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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Making Your Curriculum Work for You

It's no secret that most homeschoolers love Sonlight. I have fallen in love with Sonlight myself. HOWEVER (and that is a big however), I do not like the Instructor's Guide. That huge thing is enough to give any newbie homeschooler a melt down (I am not a newbie--I am in my fourth year and I almost had a meltdown).

So how did I handle it? What have I been doing with it?

At first, I was very overwhelmed. I tried doing it like the guide suggested, but that just was not a good fit for our family. So I broke it down, pulled out the stuff we liked, and crossed out the things we did not like.

Here is what we have going on now:

~Friday is a free day. No structured curriculum on this day. We leave it open for Nature study, art, home -ec, field trips, woodworking with daddy, or whatever we would love to do on this day.

~Monday-Thursday: Bible, Math, History/Reading, Writing class, and Science. We also still have read aloud time (my kids like it)

I am trying this year to be more relaxed than ever when it comes to school. I am not doing a schedule much--we are doing a journal of what we get accomplished instead of fretting over what we have not gotten done.

Basically, all I am saying is this--instead of fretting on what is not working, find a way to make it work. You can take any curriculum and change it to meet what you are doing.

In the past, I have taken Bob Jones, read a section and then made a lapbook to study it further. Use what you have and make it work for you!

4 comments:

Heidi Jo said...

Well said! We love Sonlight too, but we do what we can when we can. My girls actually do the IG on their own (Core 6 and alt7) and I do the boys (Core 1). Everyone gathers for the boys read alouds, even though my girls have already done the story. I am trying to free up Fridays for fun stuff but my oldest still needs to do math and science. Last year I pitched the IG and just read by the "stack" method. which means I put all the books in order and just read as we wanted. Check out Oh My Stinken Heck's blog for great tips on Sonlight. I am using her idea of just pulling a week of the IG out for the girls at a time. Those binders are way to big :-)

Luke Holzmann said...

Absolutely! We often say that curriculum should be a tool not a taskmaster... use it for what you need.

~Luke

Trina said...

Love your ideas thanks for sharing! Have a blessed day

Iron Girl!! said...

I am encouraged to hear that another home educating family is keeping a journal of what is accomplished. We are trying that method for the first time this year and I find it freeing! We're staying on track much better too - maybe it's because there is no guilt at the end of the day over what we didn't accomplish. When I did lesson plans, I would always fret and get upset over anything that wasn't done and that just seemed counter-productive for both me and my girls.

Wonderful thoughts on your weekly schedule - love the Friday idea!