MAYDAY! MAYDAY! I want to continue homeschooling, but I need HELP!

I have not read everyones comments...so if I repeat, please forgive me.
I personally don't test. (gasp) ok,,,much. We have these great discussions and we look stuff up online.
I don't really care if they can regurgitate info...I want them to have an ability to carry on an intellegent conversation. But I would unschool if I had the courage.
so I may not be normal. I think if your daughter is "blowing through" worksheets, "rewarding" her with MORE work might just backfire. She should be able to go through stuff faster.
I like your reading stuff before she does and giving her the vocabulary. I might keep that if I were you, just because you said it tends to slow her down to not know the words...but if there are more than 4 or 5 words per page, then the books are a bit above her. (we have different books for the boys to read and then one that I read aloud or they listen to)

 

You might also have a look at the Renzulli Learning Programme (just Google it) - devised by Joseph Renzulli, the renowned gifted specialist and educator. Costs about US$2 a week for a year's 24/7 access for one parent and child. After your child fills out an online qestionnaire, it crunches all that info and makes up an Individual Learning Profile (your child's strengths, abilities, interests, and learning styles); then you, or the programme itself, 'pushes' your student activities and programmes to suit their profile and ability level.Means your child will be working independently a lot of the time - and not always on the computer: it assigns 'hands-on' stuff too. It's like a portal to thousands of pre-vetted sites, on a h-u-g-e engine. Worth a look!

 

I have to send her back to school next year because I need to get a JOB. this broke thing isn't working for me...AT ALL!

 

understood.
so are you planning short term teaching and short term schooling? Is there a stay at home job you can do?
man of the people on this site are at home working moms, and dads.

 

In my case this was planned as a one year pull out from public schools. The makeup of the student population has changed dramatically since my children started there ten years ago and it finally reached the point where the behavioral problems, low performing students, etc. were having a big time negative impact of my daughter's education and attitude about school. While the larger junior high isn't everything that I want academically, behavioral problems aren't an impediment to learning. Never once have I heard my older kids say their class couldn't do XYZ because of kids acting up--the kids who act up are removed, end of story.

I'm open to homeschooling longer if needed, but there's a lot about school that was positive for my daughter until this past year.

 

see her in my area there is too much fighting between kids and teachers, physicallly for my kids to go to a Jr high.
The one year I was considering sending one of mine to Jr High, I found out a kid (girl) beat up a pregnant teacher in the 9th grade jr high class(Middle school). That ruled it out for me.
Our highschools public style are bad with gang type of stuff, sure there re ways to get around that but why put my kids in that area if I dont have to was my thoughts. So mine either hs or do Private schools for high school. It has worked out okay too!
Thats why I was curious. Jr high schools here have the worse rap for really yucky stuff.

 

In all honesty, I haven't read all of the posts because I don't have much time today, but here are my thoughts.

These are the things that really caused me the very problems you mention.

First, forget the time schedule. Especially if your daughter is working ahead! Let her set her own pace. Don't worry over it! ABEKA tends to be very advanced, at least a year ahead of public schools by 4th grade, IMO and 2 years ahead by the end of Jr HI in most subjects. If she is getting done with her work, let her do something else that might interest her - read, for example, or craft work, or cooking. Whatever. Fill the time with life skills rather than more homework. Relax. She's doing GREAT!!! I wish I had had one that was that motivated!!

Remember that when you are instructing one-on-one, things move along MUCH more quickly!! Learning occurs much more quickly and more thoroughly. You do not have time wasted with 20 or 30 children being disrupted, having to be excused, sharpening pencils, etc. You don't have bells ringing every 40 minutes or other interruptions and distractions. You will be surprised how much time this saves over the course of a day, week, month and year!!! This always amazed me!

I also always tried to remember that I wanted my homeschool experience to be more than just bookwork. I wanted them to have experiences and life-skills. If the bookwork is done for the week, take a field trip! Reward her for doing such a great job! Visit a museum or an art gallery! And remember, you are not restricted by time constraints. You can take off Friday and go on a field trip on Saturday or Sunday afternoon or in an evening! How wonderful!!

I think that, maybe, having been thrown into this so suddenly, you are worried more than excited. Why don't you and your daughter take a week off just to talk about your school, what you want to do, what you want to accomplish, how you want to accomplish it, and all of the fun you will have along the way!?! Remember, you don't HAVE to take off 4 days at Thanksgiving and 2 weeks at Christmas. You can take off no days or twice as many. You can take no spring break or a longer one and go on vacation! You can go later in the spring. You can even school year round, shorter days.!!! You'll be absolutely flabberghasted how much the normal family does that is "teaching" in the summer! Some years we actually doubled our required number of hours! And believe me, most of it was NOT in text books! Although we did our share of that as well.

Sit back, don't worry about your time constraints, and take the time to set up your homeschool the way YOU want it. And please take the time to learn to enjoy the experience!

God Bless, and wishing you all the success!

 

I have used A Beka for the last 10 years. It is advanced. We have used the videos here and there. They are very helpful and give me some time away. I have a child that hates school, either way, we struggle with just getting anything done. Anyway, A Beka video is very expensive. It is around $1000 per year. This includes all the videos, student books, teacher books and any worksheets/readers you would need. I like it, unfortunately, my son hates school.

 

The best way is not to go through an entire year on a schedule and then say something was not done well enough and then start over and repeat the same thing. The best thing to do is to master whatever and then move on. So lets say you are working on chapter one and your child gets only a 70% on something. Go back and work on that and find out what is wrong then and there. Do not just keep going and then attempt to repeat it later. The whole reason the schools just continue going is because they have an entire class of people on the same schedule and must just keep moving forward regardless of progress. Repeating one assignment makes sense, repeating an entire year completely boggles my mind.

As far as curriculum goes, I do not want to offend anyone here, but ABEKA would be on the bottom of my list of choices. Most people who do it burn out and give up or change curriculums. I know there are some people who make it work all the way through, but that is the exception and not the rule.

Parents tend to like things that remind them of how school was. They like things they perceive to be "like school." But school and learning are different things. I would change up your curriculum. There are many good options out there.

 

momofafew, I totally agree with everything you said. Some of that is what I was attempting to say when I was saying to not worry about the schedules. Learning the concepts is what is important!

Good post!

ps - I never did like ABEKA too much, it was just way too advanced and fast-moving for me. I did use some of their texts for reference books, tho! I always felt their high school texts read more like college texts.

 

I realize I'm late to this party, but if you want solid curriculum that can be done independently, you might want to look at Christian Light Education. That's "Christian Light" not "lite education" LOL. All you would need to do is discuss reading with her, and check the tests. She could even check her own daily work, if you choose that. It's in workbooks mostly, so it's portable if need be. www.clp.org and there are samples on the site. Just a suggestion...

 

Here's a website I like: http://www.vocabulary.com/ all levels of vocab, including SAT prep level...

 

hey on the clp you dont have to order it all in a box either, we pick and choose from there the last few years and got some of thier stuff and some of our own picks

 

I think it depends on whether you want to homeschool her all the way through or not. I personally would not worry if she is not learning the history and science according to the public/private/homeschooling scope and sequence. She is young- I would make sure she is progressing in her reading skills and math (but don't worry about keeping up with the Joneses or anyone else). Then let her enjoy learning any aspect of science and/or history she wants. They repeat all this stuff in other schools, so don't worry about it. You could probably do very little academic work with her (1 or 2 hours) and the rest of the time just let her explore.

This sounds foreign because the world doesn't do it that way. But, guess what--the world's way isn't working. It also depends on who you want to please. I used to want to please the world, but that wasn't honoring God. He knows exactly where my son is and He has a plan for him that is very different from the "traditional".

Also, I agree with the other person who said A Beka will sometimes cause burn-out. I don't think it is only that curriculum. The same could happen with BJU, AO and any other packaged curriculum. I have btdt. I used mostly BJU and I thought I loved it. I was FAMILIAR with the style so it appealed to me. But, it was just as bad for my son as the public school style, with a Christian aspect. I think these companies have good intentions, and for some it may work, but not for many. I almost even ordered the whole set from BJU (this past summer) with the DVD's, I thought it would be cool to have everything I needed. I am so glad it was too expensive, because that would have been a HUGE blunder.

I guess I am saying don't copy the traditional type of school setting and burn yourself and your child out. Explore, create, read and meet your child where she is at. Instead of a lot of worksheets, do some of the stuff orally. Have fun, I wish I had started with this different way of thinking a couple of years ago. I also wished I had started homeschooling when he was young. Remember, when you are old and the grandchildren are visiting, I don't think your regrets will be "I wish I had spent more time diagramming, or teaching Einstein's theory of relativaty." I have learned this almost too late.

 

nsackey, I was wondering how things are going for you now? Has it become more managable?