Much Help Needed Please

I have a DD in 7th grade who is a good reader but not great at math. We found Life of Fred math and it works so much better for her. Just google it to find it.

Hi Melissa, I cannot tell you 100% how to do CM high school because we have used an eclectic approach and used some texts.  However I can tell you what I have done, my daughters are currently doing 11th grade.

We use Teaching Textbooks math, and Apologia science for those two subjects. 

We use Tell Me More German which is a program on CD rom for their foreign language and I teach that as well as I am a fluent speaker.

For history we use original sources and livng books and for example when the girls read a chapter they will do a written narration on it following CM narration protocols.  They also do mapping for their history and we use <ap Trek maps for that.   Every couple of weeks they will write an essay of some sort for history and we alternate the type of essay depending on where they need the practise. We are using Epi Kardia’s Essay course for extra practise this year on compare and contrast and persuasive essays – they are finding the course valuable.  We also read living books for Geography and do mapping weekly for that as well. Some of the geography books we have chosen are Eothen, The Oregon Trail, A Traveller’s in Italy, The Royal Road to Romance among others.   I use a lot of books that we have chosen independently but I do use some that are recommended on this website and some from House of Education website.  The girls love writing and history, so they read a lot of books on History, Government and The Constitution.  We use a lot of materials from Wall Builders as well, DVDs etc.  We have the Notgrass company US and World History books to use as a spine to keep us on track in our readings, we do not follow the lesson plan, just read the material and tie it in with our other readings.   The girls love Winston Churchill’s writing so we have been working through his History of the English Speaking People set of 4 books and other writings of his.  They have read biographies of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin among others and done oral and written narrations of those.  We will do the same for government and economics again using Notgrass as a spine for guiding our other readings, not following the lesson plan – the girls have read the Mayberry books, and we have various books that we use for those subjects as well.   

For Literature, we read and read, discuss and they write narrations or essays comparing and contrasting, or analysing – whatever they like, I leave that quite open.  I have a couple of mandatory books for them to read, and the rest they choose with my blessing – we read poetry and essays – we are reading the essays of Bacon right now. They do a lot of writing and they are good spellers with good vocabularies so we do not worry about that – all their reading and writing has paid off in that department.  If they come across words they do not know, they jot them down after reading and add them to a notebook.

We do 1 Shakespeare play a year, sometimes 2 and we always try a see a performance of them or at least a DVD.  I originally come from Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford on Avon, so the girls have been immersed in Shakespeare since they were little and we were living in England.  That time in Europe 13 years in all, helped with their history studies as well, as they had the advantage of being able to visit a lot of places where history was made, like the Tower of London, Berlin, Rome etc – in that sense history came alive for them and helped them to love history and literature.  We visited the Bronte home and Beatrix Potters home, all those things were a blessing to us, and made it easier I think.

Art and music we do a similar thing to what Sonya has on the site here – but we may choose different artists and composers.  I also have them study Opera and Ballet – and we try to see performances or watch DVDs.  But basically we immerse ourselves in a composer or artist for a period of time and narrate and they do short bio’s on them.  At the moment we are studying Thomas Gainsborough’s art and our composer is Bach – for Opera we are studying Verdi. The girls also do a practical art course each to learn drawing and painting – we use Artistic Pursuits and God and the History of Art by Barry Stebbing.

For Bible, we use the Bible, and concordance.

We do nature study, and spend time in our garden when we can, sketching and writing.  In the nice weather the girls do a lot of their reading in the garden – we are lucky to have a lovely flower garden, fenced for privacy so it is a peaceful little oasis of calm to read in.

Cooking, crafting, needlework and other things just happen naturally.  We also play family games that often have educational value and watch historical movies and some plays.

Think that is about it, though I may have forgotten something.

Regards your daughter, my children also struggled with math, and that came after doing the first 6 years in Public School, where they kept changing the math program and the end result was that all the students struggled and were confused, that was the driving force for us to start homeschool – sadly they have since then always been somewhat math phobic.  My daughters did better with Teaching Textbooks than BJUP and I don’t know if that is an option for you – but it does work well for a lot of people.

For your son and his writing, have him read a lot, and maybe start with oral narrations after his reading and then move onto written narrations.  I would have him write something every day, even if it is a narrative on something he enjoys.  If he needs help with essays, I highly recommend the EpiKardia course on Essays – it could be used later for your daughter as well.  Lots of good literature, poetry an narrations will really help.  How old is he?

Hope some of this helps – we all do things differently and because of illness in the family with a daughter I have had to adapt a lot for her and my other daughter has had to fit in around all that as well. 

I use the organiser on this site, but I do not have all the things we do added to it, because some of them are just things the girls like to do themselves, with reading etc – they then keep their own records.

I know there are other’s here who are homeschooling high school age, and I am sure they will have good ideas as well.  Sorry if this rambles on a bit – I am in a hurry.

Linda

I haven’t posted here, much, but first want to say that if you are leaning toward CM as the method that appeals to you, then don’t put it off.  I wish I hadn’t.  However, we made the complete change a couple of years ago for the sake of my 18 yo dd who has officially graduated.  It was the best choice we could have made.  I have an older son who also graduated and is in his 5 semester of college – though his schooling only consisted of dabbling with CM’s methods from time to time.  Currently I am schooling a 16 yo dd, 13 yo dd, and a 9 yo dd.

As far as math goes, we really like Math-U-See (MUS).  You actually build the equations with the rods.  This is great because it incorporates movement, color, and if spoken aloud (even quietly) as they work, hearing so it works well for kinesthetic learners, visual learners, and can work for auditory learners.  Having said that, I would really like to purchase Life of Fred as a fun re-inforcement of concepts.

As for your son, you may want to try what I’ve been doing with my daughter who has trouble in the same area.  Along with the reading and oral narration which, at least with CM is a given, I have asked her to read a paragraph of well written work and write it’s meaning in her own words, then a few days later, change it back to the original wording – or as close as she can come.  In a moment of despiration and after having read about Ben Franklin’s education, that inspired this choice.  It has helped immeasurably for her.  While I realize, in theory, this is narration, what I’m actually asking her to do is nearly word for word – though not quite – write out the same thing she’s read… there is no analysis or comparison made.  Then changing it back to the original form helps to make the connection. Maybe this is too overwhelming for you or your son to think about right now.  However, the paragraph need not be long, nor should it necessarily be extremely challenging.  Honestly, if you could choose something that is well written yet very familiar to your son, that would be ideal as it would be less intimidating to him.

AS far as what our day looks like using CM for high school – We are doing ancient history and associated geography.  The spine that we are using is a combination of Oxford and Story of the World (SOTW).  The latter is used because Mrs. Bauer focuses more attention on several areas than Oxford so it’s like getting a broad view and then taking a microscope to similar time periods.  Though SOTW is meant to be used with younger children, the writing is not dumbed down and is easy to listen to, which is nice for the 9yo as well as the 16 yo.  I am using the other books as recommended in the SCM Ancient History guide – and all of the books have been very well received by the girls. 

We use Apologia for the older girls’ science as well.  I have purchased or borrowed books from the library to complement their science instruction, as well.  My 16 yo is working through the Chemistry this year, and has read The Mystery of the Periodic Table and will be finishing up Crucibles shortly.  I have also considered some mysteries that involve chemistry as part of the sluething/ solving, but need to read through them to make sure they are a good fit for my daughter.

Artist study and composer study are included during the week.  I have set pictures that we are studying as wallpaper on our computer &/or printed out pictures which they study at various moments through the day.  Often the chosen composer’s music is playing in the background as we work on school as well as more focused moments when the girls take turns choosing the pieces to which we’ll be listening for that focused time.  I’ve found that this helps them to remember the names of the pieces a bit better, and while that’s not necessarily my primary concern, it’s nice that they are able to do so.

We use Rosetta Stone Spanish for the primary foreign language.  However, I have found a site that uses native speakers and is immersion type for my youngest.  Also, this year we are a part of a co-op, and one of the ladies is teaching Spanish, which my 16 yo enjoys very much.  She has a chance to converse with others in Spanish – more than I am able to speak at this moment, at any rate.  🙂

AS one of the other ladies mentioned, we do written and oral narrations, have discussions about the books, speeches, poems, and plays that we read.  We compare, contrast, and analyse what is read as well. We read Shakespeare and poetry aloud as well.  I think I may be forgetting something, but these are definitely primary areas where we focus our energies.

My kids aren’t high schoolers yet, but we did hit the same road blocks in math. I know it’s already been said, but I will second Teaching Textbooks. When my daughter was in 3rd grade she was lost in math. I was using BJU as well. She just couldn’t follow. They skipped around and there was no repitition. She tested poorly in math that year after amazing results the previous 2 years. We switched to Teaching Textbooks and she is loving it. You can go online and assess your daughter on their site. It will tell you which level to start in. I have my 5th grader in Math 5 and my 3rd grader in math 4. They love it!It’s repetitive and builds concepts on top of eachother instead of skipping around.

Hi Mellisa,

I’m sure that I can speak for many of us here – all feeling, at one time or another, that we made a wrong currculum choice. We’ve been homeschooling almost 10 years and I can’t tell you how much money & time I’ve wasted trying to find “the perfect curriculum”. I’ve found what works one year ,might not work the next – so its always been a combination of things (eclectic approach with LOTS of CM thrown in). Always taking it one year at a time as the Lord leads.

As far as highschool goes, our oldest is 15 and uses Thinkwell for Math. We’ve also used Teaching Textbooks and Math U See. Each of them serving their purpose for the season. IMO they are all great math programs. For science we use Apologia. We think there is good use for some textbooks in the highschool years. History and Literature are living books – either from the SCM curriculum guide here, Truthquest History or Sonlight book suggestions. Language Arts is mostly just reading, writing, copywork, dictation and narration. We also love Queens Homeschool books. In highschool we started teaching the essay and have the oldest write them frequently. We also like Rosetta Stone for foreign language which we personally choose to not start until highschool.

Like you said, it is different for each family – thats the beauty of homeschooling; CM works beautfully to meet particular needs of your child that no other curriculum can! And SCM site, well……simply the BEST!

Blessings to you and your family!

Heather