[Public Immersion vs Home Schooling]

 

Yet, my heart still is telling me I want to educate my children at home. The social influences outside the class (bus - a very long ride / playground) are not in alignment with our family values. And, except for language, there is little room for developing creativity, appreciation of literature, technology and little to no math and science.

 

 

Sounds like you may have your answer. Just reading what you wrote makes me think that you may want to take some time and really consider homeschooling. Learning a second (or third or fourth) language is wonderful. However, is it more important that your family values, creativity, literature, etc?

 

Maybe you can try homeschooling this summer and see how it goes. It can at least give you a chance to compare apples to apples since both school and homeschooling have pros and cons.

 

Good luck! Buena suerte! (sp?)

Jackie

[Ds6 can't stand current math topic - 2 questions]

If he's really just burned out, there's nothing wrong with skipping the chapter and coming back to it at a later date. Maybe now is the time to try to spice things up in the math department.

 

Have you tried adding some online math work to supplement? We do MUS and supplement with Singapore and Saxon. My kids get sick of doing problems on the pages, but will do an online math drill or game with no fussing. MUS has a simple online drill that my kids actually like. A quick search for online math games brings up tons of results - from simple drill to more difficult work.

 

As far as weights and measures - what about going hands on. Build a birdhouse or just a box. Something that he can get his hands on and start to see why on earth all this measuring is important. Weights - my kids will do anything to get to play with our balance scale. They'd much rather figure out grams and ounces that way. Graphing - box of jelly beans. We graphed on paper and then turned our data into all sorts of different graphs with excel. Seaworld also has some teacher guides that have real world, interesting questions that captured and held my kids' attention. They are free from their site.

 

 

 

Good luck!

[Do you have any "keep it simple" schedule tips?]

I totally agree with streamlining your curricula as much as possible. I've done the juggle before and yikes, what an energy drain.

 

I think a lot of your schedule will depend on you and your kids. I always start out with a very formal and full schedule. They are all excited to start the new year with new books and seem to do well with a full schedule then. After about 6 weeks, I realize that the schedule was nuts and adjust it. The kids are happy because it usually means less work for them.

 

Before you even start trying to develop a schedule, write out your goals for homeschooling. Make sure that you are doing something to meet those goals everyday. This will help you really focus your time on what is most important to you. It's also good to keep around and look at when you start thinking that you are failing and your kids will never compete in the world - which tends to happen to me right around this time of year.

 

Lastly, try to figure out when you can be most productive. We have a baby who naps in the afternoon. I schedule as much "teaching" time as possible then. The times he is awake, I try to schedule independent work, etc. If your kids are early birds, try to schedule more challenging subjects early. If they are night owl, shoot for later. Don't feel boxed in to a "regular" school day. We have started doing fun science and art projects on the weekends, simply because I can't seem to get them done during the week.

 

Good luck with it. If you develop a perfect schedule, please share. I bet we're all still looking for it!! :)

[crosspost K-8 board: Multiple Languages with Young Children]

LOL! We have run into the same thing with Pimsleur - literally almost the exact same dialogue. Finding cold beer must be a serious problem throughout the world! ;)

 

We started our boys with Chinese at ages 5 and 6 (mainly because their good friend and neighbor is Chinese. Can't pass up an opportunity like that) We use Pimsleur and then just some kids Chinese cds. They aren't now, nor will they probably ever be close to fluent. They speak and understand way more than I do and can have "secret" conversations with their friend, which makes them even more motivated. We'll keep it up as long as we have our buddy/tutor close by.

 

A year later we started Spanish. They enjoy it and I like learning it with them. We use a variety of books and online podcasts. Happily, there are tons of choices.

 

They both expressed an interest in learning Latin, so about 3 months after we started Spanish, we added Prima Latina. Great, accessible, easy book. Both kids enjoy it.

 

Now that they are fascinated with German history, they want to start German. Like other parents here, I put my foot down. They need to get a better handle on the others before we add on.

[What am I going to do about curriculum next year!?]

We also use Royal Fireworks Press and Rod and Staff. My kids devour the RFP books - very fun and interesting. Not at all your usual grammar book. We use Rod and Staff for our spine. (We're using the 4th grade book for my 2nd and 3rd grader, so you may want to go up a a grade or two if you choose to use R&S) What we enjoy most about it is that it isn't super repetitive (like FLL is) It changes topics enough to hold their interest and includes some writing work as well. We also use Writing Strands for more pure writing work and the boys like that, too.

[What have been your kids favorite kits? (craft, history, science)]

We love Klutz kits too - esp. the battery kit. We also have had hours of fun year after year with snap circuits. The Cool Stuff Science Kit, Activity Rocks and the Super Sensational science kit are also big hits.

 

If you're not just looking for kits - we have used the heck out of our kitchen chemistry books. Most of them have similar experiments. They are usually very easy, use household products, and are lots of fun.

[Do expensive laundry detergents clean better?]

I'm a huge Tide fan too!! That stuff is amazing for the laundry-challenged. Plus, I'm super-cheap, but I found that I can use a fraction of the amount the bottle says to use and the whole load is clean. My husband hates the scents and prefers scent free. For his stuff I use Arm and Hammer scent free and think it works great. It gets everything clean - even the hunting gear. You can also use half of what they recommend. - so it's kind of like getting it half price, right?

[Moving Forward]

I totally agree with you. We started out afterschooling and after a year realized that the time my kids spent in school was not terribly productive. We pulled them out and have been happily homeschooling since. Three years into it, I can honestly say it was the best decision we could have made. That said, I am thrilled that we did start out afterschooling. It made me much more secure in our decision. Good luck in the journey! Have fun and enjoy exploring the world with all your kids. That has been by far my favorite benefit of homeschooling - seeing the wonder of the world thru my kids' eyes.

 

Have fun!

[What are my workbook based Spelling options?]

We've used A Beka spelling for three years and enjoy it. I like that it has little activities (crossword puzzle or picture to draw, etc.) and that it builds in other skills - dictionary work, etc.

[SOTW coloring pages]

I split the difference. I used to let them have all the freedom they wanted in coloring - until the potty humor started coming out on their coloring pages. :) Now I pick one coloring page per chapter that they each must color appropriately and carefully. The rest they can do with as they wish. I think you are right that they need to learn that what goes in their history notebook must be good, careful work, not pure garbage. That said, I don't critique the coloring much. As long as they tried to do a good job, I don't nitpick.