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onemoretracy
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| Posted: Oct 20 2009 at 1:30pm | IP Logged
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***Update on Page 2!***
Hi everyone! I haven't posted in awhile, but I need help and I am counting on you. {no pressure!  }
This is our 4th year hs and my class has sure grown. I am now educating an 11yr ds, 10yr ds, 7yr ds, 7yr dd 4yr dd and our mascot, baby Sara (12-6-08) They are getting great 'grades' at school, all As.
Last spring I hit full burnout and we decided to use a hybrid school. It is a wonderful school that follows {for the most part} MODG.
However...I just don't feel it is the right fit for us. We are in week 10 and all of us are sick to death of school by checklist, KWIM? I very much appreciate the two days of week that the kids are at the school, but I'm uneasy that this might not be the best thing for our family. On our home days we are all scrambling to complete the lists and I am rushing around pulled here and there answering questions, giving directions, yelling and losing my patience. My poor four year old and baby get lost in the mix. I am tearing up just writing this.
Three out of four of their teachers have left this year, not ususal I'm told, but a big shake up for the kids. But, I think a hybrid school is a good alternative for those who are looking to re-create the school atmosphere and schedule within the homeschool community of great families.
So I am rethinking everything. I know this atmosphere is quickly turning toxic to us all. Conceiveably, we could pull out during Christmas break. My problem is that I have no clear or good plan on an alternative. I dream of a CM/TJed/classical mashup. I see quiet mornings of reading and projects with nature walks and calm discussions. This is not a likely reality. In every scenario I can imagine there is just too much prep work and supervision {refereeing} for me to do and not enough hours in the day.
I am open to combining things, but not sure how to combine across grades and subjects. I would be every so grateful for some good advice. I am sure the answer is in simplifying, but HOW and WHAT?
PS. a good hug would be nice too. 
__________________
Tracy
DH Lee
DS Jake-10
DS Ryan-9
DS Luke-6
DD Laine-6
DD Mary Clare-3
DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
My Blog
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Connections
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| Posted: Oct 20 2009 at 1:39pm | IP Logged
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I am sending hugs and prayers!
The more experienced moms here can provide excellent options and things to consider.
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Blessings, Tracey
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JodieLyn
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Simplifying.. math is a good one because there are so many programs out there that the kids can do on their own. There's lot of things that can be combined. But lots of those things may not be something you need to focus heavily on.
You can also shift around your school week. We plan school for 4 days and have the 5th day to make sure we've finished what we need to in those subjects that we do have a checklist in.. or to just have a more relaxed day if things worked well that week 
You might also change around how you do things to reduce your getting frazzled like.. why not have the kids come to you for their questions.. then you can sit with the baby or toddler and keep them busy and just turn your attention to the child that needs help right now.. rather than leaving your littlest to their own device while you run hither and thither.
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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.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Erin
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Tracy
I'm short on time now but I'll come back, I promise. I have just gone through a difficult time myself, one day I may write more. But for now I'll share my learning blog with you. The philosophical post might cheer you up (it did me ) and the planning posts may be of help (if you can understand them) anyhow I'll chat more later.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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onemoretracy
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| Posted: Oct 20 2009 at 5:25pm | IP Logged
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Thank you ladies. Erin-ah that philisophical post WAS good for me.
The first year and a half we homeschooled were wonderful. Slowly, I have gotten pulled back into the mindset of checklists and deadlines and meeting others expectations.
I want to recapture the joy and excitement we all had then. We had wonder and ease and we very much just enjoyed being together.
I am trying to distill the things they might need to do still seperately, at their own level and then combine as much as I can for us to do together.
Maybe I can make our transition happen before the Christmas break...
__________________
Tracy
DH Lee
DS Jake-10
DS Ryan-9
DS Luke-6
DD Laine-6
DD Mary Clare-3
DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
My Blog
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melanie
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Tracy,
We have had a similar kind of experience over the years...not with the hybrid school, but we have used MODG for years, and it worked for a while, but I also got to feeling like we were just trying to "get it all done",and like my little ones were just kind of left to their own defenses all day. Not a good feeling....
Anyway, I'm just kind of getting started changing things up, but here's what we are doing. My oldest (7th grade) is doing MODG still. She's doing well with it and old enough that I think it's good discipline to have a course of study to stick to and I don't want to write my own. She is also motivated and gets a good dealof her work done on her own.
With the 9yo (4th grade), I have pared down to basics and we work at our own pace. When we get kind of "settled in" to this I would like to add some serendipity stuff for him to do and include my 5yo as well, maybe math gnomes, continent boxes and science baskets, that kind of thing. Slowly, at our own pace.
Next year, I'd like to start the alphabet path with my 5yo and my toddler, who will be 2 1/2 by then. She would just participate for fun, of course, and in what she's able to do. My long range plan (for now, ha!) is to keep things this way for the youngest children and maybe phase them into MODG around 5th/6th grade. We know the curriculum well, and 6th grade is a good point to jump in.
What will this mean for our daily rhythm? Well, here's what I'm going for...after breakfast, a morning meeting with prayers, liturgical year activities, and history read alouds for all...the 9yo then goes off to do some workbox activities on his own (which includes some workbooks in core subjects) while I spend some time with my two littles and my 13yo does school work on her own. Later in the morning, I spend about an hour working on memory work/narrations and such with the 9yo. I'd like to get the serendipity items worked in here. The boys go outside for half an hour or so while I get lunch on and a couple of chores. After lunch and independent reading time, the 9yo does math (right now we are trying Aleks on the computer, but we may move on to Teaching Textbooks) and I work with my oldest. When I'm done with her, we all go outside for some fresh air and exercise (I'm loving fall yardwork!) until I have to come in to get dinner going with the youngest. Usually the others all stay outside until I bring them in for dinner.
__________________
Melanie
homeschooling Maria (13yo), Kain (10yo), Jack (5yo), Tess (2yo), and our newest blessing, Henry Robert, born 4/23!
slightlycrunchycatholic.blogspot.com
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ALmom
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Tracy:
I keep trying to post and identifying with your request for ideas. I'm just not sure if I'm too schoolish for your own family so I'll try to just give some general ideas for approaching this to find answers that fit your own family.
BTW these are the ages about when I hit the wall. You have an 11 year old and they are needing more now - and there is a tendency for mom to panic because you see middle school and high school looming ahead and all the gaps that are still there that you somehow have to get cracking on - but in the process you don't want to crush the love of learning nor stifle a young man who is still much more comfortable in the woods than sitting at a desk. The 10 year old is close behind the 11 year old (but not necessarily ready to work in all the same areas and depending on personalities working together may or may not work when it is formal - though they probably play tons together if they are like mine). The 7 year olds (and you have 2 so that makes it doubly tough right now) probably still need a lot of support and guidance but you have a toddler (probably very busy and into everything) and a baby. This adds joy, delight, and a host of wonderful things - but also lots of noise, pulled papers, spilled paint .... Crafts seem overwhelming if you have to help the 7 year old with the youngers in toe. This may be something difficult to do without if this is something you and your children love. But the youngers need your time and attention and gee - how does this all happen without turning me into drill sergeant. I had one child that really liked crafts - but most of mine hated anything like that unless it was outside in the mud. I am not a craft person but was convinced of the need for some of this for fine motor development etc. - though I couldn't do any of it. With toddlers, I just didn't see it as fair to be running around keeping them out of stuff, so I set up the art table outside where the mess didn't matter. As the children were older, they did their own crafts and clean up while I had fun with the baby sometimes and sometimes we set up two tables in the same room. The lower table had the same stuff on it for the youngers and I worked with them while the olders worked at the taller table. I provided lots of supplies. There were a few years where we did very little of this kind of stuff together just because it was too exhausting for me and too traumatic for the older whose precious paintings were continually being destroyed by spillt water or .... I did readjust and reprioritize. I had to be a mom to my littles and looked for ways to make sure I engaged with them and then built from there.
It helped us a lot to access a few things in our family:
1) What are my strengths and talents? What sends my stress level to the sky and what is enjoyable to me? If things are going to work, I have to work primarily in my areas of strength with some stretching but not a whole year of all my weaknesses. If I'm enthused the children are more likely to be. I'm not going to be enthused if I'm trying to do something I hate all the time or something I'm no good at all the time. I love to read, I love books, I am a very careful and detailed observer, if I can set up school utilizing those strengths to a great degree, we'll be more efficiently succesful.
2) What are my glaring weaknesses? I won't always be able to avoid having to stretch myself beyond my comfort zone - but if I'm trying to do this stretching with 6 different children over 6 different subjects and half those subjects are things I never understood - well it isn't going to go very well. I can stretch myself in maybe one subject per child - and that is a really tough stretch. Beyond that I'm setting us all up for melt down, stress, failure and the near occasion of sin. I'm a bookish person and very comfortable in the bookish world - my children are not. We've had to come to a happy point where the pattern of our days fit both of us and we strike a balance allowing for some awesome creativity and exploration that are my children's forte' while somehow managing to document basic education. I love learning from my children in areas where I need some stretching - but they can also use this to avoid important areas too and we need a good balance for all.
3)What subjects are passions for my children (for each child)? For me? I can stretch myself in teaching style more easily in areas of subject passion. These are also areas I'm more likely to be able to wing on my own without a lot of textual/schoolish guidance and also areas I'm more comfortable with when my children go outside the box. If it is a passion for my child, then I at least know this is not an avoided subject and once I have a sense that the child really does have a sense of what they are doing, I can trust that they will learn without me (and usually better without me) micromanaging anything. This is the area where I let the child do a lot of the leading and by 11 or 12 they are pretty much set free here. What sub-area did they want to focus on, what materials might they need? Especially as they grow, I hand more and more of the whole responsibility over to them. If it is an area of total weakness for me, this happens sooner rather than later and the child may end up being my mentor for how to teach the subject to the youngers. If they move well beyond me, I invest in more and more books utilizing guidance from folks who are good in this - and look into eventually delegating this entirely to a specialist in the field - probably in high school at some time, and look for opportunities for the child to explore this with others passionate about it.
4)What are my children (each one) able to do or do I need them to be able to do independently for the most part? If I know I will be spending 3 hours per day on therapy work, then something has to give. I will ask for input from children in terms of which of a number of possible things seems most appealing to them. I might write up a booklist and buy some kits. I might invest in workbooks or textbooks for some areas. I might hire a tutor if finances and the needs of the child indicate this. I do have to be realistic. There is only so much time in the day and I have to humbly admit when I need help. If I cannot find or afford the help I need, then we may have to weigh more carefully how critical this is and either do a workbook (better than nothing at all) or skip it altogether. We dropped Latin one year, the next year we had a great co-op opportunity and this was a really good choice. Having an enthusiastic and knowledgeable first teacher was better than bumbling and struggling with a workbook for me. Now they are mostly teaching me. Also, Latin was not going to make or break us at that point. Learning to put something in writing in complete sentences was. I used a workbook in something so I could make my son answer questions in complete sentecnes (I think it was a Lit./reading workbook from Seton or Kolbe, but it really didn't matter). It was, by far, not his favorite and it took most of the year for him to realize I really was going to make him re-copy and put a capital at the beginning and punctuation at the end. This would make or break him. He could be an Einstein but if he couldn't communicate his findings in writing, it wasn't going to help anyone and he wasn't going to get very far. He was old enough that this was a serious deficiency. I was more interested in the practice of writing sentences than the content of the workbook, but it was in an area where exposure to vocabulary and ideas was worthwhile. I had a far different purpose to the workbook than the purpose for which the workbook was written and I used it accordingly. It helped me. I also insisted that this be written neatly - penmanship so this counted for probably at least 3 main areas we wanted to work on.
5)What are each child's biggest road block to the next step? Is there a particular subject they avoid? If I can only do one thing with this child, what would help them the most? The avoidance area is where I need to have an easy way to hold the particular child accountable. I have to set priorities and tackle things in small chunks at a time - so this year the focus for child B may be writing in complete sentences, next year it may be history and paragraph writing.
6)Are there ways to organize our home, our school that would make things easier and smoother? Do we spend a lot of wasted time trying to establish habits of clean-up and order, are we perpetually spending hours looking for stuff? What am I able to do to simplify and streamline the routine to make things happen more automatically? Would taking a few minutes to establish a place for papers, school records, etc. be best. Is my child a stacker or a filer? How can I provide tools to aid this process. A simple thing like 3-ring binders and a short daily meeting with the child went a long way. A few times having to re-write assignments made keeping up with them a priority for this child. I had a set place for him to turn assignments in to me - a 3 ring binder where he just tucked the papers in a pocket.
7)Where are our biggest time wasters? How can I manage my time better? clutter, disarray, failure to clean up after ourselves, not having a place for things or having things spread all over the house. Organizing things according to the room or area in which they would be used saved lots of time. We were getting a rut
8)What resources do I have available to me? (Consider financial resources, members of your own family including husband and other children as well as the availability of other moms to trade tasks with, co-ops, tutors, providers, etc. Think a bit outside the box here when you consider providers - not that you will use them to set up school in your house, but that they may be a resource from which to pull something you need and use in your own way (and ignore the rest of what is there that you don't want). I actually called a mom in desperation just asking for tutor recommendations and she worked with my child for one year in trade for my child's help around the house. This was a total blessing and perfect fit for dd and an area in which I desperately needed help. I didn't think this mom was tutoring (she was teaching 6 of her own and had a baby on the way and I would never have dreamed of asking but when she offered - wow, what a difference it made!) God has provided at times in some very awesome and unexpected ways. Other times, we've had to simply accept that perhaps something we thought was important was not meant to be - not this year.
9) What learning styles and temperments are in my home? What kinds of things have they asked for. My visual learners need different types of materials than my kinesthetic learners. The choleric seems to set goals pretty well but thrives on a bit of the traditional grading stuff - or competiveness with brothers if the competition is fairly even and pushes them both to excellence. Being with books and no interaction or competition or feedback will make life dull and motivation sink. The more phlegmatic seems to need a lot more in terms of structure and very specific things to do. Grades won't touch this child one way or another unless she "catches cholera from me" as my dh likes to tease. My sanguine needs something to make it a bit fun - whether it is a fun activity in the woods after the work is done or a project to liven things up a bit. He is also the one who is a great teacher, but you better give very specific instructions in terms of order or he might answer questions without any labels and in any kind of willy nilly order and you'll spend 3 hours just trying to figure out which thing he was doing. You might also spend a week digging through the pile of papers, parts and extra wires that reproduce at astronomical rates around his desk (which he never studies at - just the storage location for all on-going projects and material)looking for the assignment you needed to go over with him.
10) With your 10 and 11 year old, you can elicit a lot of information concerning what they think is and is not working. My oldest children were often the best at selecting good fits for them. I let them look at samples of anything I might consider and asked for their feedback. It doesn't mean we, as parents, didn't make the final decision and we would not have shown them anything that wasn't acceptable to us. Criticisms of material had to be constructive - ie specifically what was not working for them and what they felt would help.
11) How much time do we have to just enjoy each other, to kick around and persue what we want or have a bit of leisure? Is there a balance in our life in this regard? Are there any areas our family is totally neglecting (in our house it was PE  cause that isn't something I begin to know how to do - I'm a clutz and mix up left/right. Dh can give assignments and I make sure there is time and if nothing else take time to walk and model myself (this couch potatoe is having a great deal of difficulty here).
I will say that around the pre-teen years, my children started getting a bit antsy for more structure - or they were so absolutely engrossed in their passion that they'd managed to hoodwink me and almost entirely avoid some important areas. I was a bit overwhelmed thinking about it. One child in particular was such a hands on guy that we really had to get way more serious with literature and writing if he'd ever achieve anything - and adding a bit of order wouldn't hurt either. I never would have considered stifling him with a full provider enrollment - but funny thing, he loves Seton workbooks in his area of total avoidance. Now, granted, I did pick the year where they read Swiss Family Robinson for literature and had eased him in a bit with approaching things from a science/technology point of view. I honestly was surprised - but had signed up for a single course in desperation to find an easy way to hold this child accountable. Now in areas of passion, we just let him run and gradually those areas of passion are growing. Setting some priorities and particular goals for this child each year with something that I found easy to hold him to made a lot of difference - but the timing was also right. Before last year, it would have killed him. I'm not necessarily doing a bunch of stuff the Seton style and had a very specific purpose for this thing. Normally I despise reading workbooks but I needed a "scientific" way to teach him to read between the lines and he was totally the houdini when it came to literature. He hated reading anything but science. It wasn't like we were getting anywhere trying to find interesting books and then discussing them even though I'm particularly able to pick out hidden messages in books, things just weren't seeming to work well. We do a lot more discussing now when I grade his daily Seton Reading assignments - but as far as the Seton course, he is in charge. I have nothing to do with his book reports and he is doing fine. He uploads, he keeps up with the plans, he is in charge and loves that. I simply grade the workbook and discuss that with him and teach writing my own way and expect him to use that information to write good papers for Seton. It is working. Now if I were in charge of the Seton, I'd hate it and it wouldn't work. I really don't care if we get a grade, finish the course in x amount of time. I don't tell him that and he keeps on track. His goal is to be done but in the process he is actually beginning to understand some of the more subtle things, he is accountable and someone else is jumping on him when he is so careless he doesn't bother to write an intro or conclusion. The most important thing is that he and I are discussing literature (granted the Seton workbook is not your classic, high quality literature but he couldn't understand that until he got past the reading it like a science textbook) and I have noticed that he has been picking up more and more good literature reading (that is non-science). We are both relieved and happy. I just say this not to say sign up for Seton but to say, I would never have even considered this without having assessed that I desperately needed a very reliable and simple way to make sure we did something in literature/non-science reading every single day and that I was so distracted that he was wheedling out of literature by always being seriously engaged in a science project or book. He looked like he was reading and working all the time and it was great - but it was also an avoidance technique.
Without knowing you or your children, I wouldn't know what to suggest. So much of what you do in your own homeschool is create a family learning routine that works for your family based on the folks that are there and the needs and strengths and gaps that are there. What I used to design something for us is not likely to work for another family - at least not exactly the same way. I am a melancholic/choleric who is a build from the detail to the big picture and the more words the better kind of person. Don't give me a picture, give me detailed, systematic words. Everyone else here (except maybe my non-school age guy) is a big picture learner, please show me a picture or give me something to do to show me and no words (or as few as possible, please) type learners Personalities are different so what motivates is different. I had to ask my sister how to play when I wanted to play with my babies so having some sanguine types in the family has added in a wonderful dimension to our life. I would not have even thought to make things fun in the way my sanguines do - serious, deep thoughtful is fun to me. I'm more likely to be accused of being the dreaded task master. I love the way we are all learning and growing from each other but it has taken some time and reflection to get to this point - and we have lots more tweaking to do, I'm sure - and growing and learning.
This is far too long already for a post that may not even help at all - so off to my duty which I seem to be avoiding at the moment
Prayers for you in your discernment and hoping someone who knows you better or who is more a kindred spirit chimes in with ideas that grab your heart.
Janet
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onemoretracy
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Dear Janet,
God bless you for such a thoughtful and detailed post. You are such a sweetheart and really nailed some part's of my world right now. --And you DO seem like a kindred spirit!
So much of what you do in your own homeschool is create a family learning routine that works for your family based on the folks that are there and the needs and strengths and gaps that are there. What I used to design something for us is not likely to work for another family - at least not exactly the same way.
I know this to be true. And also I know that what works at a certain time may not work the following year. I know I need to be flexible and watchful. Sometimes I feel like a chameleon mom-being one way with one child and one way with another-does that make sense?
Unfortunately my husband likes things set and in concrete. He would be so pleased if I had a written plan detailing and outlining our educational goals for the rest of our children's schooling--and then I had those cast into gold, never to be messed with again. he knows this isn't going to happen and also that it's not necessarily the best thing, but still, he dreams!
We do need to revisit the Big Picture goal though. That does not change and I think revisting and discussing that together does us a world of good.
Thank you again SO much. I value your ideas and input.
__________________
Tracy
DH Lee
DS Jake-10
DS Ryan-9
DS Luke-6
DD Laine-6
DD Mary Clare-3
DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
My Blog
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onemoretracy
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Dear Melanie,
I love your ideas-I am thinking along very similar lines. Serendipity along with some structured stuff. I know if I keep shuffling around the pieces, I can find a good solution. (for a few months at least, then I'll probably have to shuffle and re-arrange again! )
Gosh-it is so good just to be able to come here and muse around with you ladies.
__________________
Tracy
DH Lee
DS Jake-10
DS Ryan-9
DS Luke-6
DD Laine-6
DD Mary Clare-3
DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
My Blog
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Erin
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Tracy
I really need to say no more, Janet summed it up all so well. I've been thinking in the last couple of days (conversations with my 16yr old have promoted these thoughts) what I would say to my younger self if I could go back; I would really, really concentrate on doing the basics in the primary years and doing them well, I really wouldn't worry too much about anything else except have a good book going at all times on various topics and encouraging the children to read widely. In the later primary years I would start to ease into a bit more formality on other topics for highschool. But the lack of time we didn't spend on the basics, building a strong formation is my biggest regret;, in many ways we were busy 'playing at learning' and didn't do enough writing. Sarah says it so well.
(Do you want me to send you a collection of simplifying homeschooling posts? I've been storing links  )
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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Land O' Cotton
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I have not posted on here in what seems like forever, but this post drew me in.
I stepped away from all of my Montessori plans and started up with a boxed curriculum in order to meet grade expectations. Now I look back on the last year and a half with so much regret. All that lost time, though we did have some good memories with a few things. I'll never get that time back, but I know now I can only change what is not good and keep what has served us well.
I'm busy making Montessori trays this morning. They will be the "fun" part of our day, along with more outside nature study time, music and art. I need to remember that a well-rounded day with some time spent on the basics will make for a much happier day.
I don't know if this will help you at all. It's more of my ramblings in retrospect... We are still using copywork, dictation and narration. We also will continue with math (using MEP), but include daily math lab time for exploration. I think those things I cannot skimp on, JMHO. The rest we will fit in as we can, with a fun Montessori tray each day.
Could the two older children work independently with some of those workbox strips or an assignment sheet? Everyone could listen to storytime together, and also do Bible study together. I love the things on the Serendipity blog too. Great ideas to bring some fun into your day. Don't forget that librivox.org has some great audiobooks to download for free. That will save some time, and your voice too!
I hope your days to come are more peaceful.
Vicki
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denise3578
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I would like to highly recommend that you check out the Classical Liberal Arts Academy. (sorry, I don't know how to link) Check out their website and prepare to be amazed. They are an online academy, totally Catholic, totally classical - which does not mean MODG. I have now signed up 4 out of 5 of my school aged children, and it is remarkable. I am even taking classes there myself. I suggest you just browse the articles that Mr. Michael (the founder of the Academy) has written. You will learn what a truly classical education consists of, you will learn how to revolve your day around prayer times, I can't even begin to tell you how much it has enhanced our home life.
Denise
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melmc
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I have to agree with Denise. We're another CLAA family and it's been such a blessing for me. My kids do need my help with the classes, but I don't have to plan anything. That really frees up my time to work with them, Then I get to have fun with the other stuff like Catholic Mosaic and Science Baskets and other fun stuff.
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 22 2009 at 3:11pm | IP Logged
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Well I am over there right now looking and I'm having trouble finding the cost. Where should I be looking?
__________________
Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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Tina P.
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| Posted: Oct 22 2009 at 4:05pm | IP Logged
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onemoretracy wrote:
So much of what you do in your own homeschool is create a family learning routine that works for your family based on the folks that are there and the needs and strengths and gaps that are there. What I used to design something for us is not likely to work for another family - at least not exactly the same way.
I know this to be true. And also I know that what works at a certain time may not work the following year. |
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One of our routines last year was that each child had to have completed four subject before lunch. I can't BELIEVE what a habit that turned into THIS year. Kids start hopping around me at 11:15 a.m. begging me for something quick to do because that will be their fourth subject before lunch.
onemoretracy wrote:
| Unfortunately my husband likes things set and in concrete. He would be so pleased if I had a written plan detailing and outlining our educational goals for the rest of our children's schooling--and then I had those cast into gold, never to be messed with again. He knows this isn't going to happen and also that it's not necessarily the best thing, but still, he dreams! |
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My husband used to be like this. with time and more experience, husbands get more malleable. They see that even when there's not *school* learning going on, very much ~ maybe even more? ~ learning takes place.
I tried to get more structured with MODG last year because my first one entered high school. We failed. Seriously. Trying to do that and teaching seven kids was just  . So now I generally follow the MODG pattern and fill in with what I want to use and how in-depth I want to go.
History is currently broken into two periods. Four kids currently study American History at their own level out of living books. The ninth and tenth graders use the Joy Hakim series as their base. The other two are only in fifth and third grade and use appropriate readers for different events and characters in history. All I am concerned about for them is introduction.
In January, my 10th grader starts to learn Ancient Greece and Rome. My 7th grader is currently learning about Ancient Greece and will be learning about Ancient Rome after Christmas break.
In science, the first four kids are studying together two by two. The rest do general nature study and an experiment or two when I have time and energy.
My 9th and 10th graders also study religion together and are receiving their Confirmations this year together.
I have found that it wears a body out to try to have each child doing different things at different times. I have enough trouble trying to remember where each one is in each subject now!
I think this is more empathy with what you're going through than it is any help to you. But take it for what it's worth and God bless your efforts!
__________________
Tina, wife to one and mom to 9 + 3 in heaven
Mary's Muse
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AndieF
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| Posted: Oct 22 2009 at 4:15pm | IP Logged
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I have somewhat similar-aged children. I am homeschooling this year a 10 year old (girl), 10 year old (boy), an 8 year old (boy) and a 7 year old (girl), a newly 5 year old (boy) and I watch an 18 month old.
The 5 year old does Montessori trays here at home in the morning, and the 18 month old plays in the living room which is right next to and in clear view from the learning area.
Here is our current plan/schedule:
9:00 Reading Time (everyone reading their own book)
9:30ish Faith Lessons (together)
9:45 Morning Snack  (together)
10:00 Story of the World I. We read a chapter or do an activity, etc. (together)
10:30ish Spelling (everyone using their own Spell and Write book.)
(Whenever done with Spelling): Copywork/Narration/Writing, etc.
11:00ish Grammar (A mix of Montessori Grammar and the Ruth Hellar books)
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Playing outside, yoga, bike riding, going to the park, etc.
1:00 - 2:15 They have free choice of the order of the next few things:
Picture Study from the letter of the week from Museum ABC
Math Fact sheet (olders multiplication, youngers add/subtract)
Geography (MWF. Olders are doing Continent Studies, and Youngers are doing US Study )
Instruments (T/Th)
Alphabet books (we do a different one on MTW - R is for Rhyme, M is for Masterpiece, and M is for Music)
2:15 Science. MW we do Apologia Botany, and T/Th we do Apologia Astronomy. We read or do an activity, etc. (together)
2:30 Math (Everyone works from their own book. Olders using Saxon, youngers using Math-U-See.)
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The times are even more approximate than I said there, but it gives you an idea. The youngers usually end earlier than the olders, which works out fine. It gives the 10 year olds a little longer to work on their Math, which is also fine.
We often spend the afternoons at the library, or the nature center, watching a movie about a history/astronomy/botany topic. On those days, we do a Math Facts sheet in the morning, and let all the other afternoon stuff go for the day. And in the afternoon, they have quite a few subjects that they can pick the order and sort of how much time they want to spend, which helps the afternoons a little less "school-y." But they are still learning LOADS and yet enjoying learning. Well, mostly.
Here's your too!
Andie
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melmc
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Erin,
It's $125 a course/child. That's until you finish the course, not per year. And you can divide it up anyway you'd like with no interest such as every three months, or once a month for 10 months. There are no enrollment fees and none of the elementary classes that I've seen need books, either. We do use our bible, but already had that. You can start any time you like. They don't have a set school year.
Melissa
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onemoretracy
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| Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 12:15pm | IP Logged
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Tina, thanks for the empathy! I like the lunch rule, it might be a good habit for us to follow too!
Also, thanks for sharing how you get the kids to work on things together. Just the ideas I am looking for!
__________________
Tracy
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onemoretracy
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| Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 12:21pm | IP Logged
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Dear Denise and melmc, thanks for the link and recs. I am intriuged!
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Tracy
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onemoretracy
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| Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 12:22pm | IP Logged
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Dear Andie, thanks for sharing your schedule, it is helpful to see that!
__________________
Tracy
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DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Help! I need a new plan.
