Crash and burned

I tried Sonlight last year and we crashed and burned.

I tried Ambleside Online during the summer and we crashed and burned.

I gave (used) KONOS a try this month and we (shock) crashed and burned.

We're doing really well in math and language arts with RightStart and the Writing Road to Reading. Neither is an extremely simple program and neither is hands-off on the teacher. If I can handle teaching two kids math, one child phonics, and one language arts with WRTR, why can't I handle another curriculum for the rest?

I think I figured out at least part of the problem last night.

When I started math, we did only math for a while. Actually, quite a while. We did only math for about nine months. Then, we added on phonics and language arts via WRTR/SWR.

As we've started new curricula, I haven't added things one at a time but instead threw everything into the mix at once. We didn't have any time to adjust our schedules, to sink our teeth into a new subject, to ask questions and enjoy. Instead, we started reading ten new books at a time and it was crazy. Very crazy, annoying, and frustrating.

This isn't how I work well.

Now, I'm going to do things differently, We're not going to do everything at once but do one thing at a time. I know narration is extremely important, so "narration" is going to be our only new subject for the month of October. Since I printed out "50 Famous Stories Retold" and already own a great copy of Aesop's fables, that is what we'll be doing this month, but we'll be reading at least one story and narrating it each day.

We'll see what November brings!