Considering the "switch"

Thank you, Gina.  I think if we do make the switch, we might start with Module 3, because then by 12th grade, she will have been able to go back through the whole series again.  We’ll be praying about this; I was pretty sure we were going to stick with SL to the end, but…we’ll see.  I appreciate the link, I thought I had just about read the whole web-site LOL but I hadn’t seen that article.  

Lindsey

Thanks again, Gina.  

Let me ask this question now: what was your motivation for leaving SL?  My husband and I agree that having the year already “planned” (we add things like lapbooks, etc) is nice, but the thing I’m disappointed in is the fact that the Bible portion doesn’t correspond well with the History like I thought it would.  For example, in Bible, we’re reading about Joseph, but we’ve already finished our Egypt study.  Wouldn’t that have been a good time to talk about Joseph?  Just a thought.  Also, Core 2 covers from the fall of Rome to modern times.  That’s a very large chunk of history to cover in a year!  Not that I didn’t know that’s how it would go, but it’s just now dawning on me that…well…that’s a lot of history!  

I’m really just trying to sort this out.  The cool thing is that SL does choose neat books, and I can always draw from their lists for whatever era we’re studying if we need (or just want) more, which, I take it, isn’t uncommon around here!  Heck, we’ve done that with SL and the library this year, so I see us doing it no matter what curriculum we choose.  

One more question:  the part about SL we really like, as I said earlier, is it’s already planned out.  With SCM and AO, do you use the SCM online planner? 

Thanks for your help Gina, (and really anyone else who would like to chime in!) I appreciate all your help.

Lindsey

Again, you’ve been very helpful.  I like the SL IG because it’s laid out, but I don’t have the “have to check that box” syndrome, which I guess is good.  I do feel like it moves kind of fast, and that I’d like to spend more time in certain places (in fact, we have!  We started school in July-don’t like hot weather, had to have something to do!- and we’re on week 21 because we add in lapbooks, etc and take breaks for family etc)  But then I feel like if we don’t keep moving, we’ll never move on to next year! And as far as Language Arts, because we didn’t have much success with AO, we had to start pretty much from square 1 with reading, so we used readers just beneath where our daughter’s skill level was to build confidence, and that worked.  However, now she seems to be moving at a pace there where it would be wasteful to purchase a year’s worth of readers when it will probably only last her half the year: another reason I like the thought of being able to choose books as we go.  AO didn’t work for us because I just couldn’t get in the groove I guess.  I needed more direction.  Enter SCM!  I feel like this has more structure, but with flexibility to add, subtract, linger, whatever. I also have a better grasp on CM methodology now than I did then (we do use narration and not “fill in the blank” or suggested questions, and we do use copywork outside of SL IG, etc.) And like I said, I think that spending more time in each time era is good.  I do think I’d like to use SL’s high school cores though…but we have a few years before then. In fact, we have time to go through all 6 SCM modules before our oldest would start HS, so we’ve thought about doing that.  Anyway, Sonya and John are going to be at our homeschool convention in April, so we plan on asking a whole bunch of questions there.  

All that being said, thanks again for your responses, and for helping me think through this a little bit, you’ve been a great help.  I think we have some more direction now. 

Warmly, 

Lindsey