sahmoffour Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 We're getting ready to start our homeschooling journey tomorrow! We pulled our kids out of public at the start of Christmas Break, so I've been researching and planning like crazy. I *think* I have it all together, please tell me what you think! Jay - 12 - Gr.6 Hake Grammar and Writing 6 - daily Jump In Writing Curriculum - daily Singapore 4A, Miquon as a supplement when needed - daily (Both my older two received top marks in math at school, yet placed into Singapore quite low. Go figure!) Around the World in 180 Days - 3x a week Zaner-Bloser Handwriting 6 - 3x a week Intellego Unit Studies Gr.6-8 Astronomy - 2x a week Daily Group Read Aloud, as well as independent reading for 1 hour a night. He LOVES to read so this is already accomplished daily. Missy - 9 - Gr.4 McRuffy Language Arts Gr.4 - daily Zaner-Bloser Handwriting 4 - 3x a week Singapore 2B, Miquon as a supplement when needed - daily Around the World in 180 Days - 3x a week Sassafras Zoology - 2x a week Daily Group Read Aloud, as well as independent reading for 30 min a night minimum. Roley - 6 - Gr.1 Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways - daily. I'll start him on page 50 of PP and the beginning of RP as he's not a strong reader yet. ETC Book 1 - daily. AAS - I purchased it, but should I start now, or should I wait until he's further into PP? Zaner-Bloser Writing 1 - daily Singapore 1A, Miquon as a supplement when needed - daily Daily Group Read Aloud, as well as reading aloud to me. Magic School Bus Science DVD series, along with added activities as I can pull them together. - 2x a week Sitting in on Around the World in 180 Days as much as he wants. Dev - 5 - K We'll work through our ABC booklet I printed out as well as watch Leap Frog Letter Factory and other DVDs as he doesn't know his letters/sounds yet. - Daily Phonics Pathways - daily - Do you think I should wait a month to work more on the alphabet and sounds first before starting? Or go ahead and start while simultaneously working on the Alphabet book and learning letters/sounds? ETC Primer A - daily Zaner-Bloser Writing K - daily Singapore Earlybird A - daily Daily Group Read Aloud, he can start reading aloud to me once he's able to. Magic School Bus Science DVD with his older brother. Any comments/suggestions? Now I can't figure out how the heck to schedule it all! Like how many pages of ETC should they do a day? I don't want to schedule time slots as I know I'm just setting myself up for failure, so instead I made a schedule with just what subjects I want to get through each day. For the Read Aloud, should I also try to find a Study Guide to go with it for reading comprehension? I'm worried that'll kill the enjoyment of it for the kids, but my oldest doesn't have a reading comprehension aspect to his LA right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sahmoffour Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Bueller? Bueller? :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Lynn Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 The choices I'm familiar with I like! I would not worry about reading comprehension, imho. You have enough skill work going - enjoy the read alouds. I only dabbled in AAS at one point, but I think you can go ahead with it now if you want to do it at the same time as ETC. It starts with learning letter sounds, so you would be fine - and may even more more quickly in the beginning. As far as scheduling ETC, I would say plan on 2 pages a day and if Roley and Dev want to do more than that, let them. In ETC book 1 all the pages are pretty fun except the last one of each "section" is a little harder. If I had one who was struggling a bit, I let that last page be the only one for the day. Some of the other pages are easier and they would want to do more than I had scheduled. It all worked out in the end. I agree with you about not making a schedule, but you may find a routine works better. I generally start with what you are calling "Daily Group Read Aloud" mainly because otherwise we are waiting on someone to finish something so they can join us - it's hard to get everyone together at the same time unless we do it first. From there I generally start with the youngest (either the youngest or the one hardest to reign back in if I don't catch him early, lol) working one on one and work my way up to the oldest (whom I expect to be able to to do a fair number of things without me)... but as you are just starting it may take awhile for your olders to get into the swing of that. That's okay. Be patient with them and with yourself. Making an assignment sheet and marking what you expect them to do on their own might be helpful. Another option might be to focus on your older two the first week or two and get them in a routine and then start the younger two after that. Best wishes for a great start! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I think it looks like you've got a good start. If you're like me, you'll figure out what you like or not as you try it. It might be that Phonics pathways and ETC are overlapping or that the ETC A or Singapore levels (for all your kids) are a little too easy. But -- it's homeschooling! You can adapt -- go faster, go slower, skip a book, order something else when you realize you don't like what you have. The only way to know that is to give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sahmoffour Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks for the advice! I'm going to stick with just keeping read aloud time as is, and not worry about adding assignments or worksheets to it as I want it to be something enjoyable and not just more "school". I'll go ahead and start AAS as it sounds as though it starts at a very easy level. "Roley" is a school and workbook loving kinda guy too so I don't think it'll be too much work for him. Thanks for the ETC recommendation too, it gives me a starting point at least! I agree that I'll just have to jump in and see how it goes, I'm sure we'll get a routine worked out once we get started. The LA stuff for the older two kids hasn't arrived yet, or their Social Studies curriculum. So I'll be able to start slowly with only Math, Science and Reading for the older two, and then the full schedule for the younger two so I can get my footing, at least for this week anyways. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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