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Anyone else at a complete loss for next year?


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I'm slowly regaining my footing, and being honest about the fact that what I would like for school to look like, and what my child needs, are pretty far apart. (For the things that I can actually figure out what the need is.)

 

I had a long talk with him this morning, and I feel a lot calmer about everything. There is also a thread on the gen Ed. board about listing goals for the following year instead of curricula. Turning things on their head like that is helping me focus.

Link please? I have looked at the first several pages of the Gen Ed board and I can't find it!!!

 

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Thanks for mentioning goals. I have been thinking about ours recently. It's so easy to get caught up in educational theory and philosophies....

 

Lately I've been thinking of some people I know who studied Latin and others who have read many of the Great Books. Neither group of people makes a good advertisement for a course of study involving Latin or literature.  People are messy, and life's even messier.  One type of education does not automatically produce superior results.  Which reminds me...what's the stick we're using for measurements?

 

Also, there have recently been tremendous opportunities we nearly missed because they didn't fit into my temporarily narrowed vision of what being educated means. I had started to drop what would be the most valuable for us, to make room for what matters little to us but much to others. My blood runs cold to think of it. My breath catches at the near miss.

 

 

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Thanks for mentioning goals. I have been thinking about ours recently. It's so easy to get caught up in educational theory and philosophies....

 

Lately I've been thinking of some people I know who studied Latin and others who have read many of the Great Books. Neither group of people makes a good advertisement for a course of study involving Latin or literature.  People are messy, and life's even messier.  One type of education does not automatically produce superior results.  Which reminds me...what's the stick we're using for measurements?

 

Also, there have recently been tremendous opportunities we nearly missed because they didn't fit into my temporarily narrowed vision of what being educated means. I had started to drop what would be the most valuable for us, to make room for what matters little to us but much to others. My blood runs cold to think of it. My breath catches at the near miss.

 

 

Yes, I'm beginning to think that my plan is to be poised to grasp serendipitous occurrences . . . I was trying to figure out our next move in lit, and this morning I read that a local Shakespeare theater company, just formed, is going to perform Romeo and Juliet this summer at a wonderful outdoor venue.  I guess we'll do Romeo and Juliet next!

 

Somebody here recommended the book Wild Season (natural history), and I put it on hold, and it arrived from the library on the 1st of May. . .  and the book begins on the first of May, describing life in and around a lake!  Ok, here's Morgan's science for the next month!

 

Stuff like that.

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Yes, I'm beginning to think that my plan is to be poised to grasp serendipitous occurrences . . . I was trying to figure out our next move in lit, and this morning I read that a local Shakespeare theater company, just formed, is going to perform Romeo and Juliet this summer at a wonderful outdoor venue.  I guess we'll do Romeo and Juliet next!

 

Somebody here recommended the book Wild Season (natural history), and I put it on hold, and it arrived from the library on the 1st of May. . .  and the book begins on the first of May, describing life in and around a lake!  Ok, here's Morgan's science for the next month!

 

Stuff like that.

 

Love this!

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Lately I've been thinking of some people I know who studied Latin and others who have read many of the Great Books. Neither group of people makes a good advertisement for a course of study involving Latin or literature.  People are messy, and life's even messier.  One type of education does not automatically produce superior results.

 

For the record, I also know people who have studied Latin and/or the Great Books who are excellent advertisements for those! :)  (In my other post I was just noting in my mind, and to the world...lol, that there are many factors that make a person who they are. The course of study is only one of them.)

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I've had my mind made up for me. Kiddo is finishing one math course soon and he has decided to self study the next level over summer (and might progress to an outsourced one in the fall). So he tells me with a big grin, "I really want to do this mom. So if I am doing it on my own, it means we are unschooling right?" Then, a few days later, he comes up with a spreadsheet of the possible combination of courses he wants to study in the fall (talk about learning to plan via immersion lol)!

 

Can't beat that enthusiasm. :001_smile:  For his plan to work and for me to stay faithful to the promise to allow him to lead his education (and he's doing a great job so far without reminders), I have to vow to avoid all Hive writing threads. Can't see any other way around it (especially given how persuasive you guys are with your reviews). He will do his vocab and is open to continuing his copywork (he has been copying some passages from favorite books lately) so I'm just going to trust in the process that his writing will improve with age. 

 

:willy_nilly: What am I doing? I'm not ready for this. On the one hand, I am so happy to see his independence and so proud that he has inherited the spreadsheet gene! But my super planner, Type A self is so depressed. My identity is at risk! I need a hobby.  :001_unsure: (ETA: I know I mentioned being like water and flowing around boulders upthread...sigh, guess I was still hoping to be the one doing the navigating).

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I thought I had it figured out through early fall. Then just this wk my just turned 5 y/o started telling me how she figured out that 5+6 is 11 because 5+5+1=11. Then she started spouting off all sorts of regrouping to get sums greater than 10 examples. This is my "verbal skills" child who I swear was inconsistent with sums less than 5 a month ago. So I think I will be switching around math again. (I realize she is not radically ahead. But I never tried to teach her regrouping, or even tried to teach her math very much, she just "figured it out".)

 

I have currently decided I like curriculum with lots of games. Then when we are doing some repetitive "too easy" stuff to make sure the basics are there they still enjoy it. :)

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  • 2 months later...

You forgot one. This looks like me right about now: ------>  :willy_nilly: 

 

I've got lots of ideas, and I've even bought a few things, but I really don't know what the heck I'm going to do next year. Shoot, from one day to the next I don't even know if I want to homeschool next year. :o  Sad, but true.

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well?????

 

What a difference a couple months makes! I had almost forgotten the turmoil! We just started week 6! :ohmy:  How did that happen!?! :svengo:

Time flies when you're having fun...Ask me again in a few weeks when the rest of the extracurriculars start... ;)  

 

(I have a pretty detailed plan for then, but we all know about best laid schemes and carefully prepared plans of WTM boardies... :001_tt2: )

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After years of just proceeding to the next level or era, and adding...always adding, I am now forced to whittle and strategize maliciously. I have got two completely different(!!!) lists of curricula for each child, and three different lists for one child (who will go unnamed here, LOL). I could go either way... I think I might sell whatever I don't pick so I can ensure no backsies. :lol:

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Well, you girls seem to be doing better than me! 

 

I know we will finish MCT island, and we will continue on with SM & SOTW.

 

Other than that...... :confused1: :confused1: :confused1:

 

Actually, those are the only things I know we are doing, too. Exactly those things. :lol:

 

I did just buy the Medieval History/2nd grade Build Your Library, and I do think I will implement that in some way. But how? Or for sure? With or without tweaking? Who. Knows.

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I think I figured out my problem. I don't like to make decisions (because what if they are wrong?!?  :svengo: ) and DS8 is excited by different things than I am, so if I go with what I would enjoy, it doesn't always work for him.

 

Things finalized:

 

following Alte Veste Academy's idea to put history and/or science first in the day so we'll actually get to them!  :hurray:

SOTW

Ellen McHenry Elements to start science

continue with our wacky way of doing SWR

 

weekly Charlotte Mason co-op

DS4's blissfully short lineup
 

 

 

Everything else I'm second guessing.

 

 

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I have no clue what to do with DS5 for math. He likes the layout of Miquon, but still doesn't care for the c-rods. CLE (*I* love) is like pulling teeth - there are little bits that he needs (money, time, etc), but I can't figure out a way to teach them myself, without CLE, that would allow me to document it/show it in the required portfolio. His leaps in math are huge, but random, and he is quickly tiring of doing any math set in front of him. Again, must document the work somehow.

 

Similar issue with science and social studies, which I wanted to do with literature only. DS has fine motor skil problems, is still struggling to write letters, hates coloring, etc - I need to "show work" in these subjects, but I'm not sure how I'll do that.

 

I'm happy with our phonics (PAL), writing (PAL), religion (Catholic Mosaic), and handwriting (Seton and Abeka). Easy to implement, he's predictable in these areas, and because of the programs they are, they are easy to document and pull from for portfolio content.

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Can I join this party?!  We never actually "finished" this year, and one day oldest ds said, "soooo, are we officially on summer break?"  I was like, ya know what? yeah, we are!  LOL.  Then 2nd ds got his testing scores back and did really good except in grammar....so naturally I ordered like 32 different grammar curricula.....no lie, I think I have 4 different things.   :ohmy:  The key word being "think".  I just keep ordering stuff and I don't even know what I have coming anymore LOL  I'm coming up on my 7th year of hs'ing and I feel more chaotic and disorganized than ever!  But, whatever, I know at the end of the day it'll all come together somehow!  I do have Math figured out, I ordered new history even though we have SOTW....Got some Geography from MP, but not sure if we will fit that into our day...getting the idea of how scattered things are around here ?!  LOL

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I still need a Latin curriculum. I'm between lively Latin and Cambridge. Or letting him do minimus secondus, even though it pains me to pay for it.

 

 

Science? No idea. I'd love to do geography as well.

 

 

I'd also like to be project based or do unit studies, but I don't think my brain can handle it. This is why I'm at a loss!

 

The worst part is that Target does not have the school planner I need in stock. I'm going to have to order one from paper source that's twice as much, because what a travesty it would be to have an ugly planner!

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The worst part is that Target does not have the school planner I need in stock. I'm going to have to order one from paper source that's twice as much, because what a travesty it would be to have an ugly planner!

 

 

 

yep, ITA, no ugly planners!  LOL  Could you order it from Target online?  If you have a red card it will ship free....

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See, I have all these great ideas - busy boxes for the 1 year old, younger ones with their pinterest-worthy lapbook plans, older ones with their well planned, themed, interactive, technology based unit lessons.

 

Fast forward to DAY 1

Toddler ditches busy box after approximately 48 seconds, proceeds to pulling every.single.book off every.single.bookcase,

younger ones throw fits bc they get crayons instead of markers, cry when they cut the head off the animal they are supposed to attach, and go through 4 glue sticks while gluing lapbook pieces to each other.  I spend the remainder of the time reprinting, and cutting out said animals, 

while older students sit aimless while the Discovery Education video keeps buffering bc it is day one of school so obviously today is the day for the internet connection to suck.

 

At which point, does it matter what curriculum I have chosen to facilitate the madness?

 

:willy_nilly:

 

 

 

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See, I have all these great ideas - busy boxes for the 1 year old, younger ones with their pinterest-worthy lapbook plans, older ones with their well planned, themed, interactive, technology based unit lessons.

 

Fast forward to DAY 1

Toddler ditches busy box after approximately 48 seconds, proceeds to pulling every.single.book off every.single.bookcase,

younger ones throw fits bc they get crayons instead of markers, cry when they cut the head off the animal they are supposed to attach, and go through 4 glue sticks while gluing lapbook pieces to each other.  I spend the remainder of the time reprinting, and cutting out said animals, 

while older students sit aimless while the Discovery Education video keeps buffering bc it is day one of school so obviously today is the day for the internet connection to suck.

 

At which point, does it matter what curriculum I have chosen to facilitate the madness?

 

:willy_nilly:

 

I wonder who busy boxes actually work for.  I spent $100 on busy boxes for my twins last fall.  They lasted 2 days, of which, I had zero time to teach older DS because I was busy showing the twins how to do the activites.  And then I enrolled them in preschool. :lol:

 

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