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Willa
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| Posted: June 09 2005 at 11:16am | IP Logged
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Natalia, I like your "wish" list -- I'd like to do something like that too -- brainstorm about what I would LIKE to see happen, without my brain telling me it would never work or that it isn't practical. Then I could figure out ways to make it work, or at least partly work. Sometimes just "wishing" for something smooths the way -- I remember "wishing" to do more nature study, and though it never really happened formally, my older kids all acquired an intense love of nature and are often outside with their field guides observing and recording and drawing what they see. I think without realizing it I made our environment more nature-study-friendly and then it just "naturally" went from there -- lol.
About MA and Ambleside -- I experimented a bit with those last year. I started off trying to use MA, but there were too many books that I didn't have and couldn't afford. So I ended up using the ones we already had around the house, and then filling in the gaps with Ambleside. With Ambleside, a large proportion of the books are online and we have an inexpensive printer (printer was expensive when we bought it, but it prints very inexpensively) and a comb binder, so I made my own books.
I've been trying to slowly accumulate some of the MA books so I can use it more this year.
The other advantage Ambleside had for me last year was that so many volunteers have been at work making the curriculum user-friendly -- spreadsheets with page numbers per week, hints on how to use the books, etc... there is SO much user-support from the community. That hasn't happened yet with MA -- because it is new, I suppose, and everyone is still finding their feet and feels like a relative novice.
If it needs to be said, this is not a criticism of Kathryn and Michele who have done a heroic amount of work in their "spare time" !! I am so impressed with how well they've thought it all out and how much they've given to the Catholic community! I love their book choices too -- the ones I've been able to see.... and my 3rd grade ds had the best time last year with their literature read-alouds -- he LOVED them.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Willa
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| Posted: June 09 2005 at 11:26am | IP Logged
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Janet, when my son used Jacob's Algebra I pretty much ignored the teacher's manual except to check the answers. What I did was just go through the lesson explanation with my son IF he needed the help -- (first son usually didn't, second son did) and then let them work on the problems by themselves. If I remember rightly, one of the sets is almost exactly a copy of one of the other ones, so if the child understood the lesson well, I didn't make him do all the extra work.... then we could save that second set for occasional review problems before a test or something.
Your homeschool sounds a lot like mine in some ways and I just wanted to remark on your oldest's obvious talent and focus in the area of music. I am sure this focus is part of the reason why the straight academics are a secondary interest for her. To me this seems quite legitimate. Maybe you could talk to the moms of some other teens on here that have very strong primary interests and see how they work in academics -- eg MacBeth's Libby who also has a strong music focus, and Elizabeth's Michael who is working and living in an athletics-intensive environment. I have a feeling that perhaps teenagers like this are simply pouring so much energy into their "gift" that other things tend to be pushed out a bit. Just speculating here since I don't have a child with a STRONG gift or interest, at least not yet.... but when they do pour a significant amount of time and energy into a particular "affinity" (to use Julie's great word, again!) I do tend to back off a little on my other expectations to allow them to have that experience of self-motivation and development of a talent. Hmm, typing in haste here so I hope it makes sense. 
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Willa
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 10 2005 at 12:16pm | IP Logged
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Thanks to all the moms who have responded and prayed for us. We are still tweaking what we will do next year but have come to a place of seeing a little more of the positive. Thanks Leonie for reminding me of that - I tend to be pessimistic and worried excessively over the slightest imperfections and I take inspiration in trying to look and focus more on the positive. Thanks Willa, you are right. Her focus with music is a positive and we are coming to some, I think, good decisions in how to strike an appropriate balance here.
We have decided to continue with Kolbe as the proctors have been very helpful to us both. However, I do tend to get stuck , my own little quirk, following someone else's approach too slavishly and to psychologically distance from that, we have decided to forgo the transcript of Kolbe and use our cover school instead. I think that will help me to use what works, be free to go where we want and still have the benefits of paper comments, lesson plans and other moms to bounce ideas off of.
Our dd SAT scores came back and that gave us both a sense of relief as she will automatically qualify for a partial academic scholarship to the school she wants to attend.  So her admission to the school of music is really dependent on her audition. Practice time will be very important to her. Sometimes I stress over her schedule being too full, but really she thrives on it (probably one of the clearest signs that she has found her niche. I have noticed the musicians go from one music thing to another almost round the clock. I assumed it was in order to make ends meet, but have since discovered that in reality its because there is something in a musician that compels them to be involved with music almost 24/7). She has always been diligent and what she has done has been to look at the quantity of work and pace herself to get it done. She really has done a very good job with all we've tried to do.
Looking at what we tried - everything on the Kolbe lesson plans (every literature book plus 2 book reports per quarter, every paper in the Sadlier composition series except we gave up and skipped the research paper). She had even decided to do 2 maths this year because, it turns out she thought she would have to take Calculus in college and she wanted that out of the way. Now that she realizes she only has to take a Math, we're finishing Advanced Math next year and not worrying about it. The only thing we haven't figured out yet is how to do chemistry with a lab next year.
We reevaluated our schedule this year and decided that the only thing that really didn't work was the quantity of stuff we were trying to do. Once it is on the plans, Jennifer thinks I am being too easy if we lighten up and it makes her feel incompetent. We are going to try to get the plans early - go over them together and select what we really want to do and focus on that from the beginning. I will limit us to in depth studies of 1 - 2 books per quarter. We want to encourage pleasure reading so we will select literature together to read and discuss as opposed to writing a lot of papers on them. We'll try to do a great job with papers in subject areas (history) and the literature we study in -depth plus a research paper that we will begin at the beginning of the year but we won't even try to do everything on the list. We also will have her select books with our approval.
We also realized that our stress is mostly with this child. Some is her personality. As things wrapped up for the year (she finished biology and a history unit), she has become more confident. She has gained some confidence in her ability to do things and has learned to study for science and history which used to be her killer subjects.
Our younger ones are progressing fine - and we are going to use CHC with tweaking and some Kolbe stuff for the 8th grader (mainly their literature support) and think with prayer and some consistent rules like no phone, etc. we should be able to have a great year.
Our other children were getting all excited as I showed them their materials in the catelogue so that was a good sign.
The mother who said it's a bad idea to do curriculum planning when you are tired was quite profound!! A lot of prayer, a little sleep and being able to think out loud with you guys has made all the difference! Thanks!
Janet
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Leonie
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Janet,
Your plans sound great
Leonie in Sydney
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Willa
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| Posted: June 13 2005 at 6:55am | IP Logged
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Janet, the Ignatian philosophy that Kolbe is based on says: "non multum sed multa" which means Not many, but much OR Quality over Quantity. I try to think of that when I'm getting overwhelmed by all the stuff we COULD be doing! Anyway, your plans sound great and your daughter, in spite of her burnout, sounds like such a conscientious student! I am glad you shared your concerns and plans because I learn so much hearing how other families steer through the balance between the child's interests and talents, the necessary academics, and various other issues like special needs.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Alcat
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| Posted: June 21 2005 at 2:44pm | IP Logged
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Hi ladies,
We hs all year long, ds is only 7 and really needs the constant practice so that he doesn't backslide. Durring the summer we do school lite... just phonics (Saxon), and math, reading and read aloud time. We take breaks and every thing goes quickly.
We do start back up "real school" in late August or Sept. because CHC's plans follow the liturgical year and I like to be in step with them (it truly enriches the domestic church). Once again we will be mainly using CHC except for math and phonics and possibly LA. I also have dd joining us this year- she is sooo excited!
I had to chuckle about the CHC lesson plan question... I always think I'm going to jump ship and move on to MODG or Kolbe but CHC lure's me back again  Their plans are great and they are so gentle. I love all the extras you get with their lessons, especially their hands on religon supplement
I have a question for Louise; do you use CHC's Language of God? I have a language arts program but it takes so much time  I thought the Language of God would be nice but... I already have something else, and I worry that the LOG might not be enough.
Thanks and God Bless,
Alison
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JSchaaf
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| Posted: June 21 2005 at 10:48pm | IP Logged
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We are using CHC as our "base" this year as well. There is a new yahoogroup out there: chcchat@yahoogroups.com
Nice group of people, and they have "ask the author" days as well.
Jennifer
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Alcat
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| Posted: June 22 2005 at 6:10am | IP Logged
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Thanks Jennifer! What a great idea.
Can you discribe a little more how you use CHC as your base? What are you using from their materials and what do you change?
God Bless,
Alison
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Meredith
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| Posted: June 26 2005 at 6:01pm | IP Logged
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Hi Alison, I'm not Jennifer, but I'll tell you how we use CHC in our home school. I have used them for various reasons since my dd (9) was 4 1/2. We love their supplements, most especially the 1st Holy Communion and 1st Reconciliation prep (2nd grade LP). They are beautiful plans for living and teaching our faith and my children relate well to the stories. I also really like the Character Building lessons in the 1st grade plans, especially for my boys. The lesson plans also have ideas to weave throughout our liturgical year. The Kindergarten LP's could easily be used for preschool as well, it's very gentle.
HTH. Please let me know if you have other questions. I'm also interested in Jennifer's reply
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 28 2005 at 4:39pm | IP Logged
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Willa,
Sorry I haven't replied sooner to your post about the Ignatian philosophy - focus on quality not quantity. It is funny how many times I bumped into that this year - there were so many great books and ideas and I would love to do it all, but couldn't and we really stressed over that.
Even Kolbe proctors had gently suggested at the beginning to take it easy - plan to do some of the material more thouroughly and not sweat the other, but our dd was enticed by the honors insignia and I think feeling a little need to be affirmed. She ran into a number of folks in orchestra taking 5 AP courses and the assumption that homeschoolers had it easy. I think she felt some pressure and that played into my weakness of never being able to decide what to cut out. I was attracted by how motivated and excited she seemed for the first time in a few years about plans, even suggesting that we add in stuff.
Also, once we start with a plan, my dd doesn't like to drop it - she sees that as failure and she cannot let go. Sometimes I worry that planning is a problem and have been browsing through the unschooling posts and looking at some of the other ideas. Then I realize that having a plan is essential for me for this dd - not because we have to follow it, but because we have to have books in place ahead of time, supplies, etc. so things are available when we need them. It also gives some direction to dd - but then sometimes I wonder (and suspect) she would have learned tons more about world history if we'd just done music history - she always takes music history at music camps and loves it. Then I realize, she'll get lots of music history in college and well - we could have done a lot of things differently.
I dropped my more relaxed approach for a number of years thinking it was the approach that wasn't working, when it finally dawned on me that it was the vision problem that was the block, not any particular method. For the younger children I have tended to go back to a more relaxed mode now that we know where the real problem was. Still, I also do know that this child specifically requested structure so we are following her lead in that. I think she realizes that music is such a passion that if she doesn't have a plan, her life would get very unbalanced ( a recognition of her own particular tendencies to avoid the distasteful) and she needs and wants an appropriate balance. I think she was trying to figure out what that balance was supposed to look like by talking to the ps and private school folks and I needed to be more of a guide and have helped her discern what was really healthy and what was just cramming as much info into the brain as possible in order to pass a test.
You and all the folks on this board have been such a breath of fresh air, helping us re-direct and really think through exactly what it was that seemed so stressful. Some of it is just the combination of mom and this dd personalities, but some of it was trying to find that right balance between planning and flexibility for this dd considering her personality and desires.
Do less and do it well - keeps pounding us from all angles (in a good way) and I think that really is the key with this dd. It will help her tons if we sit down together and talk about what was discussed in these forums about education, and the various philosophies. I think this will help her discern through the various assumptions and pressures she faces in owning and furthering her education in formal and informal ways in the years to come. It is not going to make a hill of beans worth of difference whether or not there is a label on her transcript that says honors. The question is What has she learned? Has she done her best? Has she been humble and open to learning new things? Isn't stumbling and struggling a part of the process - and a lot less painful if we recognize it as such? She never thinks figuring out fingering or new pieces is an agony - she knows it's part of the process of making beautiful music.
With that in mind, I see us then looking at the skills she really needs to fine tune in her last year at home and focusing on those through literature and analyzing historical information. If we can make connections through music, it will help her make those mental associattions that are so important to making history come alive. With a basic set of suggestions and plans, we can go over it together - she has already told me what she wants to read. Now we'll just focus on a research paper, and a few papers per quarter to do really well. It is the paring down at the beginning that I think will mean a lot and make for a better year.
If something grabs us and we go off with it, that is OK because we have a certain set of mutually agreed on goals in mind.
Willa, your input has been so valuable to us on so many occassions. Thank you for your very generous support. I feel I have found a kindred spirit as Anne of Green Gables would say.
Janet
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Willa
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| Posted: June 29 2005 at 9:52am | IP Logged
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ALmom wrote:
Willa, your input has been so valuable to us on so many occassions. Thank you for your very generous support. I feel I have found a kindred spirit as Anne of Green Gables would say.
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Ditto, Janet -- your musings have helped me much 
So true about the personality mixes -- I have to focus on my second ds next year -- he will be a junior -- and it's hard to steer that balance between my teaching style, his needs and interests, our relationship, and outside requirements.
I really liked your idea about having lists to choose from while at the same time having some minimal requirements. I'm trying to translate that into some sort of plan to use next year -- I too work better with a plan in my hand, even if I don't actually use it  . I'd love specifics on how you or anyone actually pulls things together ahead of time, especially when trying to keep it flexible.
On another thread, Janette shared a sample of her weekly planning form on this thread and I was wondering if I could try something like that.
Anyway, it has been very helpful for me to have these discussions on what to do next year -- thanks for helping me think it out!
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Next year
