New and needing some guidance (warning....very long)

[lovetoteach5]

Hello :0) Where do I start? We have 5 children, ages 14, 11, 9, 6 and 3. We school year round so our schedule may be very different than most homeschoolers. Our new calendar year, however, starts mid august so that's pretty common, I think.

Anywhew, my 14 year old is doing Sonlight, Core 100 and has done SL his entire homeschooling. My other kids have done more MFW. We are currently in CTG and I'm just not sure that it's where we are supposed to be. I'm praying for God's guidance as far as what we should do....and whether or not to finish CTG or SL Core 100. I want activities for our kids, hence MFW but am not enjoying the choices and we are finding this year pretty dry ;0(. We just bought CTG two months ago. We arw good at staying on track with our required subjects but have trouble always getting to history...I know, that's not good but it is true. We do Rod and Staff for grammar and we use narration for writing and also dictation. Our oldest son uses the writing that came with his SL and it's very vague on instructions.

I have crohns disease and we spend lots of time 8 hours away at mayo clinic and/or with my being sick at home. We have managed to stay on track but stress has played a big part of my illness. We believe, however, that God has called me to homeschomeschool and we aren't questioning that at this point. We feel it would be much more stressful to have our kids in public school right now and have religious reasons not do so.

In looking at all the levels of HOD, I'm overwhelmed and truthfully don't feel like it will be affordable to purchase different levels and all the books, as I recently re-did our schoolroom and bought more curriculum. I wish I would have found HOD before I purchased MFW and really don't know where to go from here.

I know this may be a redundant type of situation for these boards and apologize ahead of time. Hoping HOD could somehow work and that it will be an answer to our prayers.

Thanks for any advice you can give :0)

Amy

[snadig]

Amy,

Welcome to the HOD board.

Let me see if I can help. I sorry to hear about your illness, but am very inspired by your steadfastness to Gods call to home school. My encouragement for you is to keep seeking Him for wisdom and guidance, and rest in the fact He will take care of all your needs. He provides everything we need each day!

I have not been with HOD long, but love it! I know some other wonderful ladies will help when they can with your questions, if I can't answer something. The first place I would start is look at the placement chart and see where everyone places. I would focus on skills(writing, reading, etc.) than age. When you have a chance to think about these placements let us know so we can all talk it out with you.

There are some wonderful ladies on this board with some great advice.
blessings,
Stacey

[lovetoteach5]

Thank you for your reply, Stacy :0) I will have to put pen to paper tomorrow and write down each of our children and where I think they are and then maybe things will make more sense. The boards here have really been fun to read and you all seem like a terrific group!! I think the people who frequent the boards and their helpful attitude to others speaks volumes about not just themselves but also of their over-all happiness with the curriculum. It says alot to see all the help you are all giving to eachother. I also love that the author is on the boards :0) this speaks volumes to me as a potential customer!!

I will be back with more questions once I look at the placement help ;0)

Thanks so much,
Amy

[amysconfections]

Welcome to the board! First I would like to know what you have purchased. You may need to transition a few kids at a time. Is your curriculum that you purchased returnable? If not could you sell curriculum to make some money to buy HOD? Have you considered doing a school fundraiser? Selling baked goods, homemade goods, etc. Take your kids door to door in your neighborhood and let them do the selling. Just an idea. Sometimes we forget that this is exactly what public schools do all the time. At least what you sell would be nice.