Homeschool Chat

[Momvic5]

I wanted to add my reason for hsing: I knew I wanted my children to have a Christian based education. We had a great Christian school in our area where our oldest son started Kindergarten. It closed the next year,so we finished 1st grade in our local public school. I really felt the Lord was leading us to HSing, but I just had a new baby and my mother-in-law passed away that summer and dh felt we had too much going on to undertake this. So, I kept praying about it, and asked the Lord to soften dh's heart and lead him to this as well, if this was His will for our family. Well, wouldn't ya know it, we were talking one evening and hubby says, I really think we should take him out of ps and bring him home(this was the end of his 2nd grade year). He felt the Lord had really put this on his heart. So, thank you Lord!! that was MY confirmation--after that an unbelievable amount of info. and comments about hsing started to come my way.
It has been the greatest blessing in our families journey so far. I am ending our 4th year this Friday. Older son has been home for 3rd - 6th, my youngest son K-3rd, and little daughter, pre-K .

Your story just gave me the chills. I am always amazed at how God works. Homeschooling has definitely been a blessing for us too. Homeschooling is definitely a journey. Some days are smooth sailing, and then some days are rocky mountains!

 

[tnmomof4]

I don’t think I fit a typical Homeschooling profile?

First, I think if one is even thinking about Homeschooling there must be something there? Most either Homeschool or would never even think about it. Does this make sense? I do think about it, Alot!

I feel I am different in that we are not exceptionally religious, and I truly don’t have a complaint w/ DD’s school (1 in PK & 1 in 1st grade @ a small Catholic school in the south). I just don’t like the fact that 1st grade DD is gone from 7:30 – 3:30 (including commute) and still has homework. DDs both truly like their school.

I’m by nature a procrastinator & less than well organized. However I think I’d love to unschool them! What if it’s just the dreamer in me? I did take my first formal step and borrowed The Homeschooling Book of Answers from our library.

Sorry for my short launch, I just needed to jump in & look forward to your thoughts!

I did have lots of complaints about the private school my kids went to. But...I know what you mean about being gone from 7:30-3:30 and still having homework. I had many, many reasons that I decided to HS, but this was one of them. My son that was in 4th grade would have so much homework that he would be up until 10:00 p.m. Then he would be so tired the next day. We were all so stressed out and tired. It was just not good for him. He would be in school for 7 hours and then come home and do 4 or 5 more hours of school work. I also felt that the 7 hour he was in school that he wasn't learning what he should be learning.

We all have lots of different reasons for HS. Some home-schoolers I know are very strict and well organized. I am not overly strict, but I do try to stay somewhat organized since I am teaching two of my kids. This was our first year so I have learned a lot. I have learned from my mistakes, and I have learned what works good. I think the most important thing to me is to do what is best for your kids and family. There is not one reason to home-school.

 

[disneyelaine]

Hello,

I wanted to post on the new board and say Hi! I am in my first full year of homeschooling my 5th grade son with high functioning autism. Why do I homeschool? Well around 4th grade things all came unglued at school. I believe it was because he was always mainstreamed with no real supports.
Our district claimed he was their first student with autism, but since then I've been told it's because they run them all off! It's like, it's ok to have autism as long as your child behaves and learns normally. Anyway, By 4th grade, he was unable to "blend" in socially with the other kids. He is very smart, but also has apraxia and it takes him longer to get his words out. Also he has hand writting issues, which the school OT just gave up on about 2nd grade! Towards the end, my son did not want to be at school, and frankly they did not want him there either! Well maybe that is harsh, but they did not know how to teach him or handle autism behaviors.

Homeschooling has been a blessing for him. He still has his best buddy whom he sees nearly daily. In most ways he is a typical 11 yr old. I am the typical mom who says "I wish I would have done it sooner." I feel quilty for trying to make PS fit for him, when I SHOULD have caught on to homeschooling sooner. He started off PS, a happy smiling boy. Looking at each grades school picture, you can see the gradual sadness. He stopped smiling in the pictures by 3rd grade, 4th grade he had a complete frown. This was not the child I had at home. Homeschooling has been wonderful on his self esteem!

So we started using Sonlight Core 3 this year. Next year we will move on to Core 4. I love Sonlight as my son is like a sponge, and I do alot of reading to him and most worksheets we do orally. PS has alot of "busy" writting work, which he can not do easy or quickly. We are going to try Teaching Textbooks this year for Math.

I still have an older son in PS. 9th grade. It works for him, and since he is in High School now, he will just continue.

Thanks for listening and I will keep enjoying this thread.

 

[NHWX]

Every once and a while - sometimes more often at the end of a long day - I think "Wouldn't it be nice if they did half their time at ps?" You know, so I wouldn't have to feel like I was doing everything?

Then, this week, dh and several other mentors for a school team had a meeting with the teacher-coaches who had resigned from the team a couple weeks ago and several administration officials. One of dh's big gripes about the teachers was that they'd basically asked him to lie by omission. They wanted the high schoolers on the team to only have some information; all of it is available on the net with almost no effort at all. (The information was about other competitions and demonstration days that the team might have wanted to participate in. But the teachers don't want any extra work.) And to everyone's astoundment, the principal supported them! So, if you have a principal who is willing, in a public meeting, tell an adult that it's not appropriate for teenagers to have this information so they can make a good decision, what else is she capable of?

DS14 went to the high school for one semester. I say how it tore him up inside. But to see the lack of ethics permeating from the top down, how could you ask any child to participate in that? (Btw, ds14's first requirement for a girlfriend is that she be ethical. How's that for teaching them well?)

NHWX

 

[Momvic5]

We all have lots of different reasons for HS. Some home-schoolers I know are very strict and well organized. I am not overly strict, but I do try to stay somewhat organized since I am teaching two of my kids. This was our first year so I have learned a lot. I have learned from my mistakes, and I have learned what works good. I think the most important thing to me is to do what is best for your kids and family. There is not one reason to home-school.

I agree! We all have come around to homeschooling in one way or another. The amazing thing is that what works for one family or even one child does not work for another. I think every year that you homeschool you learn something new, and what might have worked at one time may not work the next time. At times, you may find yourself in a strict routine and well-organized, and then there are times when you find yourself bewildered and all over the place. Usually though, a happy medium between the two is where most of us are found.

 

[minnie1928]

Hello everyone! I'm usually hanging out over on the Budget Board, so this is an entirely new neighborhood for me!

I was hoping some of the HS pros could help me out? Long story short, my kids attend Montessori school currently. My DD started at 2.5, DS started at 6, they are now 5 and 9 respectively. We are going to be relocating from PA to NJ in early June (after school ends) and will be transferring the kids into public schools (Oakland, NJ to be specific). However, in speaking with my DD's teachers they are highly recommending that I homeschool her when she is not in Kindergarten (which lasts only 2.5hrs/day). She is doing very well in Montessori and I would like to keep that moving. I thought that sending her to Kindergarten would help her get to know "the new neighbors" and also give me time to prepare for our daily work/lessons. I am working with one of her current teachers on a home schooled Montessori program.

However, my DS is not doing as well academically speaking. We met with his teachers a few days ago and they said that his spelling, word problem solving, and creative writing skills are not quite what they normally see at his age. So, I began thinking that I would start this process during the summer for BOTH kids...not just DD. I found a book/program call "Spell to Write and Read" that looked intriguing. Has anyone used this program? Is it worth the $100? I thought it might be something that they could both benefit from....

Any and all advice is appreciated! I haven't yet read all of this thread (or the earlier version) but I plan to in the coming days.

Thanks!

 

[NHWX]

I love the Paragraph Book series by EPS for writing help. You can find it here:
http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/cat...66S&subjectdesc=Process+&+Skills&series=2671M

They also publish Spellwell which is by the same author as Explode the Code. I know my boys used Spellwell when they were in private school.

NHWX

 

[Ellester]

I found a book/program call "Spell to Write and Read" that looked intriguing. Has anyone used this program? Is it worth the $100? I thought it might be something that they could both benefit from....

Any and all advice is appreciated! I haven't yet read all of this thread (or the earlier version) but I plan to in the coming days.

Thanks!

I had friends in NC that SWORE by SWR. I looked at it and, frankly, I found the phonogram concept to be very confusing. I know that the local homeschool store in Charlotte regularly held seminars on how to use the program. You might try to find a similar thing locally to see it it would work for you and your kids. I don't know how useful it would be for only the summer, I think it works on a much longer timeframe.

 

[Laura.bora]

Your story just gave me the chills. I am always amazed at how God works. Homeschooling has definitely been a blessing for us too. Homeschooling is definitely a journey. Some days are smooth sailing, and then some days are rocky mountains!

Goodness gracious do I agree withthe smmoth sailing and rocky mountains! My son is naturally very smart for his age, and is far ahead of where most kids his age are. When I got pregnant, we switched to a lot of ditto work so he could do it more independantly, as I get extremly sick during pregnancy. Well, baby is born and I thought Ok, he's done really well all this time doing loads of ditto work - I'll stick withthis, not thinking God was giving Nathaniel grace with all the ditto work! Very soon after the baby was born, it went from "It's a joy to do my school work" to "It's taken me over an hour to do 1 math sheet!!" So after a lot of struggling and prayer, we really felt the Lord telling us to just stop for a season. And so we did! And I can't believe how much he's been learning sinced we "stopped". He has learned in his spare time the names of all the planets and characteristics of the planets, learning about the life cycle of a tree, and anything he can find out about dinosaurs! So how about all of you - do you find that your kids keep learning like sponges, even during breaks? And what are they learning?

 

[mamazaz]

Hi all! I just wanted to introduce myself and say hello! Hello!!

I have 8 children - yes I said 8!!!

Our oldest 2 are grown, married and have 2 children each. I homeschooled both of them through high school. I started homeschooling our oldest daughter in 3rd grade and our oldest son in 5th grade. That was the beginning of our homeschooling adventure!! (That was many moons ago! )

We have 6 at home - ds 10, ds 9, dd 7, ds 4, ds 3 & dd 2. I homeschooled my ds 10 in kindergarten and then felt compelled to place him (5 at the time)and our ds 9 (4 at the time) both in our Christian school that is run by our church. They seemed to do fine, although I missed them terribly. When our dd 7 was almost 4, she went to the school for their pre-k program. Those 3 children spent 2 years at the school before we knew in our hearts that they needed to be home, and once again we should homeschool our children.

So I'm currently teaching 5th grade, 3rd grade and 2nd grade.

I'm using Alpha Omega and also supplementing with other curriculum based on their individual needs. I'm using Hooked On Phonics with my dd 7 and she is really enjoying it.

I've also started working with the little ones at home (of course) on their pre-school age basics. It's a crazy place here most days and we kind of fly by the seat of our pants most of the time. I need to implement more structure, but it's very hard with our life-style. We school year-round with breaks whenever we need them.

We're heading to Orlando in 5 days!!!! We'll be doing WDW, of course, and also Sea World, Aquatica by Sea World and Universal Orlando. Both grandmothers are coming along and so it will make for a really fun, and memorable vacation for all of us. We need it, since my father-in-law passed away about 16 months ago, and my dad just passed away in February.

Thanks for letting me introduce myself and rattle on a bit!! Nice to meet all of you!!

 

[Neesy228]

First, I think if one is even thinking about Homeschooling there must be something there? Most either Homeschool or would never even think about it. Does this make sense? I do think about it, Alot!

I feel I am different in that we are not exceptionally religious, I just don’t like the fact that 1st grade DD is gone from 7:30 – 3:30 (including commute) and still has homework.
I’m by nature a procrastinator & less than well organized.

I think I could have written this! We are seriously considering homeschooling my DS who is also in first grade. My real concerns are my personality (procrastinator and less than well organized are an excellent discription!) and I'm worried that we may not fit into any of the homeschool groups in our area because we too are not exceptionally religious. We live in a small-ish town and my options are somewhat limited.

I'm still going through cirriculum options for him for fall and I'm getting excited about the possibility of some freedom in our schedule. School really limits family time. My husband travels for work every couple of months and we used to be able to travel with him. Now, we sit at home so the kids can go to school. I feel they would learn much more traveling!

Anyway, sorry to babble. Just wanted you to know that you are definitely not alone! I live in Pennsylvania. Where are you from?

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

He has learned in his spare time the names of all the planets and characteristics of the planets, learning about the life cycle of a tree, and anything he can find out about dinosaurs! So how about all of you - do you find that your kids keep learning like sponges, even during breaks? And what are they learning?

This sounds like my younger son(8 about to be 9). He is sooo smart! We have nicknamed him the Professor!! He's into minute details You should hear him tell a story-on, and on, and on....Just because he knows so much about it and can't bear to leave out one tiny detail. Dino's, planets, and big tractors/Cat and John Deer,ie., well, he knows that suff backwards & forwards!! This is the beauty of hsing-we are constantly looking, reading, playing and therefore learning about what we are interested in. Of course he's also a lego man and loves the dump trucks and machines!! Our last day is actually tomorrow, but I think we may do a small study of dinos or something over the summer for both boys.

We love our break time, but I am considering changing our school schedule-I had posted earlier what we are currently doing, but a few months on with a few weeks off is sounding more appealing to me. Except for activities at church and local sports, we don't really need a grade to age correlation. For those of you who do this, how does it work out for you?

 

[WeDisney4]

Now that Hs'ing is more "mainstream" I find that there are a lot of people like yourself that are just drawn to it. It just seems like a natural extension of parenting to them.

This just sums it up Perfect for me!

Thank You All So Much for your words of encouragement!

We stopped in our library yesterday AND saw a flyer for a HS book sale, this Saturday! I'm definitely going to stop by, maybe find something for the summer. Any recommendations, even though I’m not positive we’re HSing next year?

We also, asked about the computers in the children's section, they asked if DD 4.5 had her own library card. No, we use our library regularly; however I'm the only one w/ a card. Come to find out we are about a 1 1/2 yrs late getting her one! I'm sure I would have known this if I were HSing. As soon as I pick her up from PK, we're off to the library for her card and more HSing books. We're both so excited!

I continue to gently let DH, know I feel this is right for us. And now I'll also ask for it in my prayers too.

Thank You All again!

P.S. We live in NC, however DH is from PA & we lived it Pgh for awhile.

 

[Laura.bora]

This sounds like my younger son(8 about to be 9). He is sooo smart! We have nicknamed him the Professor!! He's into minute details You should hear him tell a story-on, and on, and on....Just because he knows so much about it and can't bear to leave out one tiny detail. Dino's, planets, and big tractors/Cat and John Deer,ie., well, he knows that suff backwards & forwards!! This is the beauty of hsing-we are constantly looking, reading, playing and therefore learning about what we are interested in. Of course he's also a lego man and loves the dump trucks and machines!! Our last day is actually tomorrow, but I think we may do a small study of dinos or something over the summer for both boys.

We love our break time, but I am considering changing our school schedule-I had posted earlier what we are currently doing, but a few months on with a few weeks off is sounding more appealing to me. Except for activities at church and local sports, we don't really need a grade to age correlation. For those of you who do this, how does it work out for you?

We homeschool year round and love it. My kids are younger (about to be 6 and 3) so that might make a difference, but I can't honestly imagine taking a "summer break" like I used to in PS. It just doesn't seem to flow as well.

 

[mickeyjen]

This sounds like my younger son(8 about to be 9). He is sooo smart! We have nicknamed him the Professor!! He's into minute details You should hear him tell a story-on, and on, and on....Just because he knows so much about it and can't bear to leave out one tiny detail. Dino's, planets, and big tractors/Cat and John Deer,ie., well, he knows that suff backwards & forwards!! This is the beauty of hsing-we are constantly looking, reading, playing and therefore learning about what we are interested in. Of course he's also a lego man and loves the dump trucks and machines!! Our last day is actually tomorrow, but I think we may do a small study of dinos or something over the summer for both boys.

We love our break time, but I am considering changing our school schedule-I had posted earlier what we are currently doing, but a few months on with a few weeks off is sounding more appealing to me. Except for activities at church and local sports, we don't really need a grade to age correlation. For those of you who do this, how does it work out for you?

Well, we are just finishing up a kindergarten year for our oldest and our youngest is in pre-k, so this may be different from older kids, but we just use the grade level AS an age correlation. It is just much easier for people to relate to my kids that way (plus they are very tall for their age, so people would totally believe that my son was in 2nd or 3rd grade but probably wouldn't understand why he behaves like a 6 year old, KWIM?).

So, my DS tells people he is in kindergarten when they ask, but he is using a first grade math and spelling curriculum and a 3rd - 4th grade reading curriculum. Likewise, my DD would not be in kindy for another year and a half, so she tells everyone she is in preschool, but she is doing the kindergarten math and is using a 2nd grade reading curriculum currently. Does that make sense? So we move on, but they maintain their grade level more so the rest of the world can still relate to how old they are... (plus, I get to keep them home their whole 18 years... )

 

[Princess_Michelle]

So, I just ordered "Hooked on Chinese" from Amazon for DS (almost 4). Has anyone used this before? Or any "Hooked On..." for any language? Just wanting to see if anyone has any experience/advice for teaching English and another language at the same time! DH and I both have a working knowledge of Chinese (we learned in the Army) but are not really fluent anymore. I'm just hoping I don't screw him up on both langauges!!

 

[skoi]

So, I just ordered "Hooked on Chinese" from Amazon for DS (almost 4). Has anyone used this before? Or any "Hooked On..." for any language? Just wanting to see if anyone has any experience/advice for teaching English and another language at the same time! DH and I both have a working knowledge of Chinese (we learned in the Army) but are not really fluent anymore. I'm just hoping I don't screw him up on both langauges!!

Wow, let me know how this works out. Our two big kids want to learn Chinese, and our two little kids are from China, and while dd has been here for almost 18 months and speaks English exclusively, ds might have retained some Chinese. He doesn't speak due to hearing and palate issues, but he might not have had the hearing problems for his entire life. We're not sure.

Right now, we're planning on using Rosetta Stone for Chinese. We bought it a few years ago. We use it for Spanish with oldest dd.

Julie

 

[KibbyCat]

We're going mid september - the 16th - 25th. Woo hoo Free Dining! And that brings me to this question:
Is there a place where I can find a list of all the animals in AK? My kids don't know we're going, but I'm making this a learning experience as always! I was planning on having a checklist with us to play the "who can spot the most animals" game. ( a regular occurance when we hit zoos or aquariums - it's a favorite of ours). I also want to be able to do a teaching lesson about these animals and the habitats they live in and have them do a research project about the animal of their choice. All while unknowingly preparing them for a trip to Disney!
And also, I've never been to AK before. How distinct are the countries/areas? Is it like Epcot, where it's obvious when you've traveled from MExico to Canada? We're doing a study unit on the countries found in Epcot, and I'm wondering if I can include AK countries as well? And any other ideas for incorperating learning with our trip ( I have a 5 year old who's very advanced, and a normal 2year old....well....I don't know how "normal she is but..... )

Laura,

I heard from another homeschool parent on here that there's going to be a special homeschol family days event at Animal Kingdom towards the middle of September (if memory serves right, I believe it was the 14th and 15th???). This would be awesome for your kids if you were able to alter the days you're going to be there. I've only been there once, and it was 8 years ago, so I'm sure there are a lot of new/different things since then, but it was very fascinating. There will be plenty for both of your kids to find enjoyable and for you to make educational.

This may sound crazy, but if you don't already have it, invest in Baby Einstein's Baby Noah DVD. It includes all the different habitats (ocean, savannah, etc.) and the animals who live there. My kids love this. In fact, my daughter's preschool teacher was amazed that, at age 4, my daughter told her she wanted to "visit the savannah". (She said she didn't think anyone at that age would even know what a savannah was!) Anyway, we love the Baby Einstein collection, and this particular DVD teaches kids about animals and their habitats in an age-appropriate manner. Maybe look for some reproducible color sheets to print off as reinforcement, and even your 2-year-old will be knowledgeable about animals/habitats!

 

[bear74]

Laura,

I heard from another homeschool parent on here that there's going to be a special homeschol family days event at Animal Kingdom towards the middle of September (if memory serves right, I believe it was the 14th and 15th???). This would be awesome for your kids if you were able to alter the days you're going to be there. I've only been there once, and it was 8 years ago, so I'm sure there are a lot of new/different things since then, but it was very fascinating. There will be plenty for both of your kids to find enjoyable and for you to make educational.

This may sound crazy, but if you don't already have it, invest in Baby Einstein's Baby Noah DVD. It includes all the different habitats (ocean, savannah, etc.) and the animals who live there. My kids love this. In fact, my daughter's preschool teacher was amazed that, at age 4, my daughter told her she wanted to "visit the savannah". (She said she didn't think anyone at that age would even know what a savannah was!) Anyway, we love the Baby Einstein collection, and this particular DVD teaches kids about animals and their habitats in an age-appropriate manner. Maybe look for some reproducible color sheets to print off as reinforcement, and even your 2-year-old will be knowledgeable about animals/habitats!

oh where can we find info about this we will be their Sept. 14 -21

 

[KibbyCat]

When we first started with ABeka, we got the grade level kits. Second Year, we mixed bob jones math with 5 in a row. Third year, back to all ABeka and I remembered why I switched the year before!! Love ABeka, love the Christian theme and all the scriptures in the workbooks, but they sooooo overload the homeschoolers, that it just ends up being too much work for us.

That's because ABeka doesn't have a separate homeschool program. All homeschoolers get the same curriculum they write for Christian schools, so it is meant to be taught to a group of kids. Teach a lesson, do some guided practice, have them do some independent work. For homeschoolers, this is overload. That's why their DVD program is great, because the homeschooler feels like a part of the class, and can watch the lessons, then just do the independent work. But for a parent to teach the lessons, there is WAY too much. You could cut out half the lessons and still come out ahead.