gracesteacher Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 What advise would you give my friend? She works full time with varying hrs and dad works 4 days a week from 12 to 12. His days off he plans on teaching plus before he goes in as time permits. There is also a 3 year old. She owns and has read WTM at least to some degree. She doesnot like the school her 9 and7 year old are in 9 year old is falling in the cracks at school and the 7 year old is way ahead but being held back to tutor students. Her first homeschool purchase was laptops for everyone that she insists is a tax write off in Il. When it comes to what they are going to use they say we are going to read the newspaper and get spelling words that way and then she talks of the elaborat unit studies which sound wonderfu just not realistic. The kids are so excited about this but none of this sounds realistic to me. I am fairly new to this myself. Any words of wisdom? I plan on showing her this post and hoping to encourage her to hs but to looking at it with out the rose colored glasses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Robyn Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 I think it is possible to homeschool if Dad is doing it 3 times/week and Mom is doing it 2x/week. I have tried, as someone who works part time, to do unit studies and found it hard to pull it all together in a timely manner (that is, fast enough to get a whole school year's worth of school work done in a school year, or even a calendar year). Also, I think it would take very careful and thorough records and plans to do unit studies that are implemented half the time by Dad and half the time by Mom, these are plans and records that I think parents working full time might not find time to make. If she is planning to pull them out mid-year, I would start with some things that are open and go and that keep track of where you are for you - like math that includes a workbook so you can turn to the last completed page in the workbook to see what lesson you're on. She can then take the summer to try to make lesson plans for unit studies and gather/create all the needed materials and put it on some sort of scheduler like HST or myhomeschoolplan.com or whatever. All the while she can also be looking at curricula to see what she would use if she weren't doing unit studies, or things she might like to use in addition to unit studies. Then, by the end of summer she can see how much she has. If she has a huge chunk of the school year planned out and ready to go, that's awesome and ask her to please share her plans with me! If she has a few weeks planned out and ready to go, she will know she needs to purchase some things pre-made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracesteacher Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 He husband is like mine when it comes to school if I give him the lesson and the books he does it if I don't then must be a no school day. I am a HUGE planner she is very by the seat of her pants (we are opposite in most things and that is what we like about the other). She is waiting till the next school year. What products cirriculm should I guideher towards. I know she is going the secular route. She says she wants to classically homeschool but I am not sure. Is there some sort of skills or placement the kids should take? Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trivium Academy Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 What advise would you give my friend? She works full time with varying hrs and dad works 4 days a week from 12 to 12. This is major. I would encourage her to try a single subject in afterschooling, see how it goes without the full fledged commitment of homeschooling. A little bite at a time. Their time restraints would have to be changed or they will burn themselves out and everyone will lose in the end. We're doing nature study as an afterschooling subject, I work full-time and the kids are in school. I know I could afterschool more but I don't want to take up ALL the kids free time, I want them to be kids. Encourage small steps towards a big change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 I have never done unit studies, but I know that they are great if done right. The only problem might be with the two parents splitting up the HSing duties. They will have to keep very good notes to tell each other what they achieved that day. Just tell your friend that homeschooling is a huge decision. If she feels like it is right for her family, then she should do it. Sacrifices will need to made along the way. I stay home to do this because it is so important to me, but I wish we had the extra income. One of them might need to go part time. Another thing for them to consider is the extra daycare expense while the kids would normally be in school. She should know that this isn't going to be an easy thing to do, but it will be worthwhile and rewarding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracesteacher Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 How any hours a day do kids that age need? My chilld is k and well it varies how much her dad and her do some times she is done in hr and somes they get going and it all day (we do a lot of game based stuff) Thank you so much for all help everyone has been. I think the kids could do great in hs but I don't know how to help them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Robyn Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 He husband is like mine when it comes to school if I give him the lesson and the books he does it if I don't then must be a no school day. I am a HUGE planner she is very by the seat of her pants (we are opposite in most things and that is what we like about the other). She is waiting till the next school year. What products cirriculm should I guideher towards. I know she is going the secular route. She says she wants to classically homeschool but I am not sure. Is there some sort of skills or placement the kids should take? Thank you For someone who doesn't want everything planned out for her, but due to time constraints really needs *some* sort of a plan pre-written, and who wants a secular curriculum, I would encourage her to look at Oak Meadow. They have weekly plans and suggestions and some yearly suggestions (like for K it says something like - Spend time learning to fingerknit this year.) instead of daily plans with every page of every book listed for each day with scripting telling you how to tell your child to pick up a book and read it (not that I've ever actually seen scripting that bad). I've only used the K level so far, so I'm not much help on specifics for different grade levels, but there are samples online and I've read over and over again people saying it is a good balance between having things planned out for them and having flexibility and the ability to plan it out themselves. If she doesn't want to use Oak Meadow I can certainly list plenty of other secular curricula, but many of them are all planned out - with daily plans - maybe all of them. History Odyssey Moving Beyond the Page REAL Science Odyssey McRuffy math, science, and LA MCT Noeo My Pals are Here science K12 WWE the Killgallon books Evan Moor books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hwin Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 My husband and I both work full time and homeschool (one child). We are not really the best people to ask, since an almost-5 year old doesn't require a rigorous curriculum, and have only been doing it since January. I hope that is a thorough enough disclaimer ;) Right now we do a little math and a little phonics and a little reading, every single day of the week. (Except on the days we feel like skipping...) We use Little Hearts for His Glory, but I am going to do my own plan for next year. It's okay but I've customized it so much that it's lost its shape. I use post-it notes on each page to tell my hubby what to do on his days. I will just switch to notebook for next year. I like to plan as far as what curriculum I'm going to use in the coming years, but try to keep no schedule any farther out than 2-3 weeks. And that's just so my husband doesn't say "there weren't any post its so we didn't do anything." Because that has happened (and I see it's not just our family!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 (edited) Honestly, I think you are worrying too much about other people. Their family structure does not match yours and their way of schooling will not match your ideals. It sounds like they are doing their research and figuring out what will work for their family. Personally, I would stay out of it and let them figure it out. (I say this having a friend who homeschools very differently than I do and who, if I sit here thinking over how she homeschools, I would drive myself crazy with criticism of her...so I leave it alone). If you want to share a book or two with them, then that would be fine. But I've known plenty of families that have succeeded at unit studies. Some develop their own and some buy them already together. Honestly, many people hit and miss during the first years of homeschooling and figuring out what works for them. Even if they go with the "perfect curricula" that is working for "all of their friends"...they will probably find that it doesn't work for them. Skills and placement depend upon the curricula she chooses. Some subjects don't require it though (history and science). Edited February 28, 2011 by mommaduck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracesteacher Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Mommaduck thank you for your thoughts however she know I am the researcher so I am getting LOTS of questions and well because my thoughts on how to do this are so different on hs I try not to give advise as much as answering questions with saying look here or there. Things move fast on this board and it seems to overwhelm her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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