So, we are finishing up our 3rd year of homeschooling. It's been good, but this year I'm feeling like a couple of our curriculum choices have missed the boat. I look at all the choices and feel like a first timer! ugh! I think I need to change math for DS2, but its working okay for DS1. So I have to decide if I should change both or just one... Then for LA - I have been very eclectic and have enjoyed pulling in my own resources. However, for DS1, I feel like we've missed out on some areas this year because it's not my strong area. So, I feel like I need something more structured, that gives me direction. There are so many options, but nothing jumps out at me. Then, we're having a new baby and at this point things are a bit complicated. It may be "small for dates" or preemie depending on how things go in the next few months. Hopefully, we'll all find out that these predictions are an overreaction, but next year could be tough.... So maybe we should be thinking about a curriculum that we can all do together like Weaver or Mystery of History. **Sigh** Thankfully it's only march. I have a few more months to figure this all out! I'm so glad we have a forum like this to discuss things. It really helps to read all the comments about various programs.
Ok trying to think where your kids will be in the next school year (according to age just to get an idea). They will be what like 3rd, 1st, and close to K ish right? For all the content subjects, I personally would already have them all joined. Maybe the oldest would have to write a sentence about things while the youngest colored a picture and the middle drew a picture. I'm not big on pushing writing too young, my kids hate it and I'm not in this to make them hate school. They much prefer crafts and well crafts are usually ageless. Math.. what are you using. If it is working for one, leave that one be, but is it really working for him or is it just getting done? There are endless options out there, they do not have to be in the same math. I know it makes it easier on us when everyone is doing basically the same thing, but we have to make things work for our kids. LA.. what part of it is missing for your son? For the ages they are I wouldn't worry too much, they have years to learn what a noun is, ya know? My kids are probably behind PS kids here, but I'm not pushing them along either, so I'm not stressing, but I do plan to try to focus more on this area next year. You are doing fine, I think that after the 3rd year is kind of like the proverbial 7 year itch in a marriage. I think I really struggled about our 3rd year. You will get past this and all will be well in the world. Oh and new baby next year, don't get roped into something that will tie you down. I had Weaver given to me once... it was tedious feeling to me, I like being free when it comes to what I'm using and that just felt binding. I gave it away. Cut yourself some slack and relax a bit on the content subjects.
Considering God's Creation is a good science to use across grades. My kids were grades pre-K, 2 and 4 when I did it. But there's lots of tedious cutting. I would sometimes cut them out before, or some I even enlarged before cutting out! I bout two workbooks, rather than three, because some of the workbook activities was too much for my pre-K. So the stuff I wanted him to do I just copied from his sisters' workbooks. I think it says you can legally copy it, but I figured that if I only bought one and copied the whole thing, I'd be spending as muchas I would on another workbook. It also comes with a music CD. Oh, and it's Christian based. Like I say, Phillip was pre-k, I'm thinking age three when we started. So on Mother's Day, we planted flowers for Mom. My dad came with a bucket filled with liquid fertilizer to pour on the plants. Phillip wanted to know what it was, and Dad told him it was "plant food". His response was, "Oh, no, Grandpa! Don't you know that plants make their own food from the sun?" LOL!!! You should have seen the look on Dad's face! Maybe my little guy couldn't tell him what PHOTOSYNTHESIS was (though his sisters could have), but he sure got the "big idea" of the science lesson!
Do they have TLP for younger grades? If so, it's new. When I spoike to them a good number of years back, they said they strongly did not suggest it for primary age kids.
Thanks. I think half my problem is not being organized. LA stresses me out the most, and it's true, I've got all the bases covered that need doing. It's just that we are so disorganized. I don't know how much to do when, and have trouble being consistent while juggling all the different areas that I have available. I guess half the battle is me learning to schedule better. On another thread I was explaining the Evan-Moor books I have and how great they are, but even my favourite one we haven't hit this week! Ugh! It's time for a planning break. I need to schedule myself an afternoon just to figure out what we should do, and how often!
I'm trying to be better at scheduling for the content subjects, I'm good about making sure we do the core subjects regularly. What I do for them is take each item (we will go with LA) so for grammar I will look at the book we are using and see how many lessons or pages it has, I then divide that by how many weeks we do school. If it has say 100 pages, and we do school 3 weeks, then I know I have to do that book about 3 times a week. If we miss a day here and there through the year, no big deal, but I try to make sure we do it that many times. Spelling usually I see how many parts are in each week so say we have the word list and 2 worksheets and then the test. I will use the wordlist Monday to do a pretest, have them fix and rewrite 3X each wrong word then do a worksheet, Wednesday they do the other worksheet and we usually test on Thursday (and retest Friday if I feel they really bombed, we have yet to need to do this).
