The 2 subjects I was so excited about with SOTW and Apologia I am stick not getting started with them! Our schedule has been so screwy that getting them to sit down and do that work has been very difficult and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's me.... with LifePacs I hand it to them and pretty much they can do the work with me helping. So maybe I am flustered about it, I just don't know. With the LifePacs I felt like I was being pulled apart with so many seperate "classes" with the 2 grades but I hate to say I think it would have worked better (we started SOTW and since we started it we sold the LifePacs). I may put my son into the 4th grade LifePacs which I still have for history and science at least until life settles down some I printed off some US geography stuff to work on (states and capitals) which shouldn't take long for them to do. Maybe I should combine some history with reading for my son (and make it his "Book It" stuff at the same time). Everything else is moving along and I'm happy with it - just these 2 subjects :evil:
When we try to tackle history and science in the same week we never get anything done. We have started alternating between them. We will study a civilization in history (may take 2 to 4 weeks depending on interest level and amount of available material) and then move on to a unit in science (we are studying animals so we do one type of animal before going back to history). This has worked out really well so far. We can focus twice as much energy on one topic and really get into it instead of having to stop and change focus so often.
I can understand having a hard time switching to a different curriculum and getting to know it, and settling in. But honestly, if you can somehow take a little extra time in getting it going, it really does flow after awhile, just like Lifepacs flow for you now! SOTW is a FUN curriculum, and yet they learn sooo much! Sure, with Lifepacs they can sit and do it---but it's kind of dry and not that interesting (well, that was my perspective anyway...)! My kids had sooo much fun, and there were sooo many things to do that we just delved into it and didn't come back up until 2 years later! We did so much reading, hands-on activities, etc., that we took 2 years to go through the Ancient History, then we did the Modern History in one year. If you have any questions or anything, let me know! I'd be glad to expound in more detail on what we did! I think your kids would like it once you get it going!
I'm in the same boat with history and science with my 3. We've had LOTS of added family stress here lately (house is for sale, financial concerns, etc.) So we have started and stopped history and science so often that I'm lost...lol. I, too, planned to combine them for these 2 subjects using Sonlight Core 3 (early American history) and Considering God's Creation for science. At some points, I wish that I had done LifePacs or SOS for these subjects just for some consistency for the kids. I realize that our lack of consistency is my issue because these two subjects are dependent on me given the curriculum I chose and their ages (9,7, and 5). My 9 year old has basically been doing history on her own because she loves it. We're taking a break from CGC to do an electricity unit (I got an experiment kit from Sam's Club this summer). My 7 year old is a science girl so she is the one I wish I would have chosen a different curriculum for so that she could do it more regularly. She has vision issues so I would probably have done SOS for her but since she's in 2nd grade and it doesn't start until 3rd...I've held off just ordering it now. She's NOT a workbook kid so I can't add another one to her life at this point. Anyway, don't have any solutions but wanted to let you know that you aren't the only one struggling with this issue at this point in the school year. Rhonda C.
Well heres a funny take on all this! We went from Life pAks this y ear to variety of stuff, and dd loves it, she is the one who was bored after 9 years of Life Paks and is realy enjoying the new stuff.. she needs to do more writing projects in there but is completing the required amounts a bit faster than expected each day. She still has Life Pak for Algerbra, ds10 is a different story, I chose CGC for science because it has hands on fun stuff to do in a book y ou can cut stuff out and hand him a sheet and let him cut and paste and then it has the research papers called Detective sheets, it jus tseems so much fun! Then For History we are doing Exploring American History, and I added a lap book to his learning about Christopher Columbus.... Bad idea, he loved making boats, and map work... but hated putting any words down on paper to add to it, so his 'lap book' is more cut and paste and color and create than anything else, and he is 10~ Today while doing some copy work for it, I gave him permission to write the words from one of his sheets in it.... to have some mroe detail of CC. HE said "Man this is too much, in Life PAks I NEEEEEEEEEVER had this much work!" He liked his history in Life paks, so thats good, next year I can put him back in that class. We have Science already purchased for next year between dds Aplologia and the Lyrical Science course... which is over priced but its our first CO OP so we had to get it... I guess... But we will return for LIfe Paks History and Geography he liked the plane format etc. That is okay though, Cause I have the teacher books still! I think I will lighten up a bit on the projects and make it more written reports like he had with his life paks last year. Maybe that is just how he wants to do it. We have John Cabot next so it will be fun to see how that goes! Okay, so this was to encoruage you to keep going, take your time, we are so busy we figured that we can do History alternating with Science, and hour at a time or whatever we have to work with after the rest of his classes. I am an over regimented person and need to slow it down myself, so dont stress just take your time! THe CGC Science is really a lot of fun! dont ya think? We took a side stop to Nasa site today and ds made a rocket ship and shot it off in the back yard.
One thing you can do is try to use it like you did LIfepacs - I make detailed check lists (essentially I put the exact written lesson plan on to a checklist for each child - what page to read, q's to answer) and for the first few weeks I have to hold their hands, but now, my 3rd and 6th grader both do their own work (for my 3rd, it is may be once I get her started, but she still does much of it on her own!) This may help to keep the "Lifepac" idea alive, and still make the kids responsible for their own work.
That is what I have ended up having to do for ds10, the daily lesson plan list. He will go down the list and do what is there, I tried a weekly wiht him but that did not work. I helps to keep organised to a certain point, but I am trying to be more free myself,
I have both and havent started yet either. I have been doing other stuff. I only used one year of life pacs but not having the same format isn't easy. I am easily distracted. Plus I like having everything ready and I have to get stuff for both books. (Now I learned that I really do need to take at least a month off of schooling to get ALL supplies for my subjects.)
What I might do is US states for right now and then move onto countries and then maybe move towards the 4th grade history. Since we are in VA - the 5th grade lifepacs are pretty much what they learned in PS in 4th grade as required and he aced that stuff and will talk forever about Jamestown. And move next year into 6th grade lifepacs.
so you did AMerican HIstory in 4th grade, I noticed that across the country it varies, and in curriculuims it does too. Some have US and some World, We did the 4th grade sos and it was world history and geography, and since it is US this year we chose the Exploring American HIstory that teaches about the person in the time period.
Yep - a bunch of the 5th grade stuff was covered in 4th grade already so not a lot more would have been needed. But he hasn't done the 4th grade stuff it seems according to him so we might do that one.
Ds enjoyed the fourth grade he said. The lakes and the hemispheres and such, especially the arctic and ant arctic stuff facinated him. I was able to find movies that were around these things and PBS has some great things that go with those studies too! re the life paks
We do both 2x/week We are using Mystery of History and I'm creating our own science class from used textbooks, science kits, the internet, etc. We do science on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and History on Wednesday and Friday. Our hs pe/music/art group meets on Mondays so I don't schedule much bookwork on that day of the week. Anyway, alternating seems to keep the kids interested. Tomorrow we're studying how animals physical features help them live. We're doing an experiment using various chopsticks, tweezers, and pliers to pick up different seeds/foods to see how birds beaks are created to eat their specific diet. Then we're making sea urchins out of styrofoam balls and toothpics!
We started out doing Ancient Egypt History Pockets from Evan-Moor and that ws really fun, but there wasn't one for Ancient Rome, so I stopped after Egypt. Since then I have made up our history curriculum. Last year we did ancient Greece and ancient Rome. I got a bunch of books which he read and then I had him do copy work (because he hates to write anything, or at least he did) to fill in all the details. I couldn't have been more pleased with the two books we ended up binding together last year. They were filled with crafts, art, worksheets, and of course his copy work which was actually very detailed. Copy work saved us. This year I made up a bound book myself (printed from Kinkos online) for the Middle ages and we supplement with movies from The History Channel/ A&E on the Barbarians and The Dark Ages. No more copy work...he had FINALLY graduated to writing for himself, but when I realized that he wasn't ready to put together sentences and paragraphs, copy work was the only choice. Science is hard because I don't like anything that resembles unit studies - I feel science should be coherent and the most important thing is to see the big picture and not a bunch of little details that don't make sense. So we spend one semester on one discipline - this semester is astronomy and next semester is chemistry. Science will always be a lot of work if you do it right because science can't be learned just from a book. You have to do science, not read about it. He's 10 and would probably be considered in the 5th grade just for some perspective.
I can relate to these issues. We are also having a time making scheduling work for history and science. It just varies so much from one time to another in terms of time needed that I am having a hard time making this run smoothly. Also like others, if things are not running smoothly these tend to get dropped/postponed. Often we do these at night late if they have been missed during thre regularly scheduled time slot. Tivo science and history? LOL
Thats why I like the CGC science! It actually makes sence, explains in each lesson some reasons that Creation vs the theory of Evolution and all that. IT relates the information to the student in the teacher book, which is set up for people like me who did not like Science to start with in life lol. I ignored science as much as possible. I am enjoying teaching science to my ds 10 this year! And dd is enjoying her lessons as well! ds's science has a little bit of history in it because it starts with the begining of creation of the world we live in the universe etc, then will go on to complete with human anatomy ,
Well I'm switching to LifePacs 4th grade level history for my son and 3rd grade level history for my daughter. I think we will wait and see if I can do SOTW a little later if I get used to the homeschooling thing. Science, I'm not sure yet what we will do. Maybe smaller unit studies to go through a little easier.
I have not read all the responses. However, I am falling behind on both areas myself. Those also were the subjects I was the most excited about. I ended up doing unit studies and had to put off the new books. I think that is common when we want to start something new. We want a fresh start with a perfect schdule when we do new stuff. Our schedule was nuts and I had unit studies so I wanted to start new stuff out right.
I just decided I would do some science stuff from edhelper.com I printed out some Cell information and some nature stuff. They can do some reading comprehension and worksheets to make it easy for me to plan.
