For Fun: Homeschool Things You Just Don't Get (no hate)

[Guest]

Egypt.

 

None of us are fascinated, not even a little.

 

I think it's genetic.

Hahahaha literally laughing out loud. "Egypt."

 

I agree a million times over.

[scrapbookbuzz]

Sonlight Language Arts, never could get into that. Tried two or three times.

Sonlight IG scheduling. The format just never quite worked for, or made sense to, me.

 

I do LOVE the Sonlight literature offerings, however! And have quite a bit of it!

 

ROSETTA STONE. Ugh. We bought the Spanish one at a really decent deal for RS.

Could not get into it. And the kids got really frustrated with all the forced review. It seemed

difficult every time to get them to a place where they could move ON in the lesson.

 

The price tag of Classical Converstations. I get the attraction, somewhat, in having a "forced" deadline

to have work completed and be prepared to present it to an outside party (so to speak) but paying over

$1000 for that and some books is beyond me. I have a $1000 worth of books from grad school but that's different.

 

ETA: to address the lapbooks. We've done some and enjoyed them. Just to clarify, though, they are not meant to 

teach your child the subject matter. They are meant to be used to summarize what they've learned. An alternative to 

writing a report. If you have a hands on student like I do, or one that struggles with dysgraphia, is dyslexic, etc, it can

be a great alternative to an essay or book report.

Edited January 14, 2017 by scrapbookbuzz

[Guest]

Sonlight Language Arts, never could get into that. Tried two or three times.

Sonlight IG scheduling. The format just never quite worked for, or made sense to, me.

 

I do LOVE the Sonlight literature offerings, however! And have quite a bit of it!

 

ROSETTA STONE. Ugh. We bought the Spanish one at a really decent deal for RS.

Could not get into it. And the kids got really frustrated with all the forced review. It seemed

difficult every time to get them to a place where they could move ON in the lesson.

 

The price tag of Classical Converstations. I get the attraction, somewhat, in having a "forced" deadline

to have work completed and be prepared to present it to an outside party (so to speak) but paying over

$1000 for that and some books is beyond me. I have a $1000 worth of books from grad school but that's different.

Yes, yes, and yes!!!!

[scrapbookbuzz]

Okay, so it's not something that I don't get, but it's something that others don't get, and I still don't get quite how to explain it to them. (Does that make sense?)

 

People who are interested in or new at homeschooling, who ask me how to homeschool.  I have absolutely no idea how YOU should/could/would homeschool.  I barely know how I'm doing it, and I'm 10 years in!

Yes, that makes sense. I've never had that particular question but I would think a decent response might be,

"Are you asking me how I homeschool or how I think you should homeschool?" continuing with, "Because honestly those two things may or may not look the same. Just know that your first year may well be the hardest and it will look different from your fifth year. Don't worry about whether or not you think you can do it. You won't know until you jump in!"

 

Or something to that effect.

[KungFuPanda]

Homeschoolers who don't take Snow Days. We rarely get snow but every time we do some homeschooled posts on FB that their kids don't take snow days. God himself is telling you to relax and enjoy Netflix for a day!

In homeschooling, what do you not get that's probably actually pretty good?

 

 

 

 

I do not get Bravewriter. It's so wonderfully feel good, but when I actually read it, there's not much "there" there. Just affirmations. BUT people I respect use it and love it!

 

I do not get lap books. I want to , it's such a lovely idea, I even bought the colored folders and had the staplers and templates. I even YouTubed. I ended up with a pile of crumpled, sad office supplies. People who do 'em, good for you! I just lack the necessary coordination or creativity or .... spatial awareness? I don't know. Not trying again. Will admire from a distance.

 

** Please let's play nice-- no venting / hate. **

Co-ops. I don't understand the allure. About as antithetical to my personality type as can be. To me it's the equivalent of volunteering for a group project in university when there was another option.

And lapbooks. The busywork aspect loses me. Maybe when they're older I will see the benefit but right now it just looks like a ton of work on my part for five minutes on theirs.

We don't take snow days. I WANT to, but I take too many It's-too-pretty-to-be-inside days to allow snow days too.

 

I actually adored Bravewriter. It fit our feast-or-famine approach to writing and worked better than more schedule oriented, spelled out programs. We chose what we liked and did it. I ended up producing a serious writer, so maybe it speaks to a type. This was back before it was expanded beyond the binder and the arrow. I think there was a yahoo group.

 

I LOVE co-ops for taking a few things off my plate at the high school level. I NEVER want to be responsible for planning another lab again. I'm delighted to outsource foreign language classes. I didn't do a co-op with little kids, but with middle school and up it's been nice for us. We're only about 4 miles from co-op, so that helps.

 

What I don't get is:

 

1.Waldorf method -nobody who does it can explain it except in very vague terms. It's like a secret club you have to be IN to understand.

 

2. People who sign up for co-ops then skip days because they aren't feeling it or drop the class when their kid doesn't want to do homework. Dude, you KNOW yourself. Why did you sign up for something if you've got no follow through?

 

3. EVERY kid is gifted . . . especially if they're 8 or younger. Kids, in general, are bright and eager learners. That should be enough for a while.

 

4. People who incessantly ask "When will you offer this class for younger kids?" Lady, the age minimum is there for a reason. Asking the same question over and over won't change the answer. How 'bout YOU start a younger class.

 

5. People who try to start events at 8 a.m. and act baffled that nobody signed up.

 

6. Sonlight science - they lulled me into a false sense of security by using Usborne hooks and gathering all of the science supplies for me, then WHAMMO, we get a copy of Dinosaurs and the Bible in second grade.

Edited January 14, 2017 by KungFuPanda

[scrapbookbuzz]

Oh, and Learning Language Arts Through Literature.

Tried it TWICE. When I looked at it in the store, it looked beautiful and I totally 

understood it. Or so I thought.

When I brought it home and tried to implement it, it was a different story altogether. 

 

Now I'm using WriteShop. Same story as LLATL but I have figured out how to make it

work for me and I'm friends with Kim Kautzer (co-author) so if I have any questions, I can

ask HER.  :D

Edited January 14, 2017 by scrapbookbuzz

[TammyS]

 

Science experiments for primary students - personal torture for me!

 

 

 

:iagree:

So not doing that.

[mom2scouts]

Homeschoolers who don't take Snow Days. We rarely get snow but every time we do some homeschooled posts on FB that their kids don't take snow days. God himself is telling you to relax and enjoy Netflix for a day!

 

We never take snow days. Snow is pretty common here, so we wait and take off those first few beautiful, sunny days of spring.

[Guest]

I love Egypt. Cats are deity, obviously!

 

I still keep my little Ancient Egypt Toob figures because they are fun to look at.

[Guest]

Not strictly Homeschool obviously, but, Shakespeare.

[Jaybee]

I have definitely found my tribe.  :001_smile:  :party:

 

From oldest to youngest, my kids are pretty spread out, so I have had a lot of years to morph. With the last two, it is definitely minimalist. They want to cut to the chase. I DID recently tell my youngest (who wanted to cut out some of the chase as well), that I do not require ANY busywork for him. So if I ask him to do something, it is because there is a specific reason for it, and he needs to just do it. (He did.) Because of our own repulsion of spending time doing wasteful activities, I wonder sometimes how they will deal with bureaucracy in a job or activity in the future. 

 

For the first time ever, we are in a position to participate in a coop (more of a tutorial). Ds is only taking one elective, which is in an area of great interest for him. However, he isn't getting anywhere near the depth and intensity he would prefer from that class. Not sure if we will do any more or not...

 

And for the youngest, I am using a textbook for literature this year, so we talk through the unit review questions. I sometimes disagree with even the answers to the objective questions. Am I spoiling him from ever being able to do well on a test, because I often understand the questions from the same perspective he does, which does not provide the "expected" answer?  :P Really. 

 

I hope they are going to be okay... I really like them.

[Guest]

I have definitely found my tribe. :001_smile: :party:

 

Because of our own repulsion of spending time doing wasteful activities, I wonder sometimes how they will deal with bureaucracy in a job or activity in the future.

 

I hope they are going to be okay... I really like them.

They'll be fine! Hopefully they'll become entrepreneurs and not have to deal with it. They can have minions for that! Just steer them away from any government positions, local or larger and that should be the first step. ;) I hate bureaucracy and stupid rules, and got many a job because of that- and because I was great at finding loopholes to escape pointless rules. It's a skillset you're nurturing there! :)

[Wabi Sabi]

"Outsourcing everything"

 

 

Not that I don't get any outsourcing... just that I don't get "Outsourcing everything" as in all of it...

 

Ha. I was just explaining to a friend earlier this week who was asking me about how homeschooling works that even though legally I'm still considered a homeschooler that I really think of myself more of an educational planner and chauffeur. My 12 year old has virtually everything outsourced at this point because it's the DIY private education that I can afford, plus it is more individualized and flexible than anything we could find in a traditional school, and there isn't a lot of secular school choice in my area. I like being able to choose his curriculum, something over which I'd have no control in another setting, but letting others take charge of teaching it.  

[Wheres Toto]

I agree with:

 

workboxes (tried them a few times)

the 36 folder system (how do you plan the pace of the entire year ahead of time?? Don't your kids sometimes struggle in one area but not in others?)

reading bits and pieces from multiple books each day (ugh, would drive us all nuts)

uniforms (we stay in pjs until we have to leave the house)

manipulatives (dd HATED cuisinaire rods.  All the others - unifix blocks, base 10 blocks, etc etc etc - were just something to play with and a distraction)

lapbooks (too much work)

unit studies (too disjointed)

Boxed curriculum (how do so many people have kids working at the exact same pace in every single subject?)

 

 

Co-ops and BraveWriter - I agree but we are about to start with a BraveWriter co-op the end of the month.   :lol:   It's not a big, formal co-op, just a bunch of moms who decided to see if they would be better at doing the BW projects if they had accountability to a group.  We shall see.  I like the projects in Partnership Writing and Jot It Down.  I just could never get organized enough to build them into our days.  The Wand was okay when dd was younger but didn't really seem like enough, and I don't like The Arrows I have at all.  If they were just literature units, I think they'd be fine.  But they try to thrown in grammar, spelling, etc. but since you can do them in whatever order you want, it ends up disjointed (IMO).

 

Ds likes worksheets/workbooks/textbooks and learns very well from them.  Much better than from any hands-on project based ideas.

[SporkUK]

Not strictly Homeschool obviously, but, Shakespeare.

:iagree:

 

I live not that far from Stratford upon Avon and so many want to treat it as very serious business.  There is a big move here it get his works earlier and earlier in primary schools because "it's true English culture" and I'm like "you know he was popular and long-lived because of wide - particularly bawdy - appeal and that very poetic sounding line you think the little ones should memorize is about genitals, right? That the title 'Much Ado About Nothing' is a pun about the same?"

 

Yes, that's very English/British humour, but kids talk about butts and stuff enough that I don't feel the need to tell them how to do in Early Modern English. I also don't see the point in sanitizing it for a younger audience because it's *~Shakespeare~* when we could just enjoy and discuss it fully and awkwardly when they're older. I'd love to take them to a live production, particularly by the RSC with the old pronunciations which would be amazing, but as entertainment that we can talk about not with the idea that a 1500-1600s white guy writing clever puns, sex jokes, and butchering history to make it more entertaining is the height of their culture that we need to spend years dissecting his work and treating it as all serious enlightened stuff.

 

So many other great authors, I do not have the will to treat Will as the guy. 

 

EDIT:

I also do not get the much recommended elsewhere of having older siblings help younger ones. Here that leads to giggling or screaming within 5 minutes if that. The most that has ever worked is having an older child read aloud with a younger child next to them that's playing/messing with other books and by works, I mean they're both doing something so I can actually work with someone else.  

 

I, along with many others here it seems, do not get the radical unschooling and counting everything as more than it is. Locally, many of them love to brag about how little they do vs how much their kids know and only advice to any issue is "just wait, they'll get it later/when they're older/if it's important...." and on the same local board a panic every year about catching up to do GCSEs or something. They're all the same people calling every little thing by some fancy education title as if to prove they are doing things? It's very confusing and - having heard so many versions of how other's kids magically learned to read/multiply without any teaching while mine are more the eager-but-struggle types - kinda frustrating because the wait advice has never helped here. 

 

I only have a denim skirt or two, no jumpers, though most of the HE parents here tend to be more tie dye and knitted sweaters. 

Edited January 14, 2017 by SporkUK

[Daria]

Copywork.

 

We didn't start homeschooling until my son was past the age at which is suggested, but as a former elementary school teacher (I now teach high school), I can't wrap my mind around this as a practice. 

[Rebel Yell]

As someone else said, I don't get radical unschooling. Some days you need to do what I say and brush your teeth and learn how to count your change.

I also don't get the derision I receive when I don't tow the party line about how awesome it is that my kids can hang out with kids of all ages. Yes, my highschooler can hang (babysit) with your ten year old. She doesn't want to. She also doesn't want to hang with your 13 year old because they are both teens. She wants to hang with her friends who are her age so they don't have to police what they are saying and the field trip doesn't have to be brought down to the younger kids level.

OH MY GOSH YEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! And while I'm totally impressed that your nine year old can do post doctorate level calculus or whatever, NO she can't be in the teen social group. And your four year old winning the "Miss Cutie Pie" trophy at her dance competition doesn't mean she can go to the homeschool Prom.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Rebel Yell

[HSmomof2]

OH MY GOSH YEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! And while I'm totally impressed that your nine year old can do post doctorate level calculus or whatever, NO she can't be in the teen social group. And your four year old winning the "Miss Cutie Pie" trophy at her dance competition doesn't mean she can go to the homeschool Prom.

ITA^^^ with this.....and I've been so much more aware of it now that my dc are older. They rarely want to do anything that is with the local homeschool groups because even if activity says ages 10+, it will primarily be 7-8 year olds.

[Onceuponatime]

Things I bought/tried but dropped:

 

Konos and Sonlight, kept a lot of the books. Co-ops, Latin, and Formal Logic. Textbooks in elementary, eased into them in middle school, starting with science. I adapted the four year history cycle to three years and every fourth year we do world geography/world religions. I use lots of books, few projects.

 

Math:

*All math manipulatives except base ten blocks and wrap-ups. Including: c rods, fraction tiles, gram/centimeter cubes (These still get used as building blocks, never were used for math or science.), and other things long forgotten.

*Saxon math, Boxed math work books, LOF, Math mammoth.

 

 

I also don't do crafty stuff or science experiments in the younger grades. I don't get giving elementary aged kids grades on their work. I just make sure they are progressing at a steady clip and review/correct when needed. I even avoid grading in middle school years.

 

I don't get fancy, expensive, time consuming, reading programs. I did one for the first kid but the rest learned well on 100 Easy lessons plus phonics and sight word flash cards. Also, they read something aloud to me every school day through 3rd grade. One of my kids balked at 100 easy lessons because he wanted to read what his siblings were reading right away. So, we read our way through Harry Potter and the Sorceror's stone, sounding out one word at a time, one sentence at a time.

 

I also don't do detailed daily lesson plans. At the beginning of the year I decide how much of each subject needs to be done each week to finish by the end of the school year, allowing for sick days, vacations and unexpected days off. Each kid gets a general weekly schedule and book/ material lists, I provide guidance as needed. It works for us.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Onceuponatime

[Onceuponatime]

Copywork.

 

We didn't start homeschooling until my son was past the age at which is suggested, but as a former elementary school teacher (I now teach high school), I can't wrap my mind around this as a practice.

I had repressed this memory. Copy work and dictation, shudder.

[Crimson Wife]

Yes! Who are those children who play quietly in their high chairs with a bowl of rice?? Not in my house. Or yours either, apparently.

 

Be careful what you wish for because my child who actually WAS content to just play quietly in her playpen or high chair as a baby turned out to have autism. She wasn't "chill" like I had naively thought- she was lost in her own little world :(

 

[Mergath]

:iagree:

 

I live not that far from Stratford upon Avon and so many want to treat it as very serious business.  There is a big move here it get his works earlier and earlier in primary schools because "it's true English culture" and I'm like "you know he was popular and long-lived because of wide - particularly bawdy - appeal and that very poetic sounding line you think the little ones should memorize is about genitals, right? That the title 'Much Ado About Nothing' is a pun about the same?"

 

Yes, that's very English/British humour, but kids talk about butts and stuff enough that I don't feel the need to tell them how to do in Early Modern English. I also don't see the point in sanitizing it for a younger audience because it's *~Shakespeare~* when we could just enjoy and discuss it fully and awkwardly when they're older. I'd love to take them to a live production, particularly by the RSC with the old pronunciations which would be amazing, but as entertainment that we can talk about not with the idea that a 1500-1600s white guy writing clever puns, sex jokes, and butchering history to make it more entertaining is the height of their culture that we need to spend years dissecting his work and treating it as all serious enlightened stuff.

 

So many other great authors, I do not have the will to treat Will as the guy. 

 

EDIT:

I also do not get the much recommended elsewhere of having older siblings help younger ones. Here that leads to giggling or screaming within 5 minutes if that. The most that has ever worked is having an older child read aloud with a younger child next to them that's playing/messing with other books and by works, I mean they're both doing something so I can actually work with someone else.  

 

I, along with many others here it seems, do not get the radical unschooling and counting everything as more than it is. Locally, many of them love to brag about how little they do vs how much their kids know and only advice to any issue is "just wait, they'll get it later/when they're older/if it's important...." and on the same local board a panic every year about catching up to do GCSEs or something. They're all the same people calling every little thing by some fancy education title as if to prove they are doing things? It's very confusing and - having heard so many versions of how other's kids magically learned to read/multiply without any teaching while mine are more the eager-but-struggle types - kinda frustrating because the wait advice has never helped here. 

 

I only have a denim skirt or two, no jumpers, though most of the HE parents here tend to be more tie dye and knitted sweaters. 

 

:lol:  I love Shakespeare, but yup, he was one dirty dude. I was an English major, and my 5000-level Shakespeare course was pretty much the professor pointing out all the bawdy stuff and yelling loud enough for everyone in the building to hear that Shakespeare was a "dirty, dirty bastard." Lol. It was fantastic. :D

 

I'm in a couple unschooling FB groups (partly because some of the topics are interesting, partly because it's a train wreck and I can't help watching) and I swear, if I see another person say that their child is learning "advanced engineering principles" or whatever from playing with Legos, I will scream. And no, your child is not learning animation and computer programming from playing Far Cry 4. They are learning how to play Far Cry 4, the end. And they are definitely not learning how to write an essay from the Youtube comment section.

 

[ondreeuh]

3. EVERY kid is gifted . . . especially if they're 8 or younger. Kids, in general, are bright and eager learners. That should be enough for a while.

 

 

 

Oh, yes!

 

I spend a lot of time in the library and in waiting areas with other homeschooling moms. If I had a nickel for every time one told me they decided to homeschool because their gifted child wasn't challenged in school..... and it's not that I ask, it's like they feel the need to explain their choices. I take parents at their word - but so far all of these "gifted" kids are doing grade-level Teaching Textbooks or Saxon, using the grade-level reading textbook the school issued, and not doing much, if any, science, history or composition. Or the kid doing 100% Acellus online. I have yet to meet a kid who is accelerated beyond moving up one grade level in TT.

 

One mom I spent a lot of time with was very clear about how her daughter was too bright for the public school, loves to read all the time, etc. She was clear that she chose homeschooling because her daughter was too smart for PS. So I was surprised when the kid told my son she was starting to learn subtraction in second grade (turns out they were using Saxon a year behind). Their social studies was just reading Which Way USA magazines. They weren't interested in joining Battle of the Books because the books were too hard. OK then. And I know the public schools here aren't bad.

 

Either your kid is too gifted for the PS and you need to step up your game, or your kid is average and you need to accept it. Meanwhile, I keep my mouth shut about what my kid is learning.

 

Where I live, homeschooling is a widely accepted choice. There are numerous publicly-funded homeschool programs that you can sign up for that will issue you a $2000 allotment to spend on curricula and classes, so most people pick one of those. What I see happening is that many parents make the decision to homeschool without really owning it, because they let their advisor hand them a stack of PS curriculum on grade level and they think they have to stick to it. I have met people who didn't know they could choose something other than Saxon, TT, or GoMath, or that their kids could read novels instead of reading textbooks for literature. And people who didn't know their kids could use materials above or below their grade level.

[Mergath]

ITA^^^ with this.....and I've been so much more aware of it now that my dc are older. They rarely want to do anything that is with the local homeschool groups because even if activity says ages 10+, it will primarily be 7-8 year olds.

 

It's not just homeschool groups. Our library has a lot of free activities for kids, and while they are constantly putting on the announcements things like "This program is ONLY appropriate for children ages 8+" or whatever it happens to be, parents will inevitably show up, drop off two or three toddlers and/or preschoolers, and leave. No matter what the activity is, it always turns into babysitting for kids not old enough to be in school yet. I volunteer for a lot of stuff, and it is so aggravating to be wrangling four or five toddlers when you're supposed to be teaching tweens about art or robotics or something. And our children's librarian is scared to say anything because if the parents complain the director will chew her out. :(

 

ETA: Oh, and Girl Scouts, too! Why, why, why would you bring a toddler boy to a Girl Scout meeting for eight-year-olds and just leave him there???

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by Mergath

[Janie Grace]

The common homeschooler approach to learning problems (in some of my kids' case, disabilities):

~ "He'll be fine -- he's just a BOY!" 

~ "All kids progress at their own rates."
~ "At least he is home with you! That's invaluable." (As if being home with mom is always better than being taught by people who have degrees in special education!?!?)

And then the Learning Rx approach: "He is basically braindead, just give us $15,000 and we will fix the problem."  :lol:

 

Also, the Ancients. Forever and ever and ever (at least that's what it felt like).

 

 

 

[Mergath]

Oh, yes!

 

I spend a lot of time in the library and in waiting areas with other homeschooling moms. If I had a nickel for every time one told me they decided to homeschool because their gifted child wasn't challenged in school..... and it's not that I ask, it's like they feel the need to explain their choices. I take parents at their word - but so far all of these "gifted" kids are doing grade-level Teaching Textbooks or Saxon, using the grade-level reading textbook the school issued, and not doing much, if any, science, history or composition. Or the kid doing 100% Acellus online. I have yet to meet a kid who is accelerated beyond moving up one grade level in TT.

 

One mom I spent a lot of time with was very clear about how her daughter was too bright for the public school, loves to read all the time, etc. She was clear that she chose homeschooling because her daughter was too smart for PS. So I was surprised when the kid told my son she was starting to learn subtraction in second grade (turns out they were using Saxon a year behind). Their social studies was just reading Which Way USA magazines. They weren't interested in joining Battle of the Books because the books were too hard. OK then. And I know the public schools here aren't bad.

 

Either your kid is too gifted for the PS and you need to step up your game, or your kid is average and you need to accept it. Meanwhile, I keep my mouth shut about what my kid is learning.

 

Where I live, homeschooling is a widely accepted choice. There are numerous publicly-funded homeschool programs that you can sign up for that will issue you a $2000 allotment to spend on curricula and classes, so most people pick one of those. What I see happening is that many parents make the decision to homeschool without really owning it, because they let their advisor hand them a stack of PS curriculum on grade level and they think they have to stick to it. I have met people who didn't know they could choose something other than Saxon, TT, or GoMath, or that their kids could read novels instead of reading textbooks for literature. And people who didn't know their kids could use materials above or below their grade level.

 

In all fairness, I think it's totally possible for a child to be too smart for public school, but not technically "gifted" according to IQ testing. It all depends on the local school.

[Barb_]

Be careful what you wish for because my child who actually WAS content to just play quietly in her playpen or high chair as a baby turned out to have autism. She wasn't "chill" like I had naively thought- she was lost in her own little world :(

 

Aw, hugs. (No emojis right now) Edited January 14, 2017 by Barb_

[Rachel]

:lol: I love Shakespeare, but yup, he was one dirty dude. I was an English major, and my 5000-level Shakespeare course was pretty much the professor pointing out all the bawdy stuff and yelling loud enough for everyone in the building to hear that Shakespeare was a "dirty, dirty bastard." Lol. It was fantastic. :D

 

I'm in a couple unschooling FB groups (partly because some of the topics are interesting, partly because it's a train wreck and I can't help watching) and I swear, if I see another person say that their child is learning "advanced engineering principles" or whatever from playing with Legos, I will scream. And no, your child is not learning animation and computer programming from playing Far Cry 4. They are learning how to play Far Cry 4, the end. And they are definitely not learning how to write an essay from the Youtube comment section.

 

Yours is my favorite post of the day!

[ondreeuh]

In all fairness, I think it's totally possible for a child to be too smart for public school, but not technically "gifted" according to IQ testing. It all depends on the local school.

 

Sure. But the schools here are not bad. They are the most selective district in the state about the teachers they hire, they use decent curricula, have specials, etc. I'm not sure about how much differentiation they do, but it's hard for me to imagine that average students are bored. I need to connect with a friend of mine who is a fourth grade teacher and ask her thoughts.

 

The parents I meet are volunteering the info that their child is gifted and accelerated, and at least the accelerated part is not true. I have met talented kids who probably are gifted, but their parents don't brag about it. I know gifted kids can look unremarkable, but I really do believe that what I'm seeing is explained by parents not understanding what their kid is learning in school, and not having a yardstick to compare them to. Every kid is special. Only a few are academically gifted.

 

[Mergath]

For those who didn't "get" Cuisenaire rods, you obviously never used them to make fences for counting bears to reenact the Battle of Gettysburg! You missed out. 

 

 

Lol... my dd did this with hers when I spent too much time on the phone with my mom the other day and she was trying to get my attention. I don't think she's used them for actual math in a couple years.

[Bluegoat]

I don't get literature based, living books, no-textbooks programs for science and social studies .....

 

For me the issue is mainly that I don't think there are any very good science programs for elementary or maybe even middle school aged kids.  And maybe its the nature of the subject. 

[Amy in NH]

Oh my word, yes! We have a local homeschool group, where parents hire teachers to teach specific classes (so not a co-op). But the last couple of years they started offering a three, and then four day a week, full day offering. The parents call themselves homeschoolers, but I'm thinking "um, you're private schoolers! Just with an extra day off!" I mean they don't teach anything. They have a teacher who controls every single class. I haven't figured out how that works out as homeschooling really....

 

In NH that would be an illegal unapproved private school, and there are some here.

[lllll]

nm 

 

Edited January 17, 2017 by .qp_

[Bluegoat]

It's not just homeschool groups. Our library has a lot of free activities for kids, and while they are constantly putting on the announcements things like "This program is ONLY appropriate for children ages 8+" or whatever it happens to be, parents will inevitably show up, drop off two or three toddlers and/or preschoolers, and leave. No matter what the activity is, it always turns into babysitting for kids not old enough to be in school yet. I volunteer for a lot of stuff, and it is so aggravating to be wrangling four or five toddlers when you're supposed to be teaching tweens about art or robotics or something. And our children's librarian is scared to say anything because if the parents complain the director will chew her out. :(

 

ETA: Oh, and Girl Scouts, too! Why, why, why would you bring a toddler boy to a Girl Scout meeting for eight-year-olds and just leave him there???

 

 

Gosh!  We have the age problem here too, particularly with people bringing pre-schoolers to elementary school topics, as there isn't much for lder kids anyway.

 

But no one ever seems to just drop the kids off - the parents all stay.  Which is tricky when you also have a bunch of smaller kids.  (Actually, maybe that is the problem...)

[EmseB]

I still keep my little Ancient Egypt Toob figures because they are fun to look at.

 

I love all Toobs.

[Guest]

The common homeschooler approach to learning problems (in some of my kids' case, disabilities):

~ "He'll be fine -- he's just a BOY!"

~ "All kids progress at their own rates."

~ "At least he is home with you! That's invaluable." (As if being home with mom is always better than being taught by people who have degrees in special education!?!?)

And then the Learning Rx approach: "He is basically braindead, just give us $15,000 and we will fix the problem." :lol:

 

 

Ohmygoodness, YES.

[HS Mom in NC]

I don't get the downloaded, pre-designed lapbook.  We make our lapbooks for our ancients studies out of all the assignments we've completed (you know, all those coloring, narration/copywork, geography, hands on project assignments in the Activity books that go with SOTW.) I'm not into them for the cutting and pasting, I want them to be assignments the kid did themselves. As of 2nd grade we just put them in 3 ring binders because youngest didn't enjoy crafts after the novelty of that year wore off.

I don't get IEW.  What a waste of time-I don't consider any of those models for writing (like a 5 paragraph essay) excellent or pedagogy like "dress ups". That's just teaching unnecessarily verbose writing, which is poor writing.  I just don't believe teaching a child to temporarily write badly results in better writing later.  It looks, to me,  like developing bad habits now that have to be broken later. 

I don't get 100 EZ Lessons for phonics.  Why would someone want to introduce symbols for reading English that aren't actually used to read English?

 

Latin as a language study. Sure, for a kid who wants to be a doctor that might makes sense.  But if you're using it for a type of logic study, English word roots, or grammar studies to better understand objective vs. subjective case, it's a lot of investment for a low pay off.  There are better, more comprehensive ways to study all forms of logic, you can cut to the chase and learn Latin and Greek roots in English directly, and you can still learn objective vs. subjective case with an intensive English grammar program without having to master a foreign language. 

Studying a second language in the US.  I've lived in AZ for 43 years, attended Jr. High and Sr. High with 40% Hispanic populations, some of whom have parents who only speak Spanish, and only twice in my whole life would Spanish have been handy in real life.  Once to tell the landscapers that the hills we wanted them to create in the back yard looked like a bad boob job, and once to tell someone who had a goat farm that their goat got out of their fence and was running down the busy road.  They didn't teach either of those things in Spanish class.  So in the first situation the landscaper called his supervisor and handed me his cell phone to talk to him and he translated for us.  In the second situation I had explained in English making a goat sound and pantomiming floppy goat ears and taking her outside and pointing down the street. We were both a little embarrassed, but the goat was rescued.

I don't get why so many homeschoolers sign up for a group event or co-op without reading or asking about it in detail,  they don't bother getting the supplies or making their kids do the assignments, they complain about the content and schedule, they don't attend regularly and they can't get themselves there on time most of the time.  Why sign up for it in the first place?

The need so many parents seem to have to assess if their children meet the current criteria of gifted.  Homeschoolers can have their kids working at their ability level, so why do they need someone measure and label that instead of just starting at the beginning and moving up as needed?  I have 2 kids who could've fit that category in different ways, but instead of making it a big deal we just did what they were able to do very matter of factly.

Radical child driven unschooling.  I don't see how letting children always choose what they want to do prepares them for adulthood. No one else in life gets to do only what they want. If I did only what I wanted I would have more quilts made, more miles hiked, more water ways kayaked, more chocolate eaten, only Mexican cokes drunk, more books read, and more BBC binge watched.  Sigh.  If only...

[frugalmamatx]

Conventions. Every single one I have ever attended I ended up being very underwhelmed by the speakers and vendors. I've gotten down to I attend ONE day of our three day convention, and spent maybe an hour tops in the vendor hall. 

[cintinative]

For those who didn't "get" Cuisenaire rods, you obviously never used them to make fences for counting bears to reenact the Battle of Gettysburg! You missed out. 

 

Hilarious! My DS9 also used the bears to act out battles! We had no rods but he used the unifix cubes and the base 10 blocks.

[freesia]

 

I don't get fancy, expensive, time consuming, reading programs. I did one for the first kid but the rest learned well on 100 Easy lessons plus phonics and sight word flash cards. Also, they read something aloud to me every school day through 3rd grade. One of my kids balked at 100 easy lessons because he wanted to read what his siblings were reading right away. So, we read our way through Harry Potter and the Sorceror's stone, sounding out one word at a time, one sentence at a time.

 

 

Just wanted to share that my third was exactly like your child.  He refused to read or try to read Frog and Toad b/c he wanted to read what his older siblings were reading,  so he learned to read from the first Harry Potter, too--word by painstaking word.  Maybe you and I should get together and start a homeschooling reading philosophy! LOL

[freesia]

Hilarious! My DS9 also used the bears to act out battles! We had no rods but he used the unifix cubes and the base 10 blocks.

 

This was a regular occurrence during indoor recess when I taught elementary school, too.

[Onceuponatime]

Just wanted to share that my third was exactly like your child. He refused to read or try to read Frog and Toad b/c he wanted to read what his older siblings were reading, so he learned to read from the first Harry Potter, too--word by painstaking word. Maybe you and I should get together and start a homeschooling reading philosophy! LOL

We called it the Hogwart's Reading Academy. 😄

 

Mind skipped Frog and Toad too. I was sad about some of the books he never read that the others did.

[freesia]

We called it the Hogwart's Reading Academy. 😄

 

Mind skipped Frog and Toad too. I was sad about some of the books he never read that the others did.

 

I wish I'd thought of that! He would have loved it.

 

Fortunately, I had a fourth who did read Frog and Toad and ds "caught up" by reading them when I had them out.  He has also gone back and read the Magic Tree House books and some of those other easy chapter books. 

 

[Dmmetler]

Coloring pages for every single subject. I can get behind using colors to differentiate parts of maps or for anatomy and physiology, but I really don't think coloring pictures of General Jackson helps my DD learn about the civil war, nor do I think coloring everything with an answer of 3/4 red to make a picture of Santa does anything but take a 15 minute task and make it an hour one. To go along with this, cute little paper cutout models for practically everything. I'm sure some kids benefit from doing paper cutouts for the Krebs cycle or steps of mitosis and meiosis, but it seems like a waste of time for many.

 

People who sign up for classes and then don't have their kids prepare, only show up half the time, or both. And in general, the ones who want exceptions made (their 8 yr old in a teen class, their 5 yr old in the 3rd-5th grade class) are the worst offenders.

[KungFuPanda]

 

People who sign up for classes and then don't have their kids prepare, only show up half the time, or both. And in general, the ones who want exceptions made (their 8 yr old in a teen class, their 5 yr old in the 3rd-5th grade class) are the worst offenders.

These are the same people that label anything Jr. doesn't want to do as "busy work" and don't bother to oversee homework to know what it is or make sure it's finished.

[blondeviolin]

Unschooling - sounds nice, but my kids aren't that motivated and I'm not willing to let them become proficient in "minecraft architecture" or whatever.

 

People who "homeschool" their first grader with a computer-based program and no oversight and then complain that their child isn't learning anything.

 

How anyone teaches their kids how to spell anything. I can't tell you how many spelling curricula we've tried over the course of schooling 4 kids. One is likely dyslexic, one probably dysgraphic, one neither, and yet my 10yo is only a mildly decent speller. I get stuck in this conundrum where I don't believe it's developmentally appropriate for a young child to write paragraphs. And I feel this is where spelling eventually becomes automatic. So I feel like I sacrifice spelling in the early elementary years for the sake of solid writing in the older years.

 

Those kids who get up raring to go and do their schoolwork independently. My 10yo is getting there; I help with math and Latin. But none of my kids wake up and rip through ten math pages before I've finished breakfast. If they did, it was too easy for them anyway.

[KungFuPanda]

Unschooling - sounds nice, but my kids aren't that motivated and I'm not willing to let them become proficient in "minecraft architecture" or whatever.

 

People who "homeschool" their first grader with a computer-based program and no oversight and then complain that their child isn't learning anything.

 

How anyone teaches their kids how to spell anything. I can't tell you how many spelling curricula we've tried over the course of schooling 4 kids. One is likely dyslexic, one probably dysgraphic, one neither, and yet my 10yo is only a mildly decent speller. I get stuck in this conundrum where I don't believe it's developmentally appropriate for a young child to write paragraphs. And I feel this is where spelling eventually becomes automatic. So I feel like I sacrifice spelling in the early elementary years for the sake of solid writing in the older years.

 

Those kids who get up raring to go and do their schoolwork independently. My 10yo is getting there; I help with math and Latin. But none of my kids wake up and rip through ten math pages before I've finished breakfast. If they did, it was too easy for them anyway.

DS whined through several spelling programs. In the end Scribblenauts was the best one :-/

[GinaPagnato]

Conventions. Every single one I have ever attended I ended up being very underwhelmed by the speakers and vendors. I've gotten down to I attend ONE day of our three day convention, and spent maybe an hour tops in the vendor hall. 

 

:iagree:

 

All the conferences I've been to are either vendors hawking their wares, or speakers telling us how to homestead, grind our own wheat, or make our children one another's BFFs.

 

Uh, could you teach me how to actually *educate* my kid. Please?!

[Barb_]

DS whined through several spelling programs. In the end Scribblenauts was the best one :-/

True that!

[sassenach]

The very first thing that popped to mind was lapbooks. They are not for me.