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Remind me why I ditched the handy boxed curriculum
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Planning school decisions is all I’m doing in my sweet free time these last few days. It’s gotten a lot easier over the years, but man, how I sometimes yearn for that beloved box at my door that contains everything. But I realize from experience that throughout the year, that box confined me. It made me feel trapped and not as flexible as I am now with decisions.
So remind me that the trouble of planning now will pay off this year! I know it will, right? 🙂
Just wanting empathy, or sympathy, or ventilation. :0
This is my first year to not buy a boxed curriculum for security’s sake. I keep wondering if I will be able to do it. I am so excited about the journey but scared to death as y’all can probably tell from all my questions.lol I like being able to pick what I like 🙂 I have literally been consumed the last few weeks.
I am struggling with this right now as well. The money is what is literally keeping me going as I know we are saving a ton of it by doing this myself. Our library carries a lot of these books, so blessed but it sure is a lot of work!
Are those that are finding it a lot of work using the SCM guides are just pulling it all together yourselves?
One of the joys of teaching CM’s way is that I learn a lot along the way. I don’t think you can learn as much when someone else dictates your path. I can motivate my kids better (though not always well) when I enjoy learning right along with them!
Ckbrockett, I find that I do better too if I put in the effort to “study” a bit before the year.
I make a general outline of the history, which this year is Ancient Rome with SCM. My homemade outline is not greatly detailed, but I understand the flow if I can see my outline and know what is coming next. I also place copy all my notebooking pages that might be used ahead of time. My kids use these as part of narration. I just purchased a great notebooking package through Tristan and it will hopefully be my easy “go-to” for years to come.
But combine this with other subjects and different ages makes for longer planning days. It’s not hard (except for deciding certain curriculum for my oldest), just time consuming.
simple home-
I am trying to plan curriculum for my two oldest as well. It is very difficult to plan for lots of ages 😮
I am also a bit apprehensive, if you will, about going “outside the box” with our schooling. We are still finishing up our studies, but they will be in grade 4 and grade 7 once we start “full time” school probably in September. Right now, we are just winding up grammar and math for the most part.
I, regrettably, do not feel that they are picking up grammar very well at all. However, it is because they refuse to take time to study…even when I tell them to go review their work for the day. sigh…yet another worry for me.
The planning out part is not as bad for me as the completing of said plan. I have planned so many things in the past that just fall through that I am very nervous about this coming year for us. I truly feel my son is lacking skills his age should know or at least of knowledge in. I know, comparing my flock to others is NOT a good thing. I do try to stop those thoughts but, well, high school will be here before I know it and I just do not feel ready at all.
It is to the point now, that I am considering some computer-based curriculum for my 7th grader just so I know he is getting what he needs and is preparing properly for high school and beyond.
Sigh….I am just full of doubt right now in my ability to keep going strong in this area. I do NOT want to send them back to public school, but I also do NOT want to fail them at home for life “in the real world”.
Does that make any sense to anyone?
Thanks for listening to my ramblings…and for your prayers…
Where you do feel your 7th grader needs to be by the end of this coming year in composition, in grammar, in math?
What are you using for grammar that you don’t feel is working?
Right now, he is in 6th grade…but quickly approaching 7th.
We are using Easy Grammar 6 for him and he just will not study at all. We go over lessons together, he does the work, we review mistakes or add supplement work, assign strict study time for the lists he should know (verbs, prepositions, etc) and yet he is still making mistakes from lessons we learned months ago.
We tried Rod & Staff English 6 and it was a lot of work for him considing his ADHD. It was too wordy in instructions and the lessons were very long for him to finish.
I have yet to assign any compostion work because, quite honestly, I tried before last year and it was very disappointing to me. His quality of composition and thought process was very lacking. I even had my husband check to be sure I was not expecting more than I should from him, and my husband agreed. Of note, my son was diagnosed with ADHD around 2nd grade so I am not sure if that is an underlying cause or just being lazy on his part. He is not medicated anymore, thankfully.
We just started using Wordsmith Apprentice and that is a struggle for him. He is not the best speller either so when I indicate that on his compositions, he becomes upset and it all goes downhill from there.
He is just NOW wanting to read books and discuss them with me.
Now…my daughter who will be 9 this summer, also shows the same disinterest in retaining anything but I know she can as she tells me things from her educational shows all the time. She just “cannot remember” what she reads or we work on together.
Sorry…I should not be complaining but I need to talk this out with someone who may have experienced this or someone blessed with an answer.
This is only my 3rd year of homeschooling, by the way.
I don’t see it as complaining but expressing your situation. 🙂
I have heard from others that Easy Grammar did not cut for them as far as retention. Although spendy, Analytical Grammar was worth every penny for us. I held off for 3 years before buying it and wasted those 3 years. Dd#2 finally understood sentence structure after AG.
On the composition, I think you are wise to wait until he has the foundation in place before pursuing harder writing assignments. It does no good to move forward if the pieces are not there to build from. I like to find out where a student is and build up from there. Does he write sentences well, being able to add or remove words in order to present that single thought clearly? If not, you back up and start there. If so, you move onto structuring a paragraph clearly and pleasantly with atopic sentence, supporting sentences, and closing sentence. Once he can present a paragraph well, only then is he ready to move onto essays, etc.
Can he orally frame his thoughts well?
Also remember that this is a journey for life, not a sprint to get boxes checked off. (Although I totally understand the panic as high school approaches.)
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