Post
by dolphingirl » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:38 pm
I have four children (the oldest just turned eight), and we have used KONOS the past two years. Just wrapping up our year today! We love KONOS and my kids have learned a lot. I'm a former public school teacher as well, and my husband is a teacher as well, so the whole concept of planning did not scare me at all and it's been fun bouncing ideas off of dh too. However, this past year it seems like my house completely got out of control (okay, it's a mess!) and my soon to be 1 year old is absolutely into everything and I know that will not let up for next year. Between these two factors, it just seems like I got a bit burnt out the past few months and am craving something that is "right there" for me. Many times, if I didn't have time to plan or gather materials or get to the library, well, then school just didn't happen! I don't want that to happen next year, and there are so many things that I love about HOD that we're so excited to try! Also, while KONOS is based on biblical character traits, there is only a small amount of actual tie-in with the Bible that can be shared with the kids (unless it's actually a Bible-based unit like the tabernacle) So, after a couple days in the unit, there wasn't much left to talk about in terms of tie-in with the Bible (other than reiterating what we had already talked about.) I LOVE how HOD ties in the Bible EVERY DAY with what we're studying. We love reading library books rather than textbooks, but sometimes I get frustrated with KONOS in that none of the information is ever "right there" for you. You have to seek everything out (well, some of it is written there in the curriculum for you, but mostly you have to find books and/or websites that have the information to teach your children). Now, usually I wouldn't mind this, but as we add more kids to our family, I'm finding my time much more limited! I absolutely love the living books that Carrie has chosen for the program. I can't wait to read them to the kids!!! Yet it's flexible enough that if I have the time and desire to add additional library books I can. But if not, school can still go on! Same thing with hands-on activities. If I have the time or desire to add something, I can, but it won't be necessary, only if we really want to. With KONOS, we've sometime come to a standstill for a couple days because I haven't had time to get to the store or library.
I do like being able to teach all my children together, which is something I'm still trying to figure out if/what we'll be combining with HOD. However, in your case, your 5 year old is the oldest so it's not as crucial for you. Honestly, you could do KONOS with a 5 year old, but you'd definitely want to do the concepts from Vol. 1 again when he's older because you won't be able to go into depth as much right now as you will be able to when he's older. I would suggest using HOD---I think it's much more suitable agewise for him and then if you still have the desire to try KONOS in a couple years, try it then. He would get much more out of it then than he could now. You'd really only be able to scratch the surface with him on the topics right now, whereas with HOD Little Hearts, everything would be very age appropriate for him yet deep. Also, if the tie-in with Bible is important to you, HOD will give you MUCH more to talk with him about, as well as the character traits that are discussed in the Burgess storytime books.
So we may very well use KONOS again someday, and we'll probably add in some of the activities as we learn US History, but for now, I'm looking forward to the cohesiveness of HOD and the fact that I won't need to get stressed out if I don't have the materials or books I need for that day.
I also think my older son will do much better having more of a pattern to his days (since lessons are wonderfully varied yet there's still a sense of predictability to how things are done with the science notebook and so on) rather than having such a mishmash of activities each day. Hope this helps! Both of them are wonderful curriculums but very different!
Kristin
), id's all letters and most sounds in isolation but hasn't begun to blend them, and is a wigglly worm. I am a former public school teacher, so the planning part doesn't scare me too much regarding unit studies.
I have no experience with MFW or Konos, but I did use Little Hearts for K with my dd. We just finished last week and we both enjoyed it very much. It usually took us 60 to 90 minutes to complete the program each day. That includes an extra read aloud and some of my own things for science (which you don't need BTW). I normally did the program 5 days a week, but there were some weeks when we did less. HTH!
I'm in the piedmont triad area. We've only been here a few years. I did spend my early growing up years in the western part of the state, but I'm still not that knowledgeable with the whole state 