Friday, we had our planning meeting for our homeschool co-op.  I don't know how many of you participate, but we love ours and find it to be very rewarding.

Chris will be in high school this year and is taking Hands-on biology, public speaking, art, and government.
I'm teaching the biology, and it will consist of a series of labs based on Apologia's biology program ( we are using that this year anyway, so I'm killing two birds with one stone).

We are also going to have a monthly teen outing, a support and fellowship meeting and a monthly fieldtrip day.  Very ambitious, but I have high hopes!

Yesterday at our homeschool co-op, I had a long talk with a good friend of mine, and passed along Intermediate Language Lessons and Karen Andreola's CM book.  She is driving herself batty worrying about not being caught up because some of her son's workbook pages aren't filled in.  It got me thinking about my where we are at our house learning-wise.  We use  a combination of Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis with a few tweeks here and there.  It's primarily the reading lists that I look at, and we have a pretty far flung education.  I know that we have a much more interesting and exciting eduacation than he would get in a  traditional school

Sometimes, though, I still worry about missing things.  I'm blessed with a very bright child, but not a very motivated one.  He learns new math concepts quickly, but is lazy about accuracy.  He has great story ideas and narrations when he dictates, but can't seem to  transfer this to paper himself.  I've been told by others that much of this is normal for a boy his age, but still, a little effort on his part would be nice.  I feel like he's getting away with murder and not living up to his potential.  However, I'm not willing to chain us to a textbook.  I think I'm going to have to actually develop a (gasp!!!) schedule, which will be tough on all of us.  I need to really pray about how to proceed with the rest of the year, and also about next year to get him in  gear. 

Well, for a variety of reasons I won't get into, it's been almost a year since I updated this blog, but I'm hoping to start out fresh.  I got my homestead blog updated, the NYS blog updated, and now I'm moving on to this one.

We've had a rough year so far in that we've had sick relatives that needed a lot of care, so now I find myself sitting back and looking at what we've done so far, and what we still need to do.  I'm trying to do my best to streamline things a bit to make planning easier, and also look ahead to next year.

So far, this is what I'm looking at: a sort of Charlotte Mason-like classical-ish approach to finish out the year, and probably for next year too.  DS is in 7th grade this year, and can work more independantly, but I'm skeptical about how  much he's retaining without a good bit of discussion, so this is what we've got going on for now

Bible- Proverbs and Mark, also Baltimore Catechism

Character- Book of Virtues

Shakespeare- Tales From Shakespeare

History- Story of Mankind along with Historical Fiction and non-fiction books out of the Library.  We have a few more weeks of the Middle Ages and then we will be launching into the Renassaince

Science- Exploring Creation with General Science. This is going to run into summer, but that's OK, we'll do a bit of cross curricular stuff with it and have it done for fall

Math- Slowly working our way through Pre-algebra topics using various sources

Grammar- Grammar review sheets and pointing out grammatical mistakes whenever they occur, also doing proofreading activities

Vocabulary-Wordly Wise

Language- I'm trying to get back into Latin, and we do Spanish at co-op

Economics- Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?  DH is tackling this one with him

Art- Meet the Masters

Music- Different composers and genres

We also keep several read alouds going, and he has lots of extracurriculars, primarily 4H.

I would like to encourage more writing, and while we do some notebooking, I'd like for living books and notebooking to be the primary learning vehicles.

So, I do have something of a plan, here, and am moving forward with it.  I'll try to stay current here, but won't make any promises.  My aunt is sick with lung cancer, and I'm at my sister's house a lot caring for her, and guess what, they don't have internet.  That's a problem for me and ds because we do a lot of online work. I think I'm going to have to plan better!!!

Well, I'm sorry I  haven't posted much.  We've been having internet connectivy troubles around here, and half the time I can't stay on long enough to post anything.  I've been researching my article for the Homeschool Nations New York blog about field trip destinations here in NY, and finally had so much trouble that I barged in on my dear friend Kelly and hijacked her hi speed.  I ended up having to email the whole article to myself and cut and paste from home because the password got reset.  I have to say, I've spent so much time wrestling with the computer that I'm glad I invested in the SOS math for Chris, because that's the one subject that he really needs help on, so he could tell as he went along where he was going wrong, and could see me for help.  The actual math part hasn't been much trouble for him, but the spelling can be a hassle.  If you spell a word wrong, it marks it wrong, so I'd have to go back through some of the problems with him just to fix the spelling.  Overall, though, he is much more successful with it than I thought he would be.  No tears and hysterics with this one.  Other than math, we've been working on test prep materials, doing lots of grammar exercises like proofreading, and doing tons of reading.  For science, we've been reading Horrible Science and doing nature study along with science in Greece and Rome and experiments at co-op.  We are also starting a science project for our co-op open house.  We are finally transitioning into Ancient Rome along with continuing NY history.  Definitely enough to keep us busy!

I'm going to try to continue writing entries off line, and when I get good connections, I'll post them all.  Take care till next time.

As my son rapidly approaches seventh grade, I’ve given more and more thought to how we will proceed in our homeschooling.  Thus far, we have taken an eclectic approach to choosing our curriculum and learning methods, as you might guess from the title of this blog.  You see, I’m just never totally satisfied with any one curriculum; I just go around gleaning ideas from everyone and everything.  I’m like a prospector, shoveling along looking for gold. 

            I think I’ve waded through just about every program out there, mixing and matching.  I’ve pieced programs together using AmblesideOnline, Abeka, Mater Amabilis, and just about every reading list out there, to create a something tailor-made just for us.  I tend to lean toward a Charlotte Mason/semi-classical approach, with history at the core of our studies, a book of centuries, and lots of living books using a history text as a framework.  We study Latin off and on, do living book science with experiments at our teaching co-op, dip in and out of various math books and software, although I just recently purchased an old copy of Switched On Schoolhouse Math 6 on Ebay, and this is going well, although I think we will never get past fractions, EVER.  I just cob it together as we go, working off a basic plan that I come up with at the beginning of the year to keep us moving forward.

            These people that plod through workbooks day in and day out just puzzle me.  I would have hated that, and so would ds.  Now, I’m not saying workbooks don’t have a place in my house, but I could never be a slave to them.  We use them more for remedial work for concepts we don’t pick up along the way.  However, it is amazing how much grammar a kid will pick up just from lots of reading and being taught to speak correctly. This year, I’ve been dipping into a Spectrum Language Arts book and doing proofreading exercises to prep for standardized testing.  I like Cindy Rushton’s lesson planning ideas, simple, easy to implement, and frequently cross-curricular.  Anything you can use for more than one subject is A-OK in my book.  I can’t imagine anyone who is reading this not knowing where to find her blog, but she’s listed in my friends section if you’re new around here.  Check her stuff out, she’s right on the money!

            As homeschoolers, we don’t need to be slaves to a pre-digested formula, a one-size-fits-all program.  We might be social creatures, but we don’t have to be herd animals.  Just because it works for our best friend down the street doesn’t mean it’s the answer for us.  It might be, or maybe it would be super with a little modification, but we have choices.  Nobody should ever feel locked in to one program; if it doesn’t work, pitch it, and prayerfully start looking for the better option.  We were all led to homeschooling for a reason, so don’t waste one day with anything less than the best for choice for your family.