I keep thinking about planning for next year.  I just can’t make myself do it!  I need a break, I think. 

We have three more weeks of school.  Maybe I’ll be ready to plan in 4 more weeks.

My oldest will be starting Summer School classes in 2 weeks.  She is taking two classes this summer so she will be able to graduate as a Junior next year.  Because I held her back a grade in middle school, she is a year behind.  This was a mistake that I will never make again.  The following year, she bounced back and nearly made up the difference.   However, by that time, she was in high school and it was all about the credits. 

My daughter is graduating in one year!!  I just can’t believe it…..

I hope you all have a great summer, whether you school through it or not!

Enjoy the time you have with your little ones.  It truly goes by much too quickly… 

We aren’t even using t4l, (our accounts are dormant)so what could I possibly have to say?!

I was just thinking today that there may be an impression that “everyone” thinks t4l is so fun to do.

While my kids definitely enjoy t4l, no one but the first grader thinks it is fun. She doesn’t like to quit normally and will do lots of lessons everyday.

It doesn’t make it any less of a wonderful curriculum! There isn’t anything wrong necessarily if a student doesn’t think t4l is fun.

Two of my students have learning issues and they prefer t4l to the reading and writing of a “book type” curriculum, but they certainly don’t love to do their work!  I dont’ think anything would ever be “fun” enough!

I just thought it was an important point~that not all students love t4l. And I don’t consider that a failure! Liking it is good enough for me!!

Ok, true confession time.

I don’t use the lesson plans. I just don’t get it. I printed a whole bunch out, started highlighting lessons completed and just fizzled out. I don’t see the point. Since my husband’s injury, I am hardly able to even print off records, so maybe it isn’t all my fault, but I still don’t think I would have kept up w/ printing off all those plans for 5 kids!

This next confession probably means I am a bad homeschool mom, a bad t4l homeschool mom! I don’t use the playground! Which is ironic because it is something that drew me to the program. The games are great and the kids loved the idea of it.

But I dropped that thing like a hot potato pretty quickly after we started.

The timer for the lessons was a distraction. Maybe if it let you go to the playground after so many lessons, it would have worked better for us? So I set the timer to zero and they could have playground time after their lessons. However, letting all 5 kids do lessons and playground time was hard. 15 min of playground time wasn’t enough(according to the kids) so we tried 30 min and that was too long.

They do sometimes do the playground after everyone is finished for the day.

I wonder if you can still do the playground when your account is on hold?

It’s something I would like to work on(letting them have their playground time), but sometimes you just have to get it done!

What do you all do when a child has gone beyond what T4L has for their level? Tim is almost done with 2nd grade science, and he finished 2nd grade social studies a few months ago. Third grade social studies was just out of league, it wasn’t interactive enough to hold his attention, and I’m pretty sure science would probably be the same way. The LA extensions aren’t really helpful, either. They need a science extensions!
The LA extensions is good for the first section of it, but after that it loses his attention too much. We use other sites as well, so I’m not worried about his not getting the material he needs, but after today he’s only going to be on T4L for language arts and math. Now, Josh is just getting started with T4L, so I’ll still be using it for him. But, only the math and language arts, again, because the science is too hard for a preschooler.

Using an online based curriculum has it’s down sides. Computer problems or internet issues, for example. But it sure beats hunting down books, paper, pencils, etc!!! Besides, T4L’s tech support is SO FAST!

I don’t know how I would have made it this semester w/ out T4L, especially these last few weeks.  I have had a dear friend come in and help me(actually I help her!) do some decluttering and organizing around the house.  I don’t know how school would have gotten done on those days she came(and even on days she didn’t!) were it not for T4L. There were many days when my dh oversaw everyone’s work.

T4L has really saved the day for me, but I have always wanted to go back to using Sonlight. T4L has given me the break and the boost that I have needed. I have done a few of the History readings. And I can actually picture myself cracking open more of the Sonlight books and reading them to the kids. Until then, I am still depending mostly on t4l for everything. And I do believe I will still do t4l for some subjects for at least 3 of my 5 students this upcoming school year.

My plan is to pay the few bucks to have our accounts held, so we don’t lose the records. I will take off at least a month.

I have been meaning to make the comment that I don’t feel a bunch of computers are needed to school more than one child as I like to oversee everyone’s lessons.My thoughts are that I might like to have one more computer, but I am definitely ok having just one computer for the 5 students that I have.