lillybell
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Posts posted by lillybell
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I didn't worry much about writing in the early years either. About mid fourth grade level we started using Winning with Writing but now that they are older and middle school level, I have been researching writing programs to up the antes on writing.
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We are just going to start Physics and are going to use Conceptual Physics along with Bytesize Physics. Although the Bytesize Physics may seem for younger age group, it has a lot of information and labs that we can actually do. If you don't want to do a very long physics class, you can look into the Bytesize Physics, it does explain the concepts thoroughly and has math for high schoolers. I don't have experience with any of the books you mentioned, but they seem to have good reviews.
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I am Using AH with my middle schooler right now and agree it is somewhat boring but with my younger daughter I am using the Story of the USA which consist of short workbooks but for the most part, We are using all of the Homeschool in the Woods Time Traveler's unit studies and they are great, even my middle schooler is using them now in conjunction with her AH. The text is short and it includes some hands on activities, timelines, and lapbook activities. I think your kids will be alright with what they have studied so far on American History but if it would make you feel more at ease, you might want to try a unit study. The lesson plans are pretty easy to follow.
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I agree with the others about trying counselling but you may also want to consider checking for underlying disorders like Asperger's Syndrome. Can maybe bring this up with her doctor, just to be sure her behavior doesn't have a medical basis.
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Easy Grammar
Teaching Textbooks
Winning with Writing
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Another vote for Ellen McHenry materials
Tops Science
Time Traveler's Unit lapbooks by Homeschool in the Woods
Atelier Art
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I think the pictures are in this thread http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/407439-what-are-some-of-your-most-memorable-homeschool-projects/#entry4103868
Look at posting #21
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We are in a homeschool group and go to co- op. I help once a week but that is about as involved as I am with the group. I dont make religious conversation
in order to avoid conflict but they know I am not religious so I am excluded from friendly chit chat. I dont mind it though because I would much rather have friendly
conversations with someone not judging me. I think the moms are nice for the most part and I see they work hard to plan classes so I help. I mainly go so my kids can
have a fun day at co op and socialize. The classes they take are just for fun not part of our school plan.
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This is the reason I homeschool year round. If we take breaks and have unproductive days, I don't have to stress. Friday was one of those days as we took the kids
fishing and didnt get much done. Dont worry you will find your rhythm and breaks are ok.
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Awesome! I am a shopaholic when it comes to books and curriculum. I can't wait a whole year so I buy new resources every month and I buy curriculum year round because they finish some subjects faster than others. I have a gazillion resource books for every subject. I am happy, hubby's wallet not so much. Am excited for your anticipation.
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The way I see it, if you have the time and enjoy the involvement you have with her at this time, then keep on doing it. If you are feeling drained, then maybe time to cut back on some of the involvement Really depends on you. You will see when she is a teenager that the involvement you once had, will no longer be required or asked for. So if you can do it now, enjoy it. I have a 12 year old and am only involved in 2 lessons everyday. My 14 year old is pretty much independent except for help with science.
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Sounds like my 12 year old daughter. I tried all that you tried and more. I tried workboxes and that worked from some time as long as I kept up with putting everything in the boxes for her and scheduled breaks but it was really time consuming so then I finally realized that I was giving her too much for what she could handle. I cut back on some of the workbooks and now make sure she has some hands on activities to keep her going. Right now what is working wonderfully is that I have scheduled all of her assignments on a homeschool app on her kindle. She marks them done as she finishes. I think that in combination with keeping it simple had kept her motivated so far. Currently we are using Winning with writing, Easy Grammar, a lapbook study for Island of the Blue Dolphins, Teaching Textbooks Math, MR Q science (I do the labs with her), Story of the USA workbooks in combination with Time Travelers Unit studies(I lecture on the unit study but she does the projects), Spelling Power, Trail Guides to the US Geography, and Atelier Art. She does everything independently aside from the science and the discussion in history. For the past 3 months, this set up hasn't caused any interruptions and she has been staying on track really well. I also include educational games once a week. This is cutting it barebones for me though, because I had her doing extra workbooks from Evan Moore for different subjects in the past but I think it was way too much. She is pretty happy with the amount of work she has now and with the App she feels a sense of accomplishment when she is done. I also like taking pictures of her completed projects and that makes her feel proud of her work which equals more motivation.
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We set up a bulletin board of the US and as we studied each state the kids would add the state name and capital. We also kept a quarter map and inserted the quarter for the state we
studied. Our favorite game was 10 days in the USA and we did have a big puzzle also. We also used recipes each week from Eating you way through the USA.
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Want to give my 2 cents on the subject. I have inattentive ADD and have 1 daughter with inattentive also and another with hyperactive ADD(ADHD). My oldest was the first to get diagnosed a few years back. She was put on meds and started doing better with focusing but she did diagnosed a few months later with depression and was put on another med for that. She continued progressing and doing well but would get panic attacks which the doctor said was probably something she had prior to the meds and we tried to deal with it. Seeing that my daughter was doing well in focusing we took my younger daughter in to the doctor and she to got diagnosed as well with ADD and put on the same meds. Meanwhile my older daughter started complaining and didn't want to take the med anymore so the doctor switched her from Concerta to focalin. Again she said it made her feel cloudy and she didn't like the feeling so the doctor switched her to vyvanse. My younger daughter was still on Concerta but started complaining that she could not take a deep breath. Took her to the pediatrician and they sent her for a heart workup. They said everything seemed fine but she kept complaining that she would have trouble breathing at times. During this time, I too got diagnosed and was placed on Concerta. It was great for the first few months. I focused really well and felt like wonder woman but that was short lived. I too developed the trouble breathing and ended up in the emergency room several times only to be told nothing was wrong. I showed tachycardia but nothing that would keep me in the hospital. My oldest daughter finally gave up on Vyvanse. She couldn't take the panic attacks and she also felt that while on the med she was meaner to everyone. My youngest daughter finally came off the meds also and hasn't had trouble breathing since. I got off the meds and have been doing better medically but not with focusing. I can honestly say that the feeling the meds gave me was horrible after a few months of taking them. I think the breathing problems might have been panic attacks. It probably raised our adrenaline levels and caused us to have fight or flight responses. That is what I figure was going on. Not to say that your son will have this type of a response but just make sure to ask him how he feels daily to make sure no new side effects develop. For me it was gradual until I started feeling horrible so it was hard to pinpoint the real cause. Funny because the doctors kept saying that the medication leaves her system daily. So please make sure to listen to your son and don't dismiss anything while on the medications. Right now we are trying Rhodiola. So far haven't noticed much of a difference but we just started on it recently.
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We used TOPS science, in combination, with other curriculum. I find they are very thorough and fun. Even I learned a ton with them and had fun doing it. The radishes activity was really excellent but I think that is for 3rd grade and up. They do have some for younger age groups like Lentils science. The Janice Cleave books also have many experiments with common household items. You can always pick some experiments out and just trail off on those by adding some easy related readings. If you want something more planned out, you can check out MR Q's life science. It is geared for you age group and free. It seems to cover Biomes, animals, the senses, organs, cells, and health and nutritions so seems like the topics are not just geared towards one.
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I agree about taking a little time off or just scale back a bit. The other thing you might want to take a look at is curriculum. You might want to make sure that some of the work is fun for them. Include some fun projects and tailor some of the subjects to include each child's interest. See if maybe lapbooks work or unit studies. Sometimes you get some hands on kids that really hate worksheets. One of my daughters is like that and I have to throw in some fun activities to keep her going. Games like Lily_Grace mentioned are great as well. I have a closet full of board and card games that I sometimes assign in place of a lesson to keep them from getting too bored. I have one that simply hates writing but if I tell her to write about something that interest her, she doesn't complain. The only reward mine get for getting the lessons done is seeing the lesson marked complete on the daily list of assignments and me telling them they did an awesome job that day.
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I love to plan out curriculum and put it together with different resources but I found, it was overkill and the kids were exhausted from too much school work. Now I have learned to lessen the work load and not try to overdo it on the books. I am a book addict and can't go a week without buying a few new books. Hubby is always on me about this but can't help myself. Unfortunately, not everyone loves books like I do. I have adhd and am diagnosed. I was on meds for a while and I am supermom when I am on them but I also experienced some pretty bad side effects so had to leave the meds. Being unmedicated is hard but as long as I have a planned list out, I am good. I have a schedule for the kids lessons that I access daily on my tablet and I am able to mark each lesson complete which is great because gives me a sense of accomplishment. The rewards are fast so keeps me going. I also keep a list on my tablet of things that I need to do and appointments as well as bills to pay. Without this, I am a mess,the bills go unpaid, appointments get missed. Medicines don't get picked up at the pharmacy. Pretty much nothing gets done and I become consumed on researching something online or working on one thing all day. So list and schedules are the only thing that works for me. I have also learned that I need to look at books and curriculum thoroughly before making a decision to implement them. Sometimes, I take a look at the schedules for a certain curriculum or just the set up and know that it won't work for us. So looking a samples is essential before buying even when they are highly recommended. I am getting much better at keeping motivated. I do take care of laundry and other household stuff between homeschooling and it is true that the kids used to scatter thinking mom is going to forget, but now what I do is I tell the kids to come help me. This way we finish much faster and get right back to what we were doing. I used to take care of all household responsibilities myself because I was afraid nobody would do them right but after years of stress and being overwhelmed with not enough time to finish everything, I finally learned my lesson that things don't have to be perfect, they just need to get done.
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I have home schooled 3 daughters and what I noticed is that each kid does develop different skills at different rates. For instance, I tried introducing fractions to one of my daughters at the grade level she was at but for some reason she really struggled. That same daughter struggled through multiplication and no matter how I tried to approach the subject, she just wouldn't get it. I decided to hold off on what she wasn't understanding for another year. The following year I reintroduced these things and she was able to grasp the material very easily without the struggle from the previous years. I, at times, have had to use a lower grade level material until they are ready to understand but they have always caught up just fine.
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I buy from people here, homeschoolclassifieds, ebay, amazon, Goodwill, craigslist (although not often since the listings are scarce but I always check just in case), and from exodusbooks.com. Those are the main places I buy from. Oh and I do frequent local homeschool sales.
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Like many of you, been waiting for this to be ready. They haven't put them up for sale yet and don't have a date as to when it will be ready but looks like the samples lessons and labs are now up for viewing. Looks promising. Thought would give you all the heads up.
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I know this isn't notebooking but thought I would throw it out there.
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/chemistry.php
I am planning on following our Chemistry lessons with this lapbook.
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I just bought an Asus Transformer. It's an android tablet and I am in love with it now. I have had an Ipod touch for about 2 years so I contemplated getting the Ipad for a while but I really wanted to have access to flash so went the android way. No regrets here yet. I did buy the docking keyboard for it as well so I could have the USB port for a flash drive. The toshiba thrive, already has one withouth having to buy the extra docking keyboard station so that is a plus for the Thrive. I got the Asus though because I got a deal on it. Well my husband actually bought it for me after I have been hounding him for one for a while. Guess he finally caved. So far, I have been able to pull up many of my teacher's manuals on it so I don't have to print them out anymore. Huge time and money saver there, since I was printing them week by week since ink is so expensive. I can also bookmark the page that I left off on in the teacher's manual. Some of the kids manuals, I also open on it and have the kids read from it. Like MR Q's science, since it is a pdf, we can open it up on the tablet and my daughter is able to write her answers straight on the pdf. Another great feature that I just figured out is that I can now access my wifi printer. So if I want to print a specific page from the kids manual, I just print it and my kids can do the worksheets. No more printing huge manuals. I am still playing around with it to see what else this baby can do but so far, I am very happy with it.
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I am in Texas and in my area, it is very similar to what you describe. I am an agnostic and when I have conversations with the moms, I sway away from religion since the co-op we are in is Christian. They allow other faiths to join but we must abide the rules of their co-op. I mostly just signed up for the social aspects, certainly not for the academics. This is my department and I believe in rigourous academics. I have 3 girls and I have always advocated an education and self sufficiency. I am in hopes that they will first finish college before starting families. At the co-op, we find a different picture. It is just as you described. Many of the moms which I have conversed with are just waiting for their girls to get old enough so they can take on their roles as wives. They are not big on educating the girls. I even had one mom tell me that her daughter is not very smart and that she won't be going to college. She said she was content with that. This is completely the opposite of what I want for my kids. I have been homeschooling for 10 years and have only attended one conference. I did not like what I saw and pretty much never attended another conference. I find that the internet is my best friend in curriculum searching. I find curriculum for each subject that best suits our needs and learning styles. Then I either purchase it online, or I attend local homeschool book sales. Hopefully, you won't get swayed away from homeschooling. It is a lot of fun and wonderful to see what your kids are learning.
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We are using ACS middle school chemistry and at the end of the study, we will be doing this Chemistry Unit Study: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/chemistry.php
I quit!
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Wow, my husband had shingles a while back and it was horrible for him. I can't imagine how hard it is right now to keep the home straight and keep the kids in order when you are in pain. The kids will be fine if you take some time off. Take it easy and resume school once you feel better and yes, stress can let shingles in. Have a serious talk with your kids about your health and tell them to help you out. They are old enough to help out and to try to make your life a little easier while you get over your sickness. I have 3 girls and they are always bickering but when I feel sick, I have a serious talk with them and they behave for a few days until I have to talk to them again but atleast I get piece of mind for a few days.