Homeschool Chat

[cbjl]

You could check with some of the curriculum companies to see if you can get a free demo account - k12 offers free short-term demo accounts so you can "try before you buy." I know you mentioned that k12 is probably not for you, but I would guess that other companies might offer something similar.

I'm pretty sure that there is an active HS group for the Fox Cities (at least there used to be) - WPA might have some contact info.

Good luck!

 

[sahmoftwo]

Hi there! Just wanted to respond to the post about homeschooling special needs kids. My dd has a lang. processing disorder so she qualifies for speech through the PS. She starts K next year and the coordinator was telling me that whatever services she would receive at the school they will send to my house if I homeschool. So since she would receive 30 min. of speech at the school (1x a week) they will send a speech path. to my house once a week. I live in TX, so I'm not sure if other states are the same way. HTH!

 

[DisneyMom5]

I haven't read the entire thread so I apologize if this has already been discussed, but does anyone homeschool their child(ren) with special needs? If so, how does that work with their therapies such as speech and OT? Do you take your DC to the school to receive those?

My son started therapy before he was school age (brain injury at almost 3years old). Where we live (small city) you have to go to the school for therapy if you are over age 3 and want county sponsered therapy, and that's only on a limited basis.
We found private therapy instead, and it's covered by our insurance (at the moment, they sometimes freak out for a few weeks and don't cover him.)

Anyway, I know that's not an option for everyone, but he is able to get his 3-4 hours of therapy, where at school it probably would only be 1-2 hours (if that.)

It pays to research both options and see what is covered!

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

We did K12 in a virtual school setting (public school), so here's my EXPERIENCE/OPINION, your mileage may vary. It was a public school. At home. There are attendance requirements and progress requirements and teacher phone calls and face to face requirements, etc. Understandably, some of this will vary by state, but please do remember it is a PUBLIC school and you are your child's "facilitator", they have a teacher. While this works fabulously for some people, it did not work for our family. For starters, I travelled. a LOT. and I took the kids with me. They have been to every state east of the Mississippi except for (ironically) Mississippi. They have seen more of this country and its heritage through travel than most kids get in their whole lives. K12 had a problem with that. I was well within our times/days, but I was always getting calls or emails about attendance. Thanks, but no thanks. My now 13-yo has selective mutism and asperger's. She's not a chatty kid. Her teacher would get upset because she would call and DD refused to talk to her. IEP or no IEP, it became an issue.

The curriculum, while excellent, is rigorous. Code of Hammurabi in the 2nd grade. Yeah, it took me until my sophomore year in college and I was an history major! Some children revel in the challenge, mine were frustrated by it. In hindsight, I'm not sure it was the actual curriculum as much as it was the overwhelming amount of "stuff" they HAD to do (art and music were actual lessons in addition to what I already had them doing). I don't believe that all children, and most certainly not mine, are the most brilliant, darling, little geniuses, so I prefer they learn on their terms and how they learn best as opposed to more of the same programming from a traditional public school.

Children are naturally inquisitive and are wired to learn as long as grown ups don't burn it out of them. We unschooled for some time, using lapbooks and online resources frequently until this year when we've moved into Oak Meadow as DDs both seemed more stable and prepared for a curriculum again. In the meantime, 11yo can give Ace of Cakes a run for his money,can make a mean alfredo, and has already bookmarked a few culinary schools. She is also working on ways to help combat violence against seal pups and knows all about the various seal species, habitats, etc. These are not things that K12 or any rigid curriculum could have taught her.

I just had to comment when I noticed a post that referenced selective mutism. My dd10 also has SM. I was lurking here because returning to homeschooling is always an option for us.

 

[amez]

I appologize if this has been answered, but here is our experience for what it's worth

We homeschooled up until this year-my son received speech tharapy that we paid for w/ our insurance. We actually went to the a local hospital for the speech tharapy.

At the beginning of the year I placed all my children in public school.
Ten weeks into the year they had only just evaluated him and determined he needed speech-but more paperwork and stuff would have to be filled out etc.

For various reasons public school wasn't a good fit for my son, so I decided to do public school at home through a charter school using K12. Since they are a public school they will pay for services. However I have opted to do an at home speech program (that they pay for) to work with him daily instead of taking him back to the hospital for speech tharapy (which they also would pay for). I am comfortable with this-he has had speech tharapy for several years-I've already been working with him using the advise of the tharapist.

I know others on here haven't liked k12, but I am really loving it. I had been putting together my kids work for several years while homeschooling and had become so burned out. K12 was so similar to what I was trying to create. Your kids can just assess out of items they already know - you are not tied to teaching everything by the book-go as quickly or as slowly over topics as your child needs to. We finish fairly quickly most days and have plenty of time to do other things as well. It takes just a few seconds to log attendance each day-and I love having a schedule online that I can manipulate to fit our needs and know when we will complete everything for the year.

Yes, there is testing, and we have conferences with teachers, but really it doesn't intrude on our life very much at all. My son loves going on class connect and having an interact lesson with his teacher and other students.

We had attended a gathering before we joined and we got a chance to touch and look through many of the books that we would be using.

In the fall, my other children will be back home and we will be using k12 for everyone.

Amy

I haven't read the entire thread so I apologize if this has already been discussed, but does anyone homeschool their child(ren) with special needs? If so, how does that work with their therapies such as speech and OT? Do you take your DC to the school to receive those?

 

[Nicolepa]

From what I have heard your experience w/a K12 Virtual Academy depends greatly on which state you are with. I am in Washington and I have found it pretty hands off. My son (2nd grade) has to log on 1x a week and send an email to his teacher and we have to talk to her on the phone 1x a month. Form talking to others this varies greatly as well, depending on your teacher. There is no in person contact required. You have monthly % goals based upon the # of school days in the month but attendance hasn't been a problem since I figured out that it doesn't have to be a full day. You can do spelling words for 15 minutes, log it and it's a day of school. Right now I have 105 days or so of school logged. Today we went to Imagine Kids museum. I will log some art and science time.

For my child the 2nd grade curriculum hasn't been enough for him. We finished math 2 in 4 months, could have done it sooner. We are 25% done with 3rd grade math in 5 weeks. We will finish all the rest of our 2nd grade courses at the end of March and start 3rd grade in April. I've heard over and over there is a big jump from 2nd - 3rd and I truely hope that is the case because so far it hasn't been challenging for my child. But I hear over and over from users that it is lightyears ahead of the public school. So far I'm still waiting to see that. We are doing an extra 4% a month (which is about an extra week) and we are still done in 2-3 hours a day (if he stays focused).

That being said I love (and so does my son) their history and art. The history is wonderful and while my son doesn't like doing the art projects he loves the lessons.

I think the biggest problem people get into w/K12 is that they try to do all of the optional activites. It's not meant to do everything. Pick the activites your child likes and leave the rest. Mine does not like to color so we don't do any of those. He loves books so I check out all of the optional books and he reads them.

 

[DawnM]

Does anyone use Switched on Schoolhouse? I have some questions but can't find any forums for users.

Dawn

 

[wvdislover]

I've used it. We actually only used it for a few months. We thought we and DD would love it, since she enjoys being on the computer so much, but it didn't work out as well as we'd hoped. Part of this came from her having some learning issues, but a lot of people of have had some of the same problems with it that we did. The biggest problem was that if you don't type in the exact answer the program is looking for, your answer is graded as an incorrect answer. Also, in the math portion, if you need to type in an answer with multiple numbers, such as 345, you have to type each number in individually...3..4..5, which got to be a real pain. DD found the readings to be boring and complex.

That being said, there are people who DO really like SOS, and have used it for many years. It just didn't work for us.

 

[graygables]

I've used it. We actually only used it for a few months. We thought we and DD would love it, since she enjoys being on the computer so much, but it didn't work out as well as we'd hoped. Part of this came from her having some learning issues, but a lot of people of have had some of the same problems with it that we did. The biggest problem was that if you don't type in the exact answer the program is looking for, your answer is graded as an incorrect answer. Also, in the math portion, if you need to type in an answer with multiple numbers, such as 345, you have to type each number in individually...3..4..5, which got to be a real pain. DD found the readings to be boring and complex.

That being said, there are people who DO really like SOS, and have used it for many years. It just didn't work for us.

Ditto that for us. Too buggy. It also wound up wiping out one of our laptops, even Geek Squad was baffled.

 

[Pooki]

Just wanted to start of by saying thanks so much to everyone here, this has been my most valuable resource in researching HSing! We are definitely doing it and I'll probably be pulling my kids out within a week or so - I'd like to at least order our materials before I do

I was wondering if anyone uses Great Science Adventures? The reviews I could find seem great. I like that you can choose whichever type of science you wish to work on at the time, and it seems pretty hands-on since you have to make booklets and whatnot with it - seems good to use for lapbooking (my kids love to make things and be creative, so I think we will lapbook a lot). I was just seeing what anyone else's opinion of the books were before I bought them

Also, Learning Language Arts Through Literature - I know it has a suggested book list, but you can teach this using any literature book, correct? I'm really intrigued by how it seems to teach, and I'd love to be able to pick the selection used in LA.

 

[DawnM]

Well, I have ordered one subject and will let the boys play with it and see what they think. A friend is also allowing us to try hers (2 subjects) just to see what w think. This will give us a better idea before ordering for next year.

How about Time4Learning? Anyone like that either as a supplement or as a full curriculum for any subjects?

Thanks,

Dawn

I've used it. We actually only used it for a few months. We thought we and DD would love it, since she enjoys being on the computer so much, but it didn't work out as well as we'd hoped. Part of this came from her having some learning issues, but a lot of people of have had some of the same problems with it that we did. The biggest problem was that if you don't type in the exact answer the program is looking for, your answer is graded as an incorrect answer. Also, in the math portion, if you need to type in an answer with multiple numbers, such as 345, you have to type each number in individually...3..4..5, which got to be a real pain. DD found the readings to be boring and complex.

That being said, there are people who DO really like SOS, and have used it for many years. It just didn't work for us.

 

[mom2koh]

I haven't read the entire thread so I apologize if this has already been discussed, but does anyone homeschool their child(ren) with special needs? If so, how does that work with their therapies such as speech and OT? Do you take your DC to the school to receive those?

Hey! We are just embarking on this process with DS. I have a friend who is an OT with the school system so it helped to get some inside information.

First the school therapist only approach the areas that would hinder the child in a school atmosphere. So my son who has a slight tremor in his right hand (along with other items) would be treated for the other items but not the tremor b/c it does not hinder his school ability. With his speech they would work on the word formations since his vocabulary is so huge but no one can understand what he says. But they would not work on the swallowing problem (chipmunks food in his cheeks b/c his poor chewing muscles get so tired).

You could always go to your local school and get an IEP and go from there. I know that our insurance only covers so many speech and OT sessions each year so I will use the school's therapy and supplement what they won't correct with the therapist my insurance will cover.

Good luck. It is an adventure. I am wondering what it will be like to bring along my school age dd to the PS when I take my son for his assesment.

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

Well, I have ordered one subject and will let the boys play with it and see what they think. A friend is also allowing us to try hers (2 subjects) just to see what w think. This will give us a better idea before ordering for next year.

How about Time4Learning? Anyone like that either as a supplement or as a full curriculum for any subjects?

Thanks,

Dawn

We use Time4learning. We started off using as a full curriculum but now using Teaching Textbooks for math. Really like both Time4learning and Teaching Textbooks. They are both engaging and record keeping for both are great. It is easy to go back and review any lessons needed.

 

[mom2koh]

Help!

I can't decide.

I know I want to go back to MFW but don't know if we want Adventures or ECC????? DD finished her curriculum for thsi year already which focused on American History. So do I want Adventures which does American history again or move onto ECC and do a year long study in Geography?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[DawnM]

Thanks. I actually just signed them up last night for Time4Learning. I can't get it to work with my Norton though! I am trying to do what it says to do, but DH needs to look at it.

Is this enough for your kids?

Dawn

We use Time4learning. We started off using as a full curriculum but now using Teaching Textbooks for math. Really like both Time4learning and Teaching Textbooks. They are both engaging and record keeping for both are great. It is easy to go back and review any lessons needed.

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

Thanks. I actually just signed them up last night for Time4Learning. I can't get it to work with my Norton though! I am trying to do what it says to do, but DH needs to look at it.

Is this enough for your kids?

Dawn

We do our own thing for Social Studies and Science but use Time4learning to supplement or fill-in in between. The Language Arts and Language Arts Extension are great. The math is great as well but my DD needed something a little different for math. She loves...(well, likes best of everything we've tried-lol) Teaching Textbooks. I really like the way each lesson has a review of previous skills. So i just order TT for my DS.

Time4learning is great on days when they need to do SOMETHING but not a good day to introduce something new...I let them do free choice day. They can pick any lessons they want to do. My DS always chooses math (his favorite) and DD LA or writing. Oh, speaking of writing...DD prefers to type in MS Word and copy and paste into time4learning when do writing assignments.

There is definitely plenty there for a full curriculum. They have resource sheets you can print to go with certain lessons. I also supplement with some handwriting sheets for my DS using fonts from http://www.downhillpublishing.com/fonts4teachers.cfm I type up sheets in the dotted D'Nealian style font in a light color for him to trace. I even do this for some of his dictated paragraphs.

I have a friend that just uses the Language Arts as a supplement for her DD and it is worth it for that alone. (By the way T4L sent me a $20 check for referring her) T4L has a lot to offer even if you pick and choose.

 

[littlepeppers]

Do you kids like Time4Learning?

We just cancelled it. For $25 mos. I found myself forcing DS to do it. He said it was boring b/c it was the same thing almost every lesson w/ different suff.

 

[MiniGirl]

Help!

I can't decide.

I know I want to go back to MFW but don't know if we want Adventures or ECC????? DD finished her curriculum for thsi year already which focused on American History. So do I want Adventures which does American history again or move onto ECC and do a year long study in Geography?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

How old is she? I did Adventures last year with my, then, 3rd grader, and we both enjoyed it. We started ECC this year with my, now, 4th and 2nd grader. We have abandoned most of it. It just seemed like a lot more text book type work than Adventures. I think my 4th grader would've done alright continuing with it, but I know there were quite a few things she wasn't enjoying. It just also seemed too much for my 2nd grader.

They both enjoyed the geography aspect -- reading maps and talking about the different countries. Some of the more hands on stuff. They didn't seem to enjoy the science with it though.

 

[Tink561]

How old is she? I did Adventures last year with my, then, 3rd grader, and we both enjoyed it. We started ECC this year with my, now, 4th and 2nd grader. We have abandoned most of it. It just seemed like a lot more text book type work than Adventures. I think my 4th grader would've done alright continuing with it, but I know there were quite a few things she wasn't enjoying. It just also seemed too much for my 2nd grader.

They both enjoyed the geography aspect -- reading maps and talking about the different countries. Some of the more hands on stuff. They didn't seem to enjoy the science with it though.

What are you using with them now?

 

[Tink561]

If any of you enjoy the classical education method and have younger ones, check out Memoria Press new Kindergarten program. It looks great! I'm about to buy that for my 4yodd to strat, even if we have to go slowly. They're supposed to have the 1st grade level out in time for the fall.