2020-2021 Planning for your AL

[SeaConquest]

These threads start popping up in February, so I thought I would get ours kicked off.

This will be a big year for us as we make the transition to Sacha starting community college classes. I will also hopefully be graduating from my BSN program next summer and will take my nursing school boards. Then, begins the job hunt and grad school applications. We may have to move in order for me to find a job because new grad positions in nursing are very hard to come by in San Diego (what nursing shortage??). So, lots of changes on the horizon in the next year. Anyway, tentative plans...

Sacha (6th grade):

Math: AoPS Geometry (Fall),  AoPS Intermediate Counting & Probability (Spring)

Science: AoPS F=ma  (Fall class, prep for Jan 2021 exam), Intro to Gen Chem (Spring Semester 2021 Community College), Art of Inquiry Astrobiology curriculum year 2

Composition: Davidson Explore Writing in the Humanities

Literature: Online G3 Shakespeare Comedies & Tragedies

History: Great Courses Plus modern history (still figuring out lectures, reading materials)

Programming: CTY AP Computer Science A

Extracurriculars: Theatre, art, and guitar with his charter (if open), kung fu, gameschooling, and Civil Air Patrol

 

Ronen (1st grade):

Math: Beast Academy Online, Prodigy

Science: Documentaries, NSTA trade books, Mystery Science, Generation Genius, Brain Pop

Language Arts: Writing With Ease or Writing & Rhetoric (haven't decided), MCT Island, All About Reading, Spelling By Sound And Structure, Torchlight, Books For Littles, We Need Diverse Books, Social Justice Books, Sex Positive Families

History: Story of the World

Computing: Scratch

Extracurriculars: Outdoor school with his charter, kung fu, gameschooling, and maybe Spanish

 

What ideas have you been kicking around for next year?

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by SeaConquest

[Cake and Pi]

Our plans for next year are still solidifying, so I'll probably wait another month or so to share. 

I'm curious, do you all still post on the regular grade level threads as well? Is there some point where a kid is just too accelerated to share outside of the AL board? 

[Guest]

Next year DD will be a senior. Eep! She has finished all required credits for our cover school/state, so there is a lot of flexibility. She also actually qualifies for DE funding, so has more options for classes-but won't know what she can get until later this summer. 

 

Updated April 14 now that it looks like everything needs to be able to go online at the drop of a hat and summer plans have gone out the window. We're not looking at the other colleges until Spring semester for the same reason. 

 

So, plans for Fall, some may continue into Spring, some may change to a different college class depending on what is available

English-some sort of interesting lit class online somewhere.---Decided. We're going to do a homegrown study of literary fantasy using a great course as a spine and then reading and writing about a lot of books. We did this with LLoTR years back, where we really dived into the sources, and it should be fun to go through it again at more an upper high school/college level vs a middle school one.

 

Math-Calculus. (DE, registering with a prof who is already scheduled to teach an online section, so presumably he can take it online if needed easily). 

 

History/Social Science/Humanities-Abnormal Psychology/Neurodiversity

 

 

Science-A special topics in physics course. Also a summer seminar online on human neuroevolution

 

Spanish-Continue conversational Spanish with Homeschool Spanish Academy. 

 

Piano/Theory with current instructor, online if needed (currently online through the summer). 

 

Intro to Graphic Design DE (Should be easy to take online if needed)

 

Teach at Athena's-herpetology/Herp II, Dragonology 🙂 (A dive into dragons and the animals that might have inspired them). 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by dmmetler

[Jackie]

Everything is completely up in the air right now, even more so than usual. We are exploring private school options for next year. It’s so weird to say that; DD has been homeschooled from the beginning, and I believed she always would be.

If we do not find a satisfactory school option, we will likely do an extremely relaxed year, even more so than our usual. One idea that intrigued her was a completely arts-focused year. There are several theater groups and art classes around here. She could actually do Hoffman Piano. We could get a membership at our local makerspace and go to their meetups. We would need to keep her physical activity stuff on the schedule (currently parkour and aerial silks) because it is important for her to regulate, but she could potentially do dance or other more performance-based activities.

17 hours ago, Cake and Pi said:

Our plans for next year are still solidifying, so I'll probably wait another month or so to share. 

I'm curious, do you all still post on the regular grade level threads as well? Is there some point where a kid is just too accelerated to share outside of the AL board? 

 

I do not post on the regular grade threads. DD simply doesn’t come close to “fitting” in those threads, which means that I don’t find much community in them and my educational choices are unlikely to be useful to others with similarly aged kids on the thread.

[Noreen Claire]

On 2/1/2020 at 4:23 PM, Cake and Pi said:

Our plans for next year are still solidifying, so I'll probably wait another month or so to share. 

I'm curious, do you all still post on the regular grade level threads as well? Is there some point where a kid is just too accelerated to share outside of the AL board? 

I've only started posting in the AL forum. I appreciate it when people with accelerated kids post in both places, because it shows that, even though they may be ahead in some areas, they may be on-level/behind-level in others. I don't know if it helps anyone else, but it is reassuring to me!

 

DS10 (6th grade)

Math: AoPS intro to algebra

Logic: continue w/ Blast Off w/Logic series and misc. Mind Benders books.

Science: Astronomy/Earth science (w/help from DH, an astronomy teacher)

History: Medieval-Early Renaissance, using Kingfisher History Encyclopedia, The Story of Science, and Light to the Nations P1;  reading lists from Living Math U2

Latin: finish Little Latin Readers & start Henle; also considering Portuguese Saturday school.

Language arts: Spelling Workout F; Grammar for the Well Trained Mind (2nd time through); Writing With Skill level 1

Literature: assigned books from the WTM reading list plus whatever else he wants to read, he usually has several non-school books going at once

Sports: He plays sports fall, winter, and spring. We will put in place a daily workout routine of bodyweight exercises and cardio, maybe add in some readings and call it "health class".

Misc.: He'll keep working through Code Combat for Python coding; typing program online; he's going to start some weekly cooking & baking lessons with me; we will learn some needlepoint skills together as a family (he's already a knitter). I need to find a way to fit piano and/or saxophone lessons into the budget (possibly online)

 

DS7 (3rd grade)

 

language arts:  First Language Lessons 3, Spelling Workout C, Zaner-Bloser 3 handwriting, copywork/narrations/dictations across the curriculum

math & logic: Beast Academy 3, books from LivingMath U2, MindBenders/BalanceBenders/Math Analogies/etc.

history: SOTW2 / read alouds from LivingMath U2

literature: read-alouds from the WTM recommendations (to go along with SOTW2), plenty of read alouds, audiobooks 

science: astronomy/earth science (WTM recommendations)

Latin: start Little Latin Readers, possibly Saturday Portuguese school

misc: This kid need plenty of unstructured time for following his own rabbit trails -- he pulls random nonfiction books off of DH's shelves and reads until he either doesn't understand anymore or gets bored; he's self-teaching Python, BBC Micro:Bit, and Raspberry Pi, etc. What he really needs is an organized physical activity, but his social anxiety won't let him join teams. Maybe piano lessons.

 

DS5 (1st grade)

 

phonics: finish Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

math and logic: Singapore Math 1A/B and MindBenders-type books 

language arts: First Language Lessons 1, Writing With Ease 1, and Spelling Workout A, Zaner-Bloser 1

science: (along with DS7 & DS10) earth science (library books) & astronomy (led by DH, an astronomy teacher)

history: (along with DS7) medieval & early renaissance (SOTW2 & lots of library books)

misc: he's playing soccer & maybe t-ball, weekly trips to the library, continue speech therapy weekly at the public school; maybe cub scouts; practical cleaning/cooking lessons; start CCD; possibly Saturday Portuguese school

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

On 2/1/2020 at 3:23 PM, Cake and Pi said:

I'm curious, do you all still post on the regular grade level threads as well? Is there some point where a kid is just too accelerated to share outside of the AL board?

I was a little hesitant, but no one else had gotten around to starting one for DS’ grade so I went ahead. 

I could see it not being a super-useful resource the further out from the norm you get, & if your AL is well into the tails of the bell curve people are likely to comment (which may or may not bother you). My DS isn’t super accelerated, though. There are times I wonder if we really ought to be here at all 😅

Edited February 3, 2020 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

DS will be going into 2nd grade in the fall. We will likely move again in the second half of the school year, so we’ll continue to school year-round.

UPDATE V.3

Composition: IEW Fables, Myths, & Fairy Tales

Reading: 20min/day of self-chosen chapter book reading + assigned fables, myths, & fairy tales to compliment our composition curriculum. for him as well as activities such as defining & illustrating words,

Handwriting: Cursive copy work

Spelling: AAS 4 & 5

Grammar: MCT Grammar Town, Practice Town

Latin: Recommended roots from MCT Grammar Town covered via Membean (website)

Poetics: MCT Building Poems

Math: BA 3D-4D, RS Math Games

Logic: EM Critical & Creative Thinking 5/6, Brain Benders, Logic Countdown

History: History Quest Middle Ages

Science: RSO Astronomy 1

Art: Printmaking, flower pressing, observation drawing, watercolor painting

Electives: Scouts, soccer, homeschool day at the library 

Edited June 27, 2020 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax

[Cake and Pi]

5 hours ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

 My DS isn’t super accelerated, though. There are times I wonder if we really ought to be here at all 😅

 

You belong here. Most ALs aren't crazy accelerated, but they're still ALs. This board shouldn't belong only to the extreme outliers. The radically accelerated ones do seem to make everyone else with "only" 1-3 year or less globally accelerated kids second guess themselves. It dregs up the impostor syndrome hard. It took me a couple of years to decide that I could/should post on this board. 🤷‍♀️

Personally, with a radically AL alongside "regular" ALs and my delayed DS#4, it's interesting how the emotions have played out and settled. Even though they seem to operate on wholly different levels academically, I know that my DS#1 and DS#2 are intellectually in the same ballpark with DS#3, both because of behaviors and WISC scores. They just don't direct their energies in the same ways that he does right now. I have also more internalized the notion that smarter/more accelerated/etc does not equal superior, and that disability is different, not less. I mean, I knew that in theory before, but living with it makes it a whole other kind of real. Point being that I'm now perfectly comfortable posting about my DS#2 here even though he's just 1-2 years accelerated in his better subjects, and actually 1-2 years behind in the ones that are harder for him. He's still an AL.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

1 minute ago, square_25 said:

I'm sorry -- I hope that my posts don't make people feel like that :-/.

Not at all! I love reading about her, & everything the others are doing over here as well.

I think Lace is right & that it’s just the imposter syndrome talking... DS also has SPD (potentially undiagnosed ADHD) & things have been particularly rough in that regard lately, so I’m just in a bit of a funk trying to get a handle on that. He’s “not fitting in” in the worst ways, without displaying his talents anywhere but our home classroom, so I feel like a bit of a fraud. 

[Cake and Pi]

15 minutes ago, square_25 said:

 

I'm sorry -- I hope that my posts don't make people feel like that :-/.

 

No one should have to apologize for where their kid is at developmentally or academically, including you 😉. I only meant that sometimes the posts about PG and/or radically accelerated learners seem very prominent on this board and that the parents of more subtly/spiky/non-traditional ALs shouldn't let that keep them from joining in. 

[8filltheheart]

20 minutes ago, Cake and Pi said:

 

You belong here. Most ALs aren't crazy accelerated, but they're still ALs. This board shouldn't belong only to the extreme outliers. The radically accelerated ones do seem to make everyone else with "only" 1-3 year or less globally accelerated kids second guess themselves. It dregs up the impostor syndrome hard. It took me a couple of years to decide that I could/should post on this board. 🤷‍♀️

 

I rarely post on this forum.  I didnt at all for many yrs bc the vibe was very much "exclusive to PG." Then, as the yrs went by, certain posters moved on, and I watched exactly where my kids ended up at graduation comparatively speaking.  I realized that what my kids were actually doing very much fit the profile of ALs that were being described back then. I still don't really enjoy posting on the AL forum.  I am very much not into thinking of them as accelerated or avg as much as we just do what we do.  Since I don't use preplanned curriculum other than math books, it really doesn't look advanced, just life.  🙂

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Annddd I’ve totally derailed the thread. 💣 💥
Sorry! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Cake and Pi]

5 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I rarely post on this forum.  I didnt at all for many yrs bc the vibe was very much "exclusive to PG." Then, as the yrs went by, certain posters moved on, and I watched exactly where my kids ended up at graduation comparatively speaking.  I realized that what my kids were actually doing very much fit the profile of ALs that were being described back then. I still don't really enjoy posting on the AL forum.  I am very much not into thinking of them as accelerated or avg as much as we just do what we do.  Since I don't use preplanned curriculum other than math books, it really doesn't look advanced, just life.  🙂

 

I think the major benefit of this particular forum is not having to justify where your kid is at. I can ask here for recommendations on a high school physics book for my elementary kid or share that my 8yo will start AoPS Precalculus next year and no one is going to accuse me of pushing him, not letting him be a kid, or ruining his childhood, like has happened on some of the other WTM forums. It's also helpful for those of us who use curriculum to get ideas for appropriate resources to use with kiddos who don't necessarily learn best with traditionally scoped, sequenced, and paced curriculum.

[8filltheheart]

2 minutes ago, Cake and Pi said:

 

I think the major benefit of this particular forum is not having to justify where your kid is at. I can ask here for recommendations on a high school physics book for my elementary kid or share that my 8yo will start AoPS Precalculus next year and no one is going to accuse me of pushing him, not letting him be a kid, or ruining his childhood, like has happened on some of the other WTM forums. It's also helpful for those of us who use curriculum to get ideas for appropriate resources to use with kiddos who don't necessarily learn best with traditionally scoped, sequenced, and paced curriculum.

And this is precisely why I rarely post on the AL forum.  😉  

[SeaConquest]

3 minutes ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

Annddd I’ve totally derailed the thread. 💣 💥
Sorry! 🤦🏻‍♀️

 

Not at all. I still have massive imposter syndrome with my kids and I.  I think it is really good to talk about it and see that it is normal and something with which many of us struggle. I still have no idea about my youngest. I know that he has that sparkle in his eyes and can light up a room with his personality, but cognitively, is he on the same level as big brother? Who knows? Who cares? He no doubt has gifts that big brother does not. Anyway, ALs come in all varieties and many are dealing with exceptionalities and/or disabilities that complicate things enormously. This post is really meant to be a safe space to post about what you are thinking about for next year. I used these threads, particularly in the early years, for ideas and inspiration. I had never heard of History Quest , which was mentioned upthread, so I googled it, and now I wonder if Ronen might enjoy it. I also admin a local homeschooling board, so I like to keep up on new resources, so I can make recommendations if other homeschoolers ask me for suggestions. Anyway, no judgment here about what our ALs are doing. Seriously.  

[SeaConquest]

23 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I rarely post on this forum.  I didnt at all for many yrs bc the vibe was very much "exclusive to PG." Then, as the yrs went by, certain posters moved on, and I watched exactly where my kids ended up at graduation comparatively speaking.  I realized that what my kids were actually doing very much fit the profile of ALs that were being described back then. I still don't really enjoy posting on the AL forum.  I am very much not into thinking of them as accelerated or avg as much as we just do what we do.  Since I don't use preplanned curriculum other than math books, it really doesn't look advanced, just life.  🙂

 

I go back and re-read many of your threads and have many WW8D (what would 8 do) moments in my dealings with my kids because of them, so thank you.

[8filltheheart]

19 minutes ago, square_25 said:

 

Because some kids are really far ahead? But that's what some kids WANT to do. My daughter pestered me this year until we started algebra, even though I'd have rather waited until she actually got long division down (she can divide very well, but not with an algorithm) and was more solid on fractions. But she always wants to go forward conceptually. 

I don't see how the fact that some kids have very specific gifts makes this forum a less useful resource for your specific child. As I said, I have a kid who learned her letters by 2 and one who's struggling at almost 4. I don't expect the resources for my younger girl (who is still precocious) to feel somehow tainted by the fact that there are more uniformly gifted kids on here. 

LOL!  Really??  My post had nothing to do with kids being advanced.  It is actually  b/c this is the main view towards education has always dominated the AL forums...

33 minutes ago, Cake and Pi said:

I can ask here for recommendations on a high school physics book for my elementary kid ......It's also helpful for those of us who use curriculum to get ideas for appropriate resources to use with kiddos who don't necessarily learn best with traditionally scoped, sequenced, and paced curriculum.

I can't wrap my head around the focus on textbooks and curriculum for kids who don't fit a traditional classification.  And, yet, by far, the AL forum historically is the forum where using provider sources has been dominate. 

It is a philosophical difference toward education, not anything to do with where kids are functioning.

Edited February 4, 2020 by 8FillTheHeart

[Cake and Pi]

2 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

LOL!  Really??  My post had nothing to do with kids being advanced.  It is actually  b/c this is the main view towards education has always dominated the AL forums...

I can't wrap my head around the focus on textbooks and curriculum for kids who don't fit a traditional classification.  And, yet, by far, the AL forum historically is the forum where using provider sources has been dominate. 

 

Sorry, I'm not very good at reading between the lines. What, exactly, is the main view towards education that dominates the AL forums, and how does it clash with your personal educational philosophy?

As for textbooks and curriculum, I would and do use them with any and all of my kids, accelerated or not. I'm just not educationally well rounded or creative enough to come up with what and how to teach on my own. Without curricula, I'd be very unsure of myself as a home educator. If my delayed dude comes home from public special education, I'll be buying Barton and ST Math for him, things I learned about on the Learning Challenges forum, which I view very similarly to the AL forum. They're both places for parents of kids who don't fit "typical" in one or more ways that affect learning. Nothing wrong with pooling resources and sharing ideas, right?

[8filltheheart]

1 minute ago, Cake and Pi said:

 

Sorry, I'm not very good at reading between the lines. What, exactly, is the main view towards education that dominates the AL forums, and how does it clash with your personal educational philosophy?

As for textbooks and curriculum, I would and do use them with any and all of my kids, accelerated or not. I'm just not educationally well rounded or creative enough to come up with what and how to teach on my own. Without curricula, I'd be very unsure of myself as a home educator. If my delayed dude comes home from public special education, I'll be buying Barton and ST Math for him, things I learned about on the Learning Challenges forum, which I view very similarly to the AL forum. They're both places for parents of kids who don't fit "typical" in one or more ways that affect learning. Nothing wrong with pooling resources and sharing ideas, right?

There is nothing wrong at all with pooling resources and sharing ideas.  🙂  I wasn't attempting to suggest otherwise.   

On the AL forum in the past (and unfortunately, on almost all of the forums now),  textbooks (or simply more advanced textbooks in the case of AL) or online providers is generally the extent of discussion or interest.  When non-high school/college texts options have been mentioned, the conversation invariably has swung in the direction that those are the only resources that meet the needs/drives of the AL learner (and why for so long I felt like my kids didn't match the AL profile).  

Since we rarely use textbooks or providers, the focus on either is something I cannot relate to. Hence, I rarely post on the AL forum and typically don't enjoy posting on the AL forum b/c we just don't fit the typical profile of posters.  I really enjoy reading @dmmetler's posts about her dd's adventures. They are now the main reason I click on the AL forum.

Absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that that is what you want or need.  I was not commenting on any other posters.  I was simply stating that I could relate to being uncomfortable posting on the AL forum (bc I am) and why.

[Cake and Pi]

Alright! I got motivated and worked out tentative plans. Of course, this will all probably change 27 times between now and August, but at least the thread's back on topic now 😄

Well, see? I should have just waited. It's been 2ish weeks and I'm already changing things.

Two-months-later update: Now with all the corona virus craziness I'm not sure we'll be using the homeschool enrichment program after all.  

Four-months-later update: I've decided not to use the homeschool enrichment program except for with DS#1. DS#3 is officially being moved back into his age-grade (3rd in the fall) because the online homeschool charter we're switching to will not honor the two grade skips he has from a different school district. DS#2 and DS#4 are both homeschooling for sure as well.

DS#1, will-be-12yo/ 7th grade

Getting very independent. He's in a phase where he often doesn't want to be taught by me but still needs the support of an instructor and a weekly schedule, so we're incorporating many online classes. I think he'd love to go to a B&M school next year if only there weren't other kids there, lol. He's decided he wants to do English Language Arts through the PS online academy, too, but might also want a lit class. The Athena's class he was interested in isn't in the spring schedule, so now considering a G3 lit class instead.

Math: AoPS Geometry, hopefully through possibly through RFWP Online or WTM Academy (on the wait list)

Science: Public online GT 8th grade science class

Social Studies: Public online GT 8th grade Early American History class

Language Arts: MCT Literature Level, writing across the curriculum, Sequential Spelling 5, considering the Athena's lit to film class set  Public online GT 7th grade English language arts class, Online G3 19th Century American Literature?? might add a G3 lit class second semester depending on workload from the public ELA class

Other: SK Philosophy level G, TBD classes through the homeschool charter, pottery, swimming, Athena's Dragonology and Superstitions classes

 

 

DS#2, 10yo/ 6th grade

 

May return to PS for the social life. If he stays home I'll need to continue to learning how to teach him, which has been quite the adventure so far (four weeks in). He's an out-of-the-box, non-linear, headstrong, and not-externally-motivated kind of learner. This curriculum-loving mama is having to step way out of her comfort zone to reach and teach this kid. He loves being home! No return to PS next year! 

 

Math: Pre-algebra, but I can't decide what curriculum to use. He needs something like AoPS for problem novelty and puzzle-y-ness, but with traditional instruction and way less dense text, or even no reading at all. If I don't find the magic curriculum, I'm thinking about riding this bike with no handlebars and just teaching him without a book, which I really don't want to do but at least feels possible now that it'll be my 3rd pass through teaching pre-a. I pulled out RightStart G on a whim, and he likes it! He's zooming through, doing 6-10 lessons per 4-day school week. He seems to like having a program written to him. I like that it's really holding his hand with instructions since it assumes the kid has been taught directly by a parent up to this point. If this keeps working, he'll do level H next year, which is supposed to be RS's pre-algebra. Problem possibly solved?

 

Science: Leaning toward an interest-led documentary year, or I may try align his topics with whatever his brothers are covering in their science class He'll take classes he finds interesting from Athena's. He loves the interaction he gets through those, and it's the right level and input and output for now. So, Athena's Dragonology and Yum food/cooking classes 1st semester, 2nd semester TBD.

 

Social Studies: Not sure. Considering getting a subscription to Junior Scholastic and listening to a variety of historical fiction and diversity focused audiobooks with an ancient history spine that is yet to be determined roughly aligned to a chronological-ish trek through prehistory and ancient times. I think we'll used bits and pieces from Big History Project, History Quest, and Human Odyssey. 

 

Language Arts: Brave Writer with Arrows, Sequential Spelling 2, handwriting practice, Killgallons story grammar, and Vocabulary Cartoons, Fix It 2, perhaps try IEW...?  Surprisingly, Brave Writer didn't work out this semester, but Killgallongs did! (Until it didn't anymore.) He's also doing very well with Fix It for combined grammar and handwriting/copywork practice. He seems to be doing better with more structure, which seems counter-intuitive to me. We discovered Night Zookeeper and he's willingly writing more in a day now than he used to write in a week. We'll keep that going as long as he's interested.

 

Other: full-day aerospace program once a week (??) <--probably not because I don't want to pay the tuition if schools may revert back to remote learning again if there's a second wave of the corona virus this fall, running with dad

 

 

 

DS#3, 8yo/ 3rd grade

 

Math: AoPS Online Intermediate Algebra and Precalculus. It feels scary writing that out. Maybe he'll just do Intermediate Algebra.

 

Science: Public online GT 8th grade science class Davidson: Explore Contemporary Science

 

Social Studies: I'll probably lump him in with whatever I decide to do with DS#2 doing prehistory and ancients

 

Language Arts: MCT Voyage Level class through RFWP Online, writing across the curriculum, handwriting practice, reading whatever he wants
 

Other: SK Philosophy level D, python, java script, HTML, TBD classes from the homeschool enrichment program, might take a B&M high school class and/or go to the GT elementary magnet for a class period, swimming if we can squeeze it in around all that and his 15ish hours a week of ABA

 

 

 

DS#4, turning 7 end of summer/ 1st grade

 

Not an AL, but I'll include him anyway! Now considering keeping him home this fall...for sure. PS is only being held four days per week, and students are only attending live classes once a week with the other three days designated as remote learning. This isn't going to work for DS#4, so he'll homeschool with the big boys.

 

Main academics: Public school 1st grade 
 

Main services: sped and speech therapy at school

 

Supplemental academics:  guided playing with home-made DragonBox Nooms rods, as much read-aloud time as he'll tolerate, phonetic awareness games

 

Supplemental services: mix of private and mom-facilitated OT and PT, may attempt private pelvic floor rehab therapy again

 

Math: Basic number sense, addition within 10, place value within 100, etc. using toys, games, and Ronit Bird alongside MUS Primer, ST Math K, and/or RS Activities and card games. I'm just going to throw it all at him and somehow, someway he's going to get it.
Pre-reading: Phonological awareness through games, toys, Kilpatrick Equipped for Reading Success, Hearbuilder, etc.
Phonics: No idea
Language: Speech and Language therapy
Writing: KWOT+HWOT K and then... tracing? Copywork? 
Literature/social studies/ science: Picture book read-aloud schedule and topically coordinated activities from Five Senses Literature Lessons: Wonderful World
Other: KiwiCo Koala Crate, might move into Kiwi Crate second semester depending on his developmental readiness.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Cake and Pi
updates

[Rush]

On 1/30/2020 at 7:08 PM, SeaConquest said:

 

Thank you. I have been waiting for this thread and especially for post of yours😃

Since I had started working, we have started falling dreadfully behind and as we were taking a very similar education approach to teaching our kids, I am heavily relying on your program at the moment 🙈😅

I also wanted to tell you thanks for a reply about AOPS physics. Unfortunately it was a bit crazy time for me and I forgot to thank you. My apology 😳

 

I will try to pull all things together this weekend, but before I have to sort a few things, maths and science. We tried to take online AOPS course last month, but since my kid cannot attend the lessons online due to a different time zone, he found this course not very useful and we decided to cancel it 😞 I need to figure out what shall we do now, as we do not want to change the program. I am not feeling comfortable to teach this level. Beside I have enrolled myself into another troublesome course, ACCA this time, and I am afraid I will have not enough time for myself for a few next years😞

Does anyone takes AOPS course in Welltrainedmind academy by any chance? How does it work? Is there any other online courses who follows AOPS curriculum? 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Rush

[Guest]

Part of the thing for me is that the nitty gritty changes through time. When DD was younger, and through about typical high school content, we did almost everything at home, sometimes with the help of a mentor, and textbooks were a guide at best, and online classes were a fun supplement to get to interact with other people more than anything else, just like local co-ops. Starting at about age 11, she demanded time with other people, and really needed that experience, so we ended up moving to college classes, and discussion at home and extra books here and there around the edges. My role changed dramatically, and she started moving more laterally and less accelerated. In some areas, she really hasn't moved forward since that time-math, for example, has been taking pretty much every class that she qualified for at the college, without actually moving forward in the progression (so, she placed into Calculus, but has chosen to take math teaching techniques, statistics, finite and discrete math, college algebra and trig, etc). Part of that, I think, is that she truly enjoys being able to help other students-and she has learned something new in every class. She's taken a lot more humanities than I would have expected, and dived deeply into social science. But I really geel like we stopped homeschooling about 3 years ago-not by choice, but because that was what DD needed at the time. I really had expected to continue at home all the way through-and kind of envy folks who have done so.

[SeaConquest]

1 hour ago, Rush said:

Does anyone takes AOPS course in Welltrainedmind academy by any chance? How does it work? Is there any other online courses who follows AOPS curriculum? 

 

What about these classes?

https://www.rfwp.com/pages/online-courses/

Edited February 7, 2020 by SeaConquest

[SeaConquest]

25 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

Part of the thing for me is that the nitty gritty changes through time. When DD was younger, and through about typical high school content, we did almost everything at home, sometimes with the help of a mentor, and textbooks were a guide at best, and online classes were a fun supplement to get to interact with other people more than anything else, just like local co-ops. Starting at about age 11, she demanded time with other people, and really needed that experience, so we ended up moving to college classes, and discussion at home and extra books here and there around the edges. My role changed dramatically, and she started moving more laterally and less accelerated. In some areas, she really hasn't moved forward since that time-math, for example, has been taking pretty much every class that she qualified for at the college, without actually moving forward in the progression (so, she placed into Calculus, but has chosen to take math teaching techniques, statistics, finite and discrete math, college algebra and trig, etc). Part of that, I think, is that she truly enjoys being able to help other students-and she has learned something new in every class. She's taken a lot more humanities than I would have expected, and dived deeply into social science. But I really geel like we stopped homeschooling about 3 years ago-not by choice, but because that was what DD needed at the time. I really had expected to continue at home all the way through-and kind of envy folks who have done so.

 

Sacha just turned 11 and I think this is where we are heading as well. Like you, I also envy the people who are able to create these really cool, out-of-the-box learning experiences for their kids, but the best that I can do is research what I can find that has already been put together by others. Like, I was able to find an astrobiology series that is run by a former NASA instructor and DYS parent. That's got to be better than anything I can throw together myself.  I also found a charter school in So Cal that runs an aeronautics enrichment program that is doing the type of stuff that Sacha wants to do (soaring lessons in gliders, Genes in Space experiments for the ISS).

Plus, with the teen years approaching, I can already foresee that learning alone/primarily online is likely going to get more frustrating for him. He is probably going to want more social interaction with others. He is fine now because he still gets to go 2 days/week to his charter school for art/theatre/guitar, but as his academic load continues to increase, I am not sure how much we will be able to set aside two full days for his charter school. His current charter also has restrictions on dual enrollment that will eventually become problematic for him, so I can't see him lasting there beyond 8th grade unless they change those rules.

Rather than throwing him straight into Gen Chem, we compromised by giving the Intro to Gen Chem class a try next spring when he is 12. That doesn't seem excessively young to me among the AL crowd for trying out what is effectively a compressed version of a high school chem class. If it goes poorly, we can drop it and hold off on CC until he has better EF skills. But, this is something that he wants to do, and I am not going to be the one that holds him back. If it goes well, then I expect that he will continue to stay with AoPS for math until Calc BC, then probably transition to SOHS or UCSD math classes. But for the rest, I imagine that he will be doing quite a bit of dual enrolling at the CCs or UCSD. Thankfully, they are expanding our trolley system so that he can get around by mass transit in the years ahead. We shall see. But yeah, this year feels like the year that things are starting to change.     

 

[Xahm]

Thanks for starting this thread. It's given me a chance to start thinking, self doubt, check out the local school again, and re embrace homeschooling for the coming year.

My kids will be 8, 6.5, almost 4, and 1.5 in the fall. Together we'll do SOTW 3, some BFSU, maybe some Mystery Science, and a lot of reading aloud and talking. We'll be working on Scout requirements for the older two, which we largely end up doing together.

All the rest of this is heavily dependent on how they grow and mature over the next months.

Dd8 will likely be finishing the tail end of BA 3 and then doing 4. I suspect she'll get through it all easily. I have some other things, like logic and graphing, to avoid going further than that. For ELA she'll be doing a lot of reading, dictation, and The Good and the Beautiful handwriting. Everything else about that curriculum makes me want to run screaming, but the handwriting is what we're looking for. I want to include more consistent writing practice for her. Currently she mostly writes her own projects, which results in some high-quality work done in long bursts, but very sporadically.

DS 6 will likely be ready for BA2a. We're currently doing Math Mammoth, mostly to teach him a little independence and a lot of confidence, but it's super easy. I don't know how far I should go before swapping over. I think he'll be reading well but still be needing buddy reading to build endurance. He'll likely be ready to start simple dictation, and he'll also be doing TGATB handwriting.

DS 4 has been demanding school and learning to read recently, stop who knows where he'll be. We may be slowly going through Progressive Phonics, or he may be reading nearly independently. We'll likely do MEP1 orally. 

DS 1 will continue his lessons in advanced climbing and trouble making, as well as beginning speech.

[purpleowl]

I had already posted in the grade-level threads before this thread was started. I can't remember if I have normally posted in those or not. My kids are accelerated different amounts, but here are the plans for next year as they currently stand...may look slightly different from what I initially posted in those threads. This thread is also better for showing where I'm combining kids. 🙂 Grade levels listed are age-based grades for the 20-21 school year.

DD#1 (6th) and DD#2 (3rd) together

• History: K12 Human Odyssey volume 2. I will make my own "student pages" to go with the text like I have done for volume 1, also incorporating map work from MapTrek.
• Writing: Writing & Rhetoric, books 7 & 8.
• Science: physics is the plan. Still looking into options, but right now I'm leaning toward Hewitt's Conceptual Physics. 
• Grammar: jury's still out on whether we will do grammar or not. If we do, it will be Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind.

DD#1 (6th)

• Reading: mom-selected books.
• Computer skills: coding (Python, not sure yet what resource/s); typing (Typing Instructor and maybe starting to type some papers).
• Math: AOPS Intro to Algebra.
• Foreign language: I'm not sure what we'll do. She'll wrap up book 2 of Lively Latin this year. So I could have her start Wheelock's, with a sense of "this is easy because I've already done it" for a lot of the first half of the book. Or I could let her choose a modern language to start instead, because she's feeling a bit Latin-ed out. On the other hand, some friends do a Latin club that competes and they've told me she would be welcome to participate...and that could be a good thing for her. And she doesn't actually have another language that she's particularly interested in learning. So...that was a lot of words to say "I don't know, but something."

DD#2 (3rd)

• Reading: mom-selected books.
• Computer skills: coding (Scratch); typing (Typing Instructor and maybe starting to type some papers).
• Math: AOPS Prealgebra.
• Foreign language: continuing Lively Latin 2; continuing Russian Step by Step. 

DS (1st)

• Grammar: First Language Lessons 2.
• Writing: some A Beka handwriting, and some WTM-style narration & copywork incorporated with science, history, and reading.
• Reading: mom-selected books.
• Math: *pretty sure* that I will start him on Beast Academy 2, and we'll use Math Mammoth 2 to shore up any weak areas as needed. BA2 wasn't out for my girls, so I don't have a good feel for whether DS is ready for it or not. Based on the placement test for 2A, it looks like probably, but with a couple of spots he should work on more. 
• History: Story of the World 2 (might need to finish the tail end of 1).
• Science: most likely, this will be a mishmash of topics studied through books and YouTube videos, plus he will observe demonstrations/experiments that his sisters are doing for their science, and he'll absorb some knowledge through that as well. This is pretty much what we're doing this year.

All three kids

• Piano lessons
• Children's choir
• Whatever sports or other activities we end up signing up for!

 

[Sarah0000]

DS8yo-

Language: Minimus Latin, MCT Town, searching for a Spanish spine...

Writing: TC, W&R Narrative

Math: ... maybe I'll show him samples and let him pick his spine.

Science: BFSU 2, Daily Science 3

Literature: Suppose the Wolf Gr 3/4

DS5yo:

Language: MCT Island, The Fun Spanish (when he wants)

Writing: RFP Aesop Books 3 and 4, cursive copywork

Math: BA Online, Miquon, Fan Math Process Skills 1 and 2

Science: BFSU 1 (very lightly), maybe start Daily Science 1 at some point

DS turning 3yo: nursery rhymes, poetry, fairy tales. The older kids still like these so this often turns into a lot of performing arts practice!

Everyone together (sometimes different levels though)

Arts: piano lessons, mom-designed visual arts units with artist study, music history with composer studies, lots of field trips

Geography: continue BF Around the World 1, Maps Charts Graphs

History: SOTW Audio 3, American History read alouds

Recitation: Living Memory, poetry

Read alouds: Let's Read and Find Out, Torchlight, AO, myths and fairytales, etc etc, including Spanish

[Rush]

On 2/7/2020 at 6:41 PM, SeaConquest said:

 

What about these classes?

https://www.rfwp.com/pages/online-courses/

Thank you. I will check them out. 

 

I am still trying to put all the things together, mainly because I need to decide what to do for maths, physics and chemistry🙄

 

[leahtalbot96]

This is fun! I love getting ideas of other options to try.

Can anyone recommend a Bible study group or curriculum? 

Math- Right Start A for the little ones plus workbooks and websites as appropriate. 

English- Suppose the Wolf K-2 for the twins. We will work on all skills including reading and writing. 

History- SOTW 

Geography- BF around the world series

Music- piano lessons

Art- Teaching Art to Children, advice needed though..

Misc- first aid for eldest, teamwork, cookery, life skills, money skills etc 

[Rush]

I am struggling this year with with my planning😳

These what I have so far...

DS12 

Royal Fireworks Geometry, Competitive maths/AOPS Intermediate Algebra with a personal tutor.

Physics - he is taking Jetta's class this year and I cannot figure out where to go next. Should be something not intensive. Considering to continue with our maths tutor too.

Programming - looking at Alphastar's program for now too. We have a very good online academy of sport programming, but I want to reduce the cost a little bit at the moment.

Chess with a tutor + lots of tournaments

Music school - Piano, Vocal had to go for now - no time

French, Russian and German to continue

+ school and tennis everyday too🙈

He also organised a tennis club with a friend at his school last year and they are currently teaching their pears twice a week.

 

DS10

BA5 online, competitive maths with me

Science - funny projects with daddy

Robotics - with his brother's or daddy's help 

Computing - Digital Savvy or/and Web Design at CompuScholar

SOTW to finish

Entrepreneur or engineering classes - he is still choosing

Art school

Russian & French 

Swimming and Boxing

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Rush

[purpleowl]

I had pretty much decided that our "grammar break" would be extended indefinitely, but DD#2 has been BEGGING me to let her do grammar again. I don't want to add more to our days. Sigh. 

In a similar vein, DD#1 found out that her friend who does CC gets to study logic, and so she is feeling very deprived at not having that. DD#2 jumped on board when DD#1 asked for logic. I have a thing that we can do once a week (The Great Chocolate Caper), so that's less of an issue to add.

But thinking about doing MORE than we already do just makes me tired, lol!

[purpleowl]

12 minutes ago, square_25 said:

What grammar were you doing?? That sounds like a very positive review from your daughter, lol! 

Ha! She is super enthusiastic when she decides she likes/wants something, and then despondent in equal measure when she decides she doesn't. 😉 

She has done First Language Lessons, finishing level 4 about a year ago (which is when I declared Grammar Break). The next thing she would do is Grammar for the Well-Trained Mind at a slightly reduced pace. DD#1 has already done GftWTM once (purple); that's what she had just finished before the Grammar Break. I figured down the road I could have them do red together. So if I cave, I'll do purple with DD#2.

Edited March 4, 2020 by purpleowl

[Condessa]

We’re all up in the air.  This year has been such a struggle.  I am so discouraged.  My oldest is going to public school in the Fall.  I feel like a failure.  I am making an academic decision for her based not on what I believe is best academically, but because of what really boils down to a parenting issue.  But I can’t keep doing this.  I am so sick of the struggle and the rudeness and the bad attitude.  It is so difficult to get four children’s schoolwork done when the oldest requires the greatest supervision to keep on task.  She really took advantage of the months of my distraction to get out of as much of her work as possible, and now is incredibly angry with me for forcing her to do more to make up lost time in the subjects she is half a year behind our plans for the year in.  (Distraction=when our foster daughter first came to us and most of my attention went to keeping her from injuring herself or someone else).

Dd11, 6th: public school, piano.  I don’t know yet if I will require any more from her or not. Maybe spelling.  (My sil tells me that her kids’ district does not teach spelling at all).

Dd9, 4th: will go to public school, too, if she decides she wants to.  If she goes, I will after school her in spelling and math facts memorization.  If not, we will generally continue with what we’ve done before with BA 5, MCT Town level, AAS, SOTW 2, MEL chemistry+ ? for science, typing.com and Spencerian handwriting, German with a tutor.  Voice lessons and Horseback riding for extracurriculars.

Ds7, 3rd:  is saying he wants to go to public school, but we don’t think he is ready to do well in a classroom.  He latches on to something and does it obsessively for a period of time, and is likely to melt down if you force him to transition out of it before he’s ready.  It’s not a problem at home.  I don’t mind if he does five days worth of math in one sitting and spends more time on Language Arts another day.  But it would be a problem in a classroom.  At home, he is always my easiest or my hardest student, depending on whether he is having a perfectionist meltdown that day or not.  His perfectionism seems to be getting worse, and nothing I have tried seems to be working.  And you never know whether today is going to be a wake up bright and early and get everything plus some extra done well by 11 sort of day (~66%) or a rolling on the floor screaming that the computer is lying because he got a question wrong sort of day(~33%).  He will be doing BA5 (and possibly beginning prealgebra—is that possible?!), MCT island level poetics book + the rest of Town level, R&S spelling, HWOT & typing.com, SOTW 2, MEL chemistry + ? for science, Spanish in some form.  Cello and judo+soccer+baseball (in different seasons) for extracurriculars.

Ds5, 1st: is my lopsided boy.  He will be at home with me.  AAR 2, AAS 1, HWOT 1/2, BA and Singapore 3, SOTW 2, MEL chemistry+?, start a language.  He’s talking about French or Japanese.  (Eeek!). Violin and horseback riding aka. cowboy lessons.

Dd3: will not be with us.  She is going home to her bio mom soon.  Things will be much easier here, but emotionally harder.  It feels like she belongs on this list.

[Guest]

Updated my plans since summer is now totally out the window, and fall may be since both local schools are likely to be online or hybrid at best. A little worried that DD's senior year is going to look phoned in compared to what she's done before :(.

[Runningmom80]

On 4/14/2020 at 6:26 PM, dmmetler said:

Updated my plans since summer is now totally out the window, and fall may be since both local schools are likely to be online or hybrid at best. A little worried that DD's senior year is going to look phoned in compared to what she's done before :(.

 

big hugs! This is a crazy time, I would like to think that anyone reviewing a transcript will understand. 

[Runningmom80]

Well, I haven't been around in a while! We had decided to send oldest DS (13) to a local "Mastery" school for 9th grade (pending his acceptance of course) but it's looking now like "school" in our state will be more virtual than b&m at least through the end of 2020. 😞 If that is the case, we will continue homeschooling. None of us (DH, myself, and DS) feel like it would be worth the immense cost for what will essentially be virtual classes. (I'm sure they will be amazing, but not THAT amazing)

We missed the cutoff for state funding for DE, so we are probably going the CTY online route and more eclectic/project based music focused. I'm going to try to get him to finish up HS requirements so he can focus on music and community work. It will be fine, I'm not worried. School would have been great but out of all my kids, he's the one made for homeschool. 

 

My twins (9) miss their PS dearly. It's kind fo heartbreaking in a way but we are privileged and safe so we are focusing on resilience. That said, school at home is none of our favorites so if this crisis schooling continues into the fall, we will be official homeschoolers again. I have NO idea what we will do! Probably Singapore math and hopefully continuing Chinese that they learned in school. Bravewriter, or BYL

I hope everyone is well! I've been busy with grad school and work and miss this space and you all! 

[Mommaof5]

On 2/7/2020 at 12:13 PM, Rush said:

Thank you. I have been waiting for this thread and especially for post of yours😃

Since I had started working, we have started falling dreadfully behind and as we were taking a very similar education approach to teaching our kids, I am heavily relying on your program at the moment 🙈😅

I also wanted to tell you thanks for a reply about AOPS physics. Unfortunately it was a bit crazy time for me and I forgot to thank you. My apology 😳

 

I will try to pull all things together this weekend, but before I have to sort a few things, maths and science. We tried to take online AOPS course last month, but since my kid cannot attend the lessons online due to a different time zone, he found this course not very useful and we decided to cancel it 😞 I need to figure out what shall we do now, as we do not want to change the program. I am not feeling comfortable to teach this level. Beside I have enrolled myself into another troublesome course, ACCA this time, and I am afraid I will have not enough time for myself for a few next years😞

Does anyone takes AOPS course in Welltrainedmind academy by any chance? How does it work? Is there any other online courses who follows AOPS curriculum? 

My son took AOPS prealgebra at WTMA with Mrs. Quintero a few years ago when he was 9. It was great because the class was well taught and did not have a huge homework load. Some might say that it was actually too light, however you could always add more problems for your child or add Alcumus problems on related topics each week if you want to. My favorite part of the class was the proof problems. There were a few problems each week where students had to write out step-by-step explanations of how/why they solved the problem the way they did. This was very beneficial for my son, even though he detested them. It would have been good if each week one kid could choose a proof problem from HW to present to the rest of the class.

[4KookieKids]

We're coming back after a pretty long break, but I feel like the dust is finally starting to settle. Our year is never very well planned out, and we re-evaluate about every 2 months, but I find it good to think about long-term, so appreciate this thread.

All together. We've been finding our grove doing things together again, which we'd gotten away from for a while when I had toddlers and preschoolers running wildly through the house. But it's been pleasantly relaxing and refreshing to start the morning off with some "together" time.

• History - we just read together out of Usborne or Horrible Histories or do an audiobook. Even my 10 yo likes to just sit and color while he listens. I think they want to do SOTW 2 (they like the audiobook for #1, and have listened to it about 15 times, but we've never made it past that... lol).
• Science - They've been enjoying the science units from the Good and the Beautiful. They're certainly far below ds10's level, but he still has fun doing something "easy" together.
• Memorizing Psalms and poems and hymns. My younger kids really shine here, and love to memorize. We got an old hymnal, and are just going through it from front to back, talking about what the words mean (sometimes the language seems pretty archaic to them!) and learning the melodies.
• IEW SSS 1A & B - everyone (including DH! 😄 ) does this together except my 4 yo (who sits and colors while we do it). 
• Read alouds - We're working our way through some classics (just finished the entire Little House series and are halfway through the Redwall series. Hoping to make it through Lord of the Rings and Little Women/Men as well next year, along with some funner stuff for the youngers.)

DS10:

• He plowed through the middle level Uzinggo this year, so we'll probably sign him for their high school level program next year. It was perfect for him (thanks dmmetler!!)
• AoPS Algebra and possibly Geometry, self-study with book and alcumus and me when he has a question.
• Typing and Piano and Code.org

DD8:

• Singapore 4 & 5, possible BA 3, but this is really up in the air right now.
• Continuing reading intervention for dyslexia.
• Typing, piano, code.org

DD6:

• Singapore 3, BA 2
• Continuing reading intervention for dyslexia.
• Typing, piano, code.org

DD4:

• Starting LiPS
• Singapore 2A-B

I'd like it if we could figure out a way to get our German and Spanish back into our weeks, but I just don't want to overwhelm us. We have a good rhythm right now. 🙂 

[EKS]

On 2/3/2020 at 11:59 AM, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

 My DS isn’t super accelerated, though. There are times I wonder if we really ought to be here at all 😅

I started posting on here years ago when my older son was only a year ahead in math--and extremely behind in everything else.

[Janeway]

On 2/1/2020 at 3:23 PM, Cake and Pi said:

Our plans for next year are still solidifying, so I'll probably wait another month or so to share. 

I'm curious, do you all still post on the regular grade level threads as well? Is there some point where a kid is just too accelerated to share outside of the AL board? 

I think it is best to not post anything beyond which curriculum in the threads or not at all. For example, if your 6 yr old is doing Singapore Math 5A/B6A/B. then just post "Singapore Math." Or skip posting at all. There is no point to posting other than to give others ideas as to what to use with their children, that is it. When my oldest was doing 3rd grade math in kindergarten and reading chapter books, I did not post about it. Okay, so he was not homeschooling then, he was in private school. If someone asks, then it is fine to answer, but I think it is not really the point of the thread of grade level threads to post about what your 6 yr old is doing that is all 7th grade level, on the 1st grade thread.

[Condessa]

I posted in early March, but so much has changed since then.

My oldest dd and I are doing so much better.  We have pretty much resolved the attitude issues.  After working through that, dd is still interested in trying out public school, which we are fine with.  I have been trying to decide whether the sign her up for AOPS’s self-paced class for the second half of Prealgebra—it seems like it might be a lot easier to get her placed in the right level for math if we have an outside grade for verification.  But it’s so expensive—the last of our charter funds would cover about half of it.  Dd9 would also like to give public school a try.  I think it might be good for her self esteem to experience a normal classroom, instead of always being sandwiched between (and comparing herself to) high-achieving dd11 and ds7.  However, once the school district lets us know what school will look like in the Fall, we will let them decide then whether to go or stay home, unless it is entirely distance learning like now—if they’re home, they’re homeschooling.  

Our little one’s eight-year-old sister is with us now, and I have been crisis schooling her.  I have been shocked first by how little work and how trite and easy it was, and then by the fact that she couldn’t actually do it.  She is a bright kid who no one seems to have noticed was missing essential foundational skills.  The last few weeks I’ve mostly scrapped the school packet work in favor of working on number sense, place value, and reading comprehension—these are the things she really needs, and I only have so much time to work with each kid.  DHS has a policy that foster kids stay enrolled in the same school, but if they aren’t back in the classroom I will try to get permission to teach her through my other kids’ homeschool charter instead of through her school’s distance learning packets.  I got her name added to the charter school’s list just in case.

Ds almost-8 and ds 6 will be home with me.  If they are the only ones, it will be so quiet!  I would have so much more time for fun messy projects with them, like I used to do with my big girls when they were younger.  It’s really hard to make any plans, because I would want to choose different materials if I just have the two of them at home vs. if I am homeschooling five.

Dfd3 is still with us.  She will be 4 in September and will go to her special developmental preschool two mornings a week, I think—she will be eligible for Head Start preschool, which they would have liked to put her into this year if her birthday had been two weeks earlier, so maybe they will want to move her?  Or if her preschool is still closed.  But if I get a say in the matter, I would keep her where she’s been.

 I have two days left to spend the last of this year’s school funds, and I am a bit frozen.  I normally get what I will need to do my planning and prepping over the summer.  It’s hard to know what to do with it when I have so little idea of what I will need to prep for.

[mathmarm]

We'll be changing things up a bit for 2nd grade as we are adding Writing and Science (probably on alternate days) to the schedule.

Music: Singing (home made), Ukelele (with teacher) Recorder (with teacher)
Physical Education: Body weight exercises, running, practicing tennis or soccer
Thinking Time: Taking a bit of time each day to focus on reasoned thinking, problem solving, creative solutions, etc
Drawing: New Augsburg Years 2 and 3,
The Drawing Textbook and an intro to Traditional Animation
Handicrafts: Sloyd for the Primary Grades, cardboard construction projects and such.
Geography: Using a read-draw-write study pattern for learning about the worlds physical geography from a variety of living books.
New Writing: Reasoning and Writing C and D
New Science: Home made to focus on hands-on demonstrations and explorations.

[ondreeuh]

My 12 year old is definitely not PG, and I do have a bit of imposter syndrome affecting me here. On the other hand, what we do is pretty different than my local friends do. So here we are.
 

We normally school through the summer as we take many travel breaks during the off-peak season. Because of that, we just move on to the next thing and change plans throughout the year. Here is what we are doing now and what we have planned next. He is strong all around, but his main interests are the social sciences. 

Math: he recently moved over to AOPS after finishing up Math in Focus. Since it is a new program for him, he is working through prealgebra now to review and get used to their system. He is blazing through and it looks like we will be able to stay with AOPS. We’re just using the online book and alcumus. 
 

Grammar: currently he’s using Exercises in English to review what we did previously in Voyages in English. There really isn’t instruction in the workbook, so if that gets too annoying we may do WTM grammar (purple), though he likes being independent. Could do GWG too. 
 

Writing: We recently started Writing with Skill 1, and plan to continue. We will do creative writing on Fridays. I have Hot Fudge Monday and The Creative Writer on hand for that. I have him write an essay about once a month that relates to our literature units, and I’m going to add more history essays this year. 
 

Literature: we do various lit guides. We are currently finishing up Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On deck I have 20,000 Leagues, A Girl Named Disaster, Eragon, Maze Runner, Mosdos short stories, and a ton of others. I’m soon going to teach “The Hero’s Journey” and we’re going to use that model as we read through The Princess Bride and The Hobbit + LOtR. I also have a world mythology unit planned (Crash Course plus a book of myths & legends), Excavating English, and Adventures in Fantasy (writing a fantasy story). 
 

History: we are 1/3 through Bookshark’s History of Science. This is a perfect fit for him. I’m supplementing with k12’s Human Odyssey books. 
 

Science: right now it’s just history of science. I might try a McHenry unit. I’m ok with it being a light science year. He reads a lot of popular science books and is getting a solid big-picture understanding. Our next formal (textbook) science is physical science, but it will be a few months before we get there. 
 

Geography: he will soon start an online Eastern Hemisphere geography course. It’s a tutorial model, and it does assessments so the student can test out of what they have already mastered. Hopefully he will find it easy to complete in a couple of months. 
 

Logic: we are working through The Fallacy Detective now, then will follow up with The Thinking Toolbox and Art of Argument. Philosophy for Kids somewhere in there too. 

[8filltheheart]

13 minutes ago, CuriousMomof3 said:

 

Science: Astronomy and some lego robotics

Free summer astronomy course starts next week

https://experienceastronomy.com/summer-stargazing-for-families-a-fun-free-8-week-course/

[rebcoola]

The girls get a lot of say now. 

ODD 13 in 8th grade, STEAM class she is in is her main focus.  Everything else is just get her done. 

Math-algebra 2 using ALEKs. 

LA-moving beyond the page. 

French-localclass/immersion trip.

Guitar, and Washington State history at our ALE

 

MDD 11 6th grade.

LA- is coming up with her own reading list and plans to write a monologue and create a costume and perform it to show understanding. 

SS- a survey of social sciences she is going to spend a month on each topic and write a research report.      

Math-Aops pre-algebra

Robotics, choir, improv and school play at our ALE.

Edited June 6, 2020 by rebcoola
Formatting

[Runningmom80]

On 4/22/2020 at 8:23 PM, Runningmom80 said:

Well, I haven't been around in a while! We had decided to send oldest DS (13) to a local "Mastery" school for 9th grade (pending his acceptance of course) but it's looking now like "school" in our state will be more virtual than b&m at least through the end of 2020. 😞 If that is the case, we will continue homeschooling. None of us (DH, myself, and DS) feel like it would be worth the immense cost for what will essentially be virtual classes. (I'm sure they will be amazing, but not THAT amazing)

We missed the cutoff for state funding for DE, so we are probably going the CTY online route and more eclectic/project based music focused. I'm going to try to get him to finish up HS requirements so he can focus on music and community work. It will be fine, I'm not worried. School would have been great but out of all my kids, he's the one made for homeschool. 

 

My twins (9) miss their PS dearly. It's kind fo heartbreaking in a way but we are privileged and safe so we are focusing on resilience. That said, school at home is none of our favorites so if this crisis schooling continues into the fall, we will be official homeschoolers again. I have NO idea what we will do! Probably Singapore math and hopefully continuing Chinese that they learned in school. Bravewriter, or BYL

I hope everyone is well! I've been busy with grad school and work and miss this space and you all! 

 

Well, I think the writing is on the wall for us and it will be back to homeschool for everyone, at least for 2021. 

My tentative plan for DS 13 (grade 9ish)

• AP US History - CTY
• Linguistics - Online G3
• Finish High school Spanish level 3 - HSA
• Algebra II - Mr D
• PE & Health - I'll put something together. I'm a yoga teacher so I may make him do yoga for a semester. lol
• Language Arts/English - still figuring this out. I think I can handle this too, but I might want a curricula as a guardrail. I should probably make a thread on the HS board
• Music - Always. Classic piano, producing his own music. I want him to make a YouTube channel or blog but he's sort of reserved. 

Twins 10 (grade 5)

• BW Arrows & Faltering Ownership (Possibly partnership writing for DD who has dysgraphia)
• Maybe MCT Town for DS
• Spanish - HSA
• Singapore for DD Jousting Armadillos or BA for DS 
• History - need to figure out
• Science - need to figure out
• Music lessons and hopefully some day back to tennis and lacrosse 

[Porridge]

I'm having a really hard time planning and pulling my brain together this year. It's July and I still have only tentative plans. I thought I had finalized things but I keep second guessing, and realizing stuff I missed (like science...)

DD12

Math: AOPS Geometry, probably through AOPS Online

Language: Latin through CLRC, Chinese, Grammar for the Well Trained Mind (2nd half of purple)

Composition: WWS1 (2nd half), WWS (1st half) + mom directed writing projects across history / lit / science

LIterature: Gulliver's Travels with her brother, otherwise MP8 selections (Wind in the WIllows, As You Like It, Tom Sawyer, some poetry if we have time)

World History: 7 topics (mostly from Lucent History series): Renaissance, Reformation, French Revolution, Gold Rush, Elizabethan England, Industrial Revolution in England, Scientific Revolution. Output will include learning to take notes (outlines, Cornell style, mind mapping, etc), notebooking, writing assignments

US History: read through Books 5, 7, 8 of Hakim's Story of US. No output other than possibly some family discussion

Science: ? probably have her read from the Scientists in the Field series on her own, and do BFSU - discussion style as a family if I can find the scattered fragments of my brain and pull it together 🙂

Piano

PE: swim team isn't happening this year b/c of COVID. We'll continue to do daily runs as a family.

 

DD10

Math: Singapore DImensions 6, SIngapore IP 5B (this child needs lots of spiral)

Language: Chinese, Growing with Grammar 5 (I don't love this but having something he can do independently has been very important)

Composition: Classical Composition Narrative, written narrations weekly from history

Literature: Gulliver's Travels with his sister, King Arthur, Adam of the Road, possibly Oliver Twist

World History: SOTW Book 3 with maps, written narrations once weekly, add to his timeline which he's coding online. Some biographies from Diane Stanley

US History: read through Books 5, 7, 8 of Hakim's Story of US. No output other than possibly some family discussion

Science: Building Big (David Macaulay), Scientists in the Field series on his own, BFSU discussion style as a family

Piano

PE: swim team isn't happening this year b/c of COVID. We'll continue to do daily runs as a family.

 

Together: rotate through -- readalouds, Shakespeare (Leon Garfield), Thinking Toolbox, Picture Studies (Michelangelo, DaVInci), Chinese video and verbal narrations, 

 

If I find I've overloaded us, we'll ditch the US History readings or move them to family readalouds.

[4KookieKids]

On 7/2/2020 at 2:14 PM, JHLWTM said:

I'm having a really hard time planning and pulling my brain together this year. It's July and I still have only tentative plans. I thought I had finalized things but I keep second guessing, and realizing stuff I missed (like science...)

I hear ya here! I just went back and looked at my post in this thread from just 2.5 months ago, and I feel like I'm out of control already! lol.

Uzinggo said they're not continuing their services but to "keep a look out" for something new they're going to be putting out (still not out, as far as I can tell), so there goes my high-input/low-output science option for ds11. Also, despite having gone through AoPS PreA independently, he now thinks he's "bad at math," because it has actually gotten kinda hard. I told him that that is my expressed goal in finding him academic material- to get him to a point where he can do it, but only with hard work and perseverance. But he is actually really stressed out about it (has spent several days in the last three weeks crying about how hard it is and how he can't do it, and this kiddo already struggles some with anxiety) and wants to back off of math. So I'm not really sure he'll continue to AoPS Algebra and Geometry this next year, but I have no idea what to do instead, or if I should just slow the pace way, way down, somehow. 

DD7 has officially caught up with DD9 in both math and dyslexia remediation, and has far exceeded DD9 in actual reading, and I expect the gap will just continue to grow. DD9 is very upset about this and feels "stupid," regardless of what I say. So while I intended to keep them doing much of the same programs, I may have to diverge to make the differences less noticeable/palpable.

After some extra testing, it appears dd5 may actually have more LDs/challenges than we anticipated, so I have to rearrange schedules to make more space for her to get appropriate help/remediation as early as possible. 

And my older two kids want to spend a year studying Islamic & Middle Eastern culture, so we're kind of back to the drawing board on history/social studies. lol. 

[Clemsondana]

12 hours ago, 4KookieKids said:

I hear ya here! I just went back and looked at my post in this thread from just 2.5 months ago, and I feel like I'm out of control already! lol.

Uzinggo said they're not continuing their services but to "keep a look out" for something new they're going to be putting out (still not out, as far as I can tell), so there goes my high-input/low-output science option for ds11. Also, despite having gone through AoPS PreA independently, he now thinks he's "bad at math," because it has actually gotten kinda hard. I told him that that is my expressed goal in finding him academic material- to get him to a point where he can do it, but only with hard work and perseverance. But he is actually really stressed out about it (has spent several days in the last three weeks crying about how hard it is and how he can't do it, and this kiddo already struggles some with anxiety) and wants to back off of math. So I'm not really sure he'll continue to AoPS Algebra and Geometry this next year, but I have no idea what to do instead, or if I should just slow the pace way, way down, somehow. 

I've posted  elsewhere, but my kid had meltdowns at times with AoPS because he hadn't developed the frustration tolerance and attention to detail at the age that we started it.  We took a break and did the Arbor Press books for a while (we were in pre-A).  When we went back to it, we spent a stretch doing the intro one day and the problems the next.  At some point he went back to doing mostly a section each day, but if one was long or time consuming, we didn't push it.  We also do Life of Fred one day each week because kid enjoys it and finds it helpful to see the material presented in a VERY different way, and often in a different order.  So, our normal routine had us only doing AoPS 3 days/week in late elementary/middle school - one day was co-op all day, and one day was LOF.  We took 1.5 years each for pre-A and A, but geometry was only a year and the probability and number theory books took the expected semester.  I allocated 1.5 years for Alg 2 but I'm not sure that we'll need it.  I'm not actually sure that all of the issues were with kiddo's age - there was a lot more chaos with younger sibling several years ago - and our new plan solidified around when younger quit being quite so young. 🙂  

[4KookieKids]

1 hour ago, square_25 said:

From personal experience, AoPS pushes the "you need to struggle!" line way too hard. Could you maybe interleave an easier program with AoPS? I also find that AoPS/puzzles are much nicer when the concepts are already solid. 

What would you suggest for an easier program? That worked well for us for elem (BA along side Singapore), but we just haven't really found something else that I feel was a good alternate yet.

I think part of the problem may also have been that he was cheating at PreAlgebra. lol. He just did Alcumus problems, got them wrong, read the solutions to learn material, and then ended up passing the sections, he told me once he was mostly done, rather than reading the book and attempting the problems in the reading first. I didn't necessarily mind at the time, since my hands were kind of full with other kids and he's "ahead" anyway, but I think that maybe if he'd actually read the book, he probably wouldn't have gotten nearly so many alcumus problems wrong on the first try, and that would've greatly impacted his perception of his own work. 

This summer, my girls are doing a summer school online, so I've had more time to work with ds and review some of his preA. He's able to do *most* of the problems in the book, including challenge and star ones, but he can't write up his work or justify it at all, so my focus for the summer has just been learning how to write down a decent solution. So he comes up with the answer, and then I sit down with him and help him actually write things up. While I feel like it's not a huge challenge, given that he's already solved the problems, he gets bogged down way more easily than I would've expected.