What are your main reasons for afterschooling?

[djunec]

We  have done it all. Homeschool, public and now we are back in Private school where I feel pretty comfortable with my kids (although to be honest I miss HS in many ways and I have not ruled it out for the future).  But I still feel like a few things are lacking.  History is my main concern, followed by a rigorous grammar program.  I also want to continue with our Latin, we have taken a break to allow them to adjust to being back at a traditional school.   These are the main things I hope to focus on in our afterschooling (my kids are 8 and 7). What are your main focuses and why?     

[SKL]

Most of what I do at home academically is to make up for the fact that my oldest doesn't really take in what is taught in school that well.  She learns so much better one-on-one.  So I cover a lot of different things at home, with the biggest emphases being on the basic skills needed to succeed generally (the "three Rs"), and also learning how to learn.  For my youngest, who has no problems learning in school, I encourage her to dig deeper etc., but more to keep her from being bored with easy academics.  Perhaps if she gets easier to guide as she matures, I might get more formal with her.

[emmanizzysmama]

We choose to send our daughter to a dual language magnet school (there are no immersion schools in the area). Science and Social Studies are taught is Spanish. We were  warned that for the first few years, students in the dual language program would be behind their monolingual peers, after which they would catch up. I have no monolingual program to compare it with, but I feel like math is not focused on enough. Subjects are touched upon, but not mastered. I afterschool to give her a solid foundation in math and to keep her on track with her monolingual peers in terms of reading and writing. I will add a spelling program this summer because she is reading at about a third grade level but still spelling like a first grader or below. Spelling was not taught in K or 1st here. It's basically to cover the gaps in her education.

[Uff Da!]

nm

[kiwik]

Because school doesn't seem to teach much. I do is weak area to help him keep up and his strong areas to stop him losing interest.

[MiMi 4under3]

My daughter is working through Saxon because she has large gaps in her basic math skills.  

 

 

[EKS]

My main reason is that the "rigorous" private school doesn't teach math, English, or history. 

[nansk]

1. My dd needs a LOT more re-teaching in Maths, and extra coaching in English composition and mother tongue composition than the school provides.

 

2. School composition is only narratives (creative writing) and usually about a very limited number of situations. I want to teach expository and persuasive writing, too.

 

3. The schools here don't teach any history upto sixth grade and even after that, there is, imo, too much focus on the brief history of Singapore. I want to teach chronological world history.

 

ETA:

4. I taught phonics and spelling rules to dd in kindergarten. Her primary school did one year of basic phonics, but there is no spelling instruction. Spelling lesson in school means memorizing words and phrases.

 

5. There is no instruction on cursive writing in school.

[mathnerd]

My main reason is that the "rigorous" private school doesn't teach math, English, or history. 

I have similar reasons. In our case, the "rigorous" private school does not teach math, science or history. The expensive private school also does not teach foreign languages until 3rd grade.

[kiwik]

I have similar reasons. In our case, the "rigorous" private school does not teach math, science or history. The expensive private school also does not teach foreign languages until 3rd grade.

This seems to be something I am hearing a lot. Not the expensive private school bit since our city only has one and is only the 2 intermediate years but the whole "the school doesn't teach even the basics". When did it happen? We didn't do languages until high school or any history or geography to speak of but we did do read, write and do maths every day.

[Mrs. Tharp]

My oldest ds is in a private school for behavioral issues and they do not teach anything other than behavior/social stuff very well. I afterschool to keep the academic gap between him and his peers from widening even further. I just give the youngest lots of enrichment in content subjects right now.

[BuddhaMama]

Our girls (kinder and 1st grade) go to an IB French language immersion school. 1st grader is gifted; we do all of her math instruction at home (she's a few grades above grade level; school wasn't able/willing to accommodate). Our daughter in kinder is also working a grade level above in math, so we give her supplemental math work.

 

For both girls we also do English reading/ language arts since it's not taught at school. 

 

 

[IsabelC]

I'm finding afterschooling very hard (how are we meant to have time to do everything when they spend so much time in $%^ school? I really wish they could do school 2 days a week...), so we're working only on the basics. Ms 8 it's mostly reading, because that is her greatest challenge, with a bit of math thrown in when we get time. Ms 5 I'm not doing anywhere near as much as I'd like, but with her music practice she doesn't have that much spare time, and I think it's important that she gets unstructured time. But I'm still plugging away trying to improve her reading (she is accelerated, so doesn't learn any at school), again with math when we can manage it.

 

I am seriously considering going back to home educating all the kids next year.