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TomK

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Everything posted by TomK

  1. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you can't do it for free. I don't know enough to make a definitive statement one way or another. I'm just saying that making a blanket statement like that without specifics isn't really good advice because some of the free stuff out there is a joke and, as you noted, there are some significant caveats that should probably be attached. Maybe there are others that are really good, but it's often not what's coming up when people look for free curriculums. Plus, to be fair, it also may depend on the subject as well.
  2. Sounds like the principle has never heard of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
  3. "Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men." Frankly, I tell people I have PTSD from being forced to read Steinbeck in high school. Guess what won't be on the reading lists when my daughter gets to the high school ages? In fairness, though, so much of what we were forced to read in high school was just downright painful. And I say this as someone who did become an avid reader.
  4. I'm a new homeschool dad, so I can't really come at it the same way you all may have, but I've also gotten some questionable advice over the last several months. "You can do everything for free and have just as good an education as public school." Uh...considering how bad our local schools are, that isn't a ringing endorsement. Further, after looking at some of the free stuff out there, I'm not sure that's an accurate assessment. "You need to buy a boxed curriculum, otherwise the state won't accept you're homeschooling." Uh...you do know I can read the Department of Education's website, right? It says I have to teach, reading, math, science, social studies, and language arts and spend 4.5 hours per day doing it. It doesn't say I need to drop hundreds of dollars on a boxed curriculum that may not even fit my family's needs. "You really need to use <insert favorite approach here>." Yeah, how about no. I mean, don't get me wrong, those approaches may look fantastic from the outside, but that doesn't mean they work for everyone. Charlotte Mason is the way to go? My daughter doesn't like reading (yeah, I'm working on changing this). Unschooling? Oh, how I wish, but she doesn't seem inclined toward learning that way. Learing through life? See above. Just because it works for your kid doesn't mean it'll work for mine. Suggest I look into it? Sure, that's fair. Tell me I have to do it? Yeah...I'm too anti-authoritarian for that to ever work on me. "Oh, you're homeschooling? Do this math." See anti-authoritarian comment above. Honestly, I've gotten a few doozies and I'm just starting out at this. I can't wait to see what all I'll come across in the years to come.
  5. As someone who supports a family of four as a writer, allow me to just say *cringe* I'm dyslexic and it was caught fairly early, thankfully. I've known people where it wasn't, and you're absolutely right. Even with it being caught early, school was still a challenge. Some of the other folks I know, it was practically an impossibility. The whole "learning through life" thing always sounds good, but the truth is that if that were really the case, why did people start trying to figure out how to pass along an education for everyone? I mean, were they undead or something, thus not having a life to learn from?
  6. I don't know about it being one of the best, but this is the one I'm using: https://www.homeschoolmath.net/worksheets/
  7. So, if I stop feeling like a newb anytime soon, I should consider the possibility that it's really just the Dunning-Kruger Effect? Good to know. 😄
  8. FWIW, I kind of eased into it a bit, but that was an artifact of dealing with the COVID aftermath. I wanted to make sure my daughter was at the point I thought she was. Well, she missed a bunch of stuff there at the end, so I started doing some work to sort of catch her up for a week or two before we actually started. Then, about a week before, we started adding in some reading. Of course, I'm not sure that made it any easier for us, though. It's just day 4 for us, though, so I don't know that it didn't, either.
  9. Awesome! Georgia folks, FTW!!! 😁
  10. Hi. My name is Tom and I'm a new homeschool parent. Like a lot of other parents, we decided to homeschool due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the schools shut down, my daughter's school managed to really screw the pooch. She basically lost two months of schooling because they weren't remotely ready and weren't sure what they were doing. As a result, I took some of the materials they just haphazardly handed out and learned that I actually can teach my daughter. Luckily, I work from home as a writer even when there's not a virus running around, so I have a very flexible schedule so I can definitely work around my daughter's educational needs. I picked up a copy of The Well-Trained Mind and saw pretty much the exact kind of education I want my daughter to get. In particular, the ability to think critically and develop a love of learning that will serve her well for the rest of her life. I didn't have the best educational experience and I want her to have so much more. In addition to my daughter, I've got a 19-year-old college sophmore son who also live with my wife and me. So, all that out of the way, I'm looking forward to spending some time ere with everyone and learning and sharing and all that stuff. 🙂
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