anyone homeschool "outside" their own home?

[mommy68]

I am going on year 4 homeschooling my middle child. She is 9. Her brother was homeschooled until he started high school. I wanted to place her in school this coming school year but I'm having conflict with her father on this (my ex-husb). :(  I do not do well homeschoooling her. She doesn't want to learn and is very lazy about doing anything. She is behind (well, when compared to school kids around here) in math and in writing. She does well in writing IMO but if tested locally they will say she is behind. I didn't want to do another year with her homeschooling as I need to find work but last year her dad helped with bills and I helped him with his business so I could stay home. It's great being able to stay home BUT she doesn't learn well from me. She is entering what would be 4th grade for most kids although I think she is at 3rd grade level.

When at home she tends to get lazy and if I get distracted for any reason then she will say "can I have a break" or "I'm hungry" or "I'm tired, can we finish later" and later ends up being the next day. :(  I know I'm probably not disciplined enough for her but I'm burnt out I think. She is muuuuch harder than her older brother was. He was laid back and easygoing. She is super hyper, distracted very easily, gets off task quickly and has a mind of her own. But the plus is - SHE IS SMART! I'm not just saying that because I'm her mother either. She pretty much taught herself to read and spell and excels in those areas. When it comes to math I can't teach her though. She will say she knows a concept and a few weeks later has forgotten it only to have to be taught again and then seems bored. Okay, getting OT now.

When at home there are too many distractions, toys in her room, computers (we have 3), outdoors, t.v. etc. I don't allow t.v. during the day at all and we just got cable again last month but I'm tempted to get rid of it come August and just keep it in the summer months. :) Not sure about that one yet.

My question (finally, lol) - does anyone homeschool their child/ren OUTSIDE your home? Not necessarily outdoors, but at a library, someone else's home, an office, garage, some place out and away from the usual things your children are around on a daily basis that will keep their attention not focused where it should be.

Also, how many hours per day are you homeschooling your child/ren? I am quite the impatient type as well and hyper like my daughter and I get tired and bored easily when helping her in some subjects. I'm all gung-ho the first few months of school and by Christmas vacation I'm ready for a long break and sometimes I dread going back to it after the first of the year. :(

Any comments, suggestions, advice would be greatly appreciated.

[MittensKittens]

My daughter is required to do certain things each day. There is a lot of flexibility - she can learn about whatever subject she wants, and can choose what we start with and what we do next, but she can't not do anything. She is eager to learn, but only about subjects she is interested in. I do require her to do things she isn't mad about, but she can choose where and when, and when possible how. 

We have had a lot of success learning at our local park while the weather is nice. She can also choose to invite other homeschooling friends to work together with us, or even to work on certain things with other parents. But it IS important for me that she doesn't fall behind (which she isn't). 

[onlyzombiecat]

We have only homeschooled somewhere else when we stayed at my parents house for a week. It was more distracting then at home.

I'd say we spend between 1-3 hours per day. Math is also "behind" for dd in comparison to school grade level but she continues to make progress and we don't intend to put her in school anyway. It is slow going though.

Have you considered some kind of online school for your dd?

Does your dd want to try going to school? If not could you say that you need more work to get done?

[Emma Bryan Fuller]

we sometimes go to the library. Our place is small and it's me who needs to get out. I just wanted to suggest time 4 learning. We just started it with my boys and one is grade 4. I have a 2 yr old so cannot handle being the sole teacher/moniter right now.They just came out of full time Montessori so I need to ease into homeschooling and ease my 2 yr old into not getting my complete attention,always!. It is not my 1st choice, honestly.Simply because I am not keen on all that screen time. My 8 yr old requires complete supervision but the 9 yr old just gets on with it. They are both happy to do it and seem to enjoy it. Right now we do two hours per day each, total. After summer we will add bookwork also and the printables. They also read.

[insidevoice]

Originally Posted by Emma Bryan Fuller 

we sometimes go to the library. Our place is small and it's me who needs to get out. I just wanted to suggest time 4 learning. We just started it with my boys and one is grade 4. I have a 2 yr old so cannot handle being the sole teacher/moniter right now.They just came out of full time Montessori so I need to ease into homeschooling and ease my 2 yr old into not getting my complete attention,always!. It is not my 1st choice, honestly.Simply because I am not keen on all that screen time. My 8 yr old requires complete supervision but the 9 yr old just gets on with it. They are both happy to do it and seem to enjoy it. Right now we do two hours per day each, total. After summer we will add bookwork also and the printables. They also read.

I've found time 4 learning to be a good fit for my daughter (sounds similar to the OP's in some ways) it keeps her focused for a bit and while I don't think it is enough for a complete program, once she's done those lessons she is more willing to sit down with me to cover things in greater detail.  
 

[Ravin]

I have most of these issues with my DD as well. We're getting her evaluated to find out for sure if, as we suspect, she's ADD.

We'll be doing lessons part of the time this year in the law library (I'm starting law school), and part of the time on our back patio (DD usually does well there).

[moominmamma]

Not exactly the same thing but for a while we had a tradition of "café schooling." If we were feeling a bit of cabin fever, lassitude, testiness, aimlessness, whatever, we'd pack up the math and science books and head to a friendly local café for a couple of hours. We'd buy big pots of herbal tea, and scones, and get a good bit of work done. Often that was all we'd need to reset our motivation and schedules and we'd be back on track. We did that maybe once every week or two during one winter. It helped. We all looked forward to the change of scenery and the positive experience of getting some work done in a new environment left us feeling better about academics and about each other the next time we set about doing work at home.

Miranda

[mommy68]

Originally Posted by onlyzombiecat 

Have you considered some kind of online school for your dd?

Does your dd want to try going to school? If not could you say that you need more work to get done?

She goes back and forth about wanting to go to a school. We would only enroll her in private school and without financial aid assistance that wouldn't be doable. But her way of looking at going to a "school" is making friends, having lunch with them, hanging out, etc. Not the learning part.  :-(  She can't do online without me right by her side and even then we have had issues in the past with the computers here and I can't really depend on technology as much using good old fashioned books. I had her use Switched on Schoolhouse last year for instance and she liked it the first two weeks and then it was old and then my computer crashed and we went back to books while it got fixed and then never went back. Just sold it on Ebay actually, lol.
 

[mommy68]

Originally Posted by Ravin 

I have most of these issues with my DD as well. We're getting her evaluated to find out for sure if, as we suspect, she's ADD.

We'll be doing lessons part of the time this year in the law library (I'm starting law school), and part of the time on our back patio (DD usually does well there).

This is what I'm leaning towards.

[mommy68]

Originally Posted by insidevoice 

I've found time 4 learning to be a good fit for my daughter (sounds similar to the OP's in some ways) it keeps her focused for a bit and while I don't think it is enough for a complete program, once she's done those lessons she is more willing to sit down with me to cover things in greater detail.  
 

We've tried that program before as well. Anything online is kinda if'y with my daughter. Like I said, she is distracted easily and is bored easily and ready to move on. I play lots of learning games, hands on stuff with her too but that gets old, especially for me, over time. If she were to do something online then she would say she is tired and wants a break and thinks it's enough for the day. Rather than argue with her (it has been daily in the past with her as far as us arguing about school) then I just let her do some and whatever she "does" get done is enough for that particular day. So online stuff really doesn't help much unless it's enough work to be ALL that she does for that particular day.

Thanks everyone for the information you have shared! It has really helped to get me thinking more about what to do. I am really leaning towards a library at least 2-3 days per week, right after dropping the baby off at my friend's house. Thank goodness I have someone to watch my 20 month old for a few hours during the weekdays for us to get school work done. That would be a whole other problem if I didn't have that help. :-)