That Time Of The Year

Yep, it must be that time of the year again.  I'm feeling it.  Really feeling it.  I, shall I say, strongly dislike my curriculum.  It always seems to happen this time of year.  Or maybe I usually am all together tired of schooling at this point.  But no, that's not it this year.  Right now I am just dissatisfied with where Em and Grace are at on certain things, namely writing.  By writing I mean essays, reports, letters, that kind of thing.  But it isn't just that.  We are having a bazillion computer problems lately.  Emily has to work at my desk to get her school to work on her computer.  I am extremely frustrated by many of the lessons in both girls' school.  They read their lesson and I would expect that from there they should be able to do the problems.  That is how the school is set up to work.  But then they ask me for help, I get frustrated because it is supposed to be self explanatory and I am busy doing Sophia's school, so I have to tell them to wait.  When I finally do get a chance to sit down and help them I read through the lesson and I barely understand it.  So I have to read through it with them slowly and work out the problems.  For example, in math they will do a whole lesson and have only one sample problem.  It is ridiculous...and frustrating.  History and Science are no better.  They study and study only to score lower than a C on many of the quizzes and tests, which means I make them redo the lessons and the quiz or test.  It ends up being a lot of work and it takes a lot of time.  Many times when I look at some of the questions, I really wonder how they are supposed to keep track of all of it!  Then there was this science lesson Emily was struggling with.  It had to do with the periodic table.  I helped Em with one lesson earlier and it seemed ok.  Then the next lesson I was busy and Brooke said she would help Emily because she loved doing the periodic table.  So she, a sophomore in high school that gets A's and high B's in science, read through the lesson with Emily and informed me that the whole lesson and problems didn't make any sense!  I knew when she said that that something is obviously not right with this.  So anyway, now the really hard part begins...deciding what in the world to do with them next year.  It is going to be hard to go back to lesson planning and grading everything.  My curriculum we have been doing does most of that for me.  So I'm not looking forward to the extra work.  But I am looking forward to trying some better things that will really help these girls learn what they really need to know.  Both Emily and Grace are tired of the computers and ready for something different, too.  I do have math figured out, I think.  I am pretty sure I am going to be using Teaching Textbooks for math next year for Em and Grace.  They are supposed to be self teaching and were made specifically for homeschoolers.  From what I have read on their website, it should be a good fit for them.  Everything else is pretty much up in the air right now.  It is a lot to think about.  Especially with Emily going into seventh grade next year.  This is when it gets serious.  I can't mess this up, you know?  Atleast things seem much easier with Sophia.  I will probably continue with the Vo-Wac Phonics.  Not so sure about the spelling though.  I'm just not impressed with their spelling program.  Or at least I think there are better spelling programs out there.  For math we will stick with Saxon until third grade when she can start the Teaching Textbooks if we find out we like them.  So anyway, that is where we are at.  Don't worry, it's not all bad on the homeschool front.  We've been keeping busy and trying to do more fun schooling, too.  I took the kid's swimming this week in Williston at the indoor pool.  That was a real treat for them.  I've also pulled out some of Brooke's old writing programs and have been doing some of that with Emily and Grace.  They seem to like it.  Well, they haven't complained too much anyway.  Well, that is it for tonight.  I need to hit the sack.  Hopefully soon I will have time to post again.  I've been wanting to share some books that I've been reading lately!