Just thought I'd share mine and then you can have a turn. Every day at least once a day BOTH my 5 and 3 yos beg to "do school." Doing school now consists of actually going upstairs to the school room and doing some form of curriculum, starting with devo, then either math or handwriting or phonics. They both absolutely love it. And I'm getting much more confident in my ability to school 2 at the same time and at different levels. Some how or other its working. Praise God! So share your success story of the week (month, year).
I guess our biggest success story right now is spelling. It took us years to find a spelling curriculum that works, but we have it now! Woo-hoo!!! We use Soaring with Spelling and it is working so great for DS.
Well, my son is older (17) and in the last few years, I have been gradually changing what we do and occasionally panicking. But, I have come to realize a few things that make our homeschool now much more successful: 1. It is OK for a child NOT to want to be an academic genius. 2. It is OK to do things in a different way. Why not just let him read for history? 3. It is OK not to test; yes, even in high school. 4. It is OK to take more than a year to finish a book or subject. 5. It is OK to backtrack at times when it is necessary to help him really learn something. 6. It is more than OK to change curriculum, but just try to keep it to a minimum to keep things smooth. So, now that we have a few year under our belts (we started when he was 12), I hardly ever stress out. I do have worries and concerns, but life goes on. I can't believe I am saying that. I used to be panicked all the time about this homeschooling stuff. Another thing that helps is that one of his classes is typing which is a really easy class for him to do and it is free (freetypinggame.net). Another class is Rosetta Stone Russian, which is graded as he goes. Of course, he can redo levels and earn a higher grade, but if he redoes something than he deserves a better grade. Yet another class is PE, which he has made his own plan for- super easy for me. Then we have history (99-100% reading only), English (sometimes harder), geometry (medium difficulty) and chemistry (the only super hard class we have).
That, that, that, that, that, and that. LOL Seriously, we totally unschooled until this year. PS was....not bad as in my son wasn't beaten up or bullied at school or anything but just 2 years of PS changed him. One big (Academic) change for the worse was after K he would cry when I pulled out a book. He was being pushed so hard to read 'on level' at school he didn't want to see a book, not even if I was going to be reading it to him. I'm a lover of books, I'm always reading, love to read. I want that for my kids too and PS just killed that in my oldest. So, the fact that my son now screams and cheers when I pull out certain books (Narnia series, Burgess Bird Book, etc) is a huge success. He's a sensitive child, easily frustrated and a people pleaser so it's nice when he gets frustrated to be able to back up to a level where he's gonna get it easily to build his confidence then move forward again, it's nice to take a fun, relaxed approach to school. He made way more progress in 2 years of unschool than he did in 2 years of PS...Total success.
I think my greatest success story is my dd. Even though she is dinging around a bit in College , she started two years early due to the great joy of Home Schooling. She has helped adults learn how to write and essay, as well as pulled her own A in College english 3rd level. She is now finding she can do classes she didnt think she could do, and still getting great grades. The grade thing is her choice too! I taught my kids to learn what they want, but also to accept the required courses. dd graduated at at Christian School but home schooled for 11 grades prior to that. now ds is able to create video games, and do his school work too! for a Sophomore in High School that is pretty good I think.
Hello, it's been a while since I've posted here (forgot password), but I always visit. Finally got the password issue worked out, anyway to the topic at hand. For us the greatest success so far, (one child in third, and one in seventh), would be finding a schedule that works for us. It took us a while to be abe to get our work done, within the time frame I wanted, but we have finally found one routine that seems to work. My kids are morning kids, and they like to start early (I'm talking 8:00am sharp), and now that I have adjusted our schedule to work for them, everyone is happy. I guess it's really all about learning what works best for your kids.
