Hits and Misses

[Alte Veste Academy]

Analytical Grammar for DS12 and DD11

 

Oak Meadow Geography for DS12 (HUGE hit!)

 

TheVirtualInstructor.com and a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud for DD (AMAZING for her!)

 

Brave Writer Partnership Writing (and all things BW) for DS9

 

Scheduling changes have been the biggest hit this year. They have scheduled time each day for their favorite subjects (woodshop for DS12, art for DD11, and DIY.org for DS9). Also, each has a separate project day. That means that three days a week, I only need to do one-on-one work with two kids. I just have to smile and nod at the project-kid that day. :tongue_smilie: I moved our group/content subjects to big blocks on the two non-project days, so more of the other three days is spent on individual work with each child, including the Holy Grail of more focused, hands-on instructional time for writing assignments from across the curriculum.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Alte Veste Academy

[Holly]

Misses:

Famous Men of the Middle Ages--I had such high hopes for this book, but DD keeps reminding me how much better she liked MOH.  There are so many people and places in the readings that I'm having a hard time keeping everyone straight!  I may be looking for a new spine.  The last few readings have gone better though, so we may just stick it out.

Shakespeare--I just can't figure out how to even begin a Shakespeare study!!

 

Update:  I've just replaced Famous Men with SOTW 2.  I also purchased the activity guide, and my DC love the readings, maps, and coloring pages so far!  For Shakespeare, we are using Poetry For Young People's Shakespeare book and it's going well so far.  

[Soror]

Analytical Grammar for DS12 and DD11

 

Oak Meadow Geography for DS12 (HUGE hit!)

 

TheVirtualInstructor.com and a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud for DD (AMAZING for her!)

 

Brave Writer Partnership Writing (and all things BW) and Fix-It Grammar for DS9

 

Scheduling changes have been the biggest hit this year. They have scheduled time each day for their favorite subjects (woodshop for DS12, art for DD11, and DIY.org for DS9). Also, each has a separate project day. That means that three days a week, I only need to do one-on-one work with two kids. I just have to smile and nod at the project-kid that day. :tongue_smilie: I moved our group/content subjects to big blocks on the two non-project days, so more of the other three days is spent on individual work with each child, including the Holy Grail of more focused, hands-on instructional time for writing assignments from across the curriculum.

I'm contemplating tweaking our Spring schedule a bit, can you explain what this looks like day to day b/c I'm having a hard time figuring it out in my head.

[Alte Veste Academy]

I'm contemplating tweaking our Spring schedule a bit, can you explain what this looks like day to day b/c I'm having a hard time figuring it out in my head.

Their project days are Mon (DS9), Tues (DD11), and Wed (DS12). They are on their own all day, working whatever the latest plan is. So, for example, while DS9 works on his projects on Monday, I work with DD and older DS. I do an hour and a half of one-on-one with DD while DS12 works independently. Then they switch for an hour and a half. This is from 9-12. Repeat in the afternoon from 1-4. Repeat Tuesday and Wednesday. Then on both Thursday and Friday, I do one hour of one-on-one with each of them from 9-12, and from 1-4 we do history/geography (Thursday) and science/current events (Friday). They do independent work in history and science throughout the week and watch/read some news daily, but this time is reserved for group discussion, experiments, documentaries, etc. We have teatime at 4 every day, which ends the school day. Their friends are in school from around 8-3:15 and can't play until about the time we finish anyway, so a later start and end time work better for us right now.

[Soror]

Their project days are Mon (DS9), Tues (DD11), and Wed (DS12). They are on their own all day, working whatever the latest plan is. So, for example, while DS9 works on his projects on Monday, I work with DD and older DS. I do an hour and a half of one-on-one with DD while DS12 works independently. Then they switch for an hour and a half. This is from 9-12. Repeat in the afternoon from 1-4. Repeat Tuesday and Wednesday. Then on both Thursday and Friday, I do one hour of one-on-one with each of them from 9-12, and from 1-4 we do history/geography (Thursday) and science/current events (Friday). They do independent work in history and science throughout the week and watch/read some news daily, but this time is reserved for group discussion, experiments, documentaries, etc. We have teatime at 4 every day, which ends the school day. Their friends are in school from around 8-3:15 and can't play until about the time we finish anyway, so a later start and end time work better for us right now.

So- 

Each kid has only 4 days of "school"/ 1day solely project time

3 days  a week they have 1.5 hrs of 1 on 1 time in the am and 1.5 hrs 1 on 1 time in the afternoon; Friday day is 1 hr one on one time

3 days content is independent reading and watching

1 day a week content is group time- docu, experiments, and discussions

 

Is that right? 

The exact model wouldn't work for us but some good inspiration for some tweaking for the new year.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Each kid has only 4 days of "school"/ 1day solely project time

 

Yes, but the projects are educational, related to school subjects. Most fold many subjects together. No slouching allowed. :)

 

3 days a week they have 1.5 hrs of 1 on 1 time in the am and 1.5 hrs 1 on 1 time in the afternoon; Friday day is 1 hr one on one time

 

They each have:

 

2 days a week of 3 hours 1/1 time and 3 hours of independent work (DS9 spends most of this time simply reading, which he loves, and that is fine by me!)

 

1 day a week of project time

 

2 days a week of 1 hour 1/1 time, 2 hours of independent work, and 3 hours of group time

 

3 days content is independent reading and watching

1 day a week content is group time- docu, experiments, and discussions

 

2 and 2, plus their project day. :) Yes to independent reading, but we watch most documentaries together (and we actually tend to watch more in the evening or on the weekend with DH than during our content time, but I'm trying not to write a novel, LOL). DS12 does some labs independently during 1/1 time, but this schedule is the basic gist of it.

 

The exact model wouldn't work for us but some good inspiration for some tweaking for the new year.

 

This would not have worked for us before this year either. My youngest is 9 and content to work or read on his own much more than before, DD is extremely self-directed (get everything done ASAP so I can move on to art, LOL), and DS12 has had a huge increase in motivation and maturity this year, which has made my life exponentially easier.

[Juliegmom]

5th Grader

 

Hits

 

Heart of Dakota CTC - I can honestly saw that we love it and I'm happy to leave the MFW or HOD merry go round. Both are great, but HOD fits.

CAP Writing and Rhetoric continues to be a hit. We are slowly working through Book 3: Narrative

Horizons math - We are on our 4th year with Horizons. I'm pretty sure we will continue with it for 6th grade next year, but once we hit pre-algebra and algebra I'm not so sure which path to take.

Rod and Staff English -solid, gets the job done and parts can be done orally

 

Meh

DITHOR - I like it ok and it's getting done. HOD has great book choices. We will stick with it for now, but I plan to do more specific literature study (like Progeny Press) starting in 7th grade.

 

Misses

Write With the Best - I'm not dropping it, but don't plan to use their second book as recommended in HOD's upper guides. We are finding it painfully slow. Maybe it will get better.

 

12th Grader

 

Hits

 

A Beka (for almost all subjects, but it does make for long days)

Undestanding the Times

 

Misses

 

A Beka Grammar (not a good place to jump in for a my dd who hasn't had a lot of grammar instruction, but that's not A Beka's fault. I thought that we might run into this and am planning to order Editor in Chief to help fill some gaps)

[Soror]

Yes, but the projects are educational, related to school subjects. Most fold many subjects together. No slouching allowed. :)

 

 

They each have:

 

2 days a week of 3 hours 1/1 time and 3 hours of independent work (DS9 spends most of this time simply reading, which he loves, and that is fine by me!)

 

1 day a week of project time

 

2 days a week of 1 hour 1/1 time, 2 hours of independent work, and 3 hours of group time

 

 

2 and 2, plus their project day. :) Yes to independent reading, but we watch most documentaries together (and we actually tend to watch more in the evening or on the weekend with DH than during our content time, but I'm trying not to write a novel, LOL). DS12 does some labs independently during 1/1 time, but this schedule is the basic gist of it.

 

 

This would not have worked for us before this year either. My youngest is 9 and content to work or read on his own much more than before, DD is extremely self-directed (get everything done ASAP so I can move on to art, LOL), and DS12 has had a huge increase in motivation and maturity this year, which has made my life exponentially easier.

Thanks for taking the time to type it out. No, it wouldn't work exactly the same(different ages, different kids etc) but it is good inspiration nonetheless. I love reading about all the different ways people school, I like to take bits and pieces here and there.