And then we had Reagan evaluated and I came to understand that she, entering K this year, is going to walk a different path than Jefferson did (yeah, yeah - don't you veterans of multiple kids laugh at that observation!). I have found that it is going to take a more right-brained, time consuming approach to teach her the things that Jefferson just learned from 2 workbooks.
Therefore, I don't want to have to divide my time any more than I have to in adjusting to teaching 2 (VERY different) kids. Reagans phonics will require much crafty work and focused attention. Jefferson will be adding Spanish, a structured Bible program and possibly piano lessons (next Jan) in 2nd grade. Lincoln will be crawling (oi - what that will entail!! LOL) and Adam will be old enough (3) to want to be in the throws of it all.
So, knowing what I know about myself and how I get easily overwhelmed with trying to do it all, I have decided NOT to go with TOG this year. I think that it will just have too many choices for me and require a little too much to add to the other changes coming this year. Since Language Arts is still my main focus, I don't want history to throw us off or burn me out. Also, from what I know of TOG, we can choose to use it later when we are ready or when we have even more students to use it. I am a little dissapointed since I really like what I have seen in this curriculum. But again, I think I will just look forward to it for possible use later.For this year then, we continue with SOTW 2 - The Middle Ages. I'm used to it, Jefferson enjoys it and we can use it at any speed that we want to. Thankfully, I can get it here in time to begin it on time this year too! Looking forward to it -we love history around here!
5 comments:
I don't think you'll be sorry! We started in July of last year with SOTW 2, and we are still not done. We made it to nearly the end of the 1400s. I really enjoyed medieval Times - even more than ancients. The boys loved it! For us, it was just enough history to really learn a lot. But they were only 5/6 and 7 - so, like you, I really want to focus on the 3 Rs.
Hope you have a great year!
Good for you! Gotta go with what is going to work for your family. I am sure you are going to have a great year!
Homeschooling moms always impress me. I don't feel like I have the patience or organization to get it all together. Plus, I had really good public school experience(s)- several moves means several schools.
So glad you were able to find something that works for you and your family. Keep up the good work, Mom24! You're doing great!
Andrea, I just bought the 1st volume at our trade fair a week ago, and I'm looking forward to reading it before I dive into it with my kids next year. I'm planning to use SotW through four years and then spend a year on Australian history, because of course that comes up pretty light in books not written in my hemisphere! Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you. It seems like you're finding time these hols to work through some thinking which will make the next years schooling flow easier and that is great, as you said in an earlier post you'll be working more with raegan next year so you will need to streamline increasingly. I have my eldest two doing the same maths for that very reason.
~ Sharon
Thank You!! This will be great for my first grader!
Brenda in FL (from TWTM boards)
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