National Blog Posting Month
What type of method of home schooling are you using, is it working for you?
Let me first start off by saying, I'm not the main force in our homeschooling efforts, I'm mainly the support staff. But we try to meet up once in awhile to discuss things.
We had some miscommunications early on and we got stuck doing home school through the public school system (they call it k through 12 out here). But we've always been very into the Thomas Jefferson education method (mentoring and self discovery) and we're on the path to do that after this school year.
I mean right now my wife is overwhelmed with keeping on the schedule they set and meeting all the goals and we're starting to see a stifling in our boys want to learn. Both my wife and I have great parents who have a lot of knowledge to share with our boys and have shown a willingness to help, so I'm pretty excited to do it!
So how are you approaching home school? Are you going through the public schools (I don't even know if they do that outside Utah), or another method? Are you finding that multiple children have different ways of learning? Do you get overwhelmed with your kids sometimes? How do you handle that?
We had some miscommunications early on and we got stuck doing home school through the public school system (they call it k through 12 out here). But we've always been very into the Thomas Jefferson education method (mentoring and self discovery) and we're on the path to do that after this school year.
I mean right now my wife is overwhelmed with keeping on the schedule they set and meeting all the goals and we're starting to see a stifling in our boys want to learn. Both my wife and I have great parents who have a lot of knowledge to share with our boys and have shown a willingness to help, so I'm pretty excited to do it!
So how are you approaching home school? Are you going through the public schools (I don't even know if they do that outside Utah), or another method? Are you finding that multiple children have different ways of learning? Do you get overwhelmed with your kids sometimes? How do you handle that?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by moominmamma on
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We are unschoolers through and through, philosophically speaking. However, my kids all have strong academic bents and choose to use fairly schoolish resources from time to time, and so sometimes we could be mistaken for a more school-at-home-ish family. It's all an illusion, though.
We are affiliated with a school and report on a weekly basis; however, our school is an independent "free school" that totally gets the unschooling mentality. They are as delighted to hear about my 11-year-old's computer-game mods as they are his algebra program progress. So we don't feel any pressure, and I don't get overwhelmed. It works beautifully for us.
My four kids have different ways of learning, but since they're leading almost every step of the process, that isn't really the challenge it might be.
Miranda
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Permalink Reply by Dawn Friedman on -
Miranda, I just had to tell you that I use moominmama (I know -- she uses two m's and I use one but that's cuz I wrote it wrong the first time and have stuck with my mistake!) for most of my usernames! Nice to meet another moomin fan! (And how not surprised I am that she is a fan of child-led learning!)
:)
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Baldwin on -
We just began homeschooling. S.G. is in Kindergarten, we pulled her out after eight weeks. I had a plan, a goal, workbooks, a library card and the internet and thought I was ready to go. The art supplies were organized, a "music day" planned and we had our membership to the science museum...
Then we started homeschooling... S.G. did a weeks worth of work in one day. She feels no need to do reading and writing work because she "gets" it... but math, which stumps her and frustrates her, she wants to do at any and all hours of the day and night.
Most of the time our learning takes place by accident. Like when Daddy ran over a skunk on the way home from work last night in MY car! We spent two hours looking up skunks.
I have been looking into a couple of curriculums for next year. That will be the first year she has to be tested officially. I'm leaning toward Christian Light because it's simple, clear cut and not overly expensive.
My baby girl is totally opposite her sister, although I think they both lean on the side of creativity. We'll start Pre K with her next year and I must say I'm nervous, she's a fiesty one!
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Permalink Reply by Marye on -
This is our sixth year to school at home. I really don't see how a child can be expected to sit in a desk, stand in a line and raise their hand when they need to pee. Most everyone I know that has kids in school complains that the kids have too much "homework" well, duh?!? Okay, I'll get off my soap box before I get the boot. We used to be "unschoolers," but I think we are more opportunist educators. I totally support anyone in whatever decision they make as long as it is in the best interest of all parties.
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Permalink Reply by Stacy (mama-om) on -
My kids are still very young, four years old and just turned one year. Unschooling (trusting my children's impulse to learn and following their lead/interests) appeals to me, though I figure we will explore many avenues and methods and choose what works for us over the years to come.
Right now, we are becoming active in a local homeschooling group. We meet for park day, field trips, social events, and there is a community center that offers homeschooling enrichment classes. We're also thinking of joining a rock-climbing group one day a month.
My son is really enjoying forming friendships with "the homeschool kids," and I really like that at most events we get to be with kids of all ages.
I've written a bit about our experiences on my blog.
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Permalink Reply by Katie on -
We're unschoolers. Unschooling is a perfect fit for us. My husband and I both stay home (we have a freelance design business). So, basically, the three of us work, play, live and learn together all day, every day.
In Louisiana we have 2 options - sign up as a homeschool (which requires testing and documentation) or sign up as a private school (which requires none of that). We aren't registered yet (not required to until dd is 7 years old), but we will register as a private school next year.
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Permalink Reply by Karen on -
The K-12 system you're using is available in other states - it's actually fairly popular in CO. I considered it, but they required a lot more hours than just plain homeschooling. I use a pretty eclectic method. This year we started with a curriculum called My Father's World, which is a Christian, history-based curriculum. I add in other subjects to "fill out" the academics, but I allow my kids a lot of time for just playing, which I believe does a lot for their creativity and ability to learn. One of these days I hope to move into more mentoring and exploration of "life options."
And my 2 kids do have different ways of learning, but much of what we do is my reading to them or hands-on activities that we all do together. It's nice to be able to work with them individually on the areas where they need it but do a lot together.
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Permalink Reply by kelly dw on -
W are an eclectic bunch over here. We are very child dircted and have tried trhough different methods and foun f=[d that we fit into a unque blend of some traditional methods, alot of a more eclectic approach, while trying to keep an unschooling peace about our family.
My son is very analytical and needs all the maps, globes, road maps fguring out distanced etc,,, very into charts. My daughter is the bookworm and is flying through the Lord of The Rings and Warriors and Redwall series now.
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Permalink Reply by Dawn Friedman on
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We've been homeschooling our 10-year old from the start and unschooling really found us. So we unschooled 'til fourth grade but this year (fifth) we tried a virtual school (K12, actually!) because my husband felt like Noah needed some structure. Now we've trolled through math curriculum before because it's the one place my husband didn't want to let go of. Fourth grade they did math-u-see together once a week and that's really what made Brett want to do K12 -- he felt like Noah maybe needed/wanted more structure. I was game, especially once Brett got laid off and I knew he'd be managing the whole thing. (I work from home and we decided that we'd try to build my writing business so that we could both be home.)
Anyway, the happy result has been that we've realized that we were much happier as unschoolers and that we'll go ahead and finish out K12 (heavily modified to make it work for us) and then go back to unschooling, with math-u-see as a prop. I'd pretty much trusted unschooling but Brett had to see Noah's smarts in action to feel like it was really working. And he also didn't realize how radicalized he was becoming about school. It's nice to be on the same track again.
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Permalink Reply by Jodi Anderson on -
Our daughter has been unschooled for the last ten years. She is now 15. Up until two years ago, her learning was almost 100% child-led. I now order a few books for algebra, psychology, and whatever else may need a more organized approach. For the most part though, we wing it. She is a voracious reader and a science nut, and following her interests is where the greatest abundance of her education comes from.
As for people who are looking for a curriculum, we have used some books from Oak Meadow and we were satisfied with it.
Best of luck to everyone.
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