Where do I begin? Ha ha. I will withdraw my son the day before Thanksgiving that way he doesn't go back after the break. Then start with the sample lesson plan they have in the teacher's guide. I AM SO EXCITED!! Pray for me! I need all the help I can get. Kat
Sorry, I don't read everything these days, but why are you waiting till Thanksgiving break? Why not today? I HIGHLY reccomend that you take a period of deschooling, and if you pulled him now you could probably ease into lessons adding 1 new subject a week after Thanksgiving.... but that of course is just my opinion.
I didn't think of that! I was trying to keep him in his routine and then during the Thanksgiving break R&R was going to be required!! I will actually do that today. I am sooooo nervous and scared and excited!!!
I will pray for you! Being nervous and scared and excited, I feel that every year! That is a good place to be, you will look to God for guidance and strength. Here is some encouragement: Psalm 16:3 Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established. I know God to be faithful. I commit my schooling of my children to Him and I know that my ideas are from Him. The ideas are good and they are organized and creative and they work. My every year is different. And I praise the Lord for His faithfulness. I like the idea to take a break from school. Plan to start school after the entire holiday season is a thought. That would give you time to look thoroughly through your teacher's guides. There are great ideas in those guides for hands on activities and additional learning to go along with what your ds is learning. You can enjoy the holidays like never before. Visit the nursing homes, bake extra cookies and goodies for friends and family. Keep your home neat and clean and decorated. How fun! I am assuming ( I probably shouldn't ) that you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, if you don't I apologize and hope I didn't offend.
You did NOT offend me at all. I LOVE Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. I am grateful for all of yours and others encouraging words and scriptures. It helps me through the day.
I would just encourage you to get connected with others who have gone before. I am not a seasoned veteran, I just started homeschooling when my son was in 7th, he is now in 9th. I know a lot of things that sounded really wacky 2 years ago are starting to make sense now. Some techniques people used sounded ineffective and honestly not "right". I was sure some of the parents weren't going to cover all the "essential" material. I am saying all this, because as wonderful as a packaged curriculum can be, it can be very difficult for some students/parents. So don't be afraid to research, research, research. I have been on this journey for the last couple of months and it is taking me to a great place. I have change MANY thoughts about what learning is and what is important in education. But, most of all--Pray. God may lead you to use a packaged curriculum and everything it comes with. Or He may have bits of one curriculum and bits of another for another class. Or He may have some other way to disciple your son to be the wonderful young man he was created to be. It has taken me a long time to realize that my son learns a different way than I do. Of course, I still want to do some things in my preferred learning style, I just try to be flexible in other areas.
Okay I am excited for you` I will say I think you should go in the middle haha! You have a great starting curriculuim and we stayed with it for 8 years being our main curric, then started finding about other stuff so take your time! Then I think you should do school between the two hoilday breaks but don't try to do it all if it doesnt fit in. It probably will because you chose a super choice with Life Paks! They go so fast and easy in the begining that the kids will sometimes want to do a whole book in one sitting, my advice is let them do half of one, haha! Also since its the holiday season do the holiday up really big this year with home made crafts ( paper kind etc, theres lots of ideas on Dltk.com) and insert ART in as one of his classes. We chose to use Life paks and followed the scheduel for the first while too, for like 5 years ! I loved it, and we alternated theScience and History/Geography each day, so one week was three S and one week was 3 H/G It really helped us to get the work completed when Science had an experiment , or History had a map work page or whatever we added in sometimes. I still try to do each of thsoe 4 days a week only, and then when he gets to High School I will make it every day. Progression is a good way to do things. Baby steps first! Congradulations and welcome to the wacky wonderful world of Home school!
teachermom, Alpha Omega Lifecpacs and Horizons was our choice for 8 yrs, also. Dd#1 started with these in 1st and my other two did them from K-4th and K-2nd. I still do Horizons and Lifepac Math for all my kids. Thinking of you and your new venture, BMattK's mom!
We did Lifepacs for half of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and part of 4th! My son still uses the Lifepac Math for now (2nd grade, finishing up). It's a great place to start, very independent, etc. What grade will you be doing? I agree with recommendations to take it easy through the holidays, do fun "life" learning stuff and deschool....then jump in in January. HOPE IT ALL GOES WELL!!!
Yes we did Horizons too for each of our kids at different ages though, My kid is doign great in college now , and the second is getting great grades in High school so they are proven to be pretty good!
I will be teaching 2nd grade to my son. We will be taking it easy. I feel guilty for not letting him go to school or teaching him. I am letting him to art. The turkey day count down. Draw a turkey add feathers so on. He is coloring and we are doing similar things to keep him from being bored.
Oh, we loved the 2nd grade stuff when my oldest went through it. I added a few of the extra projects and things suggested by the teachers manual, but you don't HAVE to do that. The Math is good, too....my middle son still uses Lifepacs for Math.
We didnt have a problem with Life Paks for math until Algebra, mostly because I am not so good at teaching it. I could do it in front of my kids, but I could not come up wiht the words to actualy teach it to them. DD this worked for eventually but ds went out for Algebra and so younger ds will use MUS for his Alg1 Geo and Alg2 not nessacarily in that order though.
I couldn't wait I was going to wait until after Thanksgiving to start any of the curriculum, but I felt guilty not doing anything with him. We did crafts for Thanksgiving but I was watching him devote all his time to games and tv and THAT is NOT why he is going to be homeschooled. SOOOOO, we started Lifepac BIBLE today and he seems to like it so far. It is very self expainatory for him so he will learn easier. After Sect 1 I made my own work sheet with words -->draw line to correct definition, had him write the Bible verse from memory and write the 5 words 3 times for penmanship practice. We will only do Bible until after Thanksgiving and we will start the rest after Dec 3rd.
hehe.. the reason I can't allow myself to go completely unschooling is because my oldest would spend all day and all night playing video games and legos... but I must say I see him learn a lot from video games.
