Homeschool Chat

[mom2koh]

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.

THanks! That totally told me what I wanted to know. We will go with Adventures next year. DD is 6. We did Beyond this year which is supposed to be a 1st/2nd grade program. Neither one of us liked the program. I'm sure it's good for others but not for us. I want next year to be fun.

 

[MiniGirl]

What are you using with them now?

We are still using some of it. We have also joined our local Classical Conversations community, and the girls are really loving that. There is also a man in our area that does science camps during the summer and school breaks. He has started doing science classes for homeschoolers and after school groups, and we started going to his class.

My oldest is also using Teaching Textbooks for math and the youngest is using Singapore Math. I'm still tweaking and trying things to find the perfect balance for us, and we are getting there. I don't care for the LA that MFW recommends, so finding a Language Arts program we like is my current project.

 

[NemoMOm]

We were just re-zoned last year, so DS starts kindergarten at a poor school instead of the excellent school we had planned. I can not home school him and private is just out. So, I thought I could get some home schooling curriculum to supplement.

Can anyone give some advice on where to start. I would like to start this summer as he starts in the fall.

Thanks!

 

[DawnM]

Well, that is what I like about it, you can CANCEL when you need to! And we have $20/mo. Is that just an intro price? I thought that was the price.

I spoke last night with a friend who uses Time4Learning almost exclusively and she raved about it.

I came home last night with a fever so today I just had them do Time4learning on our laptops and it was a HIT! But that is just Day 1.....we will see what happens as time goes on.

Dawn

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.

 

[mom2koh]

We were just re-zoned last year, so DS starts kindergarten at a poor school instead of the excellent school we had planned. I can not home school him and private is just out. So, I thought I could get some home schooling curriculum to supplement.

Can anyone give some advice on where to start. I would like to start this summer as he starts in the fall.

Thanks!

I would say go for it with the supplemental curriculum! There are lots of people who "afterschool". Think homeschooling but after school and weekends.

Good luck!

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Do any of you use vegsource to buy or sell curriculum. I'm looking at selling but am nervous about it.

 

[mom2koh]

I have used vegsource a couple of times. When selling I only accept paypal so I know I have the funds before I ship my items. Also, when I buy I check the complaints board and once again use paypal so I can contest the charge if I never receive the items.

That said. All of my transactions, buying and selling have gone smoothly.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I have used vegsource a couple of times. When selling I only accept paypal so I know I have the funds before I ship my items. Also, when I buy I check the complaints board and once again use paypal so I can contest the charge if I never receive the items.

That said. All of my transactions, buying and selling have gone smoothly.

Thanks. I was just reading their rules. It doesn't look too bad.

 

[KristyBDJ]

We were just re-zoned last year, so DS starts kindergarten at a poor school instead of the excellent school we had planned. I can not home school him and private is just out. So, I thought I could get some home schooling curriculum to supplement.

Can anyone give some advice on where to start. I would like to start this summer as he starts in the fall.

Thanks!

Can you open enroll in your area? We can here. They'll even supplement for travel costs from driving/bussing them from other districts. That way you could sign him up for the school you want him to be in assuming that there is space. You could still do some things at home as well of course. I would check quickly, open enrollment in my area ends this week for 2010/11 year.

 

[NemoMOm]

Nope, I'm in upstate NY which means we are regulated to the point of death The crazy thing is, that the good school is right down the street where as the poor school is 15 mins. away We tried though, thanks

I read that everyone orders from different places. Which is the best for a 5 year old? TIA

Can you open enroll in your area? We can here. They'll even supplement for travel costs from driving/bussing them from other districts. That way you could sign him up for the school you want him to be in assuming that there is space. You could still do some things at home as well of course. I would check quickly, open enrollment in my area ends this week for 2010/11 year.

 

[DawnM]

I find Vegsource frustrating. I haven't found a way to do a search for specific items and it seems to move so fast, that things are jumbled and then gone.

Dawn

Do any of you use vegsource to buy or sell curriculum. I'm looking at selling but am nervous about it.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I find Vegsource frustrating. I haven't found a way to do a search for specific items and it seems to move so fast, that things are jumbled and then gone.

Dawn

LOL, I tried that yesterday! I wanted to check how others are pricing similar stuff. It could be organized so much better.

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

Hope it's alright to jump in here but I have a question you all may be able to help me with.

My son is in Kindergarten and at a private school. He is having some difficulties remembering what a n, f and t sound like and this slows his reading down just a hair. We have been having doing flashcards and have him playing some on starfall.com but he needs something else too. Any ideas for fun ways to learn phonics?

And while I am here asking questions I have another. This summer I am homeschooling, sort of. We are "visiting" every continent and studying certain countries. Do you have any books or lesson plans that would go well with this. My kids are 8 and 5.

THANK YOU for any help.

 

[Denine]

1 more week until Homeschool days in Williamsburg! I know someone on here went last year, but I can't remember who it was.

We have a 5 day pass for the Colonial area which includes all the buildings.
We get to have a 2 hour family tour at Yorktown and DD gets an age approriate hands-on class for an hour. We get the same at Jamestown.

We have been to Williamsburg before, but the 2 times we have taken DD we didn't have tickets so couldn't go into any of the buildings for the tours.

DD has to take her Felicity doll of course!

 

[preschoolmom]

Hi, Can I jump in here with a home school question?

My son (mild on the autism spectrum, but very intelligent) is failing first grade math. Our district uses Everyday Math, which I have heard mixed things about (it seems to get poor reviews, but his teacher loves it).

I am planning to after school him with a math curriculum, and I'm looking for suggestions. I was considering Saxon, but have also heard good things about Math U See.

Does anyone have a preference/recommendation for me? He is an excellent reader (way above grade level) and seems to be a visual learner. He likes/needs to understand how things work.

Thanks!

 

[Ellester]

Hi, Can I jump in here with a home school question?

My son (mild on the autism spectrum, but very intelligent) is failing first grade math. Our district uses Everyday Math, which I have heard mixed things about (it seems to get poor reviews, but his teacher loves it).

I am planning to after school him with a math curriculum, and I'm looking for suggestions. I was considering Saxon, but have also heard good things about Math U See.

Does anyone have a preference/recommendation for me? He is an excellent reader (way above grade level) and seems to be a visual learner. He likes/needs to understand how things work.

Thanks!

I would recommend Math-Us-See if he is a visual learner. Dr. Demme (the instructor) explains things very well, in my opinion. His philosophy is that the child needs to understand the concept, not just memorize formulas. MUS also uses blocks to help visualize the concepts. We've done Primer through Epsilon and have been very pleased. My DH and I are both engineers, so math is a big deal to us. The only thing is that he teaches mastery before moving on to the next subject. So Primer and Alpha cover addition, Beta moves on to subtraction, Gamma is multiplication, Delta is division, Epsilon is fractions and Zeta is decimals and percentages. It doesn't mix it up like most curriculums. It works for us, but MUS is not going to line up with any public school math progression.

 

[preschoolmom]

The only thing is that he teaches mastery before moving on to the next subject. So Primer and Alpha cover addition, Beta moves on to subtraction, Gamma is multiplication, Delta is division, Epsilon is fractions and Zeta is decimals and percentages. It doesn't mix it up like most curriculums. It works for us, but MUS is not going to line up with any public school math progression.

Oh, that sounds perfect for what I'm looking for! One of the things that I dislike about Everyday Math is the spiral - where they move on before mastering anything. It clearly isn't working for my son!

Thank you so much!

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

Hope it's alright to jump in here but I have a question you all may be able to help me with.

My son is in Kindergarten and at a private school. He is having some difficulties remembering what a n, f and t sound like and this slows his reading down just a hair. We have been having doing flashcards and have him playing some on starfall.com but he needs something else too. Any ideas for fun ways to learn phonics?

And while I am here asking questions I have another. This summer I am homeschooling, sort of. We are "visiting" every continent and studying certain countries. Do you have any books or lesson plans that would go well with this. My kids are 8 and 5.

THANK YOU for any help.

So I went through a lot of posts here and found edhelper.com that should help me with geography for this summer but does anyone have any ideas for the phonics? I would love some creative ideas to help him "get" it.

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

I have been looking for a good grammar course and came across this http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/grammar_course.htm
Has anyone tried this program? Thanks

Do you have any recommendations?

 

[Tink561]

We are still using some of it. We have also joined our local Classical Conversations community, and the girls are really loving that. There is also a man in our area that does science camps during the summer and school breaks. He has started doing science classes for homeschoolers and after school groups, and we started going to his class.

My oldest is also using Teaching Textbooks for math and the youngest is using Singapore Math. I'm still tweaking and trying things to find the perfect balance for us, and we are getting there. I don't care for the LA that MFW recommends, so finding a Language Arts program we like is my current project.

Sounds great! I want to do Classical Conversations for Gracie next year but right now our closest group is about 35 miles away. I'm not sure I want to do that every week.

I ordered the new Memoria Press Kindergarten program today and am so excited about that! I love classical education and have always been impressed with their products in the past.

My boys always loved the Science classes for homeschoolers. I plan to let Gracie take classes at the local zoo next year. She will love that!

I loved Shurley English with the boys. They learned so much with the jingles and sentence diagramming. Loved it!