When workbooks are necessary

What subjects are you looking to change? What are you doing now?

Workbooks don’t always equal time savers. Ex.: CLE is workbook based. But their LA and Reading can easily take 1 hour just on those two subjects. Compare that to Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well which are very short and sweet and can be pretty independent.

You could look at Language Lessons from Queens Homeschooling. My son loves it – it combines grammar, copywork, narration and picture study. It’s quick and independent.

For science, what about just reading living books and asking for a written/oral narration? Short and sweet. You could do the same with history. Or maybe look at doing the Prairie Primer. That would be a great way to cover those topics and you would have the flexibility of going as light or deep as you have time for.

For math, CLE is a very good workbook based math that’s very independent.

There are several decent free online typing programs that a 3rd and 5th grader could certainly do independently (Dance Mat Typing and Typing.com).

I think some workbooks, math especially, are wonderful for “testing” your child’s skills to make sure they understand concepts thoroughly. My 6-year-old actually enjoys the logic workbooks from Critical Thinking Company. I truly believe those help him use his brain in ways none of our other curriculum does! Those can be done independently.

The notebooking pages sound great! Maybe assign some reading and expect a page completed about the reading?

Ahh, makes sense. Well, the good thing is as long as your 3rd grader can read well, they can be pretty independent. My son (grade 3) actually prefers independent learning. Now, we don’t use the computer for anything other than reinforcement (DD uses Math Seeds and Reading Eggs and DS uses Math Seeds and Reading Eggspress) or, when life has gotten too hectic and we need something we can do on the go.

I think typing and foreign language online is a great idea.

I imagine your oldest could use the SCM LA resources (Spelling Wisdom, Using Language Well) on his own, but your youngest might still need help (you really need to be with them to cover up the misspelled word).

As I mentioned, you could look into Queens Language Lessons. They’re very gentle, and definitely can be used independently (it’s really written to the student) and my son really enjoys them. They *seem* very gentle, but as you look through the samples, you can see how they really build upon each other each year. And I LOVE being able to combine picture study, poetry, narration etc… all within one resource.

For spelling, honestly, I’m using a workbook approach. I love Spelling Workout. I like that it works in some grammar, proofreading, and written composition (but in a gentle way). Better yet – my son enjoys it. And again, it can be used very independently.

But, all that said – losing one day isn’t that bad.  Are you in a place where you have to report hours/days? Do you have a minimum you have to meet? You could always extend your school year, that way you don’t have to worry about cramming or changing things up a lot. 42 weeks of 4 days gives you 168 days (most years are based off of 170), so that’s pretty darn close, and you can easily count a couple days as “field trips” to make up the 2 days.  And that would still give you 10 weeks to play with for your winter, summer vacations etc.

Another idea is to have a shorter day on day 5, using independent books and/or computer/video/audio books that day only.  My kids do Life of Fred math this day, which is our town day.  You could assign a review worksheet that day or a math game.  They have different books to read that day and I play an audio book or music in the van.  If we do stay home, we watch a science/nature video.

it looks like you’ve gotten lots of great ideas. I don’t think independent work has to be workbooks. I have had my kids narrate to each other, record their narrations or email me narrations when I can’t be there. I think at their ages notebooking pages that are fairly open ended (not looking for specific answers) can also be how they narrate.