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Sarah M
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sunnyviewmom wrote:
Being influenced by Ruth Beechick (thanks Sarah) and letting DS enjoy Level 2 books without feeling that I should be pushing him on to more difficult books
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Aw man- that just made my day. 
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sunnyviewmom
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Glad to hear that Sarah! This forum is a huge help and support to me!
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mom3aut1not
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Working:
Catholic Mosaic and Christmas Mosaic
All About Spelling
Beehive Reader 1
RightStart Math
Handwriting Without Tears cursive
picture books for science and history, especially Rookie biographies, Kingfisher Young Knowledge, and similar books
Liberty Kids
Cub Scout activities
Sort of working
Writing With Ease
First Language Lessons
Not working
any sort of catechism text
In Christ,
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Deborah
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mom2mpr
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Here is my "what works" for the year.
Starting our day in the basement at the table, and, if I can, do math first. Takes some of the pressure off me for the rest of the day--ahhhhhh...
Anne
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lambchopwife
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Here is what's working for us:
Morning Basket (thanks Jen)
CHC's Language of God
RC History
Iew Poetry
MODG Natural History
What's not working:
My plans for CHC Tour of the Continents 
Things I am on the fence about:
Along the Alphabet Path (I think my daughter is a young 5 so I might try this again next year)
MODG Religion for 9th (we did the first half last year)
I am coming to the conclusion that it really stinks when the plans you made yourself don't work out! I think I just got "living book happy" with the CHC Tour of the Continents. I think they are great book choices but we will just use them another year.
On a happy note, we are finally doing narrations without complaining!!!! 
God bless,
Cheryl
__________________
~ Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk.~ St. Therese
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CatholicMommy
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We just started our school year this past week (we start the school year with the church year). Thus far, the main thing that works the best is Homeschool Skedtrack. It takes some time to input the activities, but once they are in, I just follow the sequence and if we miss something on one day, it automatically moves it to the next scheduled day for that subject. I then have the subjects listed in order of priority so that if we have limited time, I know that at least the highest priorities were accomplished.
We really enjoy:
Trail Guide Through Geography (combined with Montessori materials) and Geography Through Art
Our Musical Year (wow!)
OLVS religion plans (not the current ones - the older ones with the Baltimore Catechism questions)
Montessori math in addition to basic math workbooks (the workbooks are not by my choice!)
Lots of blank paper as well as themed coloring books relating to other studied subjects
Living books in science and culture
"Mini 4H: Before You Sew"
Activity cards (I hand him a stack of cards each day - one for each subject and chore he needs to do; he does them in any order he likes, and then can do additional subjects if he likes (ones not assigned for that day) - he sets the card on my computer upon completion and I mark it off when I have a chance)
While we love the CHC lesson plans and are using them (1st grade), what is NOT working for us is skipiping any part of the New Catholic Picture Bible - and reading one story a week isn't cutting it either! Fortunately, with the Skedtrack, we are able to be on different weeks of the lesson plans without going crazy with flipping back and forth!
The other thing that just isn't working for us is Science Arts (Mary Ann Kohl). I LIKE it. My son LIKES it. But we're just not using it. I'm not entirely sure what the deal is. Perhaps as the year goes on, we'll find a particular time of the year that works better for us.
Of course, he's so focused on his religion, reading practice and math practice which includes some art, that perhaps it's just overkill for the time being.
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Garden of Francis
HS Elementary Montessori Training
Montessori Nuggets
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Mackfam
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I'm SOOOO late to this party...but I really wanted to jump in with our thoughts mid-year.
What is working or newly discovered and nice or rediscovered
** Startwrite - I finally broke down and paid for this. I was getting so frustrated trying to make handwriting sheets for our copywork, especially now that I have a son writing cursive. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this program!!! I can print copywork sheets in print, cursive, and have so many choices as to fonts and styles. My little fella loves having his *work* printed as well...and I can just print a special word he's working on...or his name...or a few letters of the alphabet.
** Notebooking Pages - not new for us, but this is such a great resource and we use it over and over and over again!
** Dover coloring books - also not new...but I purchased several more for the children this year to accompany our history and literature themes. The children love these, and I so enjoy seeing how much they enjoy spending time with these inexpensive coloring books...and how much they learn about period architecture, costumes, etc.!!
** Using what we have and challenging myself to present it in a way that is more workable, simpler, more approachable. Saxon math comes to mind here. We're in a fantastic groove! It's certainly NOT the perfect program, but it already lived on my shelves...every single year of it...so relaxing my shoulders and squaring them a bit, I found a way that made use of it, accomplished the goal of conveying concepts effectively, and didn't get in the way of our simple, delightful days. In short, I was pleased to find a way to use a program that doesn't exactly exude gentleness or flexibility in the way it is written...in a way that embraces gentleness and flexibility! Yay me!
** Love Morning Basket time (and it makes me smile when others of you find a way to change it around and make it work for your family!)
** I'm loving a return to the basics. I don't think we ever left this idea, but it's been more in the forefront of my consciousness this year. Less is needed to accomplish good things. Sarah says it well here - Less, Done Well. For us that means, almost all of language arts can be accomplished gently and in a decidedly lovely way through narration, copywork, and dictation. Reading lovely, beautiful books, but allowing time for exploring the ideas and thoughts within. It's all very much where we started, but it has always worked. So, I'm including it. If you haven't read Sarah's post - you must!
** For my little fella (preschool/Kindergarten) - I love setting out little picture book themes of our own choosing and reading together and allowing learning to happen naturally and unfold on its own. I've tried doing this a dozen different ways, but simplest is what we keep coming back to and where I'm staying. It's quiet and attractive and easy.
** My son and I love reading through The Way Things Work by David Macauley and then building projects from the K'Nex Intro to Simple Machines kits (Levers and Pulleys, Gears, Wheels, Axles, Inclined Planes) It's been so much fun to read and then build what we're reading!
I'm terribly sorry...I realize I haven't really provided you any curriculum-ishy reviews of things working this year...I suppose you can tell that I don't use too much of that.  I know those kinds of reviews can be very helpful. I do have one curriculum thing I'll hash out with you here. I'm still on the fence on this approach...so I can't say either is working or not...
Still Pondering...
Latin. sigh.
It's important to me...to us...and I have no background in it. This doesn't intimidate me, but it does have an impact on the program I use. I need it to teach everything because I can't fill in any gaps. I'm convinced that there's not an easy program, that all Latin programs will require consistent application of myself to learn alongside the children. Ahhh...self-discipline...wherefore art thou self-discipline?
I started the year with Latin Alive - a very good program with effective, well directed DVD's. But, I didn't like its approach. First, it was a little too advanced for where we were (not the program's fault!) and the pronunciation was all classical. I knew this when I purchased it, but was under the impression that there was a CD with ecclesiastical pronunciation, but the CD isn't comprehensive. This is just our preference, we really wanted to learn ecclesiastical pronunciation and have been up until now so this shift was big for us. I thought I could overcome this, but none of us liked it. **Note** This is a very well done program (especially the DVD instruction), and this review is really only negative insofar as it didn't answer our needs for ecclesiastical pronunciation.
So...I went back to our classic...tried and true...Memoria Press Latin. It's no frills, but kind of like slipping back into a comfortable pair of shoes. I originally gave up Latina Christiana because I was lost halfway through the book, but a good friend encouraged me in saying that the DVD instruction was imperative. So, I bought them. I did notice that we all sort of relaxed back into this program quite easily. It's familiar and we're comfortable with it. And it supports our ecclesiastical pronunciation. I decided to start us at the beginning with the DVD's...I can't tell you if it will take care of my concerns - we're not there yet.
I'm upset with myself that I broke my own rule of trying to find a better way of using what I already had!! It's possible and likely that Latin Alive could still be used and enjoyed by us. Mental note - don't break my own rules!!!
That's it for me...I think! This was fun, Amy! Thanks for starting this!
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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AndieF
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What wasn't working:
* Our schedule. I had scheduled certain things on certain days in a certain order. We all hated it.
* Simply Grammar or God's Gift of Language or Writing Strands.
* Everyday Math for my 4th grader. She is going back to public school next year, and they use Everyday Math, so I was going to have her use it so that she was used to that type of curriculum. It did NOT work for us.
* Math for my 2nd grader. She was using Saxon 2. It was too much review, too slow, etc.
* Shakespeare Fridays 
What is working:
* Montessori Grammar. We are LOVING this. We are all (2nd through 5th grade) working on learning the parts of speech using the Montessori sympbols/colors. We are combining this with the Ruth Heller book.
* Having the option of doing every subject every day. I don't do workboxes, exactly, but I have something that they can do from every subject, and generally they do get through everything in a day. We do generally do History together everyday at 10 am, and the kids all do math from 2:30 to 3 pm.
* Our schedule is much more flexible now, but we do have certain subjects available in the morning, and certain subjects available in the afternoon. Morning is Faith, History, Writing, Grammar, and Spelling and Afternoon is Science, Math, Geography, Music, Art, and Poetry.
* Definitely Alphabet books from Serendipity. We love and use R is for Rhyme, M is for Melody, and M is for Masterpiece. I also use A is for Art for Picture Study and Story of the Orchestra for Music.
* 3 part cards. I had never used these much with the preschoolers, but I use Montessori 3 part cards for Geography (the youngers are studying the states, and the olders are doing a continent tour.), Music, and Art.
* I moved the 2nd and 3rd grader to Math U See Beta. They are both enjoying it. The 4th grader is now doing Saxon 5/4 and the 5th grader is doing 6/5. We do math from 2:30 to 3 every day. If I let them choose when to do it, they either spend all afternoon doing it, or they "accidently" forget to do it. So now, they do a unit/page every day.
* Everyone is enjoying Story of the World, Part 1.
* We are doing narration and copywork this year, and it is going much better this year! (I dropped it by mid year for my then 3rd grader.)
* Montessori for the preschooler. I've done Montessori with my preschoolers for 7 years now. It works for us and our lifestyle. I don't have it all, but I have most of the "core" materials.
* Having a monthly Teacher Meeting at the end of the month for the next month. It gives me the opportunity to look at what is working/not working on a monthly basis, to have an idea of where we are going (although I allow for the flexibility if we want to stay longer on an area, etc.)
That's it from me!
Andie, homeschooling two 10 year olds, 2 eight year olds, and one 5 year old.
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SuzanneG
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Mackfam wrote:
| ** Notebooking Pages - not new for us, but this is such a great resource and we use it over and over and over again! |
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Debra at Notebooking Pages has her Christmas Copywork Pages on sale for $1 through Friday, if anyone wanted an inexpensive way to "try" her pages and see if it's something you'd use.
We LOVE them here too! Mommy does copy work as long as we have these fun, beautiful pages to work on! We just started our Christmas poems on them, and they look so lovely!
__________________
Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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Mackfam
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I just popped over there this afternoon for them! They're so lovely! I wish we'd had them earlier, but we'll have them for next year now!
And...do check out her freebies page! There are some Christmas offerings there.
Ok...I promise I'll stop gushing about these silly Notebooking Pages now! 
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Maggie
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You know...
We started Five in a Row this semester...and initially loved it. However, I discovered, now that we are just two books shy of finishing the series, that I am not such a FIAR fan.
Here are my reasons:
1). My husband and I noticed that FIAR is VERY Politically Correct. It seems that books are not necessarily chosen on their merit, but rather on their agenda. Don't get me wrong, I think "Madeleine" is very sweet...as is "How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World..." and "The Clown of God" is outstanding, but some of the books in volume one just did not seem to be "top-quality" literature, in my opinion. The books seemed to be elevating either a social agenda, political correctness, or "different" family situations. This seems to be the common thread amongst many of the books.
2). Only 1-2 of the books actually has a "normal", domestic family. (ie: mom and and dad and child/children). This really bothers us. Several of the books have "orphans" (a hard concept to explain to a younger child), death of a parent, or no the complete absence of parents because they child is living with another relative. The target audience is 4-8 years, which, to me, is young for a child to understand some of those concepts...I suppose, that is an individual thing, though.
3). Some of the "teasing" that is displayed in the books is rather harsh...and a hard concept, again, for a child to understand...especially one who has never been subjected to that (not that home schoolers are immune to this--not by any means...but I just don't see that amongst our groups and friends as much as I experienced this in school myself).
4). Again, I think there are better books out there to be read.
5). I LOVE the CONCEPT of FIAR...just have not been a fan of quite a few of the books.
But that's just us...
__________________
Wife to dh (12 years) Mama to dd (10) ds (8), dd (1), ds (nb) and to Philip Mary (5/26/09), Lucy Joy (12/6/09), and Margaret Mary (3/6/10) who entered Heaven before we had a chance to hold them.
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Sarah M
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Maggie wrote:
You know...
5). I LOVE the CONCEPT of FIAR...just have not been a fan of quite a few of the books.
But that's just us... |
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I quite agree, Maggie. I've had more success translating the "how" of FIAR (one book over many days) to other books, than with using the FIAR selections themselves.
FIAR taught me to look at other picture books and easily approach them in FIAR style, without having to use the manual for guidance. I find myself often praising FIAR, when in reality we only used about 5 selections- from there I just took off and we use other books that we enjoy more.
I never noticed the lack of nuclear families in the book selections, but now that you mention it... Wow! Interesting...and disappointing!
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Bookswithtea
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cactus mouse wrote:
Working - SOTW. i don't want to talk about this either. *i* don't like SOTW. i avoided SOTW at every turn. but - oh, an activity guide, with maps and ideas? that lines up readings from Kingfisher and Usborne? And i can get it on CD to listen to? and the kids LIKE IT and can DO IT TOGETHER? bah. it got me.
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 I feel your pain. Its not my favorite, either, but it sure works for my gang, in spite of it all.
__________________
Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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Jen, I wish I could be a fly on your wall. I always love to read about your homeschool days. I want ours to be more like yours when I grow up. I wonder if I'll have any kids left at home by then?
Wow, Maggie. I never noticed what you are noticing about FIAR. But then I tend to gravitate to favorite FIAR books. I will say that I do all my picture books in the FIAR way, now. I think Catholic Mosaic in particular lends itself to a rowing style. Love Cay's CM. 
What's working for us?
Bible Study Guide for all Ages. We got bogged down for awhile (not the program's fault), but it is easy to use, a great way to do bible study, and easy to add in a Catholic perspective (and if you only buy the manual, you can avoid the cartoonish graphics). If there was a great Catholic alternative, I'd do it. Until someone writes one, this one is worth the $30 investment for a year's worth of bible study in a non consumeable format.
My 10 yr old is doing a great job with CHC's Tour A Country. By waiting till she was is older than CHC suggests, she is able to do all the research independently and I am pleased with her results.
Beeswax! I finally broke down and let the kids get creative with this. My two littles made a cranberry bog when we read Cranberry Thanksgiving. My oldest made a tiny buddha for her studies on countries with this religion, and two of my girls were inspired on Dec. 8th to make beautiful kneeling/praying Marys. LOVE it.
CHC's virtue cards are also working with a child who needed some encouragement in the virtues. Even dh is noticing. I'm not sure my other kids would have responded as well. I think its partially her temperament that fits with this style of encouragement.
MUS and Explode the Code are consistent thumbs up programs here.
What's not working/mixed reviews:
Queen's Language Lessons. I thought it was going to be rich like PLL/ILL. Instead its feeling rather twaddley.  I dropped it for one and am considering dropping it for the other in January.
SL's core 5 (modified for the faith) for my 12-13 yr old. She is doing well with it, but she is probably the most diligent child I have. NONE of my other kids would be slogging through the way that she is. The readers/read alouds are great. I wouldn't recommend this program, though. The language arts that goes along with it is just plain bad and boring. I'm looking for a way to morph the rest of the year into Serendipity's World Tour. I'm sick of it.
__________________
Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Maggie
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Bookswithtea wrote:
Wow, Maggie. I never noticed what you are noticing about FIAR. But then I tend to gravitate to favorite FIAR books. I will say that I do all my picture books in the FIAR way, now. I think Catholic Mosaic in particular lends itself to a rowing style. Love Cay's CM.
What's working for us?
CHC's virtue cards are also working with a child who needed some encouragement in the virtues. Even dh is noticing. I'm not sure my other kids would have responded as well. I think its partially her temperament that fits with this style of encouragement.
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Books,
I happen to know that my dear, sweet husband ordered Cay's book for me for Christmas. I am SO EXCITED about this!!
As for the virtue cards, what age are those directed towards? Are they a separate item to order? Sounds like something my dd would like, if age appropriate.
__________________
Wife to dh (12 years) Mama to dd (10) ds (8), dd (1), ds (nb) and to Philip Mary (5/26/09), Lucy Joy (12/6/09), and Margaret Mary (3/6/10) who entered Heaven before we had a chance to hold them.
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my6angels
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The number one thing working for us is Teaching textbooks. We LOVE it here . My oldest dd hated math last year and now it's her favorite subject! I'm anxiously awaiting the release of math 3 for my second dd. It's worth every penny
Other things working for us are a set teatime for read alouds and crafts and our new classroom in our basement. It's not a finished basement but it is a very nice unfinished basement. It's nice for school to have a seperate space.
Whats not working for me is trying to do everything!! I always start out wanting to do way more than we need or have time for. It usually takes me a month or so to get realistic
__________________
God Bless!
Gina
Wife to Mark (1997)
Mama to Cecilia 10, Savanna 8, Leo 6, Neve 4, Fintan 2 and Aurelia 1 and baby due 9/2010
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CrunchyMom
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Bookswithtea wrote:
| Bible Study Guide for all Ages. We got bogged down for awhile (not the program's fault), but it is easy to use, a great way to do bible study, and easy to add in a Catholic perspective (and if you only buy the manual, you can avoid the cartoonish graphics). If there was a great Catholic alternative, I'd do it. Until someone writes one, this one is worth the $30 investment for a year's worth of bible study in a non consumeable format. |
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Something I've been contemplating, and I think I might work on during Christmas to start during Ordinary Time, is going through the missal and pulling out the child friendly Bible stories (basically, what I can find in our children's Bible) and verses that go along with the liturgical year. We try to make it to daily mass a few times a week, and it makes sense to me to read the Bible alongside the Church. Some weeks would be heavier than others, depending on what scripture was being read. Also, memory verses and (eventually) copywork could come from that week's readings.
I've wanted to include more Bible stories and scripture reading in our home, but I feel paralyzed at where to start since I didn't want the stories to feel random and isolated, but I also didn't want to start an "arbitrary" program that required my following a curriculum independent of the liturgy I was also seeking to follow.
Anyway, long and off-topic. Just thought I'd throw that out there, that a "Catholic" alternative to me would have scripture study coinciding with the mass readings.
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Bookswithtea
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Maggie wrote:
As for the virtue cards, what age are those directed towards? Are they a separate item to order? Sounds like something my dd would like, if age appropriate.
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They are intended for a 1st grader, and are part of the 1st grade lesson plans. I had an old set from years ago that never got used and decided to give them a try with her.
I'm looking forward to re reading my Catholic Mosaic after Christmas and planning units to row between Jan-May. The geography and cultures opportunities in these books are *rich*! There is probably not much in the way of science in them, but that's ok with me. There's always something else to do to count as science, kwim?
__________________
Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Bookswithtea
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CrunchyMom wrote:
Something I've been contemplating, and I think I might work on during Christmas to start during Ordinary Time, is going through the missal and pulling out the child friendly Bible stories (basically, what I can find in our children's Bible) and verses that go along with the liturgical year. We try to make it to daily mass a few times a week, and it makes sense to me to read the Bible alongside the Church. Some weeks would be heavier than others, depending on what scripture was being read. Also, memory verses and (eventually) copywork could come from that week's readings.
I've wanted to include more Bible stories and scripture reading in our home, but I feel paralyzed at where to start since I didn't want the stories to feel random and isolated, but I also didn't want to start an "arbitrary" program that required my following a curriculum independent of the liturgy I was also seeking to follow.
Anyway, long and off-topic. Just thought I'd throw that out there, that a "Catholic" alternative to me would have scripture study coinciding with the mass readings. |
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I thought about this for a long time before deciding to try the Bible Study Guide. I think that studying the bible along with the Church is a beautiful way to learn. But I also really like the method of going through a book at a time and reading it from beginning to end. I can see the value in both ways, so I'm looking for opportunities from both methods.
__________________
Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and due 9/10
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Ouiz
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I love this thread! It feels so good to know I'm not alone!!!
Working
--Having everything written out for the week. I can't "wing it" with seven kids. I need to know exactly who is doing what on a given day.
--Faith and Life, Saxon, Latina Christiana, From Sea to Shining Sea (Catholic Textbook project), Wordly Wise, WRTR (for the younger ones)
Bombing On
--Science. We're using Harcourt Science right now and my kids HATE IT. I can't find ANYTHING that can somehow include 6th grade down to 1st (ha!), that is doable with a rambunctuous 2-yr old, and miraculously manages to open their eyes to the wonder of science AND teaches them the scientific method AND exposes my older ones to experimentation AND does it in some sort of decent order so I don't feel like we're jumping all over the map.
Sorry. I'm just at my wit's end for science.
--History for the little ones. LOVING the history for the older kids, but I can't find anything for younger kids to go with it... and I simply don't have the stamina to start something new with them. I'm waiting to finish FSTSS so I can start over with history again in January... and then the younger ones can jump right in with Egypt and mummies and tons of fun stuff.
__________________
Ouiz
Blessed to be married to the man of my dreams and mom to 8 wonderful children here on earth
B-17, G-16, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, G-7, B-4
Chez Ouiz
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: What's working/what's not so far?
