Looking for eclectic or relaxed homeschoolers, I need to chat!

[Emagine]

I admit I am not a veteran to HS but I have been around the block and have had my share of curriculum failures and rants while trying to follow the crowd and at the same time learn my children way of absorbing. I am pleased to say I feel accomplished that I brought home a confused, lost, autistic and highly filled anxiety stuffed kiddo in 2009 that the IEP team and principal stared at me saying there was no more that could be done. Just shy of 2 months into the school year they had given up and told me he was not capable. Fast forward, from square one, rinse and repeat, with some strengths and a delay here and there we are soaring to heights I never thought imaginable. His brother less of 3 years, also on the spectrum, following in his footsteps. What has helped? HS and letting go (in my best Frozen voice).

 

I have had to struggle with crawling out of that big box. Glare away from the long highly embossed signatures that Johnny is doing 8 million things a day plus 4 languages and Sally, oh Sally she is a famous gymnast to be. Lots of emotions. I have came, I have seen and I have burned the books.

 

We have a routine, a different routine than the normal. We have a spectrum routine that makes things work and flow. We HS academically the things that I have found that work for us January till Fall. My oldest could not grasp the whole altered calendar. To be honest I love having Oct-Dec off for fun, review, reading, make up days or just what ever. it is a busy time of year for us.

 

I will begin in January with our 'New Year' which means new grades, moving up. We are not what I consider the traditional WTM family any longer because I found  I tried some of the popular items and was in tears myself because of the meltdowns. Was not worth the battle. I have found what works and hope it continues. It has brought a kid who learned to talk at 5 and half to near peer level. I will take it.

 

Where I need help now is how do I fill in, document and let me go where I know and feel I can let go and know it is ok.

 

Here is how I see it... both SN kiddos beginning in January.

 

just turned 12 yr old....  soon to be 9 yr old boy...

 

Spelling - Past All about Spelling, Rod and Staff.

January - switched to non secular Spelling Workout D (the bible parts in the new book threw my literal, perfectionist kiddo for a big loop)

 

Math -

12 - 6th grade TTB and Khan

9- 5th grade TTB and Khan

 

Reading -

Books, mostly of choice with some thrown in but they read daily.

 

Grammar-

12- 5th Growing with Grammar

9- 3rd Growing with Grammar

 

They have never been kids for Science or History Curriculums but will listen to SOTW in the car so will finish Vol 1 and go into 2. They will not do anything but the CD.

 

I bought Liberty Kids, we have Netflix etc... They will willingly and with out asking pick history and science shows over cartoons. We do tons of Field Trips.

 

They will however read anything science I have laying around. They love any book I have by Nomad Press, from Bridges and Tunnels to Robotics. I am thinking about ordering The way things work???? <---anyone have????

 

We have snap circuits, we have completed WeDos, we have Mindstorms, etc... we attend stem programs when they are local.

 

Geography we sort of ditched. They hated anything I did. Workbooks, forget it. So we play with maps, we travel in our minds, we learn about areas from the news, etc. We play Scrambled States etc...

 

We are on a Challengers League that is year round for sports. That will continue.

 

This was a mix match of last year and how I see the upcoming year. It sort of fell into this pattern. I would love to know if there is anyone else on this board who has ended up on the road less traveled on this site. I would love to know things you do, find what works for your kiddos that learn this way etc... I know I can not be alone. I also know with math, grammar and spelling I would have to do this with them.

 

 

 

Anyone?????

 

 

[albeto.]

Sounds like it's working well for you! The New Way Things Work as well as any DK, Eyewitness, Brown Paper School books, and Science in a Nutshell were big hits with us for science. 

 

My boys are pretty self-motivated with regards to math now, but at that age doing math was like pulling teeth. It wasn't until I let go of those reigns that my kids realized math makes science and computing make sense. Now they see mathematical concepts pop up and run to wiki and follow links to find out what they're missing. They're older now, but at this age we did do a lot of poking through the internet, following links, watching youtube videos like this:

 

 

 

 

 

We haven't addressed spelling or grammar formally for years, Writeshop was my go-to curriculum before we ended up scrapping all formal curricula together. I found it short, sweet, to the point, and gave my kids the fundamentals without expecting them to exert more energy than I could justify. 

[Guest]

:seeya:

 

My six year old needs to use the computer now, but I'm on almost every day.

 

Do your kids like Mad Libs? That's grammar, even though it's also good silly fun. My little guy is getting some writing practice from it too, since I refuse to accept such nouns as "silly willy kitty witty" unless he writes them himself.

 

He is (as far as I know) neurotypical other than some fine motor/handwriting issues that I am very familiar with from other family members so we will be happy with printing in all capitals with a proper pencil grip and reasonable letter formation this year.

 

My other children are adults, one a homeschool grad and another homeschooled to high school.

 

 

[MomatHWTK]

For science and history my kids have done well with Coursera and Teaching Company resources.  I also have my oldest two kids read science and history textbooks as part of their independent reading.  Netflix has a lot of good documentaries for those subjects as well. 

 

We are using Get Smart Grammar right now but you might want to take a look at Analytical Grammar.

[....]

:lurk5:  

 

My oldest has decided that she wants to basically unschool for 8th - high school.  So, I'm hoping I get some ideas from this thread.  Does anyone know how relaxed homeschoolers or unschoolers handle high school transcripts and grades?  Also, I could see my daughter doing every single TOPS science lab out there.   :tongue_smilie:   

 

And we also really slow down on schoolwork from October to December.  Our summers here (in Texas) are horrible, so a big chunk of our schoolwork is done from May to September (you can get a lot done in 5 months).  It was cool out this morning, so my kids spent a couple of hours at the park - climbing on everything, running around and then walking in the woods.