You all have given me pretty much the same suggestions on how to handle my ds8. You have all said to basically find out what he doesn't like and change it and try to make school more fun. That being said, I really need your help now. I have been homeschooling for several years now and have been using the same basic ideas with each of my kids. I have several subjects and we do each one daily or weekly as it fits into our schedule. I have three kids ds8, ds6, and ds4. I work with each one individually on their core subjects then we come together for other areas. I have always been of the belief that each age needs specific subjects or areas in which they need to work. ds4 is working on letters, ds6 is still struggling to learn how to read and ds8 does grammar, spelling, math, and handwriting. I do geography, science, history and art/music once a week with all the kids together. I have a four day school week on a rotating schedule, meaning we sometimes school Mon-Thurs, or Fri-Tues always taking Sunday's off, in order to follow my husbands work schedule. So here is the question. I would love to do what you all have said, but the truth is, I am scared to death. I would love to chuck all the textbooks and all the individual subjects because that is what they do in public school. I know I don't have to be like that. That's the joy of homeschooling! But I am so afraid that if I don't do spelling and grammar and math and reading from a textbook, or at least from a curriculum of some sort, that my kids will miss out on what they are supposed to learn and will learn nothing at all. I don't want them taking a college exam and not knowing what an adverb is. The other problem is there are three of them. I haven't the slightest idea how to take all three at different levels of learning and mesh them together in the time frame I have and still make sure they are learning what they need. It is my greatest heart's desire to instill in my kids a love for learning but I truly haven't a clue how. I want to make school more fun but I don't want them to miss what they need. I would love any advice, help, suggestions and ideas you all have to offer. I want to be the best homeschooling mom I can be but I know I can't do it alone. Thanks in advance for your help! Rhonda
You do not need to chuck everything or even a full curriculum, maybe you just need to find a curriculum that fits your kids better. If you are looking for a more hands on approach have you looked a KONOS? I know a few people who really like that approach. Yes each child will need some individual time to work at their level. I could not chuck a full curriculum, I am in no way an unschooler. Just because you use a curriculum does not mean you can not find one that the kids like for the most part. The thing is that they will always complain about something, it is rare that someone enjoys all subjects. What they like to do may change from year to year too. I think that adjusting to a less rigid schedule and checking out new types of curriculum would be a first step for you.
First...not doing specific grammar lessons in 2nd grade is not the same as not doing specific grammar lessons in 7th or 10th grade. I don't necessarily agree that school should be "fun" for fun sake...but more in tune with this kiddo's strength. Because you have 3...I would suggest a unit study approach. Where your literature is a read aloud that all the kids can enjoy. (a bit above a 2nd grade level though...like little house books or anyway, historical type fiction that will introduce a ss/history topic while being "fun and interesting" There are lot's out there...(little house might be "too girly" but you could start with Farmer boy...but it depends on what historical idea you want to focus on.) Remember...babies learn grammar by listening to people talk...kids learn grammar and writing by reading. Science at this point should be extra extra fun...like get a subscription to Ranger Rick and just study the animal that they focus on... and that leads you to another animal, or geographical area. We always look at maps while we are reading to see where "it is all happening". For Reading...let him pick "from a preselected group" a read alone book...then casually ask him about it...if he gets particularly excited about a particular book have him do a little book report on it. Make it like a review...how would you convince your friend so and so to read this book? Introduce the idea of making a poster or diorama...depending on what he likes as far as art. (my oldest hates crafts/coloring so he often will do a dramatic "sceane" from the book instead. I think spelling should maybe just be boring old spelling...although we use spelling power, which is not "typical". Math...this also needs to be (imo)a 'regular' subject...but you might look into different texts that work with his strengths. there are a lot of free math games online...my boys like them, they are great for the basic math stuff. I will use them as a bargaining chip...where in I give the boys a set # of problems (although I know this is coming...and I keep it in mind when giving the original assignment.) Then they whine about the # and ask for less. so I say ok...if I drop 5 or however many...you need to play math games for 15 minutes...and that is usually acceptable and they tend to fly through their math to "get" to play on the computer. mwaaa haaa haaa. Ask your son..."what would the best school day ever look like to you?" You might be surprised at what he comes up with. My ds asked for spelling when I had planned on giving it a break for a bit...because he knows he is weak there and wanted to get better... you never know what great ideas they might come up with on thier own. Ask him if there is any historical period he would like to study...get a few magazines that are age appropriate and introduce different ideas. We like books like gross history and kids almanacs and the like to start ideas flowing.
Rhonda, one suggestion might be for each student to have his own reading, English, and math, but find a history/geography and a science that includes a wide range of ages. For spelling, you could use something like Sequential Spelling (if their English doesn't include spelling within it), for the older guys, and the youngest can jump in when he's old enough, whatever level the bigger guys are on. If you want to do a Bible study or devotional all together, they're close enough in age to be able to do that too. Then each will have his own leisure reading as well. You might let them each choose books from the library that you could do as read-alouds, to include some fiction and some non-fiction, to cover science/social studies topics. Maybe some lapbooks on science/social studies topics.
mmmm I dunno what to tell you. Some things you just HAVE to do. IMHO the 3R's are have tos. Whether you like it or not. It doesn't mean you can't make it fun. My son loves computer games, so we use those a lot, he also likes to cut and paste, so we'll be doing that a good bit next year. Math is easy to teach hands on. We plan on doing a lot of unit studies and lapbooks to make it more hands on (aka FUN!!!) learning. We are choosing not to use any expensive pre-packaged curriculum simply because we are homeschooling for free, but I don't think using a curriculum means you can't still add to, supplement, pick and choose which parts to do and which parts to skip and make it more fun. Like you can still use spellingcity.com with any spelling curric you choose. My kids love starfall.com and abcya.com You can find fun activities like this http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/File-Folder-Activity-Word-Family-at that can work with whatever curriculum you are using.
I can't agree more with the Unit STudy type approach. Or pick what your core is (everything based on History period, or science subject, etc). Wrap all the other subjects around that core. I'll give an example. Our core this year was American History. I've tried to wrap all we've done around that. We've done a lot of read alouds where they had a daily form they'd fill out with a synopsis of what the chapter was about (writing), look up words in the dictionary that they did not know from the chapter (vocabulary), and copywork of their favorite sentences from the chapter (handwriting). Math is, well, math. I chose Teaching Textbooks for my 5th Grader. And it's made all the difference in the world. My son will also do Teaching TExtbooks soon now that 3 is out. I will start him there and let him test to where he is (we've covered about half of what the TOC says). There are some things that are non-negotiables have "have to be dones whether you like them or not". But I try to reward with the "want to do's"/ My son has loved www.spellingcity.com this year. I took the lists from www.superteacherworksheets.com and put them in spellingcity (both free). He was allowed to play on the games whenever he wanted, but he had to do ONE worksheet a day - Monday was always the writing the words twice - the rest of the week he could pick what he wanted....and on days when we were really busy and couldn't really do sit down work, he'd play on the games for at least a half hour. I chalk this year for us as our first "successful" year. And this was my SIXTH year homeschooling!!! It is hard to let go, and to step away from the box, but it makes a difference. It really does. YOU CAN DO IT. YOU know your kids better than anyone. And there is a TON out there.
I found that figuring out how my children learn helps me figure out what type of curriculum or approach to use with them. I'm sure you can find some books on learning styles at your library to help you figure out your children's learning style. I have one son that is very auditory and one that is very visual. I had been doing some subjects together, but found that I need to split them up and teach them with different methods or curriculum. Some subjects I will still do together. I just have to be more mindful of incorporating both learning styles.
It is SO hard to let go of the "school at home" mentality. I can relate because I am a "trained" teacher and so not only do I have a "school" idea from my personal experience being a student, but also from college training, then 6 years of teaching in a public school and being "trained" at in service days every year. You have boys. Most boys are super active at this age and don't do well "pinned to a desk" or a couch, or anything that is sedentary. I would spend a few minutes a day with your 6 and 8 year old on math and reading skills (IF your 6 year old is ready to learn to read ~ that's something else I learned, you can't teach a child to read if he/she isn't ready.) Everything else can be done together with your 4 year old sitting in or not. If you do some unit studies with projects, you can bet he'll probably want to be included. Concentrate on activities that build their vocabulary. (Unit studies are great for this.) Research shows that kids with large vocabularies can start reading "later" and easily catch up and PASS children who read "early" but don't have extensive vocabularies. For us, handwriting came as they needed it. My youngest HATED to write. Her handwriting was a mess, so she typed almost everything she did. (She was a great touch typist by the 3rd grade.) In K she learned to form all the letters, but they were very messy...oh, well. In 2nd grade we worked 5 minutes a day on learning to form the letters in cursive, but they were very messy...oh, well, doctors have messy writing too. She loved to read, learn about history and make up stories (as long as she could type and not write them.) Her writing continued to be messy (which drove me CRAZY) until earlier this year (5th grade) all of a sudden one day, she started printing with a beautiful flourish that she saw someone else use. Go figure. It's all about motivation. I beat my head against the wall over spelling for a long time. It was frustrating for them because the vocabulary they wanted to use in their writing was too much for their spelling skills. So I floundered looking for something that would work. Every year, I ended up giving up or not even starting a spelling program because we were all so frustrated. Spell check couldn't even help when they used the word processor because their spelling was so invented. They did improve some on words they used frequently, but still good results were sporadic. This year (5th and 7th grades) I decided to try a program approach one more time. They are both doing great. It's like the fact that they want others to enjoy their writing and not be distracted by spelling errors is a motivator and with the maturity they have gained ad pre-teens, they have been able to move very quickly through the lessons. So, instead of spending 6-8 years on spelling, they'll probably do fine with two, and despite my worry, they will not be going to college spelling "education" ~ "ejukshn." Looking back, I'd just concentrate on the phonics type skills they need for reading (some will translate into spelling automatically), work on day to day spelling errors and save the rules and instruction for late elementary. Grammar is another subject I had to work on "unschooling myself" since old habits die hard. I wanted to do grammar...nouns, verbs, ect. with my kids starting in 1st grade. After all, that's how I'd been taught, I spent hours creating 2nd grade grammar lessons for my student teaching, and I taught grammar when I was teaching 1st grade. Both my kids balked at how boring it was, so we quit. I also worried about them knowing what an adverb was, until they discovered mad-libs on their own. They also love SchoolHouse Rock. I corrected grammar mistakes in their writing/speech. Basic grammar covered. In 7th grade, we tried grammar again and blew threw Winston Grammar which covers how the parts of speech are related. Now that they are older and into Spanish "lessons" - we go to an adult Spanish class at our church - they are learning even more English grammar by learning Spanish grammar. I started out as one of these they need "formal grammar lessons" every year people, but looking back, I'm not sure why. Like I said, it was HARD for me, but it's awesome being able to relax. I am realizing my kids ARE NOT going to be ruined, and not only are they not going to be ruined, but they are thriving.
I did not read through what everyone has said (there is just too much!! LOL), but I'm sure you have gotten some good advice...prepare for some more. lol I don't use textbooks with my DS and I occasionally use a workbook for him, but not always. I would do some research online and simply type in Whatever grade one of your kids are in and then type "readiness checklist". I do that with my son. That way I know what we have to work on and I can brainstorm some ways to do that! It's super easy, and you don't always need a textbook! I remember learning about sentance structure and adverbs in HIGHSCHOOL, not middle or elementary. (Which is really sad... lol, and it leads to a really confused student..trust me) You could teach them math or social studies by doing a "Drive by History" or a "Wish Bone (he's a dog who goes back in time and plays a character in a particular book) Really awesome" Series educational show. Try some Schoolhouse Rock songs!! I can see where textbooks would come in handy, but if you use them, perhaps only use them for reference for yourself. Create activities centered around a particular chapter and have some crafts or some fun activity to go along with it. Example: Practice sentance structure outside on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk! It's educational, with a fun flair!
