Does this look too easy for the year?

[training5]

My older guys are somewhere between 2nd-5th grade in their skill levels. They are 11 and 9 yrs. This is what I have planned. Keep in mind we are having a baby in July AND moving in May.

Religion- daily scripture reading
Math- R&S3 (started at L41) R&S4, however far we get
History/Geog.-SOTW2 with AG
Grammar- GWG4 (finishing up) GWG5, however far we get
Writing- SWB's new book and Level 2 wkbk, narrations, handwriting pract.
Science- RS4K Chem 1 (just reading it), PH Science Explorers 1 or 2 books (are these going to be too advanced? They read VERY well.)
Spelling- All About Spelling Levels 1 and 2
Reading- assigned list from varied sources and book summaries, Reading Detective Beginning and A1
Music Appreciation and organized Art Creation may not happen this year but I want to try for it. If the art isn't organized as a class, they won't do any. I guess massive spaceship LEGO creations is art, though.

My goal is to be ready for more logic stage work next January. Namely, I want to start logic prep, art history, and a language. I realize that might be a false hope.

They really like geography so something meatier than 'this is how we read a map' would be great to add. Any easy to implement ideas?

I know there isn't any Latin on this. Am I covering all my other bases, though? I did plan with TWTM in hand. Trying to fill all the holes and choosing materials to fit their needs in each area has been a challenge.

For my two littles: ages almost 4 and almost 3
R&S nursery and maybe Kinder wkbks.
read alouds from the Good Books list
starfall.com for letter sounds
lots of play, less Star Wars IV (anyone else has a 3 yr old that loves this movie? ARGG!!)


Thank you to all who have read and responded to my posts of questions. I sincerely appreciate you time and insight. Keep it coming.

[OhElizabeth]

Hi Training5, I guess I haven't read enough of your posts to understand your full situation. Is your 11 yo disabled or does have learning issues? I'd be extremely reticent to put an 11 yo, which I would assume in a rising 6th grader, into a grade 2 writing program, sorry. Even the remedial 6th grade student I have in my WT2 class is doing quite well, handling the workload on top of her regular work for an online curriculum. Obviously you know your kids best, but I'd be concerned about getting that oldest up to where he should be.

On the spelling, do they both struggle at spelling? Are you already using AAS and finding it to be working for them? You might also consider the Calvert spelling cd's. It's something they could do independently, builds their typing skills (an added bonus!), and is so fun they can do it on top of their regular spelling lessons if you want. We do both the calvert cd spelling and SWR.

With my dd, increasing her daily writing through a variety of methods was one of the things that got spelling more comfortable for her. Dictation is something that is easy for you to do with a new baby and it's really helpful for spelling. They don't have to be able to spell everything to do dictation. Just pick something, open it, and work through it with them. Even if you have to tell them EVERYTHING, that's fine. The more you do it, the better you'll get. And for us, quantity, as in shooting for 3/4 of a page or more handwritten daily, really made a huge difference. It took time but was easy to implement and gave her lots of practice in common words, building her confidence. Answering questions on lit guides (VP, reproducible, inexpensive) is something that isn't hard for you to implement, just copy and set out, but which gets them writing every day independently. Anything with worksheets where you write the answers in sentences or history narrations or any form of no-brainer writing that you can just put on a checklist and have them do is good. Once a week have a writing project you do together, but the rest of the week they can just bulk on no-brainer writing to get those skills more confident.

Again, I hope that's not insensitive. Those are just things that have worked for us. I would focus on the basics (increased quantities of writing to build the spelling and other skills, math) and let the extra subjects like logic and languages slide this year. BTW, I'm due in Sept, just shortly after you! :)

BTW, on the RS4K chem 1, are you doing the labs? You said just reading it. The lessons would stick better if they did the labs. They're probably old enough to do them with little assistance for gathering supplies, etc.

[training5]

Thank you for your insight. It was what I needed.

My oldest has a language LD which affects all lang arts areas, memorization, reading comprehension... Putting him in a rising 6th grader or even 5th grader slot would be cruel of me. He is also very immature and small for his age. He has some other emotional issues, as well. So does my 9 yr. old. I really struggled with where he 'should' be at until I focused on each subject and not the overall picture. Going by 'should', he would be doing logic, outlining, big papers...he isn't there yet but we'll get there eventually. We did go through Beginning Outlining by Remedia Press. He didn't get it. I am concerned about forcing him into the Logic stage before he is ready for it. This year is my compromise.

I guess I am too lax and don't expect enough of them in the area of writing. Once I get Susan's writing book, I may change what level I use for them. I looked at Writing Tales but perhaps I need to give it another gander. I tried the Logos School Writing series samples, as well as several other programs. Nothing is systematic and incremental enough. I don't remember being taught how to write, just being expected to know how to do it. As an adult, I hate to write. We do use a little dictation. It is slow, about 3 words at a time, or they can't remember what they were to be writing.

Spelling wise, yes, they both struggle. We have used the Calvert CD and 7 other spelling programs in the past. They can't hear the letter sounds in words (LDs cropping up here) so All About Spelling is perfect for them. We just started level 1 Tuesday.

They hate fill in the blank worksheets or anything that requires putting pen to paper, hence not liking narrations. They don't mind tracing their work from StartWrite, though. Kind of how much complaining about math was heard until Mom wrote out the problems. (I wonder if they notice they are doing ALL the R&S problems everyday?) As I am fond of saying, "Life is full of things we don't want to do but we do them anyway."

I have thought about getting a few VP guides for reading. Thank you for reminding me of that option. I will think some more on writing. Math was my big worry for a long time. Now I can focus on my #2 biggie-writing.

[OhElizabeth]

Well I don't have any help with special needs. You just have to keep plugging through. Your plan to read WWE and see the stages of what you're going for seems perfectly reasonable to me. The way you describe your dc's needs, your plan seems right on. As you say, just small, consistent doses of the things they can do. And I assume you know this, but there's also an active special needs board around here where you could get better help. Sounds like you're working your heart out to do what's best for them. Keep it up!

[training5]

Thanks.

[training5]

BUMP!