Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Made a final decision to homeschool

After days of researching, talking to DH and friends and family (one who is a teacher) I have made the decision to homeschool. I need to get things together before withdrawing DD. I have read a few posts on writing the letter to the school board but would love advice on what all it should include.
I am likely going to be doing blended learning and will take things from there. I haven't found any good schedules I like and would love for you all to post what your days look like homeschooling. I have a DD7, DD3 and DS1.

Congratulations!

We are really enjoying the change to homeschool here. My son says we should have done it sooner. I have one DS6. He struggles mightily with transitions and I didn't want to be the one getting him to shift into a new activity. He also needs me to mostly stay out of his way for learning so much of this is independent work for him. After a few weeks, I developed this schedule for us.

It has three parts to our day. I always begin with a more favored activity and end the block with FREE TIME. I made sure HE would end the free time by placing it just before a meal or snack. When he is hungry then play time ends. Short chunks work for us. School has been damaging so we have some work to find normal again.

MORNING

* Brain Pop Video and Quiz (we have been doing Science/Health/Social Studies)

* BREAKFAST

* HWT: Handwriting Without Tears Practice

* IXL: We've been working through the 3rd grade math and LA standards. When he gets stuck, I jump in.

FREE PLAY until LUNCH
......................

MID-DAY

* Art/Music/Library/Therapy (We do a different one each day)

* Language Arts: We just got the Michael Clay Thompson materials yesterday and they are truly fabulous

EXERCISE: We often swim, bike, go to the park

SNACK-TIME
.......................

AFTERNOON

* Reading or Audio Book

* Bible

FREE-TIME until Dinner


Some days we play too late, run errands, or get wrapped up in a project and part three gets pushed to bedtime. Sometimes he works ahead and gets multiple assignments done for the week and leaves extra free time. That's always his choice. As long as he does the work, I don't mind.

There was an interesting thread on this recently: include thanking people, leaving the door open for possible future return to school... not burning bridges. I believe the crowd-sourced draft which resulted is here (link- http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....icially_w_d_to_Homeschoo.html#Post167875)

Your local school district may have information on its website regarding student withdrawal, and your state laws may contain something about this as well. Your state laws may also have a form or notification letter required of parents who are homeschooling.

echoing the congratulations over here!

it's so interesting - our day is actually fairly similar to HappilyMom's setup... i work full-time from home, so DD5 and i do blocks of school together three times a day and then she has independent study projects directly after the first two, where she's responsible for turning in the work to me when finished. here's how it goes:

8-8.30 am - phys ed. biking/running/scootering/ball playing etc - we go pretty hard and often need to come home and change afterward - this is super-good for me, too, since i've been a total sloth since she was born!

8.45-9.30 am - 1st block of school. we nearly always start with math, since DD loves it so much. we'll do a quick oral review on things like money-counting or timetable problems - really fast stuff that she can plow through before starting a longer section on whatever new work we have. when the new work is finished, we'll spend a minute or two talking about her goals for the 1st block of independent study and i head off to work in the office and she takes to her desk in her room.

9.30-10.30 am - 1st block of independent study. sometimes she'll be finishing up the math we started together, or it could be continuing work on history/geography/science projects or sometimes art technique. today she's doing cursive work because it's a special area of interest for her.

10.30 am - snack. then free time until lunch at 12.30. she often reads to her stuffed animals or draws/colours or heads out to the back yard to kick a ball around.

1.00 - 2.00 pm - 2nd block of school. we'll review the independent work from the morning - if there's something for me to correct, i'll do it with her and she'll talk about any challenges or further research questions she has which we'll note and block in for another day. then we might have a spelling quiz and get going on other new work - and get her set up for independent study #2.

2.00 - 3.30 pm - 2nd block of independent study. this usually includes a journal entry/short essay or other ongoing work that requires reflection and effort.

3.30 pm - snack & free play until my work-day is finished - technically at 5, but more like 5.30 (though often i have to go back to it after DD's bedtime!)

5.30 pm - after we review her independent work, she'll spend 1/2 hour reading to me from "her" current book. then i'll read to her from "our" book until it's time to make dinner.

phew - that was a bit of a novel - sorry! but i have to add that it's literally the most fun i've ever had. it has eliminated all the stress DD and i were feeling last year, and her work speaks for itself. her reading level has jumped dramatically, her handwriting is now pulled up to grade-level (so it now matches the acceleration we did) and the math is out of control - but best of all, DD's spark is BACK.

i am so very excited for you, jholland1203!

So after lots more research I have finally figured out what is holding me up and making me nervous. I am stuck on what my/our style is. This is making it hard for me to figure out how/what I want to teach.

I want the classical approach (maybe I'm overwhelmed but the CM and WTM are confusing) but I like other methods as well. I'm unsure how to incorporate these and DD get the "standard" education if she were to return to school in later years.

Your experience might be different but my kid is too "out of the box" to focus on methodology. I'm taking pieces out of any methodology if the curriculum meets our goals and accommodates his disabilities and strengths. What we are doing now has shifted from a month ago when we were just getting started.

I expect to keep changing as he does and that nothing is a long term solution. We just do what's working and change when it seems we need too. I like keeping an eye to the learning standards used at school but bearing in mind that some are not necessary for his progress and success. I have bigger goals for him than learning standards. (If your child returns to traditional school and you missed something then your child will have something new to learn. Nothing is earth shattering here and you have a child who picks up new things quickly.)

I do think it is easy to get swamped in the methodologies at the start. I got thrown in to home schooling without a chance to plan this year and perhaps that has also influenced my approach. The best thing about home school is you can do what works in your own style and change as much as you want/need. For us, flexibility has been foundational.

this stuff is on my mind, too - though i feel like we have a bundle of time since DD's only 5 and i don't think we can send her back to traditional school at this point for several years (radical acceleration.)

whatever approach you do choose, you'll no doubt be able to keep yourself on the straight and narrow once you have established the curriculum expectations in your area. but you might also find that some of the panicky feeling dissipates once you actually get going - i think that's pretty common for homeschoolers!

i think one of the reasons is that when it's a one-to-one ratio (or one-to-three in your case,) there's just so much time available to try things/make mistakes/see success.

even cooler, i've found that almost everything we do actually supports a few parts of the curriculum simultaneously - albeit sometimes across a few grade levels at once. for example, DD5 wrote a letter to my mother as part of school last week. it started off as a regular thank-you note, but it really turned into handwriting + spelling + letter formatting + date formatting + letter writing + sentence structure + thought organization, etc... nearly everything we do works out that way - and even better, often sparks interesting tangents.

your method and style may change as you go - and you may find that different approaches work for different areas of the curriculum. why not start with some weekend sessions or some after-schooling to get your feet wet - just a little here and there to see how it flows? you could try an outing somewhere like a museum and then build up a lesson structure around that?

but take heart - you've been teaching your little ones from the very start, and this is just one more phase. and... like my mother always said, "beginnings are difficult!"

love this.

Isn't that the truth! I was telling DH that I feel like I'm trying to start a research paper and having a hard time getting started but know that once I do the possibilities will be endless (I'm very creative, love research and love to be on the go). DD has already requested 1 field trip a month lol We have an awesome selection of museums, aquarium, zoo and children's theatre.

this is going to be a great fit for you, i can tell!