Hello Everyone: My name is Carla and I am new here. I will start homeschooling my twin daughters this year. They are 13. We recently moved here to Atlanta, and they don't like the schools at all. So for a year, we plan on homeschooling until they are in High School. Then we'll decide from there what to do. One wants to go to Public High School and the other at this point wants to continue homeschooling. We will see when the time comes. We have chosen the LifePac Curri. and they like it a lot! I hope to gain some useful information here. Talk to you all later! (Carla) :wink:
From one newbie to another... Welcome! My name is Laura. I homeschool my only child... 6yr old Gabby. I went to 12th grade in Ga (Hardaway HS in Columbus) Hated it, lol. Luckilly I enjoyed school overall, but it sure was different from the west coast from where I had temporarilly transferred from. Athletics were merely a past time and Tea Party Clubs had more clout than the football team! No kidding... they actually dressed up real Southern and proper like and had tea parties. And every one thought this was normal..which is cool. Im not knocking it... it's just so different from the west. I'm back in Oregon now and my HS'ing sister who lives here too teaches her children tea party ettiquette in depth. But she is the exception. It was quite the experience living there. My husband and I (yes I was married in my Senior year) would drive up to Atlanta on weekends and shopped the underground mall. I've lived here most my life, but am not native to the west.. so when I came back with the southern drawls, slang and accent... boy did I get a ribbing, lol. Whats funny is that it won't go away! Anyways... it's nice to 'meet' you and hope you keep posting and joining in.
Laura, I'm from Central Ohio, but spent two college years in Oklahoma. When I first came home, I spent a year tutoring inner city Black kids. Boy, did I have the "y'all" down!!! My friends gave me a real ribbing about it. I would tell them that the northern "you guys" only included the males, where "y'all" included EVERYONE, lol.
lol... Good thinking! I try to always have a method to my madness as well. It at least gives me something to argue about, and it's always worth a try, lol.
Laura, what do you do to get Gabby around other kids? I h.s. my four year old. While she's in plenty of classes where she sees the same kids every week, there's no real time for unstructured play. When I try to set up playdates it never seems to work out. I have given it over to God, because I feel I have done all I can think of and there's still no resolution. That's my only real hangup about 'officially' h.s.ing in the fall- my daughter being able to have friends. Becky
Well! Let me tell ya, lol.... I do my best. I'm pretty protective of her and am not all that social myself. I'm happy just to be in my own little world and do my own thing. So though my preference would be that I know the parents of her friends super well, often it's difficult for me to reach out in order to do so. Right now I don't have any neighbors where I live and when I did they were the opposite influence of what I want her to have ! It's not been easy -and to top it off Gabby is the opposite of me....she is extremely social, lol. But what I do have is a City park about 5 blocks from me, so I take her there quite a bit when the weather is nice. I bring along a notebook to do some work, or magazine, whatever. That way I can't really say I have too much to do if I can take it with me, and at least im there that way when she plays with other kids. If I see that she really hits it off with somebody, I remind her to see if she can have their phone #. I'm actually doing this right now because I am desperate for her to have someone else to play with other than her current friend who is a bad influence. Yanno.. argumentative, disobedient, complainer, etc... not to mention is 3 yrs older than her and has had 'boyfriends'. When they met, Gabby was 4 and she had just turned 7. But Gabby is twice the height of most kids and because of her outgoing ways always seems much older and it was a good fit.. except for the behavior issues. But now at 6 and 9....the gap just gets wider. But she is the one ofcourse, who is most available to Gabby. A better freind lives a ways away. She has been in AWANA's for a year and I plan on getting her into swimming and dance. Not to stay in it forever or anything unless she wants to, she just likes to DO things and I hope it will help increase her pool of friends. I try not to be a hypocrite and say I don't trust hardly anyone new - but I hope they let them come here... lol. Most parents around here these days (it seems) are extremely trusting ( or dont care) who they are with so it works for us, lol. If they can get their kids over here... they are so very welcome to come! If I had to 'arrange' play dates where the parent hangs out while the kids play...I don't think it would happen too often i'm afraid. She does have 13 cousins ranging in ages from 12 to 1. But they are mostly spread out in the neighboring towns. All I can really do is overall... among all the different ways -hope it fulfills that need for her. I am also lucky to have access to what is called 'Home Source'. Its similar to regular school, is funded by the school district, but is for hs'ing parents and kids to fill in the gaps of whatever we need in regards to academia. Parents can not merely drop kids off. They are encouraged to sit in on the kids class (es) , or do whatever they want as long as they don't leave the property. It's very popular with parents who aren't computer savy but want their kids to learn it. Same for math and foreign languages. There are also classes just for pure enrichment. This is where a child who doesn't attend PS can still be involved in field trips.Some go all day, some take advantage of a certain class. I intend to make use of it next year. Anyhoo.. I think Im rambling, lol. I don't think I have the big solution I would like to have but it's the best I can do given the situations. I've never gone wrong handing something over to God either, lol. I think you will find YOUR solution- rather- God will show it to you soon. If you are willing and able, there really can be a lot of avenues for you... I'd hate for you to give into to PS'ing on the basis of that fear alone. As for me, I just have to make a little bit more effort to be more social and let her have the time to make the friends that are already there.
Sorry I missed your first post! So many new people to greet at once! Hope you enjoy it here. I know the rest of us do!
Duh. I forgot to introduce my family! I'm in my 10th year of marriage to a wonderful man who shares in the education of our kids. We have been homeschooling for a couple years now. My oldest son is almost 9. He went to public school at first. He has since adjusted to homeschooling but still hasn't completely rekindled his first love of learning. My youngest (daughter) is almost 6 and enjoys her work quite a bit. She has always been homeschooled. Again, hope you enjoy it here!
