KristineinKS Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I've been lurking on the boards for about a month now, but we just started homeschooling officially this week & while I thought I was prepared, am now feeling a bit overwhelmed! As background, I have a 6th grader & three 4th graders (well, dd was in a 3rd grade gifted program testing well above grade level, so I bumped her into 4th). The 6th grader was studying the Ancients in public school before I pulled them out, so I decided to stick with that for the remainder of the year. When I first started planning our curriculum months ago, I thought I was going to take a Waldorf-inspired approach, having used that with them for kindergarten, I was quite familiar with it already. I started designing my own our curriculum, using many Waldorf resources. However, almost immediately, I began to realize that it probably wasn't going to work for my kids who have been in public school for so many years now...They really needed and expected a set schedule of subjects, with textbooks & clear lesson plans, in other words, more structure. In doing some research, I found TWTM & these wonderful forums & everything resonated with me immediately. The tiny Christian school *I* grew up in used a mostly Classical approach, so this feels very comfortable & right to me. I added Singapore math, Rod & Staff for language arts & Christian Studies I from Memoria, thanks to the recommendations here. (Also Matin Latin, but I think that was a mistake, it's already very hard to follow!) To back up a bit, my initial plan had been to start hs next year, but long story short, I pulled them out at the start of Christmas break. Then I found out I needed to have neck surgery & that happened right after Christmas, which put a serious kink in my planning. Now we've actually started homeschooling and I'm freaking out. Honestly, I was not prepared & am still very much recovering from surgery. However, they were so bored & driving me crazy because they needed some structure desperately. I hadn't finished planning our history curricula (which, using my original Waldorf approach was going to fill the bulk of our morning, as a single main lesson - my kids LOVE history, so that wasn't going to be a problem). The way it's been working is that I'm planning each day the night before...I had a very rough idea of how to do history & have many of my resources already (K12 Human Odyssey as our spine, with some extra materials added to cover India & China more in-depth, and also Israel, every living book I could find, plus lots of art & hands-on activities). While this would probably work for the year if I had more time to finish planning it out, it's taking entirely too much time to do it day-by-day (though I hope to get at least the next week planned this weekend). I am a slooow planner because I tend to buy every resource I can find, and then I'm completely overwhelmed by it all, ack. I really haven't done much with science yet either, except that I purchased "The Geology Book" from Answers in Genesis, "Earth Science Made Simple" & a bunch of rock & mineral kits, only to find out that the younger kids have already covered everything Earth Science-related EXCEPT rocks & minerals this year already. Finally getting to my question...what would you do in my situation? I've recently been thinking we'd use MFW RtoR next year & LOVE that science is already incorporated (my kids LOVE science, but me...not so much), now I'm thinking I should buy MFW *now* & just ditch my other plans. From what I've read about it, I can pretty much just pick up & go with it, right? Minimal planning is required? (I'm sure I'll still tweak it, but still...) My only issue is that I'd really love to cover Ancient India in-depth (I guess I could let China & Israel go?), because my husband is from India...I don't think MFW includes it, but I can work something out for that, I think. Next issue, my kids are NOT readers. Sadly, they used to be, but ps somehow killed that love for them...now my 2 4th grade boys will read non-fiction if it's science or history related, but find non-fiction a "waste of time." They're all fine with me reading aloud though. I just started reading "A Picture Perfect Childhood" by Cay Gibbons for myself, hoping to re-introduce them to reading through picture books, which I guess is a small start. I like the book basket approach & hoping that will seem less intimidating to them. They were all A-students, so I know they CAN read at or above grade level, they just don't enjoy it. Also, none of them are independent workers, especially not my eldest...so I really need to combine as much as possible to work with them all at once. My last problem is that I need to be done by 12-1 pm because I do have a job (work from home). At this point, I'm willing to continue school all summer long to get us caught up to where we need to be. Oh my, I'm sorry this was so ridiculously long, but I really am quite unsure of what to do at this moment. I'm SO inspired by all of you each & every day...any help would be deeply appreciated! Kristine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 (edited) First of all, hugs :grouphug: and welcome to this board. Also congratulations for committing yourself to homeschooling your kids. Then, take a deep breath and ask yourself these questions: Do I have time to plan while recovering from neck surgery? Do I want/like to plan? If the answer to either question is no, then get something pre-planned that appeals to you, like MFW. This way you'll feel accomplished when you complete it. The following year you can always design your own course of study if that's your cup of tea (it's mine -- so far :D) I believe any solid literature-based program (such as MFW, Sonlight, WinterPromise, Living Books Curriculum) will coax your children back to the love of reading with your watchfulness, consistency and diligence. Good luck deciding! Edited January 15, 2009 by sagira Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 From everything that I have read, they need to decompress and "unschool" at least an entire month for every year they were in school. Take the time to rest and heal yourself and let the kids unwind until they are ready to do school. Taking a few months off will be good for everyone to get to know each other again and to figure out what they really need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori in MS Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 MFW is open and go. I find it very easy to use, especially if you do all the photocopying and gathering of materials at the beginning of the year. There are instructions in the TM how to do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveBaby Posted January 15, 2009 Share Posted January 15, 2009 MFW is awesome. I've used their K, 1st (for the 2nd time) and Adventures. We'll be going into ECC next year. It is very open and go. I made all of my photocopies at the beginning fo the year, so I can just pull them out as we need them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristineinKS Posted January 16, 2009 Author Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thank you so much for the input...much as I would *love* to give the kids a few months to unschool & adjust to being home, it won't work because they'll get crazy bored, and in turn, drive everyone crazy! Since I don't seem to be up to much planning and am not sure when I will be, I think I'll just go ahead with MFW & give it my best. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandamom Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thank you so much for the input...much as I would *love* to give the kids a few months to unschool & adjust to being home, it won't work because they'll get crazy bored, and in turn, drive everyone crazy! Since I don't seem to be up to much planning and am not sure when I will be, I think I'll just go ahead with MFW & give it my best. Thank you! When I pulled my oldest out of school we made the decision to just start homeschooling right away. He said later that it would not have been good to take a break because he would have gotten out of the routine. So, not all kids need to a break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Not too much advice except please take a nice long breath and relax. All of this will go together for you, don't force it. If your days end up being only 2 - 3 hours then so be it. It will take time for all of you to adjust and for things to fall into place. Also try to get the stuff your kids will be able to do without much guidance from you planned out before your surgery. This will be a large stress off of you later. Like say you want x amount of math lessons done, x amount of chapters of history, and a certain science topic covered. With your kids being so close in grades you could combine your history and science. Just make the work more in depth for the older one, like write a report or something. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ummof3 Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Hi I'm so sorry - I keep hijacking posts :001_huh: I can relate to a lot of what the OP is saying - I just want to know that MFW is Christian right? What would be a secular alternative (besides SL). Many, many kind thanks for your help. x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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