Homeschool Chat Part III

[Nicolepa]

I think it's a pretty rare third grade boy who's self-motivated to do work. Ask them to play video games, ride their bike off ramps, tease their little sister or whatever else is active, challenging and competitive and you're probably good to go.

Is there a local homeschool co-op so you could have PE together?

Does your son care that he's sitting there all day? Is he playing games in another window? Or is he designing the best race car, video game, story or what have you in his head while you're getting more frustrated? Is he just bored with the material? He might be capable of much more complicated ideas in literature and history and just not have his written expression skills be up to returning that information to you.

Does he think that if he spends a certain amount of time doing school, that there will be less time spent on it later? I can see a kid thinking "Well, I spent all those hours being stuck on school so after 7 hrs/day * 180 school days = done! but I've spent 10 hrs/day so I'll be done in no time at all!"

I used K12 as an independent and liked it for the most part but I do have to say that it doesn't seem to be working well for your son. Is he the sort of kid who can analyze what's going on with him and tell you what's working and what's not?

I'm not sure I helped at all,

NHWX

Self-motivated might be the wrong word. I want to be able to give him a sheet and have him read the directions and do what it says. He will not even read the directions or he says he does and he doesn't understand which I know is usually not true.

He does not care that he is sitting there all day. I know he's not playing games on the computer. He can't spell, the only way he can get on a website is if his sister types it in for him, and she's not home during the day. He just sits there breaking pencils.\ Not sure why, but we go thru pencils like they are water. He gets shocked every single day when 3:30 rolls around and I tell him it's time to pick his sister up. Then he gets upset because he's not done and he can't play with her. He also knows that means the other kids are getting out of school and he can't play with them either. He knows that he still has the same amount of work tomorrow, plus whatever he didn't get done today.

I would say the cirriculum isn't working, except that we used it all last year and he enjoyed it and we were able to finish in 2-3 hours each day. He loves the history and science. We are in the middle of 3rd grade, so it's not even the 2nd-3rd grade jump that is the issue. We dealt with that in April and got thru it w/o any tears on my end. I really feel that he just doesn't think he has to do it for whatever reason. I have him doing Saxon Math 4/5 right now and even that is easy for him. I'm hoping that it's just the "review" and things will pick up soon. I gave him the assessment and that is where he tested.

I am pretty sure that if I could get him more confident in his writing he could sail thru the curriculum at a faster clip. This is one of the reasons I let him do most of the answers orally, or dictate them to me. My original plan was to accelerate him 1 year, but until his writing improves I can’t move him any faster. I have no idea how to get him to be a more confident writer and at times I feel that I am hindering his writing development by letting do so much orally. Today when we were doing "real" school, I made him write all the answers out and he did it, w/o much complaint. Now it was barely legible and had no punctuation but he did it and I didn’t make him correct that. History he did in no time. By the time he got to his homework (literature) he took much longer (2.5 hours). His LA assessment was the same thing, barely legible and no punctuation/capitalization. Because it was a test and it was Language I did make him go back and correct those things. It wasn't until dinner was ready and we told him he could eat after his work was done that he decided to do it. When I checked on him about an hour in he just looked at me and said "I'm being lazy."

 

[robinsegg]

My dd9 has mild to moderate developmental delays. She is in 3rd grade and still struggles very much to add. I need help Any suggestions you have on teaching a special needs child or just any child just learning to add would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

She can add a small number to another small number on her fingers, but once they are bigger she can't grasp it. If I sit down with her and show her, she'll say ok, but she cannot do a problem on her own.

I read that Charlotte Mason Method approach is supposed to be awesome for autistic/asperger's kids. Maybe it would work for you, too?

 

[3princesses+aprince]

What math curriculum are you using? I wonder if Math-U-See would be a good fit for her? It is very manipulative-based. She could build each problem as she does it. I believe you can request a demo CD through their site: http://www.mathusee.com/

We are not homeschooling yet, i'm trying to figure out what i'm going to use with her. I have Abeka language arts right now for them and their math books looked good as well. I think they'll be fine for my other 2 but I think my dd9 needs something different to get the idea across to her. What she's learned (or lack of) is from school. They just keep moving on and poor dd9 is still struggling with adding. Right now in school she is working on place value, which is going very well, but as soon as they jump into something with adding again, she'll be stuck.
I will look at math-u-see, i've read about that too by going through these threads.
Thanks

http://www.touchmath.com/
This method might be helpful.

Thank you, i'm going to check it our right now.

I read that Charlotte Mason Method approach is supposed to be awesome for autistic/asperger's kids. Maybe it would work for you, too?

Thanks a lot. I'm also going to check this one out now!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I do have another math question: Do any of you have your kids memorize the addition tables like we do for the multiplication tables? I'm trying to decide where to start. Maybe that will be easier? I found some fun worksheets for doing that.

 

[robinsegg]

I do have another math question: Do any of you have your kids memorize the addition tables like we do for the multiplication tables? I'm trying to decide where to start. Maybe that will be easier? I found some fun worksheets for doing that.

If you go with Math U See, make sure to get the teacher pack for this one. It comes with both a book and a dvd that shows how to teach the lesson, and it's *great* with place values and adding!

 

[Nicolepa]

I do have another math question: Do any of you have your kids memorize the addition tables like we do for the multiplication tables? I'm trying to decide where to start. Maybe that will be easier? I found some fun worksheets for doing that.

Yup. I had my son memorize his addition and subraction tables before multiplication. He still uses his fingers for some, but he does pretty well. And he fought me and fought me on memorizing them.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Thanks, I just printed out a ton of worksheets and i'm going to let her start off using objects to make sure she has the concept down, and then try to get her to memorize the facts. Even my dd11 doesn't have her facts memorized, not even multiplication and she struggles because of it. I think they are all going to do that. And they can do it together, so that may work out well. Even though dd11 can add, it must be so much easier to have them memorized. I have the mult tables memorized, but I never had to do the addition and sub. Thanks so much!

I remember sitting in school (I went to catholic schools) and repeating and repeating the mult tables. I will always be grateful to that teacher, that's what did it! I'm going to have my girls doing that together.

 

[Nicolepa]

I don't know if you have an itouch or an iphone. There is an app called mathdrills that I love. I had my son use it every day this summer and that is how he learned his tables. I started w/addition. He had to do 2 sets of 20 practice problems a day. On Friday he had to do a test of 100 problems. When he finished in less than 5 minutes, 2 weeks in a row we went on to the next operation.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Oh wow, that sounds awesome. Unfortunately, I do not have an iphone or itouch. That's really neat though.

 

[robinsegg]

Thanks, I just printed out a ton of worksheets and i'm going to let her start off using objects to make sure she has the concept down, and then try to get her to memorize the facts. Even my dd11 doesn't have her facts memorized, not even multiplication and she struggles because of it. I think they are all going to do that. And they can do it together, so that may work out well. Even though dd11 can add, it must be so much easier to have them memorized. I have the mult tables memorized, but I never had to do the addition and sub. Thanks so much!

I remember sitting in school (I went to catholic schools) and repeating and repeating the mult tables. I will always be grateful to that teacher, that's what did it! I'm going to have my girls doing that together.

There's a book called "Cheaper by the Dozen". It's a biography of a man with 12 children in the early 20th century, and written by 2 of his children. It details the methods he used to teach his children using the wallspace in their home, as well as drills and questions at the dinner table. Having colorful charts on the walls and such might help, if you and hubby don't object

 

[DisneyDizzy]

Does anyone here homeschool in New York State?

My husband has an opportunity to transfer back East. Albany to be exact. We're in Utah and are WAY too far from home. So, we are seriously considering this. However, we've only really homeschooled in Indiana and Utah which both have very very little in the way of regulating curriculum and requirements.

Now, I think we've done a fine job but I've never really had to submit portfolios or standardized tests before. Just wondering if there are any NY homeschoolers on here and if it is really that much different?!

 

[MiniGirl]

There's a book called "Cheaper by the Dozen". It's a biography of a man with 12 children in the early 20th century, and written by 2 of his children. It details the methods he used to teach his children using the wallspace in their home, as well as drills and questions at the dinner table. Having colorful charts on the walls and such might help, if you and hubby don't object

How cool. I will have to read this book. We have an entire school wall in our family room. We have a good size family room and one wall with no windows, etc. On it, I have a big dry erase board, a map of the US, a world map, our timeline for our history. I also have lots of hooks on the wall that I use for other things -- timeline cards for our currect Classical Conversations week, math addition and multiplication tables, smaller dry erase boards for individual assignments, etc.

It can be imposing, but it doesn't bother us. Our maps get used quite a bit, and they and their friends LOVE the dry erase board.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

There's a book called "Cheaper by the Dozen". It's a biography of a man with 12 children in the early 20th century, and written by 2 of his children. It details the methods he used to teach his children using the wallspace in their home, as well as drills and questions at the dinner table. Having colorful charts on the walls and such might help, if you and hubby don't object

That does sound neat. Dh and I are not opposed to things on the wall. I do have the alphabet chart strung across my dining room wall, it's been there for a year already!

I'm going to go check that out!

 

[Nicolepa]

Me again! Thanks for all the tips and advice earlier in the week. We sat down w/my son and laid it all on the table. It's only been a day but something seems to have clicked.

Anyway I've been pondering his needs and was wondering if anyone could explain unit studies to me. I'm feeling like he needs something that encompases everything in one as much as possible. Not this OK, we are going to to Literature, now history, etc. I've read a bit about Unit Studies but I'm having a hard time grasping how that can encompase everything and give a good solid foundation. I can see being able to combine Literature & History, but Language & science?

Thoughts?

 

[3princesses+aprince]

We sent our letter of intent in today. We are not waiting for next year! (My dd11 will have an incredibly horrible year if we stick it out. She has not been able to take recess because if there is anyone who is struggling a little, they stay in for recess to get extra help on it. Ok ,that is nice to a point and for certain things, but my dd11 struggles for a living (lol) so she's not going to get to take recess any day. How is she really sitting there learning when it feels more like a punishment to her, she lives for recess.)

So that's it, i've been getting stuff together and getting ready to go. We are going to start with Christopher Columbus next week and then go straight to the 13 colonies, which will bring us to the Pilgrims around Thanksgiving! Sounds like FUN to me. I've already learned quite a few things that I did not know from getting things together for this lesson.

I also have a friend at work that is a special ed teacher's asst for 4th and 5th graders. She is bringing me this phonics "assessment" to give to my dd11 (who struggles terribly with spelling and sounding out) and then she's going to take it back to her school and have it "graded" this will tell me where I need to start with her. She was surprised that they had nothing like this for her at school.

 

[Denine]

Congrats on pulling your DD out of school now. So much for learning being fun in that toxic environment she has been in. Good LUCK!!!

I would love unit studies, but I just don't have the time to pull all the stuff together. For science, you could read an interesting book about weather and then write a report of some sort. There you have science and LA.

We leave for WDW in 2 weeks!

 

[bellebud]

Does anyone here homeschool in New York State?

My husband has an opportunity to transfer back East. Albany to be exact. We're in Utah and are WAY too far from home. So, we are seriously considering this. However, we've only really homeschooled in Indiana and Utah which both have very very little in the way of regulating curriculum and requirements.

Now, I think we've done a fine job but I've never really had to submit portfolios or standardized tests before. Just wondering if there are any NY homeschoolers on here and if it is really that much different?!

I'm in NY. the requirements aren't as bad as they at first sound.

#1 - You have to send a letter of intent for each school year. Really easy. "I will be homeschooling my child (name, dob) for the school year 20xx. S/he is in X grade." That's it.

#2 - Fill out/send in your IHIP. This states what you'll be doing and what resources you'll be using. My school district sends me a form to use for my IHIP, and I happen to like their form. It's really simple. They list each subject for me, and I put what resources I'll be using for that subject. Districts seem to vary on what they like to see for this, but there are state regulations they all have to go by.

#3 - starting in grade 4, students must be tested every other year. You can take the 4th grade year "off" and start testing in 5th. So you'd test for 5th and 7th. or test in 4th, 6th and 8th. Most hser's in NY I have talked to test their own kids, and the school districts accept these results. I'm not 100% sure about the NYS regs about this... I recall reading it must be done by a teacher or "other certified person"... can that mean the parent? I'm not sure. I gave my kids the PASS test recently (just for our own purposes).

High school is a bit more, and we're not there yet, so maybe someone else can answer. I 'believe' they have to test every year, and maybe prove some credits?? Not sure.

hth!

oh, here's another thought. I believe CT is really, really easy as far as regs go... isn't albany close to the CT border?

 

[dis-happy]

We sent our letter of intent in today. We are not waiting for next year! (My dd11 will have an incredibly horrible year if we stick it out. She has not been able to take recess because if there is anyone who is struggling a little, they stay in for recess to get extra help on it. Ok ,that is nice to a point and for certain things, but my dd11 struggles for a living (lol) so she's not going to get to take recess any day. How is she really sitting there learning when it feels more like a punishment to her, she lives for recess.)

So that's it, i've been getting stuff together and getting ready to go. We are going to start with Christopher Columbus next week and then go straight to the 13 colonies, which will bring us to the Pilgrims around Thanksgiving! Sounds like FUN to me. I've already learned quite a few things that I did not know from getting things together for this lesson.

I also have a friend at work that is a special ed teacher's asst for 4th and 5th graders. She is bringing me this phonics "assessment" to give to my dd11 (who struggles terribly with spelling and sounding out) and then she's going to take it back to her school and have it "graded" this will tell me where I need to start with her. She was surprised that they had nothing like this for her at school.

One way to do a successful unit study is to pick something that the child already has an interest in. For example, I have (had, she's in college now) a horse loving daughter.

Unit Study: Horses

Science: study the anatomy of a horse

Literature: read stories about horses (lots of choices here, including the book "A Horse and His Boy" by CS Lewis)

Writing: write a fictional story about a horse; write a factual paper about horses (ie. different horse breeds)

Art: learn to draw a picture of a horse; make a horse in clay; find depicitons of horses in gallery art; go to an art gallery and see what pictures of horses you can find

PE: make a course in your backyard for your "horse" (ie. your child) to run and jump over at top speed

History: find something that ties into horses: ie. there's a book about Paul Revere's famous ride written from the viewpoint of his horse; another option might be the history of horseracing

Fun Activity to tie it all together: go ride a horse; or make plans to see the movie Secretariat; go interview a large animal vet

Math: note: you'd still want to continue doing a regular math program, but you can tie in horses as an extra. Ex: find out the population of horses in the United State. Find the ratio of horses to people. Find out how much a horse weighs. Find the quantity of food a horse eats daily. Compare that to the quantity of food a person eats.


This is just a little bit off the top of my head, but basically you take an idea and run with it in all the different areas of study. Some people do month long unit studies then move on to something else. There are some great resources out there (both in book form and on the interent) where you can pick and choose ideas that others have already come up with under a different topics.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Congrats on pulling your DD out of school now. So much for learning being fun in that toxic environment she has been in. Good LUCK!!!

I would love unit studies, but I just don't have the time to pull all the stuff together. For science, you could read an interesting book about weather and then write a report of some sort. There you have science and LA.

We leave for WDW in 2 weeks!

Yes, they're all going to be very happy. I'm not just taking her out, i'm taking all 3 of my daughters out. They are in school for 1 more week!

This is a lot of work, but seeing how I wasn't prepared with all of the curriculum I need just yet I figured this was the way to go to start. I have some books from Abeka that I ordered. I'm all set with LA and math. I will incorporate writing into our little unit studies ,but not overkill. Oh, I also have Apologia, zoology, Land Animals that I bought last year when I thought we were going to start. So that's ready to go!

Woo Hoo for Walt Disney World, we are currently planning our next trip!

One way to do a successful unit study is to pick something that the child already has an interest in. For example, I have (had, she's in college now) a horse loving daughter.

Unit Study: Horses

Science: study the anatomy of a horse

Literature: read stories about horses (lots of choices here, including the book "A Horse and His Boy" by CS Lewis)

Writing: write a fictional story about a horse; write a factual paper about horses (ie. different horse breeds)

Art: learn to draw a picture of a horse; make a horse in clay; find depicitons of horses in gallery art; go to an art gallery and see what pictures of horses you can find

PE: make a course in your backyard for your "horse" (ie. your child) to run and jump over at top speed

History: find something that ties into horses: ie. there's a book about Paul Revere's famous ride written from the viewpoint of his horse; another option might be the history of horseracing

Fun Activity to tie it all together: go ride a horse; or make plans to see the movie Secretariat; go interview a large animal vet

Math: note: you'd still want to continue doing a regular math program, but you can tie in horses as an extra. Ex: find out the population of horses in the United State. Find the ratio of horses to people. Find out how much a horse weighs. Find the quantity of food a horse eats daily. Compare that to the quantity of food a person eats.


This is just a little bit off the top of my head, but basically you take an idea and run with it in all the different areas of study. Some people do month long unit studies then move on to something else. There are some great resources out there (both in book form and on the interent) where you can pick and choose ideas that others have already come up with under a different topics.

Oh, wow, I didn't even think of getting into things that much with the different subjects, but that's great! My kids, luckily, are very into History, Geography and Science. My dd11 complains when history is boring at school because she is very into it they just don't go that much into detail. So doing a lot with Christopher Columbus, and the Pilgrims will be very fun for them. I already have maps printed out to color and mark the routes that were travelled with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. I found a great craft to make the ships out of popsicle sticks and I have a little fun writing assignment for dd11. Hey, I guess I incorporated a few different subjects without even realizing it.

This is going to be a lot of work ,but i'm having fun, so i'll just work on over here! I'm trying to get a lot done before we start in a week. Like I said i'm all set with math, science and LA through Abeka and Apologia. I'm also all set with spelling. I guess my main thing right now is getting stuff together for History/geography. I'm off to a good start!

I just need to order some phonics books from rainbow resource for my dd11 and dd9. dd6 has one through Abeka.

 

[DisneyDizzy]

I'm in NY. the requirements aren't as bad as they at first sound.

#1 - You have to send a letter of intent for each school year. Really easy. "I will be homeschooling my child (name, dob) for the school year 20xx. S/he is in X grade." That's it.

#2 - Fill out/send in your IHIP. This states what you'll be doing and what resources you'll be using. My school district sends me a form to use for my IHIP, and I happen to like their form. It's really simple. They list each subject for me, and I put what resources I'll be using for that subject. Districts seem to vary on what they like to see for this, but there are state regulations they all have to go by.

#3 - starting in grade 4, students must be tested every other year. You can take the 4th grade year "off" and start testing in 5th. So you'd test for 5th and 7th. or test in 4th, 6th and 8th. Most hser's in NY I have talked to test their own kids, and the school districts accept these results. I'm not 100% sure about the NYS regs about this... I recall reading it must be done by a teacher or "other certified person"... can that mean the parent? I'm not sure. I gave my kids the PASS test recently (just for our own purposes).

High school is a bit more, and we're not there yet, so maybe someone else can answer. I 'believe' they have to test every year, and maybe prove some credits?? Not sure.

hth!

oh, here's another thought. I believe CT is really, really easy as far as regs go... isn't albany close to the CT border?

Thanks! It doesn't sound as bad once I broke it all down and thought it through. At first it was kind of ! I do believe Albany is close to the border. Honestly, I haven't looked at it too much. Trying not to get my hopes up that we'll get back East until it is more concrete. If I start researching places to live and the transfer falls though, it will be hard to face still being in Utah.

I actually hadn't thought about a bordering state. Duh!