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Who else will be homeschooling for the first time next year? (experienced HSers welcome to... - Page 2  

post #21 of 40
7/10/08 at 2:00am
:

We will my 8 yr old ds. My 3 yr old ds will be a tag a long because he can't just watch lol.
post #22 of 40
7/10/08 at 2:56pm
Well, for me, it's kind of hard to draw the line, as our kids have never been to school in the first place. DS1 is the age to enter Junior Kindergarten this September (which is the first year of public school in Ontario), so I suppose we could be considered to be starting our first year of homeschooling now. But, personally, I feel that 4 years old is too young for school (even though sending kids to JK is almost universally done here), so in a way I don't want to call ourselves "homeschoolers" yet, as I don't want to reinforce the normalcy of 4 being considered "school-age"... I'd rather just say he's "not going to JK" at this point (although we do intend to continue homeschooling long-term, and still go to homeschooling/unschooling group get togethers so that he has some friends that don't go to school.)

But regardless, as a life learning family, there isn't going to be any particularly big change in how we live our lives come September either way. We're just going to continue going about our days as we do now... living life together, exploring what we find interesting to us, and enjoying the richness of the world. So I guess, from a day-to-day life standpoint, it doesn't really matter where we draw the line and start actually classifying ourselves as "homeschoolers", eh? It's really all the same thing.
post #23 of 40
7/10/08 at 9:16pm
I have a DD who will be starting with on Monday.

We have SOTW and History Odyssey, Handwriting Without Tears, Lively Latin, Muzzy German, Signing Time, and Critical Thinking Math.

DD is 4. We are going to do a few minutes of "something" everyday, I'm going to maintain a little log of sorts because DH isn't sure I have the discipline to HS (and he could be right - I'm rather easily distracted!)

We're also starting piano and gymnastics this fall - for fun. DS will have swimming lessons.

I cannot believe how much more interesting History Odyssey and the math stuff is. I'm almost envious of my children for being able to learn this way. I'm so excited that I get to do it with them!

If this year goes well, we will do Clonlara next year.
post #24 of 40
7/11/08 at 9:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milakais View Post
in a way I don't want to call ourselves "homeschoolers" yet,
This is kind of where I am, though DH and I have started using the term among ourselves. DS is 3. Most of his same-age peers go to "academic" preschools. DS will be going to a mom's morning off-type program to play with other kids 2 mornings a week. The other mornings we will be doing school at home.

DH is in general opposed to homeschooling. To be honest, I have some concerns about doing it long-term. For now, though, we're living in a place where it's probably a necessity. DS knows the skills to move to 1st grade where we live now, though he won't age-wise be there until the spring of 2011. He's about 1/4 way through the first grade required curriculum knowledge points now just with his general observation, so we thought we'd start him now and see how he progresses. Where we live there's *no* option to skip kindergarten, so we've decided that we'll be homeschooling for the foreseeable future (at least until we move).

I'm just putting things together right now, and I'm not all that confident at the moment. We're converting our family room into a classroom (part of it anyway), which DS is going to help with next week. I've picked up some curriculum books and a few things for science experiments (magnets mostly). I'm going to work this weekend on writing what I'd like us to do the first month or so, but I'm not sure where to put my expectations right now.
post #25 of 40
7/11/08 at 9:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer3141 View Post
We have SOTW and History Odyssey, Handwriting Without Tears, Lively Latin, Muzzy German, Signing Time, and Critical Thinking Math.
For Latin, are you looking mainly at learning roots/suffixes/prefixes? I haven't spent a lot of time looking at set curricula yet. On the German, are you fluent? I've seen the Muzzy series, but I'm so unsure how to do language with a small child. DS has picked up some Spanish words here and there. We have a fairly large Spanish-speaking population. He's also listened to a German immersion program I have. He can say basic phrases and actually does a better job at pronunciation than I do! Still I'm not sure he understands what they translate into in English. I'm on the low end of fluent in French. My first choice would be to teach it, but it seems impractical. I did pick up some Spanish puzzle cards. It's only 20 basic vocab words - boy, house, etc. - to see if he enjoys doing them.
post #26 of 40
7/11/08 at 12:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrandiRhoades View Post
For Latin, are you looking mainly at learning roots/suffixes/prefixes? I haven't spent a lot of time looking at set curricula yet. On the German, are you fluent? I've seen the Muzzy series, but I'm so unsure how to do language with a small child. DS has picked up some Spanish words here and there. We have a fairly large Spanish-speaking population. He's also listened to a German immersion program I have. He can say basic phrases and actually does a better job at pronunciation than I do! Still I'm not sure he understands what they translate into in English. I'm on the low end of fluent in French. My first choice would be to teach it, but it seems impractical. I did pick up some Spanish puzzle cards. It's only 20 basic vocab words - boy, house, etc. - to see if he enjoys doing them.
For Latin, we're playing right now. I'm learning it primarily and then I'll introduce words to her as we go along. I'm taking a college class in it myself this fall.
I have started printing out the Lively Latin book 1 but it's a little beyond where DD is right now. I've started with Henle Latin I for my mother and myself.

Muzzy... it's cute. And it does engage the kids. But it's boring for me after awhile. And I'd love to have more of the sets but they are the same darn plot. I'm not paying that much for multiple sets that they've just dubbed over. If I could do it over, I'd have bought the Chinese version. It wasn't out when DD was born and we started our language studies.

And French? I don't see that as a waste of time at all. It's a romance language and once you have an ear for one, i think the others come along easily too. That's just my opinion though.
post #27 of 40
7/11/08 at 12:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by eclipse View Post
For this year, we've decided to go through one of Virtual Academies. For the first year, I'd like to have some sort of structure and schedule, and as little effort as possible on my part when it comes to gathering materials, planning activities, etc. My 2 yo is very active/busy/time consuming (okay, honestly - he's a lovable, adorable, holy terror). I'll be talking to the enrollment counselor on Monday about placement for the kids. I'm pretty sure DD will start with their regular K curriculum, but I'm hoping it won't be too hard to convince them to skip DS directly to 3rd or 4th grade curriculum. He read Harry Potter the summer before kindergarten, and has been bored out of his skull during the academic portions for the last two years - so i want to get him moving on something that's fun, interesting, and challenging for him. He is hoping that he can mostly just follow the lessons and teach himself, and have me be sort of a tutor when he wants/needs extra help/input. He's great at teaching himself things, so I think it will be good for him.
This is the way we started more than 4 years ago. Our dd sounds very similar to your son. Some virtual academies are quite flexible and it is easy to accelerate a student with them. Ours was not, so we went our independent way pretty early on. However, the structure was reassuring to start off with. It also made me realize that I could do this and gave me the confidence to explore things on our own. So, you may find it works perfectly for you - many gifted kids do great with these programs - but if it doesn't don't despair, just ask and tons of resource ideas will come your way!
post #28 of 40
7/11/08 at 1:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer3141 View Post
For Latin, we're playing right now. I'm learning it primarily and then I'll introduce words to her as we go along. I'm taking a college class in it myself this fall.
I have started printing out the Lively Latin book 1 but it's a little beyond where DD is right now. I've started with Henle Latin I for my mother and myself.
I will look at those. I don't think DS is at the point of Latin yet either, but to be honest, I'm not sure where he is. On the science side, he's been asking tons of questions about bones & skin. I saw a little skeleton model. DH said, "well it says age 8," but I thought because the pieces are groups (arms, rather than ulna, radius, etc. separate) that we could use layman's terms for them until he's ready to move on. So the point is that I'm still feeling out where we are and trying to resist my impulse to buy a ton of stuff that I don't know if we'll use.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennifer3141 View Post
And French? I don't see that as a waste of time at all. It's a romance language and once you have an ear for one, i think the others come along easily too. That's just my opinion though.
That's what I tell myself, too. Some of my hesitation to do Spanish is that my French is much better. I speak a decent amount of Spanish and know I'd catch up when the kids got to the point where I am. DH gets concerned, though, because he thinks teaching Spanish first makes more sense. My MIL speaks French, Spanish, and Italian, but she mixes them up. I don't know if it's because she doesn't speak them often now, or just because they're so similar.
post #29 of 40
7/12/08 at 1:04am
Hello! We'll be homeschooling for the first time this upcoming year. My daughter is 6, and went to a public kindergarten last year. She got a lot of fun out of that program, but she reads at a 5th grade level, and is mathematically at about a 3rd grade level, so we need to get some accelerated learning time. Our school, though it is a wonderful school in many ways, holds to the old "every child is gifted" philosophy, and so they are resistant to picking up the pace.

So. We're looking forward to it, in many ways, though I'm seeing that I could easily get overwhelmed and forget about the importance of lots of time for free play. I'm sure my daughter won't let me get too far away from that, however.

I'm looking at Sonlight core (done secular style), Michael Clay Thomson for language arts, Singapore math, and unschooling science.
post #30 of 40
7/12/08 at 1:00pm
We will be homeschooling this fall. My oldest is 5 and will be 5.5 in September which is when he'd be old enough to go to kindergarten if we wanted him to. We (DP&I) had a long, great talk about homeschooling the other night. We've both been on the same page about it for a few years now but we really talked specific ideas and things we want to do with DS this year. I'm really excited about this year!!! :
post #31 of 40
7/12/08 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
Someone from this thread emailed me, but I accidentally deleted it! I'm not sure who it was. If it was YOU, I'm not ignoring you! PM me or email again, or post to this thread.

Is anyone else experiencing a little bit of guilt? My DD is fine with being homeschooled, but isn't thrilled about not going to Kindergarten, if that makes any sense. She remembers DS going to kindy and she loved hangin out in his classroom and joined in on activities when I volunteered and tagged along onm field trips, etc. The school DS went to (and she was scheduled to attend in September) has a great play based, low pressure kindy and i have no doubt she'd have lots of fun and it would probably be a good experience for her overall. I just really don't feel like I could handle having one in school and one at home at this point, especially since I would have to bring DS1 along on volunteer days, and I feel like that would be boring and akward for him. I really wish they had half day kindy or a two or three day a week option - I'd be fine with sending her to something like that. But honestly, my relationship with DS1 has suffered a lot since he started school, and I really don't want that to happen with DD too .
post #32 of 40
7/13/08 at 12:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2honeysmamma View Post
We are technically homeschooling "next year" for the first time...except that our year started at the beginning of June because we are in India and my kids were going to school here on the Indian calendar...which ended at the end of March. We are "holistic eclectic" and using a wide variety of resources with heavy waldorf and montessori influence...I have a 4 year old ds who I have Oak Meadow for...though he's not interested in the alphabet yet...so we just read the stories and do some of the activities but he loves joining us for History Odyssey!! My 7 yo dd is using a combo of OM, sonlight books for more reading and read alouds, History Odyssey, Right Start math (though we are still waiting for it so we've been playing games and doing some Montessori plus math gnomes from Serendipity blog.) We read alot, we do a ton of art, we do our best to be outdoors alot, though where we live is not conducive to a lot of traditional nature activities found in OM, etc... I went and aligned all the OM social studies in Grade2 with History Odyssey...Ancients because much of it does coordinate and I like both of them. Also we have NOEO science and combine that with some OM science. A little of this...A little of that... I like having alot of resources to choose from and it doesn't bother me that we couldn't possibly do it all... We don't really follow a schedule but are trying to make our days rhythmic. Today we "skipped" school to play with friends who we won't see for a few months as they leave for a U.S. trip tomorrow and don't come back until after we leave for our U.S. trip in August...plus it was lovely here...so we went swimming at the pool in the afternoon...

Honestly...after a month, I can say that some days are hard, some are beautifully easy and most are somewhere in the middle. Some days I feel super organized and we have "flow" to our day and others...other days are best spent curled up on the couch reading! We are having alot of fun, either way! You can read my blog post about our first month at http://wherearethefischers.blogspot.com if you want It should be the second or third most current...

Chandra
expat mama to G(7) and O (4)

What an awesome blog!!!
post #33 of 40
7/14/08 at 1:30am
So excited to see everyone starting this year : Ds has never been to public school, and on September 3, a day after his fifth birthday, he'll be starting K here at home. Where I live the cut-off date for Kindergarten is September 1st, so he would have missed it by one day Anyway, doesn't matter now, does it?

He's very interested in letters, numbers, is verbal and loves to tell stories. At the same time he's not very mature (hello, he's still 4!) so I'm looking forward to spending time having fun (sometimes not easy for me as I like organization and structure when it comes to learning) and discovering all sorts of new things.

Here's what we're doing as far as curriculum goes:

Peak with Books
Modern Curriculum Press (MCP) Math Level K 1994 ed., then Level A 2005 ed.
Miquon Math (testing it out in conjunction with MCP -- if not a fit will try Singapore Math's Earlybird program)
Tanglewood's Really Reading Program (available free at www.tanglewoodeducation.com)
Maps and Mapping by Young Discoverers, then My First Geography Globe, activity book
Art with Daddy (who happens to be an artist )
Italic Handwriting Getty Dubay Book A
Poems for the Very Young
Children's Bible Stories (we're RCs)
Kidspeak Spanish CD-ROM (I can reinforce it as well as I speak Spanish too)
Science experiments from a book, the rest from his interest, library books
Piano (I would be the teacher) if he's interested/ready
Nature Walks (drawing what he sees, collecting specimens)

For extra-curricular activities, he's most likely going to be playing soccer (AYSO), learn how to swim, and maybe karate. I have as a limit three activities at a time, so in Winter when it gets too cool for pool we'll do karate if he's deemed mature enough by the instructor.

Whew.
post #34 of 40
7/14/08 at 3:50am
I turned off the AutoPayment to her AWESOME Montessori Preschool today - and the director lives across the street from me! I love the school but I'm paying them $500 a month so I can miss out on my daughter's awesome love of learning, and time with her as a child - I just can't do it anymore.

SO.....we have a few workbooks, great art suppiles, I'm considering Muzzy for French (her Aunt is fluent so she'd get IRL practice) and Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons (suggested to me by another homeschool Mom). I've got yearly memberships to our Sea Life Park, Aquarium, Zoo, Museum and Children's Discovery Center - so we could go out every day if we were so inclined!

I'm excited to be following my dream to homeschool with support (so far) from DH but totally scared I'll mess her up, or over teach, or something - who knows?
post #35 of 40
7/14/08 at 9:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by theretohere View Post
What an awesome blog!!!


we're having a good time :

Chandra
post #36 of 40
7/14/08 at 10:24am
We are 95% sure we will start our homeschooling journey this year. Dh still waffles. It is scarey to go against the norm. I am nervous about screwing them up for life but I am also nervous about keeping them in school. More about ds (going into 5th grade) as he has trichtillomania (pulls his eyelashes, eyebrows, hair out for those who do not know) and it gets worse when stressed, nervous, bored. Plus, these last 2 years have been very difficult at public school for him socially. There are 22 kids in the class and only 7 of them are boys. Out of those 7 he has 2 good friends. Ds would be friends with the girls but they do not want to be friends with him. There is one group of girls who has just been brutal with the name calling, the kncking things off his desk, etc. I have had a few conversations with the school and not much has changed. To make a long story longer, I think it would be best to homeschool and dh mosty agrees, until he talks to his parents. They take the "kids need to elarn not everyone likes them and they need to figure out how to deal with it" line of reasonong. I take the the line of "Yes, that is true, kids do need to learn that not everyone likes them and that you don't everyone and there are difficult situations in life. The other half of that lesson is that you do not have to put up with it." As an adult if you dislike your job you look for another on. Why do our children have to be forced to endure a horrible situation for years? At our parent teacher conference at the end of the year his teacher was elling us that it would get better when he goes to middle school in another year. There will be more kids and a better balance between boys and girls and there he will come into his own. I walked out of there wondering why ds should have to put up with this situation for another year before middle school.

That is where we ae at. I am looking at curriculums and making my plans.
post #37 of 40
7/14/08 at 10:29am

eclipse -pm'd you!
post #38 of 40
7/14/08 at 10:41am
We are new this year too! :

We will be using OM kindy. Mydaughter will be 5 in Sept. but we don't need to report til 6. I have 2.5 yo twin boys so that is where my anxieties live. Though I would say 75% of the curriculum the boys could be involved in.
I am excited, anxious, and terrified all at the same time. I amthinking its gonna be like labor though, once your doing it and not thinking about it those feelings start to drift away a bit, its all the unknown for now.
post #39 of 40
7/14/08 at 10:51am
another newbie here. i guess we'll really be officially starting out in the fall. i just recently recieved our curriculum (enki) and taking this time to read the guides and prepare myself for the coming year ahead.
post #40 of 40
7/14/08 at 5:58pm
Yes, we are! I am doing a mix of Classical/Ecclectic for my 2nd & 6th grader and my 8th grader is doing Veritas. http://www.veritasschools.com/
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Mothering › Forums › Education › Learning at Home and Beyond › Who else will be homeschooling for the first time next year? (experienced HSers welcome to answer ?'s!)