This is our first year hs'ing. I have a dd in 2nd, a dd in 1st and a dd entering the terrible twos (actually she's ALREADY there!). My oldest is total people person and people pleaser. I know she is scared to admit that she's unhappy because she is afraid she'll upset me. We just did her 2nd BJU english test and she got a couple things incorrect-no big deal, except she is a perfectionist. She recieved the highest GPA for 1st grade last year, and is definately an excellent student. This test had her crying and totally distraught. It came out that she really doesn't like hs'ing and that she misses her friends. I feel so bad for her and am not sure what to do. We have her involved in a dance class once a week and a Bible study class on Friday mornings with 1-3rd graders. She used to go to a private Christian school and we just can't spend that $$ this year. My dh just started a new job this week and we will be listing the house and moving up to an area where the public schools are supposed to be really good. I am considering sending her there once we move. I'm sad and disappointed but don't want to tell her that. I agree this is a little boring at times, it's a lot of seat work (Abeka and BJU). I'd love any input! Thanks!
First of all I have this strange feeling that it's so wrong to be measuring a 1st graders GPA! Man oh man what is this world coming to? Next.. if I had a bunch of busy work or seat work or what ever you want to call it, my kids would revolt BIG TIME. We do tons of hands on things, lots of games and videos and play. My advice.. remember homeschooling is homeschooling, it's not school at home and works best when it doesn't even come close to resembling an institutionalized setting. I really think you need to explore other options as far as curriculum goes or better yet throw out the concept of curriculum and blaze a path all your own.
I would agree with CrazyMama. I know you spent the money on BJU and Abeka, but maybe you should scrap it and suprise her with something totally new and different! Take a nature walk, and go exploring and call it science! There are so many options for getting out and about while still learning! Take a small break if you need to. You homeschool, so it IS allowed!
The only input I can give is, don't do all the seat work. We use to use ABeka and as long as my DSs kept their grades up, I won't make them do all of it, just what I felt was most important. It's to much unneccersary work, IMO.
yeah...take the pressure off. Try a Charlotte Mason approach or a Montessori approach. Learning is best done outside a textbook. We only have workbooks and textbooks to hit the highlights and show what we know. A child can learn to count by counting the leaves on a tree just as well as counting dots in a workbook. I am not against a traditional approach...but maybe you need a bit of de-schooling time. Keep a scope and sequence on hand and keep active. Find active ways to teach lessons. Now...don't fall into entertaining and not educating. There are times school is boring or the student really does need to learn to count. lol. Connect learning with the real world..make the workbook come alive with real applications...don't don a top hat and dance and sing the lessons. LOL. Wait...sometimes kids learn from dancing and singing..you know what I mean. LOL.
I agree with the others who said to try to do less seatwork and more hands on learning. I would also look around for a homeschool play group. We have park day on Monday afternoons, field trips, and seasonal parties. Occasionally my kids get a bit lonely when we haven't been out with their friends as often as they would like, but I always do my best to include time with friends in our schedule. I find that if I don't write it down on our calendar it is easy to focus too much on school and forget about getting out into the world and having some fun.
It sounds to me like she is stressed over the work load. She is only in 2nd grade after all. I would definately scrap a lot of the busy work. Sounds like too much work and not enough play.. She's missing the "fun" parts of school. Take a fieldtrip to the zoo and talk about the animals: science... Bake cookies together and Talk about the fractions on the measuring cups.. you got math. Mention how differant ingredients mixed together make something else. Chemistry at an age appropriate level. She'll enjoy it much more, Not to mention the memories she will have of these times with mom.. Not every lesson has to be this way, but at least make a point to have at least one thing a week that's fun and special and totally differant than seat work. I have a daughter in 1st grade and it only takes her 2 hours at the most to do her work. We don't do a lot of seat work and don't spend a lot of time on each subject. At this age I believe they retain more with short lessons. I try to make it as fun as possible. We watch movies (magic school bus) that goes with our lessons when we can. We are also working on a lapbook. She enjoys the artsy part of putting them together. Just have fun. Don't try to recreate "school" at home.. Your daughter is "learning" at home. Angela
I was a little surprised myself that the GPA was mentioned. I didn't even know they did that for elementary. Well anyway I do agree with what others are saying. My son started last year and went through swings of liking and lonely, missing his friends. I took the times like that to discuss with him what hsing meant to us and what it would mean to him in his life overall. I then put the worksheets, which he hated away completely for several months. And we started to do more hands on and field trips. We are coming up on the end of a complete year of hsing for him and he never wants to go back lol. And he still sees some his friends from school and is making new ones too. Hang in there I know how their admitting they are unhappy with your decision can make your heart sink. Give her more time. I told my son he could go back at the beginning of the following year if he was still very unhappy and like I said he won't
I agree with everyone else... try to make it as fun as possible and before long she'll be loving staying home everyday!
Maybe look into some unit studies like Amanda Bennett unit studies. Have her pick a topic of interest and you can explore learning that way for most subjects. I would avoid any testing. Just by conversations you can tell what she knows and what she doesn't. If you are bored she will be too. Learning should be fun. Unit studies are a great way to get out of the school at home mode.
I have to agree with what everyone else is saying. You need to make it more interesting for her. Do more hands on projects. Try to incorporate some unit studies or Lapbooks based on her interests. Homeschool doesn't have to be school at home. I made that same mistake when we started. Now we are less structured, eclectic homeschoolers and we have lots of fun along the way.
Whew - I am glad I was not the only one - that was my first thought! GPA in 1st grade? I don't think you guys really have a good baseline for homeschool yet. If YOU are having second thoughts I'd say consider putting her back in. But if it is only HER who is having second thoughts, well too bad. I'm harsh I know - but my kids never liked homeschool until recently and this is our 9th year. And the only reason my son likes it now is because he is so used to the freedom. He just can't go into a regular school now - he'd never make it past the first day. The decision to homeschool is one for parents, not kids.
I just want to say I can sympathize with you. I also wanted to say that often kids take a bit to "de-school" when coming out of school. I would give it a bit. We had a lot of ups and downs in the first 6 months last year. Abeka and BJU by themselves are very school at home. I used both in private school as a kid. I agree with looking into something a bit more relaxed in approach or cutting back on the busy work and tests. I wouldn't get too distraught too quickly that she isn't loving it right away. Give it some time and make some adjustments and see where it goes.
WOW-Thanks soooo much for all your responses! You have certainly encouraged me to dig deeper and experience something new! I think I really will look into trying a unit study-do they include all subjects, like math, english, science ect? I really thought a laid out curriculum would be easiest for me since I lacked the confidence of really being able to do this..After 6 weeks I see that I can. Thanks so much-you are all SO wonderful!
I forgot to mention I too was surprised about the GPA thing-it was awarded at the last day of school party-I was proud of course, but I hated that it made such a big deal of her grades...it was a little embarassing at the same time!
everyone has given such great advice. I think it sounds perfectly normal for your daughter to be wanting her "old normal" back and for you to be second guessing and feeling hurt. duh. We are mothers and it is always our fault. eh? I have two perfectionists myself. One of which I am homeschooling (the other is a teacher and she is learning to lighten up!!!) I am NOT a perfectionist (mostly) so this is often a bone of contention. Here is what I did that has helped. I do very few or no workbook(y) things, unless I am gone for the day or we are traveling or something like that. I do not keep grades. at all. not even math. We go over things that are missed. I correct things, but I do not keep grades. It drove ds CRAZY...but he is now much more relaxed. I am seriously considering not grading his writing because now he has relaxed so much that he considers a B perfectly acceptable and doesn't want to make corrections to his rough draft..."what would you give it if I just turned it in like this mom?" "well, dear, I won't accept it like that so you can't turn it in. ha ha." (I also have the issues of the younger boy getting better scores than the elder (3 years apart) and I have to mitigate that impact.) We talk about wanting to be perfect or "best" and about strengths and weakness and how every one cannot be good at everything AND how being good at school may be helpful and may NOT in the long run. I want him to get the idea that being good at school work is just a tiny aspect of being good at life. That being said, he is wanting to go back to school too. Mainly for the friends, but also because he knows it will be easier academically. At school he just has to do what he is told. At home he has to learn things. I talk about stuff...random stuff a lot. We have great discussions...my kids have started asking facinating questions. I "count" all of this for "school". Sometimes we just talk, sometimes we go to the internet...sometimes it completely blows my entire "lesson plan" oh well. Your daughter is perfectly justified in wanting to trade a new, scary school in which she is responsable for actually learning...for an old, comfortable school where she put in less effort to be successful. But, what do you want for her? Blessings on your thoughts about this....(not worries...oh no, just thoughts) You CAN come up with interesting things, and you might even ask your daughter what she would like to learn about. So young, anything can "count" you don't have to worry about a real "curriculum" yet. I am assuming she is a pretty good reader, so there are some excellent unit studies (like you mention) One I would recommend is the "Prairie Primer" by Margie Gray. (who happens to be a friend but this is what I am getting my dd ( the teacher) for her christmas present.) It is a unit study using Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. Perfect for a 2nd grade girl. Have fun, and let her have fun too.
From a mom who just started hs this year. I started out with BJU. It is a fantastic curriculum don't get me wrong but it would be great for a christian school. I found it terribly hard to use for hs. I have scrapped it. We are starting with SOS which I am finding to be a better fit for us personally. JMO As far as friends, I have found that the more my kids tell their friends about hs they all say, your mom is awesome I wish I was hs. I make sure I still do a lot of playdates with their shall we say old friends. Plus, we have joined a hs Friday program. They have meet tons of kids and are loving life. My extremely social child who fought me at first is completely content and loving being home. In conculsion, maybe you simply just need to simplifiy and have more play time. Especially, during school hours
I agree with all of this....get a little house unit study...rainbow resource has this, and I bet she will LOVE it! I gave it more thought and you may not have to scrap ALL your stuff. Do your basic lesson. If she "gets" the math concept, pick out the problems you want her to work (perhaps all the "new" type problem and a select few of review problems) and forget the rest. Just because the curriculum says to do all this extra stuff doesn't mean you have to do all of it. Remember, ABeka and BJU are designed for classrooms where the teacher NEEDS busy work to occupy 20 kids for 7 hours a day. Do the same with your English. When you go over her work say "Let's go over this and see if we need to fix things" Then with her at your elbow go over all these. Then when you get to a mistake say "oops...can you see the mistake? Do you want to fix it? " She is so little. Let her enjoy this. It is not about grades. Help her to see that grades are a VERY small part of life. REad real books to her and with her.
There are a lot of unit study curriculums out there as well as individual unit studies you can find free on the internet. There is Five in a Row that I know of that includes all the subjects based around reading books. There is the Charlotte Mason approach-Heart of Dakota and My Father's World use CM philosophies. There is Winter's Promise as well. Hewitt's homeschool resources has some great early grades unit study programs. These are all I can think of right now.
Thanks again for the input...I shared some of your suggestions with dh and he's concerned about her being able to "pass" the testing req'd in GA (starts in 3rd grade, then every 3 years). We are also looking at hs'ing at a year to year basis so I don't want her to be behind by taking time and doing a unit study...I think I am "worrying" a little too much...ugh.
