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mountains27

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Everything posted by mountains27

  1. Hello, I know there must be a lot of posts on this subject but I'm adding one more :) I was thinking I want to add in some more history and geography work for my 9 year old and am looking for some good curriculum ideas. It must be secular and have some structured workbook or activities to go with it- coloring pages are great but looking for a little more then just that. If it ties in some geography I'd be even happier! I've looked at SOTW and that looks OK but want some other opinions and ideas also. Thanks :)
  2. Just updating in case anyone is reading this post for information on the subject of using a public school for LD evaluations for their homeschooled kids- I had sent a letter to my school district office to get a referral to get my son tested for possible learning disabilities. I stated in the letter that I wanted to figure out what, if any, troubles my son might be having because I have been observing increasing difficulties in his learning, particularly his math and basic memory. I made sure to state in the letter I intended to keep homeschooling and just wanted a diagnose that would help me teach him better. Today was the initial meeting that included myself, the school special ed director and the school principal, who also happens to be a child psych. My son wasn't present as we were just meeting to figure out what tests would be best for him and not actually testing him today. I brought in some of his work, the books we use, and explained in depth my concerns and the general behavior I see in my son. The principal asked great questions and overall it was a pleasant and helpful meeting. We agreed to give my son a hearing and vision exam first and then some specific tests that will be administered by the school psych., a different person I didn't meet today. All in all a good experience! I will try to update on how the testing goes once we do that :)
  3. I'm going through the same right now. I posted a couple weeks ago about my son who is almost 8. He sees a child psych for some anxiety issues he deals with and at his latest appt. the doctor said he worried about my son having possible LDs. He did a quick test in the office and concluded my son was far below his "grade level" and needed an IEP in a public school. Sure, OK, not going to happen Mr. anti homeschool but I did take his advice to get an eval because I too had had some concerns this year with wanting to figure out how my son might learn best, school work has been a struggle with him lately. So I contacted my school district and they told me to write the letter, I dropped it off the next day and the next morning got a call from our local elementary school to set up an appointment to have a meeting with some school professionals. I go tomorrow without my son to discuss some of my concerns, and then we will decide from there what specific tests to do. They have asked me to bring some samples of his work also. I'm a little anxious about going to the school but private testing isn't in the cards for us. I do know most of the people I will see tomorrow because my kids attended this school for 2 years so that will help. I'm probably more anxious about having to confront his doctor again and get more negativity about my homeschooling choice :/ Good luck to you! I'll probably post an update in my original post after the meeting to maybe give some insight to others wondering about this process
  4. Interesting, And actually he does often have trouble with his eyes whenever he gets a cold, they water like crazy, not sure if maybe that could be connected to a deeper problem now that I'm really thinking about it. Once last year it got so bad his eyeball and the surrounding tissue swelled up- of course we went straight to the ER and discovered he had a very bad infection that almost got to his eye nerves. Definitely going to look into this and thank you again for opening this up to me, I feel bad for not connecting these dots before.
  5. Thank you all! This is what I needed and knew I'd find it among other pro-homeschoolers. I do plan to get my son evaluated so that I know what exactly I'm dealing with and I can research and come up with the best next step in his homeschooling. I have been feeling like something more was up with him and although I didn't agree with everything the doctor said today I can agree with him on the fact that an evaluation is a good next step. I probably should have mentioned my son is slightly near sighted, he had an eye test this spring actually and the eye doctor said he is just barely on the cusp of needing glasses (he's a .25 if anyone is familiar with eye glass prescriptions). He doesn't wear them much yet because the prescription is so low he doesn't see too much of a difference in sight. so he doesn't have much incentive to want to wear them. Maybe I'll start pushing him to wear them more during school time and see if it helps. Thank you again for the advice, I'm sure I'll be back around after the evaluation with more questions!
  6. I have posted here before but not for awhile so I'm sorry if this is way out of the blue...I need help today. My son is 7 (will be 8 in March) and has been homeschooling since he left PS kindergarten. Last year went pretty well I thought, he has ADHD (non medicated because being at home it seemed under control) and a pretty crippling social anxiety but being at home that doesn't play a factor so he thrived in that aspect, he does participate in team sports and martial arts so he gets out and works on interacting with people besides family. He started becoming reluctant to do any form of school work towards the end of spring and this year so far he has been extremely reluctant and we have not been able to get anything done. I admit we have had a more unschooling approach since spring. Today we met with his psychologist who we see about twice a year just to keep up with his anxiety, ADHD and make sure he is on track. I mentioned that he had started getting a little more reluctant about doing school work and that I had backed off a bit and tried a more unschooling approach with lots of playing and lighter sit down work and the therapist then proceeded to test my son to see where he was at. It was a quick 20 or so minute testing and in the end decided my son was at a early 1st grade reading level and early K level for math. He said that my son showed lots of signs of a learning disability, based on his lack of confidence when answering questions, timid nature and by my explanation of his behavior at home when asked to do any form of school work. He concluded that my son would be much better off in public school with trained professional teachers who have the ability to teach him in ways that I never would be able to. This stings, I REALLY love homeschooling my kids and have sacrificed a lot to make it happen. I am a single parent who works fulltime (mostly evenings) to give my kids as much of the stay at home mom as I can while also needing to 100% supporting them financially. I'm stretched thin but I truly believe in homeschooling and want it for my kids. This doctor has me doubting myself now and worried that I might be actually not doing what's best for my son. This is where the help! part comes in, I need encouragement and experience to help me know what step to take next. Thank you if you have read this and any advice is much appreciated :/
  7. My almost 9 year old daughter is into logic puzzles right now. I was wondering if anyone had any good book or website recommendations they could share?
  8. Thanks for all the replies! Very helpful. He is on day three and so far not much change. He does seem a little sleepier then usually and the other day he actually got so upset he cried over something very trivial which was shocking, he RARELY cries at all so I was a little turned off by that, but, at such a low dose (half a pill twice a day) and only the third day I can't say for sure it was the meds that made him act different anyway.
  9. My 7 yo boy will be taking his first dose of guanfacine today and I have to admit I am feeling nervous :/ He was diagnosed last year officially with ADHD but since I was homeschooling him I decided to hold off and see if he would do OK with frequent breaks and the freedom that comes with learning at home. I know it did help not having him in a regular PS classroom but I feel like he still could do better at learning if he could just calm down and focus for a more then 2 seconds! So for his sake I am trying meds to see if it can offer him any help. He needed to be prescribed a non-stimulant because he is 50" tall but only weighs 47lbs soaking wet (he is all skin and bones!) and CANNOT afford to loose any appetite he might have during the day! So the doctor told me this is a blood pressure medicine and has been shown to work on ADHD symptoms. I think that is what is making me nervous, that it will be lowering his blood pressure, that sounds scary to me. Has anyone had an experience with this med for ADHD and can chime in with some advice/support?
  10. I must find some way to incorporate legos into my sons math instruction. He is ADHD but legos speak to him in a way nothing else seems to and I think I could get him to sit through some math lessons better if legos were involved! Does anyone have any good resources they could share? He is 7 and working around early 2nd grade level, addition/subtraction to 20 is what we have been trying to work on lately.
  11. We are doing a lighter load now until probably October because my work schedule becomes 6 days a week and averages 55 hours. Not a lot of time to plan lessons or execute them so I have the kids doing math review, copywork and other short assignments in their LA workbooks I know they can do independently without giving my mom (who watches them for me while I work and thus has to be a sub teacher for me) too much grieve! :) It's gone well with my daughter but my son who is ADHD can't seem to get things done as well independently so I need to rethink his summer schooling :/
  12. She uses CTGE which I found is similar to Rod and Staff (based on looking at sample and reading reviews. She is working on finishing book two right now and I found the last few lessons seem to start grammar, maybe this means book 3 will cover more and satisfy her grammar requirements? I had thought she might need more then what was in these books but maybe I'm wrong.
  13. I'm back and forth about whether to make grammar part of our workday at this point but my 8 yo seems to really like doing grammar exercises so I feel like if she wants to do it I'll let her. Problem is I don't know grammar because I was not taught in elementary school and when i got to HS/college kind of crutched my way through and never really learned it. We were trying KISS but I can't do it anymore because I really don't understand what they are explaining half the time and if I can't get it how am I suppose to teach it! I've looked at easy grammar, the name itself appeals to me! can anyone recommend a good grammar program for a mom who has little grammar experience?
  14. Thank you. I just got the lab annotations and first orange book from currclick. I think it will be good for him to start at square one since even his basic number sense can sometimes seem to escape his memory. It will also be good for him to feel like math is easy for a little bit!
  15. My 7 year-old would be first grader who also has ADHD ( has never been medicated) has been struggling all year with math and I'm trying to decide what to do next. I think Miquon might be our answer but I am unsure where to start with it and what parts I NEED to buy and all that. Can anyone give me some insight on where it is best to start a late 1st grade/early 2nd grade child in the Miquon workbooks? Also do I need the extra books like the lab and 1st grade diary? Thanks!
  16. That's what I was thinking too...
  17. Has anyone tried the workbooks and can give a little review? I'm thinking of getting it for my daughter who rides and adores horses. She is doing BA3 and MM3B right now so doesn't really need more but I think she would really get into horse math and we could incorporate it in to math time somehow. Thanks!
  18. I'm trying to school year round because I work full time and our weeks are often incomplete as it is. But i'm finding with it FINALLY being nice out that we just aren't keeping up as well with the school work :/ We do a lot of gardening (OK mostly me, but the kids are around me when I do it anyway :) hiking, swimming and anything outdoors to soak up the few precious warmish months we get in the North! So we will try to keep plugging but I'm not kidding myself into thinking we will get a ton done!
  19. I'm trying to decide if I should get the Getting Started with Latin book or jump right into Lively Latin and would love some input for those who have used either program. My daughter is 8 1/2 now and will be 9 in October. She has expressed interest in learning another language and I think Latin is a great one to learn and one I'd like to learn as well :) So we are both starting from scratch and looking for a good program that will help us both get introduced!
  20. I like where I live (for the most part) but I'd wager, it isn't warmer then Chicago. I've never been to that area but here it's winter for about 8 months and that's not cool. Everything else is cool though- real easy homeschool laws and tons of mountains and outdoors. Population in my area is pretty low and we live remotely without even trying. a good or bad thing depending on what you want- for me I like remote so it works for us, we are only 3ish hours from Boston so in a day trip can have some culture and big city excitement. As far as homeschool community, if there is one I haven't fond it yet! Welcome to New Hampshire- Live Free or Die! I've actually toyed with the idea of moving a bit south to find some warmer weather. I am a landscaper and in a place where it's winter most of the time...I'm not able to find a career at what I love. But I grew up here and it's home and where my family is so it's hard to really think about leaving these woods. I'll be following this thread to see what ideas you get! I've looked at Virginia as a possibility, looks like it still has seasons but is warmer then my area and possible Chicago too!
  21. I was just coming on here to share this- this is a perfect homeschool article, it really is truth! One of my favorite parts is the supply list and the inclusion of wine on it! So true...
  22. I am using Adventures in America for my 7 and 8 yo combined and like it. I use it as a spine and add more or take some out. We are going slow with it and still involved in the American Revolution. It was only about 14$ I think and is in PDF form so you get it right away. It's read aloud information, a coloring page, activity suggestions and some copywork/narration. Usually I read both pages to the kids while they color and then they do some copywork that is related to what we learned in that section. It also has a state a week to learn but we are way behind on that part- my idea is just to introduce them to history this year and follow their lead if they want to know more about something. We have also been using Liberty Kids episodes off youtube for our Revolution study.
  23. I have found I really need to read ahead to be able to teach. If I try and just read it to my daughter I sound lost...because sometimes I really am! They cover a lot of math I never was taught or quickly forgot! I do get it pretty quick after I read through it. I like this program and the extra stuff it is teaching my 8 yo about math and the 8 yo is loving the break from MM.
  24. Looking for a little insight from others who homeschool their kids and also work out of the home. I am a single parent and I work as a banquet server. Technically I am fulltime status but some weeks I will only work 3 days or work all evening shifts just based on what events are going on. Right now for instance the hotel has very little events schedule so this week I only worked some long weekend shifts and had lots of time for schooling with the kids. Generally this has worked out well, I mostly work evenings and weekends and even on the weeks that I work crazy hours my mom watchs my kids and is good about monitoring any work I give the kids to do while I'm away. This is our first year trying homeschooling though and I'm worried that we did enough and that I had enough time to put into it. I feel pretty good about it in general but am just going by instinct and have not tested the kids to see if they are finishing this year anywhere near their "grade levels". I'm trying not to think of grade level as important since that is kind of the point of homeschooling- getting away from the standards and all- but it's still got me wondering if I can give the kids enough time to teach them properly. I guess I'm just looking for other experiences with work and school and am also wondering if others find they need to school year-round to get it all covered? It looks like we may have to try that
  25. Well this morning it's -26 here so after the winter we have had anything in the 40s or above- I'll be probably be wearing shorts! :) And yes, we do like history and I think this would really make what we have been learning seem more real to the kids, plus I've never been and am really interested to check it out! I have been to Gettysburg when I was 11 and then 16 and both times found it really fun and interesting so I'd imagine this would be similar for me.
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