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kathleenmom
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| Posted: April 21 2008 at 9:30pm | IP Logged
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I'm going to publicly admit that I have reached BURNOUT. I haven't reached burnout in a quiet, unassuming sort of way. Nope! I've jumped in with both feet.
I have decided for the first time that I won't be able to craft custom curricula for next year. I will have a rising 5th grader, 3rd grader, 1st grader, preschooler and toddler next year.
I feel like I spent this past year treading water and sucking in big mouthfuls along the way. We've had lots of things to cope with besides just the academics. In fact, I attempted to scale back on the Academics in order to focus on having a "Mental Health Year". I'm ambivilent at this point about my success or lack thereof. We did indeed do less schooly stuff, but the extra time I hoped to gain got sucked up by other things and not the fun I hoped after. It got filled with coping and needful things like Dr.'s visits and some downtime....but the other side of the coin is Momma is burned out. I scrambled every week to put together plans. In the past, I used MA as a spine (thanks Michelle...I love the curriculum), and planned out the majority of the year during the summer. This was more work for the children, but less scrambling for me.
I'm all out scramble. Sorry for the ramble  ...
I've been looking at St. Thomas Aquinas Academy. I have a couple of friends in my HS group that use it and rave. Does anyone have any experience to share? I've crafted my own curricula up to this point with some help from MA and Ambleside.
I just really don't think I can do it next year. I also think some of my children will prefer to have a more structured regimen. I tried unschooling for awhile and it was a disastrous experiment. It failed for lots of reasons most of which were probably my fault, but one of my children in particular has no patience for not knowing what is required, spelled out with little boxes to check off next to the items.
Sorry this is so long.
Kathleen
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domchurch3
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| Posted: April 21 2008 at 9:56pm | IP Logged
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I don't have any advice to give you but I want you to know that you are not alone. God's given me one child and I feel like I made a muck of her kindergarten year. I want sooooo much to have a Real Learning experience in our home BUT I can't seem to get my act together to come up with all these great unit studies. Also, a part of me feels like whatever I do is not enough. Is there a way to do something like St. Thomas Aquainas Academy AND incorporate CM/Real Learning? I had looked into St. Thomas Aquainas last year and was going to do it before finding Sonlight's Core B.
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Mamamoon
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 12:06am | IP Logged
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i am feeling it too~and just wanted to send my thoughts. i think (hope) maybe it is the time of the year?
mamamoon~
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mariB
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 5:52am | IP Logged
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Sometimes I feel guilty about just having the kids go through their workbooks. I have an eight year old who begs for them and a 12 year that just absolutely has to have a check off list! But you know, those are the times that we find real learning. Someone will do a work page, have questions, and then voila... a discussion, some research, and excitement!
Believe me, I've been burned out before and it is from trying to do way too much! I agree, it is definitely that time of the year. I think we should not have to feel guilty or unsuccessful from using a curriculum. Each family is different. Your way of finding "Real Learning" may be different from every other family's. I find as long as I'm feeling happy, then everyone else will be happy. If I'm stressed, then they will be!
Praying for you and all homeschooling mothers!
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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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Mary Chris
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 6:44am | IP Logged
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Kathleen,
I am right there with you! I feel like I don't even know how to lesson plan  these days.
I am looking at a Winterpromise program for next year for my boys and Kolbe for my dd.
I feel like this year has been a total waste. I know it hasn't, we have done some good stuff, but a lot hasn't gotten done.
I took a look at STAA, it looks good and I have a lot of those books, hmm....
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mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Maryan
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 8:09am | IP Logged
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Here's a link for people like me who had never heard of STAA before. STAA
Their booklist looks very close to what I want to do with my kids next year... this is good to know for future reference of inevitable burnout! 
So kathleenmom, obviously I have no advice, you are WAY more experienced than me... but thanks for sharing this curriculum/school!! And I tried to use most of MA this year for school and had to bag history and geography in any formal way. And Music and art sadly existed very scantily. It was just too much for me to accomplish.
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Maryan
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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domchurch3 wrote:
| I don't have any advice to give you but I want you to know that you are not alone. God's given me one child and I feel like I made a muck of her kindergarten year. I want sooooo much to have a Real Learning experience in our home BUT I can't seem to get my act together to come up with all these great unit studies. Also, a part of me feels like whatever I do is not enough. Is there a way to do something like St. Thomas Aquainas Academy AND incorporate CM/Real Learning? I had looked into St. Thomas Aquainas last year and was going to do it before finding Sonlight's Core B. |
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STAA looks very CM/Real Learning compatible. I look at STAA every year about this time, but have never enrolled. From what they say they base their philosophy on (For the Children's Sake, for one), and by looking at most of their curriculum choices, they seem to be the most CM-style curriculum out there (besides MA?). So yes, I think it would fit in to a CM learning environment.
As far as "making a muck of her kindergarten", I think many of us probably finished our first year of kindergarten thinking we had blown it. But, really, truly, it is only kindergarten.  You will learn from what you didn't like and improve on that. Your child got the incredible benefit of being home with you at such a tender age. That alone is success!!! 
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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italianalaskan
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 11:32am | IP Logged
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STAA wasn't a good fit for us. My son doesn't particularly enjoy reading first of all, but beside that I found that their book choise is too difficult for the grade. They pick Voyages in English for grammar and composition and I absolutely dislike it and find it boring. They use MUS for math, and I don't think is a well rounded program. After using it for 2 years I had to switch to Saxon.
But the main problem is that if you are looking for a program that helps you organize your school days STAA is not it. They just suggest books, but there is no day by day planner.
So we dropped STAA. This year I went on my own, but next school year I will be doing K-12 with my son and Sonlight with my 2 girls.
Simona
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 11:36am | IP Logged
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Kathleenmom:
First, hugs from long distance for support. You will find later, looking back, that this wasn't as disasterous as you thought and now that you know what was not working for you, you can really begin to find something that works.
I was enrolled with STAA for 1 year (I told folks, I've tried everything out there at some point or another). I will say that I found it valuable for the one year - mostly because they did some very informal assessments of my children (2/3 in school at the time) and came up with some recommended resources to address some weak areas. We had just finished vision therapy with my 2nd dd and she simply was bored where we left off and I didn't want to waste a year hunting around for where we should be in things. My oldest also, rightfully complained, that I was never clear about expectations and they were tired of waiting for me to scramble before moving forward. I expected more help with specific type assignments, and that lack disappointed me, but we did gain some good things, too.
The folks at STAA are very, very kind and there were some real good things I learned from them. The directions on how to use the Whole Book of Diagramming was fantastic - also the hints about making Writing Road to Reading more doable and less of a drudgery (my dd really needed this for spelling, not for reading as we had had numerous vision issues). The director helped me through my oldest dd 13 yo transition, shortly after her son was hit and killed by a train. I do not regret using them for that year. However, I still felt like we were scrambling all the time. If you are looking for real help with lesson planning, I don't think it will be what you want. The history and lit plans were very open ended and my very structure loving oldest never could figure out what she was supposed to do and I really didn't know what I wanted from that year myself. Other things were way too easy for my dd and she was bored and frustrated. I also got some bad advice like trying to do physics in 9th grade and going back and doing pre-Algebra. They weren't telling me what I had to do, just throwing out ideas based on what I was telling them - but they couldn't know us all that well being across the country. (I was burned out that year after a year of being teacher and therapist and was in the middle of the next child's therapy so it took me longer to recognize the goofiness and meant we didn't have a science for my oldest's 9th grade year since I didn't drop physics until the last quarter and managed to totally destroy my bright, older daughter's confidence or like of anything science.
But the reassurance should be that yes, she is fine, we are close and she is getting ready to take science again in college and I'm sure they'll do a bit better job. Also, she has totally surprised everyone as her favorite relaxation for a study break is to watch surgeries on medical incredibles or some such science based things. As disasterous as many of my years were, she remains a beautiful, gifted young lady and is doing an impressive job in college. If we didn't totally botch things, I highly doubt you are and your children are still so young.
I think one thing I'd do right now is decide what features of MA you really, really like and figure out what it is that you really need. Is there someone out there who has already put together a program using MA that you could just tweak a little? Or do you need someone you can express doubts and troubles to privately as you try to sort out what needs twitching in the year. Is there a provider that will give you a set of detailed plans but allow you to change to your hearts content if something doesn't work? Do you want to totally hand things over to someone for a year or two and not even be able to change things? Do you want someone to do some or most of the grading? Or do you not care a lick about grading and just want some specific ideas and sequence so you don't have to pull it all off on your own?
When you have an idea of your own ideas about what was good and what didn't work, talk to your dc and your husband and try to come up with "the ideal provider/support" and then call places and ask very direct and specific questions.
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask me more specific questions if you wish. I've used every single provider out there except the on-line stuff and MODG - though I have used their plans.
Janet
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Lara Sauer
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 12:53pm | IP Logged
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Wow...you sound just like I did three years ago when I found STAA. My kids have been enrolled in STAA now for the past three years and I have already reenrolled them for next year. Out of all the curriculums that I have used, STAA is absolutely the most flexible in developing a program that works to the strengths of each individual child. My children have loved almost all of the resources (does any child really like Lingua Mater? Or Jensen's Format Writing?) that we have used, and although they do have a "standard" program that they recommend on-line, my children have never used all of those resources. I have found them to be very willing to accomodate the individuality of my children. I used Saxon math, which they were fine with, but am slowly switching over to Teaching Textbooks because they seem to be a better fit for my family. I also love the fact that they have placed my kids on similar tracks in history, literature and science. This year, everyone in the house was studying Greek history, Greek lit and astronomy. Let me tell you, that made trips to the library SO much easier. Plus, there is a natural outflow of conversation among the children, because they all are reading the Illiad, just at different levels.
STAA is very CM friendly. When I initially enrolled, that was one of my first questions, because it was important to me to have the freedom to follow that type of teaching method. It is true that they don't have syllabi worked out for all of their subjects, but since there has been a request for these types of things, they are working to accomodate them. However, when you enroll, you have access to an advisor practically whenever you need one, even weekly if that was necessary. In other words, although they have nothing formally written out, you could work with your advisor to set up your schedule for the following week, or two-week period if you needed that kind of oversight. I appreciate the fact that they are always able to help me when I am stuck on how to get the most out of a particular resource.
Debbie Yonan is the program director, and she is wonderul. I love her humor and her wisdom. She has been very helpful in helping me to focus on the strength of my children and to help me work to improve their weaknesses. The program can be as structured as you would like it to be, in the sense of reporting and recording grades and the like. They will keep track of your children's record if you desire that, but it is not a necessity.
Blah, blah, blah...suffice it to say, we are very happy with our decision to enroll with STAA. However, like anything, you get out of it what you put into it.
Good luck with your decisions for next year.
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You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but you can't take the Wisconsin out of the girl!
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domchurch3
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 8:52pm | IP Logged
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ALmom said: Or do you not care a lick about grading and just want some specific ideas and sequence so you don't have to pull it all off on your own?
That's exactly me right there. I don't feel the need to grade but I want something there to give me ideas on what we are covering. My concern is that just reading the books is not enough. I need prompts and guidance to tell me what to teach my child from a particular book like vocabulary and maybe some thoughts on activities.
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kathleenmom
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| Posted: April 22 2008 at 9:29pm | IP Logged
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Janet,
I don't care a lick about grading. That isn't important to me. What I need is for someone to help me get everyone on the same or atleast similar page without my having to do all sorts of acrobatics. I have tried to combine history and science but I believe I need more assistance in the nuts and bolts...either that or more brain power (which isn't going to happen).
I have always shied away from the curriculum in a box providers. I knew that I would feel too restricted. I need to be able to change things. I want the flexibility to change things, but some support at the same time.
I'm sure I'm not making any sense. It really is a big ding to my very prideful nature to consider a curriculum provider. It makes me feel all tight in the stomach even considering it. I just know that I can't scrape and scratch along the way I did this year. My children deserve better than I've been able to craft this year.
God bless,
Kathleen
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Lara Sauer
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 9:15am | IP Logged
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Kathleen,
From what you are describing, it seems to me that STAA would be a very good fit for you. It is definitely not a "curriculum in a box." This year has been great for us because all of my kids are on the same page so to speak in so many subject areas. I can't even imagine having to work within the standard school model of having my 4th grader doing botany, my 6th grader doing biology, my 8th grader doing chemisty and my 10th grader doing physics, by way of example. THIS WOULD DRIVE ME CRAZY!!! I can't even imagine being able to keep up with all those different areas of study and that is only science. STAA has put all of my children on the same track for science, history and literature. This year, the whole family was immersed in astronomy, Greek history and Greek literature. We also did the same art appreciation and music appreciation program. This has GREATLY simplified my life.
However, STAA is SO flexible. I have found that they totally go out of their way to individually tailor programs to fit my children. If something isn't working, we change it.
There is no shame in using a service to help you write a curriculum for your children, and if your are feeling that way, then you need to tell Satan where to go, if you know what I mean. You desire in your heart that which is best for your children, but if you as their provider are struggling, you will not be able to give them your best self.
Good luck with your decision for next year.
Peace.
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ALmom
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 1:15pm | IP Logged
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Kathleenmom: my oldest children were very much wanting very specific instructions (aka Seton) but freedom to think and challenging questions to spur thinking (Seton felt stifling to them) and I wanted something flexible where I was free to change, etc. because I knew my children best. They couldn't stand the more unschooly type of things and told me over and over that I wasn't clear enough about what I wanted. That, in a nutshell, is why so many things didn't work for us.
Like you, I cannot stand to be boxed into a curriculum and could never use something I couldn't change to my hearts content. In younger grades, I could care less about grades and did them only because they were required for the cover school. STAA is definitely flexible at least before high school and as long as you are not looking for specific paper topic ideas and help in critquing papers, STAA might really be a great fit for you. I was not interested in doing a lot of ancients in early grades which is what they have more support on, so I was kind of floundering on my own. They basically suggested MODG syllabi - but I was looking for paper topic ideas and at least a summary of the main points we ought to get out of this. Now, I'm a history person, so I'm not incapable of figuring this out, but I was doing therapy with 2 children and had just finished therapy with one and was exhausted. I didn't want to have to think things up from the ground floor but wanted a very good starting point from which I could add and modify. I like detail as it is easier for me to cut than to add. I'm not good at discussion starting and I wanted some well phrased questions that got my children to thinking - not a generic write a paper. I ended up really disliking MODG history syllabus and my children felt rudderless. It took me a while of trial and error to find what really worked for us.
Some of the high school stuff in STAA felt dumbed down to my daughter, Seton was too restrictive for us and we ended up with Kolbe but doing it our own way. I will say that we loved the 8th grade year with STAA. It all depends on what you are looking for. I use Kolbe but don't feel boxed into their curriculum because I finally realized what I wanted was a good sample of how to write out lesson plans, some very specific paper topic ideas and samples of what I might be looking for, and someone who would review my children's writing from time to time and let me hash out what I wanted and didn't want and wouldn't be insulted if I told them something that was their favorite didn't work with us. I also needed something to fall back on in a few subjects when we just didn't seem to handle it well ourselves - ie I could try my grandiose plans with science but if it became too much, we could slip back to a traditional text for vocabulary or something for a time while I regrouped.
I do have my children working in all the same basic areas in history and science. I couldn't group teach. If you are a good group teacher and your children are close in age and abilities, STAA really might be a great fit. It has never worked for me to combine my children, so STAA ended up being more work for me. I don't want to influence you to eliminate a good fit for you based on my experience - it just depends on how much lesson planning in terms of specifics you want or if you want a loose guide. If you want a loose guide, STAA is great! Some of it may depend on your own strengths as well. My weaknesses are in teaching writing (I cannot narrow a topic well so how do I teach that?, literature discussion - ie how to draw someone else's ideas out, and in science). What I needed was based on my areas of weakness as well as my inability to focus on more than 1 thing at a time. Weigh all this things about yourself before you decide. If you do go with STAA, please say hi to Mrs. Yonan from me. She really is a wonderful person.
Even a boxed curriculum can be real learning when used in a way that fits the family. For some, seeing all that detail is stifling. For me it is what starts my creative juices flowing and gives me the confidence to modify to suit us. It all depends.
The other thing that came out of all of our years of bumbling was that we had a hard time meeting a deadline - having to meet someone else's deadline just was overwhelming, but I did need to learn how to plan and meet our own realistic for us deadlines. That has been what has finally come together this year after 20 years of homeschooling - we're slow, but our children have still learned all the important things and are fully capable of filling in any gaps we left (and there will be gaps no matter what you do).
Janet
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Dawnie
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 7:35am | IP Logged
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Kathleen,
We used STAA this year, too, and I have really liked it. As you know, I'm dealing with some of the same "mental health issues" that you are and I felt quite burned out at this time last year. Last year, I was seriously considering sending the kids to school, and I enrolled in STAA as a kind of "last chance" for homeschooling. We've had a really good year, thanks in part to STAA. 
It is not a "check the box" kind of curriculum, though. You will still have *some* lesson planning to do, BUT you have the help of an experienced homeschooler (your advisor at STAA) to help you focus in on what's important. I don't have to spend nearly as much time on lesson planning now as I did when I was piecing together my own curriculum.
Some moms are able to combine programs and it works very well for them. But for me, when I start adding stuff, it ends up in a train wreck because I add too much and get overwhelmed. I just can't juggle that many things at once. It has worked best for me to just "do the program" that STAA outlined for us, without any added stuff.
If you are seriously considering enrolling with STAA, I encourage you to enroll and get your assessements returned to them as soon as possible! Their enrollment is VERY FULL this year and there is a long turn-around time for program packets. I turned in our assessments a couple of weeks ago, and my program packet won't be ready until the middle of July! Last year, I waffled around and didn't make a decision until July, and I couldn't start school until October! It worked fine for us (after all, one of the beauties of homeschooling is flexibility!), but if you really want to start school in September, get enrolled with STAA NOW!
Dawn
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: STAA?
