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Your Ideal Homeschool


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It feels like summer is almost here and it puts me in planning mode. What would your ideal homeschool be like? I've got three left to homeschool, and one is fairly moderately/ severe dyslexic( no diagnosis), one older with more stealth dyslexia and possible memory issues and my youngest boy that is pretty nuero typical.

 

I'm trying to put this altogether in my mind. Robotics, minecraft classes, rockets, three d printing and makerspace, are all offered nearby. Art classes? Maybe guitar by ear? Sometimes i feel so bogged down with getting reading,math, and grammar done, there is nothing left. Perhaps a day a week for interests, and library visits. So much time goes into "the basics" that I am not exposing them to new things, or helping them find what truly excites them.

 

I've been considering a new hyrid school, but I'm not sure it will work with our LDs. I have seen high schoolers and my junior high kids really have a strong need to see friends more frequently. No gaurantee that they would make friends though, and the cost is so high. If I took half that money i could make a dent in all of our dream projects and get a weekly massage. Dream with me.

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Chuckle.  Well I can dream, but I also know that DS was floundering until recently because there were virtually no classes or anything else offered for homeschoolers his age.  Just this semester that has changed.  He was taking swim lessons and flew through each level.  He just got invited into the swim club today and is thrilled.  He also is now doing a basketball camp each week and loves it. And now he is in an Engineering class with other homeschoolers learning Mechanical engineering.  He is so much happier and more focused at home now, too.   He has things to look forward to, things that he feels good about.  Interestingly, he has never thought he could swim well or play basketball because he has some coordination and sensory issues but working on those areas of weakness has boosted his confidence so much!

 

DD, too.  She hated being in front of crowds.  But taking Drama she has found she is more than willing to speak out in crowds, to act on stage, and now she is thriving so much after 2 years that the Drama instructor has asked her to take over running the costumes and set design.  She is 14 but the High Schoolers respect her and listen to her.  And she is also doing really well in two different homeschool student councils.

 

Yes, look into those outside interests.  Give them things that inspire them, as much as is possible.  But obviously don't break the bank.   :)  FWIW, basketball is $3 a month.  Drama is $30 a semester.  Swim club is $54 a month.  So we aren't risking financial ruin to do these things.

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Ahh ...One Step thanks for joining in.  Those classes sound great for your son and daughter.  I'm taking notes:)  Drama, yes!  Physical classes like sports..Forgot about this one.  My son would really like this.  I am in dreaming state so money is no object.  When I actually plan, well then, things will be different.  Money will have to be taken into consideration. 

 

But for now . I am escaping the reality of having to listen to my Bartons  9 DVD, and attempting to draw some memory pictures for math terms.  I am wondering what life would be like if it wasn't a series of allergy visits and sitting in my office chair tutoring my kids all day. I am exhausted and whiny and wondering what kinds of wonderful things are in the world?  I aim to find out.   Love your ideas, and even more, I love that your ideal school is the one that you have:)

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TBH, even though the kids were very on board with homeschooling and don't want to change that, it was a dismal scene when we first started.  There was virtually nothing for the kids outside our house.  Our homeschool groups are pretty small and when we first joined, the one we went with was barely doing anything at all.  It was so discouraging since the kids had been in brick and mortar and were used to being around a lot of kids.  They were lonely and bored.  Our school days were filled with remediation and they had little that was positive to focus on.  In fact, Drama Club was the only thing I could find for DD and she absolutely did not want to go.  (But I made her anyway.  I was desperate to find something for her.  Thankfully, she loved it.  And has thrived.)

 

DS was harder.  He loves people.  He thrives around people.  Staying home for hours ever day was really hurting him.  Homeschooling is not widely known or accepted here so our neighbors started making fun of him and rejecting him for being homeschooled.  Old school friends stopped asking him to birthday parties.  It was hard.  It has only been since January that he has found so many things, all started recently.  He was pretty miserable at least part of every week prior to that.  He didn't want to go back to school but homeschooling him was seeming like a pretty unhealthy option, too.  SOOOO nice to see him pumped and focused and happy again.

 

Still, our dream homeschool would include more acceptance of homeschooling in the general community so we wouldn't be seen as such oddballs.  And our dream homeschool would include more academic classes offered locally at the High School level since DD would like to take classes outside the home but only one or two, and only in person.  She is struggling a bit with on-line options.  

 

And our dream homeschool would also come with a maid and a secretary...but maybe I'm stretching the dream scenario a bit much.   :laugh:

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Lost my response, sorry! I wish homeschooling were more mainstream for you . Here it is too big, too specialized. Park day is 40 minutes away, we've never gone. Support groups don't have meetings,instead people know each other from the smaller age oriented groups that the large group had to split into because of size.

Classes are plentiful but expensive and it is all a bit overwhelming. When would we do them? I would have to decrease the amount of school we do , to add in extras. Eventually we need to add some fun things (dreams that can get done)but now, it is too long of a day for me already. I don't get to teach history, science, or lit, anything interesting to me. They would enjoy science, but that doesn't get done either. We start at 8 and get done around 5 (there are breaks, and that is my schedule..not theirs.) They take turns. Three times a week we end early so I can take my oldest daughter for allergy treatments ( takes about 3 hours). My dream would be more balance, less school. Maybe have school 7-12 and call 5 hours good for the younger kids.

 

I can relate to your son's struggles with the isloation. We live in a populated area, but are extremely isolated just trying to stay home all of the time to get the basics done. I have been doing this for ten years, I have 9 left. Yep , I'm counting LOL. We used to have more activities, but my oldest didn't have LDs. The girls have church groups and youngest DD has a scout type of activity once a week. My youngest son has a scout activity most weeks, but is too young for church groups. He would love to be out learning things, doing hands on activities.

Our isolation is probably just a season for us, at least I hope it is. Oldest daughter may not need those treatments after summer, and maybe we can fill that time with something we love. For now , she's pretty sick , and I am online trying to figure this out. I started with how do the fancy uber expensive dyslexic schools do it? Then I started wondering here. Thanks for sharing worth me.

Any other ideas of the dream ideal school are welcome. I am adding ....a cook.

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It is too long, and we need more fun. Perhaps i may have to explore a new math program, My DD 12 needs lots of help there,and i dont think the concepts are being retained, even though i practcally have to reteach every problem. Maybe CLE? I reread my post and Dd12 is reading history and lit and science, we just aren't getting much done with it after that. I want us all to enjoy their childhood more. Maybe we should just work for a certain period of time in a subject , then move on?

Yes a cook definitely.

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I highly recommend trying to find ways to incorporate more joy and excitement into your homeschool day if you possibly can.  As for scheduling, yes I usually try to keep an eye on the clock.  If we go past a certain point and still have a long way to go we shelve it for later or even tomorrow and just move on.  They get burned out and reach a point where there is a law of diminishing returns, KWIM?

 

I started making it a point to schedule in things that they really care about and get fired up over.  It actually has made the day go faster and smoother since they are more motivated to get through everything.  And I am with you, I want to enjoy their childhood.  DD and I frequently take walks early in the morning since she and I are usually up first.  We take pictures of the sun rising, we share ideas and stories, etc.  Then when DS gets up we watch CNN Student News together or listen to a book while we eat breakfast.  I try to break things up so that while DD is working one on one with me, DS is doing stuff he can handle mostly independently, then we switch.  Don't know what I would do if I had more than two, though.  I know that ratchets up the challenges quite a bit....

 

As to math, so far CLE is working well here because there is a lot of review.  Concepts don't get lost once they are mastered since there is never a long period of time when a little built in review doesn't come up.  Sometimes it takes DD a bit to master something but we just keep working at it.  In the meantime each lesson keeps up lots of review of previous concepts so those aren't lost while we target a trouble area.  (We do some practical application math with real live resources, too, though, not just the workbooks).

 

Just make sure you give the free placement tests.  I would go back to level 100 to see if there are any unexpected gaps.  Even if there are only one or two, that will give you an area to target before you start buying curriculum.  Start them wherever they test into but target trouble spots from earlier levels first, if that makes sense.  And if you go with CLE, the flash cards, TM and reference sheets are really helpful.  If you can't afford them, you can probably function without, but they have been a GREAT help here.

 

As for dreaming of the perfect homeschool, I also wish I could freeze time periodically so I could get a bunch of stuff done without any interruptions or outside distractions.  Say maybe 3 hours of every day where the world stops and I can do whatever needs to be done (including taking a nap if that is warranted) but I don't age at all during those 3 hours.   What do you think?  Would that work for you?  :laugh:

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Have you looked at the Marilyn Burns stuff for math or doing living math?  The more I work with ds, the more I'm convinced actual curriculum with problems is a waste for him.  He seems to have this totally different way of processing.  I got him some coin games from Lakeshore Learning, and I love seeing how his brain is working with them.  It's tactile and strategy/problem solving and computation (what to add together to get 27) and... all at once.  Marilyn Burns has these units, some of which she wrote and others in the series not written by her, that are fab.  I got a bunch of the books and plan to try them on ds when I'm done being sick, sigh.  They're the By All Means series.  Here's one to get you started.  Math By All Means: Probability, Grades 3-4  I love our Ronit Bird stuff too.  I'm just saying to me the commonality is that it's REAL.  If regular written math in a nice little sequence (this year add 2 digits, next year 3, the following 4) isn't doing anything, then might as well diverge and do something radically different that might.  I figure we'll go to written math later.

 

With this dc with the LDs, have you considered Cogmed?  The psych I was talking with about it pointed out that it's not so much that the kids can't learn but that they're spending so much energy wrangling with attention and working memory issues in addition to trying to learn.  I think there's evidence that limited working memory affects long-term learning as well.  So cognitive therapy like Cogmed might be another way to make a radical change.  You do 5 weeks to get the main benefit.  My plan/goal is to try dd on it the end of May.

 

I know I shouldn't, but I'll ask.  What's her allergy therapy that is taking 3 hours?  Does that include transportation?  I used to have food allergies and hang with people with food allergies, including a friend who was starving and down to about 5 foods due to anaphylactic reactions to everything (literally).  She used this nutritionist I know who rebuilds the body with food, and her food allergies are gone.  My food reactions are gone, and I had started having anaphylactic reactions.  If you want a very different option, it's something to look into.  She works with people by phone/fax, so you can be anywhere.

 

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You asked about dream school.  I feel like we live our dream school, to the extent we have energy.  When we work on disability stuff, we work hard.  When we study, it's because we want to.  When we play, we play hard.  We work hard on our disability stuff so we CAN have time to play and be guilt free.  I give him no choice on working hard and I give him great freedom everywhere else.  And I spit on anyone who says we're not doing it right, because I know we're doing what fits him and that he's thriving on it.  

 

That's my dream, and it took me 11 years of homeschooling to get to the point where I was semi-confident enough to embrace it.  

 

I've had my own health problems, and I know life is hard.  I wish life weren't so hard, but it is.  It's the transition from dreamland to reality and adulthood, that things are hard and not ideal.  But we survive.  Hard work doesn't kill anyone; it builds character.  My ds has striking character and ability to do hard things BECAUSE he's had to do hard things.  I don't think we have to shy away from this or act like something is going wrong because it's hard.  Too easy, too glib, this would be a problem.  Hard, having to make choices on what we value, having to pull together and re-emphasize kindness and patience and consideration, this all just builds character.  

 

But I agree, slave help would be nice.  Teach your kids to be slaves.  Don't do things for them they can do for themselves.  Because of his sequencing issues my ds will let people do for him.  I have to make a lot of effort not to baby him but to teach him the steps (no matter how many times) and require him to do it for himself.  He can get his glass of water.  He can get an apple and wash it for a snack.  He CAN do these things but because of his disability he's not likely to do them without extra explicit instruction.  This week I had him strip his bed and wash the sheets.  Dh thought he couldn't do it, but he COULD.  He just needed explicit instruction to know the steps.  Feel free to teach your kids to do a lot of work.  They can cook for you, clean for you, shop for you.  Teach them.  

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You all are giving me a lot to think about thanks! I think scheduling ( shudder) is key. I'm all about balanced life for my college boy and not so much for the rest of us. I am going to look into those math resources! Thank you! Next step is to schedule a LD eval. I want to make sure I am on the right track with her. I had a bad day yesterday and was a little down when i posted. My oldest Ds is gifted and I handed him books at this age (calvert) and he just did it. Then we had lunch, and played. I 'have been fighting the realization for years that most kids need ..gulp ..actual teaching. Some of mine need more time and attention than others.

 

Today we had a scheduled day off and were all about just dance.

 

Also Oh Elizabeth great ideas. My kids do need a few more chores and I think my DS would actually enjoy making breakfast. Now I need someone to make lunch... :) We used to do freezer cooking and looks like that might be a great option again. Play is going to happen ...with me. I love to read outloud and snuggle so that goes back on the list too. I get too task oriented and perhaps just too focused on accamedics and where they need to be.

 

The allergy appointments require an hour commute. It is sort of alternative treament, but that DD seems to be on the verge of some sort of auto immune prob. It is helping, but way too slow. She is ill most days, and is a lovely person and a hard worker, but can't get much done right now. So we are hopeful for her, but it is wearing.

 

Now I'm off to schedule in fun. Thanks you all!

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I know, that's what I was on the path for 14 years ago.  Trying to remember what it was called, something dessensitization. I was in some very alternative circles at the time, with MCS, going to an enviro doc, doing chelation, etc. I don't know.  Obviously you're doing what you're doing.  I'm just saying I've btdt, heard some things about it, and ended up going a different way that improved some of my symptoms immediately. With the enviro docs it was always keep believing us, eventually you'll get through our magic treatments and feel better.  With the nutritionist, I started to see small bits of progress very quickly. She rebuilt my digestion, reversed the terribly overreactive immune system, got me to where I could tolerate conventional food and eat out. Might be something to consider.  It's not like you *can't* do nutrition on top of the other stuff.  

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