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[Guest inoubliable]

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[NotSoObvious]

In short? Yes. Finish your year by focusing on what's important and start fresh again next year.

[Trilliums]

 

 

Can this be done? Can a 6th grader get enough out of spending his school day on math, science, Latin and the rest of it on reading a varied and good selection of literature?

 

Short answer: YES!

 

 

Glad you are feeling better. Now, don't go getting all stressed out and have a relapse! It will be fine. My boys are in high school and that is pretty much how we homeschooled all the time, with most of it being reading out loud and hands on math projects. They were definitely well prepared for advanced high school level material.

[Tess in the Burbs]

I understand! I was sick all of December and the kids took a hit too. It was a wash of a month and we had already started late b/c we vacation in the fall. But I give you hope. Last year we didn't start school until Nov due to a move and we did everything by end of June! So winter can be productive! We are very far behind where I had hoped to be this year. I refuse to do school past the end of June. So I have altered how we will do history to stay on track and science is now individual so they can move along at a faster pace(double up some days, skip some topics). Spanish won't be back on our schedule this year. Missed so much we need to just start over next year. My goals are to finish math....ds will be going to prealgebra next year so skipping this year isn't feasible. I think the basics are most important and only you can decide what is most important. For me it's grammar/writing/spelling and math. Science is next, everything else is last.

 

So adjust your expectations, pare down some subjects, and focus on what truly needs to get finished, what can be partially done, and what needs to go.

[PeterPan]

2nd semester is longer than 1st semester. They have presumably been reading all this time while you were sick. I don't see how that's a plan to move forward. Make a plan that can get done in the number of weeks you plan (realistically, with some breaks) to school between now and fall. You need to select with an eye to what your 6th grader needs to get done to be ready for his gr 7 materials in the fall. Do you have a plan for that yet? Even a loose one? That will probably be your reality check.

 

You have 9 months between now and fall, which is a full school year. So start now, make a reasonable plan, and just start working.

[Guest inoubliable]

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[momto2Cs]

Thanks everyone! I just went through, much more calmly, everything in front of me. The whole time I was sick, the kids were watching documentaries on Netflix or Hulu, Youtube videos on cool science experiments, and playing with Typemaster and Seterra and a few other games like that. There wasn't much reading except for their "fun stuff" like comic books and Magic Tree House. I do have a plan for 7th grade and now that I look at it, I think that I was setting myself up for falling behind with such a rigorous course load planned. I'm sort of glad that this has happened now. I feel like I am facing a reality.

 

My 6th grader has a bit of a public school handicap that he's still dealing with. He was never expected to learn the multiplication tables. He struggles with math because of this. He doesn't feel like he can conquer new concepts because he cannot rattle off what 9 multiplied by 2 is. My original plan this year was to really beef him up with courage and self confidence with math while working with him to memorize those facts. He's getting better and I think that if I can get him to have those down pat by the end of the year and bolster his self-esteem when it comes to academics, then I'll be doing him a huge favor when it comes to entering 7th grade. I've reworked my expectations for 7th grade based on that, this year's experience, and a more realistic view of what our homeschool needs to be.

 

My 2nd grader was much less of a concern. He's a natural math whiz. He does fantastic with Latin and diagramming and reading out loud. In short, all that his older brother sucks at. :( I need to keep him busy, and I think that if I just give him more time to read that he'll do fine. It needs to be less worksheet/workbook and more reading/imagining/creating. If that makes any sense.

 

My thoughts are as well organized as I thought. *sigh*

 

 

I had to do basically the same thing recently, but for different reasons. One major factor to nearly unschooling this recent fall was that I started my MA and failed to really think through balancing that and homeschooling. Add to that surgeries for my husband, money and job issues, etc., and we did not accomplish what I hoped.

 

So I wiped the slate clean and started fresh. Myds11 has backed up in math - we were attempting LOF Fractions, but without all his multiplication/division facts easily at hand, he got very frustrated. I contacted Mr. Schmidt, and he suggested starting back at Farming. While I hate the idea that we are now "behind" where I planned to be by a fair bit, I also see that we need to get ds's math foundation stronger, and looking at Farnming, I think he'll move through it quickly. The same thing with writing for ds, and reading for dd9, who is a late/delayed reader, mainly due to the fact that she was just not interested.

 

I had to back off, look at the big picture, think about my kids' strengths and weaknesses, and how I could build their skills.

 

I'm thinking of sticking to just math, science, Latin, and reading the books that I had set aside for this year.

 

I want to change how we read the books, though. Some of the books were set aside as a supplement to math, history, or science. Some of the books were just good literature. Some of the books were just favorites (Magic Tree House or Horrible Histories). Some of the books were for a formal literature program. I think I want to have the kids read, read, read to absorb good grammar and spelling and increase reading fluency. I want to discuss books with them that I think warrant a discussion. I want them to keep a journal so that they do have to write (this may end up a combination between a written journal and a blog). I don't want there to be a bunch of worksheets or coloring pages or vocabulary lists.

 

Can this be done? Can a 6th grader get enough out of spending his school day on math, science, Latin and the rest of it on reading a varied and good selection of literature? I'm sure that my 2nd grader and my Pre-K/K'er will be fine with that. All I'm really cutting are worksheets/specific programs for spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and writing. Those items seem to add the most clutter and take the most time - wouldn't the kids get all of that from reading?

 

Ideas? Tips? Advice? Snorts of derision?

 

 

I think given what you followed this up with, that this sounds perfectly reasonable. Focusing on a few subjects, and getting basics down, will help you move forward in the future.