Choosing best for both me and my kids

[kahlanne]

I really need advice choosing my curriculum this year for A age 11, E age 6, and Z age 4. Primarily I am asking for suggestions on the younger two and encouragement with A. I feel like I have failed miserably many times with A. Backstory...I schooled my eldest to from K-3 using Abeka which was very successful despite the difficulties of finishing all the pages. (Yes, I am a check marker.) C and N tested above level when they entered public school and are top in their classes today, still ps. Due to A's age, she would get the least amount of my time by default. I found it very difficult to figure out how to get it all done in a day. When older two went to ps, now was my time to get back on track but soon realized Abeka wasn't a good fit for A. We tested many other curriculum and finally settled on several that were successful coupled with her maturing age. Later it became quite apparent that A struggled with dyslexia. This past year was to be extremely difficult so we chose to use Switched on Schoolhouse due to it not being teacher intensive. A thrives on setting and achieving goals, and being organized. Independence is very important to A as well. Each of these things SOS offered but it became more teacher intensive than I expected. I had to help her with much of the reading, print out many worksheets to extend lessons, and quiz her time and again to make sure she "got it". Even so we saw drastic improvement in the quality of her work. A would love to use SOS again but due to strained finances and amount of hands-on teaching, I am considering other options. Ace's Paces are at the top of the list even though they are not popular due to lack of hands on teaching and slow approach possibly making them behind other curriculum both of which could be an asset to A. The slow approach to new skills would allow A the extra practice she needs while boosting her self-esteem and allow me to focus on my younger two school age children and 2yr old toddler. I would still be available for hands-on teaching but hopefully not as much as sos required. Am I making a mistake diverting from what is working even if time consuming and expensive?

 

Can you advise me on the best curriculum for E and Z, age 6 (1st) and 4 (K)? I don't want to make the same mistakes I did with A with them and cause them to be behind. All of my children are very intellegent, of course, but I believe E and Z will be the easiest to teach. E is quick to learn new concepts, eager to learn, has outstanding memory recall, and a long attention span. Z is eager to learn but has short attention span due to his young age. His memory is excellent but I have noticed it can be quite random at times. He struggles with sequencing. Both E and Z enjoyed the worksheets I printed last year leaving me to believe workbooks are a good fit. I don't believe E will need as much review built in as Z does. In theory, I think Abeka may be a great fit for both but am concerned I will get bogged down. I remember it being so difficult to get it all completed without knowing if it all was necessary and if not what to cut. Maybe my memory is tainted due to A finding it so difficult or maybe it is just "too much." If I don't choose Abeka, I have several leftovers during our trial days but am second and third guessing everything I do. Below is a list of my bookshelves.

 

Abeka: all teacher manuals, keys, and readers for K-3. (workbooks is all needed)

 

Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways (A found it boring but it helped tremendously.)

 

ETC : level b-c, level 5 and 6 workbook (E loved working level a-b last year and A loved 2-4 when she did them) (only complaint I remember is lack of color)

 

Abecedarian Phonics: don't have level A but have teacher manual level b ( A enjoyed level B)

 

Sequential Spelling 1 (loved and used same concepts for spelling words in sos)

 

Apples and Pears level A workbook and teacher manual (given by a friend but never tried with A) (new condition)

 

RightStart Math Level A and B entire kit (used but complete from yardsale.. found recently but haven't had opportunity to try)

 

Singapore Math levels 1-3 teachers guides and some workbooks (A enjoyed SM but I had difficulty teaching it. I had trouble juggling guides, textbooks and workbooks and knowing what to teach exactly. Mental math isn't my strong suit although A excelled with it. She was grouping back in her Abeka days before it was taught to her because she could memorize her math facts, etc. I am strongly considering it if I can make the time fit.)

 

Miquon Math all levels and books (never understood it and don't think I will attempt again)

 

Apologia Zoology

 

FLL 3: (too dry for A)

 

WWE manual and workbook (A hated it. Sorry.)

 

Winston Grammar (bought new at yardsale recently)

 

Easy Grammar 6 (new at yardsale recently)

 

Beautiful Feet timeline and books

 

Story of The World (given to me by a friend...looks interesting)

 

 

 

 

BTW, I love the idea of more literature based learning such as sonligIht but know it will be difficult with three kids and a toddler. The expense is too much as well. I am not sure it is a great fit for anyone in my family other than me, the only avid reader.

[kahlanne]

I hope someone will be able to help even though I am long winded. I only wanted to be thorough.

[PollyOR]

Hope you can get some advice. Have you considered FIAR for your K and 1st?

[NASDAQ]

Is your daughter still behind, and if so, how far? It sounds like she's having some reading difficulties, and that's what is slowing down the SOS?

 

Here's what I know about what you have. I've omitted things I haven't used.

 

Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways (A found it boring but it helped tremendously.) - If she is dyslexic, these would be helpful but I doubt they'd be sufficient. I use some of PP with my almost-five-year-old.

 

RightStart Math Level A and B entire kit (used but complete from yardsale.. found recently but haven't had opportunity to try) - I do not think that these are a good choice for you. Very, very teacher intensive, and you sound like you've not got tons of time.

 

Singapore Math levels 1-3 teachers guides and some workbooks (A enjoyed SM but I had difficulty teaching it. I had trouble juggling guides, textbooks and workbooks and knowing what to teach exactly. Mental math isn't my strong suit although A excelled with it. She was grouping back in her Abeka days before it was taught to her because she could memorize her math facts, etc. I am strongly considering it if I can make the time fit.) - I think it would be really good to try to make this work for A, especially since LA is hard for her right now (or was recently). A good strong math background is imvho one of the best things a child can be given. If she is naturally good at it, you may not have to work so hard to teach it.

 

Miquon Math all levels and books (never understood it and don't think I will attempt again) - I like Miquon a lot but again, teacher intensive.

 

Easy Grammar 6 (new at yardsale recently) - you hit great yard sales! I don't know if EG 6 would work for A, because I'm not sure how much it depends on the earlier levels. You could start at 3/4 though and work through it fairly quickly.

 

Story of The World (given to me by a friend...looks interesting) - pretty good.

[Tanikit]

I think that you are not going to find curricula that are NOT teacher intensive for your younger two, and unfortunately it sounds like your older child also needs quite a bit of teacher intensive time to deal with dyslexia.

 

Firstly do you know what level A is reading at? Besides Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways, what have you used with her? Is she reading readers or normal books by herself and do you make her read aloud to you still?

 

As for the younger two - I would probably combine them for initial phonics teaching giving Z a shorter lesson and E a little bit longer lesson that teaches something more in depth or moves ahead faster. Obviously the faster he moves ahead the less you can combine them, but you may find that E picks up by listening in on his brothers lessons anyway.

 

With the younger two I would also stick to the 3Rs - if you do history with the older they can listen in to that. I would also read to them whenever you can fit it in and if you want to teach other subjects then add them in to the stories you read the children at night or other times of the day.

 

How much time would you say you have each day to get to all three children for teacher intensive time?

[kahlanne]

Thanks for the advice everyone. To address some of your questions.

 

Fair is something I bought years ago and just never really loved. I can see the appeal but it just isn't, for the lack of a better word, structured enough for "me".

 

A is not on level with her reading which is what has always held her back. It was so difficult to teach her all the letter sounds that it really stalled our progress. There was drastic improvement this year. She is able to read all the SOS information by herself but comprehending it at her slow reading pace for that difficulty level is not high. With SOS, she would read the lesson and answer the questions allowing SOS to grade her work. I would then read the lesson out loud to her insuring she fully understood all the text and review it's lessons. I found if I didn't do this she was able to search for the correct answers in the text with minimal mistakes but not necessarily retain as much information as needed to pass either the quiz/test. The day before quiz/test, we would study all the lesson questions or previous quizzes together. For spelling, I would call them out to her as we both wrote them on a whiteboard. She would self correct as we went along. Each day was different, ex. word only, in a sentence, discuss meaning before spelling, or create your own sentence. Math was her strong suit. The majority she could figure out from the lesson text and examples but there was never enough practice so I would add printables to make sure she understood before moving along. In doing so she kept an A-B average but it was so time consuming. Our additional reading was very minimal. (not requirred by sos) A hates to read. She is always present for younger siblings read alouds and sometimes does them herself. These are usually way below her grade level. Additional reading is always done aloud to dh or myself. She may read the section privately in advance if she wants to familarize herself with it if she wants. A didn't love it but honestly didn't fight too much. It was difficult to find the time to do it around her "regular" sos schoolwork and was the first thing to get cut. My husband isn't home during the day and his nights are very limited during the schoolyear. The oldest 5 children play sports which consume most of our nights and weekends.(usually have one night a week off and Sunday) A plays competitive soccer with practices 2 nights a week an hour away. Many times she uses this driving time to study for tests, complete day's lessons, or possibly read. It is difficult for her to read aloud with other loud children nearby but she may look over the next day's reading. I say may because I suspect that she doesn't do it as much as I would like. Dh is the chauffer...lol. I realize many would not encourage that much time on a sport for a struggling learner however it helps her focus on her schoolwork. She knows to continue playing soccer she must keep her grades high. (While we don't specify an actual grade, she gets very upset with anything below a B. I believe it stemmed from us insisting on an A end of year average from older siblings, which is easily in their grasp. We did loosen it to a B on my eldest college enrollment classes and a.p. classes but she pulled out an A. So proud. Just had to put that out there.

 

It is difficult to say what the amount of teaching time I have. Are you asking about all the kids at once, together, or individual? It would be easier if we didn't have interruptions from toddler, etc.I would like to keep school between 4-5 hours total time.

 

1 hour of uninterrupted/distraction free teacher time daily (toddler asleep)

Plus

2 combined hours of teacher time with distractions and interruptions (uninterrupted time would vary daily but each when combined together would equal about 2 hours)

plus

up to 2 more hours of less hands on teacher time