How do YOU use supplemental material

[abba12]

I see a lot of people here using more than one curriculum covering a subject, they use a core curriculum, and then one, or even two, supplement curricula. This is especially evident in math, where many people have a spine like saxon, and then use miquon, life of fred, Beast Academy or any number of other supplements on top. Many of the supplements, like the two listed, have enough work to be used as a sole curriculum (not nececarily enough scope or understanding etc, but they are both marketed as stand-alone, so they won't be 10 minute, once a week exercises)

 

My question is, how do you make it work without multiplying your time considerably. Do you do everything in your supplement, or just pick and choose activities? Do you find the supplements take a lot less time than they would as cores because they are, in many ways, review? Or do you simply do double the math of most people each day?

 

Do you line the supplements up in topics with the cores, or do you just do each one sequentially, and allow it to spiral?

 

This applies to more than just math, do you supplement any other subjects and how do you make it work without your hours doubling?

[Farrar]

I pick and choose and don't bother to make things line up.  At least for us, it's as simple as that.

 

One of my ds is using two math programs fully, but both in a sort of untraditional way.  He needs to be able to bounce between things or he'll get frustrated.  For something like language arts, Brave Writer is our core program, but we're going to try MCT this year.  We won't do all the work - mostly just read the books and do some of it informally.

[Carrie12345]

I use so many different methods for mixing things in. Most of the time I don't plan a perfect line up, but it seems to work out okay. The hardest part for me is remembering what I have! So I try to keep like-things grouped on shelves or jot things down on my master planner. It's often a matter of me saying, "Hey, I have <a novel, magnets, worksheets, experiment, etc.> to go with this... I think!"

[Jayne J]

We use MM as our math spine and supplement with Beast Academy. In that case we do MM on M-Th and then do Beast as a fun reward on Friday. I don't bother to line anything up, and in the typical year we will only do 1 or 2 of the 4 BA workbooks, not the whole grade level's worth. We also have 2 Latin programs, First Form and Galore Park. We do several weeks of one, and then switch to the other for several weeks. It gives us a bit of a break, and I do not expect to finish both in one year--we did both last year, and will finish both this year (hopefully:) )

[happypamama]

I don't worry about lining topics up for math.  My one son is in Miquon yellow and Singapore 3A; we roughly alternate them by day, and they may or may not cover similar topics at the same time.  I actually think that's one of the strengths of using two programs, letting a topic sink in for a bit and then revisiting it in maybe a slightly different way later, combining the best of a mastery program and a spiral one.  

 

My daughter is using Saxon Algebra 1/2 this year, but we're alternating it with supplemental problems on pre-algebra-ish topics and word problems.  She seems to like this; it gives her a break from Saxon, which is effective for her but a bit tedious, and it's slowing her down a bit, because I don't want her to hit algebra until 8th grade (she's in 6th now; we'll do Algebra 1/2 over two years).  It also is hitting some more practical application of math, which Saxon is a little weaker on, IMO.

 

For things like history, we would use a spine one day, Monday or Tuesday, and then supplemental books/projects/activities/etc. the other days of the week.  Those I did line up.

[hmvaughan4]

I use them on Fridays as a "Fun Friday" school day. DS loves Friday school and looks forward to it each week.

[idnib]

We use Singapore as our spine. DS does Beast Academy on the weekends (takes my time to help him) because he has to complete one hour of BA to be allowed to do one hour of martial arts. The martial arts are very important to him so it works out.

 

I don't try to line them up; we just go through them in order.

 

If Singapore comes up on something we've already covered in BA I sometimes skip it in Singapore as I find BA to be more rigorous. I only skip it in Singapore if I think it's not "core" to the Singapore methodology. For example I'd skip calculating perimeter in Singapore if we'd already done the much more in-depth version in BA, but I wouldn't skip something like addition because number bond methods are carried throughout Singapore.

 

If I get to a topic in BA that we've already covered in Singapore, I let DS read the BA guide and then highlight problems in BA that I think are different from how it was approached in Singapore.

 

It sounds like a lot of work but it's not. I really like math, though, and it might be more onerous for a person who doesn't want to decide which problems approach a topic from different angles. If that were the case for me, I would either go through everything in both books or skip entire sections in the supplemental book when we got to them if they had already been covered in the spine. I still think we would get a lot out of it.

[Coco_Clark]

I used Singapore last year during the "school year", and LOF during the summer. I felt like it was a low-key way to keep math skills fresh and review while still getting a decent break and plan to continue.

 

I also supplement SOTW heavily, stopping and finding other resources when we get interested. This will extend our history cycle to 5 or maybe even 6 years. I kind of just "do the next thing" and stop when summer comes.

[abba12]

Stream of consciousness here:

 

Math -- We use Singapore as our spine. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we add in Beast Academy. On Fridays and Saturdays, we add in LOF. I have fact drill worksheets that I have printed off from somewhere and we start our math hour with one of those. I also have several alternate math activities available should we have a day where nothing seems to be going well.

 

Latin -- Lively Latin is our spine. I add in occasional Latin videos and games from the headventureland site.

 

Language Arts -- oh my! Writing: we alternate weeks using WWE one week and Brave Writer Partnership writing the next week. Grammar: one week is FLL and the next week we read through MCT books (though we don't use the grammar books really).

 

History -- I've combined SOTW 3-4 and Joy Hakim's and we add in other resources as interests dictate. I am allowing a total of 3 years for us to get through this (grades 4-6).

How do you handle math with two supplements? How much BA and LOF do you expect to finish? And in language arts, are you spreading the curriculums over 2 years, skipping through it not doing everything, or will you finish all four in one? How long is your school day?

 

Thank you all for the insight, theres just so much good stuff out there its hard to choose!

[Soror]

Well, how I use it varies depending on a variety of factors. We were using RS as our primary program and then hitting BA and HoE when we finished our daily lessons if we had any time left. I schedule math by time and not by lesson completion.

 

Right now however we are using BA primarily while going over fractions, I think I will pull in a few lessons of RS though which I thought would be really good reinforcement. I like to look at both BA and RS when introducing a concept to see which does so in the best manner after the introduction I then pick problems from both to hit any weak areas. We are just doing HoE here and there, I expect that it will take a few years to get through the whole program.

 

We are using both WwE and CAP's new writing program but I am condensing WWE. At this point I felt he need to work more skills than covered by WWE while continuing to work on some of the skills specifically practiced in WWE.

[Farrar]

I didn't even think to talk about history and science since *all* our materials for that are supplemental.  We don't use a central curriculum and just pull resources instead.  And we do coordinate those.  It's a lot easier to go get books for "the middle ages" than it is to pick out the specific math skills from a different text that has its own method of introducing things and its own order.

[HS Mom in NC]

Busywork is against my religious and philosophical convictions. In general I pick and choose what the kid has to do whether it's supplemental or core.  When a kid masters something, we move on even if the kid did very little practice.   If my kid does every last bit and still needs or wants more, I get more. If the kid needs something different then I get something different no matter how much or how little the kid has already done. If it's not important or worthwhile we skip it-life is short and there are plenty of worthwhile things to focus on.

I have a general idea of about how much time I'm willing to spend on a subject each day, but on occasion I adjust that as needed.  If the kid wants to do more, great!  If not, we're done for the day (assuming the kid wasn't goofing off when she should've been working on something.)

The only thing I get through at a particular pace is history because I want to be done with a certain number of 4 year rotations and a couple of years of in depth American History by the time my kid is 16 so she can have the option of starting college then. I supplement heavily with library books in a very CM kind of way. Other than that, it's work diligently at her own pace for the other subjects.

 

We generally school from 9 to 3 with a few breaks throughout the day most of the time but sometimes we finish a little early because it doesn't make sense to start something entirely new 30-60 minutes before the day ends.  There are days when we go to Art Class and PE that don't fit the mold, so we adapt as necessary.

I'm only homeschooling my 8 year old. My 17 and 15 year olds are in community college.

[Sherry in OH]

Shhh!  My children think LOF is fun bedtime reading. 

 

We use MEP for math lessons.  If a child seems to need a break from MEP, we use a different resource for a few days/weeks and then return to MEP.  We also use supplemental resources near holidays and other breaks for a change of pace and to avoid breaking in the middle of a unit.    Occasionally we’ll play a math game instead of lessons.   Other than games in lieu of lessons, I don’t try to match supplements to lessons. 

 

For other subjects, supplemental readings are rolled into our morning or bedtime read alouds or set out for child perusal.  The only subject where I try to match supplements to our spine is history.  Even there, it is the chronology rather than specific topics that I try to match.  

[daffodil]

Math is a favorite here, and I'm using two complete math programs with my 2nd grader for the first time this year. She's doing Beast Academy and Singapore (with all the bells and whistles...HIG, IP, CWP). We work on math for 45 minutes a day, alternating Singapore and Beast. That seems to be a good amount of time for us; long enough that we feel like we've done some math, but not so long that she's starting to get worn out. I want to leave her wanting more. :) On Fridays we focus on other fun math resources like Education Unboxed, Primary Grade Challenge Math, the Living Math reading lists, and math games. I'm really not concerned about making it through a certain number of math books in a year. We school year round, and she's already working a grade level ahead, so we have plenty of time.

 

For science and history, BFSU and SOTW are just jumping off points. I pull from a lot of different resources. For Spanish I guess I'm using Getting Started with Spanish as our spine, but most of our time is actually spent on books and videos. We also have a few other subjects (grammar, Latin, cursive, etc.) that we hit sporadically. Not our main focus, just extras that the kids enjoy.