S/O planning. How are your plans for THIS year holding?

[athomeontheprairie]

I love the planning the threads. I love (almost) every aspect of planning. I like knowing where we are going and how we are going to get there. I love hearing what resources others are using and how they will pull it together. I love researching materials others recommend. I LOVE when the books show up on my doorstep :) But sometimes...

 

I look at these lists and wonder if you (collective you) really do everything you put in your list. I don't. I intend to. But the planning is the theoretical and then reality sets in and I discover I have over planned and need to simplify. And so some of my great material gets set aside. We still get LOTS done. And all in all I am very happy with the rigor of our school. But then I see these lists and I wonder if I'm alone.

 

So, in the spirit of planning for next year, how are your plans for this year holding up? Are you getting to everything you had planned out? Did you add more? Trim down your plans?

 

Maybe I just want to know I'm not alone and that others lists get pared down some as the school year starts.

 

 

[KeriJ]

You're not alone. :)

[Pen]

Trimmed down and changed and need to change yet again.

[Ethel Mertz]

This is definitely us in science. I had all these great plans for Life Science 2, then a somewhat local museum offered 2 fall classes in science (really thorough and rigorous). So DS has been doing 3 hours of science a week for the last two weeks and he may do that as well in the spring. There's a winter class, but given the sorts of winters we have (and the fact that "somewhat local" = 2 hours away), we'll opt for doing the original Life 2 plans during the winter. At this rate, I'm having to go through my original plans and choose topics to cover during the winter months rather than doing the whole book.

 

Other subjects are going relatively well. We school year round, so I don't get too upset about finishing by a certain date.

[Critterfixer]

I usually pare down a bunch. What's in my signature is getting done currently. I've been happy with it, and it was what I came up with toward the end of my planning session last year. 

[Arcadia]

My planning is always tentative until we actually do it. I drop language arts totally for DS11, realised he is okay without curriculum for grammar and writing. He is my natural speller so we didn't do spellling for years.

 

My DS10 firmed up what he want to do for science for the rest of the year so I just spent more money.

[J&JMom]

So far this year things have been going well.

 

Hits:  AoPS PreA has a steep learning curve, but DS is still encouraged. This year we added CNN Student News and additional Scholastic magazines which have been big hits. Really love the Avancemos Spanish program over the Como Te Vas from last year and the Art intensive year.

 

Misses:  I had planned for more Critical Thinking Company activities, but we never seem to get to them. Same with Wordly Wise. Had the best intentions to read Story of the World Vol. 3 and 4 this year (as we read volumes 1 & 2) last year), but ran out of steam about week 6 of the school year. 

 

Otherwise, everything is good.  But, I have yet to curriculum hop during the year. In fact, I have only changed our plans for Math (AoPS) and Spanish, and we might return to a textbook based Social Studies for grade 8 after using Discovery Education this year. We just power through and supplement/spiral with other resources where needed. IXL is a godsend.

Edited December 10, 2015 by J&JMom

[hollyhock]

I will share with you how our current 8th grade plans (posted here this past May) have diverged from reality (changes in red):

 

Math - MEP Year 9 - he'll likely finish about mid-year so then we'll move on to Year 10 We've since changed to TT because MEP quit working.

 

English - CTGE 8 - we're skipping all the grammar and just doing the rest. He's spent 5 years on grammar and it just frustrates him so I think it's time to move on and focus more on writing and literature. But he'll get one last polish on punctuation and stuff. We've completed dropped English and grammar altogether in favour of writing.

 

Writing - More 3-level outlines, rewrites and WTM-style lit. essays. My goal for him is to do longer compositions of each type. I also want to introduce him to essays and citing sources via a couple chapters of WWS 2 and I'll probably have him make up his own outline and write an essay from it just to see how he does. He got super sick of outlines and rewrites and was good at them so I moved him on to The Lively Art of Writing, which I'm not sure is a good fit either. I've ordered The Power in Your Hands as well but it hasn't arrived.

 

Vocab - We've officially dropped spelling and he's going to do Vocabulary Cartoons. Finally, something that is working and going well!

 

Science - Apologia Physical. My goal for him is to have him do science independently and see how he likes Apologia because that will influence high school science decisions. This is working out, too, except that I've kept the experiments to a minimum because he doesn't like them.

 

Logic - Fallacy Detective ETA: Thinking Toolbox as well. Read it this summer and really liked it.

 

History - SOTW 4 plus Canadian history stuff. Keeping it light and interesting, but he reads history textbooks for fun so I'm confident we aren't lacking here. Next year we'll get a little more serious.

 

I think art will be optional this year but he will still do memory work and possibly piano lessons. Piano lessons might just morph into voice lessons but we shall see. Art and piano both not happening but he's very much into hockey right now.

 

:D

[kbutton]

We are tweaking a bit, but most things are working. I've both added and deleted, lol! I have pulled in things I thought would be minor and sidelined things that I thought would be front and center. The general plan is mostly working though!

 

For some of the side stuff, we're focusing on it heavily until we can knock if off the list and bring in something else. We just can't do that many subjects a day, but we can accomplish many in a year if we focus on one at a time. So, our Sequential Spelling book will be completed before Christmas break, and then we don't do spelling again this year (my older kiddo, not my younger). I hope to pull in a business math unit (Pet Shop math) in its place. He likes the idea of it, so I don't think he'll mind the extra math. I may also let him learn to setup a spreadsheet to do it since he's strong on calculation skills and doesn't really need calculation practice. I think that will motivate him and allow him to benefit from the purpose of the study without it getting tedious.

 

I think art is going to have to be a summer thing. 

[zarabellesmom]

I sometimes look at other's plans and feel completely discombobulated and overwhelmed. I tend to plan light and then add things over the course of the year if I feel we have time. That said, my plan for this year for my youngest is nothing at all like what we are actually doing. We completely crashed and burned with Oak Meadow. We have since readjusted and are using, with great success, the things in my signature. Sometimes I feel like I am constantly readjusting. This is my fifth year and I finally feel like I've mostly found my rhythm. Hope I didn't jinx myself just now.

[RootAnn]

I tend to put the stuff on my list that I know we'll do. On the other hand, there are things that I specifically mention are up in the air. In our house, what is planned gets done. What isn't planned doesn't get done. If it is up in the air when school starts, it won't get done.

 

That said, DD#1's schedule changed a bit when we dropped an online class and I had to rework another class to add in what we should have gotten with the class.

The younger two kids aren't getting their separate history done at all. Science is interest-led and tends to get dropped because of other things cropping up.

I'm not getting to the geography stuff I want to & our memory work is behind where I want to be.

 

Other than all that, peachy keen here.  :willy_nilly:

[ScoutTN]

So far, so good. We are doing everything I had planned, but the pacing of some things is different.

MM is a hit. We did Right Start A-E before that.

LfC A is a hit and she will move into B in March.

 

I had originally planned to do writing without a curriculum, just narrations, outlining etc., but Dd was bored so I added IEW SWI B and she enjoys it. We incorporate her history and science into the assignments, replacing many of the given source texts.

 

We are moving more slowly than I had hoped through FLL4 and AAS 6 because we don't spend enough time on them and they are easy for her so I am not super motivated to camp on them.

 

History is good, though she hasn't loved the lit reading books. Science is good, though I need to require more output.

 

Adding in typing after Christmas.

 

My planning is very good. Executing the plan is another thing.....

Overall, I am finding that Ds needs me at-elbow almost all the time so I am writing out some lesson plans for next semester which will enable Dd to be more independent while I work with her brother.

Edited December 16, 2015 by ScoutTN

[Aurelia]

I had to pare down this year to have time for outside activities. I ditched foreign language (tried both Latin and French, but not at the same time), English from the Roots Up, grammar, anything beyond reading and narrating for history, and next semester we're dropping geography. I also stopped separate music theory when DD joined choir, cut out a lot of supplemental lit (mostly historical fiction, but also including a couple of books in LL7), and basically anything else that wasn't part of our core subjects (and occasionally art). I did try to keep some things interesting so school isn't drudgery, but we don't have time for school to take 5-7 hours a day this year. Maybe next year, if DD decides not to do Junior Olympics. 

[Desert Strawberry]

Our life is chaos. I'm just happy that my kids are all learning and staying on top of things. 
We are beyond stripped down. I mean, we are so basic. I had great ideas, none of which have come to fruition. 

Our learning this year is much more...organic than usual. I'd say we are almost unschooling at this point. Real unschooling, not just not doing school. We are almost exclusively independent and/or child led. I just need them to handle it. And they are. So yay!

 

 

[Mrs. Y]

Right now we are really about as pared down and lean as I would like it.  This would be for my 6, 9, 10, and 13 year olds.

 

We do, essentially:

1. Math (Rod and Staff)
2. Language (a mix of Language Lessons for Today and LLATL for some and Write Through Early Modern History for another)
3. Pentime (love the cursive writing practice they get in these)
4. Science An Apologia science book (one is reading/hearing the Anatomy one, and another is reading/hearing the Flying Creatures one.....they are on Audible.com)
5. History (well....we are sorta on a history sabbatical for most of the dc at the moment, but when we start up again it will be SOTW vol 1.  One of them is listening to Child's History of the World on Audible.  The older one is about to start through the History of US books, but really he gets a lot of history without even trying. lol.)
6. Foreign Language (Rosetta Stone Spanish)
7. Phonics (for the ones who need it:  Explode the Code)

 

I have them read books. I read to them. We narrate.  We take dictations.  We do copywork. This is random and low key, using the books on our shelves.  One is reading a bio on Jackie Robinson, another is reading a Hardy Boys book, and I am reading through the Little House books to the younger couple (we are on By the Shores of Silver Lake now). 

 

I had a couple of them listening to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and then they watched the movie.  There are more "classics" like that that we will be getting to as well.

[Χά�ων]

My plans went to pot in September due to life. I am working to restart things now.

[Julie Smith]

I don't so much as plan, but just list what we are doing and assume that we will keep doing it.

 

The only change is that I found something for French that seems to be working , DuoLingo.

Edited December 9, 2015 by Julie Smith

[Loesje22000]

This is what I posted this is how it goes

 

Grade 8,5:

Math: AoPs Intro A, Statistics the statistics doesn't seem to work, AoPs was difficult during all the grade 8 exams, but now they are done and AoPS is going better
Science: Grade 8 exam, IGCSE Chemistry+BJU Physical Science We passed the grade 8 exam, will start the rest in January, not sure if everything will work.
Dutch: Literature the first assignments didn't go well, but she is growing and learning
English: Grammar of Poetry, Kids Write Intermediate, Real English Skills (EFL), readinglist We changed Grammar of Poetry for a Dutch Textbook, I enrolled dd for Bravewriter this week, and dd is working on her readinglist. We didn't have time for RES so far.
French: Grade 8 exams, oral and written, Jardin des Lettres, readinglist She passed both exams, we decided to use C'est bien ça for the skills and continue JdL and readinglist for Reading.
German: Praxis, Sprache und Literatur We decided to add Na Klar
Latin: Phoenix no changes
Greek: Elementary Greek i.c.w. Stathmoi we finished EG 1 and decided to use Mouseion a self study text for adults
History: SCM Middle Ages,Ren, Ref / tweaked  things are going fine, but - as expected - little learning happens for this season of life it is okay.
Geography: Selfmade Course of course it didn't work out as she dislikes geography, we are back round the designtable probably using IGCSE Geography 
Technical Education: Grade 8 Exam and we are done!

Arts:
History of Rockmusic Not started yet, but she did a Swanlake project and is working on the story of Christmas Carols now :)
Attending academy of Fine Arts yes she does
Folkdancing yes she does

Part of this program will be continued in 2016-2017 that is still the plan, it seems we are in different rythm now :)

[lisabees]

Hmmm...I'll share what happened to us.  And, yes, I love to plan, knowing that it will likely change.

 

Math - AoPS Prealgebra.  DD really, really struggled with this for months.  I supplemented and I tried new things.  She wanted to stick with AoPS and everything clicked, once she realized she could challenge herself with alcumus.  In addition to the text, she now does alcumus at least 45 mins a day. She loves math now!

 

English - W&R - finished Chreia.  I didn't like it.  She couldn't relate.  We switched to Maxwell's School Composition and Grammar.  That is the perfect fit.  Things in English that have remained constant - Caesar's English, Paragraphs for Middle School and Intermediate Language Lessons.  

 

Science - This is where things have changed, according to interest.  Started with Big History.  No go.  Moved on to Stop Faking This! books.  Loved them, but she grew tired of physics.  Now, we are doing a unit on evolution and she loves it.  She is listening to Bill Nye's Undeniable, working through HHMI's Evolution stuff, reading books, watching documentaries and videos etc.  

 

History - started out with World Cultures, but fell into World History.  Just finished Egypt with Bill Brier.  Loved.  We add other things, but she is just going through the motions.  She is not loving History.  

 

CNN Student News - she loves this and does this first thing every morning.

 

Read Aloud - almost every day.  She loves this, of course!

 

Things I never get to, as regularly as I'd like - Philosophy for Kids, Figuratively Speaking, Short Stories, Programming, Engineering, Spanish, reading random articles from Scientific American etc.  

 

I think the year has gone very well, as this is her first year home.  

 

 

Edited December 9, 2015 by lisabees

[MEmama]

Overall we tend to stick to what I plan, though science is usually the thing that gets pushed to the background. I'm not worried, he's a natural scientist. The formal stuff can wait.

 

This year I feel like we're dealing with some pre/teen brain fog issues. He's going through all the motions and willing and able to do whatever I give him, but he's not attacking his schoolwork with his usual glee. I guess that's ok, I think it can be really normal at this age.

 

He is excited to get started on Latin in January, but with the little amount of actual effort he's putting forth I'm not sure how it's going to get done.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I love the planning the threads. I love (almost) every aspect of planning. I like knowing where we are going and how we are going to get there. I love hearing what resources others are using and how they will pull it together. I love researching materials others recommend. I LOVE when the books show up on my doorstep :) But sometimes...

 

I look at these lists and wonder if you (collective you) really do everything you put in your list. I don't. I intend to. But the planning is the theoretical and then reality sets in and I discover I have over planned and need to simplify. And so some of my great material gets set aside. We still get LOTS done. And all in all I am very happy with the rigor of our school. But then I see these lists and I wonder if I'm alone.

 

So, in the spirit of planning for next year, how are your plans for this year holding up? Are you getting to everything you had planned out? Did you add more? Trim down your plans?

 

Maybe I just want to know I'm not alone and that others lists get pared down some as the school year starts.

 

HAHAHAHAHA!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

(deep breath)

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

(wipes tears from eyes)

[athomeontheprairie]

HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

(deep breath)

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

(wipes tears from eyes)

I will choose to interpret that as you laughing with me, instead of at my inability to complete all that I planned ;)

[rutheart]

We are doing all our original plans, but we are only on week 13 (of 36) due to a death in the family. I hadn't even logged into this forum since sometime last month because of all the upheaval. My MIL is now having cataract surgery, so she'll be living with us this month, and may permanently move in at some point. I've got to figure out how to get school done with her in the house all day, or we'll never get a summer break.

Ruth

[Clear Creek]

After switching up most of what I had planned for my 8th grader (lol), we seem to have found our groove and are completing everything that is on our list...except for logic. We never seem to get around to doing logic. Oops.

[SeaConquest]

I will share with you how our current 8th grade plans (posted here this past May) have diverged from reality (changes in red):

Math - MEP Year 9 - he'll likely finish about mid-year so then we'll move on to Year 10 We've since changed to TT because MEP quit working.

English - CTGE 8 - we're skipping all the grammar and just doing the rest. He's spent 5 years on grammar and it just frustrates him so I think it's time to move on and focus more on writing and literature. But he'll get one last polish on punctuation and stuff. We've completed dropped English and grammar altogether in favour of writing.

Writing - More 3-level outlines, rewrites and WTM-style lit. essays. My goal for him is to do longer compositions of each type. I also want to introduce him to essays and citing sources via a couple chapters of WWS 2 and I'll probably have him make up his own outline and write an essay from it just to see how he does. He got super sick of outlines and rewrites and was good at them so I moved him on to The Lively Art of Writing, which I'm not sure is a good fit either. I've ordered The Power in Your Hands as well but it hasn't arrived.

Vocab - We've officially dropped spelling and he's going to do Vocabulary Cartoons. Finally, something that is working and going well!

Science - Apologia Physical. My goal for him is to have him do science independently and see how he likes Apologia because that will influence high school science decisions. This is working out, too, except that I've kept the experiments to a minimum because he doesn't like them.

Logic - Fallacy Detective ETA: Thinking Toolbox as well. Read it this summer and really liked it.

History - SOTW 4 plus Canadian history stuff. Keeping it light and interesting, but he reads history textbooks for fun so I'm confident we aren't lacking here. Next year we'll get a little more serious.

I think art will be optional this year but he will still do memory work and possibly piano lessons. Piano lessons might just morph into voice lessons but we shall see. Art and piano both not happening but he's very much into hockey right now.

:D

What are you using for Canadian history?

[deerforest]

We have been mostly successful. Red means we dropped it or haven't started; blue indicates success.

 

• MCT CE 1 vocabulary : DD hated it so we are doing our own word roots study
• Blackbird's poetry program : DD really likes it; we are just going more slowly than recommendation because we are heavy on writing this year. 
• Philosophy for Kids + Philosophy Rocks (thanks to Farrar for 2nd book idea) : Biggest hit ever was Philosophy for Kids. We have finished them both as of this week, and DD is so sad about it! I am working on plan for next semester.
• Megawords 3 : We finished but DD is so sick of it. We just moved on to our own spelling based on misspellings in her work. It's more successful so far.
• Analytical Grammar + MCT Voyage : She hated AG and I never ordered MCT Voyage. I think I won't. We are doing our own thing with diagramming instead which she is much happier about.
• Blackbird Intro to Composition + Cover Story : Doing both but slowly, but they are going well
• Pre-algebra : AoPS/Lial other mashup, maybe even TabletClass : She's not a huge fan of TabletClass but I like that it gives us a starting point so I know what to add. We are pulling in lots of stuff from every other pre-algebra program. We are making very good, solid progress.
• Medieval/Middle Ages using OUP, History Odyssey, and K12 Human Odyssey, and Plague unit from RFWP : Going really well. We added a bunch of historical fiction too, and we are nearly done with the Plague unit which ends our European portion; we move on to Asia in the MA after the holidays.
• Science overview using Dr. Arts Guide, Magic of Reality, History of Nearly Everything, Omnivore's Dilemma and more McHenry. We got DH involved too, and this has been awesome. So glad I took this approach this year. I've had to track down some other resources because it's going more quickly than I expected.
• Foreign language. Still TBD : I'm a loser and haven't resolved this yet. On my list for after the holidays.
• Circus arts group and private lessons: She auditioned and was accepted into her first aerial dance troupe and this will take up a lot more time starting in January.
• Group chorus, pottery classes: All good
• WTMA Study Skills : Dropped before started.

Also added:

• 1x weekly outdoor program that she loves
• Several hours/week volunteering with toddlers at preschool; she loves this too
• Semi regular social gatherings with other middle schoolers
• Monthly science field trips

Edited December 9, 2015 by deerforest

[hollyhock]

What are you using for Canadian history?

 

Modern History Through Canadian Eyes. It's a really good resource that pulls from a lot of different books, including My First History of Canada and The Story of Canada.

[Momto4inSoCal]

We dropped mosdos press since it felt redundant with all we are doing. I also never started spanish like we had planned. We aren't loving english from the roots up but we plan on finishing it none the less. I planned out the whole year on lesson trek and printed it. I use it as a guide but I write in a planner weekly since my year plan doesn't account for field trips or life that sometimes gets in the way. I also remembered why I hate changing to many things. Everything has somewhat of a learning curve and it's hard to start a l9t of new curriculum l.

[Saddlemomma]

Well, let's see....

 

Dropped Latin.  DD just wasn't into it anymore.  It became more of a chore and she groaned and moaned about it.  We'll be doing Spanish next year.  We also dropped Plutarch.  DD hated that but loves Shakespeare, so we're concentrating on that.

 

Pre-Algebra has been a total nightmare.  DD has always hated math, but has done well in it until this year.  Tablet Class didn't cut it and neither did Horizons.  I decided to have her go through Khan Academy supplementing with Everything You Need to Know About Pre-Algebra, Cliffnotes for Pre-Algebra, and various math videos from AOPS and YT for things she struggles with in KA.  This seems to be working better than anything else I've tried, but it's still not pretty.  I also just purchased GC's Mastering the Fundamentals of Math course.  We'll go through that this summer just to firm up things.  If she's still struggling.  We'll repeat Pre-Algebra next year. No biggie as far as I'm concerned.

 

As far as our homemade science (listed in my siggy), we're doing great!  DD loves learning about medicinal plants.  We've just finished McHenry's Botany, both levels.  We did one day of Botany and two days of medicinal herbs/plants with videos, reading, notebooking, and making medicines.  This spring all of us (DH too!) will be taking several herbalist classes.  DD wants to apprentice with a local herbalist in our area who has been practicing for 47 years.

 

History is a collection of books from both TOG4 & Wayfarers, however, I'm not following any of their schedules.  I'm using Human Odyssey 4 as a spine and branching off from there.  We're taking our time. For once I'm not stressed about not finishing a time period.  I honestly don't care if we finish the 20th century.  I'm more concerned with doing WWII and the holocaust justice (that's where we are now).  Then we'll move on and take as much time as we want with each subsequent event.  I think I've finally realized we cannot cover the whole scope and aspect of all history in 12 short years.

 

The combo Bible/Lit class of reading the Chronicles of Narnia and exploring biblical themes is great .  It's one of DD's favorite classes despite having to do an essay after each book.  Next year we'll be doing Tolkien and structuring it like this class.

 

Our LA loop is going quite well with the curricula listed in my siggy and the addition of finishing GFMS.  DD really likes the loop schedule because she gets to do different things each day.  She wants to continue with this next year.

 

DD is also enjoying Fallacy Detective but absolutely hates state history.  Can't says as I blame her there, but it's something we're required to get done so oh well....

 

All in all, we're pretty much doing everything I planned for except Latin and Plutarch.  

[SparklyUnicorn]

Only thing I changed is science.  We were going to do earth science, but DS was moaning about how boring that sounded.  So we started the biology that I had planned to do in high school.

 

Otherwise, I've followed everything pretty much as planned.

 

 

[lisabees]

 

• Science overview using Dr. Arts Guide, Magic of Reality, History of Nearly Everything, Omnivore's Dilemma and more McHenry. We got DH involved too, and this has been awesome. So glad I took this approach this year. I've had to track down some other resources because it's going more quickly than I expected.

 

Hijacking for a moment to say that you may like to add Sapiens to your science list.  I am really enjoying it and have enjoyed your other picks.  

Edited December 10, 2015 by lisabees

[wintermom]

So far we've been doing fine with all the curriculum choices, however I'm slightly worried about whether we'll finish the entire math and science books by June. I don't want to rush, though, as everyone seems to be happy. We'll just keep trucking along and see how things go.

[deerforest]

Hijacking for a moment to say that you may like to add Sapiens to your science list. I am really enjoying it and have enjoyed your others picks.

Is that the one from the Coursera instructor? We did a lot of that course last year!

[lisabees]

Is that the one from the Coursera instructor? We did a lot of that course last year!

 

Yup!  I watch it on youtube, but I will have dd listen to the audiobook by a different narrator.

 

She is currently listening to Undeniable by Bill Nye and loves it.

[Haiku]

Everything is working this year except writing for ds. And it's not even that it's not working; he's just bored with it, and I don't blame him. Writing Skills is thorough but dry.

 

We are currently testing out WriteShop as an alternative. He seems to like it, so we may be switching to that. 

 

Other than that, everything else is full steam ahead!

[athomeontheprairie]

I thought I would try and find my list from last year. I never found a complete list. I can't change colors from my phone, so reality is in the parentheses.

 

Math: RS G. Possibly video text, still undecided here. (Going as planned, vt will start in January. Added in LoF fractions, decimals and percents for this semester. Will finish those by the end of December)

 

Science: CPO earth science (not as great as I'd hoped, but going well. Added in additional material here)

 

History: first semester, finish SL E. Second semester: change to world geography. (World history is taking longer than I'd hoped. Won't finish until end of January. Geography will run concurrently starting the first of next month)

 

English: FLL4. WWS. (This hasn't happened. At all. IEW-A-cc instead. 21,000 words for nanowrimo. Fll will happen in January)

AAS (also hasn't happened. we really need to do something with spelling-as she isn't a natural spelled. But I've no idea what to do. Maybe SS?)

 

 

I'd like to start formal logic, but no idea what that will look like. (Using 24 puzzles and balance/mind benders)

 

Also considering a root study - perhaps this will help increase vocab and spelling skills? (Bought wordly wise. Wasn't consistent.)

 

Typing, violin, AWANAS. (Nano did wonders for her typing. Violin daily, awanas is great)

 

(Reading isn't really listed, but we've done a LOT of reading. Both as RAs and independents)

 

 

*******

Maybe I stayed truer to my list than I thought. Just feels incomplete. Likely because my dd *needs* grammar and spelling-and I've let those two subjects slide.

Edited December 10, 2015 by athomeontheprairie

[Holly]

I also generally trim down quite a bit.  However, there is an up side to over-planning!  I tend to drop subjects or extras that my DC aren't enjoying.  By trying it all out, we can decide where we want to invest our time.   ;)  Many times things that get dropped are added back in down the road when we have a greater interest in the topic.

 

So far my plans have held pretty well.  We aren't as far as I'd like to be, but we haven't changed much.  I did substitute Famous Men of the Middle Ages for SOTW 2 and everyone is happy with this change.  We added Paper Sloyd and Practical Geometry this year (after studying Charlotte Mason's schedules over the summer) and I can't believe how fun this has been for everyone!  We started with 2 public domain books, but changed the Geometry one to a newer (and easier to follow) book.   

 

I've pretty much taken this month to focus on getting ready for the holidays, doing some baking and crafts with the kids, keeping up with math & piano, and cleaning the house.  I'll be re-evaluating everything after Christmas and make adjustments as needed!  I really wanted to keep up with school this month, but it's just been too hectic here!  

Edited December 15, 2015 by Holly

[Soror]

I'm too lazy to hunt down my lists and I'm only comparing to my final plans when we started the year- changes in black.

 

ddk'er- original plan was to do MiF k then Horizons K- we did MiF then took a detour for other stuff and are now doing Horizons

          - planned Foundations- doing Foundations

 

dd3rd-R and S Spellling, Horizons Math

           planned Maxwell's Composition- doing this but slowed it down and added Of Pencil and Pen and Bravewriter

          planned Children around the World- did 2 units but are going out on our own the rest of the year

           Nature Study we are doing but I changed curriculum 3 x I think before I found one I just truly adored

          added in Foundations D- which is easy now but I see a few gaps so we are going to go ahead and finish this out

 

ds11yo-Apples and Pears-yep

             Fix-It Grammar-yep

              Bite-Size Physics- yep

             Beast Academy-finished 4D but we outran the publication schedule so we moved onto JA- I had this as a possibility but I wasn't sure

             Mills History- used it for Ancient Egypt and then moved on to OUP and then next semester we decided to stay on Greeks and mythology instead of moving to Rome

             Maxwell's- Started and did the first semester but decided we needed some more incremental work then tried IEW, WWS and Bravewriter- have kept with doing some Bravewriter stuff but now doing Writing Skills and Killgallon as well

 

As per usual the year starts very strong, gets a bit wonky in the Fall and then we re-adjust and line-out for the Spring, thankfully we are finally feeling settled with our changes we did make (or so I hope)!!!!!!

[kirstenhill]

Plans have mostly held for DD except for math. We're about to bail on CLE having just finished 606. CLE was perfect for my DD for the last couple years...until suddenly the bite size pieces, the amount of time spent on topics my DD just "got" already and the lack of significant truly new topics is driving us both crazy. We're going to take a look at Dolciani pre-A this week but DD is nervous about the sudden transition to a textbook instead of a workbook/work text.

[Bluegoat]

Our year - grade 5 - is mostly going ok.

 

I'm a little behind is my main issue - I always forget what a loss December is.  I think I have finally realized the problem.  It isn't stuff that happens on week-days.  It is that our weekends become so full, necessary tasks get moved to the week-days.

 

I think our biggest miss was Sailing Alone Around the World for geography.  I think this might have worked better if her dad could have read it with her, as he knows quite a lot about sailing.  But, it was challenging reading, plus the content was hard for two people who don't know much about boats.  It was just taking over the day.

 

It was actually really good for geography, so now we will have to do something different. 

 

Dd has been very resistant about writing narrations.  So - I am thinking about what to do with that.

[Farrar]

We mostly got done what I wanted. I had planned to do a unit on dinosaurs and paleontology. If you're curious, the current post on my blog is about all the ins and outs. As I say on there, there are always paths not taken when we take on a big topic, but I'm happy with what we did do. I planned for us do start doing projects from Faltering Ownership. We've done three. I'm good with that. I planned for us to do a 90 Second Newbery movie and we did. It came out great. I planned for us to keep reading short stories and just a few novels together. We're mostly on track. I wish we'd fit in one more short story and one ds needs to finish Wrinkle in Time. But mostly good. I planned to focus on nonfiction reading and improve the kids' skills with it and I feel good about what we've done.

 

The one thing I changed is that we had planned to do some more Killgallon but the kids both said they didn't like it and wanted to stop. We did some Giggly Guide to Grammar instead and I upped the number of shorter dictations. So that's a change.

 

The one place we've fallen down a little is math. Both the boys have been slower than I anticipated. I thought Mushroom would be close to finished with Jousting Armadillos and he's not. He stalled, we had to do some other stuff. I thought BalletBoy would be farther along in MEP6 and he's a bit behind where I wanted him to be. Nothing drastic, but not what I wanted. I have to think about that once the new year starts.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Farrar

[nobeatenpath]

I am another one who loves to plan more than implement. But we are reaching the stage where I feel we have to 'get serious' about a few subjects so at the very least they are ones I will be sticking to 'the plan' next year (they are also ones that are either set curriculum or close to it).

This year things changed a bit for a few reasons. Firstly my son got accepted into a jewellery workshop which means one day a week is out. That also means my plan of one day a week exploring Istanbul (and incorporating geography and history in to that) bit the dust as if we do that we only have three days a week to get 'learning' done and I am not sure about that. I need to talk to his Dad about maybe sharing things in to the weekend ...

The second reason is travel opportunities came up, and we took them. And we are not very good 'road-schoolers' so formal learning doesn't happen when we are tripping.

 

Our new school year starts in January so I am in the throes of finalising plans for that. My main two aims are to start some IGCSE subjects and working on fostering independent learning.

[laughing lioness]

We are doing CC Challenge A this year. DD is doing Saxon 8/7, Henle, LTW, along with Rhetoric, memorizing the world and writing weekly Science papers. We also have a 1 Act play scheduled for Jan and TeenPact in Feb. I am going to order an on-line Art Class -probably Mixed Media course for dd12 and dd 25 to do together while older dd is here visiting for Xmas. 

The only thing we may be changing is TeenPact, which we may not do.

Next year I think I'm going to switch dd to MUS for Alg 1/2, but otherwise we're sticking with Challenge. We are loving it. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

Since the year started, we dropped BJU lit and a Classical Mythology Reader workbook, and we moved to Memoria Press lit guides on D'Aulaire Greek Myths and Trojan War.  

 

We just recently dropped Horizons math and are going with Mathusee.  That was a shocker, but at least it only took me a semester to figure it out.  :)

 

We didn't end up using Megawords at all as my dd is better at decoding multi-syllable words than I thought.

 

We dropped Abeka French and switched to Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn French.

 

We dropped WWS and switched to Seton Composition.

 

Wow.  I guess we changed a lot.  I keep thinking I have everything figured out.  Until I don't.

[athomeontheprairie]

Wow. I guess we changed a lot. I keep thinking I have everything figured out. Until I don't.

I can't like this (enough). It is the story of my life (or at least since I had kids).

 

Just know, you aren't alone :-)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Well, it all depends on how you look at it.  From one POV, things are  holding up well - we're still studying all the same subjects . . . mostly . . . that we started the year with. I generally write plans with too much material in them, so that we can pick and choose based on interest and engagement and other stuff.  The details have changed a lot - books added and dropped in history and lit, mostly. We decided to beef up Spanish into Spanish 1 and get started on our Integrated Health and Fitness (OM) credit early. 

 

For my 4th grader, the plan was super loose in the first place, so we've stuck with it reasonably well! Mostly added interesting things - we joined the LIttle Passports world geography club, so each month when the new package arrives, we spend some time reading stories, cooking food, and watching videos from our selected country. We've covered Brazil, Japan, and France is up next. That's been really fun. We also added Sassafras Zoology, and we've been enjoying that a lot.  The books are really poorly plotted, written and edited, but dd doesn't care about that, she just loves learning about new animals! So that's been a hit even though it makes me grit my teeth at times.  We also dropped Write from History and added WWE back in, but writing is all over the place and mostly across the curriculum, WWE is just a backup when we don't have a good animal to write about.  I tried BW's Partnership Writing and dd loves it, but I've been a big failure at pulling the projects together at the end. So it's a good fit for her and a bad fit for me - go figure. We've also mostly bailed on language study, because she doesn't want to study the language I know, and I haven't done a good job of finding resources for her to study other languages on her own. I need to revisit that in January, perhaps.

 

All in all, the year is going well. I plan religiously, but flexibly.  Hence the plan can be said to hold up as a whole, even when the parts have completely switched out!  

[jkl]

Well, it all depends on how you look at it.  From one POV, things are  holding up well - we're still studying all the same subjects . . . mostly . . . that we started the year with. I generally write plans with too much material in them, so that we can pick and choose based on interest and engagement and other stuff.  The details have changed a lot - books added and dropped in history and lit, mostly. We decided to beef up Spanish into Spanish 1 and get started on our Integrated Health and Fitness (OM) credit early. 

 

For my 4th grader, the plan was super loose in the first place, so we've stuck with it reasonably well! Mostly added interesting things - we joined the LIttle Passports world geography club, so each month when the new package arrives, we spend some time reading stories, cooking food, and watching videos from our selected country. We've covered Brazil, Japan, and France is up next. That's been really fun. We also added Sassafras Zoology, and we've been enjoying that a lot.  The books are really poorly plotted, written and edited, but dd doesn't care about that, she just loves learning about new animals! So that's been a hit even though it makes me grit my teeth at times.  We also dropped Write from History and added WWE back in, but writing is all over the place and mostly across the curriculum, WWE is just a backup when we don't have a good animal to write about.  I tried BW's Partnership Writing and dd loves it, but I've been a big failure at pulling the projects together at the end. So it's a good fit for her and a bad fit for me - go figure. We've also mostly bailed on language study, because she doesn't want to study the language I know, and I haven't done a good job of finding resources for her to study other languages on her own. I need to revisit that in January, perhaps.

 

All in all, the year is going well. I plan religiously, but flexibly.  Hence the plan can be said to hold up as a whole, even when the parts have completely switched out!  

 

Just wondering...Is your  dd doing animal reports in the format learned in Treasured Conversations?  Care to share more details? :)

 

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Just wondering...Is your  dd doing animal reports in the format learned in Treasured Conversations?  Care to share more details? :)

 

 

 

 

Sort of.  Although everything writing-related has to be very organic and bottom-up at our house.  My dd really loves writing, but she really hates writing assignments. For example, she busted out a mini-persuasive essay about why it's great to be a homeschooler - totally spontaneously, in her journal, while we were waiting in the doctor's office. It read better than some middle school essays I've seen - it had a thesis, a hook, main points, a conclusion, and a great, personal style.  But had I sat down and assigned her to write a persuasive essay on an assigned topic? It would have been a disaster.  It's kind of the same thing with the animal reports.  We're doing Sassafras Zoology, and we got a bunch of animal books, and I think I was busy with work one day and I assigned her to read an animal book and then write down three interesting facts about the animal in her logbook.  Well, she asked me if she could type it instead, and I said sure, and next thing I knew she had written a multi-paragraph paper about elephants. I was totally blown away. She's done that several more times, and as long as I pretty much let her fly with the topic, she has a blast with it.  If I sit down and try to make her fit a formula - a topic sentence and supporting points - she turns right off.

 

So I guess the most accurate thing to say is that I learned from TC about the process of teaching about paragraph writing, and I do apply the principles to gently guiding/critiquing/assisting, but we don't sit down and take notes/outline/draft/revise in the standard way.  My main goal right now is to help dd enjoy writing, and to see herself as a writer, and to preserve the joy and the voice.  She's a natural writer in terms of grammar, sentence structure, etc., but she's still a pretty bad speller so I help with that as needed.

 

Some days dd feels totally creative and wants to write about something specific. When she does, we go with it.  On the days that she doesn't, we pull out WWE and do a lesson. This child is teaching me to be so flexible, I might just have to take up yoga!

[jkl]

Sort of.  Although everything writing-related has to be very organic and bottom-up at our house.  My dd really loves writing, but she really hates writing assignments. For example, she busted out a mini-persuasive essay about why it's great to be a homeschooler - totally spontaneously, in her journal, while we were waiting in the doctor's office. It read better than some middle school essays I've seen - it had a thesis, a hook, main points, a conclusion, and a great, personal style.  But had I sat down and assigned her to write a persuasive essay on an assigned topic? It would have been a disaster.  It's kind of the same thing with the animal reports.  We're doing Sassafras Zoology, and we got a bunch of animal books, and I think I was busy with work one day and I assigned her to read an animal book and then write down three interesting facts about the animal in her logbook.  Well, she asked me if she could type it instead, and I said sure, and next thing I knew she had written a multi-paragraph paper about elephants. I was totally blown away. She's done that several more times, and as long as I pretty much let her fly with the topic, she has a blast with it.  If I sit down and try to make her fit a formula - a topic sentence and supporting points - she turns right off.

 

So I guess the most accurate thing to say is that I learned from TC about the process of teaching about paragraph writing, and I do apply the principles to gently guiding/critiquing/assisting, but we don't sit down and take notes/outline/draft/revise in the standard way.  My main goal right now is to help dd enjoy writing, and to see herself as a writer, and to preserve the joy and the voice.  She's a natural writer in terms of grammar, sentence structure, etc., but she's still a pretty bad speller so I help with that as needed.

 

Some days dd feels totally creative and wants to write about something specific. When she does, we go with it.  On the days that she doesn't, we pull out WWE and do a lesson. This child is teaching me to be so flexible, I might just have to take up yoga!

 

This seems so natural and fun.  Love it!