I'll have to look into Living Heritage! We were accepted into a really loved co-op in our area and I am SO excited. We'll be doing history with them, so I don't technically need to find a history curriculum but I love researching them haha. We've been using Notgrass and will continue with that next year. I've gotten pretty ruthless about finding the curriculum that fits our family best, and with our new co-op I have high hopes for next year after a very difficult year. All of that to say, your changes sound great and it makes me excited that we're making similar changes!
That's so great that you found a co-op that you love! I think just having that little boost from other homeschooling families can be so helpful to keep you going and get you over the rough patches!
We did Living Heritage this past year as well and loved it. I really loved all the living books too and I learned a lot about things I’d never been taught in private school growing up.
Our house burned down last April (a year ago) and we never really finished that school year. Then we welcomed a fifth baby over Thanksgiving. 2024 brought a lot for us!
I will say that it was tough for me having kids in two different groups—we did Cycle 2. Part of that was the recommended math curriculum which turned out to be very, very good for my boys, but required much more one-on-one time with me than our previous Masterbooks curricula. I need to find out a way to help my oldest who is going into 7th grade be more independent. Any tips on that? You’re a couple years ahead of me in schooling!
Okay, thank you! That gives me an idea of what to expect. The poor kid is just burned out and frustrated with math, and I want to give him a gentler year while still helping him progress…
Oh, it's so fun to hear from someone else who has also used Living Heritage! We did Cycle 4, and I also had kids in two different age groups - it was a challenge for me, mainly because I wanted to read some of the books with the kids, so that added another task to my day. But in the end it was really worth it, we all enjoyed the books so much! I would love to hear more about what you thought of the math. We used Rightstart, which we've been using for a while, but my rising 6th grader needs something different this year, so I've been trying to explore different options.
I'm so sorry to hear about your house burning down last year - I can't imagine! That must have been so difficult. But congrats on your new little one! What a year!
I totally hear you on trying to help kids be more independent. I have some kids who naturally get their work done no problem, and some who need me a lot. I will say when I started laying everything out in a daily checklist, that helped ALOT. I just keep a file on my computer with daily checklists for each kid for our ideal week, and then if we have different activities going on that week, I just make adjustments. I print out a fresh list for each kid every Monday. My kids really work off of their checklists now - sometimes I'll even highlight the items they can do without me so they don't get derailed, and they know that they aren't done with school until the checklist is finished. I started splitting the day in two - in the morning is my time to work with my elementary students on everything they need my help with, and I tell my big kids to save any questions/subjects that they need me for until after lunch. We're still working out the kinks, but it's been better!
Our struggle has also been helping my kids learning to plan out their own school year a little better, especially as my son enters high school - keeping track of experiments, or projects for co-op, and planning to finish things on time. I bought him a student planner last year, but it got limited use - he's not really a planner kid. So I'm still mulling over how to help him learn those kinds of organizational skills!
I had been brainstorming about a checklist so I’ll try that! I did premium Living Heritage this year and I got kind of bogged down with the daily schedule.
As for math, I had a 6th, 4th, and 2nd grader this past year. Grades 4 and 2 are almost all done orally. That was a huge difference from our prior curriculum and I was concerned at how they’d progress, but I feel that it actually helped them retain more of what they were learning. The books also did a great job explaining the why for the math concepts which I don’t remember learning when I was in school. I ended the year really liking it. 6th grade did a mix of geometry and practical math—both books are quite old so I had to explain some of the terms used, but my oldest did well with it!
I'll have to look into Living Heritage! We were accepted into a really loved co-op in our area and I am SO excited. We'll be doing history with them, so I don't technically need to find a history curriculum but I love researching them haha. We've been using Notgrass and will continue with that next year. I've gotten pretty ruthless about finding the curriculum that fits our family best, and with our new co-op I have high hopes for next year after a very difficult year. All of that to say, your changes sound great and it makes me excited that we're making similar changes!
That's so great that you found a co-op that you love! I think just having that little boost from other homeschooling families can be so helpful to keep you going and get you over the rough patches!
We did Living Heritage this past year as well and loved it. I really loved all the living books too and I learned a lot about things I’d never been taught in private school growing up.
Our house burned down last April (a year ago) and we never really finished that school year. Then we welcomed a fifth baby over Thanksgiving. 2024 brought a lot for us!
I will say that it was tough for me having kids in two different groups—we did Cycle 2. Part of that was the recommended math curriculum which turned out to be very, very good for my boys, but required much more one-on-one time with me than our previous Masterbooks curricula. I need to find out a way to help my oldest who is going into 7th grade be more independent. Any tips on that? You’re a couple years ahead of me in schooling!
I’m so glad this was a great year for you!
Okay, thank you! That gives me an idea of what to expect. The poor kid is just burned out and frustrated with math, and I want to give him a gentler year while still helping him progress…
Oh, it's so fun to hear from someone else who has also used Living Heritage! We did Cycle 4, and I also had kids in two different age groups - it was a challenge for me, mainly because I wanted to read some of the books with the kids, so that added another task to my day. But in the end it was really worth it, we all enjoyed the books so much! I would love to hear more about what you thought of the math. We used Rightstart, which we've been using for a while, but my rising 6th grader needs something different this year, so I've been trying to explore different options.
I'm so sorry to hear about your house burning down last year - I can't imagine! That must have been so difficult. But congrats on your new little one! What a year!
I totally hear you on trying to help kids be more independent. I have some kids who naturally get their work done no problem, and some who need me a lot. I will say when I started laying everything out in a daily checklist, that helped ALOT. I just keep a file on my computer with daily checklists for each kid for our ideal week, and then if we have different activities going on that week, I just make adjustments. I print out a fresh list for each kid every Monday. My kids really work off of their checklists now - sometimes I'll even highlight the items they can do without me so they don't get derailed, and they know that they aren't done with school until the checklist is finished. I started splitting the day in two - in the morning is my time to work with my elementary students on everything they need my help with, and I tell my big kids to save any questions/subjects that they need me for until after lunch. We're still working out the kinks, but it's been better!
Our struggle has also been helping my kids learning to plan out their own school year a little better, especially as my son enters high school - keeping track of experiments, or projects for co-op, and planning to finish things on time. I bought him a student planner last year, but it got limited use - he's not really a planner kid. So I'm still mulling over how to help him learn those kinds of organizational skills!
I had been brainstorming about a checklist so I’ll try that! I did premium Living Heritage this year and I got kind of bogged down with the daily schedule.
As for math, I had a 6th, 4th, and 2nd grader this past year. Grades 4 and 2 are almost all done orally. That was a huge difference from our prior curriculum and I was concerned at how they’d progress, but I feel that it actually helped them retain more of what they were learning. The books also did a great job explaining the why for the math concepts which I don’t remember learning when I was in school. I ended the year really liking it. 6th grade did a mix of geometry and practical math—both books are quite old so I had to explain some of the terms used, but my oldest did well with it!