hsling middle schooler resources

[xixstar]

Hi

We're looking at starting up homeschooling next year. DD is currently in 6th grade. We're planning on doing a trial run over the summer cause I also want to see a commitment from dd as well as we've done the hs thing before and it didn't go wonderfully -- but then, it was being done by me, a friend, and my mom jointly with another child so hopefully with it just us will improve things.

Anyway, long intro to see if anyone has any good resources for other families homeschooling middle school and high school. I'm just getting started on collecting resources in prep for summer. Also, non-religious resources would be a plus since most families nearby homeschool for religious reasons.

Thanks so much!

[mommy68]

I started home schooling my 7th grader again right after Christmas. He went right in to schoooling at home and had no deschooling time. I plan to also give him school work over the summer months so we can start doing the year-round schooling next school year. I think that will work best for us so we can have more days off throughout the year to slack off and do nothing. I feel too pushed to get it all done within a 9-10 month time frame and it seems too crunched up for me. Just do what you feel is best and if your child wants to do it then it will all fall in to place.

Do you have a specific reason for wanting to home school your child? My oldest child was home schooled for several years, then went to private school and now is back home where hopefully he will stay. I do know that at this age you have to make sure the child *wants* to be home schooled. I drove my child crazy asking him daily, sometimes several times daily for many weeks before actually withdrawing him from his school. I wanted to be sure. I stressed the pros/cons of being home all day to him and he still wanted to do it.

[xixstar]

Reasons include the frustrations with her progress and interest in school and that her school refuses to consider the fact that maybe she doesn't do her work because she's bored all the time. Instead, they've said they'll refuse to let her stay in advanced classes, which aren't really advanced (imo and dd agrees), next year because she doesn't do homework even though they agree that she's very smart and can easily do the work. But they're mad that she doesn't show the amount of effort they expect from their advanced students and would rather give her place to someone else.

Add to that my ever increasing disinterest in the school curriculum which becomes more and more test focused each year with all subjects other than reading and math reduced again and again. Every time scores are not high enough, they add another 30-60 minutes of reading and math to the day and everything else is basically nonexistent at this point.

We did homeschooling before when we lived in an area where the public schools were unacceptable. That didn't go well but there were a lot of dynamics involved at that point (multiple teachers, strong competition with her best friend who we homeschooled together).

I keep talking to dd about the pros and cons of homeschooling because I want her commitment on this too - otherwise, I'll just let her skim through the rest of public school (as much as that bothers me). So far I'm not convinced this is something she wants to do, but thats more because she hyper focuses on small pros ("oh, I want to homeschool so I can do archery") and ignores the other realities of homeschooling as well. But, the only reason she wants to stay in public school is so she can have PE every day. So, we're still having those conversations and summer is supposed to help us both get a good foundation going to see what it's like (this time) as well.

[Ruthla]

Your public school offers PE every day? Wow! I used to get it 2-3 times a week!

I'm sure you could find a way to give her daily exercise similar to PE classes.

I would take a look at what exactly "didn't go well" the last time you HSed- were your expectations unreasonable? Would a different type of curriculum (or no formal curriculum) work better?

[xixstar]

so, no one has any recommendations for online resources for hsling older children?

[mommy68]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

Your public school offers PE every day? Wow! I used to get it 2-3 times a week!

I agree! My son was in middle school and he had PE twice per week and the NEVER went outside, only had PE in the gym. No more recess or anything outside once they hit 6th grade in his school. Now that he's at home all day he can walk outside any time of the day he wants and play or walk around and enjoy the weather!

PE is offered in our area for homeschoolers at several local YMCA's. There are also a couple of churches that offer their facilities to homeschool groups to have PE classes. But we are part of one at the Y right now and my child loves it! I bet you could get in touch with a local homeschool group and find something to get her involved in.

[Prane]

One of the best things about homeschooling at this age is that your child probably has a ton of input about what they would like to learn and what they thought was missing from public school education. Resource wise we use Saxon Math not everyones favorite but ds likes it, singapore science which is a great one if your hunting for that elusive secular science program. Ds's current favorite thing is Literary Lessons from the LOTR. OMG I can not say enough good things about this program. It is complete enough vocab, questions, writing assignments, unit studies on Tolkein and his influences. The best thing though is that it is someting my son never has to be prompted to do and is always looking for more on the subject. Oh and I co-opt booklist from everywhere.

[Citymomx3]

Hi! My dd is in 6th grade and we jump around from 6th grade stuff to 8th grade stuff and beyond. Here's a bunch of resources we like:


Grade Level Skills Help

The Charlotte Mason Method . I think this method is especially great for new homeschoolers. It's a gentle, yet very effective way of learning and works well with all homschooling types: classical homeschooling to unschooling. And it's fun.

Teaching Textbooks

We also incorporate lots of field trips, nature study, some grade level workbooks from the bookstore, homeschool classes, group events, readalouds (kids are never too old for readalouds, lol), writing contests, penpals and letters to celebs, televison shows, and outside classes (like dance, circus, and sewing).

HTH!

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by xixstar

so, no one has any recommendations for online resources for hsling older children?

www.k12.com
www.time4learning.org
Check out what's on sale at www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.com , great science with the CyberEd group buy. Interesting looking history products from the History channel just offerred via a group buy.
www.historysolutions.com

Plenty of non-online resources, but thought these might be of help getting started, let me know if you want more!

[RedJen]

We're still in the deschooling phase after a traumatic fifth grade year in PS. (Fourth grade was also pretty bad, but since we were trying to be "good parents" and "supportive of the school," he didn't trust us enough to tell us how bad it really was.) I really couldn't give DS the choice to stay in PS.

This year, we've been using the Spelling Workout book G for weekly spelling tests. He's been doing a lot of independent projects-- in January, he built a computer. He supercharged his Nerf gun, plays stock exchange online (Popular Science), and has been doing a lot of reading. He's been coming across math in his other interests, so I'm expecting him to be ready to work on that more intensively next year (we have Saxon Math 76. He tested at that level even though the school's paperwork showed he was at a fourth grade level in math. Turns out he just didn't bother to do the problems in the school testing-- after two years of them nagging, guilting, and threatening him about school testing.)

We're currently not doing any formal writing because he claims to hate writing, but I find his scribbles all over the house: plans for his spy network, strategies for Runescape, parts needed for inventions, etc. He used to love to write stories, before the battles over school testing, so I hope he'll get back to that.

The backbone of our non-program is the Well-Trained Mind. My current strategy is to have many of the recommended resources on hand so he can read them at his leisure. Once we have undone the psychic damage of PS, we will probably start a slightly more structured routine.

[moominmamma]

Computer resources my kids have used at the middle-school level:

MIT Open Courseware
CyberEd Science courses via HomeschoolBuyersCo-op
Rosetta Stone language learning
Bravewriter materials
Teaching Textbooks for Algebra
Alfred Complete Music Theory Course
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

Miranda

[HikeYosemite]

Oak Meadow has an online curriculum (maybe just for high school?), but I've only tried their printed one: http://www.oakmeadow.com/. I tend to lean toward unschooling, but my son (who was homeschooled but wanted to try school this year--7th grade--and isn't finding the kids to be very nice) says he likes the instruction aspect of school. If he comes home again, I'm hoping to guide him toward making his own choices about curriculum. He's very strong-willed, and being his taskmaster as well as his mom is not a fun role.
A friend's daughter chose to do Calvert's printed curriculum, which is non-religious as well, and it looks like they now have an online curriculum for middle school: http://www.calvertschool.org/home-school/.

Originally Posted by xixstar

so, no one has any recommendations for online resources for hsling older children?

[mama_kass]

What exactly are you looking for?

Since you said your dc is advanced take a look at Laurel Springs. They are a college prep distance school.

Also, I highly recommend finding a support group where you are. Just go into yahoo groups and type in homeschool and your area.

One more thing: Write out a plan. Make a contract. Both of you should sign it.

If you need extra help hire a consultant, and/or join other online and in person groups.

Good luck!