KONOS

[lloomis]

Hello All!

 

We are homeschooling for this first time this year.  My oldest is in Kindergarten so I have taken the last few months to wing it.  I thought unschooling would be a good fit for us since I work from home and we are heavily involved in other activities but what I am discovering is 1) I am not a plan-aheader nor a good record keeper despite my good intentions and 2) I keep myself up at night wondering if what I am teaching is on target with what my oldest should be learning. After reading Cathy Duffy's book, I think I am starting to get interested in KONOS and I didn't know if anyone has any experience with that. I love the idea of being able to teach multiple kids with different ages. I understand that as a whole, you will still need to pick a math which we are leaning towards Math-U-See in addition to reading and spelling programs which we are leaning towards All About Reading and All About Spelling respectively. Any advice or insights anyone has would be greatly appreciated! We don't really know anyone that homeschools so we feel a bit out of our element :)

 

THANKS!!!!

[Ellie]

Hello All!

 

We are homeschooling for this first time this year.  My oldest is in Kindergarten so I have taken the last few months to wing it.  I thought unschooling would be a good fit for us since I work from home and we are heavily involved in other activities but what I am discovering is 1) I am not a plan-aheader nor a good record keeper despite my good intentions and 2) I keep myself up at night wondering if what I am teaching is on target with what my oldest should be learning. After reading Cathy Duffy's book, I think I am starting to get interested in KONOS and I didn't know if anyone has any experience with that. I love the idea of being able to teach multiple kids with different ages. I understand that as a whole, you will still need to pick a math which we are leaning towards Math-U-See in addition to reading and spelling programs which we are leaning towards All About Reading and All About Spelling respectively. Any advice or insights anyone has would be greatly appreciated! We don't really know anyone that homeschools so we feel a bit out of our element :)

 

THANKS!!!!

 

We really enjoyed KONOS. :-)

 

There is no "should" when it comes to teaching our children, other than that you should teach them. Otherwise, the target for what you should be teaching is...your children.

 

If you do KONOS, I would recommend something for math and phonics/reading that is not too teacher intensive, because KONOS is.

 

I can give you a run-down on how I planned KONOS, if you'd like. I don't want to overload you, lol.

[lloomis]

We really enjoyed KONOS. :-)

 

There is no "should" when it comes to teaching our children, other than that you should teach them. Otherwise, the target for what you should be teaching is...your children.

 

If you do KONOS, I would recommend something for math and phonics/reading that is not too teacher intensive, because KONOS is.

 

I can give you a run-down on how I planned KONOS, if you'd like. I don't want to overload you, lol.

 

That'd be great! I didn't realize how much time and parent involvement there is. That might be a challenge for us so any insight you can offer would be great!

Edited February 19, 2016 by lloomis

[lloomis]

If you do want a unit study approach though, look into Weaver. It's similar in style to KONOS, but I found it to be less teacher intensive, because honestly, especially in the younger grades, much of your teaching could be done from the book.

 

Now there's a wrinkle I didn't forsee. The time involved could present a problem for us. I will need to look in to that and also Weaver has you mentioned.

 

Quick questions about All About Reading/Spelling. My oldest is already reading at a second grade level and I am picking a group of words each week as spelling words. I didn't realize that you didn't start both programs at the same time. I am a little worried that I am going to pick a level he is already beyond or pick a level too difficult and end up discouraging him. How do I know where he falls on that scale?

[lloomis]

If you do want a unit study approach though, look into Weaver. It's similar in style to KONOS, but I found it to be less teacher intensive, because honestly, especially in the younger grades, much of your teaching could be done from the book.

 

Now there's a wrinkle I didn't forsee. The time involved could present a problem for us. I will need to look in to that and also Weaver has you mentioned.

 

Quick questions about All About Reading/Spelling. My oldest is already reading at a second grade level and I am picking a group of words each week as spelling words. I didn't realize that you didn't start both programs at the same time. I am a little worried that I am going to pick a level he is already beyond or pick a level too difficult and end up discouraging him. How do I know where he falls on that scale?

[edeemarie]

Even though we aren't currently using KONOS, here is a post I did back when I was blogging about how I used and planned KONOS: https://wateronthefloor.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/planning-our-konos-units-with-a-free-printable/.

[smarson]

Can I just suggest, that while KONOS may be a great program (I have no idea, never looked at it), in K all you really need to focus on is reading and math?  I'd say, wait on KONOS or anything else for that matter, and just do math and reading.  I'd suggest Logic of English or AAR and then whatever math program speaks to you.  THat way you can ease into homeschooling, ease into Kindergarten and nobody needs to feel overwhelmed. :)  You can always add in all kinds of read-alouds, crafts, etc to your heart's content but at least you're getting the important stuff out of the way every day or two.  Just my two cents. :)

[Ellie]

That'd be great! I didn't realize how much time and parent involvement there is. That might be a challenge for us so any insight you can offer would be great!

 

KONOS is worth finding materials for teaching children to read and do arithmetic that are less parent-intensive. :-)

 

Here's how I do KONOS:

 

Practically speaking, I recommend taking KONOS to Kinko's?FedEx and having the spine cut off, then the book drilled for three holes, so it will fit in a three-ring notebook. Take out the lesson plans and file them in a separate notebook, so you have them if you ever want to sell the book. You don't need them. :-)

 

Have a separate, smaller notebook, to keep the character trait that you're currently working on.

 

I do two KONOS days a week. Some people do a few activities daily, but for me, two days completely focused on KONOS, worked best.

 

So, KONOS authors Carole Thaxton and Jessica Hulcey imagined that people would do KONOS from September through May--a traditional school year--because they'd be doing lots of outdoor things during the summer instead of school stuff. This is important for Vol. 2, the only one that you should follow the character traits as they are in the book. You can do the character traits in the other volumes in any order.  In their original publications, they expected users to do all of the character traits--not all of the activities, but all of the character traits. Users would do all the character traits in a year, then do them a second year with different activities; or they could take two years to do all of the character traits. I followed the authors' suggestions on a one-year schedule for Vol. 2: September and October, Inquisitiveness; November: Responsibility (Pilgrims/Thanksgiving); December, Love/Generosity; January: Responsibility (beavers one year, ants the other); February and March: Courage; April and May: Wisdom.

 

A few months before I start doing KONOS, I spend a few evenings reading the whole book. From cover to cover. I put a check mark by each activity that looks interesting.

 

A couple of months or so before, I go back and read again the activities that I checked, and imagine myself actually doing them, or my dc actually doing them. I put a second check mark next to those.

 

The month before I take out my big planning notebook, with all my activities--children's dance class or competitions, church activities, holiday activities, doctors' visits, etc. I know that I'm only going to do KONOS on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I go back through the Volume and choose activities I know I can do on those two days, to complete that character trait in one or two months. If I have a full schedule the previous week, I choose activities for the next week which do not require going to the library or requiring me to go hunting for stuff so we can do those activities.  (The vast majority of activities are contained in the volume. All library books and whatnot are optional.)

 

On our KONOS days, we do the activities. If we are on a roll, we might do some of the other activities that I didn't check; if we don't finish, I erase that activity number and pencil it in on the next KONOS day; if we don't finish it then, I erase it.

 

By the time we get to doing our activities, all the planning has been done. I just read over everything the night before, and we jump right in the next day.

 

My only regret is that we started hsing before KONOS was invented, so I didn't get to do all three volumes. :-)

[908874]

Now there's a wrinkle I didn't forsee. The time involved could present a problem for us. I will need to look in to that and also Weaver has you mentioned.

 

Quick questions about All About Reading/Spelling. My oldest is already reading at a second grade level and I am picking a group of words each week as spelling words. I didn't realize that you didn't start both programs at the same time. I am a little worried that I am going to pick a level he is already beyond or pick a level too difficult and end up discouraging him. How do I know where he falls on that scale?

 

For AAR I believe they have placement tests on their website.