Homeschool Chat

[Nicolepa]

A suggestion for both of these is www.time4learning.com

For the second post...it is also a great way to focus on any area. My DS7 loves it. The feedback that it gives is very motivating. It is great because you can change the grade level up or down very easy. I have a friend that uses Calvert curriculum but uses time4learning for reading for her DD7 for extra help.

If you know a friend that has a time4learning list their name as referring and the will get a $20 check.

Thank you! I forwarded this on to her so she can check it out.

Now I have another question. I really need to work on ds handwriting. In school they do denelian. But the k12 program that we are using next year will use handwriting without tears. I want to order him grade 1 for the summer. What all do I need to order? Just the workbook? What about the teacher guide, or slate? I don't want to order too much because I know he will get the 2nd grade stuff in the fall.

Thanks!

 

[bentleygirl22]

we have started thinking of homeschooling our 2 kids ,
any info you guys can give me would be great
my kids will be in 2nd & 3rd grade...

 

[KristyBDJ]

Hi everyone!
I have been thinking on and off about homeschooling since my oldest was born but have never really pursued it. I'm seriously considing it now but have no idea where to even begin. Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. TIA guys!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

we have started thinking of homeschooling our 2 kids ,
any info you guys can give me would be great
my kids will be in 2nd & 3rd grade...

Hi everyone!
I have been thinking on and off about homeschooling since my oldest was born but have never really pursued it. I'm seriously considing it now but have no idea where to even begin. Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. TIA guys!

Well, i'll start, seeing how I started considering it a few months ago. We're going to be homeschooling in the fall. My kids will be in 4th grade, 2nd grade and K. My dd5 really enjoys school and said she does not want to learn at home, she wants to go see her friends in school. So i'm not sure if i'm going to continue sending her. We'll decide over the summer. What I would like to do is HS all of them and they will see that with our HS group they will make a lot of friends, and will still see their other friends.

It's not an easy decision to make, emotionally. I went back and forth for months, I still do, but i'm set on doing this fall. I already ordered our Science book. I was worried what family and friends would think, and if my kids wouldn't be getting what they need.

I tell myself if this is something that I really want to do, which it is, I will regret not doing it when my kids are grown. And if it doesn't work out, they can always go back to school next year. But i'm sure once we start we'll be happy with it. And whether we do it for 1 year or the rest of their schooling we will have memories of the time spent together learning.

And we won't have to worry about make up work when we get back from Disney next September We had an overload of that when we got back a few weeks ago!!!

I am also telling myself, how could I not do this in fear of what others would think. This is no one else's life but my own and why would I care. If me, my dh and my kids are happy, then we're all happy!!!! And that's all that matters!!!!

As for choosing what curriculum to go with. That is overwhelming. There is so much out there. Just start looking into things that you hear others are using, that's where I started. Right here on this board is where I found out about everything that we'll be using in the fall. And from there you can search other things, but there is really just so much.
Everyone here is so nice and helpful, any questions that you have, feel free to ask! I know I asked a lot and I'm pretty sure we're ready to go.

Oh, also start with seeing what your states laws on HSing are. They all have slightly different rules on what subjects are covered and what you have to submit to them at the end of the year.

Good luck, and i'm sure you'll get lots of good advice here.

 

[theduck619]

My wife and I are attending our first homeschool book sale at our library this coming Monday. I wanted to get opinions on what a good price would be for used curriculum. Our daughters are pre-k and we are considering My fathers World and maybe Math U See Me. Anything else you would recommend looking for or comparing?

Thanks,

 

[thebeesknees]

My wife and I are attending our first homeschool book sale at our library this coming Monday. I wanted to get opinions on what a good price would be for used curriculum. Our daughters are pre-k and we are considering My fathers World and maybe Math U See Me. Anything else you would recommend looking for or comparing?

Thanks,

I know several people who have used Math U See and really liked it. The manipulatives make it very easy for the kids to understand and remember. I have 2 friends that have used My Father's World. They both liked it a lot for Pre-K and Kindergarten, but felt that it started to lack some substance for older children. The best thing to do is to go and look at everything and decide what looks best for YOUR children. What works this year may not be the best for next year. I'm constantly evaluating to be sure that what we are doing is best for us. You can get all your curriculum from one source (A Beka, for example), or use different publishers for different subjects (this worked better for me because my son is 7 years old, but tests 6th grade for reading, 3rd for math, etc.). The nice thing about those used-curriculum sales is that you can flip through everything instead of trying to buy it online without getting a good look at it. And if it doesn't work out for you, at least you haven't dropped a bundle on it. It's really overwhelming at first, but you will get your feet under you pretty soon! It's great that you are starting with Pre-K. You will get a good feel for how to juggle everything without the pressure of being tested by the state at the end of the year.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Bentleygirl and kristy~ Welcome!!! First of all you need to read up on your states requirements and so forth. Depending on how many guidelines you need to follow, you may wish to check out the HSLDA. You can join for around $115 a year per family,not per kid. These people will go to bat for you if you ever need legal counsil or just feel better with some support legally. We did join this year, I went for the first few years without it, but it was something I kept meaning to do and always forgot. Anyway... check all that out and see where you stand. After that it's time to choose what kind of curriculum you want to use.
I always refer people to Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks book. It touches on major methods of hsing, and reviews of favorite things available and their websites. Maybe read up on Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason, if you want to do schooling that's not so rigid and teaches you how to use real books instead of all textbooks or workbooks. The Well Trained Mind is good if you lean toward a 'classical' method. And always become friendly with your library and just read, read, read!!! Kids get soooo much out of good books!! Not just chapter books--they can do that for quiet time, but the good classics can't be beat. Pooh, Anne of Green Gables, Little House series. Anything your family will enjoy--or what they have on cd. Children instintively pick up good grammar from these types of books. We spend lots of time in books that are family reads.
Well, these ladies all have different advice and opinions, so hopefully we can help you out!!! It's nice to hear from so many hsers and glean from their experiences!!

 

[littlepeppers]

we have started thinking of homeschooling our 2 kids ,
any info you guys can give me would be great
my kids will be in 2nd & 3rd grade...

Hi everyone!
I have been thinking on and off about homeschooling since my oldest was born but have never really pursued it. I'm seriously considing it now but have no idea where to even begin. Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. TIA guys!

We are hs our 7yr old DS starting this fall. We just ordered Calvert 2nd gd curr. today. It is pricy, $810, but our state does require that our kids keep up w/ their public schools. I'm a certified teacher & a Nervous Nelly. I know what an good lesson contains & I don't want to have to put the time and effort into developing one from scratch. I want to spend my time on finding ways to enhance the lessons (field trips, labs, projects.........). I was the science teacher. Love the labs & hands on stuff.

I'll let you all know how the Calvert stuff is working throughout the year.

My DS is also a nontraditional learner. Hearing it & a worksheet or two might not get it for him. He often needs to be taught things from multiple angles to get it.

Hopefully one day I can get a curr. that is cheaper, but for the 1st yr. I'm going w/ the security blanket. You can even get them to grade the work for you (for a fee of course). I did it for a living, so I didn't choose that option. Weird thing is they will give me the test, but not the answers.

 

[NHWX]

I've used Home Science Tools before and been very happy with their service. They have science kits to go with specific curriculum like A Beka and Switched-On Schoolhouse plus plenty of other individual pieces. They have a great collection of chemicals, for instance.

If you spend over $150, you can use PDISC69 for $10 off plus free standard shipping. The discount ends 6/20.

And if you spend more than $250 at Carolina Biological Supply, use code HB for 15% off before 6/30. Carolina has also done a good job on shipping, etc. They don't have a homeschool focus but some of their labs or extra materials are very appropriate for high school homeschool students. Last year, I had six or seven other kids at my house as we did some labs in a group setting.

NHWX

 

[Lindabelle]

I'm looking for some advice from you experienced homeschoolers. What is it like homeschooling while pregnant and with a newborn? I just recently found out I'm expecting my second child Due Feb 11, 2010. I am currently homeschooling DD who is 9 and doing grade 5 work. I'm considering the possibility of changing curriculum to A&O SOS so my daughter could have more independence and free me up to focus on the baby. Any advice would be great.

I have never homeschooled while pregnant or having a newborn around, but I did use A&O SOS for a few subjects when my children were in 6th and 7th grades. They did not like it and found it annoying. They would often get problems wrong due to spelling or punctuation, and if their answer did not match identically to what the computer wanted to hear it was marked wrong. For example, if a problem had 2 answers, and you typed them in the answer the opposite way the text had it, it would automatically be marked wrong. I spent a lot of time going over their complaints about problems the program marked wrong, only to find my children were correct and I would have to manually grade things. It made more work for me than I was expecting. This was 5 years ago and my then 7th grader has just graduated HS so it is possible that they fixed some of these glitches. I have started using teaching textbooks for math this year and it is wonderful. My daughter watches her lesson on the computer, does her work, and the computer grades it for us. She gets 2 chances to get a problem right, so if she gets it wrong the first time, I sit down with her and help. The computer will also show the solution if she can't figure it out. I am really happy with it.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

We're going to be there next September and I see that this year the HS days are on the 21 and 22. Do they always do them around the same dates. If so I would love to attend next year, that is the week we'll be there.

I was looking at Disney's website and saw the ticket packages you could buy for this. Would I be able to buy from them or do you have to go in with a group. If so, how does everyone get them?

Thanks, I really hope it works out, HS days sound like a lot of fun!!!

(same thing with the YES program, can I just buy passes for my family?)

Thank You

 

[theduck619]

Is anyone else here from Indiana? I have been looking into the requirements and they are pretty loose. Apparantley we do not have to have our children tested at all.

Has anyone else been in this situation before? Do you still have your kids tested at some point to see where they are?

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

We are from Texas, and we aren't required to test either. We have been homeschooling since the oldest started 3rd grade and he is entering 8th. My middle one is going to 6th and my youngest 1st---I don't feel the need to test them with standardized tests, because most of the curr. we use have tests in them. They do really well, & I know day by day what they are understanding or what they aren't. Dh on the other hand wants them tested. I really don't understand why. He says he just wants to see where they are--well, both boys are 1-2 grade levels above what actual grade they would be in for Math, and they have always read well, and had good comprehension. They have a wide vocabulary and are great spellers. They both do really well in Science as well. So.... I guess he just wants scores on paper from a 'test'. A friend of mine did the CAT on her kids this past year and she said they scored well above average---but she still wasn't sure how reliable that was because the test is so old. I know both boys need more writing skills --that is the area they are weakest in---this is what we are focusing on this year instead of solid grammar---so I really don't want to pay $400 or so for a tester to tell me this. anyone else have an opinion on this?

Sorry--didn't mean to take over your question!! It got kinda long I think!!!

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

In our county in Maryland you can choose to have your children participate in the standardized testing through the public schools. We choose not to participate.

I taught for ten years in public school before staying home. I disagreed with standardized testing then so I certain choose not to have my children particpate. The whole testing process goes against everything they teach potential teachers in college about children.

I have observed to many examples of how test fail to properly evaluate a learner. I observed the stress children were under during the process. I observed how much teaching was geared to "a test" instead of life long learning. Testing is a soapbox issue for me so I will end my response here...but I could go on...

Have you every looked at ....stop me...

LOL Have a great day

 

[Praise2Him]

Just wanted to share with all my Dis friends my son has finished homeschooling Yes after many years of hard work we've gotten to the light at the end of that tunnel. Now if we can only get him through college we will be even more estatic LOL

Just had to share this before I burst!!!!!

Congratulations! Where is he going to college?

My DD also just graduated 2 weeks ago It's happy and sad at the same time for me. I can't believe that I won't be homeschooling anymore, but I'm proud of her accomplishments. She is actually planning on attending college in Orlando, so it'll be fun to go and visit her!

 

[littlepeppers]

In our county in Maryland you can choose to have your children participate in the standardized testing through the public schools. We choose not to participate.

I taught for ten years in public school before staying home. I disagreed with standardized testing then so I certain choose not to have my children particpate. The whole testing process goes against everything they teach potential teachers in college about children.

I have observed to many examples of how test fail to properly evaluate a learner. I observed the stress children were under during the process. I observed how much teaching was geared to "a test" instead of life long learning. Testing is a soapbox issue for me so I will end my response here...but I could go on...

Have you every looked at ....stop me...

LOL Have a great day

Aren't those test great. I taught for 11 yrs in public schools & I did oral testing my last year. The answer to the cell resp/photosynthesis question wasn't even a choice. I actually taught one of the students I was testing & he looked at me like "but.....". All I could do was repeat the question & directions.

I even began to doubt myself. I got on the internet & in my college txt to make sure I was right and I was. The correct answer wasn't a choice. Yeah LA. No wonder we are at the bottom in ed.

We can take the test for free too. Don't you think that the bubbling in, style, being timed, ...... is a good experience for them to have sinc ACT, SAT & many other college test are like that. It would also be a great confidence booster to yoour kids and yourself to compare their score to the ones that the newspaper reports for the public schools. It could be yet another reminder of why you hs.

 

[littlepeppers]

We are from Texas, and we aren't required to test either. We have been homeschooling since the oldest started 3rd grade and he is entering 8th. My middle one is going to 6th and my youngest 1st---I don't feel the need to test them with standardized tests, because most of the curr. we use have tests in them. They do really well, & I know day by day what they are understanding or what they aren't. Dh on the other hand wants them tested. I really don't understand why. He says he just wants to see where they are--well, both boys are 1-2 grade levels above what actual grade they would be in for Math, and they have always read well, and had good comprehension. They have a wide vocabulary and are great spellers. They both do really well in Science as well. So.... I guess he just wants scores on paper from a 'test'. A friend of mine did the CAT on her kids this past year and she said they scored well above average---but she still wasn't sure how reliable that was because the test is so old. I know both boys need more writing skills --that is the area they are weakest in---this is what we are focusing on this year instead of solid grammar---so I really don't want to pay $400 or so for a tester to tell me this. anyone else have an opinion on this?

Sorry--didn't mean to take over your question!! It got kinda long I think!!!

In our state you have 2 opt.

If you establish yourself as a private school, you don't have to report anything to the state about your child's progress. You also give up the rights to state testing & the college tuition program.

If you do tohe home study program, you have to keep your kids up w/ the public schools (like that's hard) and send them a letter from a teacher saying that they are keeping up w/ the public schools. My mother-in-law, myself, & my DH are all certified teachers, so we can write the letter. You have to keep samples of their work & test incase they want to review them. Kind of like keeping your tax info. incase you get audited.

 

[AuroraBeauty]

I even began to doubt myself. I got on the internet & in my college txt to make sure I was right and I was. The correct answer wasn't a choice.

The thing that made me more fully understand that the test was not an evaluation of what I know was when I moved in 10th grade and the test directions specifically stated to 'darken the circle of the credited response'. What is that? How do I know which one is the credited response? Why can't I mark the right answer? Right! B/C it's not there!!

The developers of these standardized tests aren't looking for the 'correct answer' but rather they want the student to selected the response that is 'most correct' (er, least wrong?). How's that for a test? Which one is least wrong?

That is why the teachers have to teach to a test. It continues on after elementary, middle, high school. Graduate school entrance exams are like this too. Many state licensing tests (insurance, real estate, law) offer prep courses so you can know the answers ahead of time b/c you wouldn't ever get it right if you were looking for the least wrong answer.

 

[littlepeppers]

It it like we are teaching people that you need to cheat to get things right. We should be teaching them confidence in their knowledge instead.

I don't miss the red tape of the teaching profession.

 

[Denine]

We are hs our 7yr old DS starting this fall. We just ordered Calvert 2nd gd curr. today. It is pricy, $810, but our state does require that our kids keep up w/ their public schools. I'm a certified teacher & a Nervous Nelly. I know what an good lesson contains & I don't want to have to put the time and effort into developing one from scratch. I want to spend my time on finding ways to enhance the lessons (field trips, labs, projects.........). I was the science teacher. Love the labs & hands on stuff.

I'll let you all know how the Calvert stuff is working throughout the year.

My DS is also a nontraditional learner. Hearing it & a worksheet or two might not get it for him. He often needs to be taught things from multiple angles to get it.

Hopefully one day I can get a curr. that is cheaper, but for the 1st yr. I'm going w/ the security blanket. You can even get them to grade the work for you (for a fee of course). I did it for a living, so I didn't choose that option. Weird thing is they will give me the test, but not the answers.

I still give DD the test even though we don't use ATS. If you can't figure out the answers yourself at this grade, well....
Good luck!
I will order 2nd grade next month or the end of this month.