Never done school in English! How do we transition to homeschool?

[Scover]

So I'm strongly considering homeschooling this year for my daughters who will be 3rd and 1st grade, but I'd love curriculum advice!

Background: Older one did a year of public afternoon K4, then K and 1st at a public German immersion school, and now 2nd at an actual German school with lots of creative independent work and about 5 recesses a day. Younger also did K4 and then a year of German kindergarten, which is all play and no academics. So neither has done any school in English, and the younger hasn't done schoolwork at all. For this age, I think that's a great trade-off for fluency in a foreign language. But now here we are, wondering how to do next year in the USA again.

Both are bright, self-taught readers. The older one thrives in school environments - workbooks, and group projects, and writing and performing plays (hence some reluctance to bring her home). She also resists my instruction, so independent work is important. The younger one is only just showing signs of readiness for deskwork, and really could use basic handwriting instruction, so writing-intensive programs would be a challenge. We also have a high energy 3yo who sabotages everything I do. 

I was myself homeschooled but I doubt my ability to stick with a plan, so a boxed curriculum (with tweaks?) for the first year sounds attractive.

I admire the rigor of Memoria Press, but wonder if the appropriate grade levels (1 and 3) would be a rude shock for my kids with no warm up. Maybe a slow pace at first? 

Sonlight/Bookshark is perhaps my preferred style, as we're a heavily read-aloud family, but in reality we've struggled to read together since the 3yo tornado was born (she's only getting older right???). And is it actually impractical to do two grade levels and a preschooler? That's a lot of books to coax them through (combining grade levels in general would not work)

MBTP has good reviews, but I have ex-homeschooler baggage about self-published or unprofessional-looking materials, so you'd have to really convince me. 

I have more questions/thoughts but I'll stop there for now. 😉 Thanks!

[HomeAgain]

If you're coming from Germany, maybe something like Oak Meadow would be more appealing.  I would not think anything that screams rigor would be a welcome transition from what they were doing, and 2 elementary levels of Sonlight will fatigue you.  MBTP is great in the upper years, but I found it too uneven, too schoolish, in the early programs.  Wayfarers, Build Your Library, or Torchlight might work better because you can simply adjust the plan for each child.

ETA: when I used to have extra small kids running amok, I used 'captive reading time'.  Meals, bedtime, car rides all had them listening to me reading or audio books.

 

Edited June 2, 2019 by HomeAgain

[Scover]

Hmm, I'll have to look into Oak Meadow. For some reason I thought it was super-Waldorf, but I see now that it's not. I think some kind of academic rigor is something l'd like to head toward (maybe later grades) because Dad's a university professor and that's just the home atmosphere, but I can see that we might really need a gentle year to ease into homeschooling. Mom-as-drill-sergeant is not going to work for any of us. 

Is there an upper limit to audiobook saturation?? we're starting to wonder, as the kids lay on their beds for hours, listening to Mary Poppins for the eleventy-first time. I watch RAR's audiobook deals, and we've got quite a library of quality books, but the oldest is especially reluctant to struggle with the printed word for anything but Harry Potter (she can; she won't). I won't be too worried till we're back home to our books and the land of English language libraries, but we do get a little concerned with their lassitude. 

[HomeAgain]

48 minutes ago, Scover said:

 

Is there an upper limit to audiobook saturation?? we're starting to wonder, as the kids lay on their beds for hours, listening to Mary Poppins for the eleventy-first time. I watch RAR's audiobook deals, and we've got quite a library of quality books, but the oldest is especially reluctant to struggle with the printed word for anything but Harry Potter (she can; she won't). I won't be too worried till we're back home to our books and the land of English language libraries, but we do get a little concerned with their lassitude. 

I think that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself and how you're planning on using the audiobooks.  When my youngest was in K I had clear goals for our read-aloud time.  We kept a long chapter book going that was age appropriate but introduced the kids to good writing (Just So Stories, The Secret Garden, etc) with lots of pictures still included.  But we did a weekly plan of short picture books from Wee Folk Art and also folk tales/greatly loved stories.  For both sets of books I wanted to make them come alive.  The children did crafts and activities that went along with the books, went on field trips that went along, did science projects...it wasn't just reading.  It was a structured plan to bring the vocabulary and concepts alive while also working on beginning narration skills.  I needed them to SEE and play with it all to set the foundation for a rigorous classical curriculum that upped the work slowly and steadily.

Had we just listened to audio books I'm not sure our goal would have been achieved.  I really think you need to sit down and decide what the point of each component is so that you are comfortable with your plan and progress.  If your plan is to expose them to English literature as they do other things, then you have that goal met.  You can also do other things, too, like look for radio dramatizations or have them draw their favorite parts or whatnot and find other activities that help you achieve your plan in the best way possible for your family.

[ByGrace3]

Here are my thoughts . . . it looks like you will have a 1st and 3rd grader schooling with a 3 yo? 

If that is correct, I would pick a math and LA, and then maybe do SL Core B or SOTW with Core B read alouds (simpler, and my preference). If you like the look of Memoria Press maybe try their LA for each grade. Or maybe take a look at Well Trained Mind LA. We love their LA materials. If they need phonics, take a look at All About Reading. For spelling, we love All About Spelling, you can do writing together with Writing with Ease 1 (might be easy for the 3rd grader but a good transition year), then just grammar and science if you want to add or not. It's not completely "box" but all open and go-- giving you the level of academic rigor it sounds like you are looking for, while not ruining the wonderful joyful learning experiences they have had. Oh, and don't forget to keep up their German! 🙂

We often did read alouds at bedtime at those ages-- especially for the youngest. I would simply say, it is bedtime, if  you would like to stay up later you may sit with us, if you can't handle it, no worries, it is bed time anyway! 

[Scover]

20 hours ago, ByGrace3 said:

If that is correct, I would pick a math and LA, and then maybe do SL Core B or SOTW with Core B read alouds (simpler, and my preference). If you like the look of Memoria Press maybe try their LA for each grade. Or maybe take a look at Well Trained Mind LA. We love their LA materials. If they need phonics, take a look at All About Reading. For spelling, we love All About Spelling, you can do writing together with Writing with Ease 1 (might be easy for the 3rd grader but a good transition year), then just grammar and science if you want to add or not. It's not completely "box" but all open and go-- giving you the level of academic rigor it sounds like you are looking for, while not ruining the wonderful joyful learning experiences they have had. Oh, and don't forget to keep up their German! 

🙂

 I do like the simplicity of SL core plus level-appropriate LA and math. We already have so many of the books (once a homeschooler, always buying out the library book sales). I'm also naturally inclined to tweak, but knowing my other inclination to fizzle I think I need a core of something to return to. 🤔

I hadn't looked at Well Trained Mind's LA so thanks for the excellent tip. 

The German will be tricky, out of the full immersion environment, especially since I don't know much at all. Extra TV, as long as it's always in German? 😂

[acresoft]

Some Ideas:

Critical Thinking Press for Math and Language Arts

Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers or Abeka Science

If you want a curriculum with more activity there is Konos.

[mumto2]

On 6/2/2019 at 6:43 AM, Scover said:

So I'm strongly considering homeschooling this year for my daughters who will be 3rd and 1st grade, but I'd love curriculum advice!

Background: Older one did a year of public afternoon K4, then K and 1st at a public German immersion school, and now 2nd at an actual German school with lots of creative independent work and about 5 recesses a day. Younger also did K4 and then a year of German kindergarten, which is all play and no academics. So neither has done any school in English, and the younger hasn't done schoolwork at all. For this age, I think that's a great trade-off for fluency in a foreign language. But now here we are, wondering how to do next year in the USA again.

Both are bright, self-taught readers. The older one thrives in school environments - workbooks, and group projects, and writing and performing plays (hence some reluctance to bring her home). She also resists my instruction, so independent work is important. The younger one is only just showing signs of readiness for deskwork, and really could use basic handwriting instruction, so writing-intensive programs would be a challenge. We also have a high energy 3yo who sabotages everything I do. 

I was myself homeschooled but I doubt my ability to stick with a plan, so a boxed curriculum (with tweaks?) for the first year sounds attractive.

I admire the rigor of Memoria Press, but wonder if the appropriate grade levels (1 and 3) would be a rude shock for my kids with no warm up. Maybe a slow pace at first? 

Sonlight/Bookshark is perhaps my preferred style, as we're a heavily read-aloud family, but in reality we've struggled to read together since the 3yo tornado was born (she's only getting older right???). And is it actually impractical to do two grade levels and a preschooler? That's a lot of books to coax them through (combining grade levels in general would not work)

MBTP has good reviews, but I have ex-homeschooler baggage about self-published or unprofessional-looking materials, so you'd have to really convince me. 

I have more questions/thoughts but I'll stop there for now. 😉 Thanks!

I would definitely combine your older kids for the first year.  Your preschooler might surprise you and join in.  We did this with Sonlight and used the package appropriate for my younger child and supplemented a bit for the older.  My dc’s are 22 mos apart in age.   Buy the LA elsewhere........maybe Memoria.