Questions Answered
Posted by Cindy on December 11, 2007
Here are a few questions I got recently from a blogging friend. Because her questions were really good, I thought others might benefit from the answers. As always, if you have additional advice, feel free to add it in the comments!
Hi Cindy –
I just read your post about having a bad day and it encouraged me to email you with some questions. I know you have a young one too – how is that going? My baby just turned one and is toddling all over creating quite a distraction. I get one kid focused and another turns his/her attention to the baby. I have an area for him to be pinned up in and different toys I bring out – but I’m just wearing myself out jumping from one kid to another. I read recently about someone scheduling individual time with each kid on a different day – but I’m rebelling against such structure. Hey, I love structure, but it seems that schedules like that just set me up to fail. Comments?
I wish I could say I have that all together!! Alas, I think homeschooling with a busy one-year-old is simply challenging. Luckily for me, my oldest can do most of her work by herself. I go over her assignments and she only needs me when she’s stumped. While she’s working, I focus my attention on the seven-year-old. He still needs me a lot! We do math, reading and phonics together. What’s the wee one doing? Crawling all over the room (babyproofed, of course), crawling all over me, pulling his brother’s papers off the table, nursing, eating Cheerios, or napping (rarely!) Keeping the seven-year-old focused is challenging enough. Throw a baby into the mix and some days are crazy!
When we do our unit time or Bible time together, wee one just joins in. Again, trying to steal pencils so he can eat the erasers, tugging on his sister’s pants so she’ll hold him, or pulling all the books off the bookshelves so he can eat the binding. Let’s just say that our concentration level during school has declined somewhat since last year!!
I am often worn out by the end of a school day. But, a few things that help….Try to teach as much together as possible so you don’t have to jump between children. Try to make them independent learners as quick as possible. That way, you won’t have to spend so much of your time teaching them. Be laid back this year, realizing that homeschooling with a baby means less structure and more interruptions. As baby gets older, school will get back to “normal” again. If your little one takes a good nap in the afternoons (mine doesn’t), that might be the best time for school. At least the schoolwork that takes more focus and concentration.
Also, I’ve been a hard-core Sonlight user for the last four years. I bought the curriculum to do Intro to World History and Indepth World History at the same time. Indepth uses Story of the World, which we just love and I find I hardly ever open my instructors guide. I’m actually contemplating going out on my own next year – but I’m scared. I have a 12, 9 and almost 6 year old in addition to the wee one. The 12 year old is miles ahead in writing as compared to the 9 year old. Further, the 9 year old is not interested in lapbooking or notebooking at all – BOY. Suggestions? I’ve done one In the Hands of a Child with my 6 year old and it worked really well. I guess I’d like to be free of that Instructors Guide telling me I’m only on Week 6 of school and it is actually Week 12. I know I can go at my own pace – but its making me feel bad.
It sounds like you are already on a great start to doing your own thing! My son doesn’t get into lapbooks as much as my daughter either. My daughter is miles ahead in most subjects – which makes sense since she’s three grade levels older. When we do a unit, I expect different things from each of them. The ten-year-old is expected to go more indepth. She is given writing assignments or research assignments, etc. that I don’t give my son. I spice units up by changing the approach often. We might do lapbooks for one unit, then notebooking for the next unit. The unit after that might be mostly project-based. When we work on a lapbook unit, I cut out all the pieces for my son. That goes a long way in his cooperation!
It sounds like I put a lot of extra thought into how to make the unit appropriate for each child, but it doesn’t really take that much effort. When I’m writing down all the ideas, I put a star beside things that will work for both kids, an M beside things for Mahayla and a C beside things for Caleb. If Mahayla is given an assignment, I simply find one of the things marked with a C to do with Caleb.
Using Story of the World, you will easily be able to sort out what to do together and seperately. For instance, they might all do the map work, but you might ask your older one(s) to label a few extra things on the maps. When asking the narration questions, you may decide to ask your older child to use one of the questions as a writing assignment, while the younger ones simply narrate or draw a picture.
And finally, yes – yes, be free of an instructor’s guide that makes you feel guilty for taking your time. Life with children isn’t about a perfectly executed schedule. When I try to plan a wonderful schedule, something ALWAYS happens to mess that schedule up. Kids get sick, a meal must be prepared for a friend in need, a doctor’s appointment comes up…….If I depended on a preset curriculum plan, I’d always be behind and always feel guilty because of it. Plus, we like rabbit trails. When my kids get especially interested in something, I like to take time to go further with that topic. Following a preset plan wouldn’t allow me to do that, and what opportunities I’d miss to nurture the learning interests of my children!
In my little homeschooling circle, I’m the one people come to for advice. We dont have a lot of creative homeschoolers in my group. Most use ABekka, so my resources for this stuff is limited. We are plugging along OK this year – but I would really appreciate your input as I know my planning for next year will hit hard come January.
How do you decide what Unit Study’s to do. Do you use History as your guide? Do you do more than one Unit Study at a time? I’ll check out some of your links as well.
I follow (very loosely) the Well Trained Mind’s philosophy for science and history. Basically, that means we follow a four-year cycle for history units and science units. Year one – we study ancient history and life sciences. Year two – medieval history and earth sciences. Year three – early modern history and chemistry. Year four – late modern history and physics. After four years, we start the cycle over again, learning more each time. Since you already use Story of the World, you are on a four-year history cycle.
That’s how I decide the core of our units for the year. I tend to get bored dragging a unit out too long, so we usually have time to add a couple other units that suit our fancy each year, too. This year, on top of medieval history, astronomy and a unit about the earth, we are adding a KY history unit, and doing famous artists and famous composers lapbooks.
I’m not nearly as creative as some people give me credit. I buy good curriculum and surf the internet for good ideas. Put those good things together and pull out the best ideas – voila, a creative unit is born. The more you do this kind of thing, the easier it gets, too. Story of the World is a great “teacher” of what makes a good unit. Great literaure, meaningful activities and teaching things in an understandable order are the basics.
No, I usually don’t have more than one unit going at a time. I tried to follow the Well Trained Mind’s model of doing history three days a week and science two days, but it always seemed inconsistent. Just when we were getting into one thing, it would be time to jump into another. My children seem to “take it all in” better when we smoothly flow through one unit before going on to another. I typically switch unit subjects each time. In other words, if we’ve just finished a science study, the next unit will be a history study.
I’m so glad you felt comfortable asking me your questions. I hope I’ve answered them sufficiently. If not, keep asking! By no means do I have all the answers. All I can do is tell you the hows and whys of what we do around here. Praise the Lord for great resources and this wonderful community of Christian bloggers! Blessings to you!!
