I wouldn’t say I am a well seasoned home-schooler. I have homes-schooled for three of our eleven years of educating our children. But I have to say, I have a homeschooling heart. I absolutely love to have my children around me. I love to be in our home, reading, writing, and learning about God’s world with my kids.
My organizational skills are not very well developed yet, but I’m working on that. I am far too willing to abandon all for an impromptu experiment, a fun play dough making session, or an all day escape from our routine. Sitting down to read a book to my kids with a basket or two (or several) of laundry waiting doesn’t bother me at all.
That is , until Sunday morning rolls around and finds eleven of us scrambling for something to wear to church. Then I regret this live in the moment impulsive self that I am.
I have made great strides in the organizational cortex of my brain though. Perhaps that is why I find myself on this very first day of August panicking over what curriculum I will use to educate my vast and sundry group of children.
Perhaps I’ll post my ideas here, and if you have any wisdom for me, please share!
I love Sonlight. I love the books, the history, the literature. Nothing compares to that for me.
So, for my second and third graders, I’m going to use Core B+C, Intro to World Cultures, which I already have.
For my sixth grader, I have Core D, Intro to American History.
And for our ninth and eleventh graders, I’d like to use Core 100, American History in Depth, but I don’t have that yet.
THREE CORES! Crazy, I know.
For all my kids grade six and up, I’m going to use Teaching Text Books for math, and I don’t have them yet either.
I’m not sure about what math to use for my little ones.
For our K-4 and K-5 little ones, I’ll do Abeka, and no, I don’t have that yet either.
What should I use for math for our second and third graders? I’ve used Singapore before and really liked it for the strong mental math, but I think it took quite i abit of my time.
I’ll do Rosetta Stone for language for our teens, in Chinese and Japanese. What can I say? I have exotic kids, and a daughter who just may feel God stirring in her heart with dreams of a foreign land, China.
Oh, and before I forget, Apologia science for everyone eleven and above. And, no, I don’t have that yet either.
Peace of cake!
Breathe.
Can you hear me panicking?
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. ~ Phil. 4;13
Blessings!
Diane, looks like we have opposite problems. I get so caught up in getting the work done each day, that I run my school more like a business and forget to take time and just enjoy those moments of snuggling that come up 🙂 I have home schooled from the beginning and this year have a 10th grader, 8th grader, 6th, 4th, 2nd, and Kindergartener. (Plus one very active 2 year old to keep busy.) I would classify us as “classical eclectic” but interestingly, we aren’t using any of what you mentioned this year!! The best advice I have ever gotten (and has been really successful for us) is to teach the kids to be independant learners. My oldest three get up in the morning and just go to work. They know they can come to me with questions, but rarely need to. It frees me up to spend my morning with the young ones who are learning to read and need me to sit next to them while they work. (It seems like somewhere between 3rd and 5th grades, things just click and they can suddenly be self-reliant.) I am planning to start school in one week (August 8) and our box of school books has not yet arrived from Rainbow Resource. I am not panicking…I have all my lists and charts ready to go….just need the actual school books 🙂 Very few of our books are new for this year anyway…mostly just the 10th grade books. Best wishes for your school year!
Thank you sharing, Kelly! You sound like you definitely have it ALL together and are good to go! I think I’m breathing even more rapidly now!!!! I’m thinking maybe I’ll be ready by September 15th. Hmmm.
God bless you!
Diane
Schools start earlier in Oklahoma….and we do 11 months of schooling. We start the first Monday in August following our anniversary and our finale is our church VBS program in late June. It usually gives us 5-6 weeks off in the summer (all of July and a little of June/August) but what I love about this schedule is the freedom to take time off during the year for holidays or company. It is especially helpful during years that I am expecting a baby.
Hi Kelly,
That does sound like a nice schedule. I really like the thought of having more time off in the winter.
I pray your year gets off to a great start!
Blessings!
Diane
Well, I will weigh in on what we use. I was blessed by God who knew how indecisive I am and how worried I was about which of the bajillions of curriculums to use when I first chose to homeschool. He literally plopped this curriculum down in my lap, the very first person I asked advice from told me about it. She was a veteran homeschooler who had used ‘everything’ but had just discovered Classical Conversations, a classical curriculum with a built in ‘group’ that you meet with once a week. That was exactly what I was looking for – accountability, help and mentoring, and a classical approach! Plus, I only needed ONE book for ALL of my elementary aged children! We meet every Monday and the tutors lead the children (and model for the parents) through the weekly work, then we go home and repeat that lesson every day for the next 4 days. Foundations is comprehensive, covering history, math, science, english grammar, latin, geography, art, music, a weekly science experiment or two, and timeline. For the younger ones you do need a supplemental reading program of your own choosing, and for the older ones a supplemental math. They recommend Saxon, but I prefer Math-U-See. At about 4th grade they start Essentials of the English Language, a history-based writing and english grammar intensive course, using IEW materials (amazingly awesome!!!), which they repeat every year until 7th grade, when they advance to the Challenge program. Challenge A, B, 1, 2, 3, and 4 covers 7th – 12th grades, with six main seminars each year. My 7th grade daughter last year did Math (Saxon 8/7 or 1/2), Latin (encompasses latin AND english grammar), Geography (learned to draw from memory the ENTIRE WORLD – all the countries, capitols, rivers, mountains, major features, ALL of it), Rhetoric (apologetics using two awesome texts, ‘Don’t leave your brains at the door’, and ‘It couldn’t just happen’), Writing (Using IEW materials the first half of the year, second half reading literature and writing essays on them), Science (writing essays each week on a different species, note-taking, keeping a science journal, then 2nd semester doing the same thing on body systems). This year they are continuing in Math, Literature and Short stories, Rhetoric will be beginning Logic (which us parents have been studying all summer so we don’t look like dummies, lol!), Science will be writing essays each week on a different scientist and presenting, then memorizing the Periodic Table and Chemistry the second semester, ending with a study of Defeating Darwinism. Debate strand will be covering Current Events and will include weekly papers on subjects such as women in the military, abortion, internet topics, and politics. History is included in this strand as they discuss they current events and present their written papers each week. Second semester they do a Mock Trial study, ending the year in an actual trial. There is just so much more and I could talk about it all day, but that is just a taste of what we have done the last two years and plan on sticking with until all five of mine are thru! I do have to say this… it is a lot of work, but I LOVE IT!!! Oh, and I am the least organized person on the face of the earth, and if I can do it, anyone can, lol!
WOW, Andrea! That really takes my breath away. It sounds absolutely wonderful, though, and really gives a glimpse about all that is fantastic about home-schooling.
I think the accountability part would be really helpful. I did sign us all up for a co-op on Thursday afternoons that looks really wonderful. Perhaps I’ll do a post on everything the kids will be doing there too.
Thanks so much for commenting!
Blessings!
Diane
I love the Classical Conversations program. They started having groups here in OK about 3 years ago. Unfortunately for us, with the cost and possiblity of morning sickness always before us, we can’t commit to something like that. However, I do use lots of their materials!
Man, I feel like I need a nap after reading about all of that work. Oh, and Andrea – I must say that you taught me a new word. I had never seen “bajillions” used before in a sentence.
: )
Mark McCaslin recently posted..You Want A Guarantee? In Network Marketing?! . . . Ok
Diane, since you posted this twice on Facebook, I thought I’d come take a look. I homeschooled for 17 years and was also the president of a large group of homeschool moms, teaching moms “how-to” homeschool for several years.
Based on what you’ve written here, here are my personal recommendations. If you think you can handle THREE cores from Sonlight, go for it! But that would take a LOT of organizing! If you love reading aloud, you might want to narrow it down to just 2 cores.
With a family your size, I would recommend having what I call an outline schedule. Eat and sleep on a schedule. Always. Schedule chores. Then, I made a list of school subjects and whatever else — music, sports, etc. — for each child and put them all on a laminated paper. I had them check off what they did each day. I think we erased weekly and started fresh each week, but the goal was to fill in the blanks by the end of the week. If it didn’t get done, then you decide if it was important that week or not. Maybe not. Remember that you actually have 18 years to teach them all this stuff, so if you miss a day or a week or a month or even a year on a certain subject, it’s OK.
Speaking of which, I wouldn’t do any textbook/workbook math with your little ones. They think concrete right now and textbook math is too abstract. Focus on real life math. How many forks do we need for dinner tonight? How many tablespoons are in a cup? etc. Math is all around you. Play board games every day. That is the best math for young ones.
Abeka? Not if you’re a Sonlight family! They will probably hate it!
Just one perspective! Most of all, enjoy your kids!
Hi Jen,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I sense your wisdom and appreciate you sharing.
I don’t really think I can do three cores. Perhaps I should just do the two US History cores, and let my younger ones read the books from Core A+B?
I am not really a fan of Abeka either. The only part I was considering was the early phonics and reading program.
Do you have something you would recommend to get my little ones reading? I have used Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy lessons before.
At what age would you start formal math with the littles?
I keep hearing about Classical learning and Charlotte Mason. Is Sonlight Classical?
Sorry I am bombarding you with questions. I’m suddenly finding I have so many! 🙂
God bless you, and again, thanks for sharing!
Diane
Hi Diane,
Sorry it took me a while to respond.
I have found that if you have your little ones playing quietly while you read to the older ones, they will pick up on a LOT, so if you do 2 Cores, they will still be learning.
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is still a good one. And Sonlight, I think, still offers the Explode the Code series, which is phenomenal! As you are able, I would just add copywork, which is an aspect of Charlotte Mason.
Charlotte Mason and Classical are two very different methods, but not entirely opposed to one another. I used Sonlight with the Charlotte Mason method (instead of the questions in the teachers’ guides) plus added some more memory, which is more Classical.
You could have your little ones do some math facts memorizing, but I don’t recommend written math until age 12. Heretical, I know! I developed a 2-hour class on this!
I hope this helps a little bit. Feel free to write if you have any more questions.
Thanks again, Jen for taking the time to respond. Your wisdom is a blessing so much more than you know. I feel like I know where I’m going now!
I’m sure I’ll have more questions, but I think I have a plan now!
Thanks so much!
God bless you!
Diane
Diane, one thing I have learned in studying the classical model is the one-room schoolhouse approach. When you have multiple ages learning together, you teach to the highest level, not the lowest student in the classroom. The lower level students pick up an amazing amount just listening in, an you are not hampering your more advanced students by teaching to the lowest common denominator. Also, your older students can assist by leading a younger group in their lessons, which in turn serves as a review for the older student. It is actually a very efficient method!
I also agree with the statement about not bogging down the very young student with lots of math worksheets and busywork. We only memorize skipcounting the numbers through the 15’s until they are old enough to switch to the times tables (skipcounting = 2 4 6 8 10 12… ; 15 30 45 60 75….. ). Truly classical curriculums only emphasize the ‘grammar’ of a given subject, which is the ‘vocabulary’ of each subject during the grammar stage (birth thru approx 6th grade). I would suggest ‘The Core’ by Leigh Bortins to learn more about the classical method.
Thanks Andrea. I really need to learn more about the Classical method. I didn’t really want to start a new system this year since I am beginning again with so many different ages, but I’m not convinced I’ll be able to manage all the different levels with Sonlight. It really is a lot.
Charlotte Mason is the big proponent of the Classical Method, right? Is there a particular book I should read to learn more about it?
And,…I must say I am a bit overwhelmed at the cost of everything I have to buy. 🙁