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Natalia
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| Posted: June 01 2005 at 10:04pm | IP Logged
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Last year by this time I knew exactly what I wanted to orde and I had all my catalogs and most of my orders ready. This year I am not sure at all. SO I thought we could talk about next year. Are you planning any big changes in the way you school? HAve you tried anything that didn't work this year? What are the things that worked for you (both methods and resources? What are you planning to use as far as curriculum choices is concerned?
I'll share mine in another post later...
Natalia
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: June 02 2005 at 10:06am | IP Logged
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I'm in the same boat as Natalia. Last year I had a very detailed list of every resource I knew I would be using the next year and went to the local homeschool conference on a search mission. I brought my 3 page list and sought out only those items that I had on my list. Before the end of June, I had already scheduled out almost every minute of the 2004-2005 school year! (I'm actually not kidding. You should see the schedules I can put together.  )
This year is completely different. I'm not even sure how I want school to look next year, much less what books I'm going to use or even more laughable what the schedule for each day will be like.
That's probably the biggest change I'm going to make. Less scheduling. Here's the outline of plans that I have right now. I'm planning on keeping the math text, but I'm probably going to be more flexible and use the idea that was posted here about rotating in real-life math periods. I probably won't go every other week since my son is pretty behind in math, but there will be some regular switching out of the text for periods of time. I'm going to start the day with read-a-louds I think. In the past we've always finished up breakfast and then I barked at the kids to get into gear. We'd sit down with the books at 8:30 sharp and work through the morning. My kids wander out of bed pretty early in the morning, but then just hang out on the couch relaxing as we listen to Catholic radio each morning. Instead of rushing to the bookwork, I think I'm going to use that natural quiet time and make our first task read-a-louds while everyone is naturally quiet on the couch. Then we'll move into other things. I began using the Arrow (from Bravewriter) this spring and I LOVE it. I'm definitely going to keep that. We'll probably also have regular writing times using the Bravewriter ideas. We listen to classical music while we do copywork and my youngest sits with us and practices his letters at the same time. I also bought Sound Spelling. I'm hoping that will be a nice self-directed, flexible way to tackle any spelling issues my oldest has. For religion we'll be reading more saint stories. I bought the Faith and Life book and I think I'll use that to some degree, but I'm not sure how much. I'm planning on living the liturgical year more in our daily life too. We started a chronological journey through history when we began homeschooling and I actually really like the plan we're on so I plan to continue with taking a big chunk of time each year and concentrating on that. This coming year would be the Middle Ages. I went to love2learn and pulled out a bunch of books from the "read your way through history" section for that time period. Last year we were much more structured in history with vocabulary and discussion questions and maps, etc. This year I'm going to relax it a whole lot. I bought All Ye Lands earlier this year before I changed my whole plan. I still plan on using it, but as a brief starting point for each section of the time period. Then I'm planning on reading out loud or having my son read many of the books I found for the time period. After that I think I'll just try to be observant about where interest lies and let them follow those interests. I'm not exactly sure what we'll do for science. We started out homeschooling with a rotating science schedule as well. This year was Physics and the coming year would be Chemistry. I think I'll probably keep that basic topic, but I probably will let exactly how we cover the material be a little more relaxed than it was this year. We'll probably use the Usborne Book of Science again as a basic starting point and then let interest dictate after that. I'm going to try to have more living books to read for both math and science. Oh, and I found a couple lists online of classic literature and I think I'll let my son choose what books he'd like to read from that for the coming school year. We'll do nature walks and art study in some fashion too. For my 5 yo I plan on reading a lot. We'll do read-a-louds and follow interests from there. We'll do beginning reading books and work on reading skills as they come up. Math with my youngest will probably be very relaxed - primarily library books and activities from the Family Math books we bought. We have the Handwriting without Tears books and he'll continue to work on his writing during copywork time.
It's all pretty gray right now. I'm reading CM right now and as I get further into what she has to say, I might end up changing what plans I've laid - who knows! Part of why I love schedules so much is that I know what I have to do and I just follow the path I've laid down. The problem with that is that you can lose passion and just fall into a mindless pattern of following the path. I hope being more flexible will keep us more passionate and thoughtful about what we're doing, but I worry about whether I'll actually get anything done without a schedule that tells me specifically what I have to do today!
I spread out my school budget over the course of the year instead of lumping it all into the spring this year. I knew that I wanted to be more flexible and I want to have the freedom to follow their interests rather than be tied to a book in February that we all lost interest in back in October. Hopefully changing the way I budget our expenses will help us feel a little bit more free about what we do over the course of the year.
I'm looking forward to hearing what has worked for others and what everyone is planning for the year ahead.
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 02 2005 at 4:57pm | IP Logged
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Yeah! The perfect post I needed. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing next year. I just know it will be different than this year. I'm looking forward to hearing from others.
We have been throwing some ideas around. I do find that if I have the whole year planned out, we do better, not because we follow the plan (we rarely do)but because we make conscious decisions about what to drop and what to change as opposed to emotional knee-jerks. It also helps to know there is something in all the core areas -if they aren't getting wowed by something in science, there is at least some sort of science reading that will make them somewhat familiar with the vocabulary. I guess I learned that without this there were certain things that just never got done.
It helps when I elicit the children's desires first and include them in the planning process. I have lesson plans from CHC, MODG and Kolbe and we often weave elements of them all plus other stuff in - not necessarily staying in one grade level for children as I need to combine children as much as possible. I generally take a loose leaf notebook and regular notebook paper and copy, cut and tape what we think we will do on the page. This way if we change something, it's easy to untape or replace pages and the children still have a guide. They sometimes ask me if they can do x instead of y and generally I agree if I see real learning taking place as opposed to laziness. If they are following a thread without a plan, I just ask that they record what they did somewhere on the page. We completely dropped American History because our daughter was following her own thread for history of the middle ages and she was learning a great deal jumping all over the place following interests stirred from literature so we did just have her put a summary down of what she did on the lesson plan somewhere.
There is one notebook for each child. This year I want to make sure that the children are clear that they can propose a different course of study than the one in the book anytime during the year. My more free spirited dd taught the beauty of this with her diversion into history, but I'm not sure the other children were as aware of how flexible our "plan" really is. It really is my guarantee that we are not sitting around doing nothing and with so many children, I've found it sometimes hard to know. There have been years when I thought they were pursuing neat threads only to find out that they were experts at avoidance and we went up to high school without really learning much in science or history. Even a dull textbook is better than nothing sometimes (I think?). But I would like to find the best possible materials to use, which most of the time isn't a textbook.
Last year, I planned out times per subject - extremely detailed. We didn't follow it at all, but I do think the exercise helped me be realistic - knowing when we would be in the car for music lessons, and if we were all going to do Latin together there had to be a time to come together and if each child needed individual attention in an area, I had to make sure there was a break time or seat work time for others in an area where discussion wouldn't disturb them. We were a tad crowded and had lots of music practice going on so logistics really was an issue. My dh could look at the schedule and keep me sane by pointing out that my plans were way too optimistic from the start. Translated: not enough time in the day to even get close to doing all we (or I) wanted to do. We still overdid and that is one area I really want to change. I want the children to be able to accomplish basics in a very short time and then have lots of time to explore and wonder and ponder.
I'd like to do more together, if possible, to take advantage of differing interests spurring better discussions since mom isn't the best at eliciting discussion. I want to follow interests more - but I need a plan to keep us going or something to introduce basic ideas so they can develop an interest. I know we need to be better at keeping regular hours - up earlier and to bed on time.
I really liked reading the post about taking advantage of that early morning to read aloud. It gave me the idea of how to incorporate some real living religion. I'd like to use that morning time to read the Bible and perhaps a quote from one of the Saints to help us keep our priorities as they should be. Anybody with a mixture of toddlers and teens know how to keep this time from becoming an exercise in frustration.
I probably will need to look at the oldest on down. I want to give our oldest enough time to focus on her love, music, while not neglecting other skills. She does also have some courses she must take in order to pursue music - performance at the school of her choice so we'll have to do Chemistry with a lab. Hopefully she'll get in on a homeschool class here as otherwise, I'm really out of my element. We have Kolbe lesson plans, but unlike this year, I want to go through the plans with her and together decide what we really are going to do instead of trying to do it all. I want her to be free to substitute books of her choice in literature with approval. She has to do a research paper. Perhaps we can use some of her theology books (the Saints ones) as part of our read - alouds. Anyone that has used Kolbe 12th grade with ideas and suggestions, I'd love to hear from you. I really want more time with her this last year before college. She is tremendously disciplined and self-directed which means I cannot keep up with her reading, etc. But because of her music and burn-out, we find ourselves trying to get through something in order to fill in a bullet on the transcript for college. Is it too late to try and re-awaken some joy? I really want to pare down the academic demands so that we can enjoy each other, make sure there is a steady prayer life that doesn't get shoved to last place as we frantically try to meet state college admission criteria and "keep up" with the expectations out there. Yet, I do want to make sure that we fill in some areas that are still a little weak - we'd like to concentrate on doing a few really good literature analysis type papers (especially focusing on proving a point), research paper and science and history.
Since our oldest will be doing modern history, I'd love to have some literature around for the other children that might get us all involved in the same thing - or at least spur some interesting dinner conversations. Ages at our house are 2,5,8,11,13 and 17. Suggestions much appreciated!
There is an opportunity for speech and debate for our oldest 2, but we are still struggling with the idea. There is the expense and the time in the car, although we all need help with public speaking and research skills. We already have lessons for piano,violin, organ and orchestra and chamber groups plus music jobs and competitions for the musician, so this is a tough call. We also do Spanish through Seton (well sort of - we hired a wonderful Spanish tutor who does things her own way but she wanted us to provide text and lesson plans so we have Seton) This is working very well and our dd loves the course, is learning loads and even chose to keep going through the summer so this will continue as well.
Our 13 yo is an avid reader so we have a good start here. I really would like to know of some good ideas for stimulating writing in subject areas and science. She is very into crafts and made all kinds of weapons during her middle ages exploration, but I would like to see her learn to be a little more systematic or disciplined in communicating her discoveries. Any ideas for Algebra? There is a 4 year age difference between this one and the oldest but this seems less obvious now as they are older. Perhaps they can become each others proof reader's or critics to some extent. Just thinking out loud.
The rest of the crowd are dealing with vision problems so that has to be addressed before they take off pursuing a lot of interests. Writing is still a struggle and often it takes longer to get written type work done. Spelling and left/right are big problems. We try to have lots of good books to really prick interest, math, etc. I probably will revert to some simple workbooks just to keep us moving until the vision is back on track. I want to get back to more read alouds and can see that our boys are going to end up getting mom to finally learn something about science. What science books, etc do you have. We have a closet full of experiment books that never got used. I need something that can be done without huge danger to life and limb by 8 yo without having to wait until mom gets around to helping. (Somehow it never happens). I am not opposed to putting together trays this summer to have in the locked school room closet for use by older children - ie making sure and gathering all supplies ahead of time - this would probably help. But what kinds of things have you used. Right now the interests are in plants - but we have no sun anywhere in our yard for a garden.
We started Prima Latina last year - only got to the first page but the children really liked it and all were proud of their own book. Mom just was too frazzled to keep it up and it was the one thing that always got shoved to last place. We'd like to do this again and try once more as our children seemed to be very inspired. I couldn't find myself able to use any other Latin program because the pace was too fast for me without any Latin background and this one did seem doable - maybe it could follow breakfast.
One other thing I really want to remember - our children need lots of physical exercise. This has been terribly neglected at our house - even with boys as neither my husband and I were much into sports, our experience with Little League was not great (too competitive even at young ages and we had one son that was a star and one son that never could hit - he struck out every time for 2 years so ended up being a bench sitter most of the time. Neither situation was all that healthy for the boys). We ordered P.E. type book (don't laugh, neither of us knows rules or techniques of any sports) but it turned out to be silly stuff like crab-walk and stuff and didn't go over well with any of us. Perhaps we'll all take a mid-morning walk or something. We do need to find our chin up bars - the boys loved those. We also have a balance beam we made (for vision therapy) and could do that. What have other people done about physical exercise.
We don't plan art and music. Art we should do more and maybe CHC lessons will give us ideas. We'd love to hear a simple art appreciation that is easy to do/use with all ages. We have lots of beautiful art "reproductions" that I cut out of different things and laminated with the name and dates of the artist on the back. I don't know anything in art - my one exposure in school was an hour that the entire school sat in a room while slides of famous pieces of art were displayed for the sum total of 1 second while we wrote down the dominant color on this astronomically long set of papers. I do wish I could get a hold of the slide set at a reasonable price as I vaguely recall it being beautiful, religious art from all over Europe. Most of us reverted to randomly writing colors down on our sheet and whispering to each other as the art work went flashing by. I remember some of it being very strikingly beautiful, but we never got to look at it long. As for music - our daughters interests keep us at concerts, etc so we are exposed to a wide range of classical music. One or two children are resistant but the rest have "caught" the music fever. We hear various pieces practiced on violin or piano all day long and every once in a while our other dd will practice her cello. Youth orchestra concerts are free so we all go and really enjoy it (except the 11 yo boy) and have actually begun to learn something about the different instruments and mom even knows the difference between pieces and the orchestra tuning up now. There has been improvement all around.
That's as far as we've gotten so far. We're still trying to finish up Biology, Spanish and Theology with the oldest before music camps start. I need to approach the pastor about getting our 8 yo his First Communion and we are trying to keep a little math going all year (but will probably get smart and not worry about it soon!) Now that our schedule has slackened, I see the children pursuing some interesting things and want this to happen all year as opposed to only when official school is over.
Cannot wait to hear everyones ideas. I'm sure I'll learn tons!
Janet
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Cheryl
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| Posted: June 02 2005 at 10:32pm | IP Logged
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Last year was my first year homeschooling. It was scary for me to tell my family that my oldest was not going to kindergarten, but now that I've been there and done that, I wonder what I was so worried about. Kindergarten is not even mandatory in my city. I started out a plan for Sept-Nov. Looking back, I stuck to the plan except for two things. In Nov I planned to read Aesop's Fables. My ds was not very interested so I stopped after a couple. Also, the plan was nature study once a week. I dropped that after 2 weeks. During advent I did a Blessed Christmas unit to which I added lots of good Christmas books. I didn't like having to buy lots of stuff from craft stores and the grocery store to do the craft and food ideas. It was not simple enough for me. Then I discovered Five in a Row. Some of our best weeks this year were ones when we rowed. We rowed 8 books this year. Other weeks were spent doing mini-units related to holidays, trips, etc. I really relaxed. We dropped HWT, Simply Phonics, Picture Study, poetry...We finished the Beginner's Bible. Then we did a big Eric Carle/insect study and our first lapbook. That was great. We finished with a rainforest study. This post is taking so long because I'm typing with one finger. I'm nursing dd 3 (this month.) Now I'm wondering what the questions were. Oh yes, next year....
I have general plans to start in the fall like I did this past year with all the subjects including picture, nature and composer study and poetry. I can see myself slacking off again after Christmas and spending most of May outside. I'm going to read some homeschooling books this summer, starting with Homeschooling with Gentleness. My copy is on it's way. So if I don't change my mind this summer, I plan to start with FIAR, Before FIAR for my younger two, Saxon Math 1, Simply Phonics, Faith and Life 1, maybe the beginner's bible again. Has anyone used Ths Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos? That one appeals to me, but I don't know if the kids will like having no pictures to look at. They love those bubble-eyed apostles. Maybe some One Small Square books. Some saint books. Some topics I plan to cover are: Middle Ages, Oceans, Mexico, Egypt, Africa, the American Revolution... (I scrapbook chronologically, but I certainly will not homeschool chronologically.)Volcanoes, Electricity, the Orchestra, the Solar System. I would like to study birds in the winter. I also want to work on manners and cleanliness. I have a nose picker. Oh my gosh I wrote a lot. I look forward to reading others' ideas.
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Cheryl
Wife to Bob ('97)
Mom to Matthew 13, Joseph 11, Sarah 10, Rachel 6, Hannah almost 4 and Mary 1
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Willa
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| Posted: June 03 2005 at 1:51am | IP Logged
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This is an interesting thread. I plan to post a real reply later. But Richelle mentioned liking to plan so she could feel prepared for the year and that reminded me of this blog entry on the Mother's Rule of Life blog about homeschooling I was just reading it today. She mentioned that she plans her year sort of seasonally so that she is more structured in fall and more easy on herself in winter. I find myself doing the same sort of "seasonal" homeschooling, in fact I wrote a post once to CCM on that topic, and so I thought I'd mention it to show that you don't HAVE to feel like a failure if what you are doing in September doesn't work anymore in February.
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Willa
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Leonie
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| Posted: June 03 2005 at 9:55pm | IP Logged
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Oh, Willa, I agree with the "seasonal " approach to homeschooling. Its the way thingn always work around here - and I like to think its CM flavoured as Irecall Karen Andreola writing that CM changed her programmes , in order to keep the teacher's enthusiasm. 
We are in the middle of the official school year here in Australia, but I only ever "plan" one term in advance - for you Americans, I guess that is one quarter?
This allows us flexibility to change and grow as needed, and to take advantage of those serendipitous moments of education and life.
Valerie Bendt talks about the same idea - planning two units for fiuve week each, based on living books - then taking two weeks off! She also talks about a Basic Skills unit for a few weeks before moving on again to another rabbit trail.
Some ideas - I realise that *I have a need for reflection so thinking about a term at a time works for me.
Right now, I realise that my "unsettledness" wrt our homeschooling is actually *tiredness*! Beware homeschool decisions made when tired, with a cold!
Leonie in Sydney
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Kathryn UK
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| Posted: June 04 2005 at 6:51am | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
| I'm going to start the day with read-a-louds I think. |
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I switched to doing that last year and it works beautifully. We used to start with maths, which didn't  . We begin with religion and history, both of which we cover through read alouds, and it gets our day off to a nice gentle start. My dds are allowed to play quietly with Lego or other quiet toys, or to draw or colour while I read. Often they will draw a picture connected with our reading. After that they do some sort of notebook page - usually a history or religion narration - and we do dictation and grammar. After that we take a long break until lunch. In the afternoon we do independent reading, foreign languages, science, geography, art (which we often don't get to) and maths.
This year has been the best we have had so far, so we will be continuing in much the same way. I gave up the unequal struggle to get my older dd to read more of her own lesson books and do oral narrations. I've gone back to reading aloud to her and she is doing written narrations - not as many as I would like, but we've reached a fairly harmonious balance between my ideal and her reluctance . I'm finding that both girls are listening to each others books, so next year I'm planning to combine them for history and science. We have started doing science and Latin with a friend and her children, which takes up one afternoon a week and makes a nice change of pace.
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Willa
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| Posted: June 05 2005 at 10:55am | IP Logged
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I too am not sure what I'm going to do next year. Last year I had it planned out by this time.
I'm always looking for ways to streamline and focus our curriculum because we have such an age disparity and diversity of talents and interests.
What we have done the past few years, as I mentioned in other threads, is divide between what I call in my mind "Discipline" and "Discovery". In addition, I have a "Seasonal" category and a "Study" category.
--The "discipline" subjects are the ones with structure and a more or less measurable outcome. Presently they are Math, Latin, Logic (for the middle schoolers and above) and one other language. (Greek for senior and 6th grader, German for 10th grader and 3rd grader is still working on English mechanics). We progress through these at a fairly predictable pace and they give me something to measure and satisfy my need to see academic progress.
---The "discovery" subjects are mostly reading "living books".... literature, science, history and religious. I do assign books but I pay attention to reactions and don't require a lot of formal feedback... mostly my goal is that the kids are exposed to a range of thought and ideas and beautiful language. Also, their own interests come in here.... books about giant sequoias, or old-fashioned girls, or football, or whatever -- we work on incorporating their interests into their reading, but I see my role as guiding them to read books they wouldn't be naturally drawn to on their own. They all like to read so this is the "fun part" of school for them and for me.
--The area I'd like to develop more is in what I call "studies" -- nature study, picture study, music study, handicrafts, poetry study, activities centered around the liturgical year. These always seem to end up on the bottom of my priority list. I'm thinking of having some "units" rather than trying to juggle all of these all year.... so I could plan say, 5 or 9 weeks activities in each "study" and then flex how we do it according to what is going on in our lives.
--Then the final category is "seasonal". I fit unique and temporary needs in here. Say a given kid needs to develop typing skills -- I plan a few-week course with a given goal, that he can type at a certain level of speed and accuracy. Seasonal athletics fit in here, sacramental prep as well, and the field trips my dh plans for the kids. I can do "mini-plans" that go away after the final goal or event and as Leonie said, plan by the term.
-- I fit longterm "affinities" in here too -- things that are mostly outsourced -- dd playing fiddle or sewing, oldest ds interning in computer programming -- because they are mostly not MINE -- they are mostly between the child and the outside resource/mentor/teacher. --Character goals and life skill training fit in the "seasonal" niche too.... even though I am considering them all the time (ideally!) I find it easier to plan specifically for them if I think in terms of "seasons" -- since I can't predict what character issues will show up in a particular kid at a given time.
One area of our homeschool that falls through the cracks is "writing skills". I'm going to try experimenting with lapbooks and notebooks this summer to see if that would work for us. What ends up happening in our homeschool is that the kids do almost no writing until they are about 11 or 12, except little scribbles on index cards related to pretend games, then when they hit writing fluency they start writing quite a bit in the high school years. We have pretty much unschooled writing entirely and that worries me a bit, but "forcing" writing worries me even more -- it's just out of my comfort zone and I can't seem to come to grips with that or figure out what MY role is in the process. I'm going to try to discern that -- again! -- this summer.
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Willa
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momwise
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| Posted: June 05 2005 at 6:29pm | IP Logged
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WJFR wrote:
One area of our homeschool that falls through the cracks is "writing skills". I'm going to try experimenting with lapbooks and notebooks this summer to see if that would work for us. What ends up happening in our homeschool is that the kids do almost no writing until they are about 11 or 12, except little scribbles on index cards related to pretend games, then when they hit writing fluency they start writing quite a bit in the high school years.
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Willa,
Once we hit upon CM type learning (which was much later than I would have wished), we used the copywork (15 min. for the 8 y.o.) and narration methods for writing and it's worked out great. We do most of these 2 skills along with history or Bible history. It works great!
I would like my h.s. student to do more structured writing projects.
That's what we'll be working on in 10th grade. We're going to work on literary analysis also, but more so with discussion than as a writing project.
Other than that, I'm waiting for inspiration at our conference next weekend.
God bless,
Gwen in Denver
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 05 2005 at 6:37pm | IP Logged
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Willa,
Our paths seem to cross again. What you said about writing is something I could have said as well, except that we have briefly foraged into the realm of structured writing assignments as some of mine would never have put pen to paper otherwise. I must say, I am not very happy with this but do appreciate the fact that they had to do a certain amount(though I sometimes thought the quantity and the explanation of how were not ideal)as I find that doing builds confidence. As it is my children end up doing OK with the more free-wheeling type of writing (stories, creative, personal essays) but have a lot of trouble defending a point in a critical analysis type paper or research paper.
I am not sure about the answer. Practice does seem to build confidence here, but signing up for Seton's one size fits all was not wonderful either although it did help that they were accountable. This year, with Kolbe has been better, where we have more flexibility, some feedback but I still retain control over what is done with assignments. However, topics were not the most inspiring in the world for this particular daughter and we tried to do too many.
I cannot wait to see others ideas on this because so far the only thing I have come to is that we will need to do a couple of analysis type papers and a research paper with this daughter before she goes off to college. I'd like her to feel pretty confident before moving on. I want to encourage writing in the youngers and have looked at some stuff by CHC but don't really know what we'll do. Our 11 yo in particular seems to have trouble even expressing himself orally, so I know I have to start there with him.
I don't have time for a lot of fancy books. I saw one mother's entry on lapbooking with stuff in loose leaf binders without all the extra stuff and that might work, but I sure cannot sit and take lots of dictation but I do try to do something at least with the youngers and probably should do more dictation - I'm just not sure how logistically. I'm barely functioning as it is.
Looking to see responses!
Janet
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Mare
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Last year was a trial year for us. If dh wasn't satisfied with the results, dd wouldn't be homeschooled this year. I use Core Knowledge as a jumping off point for our studies. We did FIAR, Phonics, Math, Science, History, Music and Art using as much living books and games as possible. We also managed to get in regular nature walks and occasional visits to the Blessed Sacrament. I like how things worked out for us this year and dh was more than pleased with the results.  I can continue with homeschooling this upcoming school year.  I plan to do the same thing this year.
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tovlo4801
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Our local homeschool conference was this weekend and I wanted to share one of the ideas I think I'm going to try implementing. One of the speakers in a round-table discussion mentioned that she did a "mini-school" session each morning. It was a short period of time where they did very brief work on math facts, diagramming sentences, or vocabulary. She said that this allowed them to feel like they accomplished something that day even if this was all they got done. My plan at the moment is to implement this with a variety of "mini-school" activities to choose from. We'll just choose a few each day and work on them until the time is up - probably 30 minutes total. We'll see how it goes.
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 08 2005 at 5:45am | IP Logged
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Has anyone out there used CHC lesson plans? Everytime I look at them, they seem so sweet and unencumbered by lots of stuff. We'd thought about using their plans (loosely) for all of our under high school age children.
I'd like to do something that our children are capable of completing in an hour or two that covers all the main subjects - just to make sure we do something. Then I could relax, they could explore and ponder and we could transition back to a more relaxed school. Just wondering how long the lesson plans take to see if my idea is realistic. I've had lots of years of "great" ideas that turned out to be undoable. I don't want to become a slave to another set of lesson plans - but I just cannot function without plans (my own or someone elses or some combination). I also find that the plans I really like are teacher intensive unless the children run with the ideas on their own. I know there were things in the CHC 2 grade that our ds really enjoyed but couldn't do without me and we just never got to any of the maps past Africa. I didn't know where to help him find information (without spending boocoodles of time) and definitely didn't know how to find pictures of all those animals he wanted to put on his map. We love their religion supplements, but instead of doing them a little at a time - it gets bunched up according to time available and I feel rushed which is not how I want it.
I am just so uncertain. I'm afraid to let go and do free wheeling exploration all the time - mostly because I end up having no idea what is being accomplished and invariably little is done in certain subjects year after year. I've always required math. Science and history have been terribly neglected. Most of our children don't write at all until I see them almost at high school and panic and then we have to do something.
I am not terribly worried about reading as all of mine do plenty of that - but I would like to have some sort of guide for literature discussion and I still haven't found anything truely helpful here. Writing is a big problem area and like Willa, I don't like how we never seem to write, but then I have really despised the Make you write stuff whether canned curriculum (the worst since not only are the topics dumb, cannot choose what interests the child and the child ends up with a stilted form because they think you can only do it the cookie cutter way they end up teaching in the canned curriculum) or me trying to drag it out of them and having no idea how to lead gently. We've seen a few things in CHC (the Paduwa program for one) and they are expensive but would be worth it to me if they actually would teach us all.
I have also found that I need to do more poetry - but other than liking the sound of the words, I just have a hard time really comprehending. We had ordered MODG lesson plans with the idea of doing some poetry memorization which we dropped pretty quickly - maybe we gave up too soon or didn't know what we were doing or both.
Also, with our children's ages, we have not done tons of dictation or even copywork I know the children would probably benefit, but how do people manage to do it. I would have to carve out time each day for 5 different people and somehow do read alouds with the 2 yo as well. Our children's eye-hand is delayed (except the 8th grader whose problem is now fully corrected and the high schooler who still is slow as ever at handwriting but can type like a whiz) so it takes forever just to copy 2 or 3 sentences. The children are pretty oral and we talk about things in between the 2 yo interruptions especially in retelling Bible stories or about some book they're reading. And they also tell each other.
It just seems, in looking through all these different posts on the different forums that you guys have found a very relaxed way and managed to apply CM to very diverse family situations - with learning disabilities far more difficult to deal with than ours - and are moving forward with minor bumps and reassessments. I wish I could observe a few days in your households and find out where we're getting lost. I know I am still attached to plans - if I don't have them we just end up with chaos and everyone doing nothing. Do you guys have some sort of plan or do you free wheel it or do you make up your own week to week? How do you decide which books to require?
If I don't plan for the whole year, I don't have books I need, cannot find them in the library or nearby and end up stressing over record checks or something and things are at least getting done until we run out of lesson plans. I just don't want to just be getting by. I'd like to feel like we're all really enjoying what we are doing. I know I cannot hand over lesson planning to someone else, I just need some ideas and support materials that let me know from day to day what we plan to do. If something inspiring comes along, I've always felt free to ditch the plans - unless we are locked into a canned curriculum which I cannot imagine doing again! I just am not very organized by nature.
Usually what ends up happening, is that we follow a few subjects on the plan throughout the whole year - generally math, religion and then something in English (either grammar, spelling, phonics, or something along those lines depending on the year and what the focus was). This year it was phonics with the 2 grader, grammar with the 7th grader and trying to see where the 4 grader was in reading out loud and trying to get him to at least write a few things and working some with comprehension. I paniced when I saw it but am hoping that vision therapy will help us overcome .
This year I was determined that we were not going to neglect history and science yet again and we did more than usual, especially in history and I think it was enjoyable and productive, for the most part.
None of us ever feel like we have a lot of free time. I feel like I'm still trying to discuss stuff with people and dh is coming home from work and dinner is prepared by the high schooler who is stressed enough. I want the children to own their education more - and I do see this happening with the older ones as the vision is corrected, but it would be nice if it was not just a goal to get done.
Do you guys have any outside activities during the school year that have you on the go? I don't think I have too many places to go but, we sometimes feel like between the 2 yo (who doesn't nap), the dog, therapy, music lessons and our own sluggishness we never get anything done. What do you do about the phone? That's a horrible interrupter, but I find myself answering it most of the time in case it is the teenager who is out in the car (most of the music lessons are hers, plus a Spanish class and whatever other music jobs she crams into her day).
I keep trying to decide what to do next year and feel stymied. I don't really want to keep going as we've been going, but I do want sweet plans that I can tweak this summer and that will inspire us to more exploration.
Janet
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tovlo4801
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ALmom wrote:
| Has anyone out there used CHC lesson plans? Everytime I look at them, they seem so sweet and unencumbered by lots of stuff. |
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Janet,
I'm no expert by any means, but you said a couple things I had to comment on.
I'm looking at the new 5-8 grade CHC lesson plans right now too. It's funny that you used the word sweet to describe them. I've always found their products distasteful, just because of the presentation. I told my husband they always seemed "bunnyish". I couldn't figure out how to say it right, but sweet is also a nice description. All the pastel and cute artwork was just unappealing to me. Well, this weekend I started actually looking through their catalog and looking at their products at the homeschool conference. That was probably my biggest discovery this year. I think I LIKE CHC!! I have not used any of their products, but the 5-8 cycles of history and science match right up with what I was planning on covering over the next few years. Also, for many of the other subjects, I already own and was planning on using the materials suggested. I realized that it was a very good match. I haven't actually bought the lesson plans yet, but it's on my think about and perhaps do list.
I'm also struggling with how much structure to have in our school. I thrive on a good deal of structure, but I've been noticing lately that my oldest does not. So I've been testing the waters with less structure. I've struggled over the last couple of years with provided curriculum's because I naturally strive to please people. So I found myself struggling because my nature wanted to do what the advisor would want rather than observing my child and seeing and doing what I observed worked for him. I've figured out that I'm not well suited to having even the most flexible of advisors, since my tendency is to subordinate the needs of my child to pleasing the advisor. I don't think I'll have a similar problem with lesson plans without the advisor though. I think the lesson plans will be a starting point or an idea place, but I think I'll feel free to make them my own. It's only when I have to communicate what I'm doing to someone else and I can see the confusion on their face or hear the disappointment in their voice that I start to panic that I've done something terribly wrong.  Lesson plans themselves don't make me feel inadequate.
It sounds like you like the structure and guidance a lesson plan can offer you and yet you are flexible enough to respond to your children's needs and not be a slave to the plan. It sounds to me like you understand what works for your family pretty well.
ALmom wrote:
| I'd like to do something that our children are capable of completing in an hour or two that covers all the main subjects - just to make sure we do something. Then I could relax, they could explore and ponder and we could transition back to a more relaxed school. |
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I share that goal!
ALmom wrote:
| Writing is a big problem area and like Willa, I don't like how we never seem to write, but then I have really despised the Make you write stuff whether canned curriculum (the worst since not only are the topics dumb, cannot choose what interests the child and the child ends up with a stilted form because they think you can only do it the cookie cutter way they end up teaching in the canned curriculum) or me trying to drag it out of them and having no idea how to lead gently. |
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Again, no expert here, but we began using The Writers Jungle this year. Many of the words you used in your description are addressed by her program and philosophy. It might be worth checking out if you haven't before. bravewriter.com
ALmom wrote:
| Also, with our children's ages, we have not done tons of dictation or even copywork I know the children would probably benefit, but how do people manage to do it. I would have to carve out time each day for 5 different people and somehow do read alouds with the 2 yo as well. Our children's eye-hand is delayed (except the 8th grader whose problem is now fully corrected and the high schooler who still is slow as ever at handwriting but can type like a whiz) so it takes forever just to copy 2 or 3 sentences. |
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I didn't really do dictation or copywork with my kids until I started with Bravewriter this spring. It just seemed like one extra thing to tack on to an already too full day. In reading The Writer's Jungle I started to see how it could be an enjoyable time. I only have two kids, but they are very different in age and ability. We just turn on classical music and sit down together with a section for copying and copy for 10 minutes. They finish whatever they can in their best writing for 10 minutes. My youngest is given just a letter or maybe a word from the copywork section my oldest is doing. My oldest has terrible handwriting. It takes him most of the week to finish a paragraph copywork section. But it's not torture. I sit down with them and do copywork too. We use nice pens and paper and just have a nice relaxing 10 minutes. We didn't do dictation at first because I'd never done it with my oldest before. We only did this for a couple months this spring, but near the end I tried a reverse dictation for him. At the end of the week, I took the copywork section we'd been working on and typed it up without much of the punctuation and many words misspelled. Then I gave it to him to find what was wrong. We then went over anything he missed together and talked about it. We'll probably do more regular dictation next fall. The Writer's Jungle talks about all these things as well as how to gently lead your childs writing. I also subscribed to the Arrow. It is an online subscription and she just chooses a book for each month and then gives copywork choices for each week. So far I've found the books are popular enough to have an audio version at the library. We get both the book and the audio version. Then we can listen to it in the car as we go to speech therapy every Thursday. (we spend every Thursday afternoon driving an hour to and from and hour long appointment for speech for my two boys.) She also talks about literary elements and grammar that you can discuss with your child from these selections. It is really great for me, since I feel a little lost with everything. I'm slowly gaining confidence with these tools.
ALmom wrote:
| What do you do about the phone? That's a horrible interrupter, but I find myself answering it most of the time in case it is the teenager who is out in the car |
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Oh, I had to answer this one. Everyone is finally getting used to this about me, but I don't answer the phone for the most part. We have a caller ID on it and I'll look to see if I think it's something important, but most of the time I just let it go. I don't know exactly why, but I find e-mail so much less disrupting. I suppose because you can just come and go from it as it works into your day. The phone rings and you just have to go right then. I always call it a socially acceptable way to interupt. No matter what you are doing if someone calls you they expect you to stop whatever you're doing and talk with them right then. My husband is notorious for this! He wouldn't think of interupting me face-to-face in the house, but he'll walk out the door, get in his car, and call me on his cell phone a block away and be irritated if I don't drop everything and answer the phone right away. It's so irritating. I think he leaves the house and calls me on the cell phone sometimes, just so that he can interupt me in an acceptable way.
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Louise
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[QUOTE=ALmom] Has anyone out there used CHC lesson plans? Everytime I look at them, they seem so sweet and unencumbered by lots of stuff. We'd thought about using their plans (loosely) for all of our under high school age children.
We just started our new school year. We have so many interruptions throughout the year that I decided to school year long and now is good as ever for a fresh new start. The college boys have a job. Sebastien (17) is coming back from Europe tomorrow and will start his summer job next week. Lydia is finishing up her biology and Jacob’s Algebra. The children are all working on their French in anticipation of our trip to Quebec in July. The five little boys (well Laurence, 3 last month, thinks he is a school boy too so I am including him) are all starting a new grade and I am using CHC with all of them. Lydia does her school in the morning. The little boys do theirs in the afternoon but Raphael and Felix do their math in the morning to give themselves more time for their other subjects in the afternoon. Lydia is my teacher helper and it makes a whole world of difference!
Dominique is in first grade, Matthias third, Felix fifth and Raphael eighth. To give you some example of how living CHC lesson plan can be here are some of our first week projects. Dominique and I are making a mammal lapbook and I have read fun books like Our Animal Friend at Maple Hill Farm and The Biggest Bear along with more factual books like the mammal section in The Usborne Complete First Book of Nature and DK First Animal Encyclopedia. I also used complementary info on the enchantment learning website. He is memorizing is first memory gem and his character card affix to our bulletin board is starting to bloom with flower stickers as he tries to outdo himself everyday in thank you and please both in English and French. I told him that as the year progresses and he practice more and more virtues he will be making a garden of virtues inside his heart for our mother Mary to offer to her son Jesus. Matthias (8) is joining him in this endeavor. Stories are included to reinforce the character traits they are working on.
Matthias is working on a travel brochure to Canada. This fittingly happens to be his first travel stop on his trip around the world. We borrowed a few books on Canada and Quebec to round out our study and will be reading some literature set in Canada along with a bio of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. There is a booklist in the lesson plan along with topics for research and additional activities. For science Lydia is working with him in Beyond and See, a wonderful science book pack full with hand on experiences which is perfect for Matthias who is a very kinesetic little boy. Of course we have plenty of books in our personal library to add to the text as they progress from one topic to another. Lydia is also reading to him from the Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls. This used to be Felix’s favorite read aloud when he was in third grade. Matthias loves it as well. We use the comprehension questions as spring board for narration as Matthias is a very reluctant narrator (he use to cry at the request of retelling a story).
Felix is loving From Sea to Shining Sea. Through this book he will also have the opportunity to learn more about Canada as he learns more about the French explorers in a few weeks. I already borrowed some books on Jacque Cartier, Samuel Champlain and others. Since we will be staying in Quebec City for a few days he will be familiarized with names and places. Raphael and Felix are working together in A Universe in His Hands, a fascinating view of science that capture the natural interest of young boys on magnitude from the microscopic to the cosmic. They will later add to their notebook as they work on requirements for badges in the technology and science sections of Pilgrim of the Holy Family. Raphael will be in charge of guiding his younger brother through the assignments, both being scouts they are already familiar with the procedure of earning badges and love the process.
Raphael is enjoying Lingua Mater a very beautiful living English course. He will have plenty of opportunity to research and write with the guidance of both the Stories of the Saints assignments and the history course. His reading will be in close relation with his history. I decided to follow mostly the seventh grade plans for him although he is technically in grade eight. Not because he is behind but because I want to give him the opportunity to do both history courses (Timeline of the Republic and Timeline of the Ages) and the Saint studies in the next two year. Lydia and he are going to work together on the Virtue Tree. The book Growing in the Virtues of Jesus: The Marianist Method of Virtues from which the course was adapted is a real gem.
Of course this is just some highlights of what is provide in the beautiful CHC lesson plans. I would have to sit here writing all day to do them justice. I love the guidance they provide, something I badly need now with children in so various stages of life. And I am confident they will guide me to help my children grow in knowledge and virtues for a complete education for eternity. 
Blessings,
Louse, mom of 11
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Louise, mom of 11
http://timetokeep.blogspot.com/
http://ecolebuissonniere.blogspirit.com/
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ALmom
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Louise and Richelle,
Thanks so much.
Richelle, something you said rang so true. I do become insecure with lesson plans attatched to a school, even a flexible one, because I feel I have to please or make sure we're covering what is expected instead of being more flexible and in tune with our own children. Then when we do deviate, I end up fretting over things and feeling guilty and worrying. It's all a fault of mine, not the supporting school. I don't do that when I have my own plans, whether they are taped together from a bunch of different places or all from one place. Thanks for helping me clarify the difference.
Thanks Louies, for sharing what you do with CHC. It sounds like just the kind of thing I want to do. And with 11, I am sure you do the same kinds of juggling acts as here. I have 6 but my 17 yo is a high schooler and probably the most stressed because of her activity level and we just have never found the right fit for her. I cannot ask her to help with the others academics, but she does do most of the cooking and laundry, so she does do quite a bit. As far as academics go, she is very disciplined, but doesn't like any of it. She finishes it in order to get to her music practice. I just hope we haven't put a dislike in her mind for reading good literature. Last year we did Kolbe (which was better than Seton) and the year before that we did Seton and 9th grade we really messed up because we didn't have a guide. I wish CHC had a high school course for her! She does so much better with oral presentations (her music)but I never have time to read and discuss with her and I feel very badly about that . I'm trying to find a way to have the time.
One thing I do like about CHC is it is solidly Catholic. I have ordered many things from them over the years and have never been disappointed. We did use the science, Behold and See, with all of ours 2 years ago - the first year it came out and it was perfect. The only science program we actually did consistently. I also love their 4 grade science supplement - we did it with our oldest before they had lesson plans and it was the only science we ever completed with her before high school. I have just never actually followed their plans and now I know it can work. I just need to get them ordered now so I can kind of brainstorm stuff to have on hand. I know I'll be referring to your post again and again. Thanks for confirming how CHC does fit very well in CM which is what I really want to do.
Please, tell me more about Lingua Mater. It sounds very beautiful and might be just what I need to help mine over the writing hump. Right now our summer is spent in therapy 2 days per week, CHC First Communion Preparation. We're hoping to ask Father soon about this Sacrament for our 8 yo. We are also trying to spend a short time each day continuing with our Math.
I have Jacob's Algebra and have a feeling it might work better with our 8th grader than Saxon, but I found the teacher support materials very confusing to use. I wondered how you do it as I'm sure it is probably something really crazy that I'm just not getting. Perhaps it is just the small print as I have some of the same vision issues as my children.
I think the key is mom discipline with waking and bedtime for all and no phone interruptions. Thanks so much for the support. I'm beginning to think we can do it again between this, the support from you guys and lots of prayer.
Thanks - and I'm still glad for any help and ideas.
Janet
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Bridget
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Louise,
Thank you so much for the many details on how you use CHC. I have been considering the lessons plans for us this fall. With a new baby in early September I want some help thinking about what to do each day. We have all enjoyed the books we have used from CHC so far.
Louise, do your older children follow the lesson plans themselves? My understanding is that there is a spot for children to check off what they have done and self direct. Or do you make a seperate schedule for them to follow?
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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BrendaPeter
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Hi Janet,
Just a couple of suggestions. I've experienced what you're going through many times over the years. I hope & pray that I'm finally doing what the Lord wants me to do - that is come to Him with all of these decisions. Homeschooling, especially in a large family, is very, very demanding & challenging. There is no doubt that it requires supernatural grace. Pray the family rosary, if you can. Also spend a few minutes praying at night with your husband. Our Lord cannot deny married couples when they come before Him humbly to pray for their children.
On a practical level, MROL helped me to organize my day & mortify myself in the areas that were most distracting & tempting to me - the telephone and the computer. My children know not to answer the phone, unless it's their dad (caller ID). (My dh also calls me when he gets in the car to go to work, but it's because it's so hard to have a conversation when all the kids are around!) My friends all know that I'm not available to speak with them until 4:00 p.m. We have no regular activities outside the home - a piano teacher comes for 2 hours one morning a week to teach 4 children. I limit my time on the computer to the end of the day, if there's time.
It is wonderful that your teenaged dd is so helpful. Do any of the other kids help out? Could they give her a little break? My 2 oldest (9 & 11) have several responsibilities, however my 6-year-old twins also help out quite a bit - especially with cleaning up the toys.
Pope John Paul II said "Families, be who you are." We are all unique and what works for one family may or may not work for the other. Our precious Lord knows what will work for you. He has helped me so much!
Sending you prayers!
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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Natalia
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I have been delaying my response to my own post  basically because I still feel uncertain. This last year wasn't a bad year I think the kids learned and I learned. But even though it wasn't a bad year I don't feel that it was good either. There are several things that I want to see happening this coming year:
- I want to change my attitude- I want to learn to relax and enjoy what we are doing without worrying that we are not convering as much as we should; or that we are not covering what others are covering. I want to get read of guilt if we are lingering on a subject and reading just one more book... This year I did some unit studies and some lapbooks but what I found myself doing was tagging along those in addition to the regular school work. So it either became too much or I was uptied trying to get the kids to hurry up so we could get to the rest of "school". i think in my own mind I wasn't giving these activities the value that they have. I wasn't seeing them as real school.
-I want to do more things with both of my kids together. This is a little challenging because they are far apart in age (4.5 years) but I think I can find a happy medium. I am planning to do nature study, picture study, music appreciation and art with both together. Also read alouds (this we always have done together), and some religion ( Bible reading)
-I want to try to go for Nature Walks more. Truth be told I only have gone on one and it was a couple of days ago. My 8 yob just loved it and so did the 3 yo. And we only went a pond by our house! This is a great undertaking for me. I do not like to be outdoors for a long time. I don't like bugs or animals that might jump at you or get too close. So will see how that goes. The sacrifices that mothers do for the children! I dont' think I could do this every week but maybe I'll shoot for once a month at first and see how it goes.
-My son has a wide variety of interests and gets caught up in them easily. He will be easy to unschool! But my dd (almost 12) is not like that. She does what she has to do and does it well but doesn't seem to have a passion for anything. i think it is because a lot of the things she likes are not scholarly and I have never thought about letting her explore something on her own. I was reading Gatto's book A Different Kind of Teacher and in one of the essays he talks having the kids do Independent Study once a week. I am thinking of doing a modified version of this and let her pick a topic and explore it as much or as little as she wants.
-Another change- up to now history has been the spine of all our studies. Our reading, copywork, geography etc has been directed by history. I feel that we are missing some of the great classics because we are so centered in history. So I think I am going to pick less history for our reading and more classics. But I am not going to abandon history all togehter. I am going to continue going through STOW 2, finish it and continue from there. Was it here that someone said she was dissapointed with STOW 3? i have to research that futher...
Like Willa, I might find myself "unschooling" some subjects and being more traditional in others. Another thing I am going to do is to divided the year in terms and plan a term at a time. That way I feel that I am letting myself be opened to new interests that might arise. I am even opened to concentrating on some subjects more at certain times of the year instead of trying to do everything every week.
As far as curricula is concerned I am looking into using Mater Amibilis for certain things and Ambleside for others. Have anybody here used MA? I would love to hear how it works out. is it easy to implement? I am looking for something that is flexible but provides some guidance.
I still have some thinking to do and some more reading. Then I have to think about specific material to order. ..
Natalia
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Leonie
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Janet, you wrote -
<<It just seems, in looking through all these different posts on the different forums that you guys have found a very relaxed way and managed to apply CM to very diverse family situations - with learning disabilities far more difficult to deal with than ours - and are moving forward with minor bumps and reassessments. >>>>
In my family, I think it only SEEMS that way because I am an eternal optimist. I just accept that we don't do all and/or everything and I accept that we are doing our best with what we have and where we are and I just don't worry about it!  I pause, reflect, read, make changes and move on.
So, I write mostly about the smooth road and the few bunmps just because that's the way I tend to view things! Just call me Pollyanna!
I don't have all the answers and our life probably *is chaotic , when you consider miscarriages and health problems and job problems and busyness and many, many moves.
But my point, I guess, is for you to rest and be assured - your dc sound like they are learning and living and growing . Be encouraged and be confident and keep on keeping on.
Leonie in Sydney
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Next year
