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squirtymomma

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Posts posted by squirtymomma

  1. For you I suspect it might be harder because your little one has a shorter day at preschool. Also mine can walk and/or catch a bus, which definitely helps. You really need to just think through the actual logistics as applied to you and your daughters, and figure out how much trouble three different schedules are going to be. Also think about what help, if any, you could access. Do you have a trusted neighbor who would love to play with your 3yo for an hour while you work with your 8yo? Or if the 3yo goes to preschool, would her grandma be happy to pick her up and play at the park until the 6yo is ready to come home? etc. Obviously if you're going to be handling everything on your own it's going to be more of a challenge. You also need to consider how much you need to 'put in' to school. Many schools would not view home educating a student's sibling as a 'real' job, so it is likely that you would be expected to volunteer your time in some way for the school. Are you prepared to either fit that in, or be assertive about not being available for parent help, committee meetings, fundraising, etc?

     

    (I think that, for us, the biggest drawback of having kids in school is that we are stuck with school scheduling. We can't all stay up late because there's something interesting happening in the sky (like Jupiter being visible the other night) and then sleep in the next day. We can't go to the museum when everyone else is in school. We can't get super cheap vacation accommodation at times when nobody else is on holidays. We can't even eat when we feel like it - we'd love a 6.30 or 7pm dinner, but if we don't have food on the table by 5.30, the girls will not be ready to leave for school by 8am the next day. I still can't get over how much school dominates life. Everything has to revolve around school. I'd give a lot for part time or attendance optional school )

     

    This is a great idea, and one that I was starting to think about. Maybe at least one preschool day I could have my mom on pick-up duty for preschooler and 2nd grader, so that oldest and I could have a few solid afternoon hours for schoolwork. Our neighborhood school has a lot of working moms, so volunteering is not expected. Some do, but it's not required at all.

     

    It also annoys me that school so dominates life. I have fought it some these past few months! But I am grateful for the way being engaged in the school draws us into neighborhood community life. We have not had that before.

     

  2. Thanks for all of the feedback! It really is helpful. I don't think it would be a good idea to try and homeschool the 6yr old next year. She loves school and is doing waaay more for her teacher than she would ever do for me. She argued with me over every little thing. We hardly ever have battles now that she is in school, and they were frequent before. I don't fully understand why, but at least for right now, she needs someone else to be her teacher, and me to be her cheerleader. We are already doing the public school schedule, the homework, etc, and understand the realities of it. I think our only other option is to have everyone in school, which might be best for another year. I don't know...

  3. We had a little homeschool burnout this year and put both my 3rd grader and 1st grader in school in January. My 1st grader and I would argue over homeschool almost daily, and she is thriving in public school. It has also really improved our relationship. My 3rd grader is not really learning anything. She is advanced, and school is not really meeting her educational needs (she's enjoying it just fine). She is also a competitive gymnast and spends many hours a week at the gym. My inclination (today, at least!) is to homeschool her again next year, both to meet her educational needs and so she can do more daytime gym practices and be home with the family more. 1st grader says she loves her school and would be happy to go back, even if big sister is homeschooled.

     

    Who has done this successfully? Any recommendations for how to do it well? I'm nervous about days when I might take my oldest on a field trip... will the younger feel terribly left out?

     

    And then there's the preschooler. The current plan is for her to do pre-k 3 days a week next year. But if I'm going to be homeschooling the oldest, I'm tempted to just keep her home as well. Otherwise, I'll be managing 2 school schedules, one of which is 8-3, the other 9-2, and trying to get schoolwork done in-between! But then, will the middle child in ps feel even more left out?

     

    Any thoughts and btdt appreciated...

  4. We didn't start because of gymnastics, but we may continue because of it.  Struggling to figure out what makes sense for the sanity of all!  My 8yo is only Level 3 this year, but we're in a "hot house" area, and she trains 13 hours per week.  Next year will be even more.  Daytime practices make it much more do-able.  Now just need to figure out how we're going to afford it!

  5. So, when the word "Dominionist" is used, do we mean that they believe that the US is an ordained-by-God "Christian" nation, or do we mean that they believe in establishing a Theocracy and returning to Old Testament law?  I disagree with both viewpoints, but find the first much easier to work with than the second.

     

    And I'm hearing that the earlier biases have been much edited in the Redesign, which is good.  I'm just curious what the author's viewpoint really is/was.  I'm sure it's possible that their views have mellowed over time, which is probably true for many.  Sometimes you have to wear a certain belief for awhile before you discover it's holes.

     

    Thanks for any help clarifying.

  6. It's a Reformed Dominionist curricula. I really wouldn't expect anything less. In fact, when I was Reformed, it was what we demanded and it was why so many of us got excited over TOG. I still have the year I had bought (back then it was ONLY hardcopy). I can't really use it. There might be some good bits there, but weeding it all out and then having to double check their facts to make sure they didn't just pull a white washed version or twist something around and leave out the variables of the equations....yeah, too much work. As an Orthodox person that is also sympathetic towards Catholicism, I DEFINITELY would not be able to use TOG

     

    Dominionist?  Really?

  7. I am using/have used Sonlight and SOTW so far.  But I can see that in a couple of years, when we've been through the history cycle once, and I'll have a 6th grader, 4th grader, and 1st grader, it will be worth having something that will keep us all together for history but with resources for each level.  *And* something that will begin to challenge my oldest as she transitions to the dialectic stage.  I think TOG is very very valuable for families with kids at multiple levels and for dialectic/rhetoric stage students.  I am getting a free unit that they are offering this month to help me get a feel for it. 

     

    However, I think it's overkill for 1st grade. :) 

  8. If you have any specific questions I'd be glad to help. We are in week 9 and use both the lesson plans and the enrichment guide. You could definitely use it alone without the lesson plans. It has detailed discussions and check boxes. The lesson plans add to it in phonics, math, and copybook (including Bible). So in turn lesson plans and enrichment share music study, art study, literature discussion, social studies (history/ geography), poetry study, nature study (science), etc. We are loving every second.

     

    Memoria Press is doing an awesome job with their curriculum packages that could fit your every need, but also the bits and pieces to make whatever you're doing complete. (Out of personal curiosity what else are you using instead?)

     

    Thanks!  It's good to hear your experience!

     

    I'm using All About Reading 1 with my current 1st grader, and I think I will use it again when my baby (3yr old) is ready for it.  We also use Singapore Math and Handwriting Without Tears.  Then I usually make copywork that corresponds to our literature whenever they've learned to form their letters.

     

    I just want some good books and simple but rich "extras" to use with my youngest in the next couple of years, since she's generally just tagging along with her big sisters' school.

  9. I got this, hoping to use it as a reference.  Today, my 3rd grader misspelled "should".  For the life of me, I could not find a place where it mentions the sound "ou" makes like in "should", "could", "would".  I did finally find those words mentioned in the section on slient "L".  Am I looking in the wrong place?  Are those just exception words that won't be found in the book?  Any tips for using the book a little more efficiently?

  10. In addition to homeschooling my own kids, I tutor middle/high school students in math in the evenings. I've recently had a request from 2 families who both have 7th graders in a private school for children with dyslexia. They both want their daughters to go to a mainstream private school for 8th, but they feel that their current school has not prepared them in math. They feel that they teach to the slowest students, and said their daughters don't struggle in math and are bored to tears. When they have observed other schools, the girls say there is a lot that they've never been exposed to.

     

    So, they want me to spend the spring and summer working with them and preparing them for 8th grade math in a mainstream school, which would be pre-algebra. I've met with one of the girls already, and she has a lot of catching up to do. She hardly knows addition math facts, didn't seem to know what exponents meant, had trouble even doing long division. The other girl may not be that far behind.

     

    I may have a textbook available to me that would be sufficient, but I wondered if anyone here would have a recommendation. TIA!

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