Homeschool Chat Part III

[kc10family]

After doing a summer "test" (could my DD's and I be discipline enough to do one-two hours of school work four days a week) we passed and will be homeschooling starting Monday.
Very excited!

 

[ZachnElli]

Hi Moms!

My name is Michelle and I am strongly considering homeschooling my daughter. She is seven and is undergoing chemotherapy. Everyone keeps telling me I should send her to school to give her a "normal" life but I feel like I am exposing her to illness that would require her to be hospitalized etc. I am also making the school accomodate her, I am struggling with finding someone who can watch her before and after school that I trust with her medicine etc.

I work full time now, well actually 4 days a week because I take her to chemo.

Problem is, I need to decide like yesterday because school starts in a week and I'm losing my childcare (my sister in law) on Friday.

I know you all are homeschoolers, but does homeschooling her seem like the right thing to do?

Also, I homeschooled my oldest daughter for a year using Connections Academy but she was a lot older.

I would rather use some sort of curriculum but I have no idea where to start and what is good.

I guess I just need some help/support.

Absolutely home school her, way too many germs at any school with lots of kids! My dad was a teacher for 33 years and had one cold after another for 33 years! The first year of retirement, not a single cold! I haven't posted here yet, but today was my first day homeschooling my DD 13. I am using alpha omega. My DD had way too many issues in the public school and she was also very ill last school year, hospitalized half of last April and May. So I quit my job to stay home with her. She did great today, she loved it!

 

[MissNurse]

Today is the first day of public school in our town. My kids slept in and are now watching cartoons! We aren't starting our curriculum until we get back from our Disney trip in mid-September. I am loving that we can do this! No longer slaves to state mandated dates...This is the first year that I didn't do back-to-school shopping. We started homeschooling in October last year, so this will be our first full-year. I love the freedom and knowing that I am educating my kids based on their particular needs. I think this may be a new tradition...pajama day for the first day of public school...yes, I think so!

 

[Pollyanna Poppins]

Welcome to freedom MissNurse. Our schools started back today as well but we won't be starting until after Labor Day.(Just as I did growing up when the world still made sense.) I also love that we now rack up on great buys for school shoppers after school has started back. We purchase crayons, glue, etc... for pennies on the dollar when they clearance them out. Don't you love buying any shoe, shirt, shorts your children want instead of what they're forced to wear? I also love the fact that we don't have to worry about sending kids to school if they may or may not be sick due to policy on sick days. Just read some of the posts on parents worried about missing too many school days for vacation. Traveling is far more educational than anything they would learn in class for that week. Educators should value family time and hands on experiences instead of the silly policies a school board decides on for our children. I hope your family has a GREAT school year and congratulations on homeschooling! By the way most of our week is pajama day unless we have a class scheduled including myself.

 

[MissNurse]

By the way most of our week is pajama day unless we have a class scheduled including myself.

 

[saroncar]

I wanted to say hi!

I've just started posting on the DisBoards but I've long been a lurker. We also have been homeschooling for 2 years now. DD is 6 and DS is 4, today was our first day of "school".

Happy to meet some others that love Disney and Homeschooling as much as we do!

 

[JoanneDisFan]

Another school year has started, and I'm having problems with the school my dd attends. Here is a bit of background kindergarten was regular public school,grade 1 & 2 virtual charter school, 3 home school, 4 regular public school, 5-6 arts charter school.
Right now it's a toss up between regular public school where she would attend the local jr high that has over 1000 students in grades 7&8. Or home school again.
My biggest issue with homeschooling is i kept changing curriculum throughout the year, so i need to find and stick with 1 program.
I have ordered megawords to help her with struggles in spelling. I was planning on afterschooling with this, and a math program. (She is bored in math and wants something more challenging) But if I'm doing that much, maybe I should bite the bullet and just home school.
So I'm looking for advice and any curriculum recommendations. I'm tempted to go back to the k12 curriculum as we know it worked when we were with the virtual school.

 

[Pollyanna Poppins]

We use Spelling Power for spelling. Teaching Textbooks is great for math. Although the great thing about homeschool is you can cater to each child's needs it is important to find a curriculum and carve out a routine. If somethings not working I'd certainly switch but too much switching is a big problem. Christianbook has an enormous amount of great homeschool curriculum. Many of their products allow you to view sample pages. If you have a used homeschool store in your area go and check out some of the things offered.

 

[chris31997]

Back to school after a week off for VBS, and our day started with skyping with family, chores and pe on WiiFit.

homeschooling

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

I'm so glad I found this thread!!!! I homeschooled ds for pre-k and at the beginning of the month we started kindergarten. It's been quite a challenge daily for me. My son absolutely loves homeschooling and I love teaching him. I am having difficulty finding a way to balance everything. My son needs a lot of my guidance right now but my dd (6 months) is also very needy. She is very fussy during school. I've tried working around her naps, sleeping in (thought we were waking up earlier),and doing 45 minutes of school in the morning and 45 minutes at night. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to do evening school with him because I'm looking for a part time evening job. How do you ladies balance school, babies, and housework? I feel I'm tugged in so many directions at the moment and I'm not getting anything accomplished. Do you guys have a daily schedule? I want to provide my ds with the best education that I possibly can. Thanks so much!!!

 

[chris31997]

I'm so glad I found this thread!!!! I homeschooled ds for pre-k and at the beginning of the month we started kindergarten. It's been quite a challenge daily for me. My son absolutely loves homeschooling and I love teaching him. I am having difficulty finding a way to balance everything. My son needs a lot of my guidance right now but my dd (6 months) is also very needy. She is very fussy during school. I've tried working around her naps, sleeping in (thought we were waking up earlier),and doing 45 minutes of school in the morning and 45 minutes at night. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to do evening school with him because I'm looking for a part time evening job. How do you ladies balance school, babies, and housework? I feel I'm tugged in so many directions at the moment and I'm not getting anything accomplished. Do you guys have a daily schedule? I want to provide my ds with the best education that I possibly can. Thanks so much!!!

Include DS in chores around the house, he can help clean and do laundry. Sorting clothes into piles and folding is a great life skill(one a future wife will do the for). Have him help with the dishes, both of my kids helped load/unload the dishwasher(no sharp items) when they were younger. He can also help you with your DD, diapers and such. Again life skills. You may think that it is not much learning but it is, in my opinion, critical learning. He will be learning and building realtionships.

You are working kinder. Again, in my opinion, about an hour a day is about all you need. Strive to get 1 sheet of math, language, some reading done. Reading about science and going to the park to find bugs is great for this age. Computer based learning games also good for the days that lil one just can't stop

You don't have to get it all done all the time. Maybe the core subjects do everyday and science/history/health are incorporated in talks or chores and done once a week.

Remember you can take breaks when you want and school as long as you want/need to. Provided you are meeting the legal requirments

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

Is anyone familiar with Omnibus by Veritas Press? I bought it to use for our literature for 7th grade, but I'm not sure it's right for us (at least not now). It seems to be more a history/literature program. I'm not worried so much that it looks like a difficult course, but I'm worried about maturity. My dd is already a year ahead.

Anyone with 7th graders out there care to share what you are using for literature?

 

[jdcthree]

We did a really cool experiment today with Ivory soap. Here is a link if anyone is interested!

 

[miami305]

I'm so glad I found this thread!!!! I homeschooled ds for pre-k and at the beginning of the month we started kindergarten. It's been quite a challenge daily for me. My son absolutely loves homeschooling and I love teaching him. I am having difficulty finding a way to balance everything. My son needs a lot of my guidance right now but my dd (6 months) is also very needy. She is very fussy during school. I've tried working around her naps, sleeping in (thought we were waking up earlier),and doing 45 minutes of school in the morning and 45 minutes at night. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to do evening school with him because I'm looking for a part time evening job. How do you ladies balance school, babies, and housework? I feel I'm tugged in so many directions at the moment and I'm not getting anything accomplished. Do you guys have a daily schedule? I want to provide my ds with the best education that I possibly can. Thanks so much!!!

Is the work too difficult for him? He should be able to complete a worksheet or addition with counters with little assistance. If he needs you for every step of the way, then I would scale back the difficulty level.

My other thought is that you are trying to make the HS too formal. The beauty of being at home is that you can sit on the floor and play with baby while directing him in his schoolwork. You can also break assignments down into 15 minute lessons. My just turned 4yr old is an extremely calm preschooler. Still, we do a maximum of 1 hour of HS at a time.

Children this age need a lot of free time to explore their world. Send your ds out into the yard to collect 9 rocks, 3 sticks, 6 leaves. Have him sort them into groups of 3's. Have him make a repeating pattern or a geometric shape with them. Have him make a road with dirt and rocks for his toy cars and practice directions and map skills. I tell my DS to run 10 times around some object or race to a tree when I need a few minutes to find my happy thoughts.

Good luck with baby girl! Hope the fussiness ends soon.

 

[miami305]

I started using daniellesplace.com for bible study HS with DS 4. We love it! DS is advanced for his age, but the materials on this site can be scaled up or down with ease. I'd say the lesson plans would work for age 4-7.

The first theme is Ants. I substituted with a couple of things I found online. Very easy to do when someone has taken the time to organize everything else for you.

Awesome sites for free lesson plans, games and/or videos!
Utah Education Network
Discovery Education
BBC Schools
Education.com

Sites for the kids to explore
Cool Math (elementary)
Wired Math (middleschool)
Exploratorium (middleschool)
-This site has some activities for K-4, but is geared toward older children.

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

Thank you for all of the advice! He's able to do the material (excluding Apologia science but I'm not going to use it anymore). We use Bob Jones for our phonics. I read little stories and ask questions afterwards, he does any paperwork there on his own. He's a grade ahead in math, we use Abeka 1st grade for math. He can also do that on his own. It seems as if I'm not standing or sitting right there he gets so easily distracted wondering what I'm doing.

I think the main issue is I'm setting unrealistic goals everyday. I think I'm trying to make school like a traditional school would. I preached on not doing that for so long and turned around and started expecting it!

 

[DisneyMom5]

I'm so glad I found this thread!!!! I homeschooled ds for pre-k and at the beginning of the month we started kindergarten. It's been quite a challenge daily for me. My son absolutely loves homeschooling and I love teaching him. I am having difficulty finding a way to balance everything. My son needs a lot of my guidance right now but my dd (6 months) is also very needy. She is very fussy during school. I've tried working around her naps, sleeping in (thought we were waking up earlier),and doing 45 minutes of school in the morning and 45 minutes at night. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to do evening school with him because I'm looking for a part time evening job. How do you ladies balance school, babies, and housework? I feel I'm tugged in so many directions at the moment and I'm not getting anything accomplished. Do you guys have a daily schedule? I want to provide my ds with the best education that I possibly can. Thanks so much!!!

Thank you for all of the advice! He's able to do the material (excluding Apologia science but I'm not going to use it anymore). We use Bob Jones for our phonics. I read little stories and ask questions afterwards, he does any paperwork there on his own. He's a grade ahead in math, we use Abeka 1st grade for math. He can also do that on his own. It seems as if I'm not standing or sitting right there he gets so easily distracted wondering what I'm doing.

I think the main issue is I'm setting unrealistic goals everyday. I think I'm trying to make school like a traditional school would. I preached on not doing that for so long and turned around and started expecting it!

I fed many a baby while reading aloud. Math can be done next to you on the couch, or in the kitchen, or whatever. Baby will start being able to play with stuff in the next few month, which will help.
I found babies to be much easier to homeschool with than toddlers. Best homeschooling investment with toddlers is a bunch of baby gates!
Our little ones grow up thinking they are doing school too, because they color or whatever during school time. They don't even know what brick and mortar schools do!
It will get easier as you get into a rhythm. I'd try to get everything done in one chunk, which shouldn't be more than 2 hours total (and probably less.)
We school in the afternoon, because that's what naturally works best for us.
Do whatever works best for you!

 

[dis-happy]

I'm so glad I found this thread!!!! I homeschooled ds for pre-k and at the beginning of the month we started kindergarten. It's been quite a challenge daily for me. My son absolutely loves homeschooling and I love teaching him. I am having difficulty finding a way to balance everything. My son needs a lot of my guidance right now but my dd (6 months) is also very needy. She is very fussy during school. I've tried working around her naps, sleeping in (thought we were waking up earlier),and doing 45 minutes of school in the morning and 45 minutes at night. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to do evening school with him because I'm looking for a part time evening job. How do you ladies balance school, babies, and housework? I feel I'm tugged in so many directions at the moment and I'm not getting anything accomplished. Do you guys have a daily schedule? I want to provide my ds with the best education that I possibly can. Thanks so much!!!

One thing that helped me when I had a baby while homeschooling was to set up a work box system. The little bit of planning and assembling the night before paid off the next day. If I was unavailable for a few minutes my ds could still get out the next thing and keep moving ahead.

That said, he was a couple of grades higher. For homeschooling with a baby for K and gr 1 I had good luck waiting until nap time. Soon, you should be able to get your baby down to one longer nap ( for my kids it was usually 12-3 pm) and homeschool then.

Most of all try not to stress and enjoy your kiddos too. If you don't get to everything this year there's always next year. Once they learn how to read most other concepts are repeated the to some extent each year.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

I think one of the things about homeschooling with babies is realizing your house is gonna be a mess and things are going to be crazy, but you can do it. Just take it one step at a time and try not to fuss about the details. It's not easy. I also think babies are easier than toddlers. Toddlers get into everything! Unfortunately, I have an open floor plan and the rooms cannot be easily gated off. My babies nap for about an hour at a time. Only one kid has taken the occasional 2 hour nap. To the poster who mentioned these things, you are very lucky!

We try to pick up in the morning before school, at lunch, after school, and before bed. I also try to have a plan. And the older your kids get, they can work independently for longer periods of time.

If getting a part time job in the evening is unavoidable, then just take things slow to avoid burnout. I can't imagine having to leave for an outside job and homeschool, take care of the house, and my kids and toddler.

You'll feel more confident homeschooling the longer you do it too.

 

[kc10family]

Day one- not so bad
Day two- ok but I was not feeling well
Day Three- we are ahead of schedule!!!!!