WishboneDawn Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) I just am. No more cute map workbooks or hieroglyphic stamping kits to go along with history. No more extra programs for math. No more neat lap books or notebooking pages for science. We will do our core programs, read stuff off our bookshelves, and discuss and write about what we've learned. Other then that we get out and do stuff and have a life. I have too many extra programs that are absolutely wonderful but either never got used or just got in the way of the book or program that should have been my prime focus. They amount to a lot of wasted time and money. I'm also beginning to think it's rather absurd to buy a map workbook when I could simply hand my kids a road map and ask them to navigate next time we travel somewhere. It's time to admit I will likely never fold that paper airplane making book (ETA - pun was totally not intended! :D) into science and just hand the **** thing over to the kids to have fun with (like my old unschooler self would have). Anyone else feel this way? Edited September 17, 2012 by WishboneDawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 My kids never had any interest in supplemental activities or anything hands-on. They prefer the naked facts, presented in a concise, efficient manner. Whenever I tried some "activity", they groaned "Can't we just read about it in a book?" I feel much the same way. So, while I have sometimes glanced at suggestions and though "oh, this would be fun" I know it would not fly with my kids - and that's very fine with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fhjmom Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I feel the same way. I would much rather get through our basic material, then get out and do stuff. I had good intentions and have purchased all sorts of stuff, especially science and history, that have never left the shelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 The last week has been a huge learning curve for *me* - let alone her. Everything hand done. Amazing how much more sticks this way. Time factor went way up though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I just am. No more cute map workbooks or hieroglyphic stamping kits to go along with history. No more extra programs for math. No more neat lap books or notebooking pages for science. We will do our core programs, read stuff off our bookshelves, and discuss and write about what we've learned. Other then that we get out and do stuff and have a life. I have too many extra programs that are absolutely wonderful but either never got used or just got in the way of the book or program that should have been my prime focus. They amount to a lot of wasted time and money. I'm also beginning to think it's rather absurd to buy a map workbook when I could simply hand my kids a road map and ask them to navigate next time we travel somewhere. It's time to admit I will likely never fold that paper airplane making book (ETA - pun was totally not intended! :D) into science and just hand the **** thing over to the kids to have fun with (like my old unschooler self would have). Anyone else feel this way? :iagree: I wanted to be the super-crafty mom/family, but nope. The kids have their own ideas for activities they want to spend time on, and I am tired of gathering supplies, spending money on all kinds of supplemental stuff, only to have it all gather dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea1 Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I find myself drawn to these things and my two sons get excited about them but, when it comes down to it, they will participate for 15 or 20 minutes and then I am left to finish it and clean up and they probably did not even get the gist of how it related to our lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) My girls detest/ed any attempt at lap books or the like. They did like the recipes and bibliographies in SOTW (all volumes). They never went for the coloring pages. We skipped all that, and they drew whatever they wished. I have some gorgeous drawings from them re history, mythology, Wonders of the World etc., that are their own. I hated busy work and coloring sheets when I was a child, so they come by their absolute lack of interest in such things honestly. :) Edited September 22, 2012 by LibraryLover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeegal Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 It's time to admit I will likely never fold that paper airplane making book (ETA - pun was totally not intended! :D) into science and just hand the **** thing over to the kids to have fun with (like my old unschooler self would have). Anyone else feel this way? :iagree: All the cute crafty books go on the shelf so the kids have fun ideas for their free time. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Ah....definitely. I wouldn't be able to get through our day if we did all that supplemental stuff, and my kids would miss out on their much-needed free time/outdoor exploration time. We truly stick to the basics. We do them well, and then we move on. This makes us peaceful. Speaking of maps, I printed out a world map and continent maps for my two oldest this year. Every time they come across a location in their schoolwork or life, they are coloring in the country on their maps. I am interested to see how much of the world is colored at the end of the year. This process seems to be rather effective, easy, enjoyable, and inexpensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Other than the Nile River Delta in the roasting pan project from SOTW 1, my kids have not really gone in for supplemental activities. My daughter loves to craft, but she wants to do it on her terms, not mine. My son wants to read and/or be read to, loves discussing things and making connections. He does not do word searches, puzzles, coloring pages, or anything cute. Lapbooks and notebooking pages were appealing to me and no one else. (With no color printer, they are also drab but that's a different issue.) They do like coloring and labeling maps, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted September 17, 2012 Author Share Posted September 17, 2012 (edited) Other than the Nile River Delta in the roasting pan project from SOTW 1, my kids have not really gone in for supplemental activities. My daughter loves to craft, but she wants to do it on her terms, not mine. My son wants to read and/or be read to, loves discussing things and making connections. He does not do word searches, puzzles, coloring pages, or anything cute. Lapbooks and notebooking pages were appealing to me and no one else. (With no color printer, they are also drab but that's a different issue.) They do like coloring and labeling maps, though! Yes. Same here. My kids also liked to incorporate what they learned into their play. I sort of wonder now if my having them stamp modeling clay with fake cuneiform was a waste of time that they could have used pretending to be Gilgamesh or something. Their play time is valuable - why should I eat into it with activities of dubious value? I also wonder about supplemental programs I'm prone to buying though. Ellen McHenry's Mapping the World With Art is wonderful but honestly, when did I think I would watch the videos, print the pdf stuff and sit down with the kids to do this?They need some basic map work and they need to do real, honest work with modern maps but do I really need to burden my school planning with yet another program?? Edited September 17, 2012 by WishboneDawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I just rearranged my school shelf and was thinking the very same thing yesterday. Right down to the Mapping the World with Art... How nice that we're all getting a clue in Sept. May we have a nice focused, more efficient school year! :cheers2: Of course, I just bought my youngest two supplemental books this week. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Yes, this is totally us! My daughter loves hands on stuff but it must be her own thing anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparrow Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Oh, I hear ya! I have a son that was never into cutting and pasting kind of stuff and my daughter is another one that is incredibly crafty, just not for school. Anybody want to buy a copy of Dinah Zike's Big Book of Books ;)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marbel Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I also wonder about supplemental programs I'm prone to buying though. Ellen McHenry's Mapping the World With Art is wonderful but honestly, when did I think I would watch the videos, print the pdf stuff and sit down with the kids to do this?They need some basic map work and they need to do real, honest work with modern maps but do I really need to burden my school planning with yet another program?? So naturally I had to go look this up. Wow! Looks wonderful and so, so tempting... But no. Because I know we will never, ever do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I have never been able to get into that stuff. Just reading about the activities makes me feel tired and overwhelmed. Finding them a video on something is as supplemental as I get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Yes. I totally feel that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMomof4 Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Yes. Same here. My kids also liked to incorporate what they learned into their play. I sort of wonder now if my having them stamp modeling clay with fake cuneiform was a waste of time that they could have used pretending to be Gilgamesh or something. Their play time is valuable - why should I eat into it with activities of dubious value? I also wonder about supplemental programs I'm prone to buying though. Ellen McHenry's Mapping the World With Art is wonderful but honestly, when did I think I would watch the videos, print the pdf stuff and sit down with the kids to do this?They need some basic map work and they need to do real, honest work with modern maps but do I really need to burden my school planning with yet another program?? I haven't looked at that program at all but don't buy it! Give your kids an atlas and have them plan trips. My kids love this. You have to know the terrain, climate population etc to know what to pack. Find landmarks or places of interest to visit. Plan your route. Can you ride a bike, take a train - planes, boats. It is so much fun. After the first few times the kids take off on their own and get to see the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I am on the other end of this. Ditch the curriculums and enjoy the extras. After many, many years using curriculum and never getting to all the fun things I have on my shelf I have decided to use these instead. We are talking more, discussing more, and opening up more doors then all the years doing just curriculum. We made a lap book for the first time and played with a china kit I have had on my shelf since 1998. Dd is loving school and actually talking about what we did/learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 We have ditched our curriculum and busywork. It's amazing how much quicker our days go. We are using mostly living books in the morning and discussing them. Our afternoons are free for them to choose from extras...we're using some art books, gardening, listening to classical music, sewing, learning Spanish, etc. I let them pick our activity for the day. It goes so much better than when I tell them we are working on a particular project to go with our history lesson. If they come up with a history project, I'll be more than happy to add it in, but I'm not coming up with any. :lol: We are doing notebooking, but I'm handing them a blank page (and possibly a few basic facts to include)...no more lapbooks, coloring pages, or printables. They wear me out as well. My DC love to draw and create and it seems a waste of talent for them to fill out someone else's ideas than create their own...not to mention a waste of my precious computer paper and toner. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheApprentice Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 :iagree: It took some time for me to get to this point, especially since there is quite a bit of supplementing from people on these boards. It's just something I had to be ok with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 This year I let all of the extras go. I'm not supplementing anything. Even if the extra "only took 10 minutes" and provided something "good", I refused to use it. My motto when planning was "Keep it Simple(er)" (I had to add the -er on, because schooling 5 kids just can't ever be called simple :lol:). The interesting thing is that my older boys' load is a lot heavier and more dense than it's ever been. Omnibus, Classical Writing, Henle Latin, etc. I was expecting a lot of pushback and whining, but they've been working more quickly and more efficiently last year, when they did less difficult programs but more odds and ends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 We have ditched our curriculum and busywork. It's amazing how much quicker our days go. We are using mostly living books in the morning and discussing them. Our afternoons are free for them to choose from extras...we're using some art books, gardening, listening to classical music, sewing, learning Spanish, etc. I let them pick our activity for the day. It goes so much better than when I tell them we are working on a particular project to go with our history lesson. If they come up with a history project, I'll be more than happy to add it in, but I'm not coming up with any. :lol: We are doing notebooking, but I'm handing them a blank page (and possibly a few basic facts to include)...no more lapbooks, coloring pages, or printables. They wear me out as well. My DC love to draw and create and it seems a waste of talent for them to fill out someone else's ideas than create their own...not to mention a waste of my precious computer paper and toner. :lol: Tell me more! How are you approaching the basic subjects? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted September 17, 2012 Author Share Posted September 17, 2012 This year I let all of the extras go. I'm not supplementing anything. Even if the extra "only took 10 minutes" and provided something "good", I refused to use it. My motto when planning was "Keep it Simple(er)" (I had to add the -er on, because schooling 5 kids just can't ever be called simple :lol:). The interesting thing is that my older boys' load is a lot heavier and more dense than it's ever been. Omnibus, Classical Writing, Henle Latin, etc. I was expecting a lot of pushback and whining, but they've been working more quickly and more efficiently last year, when they did less difficult programs but more odds and ends. I'm finding the same thing. I had planned to do my daughter's history according to the WTM rhetoric stage outline. I do not have the time and energy for that this year (family circumstances changed) and so she's just reading. She's charging ahead with History of the Ancient World and her Anciet lit list. She'll likely be done HoAW within a few weeks and then will start reading some of the many ancient history books we have around but she wouldn't have had time to read regardless. I ditched Conceptual Physics (which I had a ton of resources for) for Conceptual Physical Science (for which I only had the text) and it's getting done. She reads, we discuss. There's no excess stuff to get in the way. I'm thinking less is most definitely more with curriculum in this house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 We're not hands-on homeschoolers here, either. Lapbooks, crafts, things take a ton of work to pull together... nope. They don't work for us. We read and discuss a lot. We do have a few "odds and ends" type curriculum this year, but mostly it's short term and I'm hoping to simplify over the next few weeks. For example, I got DS an outlining book to introduce him to the concept. It's only about 25 pages, so it will be done soon, and he'll have it as one of his writing and study tools. I'm trying to move to things with fewer "pieces" to it. The biggest thing for us has been Language Arts. We started out with MCT, which I do like... but it was lots of pieces to pull together, plus you still had to add in more for mechanics and such. It wasn't working for us this year. So we scrapped it, ordered Hake Grammar, and now we have grammar, writing, mechanics, diagramming, the works... all in one nice set. It took weight off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted September 17, 2012 Author Share Posted September 17, 2012 I'm trying to move to things with fewer "pieces" to it. The biggest thing for us has been Language Arts. We started out with MCT, which I do like... but it was lots of pieces to pull together, plus you still had to add in more for mechanics and such. It wasn't working for us this year. So we scrapped it, ordered Hake Grammar, and now we have grammar, writing, mechanics, diagramming, the works... all in one nice set. It took weight off. I contemplated ordering the whole shebang for my son a year or two ago but it's also hugely expensive, especially if you're in Canada. I owe my daughter's love of grammar to Grammar Voyage but we won't turn to MCT again. It also represents another pet peeve of mine - programs that encompass just one subject but seem written and priced to take up all your time and money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne_in_TX Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 This is exactly how I've been feeling since school started!!! I spent the summer reading too many WTM posts from folks who may or may not have it more together than I do :lol:, and I bought multiple resources for each subject because they all looked so shiny and useful! I've spent the first three weeks of school feeling inadequate because I couldn't fit it all in, and I was slowly coming around to the point of view that it isn't all necessary. Thank you for giving me permission to "keep it simple"! I already knew that doing more with less would be more effective than doing less with more; why didn't I stick to my guns? This evening, I'm going to muster up some courage and purge the books! I had some fun ideas for the year that haven't been happening due to overload of resources . . . gotta get that mojo back.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 We are letting go of a lot of extras here, too. :) It is so liberating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnyDays Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 I contemplated ordering the whole shebang for my son a year or two ago but it's also hugely expensive, especially if you're in Canada. I owe my daughter's love of grammar to Grammar Voyage but we won't turn to MCT again. It also represents another pet peeve of mine - programs that encompass just one subject but seem written and priced to take up all your time and money. It *is* pricey, especially for something I found we still needed to supplement. I imagine the shipping to Canada doesn't help!! We did keep Caesar's English, though. It's too good to give up, and that's something that can be easily added to Hake. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justLisa Posted September 17, 2012 Share Posted September 17, 2012 Oh yeah, I'm totally not about the "extras." I have no desire to find things for them to do every second of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.