Hello Everyone, My name is Chala. I am a Mom to 4 + 1 due March 3rd. I have been married to my husband for almost 10 years. Our kids are DD 8, DD 7, DS 2, DS 1, and the previously mentioned one on the way! I am also a full-time student. I only have to fulfill my student teaching semester to be a full-fledged teacher of grades 1-6. We recently decided to homeschool after moving to a small, extremely terrible district. We wanted to get out of the city into the country but didn't count on this school! Our older daughter is dealing with bullying in her classroom that neither her teacher nor the school will do anything about. It seems that they don't believe she can be bullied because she is only in 3rd grade!!!!! I know from my teaching experiences in other schools in the area that many schools take such a problem very seriously. However, ours is not one of them. I have watched my daughter overeat, listened to her beg not to go to school, and watched her be sad about school and I. AM. DONE. Not only is there the bullying issues, but I am extremely disappointed in the teachers here. My older daughter is gifted. Although the school recently cut their gifted program out of the budget her classroom teacher should still be supplementing her with additional materials. However, I discovered that when she is finished with her work she is told to "flip over the paper and draw". :shock: Even worse, I was looking over her spelling list one day at the VERY easy words (tooth, shape, something....) and inspiration came to me. I asked my 2nd grade daughter to spell them for me.....and she spelled all 15 correctly, even telling me that HER class had already done some of those words. SERIOUSLY? This teacher is giving my 3rd grade gifted student spelling words that her little sister has already done in her class????!!!! I am appalled. Then there are various other reasons, like the fact that we don't like some of the things they are picking up at school and want to get them on a closer track with the Lord. So, needless to say we decided to pull the girls and homeschool them. They are finishing up the semester at school and then they will not return after Christmas break. I am taking this semester off because of the coming little one and then I will return to finish my student teaching and graduate in the Fall. We plan to homeschool the girls until I get a teaching position. Then they can return to school in the school I work at where I will have more say over what goes on with them. I have already picked out my curriculum, created a schedule and checked the appropriate laws. We are in the process of making our home more homeschool-friendly, including turning an extra room we have into a reading/computer/study room. My question is; HOW does everyone pay for this?! I've priced the two kids curriculum out to around $700. Usually this would not be a problem for us, but around Christmas this is going to be a killer! That price includes History and Geography, Bible, Rosetta Stone Spanish, Spelling, Math, Science and Langauge Arts. If anyone has any tips for getting this paid for at this time of year I would love to hear it. We considered taking out a brief (about a month) title loan on one of our vehicles, but the interest rate on those loans is insane! Also, I'm looking for something supplemental for my older daughter. After discussing it with her, she would like some kind of extra science lesson to do when she finishes things early. I'm having trouble finding something I like, so any ideas would be great. I keep getting directed to Apologia and it does not seem to be what I'm looking for. Thank you, I look forward to reading over this forum! Love and Smiles, Chala
Many of us homeschool for free. We don't use boxed curriculum (or only for a specific subject; like Rosetta Stone for Spanish). Between the library and the internet, boxed curriculum is largely unnecessary. Perhaps you could hold off on buying anything until the funds are there, and use the resources available for free until then.
You've been trained to teach. Does that mean you've learned how to develop curriculum, or have you been taught to read a teacher's manual and follow it like a trained monkey? (No offense meant; I've had plenty of classroom experience, and my husband is still in the classroom!). But seriously, sometimes teachers have the most difficult time hs'ing, because they've been "taught" a "school" mind-set. The best hs'ers are those that learn to think OUTSIDE the classroom. Your oldest wants science. Let her pick a topic, and learn all she can about it on her own. If she's gifted, that shouldn't be a problem. Get books from the library and do the research, come up with experiements from library books, teach her how to write a lab report. Do a web search on "lapbooking". Even with you teaching in the school, why do you think it will be any different? Today's teachers' number one concern is to get their class to pass the proper tests. The gifted child isn't their concern; that child can already pass the test. Their time is spent trying to get the "behind" child able to pass it. And there's only so many hours in the day. There won't be any time left for your child. Oh, www.enchantedlearning.com has a lot of stuff! They some stuff free, but you can also get a subscription. It's really a good site, and covers a lot of topics.
Welcome to the Spot! Homeschooling can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. We homeschool for very little money. My budget last year for two kids was $400. I spent almost all of that and found myself ditching most of what I bought and using free resources online and at the library. Strangely enough, the two things I love most from the stuff I bought are the vintage(1932)math book that cost me $7 and the old McGuffey readers. I use abcteach.com and spend a lot of time combing the internet for worksheets, unit studies, projects, etc. There's even a Spanish For Kids site. I have heard so many stories about families who started homeschooling for one reason, only to discover they love the lifestyle so much that they never give it up! They love who their kids become in the process and can't remember why they wanted to go back to PS!LOL. Good luck and enjoy the journey.
I go to Missouri State University, an NCATE school. We are certainly trained to create our own curriculum and I've done a LOT of that for classes~whew! lol Even with what I will buy I will still end up using (and tweaking) what I like an discarding what I don't. My main reason for purchasing curriculum (which no teacher follows completely in the schools anyway!) is to make sure I am on track with GLEs since they will one day go back to school, probably when they are 5th and 4th graders. Not only that, but I like to have an outline in front of me. When I am done tweaking it to fit my needs it will not look anything like what it originally did, I'm sure. However, to just go browsing the internet without some kind of plan or outline seems counterproductive to me. Obviously I haven't been trained to develop curriculum to the point that someone with a Master's or Ph.D/Ed.D in Curriculum design has been, but I certainly know my way around designing studies for students. I'm actually surprised that most of you don't seem to purchase curriculum. All of my homeschooling friends on FB purchase curriculum. I'm creating the Reading portion of our studies myself, but I do have to purchase the books I'm wanting to use for them. Not all teachers are only interested in having their students pass the proper tests. The classrooms I have done internships in have had excellent teachers that I was very proud to learn from. They were interested in the test results from a standpoint of "how are they improving?" not "did I earn my school more funds?". I really loved seeing how the students in the class improve. Informal testing and portfolios show their progress the best, of course, not that standardized crapola. I feel more confident sending my girls back to school when I am there with them because I will have more say in what is done in their classroom. If I find out my oldest is being told to draw when she is done with her work I can speak to her teacher and there will be more pressure for her teacher to listen to me because I will be right there to check up on things. At this time, PS will HAVE to happen again at some point or another. I've spent 5 years and a LOT of money in college to let my degree go and I LOVE to teach! I actually just got out of an internship for this semester and I miss those little kiddos. :-( I had two gifted students in that class and neither one of them was ever told to color by their teacher when they completed work. She always took the extra time to give them fulfilling extra activities to do. She never acted like it was a problem or that any child in her classroom came last. However, Jackie, what you said is exactly what I told my husband. Her teacher is too worried about the ones who are behind; she doesn't have to worry about Alexandra because she is passing everything she does. That teacher has a mindset that I do NOT agree with. Anyway, thank you for the replies. My girls are counting down their last days of school. They reminded me they only had 6 1/2 days left this morning! I'm going to look over some more science sites for what my oldest is looking for. She is basically wanting to study rudimentary chemistry(!!!!) so I'll see what I can find on some of the teacher sites for 3rd-4th graders. Leissa~my husband's name is also Matt! I call him Matthew, though. I have an issue with shortening names! I have a friend who has an early childhood teaching degree. She, too, moved into an awful school district so she started homeschooling her son and stopped teaching. Now she has her oldest boy, twin boys and another kiddo on the way and she loved it so much that she just homeschools now. You never know what direction God will pull you in!
I also go to MSU! (Earning my MA in Theatre) Rather than spend the money on curriculum just to get a plan that you're going to tweak anyhow, why not just buy the What Your ___ Grader Should Know books as your starting point? They are a comprehensive outline that you could easily fill in with free materials.
Most of us do buy curriculum, but we're saying it's not necessary if you want to save money, especially with the younger grades. My oldest two are in high school, the youngest in middle school, and at that age you need to be paying more attention as far as transcripts go. I understand what you're saying about not wanting your education go to waste. I absolutely loved being in the classroom! I taught physically handicapped children for over ten years before leaving to raise/homeschool my kids. Even when I first left, I subbed just one day a week for two years! Even now, I still miss being in the classroom, and am hoping to teach at the co-op next year. It's hard to get in there, but last year, I was the helper to the lady who helps make those decisions, and she was able to see me working with the kids. School districts vary, and schools within a district vary. I'm guessing that the classes you've been in have been the top-notch classrooms. I've no doubt the teachers are what we would term "master teachers". Unfortunately, I think the majority of classrooms are more like the one your daughter is currently in. You know what happened to the "gifted" kids at my school? First of all, we had only one class at each grade level. The fourth grade teacher, an excellent teacher, had a group of kids gifted in math. She took this group through the fourth grade book, and was able to finish the fifth grade book with them. The next year, the fifth grade teacher started this group in the 6th grade book, which they finished. And then they moved on to Middle School. Sigh.... The kids were put in 6th grade math, with the book they had just finished. The parents went as a group to talk with the teacher, and was told he was too busy to make special allowances for this group. They went to the principal to see if they could move up to 7th math. No way!!! And what's more, he complained that the 4th grade teacher was out of line for allowing the kids to conitnue out of the norm to begin with! So those kids had their entire 6th grade wasted as far as math goes. My husband actually teaches math in the same district. A few years back, the district had decreed that all students MUST have Algebra 1 by 9th grade. So he had a class of 9th graders in Algebra 1. Only half the class wasn't ready for it. They would add 1/3 + 1/3=2/6. And I'm talking more than a few students. So what does he do? Does he start at where they're at, teach them math, but never get to Algebra? Or does he teach Algebra to those few who are capable of doing it, and neglect those that aren't "there" yet? The first case means kids will actually pass Algebra 1 without any knowledge of the subject, and the next year teacher will be frustrated because they're not at all ready for his Algebra 2 class. The other option sets half the class up to fail before they walk in the door, and has the administration all mad at him because of his large failure rate.
