What curricula changes did YOU make while the forum was down?

[Hunter]

While the forum was down I finished making a copy of ALL my educational ebooks on ONE thumbdrive, divided into folders and subfolders for each subject. Back about a year ago I organized my bookcases LOOSELY by subject and it has been such a help. I expect this to be just as helpful. I'm really excited about seeing all that I have organized and handy.

 

I'm really on even more of a roll of "good enough" after being so happy with how well the 1st edition of "What Your Grader Needs to Know" series has been going. More time doing, instead of planning. I started looking at what I have for composition, looking for ONE multi-year "good enough" resource.

 

I'm currently smitten with

Write On: The Kid Friendly, Mother Pleasing, Gentle Way to Write

by Karen Newell. I never stopped using "The 3 Sentence Report" and a few pages I had copied out, but early on I stopped using it for other curricula with bigger goals I've realized I don't have time to teach. Also those bigger goals are spread out between multiple books, so I cannot just leave the ONE book out in my study area, to always be handy in a second.

 

Just like the NtK series, I'm adding notes from other curricula, when it is missing something that I would teach even underground in a nuclear bunker after World War 3. Mostly though, I see the wisdom here of what is included and not included when it comes to dealing with the REALITY of my students' abilities and time and interest.

 

I'm strongly gearing my curriculum choices to a rock solid K-6, and then a fast and narrow route to Community College. A foundation strong enough to place a mansion on it, then putting up a tar paper shanty to keep out the rain. Building the house isn't my role I've decided. It's up to the next generation to take the baton and start building the house. My role is the foundation and "good enough", and encouragement to attend a local C.C.

 

I don't know if I'll stick with this book, but I spent the last few days with it, while the forum was down, and after all the things I've used over the past couple years--never mind all the years before--I have a new appreciation for this book, including and sometimes especially the parts I turned my nose up at earlier.

 

I also watched a lot of education DVDs on the topics in What Your First Grader Needs to Know. I just watched the pile, one after the other. I just watched them, and didn't overcomplicate it. This increases by ability to teach NtK on the fly with no need to collect resources, other than ME.

 

I spent time looking at art curricula, stressing over the 7 elements and other things. I haven't made my final choices, but I spent some solid time evaluating my options, and comparing to the NtK art lessons. At least I know what I don't want to use.

 

As much as I love this forum, it was good for me to have it down for a couple days. The time I spent evaluating curricula--mostly what I have already--was well spent.

 

I'm curious what changes others put in place while--and because--the forum was down.

[UrbanSue]

Are you kidding? Make a curriculum change with the Forums down?

 

My husband, in a fit of late-night boredom, started reading through the McGuffey readers and had a big chat with me the next morning about trying to use them (I'd been complaining about lack of quality easy readers for my just-about-to-leap-into-fluent-reading 6yo).

 

I also took some time thinking through where we are and where we are headed with writing and feel really good about our Wirting With Ease/Creative writing combination right now. I read through NMID on our last break week and it has been a great addition to our homeschool. It's a very relaxed writer's workshop model with only two kids old enough to participate but it's amazing how much kids can produce when you just pointedly carve out the space for them. But I also feel renewed enthusiasm for the Writing With Ease-into-Writing With Skill progression so that's a bonus--curriculum decisions that don't require me to purchase anything!

[UrbanSue]

Are you kidding? Make a curriculum change with the Forums down?

 

My husband, in a fit of late-night boredom, started reading through the McGuffey readers and had a big chat with me the next morning about trying to use them (I'd been complaining about lack of quality easy readers for my just-about-to-leap-into-fluent-reading 6yo).

 

I also took some time thinking through where we are and where we are headed with writing and feel really good about our Wirting With Ease/Creative writing combination right now. I read through NMID on our last break week and it has been a great addition to our homeschool. It's a very relaxed writer's workshop model with only two kids old enough to participate but it's amazing how much kids can produce when you just pointedly carve out the space for them. But I also feel renewed enthusiasm for the Writing With Ease-into-Writing With Skill progression so that's a bonus--curriculum decisions that don't require me to purchase anything! And I do think that having the Forum down probably helped with that process. I tend to obsessively research questions and having some doubt and working through it using what I just had on hand was very affirming.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

My husband, in a fit of late-night boredom,

 

Tsk tsk tsk. Late-night boredom calls for a cup of tEa, or Tea, or teA, Can't remember the proper spelling.

 

As for me, I'm considering adding a geography class, that my kiddos would do together, based on the Unesco Protected Sites. Wouldn't that be fun?

[UrbanSue]

Tsk tsk tsk. Late-night boredom calls for a cup of tEa, or Tea, or teA, Can't remember the proper spelling.

 

 

 

Not if your wife has the stomach flu. :thumbdown:

[Hunter]

I forgot to add that I've figured out what to do after LOE! I'm such a scatterbrain!

 

The Phonics Made Plain system is very similar to LOE's. My default plan is to continue using How to Tutor and 6th edition WRTR cursive hand before starting LOE. The beginning of HTT doesn't conflict with LOE at all, and when there is conflict in later lessons I will just defer to the LOE phongrams but still teach the copywork charts as handwriting and as a supplement to LOE without stressing over the differences.

 

Then I will move into a fairly untweaked study of LOE, except to use the WRTR cursive hand. And to teach some Merriam-Webster dictionary respellings along side the LOE phonetic markings.

 

Then I will finish up the seven Phonics Made Plain phonograms not covered by LOE, with the copywork charts in ABC's, similar to how I used HTT. I will review all the other phonograms, and teach harder words for each of those phonograms. The PMP phonograms are keyed to The ABC's and All Their Tricks. Challenge words could also be used earlier alongside the LOE lists, by using PMP and ABC's instead of waiting.

 

For the grammar and composition aspect of LOE, I'll be following up with mastery of the use of a Punctuation Pattern miniposter, I've created by combining the notes from several free online sheets and maybe some Art of Styling Sentences if I have time, which I'm realizing I probably won't. I'm realizing I don't really have time to continue teaching intensive phonics with another entire text after completing the 40 lessons in LOE. I need to transition to intensive and explicit PUNCTUATION, and start tar-paper-shantying the spelling, at that point. And then start teaching a tar-paper-shanty method to a thesis geared towards a C.C worthy research paper.

 

But if your eyes are glazing over at too much information, the main point is that it's worth taking a look at Phonics Made Plain to use after LOE, especially if you are already struggling to find time to finish the 40 lessons.

[Farrar]

You seem like you were awesomely productive, Hunter. I hope it's okay if I giggled at the idea of completely overhauling while the forum was down though. I didn't have all these sane voices so I abandoned classical education entirely and went running into the wilds of unschooling! Hahahahaha! (Just kidding... we just carried on... it was only a couple of days...)

[AimeeM]

Switched math around a bit. We're still using Math Mammoth 6 as a supplement, but moved our core over to Calvert Math. Math Mammoth, on its own, wasn't providing enough practice and... my husband has had it with Finnish/Asian/Conceptual math. Lol.

[Laughingmommy]

The Big Outage happened during my most intense bout of homeschool planning ever. Fortunately, there were cached threads I found just by googling. And the inability to procrastinate reading the K-8 Curriculum board allowed me to spend a couple of sleepless nights searching the depths of my homeschooling soul and facing the most tedious parts of curriculum planning. If this forum was down for an extra day, I maybe would've even photocopied and typed up assignment sheets!

 

Pei

[FO4UR]

I didn't switch a thing. My 6yo got a little too excited about the space rocket on the screen. He evidently thought I had found a new game.

[Dory]

We switched from Singapore Math Standards to Math in Focus for my oldest ds and Math Mammoth for my dd. My ds was starting to avoid history so I pulled out Famous Men of Rome and we've been reading through that together to give him a change of pace. It's good review from a new stand point for him. We set Hebrew aside for a little bit as they were starting to confuse english grammar and Hebrew grammar. I'll keep building their Hebrew vocabulary but I think the grammar portion is a little much for them yet. My youngest ds started his grade 3 literature studies. It was a busy couple days.

[SilverMoon]

Nothing needed changing. But we spent most of the time camping with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, or preparing for the camp. Now we're on the filthy, slightly sunburned side, but we had a blast getting that way. :)

[Hunter]

This forum is calming to me more than any other place online. Because we talk about TOPICS instead of TO each other. And many threads are nothing but OCD obsessing that is little different than trekkie fans who obsess over what the generators on the starships could have done.

 

So without my online fix, first I got a little lonely and started engaging with crazymakers who got me crying and seizing. I needed to do something OCD to calm down, and without my online OCD phonics buddies, of course I turned to phonics books. Wet faced and twitching I spread out all my phonics curricula on the floor, and before I knew it, I was numbed by all the patterns. Soon feeling better but with no good reason to get up, productivity took over, I guess. :lol:

 

After I mastered the phonics problem, and received several crazymaking phonecalls that set me seizing again, I turned to composition to relieve my distress.

 

If the forum hadn't of come back up when it did, I'm not sure what I would have turned to. I would have had to overcomplicate something that is working just to give myself a calming pattern/system to obsess over.

[amyrobynne]

I read a bunch of upcoming lessons in BFSU and convinced myself that I can't avoid thread B forever, or even until there are leaves on the trees again and signed up for the Cornell Bird Count program.

[Syllieann]

I've been trying to decide on science for next yr and bfsu would fit best but I didn't think I could handle the planning with cwh and a new baby. However, I found cwh has lesson plans in the works so now I feel like I can take on bfsu. I read through most of the lesson plans, laid out my sequence, went through the supply list to see what needs to be purchased, and went through the booklist to see which are on hand in my library system. Quite productive actually and not as bad as I thought it would be.

[LMD]

Hehe, I just talked at my DH for 2 days straight about 2 different history curriculum choices. And costed everything I want. He tuned out before the last part! :D

[LMD]

sorry, double post!

[sewingmama]

I didn't make any changes because I am only 4 weeks from the end of our school year. However I did choose all my curricula for next year so now all I have to do is buy it.

 

It only took me an hour to research and decide what I wanted to use - it's amazing how easy it was to decide without all the voices of the WTM :laugh: Since I couldn't look up what everyone else was using and I couldn't see anyone elses sigs to make me feel inadequate and I didn't come across any posts about "shiny, new curricum" that I hadn't considered -planning was a snap :hurray: :hurray:

 

 

I think I learned that when I am trying to make planning decisions I should stay away from the board rather then look for extra opinions that only confuse me :leaving:

[sewingmama]

DP

[Hunter]

I read a bunch of upcoming lessons in BFSU and convinced myself that I can't avoid thread B forever, or even until there are leaves on the trees again and signed up for the Cornell Bird Count program.

 

Okay, now I know what I can do next time the forum goes down. I can pencil in all the BFSU lessons numbers into the margins of my What Your Grader Needs to Know books. :lol:

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

That's funny you should ask.

 

I bought FLL 2. I'll finish it super fast with my 3rd grader. We love WWE so much and I feel she is learning next to nothing from her Abeka Grammar 3 book. I'm very excited.

[amyrobynne]

I've been trying to decide on science for next yr and bfsu would fit best but I didn't think I could handle the planning with cwh and a new baby. However, I found cwh has lesson plans in the works so now I feel like I can take on bfsu. I read through most of the lesson plans, laid out my sequence, went through the supply list to see what needs to be purchased, and went through the booklist to see which are on hand in my library system. Quite productive actually and not as bad as I thought it would be.

 

I saw your post on CWH's forum earlier today! I'm using volume 2 of CWH and I focus on the readings. I get all the books I can (used or at the library when possible) and split them up into daily chunks. We've done a project for each of the 2 units so far, but I didn't really use their suggestions. We also do activities from the suggested books, maybe once a week. And we spend one day per unit putting events on a timeline. But the main thing for my grammar-age kids has been reading aloud from the books every day. I'm finding BFSU to be much more of a planning time-suck even though there are lots of ideas on Pinterest and I have an engineering background. I really, really like both CWH and BFSU and they've been worth it.

[Syllieann]

I saw your post on CWH's forum earlier today! I'm using volume 2 of CWH and I focus on the readings. I get all the books I can (used or at the library when possible) and split them up into daily chunks. We've done a project for each of the 2 units so far, but I didn't really use their suggestions. We also do activities from the suggested books, maybe once a week. And we spend one day per unit putting events on a timeline. But the main thing for my grammar-age kids has been reading aloud from the books every day. I'm finding BFSU to be much more of a planning time-suck even though there are lots of ideas on Pinterest and I have an engineering background. I really, really like both CWH and BFSU and they've been worth it.

Thanks, that's very encouraging! I'm still a bit nervous about diving into both at once but I'm also flexible and willing to adapt if needed.

[Laughingmommy]

What's CWH?

Pei

[amyrobynne]

What's CWH?

Pei

 

 

Connecting with History: http://rchistory.com/

[acablue]

I switched DS 7 from WWW/GWG to MCT Island. I had to order a couple of the books, and so we will start when they get here. I have made more switches this year than in the previous 5 years altogether. I hate switching, but I hate WWW/GWG more!

My kid is somehow loving both WWW and MCT Island. :huh: MCT is much more my style.

 

I just ordered Sonlight for history and Beast Academy. We'll start Sonlight immediately, but won't get to BA until at least the spring. It was an impulse purchase.

[Mukmuk]

We took a break as I re-organised our library, donated old books including those thar DS never touched, *cry* and doesn't look like he'll be touching them either. Anything "history of" is just a waste of shelf space :(.

[cloversandlions]

I accepted that it might be necessary a couple weeks ago, and bought the Dancing Bears curriculum for struggling/dyslexic readers for my 8yo; it arrived a few days ago, and I we dove right in. For one who seemed to start reading (well, sounding out CVC words) before age 3, I'd have thought that reading would have come easily to her. Alas, it appears not to be the case. My 11yo is also dyslexic (and I suspect dyscalculia and dysgraphia), but after giving her space, she's become an adept reader with only a few minor hiccups. DD2 is showing so many of the same signs as DD1.

 

I also decided to get DD1 formally tested; I imagine I'll have DD2 tested as well.

[Another Lynn]

I didn't make any curriculum changes.... but I obsessed over how much to outsource next year for high school. :willy_nilly: And what to use for writing and literature if I don't outsource it. :willy_nilly: (Runaway.......)

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

I found A Biblical Home Education by Ruth Beechick and am now working on incorporating her ideas into our curriculum.

[SorrelZG]

We made the switch last week from "hoping to move overseas next year" to "getting ready to do so in a few months". So I spent the days the forum was down scaling back my intentions for the next few months and trying to get a sense of direction on how to plan for the next year or so until we can visit the States again.

 

I tossed Spanish and ASL to the wayside for the time being and placed Khmer into prominent focus. I put off my casual use of CW Aesop until later next year to give singular focus to refining and strengthening DS's cursive handwriting and reduce the time spent on school each day. I totally discarded a couple of formal grammar plans I was beginning or thinking about beginning figuring I can pick grammar up in a year with some PDF resources I have or KISS Grammar. I will be dropping MCP Mathematics for either MEP or something available in PDF like Miquon and/or Math Mammoth. Now my attention has turned toward books for content subjects to furnish the children's shelves with that will be worth their weight in my luggage.

[Hunter]

We made the switch last week from "hoping to move overseas next year" to "getting ready to do so in a few months". So I spent the days the forum was down scaling back my intentions for the next few months and trying to get a sense of direction on how to plan for the next year or so until we can visit the States again.

 

I tossed Spanish and ASL to the wayside for the time being and placed Khmer into prominent focus. I put off my casual use of CW Aesop until later next year to give singular focus to refining and strengthening DS's cursive handwriting and reduce the time spent on school each day. I totally discarded a couple of formal grammar plans I was beginning or thinking about beginning figuring I can pick grammar up in a year with some PDF resources I have or KISS Grammar. I will be dropping MCP Mathematics for either MEP or something available in PDF like Miquon and/or Math Mammoth. Now my attention has turned toward books for content subjects to furnish the children's shelves with that will be worth their weight in my luggage.

 

Professor B math isn't pdf, but it is low bulk, as much of the student work is oral recitations instead of worksheets. It might be worth taking a look at and lugging around. The thin student workbooks are similar or the same as the digital versions available to the online subscribers. If you contact the publisher (the author is dead) they might let you purchase the digital version of the workbooks. The TMs are wider but thinner than a typical paperback and there are only 3 books from K through pre-algebra.

 

I've been trying to scale back and go more digital too. It takes a bit of trial and error.

 

How many disks are in the 54 episodes of Magic School Bus? How heavy is that? It's on sale for $29.99. I ordered a copy last night.

 

There are kindle versions of the revised What Your Grader Needs to Know series, but I like the older hardcover 6 volume series, for a compact curriculum. And they are CHEAP.

 

Do you have a World Book Encyclopedia CD? There is a LOT of content on that.

 

The African Waldorf curriculum is pdf. So is the Little Flower Garden curriculum and I think it's still on sale.

 

Yesterdaysclassics collection of Kindle books is a nice collection of content.

 

You might want to start a thread on this topic. Every time there is one, people are fascinated with the topic.

[SorrelZG]

Hunter, I will look into the Magic School Bus discs (I have no familiarity with the Magic School Bus series .. and on a side note, I just noticed my spell checker is absent). I will look into the encyclopedia too. I sold Professor B a little while back. I really want to go digital for elementary math (and grammar) because I want every cubic centimeter of luggage space I can possibly set apart for quality books the children can pull down off the shelf. I have the Yesterday's Classics on my Kindle and will be using the Kindles and iPad heavily but nothing compares to beautiful physical books to catch a child's eye and to hold in their hands. I will definitely be looking to the Hive for recommendations.

[Mélie]

No changes right now, but I've spent the last week or so planning for after Christmas. We're moving as well (nowhere exotic, just Canada :)), so I'm having some things shipped to a friend there and want to get everything squared away before we have to start packing!

[alisoncooks]

I spent all my time pinning Christmas crafts on Pinterest.....

[happycc]

I can;t even think about curriculum choices. I am still receiving mine for the year through our charter school and school year is not over yet not til June!

 

Maybe I should be thinking ahead for next year...EEEK! I just can't seem to think farther than an hour right now. My baby has not popped out. Due date this week! I'm frustrated. I feel like I have tried every natural way to get things moving because frankly I am big, extremely in pain all the time and not sleeping a wink!

 

I have decided to not go digital. Not having much luck with it. Computer crashes, I lose passwords to important website programs, my kindle adapter hole is broken and haven't been able to charge it in a year. Lost a lot of stuff I downloaded cheaply.

 

I think I will go the old fashion way with everything and when we move if we ever will hubbie will have to get a dolly and a good sized truck!

[Hunter]

I can;t even think about curriculum choices. I am still receiving mine for the year through our charter school and school year is not over yet not til June!

 

Maybe I should be thinking ahead for next year...EEEK! I just can't seem to think farther than an hour right now. My baby has not popped out. Due date this week! I'm frustrated. I feel like I have tried every natural way to get things moving because frankly I am big, extremely in pain all the time and not sleeping a wink!

 

I have decided to not go digital. Not having much luck with it. Computer crashes, I lose passwords to important website programs, my kindle adapter hole is broken and haven't been able to charge it in a year. Lost a lot of stuff I downloaded cheaply.

 

I think I will go the old fashion way with everything and when we move if we ever will hubbie will have to get a dolly and a good sized truck!

 

 

:grouphug:

 

Remember there is a season for everything. Curriculum planning isn't what you should be doing right now. I had a long overdue baby, and my body was failing. The doctor kept scaring me into not inducing. I should have induced earlier. As soon as he FINALLY broke my water, labor was only 1 hour and 20 minutes and dangerously fast for both me and the baby. And just know it can be just as dangerous to wait too long as to act too quickly. I sensed the baby needed to come earlier, but I was too scared to trust myself. Please be careful and trust yourself whatever you are feeling.

[kolamum]

Well, it's the end of our school year. 3 weeks left. So I wasn't changing things for THIS year, but evaluating what I'd be using or not using next year & attempting not to start what we all ready purchased. ;) You can probably tell from my earlier thread I was evaluating our math curriculum & it's ability to work for us.

[momtoamiracle]

no real changes, but I did get things that I ordered in. Handwriting Skills Simplified A was started yesterday. My son seems to like it. It begins with strokes, no letters yet. HIs writing has improved but I thought he could use the practice to help make the letters correctly. He's having a ball just doing the lines right now.

 

And we began listening to the MrQ science audio mp3's that a poster here generously shared.

 

I did start doing school right after breakfast, instead of waiting till afternoon. My son prefers to do it later in the day, but since we have playdates all week, that isn't going to happen. I set a timer for him to do his math and to do his phonics words. That works really well. I may keep it up even after all kids go back to school.

[momto2Cs]

We stopped doing ancient history 2-3x a week, dropping to 1x weekly, so we could add back in American history--The Rainbow Book of American History--once a week. We also added back in Builders of the Old World to ancient history, and may continue with that rather than OUP for the time being. We dropped all science attempts, and are going back to BFSU. I've found higher level topical books that will work with both kids, plus we'll be using Bill Nye and Disney Imagineering dvds as appropriate.

 

Added in PLL and ILL, dropped Writing Skills. Have dropped Math Mammoth for the most part, and am now focusing on LOF and Zacarro's [Primary] Challenge Math.

[Walking-Iris]

I spent all my time pinning Christmas crafts on Pinterest.....

We stopped doing ancient history 2-3x a week, dropping to 1x weekly, so we could add back in American history--

 

We did the same thing. Pinned a ton of stuff and started work on some crafts and my ds finally convinced me to stop torturing him with SOTW and so we jumped into a random Native American rabbit trail. We read some books, folktales and completed a map with tribal names, and so I think I'm going to stay with this Am Hist for the rest of the winter.

[Hunter]

I'm really liking the mix of Ancient American Indians and Egyptians in the first edition of What Your Grader Needs to Know. I've never taught/learned these topics together along with pyramids, sculpture, patterns and symmetry.

 

I had ditched ancient history for American History back in September, because I had an early reader that just couldn't handle any of ancient history texts on the market.

 

I'm really liking what Core Knowledge did back in the 90's, better than the straight American History I was doing. I feel like I'm having my cake and getting to eat it too right now.

[Walking-Iris]

I'm really liking the mix of Ancient American Indians and Egyptians in the first edition of What Your Grader Needs to Know. I've never taught/learned these topics together along with pyramids, sculpture, patterns and symmetry.

 

I had ditched ancient history for American History back in September, because I had an early reader that just couldn't handle any of ancient history texts on the market.

 

I'm really liking what Core Knowledge did back in the 90's, better than the straight American History I was doing. I feel like I'm having my cake and getting to eat it too right now.

 

You're really encouraging me to actually use those books rather than just have them on the shelf for the kids to look at when they will.

[lovemykids]

I didn't make any curriculum changes.... but I obsessed over how much to outsource next year for high school. :willy_nilly: And what to use for writing and literature if I don't outsource it. :willy_nilly: (Runaway.......)

 

LOL

[momto2Cs]

I actually wrote a "schedule" for our homeschooling. We'll be starting it tomorrow!

 

Now off to look at my Core Knowledge books... again.

[Hunter]

You're really encouraging me to actually use those books rather than just have them on the shelf for the kids to look at when they will.

 

 

I'm really liking how integrated the lessons are in the first series. The integration makes up for any other weaknesses I perceive in the series. The lessons seldom point out the links. You just kind of discover the links on your own, as you read through the book and borrow books and DVDs from the library. and notice all the overlap. Depending on your supplements you might have more or less overlapping, but there has been a TON of overlapping here. Yesterday I just noticed the link between the lesson on Small Pox in early South American history and the health lesson on sickness and shots.

 

Grade 1 has a lesson on Jazz. I found a PBS series on Jazz at the library, that is too much to use with most students, but I'm really enjoying it for my teacher/self education. I've been watching a ton of documentaries I don't intend to have students view, but they are supporting my ability to teach from the books when called upon to do so, and they are a relaxing activity in the evenings.

 

I like how I can set aside a period of time to cover a book, and depending on how things go, supplement as little or as much as time allows. I've never used a series before that allowed me to balance my OCD tendencies and the perpetual chaos of my life. It's just been so peaceful and fascinating at the same time.

 

I think as a stand alone product that Evan-Moor Daily Science is a better curriculum, but I love how the NtK science is integrated in to the history and arts and music and literature, so am not missing it anymore. Even the math is integrated. For example patterns are stressed in grade1 art, and lines are stressed in grade 2 art to go along with the math.

 

I'm not sure how integrated the revised series is, as neither series explicitly points out most of the links, and I haven't spent enough time with the revised series to be that familiar with it. I took them all back to the library mostly unread. At first glance the revised series look so much better, but under that frosting, I think a travesty took place during the revision. I think there were too many cooks in the kitchen, too much input from the PS, an attempt to do too much, and irresponsible but profitable decisions made by the publisher. The reason I didn't latch onto this series earlier is that I didn't spend enough time looking at the original series, assuming the revised series was better.

 

I just like 80's and early 90's curricula better in general anyway. Yes, it was a time of "low standards" in this country, but it also was a time of...I don't know, just...reality and calmness, I guess. The original series reflects the time period it was written in, for better and for worse. And for ME, the betters far outweigh the worses.

[Walking-Iris]

How many pages do you read a day? Do you read from each subject daily? How do you break them into "lessons"? We've only read in them hit or miss style, or my kids have read in them on their own. I've seriously thought about using them for science and then supplementing. But I would be interested in using them in their entirety. Especially the history and science sections. How do you divide the readings?

 

My kids have always liked the stories in those books, and if I think about it I try to remember to read the story again from an actual book. I've considered using the sayings as copywork/dictation. I'm not sure how to integrate the math sections into our day on top of regular math curriculum. Same with grammar portions. Do you use any of the free lessons provided on their website? I have all of the Kindergarten Baltimore lessons printed, but I never really found time to use them.

 

I've also noticed that quite a bit in the Kindergarten book is over my Kinder's head. He's not really interested in sitting still and having stuff like that read to him.

[Hunter]

I'm using the OLD series for self-education and for remedial work with LD and ESL adults. Things around here tend to be very chaotic and inconsistent. There is no schedule. :lol:

 

I'm not using the lesson plans or scope and sequence devised for the revised series at all right now. Right now I'm just using the 6 hardcover books with copyrights from the early 1990's.

 

I tend to notebook the lessons using a combination of Waldorf and Principle Approach methods and bring a lot of library books and DVDs home.

 

For math I'm using How to Tutor, Professor B and A Guide to American Christian Education. All three of these resources are VERY narrow in scope and focus almost exclusively on the Arabic/Hindu decimal system aka arithmetic. and skip most of the rest of mathematics. I use NtK to add in the rest of the strands of mathematics; mostly I just notebook and read picture books aloud, and sometimes do some hands on projects. I teach the decimal system type arithmetic with textbooks, but the other math strands in NtK with living resources. I know that is too black and white for many teachers, but that's what comes naturally to me. I don't teach all the NtK math, just the non-arithmetic lessons. And I cross check the arithmetic lessons a bit, but...not compulsively. I trust my other resources to cover the arithmetic. I'm not sure if this makes sense. Sorry.