Homeschool Chat Part III

[MiniGirl]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and replies. I think we may cover it a little this year, but not look at photos and videos of the events of 9/11.

Well, we made it! This was our first to week to ever homeschool (5th & 2nd grade) I LOVE "Teaching Textbooks" for math! I LOVE "My Father's World" for geography/history, Bible study, & science. What I'm NOT LOVING is Shurley English Grammar We've spent a small fortune on curriculum this year, so I can't stand the thought of buying anything else. What do you recommend for English? I rarely use the word hate, but I really think I *hate* this English

Congratulations on a successful 1st week! Here's to many more in the future.

I am not familiar with Shurley Grammar. What are you looking for, though? Do you want something that covers the basic parts of speech, etc, or something more in depth? I was looking at this today...

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=41915&it=1

It looks like it could be interesting and it is inexpensive, too. I think something like this coupled with a lot of reading could work for you. Maybe add a daily editing exercise for your 5th grader, too. I certainly don't think anyone would fall behind doing something like this and it would give you time to see what you really need.

BTW, this is a downloadable book, and it looks like there would be a lot of pages to print off adding to the overall cost.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Well, we made it! This was our first to week to ever homeschool (5th & 2nd grade) I LOVE "Teaching Textbooks" for math! I LOVE "My Father's World" for geography/history, Bible study, & science. What I'm NOT LOVING is Shurley English Grammar We've spent a small fortune on curriculum this year, so I can't stand the thought of buying anything else. What do you recommend for English? I rarely use the word hate, but I really think I *hate* this English

I don't use anything yet but have you looked at Writing With Ease or other things by that author? I've heard good things.

 

[awoogala]

Well, we made it! This was our first to week to ever homeschool (5th & 2nd grade) I LOVE "Teaching Textbooks" for math! I LOVE "My Father's World" for geography/history, Bible study, & science. What I'm NOT LOVING is Shurley English Grammar We've spent a small fortune on curriculum this year, so I can't stand the thought of buying anything else. What do you recommend for English? I rarely use the word hate, but I really think I *hate* this English

How about Learning Language arts through literature. We haven't started using it yet ( our school doesn't start till September) but it seems like a fantastic program. I just bought it for my kids. They even have a nice assessment test for each level, which I would suggest trying (my kids tested above their "grade levels")

 

[Nicolepa]

Well, we made it! This was our first to week to ever homeschool (5th & 2nd grade) I LOVE "Teaching Textbooks" for math! I LOVE "My Father's World" for geography/history, Bible study, & science. What I'm NOT LOVING is Shurley English Grammar We've spent a small fortune on curriculum this year, so I can't stand the thought of buying anything else. What do you recommend for English? I rarely use the word hate, but I really think I *hate* this English

What do you mean by English? Literature, Writing, Grammar? All of that?

My literature is covered in my Unit Study. I'm going to use IEW for writing this year and we use Easy Grammar & Daily Grams for Grammar. We switched to that in the middle of last year and we love it. My son went from being below grade level in Grammar to a year ahead in one year.

 

[SCHBR'smom]

How about Learning Language arts through literature. We haven't started using it yet ( our school doesn't start till September) but it seems like a fantastic program. I just bought it for my kids. They even have a nice assessment test for each level, which I would suggest trying (my kids tested above their "grade levels")

This is what we use. I enjoy that it is all inclusive, literature, grammer, spelling, and handwriting. The kids enjoy it, too.

 

[graygables]

Ew on the Shurley method . They were implementing that the last year I taught PS English and I thought it was ridiculous.

One of the best things you can do to teach English/language arts is to encourage speaking, reading, and writing (and doing it properly). Even now, my DDs will say, "horribLY, it's an adverb modifying how you did!" There are also tricks to figure out when to use "who" and "whom" (use "who" when you can replace with "he", use "whom" when you can replace with "him") I honestly think rote memorization of all the rules is pretty useless (coming from a former high school English teacher who LOVED diagramming sentences in junior high); it's more important to have a mastery of language that can both be spoken and written well.

Read and write, read and write. No shortcuts in message board posts or texts. Use real language often.

 

[SCHBR'smom]

I wanted to share a website for art lessons. Another homeschooler shared it with me. Several lessons are free. My oldest just finished 3 lessons and is soooo excited about it. She's already learning quite a bit. It's Mark Kistler's Online Art Lessons.

http://www.mkisdraw3d.com/public/p_ovaa/

 

[Asellus]

We're going in for one more year (my youngest wanted to go to Kindergarten....hopefully she won't be too bored....she can't read yet but she knows her letters and numbers) and then I'm planning on homeschooling.
It was already in my mind (do to various issues with the school last year) however we switched schools within the district to give it one more year. I figure I'll have time to prepare for homeschooling them.
I'd love to do virtual school as the requirements here in RI are way too strict. (Wish I could just sign a waiver like in CT...they require more subjects then they actually teach the kids!) Unfortunately there are no virtual schools in RI and I can't afford k12.

 

[Jessica14]

I'd love to do virtual school as the requirements here in RI are way too strict. (Wish I could just sign a waiver like in CT...they require more subjects then they actually teach the kids!) .

I'm here in NY and filled out the application for what I plan on teaching this year. It is my first time doing so and I noticed the same thing. My kids basically did reading, writing, phonics, and math everyday, which of course is not bad, but it is structured for virtually nothing else. My DD barely did social studies at all and homeschoolers are required to do American History, Georgraphy, etc. She glanced over these so I'm looking forward to going more in depth with things. But, yes, I had to laugh at that when I saw it.
Jessica

 

[Asellus]

I'm here in NY and filled out the application for what I plan on teaching this year. It is my first time doing so and I noticed the same thing. My kids basically did reading, writing, phonics, and math everyday, which of course is not bad, but it is structured for virtually nothing else. My DD barely did social studies at all and homeschoolers are required to do American History, Georgraphy, etc. She glanced over these so I'm looking forward to going more in depth with things. But, yes, I had to laugh at that when I saw it.
Jessica

Exactly! Although I feel like my own geographical education (in school) was lacking. At least I can cover the fun facts of RI history. (we plan on moving down south in a few years...possibly Florida or Texas)

 

[bellebud]

I'm here in NY and filled out the application for what I plan on teaching this year. It is my first time doing so and I noticed the same thing. My kids basically did reading, writing, phonics, and math everyday, which of course is not bad, but it is structured for virtually nothing else. My DD barely did social studies at all and homeschoolers are required to do American History, Georgraphy, etc. She glanced over these so I'm looking forward to going more in depth with things. But, yes, I had to laugh at that when I saw it.
Jessica

I'm in NY too. My kids are 11 and 10.

History and Science are something that we don't do every single day like the other subjects, but they happen all around us.

We've done audio cd's in the car on all the Amercian Girls series. After we did the "Felicity" one, we visited Williamsburg, VA, which was amazing, and really brought it all home for the kids.

We do a lot of local (w/in an hour or so) field trips, which are almost always Science or History related. We've visited George Washington's headquarters, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, Thomas Edisons lab and home in NJ, we go to the Discovery Center in NYC (King Tut, Pompeii). When we visit somewhere, we look it up on our map and mark it.

We watch a lot of discovery channel and history channel. My ds's favorite subject is WWII (because of the history channel).

I look up living history grade appropriate books (you could just google it), and order them from our library (whether it's book for cd form). Johnny Tremain was a favorite too. Scholastic (our homeschool group has a scholastic account) has wonderful, inexpensive books.

My kids have done a week long archeology camp 5x's now, where they study the ancient culture, then dig up artifacts the way archeologists would. (It's run by an archeologist from Albany University). When we visited Williamsburg, we also went to Jamestown (the fake one), but then we went to the actual Jamestown site, where they're currently excavating the remains of the original people (so the kids after doing these archeology camps got to see a real archeology site), and we got a tour from the head archeologist. It was so cool!!

To me, history and science are the 'extras', and they're the most fun and interesting, hands-on things we do.

 

[jacksmomma]

I hate that Science always gets pushed to the back burner! I have a degree in El. Ed. with an extension and concentration in Science. When I did my student teaching I was in a 4th grade classroom for the first 8 weeks of school. In that time the children had 1 20 minute science lesson! 1 in 8 weeks... All of the "science time" was spent doing test prep and practicing filling in the bubbles on the scantron sheet. It was beyond sad!

 

[MK2010]

I have homeschooled my four kids here in Texas for the past 7 years. I started when my oldest DS was 5 and going into kindergarten. My husband and I both have a teaching degree and made the decision to homeschool as soon as I became pregnant.

In our public schools elementary science may be 20 minutes or so once a week. Yet when people find out I'm homeschooling, they want to know where my kids are in each subject. We talk science and especially public school teachers panic when I say my kids cannot recite lifecycles from heart. This just cracks me up. My kids can tell you which animals live in which environment and what they eat. They can tell you in depth about birds and flies and how their wings work and how this translates to air/space flight today. But let's panic because they would fail the TAKS test because they don't know about lifecycles. This is what is wrong with our education system. Teachers are great. Administrators are dong the best they can, but when we bought in to a one size fits all system of thinking towards public education we lost the wonder of learning.

We use the elementary Apologia curriculum which we do three times a week for between 30-60 minutes. It has experiments, worksheets, and notebooking activities to help my kids retain what they learned. I don't make every one of my kids do every activity. I assign the ones that fit their ability and learning style.

 

[mmullena70]

Hey, I wanted to introduce myself. I'm relatively new to the Dis and just found this homeschooling thread.

We started our fifth year of homeschooling on Monday. My kids are 9 and 10. We love the flexibility that homeschooling offers and the extra time we get to spend together as a family.

We're doing Galloping the Globe geography unit studies this year. We'll be studying many of the countries located in the World Showcase. The kids are excited to find out about these countries before our Feb. 2012 visit. I think all the countries but Norway are covered in GTG.

Is anyone else familiar with this curriculum? Any tips?

 

[MouseCrazy96]

Hi everyone!

I am very interested in home schooling my 5 1/2yr old son who is starting kindergarten. I am feeling a bit lost as to how to get started. Wondering if anyone here can point me in the right direction please? Do we need to make it official in any way or just go ahead and start? From what I am reading on line I get the impression that for kindergarten we don't really need to report anything. Is this true? Also, how do I go about finding the correct materials? Ugh! I am sooo lost!!! Please help! Thank you!!

 

[mmullena70]

Hi everyone!

I am very interested in home schooling my 5 1/2yr old son who is starting kindergarten. I am feeling a bit lost as to how to get started. Wondering if anyone here can point me in the right direction please? Do we need to make it official in any way or just go ahead and start? From what I am reading on line I get the impression that for kindergarten we don't really need to report anything. Is this true? Also, how do I go about finding the correct materials? Ugh! I am sooo lost!!! Please help! Thank you!!

You need to find out what your state requires as far as reporting, enrolling, etc. HSLDA has a lot of info on their website.
That should help you get started.

 

[jacksmomma]

You need to find out what your state requires as far as reporting, enrolling, etc. HSLDA has a lot of info on their website.
That should help you get started.

I second this...find out what the requirements for your state are and work from there.

 

[Nicolepa]

Bumping us up.

 

[Jessica14]

I'm in NY too. My kids are 11 and 10.

We've done audio cd's in the car on all the Amercian Girls series. After we did the "Felicity" one, we visited Williamsburg, VA, which was amazing, and really brought it all home for the kids.

We do a lot of local (w/in an hour or so) field trips, which are almost always Science or History related. We've visited George Washington's headquarters, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, Thomas Edisons lab and home in NJ, we go to the Discovery Center in NYC (King Tut, Pompeii). When we visit somewhere, we look it up on our map and mark it. .

We are on Long Island so we go to NYC a lot. We are members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History museum (which has a great kids website for anyone who is interested. It's called "Ology.")Unfortunately we are not geting to the Pompeii exhibit though we did go to King Tut. Our library just started to offer free tickets to some Museums in the areas so we are going to the Intrepid on the first day of public school. We plan on doing lots of art history since the kids like that and we have access to different art museums. I also would love to go to Plymouth Plantation this year!


I think I will do more books on tape. Thanks for the suggestion! We just started this week and are just getting our feet wet. DS 6 needs a lot of one on one and DD 8 is more advanced. She's crying because its "all about him" and he's crying because "its so hard." Only day three, but I'm sure they will get used to it!
Jessica

 

[Nicolepa]

I think I will do more books on tape. Thanks for the suggestion! We just started this week and are just getting our feet wet. DS 6 needs a lot of one on one and DD 8 is more advanced. She's crying because its "all about him" and he's crying because "its so hard." Only day three, but I'm sure they will get used to it!
Jessica

My kids love books on tape! Right now we are listening to the entire Chronicals of Narnia series. I downloaded it from Ancient Faith Radio.