How am I going to make it? Is hsing high school actually possible for me?

[Ruthie]

I've been hsing since the beginning and I always said I'd finish through high school.

 

My kids are thriving and doing well...BUT!!!!!!

 

As they get older, the academics is getting HARD!! I have no clue what they are learning, nor do I really have the time to learn. This is particularly about math and grammar.

 

They are going along so fast, it is all I can do just to keep up with the grading. My daughter is learning things in CD Pre-alg that is like a foreign language to me. Today, I was working on some grammar stuff with her, but I have not an inkling what it is about, I just do the best I can with the teacher's manual.

 

How am I going to survive this? Math is just going to get harder and harder. My dh works with her when he is home, but most of the time, she needs a clarification right away to keep working. I would hire a tutor for her, but again, the same issue with the day to day questions she has.

 

My kids are advancing farther in education than I have ever gone and this is one reason I decided to hs, but what am I going to do?

 

What do I do?

 

Ruthie

[StephanieZ]

Pick your battles. Ask yourself 1) how important is the subject? 2) can you handle it? do you want to? 3) can you get help?

 

Some options. . .

 

Option#1: Drop it. When dd got to a point in latin where the grammar was tricky and I was spending a couple hours a week just to keep a step ahead . . . Ultimately, I decided to just drop it. The kids didn't love it. . . It wasn't a priority for us.

 

Option #2: Learn it. I do this with math and grammar as needed. I knew it all once upon a time. I like it. It's important. So, I relearn whenever I need to. Obviously math is vital.

 

Option #3: Outsource it. Hire a tutor. Get dh to take it over. Use an online class. Etc. I do this for Spanish. A tutor every couple weeks takes care of all the little questions that come up, etc. I know nothing. :)

 

Personally, I think a good math and grammar education is useful to YOU and worth the trouble to relearn it. It's also probably essential to comfortably school your kids. . . You might want to teach it to yourself a chapter ahead of your oldest child. You'd probably find it takes less time than you expect. Maybe you could just TRY that for a few months and then reassess. I can't remember most of the grammar my dc have learned in R&S over the last few years, but it never takes me more than a couple minutes to refresh my memory/learn from their own text and/or the Teacher's guide. Now that my oldest is in advanced algebra, there are plenty of times I have to just watch the lesson/read the notes when she needs help. I plan to work the entire text a lesson ahead of her when she starts her next math program (AoPS Counting & Prob) as it is all pretty new to me, so I will just need to learn it. Not sth I would choose to do for fun, but it is worthwhile IMHO.

 

Perhaps you need to consider more mom-friendly curricula if the ones you are using are hard to decipher on the fly. (I.e., 2 programs that have worked great for us include R&S English & Singapore Math. . .R&S Grammar is very easy to use on the fly as needed. Singapore Math not so much -- you'd need to start at the beginning. . .I always TEACH from the Text for Singapore, so I automatically know/learn whatever techniques they are supposed to be learning. . . but, if you left the child to their own devices to self-teach or had a tutor doing it, it would be a bit of effort to decipher what they are doing in a specific exercise w/o going through each step along the way in the earlier text/exercises. . .)

 

Anyway, The Well Educated Mind and TWTM have suggestions for self-education. You might want to browse there.

 

Note on math: Your kids do NOT need instant access to a teacher. (If they were in school, they would not have this!) They just need scheduled access and appropriate instruction. A twice a week tutor, with phone or internet-meeting access (that you arrange to pay for as needed) would work fine for any child but one who was very behind in math or very young. You could look into outsourcing with some sort of online math class that provides access to a tutor. I don't know of programs such as that, but surely they exist?

 

HTH

[Ruthie]

a good math and grammar education is useful to YOU and worth the trouble to relearn it. HTH

 

That's the problem, I NEVER learned it to begin with!:ack2:

 

I failed just about all my math courses with a D.

I had a horrible Algebra teacher who wasn't worth the chalk the she used.

She still makes me mad when I think of her.

 

It's not even about just using old muscles, I never had them to begin with. That is why I struggle so much to keep up with my kids.

 

I am so grateful for the education they are getting. They "get" math. I see it clicking in their heads in a way it never did for me. I just don't want to screw it up, kwim? Although I know I will do a better job than my old alg teacher did, that's for sure !:tongue_smilie:

[Catherine]

Your options are: CD rom or video-recorded teaching, self-teaching from a textbook, online classes of various types, community college, and learning it yourself first. I personally find the last option the hardest, most time-intensive, and least practical, particularly if you are not starting years in advance. My junior is currently taking math online, language online, CC science and english, and I'm personally teaching him history. Don't neglect self-teaching. It happens to be the method that works best for him kid, as I learned last year when he finally passed me in math and completed the pre-calc textbook alone in far less time than we had used for it together, and with better exam scores : \

[creekland]

If your kids are learning the math and doing well, I wouldn't worry about not knowing it yourself - just be sure they can get their questions answered (and it doesn't have to be on the spot).

 

I work in our local public high school. Many students there do not know the math nearly as well as one would think (or hope). Unless you live in a great district, don't just assume all is great in the high school. The closest thing I can think of to illustrate is, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

 

ps My own three are in 12th, 10th, and 8th now (homeschooled since 9th, 7th, and 5th). I have them all working independently on almost everything and they are doing great. I don't really need to "teach" them much at all - just correct (mostly using keys) and be there to listen to what they've learned or share in discussions. My oldest tests in the top 3% nationally on his ACT for college entrance. Only one student in our local high school scored anywhere near that high.

[TravelingChris]

May I suggest Life of Fred math for you? I am currently using it to help me learn trigonometry. (Yes I had it a long time ago but boy did I hate it and basically forgot it almost immediately except for once when I needed it to build a window seat).