I’ve been going through my homeschool bookshelves – weeding out books, being reminded of ones I forgot I had, making lists of what I’d like to use. I’m having a bit of a dilemma. I can’t decide what to do this year! Normally after researching different curriculum, textbooks, and workbooks I buy what I think would work best for each of my children and their various learning styles. I tentatively plan out a schedule for each child, fine tuning it at the beginning of each school week. This worked really well until I had to do that for 5 different children. It just got to be too much. I was feeling run down, worn out. That was translated into a shorter fuse and a not-so-fun-to-be-around mom. My children deserved better than that.
Last year I decided to try out Sonlight Curriculum with Brownie, Truffle, and Fudge. We enjoyed it immensely. I loved having every day already planned out for me. I had more time to spend with the kids and a LOT less stress worrying about whether they were being taught everything they needed to know. However, if we skipped some days or took a vacation or field trip it was hard to get back on the schedule because of the way it was set up. If we missed Thursday and Friday of one week we had to do those days before moving on to the next week’s work or else I’d get all confused about which day we needed to be on. I also found I missed being able to change course delving deeper into a subject that the girls showed a bigger interest in.
Now I’m trying to decide whether to revert back to my own planning or try Sonlight or even K12 this year with the younger girls. Bon Bon and Semisweet are using K12 this year just as they did last year. In Nevada K12 is considered a virtual public school so we get all the materials, including a computer, for free for them to use. Last year the Nevada State Board of Education approved K12 for just grades 4-8. Last Saturday they were approved for grades K-3 and 9th making the option available for all of my children to use it. I like most of the textbooks and materials K12 uses, the fact that if a lesson is missed it automatically gets moved to the next day’s assignments, and we finally get to see some of our tax dollars being used on us with the free school materials that regular public school students get. What I don’t like is having someone watching over my shoulder and all those standardized tests. A couple of my kids just do not do well with tests. You can ask them questions about what they learned, tell them to show you things and they will with no problem at all. But call it a test and all of a sudden you can see the sweat beading up on their upper lips, their muscles tense, and their brains drawing blanks on everything.
So you see my dilemma. I have three great choices before me. We (Mr.FR and I) have to weigh the pros and cons of each and decide what to do. And quickly. School should be starting in a couple of weeks!
I know every family is different but I really would like to know – what would you choose and why?
I think curriculum planning is HARD. I feel your pain! My stress comes from not being able to do everything that I want to do, and then I give up and don’t even do what I could do if I would just buckle down….true confessions. Granny Smith is having lots of fun with clicknkids.com for his phonics. Good luck!
I think most homeschool families struggle with this. My husband was homeschooled and he always reminds me that we homeschool so that we can be flexible. If we subscribe to a curriculum then we lose the freedom of flexibility.
We use a math, spelling, and phonics program. Everything else is done through a lot of reading and individual daily life experiences.
Of course, our children are still young – 2, 4, 6 and 8.
I think that if K12 works for your children and you like it and you can get it for free, I’d probably at least give that a try. If it doesn’t work for one or more of your children, I’d consider doing something different for them and keep K12 for the ones that do well with it.
We have a virtual public school here that uses it too. I’d consider it except that I know without a doubt that it would not work for my daughter at all. I’d end up with 5 hours a day of tears if I tried. My son would probably do fine with it though. Besides, I have a better option here, (as I’m sure you’ve read about on my blog) a virtual school that lets you pick your own curriculm.
you are my hero… I looked into homeschooling when I just had two girls and thought i could do it.. but then I was having another baby around the time the eldest should have been starting school… and basically I was too scared…
I am lucky that public schools in Australia are great, so I have no worries there…. I am not too happy about stuff that goes on in High school… maybe I will be brave enough then…
all the government red tape is no fun here… I live in the only state where you have to have a real teacher to mentor you or something… makes it hard…
you are amazing to homeschool 7 kids…. I dont know if I could manage it..
I have heard about the benefits of K12 but I know that I’d miss the freedom and flexibility if I did that. I haven’t tried Sonlight but I did try Calvert once and the rigidness of always having to do it someone else’s and on their schedule eventually caused me to stop. It’s a trade-off because the mix and match option is full of freedom and flexibility, but also the most work. That’s what I’m sticking with for this year though. Next year, who knows? Have you ever looked into the Robinson curriculum?
If I were in your position right now, I would probably go with K12. I remember my oldest daughter responded to tests in the frightened manner that you described. I was worried about how she would do in public school when she went back in part because of that. However, she has done just fine. She was nervous for her first one and then just got better after that.
I know how difficult it is to create your own curriculum – especially as the children get older and as there are more of them to do it for. And yet it’s obviously doable – my sister does it still and is totally capable, and I know many other families who have done it very successfully.
I admire you very much because you seem to be able to include so many wonderful things in your life and do them all successfully and beautifully. Chances are mighty good you will be successful no matter what you choose. 🙂
That’s a hard choice. Either way, I know I couldn’t live with someone else’s schedule. I really have to work hard on not getting stressed out if I get behind on my own schedule, let alone someone else imposing a schedule on me. K12 is nice because it reschedules easily if you need a day off, but I’m really wary of getting involved with the public schools in anyway and I definitely don’t like the standardized tests. SL is good because it’s based on such good literature. Hard choice though, good luck deciding!!
There is still so much that I have to learn about homeschooling. I have SIL who really like K12. I looked into it for this year, but like, Cellista said, I don’t think I could use another’s schedule at this point. Maybe when my kids are a little older. It’s tough though, trying to plan schedules for many different learning levels.
I have no doubt that you will be successful no matter what you choose. I look forward to reading and learning more about your experiences. 🙂
How’s your choosing going? I’m interested in seeing what you choose & why.
How’s Decision 2008 coming? I think I would do K12. I know you loose flexibility, but it’s free. I’m into de-stressing my life. Also test taking will be good to start practicing for college..if any want to move on. Sadly they can’t get out of that in college. Good luck, I know you’ll figure it out.
My friend who home schools uses K12 for the older kids and does her own curriculum K-3. She doesn’t like K12 at all for K-3, but loves it for the older kids. By that age she says they are ready to be independent learners and she loves not having to do the curriculum for them. She likes being able to be creative and free with K-3. Those are my thoughs – from a “retired” public school teacher.
I can’t wait to read what you work out for homeschooling this year. I am overwhelmed by all that is out there and I’m not even homeschooling pre-school yet. Sonlight looks like a wonderful program and I am very drawn to it but I don’t want to be tied to a strict schedule. I want a living books approach with lots of hands on stuff. Something flexible sounds nice but not too flexible because I’m not good with too much chaos. How do you do this for 6 girls?
i don’t have nearly as many at different levels as you do. with that being said, i have steered clear of the charter schools, including k12, that will pay for my curriculum. i prefer the freedom to choose my own, to do many subjects with all of my kids (history, music, art, science) instead of following state standards, and to not have someone to please besides my own neurotic ways!
we use saxon math, story of the world, rosetta stone, the handbook of nature study, and various spelling programs, etc. but for language arts i mostly use well written, classic books. they teach grammar, vocabulary, spelling, sentence structure, etc all on their own.