Homeschool Chat

[Ellester]

We are considering taking our son out of public school to homeschool him. Our state has no guidlines to follow, so I am a little lost. School has gotten so bad that he is now pulling his hair out.
Any ideas, lesson plans you have used would be super helpful as we debate this decision. It will change all our lives, as I will have to give up my management job to start this adventure. You can email me @ s.lydia@rocketmail.com
Thanks for all your help!!
Lydia

Welcom, Lydia! It sounds like your son would benefit from homeschooling, poor guy! If at all possible, I would try to get to a homeschool conference in your area and search the web for local support groups. It is getting to be the season for conferences. Usually, you can get a good look at lots of different options that way. A good place to check the laws in your state is www.hslda.org. They also have links to local HS'ing organizations. Once you pull him out, expect decompression and adjustment time. I've read to plan on 1 to 2 weeks per year of public school, so if he is in 5th this year you can plan on 6 to 12 weeks of adjustment at a minimum. There is no need to jump into a full curriculum right away. There is plenty of value in just spending time getting to know your son again and discover his learning style (as well as your teaching style). I would not spend a ton of money on any specific curriculum until you have a better idea as to what will work for your both. There are an incredible amount of resources out there, it will take time to wade through them. We use a hodge podge of things in our homeschool (I currently have a 11yo, 8yo, 5yo, and 1yo), we are constantly adding and dropping things as I learn more about what works best for my kids. This is our 5th year of homeschooling. Right now we are using the following:

Math - Math-U-See
English - Voyages in English, Wordly Wise, Explode the Code, Seton
Science - Noeo Chemistry
Art - Seton
History/Social Science - Sonlight
Geography - MCP
Spelling - Sequential Spelling
Religion - Seton (we are Catholic, Seton is a Catholic curriculum supplier)
Latin - Memoria Press

We throw in other things here and there as well (critical thinking, handwriting, unit studies, etc.)

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me or to post. Good luck with your decision!

 

[Ellester]

Check for Homeschool Fairs in your area. They often have used book sales that let you sell on consignment or for a nominal participation fee.

I just had to comment on your user name. That is my oldest dd's name, and we spell it the same way! We don't see it spelled that way very often.

 

[StuckInKS]

danjoealexis3006, I can certainly sympathize with you as I have one of those wigglers myself. I wish I had some great advise but I don't. My DD-9 has not been diagnosed as ADD but I do wonder. I do know that I do not want to put her on medication so I have tried to adjust my expectations for now. I just try to keep our lessons short. The more I demand of her the more frustrated she and I both become so for now I have decided to back off a bit and let her go at a slower pace. I feel pretty sure in time she will focus better, things will click and we will make up for lost time then. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that you can take the time to find out what works in your situation without having to keep up with anyone else. Hang in there!

Can't wait to hear from some others who do have some sage advice.

This sounds just like us and it can be frustrating. I have decided that my daughter just can't do more than 2-3 hours of book learning a day, so I have cut down to just phonics/reading/lang arts and math. Then I have her play jumpstart for a while (which she loves to do and the games help me know what she is/is not retaining from her studies.) I figure we will do science and history (her other two non-electives, as we are schooling through a public virtual charter school) during the summer since they are shorter courses. I may try to find some kind of software or online things to help her with those. So, moving to a part-time, full-year schedule has been working for us so far, but she still has her days where she has trouble focusing and moves around a lot. She also has not been diagnoised (as I don't see the point since I won't medicate her,) but her dad had ADHD as a kid. She does have some really good days too though, where she focuses pretty well.

 

[wvdislover]

We also have a DD12 with a lot of attention problems. She was on medication since she was 5, but we tried taking her off of her ADHD meds this fall. It started out really great, but as time went on, I was losing more and more control of her, and she was constantly getting in trouble. We were getting hardly any schoolwork done, as she was so fidgety and distracted. She was also having a lot of trouble doing the things she was supposed to in her dance classes, which she enjoys, so I know it wasn't just schoolwork. We ended up putting her back on her Focalin XR, but only on a quarter of the dose she was on before. Life is not perfect (will it ever be with a teenager, though?), but things are going a whole lot better. Her dance teachers were able to notice a big difference in her performance in their classes, without knowing that she was back on her meds, and we are getting more schoolwork done, with fewer problems. I know she's happier, because she's getting in trouble a lot less than she was.

I know a lot of you don't want to put your kids on meds, but don't ever rule it out completely. I think some kids NEED to be on meds, just to help them regulate their life. Why should everybody in your family be miserable, just b/c you don't want to give your child a pill every day? Why should your child spend the whole day getting in trouble, just b/c you don't want them to take any medications? Is that really fair to your child? Fair to the rest of the family?

I know there are a lot of kids out there who are on meds who really don't need to be. For those of you who are able to maintain a relatively happy and sane household without putting your kids on meds, that's great! I wish we could have done it, but for us, it just wasn't worth the sacrifices our DD and our family were having to make. Hope this helps someone

 

[DreadpiratK]

dreadpiratK...Just curious what foods (or just a few examples) or brands do you avoid? I have to watch the MSGs for me, or I get Migraines...some days I get one & know it's weather-related,other days I wonder if it's something I have eaten, but can't put my finger on it.

It's not so much brands as just any food that has artificial colors, which is almost anything, we even have to watch what toothpaste we buy. We just get in the habit of reading labels. Red #5 and yellow #3 seem to be the worst, a little blue or green she seems to tolerate pretty well. It's especially prevalent in food targeted at kids. Think how many chemicals you're child ingests in a day just to make his or her food bright! It's a lot. The good news is it forces us to make more things from scratch, so we all eat better because of it. For her birthday my DD17 made her a pink cake using strawberry juice instead of pink food coloring in the frosting, and it was great.

As an example, we discovered this about her while eating out one night, everything was fine, she was well behaved until my older son gave her the cherry from his drink, which of course had ton of Red food coloring in it. Minutes later she was kicking and screaming and throwing stuff, it was a little scary. After that we started observing her behavior when she was the worst, and tracking it back to what she had eaten.

A lot of people have said, oh it's just the sugar that makes them hyper, but it's not, Ellie can have ice cream or chocolate or other things kids like, just without the colors in it, and she's fine, but give her a few red m&m's and she's bouncing off the walls.

The nice thing is enough people are coming to realize how much of a problem this is, and companies are responding. For example, Cool Aid makes 'invisible' cool-aid now, it's exactly the same as regular without the colors. Tastes just the same too it's just clear and it doesn't bother my daughter at all. A few companies even make naturally colored gummy candies and vitamins, which is a treat for our girls.

I strongly urge anyone whose kids are ADHD or ADD or even close, at least give it a try, you've got nothing to lose. Remove all colors from their diet for even a few days as see what happens, it may be nothing at all, or it may be dramatic. You could save you kids from a lifetime of medication, and yourself quite a few gray hairs! We know of one friend who was able to take her son off medication completely by eliminating colors, and he's so much better now then he was on the meds.

More info about this can be found on the web, like this article:

http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/2991.html

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

OOHhhh thanks! I will check that out! I remember as a kid for school parties, the moms would bring in those big gallon jugs of fruit punch or whatever it was...I would get suuuuuch a headache!! My mom didn't give us that stuff, so I always thought it was just a sugar rush...mighta' been the red!!! It stained your face, remember?!! Ha!!!! Foods like Cheese Doritos, or anything with lots of 'fake cheese powder' gives me a head ache also...my kids dont seem to be too hyper after foods---but I do know when they would come out of Nursery on Sunday they would be sooo wound up. Goldfish....and day cares and kid places give those out by the millions!!! Makes my kids go bananas!!!!

 

[StuckInKS]

I know a lot of you don't want to put your kids on meds, but don't ever rule it out completely. I think some kids NEED to be on meds, just to help them regulate their life. Why should everybody in your family be miserable, just b/c you don't want to give your child a pill every day? Why should your child spend the whole day getting in trouble, just b/c you don't want them to take any medications? Is that really fair to your child? Fair to the rest of the family?

If this was our situation I wouldn't rule it out, but no one in our family is miserable and my DD is a pretty good kid for the most part. It really is not even that much of an issue until school time, and then he easily distracted nature can become a problem. But that is me and her, it does not affect the rest of the family and I have taken measures to try and make it easier (working only 2-3 hours a day, finding alternatives to book work, etc.) On the days when she really can't focus at all, I just put the books up and call it a day. If she has it, it is mild and maybe just ADD, rather than ADHD (attention/distraction is more of a problem than hyperness for us.)

Now, we do have kids in our family that have terrible ADHD and they almost need to be medicated all of the time, but they also tend to have other mental issues, namely bipolar. That (thank goodness) is not an issue here. I have had plenty of opportunities to see a meltdown of an unmedicated severly ADHD/Bipolar child and it is something that I would not be able to deal with on a regular basis. It causes stress and anxiety for the whole family. If that were an issue for us, medication would be necessary and I would not hesitate to use it.

 

[bumbershoot]

With the lowest grades (DS is doing K work), do any of you go in spurts? Several days of lots of work all in a row, then just a nice break... I always feel so lazy doing that, but it sure seems to work for DS! And he's constantly learning, so I find that he has learned in the interim, when we get back to the workbooks.

Does that work for anyone else?

*******

In the past year we finally figured out that having music on while she is doing math, grammar, vocabulary, etc....(not during reading time) makes her work not only faster but, she "gets" the concepts better Wish I had listened to that advice years ago!

It's so hard as an adult to really allow that music can help. How do I know? Because I was a kid/teen/college student who absolutely loved to have something on in the background while studying, I know it helped, but as an adult, I balk at it! It's so weird.

My brother, brilliant dude, had the coolest system for studying. Now he did go to school-school (as did I but I was nowhere near as successful at it), and so he had pressure-filled finals. Especially since he was in as many AP classes as he could take.

With each subject, he would listen to just ONE album. Any time he studied math, for example, he had Ozzy Osbourne on. For English, it was Megadeth. History? Anthrax was playing. (getting an idea of the sort of music he liked? lol) And when he was taking a test, he would think about the music, and it would bring to mind all of his studying time, and he could remember/access the info in his brain easier. So cool!

And yet I don't want music on...silly me.


DreadpiratK, loved your posts! That is REALLY cool about the "invisible" cool aid. Not sure if that's safe for us in other ways, but cool that it has no color.

For us, eliminating things with corn syrup has also eliminated most "colorful" foods. For DS, the colors aren't the biggest problem, but they definitely cause twitchiness (vs full blown violence and utter inability to listen) in him. He *says* "I can handle it", but he really doesn't. And red is the worst, absolutely. Last month we bought a box of Eggo waffles at the store, because they are marginally safe, fun to eat, and, I'll admit it, tasty. But they have Yellow in them. And I watched him...last month was definitely trickier, behaviour-wise, than other months. So? No more Eggos. It's OK, waffles are easy enough to make and freeze.

I *love* the strawberry juice trick! How fun! I was just reading a recipe for red velvet cake, and it contains a disturbing amount of red dye in it. Just reading about it was making me itch, LOL. And I know for absolutely sure that a few of the people commenting on the recipe (on FB) have kids with diagnosed problems, and they were saying how much their kids looooove red velvet cake. I had previously heard of using beet juice to make it red, and when you mentioned strawberry juice for a pink cake, it brought it back to my mind, so thank you!

 

[belle22]

OT - I am trying to find some examples of what the Kindergarten Diagnostic Test -2 . I have posted on other boards gotten a few results but not for KDI .-2. Was hoping someone use to teach Kindergarten and can help me out? This test is to be a more thorogh test?? Not sure what that means. It has 13 parts.. (here are a few of them) Concept Mastery, Visual Discrimination, Number Skills, Visual Memory, Vocab, Verbal Associations, General Information.

Any ideas what to go over with my child??

 

[fabumouse]

I have another question. Whereas I think my daughter might benefit from a home based education, I'm not so sure about my younger ds. Do any of you hs one but not the other of your kids?

Absolutely.

My DD3 is thrilled with her preschool, gets along with the teachers and the other kids and comes home after 5 hours each day waving her art over her head. That is great!
I have no plans at all to homeschool her, she will be in her preschool next year, and am applying to a wonderful private school in my area for the next (I don't love our local elementary, so that is not an option).

My DD8 has ADHD, is very bright and verbally precocious. We are not religious at all, and honestly, I couldn't name a "we do this program" or "that program" with any consistency.

I had to take a huge step back from the public school system and ask myself what exactly does my child need out of school? And asking myself that over and over created a clarity.

Math. She needs to know how to add, subtract, multiply, work with fractions, geometry, understand graphs, etc.

Reading. She needs to be able to read to learn any other skill. So we read constantly and she reads to me in the car.

Social Studies. She needs to know the continents, basic political structure of our country versus others....

It feels overwhelming, but it is exhilerating when not only she recites her multiplication tables but has this Oh my gosh! moment when we discuss Elizabeth Cady Stanton and she says "women couldn't always vote?" and that can take up the rest of the day. (instead of her asking the question and being drowned out by 23 other kids heading to lunch).

I won't lie - some days she wants more kids around her and I wish there were. We do some sort of class every day with other kids, but it's not the same as being with them for 7 hours a day.

But I wouldn't trade it. Hope you find a decision that works for you.

 

[Zoma]

With the lowest grades (DS is doing K work), do any of you go in spurts? Several days of lots of work all in a row, then just a nice break... I always feel so lazy doing that, but it sure seems to work for DS! And he's constantly learning, so I find that he has learned in the interim, when we get back to the workbooks.

Does that work for anyone else?

*******




It's so hard as an adult to really allow that music can help. How do I know? Because I was a kid/teen/college student who absolutely loved to have something on in the background while studying, I know it helped, but as an adult, I balk at it! It's so weird.

My brother, brilliant dude, had the coolest system for studying. Now he did go to school-school (as did I but I was nowhere near as successful at it), and so he had pressure-filled finals. Especially since he was in as many AP classes as he could take.

With each subject, he would listen to just ONE album. Any time he studied math, for example, he had Ozzy Osbourne on. For English, it was Megadeth. History? Anthrax was playing. (getting an idea of the sort of music he liked? lol) And when he was taking a test, he would think about the music, and it would bring to mind all of his studying time, and he could remember/access the info in his brain easier. So cool!

And yet I don't want music on...silly me."

Your brother sounds like a fun guy, we could learn alot from brilliant people like him

It took many years for us to allow the music, they never allowed us to listen to music at the brick and mortar school when we were kids Math has been her biggest struggle over the years so when I heard about music and math being linked in our brains it made sense to at least give it a try. Her music of choice is Frank Sinatra, The Beetles and Johhny Cash.....homeschoolers

 

[StuckInKS]

I signed DD6 and DS5 up for Time4Learning yesterday. DD is doing K12 through the virtual charter school in our area and DS will start in August, but DD needs to supplement with the book work since she can only focus on it for so long. I also have her do Jumpstart, but it is better for reviewing and checking mastery of a topic, rather than learning it (plus she is almost done with 1st and after 2nd there are no more.) I would like to get DS some exposure to things that he will be learning in August, before we actually dive into the books. So, I *think* this will be a good idea for them (time will tell.) With DD3, I wasn't sure.

The Preschool area is made by Time4Learning, instead of CompassLearning. I was hoping to take a peek at it once I signed up the other kids (I assumed that DS would have access to both 1st and Preschool as well as K,) but haven't been able to access it. I just don't know if it is any better than other free games for preschoolers and how much instruction is involved (we tried out DD in math today and it was kind of hit or miss. Some lessons would review needed concepts/definitions before she did the game and took the quiz and others would only offer explainations when she got something wrong.) Namely, DD3 already has access to the Jumpstart subscription and I don't know if getting T4L Preschool would be any more beneficial than what we already have available, since it is made differently than what DD6 and DS5 are doing.

Does any do T4L Preschool? Did it seem any better than the free preschool games you can find online? Did it help them master any needed concepts before moving on to K or do you think they would have done just fine with the K without the Preschool? What she needs to work on is some letter names and all letter sounds, some number names up to 10 and all numbers after 10, and counting past 20. We have already started a bit of basic addition (number that equal up to 10) and she does a decent job with that. She knows colors/shapes, same/different, comparing sizes, more/less, etc. So having those available is not an issue.

 

[BelleRocks]

Hi, I am considering taking my daughter out of traditional public school, and am considering on online homeschool cirriculum (or some seem to be called online private schools).

She is in 5th grade now and I am looking to start in 6th grade. I am one of those moms who always just assumed my kid would be in public school, so changing my mindset on this has not been the easiest. Therefore, I'm not looking at compiling my own cirriculum (which I think would be overwhelming) but for a 'package' cirriculum that isn't 100 percent textbooks. My daughter is very computer literate and I love the learning ops the internet offers.

Does anyone have any experience with any of those type of programs?

Thank you so much for any responses - I'm just lost!

 

[Ellester]

Hi, I am considering taking my daughter out of traditional public school, and am considering on online homeschool cirriculum (or some seem to be called online private schools).

She is in 5th grade now and I am looking to start in 6th grade. I am one of those moms who always just assumed my kid would be in public school, so changing my mindset on this has not been the easiest. Therefore, I'm not looking at compiling my own cirriculum (which I think would be overwhelming) but for a 'package' cirriculum that isn't 100 percent textbooks. My daughter is very computer literate and I love the learning ops the internet offers.

Does anyone have any experience with any of those type of programs?

Thank you so much for any responses - I'm just lost!

Welcome to the board! I think you'll find that many parents have been in your shoes. It can be a difficult change in mindset, to be sure. Knowing that is half the battle though, so consider yourself ahead of the game! I don't have personal experience with totally prepackaged curriculums, but I have several friends who have used them. Switched on Schoolhouse is very popular around here. It is almost all on the computer, I believe. I have two friends who have been very happy with it for their middle school/high school aged children. I know several families who are using K12 though the state (Georgia Virtual Academy). It is essentially public school curriculum but at home. They have videos to watch online, and live class remotes too. The families I know have mixed reviews of it, but it sounds like a good fit for some people. Hopefully, you'll get some good feedback from this board. I would look into contacting any local homeschooling groups to see if you can talk to someone who actually uses some of the prepackaged sets. That can be very helpful. It is also getting into HS conference/curriculum fair season, there may be one coming up near you. Tons of information is available at those. Good luck! It is a crazy adventure sometimes, but totally worth it!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Hi, I am considering taking my daughter out of traditional public school, and am considering on online homeschool cirriculum (or some seem to be called online private schools).

She is in 5th grade now and I am looking to start in 6th grade. I am one of those moms who always just assumed my kid would be in public school, so changing my mindset on this has not been the easiest. Therefore, I'm not looking at compiling my own cirriculum (which I think would be overwhelming) but for a 'package' cirriculum that isn't 100 percent textbooks. My daughter is very computer literate and I love the learning ops the internet offers.

Does anyone have any experience with any of those type of programs?

Thank you so much for any responses - I'm just lost!

Hi and
My middle son is in 5th grade this year..we only use the computer for one course...and thats Math. We use Teaching Textbooks and I couldn't love anything better!!!!! He actually did the 6th grade one this year and my 8th grade son used it for Algebra 1. This is our 2nd year using it and they will not ever use anything else as far as I can see!!! they have an online placement test to see which one you will need....go to the site and check them out...they are awesome!! Also...Christian Book .com sells their curriculum and you can read reviews.
I have never used an entire curr. on the internet/computer... I too have heard that people who use Switched On Schoolhouse (SOS) just love it! I hope you will find exactly what you need...lots of people on here, so you should get lots of tips!!!!

 

[figment3258]

Hi all I just wanted to sort of re- introduce I think I have posted here but it has been quite some time. I home-school my two wonderful daughters ages 7 and 3. We have always home-schooled. We also live in Ma if anyone else from Ma wants to chat that would be great. Also right now we are in a slump. I was wondering what some of your schedules are like day to day. I am trying to find something that works for us. Alo can anyone recommend an online program for second grade. Just thinking ahead for next year. Thanks so much!

Jessica

 

[BelleRocks]

Thank you so much for your replies! I will check out the Switched on Schoolhouse. I don't mind SOME textbook work, I just didn't want it to be 100 percent. There are so many resources online, and it seems a great way to keep kids interested.

Thanks again!

 

[danjoealexis3006]

I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my post. My DS has ADD and somedays are down right challenging. My DH and I figured out why my DS is not wanting to do his work more than normal. DS overheard a conversation between my DH and I about what to do next year. DH wants me to start applying for jobs (things have been really slow for our business and we have burt through much of our savings). We are living very lean right now in hopes that things will pick up, but here in Michigan I doubt it will. I will be lucky to find a job (I'm a social worker) in my neck of the woods. I don't know what to tell my son or my DH. I feel like I am stuck in the middle and unfortuately my son can tell something is wrong. Funny, I didn't really think I would love to hs my son but I really do. My plan was to bring home my other son next year and hs both. I finally feel like I have found my calling and unfortuately life is getting in the way. Sorry I guess I just needed to vent.

 

[wondermomamy]

I finally feel like I have found my calling and unfortuately life is getting in the way. Sorry I guess I just needed to vent.

I totally understand how you feel. I went back to work last fall and enrolled my two youngest in public school. They have adapted and are doing well, but I really feel my calling is to teach them at home. Sigh....

I have been going to school part time for social work and I've been having second thoughts lately about even finishing. I currently work with deaf students, but I feel like my job is just a means to an end. As soon as we are financially able, I want to be back home with my kids. That's where my heart is.

 

[Pooki]

I'm bringing something up that is somewhat irrelevant to me at the moment (as my kids are pretty young), but I just wanted to get people's input since I'm very new to the HS'ing world still

I was looking into taking CLEPs for myself, and I happened to stumble across a forum, accidentally, about homeschooling. Of course I was intrigued, and I learned that many HS parents will incorporate CLEPs during the high school years in order to get college credits (they are learning the material anyways, why not take the exam and get the credit, right?). I understand that "dual enrollment" is not accepted in many cases, but it seems easy enough to study, say, Biology, mark it on the child's transcript with any associated grade, and have the CLEP exam separate.

The forum I was on was biased in the sense that it was a pro-CLEP forum (not knocking that, just stating I didn't hear any negative opinions), and I got very excited about this. However, I just wanted to see if anyone has any experience with this or had any opinions about having their teens earning so many college credits at such a young age, and even in some rare cases, getting their bachelor's around the same time an average PS kid would graduate high school. I wish I would have known as a high schooler to take CLEP exams, since I probably could be avoiding taking basic college classes such as history later in life.