Content Subjects

[Slache]

I've piecemeal things together thus far, but I think I need to step up my game and I'm not really in the mood. I'm looking at pre-made curriculum and wanted your help to make a list. I'm looking for literature rich history and science. I'm probably leaning toward either Beautiful Feet or Sonlight history of science.

So far we've done homemade cultural geography, My Star Spangled Story, SOTW with activity guide and timeline, Apologia and MP's Science.

I'm considering Sonlight, My Father's World, and Beautiful Feet. Heart of Dakota never looked good to me. I know about things like Tapestry of Grace and KONOS, but I just want it nice and complete in a pretty box. Science and History, one company or two, lotsa books, I don't care if it has Bible or not.

I would be willing to buy a core text (like MOH or TruthQuest) and then make my own list from AO, SL, BFB etc. but something I can do before the year starts, none of this working all year long figuring things out nonsense.

Grades are 6, 4, 1 and baby. We're aiming for the 6, modifying for the 4, expecting nothing from the 1, and losing track of the baby.

I'm braindead. Help.

Edit: This is what I've done and plan to do for eldest...

Edited January 12, 2022 by Slache

[Dianthus]

We liked Bookshark (Sonlight) really well through grade 3. Haven't tried for upper levels but their guide/schedule is easy to follow and set up for 4 day weeks.

Stay for away from Winter Promise.. Disjointed mess.

[Servant4Christ]

If I could afford Sonlight, I'd absolutely consider it. Oldest would be over the moon with that many books to read. That said, he always finds and reads the books out of order and doesn't wait until they are scheduled so that might not work so good. Aaand, I have no idea what Sonlight would look like with multiple kiddos.

[freesia]

Looking at your list, I’d say do the Sonlight World History cores for sixth and seventh. Then do 100 in 8th. You can adapt those easily for your fourth grader. 
 

I love your chart. You are holding those plans loosely for high school, right? Teens have a way of having strong opinions about our plans. 

[Slache]

19 minutes ago, Servant4Christ said:

If I could afford Sonlight, I'd absolutely consider it. Oldest would be over the moon with that many books to read. That said, he always finds and reads the books out of order and doesn't wait until they are scheduled so that might not work so good. Aaand, I have no idea what Sonlight would look like with multiple kiddos.

Same here. I'm going to have to hide them.

7 minutes ago, freesia said:

I love your chart. You are holding those plans loosely for high school, right? Teens have a way of having strong opinions about our plans. 

Absolutely. I like to have plans though. I make a new chart every year. He's helped me with most of my planning. He's my academically minded child.

[Junie]

The Saxon seems ambitious.  Advanced Mathematics is designed to take two years; none of mine have ever completed the book.

[Junie]

Also, if you're seventh and eighth grade literature People and Places -- if that's Abeka, I would choose something else.  I have taught from them and they are inferior collections of chapters of stories.

[freesia]

3 minutes ago, Slache said:

Same here. I'm going to have to hide them.

Absolutely. I like to have plans though. I make a new chart every year. He's helped me with most of my planning. He's my academically minded child.

Yeah that’s good. It’s just the art and multiple languages part on top of full academics and Bible that gave me pause. You’ll work it out in time, I’m sure. I always have a plan, too—it just is scribbled on notebooks and doesn’t look as awesome as your 😂 

[LinRTX]

4 minutes ago, Junie said:

Advanced Mathematics is designed to take two years; none of mine have ever completed the book

I have gone through Advanced Math 4 times now. Three times it was in only one year. The fourth took two mainly because she was very sick the year we started it and we skipped math several days. But one year for Advanced Math is doable. 

[Slache]

10 minutes ago, Junie said:

The Saxon seems ambitious.  Advanced Mathematics is designed to take two years; none of mine have ever completed the book.

Yeah, I don't think we'll get there, but I wanted them listed out. I have the most ambitious for each subject so I know what could be done in each, but I know it'll par down.

9 minutes ago, Junie said:

Also, if you're seventh and eighth grade literature People and Places -- if that's Abeka, I would choose something else.  I have taught from them and they are inferior collections of chapters of stories.

No! I'm so excited about those!

8 minutes ago, freesia said:

Yeah that’s good. It’s just the art and multiple languages part on top of full academics and Bible that gave me pause. You’ll work it out in time, I’m sure. I always have a plan, too—it just is scribbled on notebooks and doesn’t look as awesome as your 😂 

Bible won't be academic, I just wanted my resources listed. I Imagine we'll end up with one language, but wanted each planned out.

I like my plans in drive so I can refer back to them. My original plan was Abeka. Then Latin Road, Strayer Upton and MFW. A lot of my earlier ideas did not match the kid I wound up having 

[Junie]

10 minutes ago, Slache said:

 

No! I'm so excited about those!

 

Sorry.  Honestly, from what I know of your kids, I don't think they will like it.  It is way, way too simple.

Many of the selections are listed in the table of contents as "from" such and such.  Usually these include only one or two chapters of the actual story.  There are a lot of poems and some short stories.  This is basically, in my opinion, literature for people who just want a sampling of everything or for people who don't like to read.

Sorry to be blunt, but I hated teaching it. 😞 

[Rosie_0801]

Maybe you could just take them to the library and tell them to pick books from each category? That's structure without having to organise it.

[Lawyer&Mom]

Just dropping in to say I love a snazzy chart, and have you looked at the ULAT for Spanish?  

[Slache]

10 minutes ago, Rosie_0801 said:

Maybe you could just take them to the library and tell them to pick books from each category? That's structure without having to organise it.

That has fallen apart in the past, but I could buy a book list with their input and the same idea.

6 minutes ago, Lawyer&Mom said:

Just dropping in to say I love a snazzy chart, and have you looked at the ULAT for Spanish?  

Well I am now! Have you used this?

[JennyD]

I am a little unclear about what you are asking for -- this is for the rest of this year, or for next year?  And what are you dissatisfied with with what you're doing now?

[Slache]

Just now, JennyD said:

I am a little unclear about what you are asking for -- this is for the rest of this year, or for next year?  And what are you dissatisfied with with what you're doing now?

Next year, possibly a few years. I don't think I'm providing enough content so I'm looking for complete curriculum. Examples would be My Father's World and Notgrass. I like Rosie's idea. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. I'm very tired.

[Slache]

I'm really beginning to consider Notgrass and Apologia. It's not grand but it will get done. I will buy 9,000 books and the science kit.

[JennyD]

Just now, Slache said:

Next year, possibly a few years. I don't think I'm providing enough content so I'm looking for complete curriculum. Examples would be My Father's World and Notgrass. I like Rosie's idea. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. I'm very tired.

I see.  I'm afraid I don't know much about the all-in-a-box programs, but for 1st grade I do love Five in a Row.  

[Slache]

4th would do our Fifty States, 6th would do Uncle Sam & You. I would probably skip the literature suggestions and pick 12 books (we school year round, so one a month) on Texas history because we're not really covering that. I know that sounds backwards, I don't care.

Then Apologia Earth Science with the kit. We've never done the kit.

[Slache]

2 minutes ago, JennyD said:

I see.  I'm afraid I don't know much about the all-in-a-box programs, but for 1st grade I do love Five in a Row.  

I love Five in a Row! That would be great for my little one next year, too...

[Lawyer&Mom]

41 minutes ago, Slache said:

Well I am now! Have you used this?

I’m currently doing the French version with my second grader and I love it.  I think it would work with a lot of different ages, you would just adjust the pace accordingly. The great thing is that the first 15 lessons are free and that’s definitely enough to figure out if you like it. 

[Servant4Christ]

1 hour ago, Slache said:

I'm really beginning to consider Notgrass and Apologia. It's not grand but it will get done. I will buy 9,000 books and the science kit.

That's my plan, too. It's simple and it gets done. And we can add things according to interest. 

[wendyroo]

With my oldest, we spent grades 1 - 5 going through Story of the World and The Complete Book of United States History.

We plan to spend grades 9 - 12 going through Farrar's GPS curriculum.

That left middle school. I wanted it to be open and go, yet offer choices about what to focus on. I wanted it to encourage more independence, yet also require deeper thinking. 

So we opted for a bit of "choose your own adventure" history. Each week he starts by reading a chapter of The Human Odyssey as the spine.  He also completes a MapTrek map if there is an applicable one.

Then, he is expected to spend an hour, split up however he wants, reading supplementary materials.  I have pulled together a wide variety of choices: SOTW, A History of the World in 100 Objects, Letters of Note, Mapping World History, Timeline of Everything, Mammoth book of How it Happened, Visual History of the World, and Kingfisher.

This is putting the onus of finding related materials on him; he has to figure out how the books are organized, use the index, think about what terms to search for, etc.  It also gives him a lot of freedom to learn more about his particular areas of interest...be it warfare, art, technology, a particular person, etc.

At the end of the week, he does a 20 minute free write about whatever interested him. I also assign a couple "essay" topics...I usually get the questions from either The Human Odyssey Student Pages or I ask about whatever he spent his extra time studying. Sometimes The Human Odyssey Student Pages include primary source activities or questions requiring additional research. I just assign whatever seems interesting and encourages deep thought and making connections. I typically only ask for a paragraph each about 3-4 topics, or a slightly longer essay about one topic. 

[Slache]

18 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:

I have definitely considered this.  I like textbooks for science.  I plan on waiting til high school for textbooks in history since it’s all covered again and it’s a lot easier to find books & booklists for history.  I did burn out trying to do sotw/ activity guide, sonlight, five in a row, around the world in picture books and three different sciences plus leveling up all those topics with additional “booklists” for all the different ages.  Found out you can have too many books/lists/topics.  Textbooks sounded like a dream 😊

I think it will be super simple. Last time we did Notgrass (My Star Spangled Story) I read it out loud over a meal, they cleaned up, they did the workbook. I plan to pick out about 12 books prior to the school year, buy them, assign them and be done. Notgrass comes with book assignments but I'm not impressed. We already have a timeline (time frame) so we'll continue with that, but it's like 5 minutes a week. For science we'll just read the book over meal time and I'll make my husband do the experiments with them on weekends. I don't care if the books line up perfectly or the experiments are late. I think this will cover basic needs and enrich as needed.

[Slache]

13 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:

It sounds wonderfully simple.  Which apologia? 

Earth Science. All we have left is Earth Science and Botany and the child has spoken. We've done the rest as read alouds only, but I'm getting the notebooks and a kit this time.

[Ellie]

9 hours ago, Slache said:

I'm considering Sonlight, My Father's World, and Beautiful Feet. Heart of Dakota never looked good to me. I know about things like Tapestry of Grace and KONOS, but I just want it nice and complete in a pretty box. Science and History, one company or two, lotsa books, I don't care if it has Bible or not.

 

So, are you saying you *don't* want KONOS? Because it's nice and complete in a pretty box. And your littles would get to come along, too.

[Slache]

33 minutes ago, Ellie said:

So, are you saying you *don't* want KONOS? Because it's nice and complete in a pretty box. And your littles would get to come along, too.

No. I would love it but I'm very tired and I want open and go. You definitely sold it on me years ago, but I don't think it's going to happen here, sadly.

[Servant4Christ]

12 hours ago, Slache said:

I think it will be super simple. Last time we did Notgrass (My Star Spangled Story) I read it out loud over a meal, they cleaned up, they did the workbook. I plan to pick out about 12 books prior to the school year, buy them, assign them and be done. Notgrass comes with book assignments but I'm not impressed. We already have a timeline (time frame) so we'll continue with that, but it's like 5 minutes a week. For science we'll just read the book over meal time and I'll make my husband do the experiments with them on weekends. I don't care if the books line up perfectly or the experiments are late. I think this will cover basic needs and enrich as needed.

I have so much in common with this. I wasn't impressed with Notgrass reading either, but it gave me a starting point for making my own booklist. I researched and bought way more books than that (lol) and Oldest still thinks it was our best schoolyear ever. We ditched the Notgrass timeline almost immediately. I have HITW and haven't used it yet, but I'm planning to use it on our wall when the littles get to elementary and Oldest is in highschool so they can do it together. Science has actually been R&S a grade ahead with additional reading from Apologia textbooks and MB World of Science book as interests lead. It's been beautiful in it's simplicity. 

[Brittany1116]

Late to this but I searched something and this post came up. I think our oldest kids are the same age/grade and I am miffed I can't see your pic because it sounds like you wrote out a plan like I did.

[Slache]

13 hours ago, Brittany1116 said:

Late to this but I searched something and this post came up. I think our oldest kids are the same age/grade and I am miffed I can't see your pic because it sounds like you wrote out a plan like I did.

I did. I decided that I really liked what I was already doing which is reading out loud at lunch and assigning work for afterwards. So I'm going to keep doing that but instead of assigning general work to the oldest he will have age appropriate work that he does independently. So he will be subjected to listening to what I'm reading but not expected to do the output as he will have his own work. The screenshot that I took is gone because I kind of recreated an entire spreadsheet with content subjects, skill subjects and a booklist. I uploaded new screenshots, but Bible is undecided and it includes going full on with both History and Science because I like all possibilities laid out when in reality it's going to be one or the other.

 

[Slache]

Oh my goodness. Is it big enough?

5 minutes ago, Lovinglife123 said:

That’s interesting slache- that is how I’m finding science/ history works best here.  Independent once they are older, but still participating in a group thing.

What do you use?

[Brittany1116]

@SlacheLove it! And yes, they are the same proposed graduation year. I have only used a few of the resources on your list, but I have very similar lists for what we have used and what I plan to use. 

How did you like the Apologia Who is God? I notice you didn't make plans to continue the series. Also, is KYE the playlist from The Fuel Project? 

[Slache]

1 minute ago, Brittany1116 said:

@SlacheLove it! And yes, they are the same proposed graduation year. I have only used a few of the resources on your list, but I have very similar lists for what we have used and what I plan to use. 

How did you like the Apologia Who is God? I notice you didn't make plans to continue the series. Also, is KYE the playlist from The Fuel Project? 

I thought that Who is God? was good, but really didn't care to continue it. Yes, that's the fuel project! I need to watch their other projects. Have you seen it?

[Brittany1116]

3 minutes ago, Slache said:

I thought that Who is God? was good, but really didn't care to continue it. Yes, that's the fuel project! I need to watch their other projects. Have you seen it?

Yes! Loved it. I have rewatched certain parts many times, and often send just a single video to people when the topics arise. A few have been removed from the platform but are mirrored by other users so you may have to search for them.

[Brittany1116]

I do follow TFP but haven't watched any other playlists in full. I generally grab a random episode here or there when I have time to listen to something at 90% engagement.