Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How are the homeschoolers doing?

We moved late August. Needless to say, things have been unsettled ever since. It's 5 weeks into the school year and I finally feel like we are getting into the groove. I'm HSing a 5th grader and a 2nd grader with a 3.5yr underfoot. She is in preK two days per week for 2hrs so that has been quite, uh, refreshing.

Dazey

We are having a great time. We don't follow the school year here as such (which starts in Feb), except for activities we do that run for a school term. DS (who is 6) has just started to show a strong interest in school-y type resources (we are unschoolers), so I've been providing him with lots of those. I sent him the link to the Khan Academy and he is loving it. I wasn't sure if it would hold his attention but he can't get enough.
Next term he will be going to a pilot program at a small independent school which will eventually run one day a week. They will run workshops for homeschooled children with a dedicated teacher (DS's old art teacher who is wonderful). Essentially we are using it as a babysitting/social opportunity for our boys.
DS is also going to start circus classes and is going to a 3 day day camp at the circus school next week (holidays). He is very very excited.
Right now I'm trying to remember to go with his flow. He has days of intensive maths learning, days where he just needs to be outside, days where he lies around and reads or crafts (like today, he has a cold)and days where he just needs to play with his friends. I'm also finding that at different times of the day he is more receptive t different kinds of learning. Maths is definitely a late night activity and writing and drawing happen best in the morning.

I would like to respond, but it's late and my brain is fried from a l-o-n-g day of homeschooling.

We're doing fine. I don't even know what week we are in right now (7...9...23?). We've finally hit our groove and are moving along nicely. I am thankful each day for the opportunity to educate my child at home. It is usually exhausting, but so much fun! I love the little surprises (most of them, that is), like discovering his amazing insight into poetry. He's six, but he can read a complex poem and 'get it' when I'm still sitting there scratching my head. He can understand poetry even better than literature which I find rather surprising. That discovery has been the biggest surprise for us this year, thus far.

That's all I have time for, but I do very much appreciate hearing from you at-home educators!

We are doing all right too. It is technically school holidays here. The main difference that makes is that some of our regular stuff isn't one, but we can slot into some good school holiday activities.

We have been trying a new approach involving a lot more intervention from me. We are generally unschoolers but my children seem to do better with more structure and me introducing more new experiences/ideas. So I am getting ideas from an online curriculum and introducing them sort of sequentially as we time/inclination allows. (Sorry, I tried to add the link but it appears to be down at the moment.) It is chronological, and atm we are doing the Ice Age!

We are doing well. We have the most out of the house stuff this fall we've ever had (evolutionary science, Spanish, music lessons, 2 playgroups/field trips, plus dance and circus). So I'm feeling pressed for time! If we had a couple more school hours at home a week, we'd be in good shape. We're very much focusing on core subjects at home right now (language arts and math) and a little history. When our science class wraps up in 5 weeks we may shuffle things around again.

My 4th grader started "real" Algebra (as opposed to side lights and dabbling) this fall and that is going great. He was more than ready. My 1st grader is struggling with perfectionism.

It's a fantastic start for us. There was a bit of a bump at the beginning but someone with more experience than me, chalked it up to 'beginning of the year excitement being over'. We're in a nice groove now. It is exhausting though. I'm sleeping quite well these days, until I'm up at 3:00 worrying about curriculum! I'm enjoying the planning and layers of enrichment and DS's anxiety is very low and he's developing a nice work ethic. It's wonderful to watch. I started Spanish and Latin, to see which he would like better. He loves both of them! He retains SO MUCH!! I think we hit his readiness level in most areas, so I've started introducing different problem solving activities to work on anxiety and rigidity issues. He's entering into the end of SM and I've been watching to see how much he understands the more complex problems. I just thought 'this will be interesting'. Wow. He gets it. I look at something and think this may be to much and then have to step out of the room, because it's a little disconcerting to see how much he grasps it. I'm glad everyone is doing so well here and thanks for your updates-

My 12-year-old is enjoying his one day a week co-op writing composition class, everything except for the pages of grammar worksheets that have to be finished by a deadline, something that he is not used to but I know is very good for him.

He got A+ on the first two papers he wrote. The teacher wrote notes about the things she really liked in his writing. He is becoming more confident about adding humor in his writing because she is encouraging this.

I don't think the last paper he wrote will get an A because he waited until the last possible moment to write it. Since he managed to write the first two papers quickly and did so well, he thought he could do it again, but this time at the last minute he had a bad headache. He does not write as well when he is in pain. It sucks the humor right out of him except for the sarcastic kind. He is still learning to work through the pain.

He doesn't particularly like his state history class. He thinks our state is boring. He knows much more about Japan and its culture than his own state.

He reads for hours in bed every night on his iPad. He always keeps up with the latest news. He always reads the latest science and technology articles, but also keeps up with the latest popular music and things his sister likes to talk about.

He continues to do well in piano and the musical theater group he has been in since age 4 and he has so much fun in this. He gets a lot of positive feedback for his ability with improv and his sense of humor.

Same here, just different subjects There are quite a few classes/activities I would like them to try but I don't think I can add more to our already busy schedule. Just the amount of the homework/music practice from the outside classes can be quite overwhelming.

Otherwise we are good. It sure helps that this is our DS8 3rd year of homeschooling, so I feel like a pro. I believe both DS6 and DS8 are working on their levels and get to do plenty of challenging work each day. Now if only I got more time for myself.

I'm so happy everyone is doing well Wish I could say the same here. I feel like an awful parent, I hate homeschooling I am trying to give it a chance. I can see the benefits, we have just gotten off to such a rocky start. The first 2 weeks there were site problems , and this program uses the computer a lot, then they accidently unenrolled us, that took a week to fix, the last week and a half I've been sick (as in walking dead sick,lol) I've had about 2 good days so far, on the up side it can only get better from here

I'm wondering if this is a good idea when his life is being so affected by migraines and sleep disturbances. It can be confusing to the brain to be exposed to bright light in the hours before bed. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/04/ipad-kindle-ebook-sleep.html