I want a curriculum that is secular but like My Fathers World. I have no idea how to do this but to make it. Nothing seems to be similar. Anyone know anything that minght work for me?

THANKS!

Val

Could you use My Father's World and just drop the Bible?

Have you looked at WinterPromise? They have a new children's and cultures program that lots of people like. I know with WP is was actually pretty easy to drop the Bible and do the rest.

My Father's World is unit study, right?

I have to second the Winterpromise minus Bible.
We use Moving Beyond The page, which I see as like unit studies (3 week units revolving around each other).

Believe me I have looked high and low for the same thing. I wouldn't recommend trying to alter MFW. The religious aspect is too integrated into the curriculum. I have MFW ECC and it would be a pain.

I have a crazy thought, maybe we could all write a curriculum together!

I am not familiar with My Father's World, but if it IS unit studies, then that is what I was really looking for when I found Moving Beyond the Page. It is definitely unit studies and the kids LOVE it.

Well, basically, that is what I have been doing for the whole school year. I have aspects that I love... but I never know what is too little or too much. I am sure next year I will be a pro at it. lol... I follow a lot of what I see in MFW due to my best friend and her kids use it. But I just can't get past the religious aspect and I feel like I would have to pay the $300+ for the basics and then tweak it. And that would take nearly as much time as what I am doing now!

There is an upside to that however. I would always know when I was done. Right now I keep calling her back to the table when I haven't got a specific plan. It SUCKS... she never knows when she is done, and I am on a hamster wheel constanstly feeling behind.

There is an upside to that however. I would always know when I was done. Right now I keep calling her back to the table when I haven't got a specific plan. It SUCKS... she never knows when she is done, and I am on a hamster wheel constanstly feeling behind.

I have felt like that off and on throughout the 6 years we;ve been homeschooling, too.

Are you using Story of the World right now? Are you using the book and the activity book or just the story book? What helped me was having a plan for each 'lesson'. I knew what I wanted to accomplish - and we worked until we were done with that. The activity book helped me decide wha twas enough - so before I sat down with the kids, I would make the copies needed and I would mark each thing we would do.

I so understand that feeling... like you are never doing enough.

No, I currently am not doing story of the world. I was going to start next year... this year we are doing small week long (or two week long) unit studies on animals and plants, and working on reading well and memorization and drawing.

My current schedule is this:

Monday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Rhyming Words Notebook
Bob Books/Reading Exersize
Drawing Exersize/Animal Drawing
Theme Animal Book


Tuesday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Math Game
Math Worksheet/Notebook
Come and Look with Me (Art book)
Mind Benders


Wednesday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Bob Books/Reading Exersize
Handwritting (she gets a bit of this every day with the date and language lessons book, but this is more involved, commas, capital letters, etc)
Ecojournal
Animal Book
Exploration day/Geography/cooking


Thursday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Math Game
Maze Notebook
Math Worksheet/Workbook
Science Experiment
Mind Benders


Friday (shopping day):
Date Work
Language Lessons
Rhyming Words Notebook
Bob Books/ Reading Exersize
Drawing Exersize/Animal Drawing
Theme Animal Book

No, I currently am not doing story of the world. I was going to start next year... this year we are doing small week long (or two week long) unit studies on animals and plants, and working on reading well and memorization and drawing.

My current schedule is this:

Monday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Rhyming Words Notebook
Bob Books/Reading Exersize
Drawing Exersize/Animal Drawing
Theme Animal Book


Tuesday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Math Game
Math Worksheet/Notebook
Come and Look with Me (Art book)
Mind Benders


Wednesday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Bob Books/Reading Exersize
Handwritting (she gets a bit of this every day with the date and language lessons book, but this is more involved, commas, capital letters, etc)
Ecojournal
Animal Book
Exploration day/Geography/cooking


Thursday:
Date work
Language Lessons
Math Game
Maze Notebook
Math Worksheet/Workbook
Science Experiment
Mind Benders


Friday (shopping day):
Date Work
Language Lessons
Rhyming Words Notebook
Bob Books/ Reading Exersize
Drawing Exersize/Animal Drawing
Theme Animal Book

Wanna homeschool me? Don't doubt yourself, your schedule is well rounded and perfect for her age. Don't stress about not doing enough.

Thanks Chelsie. I think it works out ok, I sometimes don't do the experiment, and she has done drawing for 4 days in a row this week (working with Comander Mark and the Secret City Draw Squad - 3D Drawing Video Series - Learn to Draw in 3D (http://www.drawsquad.com/), and then the Drawing With Children book), and we took the last of the week off last week to help our friends who's farm got flooded out, so we spent a lot of time on the ecojournal talking about that, and reading about that and looking at pictures of the flood... but that is a general schedule of what we do. I just am always feeling like she only gets a few minutes a day of each thing and that isn't enough. I need to remember that it is like getting a block every day and eventually you can make something with it. But it takes time. Patience and guilt are hard things for me right now... yet another lesson in those for me here I think. ;)

Val

Thanks Chelsie. I think it works out ok, I sometimes don't do the experiment, and she has done drawing for 4 days in a row this week (working with Comander Mark and the Secret City Draw Squad - 3D Drawing Video Series - Learn to Draw in 3D (http://www.drawsquad.com/), and then the Drawing With Children book), and we took the last of the week off last week to help our friends who's farm got flooded out, so we spent a lot of time on the ecojournal talking about that, and reading about that and looking at pictures of the flood... but that is a general schedule of what we do. I just am always feeling like she only gets a few minutes a day of each thing and that isn't enough. I need to remember that it is like getting a block every day and eventually you can make something with it. But it takes time. Patience and guilt are hard things for me right now... yet another lesson in those for me here I think. ;)

Val

I used to get hit with"your not doing enough" guilt all the time. For this school year I ordered a comprehensive curriculum that covers "everything". Many, many hours of schoolwork. Guess what? It is sitting on my shelf. All $500 of it. I found that my DS learns much better with shorter, hands on lessons. He is very practical, so long sessions of reading and repeating do nothing for him. Just one session of baking cookies and teaching him how to follow a recipe has far more impact than 10 lessons in a math text. And for my dd, she is a reader. I have barely touched on phonics, yet her reading ability stuns me. So I guess I am saying, don't be afraid to relax and go with the flow.

I found that we need a kick start with our week. So monday mornings, Cyan and I do school at Starbucks. It works out so much faster to get it done there than to have Cyan, not to mention daddy (who has mondays off) still in weekend mode.

I think I am finally pulling out of this two month long funk I have been in. Finding things that work sometimes takes a long time... it is hard to be patient and give yourself enough time to actually go through the process. Forced processes just don't work, you can't stick with them. Slow and steady. That is the way to make a good, long term change.