Homeschooling - SUPPORT GROUP

[NotInThecity]

YEs, you have it perfectly.

Art can be hands in paint and then on paper; art can be paper on a styro meat tray, a table sppon of blue tempra and a tablespoon of red, and roll a marbles around. ( let child pick from several colors.) DId both of these in preschool classes as an aid.

Making jello can be science-- mixing colors like something blue and something yellow, and liquid and solid. Simple on one hand or more comples on another.

We do craft projects normally (more painting than anything). But they don't get too much opportunity to see real art, so I purchased a big book on artwork that we are going to flip through a little at a time and just look at the pictures/sculptures/etc and see all the different types. The pictures come with a biography about the artist, so we can read that too, but we won't really 'work' on that part. In later years we may focus more on the artist and style of the painting, but that will be a while. We listen to a lot of classical music anyway, our program will just be putting a face and name to the music when listening. They get to play around on the piano with basic scales already, we will just keep that up and learn some new stuff.

My son is a science nut. He watches space documentaries, tries to read adult level books on space (he can read most of it--just needs a bit of explanation now and then), and is very excited to get to do science experiments. He has looked through the kids' science experiment books I purchased and earmarked the ones he wants to try. We go to the library now once a week, he always picks some kind of science book (how things work, weather, etc). His school doesn't have any science books in the library (or they won't let him check them out because they are 'too hard' for him).

Just had a parent-teachers conference...the teacher pretty much said he would thrive in a homeschool environment versus a public school. He gets too far ahead of his class and gets bored. He is like a mini-adult and very serious. When he started school, he said he was ready to learn and all excited. Now all he talks about is what they did in recess and gym 'because all they did was color' or 'cut and paste'. Our family is more academic oriented, the school is much more athletic oriented.

Sorry, rant over. I get frustrated at the school a bit. The teacher tries, but the education opportunities just aren't there.

 

[Anna6]

NotInTheCity, your son sounds so much like my oldest son. He did really well with home school. He is now a computer engineer and loving it.

 

[Anna6]

Both are very smart, just in different ways.

I like this statement. Some of my children are gifted in the world's sense in that they have excelled in academics but others are labeled learning disabled. I just see smart, wonderful kids with different gifts and talents.

 

[NotInThecity]

NotInTheCity, your son sounds so much like my oldest son. He did really well with home school. He is now a computer engineer and loving it.

Good hearing success stories. Gives us something to look forward to. Right now he wants to be either an astronaut or Batman. We shall see how it turns out. He is kind of timid, so don't know how much the Batman thing will work out for him.

His sister is the polar opposite. Very extroverted little social butterfly. Loves animals. Has our year old hyper Aussie puppy wrapped around her finger, has been known to sneak off and climb through corral panels to pet the horses (by herself), and can't understand why she isn't allowed to go wandering around in the middle of the new calves/cows to pet them too. She wants to be a vet (or a cheetah so she can run fast). At 4, she has a long ways to go, and is trying to get there really quickly.

When they are old enough, we can get them involved in 4-H. That will be one "social outlet" for them. Still working on the others. We are rural and there are limited opportunities unless it is sports (which they are not athletically inclined).

 

[Anna6]

Good hearing success stories. Gives us something to look forward to. Right now he wants to be either an astronaut or Batman. We shall see how it turns out. He is kind of timid, so don't know how much the Batman thing will work out for him.

His sister is the polar opposite. Very extroverted little social butterfly. Loves animals. Has our year old hyper Aussie puppy wrapped around her finger, has been known to sneak off and climb through corral panels to pet the horses (by herself), and can't understand why she isn't allowed to go wandering around in the middle of the new calves/cows to pet them too. She wants to be a vet (or a cheetah so she can run fast). At 4, she has a long ways to go, and is trying to get there really quickly.

When they are old enough, we can get them involved in 4-H. That will be one "social outlet" for them. Still working on the others. We are rural and there are limited opportunities unless it is sports (which they are not athletically inclined).

He will be Batman.

My son was Spiderman. Go get them tiger.

He was also very quiet and timid.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Donna can you expand on the old fashion method-- is it reading first then teach the words later?? I have the lists of sight words, and what I notice in my older boy who reads about 4 book a week as in every spare moment is spent reading) his vacab is very big. I first noticed it in first grade when he could not read at all!! ANd now that he can read, the words keep piling into his head.

I asked his teacher for a reading list of classics for his age grroup and she only mentioned all the current "boys" books like Percy Jackson, and Harry Potter. UGH. I game him Johnny Tremain, Captain AHab and the whale, Mutiny on the BOunty. He ate them up. Need to ind the Mark Twain storys of Huck FInn and Tom Sawyer. My son did try one of my romance novels--- he must have been desperate to read something . . . he has covered almost every book in our house: all the Louis L"Amours, all the Tarzans, the sci-fies. I am trying to come up withways that he can learn more from these books.

My brothers son has dyslexia-- was misdiagnosed. Boy hated reading and hated school UNTIL parents found appropriate help. He is in college now. MOm became an advocate for teaching the dyslexic and now teaches others how to work with these students to help them. Many things do run in families, but in the end that doesn't give us the means to improve the deficiencies caused by all these issues.( Please forgive me for not being very tactful; I tend to be blunt. )

Quote: You are right in that the trade school is suposed to be for the hands on kids that are bright and want to think using their hands and hate sitting to read endlessly . . . ours is *** backwards. THey take the cream of the crop: top grades and near perfect attendence is required. I'm shaking my head because IMO this is not serving the kids who neeed it most. I"m not saying theis well, Let me try again-- if public school in general serves to get the kids into college, then who is educating the kids to go into the trades? I'm really worried that too many of our kids are not gettting a "useful" education. Not everyone likes to sit in a classroom to learn-- 4 years of college is torture for some. We need some to go to college, some to the trade schools. Everyone needs more than a HS diploma these days to make more than minimum wage.

ONe of my best friends in HS wanted to be a nurse but she could not understand HS chemistry. SHe worked hard, got extra help and it still did not click. SHe became a secretary instead = attended Katherine Gibbs school in BOston. DOn't know if it still exists anymore with everyone doing their own correspondence and keyboarding starting in kindergarden.

IMO would be nice if you included your son here, if it is alright withthe OP. I tink we all have children with at least one struggle.

I found a book that teaches math in many ways-- I haven't used it because my kids are math whizzes.

One of the things our school has done is build their ouw cirriculum -- the use many resources to build a portfolio of exercises-- the text books are gone in math. My son is in 6th grade and only a text book in social studies as far as I know . IMO i think math is how the information is presented. If one way doesn't work, try another. WHen I was in a meetin with the principle he said that no text book was great: weak in one area and strong in another. Teachers decided to build their own text book. Compiling sheets from other sources. I guess I should look at the bottom of the sheets and share the web links.

My older son has some issuew with asbergers and ADD; a very bright kids but the information get lost i his head, and he cannot stay organized, and at times he struggles socially. He makes me cry to see his struggles. A sweet and wonderful kid that willneed extra time to get up to speed-- he needs MORE time to develop. I'm afraid that trade school will be tooo much for his abilites right now.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I totally agree-- my frustration with public school is the effort to shove the kids onto one direction, with not enough allowance for indiviuals.

For example. I was in to see th principle and sons teacher for ameeting about an incident at school--I aksed for my son to get extra work to keep him challenged, NO not in indiviaula classes as he gets RTI. RTI is ONE class a day where is is w/ peers that test at his abilites and they do special projects together. He is a brilliant child that is a fast learner and I feel like the school is slowly sucking the life out of him. HEnce the home school peice to challenge him. THe principle did want me to know he had scored perfectly on his MCAS test though--- we I don't give a flying fig, and I told her so!! HE did that test 6 moths ago, I hope he is 6 months further along!!! At the award ceramony, which I almost didn't let him go to, I felt like the school was awarding themselves the marks---Who cares if a kid gets a perfect mark on the MCAS, learning is FAAAAR mroe than a test.

Sorry--I am frustrated on so amny level with public school. Please bear with me as I find my bearings. DOve tailing the time and energy sucking public school with home schooling is a bit mroe chalenging than I thought. ANd kids have chores at the farm to do too. I"m trying to figure out if it is time to let the farming go . . .

 

[Arielle]

Quote: kudos for you!! You are fostering independent learning!!

Good picture books are also art. Maybe play with copying Eric Carls style aftr reading a coouple of his books.

MY SIL lives in a community of million dollar incimes and even in that school she had to give her kids work to keep them from getting bored-- they were ahead of the classes in general. She often took them out of school to travel in Europe via house exchanges. They are well traveled kids. WHat I have noticed in her youngest is an entitlement attitude: a certain level of confidence was required as well as grades to be accepted into a private school and what I see is a budding snob with out a care for social rules. Already a run in with the police, and her mom was not ahappy camper to get aphone call from MIL that police had picked up her daughter after midnight in a park-- she had snuck out of the house while MIL was filling in for the parents. My point is that balance is important-- I'm not so keen on my kid going to an elite school if it means the kids are entitled brats. THis is my impression of the situation, I could be completely wrong.

My DH has a particularly difficult year when he moved to an inner city school that was a year behind his level-- he handed out papers, and ran errands for the principle and spent as many hours as possible in the libarary reading. Ultimately he didn't do great in school-- yes he had high grades. BUT when he went to college he grades were tops. CLearly bored with public school and was underacheiving.

Maybe we can help each other, all of us on this thread, to keep the kids from getting too bored.

 

[SpecialHen]

Arielle - What is the math book that provides different methods? I would love this!

I've been looking into homeschooling for a few years now, and have found a lot of sources. I've found a co-op group and everything. However I'll give my children the option to go to public if they wish.

My mind is fried, but thank you so much for this thread...I bookmarked almost every link provided.

 

[DMRippy]

LOOK WHAT I JUST FOUND! It is similar to RC from what I can tell. The biggest complaint with buying Robinson is printing out all the book and how hard it is too use the CD's.

This looks GREAT! Has all the same books maybe even more. Sorted by grade levels... has an e-reader in the program and is TOTALLY FREE!

http://myschoolroom.net/download-latest/

Just playing with it but can't wait to try it with the 5 year old.