Homeschooling and still have to be at the mercy of the public school

[ChristusG]

We're just about to start kindergarten the week after Labor Day. We're excited to begin our homeschooling journey. And yet, I still have to be at the mercy of the public school system. It's putting a damper on my excitement. My DD takes speech through the local PS. The ONLY time slot they have since she is not going to kindergarten there is at 1 PM. That really cuts into my day! Every Tues and every Thurs at 1 PM I have to have her at the school. And every Wednesday is homeschool group. I feel like our school time is getting cut out! She's not there for long, but by the time we get ready, drive there, sit there for 30 minutes, get back out to the car, drive home, and settle down to do some more school work, that's going to cut out like 1.5 hours or more.

 

I know, I know, kindy is easy.....but I still gotta have time for it LOL. I just hate going to something that takes a out a slice right smack in the middle of our day. Cause it takes us out of the swing of homeschooling and then we have to get back into it. Easier said than done since I'm easily distracted LOL.

[fshinkevich]

Can you put in a request to get an earlier or later time slot if one opens? I'm sure once you get talking to a person (like the teacher) instead of "the system" they might be more reasonable :)

 

Also, if your district has more than one elementary school you can see if they have an opening.

 

Thankfully Kinder is lots of fun and doesn't require too much work. Congrats on the beginning of your homeschool journey!!

[Tess in the Burbs]

I don't know what you are doing for K, but honestly, will you still be doing school at 1pm? We did K in an hour a day. I thought it would take longer, but it never did. I guess if you sleep super late...but having done K twice now we were never doing school at 1pm if we started after we got up and ate breakfast. We did the basics for K though...reading, writing, math and then lots of FUN field trips. So for me, I would think the 1pm time would be restrictive on the fun outings for that age.

[Avila]

I don't know what you are doing for K, but honestly, will you still be doing school at 1pm? We did K in an hour a day. I thought it would take longer, but it never did. I guess if you sleep super late...but having done K twice now we were never doing school at 1pm if we started after we got up and ate breakfast. We did the basics for K though...reading, writing, math and then lots of FUN field trips. So for me, I would think the 1pm time would be restrictive on the fun outings for that age.

:iagree: We have been through it twice as well, and an hour is plenty. We were always done before lunch.

 

I do feel your pain about the time thing anyhow. I am dragging out a 5th grader, 3rd grader and 1st grader twice a week for about that long for the 3rd grader's speech therapy. I have no clue what I am going to do, because 5th grade and 3rd grade are definitely not done in an hour, and we have activities to fit in many afternoons as well.

[Starr]

I agree that everything will work out fine. Kindergarten is fun.

[TraceyS/FL]

For the last 2 years our time was 12:30-1. The school is just a few minutes away, so it's really "just" an hour those 2 days. However, i have no clue what time she will go this year. She can't make the Thursday class because of her sisters OT, and i have no clue what time sister will be doing private speech. She really needs private speech at this point, but i have no clue if she has insurance or not.

 

UGH.

 

ANYWAY..... you will get in a groove!

[Danestress]

and do you have to do it there or could you do it through private insurance?

 

Honestly, reading your post, I was thinking of it as a need. If you have a child with regular medical appointments, it can be really hard to get them scheduled at a convenient time, but that's just the way it is. I used to have to drive 2 hours each way for weekly medical appointments, and I just had to treat it as an immovable block. That was just my life for a six month period.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that it sounds like you are "at the mercy" of your daughter's medical/education need - not so much at the mercy of the school. If you had speech therapy privately, you might not get a time slot you want (though maybe you could try that).

 

I since she is so young, I would certainly just plan to be done with homeschool at noon on these two days. And I might choose not to do the homeschool group, though I would if I really liked it. I definitely could do HS between 8 - 12 with a 1st grader, other than music instrument practice and reading together at night.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Danestress

[Hillary in KS]

Hey, it's inconvenient but it's free, right? Make the most of it while it *doesn't* interfere as much as it might with a longer school day. Take your "field trips" on other days. Have fun anyway, dern it! K doesn't take that long.

 

:iagree:

 

K takes an hour, at most. I'm sure you'll have no trouble fitting in a trip to the school.

[stripe]

Because I doubt it's mandatory speech therapy that you object to, it seems to me that your daughter is coming out ahead here. You're getting something back, here. Just work around it, if you can't get another time, and try to keep positive. Both speech and the homeschool group are (or at least I assume they are) part of her education, so this is not cutting into her school time -- it's enhancing it. :)

[Ferdie]

That's funny because a 1:00 time slot would be my preference. We don't do well when we try to hs after being out of the house. Because I am an introvert, I need a break when we get back, then school never gets started back up. We do much better when we school first and then do errands/appoinments.

 

I'm glad you got speech services through the public school. We had to wait 1/2 of the school year before funds were available at our school.

 

K hs is so fun. Enjoy!

[ChristusG]

As for the therapy itself, I mean, no one is making us go. But if I want her to talk normally one day, she needs it. She is five years old and there are still a lot of things that she says that I cannot understand. And she refuses to talk to strangers because they do not understand her. So it's kind of mandatory for her future.

 

I've never homeschooled before so I wasn't sure how long it will take. We'll start each morning at 9 or 9:30 AM. We have Bible, which I predict will take about 15 minutes or 20 minutes including the story, life application, craft, and verse memorization. Then we have phonics, which we are using Explode the Code. She'll do about 4 pages per day and depending how cooperative she is, that could take 10 - 20 minutes. We have science....she loves science so we're putting a bit of emphasis on that, so what we are doing could take about 30 minutes. We may do a little handwriting....not sure yet. I have the Handwriting Without Tears stuff, but we'll see how it goes. If we do that, I imagine it would take about 15 minutes.

 

Then I can read to both girls later on in the day. I guess everything should fit in before speech class. But we do have to factor in being uncooperative at times, interruptions by my 2 year old, laziness at times (by me LOL), and lunch time before speech. Hopefully all will go smoothly!:D

[ChristusG]

Ferdie, I agree....we wanted to complete school first and have plenty of time to do lunch and playtime. I actually wish we could have speech around 2:30. But I guess she does not have any time slots available later in the day.

 

I wish we could do private therapy but it would cost us $60 per week, plus that only gives us a limited amount of visits.

[Carol in Cal.]

We're just about to start kindergarten the week after Labor Day. We're excited to begin our homeschooling journey. And yet, I still have to be at the mercy of the public school system. It's putting a damper on my excitement. My DD takes speech through the local PS. The ONLY time slot they have since she is not going to kindergarten there is at 1 PM.

 

 

 

Join a local science museum and visit every week after speech therapy, making that your science program. Alternate between nature walks (science and PE), trips to a playground (PE), trips to a living history museum or site (social studies), and library visits on the other day.

 

All you really have to do at this age is read to her a lot, teach her to read at her own pace, have her do a little copywork, and start her on math concepts or at most Saxon 1 math. You can do that in the morning, and in fact, if your DD is anything like mine was at that age, she will be far better off if you get it finished in the morning when her brain is actually on, LOL. Well, maybe not the 'reading to her a lot' part--but certainly everything else.

 

Science and history are fun but not crucial at this age.

[Deidre in GA]

i with the others who point out that K work takes an hour - or less. we were always done by noon and we rarely started before 11am. then we'd K play for the rest of the day!

[JenAL]

If my understanding is correct that you are doing K with your dd this year, I don't think it will be a big problem. I mean for K I think an hour a day, 2 at most is plenty. So the chances of you still doing school at 1:00 pm is slim. We were always finished before lunch.

[ElizabethB]

I spent 10 to 20 minutes a day for K, 30 a few times, we did Bible reading, phonics, math, and science.

 

In 10 minutes a day, we worked through Webster's Speller and she was reading out of the KJV a few months before the end of the school year!

 

It really doesn't take long. We generally did school in the afternoon right before all the neighbor kids got home from school and started going to the park. We didn't get to go to the park until her school was done, that usually provided extra motivation to get done.

 

I know what you mean, though, I hate having things interrupting my day. It also makes me less likely to do something like go to the grocery store, even 4 hours before the time that a scheduled event occurs, even though logically I could go to the grocery store and back and shop 3 times in that amount of time!

 

Hopefully the speech therapy will start working soon and you'll have more free days! I'd see what exercises you can do at home. Here's a post with a few good websites, if you ask on the special needs board, you might get more:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123261&highlight=speech+therapy+site

[silvermine]

I'd say even in 1st/2nd right now, we never do anything schooly after lunch, except maybe read some books. A nice break in the middle is often good. :D Our park days usually start around 1 or 2.

 

On the other hand, it sounds like you feel like lunch will be rushed, since it's a long drive. Maybe just get up an hour earlier and make lunch happen at 11 or 11:30?

 

We have a once-a-week activity ds does from 11:30-12:30, so I understand how lunch weirdness can really confuse your day. :D

[TraceyS/FL]

Ferdie, I agree....we wanted to complete school first and have plenty of time to do lunch and playtime. I actually wish we could have speech around 2:30. But I guess she does not have any time slots available later in the day.

 

I wish we could do private therapy but it would cost us $60 per week, plus that only gives us a limited amount of visits.

 

Well, i'm guessing the therapist doesn't do speech that close to school ending for the day.

 

HOnestly, after 2 years of speech for a very broad problem (they wouldn't tell me it was, X, Y and Z - just, "she needs it in ALL areas", we really need private. She makes SOME progress, but we'd probably be DONE if we had had access to private. But the group last year hadn't mastered what she had the year before, so i swear we spent the whole year on the /k/ sound. By the end of summer we have issues understanding her in some areas....

 

So just be prepared that you might still need to do private.

[Moni]

We're just about to start kindergarten the week after Labor Day. We're exEasier said than done since I'm easily distracted LOL. [/qote]

 

Or you can school on Saturday mornings and take the rest of the speech day off.

 

We never kept a "school day" at age 5.

It was just in sessions throughout the week throughout the year.

 

:seeya:

[gingersmom]

F

 

I wish we could do private therapy but it would cost us $60 per week, plus that only gives us a limited amount of visits.

 

In my experience, there is a huge difference between private speech therapy and school speech therapy.

 

In the long run, $60/week is a small price to pay for your daughter being able to speak and be understood by others.

 

Multiply 60 by 35 and that is how much I spent in a year on speech and OT for my son.

 

Even if you get limited visits via your insurance coverage it will most likely make a big difference.

[katemary63]

I don't know what you are doing for K, but honestly, will you still be doing school at 1pm? We did K in an hour a day.

 

:iagree:

[chiguirre]

The school's SLP has to form groups of kids of similar ages and issues so that therapy is as useful as possible. The choices they can give you are limited by the slots that's she's got Kers with articulation issues. It's just the nature of ps speech. IME, ds has gotten a lot out of his speech sessions and enjoys going. Since our insurance won't cover ST or OT for an autism dx, we have to make our budget stretch and the ps speech helps us do this. You may find you need to use private speech too, but I wouldn't give up your ps slot because it can complement private services and allow you to provide more therapy for your dd without breaking your budget.

[Dirtroad]

We did K in 30 minutes - 1 hour if we had a coloring page or something. Never longer.

 

Tie the school trip to getting groceries, doctor appts, errands, or even a trip to lunch! Don't just go to speech. You can even have a trip to the park after the speech lesson/session.