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pumpkinmom
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Since this a common time of year for the start of a new school year, what is working for you this year (so far)? What are you struggling with?
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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pumpkinmom
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Winston Grammar is working well for us. I believe science is under control. I'm liking the new Lighted Lanterns program. Saint books are getting read. Actually all assigned reading is getting done.
History is a struggle which is every year. I'm hoping that plan B is it for this year! I'm pretty sure I had a plan A-M last year.
Our schedule and lesson plan organizing needs a little tweaking but I have a plan for that just lacking the time to work on it.
Latin is still up in the air, but I ordered Latina Christiana over the weekend.
Math is working but I'm tweaking our original plan as one boy wasn't ready for what I ordered. The other one reminds me of thing we need to review in addition to our normal lessons.
Overall we have had a good start! Much better than last year. Four weeks in and we aren't behind schedule, unless you count history.  I'll take it!
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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SallyT
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We started last week. So far so good. It's a little early to tell how some of our new reading is working out -- people are still settling in -- but our schedule seems to be running fairly smoothly.
Good things:
*Life of Fred, continued from last year
*CurrClick online Lego Club (very much a geometry lesson this month)
*Kindles for the kids, with much of their reading on, including some German picture books with audio
*all-cursive copywork (howls of complaint at first, but everyone's writing is shaping up quickly). I'm teaching grammar via copywork -- right now we identify nouns and verbs and note punctuation before we write -- and using Mary Daly's First Whole Book of Diagrams one day a week to diagram what we're writing, so we can see how it works.
*keeping individual Books of Centuries this year. This feels awkward right now, as we work to develop the habit of entering things in, but I'm hoping that habit will develop.
Having my 10th grader keep a blog timeline/narration journal for his history/literature/religon/humanities course. He's doing chemistry and German at the college this semester, plus working two afternoons a week for a large-animal vet, so online is how I keep up with him. I still need to sign him up for Art of Problem Solving geometry, which is very pricey but, I hope, going to be worth it as an honors/AP kind of class. We *could* just do the book, but I think the interaction would be a good thing.
That's our year so far. I'm happy to be back to work with everyone -- that in itself feels really good, after a long, lazy summer.
Sally
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Martha
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The only thing I've dropped is the vocabulary from classical roots and the seton vocab 6. I happen to have had them, so I wanted to use them, but truth is they are unnecessary to a kid with an extensive book list and learn two other languages.
Week 4 this week and so far that's been the only major change.
ETA: Actually, my other trouble spot is that I made a 3 page list of history and Geograohy reading for my 9th grader to choose from. A wide variety and figured he should be able to hit at least 10-12 from the library. Nope. Been on order for weeks now. 
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
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pmeilaen
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We haven't even started yet  .
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Eva
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JodieLyn
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Yep this starting the day after Labor Day (sept 3) is working out great for me at this point 
So I'm in my final stages of planning. Need to come up with a printable chart to use with the younger kids (the older two have kindle fires and we're going to try using google calendars for their assignments).
Need to break Biology down into at least weekly increments.. I've gotten it down to trimesters..
oh and need to finalize a literature list.
So I think that's all going well.. the only books left to get are math workbooks for the younger kids for the second half of the year.. I have the ones they need to start.
I do have one question I'm going to post for our religion element.. we're going to learn about and try out different types of prayer this year.. and while I got one book.. I was hoping for other input too. 
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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Barb.b
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Hmmm -
5th grade ds:
Not finishing saxon 4/5 (we stopped mid book last year; and review mult. table during summer) and starting at begining of 5/6 is working! - I KNOW - I'm supposed to finish 4/5 but REALLY - the 2 books are soooo alike and it is TOOOO hard to start back up in the middle of a book!
Seton reading is working!
History - using Horizons US history civil war to present - so far so good. I am trying to start him doing a very loose outline of what he reads and think he will do it on computer after every paragraph or so - but we will see if it is tooo much.
Saxon grammar - GREAT! I love the constant review, incorporating writing and vocabulary.
Note card app on the computer and evernote on the computer (one notebook so far for History and Science to answer questions and outline chapters)
DD 10th -
Write Source for writing/grammar - well SHE doesn't think so but I do think its good for SAT prep.
History - HMH (houghlin mifflin holt) World History - NOT doing the whole book (how on earth to do ancient history to present in one year and be sane!) but start with the Renaissance (because she tired of Ancient history and would like to FINALLY get to move past WWI). YEA - we CAN decide to start 1/2 through this HUGE over 1,200 page textbook!
Algebra 2 - finishing Saxon in end of OCT and starting Adv. Math works great for her taking SAT in June!
OH and having basic syllabus for each subject. I have WHEN tests are - she has the books and reads, studies . . . We meet to grade. NOT micro-managing her is awesome!
Barb
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jawgee
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I'll tell you in a few weeks.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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organiclilac
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My son is a slow-poke, and whatever was on his to-do list would always fill up all available time, no matter what. I felt bad that he never seemed to have much free time. Some things that have helped with this:
- We are all getting up early! We've been saying we'd start this since, oh, forever, but now we're actually doing it. Amazing how much more gets done!
- My son's computer time comes first thing in the morning. On my way down to make breakfast at 6:30, I wake him up and he has about a half hour to play. He can sleep in until the food is ready instead if he wants, but so far, he's been getting up. It's been easier for him to drag himself up when he gets to do something fun first thing, and then he gets at least a little bit of goof-off time every day.
- We are packing the academics into the rest of the week to leave Wednesdays FREE. Twice a month, we'll have an afternoon co-op class, but other than that, he can do what he wants. So far, he's been writing a novel.
Really happy with things so far, but we're only on week 2, so we'll see!
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Tracy, wife to Shawn, mama to Samuel (4/01) and Joseph (11/11), and Thomas (2/15)
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SeaStar
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We are revisiting La Clase Divertida, a dvd Spanish program from Rainbow Resources. We started it several years ago, and although we liked it a lot, we never were consistent and did not make much progress.
This year we started completely over with it, and the kids are loving it.
We flew through the first dvd and are now onto the second. I think they are just at an age now where the program is a really good match for them.
I had planned to do some Latin this year as well, but I don't want to rock the Spanish boat we are on right now.
We are studying early American history, and the video and music links at Easy Peasy homeschool are fitting in beautifully. 
My dd has really taken off with LIfe of Fred this year. We loved it last year, and now I am very happy that she is growing more confident with math,
I am struggling with when/how to fit in a nature notebook, though.
We tried using The Nature Connection, which is a neat book, but it is not what I really have in mind for nature study. Hmm...
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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SallyT
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Well, today is the last day of the 70% off sale on CurrClick classes, which I happen to know because we're trying out a class called MathArt this quarter. It's a lot of fun, but what I really wanted to sign up for was a nature class by the same teacher -- the time (Thursday afternoon, our time) didn't work for us. Here's a link to the actual class.
She covers things like finding a "sit-spot" and nature journaling. There may well be a class blog, too -- there is for our MathArt class, and I notice that many of her other classes do blogs as well, so that's another journaliing/narration outlet for nature.
Anyway, each quarter's class is priced at something like $14.40, through today. Normally they're something like $50/quarter. We're just doing MathArt through October, but it is a lot of fun so far.
Just thought I'd throw that out there -- we really fall down on nature journaling ourselves, and I was very attracted to that class as a way of getting us going (ie having someone other than me say, "Here's how to keep a nature journal.") I wish it weren't on Thursdays.
We're all about CurrClick this year -- CM and CurrClick. They're odd bedfellows, but at least we have variety!
Sally
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CrunchyMom
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We've been slow starting, but the boys beg me to do Sassafras science several times a day
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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SeaStar
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| We've been slow starting, but the boys beg me to do Sassafras science several times a day |
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My dc really like this, too. I am happily surprised that my ds told me he is trying to do a really good job on the notebook.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Kathryn
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I'm liking this idea, Sally! I know others have done blogs but my 9th grader just started one over the summer and doesn't post much but this would be a great way to keep track of her geography.
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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SallyT
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It's a good thing. I started my son's myself and subscribed us both to it via email, so I know when he's posted, and he knows when I comment.
I'm kind of sorry that I promised him that it would be completely private, because I wish I could share -- so far, it's pretty entertaining, and he's done a good job with what I've asked for: timeline dates, narrations of reading. Some he's done straightforwardly, some he's done as "letters" from a time-traveling character to someone named Joyce in some "home" century. I do have some writing prompts queued up week to week, so that he's not just pulling writing out of thin air.
Anyway, I really love the blog medium. It's great for journaling.
Sally
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Kristie 4
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Writing prompts Sally I am all ears!!! (Not to hijack the thread!)
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
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SallyT
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They're scheduled weekly in these plans.
I'm also using some elements from Commonsense Composition. Their chapters on writing about literature and analyzing prose are quite good.
Sally
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SeaStar
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I did not know about the CurrClick classes- there are a lot available.
Thanks for the idea, Sally.
Another couple of things that are working here...
our cheapy dollar store white boards. Love them- I am no longer a hostage of scratch paper. Just grab the board and go
Editor in Chief from the Critical Thinking Press.
I am using the first level (grade 4-5) with ds. It is an extremely boy friendly book. All the topics seem to be dinosaurs, worms, animals, race cars, etc.
Basically it has a short paragraph on a subject and tells how many errors in grammar are present. Then it is up to the boy to find all the errors and correct them.
My ds has a special red pen he uses... and he enjoys finding someone else's mistakes tremendously. To make it even more fun, I pay him two chocolate chips for every error he corrects. (Julie at Brave Writer had suggested this as a daily writing tip- pay two cents for every mistake found. But ds would rather have the chocolate.)
Each paragraph has 7-10 mistakes. We are doing this only once a week, so that makes it a nice break.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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JennGM
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What is working this year? I haven't even started!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Mackfam
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We're just finishing our 5th week and so far having a wonderful year!
What's working nicely for us this year?
** My 1st and 4th grader really, really enjoy and look forward to our Liturgical Calendar Coloring Book time. (I'm pretty sure that Jenn Miller mentioned using this at one time.) The author of the coloring book wrote me and introduced me to her work and allowed me a sample month to consider and my kids really enjoyed this new part of our day! We usually read about the saint of the day from some other books that we love (that Jenn Miller also recommended here I think) - Joan Windham's set of 3 Story Library of the Saints. I Proclick bind two monthly sets of coloring pages and the kids have their very own liturgical year coloring books. It's a huge hit! And the highlight of their days! We enjoy reading further about the saints if our Joan Windham story doesn't explain to us why Ms. MacArthur chose to picture the saint with a particular symbol.
** Our monthly Bravewriter plans are working out great! I spent the summer refreshing myself and re-reading Bravewriter's The Writer's Jungle. After reading it, I decided to come up with a monthly Bravewriter plan for each of my kids. I have four kids in four different stages of writing here (from Jot It Down to Eavesdropping on the Great Conversation), so having these simple writing ideas (each month has a theme and writing ideas) written out in a table format in each child's notebook is a HUGE help to me in managing writing ideas! It's been super helpful!
** Our lesson plans are working nicely, and by now we're done tweaking them to fit nicely. All the kids are working fairly independently except, of course, my littlest. This year, my senior's plans are different than our normal weekly lesson plans, and that is working wonderfully for us! Normally, I write out a yearly booklist, divide that into 3 term plans, and break that down into a weekly lesson plan page (that I print each week) with pages to read from each book so that the child can see at a glance what should be done each day, and checks off their daily work as they go. This year my senior needed more flexibility (with her outside the home committments), and needed to be able to see and work more with an overall big picture view of the term. Our term checklist has worked out great for her and has given her the flexibility she needs with her days, while still allowing her to see her expectations for the term clearly! And it's allowed me to easily see where she is and what she's doing.
Books (and things) the kids are loving:
1st grader - Discovering Plants (by Glenn Blough)
4th grader - Can You Feel the Force? and Boy of the Pyramids (which everyone, including my 12th grader, stops what they're doing in order to listen to the read-aloud! )
8th grader - The Flying Circus of Physics...and our list of Physics related Mythbusters episodes. I allow for extra credit in Physics if my 8th (or 12th grader) views one of the Physics-related episodes. They don't know the topic when I start the video. I came up with a sheet that they fill out (individually) while they watch. It asks to identify the Myth, define the Physics principle demonstrated in the video, predict the outcome, and asks to identify the steps of the scientific method he saw demonstrated in the video. It asks for controls of the experiment, the results. Anyway, it's been a nice way to facilitate some independence with a favorite subject (of my 8th grader's) while also encouraging writing and science skills. It's been a big hit!
12th grader - 1984 and The Marketing of Evil. And she's loving how much Photography she is doing for credit as part of her last year. She's going into Photography after high school, so this is her passion.
So...that's our year. We're enjoying it so far! I'm really enjoying reading about some of the things y'all are doing that you're enjoying. Taking a few notes!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Topic: What's working this year?
