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fairy4tmama

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Everything posted by fairy4tmama

  1. I would ask or have them ask with genuine curiosity "What do you know about homeschooling/homeschoolers?" ETA my daughter and I went to check out a girlscout troop and a very "queenbee" girl and her "wanna be" asked my daughter condescendingly "what grade are YOU in?" and when my daughter replied that we homeschool and don't really do grades the queen be looked at the wanna be and said "I wouldn't want to be homeschooled. Would you?" to which the wanna be could only respond "No!". Needless to say she did not join the troop...these were 3rd graders by the way.
  2. Kfamily, I am eager to read this. I know I am not the only one who will b grateful to you for offering it free here for short time.
  3. You might be interested in Shiller math and the Homeschooling Journals by Sarah Janisse Brown could be just the ticket for helping him read and explore in a more unschooly way while still having a bit of structure and accountability )there is even one specifically for kids with ADHD). We use some of these journals and I have to say I have been much more impressed with them than I thought I would be (at times they have actually been out entire homeschool aside form math).
  4. Halcyon, I wanted to come back and encourage you to vent here. My dearest friend who also HSed until this year ended up putting all of her kids in school this year and it has been very therapeutic to vent to each other. I'd be happy to commiserate-er I mean listen.
  5. My kids have all helped build food boxes at our local food bank (it has been a no brainer for us Dh does work for them) and we have collected items to create gift baskets for the women living in the transitional housing program for DV survivors. Our Co-op is planning a community leadership class for middleschoolers where they choose a community issue and find a solution that they can implement and then do it.
  6. I can certainly relate as my oldest has opted for a charter Montessori middleschool this year. It has been bittersweet, to say the least. I don't know yet whether this is hard just for the sake of hard. I will say that I think there is more to what you (we) are going through than what folks go through when they send their kids off to kindergarten; its more than just having to let go, it is a much more drastic change in lifestyle and in family dynamic than it is with a younger child and after having spent YEARS homeschooling. Wishing you peace!
  7. If you are going to look at curriculum I highly recommend Shiller Math, particularly for kids who have gaps. My DS2 had some pretty big gaps and math has been an arduous journey for him. Last year I switched him to Shiller to do some remediation and I am thrilled with how it has worked out. He has filled in those gaps quickly and relatively painlessly. It never felt babyish or like remediation. Their placement test is available free online and they recommend that you just start it at the beginning so that you can track any gaps and you keep working until they are missing the majority of the questions. You are then able to derive specific lessons to fill those gaps. For each concept their are a variety of lessons which present the concept to appeal to various learning styles and quite a lot of them can be done orally. Good luck
  8. Mr Q life science or Evan Moor Daily Science ala hunters idea here and here.
  9. Tears! It would have been a perfect fit for my oldest but he was past it by the time it came out (though he did read his brothers BA 3). I thought BA would be great for DS 2 (at the time I was struggling to find a math program for him as every thing kept ending in tears). BA 3 started out great, he loved the comics the math seemed to be clicking and I thought I could hear a choir of angles :lol: )...but by 3c we were back to tears and just complete confusion on his part. He just wasn't able to grasp it. Surprisingly, he is now doing Shiller Math (I'm finally hearing that choir of angels) and he has on a couple of occasions said "Oh I remember this from BA" when I had thought positively nothing was sticking. :001_rolleyes:
  10. Great post Garga! And thanks for the heads up Sahamamama; I was drinking coffee and it could have been disastrous! OP no real advice for you as I am right there with you with my oldest. I think there is some real wisdom in this thread but I will admit that I tend to fall back on legal requirements- you can learn at home or at school but there are certain things that society says are non negotiable. (full disclosure my oldest elected to try charter school this year)
  11. I can't wait to read it. It's very generous of to share it here!
  12. We have this Spelling Dictionary for such purposes but we also use google voice command on what ever device is handy. It is mostly my 11 year old that I have use the book.
  13. Hunter, you are wonderfully insightful; I appreciate your astute observations on this topic and couldn't help pulling the above quotes from it.
  14. Ooohhh adding Turn, Turn and Nutmeg to our list, it sounds like it is right up my middle kids alley!
  15. I just wanted to thank you all for your wonderful suggestions, they are just what I was looking for.
  16. Can we talk about grumbling during lessons? My nine year old is in such a tween place, she has taken to grumbling very negatively about her lessons several times a week. "I HATE this" "This sucks, why do we even have to do this." "This is stupid" now she IS doing the work this is not a refusal or non compliance issue. With my older kids this kind of grumbling was (when it happened) paired with compliance issues and had specific consequences. Full disclosure I tend toward a question authority mentality; I have encouraged my kids to question and dissent. But this is really negative, not constructive and basically just complaining. I have talked with her about why it is disrespectful. I would love to hear some "scripts" that others have used to respond to grumbling.
  17. I would love to read more about this ^^THIS as well. Kfamily I look forward to reading your proposed articles.
  18. I would love to learn more about the specifics of transitioning from oral to written narration...I kind of just plunked my oldest into written narrations but I would really like to make more of a transition with DS 2.
  19. Yeah I have the remedia begining book and did it with my oldest-perhaps I should get that out and look at it again. I think I am hesitant because I would rather have him working in the context and while that book was an absolute fit for my oldest I think this kiddo will see it too much as busy work. Yes, exactly!
  20. Does any one have a good graphic organizer or notebooking page for outlining from a book? My 11 year old could really use a little hand-holding as he is getting started. I am hoping not to have to reinvent the wheel if there is something good already in existence. TIA
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