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bfarmmom
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 10:18am | IP Logged
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Hi everyone!!
My name is Kirsten. I just joined the board, but have been "lurking" for a little while. We are a Catholic Homeschooling family. We have 5 children ds 9, dd 7, dd 6, ds 3, dd 23mo, and one more blessing due in Dec! I was wondering if I could pick your brains?
We have been homeschooling since the beginning. the first 2 years we used a packaged curriculum, as I felt more comfortable I started going out on my own and picking and choosing what I liked. But usually workbook related. I have read Real Learning so many times. I just LOVE it! It is so inspiring. And I say to myself "this is what it is all about!!!" This is how learning should be! But then every year stacks of workbooks arrive and there we go again, back to the table to get through the workbooks everyday. We hardly ever find time for reading, which is so sad because the older two are fairly good readers. This is not how I envisioned it. We have workbooks for grammar, spelling, science, history, reading comprehension, vocabulary, math, handwriting, religion, etc. I am getting burnt out and so are the children!
I guess my question is where do I begin? My 9 and 7 yr old are doing the exact same work. We are in a 2nd grade math workbook which is challenging for them. They mostly work on a 3rd grade level otherwise. My 6 yr old is in K. If I were to stop everything (which I have) where do I pick up? Just start reading to them? and then do narrations. I just ordered some saint stories and thought I would start read alouds with those, followed by narrations. What would, or do you all do? Any insight or support you could give would be so greatly appreciated!! I am so used to following someone elses directions, that going out on your own is a little scary!
Oh, and my other question is about "centers", what do you put in them, for what ages, etc. Thanks for putting up with my long post!
Peace,
Kirsten
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 10:49am | IP Logged
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Hi Kirsten,
We use a combination of workbooks & Real Learning. We came to that balance after alot of years of just trying to figure out what works. Personally I love workbooks, but we use very few so that's probably why  . We use them for the basics - math, religion, english & phonics.
Sometimes you do have to go through somewhat of a "detox" period of just reading aloud - for both you & the kids. It's a fast way to cure burnout, that's for sure! We also listen to alot of books on tape - in the car & during lunchtime.
hth!
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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Willa
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 3:55pm | IP Logged
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Welcome to the board, Kirsten,
I agree with Brenda. A detox period of just reading, living, talking, playing can show you lots of new things about your family's learning style. Keep a journal -- watch them -- introduce things to see what they respond to and what your comfort level is.
I do use workbooks and other curriculum for some basic subjects.... mostly math and some language arts. I try to supplement these with some hands-on.
About centers --
there are some ideas at
Elizabeth's blog on the sidebar in the preschool series. These ideas could be modified for older kids.
If you want to just start the easy way, choose an idea for a center -- say, art. Look through your supplies and gather up everything that has an art focus. Find somewhere to locate it and decide if you want EVERYTHING out or just a few things rotated through at a time (I do a few things at a time because the littlies respect the materials more if there isn't too much of it).
I have a friend (hi, Chari!) who stores materials for different units in those Rubbermaid tote boxes. So you can stay general, or sub-divide.
Some "centers" I have are:
--game and puzzle closet
--art and craft closet (I rotate things out of there and put them in a more central place for the littlies)
--music center (my daughter put that one together in an alcove near a window)
--occupational therapy center (little tactiles, 2-handed toys, other things for my special needs child)
--writing center (with chalk and board, wipe board, magnetic letters, handwriting and coloring books) for the littlies
--office supplies -- paper, tape, stapler, comb binder, paper cutter (for me, not the kids though the older kids can take things out of there for their own use)
--and OK, video movie and video game center 
-- we also have various impromptu collections around the house -- shells, rocks, acorns, whatever -- and a weapons center (the boys like to make wooden swords and decorate them).
But if I were hesitant to jump in I'd just start with one or two topics, using things you already have around the house, and then build up from there. At least, that's how I did it initially when I was trying to make the house more of a learning environment when I was starting out.
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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 5:27pm | IP Logged
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bfarmmom wrote:
This is not how I envisioned it. We have workbooks for grammar, spelling, science, history, reading comprehension, vocabulary, math, handwriting, religion, etc. I am getting burnt out and so are the children!
I guess my question is where do I begin? |
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Wow. That's alot of workbooks. No wonder burnout is rearing its ugly head!
Where do you start? I would stay start with the subject in which you feel most competent and creative. For me, that is science and nature. For others perhaps history or lang arts. Pick YOUR favorite subject and just run with it designing about a month's worth of what you think would be the very best way to learn that subject. Then take a look at your workbooks and see if you can eliminate any of them based on what you have designed.
Ex: Did you design a nifty science unit with integrated vocabulary and spelling? If so, eliminate those 3 workbooks for that time. Did you design a literature-based history unit with lots of creative journaling activities? If so, eliminate the history, writing, spelling, reading comp-vocab-type workbooks for that time period.
Then, after you are done, re-evaluate and see how it went without the workbooks. Chances are, you won't want to open another workbook again!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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marianne
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 6:16pm | IP Logged
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Kirsten,
I know what you mean about loving the ideas in a homeschooling book, and then having trouble implementing them in your actual homeschool. Things are easier said than done sometimes.
I can tell you which workbooks that I would throw away out of your list: vocabulary, reading comprehension, science, history and religion. When you read literature and living books aloud to your kids, you are teaching them vocabulary and reading comprehension. You can make sure they are getting it by asking them questions as you read, or have them narrate back to you after the reading.
For science, just pick a couple of topics that you'd like to explore and find some living books to read about that topic. A lot of science and nature books for kids have ideas in them for little experiments that you can try. Have you heard of the "Let's Read and Find Out" science book series? They are excellent and are perfect for the elementary ages. Usborne also has some great ones with tons of experiments in them.
For history, we go chronologically, and then I use unit study type activities. You can design your own unit studies or buy a unit study guide. You can pick a historical time period and then read historical literature, have them narrate and illustrate, make up little writing assignments and do some hands on activities - I'm the worst at planning those out, so that's why I purchase unit study guides - it gives me something to "hang my hat" on, and I tweak it to meet our needs and add things that I run across on the internet. Lapbooks and notebooking are fun ways to add hands on to history as well as science. Check out www.handsofachild.com for some easy starter lapbook kits.
For religion, I read through a story Bible. My dd is doing a First Communion notebook (from Elizabeth's site) and we also do activities out of A Year With God from CHC. I'm a convert, so I'm not really good at incorporating a lot of the Saints and stuff, but a lot of people study a different saint each month or something like that. I want to add more religion study into our day, but it won't be religion out of a workbook - I want it to be as personal and experiencial as possible.
I use workbooks as well for math and a lot of the language arts - spelling, grammar, handwriting, phonics...I just don't want to mess around with those subjects. I have added dictation from the Beginner's Bible for my older two (my kids are all the same ages as yours and I'm also due in Dec!), which we all love. Just a few sentences a week, repeated until they get it all right - and we correlate those to our Bible readings.
Hope this helps - that's what we do anyway - maybe there's an idea in there for you somewhere!
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bfarmmom
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 6:30pm | IP Logged
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Brenda, Willa, and Theresa,
Thank you for your great responses. I guess I will ease into it. Basically, I could design a science unit and Literature/History Unit. Throw out the workbooks for that time. Keep math, maybe add some math games, to try to make it fun. We are just struggling with math, they really do despise it. Read about a saint for the month with narration. I think I am getting the idea! Hmmmm I have some planning to do!!
Peace to You,
Kirsten
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bfarmmom
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 6:35pm | IP Logged
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Thank you Marianne!! Yes, lots of ideas!!!
Peace, Kirsten
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JuliaT
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| Posted: Oct 16 2006 at 9:18pm | IP Logged
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Welcome to the board, Kirsten.
I agree with the others that you should start with the subjects that you are interested in. Start with baby steps. Once you feel confident with what you are doing, then maybe work on another subject. Probably just having 2 or 3 non--workbook subjects will lessen the level of burn--out.
I only use workbooks for geography and occasionally we will use a worksheet for math. I find it very freeing. I integrate spelling and grammar with creative writing. This is our first year of doing this but it is working out very well.
One thing I did want to suggest is in regards to math. You said that your children dislike math. So does my dd. So I add in lots of math games and math storybooks. Are you familiar with www.livingmath.net ? This is a great site for suggestions on how to add living books and games to math. They have a list of books for each math concept which is very helpful.
Blessings,
Julia
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Juliainsk
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Throwing out the workbooks!?
