Homeschool Chat Part III

[jacksmomma]

We had a great impromptu preschool lesson yesterday. A new house is going up in our neighborhood and yesterday was concrete day. DS and I walked over to the site and stood on the sidelines for an hour watching the big trucks come and go and the guys work. He had a great time and I was able to integrate all subjects into the "lesson". It was such a fun time! We are just starting with homeschooling, but I think I am going to love it!

 

[Denine]

We are here in Williamsburg! It looks like a full week of activities.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I posted on this thread a little over a year ago. My dd, now 11, was having a slew of problems in school and I was ready to homeschool all 3 of my daughters. I even had the letter of intent sent in to the school dept. Well, about a week before school started last year, I panicked, most likely from what everyone was saying and the looks and comments i'd get from people. The last one was from my youngest daughter's doctor. We took her in because she was sick, she had an ear infection, this was about 2 weeks before school was starting, and the doctor asked her a question about school. I told her we were going to homeschool. She looked at me like I had 3 heads and then mentioned something about pre K. I told her dd did go to pre K this past year, and she said, "well, at least she got to do that, and was able to be around other children for 1 year" Oh, I was sooo mad! Like from this point on dd wasn't ever going to see another child.

Now, I believe everything happens for a reason, I always say that: Last year, my daugther's had a wonderful school year. My dd11 got a wonderful teacher that changed her whole attitude about school. I am forever grateful to her. My dd9 who has special needs was in a classroom that was just ok, she fell very behind in math, so I wasn't too happy there. My dd6, who was in K, had a fine year too, even though I was not at all crazy about her teachers. One of the teacher assistant's was always yelling.

Fast forward to now: My dd's are still doing fine, I thank God, because for my dd11; K-3 was a nightmare. My dd11 got the teacher she wanted for this year, my dd9 seems to have an ok teacher, but the special education teacher that will be working with her is going to take her out of the class with a few other kids for reading writing and math. So, that, I believe, will help her math skills. My dd6 has the most wonderful teacher in the world. She was both other dd's teacher for 1st grade and I love her.

So, what brings me to this thread now? Well, i've been thinking about homeschooling again and even though everything is ok at public school I feel I am now 100% ready to do this. I feel that I no longer care what others may say or think. I feel that this decision is the right one, and i am not battling with myself over whether it is or not. ( I did that for a year or more) I do believe that sending my dds back to school last year was the right decision, my dd11 no longer despises her homework. I've been thinking about this (wish those thoughts would have come a few weeks sooner so I could have arranged it for this year, but again, I feel everything happens for a reason) and I believe I am ready and I believe that my kids will learn SO much more from this. I also have a feeling, because this is something i've wanted to do for a while, that when I'm old and my kids are grown, I will regret not doing this for the rest of my life. My kids are home today for election day, and I just want them to be home everyday!

Being around other kids was one of my biggest fears for not wanting to do this. That is no longer anything I would ever worry about. We have a HUGE homeschool group here that does co ops, meets for field days, and has a field trip at least once every month, sometimes more. I also believe that signing them up for things like karate and dance that go all year long will go a huge way in helping them make friends. These are things they've been wanting to do, but with me working part time nights and the hours of homework after school, I feel like we'd go crazy. We'll be able to make the time for those things next year.

So, here I am, I am looking for a lot of advice on curriculum and of course a bunch of other stuff as well. But to start off, I just wanted to introduce myself back here!

Actually, I will start off with a question. My dd11 can read just fine (she did struggle and was a "late reader" according to the public school anyway) but she still struggles in spelling. She's a terrible speller. I feel bad because it's really starting to bother her now in school. She's embarrassed because all of her friends can spell.
Is there something you would recommend for me to help her with this. I've looked at phonics stuff but that's really for kids just learning to read of course. She can hear the consonants but not always the vowels. Just like a young child starting to sound out words. She also sometimes mixes the consonants up. Then i'll ask, now sound that out, does that make sense? Take the word, horse, for example (she would probably not mis spell this one, but just an example) She may spell hrse or hosre. She forgets vowels and sometimes mixes up where the letters should be.
Any advice on this would be appreciated deeply.

Thanks so much!

 

[MiniGirl]

Is there something you would recommend for me to help her with this. I've looked at phonics stuff but that's really for kids just learning to read of course. She can hear the consonants but not always the vowels. Just like a young child starting to sound out words. She also sometimes mixes the consonants up. Then i'll ask, now sound that out, does that make sense? Take the word, horse, for example (she would probably not mis spell this one, but just an example) She may spell hrse or hosre. She forgets vowels and sometimes mixes up where the letters should be.
Any advice on this would be appreciated deeply.

Thanks so much!

First of all... I'm glad your kiddos had a great year last year in school, and I hope this one goes well, too. I'm sorry for the strange looks and comments you got when you mentioned your decision to homeschool though. I think homeschooling is something that just cannot be fully understood by people until they do it. There are lots of misconceptions going around about it and they are all propogated by someone who knows someone who is neighbors with this one family that homeschools. Ugh!! I just wanted to say that many of us had good (or even great) public school experiences, but still decided to bring our kids home, so you are not alone in wanting that even though things are going better now.

About the spelling, does you dd'd school still assign spelling words? (Sorry, but I don't know when that stops.) How is it done? Is it just a list of words or do they study a spelling rule that goes with those words? If a word is misspelled, is it corrected immediately? We use a program called Spelling Power. I really enjoy it, and it takes only about 5 - 10 minutes a day. Set the timer for 5 minutes. The student reads and copies the rule. Next, the parent reads a word from the list and uses it in a sentence. The student writes it and then spells it outloud. If it is correct, you move on to the next one. If not, the parent spells it correctly and the student writes it again with the correct spelling. You continue this until the timer goes off. If all words were spelled correctly, you're done for the day. If not, you set the timer again (5 minutes), and your student goes through a checklist of sorts -- but only for the words that were missed. The next day, you start with any missed words from the previous day.

Since you said, she doesn't mind homework so much anymore, maybe ya'll could do this (or something like it) at home. I will add that both of my girls love spelling because they like the one on one time with me, and I will often make-up silly sentences for the words.

Good luck to ya'll though.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

minigirl, thanks for your response. And yes I am finally at the point where it does not matter to me a bit what others think is right for me and my family. (Ha, I wonder now why I thought it mattered before, who on earth are they to think they have a say?) And as my dd11 is not appalled to be going to school everyday anymore, she still struggles. She's got a little bit of anxiety about going still, but it's better. I still have so many problems and see way too many faults to be happy with their current school situation, so as I say it's going better than before, i'm still not happy with it. There are other reasons for me deciding to homeschool now though, which I think is what's making the decision easy for me this time around. I wanted to take the kids out last year because of dd11s problems there. Everyone made me feel that if I took her out it would not help her deal with her issues ( i know they were wrong to say that) But, now that the issues of the school itself aren't the only things that are helping with my decision, I feel better. I feel like this is what we want to do whether or not the public school is ok..... For many reasons!

Here's 4:
dd6's friend told her to come home and say f*#@ to me. I was like WHAT kind of kid is saying that in the first grade. My dd6 did NOT say the word she told me "the bad word that started with F". This is the kid that already wanted dd6 over for a play date..... Yeah right

dd11 struggles in math. They have been working with giving back change. The teacher was showing them this very silly way. SO not the way things are done in real life and dd11 was having a hard time figuring out the concept of what the teacher was doing. I showed her my way and she was so thrilled that she got it. Well the next day the teacher saw that she wasn't doing it HER way and made dd11 erase and do the whole page again. I WAS SO MAD! I could see if maybe they were 1st or 2nd graders and they were showing them a different way to be helpful, but my dd is old enough to buy something in a store. Should she not be taught the way she would do it out in the real world. The way they make them do it includes having quarters, nickels and dimes layed out, and then I don't even know. BUT I do know that when i'm at the store I don't take my change out and lay it on the counter.

dd6 is so bored in school. She is very advanced because this homeschooling idea for me came when she was in pre k and i've been working with her since. I'm going to go ahead and keep her going with new stuff at home but I know that's only going to add to the boredom at school. BUT, i'm not going to let her hang on to sounding out letters when she's had that mastered for a while. I know they're just reviewing, but she's so ready to move on.

Because I work nights some days, I leave when they are getting home. I have a few days where I see them in the morning while getting ready and after school (which is just 15 min) I will love the days home teaching them.

Ok, sorry this is getting long. But to answer your question of will dd11 do extra work with me. Absolutely. She not "crazy" about doing her homework from school, but she knows she has to get it done, so she does it. But to work with me, she loves to. We have definitely been doing a lot of work together on math since school started and she enjoys working with me. We just found funbrain.com and they are all loving that. I will definitely look into spelling power, it sounds like that what she would need. To have the rule along with the word. I don't know what they're going to do this year with spelling, but up until last year, yes she did still have a spelling word list. But, they just memorized the spelling of them. She could memorize them for a test no problem. BUT of course, right after the test they were gone from her mind. She would spell them wrong in a sentence the very next week.

Thank you, i'm going to go check that out!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Ok, so I checked out the spelling power website and that definitely sounds GREAT! It's expensive though and as I think that is something i'd definitely consider for next year, i'm not sure I want to spend the money now, nor do I want to overload her. She gets a lot of homework every night. I think I just need something for now that I can do with her on the weekends to give her a little boost. By the time we get homework done on weekdays she'd probably cry if I pulled something else out. But like I said she is very willing to do extra work with me. But I know for the rest of this school year it's just going to be a weekend thing when we'll be doing it.

I'll be able to work with my dd6 on phonics and reading as she doesn't get much homework. My dd9 doesn't get too much, but it takes the poor kid hours. Not yet, as school just started, but last year was terrible with the homework. She has a hard time focusing.

 

[disneymom3]

Ok, so I checked out the spelling power website and that definitely sounds GREAT! It's expensive though and as I think that is something i'd definitely consider for next year, i'm not sure I want to spend the money now, nor do I want to overload her. She gets a lot of homework every night. I think I just need something for now that I can do with her on the weekends to give her a little boost. By the time we get homework done on weekdays she'd probably cry if I pulled something else out. But like I said she is very willing to do extra work with me. But I know for the rest of this school year it's just going to be a weekend thing when we'll be doing it.

I'll be able to work with my dd6 on phonics and reading as she doesn't get much homework. My dd9 doesn't get too much, but it takes the poor kid hours. Not yet, as school just started, but last year was terrible with the homework. She has a hard time focusing.

Look on ebay for used Spelling Power sets. You might end up with a previous edition but the concept is still going to be the same. THat's a good program for a lot of kids. The other one I thought of is Sequential Spelling. I have a few friends who have used that with kids who just didn't get spelling and it worked well. I have my 10 yo in Christian LIght Publications Language Arts this year and I really like how they do their spelling as far as organization but I do add additional activities for him to practice the words.

 

[disneymom3]

There are a LOT of homeschoolers out here but they tend to be uber-conservative and all share the same religion (Mormon - We're not). I love the people out here but we don't really "fit" any of the groups and are very much on our own! My 8-year-old doesn't have a single friend out here and I find that a challenge. I, for the first time ever, really AM worried about

. I'm just really hoping and praying that we find a way to fit in and find a few friends. But without changing who we are. Has anyone been in a similar situation?

That is really hard. I know what you mean. I really struggled for several years to find a good group for DD to be part of. We finally did but it took some real searching. You will get there. One thing she did that was really awesome is get a penpal. There is (or at least was) a Yahoo group about showebox exchanges for homeschoolers. You signed up to send a shoe box with things that represented your state to a child in another state and they sent one to you. Through that set up, we found a little girl that she started writing back and forth with. It really helped for a time. I know you will find something too.

 

[DawnM]

There are some fantastic spelling programs out there.

Schools teach spelling words in isolation: Learn this list and memorize.

Teaching actual spelling RULES and reasons for how we spell things make a whole lot more sense and actually teaches SPELLING, not memorization.

Some that I like:

Spell to Write and Read (it IS complicated!)
All About Spelling (almost same concept as SWR but more teacher friendly)
AVKO Sequential Spelling (very easy to implement and CHEAP!)

Dawn

 

[DawnM]

Find a new doctor!

SERIOUSLY!

Our general family doctor HOMESCHOOLS his own children!

Our ENT is a homeschool dad.

Our plastic surgeon's family used to homeschool!

We LOVE our group of doctors. The only one who doesn't is their dentist and he has never made one comment other than, "cool!"

I won't stand for it or any comments from anyone. Either I stop talking to that person (strangers who feel the need to make rude comments like the one at the car place yesterday!) or I give them an ear full while they talk to me about how their own ps children are making bad choices in life!

These people do not HEAR themselves speak!

Dawn

I posted on this thread a little over a year ago. My dd, now 11, was having a slew of problems in school and I was ready to homeschool all 3 of my daughters. I even had the letter of intent sent in to the school dept. Well, about a week before school started last year, I panicked, most likely from what everyone was saying and the looks and comments i'd get from people. The last one was from my youngest daughter's doctor. We took her in because she was sick, she had an ear infection, this was about 2 weeks before school was starting, and the doctor asked her a question about school. I told her we were going to homeschool. She looked at me like I had 3 heads and then mentioned something about pre K. I told her dd did go to pre K this past year, and she said, "well, at least she got to do that, and was able to be around other children for 1 year" Oh, I was sooo mad! Like from this point on dd wasn't ever going to see another child.


Thanks so much!

 

[MiniGirl]

Ok, so I checked out the spelling power website and that definitely sounds GREAT! It's expensive though and as I think that is something i'd definitely consider for next year, i'm not sure I want to spend the money now, nor do I want to overload her. She gets a lot of homework every night. I think I just need something for now that I can do with her on the weekends to give her a little boost. By the time we get homework done on weekdays she'd probably cry if I pulled something else out. But like I said she is very willing to do extra work with me. But I know for the rest of this school year it's just going to be a weekend thing when we'll be doing it.

I'll be able to work with my dd6 on phonics and reading as she doesn't get much homework. My dd9 doesn't get too much, but it takes the poor kid hours. Not yet, as school just started, but last year was terrible with the homework. She has a hard time focusing.

You know, I bought Spelling Power our first year of homeschooling as part of a complete curriculum, so I didn't realize how expensive it is on its own. That is a good chunk of money up front. Of course, we're on our 3rd yeaar using it, so now the per year cost has gone down for us. I know you'll find a good one that works for ya'll though.

Good luck.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

disneymom3, I didn't even think to check ebay or amazon. I'm going to do that, thanks!

DawnM, thanks for the spelling program list, i'll check them all out too. And you're right, they teach to memorize, that's why my dd has no clue how to sound something out to spell it. She memorizes it for a while, but if it's a word she doesn't use daily, she soon loses it. And thanks for the encouragement. I was very disappointed with their doctor's comment, because we really like her. We actually just switched to her 2 years ago, she's great. Oh well, those are the comments that don't even bother me anymore, if anything, I wish with everything I had I could go back to that day and just stand there and tell her not to worry ,we have it all covered, but thanks for the comment. So glad i'm finally to this point.

And as for spelling power, it sounds absolutely GREAT! I am pretty sure I will purchase it for next school year. I just don't want to spend that money now. (Unless I can find it on ebay or amazon for a low price) We won't be able to really use it until this school year is over. If it were for either my dd6 or dd9 i'd say they wouldn't mind doing an extra program like that over the weekend, but I know my dd11 would get overwhelmed between all the hourse she's in school and all the hours she's doing homework. The cost sounds well worth it for sure! You can't really put a price on something that works that well.

Ok, so my dd6 is starting to read, she's doing GREAT with sounding out the letters to read the words. She CANNOT get the lowercase d and b, she confuses the two. I know i've heard that this is very common and I know she will eventually get it. But is there any little trick or anything you tell your child to help her/him remember which is which? I feel bad because she's doing so good and can sound out so many new words now, and I can tell she gets a discouraged when she comes across a word... and there is that d or b..... she's not sure which one it is?

Thanks!

 

[MiniGirl]

Ok, so my dd6 is starting to read, she's doing GREAT with sounding out the letters to read the words. She CANNOT get the lowercase d and b, she confuses the two. I know i've heard that this is very common and I know she will eventually get it. But is there any little trick or anything you tell your child to help her/him remember which is which? I feel bad because she's doing so good and can sound out so many new words now, and I can tell she gets a discouraged when she comes across a word... and there is that d or b..... she's not sure which one it is?

Thanks!

Okay, this is something that I actually had trouble with as a kid, and this is what I came up with to help me remember......

You know how you will often see the alphabet displayed with the uppercase letter followed by the lowercase letter..... Ex. Bb and Dd. Right? Think of the uppercase letter as the parent and the lowercase as the child. The lower case "d" faces his Dad and the lower case "b" does not. I hope that makes sense. I struggled with this for a long time and that little mind picture helped me.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Okay, this is something that I actually had trouble with as a kid, and this is what I came up with to help me remember......

You know how you will often see the alphabet displayed with the uppercase letter followed by the lowercase letter..... Ex. Bb and Dd. Right? Think of the uppercase letter as the parent and the lowercase as the child. The lower case "d" faces his Dad and the lower case "b" does not. I hope that makes sense. I struggled with this for a long time and that little mind picture helped me.

Ha! That's really cute. I will try that one with her. That's what I was looking for, just a cute little saying that will hopefully stick. Thanks so much!

 

[graygables]

Ok, so my dd6 is starting to read, she's doing GREAT with sounding out the letters to read the words. She CANNOT get the lowercase d and b, she confuses the two.

There was also a trick to make the shape with your hands (like an "OK" sign). The "b" is "first" (as in on the left) while the "d" is last. I also remember something about holding out finger and thumb in an "L" shape, look and the real "L" is for Left.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

There was also a trick to make the shape with your hands (like an "OK" sign). The "b" is "first" (as in on the left) while the "d" is last. I also remember something about holding out finger and thumb in an "L" shape, look and the real "L" is for Left.

Oh, that's a great one too! I love these ideas here! Super cute! I know the L one. It's the real L and it's to know which hand is left.


I also had to point out that (I really am a good speller) I spelled hours wrong in my previous post. I spelled it hourse. Ha, I added an e for some strange reason. Obviously just a type-o but had to laugh because I was talking about spelling issues.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Ok, so i've been reading through the first homeschool thread (lots of reading to do, i'm very excited) And i've seen Rainbow Resource mentioned a lot. Well i just clicked on a link to check it out and There is the perfect phonics book that i'm going to buy for dd11. It's only around $8 and is a practice workbook for kids that have not received the proper phonics skills. The sample pages were working with vowels, it teaches about the silent e and the y as a consonant or vowel, vowel pairs like ea, that is a big struggle for her. That's exactly what she needs. It's a 5th grade book, so nothing too "babyish" I wanted to make sure what I got for her wasn't geared toward 1st or 2nd graders. I think it's going to be easy enough as not to be "too much extra work" for her right now and enough of a little boost. I'm super excited about my find!!! And she knows she struggles of course and it bothers her so I can see her pulling this workbook out even when i'm at work at night.

 

[disneymom3]

There was also a trick to make the shape with your hands (like an "OK" sign). The "b" is "first" (as in on the left) while the "d" is last. I also remember something about holding out finger and thumb in an "L" shape, look and the real "L" is for Left.

I have heard that one too. The one that worked for my boys was that when you make a b sound, your mouth makes a line. When you make the d sound, your tongue makes a circle inside your mouth. They are both really kinesthetic learners so that worked for them.

 

[Nicolepa]

Ok, so i've been reading through the first homeschool thread (lots of reading to do, i'm very excited) And i've seen Rainbow Resource mentioned a lot. Well i just clicked on a link to check it out and There is the perfect phonics book that i'm going to buy for dd11. It's only around $8 and is a practice workbook for kids that have not received the proper phonics skills. The sample pages were working with vowels, it teaches about the silent e and the y as a consonant or vowel, vowel pairs like ea, that is a big struggle for her. That's exactly what she needs. It's a 5th grade book, so nothing too "babyish" I wanted to make sure what I got for her wasn't geared toward 1st or 2nd graders. I think it's going to be easy enough as not to be "too much extra work" for her right now and enough of a little boost. I'm super excited about my find!!! And she knows she struggles of course and it bothers her so I can see her pulling this workbook out even when i'm at work at night.

Do you mind sharing the link? My son is in the same boat as your daughter and I'd love to find something to help him so he can spell better!

 

[NHWX]

Think of the word "bed" - the straight lines form the head and foot boards of a bed. It's kind of hard to explain with just text but if you write the word out fairly large, then you can draw a little bed/mattress over the curved portions of the b and d along with the e.

Mind you, I spelled else as "eles" for years because I thought that it should rhythmical like that: e-l-e-s. Ugh.

NHWX