I thought I was done planning and purchasing…
but was prompted to make a somewhat major change in plans for Zeke. He’s eight and will be studying mostly third grade material this Fall. However, I’ve never been completely happy with the third grade History in the MODG Third Grade Syllabus. Dash was completely bored and Angelina followed it because I hadn’t time (new baby) to search for a replacement.
Years ago – like 6 or 7 when CHC first started coming out with lesson plans – a couple CHC lesson plans were purchased. I like to have the material in hand and ‘study’ it to see if it fits! Each was opened, placed in a binder, and thoroughly looked through. And then, they sat on my shelf because MODG fit our family better. I sold one (it could have been two) and kept the third and fourth grade specifically because I liked the History, Religion, and Science sections. The LP’s also sat because they’re consumable! In my logic, I didn’t want to use part of the plan and have something half-used sitting in my house … can’t really sell it, but can’t really use it for another child. To me, these are an ‘all or nothing’ type of lesson plan. I’m not saying they can’t be used another way, it’s just the way they ‘feel’ to me.
This year, Zeke is using the Third Grade Lesson Plans from CHC (my LP cover doesn’t look like this one because it’s OLD) for Reading, History, Art Appreciation, Science, Language Arts: Language of God and My Catholic Speller B. The upside is that I already own the lesson plans and ‘Behold & See 3’, thus only needed to purchase the speller and ‘Little Apostle on Crutches’. He’ll make use of all consumable parts of the LP. Problems solved; well at least the problem of having un-used material sit on my shelf…
So, now I THINK I’m really done with the planning and prepping and purchasing!
Who knows, you might end up totally switching to CHC!!
ReplyDelete(I'm a little partial)
I'm actually ordering 2 sets of lesson plans, so I have one to follow and one for the kids to use on their own, as their daily work to be crossed off.(Sarah's great idea!)
Clare is going to do first grade over, so I'm doing Seton for her, since we did CHC last year. She's still 6, she was a very young first grader.
I bet you could borrow The Little Apostle on Crutches from Sarah?
ReplyDeleteor me. Won't need it for a couple years now.
It's already here! Thanks for the offer, though. I've actually had the book on my wishlist for years, so it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to order it.
ReplyDeleteDidn't realize you were using CHC ... maybe I knew at one time, but forgot??
I really can't see myself completely switching because too much is left open ended for high school. I'm sure they'll get LPs for all of middle and eventually hs, but not in time for Dash.
I'm still eclectic in my approach ... even with Zeke, as he'll still use MUS and MODG for poetry and part of art and religion. I like entering everything into Homeschool Tracker because I'm not following the LP exactly like they have it laid out and it allows me to adjust throughout the year.
The odd thing is that I really like the books used for MODG history, I (and the kids) just haven't cared for the text (How Our Nation Began). I hope I or one of his siblings will have time to read all the 'living history' books aloud ... or that he'll be able to read them on his own later in the year.