Just a general "How is your school year going?" thread...check in

[Mom2OandE]

I feel like in many ways we are still finding our footing! It didn't help that 3 weeks in MIL arrived for over a month. Then she left and we ended up doing light school for the next month. So now we are trying to stay home more and get things done.

 

I'm pleased with the progress dd has made although I'm realizing how little they taught her in regards to organizing her thoughts on paper in public. So we began to address that and will continue to do so as the year goes on. She is doing great with MUS and is 3/4 though Gamma and will start the next one in the new year. I found Kiss Grammar was a total bust for her though.

 

DS well he isn't doing so great wtih stying on target and is moving very very slowly. So I have to really focus on him. On a positive note he was evaluated by his reading/speech therapist and has made 3x more progress since we began homeschooling than he did all year in public! So that is proof it's working even if it's not going as I had planned.

[lea1]

We are just finishing up 1st grade and preparing to start 2nd grade in January. Overall, school is going very well for us. We are happy with everything we are using and I feel that we have found things that 'fit' us, with the exception of science.

 

I think I must have a mental block with science. I had very little science when I was in school and what little I had was pretty worthless. So, I have never enjoyed science and I wish someone else would just come to my house and teach it for me. At one time, dh showed interest in teaching it (he has had lots of science) but now that he working a full-time job an hour and half away and also working part-time starting his own practice (he's a dr.), he doesn't have time for much of anything these days. I have been jumping around, trying this and trying that and have not found anything that really grabbed me or seemed to 'fit', though I'm not sure if there is anything out there that would ever 'fit' me. I'm going to have to find something and stick with it. Yuck.

 

Everything else is going great though, so that's something.:tongue_smilie:

[Rosie_0801]

We'll be officially starting K in January, so I'm doing real, proper planning!

 

Our year is heading towards the end and despite the pain of reading lessons, she's made a good beginning. Her speech has improved, she's memorised a bunch of nursery rhymes and she's learned to be interested in the great outdoors. That, oddly, has taken quite a bit of instruction. She's quite the opposite of ds who is at one with nature. I think I'm going to have one WTM kid and one unschooler...

 

:)

Rosie

[Halcyon]

one thing i have discovered about myself is that i can't preplan too much. i can have a general plan of what i want to cover in each subject, particularly content subjects, but i cant micromanage what is going to happen each day. There are too many instances where we need to have a lighter day, or kids get sidetracked drawing pictures of cells (not going to stop then)) when the schedule says "read history' or whatever. As i seem to need to relearn every year, having a blank calendar with subjects on the left and days on the top, and a general idea of how often i want to do things, along with a large Master Plan for each subject, is sufficient. Period. That way if we want to study, say, genetics because ds read something interesting in his book, we can just pull some books from the library, or find a video discussing it, or do a brainpop video and i dont have to worry that "it's not oon the schedule". You can really plan that sort of stuff, kwim?

[Juliegmom]

I am blessed that our first year homeschooling is working out extremely well and that most our curriculum choices are a good fit! :-)

[ALB]

I feel like we're in a good groove. I was looking through a hs catalogue with dd the other day and casually asked if she would like to do history "that way", to which she replied "NO! Don't change ANY of it. I LOVE history and science the way we do them (WTM) and don't want to change a thing!"

 

Yay!

 

I've also realized that I do much better if I just forget about the clock. Seriously, when I feel rushed, my attitude becomes crummy and I turn impatient. If I just let ourselves move at a good, natural pace and finish when we're done instead of at the time I had planned in my mind, then our whole morning goes better.

[bluechicken]

This week is our official first week back to full time homeschooling. My DD6 spent 9 weeks in a local public school and it was nothing short of a disaster. We brought her home last week. I have high hopes for this year but we have a baby due in 6 weeks and a recently diagnosed SN 2 year old.

 

I am not putting too much pressure on myself and trying to just cover the basics.

[Hwin]

It's going well.

 

I changed the way I do planning - which is a big deal, as my husband does 80% of the teaching. I believe it's more organized and easier for him.

 

I am still struggling with making school more hands-on and less pencil-and-paper. My son's learning style is CLEARLY not sit-and-listen, so it's in everyone's best interests to work on incorporating more of that :)

 

However, despite that, he's doing well in everything except history. I think he's finding SOTW 2 a little dry. We're going to stick it out, but I might get the Jim Weiss recordings from the library and see if that helps. He loves stories on CD.

[Walking-Iris]

We're doing a ton better than we were last year. My oldest ds's 3rd grade year was fraught with tears and discipline issues and ---ugh. I don't want to revisit it at all.

 

This year feels so so so much better. One major change I made was in throwing out Writing Strands and vocabulary and reading comprehension books and starting WWE and Bravewriter. I don't know why I didn't focus on narration/copywork/dictation with him earlier. It just wasn't big on my radar even though I was a big Ambleside fan. I guess I was too used to picking and choosing from that website. Another big change is finding a peaceful middle ground between relaxed/unschooling and rigid daily schedules. My pendulum swung too far from one to the other and I'm comfortable this year with a pleasant blend of both.

 

But these two programs (WWE and BW) are loved---literally loved--this year. Both my kids get ridiculously happy every morning about WWE time. I swear my Kinder has hugged and kissed the student workbook. One thing that is making it work so well is my total embracing of my ds's artistic/creative side. He does his dictation in a nice unlined sketchbook with quality colored pencils (a little Oak Meadow Waldorf Main Lesson book idea) and gets to draw that scene. So he's doing oral narration and "picture" narration as well.

 

He loves the monthly Arrow guides and writing activities. He loves Friday Freewrites. He even asks if there's any "Bravewriter thing to do today" sometimes. I was able to forgo a separate grammar book this year because he's doing so well. The only BW thing I've backed off from is Poetry Tea Tuesday. We read aloud everyday anyway, and they were too concerned about the weekly treat than anything else. It just seemed like too much of a "thing" to keep up with weekly. Spelling is still our tried and true and loved Sequential Spelling we've been working with since 1st grade. :)

 

His math is going well too. I was worried about using Saxon for the first time, but so far, so good.

 

Science and history have always been our weak spots. He just isn't interested in history. I think he'd moan and groan regardless of what I do with it. So I'm still more relaxed than I'm comfortable being in that regards. But I just keep plugging on, giving a knowledge foundation and hoping that one year a real interest will spark. (I'm a geek for history so one of my children need to love it, right?) He likes science better, but I struggle with finding material that *I* like to use. I have a rough plan for how to fix that however.

 

My Kinder loves his school stuff. He does well with math. His reading is coming along a lot slower than my oldest ds's progress. I'm trying to keep a good perspective about it. He loves science. Mostly he's my dd's primary playmate however. My dd is thriving doing what she can in whatever the boys are doing.

 

We also have a Friday that is more relaxed. One big change I made this year is more emphasis on art. So Friday is Freewrites and art appreciation and projects most of the day. The only thing that is lacking this year is my plans for more hands on in most other subjects. I like projects and my kids do too, but our project heavy geography plans, SOTW projects, science experiments, and PWB projects just aren't getting done.

 

It's hard to fit them in even though we do like them. At least fine arts is getting done reliably.

 

I'd like to bottle this year so far and keep for next year. Really, the attitude from last year to this is night and day.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Walking-Iris

[AngelaNYC]

We're doing ok so far (ds is 11, 6th grade). Most focus is on the 3 Rs. Math, reading, writing, poetry, paragraph editing, classics readaloud, and a dyslexia workbook (word & sentence practice) make up the bulk of the week. We are now alternating science and history in 3 week chunks. I'd like to also drop Spanish for Latin, but I have no idea how to get started.

[Snow]

My main readjustment so far this year is to RELAX!!! Stop freaking out, stop pushing, and enjoy homeschooling. And like you, I'm learning to go with the flow and add in variety and not feel tied into one curriculum.

 

:iagree: Yep, me exactly. I'm finding it hard to let go but not become totally slack (I'm kind of an all or nothing type of girl).

[Guest]

Oh, I just want to come and give so many of you a hug! :grouphug: Hang in there, mamas! (And dads!)

 

Our year is going better than last year. (Last year was bad, due to outside circumstances.) It won't go down as one of our best years, though. We were supposed to move in September, and I figured we'd be moved and prepping for the holidays by now. We still haven't moved and the stress of that is wearing on me. :tongue_smilie: I've just started packing and trying to decide how much school will get finished before the end of the year.

 

On a good note, we switched to a notebooking method for history and science. I really like it, but it is a lot of work to plan out what we are studying and then hunting the books down.

 

I'm hoping 2013 brings some fresh starts...

[Guest]

Phoenix, have you seen these? It is a notebook style and it has a booklist.

 

http://www.homeschooljourney.com/

 

Ohhhh...no! Thanks for this link! I am going to look at this a little closer. Thank you!

[laughing lioness]

When I make a weekly sheet of what to do (from Donna Young) we get a TON done- when I don't we drag and everyone gets grumpy and hardly anything done.

I actually added stuff to ds 12 and dd 9 this week, but because it was on the sheet (and they get to cross it off) they were fine with it.

I am loving MP- Horatius at the Bridge is REALLY challenging my kiddos but when we do the study guide/map work with it- they GET it and LOVE it - plus they each contracted on a prize when they finish it.

We are loving Lego league- even though the time committment is HUGE.

Both youngers are doing Saxon this year and it is working- we were really lilking MME but it made a huge leap- leaving dd 9 frustrated. She is a couple grades ahead in Saxon and back to her happy "I love math" self. Tutoring Center (tuesdays) have been our big stretch. We leave at 9:30 a.m. and get home around 9 p.m. with dead time on adn off for different kids- not ideal.

[...................]

 

In a weird way, I feel like if I overthink what I am doing I might get all stressed out that we are not "doing enough" LOL so I will stop there.

 

This is me. I started thinking too much about it and got so worried about "getting near" Middle School which is "getting near" High school that I bought Debra Bell's book. I read that and got even more overwhelmed, and then tried to join and umbrella school for direction and accountability.

 

THat totally stressed us out, because honestly I think we started working hard in ways that we don't need to work hard in, and spending less time on the special areas of talent and interest that we had. Studying for history tests (and studying and studying) made less time for ENJOYING world history, and for computer stuff for my son.

 

Now we are back to our old groove and I should just stick with it. My kids may not have a lot memorized about history but they really understand the flow, and the basic ideas, and they love it.

[Ghee]

:willy_nilly: <---- Pretty much sums up how I'm feeling about it right now LOL

 

On the whole, though, I think we are doing well. We are nailing down math concepts, still reading good literature and discussing it, learning about mythology and US history..... I wish I could find a science program that I love, but I'm not a science person. I'll probably just have to find one I'm capable of teaching.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We're trying to catch up from several weeks of setback from my surgery. The attitudes stink- mine and theirs. I'm trying to think of something free and fun that we can do to get our groove back. They had way too much screen time while I was recuperating, and are not thrilled to be doing school work all day instead of playing Wii and watching movies. :glare:

 

Today was miserable. It's already 4:30 and we still have health and French left. We are 4 weeks behind my original schedule, but I don't really care about that, I just want to get the routine going smoothly again.

[SorrelZG]

I have found, and am settling into, the style of homeschooling that works for me. I am REALLY excited about that. The children are doing well, too. :tongue_smilie:

[NASDAQ]

I had a baby last week.

 

We're ahead of schedule, partly because I pressed ahead before the baby was born, and then ended up able to start schooling the first day home from the hospital anyway.

 

We finished Lippincott 2-1 and she's doing 2-2 now. We're about a third of the way into SM 1B. Lots of math fact practice. Four-year-old is doing Singapore K and working on the alphabet.

 

BFSU with both kids, but I don't know how much the four-year-old gets. Six-year-old loves it.

 

That fills up most of the school time. The Hebrew/parsha stuff, handwriting, and history reader haven't started up yet after birth.

[ladydusk]

I had a baby last week.

 

 

Congrats!

[Tidbits of Learning]

We are really enjoying this year. My oldest is really thriving with the order of K12 and the schedule. She is my "advanced" kid so she thrives no matter what. She really enjoys it though. My middle dd enjoys it but not in the same kid in a candy store gleefulness as my older. We finally found out ds9 has dysgraphia but is really smart. It is one of those he doesn't have dyslexia...in fact he is advanced in reading and vocabulary...but his spelling and writing is ...well, have you ever heard of dysgraphia conversations with the evaluator? So after a long night reading on the web, I feel better about ds9 homeschooling than I ever have. He is learning keyboarding, cursive, using click n spell, and Diane Craft's Brain Therapy book alongside his 4th grade work. My k'er is having a great year. He is about to start some 1st grade work after Christmas break. :)

We did have a family emergency and a death in the family followed by a stomach virus and now the cold from Hades. It has put us from being slightly ahead to almost very behind. So if we want a Christmas break, we are going to have to school Saturdays and all of Thanksgiving break except Thanksgiving.

Overall though, with 4 kids in school and 2 middle schoolers...going with a straight curriculum that can be pretty independent for the olders was the best thing I have ever done. :D

[helena]

This school year has been a big improvement from last year (not that it was awful), because we changed some very basic things.

I simplified our schedule, figured out exactly what needs to get done each semester, and I did massive prep work over the summer.

Ah! And after last year's HO emotional meltdown, we've finally learned how to use a schedule as a place to work from. You really don't have to do everything a curriculum to you to do.

 

History of Science is a big hit.

I'm very pleased with the results of prepping everything for nature studies and art studies.

 

Only problem is waking up too late.

[~Anna~]

We started at the end of August (first year!) and have been doing very well. Since my DD is older and had been in public school so long, I wasn't sure how things would go as far as her workload and her attitude. But after getting rid of alot of the "stuff" I was using and streamlining what we're doing, I am definitely seeing progress after these few months. Her writing was the main reason I pulled her out of school and although we are still taking baby steps with that, I can see a small progression. I have also realized that she doesn't have a strong vocabulary. So, we are working on that too. She is enjoying History but has a hard time focusing on all the reading, even when I read aloud. Her reading is also not where I want it to be, but again we are taking baby steps and I hope to see some real improvements in the long run. I am very happy I chose to homeschool her.

[Alte Veste Academy]

We've taken a massive step up this year from what we'd been doing (which was really just math and reading) and all three of my kids are loving it and asking for more. It's kind of crazy to me, but I'm rolling with it! I suppose I'm coming at this from the opposite side as you, because I'm naturally pretty relaxed about, well, everything. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

This was my realization after DS9's first grade year as well. The higher the standard, the happier they are. The more we do, the more they want to do...

 

We are just trucking along this year. I don't know that we've ever had such a smooth start. (There is no fingers crossed emoticon though, so it makes me nervous to post that. :tongue_smilie:)

[HecticMama]

I'll be glad for a break. We have been working hard in math, grammar, latin, science and vocabulary. But history is lacking for want of time (older dd used to daydream in math, but has gotten better--the math is getting harder!). We'll probably spend most of summer catching it up. Sigh.

[islanbonita1015]

This is my ds11 first time being homeschooled this year (6th grade) and at first, we had a very rough start when we began in August. But now we are in a semi comfortable routine and I have pretty much all the materials for all the subjects I wanted him to cover this year. Fortunately for me, the HS laws where I live are pretty lax. :001_smile:

[Angie in VA]

Well, now that dd's college apps are in for her top 2 choices, and her wisdom teeth were already removed and she's healing nicely, and senior (for her, junior for ds) regional orchestra is over, we're back to business and things are going fine. :001_smile:

 

I'm cherishing my last year w/ dd. I can't believe we've almost gone the distance.

[sewingmama]

I think I'm going to have one WTM kid and one unschooler...

 

I have that in my house as well. I switched to using the Charlotte Mason method and it's working for them both :001_smile:

 

We are winding down at the end of our school year - 5 weeks to go. This was our first year homeschooling officially and it's taken us that long to figure out what works. The last month we have finally found our groove but it took a lot of craziness to figure it out :001_huh: I came close to enrolling the kids in school many times :glare:

 

We ended up schooling very light while we muddled through it and somehow my kids came out at the end working at advanced levels of everything - :confused: Which has taught me that I need to relax and trust them more. My kids are super engaged learners and when I leave them be they learn more then when I try to teach them anything :lol:

 

Next year should be fun - I'll have a 1st grader, a K'er (working at 1st grade level but don't tell his sister ;)) and a Pre-K who is busting to learn how to read.