First, I have wanted to post something to this Testimony Thread for some time.  I keep on thinking about doing it, but that time has finally come tonight!  

I hope you enjoy reading how we fit the LBC schedule into our life.  We do have co-op responsiblities on Thursdays, so we only do school 4 days a week.  It would feel great to be home 5 days a week and not feel so rushed, but that's not an option right now.  My boys love our co-op!  

Enjoy your children and don't lock yourself into a schedule.  We have modified the LBC schedule every Term!  Mostly we have not been able to find every single book in our library and I'm not one for buying many books, so we have had to skip some books.  

Sherrie

The Details of our Testimony...
We used Grade 5 curriculum from Nov 08 - Jun 09 for Terms 1-3.  Then finished Term 4 from Sep - Nov 09.  I used this curriculum with my 2 boys, now ages 12 and 10.

We just started Grade 6 in November 09.  With the holidays and a one week vacation we finished Term 1 in 11 weeks.  

Now I plan on trying an accelerated for the remainder of the year -- trying to do a majority of the required Term reading in 5 weeks and taking the 6th week as our end-of-term question week.  I'd like to do Term 2, 3 and 4 before June 2010.  I’m trying to accelerate our school year because the boys want to begin with the LBC Grade 7 in September 2010.  I don’t want to miss too many books in Grade 6, but we may just have to skip some to keep to this schedule.  The boys don't like I started them with the Grade 6 Teacher's Guide in November 2009.  That's what I get for dragging my feet on making my curriculum decision until October 2008 - the year we started Grade 5.  

We did like what Grade 5 offered our children.  More writing, more quality books, and more contemplating life through the eyes of God.  We were not aware of much of the Reformation, so Grade 5 book selections opened all our eyes to this time period.

One thing I just started last week was that I assigned more reading to the boys.  Joel now reads the Story-book of Science and David reads The Struggle for Sea Power.  While David & Joel are doing their independent reading it gives me about one hour extra in the morning to concentrate on the needs of my two younger sons, ages 5 and 3, or to just catch up on house duties.  

Here are the schedules we are currently using for Grade 6 Term 2.  I have typed them in a spreadsheet format and have the days of the week at the top of the document and these topics on the left side.  They put check marks in all boxes they have completed and put "x's" in spots they did not complete.  I typically keep a tally of the time of day they end school in the morning and at the end of each day.  Also I keep a tally of the total topics covered every day on this spreadsheet, too.  

My son, David, is 12 and is a serious student and loves to finish school timely.  He normally does school from 8:30 to 12:30pm and from 1:30 to 3:30pm.  

My son, Joel, is 10 and is more distracted with our busy household.  He normally does school from 8:30 to 12:30pm and from 2:00 to 5:00pm.  

I really have to re-think what’s important and essential for our homeschool.  I will begin to drop subjects as we move closer the end of the year.  Both boys have good attitudes right now about school.  The school year started out very difficult for Joel, but he’s grown used to the school demands now that we’re in week 23 of school!  


Mornings are LBC-related and Afternoons are for all other topics

DAVID’S MORNING SCHEDULE (age 12)
Orally narrate OT or NT on Fridays
Do one good deed (1/wk)
Storytelling: Cain and Abel
Copywork (1/wk)
Studied Dictation (Test Friday)
Memorization:  Gettysburg Address (4x/wk)
Spelling Test (Friday)
Write narration of science experiment (1/wk)
Around the World in Eighty Days (read 20 min/day)
Type narration of above book (1/wk)
Update Fogg's journey to map (daily)
The Struggle for Sea Power (read 20 min/day)
Type narration of above book (1/wk)
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry (read 20 min/day)
Type narration of above book (1/wk)
Picture Study (narrate on Fridays to Mom)
Orally Narrate to Mom about Franz Schubert
Listen to Schubert CD

JOEL’S MORNING SCHEDULE (age 10)
Orally narrate OT or NT on Fridays
Do one good deed (1/wk)
Storytelling: Tower of Babel
Copywork (1/wk)
Studied Dictation (Test Friday)
Memorization:  Star Spangled Banner (4x/wk)
Spelling Test (Friday)
The Story-book of Science (read 20 min/day)
Type narration of above book (1/wk)
Write narration of science experiment (1/wk)
Amelia Earhart (read 20 min/day)
Type narration of above book (1/wk)
Picture Study (narrate on Fridays to Mom)
Orally Narrate to Mom about Franz Schubert
Listen to Schubert CD

Boys listen to cassettes together:
Old Testament on cassette (4x/wk)
New Testament on cassette (after OT is finished)

Books I am reading out loud to David & Joel:
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (4x/wk)
Best Remembered Poems (1 day/wk)
Biology Experiments for Children (1 exp/wk)
Oliver Twist (1x/wk)
Handbook of Nature Study – wild mammals  this Term (1-2x/wk)

Unsure who will read these books or even if we’ll have time to read them:
Admiral Richard Byrd
The Children of the Dust Bowl
Franz Schubert and His Merry Friends

Internet research I do for David & Joel – we sometimes sit together, sometimes I do it alone:
-Print a map and student writes important information on it (1/wk)
-Print a person and student adds important information on it and files it in their Book of Centuries section of their 3-ring binder(1/wk)
-Research history topics on p. 109 (1 topic/wk for each child)
-Study wild mammal (1 animal/wk) --We use the Internet if we can’t answer questions from what we learn in the Handbook of Nature Study.

Topics we don’t do weekly:
We are not faithful on going on Nature Walks.  We went on two so far this school year.  One in September and the other in November.  

In the winter months, we are not outside people, so we don't get outside to play much during these cold Michigan months!  Spring sports are coming though and we'll make up when we have 3 in baseball this spring!  

Topics we decided to skip due to our accelerated Term 2:
Our Island Saints – we read this for Term 1 and were pleased with the book.  It was one I read out loud in Term 1, but we do not see how it will fit into our accelerated Term 2.  


Now to the Afternoon topics:
DAVID’S SCHEDULE:
Saxon Math 65 – He does Activity Box problems, Practice problems (half of them), Problem Set (half of them) (4x/wk)
Intermediate Language Lessons Part 3 (4x/wk)
Royal Ranger requirements (4x/wk)
Latina Christiana (4x/wk)
Indoor Exercises (4x/wk)
Read books about History Fair topic (4x/wk)
Find Scripture about prayer (1x/wk)
Memorize Scripture: Romans 5:6-9 (1x/wk)
Notes to family and friends (1x/wk)
Read to little brothers (1x/wk)
Money Summary (1x/wk)
Book Summary (1x/wk)
Hymn (1x/wk)
Folksong (1x/wk)

JOEL’S SCHEDULE:
Saxon Math 54 – He does Activity Box problems, Practice problems (half of them), Problem Set (half of them – but ends at #15) (4x/wk)
Language Arts Grade 3 workbook (purchased from dollar store) (4x/wk)
Royal Ranger requirements (4x/wk)
Latina Christiana (4x/wk)
Indoor Exercises (4x/wk)
Read books about History Fair topic (4x/wk)
Find Scripture about prayer (1x/wk)
Memorize Scripture: Romans 5:6-9 (1x/wk)
Notes to family and friends (1x/wk)
Read to little brothers (1x/wk)
Money Summary (1x/wk)
Book Summary (1x/wk)
Hymn (1x/wk)
Folksong (1x/wk)

Books I am reading out loud to David & Joel:
Created for Work (4x/wk)

Internet research I do for David & Joel – we sometimes sit together, sometimes I do it alone:
Current Events website (Mon, Tues & Wed)

I'm also using the LBC book list for my some of my kindergartener's book selections.  We'll more formally homeschool my 3rd born next school year with the LBC Grade 1.  Hopefully it will be a good fit for him, too!  

That's our life with LBC. I like what LBC has planned for us.  The boys are content with reading the adventures of so many people in history.   Too bad I don't have time to read every book myself!  I take the narrations my sons give me and those narrations have definitely enlarged my view of the world!  

Blessings to everyone who uses LBC.  I hope you enjoy using LBC like we have.  

I like supporting the ministry the Carroll's have also!

Sherrie, Ken and sons

Wow, thanks for taking the time Sherrie to write all that down for us!
My dd is only starting Gr 1 soon but it's good to hear from mums who are ahead of me!

Thanks
Rosemary

I love to see how you have coordinated it all.  I do struggle with it, and have tried many different versions of schedules trying to get it all to fit.  We just cant' get all the read-alouds in but I figure we'll just catch up in the summer if we need to.  My husbands chooses different literature to read in the evenings, otherwise I would have picked that time to catch up.  The nature walks are hard too, sometimes we just go foraging in our backyard.  We did manage to drybrush pictures of granite we coincidentally found in a rock pile in the backyard and we were able to identify it...    Thanks for taking the time to write it out, it helps to see how much we actually do in a year.