How do you?????

[alchemy671]

I have been watching this board for months. We are a military family stationed in FL. OMG!!! The school system here is a mess. They work hard every day to earn their status as 48th in the nation.

 

So, my question: How do you know what to supplement after school? Do you take the ps curriculum into consideration, or do your own thing? We pulled the boys (ds 11 and ds 9) out of public school last year and homeschooled for 75% of the year. They both missed the social aspect of school so they are reenrolled (5th and 3rd) at a "better" school this year. School is intended to be a social education and afterschooling is intended to be their real education. So, please help me with any suggestions as to how to set this up.

 

BTW, both boys are "gifted", (which really means that the school gets more money to teach them the same garbage), so ps is very easy for them. I am concerned they will be behind when we finally leave this state and get to another area of the world.

 

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

Tricia

[SonshineLearner]

Just to offer an alternative, if you choose to homeschool again. Classical Conversations is especially good for families who move a lot. Wherever you are, CC is basically the same. So, you can pop in and out of a group and then move on to the next one. My children love the interaction and the academic vitamin has been great as well. Just a thought....might be a nice way to stay on the same path.

Also, if you want to after school, you can do CC on your own. Or, you might see if you can do one day of CC and then the rest public school. I know that I thought of letting one family do that, in a situation that the mom just couldn't have her little one all day due to medical situations.(hers)

Anyway....Just listening to the cd...and doing a bit of map work...gives a nice foundation. Even my step daughter that is in Public School, knows almost all the History Songs...etc...just from listening with us.

ClassicalConversations.com

 

Carrie:-)

[purplecow7]

We are in a "great" public school and I too have two children who have tested "gifted". One of the reason why I love the WTM is that it is different that what they are learning in PS.

 

I leave the reading to the PS because they do a great job with reading groups and talking about part of the book.

 

Writing I left to the school - Ds is having some trouble so we will be adding that back in this summer. He is in 4th grade doing 5th grade work and his homework load is crazy - so we will wait until this summer. Writing is his weakest link. Dd is doing great with the writing, by may start to add more grammer for her along with her older brother this summer.

 

Math - This I afterschool because the PS is so slow. For this I did EPGY for my older two. For my 4 year old twins I am using singapore Primary A and I am really liking it. My dd likes to do the writing in the books and my ds, I do half and he does half. (he has some fine motor issues)

 

Then at home we also do History of the World, music, and art. Map skills and a lot of kitchen science.

 

I try to let the school do what they are going to do and then I teach the classics to the kids at home, plus math. Oh and I have used HOP with all my kids to get them reading. I also include Tae Kwon Do and soccer, piano and violin lessons as part of afterschooling. When we go on vacation, I try to make it educational. Like when we went to NC we learned all about the state and brought flower and rock books to identify flowers. Or we go to farms or measums on the weekends. Even a trip to a waterpark we talk about the chemicals in the water and how the waterslides work. For us it is just looking for educational opportunites in every day events.

[alchemy671]

Thanks for the ideas. I think I am going to revert back to the classics at home (grammer, reading, writing, math, history, and latin). School seems to be more of an expensive, beaurocratic playdate than an education.

 

Full time homeschool is not an option for us at this point, maybe when we are relocated out of FL, but for now ps is really our only option.

 

Here is my headscratching moment of last week:

 

My oldest (5th grade) was moved "up" in his LA class to the "more advanced" class. (The "more advanced" class reads chapter books, the one he was in was "not ready for that yet".) After one week I asked him to compare the work in his old class to his new one. He dislikes his new reading cirriculum because his teacher reads out loud to them each day. They do not read any books on their own. Two things stood out to me in this: 1. In 5th grade, "chapter books" shouldn't be a big deal 2. Why his he being read to daily as the main core of the cirriculum? I can only come back to the "this is FL" answer.

 

In true moments of anxiety, I find myself combing this board looking for confirmation that I can make up for what the school lacks.

 

Thank you to all of the sane people who have posted here and continue to provide a network for those of us struggeling to make a difference.

[purplecow7]

My ds is in 4th grade but in a GT center class, basically he does 5th grade work. His teacher still reads to them - For him it is part of his literary circle. His teacher is trying to expose them to different books and then they all discuss it as a group. This however is just a small part of his reading. He is in a reading group and they all read their own books and then write summaries and present to their small group. Gives them freedom of choice and to learn about other books they may want to read. They are also allowed to start a book and then stop, but they have to write a paragraph and explain why and then get another book.

 

He is supposed to read 100 pages a week on his own as part of his homework.

 

My dd is in second and they divide into groups based on reading level and then the group is given a book to read. Dd books are usually 3 or 4th grade books. The teacher usually suggests two or three books and the kids vote on what book they want to read next. Her teacher all so reads to them, usually books that are above second grade level to get the children more interested in reading longer chapter books. It worked for my dd she went through a Judy Bloom phase and a Ronald Dahl phase.

[samba2nite]

Tricia welcome.

 

For us to make it simple, I see my job in afterschooling to fill in the gaps where our PS is lacking, augment what they are learning in PS and help out in their weak areas.

 

I found that I really like sonlights core program for their grade levels. It works great for history, geography and supplemental reading. I bought their core 1/2 program for my second graders and plan on taking 2 years to complete the one year program. Their programs are grouped by age levels not class levels per se. I am starting their K program for the younger ones. The thing I that drew me to sonlight was it as all inclusive and took all of the planning and thinking out of it....as a working mom I love that! I also like that I can shuffle things to fit our needs. We also are a Kumon math family and it is clearly paying off in spades for the kids in terms of standouting out in the PS for math.

 

samba

[MBM]

How do you know what to supplement after school?

 

I mostly use three resources:

 

1. William Bennett's book The Educated Child

2. The Well-Trained Mind

3. Core Knowledge Sequence, content guidelines for grades K-8 by the Core Knowledge Foundation

 

Core Knowledge models best what I would like my son's education to be like. I emphasize their language arts, especially literature, and history/geography.

Do you take the ps curriculum into consideration, or do your own thing?

 

Both. I like some of the curriculum and methodology used at my son's school but supplement other areas that seem weak to me.

 

I think reading aloud in school is not so bad, but you might want to choose some novels for your son to study independently. My son had to read a certain number of pages in fifth grade and I found that this amounted to mostly "gobbling" books. I'd rather he understand a few, than merely read by the pound.

 

HTH

Edited February 18, 2009 by MBM

[Alessandra]

Quoting samba (since I don't know how to make the blue things with a quote) -- "For us to make it simple, I see my job in afterschooling to fill in the gaps where our PS is lacking, augment what they are learning in PS and help out in their weak areas."

 

This exactly sums up what we do. I have dc in a great ps. I use Core Knowledge to fill in gaps in history, science and literature; mostly we do read alouds, experiments & projects -- trying to keep it fun. I do not try to incorporate writing or LA, since this is done at school. If a CK topic is being covered at school, I try to do the hs part at the same time -- and I share with the teachers what we are doing.

 

We also do Singapore Math, for ds because he loves math and for dd because she needs extra help. I scan my dd's work and email it to her resource room teacher -- and the teacher gives my dd extra positive feedback which helps her immensely. Ds is allowed to bring his SM to class to use if he finishes regular math early. Not to mention tha the school does Everyday Math!

 

I realize that our situations are different -- your school system is a "mess" and your dc are gifted -- but, anyway, I hope it works out for you.

 

BTW, about the reading aloud -- Jim Trelease (The Read Aloud Handbook) advocates reading aloud even for older kids, and CK emphasizes reading aloud as a way to build oral comprehension and to learn about subject content. Personally, I am a big fan of reading aloud!

Edited February 23, 2009 by Alessandra

[ElizabethB]

:grouphug:

 

Hey, you're above Arkansas and Mississippi, right? (Just a guess, they're normally last, I didn't actually look it up.)

 

I feel your pain, whatever you do, moving all the time does make it harder.

 

My friends who have been to Hawaii say that that is actually the worst place to school, you also have the added benefit of being a minority and an outsider if you're not a local Hawaiian, and evidently the schools are not that great academically.

 

When we were stationed in Albuquerque, there was that going on as well, depending on the school, if you were not hispanic. The Albuquerque schools were not that great, either, and they had a horrible administrator to teacher ratio, it was one of the highest in the nation at the time.

[violin69]

We are overseas and dc are in national school for language learning purposes. I look at what is being taught and suppliment accordingly. For example I've taught ds some manuscript writing but leave cursive to the ns. Their math program is pretty good so I just fill in the holes like US measurement. Ofcourse, they need to do English LA at home. Learning another language and culture is enough Social Studies for them at this time.

[Renthead Mommy]

I have been watching this board for months. We are a military family stationed in FL. OMG!!! The school system here is a mess. They work hard every day to earn their status as 48th in the nation.

 

Tricia

 

Do you have a base school? I know some bases ship older kids out into the community, but if you do, as military you should be able to use the DOD school for what you want. Meaning if you just want social, you can send them just for art or gym or music.

 

Last year my K'er (and on only) went for 'specials' which meant art, gym, music, computer lab, and culture (we're in Japan). Plus he got to go to any field trips or assemblies. And we did do a number of the field trips.

 

When I signed him up we didn't know anyone yet and he NEEDED friends. Of course we only lived about 6 houses away, plus his 'homeroom' did these things first thing in the day. So the timing and distance were perfect for us. For you a lot depends on how far your base school is, if your boys could go at similar times. If you are going to have to spend your entire day in the car it's not worth it, but if it's a reasonable drive, and they go, say one after the other, you could work with one in the library while the other one has his class time.

 

Good luck.

 

I don't normally read this board, but the title caught my eye when I was on the main board page. Hope it helps!