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folklaur
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| Posted: June 14 2008 at 9:39pm | IP Logged
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...curriculum provider for the whole time?
I know I won't really be happy with a curriculum unless I am changing this or that....
But I am having days (more and more, recently) where I would really like to not have to think too much about it. Just find a good curriculum, open up, and go.  It just sounds so lazy sounding when I type it out, but it is really more to due with fatigue than laziness, i think...
So - has anyone ever stayed with a particular curriculum for any extended time period?
thanks,
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PDyer
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I don't think I've ever finished a year using the same materials with which I started the year.
I guess that means....no. 
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Patty
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LisaR
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| Posted: June 14 2008 at 9:55pm | IP Logged
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no, but I sure wish I had sometimes!!
I've done MODG, Sonlight, Seton, CM, Montessori meets Waldorf, unschooling (read: mom on strict bedrest),CHC, and a mish mash of the above!
I recently attended a Practicum (3 days!) put on by Classical Conversations.
My main take away was that kids in the grammatical stage (up to about age 12/6th grade. need "pegs" to hang subsequent information on. Pegs such as timeline memory, math facts memory, etc.
I had a HUGE ah-ha! moment why sometimes I would feel frustrated that SOTW or the 64!! books we would get each year from Sonlight would occasionally not seem to be "sticking" as I would like them to be.
long story short, I am paring way back for the fall.
finances require it, but I am looking very much forward to a back to the basics year, with lots and lots of TIME and wiggle room...
I think back to how MUCH those kids in the one room school house really did know, it was low on books but big on memory work. or have you ever seen those emails floating around "what a 5th grader used to know in 1919" or similar??
I want to maintain the spark and love for learning, yet firmly instill lots of basic pegs.
all on a shoestring!!
probably TMI, thanks for asking!! 
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
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Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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Erin
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Laura
I sooo relate, I went through this a few weeks back, really looked in depth into everything out there for my hser and decided (once again ) that nothing would fit. However I did make some choices that streamlined planning and am so much happier. I now have an outline to go from so I am not doing everything from scratch and yet the choices fit her so well.
Lisa
Much of what you say resonates here, and something I have by trial and error come to realise (for some of my children sadly at a price.) Really a thorough grounding in the basics does open so many doors, WE can't teach them everything and to paraphrase many wise people before me, if I do nothing but teach them the basics WELL then they can go on to educate themselves. Why did I take so long to 'wise up'.
I have become convinced that with my primary school children the basics with some fantastic literature is what is needed, for my highschoolers they can concentrate on learning more in the different disciplines. Does it really matter in primary aged children whether they read about the ancients or not etc? It does matter that they know their tables well and master spelling. My poor highschoolers are having to do double work, the basics and the information. Sorry to rant and off track too.
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Bridget
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Well said, Erin.
Way back in the old days, I started with MODG and a classical approach. I switched around trying other things but have come back to the classical approach as a good fit for our family.
Last year we did stay with the same materials all year. Though not any one curriculum. It was a mix of MODG and CHC. Thats what this next year is looking like as well.
The one thing I HAVE always used because I like it and it's worked well for all the children so far, is the Little Angels readers.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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mom2mpr
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I did, and now I am not.
We did Sonlight for preschool through 2nd. A mish-mash for second, third and fourth.
I found the jumping around was making me crazy and my ds was just getting more and more behind-especially in math. I have found what works for us and am doing it again for this year. I am hoping it will decrease my planning time, the fighting with ds to do a little book work as he is familiar with the subject presentation, make me feel confident that he is learning what he needs to for his grade,and decrease overall stress in my little homeschool. I need to work with dd on reading and the discipline of school as she is starting K and so willing to work with me. This is a new thing to have 2 to teach.
Anne
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LisaR
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| Posted: June 16 2008 at 7:28am | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
| Does it really matter in primary aged children whether they read about the ancients or not etc? It does matter that they know their tables well and master spelling. My poor highschoolers are having to do double work, the basics and the information. |
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Hear! Hear!! this is exactly where I'm at too!!
Laura, I think this is such a great topic!
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Lisa
dh Tim '92
Joseph 17
Paul 14
Thomas 11
Dominic 8
Maria Gianna 5
Isaac Vincent 9/21/10! and...
many little saints in heaven!
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Lara Sauer
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I bounced around a lot the first seven years of our homeschooling, settling on a classical approach for the last three of those seven years. By that time I was tired of planning a curriculum for 4 children so I enrolled my kids in St. Thomas Aquinas Academy 3 years ago and have never looked back. It has given me incredible peace of mind in my homeschooling, it is very flexible and it follows the classical model that I was trying to implement for my children.
Peace.
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12stars
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| Posted: June 16 2008 at 5:36pm | IP Logged
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I was thinking of posting the same question. I was wondering the same thing, since I am newbie to picking and choosing what I like I was not sure if I would be able to stick it out with 1 choice and it feels good to know that many of you feel the same way. 
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Claudia in Southern California
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folklaur
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I guess what else got me thinking about it was, I was hanging out on the WinterPromise and the Sonlight forums, and so many people plan out their entire homeschool career. I mean, they may only have littles but they are trying to plan out what cores that they are going to do until graduation.
And so then I wondered, does anybody stick with plans like that?
Because...I usually don't make it through a whole year with a particular choice....
And then I wondered if it was "just me" or what....
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SuzanneT
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I like to think of what we have been doing as using an eclectic mix But, really what ever works for us (or that particular child) at that particular time. I do plan out every year, but have never made it to the end intact. This is something I used to feel quite guilty about. My husband had to remind me, "THIS is one reason why we home school!" 
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Rachel May
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cactus mouse wrote:
I mean, they may only have littles but they are trying to plan out what cores that they are going to do until graduation.
And so then I wondered, does anybody stick with plans like that? |
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I do and I don't. I say I use MODG, and I do mostly. But in specific subjects I choose a book or program that will work better for our family. So I'm following the syllabus for daily assignments in some subjects, in others, I'm following the pacing but in a different text than suggested, in one subject I teach it completely differently. But overall, I follow the MODG suggestions of what to teach each year with the plan that I will eventually enroll the kids. Even when you are enrolled there is flexibilty, and MODG will come up with the transcripts for me.
In my mind it's a sort of best of both worlds plan. I don't have to constantly build from scratch, and I don't have to put us in a box.
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Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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sarahb
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I'm doing Sonlight's core 5 more out of inertia than inspiration. so I guess the answer to your question is yes. LOL
Actually SL has worked well for us for 3 years and Im hesitant to change because Im not sure what I could possibly find that would be better. WP's Children Around the World seemed to draw some criticism and that was my main temptation. Tried and true seems like the way to go here.
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momtimesfour
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cactus mouse wrote:
I guess what else got me thinking about it was, I was hanging out on the WinterPromise and the Sonlight forums, and so many people plan out their entire homeschool career. I mean, they may only have littles but they are trying to plan out what cores that they are going to do until graduation.
And so then I wondered, does anybody stick with plans like that?
Because...I usually don't make it through a whole year with a particular choice....
And then I wondered if it was "just me" or what....
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The average Sonlight user, keep in mind, is Protestant and doesn't have to change a darned thing! We have to tweak - sometimes only a little bit, but sometimes a lot. I mean, there's a whole core on "Kingdom History" that I won't touch with a 10 foot pole because by the time I tweaked it enough, I could have built and sold my own curriculum.
We've hopped around a lot. I'm thinking of going back to Sonlight (with all the tweaking) because the literature-based approach does seem to work well for my kids. But I am dreading the tweaking. It's a chore. But so is the eclectic route.
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folklaur
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momtimesfour wrote:
The average Sonlight user, keep in mind, is Protestant and doesn't have to change a darned thing! We have to tweak - sometimes only a little bit, but sometimes a lot. I mean, there's a whole core on "Kingdom History" that I won't touch with a 10 foot pole because by the time I tweaked it enough, I could have built and sold my own curriculum. |
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Oh- we actually DID that core, much the way it was written. My dd loved it. It really was a very good core - we even made it 3/4 of the way through, and that says a LOT
But you are right - I hadn't thought about the tweaking aspect....sometimes it is a lot of work....but, to be honest, most of the people that I know that use SL - that aren't Catholic - are either Protestant or Secular, and they tweak too...
hhhmmmmm.....
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folklaur
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| Posted: June 17 2008 at 6:46pm | IP Logged
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sarahb wrote:
| WP's Children Around the World seemed to draw some criticism and that was my main temptation. Tried and true seems like the way to go here. |
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I know they have re-worked some of that program, and there were people on the WP Forums who really like it. I am actually considering that for next-next year.
Funnily - I asked about that same thing - using a tried and true curriculum, "trusting WP" so to speak - just a few weeks back on the WP forum, and
here are the replies I received.
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TracyQ
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For my 10th grader, we decided on Trisms for his entire high school, and Saxon Math. That's worked great for him, because it's sequential, he LOVES the history/research/literature based unit study approach that it has, and so we've stuck with it throughout high school, and plan to finish with it next year.
For our daughter, I'm still learning about how she learns (apparently, she's very right brained, and a dreamer, so I'm studying on it now), and we've decided on using Simply Charlotte Mason with her for the rest of her schooling (she'll be in 8th next year), so at least we have the approach, and I'll have to figure out how to make it all work for the way she learns best. 
Tracy
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Bookswithtea
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Does it count if I have my own plan that I am using year after year? Seriously, I have a basic plan for what I use for each grade for each subject and I tend to tweak it in minor ways for each child, but its what has worked for us for several years now. I don't stick to the same 1 program, but I do stick with the same few catalogues/programs...FIAR, SL, Emmanuel books for my Catholic additions and MODG for high school science.
I do write those 12 yr charts, too. I worry about fitting history in because there is more history to cover than can be covered well in 12 years. Plus, I am trying to pair kids up together, which confuses things even more. Those charts help me a lot, but several of my hs mom friends that I talk curriculum with tease me a lot about it.
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~Books
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Becky Parker
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I've used MODG for the past three years and will continue to do so. I do tweak it a bit for each child. My oldest ds has followed the program as is, with no changes, but I adjust for all the others. I like having MODG as a core, so to speak. I also like having the flexibility to adjust where I need to and "specialize" for my kids who have different needs. It just gives me peace of mind to know that it's all planned out for me. I never thought I would say that because I LOVE to plan, but it was getting very stressful as the number of kids I was planning for was increasing. Now I enjoy planning the extras or the alternatives that we use, but keep the rest of it as is.
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sarahb
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cactus mouse wrote:
I guess what else got me thinking about it was, I was hanging out on the WinterPromise and the Sonlight forums, and so many people plan out their entire homeschool career. I mean, they may only have littles but they are trying to plan out what cores that they are going to do until graduation.
And so then I wondered, does anybody stick with plans like that?
Because...I usually don't make it through a whole year with a particular choice....
And then I wondered if it was "just me" or what....
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I hae to say this sort of planning has been shown to me to be futile. You know, you can plan what you think you may do but what God has in store for you may well surprise you! I initially planned to use the public schools. Now I have been hsing for 3 years! Im taking it as I find it anymore. One year at a time. :D
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