Homeschool Chat

[PoohBear]

Thank you all for sharing your wealth of info with us. The websites you listed were handy, too. I forgot to ask about those. There are many resources on the internet but it is so hard to know which are reputable. That co-op idea sounds great. Are there other discounts/deals homeschool teachers should be aware of? You have given me great ideas.
I may look into certain classes for cyber school, as well. We live in PA. I have much to look into here. I steered away from this because we did not want to be pinned to a specific place and time. But I did recently hear that there is a way to do it on your own schedule. I am not sure if you can just take one class, though. I am not good with English/Writing. So, I would consider classes for that purpose.
I think the hardest part is probably scheduling. Some days we set out with the best of intentions.... We get so involved and we can end up talking about the Constitution for six hours. The 3yo is very demanding of our attention. This does not help our schedule. I am hoping, with time, he will be able to entertain himself on occasion.
Thank you all, again. It takes a village!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Just wanted to comment on something you said:"We can talk about the Const. for 6 hours". That's awesome!! Do you think your kids could do that in ps? No way!!! Anything that holds there attention or that you are all interested in will stick with them forever!!! Much better than skimming through it and saying "Yeah, I read it, Mom". Yeah for you!!!

 

[storybookmum]

Just wanted to comment on something you said:"We can talk about the Const. for 6 hours". That's awesome!! Do you think your kids could do that in ps? No way!!! Anything that holds there attention or that you are all interested in will stick with them forever!!! Much better than skimming through it and saying "Yeah, I read it, Mom". Yeah for you!!!

I really have to agree here. One of the beauties of homeschooling is that you can tailor it to your child's needs, interests and abilities. The ability to hyper-focus is a "luxury" of homeschooling that can really serve to hone your own understanding of where your child is likely to head in the future.

 

[Ellester]

Are there other discounts/deals homeschool teachers should be aware of?

I have teacher discount cards at Barnes & Nobel and Jo-Ann Crafts/Fabrics. You can also sign up for the Pizza Hut Book-It program (may have to wait until next year) and if you live near a 6-Flags, they do a reading program too that gives the kids a free ticket. Just keep your eyes open for "Educator" discounts around town, you should be eligible for most, if not all of them.

 

[Nicolepa]

OK, I gave my 3rd grader the Saxon test last night and she placed in 65. I thought she'd be 54 or 65 so that is right on. I asked her if she just wanted the book or if she'd like the CD to teacher her the lessons and she got really excited about them. So I will order her 65 w/DIVE.

Now I need to give the test to my 1st grader. We shall see how that goes.

 

[kpatcamp]

We are taking our 3 children to Disney in January. I was wondering if any other Homeschoolers counted days at any of the Disney parks as School days (field trips). I was thinking of counting days at Epcot and Seaworld as days, but does anyone have any opinions on this??

I have 3rd, 2nd and K-5 graders.

Thanks so much!

Kim

 

[storybookmum]

We are taking our 3 children to Disney in January. I was wondering if any other Homeschoolers counted days at any of the Disney parks as School days (field trips). I was thinking of counting days at Epcot and Seaworld as days, but does anyone have any opinions on this??

I have 3rd, 2nd and K-5 graders.

Thanks so much!

Kim

Are you required to count school days for your state regulations? If so, then I'd consider it. If not, I wouldn't worry one way or another.

I know my older daughter did some journalling and scrapbooking last time we went, and I thought of it, cheerfully to myself, as educational!

 

[kpatcamp]

Yes I am required to count school days (160 for the year). We are spending a total of 10 days in Orlando. We will have 7 at Disney and 2 at Seaworld. I know they will learn a lot at Seaworld and I am sure Epcot will also be educational. What does everyone think of Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios educational wise?? Does anyone have any ideas on how to make any of these parks more educational??

Thanks for any input!

Kim in Alabama

 

[Praise2Him]

Have any of you started homeschooling mid-year?

Yes! We started homeschooling DD in 8th grade. DS was in 10th grade in Public School and loved it - lots of friends and playing in the band, so never even considered homeschooling him. The next year, a couple of months into the year HE decided that he wanted to come home to school So he finished out marching season, then I withdrew him the week of Thanksgiving and he never went back. I did buy a curriculum for him, since he's older and I knew that DD would be using it a couple of years later, but with a 1st grader I wouldn't worry about it.

Are there other discounts/deals homeschool teachers should be aware of?

I have a teacher discount card from Office Max. Every year in August they have a "Teacher's Day" where they give you a tote bag with some stuff in it (pen, notepad, etc.) Plus you earn points when you buy things.

Also Books A Million, if you have them where you live.

Scholastic Books (where you order books). Twice a year they have a warehouse sale where you can go and buy books at a discount (if you have one near you).

I've heard that Hollywood Video Store will let you check out movies for FREE if you show your teacher ID card (for educational purposes, of course!)

 

[happypooh]

Yes I am required to count school days (160 for the year). We are spending a total of 10 days in Orlando. We will have 7 at Disney and 2 at Seaworld. I know they will learn a lot at Seaworld and I am sure Epcot will also be educational. What does everyone think of Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios educational wise?? Does anyone have any ideas on how to make any of these parks more educational??

Thanks for any input!

Kim in Alabama

I totally think of WDW as educational...AK has a wealth of info on animals and birds - you could do animals from different continents, bugs, reptiles, dinosaurs, fish etc...just think trip to a very very very cool with shows an rides and way better...I know that I always learn something from going there!
As for Hollywood studios - there is alot to be learned about animation and also the history of hollywood and the type of movies that have been popular, how a movie is shot or how animation is done. You could do a unit study on costumes, acting and drama, merchandise and marketing (that would apply wherever you go in WDW!), customer service, I could go on and on...and for the Magic Kingdom - there's the presidents, tom saywer, trains, carousel of progress (if that's still there!) - the history of how things used to be - even the animatronics of the country bears could be discussed from a historical point of view! Then all the stories that come out of the parks - Cinderella, Pocohontas, Snow White, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo - if you read every book each night while you were there or did a book report on each story that would be cool. I don't know how old your kids are but I really do think Disney is a very educational place to go to! You could even teach them digital photography and how to set up the best photos etc...or if you are able to take some of the tours that would be neat. I can't wait til my kids are old enough to do some of those tours!

 

[graygables]

Yes I am required to count school days (160 for the year). We are spending a total of 10 days in Orlando. We will have 7 at Disney and 2 at Seaworld. I know they will learn a lot at Seaworld and I am sure Epcot will also be educational. What does everyone think of Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios educational wise?? Does anyone have any ideas on how to make any of these parks more educational??

Thanks for any input!

Kim in Alabama

My educational philosophy: Wake up. Start learning. We have a "school day" 365 days per year, no matter where we are.

For the parks, Animal Kingdom is VERY "educational". Take the time to stop and talk to the CMs who are showing the animals. If you have time, go over to the AKL for the day and do some of the activities there. They have many different things that teach kids about conservation and Africa. There are cards at Boma and Jiko that have information about the different countries represented. You don't have to eat there, just stop at the desk for the cards. LOTS of CMs from Africa who love to talk about their homes.

Magic Kingdom: go on Carousel of Progress. Have the kids find similarities in the technologies from the older scenes. Have them discuss the "future" scene and see how it compares with reality. TTA is powered by magnets. Discuss why pirates are "fun" if they are in the 18th century, but negative headline news today. How are pirates the same? How are they different (or are they?)

DHS: There is a wonderful attraction about Walt Disney: One Man's Dream. LOTS of historical, technological, and cultural information. The Magic of Disney Animation is an art lesson with a free souvenir. If your kids are interested, you could talk about velocity, etc in Tower of Terror.

Epcot: well, you know. Ask a CM at each country how to teach you a word, such as "thank you". Ask questions, you never know what fun things you'll learn! I learned that the very yummy treat in Norway called "school bread" is called that b/c the older children are allowed to go out to eat for lunch to local bakeries and that is the item of choice. If they are naughty, they have to stay in the school over lunch and don't get their school bread so they never want to be naughty!

In general around the parks, look at name tags. If someone is from somewhere interesting, ask them about their home town. You'll learn something and you've given them the gift of being interested in them and not just how fast they can ring you up! Give your kids a gift card for their expenses and teach them some budgeting skills. My girls carry a notebook and write down where they see something, the SKU, and the price, then decide later what they really want to spend their money on.

Every day is a school day for all of us, no matter where we are!

 

[DawnM]

Right there with you.....every day that my children are with me, they learn something!

Now, if you really want to be schoolish about it.....

I would have the kids take their own pictures, get them developed, and then have each child keep a sort of journal about their experiences at each place. Writing, grammar, spelling, History, photography, science, you name it.

Science is great.....The Land has a great ride showing how to grow things and be "green" about it. The dinosour ride is great for History and taking care of the earth (even if you don't believe in evolution, it brings up great discussion with the kids.)

I was a teacher for many years.....give me any topic and I can come up with a lesson plan!



Dawn

PS: By the way, I just did a quick google search for Disney and lesson plans and it came up with quite a few things!

My educational philosophy: Wake up. Start learning. We have a "school day" 365 days per year, no matter where we are.

For the parks, Animal Kingdom is VERY "educational". Take the time to stop and talk to the CMs who are showing the animals. If you have time, go over to the AKL for the day and do some of the activities there. They have many different things that teach kids about conservation and Africa. There are cards at Boma and Jiko that have information about the different countries represented. You don't have to eat there, just stop at the desk for the cards. LOTS of CMs from Africa who love to talk about their homes.

Magic Kingdom: go on Carousel of Progress. Have the kids find similarities in the technologies from the older scenes. Have them discuss the "future" scene and see how it compares with reality. TTA is powered by magnets. Discuss why pirates are "fun" if they are in the 18th century, but negative headline news today. How are pirates the same? How are they different (or are they?)

DHS: There is a wonderful attraction about Walt Disney: One Man's Dream. LOTS of historical, technological, and cultural information. The Magic of Disney Animation is an art lesson with a free souvenir. If your kids are interested, you could talk about velocity, etc in Tower of Terror.

Epcot: well, you know. Ask a CM at each country how to teach you a word, such as "thank you". Ask questions, you never know what fun things you'll learn! I learned that the very yummy treat in Norway called "school bread" is called that b/c the older children are allowed to go out to eat for lunch to local bakeries and that is the item of choice. If they are naughty, they have to stay in the school over lunch and don't get their school bread so they never want to be naughty!

In general around the parks, look at name tags. If someone is from somewhere interesting, ask them about their home town. You'll learn something and you've given them the gift of being interested in them and not just how fast they can ring you up! Give your kids a gift card for their expenses and teach them some budgeting skills. My girls carry a notebook and write down where they see something, the SKU, and the price, then decide later what they really want to spend their money on.

Every day is a school day for all of us, no matter where we are!

 

[grammynelliebelle]

Anybody going to do the Jan Homeschool days at WDW? I assume they are having them again this year. Grammy

 

[NHWX]

I'm not sure if we'll do the Disney YES programs; how are they for 8th and 10th graders? Do they separate kids by ages? Otherwise, I'd imagine that what would be interesting for the K-2 crowd would be pretty different from the high school group, for instance.

But, yes!, happy, happy! We've booked a room right now. I'm going to hold off on any dining plans purchasing until we're much closer. Dh's job is sort of a sick yo-yo of despair and hope. Yesterday was a good day with plenty of work outlined for 2009. But the week previous was layoff-city.

Do the disboard homeschoolers plan a mini-meet? Does anyone want to even think about it?

NHWX
(happy!)

 

[NHWX]

So, I am seriously thinking of having her go until Winter Break and then not sending her back. Have any of you started homeschooling mid-year?

We pulled our oldest our mid-year in high school! Talk about unnerving! We'd homeschooled before and it was so very clear that the high school was not a good place for him. But I really wanted him to make the decision if he was to stay there or not. And after Christmas vacation, he knew he just couldn't do a whole year. Luckily, the school operates on a semester basis so he didn't lose any credits.

As I tell my boys "I wouldn't feed you garbage, would I?" I'm not putting the same in their minds. (Video games are a source of struggle here!) So, if the school situation is making your child ill - physically, emotionally, spiritually, then it's time to change something. If she wants to stay for some parts, can you do part-time enrollment? Some states/districts will let you just go for gym or drama or whatever attracts your child.

Unless you have really stringent state requirements, I think that first grade must be totally fun to teach. Think of all the cool projects you can do!

Good luck in whatever decision you make. You can change your mind too!

NHWX

 

[DawnM]

We are going the following 2 weeks after homeschool days this time. It couldn't be helped. We are also getting APs this year though, so it worked better for us.

Dawn

 

[storybookmum]

What's that all about - never heard of it! I would be interested in hearing more. We're not there till January 29th anyway, but still!

Well - here we go, found the link, and it's not around our dates, but for anyone else curious who hasn't seen it yet:

http://disneyyouthgroups.disney.go.com/wdyp/programs/programOverview?page=HSDProgramOverviewPage

 

[graygables]

Thanks for the reminder! We're going down in January for me to do an internship at WDW (currently College Program, still hoping for the Professional one to come through...) so I just signed my girls up!

 

[Ashley Kees]

Does anyone here know what the dates for the homeschool days over the last few years have been? I'd like to get an idea of when they are usually held.

Thanks!
Ashley

Edited to add***

Holy cats! I just checked out the prices for the 5 day park hoppers you can get on those homeschool days, and they are literally half price!! Is that for real?? It can't be, there must be some kind of mistake...

 

[graygables]

Now we're even more psyched...we just looked up the speaker, Vicky Beeching, and we have several of her songs on our iPod! DDs are very excited that they will get to hear from someone *famous* (btw, "famous" means that THEY have heard of the person before. Eartha Kitt standing in line next to us at Soarin' did NOT qualify in the "famous" category... )