We need another Eclectic thread! - Page 11

[riversmommy]

I understand not being able to afford more classes/activities! DS is only signed up for gymnastics for a month because who knows if we'll have the $ next month?!!

Is McDonald's Playland considered PE? Actually, the one in this town is pretty ok. We used to go to a Boys and Girls club open-gym time for toddlers in the winter. We could bring trikes and balls and basically let 'em run wild for an hour or two. That was free and I'm not sure who arranged it. I think the town's family resource center. We have an indoor community pool here and we can get a punch pass for $30 that allows me and the 2 kids to go 8 times. Anyway, anyone have any other ideas for winter PE activities that don't break the bank?

[xanandali]

I've had both kids in gymnastics classes since they were 15 & 17 months old. DD is now 2 1/2 and moving up levels to the next class w/o me, DS is 5 1/2 and has been in a kids fitness class at the gymnastics place that is not so girly He's not into flips and rolling unless he's play fighting! Its not the cheapest of activities, but he's been in all sorts of stuff and not interested in any type of organized sports (tae kwon do, soccer, t-ball).

I've got our family signed up for a homeschool specific fitness class at the YMCA that starts in October, hoping to find some friends there that we can have some regular playdates with. It was only like $20 for about 10 weeks. We also do a LOT of the McD playland stuff to burn off energy! Last winter especially I'd feed them lunch at home then we'd go over to play and I'd just buy something off the dollar menu. So it wouldn't be so obvious that we were there almost every day I'd rotate around town (there are 3 McD's and 2 BK's with playlands) ROFL

[urchin_grey]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

*To the moms with apraxia/dyspraxia issues---do you find fish oil helps? I read _The LCP Solution_ and according to the book, fish oil is a miracle worker for many kids. DD is undiagnosed, but I have suspicions about dyslexia/adhd, and I do notice she's better able to focus when she takes her vitamins daily (including Learning Factors with ALAs and tuna oil).

I did try the Nordic Naturals for a while, but I honestly didn't notice a difference... Maybe I'll try this Learning Factors stuff.

[MeadowSong_]

We are hanging in there! Last week was more productive, now this week will not be haha. My oldest is in school and he starts next week so we are taking it easy (not that we spend all our day schooling anyways lol).

I plan on having my 4 y/o in Gymnastics this year also. My 6y/0 wants to take karate or something similar. Two weeks ago it was wrestling, who knows. I think the Karate may be out of our price range though, so I understand there not being enough money for extras. Which is a bummer.

[MyLittleWonders]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

*To the moms with apraxia/dyspraxia issues---do you find fish oil helps? I read _The LCP Solution_ and according to the book, fish oil is a miracle worker for many kids. DD is undiagnosed, but I have suspicions about dyslexia/adhd, and I do notice she's better able to focus when she takes her vitamins daily (including Learning Factors with ALAs and tuna oil).

For us, it was all about food allergies and eliminating the offending food(s). The difference with ds#2 before and after eliminating gluten was absolutely amazing. We do make sure they have vitamins (he takes BrainChild Nutritionals which are formulated especially (though not only) for kids on the spectrum) and omega 3's. But the biggest thing was eliminating the gluten for the apraxia and sensory issues.

[zmom]

We just "officially" started homeschooling our 5 year old last week. I say officially because we're doing the same types of things we've been doing all her life but we "officially" didn't send her to her first day of kindergarten. :

We lean towards unschooling but we use lots of ideas from Emilia, Waldorf, and Montessori incorporated into our lives and schooling. We're all loving it so much!

For outside classes this year, DD is doing Kindermusik for the Young Child, violin lessons, and ballet/tap. She's looking forward to doing them all, I'm hoping that she'll enjoy it. We experimented over the summer with the violin and ballet and she loved them both and this will be the 4th year for us to do Kindermusik so I think it will work.

I'm so excited to join this thread and to be back to mdc! (I've been so busy for the last couple of years that I haven't checked in much though I was active here before that!)

Zmom

[almadianna]

I guess this is where I belong.
My kiddos are not of age to be in school officially yet but we are going to homeschool and have started a few things. I am eclectic, mostly unschooler at heart.... but my daughter is all about workbooks and schedules when it comes to schooling. She is 3 and craves the knowledge and studying time that we give her. We are all over the place really with her and it will probably always be that way.

[maciascl]

This is where I belong. DS1 started Kindy last week. We are using a public homeschool charter that helps pay for classes & curriculum etc... I have known for a long time we were going to homeschool & have always been fairly relaxed about it. I do have to make sure we have records to give the school every month that shows learning occurs daily.

As for the eclectic part, I am not a fan of school in a box type things. I am not anti curric, but I can't see us picking 1 thing to cover all subjects. This is leaving me feeling rather scattered. Hopefully as time goes on I will feel better organized. Any seasoned eclectic hs'er have any feed back on feeling unorganized or scatter brained?

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by maciascl

This is where I belong. DS1 started Kindy last week. We are using a public homeschool charter that helps pay for classes & curriculum etc... I have known for a long time we were going to homeschool & have always been fairly relaxed about it. I do have to make sure we have records to give the school every month that shows learning occurs daily.

As for the eclectic part, I am not a fan of school in a box type things. I am not anti curric, but I can't see us picking 1 thing to cover all subjects. This is leaving me feeling rather scattered. Hopefully as time goes on I will feel better organized. Any seasoned eclectic hs'er have any feed back on feeling unorganized or scatter brained?

Lol, that's funny; I just was thinking how if I did invest the money in a curriculum, I'd probably end up buying two and picking and choosing and rearranging everything (as well as great books, as always). I've been thinking about purchasing either Oak Meadow or Christopherus for 2nd Grade and just recently I've been looking at New Child Montessori as well. Maybe all three! hee hee!

I think there's a lot we could get out of a curriculum, and it'd be nice to have certain things lined out, but of course we'd still customize it.

[yllek]

Well, I posted my introduction then disappeared from this thread, trying to get ready for our weird classroom/homeschool kindergarten year. We just had our first day of kindergarten and our first official homeschool day. : (You can read about them in more detail on my very new blog if you're at all inclined. There's a tiny peek at our "homeschool room" in the header image too.)

For our outside classes, ds (5 yo) is currently taking aikido, and he was taking swimming lessons. The swimming lessons are on hold while we get our new schedule all settled, then he'll do that twice a week as well. To the previous posters who mentioned gymnastics and kindermusik - I'm thinking about doing both with my dd (2 yo) on the days that ds is in school. Hmmm... I had told myself to keep activities to a minimum this year so we could just enjoy these simple childhood years a little bit longer. Our schedule is not seeming quite so simple anymore.

[yllek]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

Lol, that's funny; I just was thinking how if I did invest the money in a curriculum, I'd probably end up buying two and picking and choosing and rearranging everything (as well as great books, as always).

That's exactly what I did with ds's phonics program. I'm required to do some sort of phonics curriculum, but I couldn't decide. Ds is already reading a bit on his own (beginning reader type stuff and several sight words that I had no idea that he knew). I ended up getting Phonics Pathways, a very bare-bones program, and Sing, Spell, Read, Write, chock full of bells and whistles. I keep waffling between the two.:

[Jennifer3141]

I bought Calvert's K curriculum this year and we love it! I still consider myself to be rather eclectic-al because we have added HO and AP and we've subtratced what doesn't work in Calvert for us. I consider Calvert our good foundation.

And I did try fish oil with DS for a few months but noticed no difference.

Now I think I've caught up in this thread.

[bwylde]

I should check in . My kids are ds-7 and dd-5. I am putting them in hip hop dancing classes soon. They did it last year and loved it but now they will be in the same class, so less running around for me! I'm putting DD in Sparks since she's sociable but DS never wants anything to do with scouts. I don't like to push things, letting them do what they want. We can't afford much so it's probably good they're not into a lot of things. I wish our McDonalds has a playland as it is in our backyard and we'd probably live there. Wait, maybe it's good they don't

We started school yesterday and I am blogging as I teach them. A lot of people are having problems with reporting and not having enough information (even though they fill the requirements) so I am writing as the kids are doing it. That way at the end of the year I can look back and report better. This is one of the main reasons I moved away from unschooling, the fear of the Department of Education. Playing video games 12 hours a day doesn't look good on a report : (not that I would put that. He actually did learn tons last year but it's harder to keep track).

I am finding they are getting a lot done in a short period of time. I'm finding it easier to give one on one than I expected. We're all enjoying it!

[Jennifer3141]

We did McDonald's gym yesterday. :
I got to read an entire magazine!!!

I am so excited for all the other kids to go back to school though. Then we'll have the place to ourselves again.

[konamama]

cleaning our activity room - really needed it - and organizing resources that are good for right now... what a mission

[MyLittleWonders]

I'm looking at buying Song School Latin. We have Minimus, but I want something that is easy for the boys (the oldest is only 8) and something that can begin to teach us maybe a little structure of the language. I like Minimus (I've read though it a bit) but I don't think there's enough meat to it, and I'm not shelling out the money for the teacher's guide. I'm thinking with Song School Latin and Minimus, maybe we'll all be ready for something like Lively Latin in two years or so. Any ideas?

[LionTigerBear]

Song School Latin sounds cool-- no direct experience with it, though. When I was a kid I really loved Prima Latina or whatever it's called () and also some really retro Latin textbooks for kids that my Latin tutor had found at an old private school library sale. I am sure they were out of print and I have no idea where one would find something like that! (Hmm, maybe an old library sale! I guess you'd just have to be lucky though!)

[Eli&SkyesMom]

Originally Posted by riversmommy

I understand not being able to afford more classes/activities! DS is only signed up for gymnastics for a month because who knows if we'll have the $ next month?!!

Is McDonald's Playland considered PE? Actually, the one in this town is pretty ok. We used to go to a Boys and Girls club open-gym time for toddlers in the winter. We could bring trikes and balls and basically let 'em run wild for an hour or two. That was free and I'm not sure who arranged it. I think the town's family resource center. We have an indoor community pool here and we can get a punch pass for $30 that allows me and the 2 kids to go 8 times. Anyway, anyone have any other ideas for winter PE activities that don't break the bank?

When the weather is bad, we do things inside the house, some of them have included; calesthenics, yoga, dance, practice kickboxing(DS), DD likes Lazy Town so sometimes we do things along with them.

I would love to get a Wii Fit to use sometimes too, but it just isn't in the budget right now.

[Jennifer3141]

Originally Posted by Eli&SkyesMom

When the weather is bad, we do things inside the house, some of them have included; calesthenics, yoga, dance, practice kickboxing(DS), DD likes Lazy Town so sometimes we do things along with them.

I would love to get a Wii Fit to use sometimes too, but it just isn't in the budget right now.

We do that stuff too and I'd also love a Wii fit but in the winter, if it's really bad outside, we go to BK or McD's once a week or so. My kids HAVe to get some hard physical work in every few days or they are awful to deal with and cannot focus.

If I ever win the lottery, I'd like to start a chain of faster food organic & ethical food with playplaces for the kids. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could go to McD's and not be pissed about the chickens' indescribably horrible lives and/or the crap that's in the food?? What if kids' meals had a filet of fresh salmon and carrots and dip?

[LionTigerBear]

Originally Posted by Jennifer3141

We do that stuff too and I'd also love a Wii fit but in the winter, if it's really bad outside, we go to BK or McD's once a week or so. My kids HAVe to get some hard physical work in every few days or they are awful to deal with and cannot focus.

If I ever win the lottery, I'd like to start a chain of faster food organic & ethical food with playplaces for the kids. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could go to McD's and not be pissed about the chickens' indescribably horrible lives and/or the crap that's in the food?? What if kids' meals had a filet of fresh salmon and carrots and dip?

Please start the first one where I live. Thank you!