Parents Home Schooling

[C's MOM]

I KNOW there are probably many home schooling threads on here. However, I need to start a new one since many things in education are continuously changing and are updated. I myself am a teacher, and it is because of this that I am now contemplating homeschooling my youngest DD, the gymnast.
Let me start out by saying that gymnastics and/or DD's participation in gymnastics is not weighing in on my decision to home school her next year. The school district she attends and the same that I work in have just rolled out their proposed school calendar. What they were thinking when this calendar was created is beyond me. They intend to have these children begin school on August 13th through to June 17th. They plan on subjecting my child to 7.5 hrs. of school per day. This all with no added revenue to fund the longer day. What they do plan on doing is firing teachers and running class sizes to 35 or beyond. My child will be in third grade next year. These are her prime academic years! The very teachers at her own school are beyond livid and have tried petitioning against this absurdity. However, the powers that be are more intent on showing us who's boss then actually putting the product the children in the forefront of their decision making.

Hence my question: "All of the parents who have gone on the limb to take on your child's education, what curriculum are you using? What does a normal day look like for your child in terms of their schooling?" I am open to any and all comments. Even those that may be brash are welcomed. I have to weigh the pros and the cons. All I know is that my child will be the winner in the end.

BTW, the private Catholic schools in our area are also not sound. My son will be in high school next year and the Catholic all boys school that he will attend has a wonderful curriculum and he is very excited to attend. My older DD is a college student and currently her school is sucking us dry!

 

[gymgal]

We have homeschooled for several years. We primarily did it because my older children were ready for K before 5yrs old. By the time they were age ready, they were already too advanced for K and our school district rarely advances students - preferring to "enrich" their studies (which is OK if done correctly but in our district, it is not). We placed them in public school for one year due to a family issue that prevented me from teaching them. It was not a productive year for them and we hated the loss of flexibility - sticking to the school calendar and worrying about pulling them from school for a special event - or gymnastics. We brought them back home the next year.

We follow a classical approach and have used a mix of curriculums: Math - Saxon (elementary), Foerster (will use next year), Art of Problem Solving (currently using); History - Story of the World, biographies, current events; English/spelling - primarily through literature but we use a graded vocabulary list from Tampareads.com; Science - we do research/lab projects revolving around science topics for which they are interested.

There are so many materials out there! Thankfully, there is a wealth of information available on the internet as well! Since you are a Christian family, I would highly recommend starting your search at WellTrainedMind.com It has a very active forum relating to all types of curriculum. This site is mainly for followers of the classical model but the information is relevant to everyone.

You can also look into an online school, like K12. Some states offer a public school option for this (I think through charters). Otherwise, it is pretty expensive but many families like it because it is very structured, like school, and is an easier transition than just taking on full responsibility for homeschooling.

As for what our day/year looks like, my two older are working at 7-9gr level and young is 4-5th grade (depends on the subject). They spend about 4 hours working, with an extra hr of structured reading daily. We usually school Sept through end of May, with testing at the beginning of June. This yr, ds will need to work pre-alg. through the summer because he has been slack in his work this year and is really behind - the beauty of homeschooling. We take vacations during the slow seasons of popular areas and try to visit the special exhibits in the area.

One area that we have concerns for is the social piece. In general, homeschooling offers plenty of opportunities for socialization as long as you plan for it, but with dd in gymnastics 15hrs a week and 1 ds in 3 other activities, we have a hectic "after-school" schedule. Not much time for being with friends outside of their sport teams. At least in school, they would be around other children during the day even if they aren't really socializing much due to the school structure. Still, we try hard to provide opportunities to make friends through summer camps and on the weekends. 2 of mine are relatively quiet/shy and are prefer only a few friends but my youngest is very outgoing and craves to be around lots of peers. Homeschooling has been a little tough on him and as he gets older, we will need to find more outlets for him.

feel free to pm any questions

 

[ejgymmom]

We started homeschooling for the exact same reason as gymgal did. My 6 year old would be in Kindergarten this year but was more than ready last year...so we started homeschooling last year and consider her 1st grade this year. We also do it because we travel a lot and love the flexibility it gives us.

We school about 3ish hours a day, sometimes more, sometimes less and try to do one "field trip" a week with our local homeschool group. Since she's pretty young we're just mainly focusing on reading, writing and math, but I do also throw spelling in and some science every now and then. We also do some geography because she loves learning about other countries and cultures. Also, if she seems interested in a particular topic we'll learn more about that. For instance, when we were studying some African countries recently she wanted to learn more about African animals (she loves giraffes and cheetahs)...so we did. I love the freedom we have with it.

As for curriculum, we're using:

Math - RightStart - I can't say enough good things about this curriculum. We started using this from the very beginning and I've never once felt the need to switch to something else. It really focuses on mental math and using the abacus...and I'm amazed that at age 6 my daughter can add any two 2-digit numbers in her head...fast. It works and works great.

Language Arts - McRuffy...though I'm not 100% happy with it and haven't decided if we're going to use it next year. I think it's great for the price but it's just lacking something for us, not sure what. It includes spelling, reading, writing, and grammar, so it's nice and all inclusive.

Geography - Expedition Earth - This was created by a homeschool blogger and is great for a really low price (like $15-20)

Next year we're going to add on a biology science curriculum called Real Science-4-Kids and a history curriculum called History Odyssey, which uses Story of the World along with some other books and add-ons. I also need to figure out something for music and art...not sure which route I'm going to go with those yet.

I think that's about it. My daughter is a social butterfly so we're constantly working on the social aspect of homeschooling. She's an only child too (at least at this point) so that's not helping us. We're part of a great homeschool group and try to do stuff with them fairly often, and then she has her gym friends as well. She's in a couple of other activities, though the kids in those aren't as close friends as her gym friends and homeschool friends.

Anyway, this was kind of long winded...if you have any questions you're welcome to PM me!

 

[emorymom]

I use a very eclectic curriculum. This year they are doing 2nd/3rd. Next year will be 3rd/4th grade. I am not pushing memorizing things from science or history at all, though I do expose them to both. They have plenty of time for that. I do not copy common core. They do a performing arts concentration, which creates building blocks for all future endeavors. A typical "school day" with me takes about 2.5 hours straight through or 4-4.5 hours if I keep finding my son has said he was "going to the bathroom" or "taking a five minute break" and has actually been reading in his room for the last half hour. They do Rosetta Stone LA Spanish, spelling on the computer (one uses ClickN Spell, the other Word Detective), math in a combination of computer / books (this year main focus has been stone cold recall of multiplication / division facts), Getty Dubay handwriting, music theory games on the computer (music theory is a great math manipulative), and piano practice (I don't get to that every day). Next year I am thinking we will work in math mainly from Saxon with readings from Life of Fred, and add a grammar curriculum. They also do choir, acting (literature, psychology), and a half day Spanish school that is once a week.

 

[gasrgoose]

We have two kids in private school and our gymnast is home schooled/ hybrid schooled. Currently she goes two days a week for @ 4.5 hours to a school and has tests, instruction, is given assignments and social time. Next year she will only go one day a week. She spends around 3 hours a day on school work and commonly works on assignments on weekends as well. The school is Christian based does a great job giving us the foundation and materials to use at home. It was particularly helpful to use the hybrid school since this was our first year of home schooling and we didn't and are not home schooling the other two children. We decided to home school based on the hours required for her gymnastics level and because she started practicing twice a day. She is also young and we wanted to make sure she is able to get enough sleep. It's a difficult schedule to leave school and go straight to the gym and then rush home to eat, do homework and try to get to sleep only to wake up early the next day and rush off to school again. We truly admire the kids and families who are able to manage regular school, gymnastics and the rest of life. Home schooling for us is a necessary luxury for her to compete gymnastics at the level her coaches think she is capable and to maintain our family priorities and the other two children's extra curricular activities.

For those that are currently home schooling and those that are not you might want to look at Khan Academy.com for help. It was featured on 60 minutes 2 weeks ago and has FREE online instruction in short video lessons that focus on math but is branching out into other areas. The lessons are sorted by subject and the type of problem being taught. I mentioned this at dinner one night as a possible tool for home schooling our youngest and our middle child informed us they use it at his private school as a supplement to the regular program.

 

[ejgymmom]

For those that are currently home schooling and those that are not you might want to look at Khan Academy.com for help. It was featured on 60 minutes 2 weeks ago and has FREE online instruction in short video lessons that focus on math but is branching out into other areas. The lessons are sorted by subject and the type of problem being taught. I mentioned this at dinner one night as a possible tool for home schooling our youngest and our middle child informed us they use it at his private school as a supplement to the regular program.

Khan Academy is excellent. We use that to supplement our math curriculum because according to my daughter who claims to not enjoy math, anything on the computer is FUN! I even got sucked in and did some of the lessons...I'm a nerd.

 

[C's MOM]

Thank you everyone! I will definitely pm once I get my head on straight and have researched the many choices/ideas you have provided. This is a difficult decision and one that I have to plan out. I also am a teacher and in order to pay for my older DD's college and DS's private school, I still have to work. Luckily DH is home most days except one (He is a paramedic and is on 24 hrs. and off 72.). He will do HW with her and extra practice while I do the actual instructions on weekends and 2-3 nights per week. I also could use my summers and holiday weeks to do more during the day. It is still very hazy, but I want her to profit in the end. Our school districts is doing all they can to do the opposite in terms of building life long learners. Thank you all so much!


I have considered using Khan Academy as a 'flipped' form of instruction in my classroom as well. It is a shame that they don't have literature in their video library. But with Common Core the informational videos pertaining to social studies is beneficial. I teach literature, reading and writing to both 7th and 8th grades.

 

[Krystan]

We've homeschooled from the beginning and my dd is now 11, ds is 8, and plan to keep going for as long as it's working. It is very fun and flexible. We spend no more than 3 hours a day doing actual desk work, but the kids both read a lot, we have co-ops in the afternoons, and do a lot of field trips, etc. One of our co-ops is pretty large with over 60 kids and 4 classes one day per week, and the other is an informal subject exchange with two other homeschool families in town. I teach their kids science and they teach mine history. Here are some curricula we've used over the years, but I strongly recommend checking out a homeschool site as you're likely to get more input (although possibly an overwhelming amount), and definitely order the print catalog from Rainbow Resource. At first I would spend lots of time playing games, going places (nothing better than a museum on a school day - you have it to yourselves!), meeting friends, etc. More free time has been huge benefit for my kids - I think it's so important for them to have free play time. I find families pulling out of school that don't take the time to "de-school", or if they try to recreate school at home, tend to burn out pretty quickly.

Math: Singapore's Primary Math, also tried Right Start
History: Did all 4 years of Story of the World - awesome curriculum, now spending a year on U.S. using History of US
Science: I've used Pandia Press (RS4K), but have mostly cobbled together my own stuff based on kids's interests. Now doing CPO science for middle school.
English: We've tried lots of stuff, I love All About Spelling, Growing With Grammar, Writing With Ease, Just Write, IEW, and the kids read so many books that they've placed out of any vocab program and literature discussion is just part of family life, not a separate curriculum. Dd is liking the Royal Fireworks Press program this year because she needed something more creative. With LA and math, I find each child is different and responds better to different programs
French: Rosetta Stone is the best (I've tried lots of other stuff), but possibly Tell Me More for older kids (high school).
Latin: loved Classical Academic Press's stuff

 

[gymgal]

. This is a difficult decision and one that I have to plan out. I also am a teacher and in order to pay for my older DD's college and DS's private school, I still have to work. Luckily DH is home most days
.

We are in a similar situation. I work 3 days a week and homeschool the other 2 days. dh supervises their work when I'm away. It works well for the most part. I will caution you - you can have very good intentions about schooling in the evening and on wkends/vacations but life gets in the way. And resentment comes when they have to school when their friends are out playing. Finding the right balance is key. Teaching her to be an independent learner and choosing materials that promote this will likely be the best option. Then you can use the limited time together to review and assist on the most difficult problems. We have done this successfully since the beginning (except this yr with aops math, which is extremely difficult).



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[emorymom]

Depending on your learning goals and how you structure it, a lot of materials are self-teaching for a lot of kids at this age. If you pick the right materials with the right stepwise progressions and stay away from that spiraling, spizzy jumping around stuff that works better in classrooms, you will find that you can probably do all necessary teaching on Sunday and just have her work the rest of the week during the day, just asking Dad for help if she forgets something.

 

[Clover]

Does anyone know how colleges view home-schooled or hybrid/online schooled kids vs traditional schooled kids?

 

[gymgal]

Does anyone know how colleges view home-schooled or hybrid/online schooled kids vs traditional schooled kids?

Depends on the college but a lot of bigger universities have an admission counselor dedicated to homeschoolers. Many of the top gifted kids end up homeschooled because they aren't challenged in traditional schools. Colleges have become aware of this over the past 10 years and don't want to miss an opportunity to get these kids. You have to be prepared to show documentation, though. Good transcripts, portfolio of work, good testing scores, good interview....

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[thefellowsmom]

We don't homeschool as of now or do I have personal experience with this, but a good friend of mine is kind of an expert on math curriculum and she homeschools her kids just in math because the school curriculum is so bad. She recommends Saxon and Singapore.

 

[niklum]

We currently use K12 and like it. My DD is in 5th grade and very independent, so I don't have to do much. It's supposed to get more independent as she progresses through the grades. I've also heard about Connections, but I haven't tried it. We like it, but I may have to go back to a regular job soon, so I don't know if we'll be bale to continue with homeschooling. My DD really likes homeschooling, but I can tell she misses socializing with other kids. That's the only caveat so far.

 

[gymgal]

We don't homeschool as of now or do I have personal experience with this, but a good friend of mine is kind of an expert on math curriculum and she homeschools her kids just in math because the school curriculum is so bad. She recommends Saxon and Singapore.

Wow - a mathie recommending Saxon - that's a first. Don't get me wrong, I happen to like Saxon (though it's too repetitive for my kids). But it's rare for a math person to recommend it.

 

[gymgal]

We are looking into keystone, which is another online school. Less expensive than k12. Still undecided.

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[bookworm]

Does anyone know how colleges view home-schooled or hybrid/online schooled kids vs traditional schooled kids?

I don't know if you're looking down the line to college recruitment for gymnastics or just college in general but I know when we were going through the recruitment process with my daughter, the college coaches we talked to seemed relieved when when we told them she was in a traditional school setting...there was mention of having to "verify" curriculum and scores if she had been home schooled and a few of these coaches had had "issues" with some of the curriculums their past gymnasts used. From what has been said on these posts, it doesn't seem like that would be the issue. Another mentioned the "girls gone wild" scenario when rigidly structured and homeschooled gymnasts arrive on campus, they let loose , so to speak...but that could happen with any kid on a campus...

I think if your curriculum is accredited and up to snuff, and your daughter's test scores are fine, you will be fine.

 

[emorymom]

Hmmm. I like Saxon. I have tutored math since I was 13 and was able to do a graduate course in discrete math, though I was never a math major. I intensely dislike the constructivist stuff. My opinion, no one was ever stopped from being a theoretical physicist by kicking it old school when they were children. On the other hand, there are plenty of teenagers running around who can't grab a paper and pencil and do a quick division problem. That's gonna hurt them some day at Home Depot when their phone battery has run out.

 

[gymgal]

Hmmm. I like Saxon. I have tutored math since I was 13 and was able to do a graduate course in discrete math, though I was never a math major. I intensely dislike the constructivist stuff. My opinion, no one was ever stopped from being a theoretical physicist by kicking it old school when they were children. On the other hand, there are plenty of teenagers running around who can't grab a paper and pencil and do a quick division problem. That's gonna hurt them some day at Home Depot when their phone battery has run out.

Lol on that last image! I rather liked Saxon myself and used it through 4th grade for my kids, though I had to cut out the repetitiveness. We may go back to it next year for algebra. Still not sure. I was just saying that most math people I have run into put Saxon down as being to basic and does not prepare kids for the analytical part of math. And I tend to agree. If I use it, I will be supplementing it.

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[Krystan]

Another mentioned the "girls gone wild" scenario when rigidly structured and homeschooled gymnasts arrive on campus, they let loose , so to speak...but that could happen with any kid on a campus...

This seems like it would be opposite to me. Most homeschool high schoolers I know have lots of independence, take classes at a community college for some subjects, and do independent study and/or internships. Their life is way more unstructured than those who are in an institution all day long and are told what to do every step of the way. I've heard colleges appreciate that homeschoolers are used to managing their own education and time - usually they are the last ones to "go wild". Maybe they're talking about gymnasts who are in the gym 30 hours a week? Sounds like a weird concern to me...