I might be doing this next year...

[4babybirds]

My 3 oldest children will be attending ps in the fall. I have homeschooled them all up until now, but with a toddler and a baby due in 6 weeks, I knew I'd have to give it up. Depending on how their classes are, I might have to do some afterschooling...or might just decide to do it for Latin or another foreign language.

 

Could you give me an idea how you manage to afterschool and handle homework, etc? What's a typical day like when you afterschool? And what subjects do you teach?

 

Thanks so much.

[clarkacademy]

With the homework fr ps I don't see how to fit more in without making a child rebel especially in the upper grades. :001_huh:

[4babybirds]

Yeah...that's what I was thinking. My oldest will be 5th grade and I am sure she will get enough hw at ps. I just wondered how people did it. I hope she gets a good teacher and I don't even have to think twice about it!

[BabyBre]

"After"schooling would never work in our house. My dc are exhausted when they get home after 6 hours of social and mental stimulation in ps. We beforeschool. In just one hour before school (and about 45 minutes at bedtime a couple nights a week) we fit in math (Saxon - 2 levels), grammar (FLL - 2 levels), spelling (2 levels), latin (same level for both dc), and history (same level of SOTW). We alternate Math and Language days and read history books at bedtime. It is true that our lessons are often condensed with activites or enrichment often left out, but I use down time, vacations, or weekends to do fun enrichment activities like games or projects to patch up the areas I begin to see lacking. Homework from school is done after school. And, yes, to get this all done I have a detailed schedule where every subject has a time slot. And there's still time for extra-curricular activities.

 

I strongly believe my dc do NOT get what they need in ps, and it's my rule to never back off of what I feel is the right thing to do or in their best interest because I'm afraid of what they might do (rebel). That's when they gain control over you and start running the show. If you've been homeschooling all along, I would think they wouldn't balk too badly when you cut that down to a mere hour or two a day and increase their social time five or six-fold. When your children are raised in an expectation of learning, an environment that facilitates it - like your homeschool - it's just normal to them.

 

When my dc say "None of the other kids have to do work at home!" I try to use that as a lesson on how even when seemingly everyone else does one thing, that doesn't make it right or the right thing for our family. I always reiterate how families and family situations are different from one to the next. And I don't think it wrong to point out that it's because we do work at home that both my dc are the top in their respective classes.

 

I strongly recommend not throwing in the towel on home education just yet. If you do now and decide down the road that it is needed/wanted after all, you'll really have a struggle on your hands then.

[purplecow7]

I have four children - I started after schooling because my oldest came home from first crying for more math.

 

How do I do it....gently.....Right now I am doing HOP and Signapore with my youngest two 4 - basically 5-10 minutes a night or so and this is in between Tae Kown Do and socccer.

 

My first grader soon to be second- her passion was writing so I just provide work books and lots of notebooks and a willingness to read her work. She also does EPGY math and I have just started signapore math. She got very little homework -just reading. And well she is reading at about a 5th grade level so no worries there. This again is in between Tae Kwon Do (she is a black belt) and soccer and fun with friends.

 

My third grader soon to be fourth-not so much this year as he went to a GT center school and his homework jumped a ton and his motivation dropped. He also does Tae Kwon Do (black Belt) and travel soccer.

 

I also work full time - so can it be done YES YES and YES. The trick is to have information at hand when they are interested and have it in 10-20 minute lessons. Like we will read SOTW for night time reading and then I will give them library books to look at regarding the time period for their independ reading for homework.

 

I also do unit studies when I can. For example we are going on vacation to NC in the moutains - so I have created workbooks about NC, plants, rocks and flowers - yup counts as afterschooling.

 

We bake on the weekend, lots of math measurements. We also do alot of our science on the weekends. Nothing like giving children baking soda and vinger to play with. LOL then we talk about chemical reactions.

 

When you do afterschooling it is all about the moments and what you do with them. It is not always about a formal plan and a report checklist. It is about being prepared to jump around. DS went threw a phase of inventors so a trip to the library and a trip to a museum.

 

What I have learned is not re-doing what they are doing at school, but doing the difference. Like we do English from The Roots up - a quick easy way to get latin in before school or in the car.

 

Oh and that leads me to car-schooling. There are great CD, the math rap and unplugged series are awesome. Actually my dd requested multiplication rap on her ipod. There is also one that lists all the presidents. How about the SOTW on CD or spanish on CD. Or listening to the classics while you drive them to practice.

 

You will be amazed at the places and spaces you can put in afterschooling - it is not about sitting at the table and doing seat work.

 

Yes it can be done, even with a baby in the house. I did it with twins. It does require I different mindset and for me marshmellow for bribes. LOL

 

Best of luck

[BabyBre]

LOL! Great advice, purplecow! That's absolutely the truth. We were just listening to Sing Song Latin on my ipod on our way to Taekwondo this morning. Granted, ds15 was groaning to no end, but it's OK to reinforce his Latin, too!

 

Everything is a learning oportunity when you're homeschooling, and there's certainly no reason that should change when the kids are enrolled in school.

[EndsWell]

This is relatively new to me. I am seeing all sorts of possibilities for the summertime as a time to accelerate our reading, writing, and math. I am sitting on the fence about starting up latin again - I have all of prima latina, but I don't know if I could continue it during the school year. DS is doing Battle of the Books this year, so he has to read a pretty challenging book a week and write a report. I am thinking about a family geography study as well. But...during the school year, we are too busy (and my kids don't have a lot of homework - I believe in a lot of reading and outside time).

 

Adriana

[Cindy in Indy]

I strongly recommend not throwing in the towel on home education just yet. If you do now and decide down the road that it is needed/wanted after all, you'll really have a struggle on your hands then.

 

Breann, I read your post with interest. It sounds like you have found a compromise that is a win-win. I'd like your opinion on my situation: I have 3 dc: 14ds, 12ds, 10dd. We have homeschooled from the beginning and I have loved it! This fall, however, my 12ds is enrolling in middle school so he can play football on the school team (must enroll to participate in any school activities in our district). Dh thinks it will be great for this son, and has given him a list of expectations. I have resigned myself to the situation, and am trying to approach it positively.

 

On the other hand my 10dd, who has greatly enjoyed playing with the other 10-year-old girls on our block (3 moved in during April) this summer, now wants to go to school. She thinks she'll enjoy all the friends there, she thinks she'll learn better from another teacher (she doesn't always enjoy her school time with me, and is not an eager student), and she'll be able to try a musical instrument for band (oboe!), that I won't be able to swing at home without the school help. Our ps is "pretty good", but I think the reality of getting up every day and dealing with people 6 hours a day is going to be much harder than dd realizes.

 

Do you have any advice for me based on your experience?

:bigear:

Cindy

 

BTW, 14ds likes being homeschooled and has no desire to enroll in ps.

[threetreasurs]

I thought I would use summer for schooling with my second child (just finished sophomore year at public school) but the break is good for her and just being with her is good also.

[BabyBre]

Our ps is "pretty good", but I think the reality of getting up every day and dealing with people 6 hours a day is going to be much harder than dd realizes.

 

Do you have any advice for me based on your experience?

:bigear:

Cindy

 

 

Our experience switching from hs to ps has been exhausting. We've never been so frazzled and busy. Dd7 is so completely worn down at the end of the 6-hour day, that I don't even think about asking her to do any work for me after school. It would be miserable for everyone! Any homework from school, however, we just do when she gets home (after a snack but BEFORE any TV or playing) which is when they're expected to do it anyway.

 

The only thing that make us something other than your "normal" ps family is that they get up much earlier than the other kids probably do and we spend 45-60 min each morning on our subjects (ALL of which I feel necessary to continue to teach at home, either because dc need to be challenged more in that area or because they don't teach it well or enough in school). And yes, I see that getting dd up so early might make her more tired by the end of the day, but "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!" (I hated it when my dad used to use that one!)

 

My best advice is consistent routine. Dd has to come home directly after school so we can look through her bag for all the papers that come home, we talk about them while she has her snack, and then do homework if any. She can only go over to a friend's house after school if it's been previously arranged (no calling from a friend's house at the time she's supposed to be walking in the door!). This way, it's just expected, routine, it happens every day and there's much less resistance on the matter. Same thing with beforeschooling. We start at 7:30, no exceptions, so don't even try!

 

Feel free to pm me if you want to talk more. I feel we're making the best of this situation. I can't remember if I mentioned before that ps was dh's choice and I was very much against it but finally agreed to it for the sake of marital harmony. *sigh* At least it's working.

[Mama2Three]

My DS was just in kindergarten, but I fully agree that before-schooling was the best way for us to get extra work done. DS is in public school to receive extra services, and I really think that his teachers' expectations of him were way too low. So we worked on phonics and handwriting during the school year, for about 15 or so minutes before school. IMHO, we got way more learning done in those few minutes than he did all day at school.

 

Now that it's summer, we are also doing math and more reading (including DS and DD practicing reading aloud), plus other enrichment (eg, working in the garden, identifying bugs, raising butterflies, some chemistry, Classical Kids on cd, calendar work, lots of board games, etc). To help keep us on track, I have an idea of where I'd like DS to be in his studies before school begins. We can get a lot done in 1/2 hour at the table, and besides helping him academically, I believe it helps build his work ethic as well. It's ok that we are the only ones that we know doing school during the summer. There are many life skills that I will teach my DC, and a foundation for reading, writing, and arithmetic is just the beginning. :)

[BabyBre]

So we worked on phonics and handwriting during the school year, for about 15 or so minutes before school. IMHO, we got way more learning done in those few minutes than he did all day at school.

 

 

I also feel that we learn much more in 45-60 minutes a day before school at home than they do in 6 hours in ps. (Unless, of course, you include irksome social habits. I have to admit that those they pick up much better in ps. :001_rolleyes:)

 

Dd in 1st grade this last year learned a great deal about animals and what not because they did unit studies all year which included various amounts of several subjects in different applications. I thought it was great enrichment to the meat and potatoes topics we cover at home (although 6 hours of enrichment seems a little excessive!). I wish they went to ps for 60 minutes and I had them at home for 6 hours. *sigh*

[AuntPol]

I agree with BEFORE schooling. We get so much more done in the AM before they are burned out.

 

In the AM, we do: devotions, word of the day, language arts (We are doing LLATL this fall), poetry reading, picture study, and copywork.

 

Afterschool, we do homework. Their homework has always been very very light and fortunately all my kids teachers have allowed me to sub afterschooling work for homework so we could do math at their own pace. They usually do the school math too just because they like math. This gives me a chance to see what they are learning. We try to do one singapore page per day. They have to do 20 minutes of reading anyway so I keep good books in the book basket. I have started a reading response journal with my DD who is a reluctant reader but avid writer.

 

I still read aloud to them. We usually have 3-4 books going and I try to read from at least two of them each night. We are very Charlotte Mason in practice so this fits very well. The books are usually literature that relates to time period we are studying, classics and readings from Ambleside, and an occasional first book of a series that I think they would like to explore but wouldnt' pick up on their own. We also have an audio book going at most times. If we are between audios or only have one kid with us, we put in math songs (we like twin sisters) and we put in SOTW every so often. If there is a movie based on book, we rent it when we are done and we also try to rent a few movies and documentaries that go with time period that we are on.

 

My main goal is to create an atmosphere of learning. I try to teach by modeling -I have a book of centuries and a gratitude journal that they like to contribute to. I have my own scripture memory box, my own copywork journal, my own nature journal, my own reading log and my own Devotional journal. DH and I are reading same series and we discuss them with each other often. I delight in finding something I don't know much about and then researching it. In fact, I plan to reeducate myself and will be using Ambleside Year 7 as a starting point this fall.

 

We keep the house stocked with living books, reference books, science tools, art supplies, educational games, etc on hand. I keep a book basket of quick and easy but educational books and magazines in the bathroom. We have a zoo membership and museum memberships and go frequently. We spend at least an hour a day outside, usually at a creek near the school, exploring nature. We've learned so much racing sticks in the creek, picking mulberries, catch caterpillars and raising them to be butterflies, etc. Our current fascination is bird watching and we are reading the Burgess bird book with it.

 

I used to history activities with them on weekend. However, now I find it better to put a few activity type books in the book basket and let them pick what they want to do.

 

This summer, we are working on skills that my dd needs (my ds is going to be homeschooled this fall). She is going into 4th grade. She didn't learn cursive this past year because "it is not on the test", so they are both learning and practicing cursive. Our school doesn't do math fact drills because it is "too stressful" so we are doing those. My dd needs this because even though she is gifted, she bombed her tests this year due to test anxiety. At beginning of summer, she was not passing the drills because of silly errors. Both kids were having meltdowns if they got anything wrong. We've made great improvement in that area and we have no more meltdowns and have learned about setting a goal and working toward it. In school, they never have to correct their work. My dd was failing assessments due to sloppy work and rushing. However, the teachers would ask her orally and she would get it and so she got her good grade. We do a Singapore exercise each day and I have them correct mistakes. Amazingly (after a few tantrums that she doesn't have to do this at school), her work has gotten less sloppy and she is making far less mistakes. As our school math prefers calculators to mental computation, we are working on mental math strategies that we learned in Singapore. She is an avid writer but needs some guidance on structure, etc so we are working on Learning to Write the Novel way together. She does it and I do it and we critique each other. Some times we do the lesson together. They also read every day and either narrate or write in response journal.

[Mama2Three]

I wish they went to ps for 60 minutes and I had them at home for 6 hours. *sigh*

 

:iagree: I agree with this so much! I was actually considering talking with the school to see about DS starting later, but doubt that I will, just because I think it is good that he keeps the routine. But I really miss having my little guy with me. He is doing so well this summer -- reading just took a jump and he is such a happy, inquisitive boy. Same thing happened last year -- he ended school on a rough note (liking school but having some behavioral issues), he mellowed out as summer progressed and we had so much fun, then returned to school and his behavior deteriorated again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get the good without the downward part this year. :001_unsure:

[Carmen_and_Company]

Before hs'ing, Taz afterschooled the summer between 4th & 5th, during 5th grade, and then began hs'ing full-time the fall of 6th grade.

 

What worked:

 

Reading the WTM literature selections for each grade & discussing

and supplementing any subjects I found the school did not teach well or at all. We had mandatory reading time every day for 30 minutes, but we're also a family that sticks to 1 hour of T.V. per day. PERIOD.

 

Our concentration was on mathematics, science, and quality literature via TWTM lists. Taz received weekly homework packets on Fridays from school that were due the following Friday. He usually finished up the packet the first day, which afforded us the rest of the week to supplement in specific areas.

 

If any of my dc attended school full time during the junior or senior high years, I would require them to wake up earlier to work on any subjects I wanted to supplement or remediate. One of the current presidential candidate's mother required him to get up early in the morning to teach him language arts and some history from ages 6-10 due to residing in a foreign country at the time.

 

An easy way to add without stressing your child out is to follow the subjects taught. For instance, if your child is studying American History, then look at the literature lists in TWTM and require your child to select several titles to read each semester. If your child has a research project due in science, use the guideline in the rhetoric section of TWTM as much as possible, but also take into consideration what the teacher expects. Your child could keep a time-line as a study aid, and use the recommended history & science texts listed in TWTM as reference or secondary texts to what the child uses during school. In history, you could require the child to outline the chapters as a means for teaching outlining, or have the student watch DVDs from the library on school subjects as you teach them how to take notes. You could use programs such as Analytical Grammar to supplement English, as the program does not require a full year to complete. You could use Thinkwell products as additional lectures on science & mathematics. Critical Thinking Press offers a ton of software products easily used in 15 minutes per session. Teach or supplement foreign languages with hs'ing products for better explanations. Use IEW or Teaching the Essay or Format Writing to help with teaching writing.

 

During summer months, create your own summer academy where you zero in and remediate any weak areas, and also provide exposure to literature selections as listed in TWTM or LCC. For afterschooling, I think LCC or A Jefferson Education would be easier to implement with a student already attending school full time.