I received my KONOS boxes, and am very excited to start using this. My mom used KONOS one year with us when we were homeschooling, and I so love the hands-on element …but love even more KONOS’ well-rounded approach vs just-hands-on-stuff all the time that many other curriculum seem to use.
Also, I watched the Creating the Balance DVD, and I’m not sure if you are the woman on the instructional seminar on the Creating the Balance DVD, but I wanted to send feedback on it, even if you aren’t…..
I loved the presentation!
It had the perfect amount of information, peppered with humor, and I loved the little video clips throughout that showed the kids actually doing some of the things.
It was very well done and enjoyable to watch, and makes me look forward even more to the stuff in this series.
Thank you.
Tara March 2020
Dear Ms. Hulcy,
I purchased and used KONOS I and II around the time you originally published them. The first volume was one of the best books ever for children’s learning, library resource suggestions, and activities. Is there any way I could purchase that original volume. I gave or sold at a steal my original volume I to a new homeschooling family back then, who didn’t have much income, and I regretted it ever since. I now have a grandchild with whom I would like very much to use it.
Thank you so much for any help.
Kathy Holston
I have been home schooling for 7 years and was ready to “throw in the towel” with my oldest, 12 year-old son last year. I truly needed encouragement to pull it all together and be that great homeschooling mom. I believe that I am receiving practical advice and encouragement through your Creating the Balance Videos. My three sons are so much more helpful. They like receiving a daily varying written Chore List. Thank you so much!
Gloria Fukuda
Using KONOS is not just school, it is part of our family. Our family vacations always coincide with a unit we are studying. When our children were 6 and 4, we were studying Attentiveness and Frontiersmen, focusing mainly on the Lewis and Clark expedition. We traveled to Montana to experience part of the expedition. While visiting the Lewis and Clark Museum in Great Falls, one of the staff commented about how long we had been there (about 3 hours) with such young children. She said most families with children that age don’t last an hour. Through our KONOS study, they had learned enough to spark their interest and they were ready for more. (We also believe in totally immersing our children in whatever we are studying. On that same trip, we thought we should go for a canoe trip down the Missouri River, just like Lewis and Clark. We did, and we managed to tip the canoe, just like Lewis and Clark. With the help of some good Samaritans, we were able to get most everything back. But we asked our daughter why she hadn’t saved everything like Sacagawea did with Lewis and Clark. J Definitely something our children will never forget.)
Sometimes when we are doing a unit, I wonder if they are really learning. We are having so much fun; is anything sinking in. Then we start another unit and something comes up from an old unit; I’m amazed at what they remember. For example, while studying the early settlers in the fall, we talked about Dutch architecture. For a long time, we couldn’t drive anywhere where the children weren’t trying to find Dutch influence in the houses. As time passed, so did this constant search. The following spring, while studying birds, we read The Wheel on the School, which takes place in a Dutch village. They immediately remembered our past study, and the search for Dutch architecture was revived.
The Lord has truly blessed in our studies. He has provided us with many opportunities to experience our units first hand. This year we visited a potter where we created our own pottery while studying Honor/Pottery and Sculpture. We also were blessed to find a sheep farm just at sheering and lambing time, during our Trust/Sheep unit. We finished our year with Attentiveness/Birds and WOW did we have birds. We had 5 Eastern blue bird eggs in our blue bird house, which we had to monitor almost daily. Carolina chickadee built a nest on our front porch and mockingbirds built nests in the bushes and a tree in the back yard. It was an exciting spring.
I love how KONOS starts with a character trait and then builds a unit from there. As we studied Stewardship/Africa last year, the children learned that all we have belongs to God, we are just the stewards. I often get reminded of this when I talk about “my” van or “my” table, etc. I’ll hear “It’s not your van Mommy. It’s God’s van. He’s just letting us use it.”
KONOS is a wonderful curriculum to help me teach to my children’s heads, but more importantly, it is helping me teach to their hearts. The head knowledge is important and necessary, but the heart shaping is really the only thing that is going to matter in eternity.
Tammy Edwards, North Carolina
The things my kids notice now is amazing.
Background: We are using Vol 1 and studying sight in the Attentiveness
section. We have been reading Follow my Leader about a boy becoming
blind and getting a seeing eye dog and about learning Braille.
The fun: My 5yr old just came running out of the bathroom with toilet
paper in her hand. "Mom, it has dots!! Can blind people read this?" She was so
excited I had to feel and pretend with her to read the toilet paper. I was so
glad when we were done and she went to play so I could break down into
laughter!
Jen in Budapest
One mother chronicles her year using KONOS:
April
Yesterday a friend of mine came over with her children and I did a special lesson from the Generosity unit centered around Easter. She is considering using KONOS and wanted to experience it. Her kids loved it. The oldest boy told his mom that they have to do school like this. In fact, he said he wants to skip school, so he can do KONOS. It was delightful!
KONOS came in handy for me once again last night. My husband, who is an architect, and I met with some new clients/business partners for dinner. A lot of construction terms were thrown around, but I knew what most of them were as they talked about trusses, live load, dead load, and so on! I love that not only my child learns wonderful lessons, but I get to learn right along with him!
Had a breakthrough today. My son had an amazing idea for the KONOS human body writing assignment. We decided to make it into a graphic novel. He got so excited that he is drawing now and even took the human body books for reference. This is stunning because he resists writing and the other day did not want to do the project at all. He is super proud of himself and so am I!
In my other life I could have been a KONOS rep! I shared in a homeschooling group how Jessica's book Orderliness was helping my child with writing problems. My friend ordered a copy! I love being able to share this resource with other mamas who are hurting.
It always amazes me how the character traits we study from KONOS are the ones that my husband and I desperately need to learn. This time around we really need determination. We need to have the determination to get through some "mountains" that seem very overwhelming to us. As we rely on strength from God to do what He has called us to do, we need to practice determination.
Dana Susan Beasley
Thank you, KONOS. We are working on Vol 3 – Resourcefulness: Inventors. We read about Archimedes today and talked about the screw as a simple machine. After watching some Archimedes screw videos on YouTube, my 10yo decides she wants to make one. I'm ready to be done, and she's digging out stuff. Sure enough it works. She is now reading a deeper biography on Archimedes and my 6yo is playing with the contraption. I'm done and on to my own work, and they are still learning. Woohoo! This is KONOS!
Elizabeth King Simmons, 2014