Category: thoughts

I keep planning and unplanning for the fall. This is the right time of year for me for that. My Facebook Memories are all shiny new plans that nearly all fell by the wayside. However, what has stuck is the following Good Advice From My Years of Miss-Steps and Faltering Forays.

1. For God’s sake, don’t start them young. “Better late than early!” is the motto to remember. The years that have worked for me all were with 11 year olds and up, roughly fifth grade if we’re thinking schoolishly. All other years and ages last at most 4 weeks before going down in flames. So that means I’m not doing anything whatsoever academically structured with anyone under age 10 this year. If Dorothy hasn’t learned to read by this time next year, and she wants to, I’ll teach her the same way I taught the rest of them. And that also means no formal nudges for Gloria. However, Trixie will be starting formal daily math (Life of Fred) and Gilbert will continue with Saxon 7/6. I also have a couple history and english studies I want to get to for Gil (and Abby, if she’s interested.)

2. If I don’t like it, and it requires me, we won’t do it. I have to enjoy it if I’m involved or I just won’t follow through. If the kid in question likes it enough to do it themselves, and asks me for assistance, that’s fine. But I can’t manage Oak Meadow Year 4, for example. A lot of this is alleviated by minding rule 1, above.

3. Be very cautious about combining ages/kids. I’ve had luck if they’re less than 2 years apart, but any more than that and it’s a no-go. This is especially relevant when working with kids on different sides of the adolescent divide. 9 and 6 might still be fine, but 12 and 9 are mostly incompatible. Also don’t try to make them share a text unless they are doing it on opposite days or will complete it before passing it on. Two kids and one book for weeks is the pits. That means I get two of everything, but that’s how it goes.

4. Over 16? Your education is almost entirely your own affair. I have very limited say in what the teens do. I will be pushing them to watch some video lectures in political science and philosophy because I think they’ll like them – and I’ll watch too. I’m also going to make them read and discuss a bunch of dystopic literature with me because dammit I want someone to read it with me, and I’m their mom, so they owe me. They both complain that they can’t do math beyond eighth grade arithmetic but then flop out after a week or two of attempting more. I blame the texts they’ve tried. Since Gil likes Saxon anyway, I’m going to be buying the next set for him. Maybe they’ll like it.

So, to sum up, nothing much until 5th grade and nothing much after 10th grade. The three youngest are wee. The middle kids are 4th grade, 6th grade, and 7th grade, by their ages. Bede is a freshman but entirely different and utterly unschooled. And the two oldests are a junior and a senior, respectively.

I’m keeping book logs for some of the kids this year because we are considering moving, so my Oklahoma “like, uh, whatever you do is fine” homeschool laws may be a thing of the past. You can follow along as we go, the links are in the header there.

Inaugural meeting of book club a success! #brownies #krispietreats #minecrafttheisland
Posted by Intagrate Lite

I have always considered our school year as starting the day after Labor Day. That’s next week, so I’ve been planning a bit.

Faith and Abby: Homeschool Connections history and political science courses. Very lowkey, we’ll be watching the prerecorded classes. They both enjoyed the workshop on political philosophy they took at ETUSC. This will be a new thing for us, so we’ll see how that goes.

Abby: Continuing math, in this case, Algebra. We stopped for a month or two, and will be switching to Saxon 3rd Ed from Jacobs.

Bede: My only utterly unschooled child, Bede will do whatever he will. Lots of Wikipedia, illustration and design work, some video production.

Gilbert: Saxon Math. He’s almost done with 5/4 and he’ll skip to 7/6 when he finishes. Possibly some history or science as well.

Trixie and Gloria: Life of Fred this year.

Dorothy, Clementine, Peregrine: Continue being cute.

My phone died. I’m on Project Fi (which is okay) and Google is sending me a “new” phone. The dreaded Nexus 5X bootloop! I wonder how long the new phone will last.

It’s getting fall-y. We don’t have a set beginning or end to our school year but I usually start new things in September. I’m gearing up. Gilbert will be finishing his current math text, Saxon 5/4, in October. I don’t do it like they suggest. No tests, no extra worksheet problems. We don’t even do the Mental Math. Just the lessons. He’s done so well that I’m planning to skip a level and get him Saxon 7/6. I really think he’d be bored with 6/5. He tests into 7/6 with Saxon placement.

Gilbert and math is a good example of how we homeschool. We are unschoolers, but I still nudge the kids into academics. Gilbert wouldn’t have said to me “Mama, I want to learn how to do long division” ex nihilo. Instead, I waited until it became difficult for him to do things he wanted to do with cobbled together math. Then I suggested that he learn math systematically, and provided a text. He started in March and will be at least the same level as his age/grade peers by this time next year. They’ll have taken math for seven or eight grades though. Whereas he’ll have done it in eighteen months. Faith and Abby were similar.

OK, new day. This was in drafts and now it’s tomorrow.

Today Abby, Gilbert and Gloria are playing Timeline. They mixed all the sets up so they have death of James Dean, the invention of the compact disc, and Jamestown’s founding all in one game.

Next Tuesday I’m hosting a book club for the Edmond Secular Homeschool group! Middle grade. The kids will be discussing Minecraft: The Island. It was pretty good. I think we’ll play Minecraft card games and maybe even Minecraft. There are 3 people signed up to come.