Homeschool Chat Part III

[Nicolepa]

Yes we are doing, Math, Science and LA. Thanks for the info.

Maria

So were your classes loaded this morning? PM me if you have questions and I'll send you my personal email.


Nicole

 

[robinsegg]

It sounds like homeschooling may be just exactly the right choice for you, then
I'd recommend you look at www.letteroftheweek.com for a beginning to your curriculum. It's a free site that offers lots of ideas for teaching preschoolers. It centers around a letter of the alphabet each week, but it essentially a set of unit studies, with each week recommending everything from books to snacks, including science, social science, physical education, math, etc.

I certainly wish you well!

I don't know if your son has an autism problem or not, but I've read that a Charlotte Mason Method education is *really* good for autistic kids.
Rachel

 

[antree]

So were your classes loaded this morning? PM me if you have questions and I'll send you my personal email.


Nicole

Hi, I PM'ed you. Yup, the course were there this morning. I can't believe it took me all day to figure it out. I swear I don't know where my head was today. Hoping tomorrow is easier now, but so far I like it.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I know i've read that many people were overwhelmed by Abeka. I also know that it's geared to teach a class. I am not planning on buying the entire kit, but I am going to use their language arts books, I actually already have Language 2 and letters and sounds for my soon to be second grader and Language A for my soon to be 4th grader. I still need to buy Language C for my soon to be 6th grader. They seem great. I was also going to buy their math books. (I say soon to be, but not really, that's almost a year away)

Any opinions on what you thought of these, especially the math before I purchase it. I have nothing to compare them to except for what opinions I read. Thanks so much.

 

[amiemac78]

Just wanted to say hi to everyone. I have been reading this thread for a few weeks now. My DS is in kindergaten and I have been thinking of pulling him out of public school for over a month. Well, after much thought and talking it over with my husband for the last few days, we have decided to homeschool. I am mailing out the letter of intent tomorrow. I am very excited and a little scared. DS has seemed bored with school and already does not want to go. Thanks for all the info you guys have given. It has helped me out a lot. I am sure I will have lots more questions once we get started in a few weeks.

 

[my*2*angels]

Has anyone used the time4learning website? Did you like it? Why or why not?

 

[amiemac78]

Has anyone used the time4learning website? Did you like it? Why or why not?

We have just started to use time4learning-on our third day. My DS loves video games, so this is a great fit for him. He is still in public school through Oct. 9th. Sending the letter out tomorrow with the two week notice to pull him out to homeschool. So, we are just using it a little in the evenings for now but he really likes it. I was not going to do it tonight because it is my DH's day off (he works nights, so only sees the kids two evenings a week during school) but he asked to get on. I am sure someone else on here has been using it more long term and can give you a more in depth review but so far it is working great for us.

 

[disneygourmet]

I am wondering if anyone here home schools special needs kids and, if any of those, began later in their childs schooling.

Yes, I homeschool children with special needs. I have done so from the beginning, but I know of many others who started after having problems with the public schools not meeting their children's needs.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

Just wanted to say hi to everyone. I have been reading this thread for a few weeks now. My DS is in kindergaten and I have been thinking of pulling him out of public school for over a month. Well, after much thought and talking it over with my husband for the last few days, we have decided to homeschool. I am mailing out the letter of intent tomorrow. I am very excited and a little scared. DS has seemed bored with school and already does not want to go. Thanks for all the info you guys have given. It has helped me out a lot. I am sure I will have lots more questions once we get started in a few weeks.

We've been homeschooling since my oldest was in preschool (he's in 7th grade now), and I think I feel this way every single year! You're in for a big adventure!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

So, now that i've decided on homeschooling next year, I am having a hard time dealing with all of the school stuff. My dd11 who was having a very hard time from K-3 had a great time last year with a great teacher. I figure this year would be the same. We are already off to a not so good start. And I think because I know what I want to do for next year i'm not taking it well. dd11 is quiet and well behaved in school. That is the main thing her teachers have always said. Well, why is it that 3 weeks into school she's had to stay in for recess and got a yellow chip(that is when behavior is not at it's best) WHAT She hasn't ever had to stay in or gotten a yellow chip in her entire school career. HOW has she managed them both in 3 weeks She was slow to get into the class room, along with a few others, and they had to miss most of their recess (15 min) Practicing how to quickly put their stuff in their lockers and get into the classroom. How degrading, right She was also upset yesterday because her teacher asked her a math question and she used her fingers to count it out. The teacher embarrassed her very much by saying, Emily, we don't use our fingers to count, if you have to use something do it out on your paper. Oh, that's great life skills, having to give change and taking out your pen and paper at walmart to figure it out.
Just needed to vent and I knew here would be a good place! I "fought" to keep all of the girls in this school this year because 1 school in our town closed and they had to do rearranging. Well there were too many K and 1st graders in our town so they took a bunch of streets and started mailing out letters that said, your K or 1st grader is zoned to be bused to the other school. Only 8 minutes away, but I was not having 3 kids split up between schools. I clearly got my request after weeks, so that is the main reason for me keeping them there for the rest of this year? I need to go to something to relax. Had a rough day anyway. I lost 2 debit cards this morning. ( How does one manage that you ask) I lost one at walmart and went to the bank to cancel it. I stopped at the atm and when I got home, my other one was GONE! Luckily when I called the bank they did have it, the tellers were amused by my carelessness. Which is so unlike me with stuff like money and debit cards!

Well, I hope everyone here is having a better day than me I'm ok now though!

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

She was also upset yesterday because her teacher asked her a math question and she used her fingers to count it out. The teacher embarrassed her very much by saying, Emily, we don't use our fingers to count, if you have to use something do it out on your paper.

Sorry you're having a rough day, and things aren't going so well for your dd at school.

As far as the above, though...I sometimes use my fingers, lol! Granted, I'm no mathematician, but I successfully graduated from college even with the occasional finger-counting. Not sure it's something I'd have made an issue of if I were a teacher.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Exactly! I still use my fingers as well sometimes! I did it in school, I was never told not to by any teacher. And I went to college as well and have a well paying job. Counting on my fingers once in a while has never got in my way!

 

[amiemac78]

So, now that i've decided on homeschooling next year, I am having a hard time dealing with all of the school stuff. My dd11 who was having a very hard time from K-3 had a great time last year with a great teacher. I figure this year would be the same. We are already off to a not so good start. And I think because I know what I want to do for next year i'm not taking it well. dd11 is quiet and well behaved in school. That is the main thing her teachers have always said. Well, why is it that 3 weeks into school she's had to stay in for recess and got a yellow chip(that is when behavior is not at it's best) WHAT She hasn't ever had to stay in or gotten a yellow chip in her entire school career. HOW has she managed them both in 3 weeks She was slow to get into the class room, along with a few others, and they had to miss most of their recess (15 min) Practicing how to quickly put their stuff in their lockers and get into the classroom. How degrading, right She was also upset yesterday because her teacher asked her a math question and she used her fingers to count it out. The teacher embarrassed her very much by saying, Emily, we don't use our fingers to count, if you have to use something do it out on your paper. Oh, that's great life skills, having to give change and taking out your pen and paper at walmart to figure it out.
Just needed to vent and I knew here would be a good place! I "fought" to keep all of the girls in this school this year because 1 school in our town closed and they had to do rearranging. Well there were too many K and 1st graders in our town so they took a bunch of streets and started mailing out letters that said, your K or 1st grader is zoned to be bused to the other school. Only 8 minutes away, but I was not having 3 kids split up between schools. I clearly got my request after weeks, so that is the main reason for me keeping them there for the rest of this year? I need to go to something to relax. Had a rough day anyway. I lost 2 debit cards this morning. ( How does one manage that you ask) I lost one at walmart and went to the bank to cancel it. I stopped at the atm and when I got home, my other one was GONE! Luckily when I called the bank they did have it, the tellers were amused by my carelessness. Which is so unlike me with stuff like money and debit cards!

Well, I hope everyone here is having a better day than me I'm ok now though!

We had to fight to keep our kids in the school they are in this year as well. The school my DD has been in since K denied her for this year and DS who started K this year. It is a closed attendance school, they don't want anyone outside of the zoned area anymore. We had to go to the school board and they approved it the day before school started. Since she started going there before they started the no outsiders rule, she can stay and her brother can go there since she is too. DD loves school and is in 7th grade but DS is not doing so well. He is ahead academically to what they are teaching and he is getting check marks almost everyday for talking or not staying seated. I think he is bored with doing stuff he already knows like color the triangles red and the squares green and he is not much into coloring or worksheets, which seems like all they are doing. He likes more hands on learning. I hated to pull him out of the school we fought so hard to get him into but we can already tell that public school is just not going to fit with his learning style. We mailed out the homeschooling letter of intent yesterday, so we can start in two weeks. I feel so much more relaxed and at peace since DH and I made this decision. He is very supportive about doing this and I think he is excited about it too. Hope everything works out for you with whatever you decide to do.

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

Has anyone used the time4learning website? Did you like it? Why or why not?

HI, We used time4learnig for a couple years. We loved it. If you try for a month and like it I would call and get information on paying for a year. It is a nice savings.

Also, if you are interested in helping out another homeschool family you might see if amiemac wants to pm you her name. (Since she recommends) If you give her name as a referring you she will get a twenty dollar check

The curriculum is very engaging. It is easy to navigate, give assignments, it does all the record keeping It is very easy to have to repeat or go back to any lesson that they need more practice on or skip ahead. If you child is first grade, on their home screen you have access to all Kindergarten and Second grade lessons. You can have your child assigned to different levels in different subjects (i.e. Math 2, Language Arts 1, Science 2, Social Studies 1) It gives lots of positive feedback.

It was the perfect choice for us for a few years. I needed to experiment to find a different math program for my DD. We found Teaching Textbooks was perfect for her. And then my DS who is advancing quicker with math than reading so we also switched him to Teaching Textbooks for math because he is not limited by his reading ability.

So then we gradually switched other things around since we were not using the whole curriuculum. However, I do know people who use it just for Language Arts and feel it is a great price for just that part.

Hope that helps.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

In reading through the old homeschool thread I found letteroftheweek.com, oh, wow! This website looks great. We're going to be using this one!

 

[my*2*angels]

Thanks for your responses on time4learning!!! My dd LOVES to play games on the computer and I just thought it might be a great addition to what we are doing now. I am glad to hear that everyone likes it! And YES, if I can help someone out when signing up, by all means, let me know!!!!

 

[MommyBell08]

Hi Everyone! I have a DS that will turn three in January but is very advanced for his age. We plan on homeschooling and I want to take advantage of how much he loves to learn right now. Can anyone reccomend a good Pre-K curriculum? I was hoping to keep it Christian based and have heard that Ace Paces is a great program. Im so excited to be a part of this awesome thread!

 

[robinsegg]

Hi Everyone! I have a DS that will turn three in January but is very advanced for his age. We plan on homeschooling and I want to take advantage of how much he loves to learn right now. Can anyone reccomend a good Pre-K curriculum? I was hoping to keep it Christian based and have heard that Ace Paces is a great program. Im so excited to be a part of this awesome thread!

We used Sonlight and loved their preK program (it's *lots* of reading, but comes with 4-day/week or 5-day/week teacher guides).
For our next one, we're thinking about using the My Father's World, as it's what we're using for the older kids, but we may just get the teacher guides for the Sonlight preK we still have the books for

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Does anyone use IXL.com. It seems great with the list of everything they should know in each grade and tons of practice with it. It will be $14 a month for my 3 girls to use it, it sounds like a great deal for lots of practice, just wanted some opinions before we signed up for it, thanks!

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

We check out DVD from the series The Science of Disney Imagineering from the library. I wish they had more but we just finished this one http://www.dep-store.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=77D58VL00 Just thought I would share in case others have not heard of this series. We love them and they sure make learning fun!