Oh what a difference the kid makes in homeschooling

[RootAnn]

[updated in posts #5 and #6]

Just a comment as we are coming up to a month done of our school year.

When dd#1 was in 5th grade, she did History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients and Elemental Science Logic Stage Biology among other things. She had a checklist for both and I checked her work weekly. She hates to write and loves to procrastinate, so she had to work into the summer to finish both. (These continue to be traits five years later!)

Fast forward to this year. Dd#2 and dd#3 are doing the exact same bio and similar history. (Dd#3 is doing exact same history, but dd#2 is doing her work with K12's HO book.)

I could just faint from happiness. Both kids do their work without being reminded. Both are ahead of schedule with history and profess it to be their favorite subject. Neither adores bio, but they are both learning a ton and are so far on schedule in that subject, too.

It is like night and day. The biggest differences between kids are self-starters/ responsible and that dd#2 and 3 can write well and don't mind doing it. (Thank you Treasured Conversations!)

My next one is similar to dd#1, so I am in for tough times, but just loving the beautiful completed work showing up in binders and notebooks every day!

Edited December 15, 2016 by RootAnn

[Miss Tick]

Sounds lovely! And so far from where we are right now that I'm just going to focus on the light emanating from you. Lovely!

[KrissiK]

Oh, I agree with you. My second grader is infinitely more independent than my 7th and 5th graders. Because that's just the way she is. She does her work completely, neatly and with a smile. My other two....let's just say we're having one of those days that makes a homeschooling mom consider public school.

[Janeway]

Just a comment as we are coming up to a month done of our school year.

 

When dd#1 was in 5th grade, she did History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients and Elemental Science Logic Stage Biology among other things. She had a checklist for both and I checked her work weekly. She hates to write and loves to procrastinate, so she had to work into the summer to finish both. (These continue to be traits five years later!)

 

Fast forward to this year. Dd#2 and dd#3 are doing the exact same bio and similar history. (Dd#3 is doing exact same history, but dd#2 is doing her work with K12's HO book.)

 

I could just faint from happiness. Both kids do their work without being reminded. Both are ahead of schedule with history and profess it to be their favorite subject. Neither adores bio, but they are both learning a ton and are so far on schedule in that subject, too.

 

It is like night and day. The biggest differences between kids are self-starters/ responsible and that dd#2 and 3 can write well and don't mind doing it. (Thank you Treasured Conversations!)

 

My next one is similar to dd#1, so I am in for tough times, but just loving the beautiful completed work showing up in binders and notebooks every day!

That sounds wonderful!!!

 

It always bothers me when a child is a certain way and people quickly judge the parent, as if the child does not have a will of his own, or thoughts, or personality. 

 

I would love if you posts what you do with the HO. I am considering using it, but am unsure how it would be implemented other than just reading from it. Thanks!

[RootAnn]

Update:  Next week is Thanksgiving. DD#3 is almost completely done with her HO Level 2 Ancients work. She has a few little things to finish up (like typing up her final report on the Romans, doing her oral report for someone other than her big sister & little brother, etc.). She also needs to take Quiz #3 (which is an addition of mine to HO's stuff). Turns out, I never wrote it because DD#1 never got to it. So, first I have to write it. Then, she has to take it. But otherwise, she's done.

 

DD#2 will be done with her history before Christmas. They have both learned a ton and I don't plan on making them do history second semester because they worked so hard this semester. They'll move their math up to their history slot, I'd guess. Not sure when they will be done with Bio. DD#2 is moving through a bit faster than DD#3, but both are more than halfway through the work. Maybe they'll be done in March. (DH is lagging behind in the labs since they are moving along at such a good clip. I have to remember to order the frog for dissection!)

 

Janeway- I posted some samples of dd's notebook pages she does as she goes through K12's book. I wrote the assignments loosely based off of History Odyssey's assignments - lots of summaries, drawing pictures, writing short bios. She also keeps a timeline book and does mapping work (using History Odyssey's pages, but you could use something like MapTrek). 

[RootAnn]

Update at just before Christmas:  I'm making dd#2 wait until she gets her experiments done before she takes the tests in Biology. With the exception of experiments/labs and those tests, DD#2 is done with science as of today. DD#3 is about a month or six weeks behind her. 

 

Both were done with history around Thanksgiving. They've moved what they can of their afternoon work up to the morning slots and have their afternoons almost completely free (except for dd#2's online class & dd#3's time with me for writing).  :cheers2:

 

And dd#1 hasn't done Latin this week at all - so she's probably going to take all summer to finish it.  :banghead:  Different kids!

 

(Dd#1 is really a great kid.  :001_wub:  She just has a really frustrating (for Mom) procrastination & concentration problem that she's had forever. And, of course, dd#2 and dd#3 aren't perfect kids. It is just a surreal experience to find a kid doing their science or math on the couch at 7:20 in the morning before I've even had breakfast. I've always been so jealous of moms who had those type of kids. :Angel_anim: )

[fourisenough]

Update at just before Christmas:  I'm making dd#2 wait until she gets her experiments done before she takes the tests in Biology. With the exception of experiments/labs and those tests, DD#2 is done with science as of today. DD#3 is about a month or six weeks behind her. 

 

Both were done with history around Thanksgiving. They've moved what they can of their afternoon work up to the morning slots and have their afternoons almost completely free (except for dd#2's online class & dd#3's time with me for writing).  :cheers2:

 

And dd#1 hasn't done Latin this week at all - so she's probably going to take all summer to finish it.  :banghead:  Different kids!

 

(Dd#1 is really a great kid.  :001_wub:  She just has a really frustrating (for Mom) procrastination & concentration problem that she's had forever. And, of course, dd#2 and dd#3 aren't perfect kids. It is just a surreal experience to find a kid doing their science or math on the couch at 7:20 in the morning before I've even had breakfast. I've always been so jealous of moms who had those type of kids. :Angel_anim: )

Just curious (and feel free to PM me if you'd rather not say publicly), does your DD#1 have any diagnosed learning differences or mental health issues that might impact her school work? The reason I ask is that my DDs #1,#2,& #3 have all been like your DDs #2 & #3: very capable and motivated, getting work done without much hand-holding, ahead of schedule, and with high quality. Then, along comes #4! My youngest has been diagnosed with anxiety disorder and we're doing testing in February to determine whether she has ADHD and/or any learning disabilities. She is very smart (maybe the brightest of them all), but is tough to educate. She really drags her feet and does anything possible to put-off school work, but does well once she gets started. She was an early and very strong reader, but her spelling lags and, as a result, her writing is very delayed. (As a 2nd grader, any writing she does looks like my older girls' work in Pre-K or K.) It is hard for me to make sense of it because my first three girls were/are soooooo different. It is possible that she is within normal limits, but that THEY are outliers. I just thought I'd ask to see if this resonates with your situation. TIA.

[RootAnn]

Just curious, does your DD#1 have any diagnosed learning differences or mental health issues that might impact her school work? 

 

She was (unofficially) diagnosed with dyslexia at ~7 by a vision therapist. (The vision therapist said it was an official diagnosis, but to my knowledge, she couldn't actually diagnose dyslexia!) She's a normal kid - just like my others. We've never had any of the kids tested (other than vision therapy) from an educational standpoint. I've never had an early reader - only one "on time" - and the rest all late, later, and really LATE. One kid has anxiety, but not this one.

 

They just all have different strengths & weaknesses. She hates to write while #2 lives with a pencil in her hand. She loves math while #2 loathes it (and #3 tolerates it). She loves languages (including math), reading, and listening to music. She gets "good grades" in her outside classes, but doesn't want to work for me. Outside deadlines are motivational, as are the perceived opinions of others in her class.

 

I think #2 child is the one that doesn't fit with the rest and #3 is trying to "keep up." (They are doing a lot of the same work/subjects even though they have the biggest age gap. They meet in the middle between their age/grade levels. Ever since #2 couldn't keep up with #1, I've rolled #2 & #3 together work-wise. At some point, I'll have to separate them more, but I keep them together as much as I can because of my time constraint needs.)