I have spent the last 2 weeks trying to figure out what I want to do with Max next year for school. It all started innocent enough when I got an email talking about a distance learning school. I looked at it and it seemed worth looking further into, so I did. This simple action, resulted in a rabbit hole that has me questioning everything!
I think in some ways questioning everything is a good thing. I mean, without questioning it, how do you know it is best? What I have discovered is… well let me go back, what I know is this: Max is decent at addition and subtraction, reading, and writes better then his dad! He is weak in spelling, currency, and skip counting. The rest he is about on par with.
The distance learning school is a partially online based school. Essentially, Max would become a private school student that stays home. He would have 2 hours of online instruction Monday through Thursday, with 2 hours of homework everyday (Monday through Friday). He would get a classical education, rooted in Jedeo-christian values. He would learn Latin, in addition to the Reading, writing, math, science, history, phonics and spelling. He would hear other children his age in the school time and have short periods of time to interact with them.
Pros to the distance learning school are that it is structured, and it only is in session for 9 months of the year. He would have ALL of June, July, and August off. He would be taking all tests and having others grade them. He would get transcripts that would be helpful should we ever move somewhere that doesn’t allow for this type of schooling (not that we plan on, but you know life). The 2 hours would also free me up to spend a bit of 1 on 1 time with Nathaniel and do other things.
Cons would be that it is VERY rigid compared to what we do now. If I got ill, I would have to make sure he still went to school and did his schoolwork (unlike when I was recently ill). He would have to make up any time that he missed for other reasons, and absences are highly discouraged. The science teaches (at least partially) that the world is a bit over 3000 years old, and not the millions of years old that is commonly believed in the scientific community. This is a more biblical view. Because of this, we would likely supplement his science. There is no art class and Max is really enjoying the art curriculum I have for him. And lastly, this costs about double the cost of if I pieced something together myself. We might also have to get a new teacher for his swim class, and he really does well with his current teacher.
I am going to change things up if I do things on my own again. Max seems to get bored with the constant repetition of our current math program so I am thinking of going from a mastery based system to a spiral based system. This is so Max can get a bit of more aspects more often. I just tested him for this and nearly went away crying, then Tony reminded me that he hasn’t had much time with some of the things they are using to “spiral”.
We are also changing our english program. I think it did a fine job of teaching him to read, but that is about it. So am wanting to go to a separate grammar, phonics (I think he is still having a few issues with this), reading and writing programs. Writing we have already done apart from the english program and it has worked WONDERS. However I want to do that with other aspects as well. I will also be changing the writing program as I am confused where to go from here with him. So I will go to a different program that is easier to understand.
We like our history, and art programs so we would continue with those. We are debating adding Latin on our own. Science, we like our current program but there are limitations with it (sometimes hard to find what we need for experiments), so I found another program that includes all the lab components. So we would change to that. We might also use this if we went with the distance learning school to supplement.
We have until Sunday night to figure out if we are going to go with the distance learning school or not. After that the price goes up and I will feel like a fool for not signing up sooner. So we really need to decide. Either choice we will continue German provided I can find a teacher.
So any insight anyone can give me would be most helpful. Here are the nutshell versions of my choices:
Distance learning school – https://fpeusa.org Here is a supply list to give you an idea of the scope.
On our own:
Grammer: Language Fundamentals, and Daily Language Review
Phonics: Daily Phonics
Handwriting: A Reason For Handwriting (unit T)
Spelling: A Reason For Spelling (he would start out at A as soon as possible but move on to B I hope this fall)
Science: A Reason For Science (not sure what level, either A or B)
Reading: Second grade Literature
Latin: (if we decide to do it) Prima Latina
History: Story of the World (we have middle ages already so we would move on to Early Modern when we were done)
Art: Artistic Pursuits book 2
Math: Saxon Math (we are thinking grade 2)
Gee! That looks like a lot but we wouldn’t be doing everything everyday. 🙂
Now I have a sleeping baby on me and I need to get Max to help me gather things photo and fun upload. 🙂
Look into All About Spelling and Growing with Grammar and also Winning with Writing. I believe you’ve tried Singapore Math if not check it out. Also Beast Academy could be interesting though that may be a higher level of math.
We are currently doing Singapore Math Standards edition. The sections seem to drag at times. I guess that is the nature of a mastery based program. That is why I am looking elsewhere. Max seems to dread doing math when we have these long dragged out concept lessons. He is learning, but I am thinking there might be a better way for him to ultimately get to the same spot.
That spelling program seems interesting. I will have to think about that. I have always had a hard time with spelling so it wouldn’t surprise me if one of the boys had issues too.
Writing I should have been more clear with. I am talking penmanship and not creative writing. 🙂 Tony writes like a medical doctor. Seriously there have been times when I asked him to read what he wrote and he can’t tell me what it said. So I wanted to make sure Max didn’t have the same issues. Max’s handwriting I will take a photo of and put up with my next blog post. It is amazing. I would say he writes at least as clearly as I do, and he is working on getting even better. The next program I am looking for is one that teaches cursive.
I will have to look more into the Growing with Grammar.
Thank you for the suggestions!