*** Homeschool List ***

[mamaloya]

OK, I will give my opinion on this.

First of all HeyNowFl, is right in that team sports may help, but not necessarily. It all depends on the players and the coach and if the boy is an athletic child. But I must also say to you that you should not attack homeschooling. To do so shows your ignorance and bias. Homeschoolers actually have less depression than those in public schools. A new child can feel just as lonely in a new school as at home. New kids are often the target of bullies and are sometimes shunned, especially in small towns. I personally have never heard of suicidal homeschoolers. I have heard of a kid or 2 that were suicidal and then BROUGHT home to homeschool because of the things that went through in PS. BTW, my oldest 2 children were never homeschooled and are doing wonderful, so I am not agaisnt PS.

Next, as an army family, we have a lot of experience with moving. As another mom pointed out, it takes time to adjust to the new town. My kids are all different. Some may take 1-2 months to make friends, but others have a new best friend the first day. My dd6 has a "best friend" everytime we are in a play place. Kids all adjust differently.

My advice to the mom of the 10yo boy is to give it time and just given him opportunities. Do NOT push it. He will come around.

 

[disneymom3]

I would make the suggestion that we simply continue our homeschooling discussion and not lower ourselves to fighting. We all know that for our individual families we are making the best choice and can be confident in that decision.

If HeyNowFL wants to stir the pot, let him/her do so on her own thread and not on ours. Please notice post count and join date and don't feed the troll.

 

[sha_lyn]

So we've talked curriculum, book clubs, co-op etc.... Have we covered fun places for field trips yet? Sure we are all over the country so we don't all have the opportunity to visit every suggestion, but I thought I would throw a few things out there:

Dollywood....... We attended their home school day in Sept. They offered several different workshops. DD weaved a basket and made a stained glass angel. Next year she wants to try leather working and candle making.

Atlanta History Center..... If you ever have the chance to visit, please do.
They have several permanent exhibits and host several traveling ones also. Right now there is a Ben Franklin exhibit I'm dying to take DD to.
We missed the special home school day for the exhibit, but plan on seeing it before it leaves.

Local farms....... At least in our area this is the time of year the many farms open host school field trips (and usually allow home school groups to book as a school group) and/or have a home school day. Cagle's Dairy home school day is always a lot of fun. It is a large working dairy farm just minutes from us. They take the kids on a hay ride through their pastures and barns, then the kids get a walking tour of the plant where they process and package the milk.

Rock Quarry...... Vulcan Materials has quarries all over the country.
If you are near one, I suggest planning a field trip. It was a lot of fun
http://www.vulcanmaterials.com/social.asp?content=tour
They also have several online educational resources
http://www.vulcanmaterials.com/social.asp?content=educate


Krispy Kreme Donuts........ It's been 2 yrs since we toured Krispy Kreme and DD still talks about it like it was yesterday

Whole Foods (or other grocery stores)..... Another mermorable fieldtrip. Lots of fun, and our guide answered all the kids questions, no matter how silly.

 

[pixiepower1971]

Rock Quarry...... Vulcan Materials has quarries all over the country.
If you are near one, I suggest planning a field trip. It was a lot of fun
http://www.vulcanmaterials.com/social.asp?content=tour
They also have several online educational resources
http://www.vulcanmaterials.com/social.asp?content=educate


Krispy Kreme Donuts........ It's been 2 yrs since we toured Krispy Kreme and DD still talks about it like it was yesterday

I agree with Vulcan Materials. One of the BEST field trips we have ever done. We visited the one in San Antonio.

Krispy Kreme....Loved that one too!

Try a bread factory. We toured one in San Antonio(Mrs. Bairds) Loved the free samples!!!

Sea World San Antonio. Fun Homeschool day. The park is empty and they do a couple of great presentations.

MOSI in Tampa and The Imaginarium in Ft Myers, FL. Homeschool days and field trips to both over the years. We always had a fun experiance.

We have done homeschool field trips to all the space centers(FL,AL,TX) The girls have learned a lot there.

HMM...many others over the years. I will have to think of some more later.

 

[meandtheguys2]

I would make the suggestion that we simply continue our homeschooling discussion and not lower ourselves to fighting. We all know that for our individual families we are making the best choice and can be confident in that decision.

If HeyNowFL wants to stir the pot, let him/her do so on her own thread and not on ours. Please notice post count and join date and don't feed the troll.

Well, there is a handful of logic... Of course its a troll, and a familiar one at that.

I'd love to go to a quarry. We went to the amathyst mine in Thunderbay, and love fossil hunting around Caesar's Creek. But, unfortunately there are none nearby.

We have an art glass factory, though, and a factory that makes custom dolls. Those have been fun tours. So was the marble factory tour. One of the best for the older kids was a tour of one of the local ecectric companies. It was a smaller company, and he spent 2 hours talking and answering questions. The kids really enjoyed it.

 

[Ellester]

We are going on a guided hike and seeing a program on reptiles at FDR State Park tomorrow. Toured a Brusters Ice Cream shop last month, that was a big hit! They make ice cream at each store, each kid got a free vanilla cone while there and coupon for a free cone at a later date. Cyclorama in Atlanta is awesome for those studying the Civil War (or War Between the States, depending on how southern you are! ). Last year the kids had a field trip to Cici's pizza, they all made their own pizzas. Callaway gardens has a great butterfly house, in addition to beautiful walking trails. We are close to the Little White House (where FDR died) and the National Fish Hatchery. Both are on our list to visit soon. Ditto for Historic Westville, a 1850's living history museum.

The Vulcan tours sounds interesting, I'll have to look into that. There is a quarry near here. Sha_lyn, have you toured the Mayfield dairy? I always think about it when we pass by on our way to Charlotte, but haven't really looked into it yet. I love factory tours, a by-product of my dad taking us on a bunch and Mr. Rogers, I think.

Well, the kids are clamoring for breakfast. Onto nutrition and ancient Egypt!

 

[sha_lyn]

We are going on a guided hike and seeing a program on reptiles at FDR State Park tomorrow

Love FDR state park. We did the reptile program as a part of Y-guides yrs ago and we hiked/camped the small loop. Are you hiking over to the retaining ponds? They haven't been used in decades. I think might have been used to for water reservoirs during the Civil War. It's been about 8 yrs since we hiked there so the details are sketchy.

Haven't done Mayfield. Can't bring myself to drive that far when Cagle's is 5 minutes away.

We did either CiCi's or Stevie B's a couple of yrs ago.

Our home school group keeps trying to organize one for the US Mint in Atlanta but they have so many restrictions that we are having a hard time getting a group together

Something I want to look into further is a field trip where you actually sleep in one of the historic Navy ships in Charleston

Ditto for Historic Westville, a 1850's living history museum.

We have to get there one day. We've gone to the living history days at Atlanta History Center, and the Pioneer days at Red Top State park. I believe Westville is suppose to be much bigger and in depth.

Oh which reminds me of Greenfield Village in Michigan. Love it and The Ford Museum. We've been several times over the yrs when visiting DH's family, but usually go alone as no-one in the family was interested.
This last trip DH's sister took us. I guess DD was 7 that trip. SIL still tlaks about how interested DD was in everything there.
If anyone is familiar with the McGuffey Readers.... The school house that McGuffey taught in is a part of Greenfield Village. We've all heard about Thomas Edison's inventions, but until visiting Greenfield, I had no idea how interested he was in preserving history.

 

[disneymom3]

Very cool ideas. In our co-op this year we are doing a cultural geography of the US. So for Vermont we are trying to set up a tour of Ben and Jerrys. And for....uh oh....Rhode Island?....we are doing a behind the scenes tour of the library.

We have also done a bread store and Krispy Kreme. Any of the living history things I love. I think they also really like homeschoolers because our kids ask so many questions. I have had several comments about that. One of the funniest was way back when youngest DS was only three. We went to a fur trading post and the guy leading our tour was supposed to be a voyageur, only he was at least 6 ft tall. DS says to him, "Excuse me guy, but how do you fit in your canoe. You are sure tall!" The guy was shocked.

Our state capital also has several self guided tours. One we did was where you got a booklet and then went through the various public rooms looking for certain things that were listed on each page. So, in one room you located the portrait of the first governor of the state and noted his name in your booklet, then the next room you found out how many points there were on the star on the rotunda floor. Another one had you searching for the state symbols in the wall, carpet, artwork, etc and counting how many you found.

 

[lori1043]

We have done many local museums, but nothing, NOTHING can beat the Field Museum in Chicago. I could have spent 3 days in there-but only had one!
The Egyptian part was WONDERFUL- real tomb shipped in, real mummies, and a bunch of them. I loved that there was a prayer before you got to that part of the exhibit-thankful for the souls on display(an Egyptian prayer, but we just made our own up) so we can learn sooo much from them.
When "Night at the Museum" came out- I really thought it was the Field Museum in Chicago-but it was a Natural history museum in NYC.

WE have done a farm(fed a calf), we have a great zoo down here, and we toured a city facilities mangement-THAT was a very surprizing GOOD field trip!!Lots of birds and wildlife-little stinky at one point, but how they use natuarl materials to break yuck down-cool- then the kids tested the water at the outlet of the facility- clean as can be! Sounds gross, but we have gators here and it was a cool field trip!!

Lori

 

[sha_lyn]

That reminds me of the Carlos Museum at Emory University
The have a very nice Ancient section including a large Egyptian section with several mummy, sarcophagus,etc.
here's their interactive educational site
http://carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/

While I love the Egyptian section
I became fascinated with this piece
http://carlos.emory.edu/COLLECTION/CLASSIC/classic01.html
It just drew me in. I spent about 30 min looking it over in great detail.

And here is the story of the museum realizing they had the mummy of Ramses I
http://www.ancientworlds.net/144326

 

[TwinDISMom]

Please add me to your list! THANKS

 

[kathrna]

Hello Hello! Please sign us up for this list. We are in our second year of homeschooling and we LOVE it!!! I would love to talk more to homeschoolers!!!

 

[Ellester]

Wow! What a busy week! Monday, a dear friend of mine called needing some support. Her chaplain husband had just returned to Iraq after his 18 day R&R (he had been gone since March and will not be back now until May) and her 10yo ds is not adjusting well. They came over for lunch and some downtime (they also homeschool), then my dd9 had a playdate and all three had gymnastics at night. Tuesday we did some school and then headed to park day. It was raining and we all let the kids run around like crazy in the rain. They had an absolute blast! Wednesday was our state park field trip, tennis, and another playdate then church that night. Thursday was another playdate, complete with waterslide and then family night out. Today was our first day of co-op, brought a friend home for lunch, another parkday, and then a visit to Sonic for milkshakes. My dd9 told me earlier that "this week is the best next to Disney!". High praise indeed!

Our field trip to FDR state park was awesome! The ranger was full of energy and took us on a narrated hike then wowed the kids (and adults) with the snake/tortoise/turtle program. I know it was a success because the girls both regaled their dad with facts and stories all evening.

However, after so much excitement this week I am in a state of collapse! Thankfully we do not have quite such a heavy social calendar every week! We recently found out that some good friends have received orders for Ft. Lewis in Washington and others for Ft. Polk in Louisiana, so we've been trying to get some last playtime in before they ship out.

Sha_lyn: I need to schedule a trip to Emory for the Egypt exhibit. I've heard it's great. Since we're covering the ancients this year, it will fit right in.

Lori: I agree that the Field is hard to beat. Chicago is a great city for so many reasons (not the least of which being that it is my birthplace! ). So many great museums, zoos, theater, etc. DH and I have long said that if we had to live in a major metro area, Chicago would be our pick. We moved to FL when I was 4, but my mom moved back for several years after I left for college. Her condo was a block off Lakeshore in Wrigleyville. We could hear "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from her living room!

OK, I've really got to get to bed. I hope everyone had a great week and has a great weekend!

 

[graygables]

Has anyone ever considered full-time RVing while homeschooling? I'm on the road so much as it is that I've been toying with the idea. My biggest concern is that DDs love their dance classes. That is our only tie to the area right now that would be difficult for them. They both have some special needs that make social relationships difficult anyway, so they don't have any "friends" per se, most are online anyway.

I actually went today and looked at some 5th wheels, that's how bad the bug is. Anyone do it? thought about it? think you could?

 

[js092097]

Add me to the list! We are considering homeschooling!

 

[Ellester]

Has anyone ever considered full-time RVing while homeschooling? I'm on the road so much as it is that I've been toying with the idea. My biggest concern is that DDs love their dance classes. That is our only tie to the area right now that would be difficult for them. They both have some special needs that make social relationships difficult anyway, so they don't have any "friends" per se, most are online anyway.

I actually went today and looked at some 5th wheels, that's how bad the bug is. Anyone do it? thought about it? think you could?

Have you seen the movie "RV"? That's the only experience I have with full-time RVing. But, seriously, as much as you seem to travel it might work out great. I googled "rv homeschooling" and got a ton of promising looking hits. It's something I think I would like to try, but I know my dh would never go for it even if it was financially feasible.

 

[TheRatPack]

Wow, your field trips sound so awesome! We've only been to a few with our smaller group in NW Georgia, but they were fun. I'll have to look up some of the ones you mentioned and see if it's doable for us, we're only 2 hours from Atlanta so maybe

 

[SusanMomOf2]

I just decided to homeschool my 7 year old who is currently in second grade. I am SOOOOOO excited. From picking our curriculum (Sonlight) to imagining all the "field trips" from making a room into a class room to buying all the supplies... it's all too much to fathom! Anyway - put me on your list and I'll be checkin in from time to time.

P.S. Our recent trip to Disney World helped solidify this decision...

 

[crazyforgoofy]

Homeschooling mom here finally stopping by to 'join'. We began hs as soon as Isabella was safely adopted (actually, a few weeks before - after the homestudy was complete). I sent all 4 of my grown children to public school as I had to work to support them but am so pleased to be able to guide Isabella's learning here at home. We use an eclectic mix of secular materials. I've picked up a lot of ideas here. Thanks.

Here's a fun place to learn an unusual mix of things from simple machines to virtual knee surgery and most recently crash scene investigations!

http://edheads.org/

I'm happy you're here and plan to drop in and actually add to the discussion from now on.

 

[sha_lyn]

TheRatPack...... That small homeschool group wouldn't happen to be CHE would it?