Excelsior! Academy Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 I have a very strong opinion on children learning music. It is important for brain development. If all of my children played for 1/2 an hour to an hour a day instruments would be being played all. day. long. This means none of my children are proficient in any instrument. I just can't handle the noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Lapbooks! Have started many, don't know that we've finished any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily_Grace Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 I just stacked all of our Latin books, flashcards, cds..in a pile to give to a friend. We tried it for 3 years and decided it's not for us. At this point, we're okay with the Average Trained Mind. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Nature study! Drawing with Children still glares at me from the bookshelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onceuponatime Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 20 years down and I have never done a lapbook. I did 2 years of Latin with my most motivated child, that's it. After my daughter finished schooling, we rarely did any crafts. My boys are sooo not interested. We have not mummified a chicken. (gasp) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangermom Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Memory work. I tried, but it was pretty much a failure. Also lapbooks. Lapbooks are right up MY alley, but not my kids'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SproutMamaK Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Music. Latin. Memorization. Keeping my temper (that totally counts, right?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-2-7 Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Nature study! Drawing with Children still glares at me from the bookshelf. :laugh: This is me! We tried to do nature study - once. I finally moved Drawing with Children to the garage. Still can't bring myself to get rid of it. Atelier Art has replaced DWC on the shelf. It too, is gathering dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeeterbug Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Artist studies, composer studies, fine arts in general. I have high hopes for this year! (We just started our school year this month.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedmom4 Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Latin only got done with my oldest. My children aren't the best spellers in the world either. We never mummified a chicken either! Elise in NC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 :svengo: Don't get me started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 :laugh: This is me! We tried to do nature study - once. I finally moved Drawing with Children to the garage. Still can't bring myself to get rid of it. Atelier Art has replaced DWC on the shelf. It too, is gathering dust. Did you know that there is a site that combines Drawing With Children with nature study :smilielol5: She did them BOTH. Together! :leaving: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 I just stacked all of our Latin books, flashcards, cds..in a pile to give to a friend. We tried it for 3 years and decided it's not for us. At this point, we're okay with the Average Trained Mind. :D Latin has flopped each time we tried it. We are just going to have to muddle thru without Latin, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Language (Spanish). I have great great great ideas for teaching Spanish, and I would like dd to learn before she gets much older (she is 6). But Spanish would need to be done daily, and we are lucky to get math and phonics done daily at this time of year (afternoon activities cut our day short). I would also like her to learn Chinese. Our local Chinese school (that usually teaches the children of students at the university) has tried to offer parent/child classes, but no one has shown any interest. I am thinking about budgeting money, splurging on "Better Chinese," and asking the teacher if she would tutor dd and me in private sessions for an agreed upon price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*lifeoftheparty* Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Better Chinese is having a sale for Chinese New Year, they just had 30% off homeschooler packs.... We use it, it's a great program :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewe Mama Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 About 95% of the curriculum I purchased still sits, untouched upon my shelves. Good intentions and all that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Language (Spanish). I have great great great ideas for teaching Spanish, and I would like dd to learn before she gets much older (she is 6). But Spanish would need to be done daily, and we are lucky to get math and phonics done daily at this time of year (afternoon activities cut our day short). I would also like her to learn Chinese. Our local Chinese school (that usually teaches the children of students at the university) has tried to offer parent/child classes, but no one has shown any interest. I am thinking about budgeting money, splurging on "Better Chinese," and asking the teacher if she would tutor dd and me in private sessions for an agreed upon price. You didn't fail. Your DD is 6. Six. SIX!!!!!!!!! You still have time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PachiSusan Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Sadly, lap books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Cursive :cool: Art History and Music history - there's a trumpet in his closet I should sell. We studied DaVinci and Mona Lisa last year. He appreciates some art, but Mona Lisa makes him twitchy. There was a picture of it in his KISS grammar the other day. He blackened it out with a sharpie. :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upward Journey Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Latin! After 15yrs of homeschooling I've never been able to get past Lesson 2. What's up with that? I thought I'd finally broken the curse, but now we've stalled on Lesson 3 :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I have a minor in French. My sister double majored in French and Psychology. We had high hopes of creating little "French" children. None of my children will have ANYTHING to do with French. Eldest insisted on Spanish after Latin. Next - Classical languages - Latin, Greek, and Ancient Egyptian, Middle Boy - after Latin, Icelandic (he impresses me with his study in this language) and he'll follow that with Danish, and the last boy - Hebrew. Drawing - good intentions, never got to it. Sign Language - DD studied it a bit, but I've never managed to get around to it with the other kids. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trillian Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Cursive. Well, handwriting in general, but DS will loudly proclaim every time he sees cursive, "Cursive, I can't read that!" Loudest possible voice. Analog clocks. I was scarred from learning to read them and when he resisted, I folded. Languages. With my luck, he'll decide he wants to learn Latin (more childhood scarring there) but so far, I've been utter unsuccessful at any others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Rat Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Hmmm... I have to say I don't even know what a lapbook is. I mean, I've heard the word around here but was never really interested in finding out what they were. My boys are 10 and 12. We don't do any crafts. I started feeling like my younger one got neglected in the craft area. So, I asked him just a a few days ago if he wanted to do more crafts. He said no, but he would like more coloring books about history. I can so do that! I even had some on the shelf. I feel soooo much better. Failure: Until recently, the Pledge. They both have it memorized finally. See ages above. Foreign languages, aside from Latin. We do great with Latin. Spanish? Thumbs down. I'm heading to Rosetta Stone next year. Math. My oldest is crazy smart. I let him down. Big time. And now he's anxious and feels he failed. I have a tutor for him now and she is amazing! We're fixing it, but the damage is done. Music. They listen to a wide range of music, but playing? Nope. Not even a little. I'm the only person IRL that I know who's kids don't play. Ds10 wants to play guitar. He's taken a few free classes. We just don't have time in our schedule. I'm working on it, but honestly it's not a priority with all the other stuff we do. That's it. I think I do great with reading aloud, grammar, literature, history. I'm fair with science. Not great, not horrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 So far I'm completely flunking with Art & Music Appreciation. Last year I thought I came up with a brilliant plan for art appreciation: get the Met Museum of Art Page a Day calendar and talk about each day's art. I figured it was better than nothing, right? Only I'd forget to change it for weeks at a time. However, my boys have discovered listening to classical music on Kindle Fires with earbuds helps them focus during independent work. My oldest has a favorite piece of classical music now. They might learn something, in spite of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbi in Texas Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Nothing-we excelled at everything--Haha don't I wish. Nature study. Dh and I both read Handbook of Nature Study and ds slogged through the reading of most of it, but putting it into practice? nada Had about half a year of Latin. Composer and artist study-barely His handwriting stinks and we tried nearly everything out there. I wish we would have had the funds for him to get into playing instuments and theater, but he was interested in neither. Oh well, he scored well on the ACT and has been accepted into the college of his choice. He conducts himself well most of the time and loves the Lord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs_JWM Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Did you know that there is a site that combines Drawing With Children with nature study :smilielol5: She did them BOTH. Together! :leaving: Who is she?!! Do we know her? Let's go pinch her. No...not really, of course! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessieC Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Foreign language. I have bought two or three Spanish programs and have yet to give the kids even one lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeeterbug Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Last year I thought I came up with a brilliant plan for art appreciation: get the Met Museum of Art Page a Day calendar and talk about each day's art. I figured it was better than nothing, right? Only I'd forget to change it for weeks at a time. I did this too! :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Geography. I did the maps in SOTW, but since, then, I've been a big fail with geography, although we are faithful with history. I guess I can count the maps they do in the Spielvogel workbook, but it's pretty minimal. Music. I was sad that we had to give up piano this year to fit in speech and debate. Speech and debate has proven to be very, very valuable, but I'm still sad about the music. Lapbooks. I was a complete fail on this, and now the children are pretty much too old for it (probably just as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Hmmm. No one knows Spanish (or any other foreign language for that matter) despite the fact that it was MINE AND DH'S first language, our parents speak it primarily, (and they are all within 20 minutes of us, so we see everyone frequently), and dh and I are fluent. The reason? We just forget to speak to them in Spanish! English is the language we use and 'think' in, so it's effort to remember to speak Spanish. Plus then they would understand when dh and I talk 'in code' lol. Sad. I know. We went to observe a CC coop and the kids all stood to say the pledge and mine had no idea what everyone was doing. They don't know a handicraft. I can sew (a little) and crochet (a little) but I don't have to patience to teach my kids. No one plays an instrument. We were GIVEN a piano, but it didn't come with us to our rental house. I just can't handle the noise of children learning an instrument....shudder. We don't-live on a farm, homestead, or grow anything. I tried a vegetable garden one year and killed everything. Only thing that survived was one lonely zucchini. It was a very expensive squash lol. We didn't mummify anything. Raw chicken on my kitchen counter for months? Um. No. We don't have any Legos or Playmobile toys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Nature study- I love the way it is presented in CM but we just don't do it. I a also not from this area originally and do not know a lot of the trees and wild life so that makes it hard. We try to go to the local nature parks every 3 months or so and walk around and learn something. I do wish we can do it more often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Nature study. Ugh. We live in the city so it's not like I can just send the kids into the yard since we don't have one. We did one day ID every tree in the park. But I didn't even have them draw the trees or anything. And most days I'd rather eat tacks than drive out to a nature preserve or something. I always thought nature walks would be really important to us and we'd take every Friday and slosh gloriously through creeks with our notebooks and watercolors. But, no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Nature study- I love the way it is presented in CM but we just don't do it. I a also not from this area originally and do not know a lot of the trees and wild life so that makes it hard. We try to go to the local nature parks every 3 months or so and walk around and learn something. I do wish we can do it more often. We were cross posting :) I used to be in a CM group and I always felt like a huge failure for not doing nature study (self inflicted--everyone was really nice there). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Geography. My eldest is ridiculously clueless about it. I can never seem to fit it in. It always ends up pushed to the side :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 We have never mummified a chicken either. (I will now wait for an imminent banning). Last year when we were doing SOTW 1 I had hg so there was no way! History only got done because we had the cds to listen to :) My other confession is that my girls love to do arts and crafts and I am not good at that despite owning very nice art supplies. We have joined some homeschooling groups that do craft activities so my guilt is somewhat mitigated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex-mex Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I have to confess we did the mummified chicken years ago with SOTW... but moved during that time to a new home and the chicken mummy was "forgotten". Discovered it in a box a year ago and ds was shocked to see how the chicken was still preserved. It was encased in salt in a ziploc bag. Never got around to wrapping it or launching it from a trebuchet (my original plan). That being said... Latin was a complete flop after 3 weeks. So was Spanish. Turns out trying to teach a special needs child who has working memory issues a new language is challenging. Who knew? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babs Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 For those of you with older, graduated kids: What did you NOt do that didn't matter anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CupOCoffee Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 For those of you with older, graduated kids: What did you NOt do that didn't matter anyway? Oh, yes please! As for the original question, well there's lots But I see here that many on my list are on your lists as well, so I don't feel so bad :) For us: Art, Music, Nature Study, (what's a lap book again?). Like I said, many of you are saying the same things, I feel so much better! So here's the big whopper: read alouds! Yes, we have failed at read alouds. My kids hated them; would much rather read to themselves. I did have them read *to me* when they were beginning readers, so I could make sure they were pronouncing words right. Then there was the time my oldest read the entire Harry Potter series to the younger; hey, how come they could do THAT, but hated when I read aloud????? Hmmm. Oh yeah, double whopper: no time line here! Fell apart somewhere along Core 2 (Part 2 of Intro to World History for those who don't know Sonlight) with DS....wonder if Dd would be interested in picking it back up though; she just might go for that. Have I reached the bottom and does that make us Below Average Trained Mind people? ~coffee~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyrobynne Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Nature study here too. We lasted 3 weeks of whining and I called it quits. Art has been a lot less frequent than I intended, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicianmom Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Timelines, map work, nature study, music appreciation, science, memory work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 My oldest is in High School. I caved and let her go the second semester of 9th grade. She loves it. That may be the biggest homeschooling fail. :-) She's managed to find the other former homeschoolers for 'support' she said they ALL write the same way because they all did HWT :-) My youngest never did Latin. Or studied an instrument. He didn't want to and I'm not making him. I'm a tired homeschooling slacker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-2-7 Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Did you know that there is a site that combines Drawing With Children with nature study :smilielol5: She did them BOTH. Together! :leaving: Do I dare ask? Okay. What is the site? Maybe, just maybe we can do it this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I will give it to you, but I am not sure I want to hear from you if you do it, okay? ;) I havent decided if attempting will make me feel like twice the failure,...lol It does look cool though *sigh* ANd she even has videos and warm up sheets *squeal* I have not read it enough to know if it is a get you started thing or a full semester or what. http://www.squidoo.com/drawingwithchildrennature Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheApprentice Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Upward Journey Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 Latin! After 15yrs of homeschooling I've never been able to get past Lesson 2. What's up with that? I thought I'd finally broken the curse, but now we've stalled on Lesson 3 :rolleyes: For those of you with older, graduated kids: What did you NOt do that didn't matter anyway? Well the lack of Latin doesn't seem to have effected my oldest yet. He's married w/ one little one, he's going to school and working...he plans to be a pastor. So he may be cursing me under his breath when he's in seminary ;) idk, I'm thinking then he's going to be wishing that we'd studied Greek & Hebrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 a love of learning; love for reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladyinthegarden Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I wanted to do nature studies and make beautiful journals, but I just could not inspire my DS to do it. He studies nature in his own way, and I have accepted that. He has literally memorized field guides. I also bought the books with nature call cd's in them. I have suffered through hours of those in my house. At one point the house sounded like the Amazon for days. I feel guilty about music. I have introduced various genres of music over the years, and he has developed a good taste in music. I think I would have wasted my time and money on music lessons earlier because he just wasn't ready. I think now that he has an appreciation of music; lessons with an instrument will be more productive. The truth be told about homeschooling; it's impossible to do a million subjects a year for years and years! Unless you outsource to other people, and have an exceptional support system. We have been a military family for the entire time we have homeschooled. I have learned to focus like a lasar beam on the most important subjects. I just read recently that children who have only had one year of latin test better than all others who have not. I can't remember where I read that because I read so much. So even if you did only one year of latin there may have been a benefit you can't see for your DC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 We kinda bombed in music, too - simply could not afford lessons for two kids at once for long - but biggest fail would be Latin. Oops. Mea culpa.... Now I want to go dig up and find the chicken in the backyard and see how it survived...mummified ten years ago or so.....er, maybe not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfarm Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 I once found a mummified chicken in the barn, behind the bales of hay. Does that count? We live on a farm and never did nature studies. We didn't do hardly any home economics type things. I mean, I taught dd how to do chores and she does them but we never actually studied it or made it part of our schooling. We skipped Latin, did Spanish instead. We flirted with penmanship, but the relationship didn't take. I regret that and may try to get dd to work on it this summer. We only did Logic Light - just the Bluedorn books. Thank God! anything more and dd would be running the world at the ripe old age of 14. As it is, she can "out Logic" me any day of the week now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandelion Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 We've had a really hard time doing anything meaningful in music studies. We listen to music throughout the day and I might mention what style of music it is, or who the composer is, but that's about it. Except for about 4 months of piano lessons for DS last year. We love music and my kids both seem to have an ear for it - and I do believe it's important, so I haven't given up on this one. Art appreciation studies have been non-existant. I bought a great book, but no one seems to be into it. In terms of hands-on arts and crafts, I'm not a craftsy person (at all!) so this has been lacking as well. DS isn't interested in it either. DD is, so thankfully she gets her "arts and crafts fix" at the preschool she attends a few mornings a week. I've been relieved to see so many nature study stories here, because this hasn't panned out for us either (and we live in the woods for crying out loud). Love the concept and have the best intentions of giving this another shot in the spring. Not much fun to sit CM-style on a blanket when there's still snow on the ground. I'm fluent in German and had the best intentions of teaching the kids German (my mom, who also speaks German, comes over several times a week so the kids do hear German spoken on a regular basis). We gave it a go a few years ago with DS, and he did learn some, but then we fizzled out. Of everything we've failed to get right so far, science experiments are my biggest frustration. DS loves science. And his academic knowledge in science is at a very advanced level (mostly self-taught - he reads our high school/college science textbooks for fun). I've purchased so many science kits, I've lost track. One problem is that the kids get into them before we're ready to do experiments, and then little parts get lost. For all of the above, I haven't given up yet. Until I give up, I refuse to admit defeat. :coolgleamA: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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