Homeschool Chat

[pixiemagic30]

I just watched the demonstration on MUS's webpage. I think I'm in love. OMG!!! Goodbye Saxon, next year....MUS!!!!!!!

This is our 2nd year with MUS and my kids love it! My daughter struggled with math until we switched. Now it did drive my son nuts when he switched, but he's learning tricks that have really helped him.

 

[graygables]

My 3rd grader is the one that tries to skip anything and everything he can possibly do. It is very frustrating, and I have tried adding work if he skips it, taking toys away..and I am at wits end. Does anyone have a child like this that they can possibly give me suggestions?

Children have an innate desire to learn. It could be that what he is learning simply doesn't interest him or frustrates him in the way it is presented. I wonder how I would feel if I were facing a challenge at work and my boss told me she was going to take away my cell phone...

My 13yo has similar challenges whenever we use a curriculum (she's an unschooler at heart). Today, she told me she feels like she's "in a box" with her current assignment and asked me if she could approach it her way. I told her absolutely; I want her to learn to THINK.

 

[Ellester]

Children have an innate desire to learn. It could be that what he is learning simply doesn't interest him or frustrates him in the way it is presented. I wonder how I would feel if I were facing a challenge at work and my boss told me she was going to take away my cell phone...

My 13yo has similar challenges whenever we use a curriculum (she's an unschooler at heart). Today, she told me she feels like she's "in a box" with her current assignment and asked me if she could approach it her way. I told her absolutely; I want her to learn to THINK.

Totally agree. My now 3rd grader showed absolutely NO interest in reading until about 18 months ago (a classic "Better Late Than Early" child). I did my best not to push the matter and now she is rapidly catching up and is really starting to love to read. I suspect if she was drilled into it in "building school" she would have been a reluctant reader for life.

One of the many beauties of homeschooling is that you are able to encourage your children to learn the way it best suits them. You give them the skills to find and communicate information. You don't have to go through the motions just to check off a box on a required curriculum list, whether or not any information was retained.

 

[love__goofy]

Thank you so much for all that replied. It certainly makes me feel like I am not the only one. As with Spring, I am READY! I feel like it will just make my life a little brighter.

In regards to not doing the work because it frustrates him, is right on! I was so happy to read this. He definitely skips what is difficult to him. Now that I think about it, most of what he does not do is pertained to writing. Today it was writing a poem with his spelling words, the other day writing a story. Does anyone have any suggestions with helping a 3rd grader with writing?

Thank you all so much!! I truly do appreciate it. Sometimes it is just so wonderful to hear from another person who can offer advice and a lending ear to listen.

 

[graygables]

In regards to not doing the work because it frustrates him, is right on! I was so happy to read this. He definitely skips what is difficult to him. Now that I think about it, most of what he does not do is pertained to writing. Today it was writing a poem with his spelling words, the other day writing a story. Does anyone have any suggestions with helping a 3rd grader with writing?

Former English teacher here. Writing is NOT easy for many children, even into college (and I'm in grad school and can tell you, for some, it NEVER gets better ) I have found, particularly with boys, that PENMANSHIP causes tremendous writing anxiety. For those who are allowed to write on the computer, that obviously isn't the issue, but they could really just not be ready to access that part of the brain yet. 13yo DD complained to me when she was younger that she simply couldn't write, she had no opinion and nothing to say. A few days later, she was passionately arguing something with me and her logic was flawless. I turned to her and said, "Don't tell me you couldn't write THAT, missy". Suddenly, it dawned on her that she had plenty to say and had never considered that she could write what she was actually THINKING then go back and edit it.

As for the actual writing, I taught my students (and DDs) to think of it in terms of 5s. An intro, 3 bodies, and a conclusion paragraphs. Within each paragraph, 5s, intro will have the topic, then three sentences about what the body includes, and a segue. Bodies: a topic sentence, sentences about the topic, and a summary or segue. Conclusion: summary, review of 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Set it up as a "skeleton" on paper and build it from there. There can always be MORE sentences and MORE paragraphs, but it's an easy way to construct a simple five paragraph essay.

Some children NEVER get creative writing. Poetry is sheer torture for most boys. IMHO, they need a sense of why poetry is different than prose (I use the comparison of orange juice concentrate fresh from the can as opposed to orange juice...let them sample the difference and see!) Language is richer and denser in poetry, word choices are precise as are rhythms (and, no, it doesn't have to rhyme ). If they understand how that is different, I don't see torturing them by making them write it. Same as stories. Some children's heads are filled with these imaginary worlds where stories are born while others are concrete and they couldn't build a character if their lives depended on it. Why make them? Especially in the 3rd grade?

Find something that HE is interested in and ask him to write you a report on it. Tell him to write as though you have NO knowledge of the subject and he is going to be YOUR teacher. This would be a good time to discuss plagiarism and the importance of using your own words, then let him have at it. You may be surprised how well he writes when he's passionate about his subject. Is he into Egypt? There's all kinds of new information on King Tut coming out. Does he like rhinos? Perhaps he can discover more about their habitat. Gardening? Have him plant a seed and chronicle it's growth as well as writing about agricultural advancements. There are so many ways to tie writing into interests into curriculum without them even knowing it. It's like hiding veggies in a favorite food and they don't even know...

 

[DawnM]

Do any of you allow your kids to go to overnight camp?

My oldest (12) is just now going to weekend long camps with our HOMESCHOOL only boyscout troop.

My 10 year old is asking to go to church camp this summer. I am very leery.....he isn't a strong swimmer and they have volunteers for counselors (parents and older teens).

Dawn

 

[bellebud]

Thank you so much for all that replied. It certainly makes me feel like I am not the only one. As with Spring, I am READY! I feel like it will just make my life a little brighter.

In regards to not doing the work because it frustrates him, is right on! I was so happy to read this. He definitely skips what is difficult to him. Now that I think about it, most of what he does not do is pertained to writing. Today it was writing a poem with his spelling words, the other day writing a story. Does anyone have any suggestions with helping a 3rd grader with writing?

Thank you all so much!! I truly do appreciate it. Sometimes it is just so wonderful to hear from another person who can offer advice and a lending ear to listen.

I pulled my kids last March too - dd was in 4th and ds was in 2nd.

DS8 (now 3rd) HATES to write. For some people, writing interferes greatly with the thinking process. It's just too much for them to get their thoughts on paper, especially at a young age. It's also not my ds's learning style (have you figured out your kids' learning styles?) For him to sit still and use paper and pencil is torture - so what is he really learning if he's whining and hardly getting it done, and thinking of ways to 'not' do it, instead of concentrating on the work. He's not learning anything (except how much he hates learning).

Anyway, I do still have him write a little, but very little, and it's just copywork, not creative writing. We have a notebook dedicated to his 'sentences'... I write about 5 sentences on a page, large letters and spaced apart a lot. He copies the sentences on the lines right below each. And the sentences are all about him. Some are funny, some are about how great he is at xxxxx, some are about what happened in his life recently (which I really love doing, because looking back now, it's like a little journal for him to keep). He doesn't mind doing this, because of the subject matter. So this is his penmanship AND grammar lesson... like Charlotte Mason's copy work - he's learns how to construct a proper sentence by simply doing it, which is his learning style. He doesn't want to "talk" about making the first letter capital, putting a punctuation mark at the end, making the sentence a complete thought, etc. He can't stand discussing such trivial things (again, his learning style... don't talk about it, just do it!) He does the sentences about 4 times a week. I allow him to decide how many sentences he does. Some days he does 2... some he does all 10. But he gives each sentence his all, and that's what counts to me, not how many he did.

For any creative writing, I don't make him write. He can dictate his thoughts to me, or on the cheap digital recorder I bought him for this purpose. We honestly hardly do this for him now though... he's 8. He doesn't NEED to do it. We tried it a few times - it worked ok, but he's really just not ready for it. There are so many other things to learn and explore - we'll get to this eventually.

I really recommend reading up on how much 'school work' kids really need - it's not much at this young age. They were not getting 'much' at real school. Exploring at this young age is much more important. Learning about things that excite them is much more important. Any time we "do school" at home, it never works very well. We're not unschoolers, but we're very relaxed. My dd10 gets a bit more work than ds8, and we concentrate on her learning style and what she enjoys. She doesn't like math, so we go slowly with that. She loves to write, so she does a lot of that. And we don't use textbooks much at all. We use math games for math (with a little bit of paper math for dd10 only, not ds8 anymore with the paperwork). It was a struggle when we tried that with ds. Instead, he learned how to multiply playing yahtzee and using the dice with me - very easily. He would have never learned it as fast on paper (and no whining and fighting with yahtzee). Anytime I have tears and whining with my kids, that's my cue something isn't right. I switch how we're learning something, and I ask myself "do we NEED to do this now?". But I only have 2, so it's definitely easier for me.

We've tried many different things - what we're doing now is on the days we're home, the kids have 3 core things they do - read, write and some form of math (the 3 r's). We take a mad science type class w/ our co-op (as well as Shakespeare and art). We do history together, mostly by listening to books on cd in the car, videos, field trips and me reading to them (ie - we listened to Felicity american girl in the car for a few months, knowing we were going to williamsburg for a trip). we also watched the movie. that, along with the week we spent in williamsburg, is way more history than they would get in a school setting for months. We're going to start rosetta stone spanish soon. We travel a lot, so they get lots of history and science that way too (plus math, geography, etc, etc, etc).

OK, this is way too long - sorry! It's a struggle for me on some days - feeling like "are they learning enough?" - but I get through it by reading John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, etc. Even my dh, who was like "are you crazy?" when I first brought up homeschooling, reminds me that kids learn A LOT through living day to day.

 

[Denine]

Hello from Williamsburg! We got signed in today for homeschool days. Our tickets weren't supposed to be good until tomorrow so it was a bonus day. We saw the Governor's Palace today. We will start with the homeschool programs tomorrow morning.

 

[kangaand2roos]

I just found this thread and thought I'd pose some of my questions here. I'm not sure I have the time to read through all 200 pages do forgive me if these questions have been asked and answered.

Let me preface by saying that I don't especially WANT to homeschool. I'm not an especially organized person and am afraid that I will not manage to properly keep up with the curriculum. My reason for thinking about HS is that my daughter (7yo, 1st grade) is extremely bright and creative (being evaluated for gifted now) and is not being challenged in school. If she tests as gifted it will open up some avenues for us in school, and may make enough of a difference, at least for elementary school, but I expect that for middle school things might be different.

In addition to wondering if I can properly educate her, I also worry about a social network. Most of the people that I know here that are home schooling are doing it for religious reasons or because their children have educational or social difficulties. We are Jewish and one of the few Jewish families in town, so not necessarily in sync with the religious Christian home schoolers. (don't flame me, I am in no way disparaging religious Christians, and in fact respect their convictions, it's just that we AREN'T Christians!)

DD is a very social kid and that is the part of school that she does enjoy. I know I can get her involved with extracirriculars, and would, but is that enough? I don't think she would object to it and in fact, without ever having heard of schooling she told me that school was boring and why couldn't she just stay at home and have me teach her?

I just want to do the best for my kid and I'm not sure what that is. Any input will be appreciated.

 

[bellebud]

Hello from Williamsburg! We got signed in today for homeschool days. Our tickets weren't supposed to be good until tomorrow so it was a bonus day. We saw the Governor's Palace today. We will start with the homeschool programs tomorrow morning.

enjoy your trip! Isn't the governors palace incredible? All the guns/swords on the walls just blew me away (that's the right place, right??) DS8 was like "I want my bedroom like that!!!"

We were there this past september during homeschool days w/ a few families from our local homeschool group - we all stayed in great wolf lodge, which was awesome!

I was too late signing up for any of the homeschool classes - but a few from our group did them and enjoyed them. Let me know how you liked them.

Have fun!

 

[nono]

Let me preface by saying that I don't especially WANT to homeschool. I'm not an especially organized person and am afraid that I will not manage to properly keep up with the curriculum.

(snip)

DD is a very social kid and that is the part of school that she does enjoy. I know I can get her involved with extracirriculars, and would, but is that enough? I don't think she would object to it and in fact, without ever having heard of schooling she told me that school was boring and why couldn't she just stay at home and have me teach her?

I just want to do the best for my kid and I'm not sure what that is. Any input will be appreciated.

I'll give you my 2 cents! If you are using a cyber school, you aren't solely responsible for educating your child, so you can breathe easier there. If you can get into a routine where after breakfast, school starts for your child, then that would be the organizational skillls you need to get her going.

I don't have experience with cyber schooling, and how much time it takes, but with homeschooling the total amount of time for teaching v. going to school + homework is a lot less. Therefore, you child will have more time for other activities. Things which might ignite her passion and keep her engaged mentally.

Oh, and on the being in the minority of homeschoolers, try being a Roman Catholic/Taoist couple raising Episcopalian/Buddhist children. We don't fit into school society whether homeschooled or schooled!

 

[kangaand2roos]

Oh, and on the being in the minority of homeschoolers, try being a Roman Catholic/Taoist couple raising Episcopalian/Buddhist children. We don't fit into school society whether homeschooled or schooled!

Lol, I'm there with you. My dh is also Roman Catholic but the kids and I are Jewish. When I grew up my sibs and I were the only Jews in the school district. It has never really been an issue in the public schools so I guess it shouldn't be an issue in private. I just would like to know that if I do this, I will have a support system of people homeschooling for similar reasons. My main reason is that I don't want to lose the interest of my very bright and creative kiddo.

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?

 

[lori1043]

Hi, I am Lori and I post fom time to time. I am from Louisiana and just moved to Clermont, Fl-22 miles from Disney.

I know MANY people who have a kid/s in PS and one is homeschooled. I think it depends on the child and what YOU think it best for each one. I have had many times that we seriously thought about putting our DD10 in.

Also, if you live near a mid or big city- look for homeschool groups in your area that may be Jewish or secular.

Good luck~Lori

 

[kangaand2roos]

Hi, I am Lori and I post fom time to time. I am from Louisiana and just moved to Clermont, Fl-22 miles from Disney.

I know MANY people who have a kid/s in PS and one is homeschooled. I think it depends on the child and what YOU think it best for each one. I have had many times that we seriously thought about putting our DD10 in.

Also, if you live near a mid or big city- look for homeschool groups in your area that may be Jewish or secular.

Good luck~Lori

Thanks Lori...I knew Disney people would give me good input!

Unfortunately we live in a vary small town. Baltimore is the nearest city, and it is over an hour away. I'm hoping that as I pursue my options more I will find a secular HS group in the area.

I am also hoping that after Annika is tested we can delay any decisions until middle school, but I am going to do my due diligence and be prepared!

Just to make this discussion Disney relevant (I know I don't have to, but thought I'd throw this out anyway) DD wants to be an Imagineer when she grows up and she is just the outside-the-box kind of thinker that would be perfect for the job!

 

[Nicolepa]

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?

My oldest in school and my youngest is at home. My oldest is in the gifted program and it is fabulous and she loves it and I have no "reason" to hs her. That being said I hate having one home and still being tied to the school schedule. Pickup at 3, school vacation days, early dismissal etc. Once my daughter gets home my son is done even if he isn't done. It would be so much easier schedule wise to have them both home. If we wanted to do a field trip or something we could start school later and it wouldn't matter if we were done by 3 or later.

That being said my dh is totally against pulling my daughter out of school. If he wasn't I'd probably pull her next year. I think she would really do well at home. If you'd asked me last year I would never have thought I'd feel that way!

 

[Nicolepa]

I am wondering if there is a real difference between using the Iowa or the Stanford for testing? I am looking to get certified to administer the test (for my children only) and am wondering which one to do?

 

[desparatelydisney]

I will have a support system of people homeschooling for similar reasons. My main reason is that I don't want to lose the interest of my very bright and creative kiddo.

The great thing is , we ARE all doing it for the same reason....because we want what we know is best for our children, whatever that means. I have found that as a group HSers are very open to different beliefs and methods because we are all putting our children and their needs first.

Good luck! It was the hardest decision i ever made. We are coming to the end of year 1 and I couldn't be happier with how it has gone.

One thing you might find helpful, if you daughter has tested in the 95% or higher on a standardized test you can look into John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth - ESCPECIALLY SINCE YOU LIVE SO CLOSE TO BALTIMORE. My oldest (8) takes his math and creative writing/reading comprehension online from John Hopkins. There is at least one other family on here that does classes with them as well. They also have summer day classes in Baltimore.

 

[jetprincess]

Hi Homeschool Moms!

I have been considering homeschooling for quite some time. I am interested in knowing which school records I am privy to if I choose to remove my child from a public school. All of them? Or do some remain confidential?

 

[palmtreegirl]

Hi all! Where do you sell your old homeschool curriculum? I'm trying to find some alternatives to Ebay, because their fees are high and last time I used them the seller backed out after the auction closed.

Thank you!!

 

[littlepeppers]

Hi Homeschool Moms!

I have been considering homeschooling for quite some time. I am interested in knowing which school records I am privy to if I choose to remove my child from a public school. All of them? Or do some remain confidential?

I had to pull my students cummulative folders every year. There isn't anything in their that you haven't given to the school or that wasn't sent home. There may be some really cute school pictures of you child that you didn't buy.

It shouldn't be a problem getting it. You may have to pay to have them photocopied.