Good Afternoon, This is my second year homeschooling my son (we are doing fourth and fifth grade). We live near South Mountain State Park in NC. Last year I tried to stay close to a public school schedule and it was horrible. Some days we had good days and others it was a pulling hair day. This year I do have a list of things I want to cover, but instead of having lessons planned for a month at a time I only do a couple of weeks at a time and in pencil. I am still trying to find ideas to make it more fun for him. He is very energetic and it's hard to keep his attention for long periods of time. I have to stay close by or he will start thinking of other things and not work. Also if anyone has ideas of how I can get him to write more I would appreciate it. He hates to write and has terrible hand writing. Tammy
Hi Tammy, I am Trish and I live in upstate SC. This is our 4th homeschooling. I have a daughter who is 7 years old and in 3rd grade. We love it. Welcome aboard.
Hi & Welcome~ I'm Heidi from PA. I homeschool my 2 daughters~ 6th and 2st grade. Hope you enjoy your time here at Homeschool Spot!
Welcome, Tammy! Keep reading around in here--I'm sure you will find lots of ideas, for your child is not alone in wanting to keep moving! I have had a lot of success with my children (and I've seen others with similar stories) by combining thought and exercise wherever possible. If the problem with your ds's writing is not really knowing how to form the letters properly, you could either use a penmanship course or just pick a letter or two a day to work on with him, but be sure to pay attention to his writing either way--don't let him get away with a whole row of poorly made letters. If the problem is laziness, let him know "penmanship counts". Keep the writing assignments short at first, and if they aren't done neatly, have him redo it. Change won't come overnight, but with diligence, it will come. I homeschooled my little sister for a while in her upper elementary grades, and I noticed that a lot of her problems were directly related to the fact that in "school" nobody really cared how her work was done. If she missed half the page, she got a "D" and moved on. If she wrote sloppily, oh well, it would be too much trouble to hold every student to a standard of quality writing...KWIM? (Not that there aren't teachers who care, but even those that do are often overwhelmed.) As for enjoying the writing, my children are enjoying writing more this year (our "fifth" grade, too). I think it is because they feel the subjects are more meaningful, as I'm trying to help them relate everything to "real" life. For example, "What can this event/character/experience teach me about myself/life/God?" Some children enjoy writing letters, especially when we help them find something fun to share. My dawdler has been greatly benefitted by saying, "We will write for 5/10/15 minutes on this subject--write all you can, but when time's up, you're done." (Of course, "Yes, you may finish your sentence." ) I think it helps him to stay focused when he can see the end ahead.
Hi, I'm in Raleigh, and I hs my 4 yr old dd. I also have a 22mo ds who will be hsed as well. Welcome to the boards!
Hello! This is my 3rd year of homeschooling and I have a 9yo son and 6yo daughter. If the writing problem is such that he doesn't like to put pen to paper at all you might want to try having him record scientific data. My ds would make up his own experiments and then he would need to record his hypothesis, data he collected, and finally his theory or conclusion. This seemed to work very well for us to at least get something written. Hope this helps.
Howdy, I am Lorna and I have homeschooled 7 years now. It passes very fast. I have 3 kids. Ansley is in 7th and my twin boys in 3rd. Welcome and just join right in.
Hi Tammy, This is my second year of homeschooling too, and I made exactly the same mistake, by trying to follow the public school schedule last year.....it was definitly more trouble than it was worth, and my mountain of laundry was just the proof I needed to change things this year. Now.....I give my children their specific work for the morning, if they get done sooner than expected, they have free time, if it takes longer, no problem. I just started to think about what homeschooling really means, and it doesnt necessarily mean structured classroom at home I hope this helps you a bit, it seems that the first year is always full of trial and error! Leyla xx
Welcome! This is our 3rd year of homeschooling. I have two children, ages 4 and 8. Glad you've joined our little group!
Thanks Hi everyone. Thanks for all of your welcomes. It helps to get others opinions. So far this year it has been less fustrating for both of us. (Of course last year we were building a house while living in a camper so that was stressful without homeschooling.) Right now he is working on his own and when he finishes and it is neatly wrote he gets computer time. Thanks again Tammy
hello and welcome this is my first year homeschooling. i have two girls. soon to be 5 and soon to be 1 . tracy
