Back again with questions

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  • March 31, 2009 at 6:21 am
    TinaC
    Member

    We are expecting our 4th child any day now (due next week)and I hope that we can make homeschooling work with a new baby in the house.We have already been homeschooling for 3 years.Any suggestions?

    1) Do any of you homeschool year ’round?

    With our oldest, he has been working independently but with our youngest two they have basically been”unschooling” the past 2 months.(although they have been still learning…reading, having questions answered, drawing, creative learning,etc.) If this baby comes on time, I plan to take a month to get used to having a new baby in the house again, bonding, and maybe breastfeeding(which will be new to me). Then I am thinking of beginning our year ’round homeschooling in May. I am planning to use the Charlotte Mason method so I think this would be a good time to start especially for nature study.Our children are 17, 11, and 7.(I will be using the CM method just with our youngest two children)

    Would you please share your schedule?

    2)Re: math~ I am not real impressed with the SCM suggestions for math.Do any of you use something different that you would recommend?

    3) For language arts we are using the books by Emma Serl and the books by Sandi Queen. Does that seem to be enough for an almost 12yo and 8yo?

    4)books: My dd(11yo) likes reading about ghosts and sci-fi. Are there any books along that line that wouldn’t be considered twaddle? She has never read A Christmas Carol so I thought maybe we would start with that one.

    March 31, 2009 at 12:06 pm
    Gem
    Participant

    Oh I have a wonderful book recommendation – Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. I read this a few months ago and haven’t been able to get it out of my head. A wonderful story, and it just won a well deserved Newbery Medal. Great for the ghost lover in the family.

    Gem

    March 31, 2009 at 2:20 pm
    Audrey
    Member

    We homeschool year round. I can’t stand the thought of trying to cram everything in and then taking a 3 month break. This way we can take a week or two if needed and not worry about making our 180 days. (We are expecting our 5th, Aug 27)

    We’ve just recently gotten back into the “swing of things.” We sort of unschooled for a month or so during Morning Sickness. Right now we’re just doing Math and LA though and expect to start everything else back up around May 1. (We’re also getting ready to move.)

    We use and love Singapore Math. I strayed a little from it this year, but I’m so glad to be back!! It’s not for everyone, but it works extremely well for us. Have you looked at Life of Fred for your 12yo? I looked at samples the other day and I can’t wait til my oldest is ready to use it.

    I’m sure your LA is fine for your 8yo. No experience with older children, so I can’t comment.

    Audrey

    dd8, ds7, ds6, ds2, baby 8/27/09

    March 31, 2009 at 2:47 pm
    Tanya
    Participant

    We also school year round, mainly because I know the kids will forget a lot over a 3 month span. This also gives us flexibility if we have a lighter week.

    If your state wants 180 days, divide it up over the course of the year and see what kind of schedule you would like: For example, 180 divided over 12 months means that you would school for 15 days a month (basically 3 weeks on, 1 week off). Now within that, be as flexible as you would like. Would you rather school 4 days of the week and have a day off every week? Then you would school for the entire month (in a 4 week month that would only be 12 days, but it always seems to even itself out – you could count it up to be sure). Or, you could school for a few months and then take a few weeks off.

    We love schooling year round – it gives us a lot of flexibility.

    As far as curriculum, my oldest is 8, so we’re not at your level yet. For math I use a mixture of Miquon and Ray’s Arithmetic. Miquon is great for hands-on, and I love that Ray’s starts out with word problems from the beginning so that math becomes practical from the start, not something that must be “applied” later. Also, there is no fear of the word problem either, because we’re so used to it.

    Hope these answers help. I was going to say something else too, but I forgot! If I remember I will add.

    Have a wonderful day!

    -Tanya

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