New to Afterschooling - Advice/Resources needed

[Guest mygiddygirls]

Hi everyone,

 

I am learning more and more about our public school budget cuts and am very fearful my kids will not have half the knowledge of other kids their age in comparison to when (and where) I went to grade school - and later in middle school and high school. Our schools here seem so far behind esp Tech wise and I'm wondering what I can do to supplement, for all the areas that are being cut! I do many crafts with them, and karate. They are green striped belts and I am working on my 2nd degree brown. I taught them how to read when they were 3.5 using the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (which was great and they are now all the more advanced for their grade). They are 8 and 6.5 - both girls. They also learned sign language with me, starting off when they were babies (using Signing Time).

 

I have earnestly prayed about homeschooling and I got a very clear answer from the Lord that it wasn't the right thing for me and our family. I was rather disappointed - but willing to comply.

 

I'm just now finding out about "afterschooling"...so I'm wondering if anyone here can help guide me to some of the afterschooling resources you all use for ideas, schedules and what they might be missing from their public school curriculum so I know what needs to be supplemented.

 

Thank you in advance! - Kerry:confused:

[Roadrunner]

Which subjects are you interested to afterschool? We can suggest materials if we know what you are looking for.

[Erika]

I like to do things that have short lessons but still provide a great education. I am starting off my afterschooling with the 3R's for ds 6. We use Saxon 1 for math, First language lessons/Writing with ease for language arts and Ordinary Parents guide for phonics.

[Roadrunner]

You can use Story of the World for history. If you are short on time, avoid the additional resources and projects. Just read the chapter and do memory work during the weekdays to reinforce. Artistic Pursuits sounds great for art. We opted for Growing with Grammar in conjunction with FLL. I think that's plenty for a 6 year old. We are letting school take care of science so far (I also have a 6 year old in PS).

[matilda]

I usually chose one or two subjects that I want to focus on and use typical homeschool resources for them. We have been using Singapore math this year as a supplement to their Everyday Math at school. We also do music and art lessons, because those seem to be the first things cut in a budget crunch. And we do a lot of reading. There are afterschoolers who do more, but I find that doing an extra math lesson a day is enough right now. Then we do quite a bit more during the summer.

 

I think that everything you are doing sounds great. If you want to add something else, pick the things that are most important and add them one at a time.

[mathnmusic]

We started afterschooling this year too, after noticing that ds7 and dd5 were just cruising at school...we started afterschooling with piano & Korean from beginner's level, and supplementing with math drill worksheets. I feel like it's good for their brains to learn languages like math, piano and Korean (I consider math and piano a type of language). We also try to do some read-alouds but I haven't been as good about doing that.

 

Anyway, it hasn't always been 100% success (my kids were happy with the way things were before, no surprise :001_smile:), but going better as I gain confidence with it and keep at it. We'll start homeschooling after this year is through, so hopefully we'll still be alive to tell how it's going!

[Roadrunner]

Matilda, I agree with you. First step is determining which subjects are not being taught and if those subjects are important to you. We afterschool history because we believe it's important and our school district only teaches world history in middle school. We don't afterschool arts because we have a wonderful arts program in our school. We work on math and language arts since my kid is well above the K level and wouldn't be progressing otherwise. Also, our school system doesn't teach grammar separately, so we took it in our hands. So everybody’s afterschool schedule will look different.

We do Singapore Math and I would highly recommend it. I don’t want to start another math war, but based on discussions on this board, Saxon may not be the best program to be using for math supplementing, especially if your school district teaches math in a traditional way.

[Guest mygiddygirls]

I don't think I have specific subjects to focus on - like science or geography...but math I think would be beneficial.

 

They both have guitars and I have one too, so I'm hoping to get them out this summer and really learn how to play them and the piano. The guitar has been really difficult...so I started us on the piano.

 

-kg

[kubiac]

Read aloud to your kids. Still. Again. More.

 

See The Read-Aloud Handbook for more pointers on why, how and what.

[Guest furrjen]

Heigh Ho,

 

What would you recommend as a resource for writing for a 10 year old boy?

[mich311e]

Read aloud to your kids. Still. Again. More.

 

See The Read-Aloud Handbook for more pointers on why, how and what.

 

I totally agree. :iagree:

[Guest kheifrin]

Could somebody please tell me what CLE and SOTW means? My imagination is failing me today and I have never heard those terms.

Thanks!

[matilda]

Christian Light Education and Story of the World.