So, are you finished yet?

I am so so so happy to be done with school this year! It was a hard first year, with being pregnant, and then having newborn twins, but now we are finally through. So, what was your biggest challenge this year? What was the biggest reward or breakthrough? My high point was reading the Mother's Day card that my DD made all by herself, because she can now read and write!

 

QUOTE(azucena @ Jun 11 2009, 09:19 PM) [snapback]1351215[/snapback]
I am so so so happy to be done with school this year! It was a hard first year, with being pregnant, and then having newborn twins, but now we are finally through. So, what was your biggest challenge this year? What was the biggest reward or breakthrough? My high point was reading the Mother's Day card that my DD made all by herself, because she can now read and write!


We school year round so there is never really a "finished" moment. We have completed everything we were hoping for last year so now we are just working on a on "school-lite" schedule. DD does math everyday and some sort of reading. If I don't keep her doing it consistently, I end up with a whiny brat on my hands when I try to reintroduce it. Due to traveling and camp she had the last 2 wks off, and let's just say I have spent the this week remembering why I don't give her time off .

I would say our biggest challenge is and always has been math. We started out the year with a math curriculum that made both of us want to cry. We switched to Math-U-See and life got a lot better in the math department. Now unless she starts being lazy and "forgetting" her math rules, she can pretty much add or subtract anything you give her. She is also improving on her multiplication, which she hasn't even formally been introduced to (that's this year's goal). On the flip side to this though, math has also been her biggest breakthrough. Some switches really seemed to be flipped this year and she seems to be getting it a lot easier now (unless she is in one of her "I can't do this even though I have done it 20x before" moods).

I get the privilege of teaching 2 to read and write this year. What program did you use?

 

We don't really "finish" either. We lighten up for summer, usually about an hour a day. My oldest three attend day camp for six weeks during summer, so that takes five hours out of their day. We continue math and ELA throught the summer and still do some science and history. With my younger ones history is Story of the World so it reads like a story anyway. We also do the summer book challenge at our local library so that keeps the kids reading. My younger twin is still struggling to read so we recently got the Unique Reader from Let's Go Learn to let her work on that over the summer. As an added bonus her sister and younger brother use it as well. We do things like BrainPop and time4learning during the summer as well to change things up and are doing a lot of experiments with life science over the summer. We also keep moving along with reading a-z to help build the twins reading.

Learning to read...both of my twins have been so different. I started them both with Hooked on Phonics, but it became obvious that wasn't going to work for the youngest one. My older twin breezed through all five levels along with reading a-z books. We tried ClicknRead and they both hated it. We then used Explode the Code online for my younger twin and that worked well through the first book, then she dreaded that as well. Now she seems to like the Unique Reader and it was a good price at www.homeschoobuyersco-op.org. I am waiting for them to get the PLATO products that should be coming out soon. They are getting all subjects from K-12 and I know the older grades are awesome so I'll be excited to see what they have for the younger grades as well. She still doesn't read more than the simplest HOP books but I'm trying to keep her from getting discourages since her twin reads at a fourth grade level.

I have heard great things about ABEKA for learning to read and write but I teach from a secualr view so have no hands on experience with them.

 

QUOTE(jenn- @ Jun 16 2009, 01:50 PM) [snapback]1356637[/snapback]
We school year round so there is never really a "finished" moment. We have completed everything we were hoping for last year so now we are just working on a on "school-lite" schedule. DD does math everyday and some sort of reading. If I don't keep her doing it consistently, I end up with a whiny brat on my hands when I try to reintroduce it. Due to traveling and camp she had the last 2 wks off, and let's just say I have spent the this week remembering why I don't give her time off .

I would say our biggest challenge is and always has been math. We started out the year with a math curriculum that made both of us want to cry. We switched to Math-U-See and life got a lot better in the math department. Now unless she starts being lazy and "forgetting" her math rules, she can pretty much add or subtract anything you give her. She is also improving on her multiplication, which she hasn't even formally been introduced to (that's this year's goal). On the flip side to this though, math has also been her biggest breakthrough. Some switches really seemed to be flipped this year and she seems to be getting it a lot easier now (unless she is in one of her "I can't do this even though I have done it 20x before" moods).

I get the privilege of teaching 2 to read and write this year. What program did you use?

I used "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" It worked great with Anna, but I am wondering how it will do when I am teaching 2 at once, since it requires a lot of one on one time. My DD goes though those"I just forgot everything I have ever learned" days, so I am making her read something every day still, but I think we both need a break from the math. I will probably switch curriculum this year, because that one was driving me bonkers.

 

We also are planning on schooling year round so we have not finished yet. We are only doing about 2-3 hours a day at this point as they need alot of catch up in their basic subjects.

 

We have decided not to stop completely for the summer either. We are waiting on funds to continue with Aleks online. We are doing History and reading for pleasure. When I get around to it, they also started next years Language and spelling programs. But most of that is just when and if we get around to it. DH has started a new creative writing venture with them, along with learning email and some typing skills.