I finally got this year mostly planned but I keep thinking I am missing somethings and keep wanting to add more. I know that this year is already overloaded but I am so freaked out that I wont teach my kids everything they need to know. This is how this year looks (so far) Monday Wednesday & Friday Math- Saxon and Multiplication math for YS and Life Pac and money math for other son Science- Apologia Language Arts- SOS for one son, Life Pac for the other History- MOH and SOTW 1 Bible- MOH (I am using it partly for bible) and Stuff I dl off internet Reading - I am having trouble with this one. I want to do the history reading AND the classics for one of my son.. I wonder if I am overloading him. Houghton Mifflin and HOP for other son. I also want to fit in a few of the classics for my disabled son if he can read them. Latin- Only for 4th grader. Spelling- Spelling workout both kids (differnt levels) Writing- IEW both kids. Art- Both kids from a book I bought and the Library. Also art history on Fridays. Life Skills- Mostly for my disabled son Tuesday and Thursday Math Science Language Arts History Bible Reading (we do these subjects everyday) Logic- For my 4th grader Grammar- Both kids differnt levels of SF grammar Vocabulary- Wordly wise both kids differnt levels Nature Journal- Both kids. We will go out on a nature walk then come back and look it up on the web and do a notebooking page on whatever we found. Social Skills- Mostly for my disabled son but I will probably have both kids do it anyway. Now the problem is that I really want to add World Geography and poetry into the mix. I want them to know learn these things but with all of the "core classes" there just isnt enough time in the day to do much more. Also I am not having good feelings about reading. I want to do the history readers for history but I also want to do the classics, so we will probably need to do two chapters a day to get it all in. It seems like a lot but I dont see a way to get it all in if I dont do it this way. I thought about it along these lines. If I do SOTW and MOH for the next 4 to 5 years, I am going to have the same problem with reading for all of those years. I cant just NOT do the classics for the next 4-5 years and I dont want to skip the history reading either or we wont get as much out of the books. I dont know if two chapters per day is too much for a 4th grader. What do you think? Is that too much? Do you think its possible to still add poetry and World Geography into the mix? Its just these classes are not going to change any time soon. Most of them we will take year after year. We will probably follow this same path for many years to come but I feel we are missing some important things like the states, the presidents, world geography, poetry and some other things I cant think of right now. Oh yea, Spanish, in a few years or maybe next year I want to add Spanish to the mix. I just wonder how you fit it all into a reasonable day. As it stands this will take a lot longer than the 4-5 hours that most people homeschool their kids, and I want to add even more because I dont feel we are covering everything. How do you fit it all in? I am at a loss on how to get everything into a reasonable amount of time.
I love combining subjects, so I would add Geography into History. For instance, while studying Ancient Egypt we studied the geography of Egypt then & now, as well as the culture. That way, we get History, Geography, & cutural studies done all at once. Poetry is part of Language Arts, so I would just plan a unit on poetry into our L.A. program for the year. For the reading, you could have them read some of the books & you read the others aloud to them. That's what we're doing. I want to make sure dd reads the classics, plus there are books i want her to read for specific subjects, so I have her read some & I read the others. Both kids will sit & listen while I read, so my ds (4y.o.) is also being exposed to the books. This is just how we do things, but it works great for us.
I have to agree here about combining things. For history and geography this year we are doing a lot of notebooking. I am combining History Odessey and History scribe along with Geo Scribe. The poetry is also included in the girls reading and LA. The way I look at it the more you can combine the easier you life will be. It also sounds like you are doing plenty. That is a glich most of us hsing moms have, " am I doing enough?" Breath and enjoy your kids. They can't help but learn from you.
ok, I would alternate the science and History days myself at your kids ages.... thats how we did it, and now I do the same only for longer periods of time because otherwise you will find yoruself doing school from am to PM dark... I can't fit both students everything in, evn if I am primary teaching for only one of them dd is doing MUS and SOS , ds is doing mix of stuff sos spanish, which is one day a week at this point, Hardcort Art, 1-2 days reading aside from just for fun they do at bed time, 2-3 days those are all 30 min classes Science, History, PE, are 45 min classes 2-3days alternating S and H< and PE is wednesdays Bowling, it will last longer with bowling so I included it with Lunch and Recess that day. I have the kids eat lunch at the bowling alley so we get two hours in no problem with 15 min travel time. Then my main classes every day; Math- Horizon English 6 BJU those are hour long classes every day. Bible half hour every day. this all adds up to 8-230 daily! Fridays we are a little short on break so we can get done early. dd is SOS so she just does whats required, if she has extra time in the day she can work on the next days work and get done early Thursday to get Friday off! So thats Math- MUS Geometry Sos English 11 Sos History and Geography 11 ( Us History) Sos Secondary Spanish SOS Science ( Chemistry) All that is every day --- 5 days unless she finishes ahead of schedule each week. Health- Life Paks in the books we think she needs still to complete Health requirements. This class is every other day for 1 semester. Then she will have Year Book planning too! She is putting together her own year book of homeschooling ( she will be each grade's class using her own photos of her life) That will be on any day she has time, we have to figure where it will fit in after a month of schooling. Thats another thing! We change things after the first month so newbies check out how it runs for a few weeks, get some bubbles worked out and then reset your sechedule.. you may find your kids whiz through history but take forever on math and english, I was glad for the "suggested minutes per day" that I read my first years of schooling my kids, I learned that they were just that, suggested, and I could adjust them to fit my children.
We alternate days for some subjects. We don't use any set curriculum.. we are about as close to unschooling as you can get and still have mom led directions. Here is what our schedule looks like, and we spend at most 2-2 1/2 hours a day on focused work. M-math, spelling, reading, science, sign language, music T-math, grammar, reading, history, sign language, phys ed W-math, spelling, reading, science, sign language, art T-math, grammar, reading, geography or history, sign language, health F-math, spelling, reading, science, sign language, scout stuff I have gone the route of trying to cram too much in because I didn't want to "miss out" on anything. Then I realized my main goal in homeschooling wasn't to fill the kids head with facts, but to get them to the place where they were able to answer anything that came up on their own. I want them to be able to say "How does blah blah and blah work?" and be able to find the answer, whether it be from reading and pulling the info from it and understanding it or experimenting themselves and coming to a good solution. When I realized that was my ultimate goal, I backed off ALOT, and my son (since he is really the only one old enough to be schooling) is all the better for my backing off.
Thanks all. I think I can combine poetry with Language Arts. I really have not found any good resources for teaching poetry anyway. I think the IEW people have something which I might look into because (to be honest) I secretly hate poetry. I only like Poe and really dont like any of the rest, so I need something to help me along with the poetry class. Maybe I can add 30 min a week to Language Arts and do a poem and discuss it. I dont know I am still working it out in my head. I could combine world history and world geography together but thats going to be one LONG class. I guess I better plan for at least 90 min per day to get that all in. I do think it will be better though to learn both the history and the geography at once though. TeacherMom, I know exactly what your saying. This is going to take ALL day and maybe even until 5 pm or so if we get started at 9am. I dont want to start any earlier than that because I have to have my coffee or I am no good to anyone LOL! Plus I have to cook breakfast, clean up the mess, and did I mention have my coffee? I am not a morning person and the coffee thing is pretty much a must or my brain just wont work right.
The Bob Jones English curriculum has poetry incorporated into it. For elementary grades their books do a grammar chapter, then a writing chapter, then back to grammar, then more writing, and at the end instead of writing they do research skills and library usage stuff. I really like that layout. This year, for 7th grade we're using their grammar book as well as literature and they both offer lessons on types of poetry, and other writing, such as letters, research papers, and essays. They also put poems and stuff into their geography/history *Heritage Studies* and even Math just to help add exposure and flavor to the topics/themes that are being used.
Iw as going to suggest the same thing, poetry is included in some currics. My kids learned Hiaku from Life Paks... more than I knew I had to go back and read my grama's instruction book she had given me as a teen! lol! WE looked over her poetry and learned the counting and what ones had to rhyme, limerics are fun too! ( I think I need to take a spelling lesson this year !LOL )
We have subjects that need to be completed each week and it depends on how long it takes. One thing to remember - this is HOMESCHOOLING which does NOT mean "school at home"..... it's tough to get out of that mode and thought process but honestly if the kids dread doing school everyday - then it will reflect on the family as well. So don't push it if it's not completely needed.
Sometimes I get so involved with trying to finish the race, that I miss the journey. This year the biggest thing I learned is to enjoy the journey! It is impossible to fit it all in and believe me I tried last year . You have 13 years of schooling with your kids, it does not all have to be taught in one year. Also, I try to provide books on various things for DD to pick up and read. She was really into the underground railroad and got books and books to read on the subject. We didn't do projects, tests, etc. She just read the books. For some things this is the only exposure that a child needs.
I've been guilty of trying to school at home. I still do have a set schedule for my ds. It doesnt have to be done at such and such time for x amt of time. I schedule our school according to our plans for that day. I try to school in the morning and do fun things/errands after lunch. Some days it works some days it doesnt. We do a 4 day week and unless we are behind in our work.. the "extra" day off is for crafts and experiments from WP and Apologia. I have learned a little about myself and my son the last 2 years.. I love Literature based History and Geography. I actually like time lines too! Apologia science is awesome.... we also use Harcourt and a smorgasbord of other things because Noah can never get enough of science. Math will probably always be a chore for my ds but we will both live through the lessons. Changing his curricula over and over wont make it any better. Just encourage and support him. His handwriting may always be atrocious but thats him and I cant change that. We'll just trudge on. I'm glad computers are widely used. LOL. Combine lessons anytime you can, history, geography and notebooking to name a few. It makes things easier on mom. Schedule time for yourself in the day or you'll be forgotten.. today I got to put on make-up for the first time in months. I felt so much better about myself after I did that lol... and it only took minutes.
We must be related. I can't stand poetry myself and have procrastinated it around here too. We're doing IEW as well and I have poetry from my oldest's SL Core 3 books.....but man, I'm not looking forward to it. Of course, I'm not letting the kids know that Mommy dislikes it
WHEW, you guys are making me tired. We are combining geography with all sorts of things. We mark a World map with green pins for "where we went" in reading. (Sweden with Pippi, the Caribean with "The Cay") and with white pins for "where we went" in history. We have pins for People we love, including the kids we sponser in Brazil and Indonesia. If something comes up on the news, or in discussion, we look at the map for that too. As far as poetry... especially 4th-7th grade... I highly recommend the book "Love That Dog" by Sharon Creech. It is about a boy learning to understand poetry, and I am planning on using it and the poetical forms to work on our own. (we memorized the Jaberwock over the summer, the boys really liked that.) the POEM, not really the MEMORIZING. Other than that, I don't plan times for anything... we do school in about 4 hours, if we finish early we play at certain websites. (runescape is only for after school) I think school has it wrong... so I don't want to try to do school at home. We are working on learning. My son is happy, and is understanding what we are talking about. (we do a lot of talking and discussion, because writing is such a problem) and (as I have said before) we don't do spelling... ha!
This is the first year I've really planned a real schedule, mind you this is year 7 for us. I make him get up at 7 for breakfast, shower, teeth, and cartoons. I used to let him sleep in until like 9 or 10, but then that really takes up too much time in MY day. So it is 7am this year. He is usually done by noon or 1 and then has the day to do whatever. He is adjusting back to being a morning kid after staying up to all hours of the night all summer. My goal this year was to make learning HIS problem and not mine. So I bought a LOT of software! I'm loving this so far and so is he. Little plug for Rosetta Stone - We love it! We are speaking Japanese and it has only been a week. He is even learning the characters for writing and I'm a little embarassed to say he's better at it than I am. He is also LOVING teaching textbooks. Now math is no big deal. No arguments, nothing. He watches and listens and then does the problems pretty much without comment. I'll never going back to regular textbooks. Never. History is also software - Multimedia Classroom from the History Channel. He's loving that as well. Now I must confess that I purchased a pretty nice new computer for his schoolroom, capable of doing all the stuff he likes to do in his spare time, so that might be making it more enjoyable. I'm pretty happy with my selections this year, more so than any other year I think. I'm in stress mode right now - master's thesis due Dec 1 plus exams in November. Not to mention I'm layed up on crutches after tearing my MCL a couple weeks ago, and I work part time. Time management is my friend and so is self directed learning! :wink:
Thanks all. I guess I do need to pair it down a bit, I really have to think about what can be combined and how to pair it down a little. I dont want to completely cut out something. I worry I wont do a good enough job if I start cutting things out. Plus with my YS, if I give him an inch he will take a mile. I dont want to get too laxed, especially to start with, because he will take full advantage of it. One of the problems is the hours. I HAVE to do 5.5555 etc hours per day to make the state min. Its 1000 hours per year so at 180 days you might as well say its 6 hours per day. I really hate counting these hours because in some classes he zips right through and in others he takes forever. I do like the sound of BJU for next year instead of SOS, maybe I should research it a bit and see if it will fit with us. I have never tried anything BJU but I will look into it. I am not really satisfied with our Language Arts this year, maybe I will do something else next year. rmcx5 LOL! Yes we must be related. I really dread poetry, I dont like it, but I am not telling the kids. If they knew I did not like it they would never want to do it. I did look at IEWs poetry and I really dont know about it. Its memorizing poems and I wonder if thats not just a bit much. Its only like 25 or so, dollars, though, which is good, considering how much I have already spent this year! Right now cheep is good lol. Oh btw I was wrong about whats next with IEW after SWI A. I joined their yahoo group and found out that next year we do the SICC-A. Its a bit pricey but I guess its what we are going to do. I think every year you go to a new SICC until SICC-C. For anyone who dont know SICC is Student Intensive Continuation Course. I am still trying to get the basics down on how this all works though. I think I will understand more about it once we start up again and I start watching more of the TWSS. So I was wrong about going to SWI B for next year, I thought that was how it goes but I was wrong (for anyone who is intrested). After SWI A its on to SICC A and I think if you start with SWI B (for older kids) you go to SICC B the next year. I am pretty sure thats how it works.
I would go nuts counting hours.. here in PA, we have some of the harshest homeschooling laws in the country (I don't mind complying with them, but they are harsh), the only good thing about our laws is that we can count hours (900 for elem, 990 for secondary) or days (180). I totally choose to count days.. I can't imagine trying to spread our work out over 5+ hours a day!
we get to count 175 days this year and keep an attendance register... I guess thats homeschool trakker attendance record I keep?
Crazymama, I really do hate tracking the hours. You also have to keep a planner or a daily journal of activities and a record of evaluations. I have 3 LARGE binders of a daily journal of all of the classes we have done so far. It really gets to be a bit much but I want to follow the law to the "T." I may do a bit more than whats required but I always want to be sure I am covered. Also of those 1000 hours, 600 have to be in core subjects, reading, math, social studies, science, etc. Its a pain trying to track both core hours and then seperate the other hours like Bible from the mix. Thats one reason I have everything listed into seperate subjects, its hard to know what I can and cant combine and how to log that hour after I do combine it. Things like MOH, is that Bible or History? Really its both but I have to log it as one or the other. I am going to log it as History since its actually a History curriculum but for my own purposes I will count it as part of our Bible time since it has alot of Bible in it. I am covered if they dont like MOH as a History curriculum because we are doing SOTW too, partly because of that reason. I dont want someone to come back and say I dont have enough hours because MOH is too Bible-ish so we have two History curriculums. Clear as mud LOL? I did download homeschool tracker and decided its for the computer savvy people (which is not me lol). I do it the old fashioned way with paper and pencil. I would be terrified of my logs being on the computer. If the computer went out, then my logs would go with it. My husband did say he would transfer all of our logs to a PDF file for me when he gets time. I think I will buy one of them little thumb drives and keep it just for logs.
Hstwo boys, Id make ti History because when it comes to a transcript the public does not accept Bible as a class, Just call it history on your transcript, even if its Bible History ?
homeschool2boys, What State do you live in? Just so I don't accidently move there! I would hate to have to lie... and there is no way I would keep records like that for everyday. sigh.
