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melanie
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| Posted: Nov 12 2007 at 8:09am | IP Logged
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So, we are rapidly spinning into burnout here, and I'm thinking of making some big changes mid-year. We have been using MODG, which *I* love,  , but my daughter not so much. She has a language LD and is just starting vision therapy for it. She *hates* reading, which makes an literature intensive curriculum like pulling teeth around here. She is definitely a hands-on learner. And then I have the 7yo with ADHD...he's doing ok, but MODG is pretty light in the early years and that helps. We are all stressed this year, like we are at this point every year, of catching up/keeping up with the syllabus, and I am starting to feel like drill sergeant mom, barking orders at everyone all day, just trying to scratch stuff off the list. There's no joy left in this any more. And we have a new baby coming in May, I'm sliding into a more comfortable 2nd trimester,  so now is the time to kind of rethink things. So, I'm thinking of making the leap off the syllabus onto our own, and it's scary! And I'm wondering how this works for most of you...do you basically just let go of the idea of what needs to be accomplished for "5th grade" and just set goals each year, is that it? What I've done is basically is pick different materials that I think will fit them better and be easy for us to use, then made a list of kind of a sequence of events for each of them that I'd like to see...i.e., finish Explode the Code, then move on to Phonetic Zoo....without tying it to a specific grade level, kwim? When a new school year starts, we would just pick up where we left off. This is for the core subjects anyway. Then science and history will be largely interest-based, hands-on, and done with all the kids (though my daughter is *still* going to have to do some reading!), with lots of time for seasonal/liturgical year projects throw in, and at least one afternoon a week for being outside with our nature journals. I'm hoping this will bring some more joy and excitement into our day, especially for my oldest. I feel like I'm losing time with her to teach her to enjoy learning, and my poor 3yo is always left to his own devices while we try to shove through our daily list. I've read Real Learning like three times through now, and I'm ready to find something better here....
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: Nov 12 2007 at 1:16pm | IP Logged
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This sounds like a good plan to me. In fact I kind of plan on following the same model as my kids get older: cover basics of math, vocabulary, and writing; read as much as possible; and unschool the rest.
You might try switching to year round schooling, too, to take a little pressure off, try so many weeks on and so many weeks off. Of course, I mean off the formal core stuff. You obviously don't want to interrupt interest-led learning for arbitrary breaks. This might really work with the baby coming. (I'm also due in May, btw.)
And, how does your daughter handle read aloud time or audio-books? You could have her try the audio-versions instead of or along with reading the hard copy. It may take some of the pressure off of her while her vision problem gets straightened out. The important thing about the books is getting the ideas and vocabulary and discussing them. And maybe you could give her some hands-on activities, like designing costumes on paper for the book if it were made into a movie, acting out a scene with dolls, or something.
I wish you luck with everything.
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Nov 12 2007 at 4:19pm | IP Logged
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Sounds awesome to me!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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ALmom
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| Posted: Nov 12 2007 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
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Melanie:
We've had vision problems here and one of the most important things to do for us was to back off lots of close work demands. We spoke to our therapist for guidance as well. One thing that they really emphasized to us was less was best particularly with written work. We relied on a lot of oral discussion, read alouds as a family, and very, very minimal assigned written work until we had had a good six months after therapy for all the eye skills to really solidify. To be honest, we often counted eye therapy as reading, writing, spelling ... and we tried to pray and discern very carefully. It seemed better to do too little than to push for too much because part of the vision problem became exasperated by too much close work and then we were playing tug of war with the eyes. The eyes were the priority and the rest takes care of itself. Also don't expect to just keep working where you left off. When we finished therapy, one of ours jumped several levels in both reading and spelling without having worked on it at all. We scaled way back - actually for the year we were in therapy, everything was read aloud. I had a child coming up at about that time that I thought got lost in the cracks. He did better than anyone teaching himself so much. (It was very humbling since I had very little part in his education that year). The child that we did "nothing" with for the year of therapy was about 10 at the time - and she is fine now as a very normal, not behind 10th grader. I remember the panic and really wish I'd known that just going at a comfortable pace with what seemed appropriate for them is fine. I never did any history with that child before eye therapy - we were struggling just to read so it just could not be a major issue at the time - now she is my history expert and cannot read enough on the subject. Cutting back like you are talking about, would not be a problem and if she likes a lot of the books on tape, you might be able to just loosely follow some of what you already have (only with tapes or read alouds) without feeling locked into things. I wouldn't stress tons about written things either - MODG, Kolbe, etc. are chalk full of papers and this can be the most discouraging part - and time consuming. I had a child who with vision issues would have taken the entire year to do one paper - but the eye skills were what caused the slow down. It wasn't worth killing any love of literature and writing to drag something out like that. I tried to encourage short writing for the fine motor or I'd take dictation or .... whatever seemed to best help the child learn to put thoughts together without having to bog down in the eye skills - knowing, in our case, that the vision issues would be resolved in a year, it just seemed best to focus most of our time and energy in practicing our faith and therapy exercises. Whatever else we managed to do was icing on the cake. I tried to look at one area that we could improve, that was realistic and simply provide materials and opportunities and encourage without pushing in other areas knowing that we could work harder and more efficiently in a year. It was scarey, but it really did seem to pay off in the end. I wish I'd known someone else who had taken this more laid back approach so I'd have been able to look at someone else and say - it worked for them when the peer pressure or doubts started to take hold.
Janet
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mariB
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| Posted: Nov 13 2007 at 5:50am | IP Logged
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Melanie,
It sounds like your plan is wonderful. We've used MODG in the past and I am still a big fan of Berquist and her reading lists. We've moved to our own planning and I love it! It makes life and homeschooling fun and inspiring!!!
We just bought Brain Quest at the bookstore(Barnes and Noble) and I realized that even though I thought that the kids had gaps in their education
that they really know a lot. Now every morning my third grader wants to do Brain Quest(fandex with losts of questions) with me.
A lot of these mothers at this forum design their own curriculum with great success and such good advice.
I will pray that you have peace and joy in this new decision of yours. Again, it sounds wonderful!
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marib-Mother to 22ds,21ds,18ds,15dd,11dd and wife to an amazing man for 23 years
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SallyT
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| Posted: Nov 13 2007 at 3:48pm | IP Logged
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Sounds great to me, too. The best plan in the world isn't any good for you if it's not working for the child you actually have.
We don't have the same kinds of reading/vision issues, but I will heartily second the audiobook suggestion. Whatever will let good literature spark her imagination, instead of being like torture! We love audiobooks and read-alouds around here, and my kids have absorbed a lot by listening. My older kids enjoy Teaching Company lectures, too.
As far as scope and sequence goes, one little epiphany I've had in teaching a class of homeschooled high-schoolers this year is that while they're all over the map in terms of things like formal writing skills (which is why they now have me!), what they have over the public-school students I've taught is that 1) they have an incredible amount of cultural knowledge -- last week two of my boys were filling me in on the Punic Wars and Hannibal as Greatest-Military-Strategist-of-All-Time, with massive enthusiasm. I don't know how exactly they acquired this knowledge, but obviously it stuck with them because their imaginations were inspired by the story -- and 2) they are good learners because they're used to picking things up on their own, and because they don't think learning is "boring." Any other shortfall is relatively easy to fix, within the limits of the child's actual abilities, as I'm also discovering as my 9th grader does algebra with a tutor -- we have NOT been great math scholars around here, but she's doing fine, even when she has to learn something for the first time that really, technically, we should have mastered earlier. Helps that the tutor is a homeschooling mother, too!
Anyway, your new plan sounds great. Go for it!
Sally
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melanie
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| Posted: Nov 13 2007 at 4:22pm | IP Logged
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Thanks all for the support .
I think I've got a plan worked out and we are going to run with this. Yes, she *loves* audiobooks and is quickly running through our library's collection, listening to two or three a week. This has been a source of great hope for me, that if this vision problem is resolved that she may learn to enjoy reading since she loves the audiobooks and loves being read to as well.
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Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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ALmom
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| Posted: Nov 14 2007 at 7:52am | IP Logged
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Melanie: She sure sounds like she will love to read once her eyes don't give her fits. Our children who have been in therapy hated reading but loved the read alouds. They went from not touching a book on their own, to having to be fussed at for reading until 2 AM. One of ours also went from absolutely hating to put pen or pencil to paper (actually reversed every letter in the alphabet until after therapy) to seeing essay and report writing as one of her favorite things. We cried in amazement and gratitude when the sudden reading interest happened - and it was so sudden!! Of course, we did still say something about the lights on past bedtime . If you ever need to "talk" feel free to PM me.
Janet
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SallyT
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| Posted: Nov 15 2007 at 3:28pm | IP Logged
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One great thing about audiobooks and read-alouds, as with books independently read, is that you can cover a whole lot of bases with them: history, science, etc, depending on the book's subject and when it's set. If they're ingesting good literature that opens up new worlds to them, you can relax a LOT. That's money in the bank when you have a new baby or other upheavals that make it difficult to get in much, or any, formal work.
Sally
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: is this more sane?
