Autumn Break

Its kinda a break, I think both hubby and I are enjoying the change of pace from teaching to planning, although life is short and it seems that school needs at present, both where he teaches and the home-school could easily become overwhelming.

I will be happy when we finally settle in some of the big changes that we have made this year in the home-school. I'm happy with getting back to my roots with Veritas, even if I am a very eclectic user of the program. Veritas with a hint of Charlotte Mason in the background seems to suit us, although I am hoping that in the next few weeks we can get the balance right between mum teaching and independent work. In General our days look like this

Maths

• Singapore "My Pals are Here" level 5 nearly 6. It isn't the perfect program, My youngest thrives, but there are always those word problems that get just a tad obscure. Some days I do wish we had an answer book just so that I could understand what they were wanting in terms of an answer.
• Following Singapore we're using Jacobs Algebra. I like it, but it has taken a while for my daughter and I to find a pattern where she is confident in maths, so for the last we while this has been a 12 hour a day joint exercise. Its getting better. The boys will have a much better time of it when they get there simply because I now understand the book so much better.

Latin

• Henle book one for the boys - my youngest wanted something he though was more straight forward than Wheelocks. I much prefer Wheelocks.
  
• For my daughter and I Wheelocks. Yes, I didn't think I would say that but it is a much nicer program than Henle.
  

Greek

• Yes two ancient languages is madness, but it happened and now two of the kids don't want to let go of it. We're using Elementary Greek. Nice program, but lots of errata to wade through.
  

Writing

• After a love hate relationship we are firmly back with Classical Writing. My youngest is flying through Aesop, the middle one in Homer A and my daughter in Homer B. Its challenging enough although I wish I could speed my daughter up a little. She's a good writer, handles it well, but we haven't done the grammar like we should...

Spelling and Copywork

• A dictation bases spelling program Simply Spelling rounds out our language arts, copywork, for reflection more than anything else finishes off this section.
  

Science

• Apologia, General Science and Elementary Science Botany cover the bases here. Its a bit sad because my husband has put together a great hands on Science program at the level of Apologia General and Physical Science but for now it is so much easier to run with the text book than set up equipment for a lab based course. I truly wish I had the time to convert it from the classroom to the home because I like it much better.

History and Bible

• Veritas for the boys, CM style, I use their time-line, readings and their projects, but we generally work on a read, narrate and then think deeper or play approach than the worksheet and test model.
  
  
• Omnibus 1 for my oldest. Its a fairly good program, but very very busy. This is the one I am still customizing for our needs. How much do I keep how much to I make ours. I suspect it will take a while more before we own it like we need to but I like it as a base for the areas I don't know, and because it stretches me in the areas where I have studied before.

Literature

• Simply read and narrate unless some project jumps out from what we are reading. I've enjoyed having a softer program here.

In all that's us busy but seeing the benefit of what we are doing.