FairProspects Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 I felt that way when my youngest was 2 and under also! Don't worry. The kids didn't suffer. Now we're doing Sonlight Core D and P4/5 and loving both, and I'm having no problem reading aloud those cores AND an extra read-aloud at bedtime. Amazing what changes when your youngest is 3.5! :D Can you tell me actual time of day you read these cores? Our read-aloud time is getting the shaft and I'm trying to figure out if that is just has to be dealt with as part of our situation or if there is some way to re-organize. I can't figure out where more read-alouds would possibly fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Can you tell me actual time of day you read these cores? Our read-aloud time is getting the shaft and I'm trying to figure out if that is just has to be dealt with as part of our situation or if there is some way to re-organize. I can't figure out where more read-alouds would possibly fit. At breakfast, I do Bible and the core D read-aloud. mid-morning, I do P4/5, sitting on the couch with a tote bag of books. History reading is done late morning or early afternoon. It really isn't THAT much reading. I spend maybe an hour reading from those two cores? I just have everything on our daily schedule, and I try to alternate between heavy writing activities and read-alouds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Maybe I could squeeze some more in at breakfast, but that would be really pushing. Our mornings are just booked and time/pacing is such a huge factor here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Maybe I could squeeze some more in at breakfast, but that would be really pushing. Our mornings are just booked and time/pacing is such a huge factor here. You also do a lot more hands-on stuff than I do, so those will take more time. I don't think I could do a lot of reading AND do a lot of hands-on. Actually, I'm very horrible at doing hands-on, so I'm glad my kids have been fine without it! :lol: Oh, and I eat breakfast before the kids get up, so I can read the entire time they're eating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acsnmama Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 I felt that way when my youngest was 2 and under also! Don't worry. The kids didn't suffer. Now we're doing Sonlight Core D and P4/5 and loving both, and I'm having no problem reading aloud those cores AND an extra read-aloud at bedtime. Amazing what changes when your youngest is 3.5! :D That's great!! Glad I'm not alone in feeling that way! I am not fond of reading myself, but I want my children to have joy in reading, so I really want to give this a try. I hate the cost, but I hope to place my order this week. I really want to enjoy having us all read together. I'm so tired of having a little here, a little there, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Some big changes here but I'm not throwing in the towel on everything. We will continue MFW ECC only studying the countries and doing the bible work; however, I'm completely dropping the science. Ds1 wants to DO science, so he will be working through the Thames & Kosmos Physics kit and the Engino Gears kit independently as well as reading various science related biographies (The Wright Brothers, Gutenburg). He needs to be challenged more than MFW is providing. I'm keeping EIW for the remainder of the year, although neither of us is loving it. I am looking into IEW for 5th grade, but he is such a reluctant writer that I'm not even sure about that yet. Reading will continue to be done the WTM way. We're going to move from Apples and Pears to Sequential Spelling. Grammar will stay the same although I'm going to really pare down the lessons because he learns so quickly. I have realized I need to feel comfortable with him doing less because he doesn't need as much drill as R&S requires. We've added in lots of Mad Libs for fun, and we are almost done with Grammarland. Math will continue to be Singapore, but I'm hoping to add LOF soon because I'm pretty sure ds1 will enjoy it. For ds2, we're going to do 2 weeks of MFW K in one - focusing on the science and bible part the most. Ds2 needs it to move faster than it does. I won't be teaching reading as they suggest; instead, we began PP before Christmas, and that is going well. We should finish Singapore Essentials in March, and then we'll begin 1A. I'm adding in copywork as well since ds2 is ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 You also do a lot more hands-on stuff than I do, so those will take more time. I don't think I could do a lot of reading AND do a lot of hands-on. Actually, I'm very horrible at doing hands-on, so I'm glad my kids have been fine without it! :lol: Oh, and I eat breakfast before the kids get up, so I can read the entire time they're eating. What you mean I can't do it all?!? Audiobooks just might have to do for now. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 We're making a couple of curriculum changes (grammar and geography), but that's no big deal. What is a big deal to me, what I'm excited about, are the changes in approach, organization, and scheduling. Scheduling - I've always been set on doing school first thing in the morning, because that's what has always worked for me. But I'm finally figuring out, that doesn't work for my daughter. She is not a morning person at all, and it is counter-productive for me to try to change that. I need to work around it, not against it. So I talked it over with her and we've come up with a plan that she's actually excited about. She'll get up at 8 (I know, that's probably late by most people's standards!), shower and get breakfast. At 9, we'll have an hour of spiritual time: morning prayers, Bible study, saint of the day, etc. From 10 until noon, we'll do household chores (and if those get done promptly, the rest of the time can be reading or drawing). After lunch, we'll start school, and that will go until four or five as needed. For years, I've insisted on school first, and then it drags on and on endlessly, and I get stressed out because there are so many chores that need to get done and it's going to be dinner time soon, etc. So I think this is going to be very liberating for both of us. We can get the chores done and out of the way, so I'm not freaking out. And she can get her school work done much more quickly if we do it during the time of day when she's actually mentally on-task, focused, and not resistant to it. Approach - This actually overlaps a bit with the scheduling change, but it's a "philosophy" change as well. I've been wanting to make Bible and faith studies more and more a part of our homeschooling. But as much as my daughter loves our Bible and faith studies, she has been very resistant to the idea of making it a bigger part of our school work. It finally dawned on me why: she loves our Bible and faith studies and finds tremendous comfort in them, while school work is not something that she's excited about, but simply work that has to get done. She does not want to mingle the two, because she doesn't want the Bible/faith stuff to become drudgery. So instead of what I originally planned (integrating them), I'm actually separating them more. A gentle and peaceful prayer and Bible time will be first thing in the morning, because that's all she can really handle first thing in the morning! That will be separated from school work by several hours and by other tasks. And I won't be looking specifically for Bible-based curriculum any more, we'll just use whatever gets the job done most efficiently. Organizing - Two things. First of all, my husband bought us a really nice 6-drawer cabinet, built kind of low but wide, which is now in the dining room (where we do school) with all of our school supplies and books neatly organized, easily accessible, but also kind of out of sight (since it's drawers and not just a bookshelf), which I like, because my dining room still looks like a dining room. Not that that matters in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason it matters to me. Secondly, I was looking for a streamlined and simple way to give her a daily checklist of what she needs to do, so that she can take charge of it, be responsible for it, do things in the order that she wants, etc. and right when I was thinking about all of this, our very own Northwest_Mama posted about the Student Logbook that she created, and voila! Problem solved. :thumbup1: Thanks to the OP and everyone who posted - this is a fun thread! I like reading what other people are doing, and it also made me think about all the changes that we're implementing at once. So I'm excited to start school again on Monday - which is not the way I usually feel this time of year!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 ... DD is dropping SL literature in favor of an online Jr. Great Books class. She did an online NME prep class this fall, and loved it, and SL core 6 has never really "clicked" with her-she's just not into the historical fiction the way I am, even though she loves the history. So we're divorcing SL and letting her do the literature online where she'll have others to discuss the books and stories with, and continuing the history study-and meanwhile, I'LL read all those nice historical fiction books, because I like them, even if DD doesn't! (And maybe she'll discover them later). .. I just came across this: I didn't know that there were online options for the Jr. Great Books classes: thanks for that Helpful Nugget! For Interested Others, here's a link to the Jr. Great Books online courses; they are for grades 3 - 8. And now to finish reading your post ... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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