15 Responses to Homeschool Plans for 2011-2012

1. Esther says:

   March 30, 2011 at 12:16 pm

   Hi just wondering, are you teaching the music lessons yourself, or, hire someone?

   Reply
   • Michelle says:

     April 4, 2011 at 9:13 pm

     I teach piano to my beginner students using Pianimals. When they get more advanced, I switch them over to a music teacher that comes to our home.

     Reply
2. Mamaof4prayingformore says:

   April 4, 2011 at 5:15 pm

   Hello…I was wondering how you do the “Five in a Row” Fridays…do you just do the entire week long lessons in one day? What about the different age levels for the lessons…how do you incorporate all the kids in that?

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   • Michelle says:

     April 4, 2011 at 9:20 pm

     We used FIAR as written in the past and loved it, but currently lack the time to give it full attention. Now, we mainly read the books (daily) and talk. Since Fridays are “light” with My Father’s World, this leaves me a bit more time to pick and choose a few activities in the FIAR manual. I do not do an entire week’s worth in one day, but just choose some activities of interest. We do this more for fun and “Mommy Time” now, and don’t rely on this as a full education program, so I don’t worry about the age levels. It would certainly work as a full program, and I did this when all my children were younger; we just have a very full school schedule with other things right now.

     Reply
3. Leann says:

   April 12, 2011 at 11:21 pm

   I have a second grade boy who just can’t seem to get it. My first son picked up on reading rather quickly but my second son is 8 and very active!! He’d rather be climbing trees outside than reading a book! He can read easy books but this year he just isnt catching on to the harder things. We did MFW 1st that teaches phonics, I was wondering about the Pathway Readers and Mcguffy. have your children done good with these? I looked into the art program you use and bought the first blue book in level one along with all the art supplies and we LOVE it!! Thanks for the suggestion! It was a little high because I bought enough art supplies for all three of my kids but well worth it!

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   • Michelle says:

     April 13, 2011 at 5:17 pm

     Leann, gotta love those busy boys! :-)

     We haven’t started using the McGuffey readers yet, so I can’t comment on those. I recently found them free on the internet, so I decided to print them out to supplement next year. Pathway Readers, on the other hand, we’ve used from the beginning and have always loved them. I only use the readers, not the workbooks. I have more details on how we use them in Tips for Teaching a Child to Read.

     Reply
4. Esther says:

   April 20, 2011 at 6:12 pm

   Hi I’m looking into using MFW this coming year and just had a quick question, Have you tried Primary language lessons, and intermediate language lessons that MFW recommends. I see that you are using Language Lessons from Queen Home school Supply. What is your opinion on these?

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   • Michelle says:

     April 20, 2011 at 7:27 pm

     Hi Esther, We used Primary Language Lessons for our two oldest children, and went on to use Intermediate Language Lessons for our oldest daughter. We liked it a lot, actually. We like the Charlotte Mason style and have found it to provide a great foundation in the elementary years. We switched to Queen Language Lessons because it is very similar to PLL and ILL, but two small differences made it a slightly better fit for our family. One is that while PLL and ILL are non-consumable, the children can write directly in the QLL books. This has helped our children to work a bit more independently, and with our increasing number of school-aged children, it’s been a big benefit for us. The second difference is that since PLL and ILL were written a century ago when life was much different, it assumes that the children have a good deal of knowledge about farm life, etc., which our children do not. I found myself altering some of the lessons to fit life as our children know it. Not a big deal, not difficult to do, but since QLL is a more recent publication, I don’t have to do that. Anything that simplifies life the smallest bit is appreciated around here. :-)

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     • Kyle Suzanne says:

       July 16, 2012 at 9:15 pm

       Cynce’s place has made both PLL & ILL into a consumable workbook & updated some of the antiquated terms/concepts.I think the site is http://www.primarylanguagelessons.com. I just finished printing mine and I’m excited to use it again in our homeschool. Just passing it along.

       Reply
5. Joli says:

   January 16, 2012 at 11:13 am

   Michelle, we are using MUS right now (my oldest is 8 y.o.) and plan to use Teaching Textbooks later. Do you make that switch when your children are in 8th grade?

   Reply
   • Michelle says:

     January 19, 2012 at 9:00 pm

     Hi Joli, this is our first year using Teaching Textbooks, and our plan is to make the switch from Pre-Algebra forward, whatever grade level they happen to be when they get there. :-)

     Reply
6. Morgan says:

   January 19, 2012 at 7:21 pm

   I’m curious about why you use Teaching Textbooks for your oldest too.

   My oldest will be ready for Zeta later this year and I’m still deciding whether I want to keep him in MUS pre-algebra next or not.

   Reply
   • Michelle says:

     January 19, 2012 at 9:20 pm

     Hi Morgan, we love Math U See, but switched to Teaching Textbooks for our oldest this year purely for reasons of convenience. The software checks her work and keeps track of grades for us. With five homeschooling this year plus three little ones, I felt I could use a little more assistance as the teacher. It seemed a good time to make a switch. Academically, she’s progressing about the same with either program.

     Reply
7. kristi stogsdill says:

   April 23, 2012 at 10:16 pm

   Hi,

   I’m curious if you would be selling your Explorers to 1850 set for the 2012 school year? I’m looking to find one used for a good price.

   Reply
   • Michelle says:

     April 24, 2012 at 11:39 am

     Hi Kristi, I plan to hold on to all my MFW books since we will repeat the cycle again with our younger children. You might try joining the Yahoo group for buying and selling used MFW curriculum.

     Reply