, IMO. Plus, a number of WP practices can span multiple age groups with various add-in programs. Might be worth looking into.

 

After a bit of an absence from WP, I'm thinking of doing Quest for the Ancient World with my 5th grader next year. I would be using the middler program, but there is a Jr./Sr. high option for this program as well. I'm not sure I quite yet want my little guy to tackle the books of Sonlight Core G, hence my possible return to WP.

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