Homeschool Chat

[wvdislover]

I love the pay it forward theme from other threads. I think that I'm going to make some little cards to leave notes at Guest Relations for great CMs. It will be a great lesson for my kids. They will enjoy searching for kindness & hopefully not even notice the negative people around us.

??? What is this? Sounds interesting, but I've never heard of it

 

[lisalonglash]

Well, it turns out that we're going to be there Sept. 12-20, so we'll miss the HD this year , but there's always next year!

We just received the Rosetta Stone Homeschool French level 1 program yesterday - it is soooo cool! Has anyone here used this program? We're really looking forward to setting it up on our computers this weekend

 

[littlepeppers]

??? What is this? Sounds interesting, but I've never heard of it

the pay it forward & be nice to CM stuff is somewhere on this thread my friend sent me.

Ohhhhhh, it will not let me put the link. It is on one of the threads that the CMs. frequent.

It also has some really nice stories about giving away unused fastpasses (we already do that b/c my DS can be a chicken & doesn't want to ride w/ me after the parent swap w/ his dad). Stories about buying people on a budget meals w/ extre CS. We never have extra anything. We have one under 3 who must eat & doesn't qualify for a dining pass yet.

 

[Corinne Johnson]

Rosetta Stone? We've used the German (husband's 1st choice), and we were very impressed by it. We didn't stick with it, because our daughter decided that she wanted to do ASL for her foreign language credits (she was already learning a lot of signs for a drama ministry). But, I do know a few German words just from watching the kids us the RS.

 

[emh1129]

If any of you are HSing a HFA/Aspie child, I'd love to talk to you, just for some general support, etc.
Thanks

 

[Tink&PirateMama]

HI!

I posted once before, but I thought I'd try again I'm a homeschooling mama to two beautiful young ones, going into K and 1. We basicly did K all this year, but my DS isn't quite ready for 1st so we'll be doing both this fall.

Anyway, we happen to be going to WDW during the Homeschool days in Sept, and we got tickets earlier this week- I'm so excited! We are only going for one day, to the cultural thing in epcot. My kids seemed young for the rest, and we have a full rest of our vaction (vow renewal, sea world, MNSSHP!).

However, we are thinking of going to the January HSdays too. I'm wondering if any of you have gone before, and if you know how the tickets work if you order the 5 day park hopper? It seems a good deal, and we will be going in January fairly often anyway. How many days do you have to use it up? I assume it's not just five days? Any help is very appreciated!

Thank you!!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Hello Tink & Pirate mom~~
I can't answer your questions about the hs days, just wanted to say welcome and we have been in Jan our last 2 trips and we reallllly love it!!! I didn't even realize they do hs days in January!!! Where have I been? I only knew about September. Maybe someone can help us both out!!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I just wanted to come in and say Hello, we just got back from Disney on Wednesday morning. We had such a wonderful time, it was amazing.

Now all of this talk about the homeschool days is getting me excited because we are planning to go back September 2010, specifically for homeschool days, and I know we'll enjoy the Halloween decorations that should be up!!!

Can't wait to hear about everyone's experience with HS days after they go!

 

[williamson_ja]

If any of you are HSing a HFA/Aspie child, I'd love to talk to you, just for some general support, etc.
Thanks

I have homeschooled my 12 yr old for the past 3 years. He is either HFA/or AS depending on who is doing the testing. I finally pulled him out after 3 years of fighting with the district over giving him services and getting nothing... all the while ds would come home from school crying every day because he just couldn't deal with normal school. That was enough for me. I can honestly say that we have our good days and bad days, but we have found what works for us.
AND we can have awesome experiences like going to WDW homeschool days. I can honestly say that I had no idea that WDW did a homeschool day. We got our reservations 2 months ago (w/ non-refundable airline tickets) and just found out yesterday that we WILL be there on the same day as homeschool days!! How cool is that? We are going to try to do the history YES class on the 22nd. Has anyone done this one? I thought it was cool that you get to go into the MK park before it opens to the public and get to go onstage at the Hall of Presidents. I am the history teacher for our homeschool group, so this totally seems like something we would LOVE!!
Anyway, you can email me personally if you have questions about homeschooling with Asp/HFA.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

williamson j, I can't wait to hear about the HS days after you get back, I can't wait to do it next year!!!



So, I just ordered our very first homeschool book for the fall. I ordered our Science book. We went with Apologia, and we chose Zoology, Land and Animals. It looks like a lot of fun. I can't wait to get it and check it out

Does anyone have this book? How did you like it?

 

[lori1043]

Hello-I am using Apologia Land Animals this upcoming year too. WE are going to make it last the whole year, following our 10 week per semester co-op. We are adding some field trips to the zoo, aquarium and insectarium plus some other nearby cool animal places. Of course, halfway through the year we will be moving but I am going to continue after we settle into a new place.

WE did Apologia Astronomy last year and we loved it! We did it with a few others-we will be doing Land Animals with a few others too.

Lori

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

williamson j, I can't wait to hear about the HS days after you get back, I can't wait to do it next year!!!



So, I just ordered our very first homeschool book for the fall. I ordered our Science book. We went with Apologia, and we chose Zoology, Land and Animals. It looks like a lot of fun. I can't wait to get it and check it out

Does anyone have this book? How did you like it?

These are the books we have and they are unbelievable. The kids retain a lot of information, because it's so intriguing and doesn't read like a traditional Science book. We get lots of animal books from the library too,(my middle one anyway) and so he is a walking encyclopedia with all this. They have some really neat stuff in these books that I don't remember learning. We have the Botany book and he can tell you all about Photosynthesis, and the inner parts of stems and leaves. It's incredible. I wish I could have had books like this growing up----I am learning so much with them. And I was an honor student. I wonder what did i really know? You can do Science everyday and finish in 1 semester or spread it out to do in 1 year. He loved it and wanted to do it every day, so we went through 2 books this year.

Glad you had an awesome trip!!! How were the crowds?

 

[graygables]

We are going to try to do the history YES class on the 22nd.

I'm going to try to get DDs into this one, too. It will all depend on my work schedule, however, which I won't know until sometime in July, most likely. My 13yo DD is an Aspie and NOT happy about being signed up for it, but like most things, I tell her "too bad, chica".

 

[locolala]

We don't have kids just yet, but we're thinking we'll end up home schooling our kids. DH and I were both in the gifted program from K thru 12, and when we were in mainstream classes, we were both stupidly bored. I know there's no way to be sure that our kids will be the same way, but I have an odd feeling they'll be bored in mainstream schools. The thing I love about the idea of home schooling is that we can do things at our pace. If they finish a subject before the school year is over, that's awesome. DH is military, so we'll be moving a lot, another bonus to home schooling there . What I'm wondering are what secular HS programs are the best, since neither of us are religious.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Thanks Disney Mommy 3. If I want to spread it out to last a year, should I do Science 2 or 3 times a week? Thanks

And the crowds were not bad at all. For the popular rides like Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and expedition Everest, Test Track and Soarin, they were like 50-60 minute waits, so we always grabbed fast passes, but actually the day we rode everest was an EMH night and we only waited 15 minutes. For everything else we normally didn't wait for more than 15-20 min. But the norm was like 10-15 minutes. Oh except Ariel's line. We waited 45 minutes for her, but I expected that!!! And then there were plenty of 5 minute wait rides also. I was happy with the crowds!!! I'm looking forward to even less for next year when we go in September!

 

[wvdislover]

If any of you are HSing a HFA/Aspie child, I'd love to talk to you, just for some general support, etc.
Thanks

That would be me, for one. Anything I can help you with, I'll be happy to do (or at least try!). I've homeschooled my DD11 for one whole school year, and about 11 weeks last year. While it can definitely be challenging, to say the least, it also has its rewards My DD is SO much happier now than when she was in school

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

What I'm wondering are what secular HS programs are the best, since neither of us are religious.

Welcome! We use Oak Meadow, which is a secular curriculum. I like it, but like all curriculum, we usually add our own stuff and mix it up a bit. That's the joy of homeschooling, you can add things, do more, work on something longer...lots of choices!

 

[wvdislover]

I just got back from my first homeschooling conference (in NC)...oh my gosh! So many people, SO MUCH curriculum! My mom and I went to only 3 workshops, and then spent the rest of the 1 1/2 days in the bookfair. I think I've decided on what I'm using next year with my DD11 (she'll be in 7th grade): Teaching Textbooks (Pre-Algebra); LLATL (tan book...the literature used looked more like it would interest her); for history, a combination of TruthQuest and Drive-Thru History (plus, I found some cool "comic books" about mythology by y.kids), studying Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; Apologia for science (I'm pretty sure I'm going to do General Science with her); and possibly Total Language Plus for reading. I also "discovered" all that Rainbow Resource has to offer, and spent probably more than I should have with them, but it was cool stuff, and they had really good prices

Now, I just need to figure out if we're going to hs DD7 (she'll be in 3rd grade) It really is going to depend on a lot of stuff. She just qualified for the gifted program at school, so I have her IEP meeting at school Friday, and will have to see what they're going to offer to do to challenge her (they hinted a few weeks ago that budget cuts may affect the gifted program ). Right now, they pull the gifted kids out of class once/week for other activities. I also wonder, if I decide to hs her, would she still be able to participate in the pull-out program (called SOS) Then, she would still be able to participate with her friends, something that is very important to her. I go back and forth on whether I should hs her now, or wait until middle school as we had planned. I'm really waiting on God for this...

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

3princesses.... I would see how many weeks you are doing school next year--then see how many chapters are in the book you are using. Divide that by 2 and then 3 to see how many pages you have to have finished for each week. 3days a week would probably get you through the book faster. 2 days a week and a library book would take all year. My son usually liked to have a book about whatever he was learning in Science. some subjects take a little longer to get through, so i just kinda gave him 3-5 pages to read every day.That took us one semester--some stuff he really liked and he read through it quicker than what I had scheduled.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

I just got back from my first homeschooling conference (in NC)...oh my gosh! So many people, SO MUCH curriculum! My mom and I went to only 3 workshops, and then spent the rest of the 1 1/2 days in the bookfair. I think I've decided on what I'm using next year with my DD11 (she'll be in 7th grade): Teaching Textbooks (Pre-Algebra); LLATL (tan book...the literature used looked more like it would interest her); for history, a combination of TruthQuest and Drive-Thru History (plus, I found some cool "comic books" about mythology by y.kids), studying Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; Apologia for science (I'm pretty sure I'm going to do General Science with her); and possibly Total Language Plus for reading. I also "discovered" all that Rainbow Resource has to offer, and spent probably more than I should have with them, but it was cool stuff, and they had really good prices

Now, I just need to figure out if we're going to hs DD7 (she'll be in 3rd grade) It really is going to depend on a lot of stuff. She just qualified for the gifted program at school, so I have her IEP meeting at school Friday, and will have to see what they're going to offer to do to challenge her (they hinted a few weeks ago that budget cuts may affect the gifted program ). Right now, they pull the gifted kids out of class once/week for other activities. I also wonder, if I decide to hs her, would she still be able to participate in the pull-out program (called SOS) Then, she would still be able to participate with her friends, something that is very important to her. I go back and forth on whether I should hs her now, or wait until middle school as we had planned. I'm really waiting on God for this...

I used a lot of this stuff with my 7th grader this year too. The LLATL was ok, but he was super bored. She may like it--I did!! I ended up switching him to Rod and Staff. But, I am probably going to use the LLATL blue book for my 1st grader this year. I like the program.
I agree you should wait on the Lord about your dd. If you aren't sure, wait! He will guide you--His timing is so different from ours. You'll know when the time is right.