*** Homeschool List ***

[JennyMominRI]

Wow, I mean I'm just in awe of my kid..I can't believe this is the kid whose report card said easily distracted, does not complete his work, more effort needed..This kid will sit here until he gets everything right ,who goes back and studies what he got wrong so he can fix it .. This is a 7th grader who could barely pass 7th grade English and is now excelling at an 8th grade English curriculum. My kid rocks.. Of course I already knew that.

 

[Laura.bora]

I'm wondering if someone can give me a few options for a math curriculum. I really don't know what direction to go in for Math. My son is just so ditto burnt out, but I just don't know how one would go about teaching math without the majority of it being ditto work. For a lot of subjects, I just jump on oportunities as they arise to teach. We love to read, love to do hands on activities, my son LOVES arts and crafts and drawing and coloring. He's currently on 2nd grade math - we were up to addition and subtraction with regrouping. Any ideas, suggestions, anything?? He loves school usually, especially math, and I just don't want to see him dislike it.
And also - for history, we were planning on going with Truthquest, and for science, we were thinking Eagle's Wings: Discovering GOd's Creation. Does anyone use these and how did they like them? Thanks everyone!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Laura.bora- for math have you checked out Saxon yet? We started at 3rd, so I am not familiar with the actual 2nd grade book. But ours was very straightforward and we just sailed right though it. It uses the spiral approach and it's very easy to just mark off problems they don't need or that seem repetitive if your child really gets it. If they are having problems with a concept they have plenty of practice until they do. Go to their website and they can send you a catalog type booklet and placement tests to see if it's right for you and where to actually start your child.

 

[gillenkl]

I'm wondering if someone can give me a few options for a math curriculum. I really don't know what direction to go in for Math. My son is just so ditto burnt out, but I just don't know how one would go about teaching math without the majority of it being ditto work. For a lot of subjects, I just jump on oportunities as they arise to teach. We love to read, love to do hands on activities, my son LOVES arts and crafts and drawing and coloring. He's currently on 2nd grade math - we were up to addition and subtraction with regrouping. Any ideas, suggestions, anything?? He loves school usually, especially math, and I just don't want to see him dislike it.
And also - for history, we were planning on going with Truthquest, and for science, we were thinking Eagle's Wings: Discovering GOd's Creation. Does anyone use these and how did they like them? Thanks everyone!

I would suggest Abeka - my son is doing grade 2. He's also on the autism spectrum and has no trouble at all doing abeka. There is one 2-sided worksheet per day and a daily math drill - about 12 problems for practice. I just explain it as we go.

 

[tnmomof4]

I would suggest Abeka - my son is doing grade 2. He's also on the autism spectrum and has no trouble at all doing abeka. There is one 2-sided worksheet per day and a daily math drill - about 12 problems for practice. I just explain it as we go.

I love Abeka math too. I love they way they explain math concepts. We are doing measurement conversions right now, and they are loving it. They never understood how to do them. I like the fact that since they understand how to do the math problems they like math a lot better.

My boys are in 4th and 5th grade and are doing great with Abeka. They had Saxon math for the last year 3 years in the private school they were going to, and they were lost. It does do a lot of repetition, but when it came to the actual math concepts they had a hard time. When they would come home with homework, they had no idea how do the problems. My oldest was consistently flunking his math tests. With Abeka, he is getting A's because he understands what to do and how to do it.

 

[npmommie]

How do you all deal with younger siblings interrupting and causing commotion when you are trying to do work with an older child?
My ds decides its time to be funny and puts on a show, causing my dd to go into hysterics laughing, and I get frustrated because he sits down with us to color or do something I set up for him, because he always wants to "do school" with us.........so i have books, crafts, crayons, etc for him........... but it progresses into him being loud, and trying to get her attention.
then I get upset and mad at him.....I send him away from the table..........then i feel bad for getting mad.........we get nothing done, and the cycle continues.
uggh.
any ideas???

 

[labdogs42]

I am just starting to get some info on homeschooling, as my DS just turned 3. He will be going to preschool in the fall, but I'm looking ahead to kindergarten and trying to weigh all of my options regarding public vs. private vs homeschooling. I haven't read the whole thread, but I was wondering if anyone on the thread is from PA and if anyone knows anything about homeschooling in PA? I know there are some kind of online schools in PA, but I don't have any idea how that works. Any info would be greatly appreciated! I'm really interested in finding out more about homeschooling. I'm impressed by all of you who are doing it -- good for you!

 

[Tink561]

We used Teaching Textbooks for pre-Algebra last year and it was great! We would have continued with it but my sons are doing online classes now. Teaching Textbooks is great for kids and for parents who need help teaching math. It was truly a blessing for us!

 

[Laura.bora]

We used Teaching Textbooks for pre-Algebra last year and it was great! We would have continued with it but my sons are doing online classes now. Teaching Textbooks is great for kids and for parents who need help teaching math. It was truly a blessing for us!

It looks like my son isn't far enough in Math to start this yet, but I'm glad you mentioned it! I'm not very strong in math, and he is - this seems like it will be just the thing for us to use when the time comes.

Has anyone used Ray's Arithmatic? I've been looking into that a bit today. We really enjoyed the McGuffy readers, and that seems to be similar.

 

[disneymom3]

How do you all deal with younger siblings interrupting and causing commotion when you are trying to do work with an older child?
My ds decides its time to be funny and puts on a show, causing my dd to go into hysterics laughing, and I get frustrated because he sits down with us to color or do something I set up for him, because he always wants to "do school" with us.........so i have books, crafts, crayons, etc for him........... but it progresses into him being loud, and trying to get her attention.
then I get upset and mad at him.....I send him away from the table..........then i feel bad for getting mad.........we get nothing done, and the cycle continues.
uggh.
any ideas???

I started homeschooling when my younger two were one and two and a half. At that point I mainly had them do playdough or something similar and then we did more school in the afternoons when they took their naps. When we got more to the point of them being a distraction I went to a reward system. I used everything from stickers to fruit snacks. If you can play quietly for X min, you will get a sticker on your chart. Or two fruit snacks. (Pieces, not the whole bag.) If they started to get silly--which the youngest one tends to, then I would send them away from the table. A brother having a tantrum in the timeout corner is not nearly as entertaining as a brother making faces at the table. I do the same thing as SuperNanny--no conversation, no attention until the behavior changes. If you get frustrated, they know they are pushing your buttons and they'll keep doing it.

I also looked really hard for stuff that was fun and entertaining for them. My boys loved Lauri puzzles, especially the one with the kids in different positions and the abc puzzle.

How old is your DS? I might have more ideas if I knew how old we are talking about. Good luck. You can do this and it WILL work out!!

 

[MiniGirl]

How do you all deal with younger siblings interrupting and causing commotion when you are trying to do work with an older child?
My ds decides its time to be funny and puts on a show, causing my dd to go into hysterics laughing, and I get frustrated because he sits down with us to color or do something I set up for him, because he always wants to "do school" with us.........so i have books, crafts, crayons, etc for him........... but it progresses into him being loud, and trying to get her attention.
then I get upset and mad at him.....I send him away from the table..........then i feel bad for getting mad.........we get nothing done, and the cycle continues.
uggh.
any ideas???

I don't homeschool, but one thing I used to bring out when my girls were younger and I needed them to entertain themselves and play quietly was the felt figures. I bought a good size piece of blue felt, and then some smaller pieces of different colors and cut out tree trunks, grass, tree tops, different animals and buildings, etc. My girls loved playing with them, and it really did keep them entertained for quite a while. When we were done, it all went back in the shoe box for next time.

ETA: I know you can buy felt sets, but I just did my own. Those sets are great, but can get expensive.

 

[mykidsintow]

We have tried Saxon, Horizons AND Abeka. My son is not good at Math. He also doesn't learn well with the workbooks.

For a child that likes to be more *hands on* I would definately recommend Math-U-See. My son loves that he is building and *doing* and not just staring at a page.

I have also heard that Miquon is also hands on. I don't personally have experience with Miquon.

 

[mamaloya]

OK, on the math thing. I have tried them all and stick with Abeka. I love abeka. I use manipulatives with it though. I think that manipulatives are a must in math no matter what curriculum you choose. Saxon makes a great kit. When money was tight I have made my own. You can use beans and/or popsicle sticks. Single beans are ones. Glue ten beans on a stick for ten rods. You can get creative with many things. My favorite manipulative is called math sense blocks. They are like the math u see blocks. My kids use them a lot. If you don't like the layout of math u see, but like the blocks, you can always buy the blocks and use it with any curriculum. They really are good for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Now, I have a question about penmanship. My dd11 struggled with cursive to the point of tears. I bought handwriting w/o tears and it was miraculous. She can now read and write cursive. Problem is that she does not like to write cursive. She prefers print. I am thinking about purchasing either the same HWT book or the next one for her so she may become more comfortable with cursive. BUT, why does she NEED to write in cursive. She is dyslexic, so her print is pretty bad anyway. She tends to mix big and little letters throughout her words, especially B's and D's. I remember my dad always wrote in all caps. He just used 2 different sizes. The "cap" letter was bigger than the "lowercase" letters, but they were all capital letters. I guess it was just big and little capital letters. Am I making sense? I know in public school they force you to write the way they want you to write up to a point, but eventually they are fine as long as they can read it. Would it be wrong of me to just teach her to write the way my dad did? I think that neatness is more important than style. Please let me know what you think. It would be nice to have one less thing to stress about.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

mamaloya-
For penmanship, we use A Reason for Handwriting. It's long enough to practice, but short enough not to burn them out. We loved it! They have pages in the back that are called border sheets. You fill in the lines with the scripture from the week(all lessons are scriptures,changing weekly) and then they can color them. My kids have really enjoyed this. We also used A Reason for Spelling this year and we loved it also!
As far as how she writes, if she ever goes back into public school it will make a difference. Some teachers are very picky about things like this-I had a few myself!! If, on the other hand you plan to hs from now on, if it's neat enough for you, it may be fine. Do you have to do anything for your state? Guideline wise? I don't know if they even get into handwriting.

 

[homeschoolmomof4]

Now, I have a question about penmanship. My dd11 struggled with cursive to the point of tears. I bought handwriting w/o tears and it was miraculous. She can now read and write cursive. Problem is that she does not like to write cursive. She prefers print. I am thinking about purchasing either the same HWT book or the next one for her so she may become more comfortable with cursive. BUT, why does she NEED to write in cursive. She is dyslexic, so her print is pretty bad anyway. She tends to mix big and little letters throughout her words, especially B's and D's. I remember my dad always wrote in all caps. He just used 2 different sizes. The "cap" letter was bigger than the "lowercase" letters, but they were all capital letters. I guess it was just big and little capital letters. Am I making sense? I know in public school they force you to write the way they want you to write up to a point, but eventually they are fine as long as they can read it. Would it be wrong of me to just teach her to write the way my dad did? I think that neatness is more important than style. Please let me know what you think. It would be nice to have one less thing to stress about.

My son has dysgraphia and at this point we go for function as opposed to style. The long and short of it is that whatever style you and your daughter eventually settle on needs to be functional for her. Is it legible? Does she really have to "think" about the formation of the letter so much that it slows down her processing of information? I would go with whatever is more "fluid" for her.

 

[mickeyjen]

Now, I have a question about penmanship. My dd11 struggled with cursive to the point of tears. I bought handwriting w/o tears and it was miraculous. She can now read and write cursive. Problem is that she does not like to write cursive. She prefers print. I am thinking about purchasing either the same HWT book or the next one for her so she may become more comfortable with cursive. BUT, why does she NEED to write in cursive. She is dyslexic, so her print is pretty bad anyway. She tends to mix big and little letters throughout her words, especially B's and D's. I remember my dad always wrote in all caps. He just used 2 different sizes. The "cap" letter was bigger than the "lowercase" letters, but they were all capital letters. I guess it was just big and little capital letters. Am I making sense? I know in public school they force you to write the way they want you to write up to a point, but eventually they are fine as long as they can read it. Would it be wrong of me to just teach her to write the way my dad did? I think that neatness is more important than style. Please let me know what you think. It would be nice to have one less thing to stress about.

Truthfully, I don't see why it should matter. Especially now, in the digital age, KWIM? If your father got along fine the way he printed, than your DD should also do fine since MOST of her writing will end up being done on the computer anyway. If it were me, I would get the next book in HWOT and have her practice the cursive, but I don't think I'd make her do anything other than the workbook in cursive if she doesn't like it. It is important that she be able to read it, since many people write letters that way, but other than that, I truly don't see why she'd need to use it. All official forms ask you to print anyway. Everything else she'll probably use the computer! I would only change my answer if you thought you'd be sending her to PS someday (in which case, I'd find out what their "rules" are).

Good luck!

 

[lori1043]

Okay,

math-we use Abeka for up to 3rd gr and started Saxon for my 4th grader. We are using 5/4, and it will last us a year and a half. She is not crazy over it and liked the "colors" of Abeka better, but I feel Saxon has done her better(yeah, I'm southern!). We used the DIVE for a while , but now we use it as a supplement. She was taking up to 2 hours a day on math and hated it. SO we now do half the problems, one day even, one day odds-I feel she is losing nothing and that she is doing well. I guess we will see the results of it on her Stanford in May. We supplement with rods, Flashmaster, and the speed drills. She does well on the tests with about 2 wrong per test. I think it is good for her so we will do 6/5 next.

handwriting- whatver type of writing works for you I think is fine. We also use A Reason for Handwriting-love this above Abeka's handwriting(some similairties). I like to use the transition books 2 years in a row since I think printing is prettier than cursive and feel they need to keep practicing that. They love it and we display thier scripture pages that they have colored. Sometimes they give them as gifts to family and friends(they do come out pretty, I must say!!!)

QUESTION-spelling-I hate, no, loathe, Abeka spelling. My kids did NOT learn how to spell with it. So i used thier words and did my own thing and they actially learned how to spell. BUT I want to change this year. I am going to look into a Reason for Spelling(from above advice), but I have heard good things about Sequential Spelling. At a recent review, it was talked about more for kids who are dyslexic, etc, but also good for reluctant readers(my DD8) and not so good for seasoned readers(dd10). I would LIKE to use the same on both kids, but it is not a must(just trying to consolidate as much as I can!).

Anyway-thank you ahead of time and I hope my reviews helpe too!

Lori

 

[tnmomof4]

handwriting- whatver type of writing works for you I think is fine. We also use A Reason for Handwriting-love this above Abeka's handwriting(some similairties). I like to use the transition books 2 years in a row since I think printing is prettier than cursive and feel they need to keep practicing that. They love it and we display thier scripture pages that they have colored. Sometimes they give them as gifts to family and friends(they do come out pretty, I must say!!!)

QUESTION-spelling-I hate, no, loathe, Abeka spelling. My kids did NOT learn how to spell with it. So i used thier words and did my own thing and they actially learned how to spell. BUT I want to change this year. I am going to look into a Reason for Spelling(from above advice), but I have heard good things about Sequential Spelling. At a recent review, it was talked about more for kids who are dyslexic, etc, but also good for reluctant readers(my DD8) and not so good for seasoned readers(dd10). I would LIKE to use the same on both kids, but it is not a must(just trying to consolidate as much as I can!).

Anyway-thank you ahead of time and I hope my reviews helpe too!

Lori

Your reviews have helped me!! This is my first year homeschooling and have just gone with all Abeka. I'm afraid that if I ever put my kids back in the school they were going to that they would be behind if I use anything else.

It sounds like Reason for Handwriting and Spelling are really good. My 5th grader is having a terrible time with Abeka spelling. The lists are set up like he should already know how to spell the given words and, he just doesn't. We usually take over a week and a half to drill and learn how to spell the words. The lists are set up by topic, like animals, cities and states, food, etc.... but a lot of them are not common words. I wish the lists were set by spelling rules or something else. I just feel he is not really learning how to spell.

How is Reason for Spelling's lists set up? Can you tell me about the lessons and the tests?

The Reason for Handwriting also sounds really nice. I think good printing is just as important as good cursive.

Where can you buy the books from this curriculum?

Thanks for the help!!

 

[lisalonglash]

Add me to the list please

We homeschool our two sons - ages 5.5yo and 8.5yo

 

[Ellester]

We like A Reason for Handwriting. I was actually reading not too long ago that penmanship has been all but dropped in PS due to teaching for the NCLB tests. The amount of time third graders spend learning cursive has dropped dramatically in the past 50 years or so. The article talked about how the only cursive an adult really needs is for their signature! Even in high school and college now almost everything is done on the computer, from taking notes to writing papers. I wish I could remember where I read it, I'm thinking it was in the newspaper last summer.

We have been using Sequential Spelling for about 18 months now and really like it. My dd9 is an avid and advanced reader and I think it has still helped her to be a better speller. I love that she gets automatic feedback and doesn't have to memorize lists. I let her do it on a dry erase board and it is never an issue to get her to do it, we try for every day.