Jump to content

Menu

HS Mom in NC

Members
  • Posts

    8,426
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Everything posted by HS Mom in NC

  1. I would say as much as as little as you like. I'm more CM in the early elementary years so we probably do more than some people, but just using the basics (SOTW, Kingfisher, and Usborne) is a good solid foundation and more World History than most ps or private schools I've heard of would do for a younger child. I recommend adding map work like Terry Johnson's Blackline Maps of World History which is now repackaged as Maptrek Atlas and Outline Maps of World History which sells for about $55. I try to always incorporate folklore and mythology for each unit study we do along with read alouds covering more of each topic covered in SOTW. I also get project books from each time period and region and do a few simple projects per unit-more or less depending on what's going on in the rest of my life. I do SOTW chronologically within each region: Middle East/ Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, Africa, Greece, Rome, Northwestern Europe, and the Americas and put everything into a lap book. I avoid encyclopedias like the plague. There are so many lovely, engaging, and well written books on just about every subject covered in encyclopedias in a much better way. If I needed a specific bit of trivia for something, the encyclopedia would be fine, but in general, I consider them a last choice. The Gilgamesh Trilogy by Ludmilla Zeman is my 7 year old's favorite. I have read it to her a dozen times now and she still loves it. It was worth the money for us to buy it.
  2. Is his behavior like this all day every day? Are there any good days? Is his father seeing the same behaviors when he's interacting with your son? Are you having a difficult pregnancy? Could you be a little more specific in your description of his behaviors? I'm trying to decide if "utterly intolerable heathen" and "modicum of impulse control" are phrases that accurately describe extreme behavior on his part or if they're used to communicate the intensity of your emotional response to it all or both. What does your husband say? (Not that he's a final authority that over rides your views on the topic.)
  3. OK. In my 13 years of homeschooling I've listened to lots of women being very upset by any comment against homeschooling and treating it as a personal insult or personal attack. I see other homeschoolers post articles about how all women should be fully approving of the all the choices all women make and recognizing it as all good yada yada yada. But that's silly. No one is entitled to anyone else's approval on anything. Absence of approval isn't an attack-yet somehow we have some hsers in our ranks that don't get that. I've also heard women vent about being "attacked" because someone dared take the opposing view on homeschooling and then let it erode the relationship with the person who disagreed with them. So, no, it wasn't necessarily obvious to someone who has seen a lot of very different reactions to the same type of comments.
  4. One of the benefits of being out of the main stream before homeschooling is having time to learn the hard way that people just don't care what I think and that's OK. People really don't want to hear about it (unless of course they bring it up) and it took me a while to understand that. Since my oldest child was a homebirthed, unvaccinated, co-slept, extended nursed preschooler with homeschooling in her future, I had time to refine my "live and let live" attitude. It's not that I'm not passionate about these things, but I took too long to realize other people aren't. Not every parent wants to explore and compare and contrast all options out there. That's fine. They can do it their way. If they want to talk about it, that's fine with me. If they want to ask questions, that's fine with me. If they want to disagree, that's fine with me too.
  5. I have a large mix of FB friends whose kids are schooled all the different ways. I post about hsing all the time and I've never had anyone react the way you're describing. The closest was one who said they could see pros and cons. All the cons were basically boiled down to the myth of never leaving the house. I matter of factly listed all the things my kids have done out of the house and other things offered to hsers that we're too busy to participate in. That's it. No one got offended or piled on or took sides. It was a perfectly calm discussion where everyone was free to say what they thought on the subject without being hurt and we were just as good friends after as before.
  6. Obviously someone saying such a thing doesn't mean they don't believe homeschooling exists. Clearly they mean they don't believe homeschooling is a good idea. I wouldn't respond as thought I didn't understand what they really meant. If there's one thing I think would save emotional energy for new homeschoolers, it's being perfectly OK with people not liking homeschooling. People can believe in whatever they want. It's a free country and I'm not the thought police. They can be familiar with it and think it's not a good idea. They can be completely ignorant of it (most are) and not believe it's a good idea. So what? I don't believe in institutionalizing children all day in one size fits all education, so why can't they think differently? Whether it's a parenting philosophy, political inclinations, lifestyle choices or religious views, people are not only free to think it, but they're free to say so. It's a sign of a healthy society and emotional maturity to hear people openly discuss and calmly debate opposing views without feeling personally attacked and offended. I wouldn't demand people choose between only saying things that agree with me or remaining silent. I expect to say what I think on a subject without people demanding that I agree or remain silent. That's life in a free society and it's a good thing. We are not homeschooling. Homeschooling is an idea and when people debate homeschooling they're not personally attacking the homeschoolers within ear shot. Reacting to it as if it's a personal attack is a choice. We can choose to not to react as if it's personal and simply address whatever issues they bring up without seeing ourselves as victims. I don't try to persuade legislators to pass laws forcing other parents to educate their children the way I educate mine, and I expect anyone professing to be a freedom loving person not to try to persuade legislators to pass laws forcing me to educate my children the way they do theirs. When someone says to me they don't think homeschooling is a good idea, I say I don't think institutional schooling is a good idea, but I'm glad I live in a state that provides parents with all types of education choices and that I feel really sorry to people living in states that don't allow more choices. If they go on about it, I simply correct their misconceptions (most anti-homeschooling is steeped in ignorance.) If they ask me why I homeschool, I give list the main reasons matter of factly.
  7. 20,000 kids in AZ are homeschooled. 10,000 live in Maricopa County (the greater PHX area.) Me too. AZ doesn't count people using ps/charter school options online as homeschoolers, so by some people's count, the numbers are higher. There are large Christian groups and large secular groups available. You simply notify them once that your child is hsed and do as you please although the law technically requires you to cover reading, writing, math, science and social studies. When and how you do is up to you-no one checks on you. It's a buyer's market here.
  8. Other. I wouldn't upgrade because the first one is good enough. Even if we had piles of money I wouldn't upgrade. I understand why my grandparents did, they got married at the beginning of WWII and were 20 years old, so their rings were very humble. They upgraded. I just don't think it's important and I'm not remotely sentimental about inanimate objects-including wedding and anniversary rings. My husband did buy me another ring at our 10 year, but it was another simple gold band to go on the other side of my engagement ring which was next to my simple gold wedding band. I like symmetry.
  9. Nope. If a kid leaves a bike in the driveway it's the kid's fault. Driveways are a place where cars drive. If you don't want your stuff run over by a car, don't leave your stuff where cars drive-driveways, streets, parking lots, etc. The value of this lesson learned the hard way is worth more to the child than the cost of replacing the bike. Welcome to the laws of physics and a world full of natural consequences. My children are not allowed to pay in the driveway if a car is coming or going on it. If a car engine is turned on, the kids have to immediately leave the driveway and take all their stuff with them. If they're no longer playing in the driveway they have to take all their stuff with them. I would never allow a child too young to do that on his/her own to play out front unsupervised. This is also true about playing on the street. If they can see a car moving on the street, they have to immediately get off the street and onto the sidewalk and take all their bikes, balls, toys and scooters with them. That's the norm here in my neighborhood. It's illegal to have pets roaming here. The homeowner's association doesn't allow outdoor cats and we have leash laws.
  10. http://bothendsburning.org/ It's touring the country. I'm planning to go when it's in the PHX area. We adopted from S. Korea in 2006. Has anyone already seen this film? Any other films or materials about international adoption you recommend? Anyone in the process right now? Is there anything you think needs to be done to improve international adoption? (Government, adoption agencies, parent preparation, follow up care for adoptees, adoptee care, etc.) What kind of support system has helped you as an adoptive parent before your child was placed with you and after? Any other thoughts?
  11. That's not the only possibility. The other is that people who have had their special needs kids in a school or who have very close teacher friends (like me) know that any child that cannot follow directions, focus on anything for very long, and is disruptive is exactly the kid that the teacher and the other parents complain about. I've hard an earful from my SIL who has taught preK-2nd, (currently 1st) another friend who teaches 8th grade English, and a close friend who used to be a Montessori teacher for early elementary ages before she began homeschooling. All of them will tell you that a large classroom full of children is not a food situation for children who need to be worked with at a more foundational level in a more individualized way. A teacher around here has between 25 and 35 students in a classroom. Since children are generally no longer grouped by ability, that means the OP's child will be behind most of the other second graders. Teachers only have so many hours in a day and cannot provide much one on one. Disruptive students result in the teacher having to stop teaching all the children-including the cooperative ones-to get the disruptive kid to stop. Imagine if there are two in the class. Or three. This child doesn't fit the typical model of most kids. He clearly needs something different that meets his specific needs at least for a while. Most ps and private schools have far higher student to teacher ratios and are structurally, and therefore categorically, less able to adapt to individuals. That's not saying that they're evil or useless. Also, no one posts to a homeschooling forum about calling it quits unless she's open to hearing the possibility of not quitting. If she really had decided that homeschooling just wasn't for her, she would simply enroll her child in a school and not ask a bunch of homeschoolers what they thought about it. I certainly would I've never met a homeschooler who thought people who don't want to homeschool should. I think most people here offering ideas to help her so that she can continue to homeschool are trying to find a way to help her meet her original goal of homeschooling. While it may not end up that way, I wouldn't say that's detrimental.
  12. I forgot to add that Diane Craft, in addition to dealing with behavioral issues, can help you with your child if (s)he is right brained. Almost all of the curriculum and materials for schooling and homeschooling are written by and geared to left brained people. She has wonderful teaching ideas for the right brained among us.
  13. No, my husband doesn't give me positive feedback. He teaches our kids Math and Science at the high school level, I do everything else. I've never really needed positive feedback. I assume that if no one is complaining about something I do, that means they think it's just fine, so I don't see the silence as a void. I'm content just to not have criticism. I don't think most people in the world get a lot of positive feedback whether they work in the home or out of it. If no one is complaining that probably means they're pleased. Then there are passive aggressive types who are deceptive by claiming to be content when they're not, but I don't waste my precious time and energy worrying about them. I ignore them. My MIL is an OCD perfectionist. She didn't homeschool, so she had all kinds of time to do homemaking things while my husband and his sister were at school. I think people equate being a SAHM with preschoolers and sending school aged kids to school with being a homeschoolers for some bizarre reason. SAHMs who aren't homeschooling are working one job. SAHMs who homeschool are working two jobs. They're two different things.
  14. My middle child wasn't ready to start learning to read until she was almost 8. She's 15 and a voracious reader of advanced materials. My kids bounce around while we read aloud to them. We have a yoga ball my 7 year old sits on and bounces and thrashes around the whole time. She can understand what's read to her, but she likes action adventure books. I suggest googling Diane Craft. I believe she's located in Colorado, but she travels a lot and has a website. She helps parents with kids like yours all the time. She's encouraging, understanding, and successful when it comes to working with these kids and helping parents work with them so they can thrive. She's a regular speaker at our homeschool convention here in AZ, so she understands homeschooling. I have to agree that any institutional school setting (private or public) will be less able to handle a child like yours with a classroom full of other kids.
  15. So they think people who invested more money (college tuition) and are getting a lower return on that money (low paying jobs) are smarter? Better business people? So what if you have life long crippling debt for a degree that isn't directly related to you line of work. Just ignore it and I'm sure there will be no consequences. Go back and get a degree and a pile of debt even if you've got tons of experience just so your boss can mark it off his list. He needs some camaraderie for a football game after all. The emperor isn't wearing any clothes and not many people want to point it out. No one wants to demand that government roll back over regulation and taxation be rolled back to entice companies to stay in the US and those that are here expand. That's the root of the problem. Until we address the many issues that feed the decrease in our economy we're just limping along toward a cliff. Jumping through more expensive hoops now won't pay in the long run.
  16. A couple of weeks with my middle kid. My midwife's middle child had it for 6 weeks. We had the same ped. He told us both to nurse as much as possible and sit in sunlight as much as possible with the baby.
  17. Oh yeah. I hear ya! Is my youngest one 18 yet? No!?!?! Crap! Maybe we should all just stay in our jammies, eat chocolate and watch Downton Abbey reruns while the kids eat junk food and Phineas and Ferb reruns. We could call it unschooling and hope anyone who hears us say it has no idea what unschooling really is. Maybe we should just send them to inner city schools for a while so they realize how good they've had it all this time. Or maybe should all just start drinkin' or somethin'. Any other great ideas? Preferably ones involving kilted men.....
  18. Based on the original post, it seems to me the child isn't being educated. He's ahead of where this class is. Sitting in a classroom with little to nothing of value for this specific child isn't educating him. It's a waste of the child's time and the scholarship funder's money. I stand by my statement that the person funding that scholarship intended it to meet a child's academic needs. Based on everything I read that isn't happening with this kid in this class.
  19. Since these posts are so general I have to ask what things specifically you think are in conflict in say, language arts? I'm guessing that having you list out which aspects of each approach appeal to you and which don't might make this a more useful discussion. Great Books Living Books First Source Materials Narration Studying History Chronologically Copywork Memorization In The Field Nature Studies Latin (as a language) Greek (as a language) Latin and Greek Roots Formal Logic (and all its subcategories) Subject Integration (unit studies) etc. You get the idea. What things, specifically, resonate with you and what things make you say, "No way!" It's no trouble at all to choose a few aspects from a few approaches in language arts and do a different one each day.
  20. I've allowed my kids to choose a topic between Thanksgiving and Christmas a couple of times when we were schooling year round. Some kids can't handle that little structure. Others do just fine.
  21. OK. Some people trying to merge the two find it helpful but as you know, it's not for everyone. The companion book is the nuts and bolts guide about letting kids study things of their own interest for quite a while and then inspiring them to learn from the greats, then finding internships in things they're passionate about. I'm sure you'll find your groove once you're in full swing and you get to know your children as students (I see they're still very young.) Since you have so much background knowledge, you'll have a good idea of what to try next or how to teak things a bit to make them work better for you and your kids. It's like you have a big bag of tricks in your head ready to pull them out as needed. A lot of homeschoolers don't do their homework for various reasons and when they hit a wall they don't have much in the way of ideas for trying something else and they're more stressed out scrambling to find out what their options are. You're very well prepared.
  22. Not every minute of your day has to be done the same way. You can make time in your studies for unschooling and you can make some of it a unit study with Living Books like CM recommended. You can do some in the field nature studies in a strictly CM way, or you can do them in a more unschooly way. Classical education is a broad spectrum of approaches with some similarities and some differences. Very few homeschoolers I've met in my 13 years of homeschooling in one of the largest homeschooling communities in the US are rigidly one thing. Most are hybrids between 1-3 different approaches. It's not all or nothing. When mine (17,15 and 7) were very young we were more unschooly and CM. As they got older we were much more TWTM and CM in unit study form. If you're talking about interest driven unschooling as opposed to parent directed, no textbook or artificial learning unschooling, you can follow your child's interests by allowing them to read living books on the subject of their choice. You could build a unit study with living books on whatever interests them. You could move chronologically through history the way most trivium classical education model recommend, but you could allow the child to choose things that interest him/her related to each era and region of history while reading aloud a great book from the Western Canon that is in some way connected to their studies. People mix and match all the time. If you really like interest driven studies and the great classics or living books I highly recommend at least reading A Thomas Jefferson Education and the companion book. It's where classical education and unschooling meet.
  23. Not at all. Well Trained Mind (Trivium Classical Education) can be as a spine for a more CM and/or unit study approach with living books, (I've done it that way for years) or it can be done in a more traditional school with grade levels, textbooks and workbooks approach. You can do it in a more Principle Approach (there's website now) classical education way, or if you really love the freedom and inspiration of unschooling, try it in A Thomas Jefferson Education (see their book,companion book and website) Statesman/Mentor Model approach to classical education.
  24. My husband just finished teaching our then 14 and 16 year olds Geometry. He used a beautiful reprint of Euclid's Elements. We have a preference for using first source materials by a master when possible. The 16 year old hates math but said, after using Elements, "Finally! Someone wrote a math book I understand!" (That would be copy write 300ish BC.) Both commented that proofs in Geometry helped them with Formal Logic. He did Algebra 1 then Geometry. They're both doing Formal Logic by Cothran from Memoria Press. That semester they were doing Material Logic for the then 16 year old and Traditional Logic I for the then 14 year old.
  25. I don't believe for minute that the person who put the money up for that scholarship did so to have a bright child academically neglected and only attending for the sake of recess. I would have to hear it from their own mouth to believe it. Meanwhile children in that area sit neglected in ps unable to afford tuition to this school that would be a good fit for them.
×
×
  • Create New...