Hunter, What are you using /studying these days?

[stm4him]

Just curious. I like hearing what you are into.

[Hunter]

I tried out a bit of Wayfareres and have nothing but good things to say about that curriculum if you want to juggle slow readings with a passel of multilevel students. I think all of levels 2 and 3 will be available for September. Kathy Jo is one of the most prolific and talented writers in the current homeschooling world. I really admire her.

http://barefootmeandering.com/site/wayfarers/

 

There have been some pretty significant events happening here, and I find it difficult to juggle more than a few books during upheaval. There are so many benefits to slow readings, but it it not one of MY top priorities in general and not a priority at all during upheaval.

 

Even though I have no real faith, I tend to gravitate back to oldschool Bible-as-a-textbook resources, sometimes. I've pulled out my SOW binders. Each time I retry this curriculum, I do better with it than the last time.

http://www.sowcurriculum.com/sow/newpage1.htm

 

I've been chatting with Don Potter and looked at a lot of his Blend Phonics and slanted cursive that he prefers, but I think I'm going to keep using his REVISED Alpha-Phonics and manuscript handwriting possibly followed up by Spalding cursive. And the Blumenfeld First Readers anthology published by Potter. http://www.donpotter.net/reading_clinic.html

 

I've been looking at the Mott Media McGuffey set and think I'm going to use the Speller, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th readers. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go straight from Alpha-Phonics to the 2nd reader. I don't think so, and am not sure what I want to use in that small gap.

 

Math–I'm using Strayer-Upton right now. I have tagged all the diagnostic tests, and then went back and circled the page numbers on all the remedial pages listed for each test. I'm using that plan as my spine to make my way through all the spiral and enrichment stuff that I get lost in. That has helped SO much.

 

Science and Social studies is very lax and just whatever topic is listed in SOW. Except for the first few creation debate lessons that I substitute with some of the early chapters in vintage geographies that never get dated.

 

Electives are changing a LOT here, lately. This is the year of refusing to be a wannabe. Electives are really blue-collar and folksy right now.

[Joyful Journeys]

Wayfarers looks incredible, thank you for sharing. We love RLTL here and this approach seems to be exactly what I had hoped to piece together myself for next year. Right down to the toddlers even!

[Hunter]

Wayfarers looks incredible, thank you for sharing. We love RLTL here and this approach seems to be exactly what I had hoped to piece together myself for next year. Right down to the toddlers even!

 

It's an incredible and as far as I know unprecedented attempt at a TRULY full curriculum. And I think she just might pull it off. And in a timely manner.

 

It's not the right thing for ME right NOW, but man am I impressed! Yup, even preschool is scheduled. How cool is that?

[stm4him]

OK, I looked at this before and I don't know why I didn't like it the first time. Maybe I thought it looked overwhelming or maybe I thought it was too many books and supplies to juggle or maybe just incomplete since she isn't done writing all of it. Now I want to write to ask her the plans and time tables for the language arts and handwriting and reading books. I don't quite understand how the books fit together in sequence. I also can't quite picture what an actual day would look like using Wayfarers and didn't see that in the introduction. I am scared to know how much all the books would cost though I know I already own several of them. I am a little scared that I would do two months of planning and zero implementation like I did with SOW.

 

I really want to start by understanding RLTL because I still am not in love with anything and I have kids that need reading instruction now or soon. I am afraid that waiting for them to do the handwriting properly is delaying reading but I think spelling your way into reading makes the most sense. I wonder how long these lessons take since I would have multiple levels. Maybe this is all wrong for us but for some reason I am really drawn to this. I really liked her introduction.

 

The only thing I know I don't like that she suggested was Barry Stebbins art programs. But that is easily substituted.

 

Every time I check out Don Potter I get lost quickly and give up. Every time I pull out SOW I think it needs redoing and all the activities are things I would most likely never do. But somehow I see beauty in it because I won't sell it.

 

Off to research Wayfarers some more if for no other reason than to convince myself it wwon't work for us. That being said, I have eighteen more years of homeschooling to do and the last five are girls. I may just pull off something like Wayfarers four years from now...

[stm4him]

Oh, and what about Latin? She mentions LCC but I don't see Latin. Or any other languages for that matter.

 

What about memory work? Character? Manners? Hymns? Catechism? Nature study? Practical life skills? Just being difficult and listing things I would consider part of a full curriculum. I am not saying they aren't in there. I am sort of asking WHERE in there they are if they are in there just because I am curious.

[Hunter]

Oh, and what about Latin? She mentions LCC but I don't see Latin. Or any other languages for that matter.

 

What about memory work? Character? Manners? Hymns? Catechism? Nature study? Practical life skills? Just being difficult and listing things I would consider part of a full curriculum. I am not saying they aren't in there. I am sort of asking WHERE in there they are if they are in there just because I am curious.

 

It is impossible to get all that done with all those children. PERIOD! She scheduled what CAN get done. Also the curriculum is adaptable to secular. It's a literature heavy curriculum more than a hands-on and memory/catechizing curriculum. You would really need to sign up at the yahoo group and speak to the author. I am absolutely not the Wayfarers expert.

 

Wayfarers is not going to be the perfect fit for everyone, but it's an important new contribution to the homeschool community. 

 

I've tried a bit. I'm impressed. It's not right for ME right NOW. I'm likely to use it again in the future at some point depending on the student(s) and where I'm at personally.

 

This year, I need to hunker down super-duper oldschool. SOW can be like a crossword puzzle if you let it. I've been messing with it since 1999. Little by little, I have learned to use it my way. Stm4him, I do NOT recommend SOW for YOU right NOW. Do not under any circumstances sell it, though! Just let it sit in your mind, glance at it occasionally as a resource. If and when the time is right it use some of it, you'll know.

[stm4him]

Actually, Hunter, I think it may be the HOLY GRAIL of homeschooling for us.  I can't tell you how late I stayed up last night researching it and reading the samples, etc.  RLTL is pretty much EXACTLY what I am trying to do with my younger ones right now but she just did it so much better.  I am just blown away.

 

Wayfarers is really just books to read and two activities per day (one for older kids, one for younger kids).  I think that really already fits what I want to do:

 

Morning: Chores and Math

 

Afternoon: Language Arts and Languages

 

Evening: Reading

 

During the toddler's naptime: Activities (I may add in catechism songs or a manner of the day or something here if I want.  And I would stick mapping here.)  I would use our own drawing books for art days.

 

For language arts we would do RLTL until they finish the series and then move into Hake.  ELTL would alternate with those two.  Eventually when I feel confident enough or well enough I would probably drop Hake but right now Hake is good for my bad days since ELTL looks more teacher intensive.  I would let older kids (at least 4th and up) add in my favorite LNST and HA.  Or if I dropped Hake I would let them do LNST and HA on my bad days and ELTL on my good ones since LNST and HA can be pretty independent.

 

Reading would be the Wayfarers books : Preschool Pathway books, Bible, Geography, History or Science, Other, and Read-alouds (not scheduled every day).  The literature selections would be read during language arts time with ELTL since that is where they were scheduled in.  I am not sure if we would do the narrations in the evening during reading time or do it during activity time.  I'd probably have to play around with that.  

 

We could just keep going with our math and language arts every day at our own pace and then do the activities and readings as life allows.  If we get ahead in activities we can use that time of the day to catch up on our readings or vice versa.  The key is having the toddler out of the way.

 

Math right now is Saxon, though I now you have peaked my interest in Strayer Upton.  I am just not sure what I would do after it and I need a long term plan before even starting something.  I can't believe how cheap they are!  It scares me a little that there is no solutions guide in case I don't get the same answer and I am a little nervous that I would end up sitting beside them.  It does intrigue me that maybe my oldest could go through a book per year and be ready for high school math by 10th grade which seems to be far less books than going from where she is in Saxon to enough high school math to graduate.  So now I am on the math research kick.  I made a separate post about what to use after S-U.  Any suggestions, Hunter?

 

I am not going to start Wayfarers right now but I will probably buy term 1 by the end of the month and start collecting things and locating things.  I was planning to start ancients this summer anyway.  I like that I can just buy 12 weeks at a time to try it.  I am going to buy an e-reader of some kind too so that I can just download books that way that can be downloaded.  I want her to come out with the second Quarks book since I thought that was supposed to be scheduled into Ancients.  

 

I am going to buy RLTL very soon.  And I am going to just keep going with Hake Grammar for now for my oldest two until I get RLTL going well and then add in ELTL (at least I think that is the plan....but I have been known to get impatient and buy things anyway.)  My oldest two would start with ELTL 4 if I use it with them.  

 

I cannot believe how masterfully she has put this together.  Hunter, you've done it again.  

[Hunter]

 Any suggestions, Hunter?

 

 

Don't drop anything that is working. That is my FIRST and FOREMOST suggestion to YOU.

 

What I am using is currently based on MY specific circumstances and educational history. It is not necessarily even a "good enough" plan. It's just an honest list of what I'm doing right NOW.

 

I sat down and took stock of my strengths and weaknesses and what my priorities are. BEWARE that my priorities are deeply rooted in beliefs that are currently labeled as again having developed Stockholm Syndrome, so therefore might or might not be an accurate assessment of what is possible. Supposedly my deep belief that I am right is further proof of how wrong I am. Whatever! I don't believe that so won't act on it.  :biggrinjester:

 

My choice of Strayer-Upton is partially based upon bulk and ease of replacing books used by homeless students. It is not first are foremost about what I believe is the best possible math.

[Hunter]

Further update to my first post. The more I study the Mott Media McGuffey set, the more I am considering dropping the Alpha-Phonics and using all McGuffey.

 

I'm understanding how to better use the speller after reading more about the New England Primer and Webster's Syllabary.

 

I have a group of core KJV ladies that just love their KJVs even if in my opinion they cannot read them properly. One lady in particular says God makes sure she understands what she needs to understand. Maybe she is right, but she sure thinks it says something different than I think it does. Right now, I'm exploring the most direct path to the KJV, intensive use of the KJV as literature and the primary Great Book, and then I'm not sure where I'm going if any place at all. A student that can read the KJV can read almost anything.

 

I replaced my Barnes and Nobles Aesop and want to use that this year.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/aesops-illustrated-fables-aesop/1112044045?ean=9781435144835

 

For anyone interested in the 1836 McGuffey set, there are 2 threads running right now.

 

1836 Home Library

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/544351-the-home-library-in-1836–what-did-it-include/

 

Mott Media McGuffey's Readers

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/544232-mott-media-mcguffey-readers/

 

[stm4him]

But what would you recommend someone use after S-U. You don't have to justify your choices to me. I like hearing what you use and research and why and oddly enough, as different as our circumstances are, your choices (or paths of exploration and experimentation as they may sometimes be) often line up with paths I am interested in and seeking out anyway. There have been several times that I found myself thinking similar thoughts somehow so now I actually seek you out when I am stuck. Not because I think you have all the answers or because I want to follow you, but somehow the things you say give me clues and insight to my own journey.

 

I went back last night and read our old thread about simplifying and my plan B for dropping CC and a year later I agree with most of what I said although I had a momentary freak out recently and tried all CLE and then Monarch. I actually have respect for CLE but I can't pull it off. I have even less respect for Monarch after trying it. And neither were authentically me in the way that I see at least RLTL and ELTL being. Whether I can follow someone else's scheduled booklists and activities again remains to be seen.

 

Your research into things is extremely helpful. Right now, your research into S-U would be useful for me. But I will still most likely end up with Saxon because it is comfortable and reliable. But I still feel a need to think about S-U for a bit.

[Angie in VA]

Wow, I didn't know about the Wayfarers. Thanks, Hunter. 

[Hunter]

You can go from S-U to 2nd edition Saxon Algebra 1. I think 3rd edition might have a little less review in the early lessons, but it's probably enough. All I have used for Saxon is 2nd edition for algebra 1 and 2 and 1st edition for Calculus. And a bit of first edition 54.

 

I really HATE what Hake is doing to Saxon. Each revision is more Hake and less Saxon.

 

I have also used the junior college remedial texts by Aufmann. Half the answers are in the back, and sometimes you can get a TM. Back around Y2K there was free software you could download that drilled with unlimited problems. I miss that, but it doesn't work above XP.

 

Upton did write an algebra text called "Practical Algebra". I have a nasty copy of that book. Some come with a full answer key in the back like the arithmetics.

 

Honestly I think pretty much anything can be used after S-U, unless the series is written to require have done earlier books. In the past, authors were careful to make algebra 1 an entry level text, but now there is a trend to try and scare customers into having to start a series much earlier.

 

stm4him, I just don't want to be a distraction and hinderance to you. I can be kind of fickle about curriculum. Some of that is inevitable. *I* changed, so it stands to reason that what I taught with has changed over the past couple decades. Now, I have an ever revolving group of students that I need to accommodate, and...I don't know. Some realizations of what is possible take time to fully set in, when EVERYONE around you seems SO convinced that more IS possible. 

 

One of the reasons I was really able to settle down with S-U is that I'm NOT planning on teaching algebra at all this year. I like how the last few chapters of S-U cover equations and using equations to cover proportions, ratios and triangles.

 

My goals have been coming to this for awhile. But I just couldn't let go of some stuff. I don't know. Just a bit back, for better or worse, I found peace with much smaller goals. Maybe I'm bad and wrong and all Stockholmed. But this year, if they are going to do KJV, I want to teach to the KJV. And if they don't know the math to cook and budget, and are proving not to be stable enough to attend the colleges, I'm pulling back with the math, and REFUSING to let STEM take CENTER stage anymore.

 

If anyone can actually read their KJV and do daily math, THEN I'm going to worry about what comes after. I've never seen anyone that could read a KJV and had mastered basic math, that couldn't go to a junior college and do well there. The ones who don't do well there are the ones who have no foundation but were passed ahead of the basics anyway.

 

I may use some Bedell this year. I have a student that does well with that curriculum. I find it offensively patriarchal at times, but she cracks me up with "Amen!" at the end of a lesson. I don't try to comment and just bite my tongue and let it be. She learned some science/social studies, she's happy, she didn't hear anything she doesn't hear in church–I just need to chill. I guess I took a whole bottle of chill pills.  :chillpill:  :chillpill:  :chillpill:  :chillpill:  :chillpill:  :lol:

http://www.bedellcurriculum.com/index_files/Page401.htm

[stm4him]

Hunter,

 

I am going to look at Bedell.  It seems vaguely familiar to me.  In fact, I may have owned parts of it at one time if it is what I think it is.  

 

You are not going to hinder me.  I totally understand about students with changing needs and such.  The dynamics in my home change constantly, as do my own needs and issues with my health, etc.  Sometimes I have no idea what you are talking about (for example, Stockholm Syndrome) but somehow I can relate to the way your mind works.  I am working from a different set of circumstances and beliefs and I am not trying to duplicate anyone in particular, but I am trying to reconcile all that I have learned and read about educational theory since 2006 and how that is applied to curriculum and students and real life (including finances, time constraints, individual educational or other needs, etc.).  There are so many factors and there are so many goals and sometimes it feels that there is so little time (both in a day and in a childhood).  I have to figure out myself under my new, ever-changing physical issues and my children (who are each so different and have such different needs).  And at the same time I have always been on some mission to discover something that both works and lasts over the long haul so that I may share with others what we have done.  Now I know that I may end up with nothing to say about what we used, and that instead my message may be how we endured.  Or something else completely different that I have yet to discover.  All that to say that I want to be able to have a basic layout even if it is only for my own sanity.  I am constantly trying to make peace or find harmony with my own expectations and how real life plays out.  I can't let either dominate how things turn out.

 

Anyway, thanks for the update.  I appreciate it :-)  Even if you did cause me to rethink everything last night :-)

 

[stm4him]

By the way.....what is the yahoo group called?  I can't seem to find it anywhere.....

[Hunter]

I'm almost sure we have talked about Bedell, before.

 

Stockholm Syndrome

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

 

Some professionals use it even further when a victim in defending and identifying with a large group or belief system, instead of a just a single person or small group. I guess I'm defending and identifying with patriarchal and limiting belief systems, and am unable to see all my options and abilities. Whatever! I'm tired. They aren't living my life or that of my students. I get really sick of hearing their THEORIES when they don't have boots on the ground to see what it is REALLY like.

[Hunter]

Barefoot Ragamuffins

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/barefootragamuffins/info

[Joyful Journeys]

I also can't quite picture what an actual day would look like using Wayfarers and didn't see that in the introduction.

 

I really want to start by understanding RLTL because I still am not in love with anything and I have kids that need reading instruction now or soon. I am afraid that waiting for them to do the handwriting properly is delaying reading but I think spelling your way into reading makes the most sense. I wonder how long these lessons take since I would have multiple levels. Maybe this is all wrong for us but for some reason I am really drawn to this. I really liked her introduction.

 

...

We are in level 2 of RLTL and it literally takes 10 mins. And that may even include me running toddlers to the potty lol. I like that I can teach from my iPad, calling out words and rules while doing other things. We alternate like her schedule says, so 2 lists a week, a day of just phonogram/words review and the other two days we read the Elson stories(which are just lovely). I usually have her read a new story Friday, then the same story Monday unless she flew through it. In level 1, I would even bounce back to old stories just to review that way too. I just love this so much, and my up and coming kindy dd is listening in and loving for me to dictate to her when she plays. I got the workbook for her to start in the fall since it's got the cutesy pictures and things, and we'll take level one slowly.

 

On your other point, I agree, it's hard to see how a day plays out. I think, a lot of it will get done in our "morning time" I hope to start, rotating the subjects in. I want to switch to doing content subjects in the afternoon when the toddlers are napping.

 

I'm also a little unsure how to jump in when we're halfway through SOTW 1 already. So I have to see what term matches up with where we are so the supplements fit.

[stm4him]

That is awesome!  I am now in love with Wayfarers/RLTL/ELTL.  And I haven't even bought it yet (waiting for funds).  I guess we will start with Ancients but I kind of wish Modern were ready (including Quarks) because we have not done much with modern history.  We are still studying American history up to the Civil War right now and I realized there is a period of time we sort of skipped from about the end of the Revolutionary War to the Cherokee Trail of Tears.  So I really want to fill in that gap before moving on to something else.  Other periods we've not covered are the late Greeks and the Romans, the kings and queens of England, and probably world history during the early years of America though we have done an overview of world history at least 3 times.  In Bible we have done a thorough job of the OT up to the prophets but I would really like to study the rest of the Bible, though we have done overviews of it many times as well and I'm sure they are pretty familiar with most of the Gospels.  That would mean that it would be best for us to do either Medieval or Revolution History for Bible.  But Quarks will only be finished for Ancients (Zoology is coming out soon) so I'm thinking we will end up starting there.  I may try to have my older kids finish listening to or reading SOTW 2 (where we are in audios left over from last year) to the end.  I would say Modern History would be the best for my oldest to go through in her last year of dialectic, but honestly she can just listen in on the younger one's readings when we go through with them.  In science we have not covered any subject as thoroughly as I would have liked.  I think we've done the most with anatomy.  So most any year we start will be good for science.  So I'll have to ponder which way to go.  In the meantime I can't wait to start RLTL and ELTL.  We are also going to continue with Hake (alternating with ELTL) for my oldest ones but at some point I may feel like I can drop Hake.  

 

Thanks for the input!  

 

 

[Hunter]

I'm glad that people are finding and liking Wayfarers It's an excellent curriculum and it's exciting to hear that at least term 1 of all the levels including year 4 Modern will be available before summer, and that so much of even year 4 Modern is already written. By this time next year, it looks like there will be a complete new PreK-12 CM/Classical curriculum on the market.

 

Desite how impressed I am with Wayfarers, I'm settling nicely into my own much more weird and negligent choices. :lol: Things are falling into place, and I think I'm getting ready to have a relaxed year, teaching from MY strengths. I'll reevaluate whether I'm being too weird and negligent next year. It is 2015 after all, and not 1836 or 1998. :)

 

The more I have tabbed and marked up my copies of Strayer-Upton, the more I understand the structure of the program. I feel so much more confident using it now, than when I have used it in the past. Students learned in the past, but I felt like I was flying blind. I'm not a trusting soul. I NEED to see the structure. I NEED to see the BIG picture.

 

I'm narrowing in on what I want to use of Mott Media McGuffey's 1836 and Blumenfeld's different versions of phonics books. Revised Alpha-Phonics is better and all the Don Potter resources make it effortless to teach, but I think I'm going to just use my stained and nasty copy of How to Tutor, and add even yet more notes, just adding in instructions where the text itself isn't as good as something else. I prefer the shape of the book better and I like that it includes all the math I need before Strayer-Upton.

 

I ordered a paperback copy of Harvey's Grammar, so I can feel free to scribble ALL over that text adding notes of things I want to add. I don't need to text to be all I want, I just need enough whitespace to add what I want. :)

 

Bits and pieces of SOW (Student of the Word). I need to remember SOW is not a crossword puzzle; it's a buffet. For anyone that has used it, you know what I mean. :lol:

 

The Bedell texts are bulky, but I want to use them. I'm going to break off the binding and just cart around the pages of what I need at the time.

 

Literature : KJV Bible, Westminster Catechism, Aesop, Grimm, Lamb's Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progess, Robinson Crusoe, Bulfinch's Age of Fable, Le Morte d'Arthur, Of Plimoth Plantation, Franklin's autobiography, Moby Dick, and History's Greatest Speeches.

 

Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. The book is bulky. I'll rip it apart if I need to.

 

For music, hymn singing is enough for the next couple months at least. I just read something by Don Potter about hymn books and psalters as syllabaries and their use in teaching reading and I just realized that I honestly don't know if one of my siblings would be able to read at all if she hadn't have been tucked under my arm while I ran my finger under the words all those years when she struggled to learn to read. I want to focus on establishing hymn book singing habits.

[stm4him]

Hymn singing has always been a staple in our house but has been hit or miss this year. I want to get back to being more consistent.

[stm4him]

My problem is I can't seem to use bits and pieces of anything. I think it is an OCD thing but I don't have OCD. Unless I am in denial... Lol. I have to accept the whole package or nothing. The only thing that allows me to let go of the lower levels of Saxon is that it has a completely different author. If I knew which books were written only by Saxon I may be able to let go of Hake. But I like Hake, too so I am OK leaving him in if I don't end up with S-U for good. If I drop Hake Math I will likely drop Hake Grammar too because I am weird like that but I have to be convinced that ELTL covers everything I want it to before feeling comfortable dropping Hake. If ELTL is missing only one strand that can't be covered in high school or isn't in Wayfarers I will have to find a supplement that is stand alone for that strand and fits in perfectly.

 

I am nervous about liking the composition plans for high school that are in Wayfarers. I don't know why I wouldn't but I am just not familiar enough to know yet. I want to ask Kathy Jo if she has any thoughts about writing her own after she finishes Wayfarers and ELTL because I would trust her more to pick up where ELTL leaves off and finish well.

 

I am also slightly nervous about all the activities and projects so I may have to make a rule for myself to not do them the first year and just enjoy the books.

 

 

Right now read aloud is consistent and I am about to phase in S-U and RLTL and phase out what they are replacing for the trial run. Then I will phase in ELTL, music theory, and typing one at a time. When those are set I want to bring back our meeting with hymns, catechism, prayer, etc . and get back to memory work (some of which will come from ELTL). After that I want them to write one narration per day with a drawing as listed in Wayfarers. Finally we will switch our reading list for the evening to the one in Wayfarers Modern when it comes out. That is my master plan. Somewhere in there a new baby will be born and I will probably have to start all over putting our day back together! But I am honestly enjoying finding our rhythm without CC now and spending time outside in the fresh air with my babies around me. I feel very content :-)