OLD Konos

[Ariston]

Ive always wanted to do Konos but just can't commit to it, or see how I could bump everything else out of my schedule to make room for it. I've seen some old (1984) copies for cheap online....would that even be worth it, or would all the references be out of date? Anyone have older versions....have they changed much?

[Ellie]

Ive always wanted to do Konos but just can't commit to it, or see how I could bump everything else out of my schedule to make room for it. I've seen some old (1984) copies for cheap online....would that even be worth it, or would all the references be out of date? Anyone have older versions....have they changed much?

 

1984? Is that the original Volume 1? (It would have a yellow cover.) If it's the original, I'm not sure you could make it into a whole year's worth of activities, unless your dc are very young.

 

As far as making KONOS work for you, this is what I usually recommend:

 

Take the volume you have to FedEx/Kinko's and have the spine cut off, and the book drilled for three holes. Remove the lesson plans and file them in their own three-ring notebook. You'll never need them, but if you resell the book, the buyer might want them.

 

Decide how much time you want to devote to KONOS. It worked best for me to have two KONOS days a week, when that's all we did. Some people can do KONOS activities every day, but I'm a little OCD, lol, so I did KONOS days. ;-) You can do all the character traits in a year--not all of the activities, but all of the character traits. Sometimes you'll do a character trait in one month, some of them (depending on which volume you have) you'll do for two months. You decide.

 

Read through your KONOS volume cover to cover. This will take several days; doing it with a cup of tea, in the evening while the kidlets are in bed, might be a good idea. Put a check mark (with pencil) next to activities that look interesting.

 

When you're ready to actually schedule your KONOS activities, bring out your master calendar (you have one, right?). Notice what you have going on that will suck up your time. Knowing how much time you want to dedicate to KONOS activities, go back through the character trait you'll be working on and put check marks next to the activities that you know you can fit into the time you have allotted. If you know that you'll be very busy *this* week and that you won't have time to go to the library, don't schedule activities for *next* week that require outside resources--and there are PLENTY of those. In fact, the majority of KONOS activities are self-contained in the KONOS volume. Write the page numbers in your planning calendar (in pencil).

 

When you get to the actual KONOS day, do just those activities. If you finish the ones you scheduled, great; if not, move them to the next KONOS day; if you don't get to them then, erase them and move on (which is why you use pencil).

 

Ignore all other activities until next year. :D

 

I can plan a whole week of KONOS activities on a Sunday evening.

 

We were only able to do Volume 2 (although I now have all three). The suggested schedule was Inquisitiveness (two months), Responsibility (one month; if start in September, this puts you in November, and you study the Jamestown settlers and the Pilgrims--Thanksgiving), Love/Generosity (December--Christmas!), Responsibility (ants or beavers), Courage (two months, American Revolution), Wisdom (two months--up to the U.S. Constitution). Our KONOS days were Tuesday and Thursday, with Monday and Wednesday being everything else (no Official School on Friday--that's my cleaning day).

 

HTH. :-)

[Ariston]

Wow, thank you SO MUCH! This is exactly the kind of hand holding I needed :) :)

 

Yes the ones I saw had a yellow cover. I think I can find some newer ones for not that much more if I look around, so maybe I'll try to do that.

[Ellie]

Wow, thank you SO MUCH! This is exactly the kind of hand holding I needed :) :)

 

YW. :-)

 

Yes the ones I saw had a yellow cover. I think I can find some newer ones for not that much more if I look around, so maybe I'll try to do that.

 

Ok, if the publication date is 1984, those would be the original KONOS. Jessica Hulcey and Carole Thaxton wrote Volume 1, then they wrote Volume 2 (which has a green cover), which was ginormous compared to the original Volume 1, then they revised Volume 1 and wrote Volume 3 (which has a red cover). :-) All have been revised since then.

 

If you can get a volume *and* its timeline, that would be a good buy. I *love* the timelines. :-)

 

I do NOT like the lesson plans, so getting older volumes that don't have them would be fine.

 

Oh, and I would recommend starting with Volume 1. All three volumes are good for multiple ages, but IMHO, Volume 1 is really better for younger dc, up to, oh, 8yo or 9yo or so, Vol. 2 for 8yo-10yo or so, and Volume 3 for older. Understand that you teach to the oldest child and let the littles come along, so younger dc could do the "older" volumes with their older siblings. :-)

[swellmomma]

I don't have the old version, I am using the new one. The pages actually come out very easily so I have not had to have the binding cut off, but I do agree that keeping each unit in a working binder is best.

 

As for out of date etc, the great thing about konos is although they make book suggestions they are clear that you can use whatever books on that topic that you want, so I don't think it could really become outdated. I don't know how big the old volumes are, I know the current ones are designed to take up to 2.5 years to complete. I found buying it new for the hundred and whatever dollars was well worth it when it works out to so many years of programming. When looked at like that the cost is fairly minimal.

[Ariston]

I found buying it new for the hundred and whatever dollars was well worth it when it works out to so many years of programming. When looked at like that the cost is fairly minimal.

 

 

Definitely seems worth it if it gets used....And the used ones seem to be around $60. I'm mainly worried i won't use it, and then it will be a waste of $. Right now our day is pretty fully scheduled, so we'd have to cut out a lot to add it in unless I do it like Ellie suggested. The old ones from the 80's are about $20, so there's a pretty big price difference. :glare:

[wehave8]

I preferred the old editions. The new ones were too overwhelming for me. I did better with less to choose from. :) If I used the new ones, I'd do like Ellie said, take it apart and use it without the planning sections.

 

Pam

[Ecclecticmum]

I have the new one. Apparently the planning pages have a few extra activities Jessica came up with, so before dismissing the yellow sheets, look at any activities written out in full on those sheets.

 

From 2001 a Revised booklist was added to the front of volume 1, as far as I am aware, this cannot be purchased separately as it is bound within the volume.

 

I did something different with mine (I am not so fond of 3 ring binders and wear and tear of the holes).

 

I took the cover completely off by hand, put it aside, then slowly tore off each page individually away from the glue base. Since I was doing it one by one, the edging was okay, and I saved it from being ruined by over-ethusiastic salespeople (I'm not giving my volume to a spine-cutter just for them to cut it wonky, or cut off some of the words, you'd be surprised how much it happens)

 

Once that was done, I separated them into traits, and each trait became its own book. The planning pages and activity pages. I then added a back cover and clear front cover, punched them with my pro-click, and put them all together. The traits I am not working on are in the back room. The one I am currently working on, I just un-cliked the spine, photocopied the pages, re-clicked the spine, and put it back into the storage room.. I then made the photo copies into books (I photocopied one side only, so I had room to scribble out ideas etc). This allows me to scribble all over my copy, without worrying about the fact I may not be able to read it if we decide to come back to that unit in a couple of years, it also cuts down on the wear and tear.

 

The front and back of the book (intro & index) were also made into a book, and photocopied. So all originals are in the backroom, less likely to have coffee or glue spilt on them, and frees up my stress levels. I have two books containing my current character trait (2nd book in cupboard since its the latter bit of the trait and I won't be using it for a few weeks). I carry one trait book, plus my intro/index around.