I'm not thinking of giving up homeschooling. Not ever sending my kids to public school again if I can help it. I'm thinking of taking everything we have, sorting it out and changing things up. My dh thinks I'm crazy and says it's bad and confusing for the kids. Whenever I try to explain things to him that are going through my head he looks at me like I'm crazy and repeats his mantra that boils down to "make up your mind, woman." I want to make up my mind and try to find something that will be very frugal but not sacrifice on quality as I can't piece together random worksheets for grammar or math to save my life. Gotta have workbooks for those two, I think. I'm sorry if I'm rambling but has anyone else ever felt like this? How do you work through it? Do you tell the dh/dw to just deal or do you take his/her council? I feel so confused. All I really want is clarity. I hope someone can help me sort out my brain because I sure feel lost at the moment.
curriculum picking makes me break out in hives. I try not to spend too much money because I am pretty sure 1/2 of it will be wrong. This time of year is awkward for me because I am not the best at planning...so we are done with most of the work...and not close to being done on some of it. sigh. We are going to try aleks math since we finished the math book...so that is free.
It sure would be helpful if there were more resources that took you by the hand through figuring out what you need. Another part of my frustration is wondering what I'm going to do as I have a feeling that my boys are going to be complete opposites from each other in learning styles and it brings to mind a picture of books that I can't reuse for the second one. Any one have any ideas? I'm frustrated almost to the point of tears.
What have you used that isn't working? How old are the boys? I am stuck on grammar and writing...neither boy likes it...(ok; duh.) so we have tried to be "aware" of word choices and reading good books. (well written) But although that maybe ok for our adjustment year...I am thinking I should have "something" for next year. I haven't found ANYthing I like. Unless ALEKS is wonderful...we will do saxon for math next year too. I did quite a bit of tweaking with it, but it did give us structure. I am excited about literature, as I hope to do "Where the Red Fern grows" and I don't know what all else...we are doing middle ages, so I might read Louis L'Amours "Walking Drum" again...I can't remember if it is age appropriate. (I am still a bit miffed he died before writing more in that "series") Speaking of History...I am almost decided on SOTW. We did not care for MOH. I did a lot of supplementation and we didn't get through the book. ds#2 (9) wants Art...so we are going to order Artistic pursuit. It looks good, but not "crafty" (I am NOT crafty) Try scrolling back through the spot...there are tons of suggestions on curriculum, although I tend to get overwhelmed with too many choices. I try to write a essay (to myself) at the beginning of each year, for each child...In it is what I really want them to know (long range) and what I think their strengths and weaknesses are...flesh out plans for the philosophy of our program (not specifics) Then at the end of the year I read it again and write one of review...was I right on strengths...did we make progress on weaknesses. Hang in there...remember you will choose great curriculum and horrid curriculum...it will all come out in the wash. (won't it?...does bad curriculum stain?)
The boys are 9 and 5. The language arts curriculum I was working on writing proved to be way too much work for the oldest to do even though I thought it would be easy. History I think is the only thing we're set on here for a while and that's SOTW. It rocks! For science, we were just blessed with the first two of the three zoology books from Apologia. I'm actually excited about teaching with and I HATE science textbooks. My dream is to get the oldest comfortable with writing without bringing him to tears. He has an absolutely fabulous imagination that I think, if it ever got published, would entertain other children and adults to the point of crying because they were laughing so hard. One night we were riding home from the in-laws and my fil missed the exit because he was so into the story my son was telling in the back seat! I think Abeka math just may be the perfect fit for both boys as they both seem to, enjoy is the wrong word, not complain when it comes out. I feel so lost without a solid language arts program. I can't piece anything together worksheet-wise without a road map and have it be successful, it seems. I think that Abeka might be a good fit but if I'm wrong, then I'll have to go through the transition period there as well. The 5yo loves to read and will gather us all in the living room, by munchkin force if he feels the need, to read a book to us. The 9yo would rather eat raw veggies (which he hates with every fiber of his being) than read out loud to us period. Does that make more sense?
We have been using Spectrum Language Arts (around $10) for grammar. If extra practice is needed on a particular concept, then I find worksheets online to supplement. Spectrum also has a reading skills workbook that is good, although I use a workbook by Flashkids publishing ($7 at B&N). Also, my 9 yr old has been typing journal entries. She loves this so much better than writing. She's a lefty, and sometimes the writing just physically hurts. As an added bonus, she is getting pretty good at typing!! Good Luck!!
I can't tell you how many times i have wanted to change things up... we are kind of doing things way diffferent this year as it is but if I understand you you are asking about putting things together for lessons? Why not just get books of lessons or look on Jennifers pages and print up what you need from there for your children's lessons? She has so much for the younger grades, even some that work with my kids. When I need to get things added in I check things out there and a few other sites. There are a lot of things out there to help you put together lesson plans too if that is what you need? I am going to read through the rest of the answers now, so sorry if I said what someone else said. Some days we just have to stop, talk to the kids, have them write or tell us what they would like to see in thier school too. That has helped me a lot! I found out what work my ds really enjoys and what dd hates doing this way! That helped me piece together thier lessons and make final decisions on years of work! ( I personally also find prayer to help)
can I suggest BJU english? They have it for both ages, and ACSI or Horizon Math are both things that my kids liked, especially my ds who tends to complain about most work, he asked for themthis year, go to cbd.com and look all of these up, they have good things for the things youmentioned... you could also check out the one I am checking into called Adventures in Language arts or soemthing like that, look for the thread I started on that one?
I will start by saying my husband HATES this time of year - curriculum buying. BUT he does let me make the decisions. To show where I've been in 5 years of this journey. I started out loosey goosey using the internet to guide me (thank GOD for starfall!). By 2nd grade, i was a fully "out of the box" teacher. Bought a full curriculum. Used that exclusively for 2 years. 4th grade has been a combo of out of box and piece-meal off the internet. Writing is an area we are lacking. More FEAR related than anything b/c when she does sit down and right it's beautiful. ANYWAY - Next year - I'm actually thinking of doing our own thing with Language Arts. Each day they'll do a grammar worksheet (thinking of Easy Grammar) - as well as each week focussing on a specific rule or grammar-ism. THEN, we're going to pick a book of literature - the kids will write down the words that they don't know each day and create their own vocabulary list, cards - this will cover L/A and penmenship. I was thinking, also for the end of each week they have to write a short page/paper of their favorite chapter from the week. The End of the book would be celebrated by watching the movie (if one exists) followed by a paper talking about th eidfferences between the movie/book. I'm also going to start Writing Strands with my daughter - she'll start @ book 3. And my son, I might try 1 or 2 with him...still waiting to get a look, I think he could start with 2. SO...for L/A I'm going completely OUT OF THE BOX - which is strange for me. I hope to plan out the whole year this summer so we're never at a loss for what to do. I always feel like i"m doing wrong. And I was worried about this approach too, but after talking with my oldest she LOVES the idea A LOT. ANd I know that their are curriculums who do this (FIAR, Sonlight, Charlotte Mason)...but I feel the need to sort of let her pick the books. Does any of this make sense?
I have "one of those days" about every few months. We are on our 3rd year of homeschooling and this has been the most "stable" one yet. But still there are these cool websites I find and that my friends tell me about, there's ANOTHER great book I could get, oh don't even look at the Rainbow Resoure catalog....AAGGH! Sometimes it's just too much. Sometimes I just have to stop looking and go with what we have -if it's a total loser and not working then, of course, we'll change. My advice for you is maybe you need to just stop and relax- your post sounds frantic and worried and stressed. You will never be able to make a good choice in that frame of mind. Your kids are fine -maybe you need to take a week off of school (YES that's what I said!) Clear your mind, let the kids do "unschooly type things" and give yourself time to calm down. Recently my mom was in the hospital with kidney failure and it was Spring Break so I knew there was no way our regular school would get done so we took the whole week off - today is Monday and we are starting up again - my ds didn't fall horribly behind, nothing terrible happened. IMHO, homeschoolers can be so hard on themselves (myself included) we don't cut ourselves any slack because we care so much and because of the seriousness of the job we have undertaken -but sometimes we do take it all too seriously. Give yourself a break to figure out exactly how your son's learn best (maybe you're picking things that aren't a good fit?) and in what ways they ENJOY (don't forget about the joy of learning) learning Also, for now, why couldn't your son just write - period. :idea: Not so you can correct his grammar, his sentence structure, his spelling (you can do that gradually) but just for the joy of writing something cool and imaginative. Constantly worrying about the mechanics of writing as opposed to just writing, IMHO, can quickly kill the creativity. Just my .02 Jane
Super idea to let her pick the books! And wow now I really can relate! A few years back I started putting it together on my own as well! I had been boxing it for the majority of my 13 years... and now I am using stuff from various differnt things, we went through changes , well mostly I did, over the changes haha! I love the idea of doing the writting stuff, grammar and the vocabularly cards.. I did a similar thing in the past with sounds and such, they had word cards before they came out with them because my dh created a game with some. I had forgotten about that one! anyway.... I wanted to encourage you write down now what you are wanting to do, so you can collect and actually put together monthly packets, or weekly ones if that works better for you, ahead of time. Such as the worksheets and what books to get from library to use for literature time, etc. Print up the sheets as soon as you can begin and do each week into a folder or manila type envelope ( they come in colors and you can put one packet per lesson in each one and lable the outside so you will know when to use it!) I encourage you to start now because when summer comes itis easier to get distracted and the ideas are coming to you now.. so start doing September and (or when you are planning to start) and get it gathered together now in its packet and file it! Then work on October when you have time for that one, Then work on November.. at least you will have the first three months ready before summer then if you get busy having fun in the sun you wont be stressing come fall. I dont usually start stressing over what I am doing until may but I am already making choices this year and so far am pleased with how easy it will be for me to put together next year between oru friends here on the spot who have free and low cost printables and the great stuff I am finding for my core work as well! Btw- thanks for getting me excited about getting things ready!
I have these days all the time I can't wait to order this year. We are going to do SOS for everything - but I'll supplement with literature books. But I can't wait until the sale hits this week. I just want it over with so I can focus on something else - LOL.
Dana be sure and do wrist and finger excersises with them for SOS is hard on the tendons at thier ages. Ds had it for 4th grade and we had to make sure he worked his fingers with one of those little balls that you play with? Sort of like a racket ball type of ball. Dd at highschool level is ding SOS for all but math USee, and she has had no problems with that area but I think the younger fingers need more work. Good choice though! It is so helpful to have the computer to keep things in order!
Me? Calm down? I wish I could. I'm not even sure where this pressure came from. I mean it's always there but it doesn't always come to a head and drive me crazy. I think it's because my dh is out of work and nothing is turning up for us so I'm wondering for the long-term how I'm going to make things happen for books that need to be purchased (e.g. math and grammar) and other homeschooling supplies as well as make sure we are fed on a weekly basis and have toilet paper in the house. The food isn't too much of an issue but it's hard to find someplace that will hand out toilet paper! (Was that a run-on sentence?) I think part of my anxiety would be lessoned if I had a long term plan of what would work. :cry::cry:
I like the packet idea. I've started making a challenge sheet for the oldest to help him "own" his education. He gets everything on the sheet done before we eat dinner on Thursdays and he gets to stay up and play with his dad on their hotseat game as well as have Friday off! Talk about a motivator but I think it may have it's drawbacks and I might have to go back to making grammar a "mom-in-the-face" thing instead of self-study as I don't know if stuff is sinking in. We homeschool year around so there is no end but breaks when we need them. It's mostly a matter of making sure I have what we'll need for when they reach the next level in each of their respective subject areas and our local expo is in May every year. So that's where my time crunch comes in.
make your grammar be fifteen mins of your face and the rest on thier own.. is there annyting you can do as an at home job to help your hubby out financially during this time?
Be sure to join the elementary apologia yahoo group. The author is a member and posts answers to threads as well. There are all sort of extras in the files that people have posted (schedules, quizzes, extra notebooking pages, etc.) We're finishing up Zoo 2. We skipped Zoo1 ...but be sure if you do, to do Zoo1 lesson 1 on classification/biomes. It helped the kids get ready for it. (It's free on apologia's site if folks don't own book 1).
I was going to recommend Spectrum or Flashkids as well based on your economic concerns as well as educational If you get your educator disct card, you save 20% and it's almost cheaper than printing a zillion worksheets unless you need a few to hone specific skills. Look at the content, not necessarily the grade. My 2nd grader used the LA2 last year and the Phonics 3. It was a good fit for her. This year, she's using Rod & Staff English 3 and BJU Reading 4 without a problem.
If one of your concerns is finding books, supplies you might try http://www.booksamaritan.com/ -they will send homeschoolers free curriculum and books - I just donated some stuff to them and they are really wonderful, nice people. I also am on a yahoo board where people list "free" ( you do have to pay shipping costs) homeschooling materials-here's the link http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeHomeschoolTools_NO-CHAT/join I know there are tons of others like it but that is the one I've used. Jane
