People often ask homeschoolers why they homeschool, here's my top reasons, for my family. This is an incomplete list as the reasons are endless, but it's a good start for me!
1. Better education. I am not a public school or teacher hater. I am a system hater. I know loads of GREAT teachers and Brianna used to go to a GREAT public school. But the system has failed those teachers and schools. Teachers can't actually teach any more. Bullying is rampant because teachers aren't allowed to discipline any more. Grades are sky high, which seems like a good thing, but it's not because kids are doing awesome in their schoolwork, it's because the current grading system does not allow zeros. If you don't do your work, it just doesn't get graded. Another niece of mine thought she'd need an out of province drivers license if she moved to Toronto (some of my readers may not know the sadness of that, we live in Ontario, this niece lives in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada, Toronto is the capital of Ontario, 7 hrs away from Ottawa). I believe much more geography is needed, but at least some basic your-own-province geography would be nice!
2. Brianna actually ASKS to learn new things. School isn't a thing to be hated. Sure we learn the stuff she needs to know to succeed as an adult, but she also learns about the things that interest her, like when we spend about a month doing almost nothing but the Titanic.
3. Our lives don't revolve around the school schedule. If we want to take a week off in May for no flipping reason, we can! If the baby kept everyone up last night, it's no big deal if we don't start school til noon!
4. Homeschooling in Ontario is really easy. In a nut shell, we live in a no-reporting area and I don't have to keep a mound of paperwork to keep some politician happy.
5. Two words: Common Core. That crap is scary and I can't figure out math for the life of me, using it!
6. Public school does not teach even 1/4 of the life skills kids need. Most of the basic ones they used to teach, have been cut. Way too many teens can not count change as cashiers. A lot have no clue how to prepare inexpensive simple meals. Kids are often truly amazed when they discover how much what they considered "needs" costs. Ask the average just-out-of-high-schooler to unclog a toilet, how to balance a budget, how to mow a lawn, how to re-set a water heater, how to use a sewing machine, how to make a simple piece out of wood. Too many of them would have no clue. Yes, of course, I agree, it's a parent's job to teach this stuff, but a lot of it used to be taught in school.
Public school works for some families, but I'm beyond grateful that homeschooling is an option for my family.
Linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Real Life at Home and Hip Homeschool Moms
Showing posts with label PS problems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PS problems. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Year-Round Homeschooling
Otherwise known as "OMG! You make your kids do school in the summer!?"
We school year-round. That is, we don't "do" summer break. Sure we may take a few days to a week off here any there, but for the most part we school all summer.
We homeschooled through the summer even when Brianna was still in public school. Summer learning loss is very real and the results of it can be seen every September in public schools (or Aug for my American counterparts). The last year Brianna was in public school she complained daily about the amount of stuff they "taught" in school that she already knew. I brushed it off at first because we had actually moved into the following grade in some of the work we had done over the summer so I figured she had just already learned it. But then, she filled me in. They were doing stuff like counting to 100. She was in Gr. 3. She had learned to count to 100 in Kindergarten/Gr. 1. They were "learning" to add single digit numbers. They were reading through Gr. 1/2 readers. This wasn't simply review, this was over a month of dragging them back a few grades!
This is because of summer learning loss. A lot of parents leave the schooling to the teachers and don't have their kids so much as crack a book for up to 3 mths. This is not to say that they're bad parents! It's just society's norm. And the schools then have to do a month (or more) of review going up to a few years back to make up for it.
Well, I've always been known as a mean mom! So since that first summer between Kindergarten to Gr. 1, I did homeschooling with the kids. Because it was all they ever knew, they didn't complain. Sure there were certain topics that they didn't want to do, but there was never "why do I have to do school when everyone else doesn't".
Once we started homeschooling, I knew we'd be year-rounders. We do a lot more during the summer now than we did when Brianna was in public school, but still on a much lighter schedule than the rest of the year. We also do a lot more interest based stuff that I just sneak English and math into and Brianna thinks it's all great fun.
Brianna doesn't do well with very long breaks any time in the year. We school a lot more than the average homeschooling family simply because Brianna is very routine set. If we take too long of breaks or too often of breaks she tends to get her entire routine upset. So we generally do only 3-4 full weeks off per year and 6-8 long weekends (4-5 days including the weekend) per year. Otherwise, it's just a day here and there and with reason (like a race day or a set field trip).
This year, Brianna will be continuing through her math curriculum though as it's her 2nd round through it after a mix of troubles with the work itself and also not putting any effort into what she could do. But otherwise, we'll be working on our country studies, gardening, doing some household projects and other non-school "like" stuff.
She has a science camp this year that is a week long. She is to the moon and back excited about that. She does "Park Leaders" Tues-Fri mornings and swims most afternoons with friends. I DO want her to enjoy her summers, especially since most of her friends are public schoolers who have the summer off. So I work around her programs/activities as much as possible. We do most of our week's schooling on Monday when there's no Park Leaders. We do a bit when she comes home for lunch. We do some after swimming (or if it rains and swimming is cancelled). We do some after the neighbourhood kids (and herself) are called home for the night. She does complain some days, but for the most part is really quite ok with it.
It may not work for everyone. Hell, I know many homeschoolers who drag their feet through May and sometimes June to just drop everything for the summer. But it's what works for us.
We school year-round. That is, we don't "do" summer break. Sure we may take a few days to a week off here any there, but for the most part we school all summer.
We homeschooled through the summer even when Brianna was still in public school. Summer learning loss is very real and the results of it can be seen every September in public schools (or Aug for my American counterparts). The last year Brianna was in public school she complained daily about the amount of stuff they "taught" in school that she already knew. I brushed it off at first because we had actually moved into the following grade in some of the work we had done over the summer so I figured she had just already learned it. But then, she filled me in. They were doing stuff like counting to 100. She was in Gr. 3. She had learned to count to 100 in Kindergarten/Gr. 1. They were "learning" to add single digit numbers. They were reading through Gr. 1/2 readers. This wasn't simply review, this was over a month of dragging them back a few grades!
This is because of summer learning loss. A lot of parents leave the schooling to the teachers and don't have their kids so much as crack a book for up to 3 mths. This is not to say that they're bad parents! It's just society's norm. And the schools then have to do a month (or more) of review going up to a few years back to make up for it.
Well, I've always been known as a mean mom! So since that first summer between Kindergarten to Gr. 1, I did homeschooling with the kids. Because it was all they ever knew, they didn't complain. Sure there were certain topics that they didn't want to do, but there was never "why do I have to do school when everyone else doesn't".
Once we started homeschooling, I knew we'd be year-rounders. We do a lot more during the summer now than we did when Brianna was in public school, but still on a much lighter schedule than the rest of the year. We also do a lot more interest based stuff that I just sneak English and math into and Brianna thinks it's all great fun.
Brianna doesn't do well with very long breaks any time in the year. We school a lot more than the average homeschooling family simply because Brianna is very routine set. If we take too long of breaks or too often of breaks she tends to get her entire routine upset. So we generally do only 3-4 full weeks off per year and 6-8 long weekends (4-5 days including the weekend) per year. Otherwise, it's just a day here and there and with reason (like a race day or a set field trip).
This year, Brianna will be continuing through her math curriculum though as it's her 2nd round through it after a mix of troubles with the work itself and also not putting any effort into what she could do. But otherwise, we'll be working on our country studies, gardening, doing some household projects and other non-school "like" stuff.
She has a science camp this year that is a week long. She is to the moon and back excited about that. She does "Park Leaders" Tues-Fri mornings and swims most afternoons with friends. I DO want her to enjoy her summers, especially since most of her friends are public schoolers who have the summer off. So I work around her programs/activities as much as possible. We do most of our week's schooling on Monday when there's no Park Leaders. We do a bit when she comes home for lunch. We do some after swimming (or if it rains and swimming is cancelled). We do some after the neighbourhood kids (and herself) are called home for the night. She does complain some days, but for the most part is really quite ok with it.
It may not work for everyone. Hell, I know many homeschoolers who drag their feet through May and sometimes June to just drop everything for the summer. But it's what works for us.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Current Curriculum (Aug 2012)
After a loooooooong hiatus I'm back and joining the iHomeschool Network Not Back to School Blog Hop!
This week is all about Curriculum, so I figured it would be a perfect time to update my Current Curriculum tab!
See my last curriculum post from March 2012 here
This post contains NO affiliate links
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Tanya started Feb 6, 2012 coming from 6th grade in public school. Olivia formally started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. But as we don't follow specific grades, Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-7, Tanya is anywhere from Gr. 4-7 and Olivia is PreK/K. Olivia obviously has her own work, but majority of Brianna and Tanya's work is the same thing, at the same levels (really the only exceptions are Math and English).
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We are currently mostly not using traditional HS items, but regular workbooks you can buy at the bookstore/teacher stores. Most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books.
Olivia:
We use a variety of educational toys with her, some of our favorites being:
Discovery Toys Busy Bugs
Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center
Basic magnetic letters and wooden blocks
Pretty well anything from Leap Frog
For printables we mostly use tot and preschool curriculum from1+1+1=1 but also Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Online, our favorite sites so far are StarFall and PBS. She also plays a numbers app and a drawing letters app. I'm always searching for more recommended Android apps for the kids
Books we're working out of are Hooked On Phonics ABCs,Fisher Price On the Road to Learning, Fisher-Price Watch Me Learn, School Zone Counting 1-10 and School Zone Preschool Basics.
Brianna:
Math:
Brianna has discovered that the is both good at and even enjoys math a lot more than she thought! We've started Check and Double Check Math 5. She's now using the Market Math that Tanya was earlier. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some English)
English:
Her regular curriculum is English and Grammar Gr. 5 from the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill website. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some math) and Total Reading.
Tanya:
Math:
We're currently working on Math Made Easy 5 and additional worksheets in struggle areas, mainly decimals and fractions right now. Also adding in Menu Math which is a great set of workbooks that take real life situations and learn math from them.
English:
I have Tanya fast tracking to "catch up" with English. Right now she's using the Complete English Smart 4 book as well as the Practice and Grammar ebooks from this site. She does roughly double the work I'd normally have her do until she at least catches up to Brianna as she feels really low about being a grade level lower than Brianna who is almost 2 years younger (and as much as my sister and I try to explain to her that this doesn't matter, she feels the same).
Brianna and Tanya together:
Daily Binders:
Both girls have what we call their daily binders. Each day they have a math drill (adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing, depending what they need extra work in that week), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that they have misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), Boggle spelling (they're given a "boggle board" of 16 random letters that they have to make as may words as possible with and the more letters in a word, the more points it earns) and journal (with various writing prompts).
Spelling:
We don't really do a formal spelling curriculum. Normally I just track misspelled words in the girls' school work. With them, I have them copy, alphabetize and make sentences with the words.
History:
We're working through basic Canadian History and Geography right now. Sadly, neither of these seem to be of big importance in public school any more (and we LIVE in Canada!). We're working out of 3 books: Canadian Provinces & Territories, Canadian Geography & Mapping Skills (which no matter how I search for it, I can not find this book to provide a link!) and Exploring Canada.
Geography:
See History.
Math:
Nothing specific together right now.
English:
We're doing novel studies over the next while on Holes, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Secret Garden and Jungle Book. Most of them are a little young, but fun classic books. We currently have a list of 13 books we'll be studying and those are the first 5. For anyone interested in the others they are: Underground to Canada, The Cay, The Outsider, Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows, Shiloh, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Whipping Boy. We're also doing various writing prompts to tweak grammar/writing skills.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We will be picking ideas out of Science Made Easy and Habitats Environmental Series.
French:
My sister is covering French. We picked up Living Language which has 3 books and 9 CDs and some free stuff online.
Art/Music:
We're going to be learning some interesting techniques I found on Pinterest
Phys Ed/Health:
During the warmer months (approx April - October) the girls run. They've done 3 big races this year and still have their Triathlon and another 5k to do before the end of the season. They're up to running 1 mile at a time, twice in a day (either on the treadmill or on the bike path next to my house) and run typically 3-5 days a week.
With the girls' ages, puberty is running rampant, so that is the big Health Class focus right now.
Computer:
Nothing specific at the moment. I recently bought a Kobo Vox that I've downloaded some educational apps on like math drills and a geography program, but it's more of a reward than part of our schooling
Life Skills:
The girls have their own garden boxes this year. With the drought much of North America has been in this summer they didn't do too well, but we'll continue working on them. We're also working on more detailed and not often done cleaning, like the cleaning of walls, ovens, fridge/freezer backs, taking things apart to clean properly, ect...
This week is all about Curriculum, so I figured it would be a perfect time to update my Current Curriculum tab!
See my last curriculum post from March 2012 here
This post contains NO affiliate links
We school year round and don't really follow grades. Brianna started Nov 15, 2010 coming from 3rd grade in public school and will go until whenever of whatever year. Tanya started Feb 6, 2012 coming from 6th grade in public school. Olivia formally started "Preschool" on Feb 6, 2012. But as we don't follow specific grades, Brianna is anywhere from Gr. 5-7, Tanya is anywhere from Gr. 4-7 and Olivia is PreK/K. Olivia obviously has her own work, but majority of Brianna and Tanya's work is the same thing, at the same levels (really the only exceptions are Math and English).
So, since we don't have set grades or set school years, I figure every 4-6 mths I'll post what we are currently working on. We are currently mostly not using traditional HS items, but regular workbooks you can buy at the bookstore/teacher stores. Most subjects are supplemented by printed worksheets from various sites and of course, library books.
Olivia:
We use a variety of educational toys with her, some of our favorites being:
Discovery Toys Busy Bugs
Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center
Basic magnetic letters and wooden blocks
Pretty well anything from Leap Frog
For printables we mostly use tot and preschool curriculum from1+1+1=1 but also Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Online, our favorite sites so far are StarFall and PBS. She also plays a numbers app and a drawing letters app. I'm always searching for more recommended Android apps for the kids
Books we're working out of are Hooked On Phonics ABCs,Fisher Price On the Road to Learning, Fisher-Price Watch Me Learn, School Zone Counting 1-10 and School Zone Preschool Basics.
Brianna:
Math:
Brianna has discovered that the is both good at and even enjoys math a lot more than she thought! We've started Check and Double Check Math 5. She's now using the Market Math that Tanya was earlier. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some English)
English:
Her regular curriculum is English and Grammar Gr. 5 from the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill website. We're also using Total Basic Skills (which includes some math) and Total Reading.
Tanya:
Math:
We're currently working on Math Made Easy 5 and additional worksheets in struggle areas, mainly decimals and fractions right now. Also adding in Menu Math which is a great set of workbooks that take real life situations and learn math from them.
English:
I have Tanya fast tracking to "catch up" with English. Right now she's using the Complete English Smart 4 book as well as the Practice and Grammar ebooks from this site. She does roughly double the work I'd normally have her do until she at least catches up to Brianna as she feels really low about being a grade level lower than Brianna who is almost 2 years younger (and as much as my sister and I try to explain to her that this doesn't matter, she feels the same).
Brianna and Tanya together:
Daily Binders:
Both girls have what we call their daily binders. Each day they have a math drill (adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing, depending what they need extra work in that week), penmanship and handwriting practice, vocabulary (words that they have misread/mispronounced have to be looked up in the dictionary for their definition and a sentence with the word made), Boggle spelling (they're given a "boggle board" of 16 random letters that they have to make as may words as possible with and the more letters in a word, the more points it earns) and journal (with various writing prompts).
Spelling:
We don't really do a formal spelling curriculum. Normally I just track misspelled words in the girls' school work. With them, I have them copy, alphabetize and make sentences with the words.
History:
We're working through basic Canadian History and Geography right now. Sadly, neither of these seem to be of big importance in public school any more (and we LIVE in Canada!). We're working out of 3 books: Canadian Provinces & Territories, Canadian Geography & Mapping Skills (which no matter how I search for it, I can not find this book to provide a link!) and Exploring Canada.
Geography:
See History.
Math:
Nothing specific together right now.
English:
We're doing novel studies over the next while on Holes, Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Secret Garden and Jungle Book. Most of them are a little young, but fun classic books. We currently have a list of 13 books we'll be studying and those are the first 5. For anyone interested in the others they are: Underground to Canada, The Cay, The Outsider, Hatchet, Where the Red Fern Grows, Shiloh, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Whipping Boy. We're also doing various writing prompts to tweak grammar/writing skills.
Science:
For the most part, science is done through day to day life with no set curriculum. We will be picking ideas out of Science Made Easy and Habitats Environmental Series.
French:
My sister is covering French. We picked up Living Language which has 3 books and 9 CDs and some free stuff online.
Art/Music:
We're going to be learning some interesting techniques I found on Pinterest
Phys Ed/Health:
During the warmer months (approx April - October) the girls run. They've done 3 big races this year and still have their Triathlon and another 5k to do before the end of the season. They're up to running 1 mile at a time, twice in a day (either on the treadmill or on the bike path next to my house) and run typically 3-5 days a week.
With the girls' ages, puberty is running rampant, so that is the big Health Class focus right now.
Computer:
Nothing specific at the moment. I recently bought a Kobo Vox that I've downloaded some educational apps on like math drills and a geography program, but it's more of a reward than part of our schooling
Life Skills:
The girls have their own garden boxes this year. With the drought much of North America has been in this summer they didn't do too well, but we'll continue working on them. We're also working on more detailed and not often done cleaning, like the cleaning of walls, ovens, fridge/freezer backs, taking things apart to clean properly, ect...
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Homeschooling Tanya
Background: Tanya is my niece-by-choice. Her mother, Lisa, is actually not my sister, but one of my best friends. We choose to be family.
Last summer, Tanya did some summer schooling with us as she felt she needed some extra help in math. Boy did she ever. She was supposed to be going into Gr. 6 that September, but was struggling with grade 3 and 4 math. She decided right then and there that she wanted to BE homeschooled. My sister wanted Tanya to pass some expectations first and sent her back to school. I told Lisa that I would support whatever she chose, but if any time she wanted to pull Tanya, I only needed a few days to get together some assessing work.
Over the last 5 mths, Tanya continued to complain about not being helped in her problem areas and made to stay behind in areas that she excelled. When her bullying situation got worse, my sister went to the principal. However, Tanya's teacher insisted that the bully in question "would never do something like that" *roll eyes*
This progressed to the point that by Christmas, now even the TEACHER was bullying Tanya. Lisa decided, enough was enough, Tanya was going to be homeschooled. Tanya asked to go back for January in order to say goodbye to her friends.
The last week of January was the worst as the teacher was now constantly harassing Tanya about the fact that my sister "wouldn't be allowed" to homeschool. Now we live in a "no reporting" area, where the only thing we need to do is send a letter of intent each year. We reassured Tanya that she *would* be homeschooled no matter what her teacher said.
That week my sister got a phone call from the school requesting a case conference. Legally, we don't need to meet with the school, but wanted to for humour's sake and out of courtesy to the principal, whom Lisa gets along with. The day of the meeting we were informed that the school requested that CAS (Child Services/CPS) be involved. While normally this is a scare tactic pulled by the schools, thankfully in our situation, CAS was already involved in helping out with my nephew's issues and knew of and supported Lisa's choice to homeschool.
So the meeting was a bunch of "you have to do this" from the school board lady and a bunch of "here's what the LAW says" from Lisa and I. The board asked about socialization *roll eyes* and I explained that even in a town as small as ours, we have a fairly large homeschool group with many children to socialize with. When asked how we're going to stay with the curriculum for "when" she's put into public school (cause of course it's going to fail) we explained that first she needs to be assessed to see what blocks she's missing and "catch up". The board then, ever so nicely *sarcasm*, said that she could remain in school until the school board got (around to processing) the letter of intent and she could do assessment there. Um, no. This is the same school who has been giving a struggling child almost straight As.
Speaking of, I asked about how Tanya herself could complain about not understanding this and that and yet get good grades. How every report card she got said that she "needs improvement" on homework completion and independent work, yet still get good grades. The principal explained (while trying very hard not to roll his own eyes) that with the current grading system, grades are only given on completed work. Translation: a child can do really good on whatever work they actually complete and get good grades, even if they are only completing 1 of 10 pieces of work through-out the year! What great work ethics!
So we walked out of there knowing that they can't do anything to stop us from homeschooling Tanya. We even went so far as to hand deliver a 2nd letter of intent to the local branch of the school board. On Feb 8th we got word that (they finally got around to looking at the damn paper and) we're official!
Here's to a long and successful homeschooling career!
Last summer, Tanya did some summer schooling with us as she felt she needed some extra help in math. Boy did she ever. She was supposed to be going into Gr. 6 that September, but was struggling with grade 3 and 4 math. She decided right then and there that she wanted to BE homeschooled. My sister wanted Tanya to pass some expectations first and sent her back to school. I told Lisa that I would support whatever she chose, but if any time she wanted to pull Tanya, I only needed a few days to get together some assessing work.
Over the last 5 mths, Tanya continued to complain about not being helped in her problem areas and made to stay behind in areas that she excelled. When her bullying situation got worse, my sister went to the principal. However, Tanya's teacher insisted that the bully in question "would never do something like that" *roll eyes*
This progressed to the point that by Christmas, now even the TEACHER was bullying Tanya. Lisa decided, enough was enough, Tanya was going to be homeschooled. Tanya asked to go back for January in order to say goodbye to her friends.
The last week of January was the worst as the teacher was now constantly harassing Tanya about the fact that my sister "wouldn't be allowed" to homeschool. Now we live in a "no reporting" area, where the only thing we need to do is send a letter of intent each year. We reassured Tanya that she *would* be homeschooled no matter what her teacher said.
That week my sister got a phone call from the school requesting a case conference. Legally, we don't need to meet with the school, but wanted to for humour's sake and out of courtesy to the principal, whom Lisa gets along with. The day of the meeting we were informed that the school requested that CAS (Child Services/CPS) be involved. While normally this is a scare tactic pulled by the schools, thankfully in our situation, CAS was already involved in helping out with my nephew's issues and knew of and supported Lisa's choice to homeschool.
So the meeting was a bunch of "you have to do this" from the school board lady and a bunch of "here's what the LAW says" from Lisa and I. The board asked about socialization *roll eyes* and I explained that even in a town as small as ours, we have a fairly large homeschool group with many children to socialize with. When asked how we're going to stay with the curriculum for "when" she's put into public school (cause of course it's going to fail) we explained that first she needs to be assessed to see what blocks she's missing and "catch up". The board then, ever so nicely *sarcasm*, said that she could remain in school until the school board got (around to processing) the letter of intent and she could do assessment there. Um, no. This is the same school who has been giving a struggling child almost straight As.
Speaking of, I asked about how Tanya herself could complain about not understanding this and that and yet get good grades. How every report card she got said that she "needs improvement" on homework completion and independent work, yet still get good grades. The principal explained (while trying very hard not to roll his own eyes) that with the current grading system, grades are only given on completed work. Translation: a child can do really good on whatever work they actually complete and get good grades, even if they are only completing 1 of 10 pieces of work through-out the year! What great work ethics!
So we walked out of there knowing that they can't do anything to stop us from homeschooling Tanya. We even went so far as to hand deliver a 2nd letter of intent to the local branch of the school board. On Feb 8th we got word that (they finally got around to looking at the damn paper and) we're official!
Here's to a long and successful homeschooling career!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Weekly Wrap-Up
Woooo! We actually got a full week in this week!
Monday - We're doing a lot of math right now to get the Gr. 1 stuff out of the way. A while back, we discovered that Brianna seemed to be missing a lot of basic math facts that she should have learned in public school and didn't, so we went back to Gr. 1 in that subject. Provided we hit no snags, we'll be done by the end of next week and can move into Gr. 2 (which really means I need to pick up some Gr. 2 work!)
Tuesday -Today was an amazing day. Brianna was super speedy in her school work and begged to do extra chores. I love this kid. She has no qualms against washing floors (on her hands and knees) and scrubbing toilets. Let's just hope she stays that way!
Wednesday - Today was a really rough day. Complete 360 from yesterday. We did get Nature Study in and that was a welcome sigh of relief from the rest of the day. Brianna thought it was great that she's noticing more and more things going on each week (me too!).
Thursday - School was pushed into the afternoon so we could get errands done, but she didn't have much to do today anyway. One of the things were starting is "taking notes". I've picked up relevant-to-what-we're-learning books from the library (simpler ones) and she has to read the book and pick out 5 important points from them. Also a lesson in plagiarism since, much to her disappointment, I won't let her do it.
Friday - Another great day! How am I so lucky to have that happen twice in 1 week?!? Right now she's helping grandma make pasta salad (it's only 2 hrs past her bedtime....)
Check out other weekly wrap-ups at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!
Monday - We're doing a lot of math right now to get the Gr. 1 stuff out of the way. A while back, we discovered that Brianna seemed to be missing a lot of basic math facts that she should have learned in public school and didn't, so we went back to Gr. 1 in that subject. Provided we hit no snags, we'll be done by the end of next week and can move into Gr. 2 (which really means I need to pick up some Gr. 2 work!)
Tuesday -Today was an amazing day. Brianna was super speedy in her school work and begged to do extra chores. I love this kid. She has no qualms against washing floors (on her hands and knees) and scrubbing toilets. Let's just hope she stays that way!
Wednesday - Today was a really rough day. Complete 360 from yesterday. We did get Nature Study in and that was a welcome sigh of relief from the rest of the day. Brianna thought it was great that she's noticing more and more things going on each week (me too!).
Thursday - School was pushed into the afternoon so we could get errands done, but she didn't have much to do today anyway. One of the things were starting is "taking notes". I've picked up relevant-to-what-we're-learning books from the library (simpler ones) and she has to read the book and pick out 5 important points from them. Also a lesson in plagiarism since, much to her disappointment, I won't let her do it.
Friday - Another great day! How am I so lucky to have that happen twice in 1 week?!? Right now she's helping grandma make pasta salad (it's only 2 hrs past her bedtime....)
Check out other weekly wrap-ups at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Math....
Back to basics is the word around here! This week we discovered MORE things that Brianna is behind in for math. We're going back to Gr. 1 and starting over. I don't even know what she learned in the last 2+ years of school cause there's so much she's missing.
Brianna and I were doing what I thought was super simple, basic review in math this week. Ya know the multiplication table? Well we had one the same style but with adding. She had to find which problems equaled 16. Sure, she could find the 16s, but then had NO IDEA how to use the table to figure out the problems (7+9, 8+8, 9+7). This is Gr. 1 level! She's *supposed* to be in Gr. 3!
This is on top of her having no idea how to borrow in subtracting. On top of her barely being able to carry in adding. On top of her not being able to multiply past x2. What the hell have they been teacher her these years????? All of her report cards gave her Bs or even As. What we're they marking to give her those grades?! The school obviously dropped the ball.
I pulled her our of PS because of bullying and various other "not liking the system" reasons. NOT because she was behind. From talking to her teachers, reading her report cards, ect... she was doing just fine! I'm so pissed!
Brianna and I were doing what I thought was super simple, basic review in math this week. Ya know the multiplication table? Well we had one the same style but with adding. She had to find which problems equaled 16. Sure, she could find the 16s, but then had NO IDEA how to use the table to figure out the problems (7+9, 8+8, 9+7). This is Gr. 1 level! She's *supposed* to be in Gr. 3!
This is on top of her having no idea how to borrow in subtracting. On top of her barely being able to carry in adding. On top of her not being able to multiply past x2. What the hell have they been teacher her these years????? All of her report cards gave her Bs or even As. What we're they marking to give her those grades?! The school obviously dropped the ball.
I pulled her our of PS because of bullying and various other "not liking the system" reasons. NOT because she was behind. From talking to her teachers, reading her report cards, ect... she was doing just fine! I'm so pissed!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Need to Slooooow Down!
Brianna imagined up and decided to do a craft today by building a castle out of paper towel tubes. Great! Cute idea. Unfortunately she seems to still think she's in school and has only like 30 mins to finish a project or it'll be gone forever. The idea was great, the work was fast and sloppy.
I wish she'd realize (and yes, I've been telling her) that she can take weeks if she wanted to do a project! Work on it some, put it on a shelf, work on it some, ect... I want her to actually want to keep things cause she did such a great job on it, rather than he not caring if it's tossed out next week. I want her to take pride in her work rather than just getting it over and done with.
I wish she'd realize (and yes, I've been telling her) that she can take weeks if she wanted to do a project! Work on it some, put it on a shelf, work on it some, ect... I want her to actually want to keep things cause she did such a great job on it, rather than he not caring if it's tossed out next week. I want her to take pride in her work rather than just getting it over and done with.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
I Can't Believe I Forgot to Post!
One of our frustrations for the week was discovering Brianna could not understand the idea of borrowing in subtraction. I explained to her that I was not mad at her for not knowing, but mad at the school for failing her. I could not believe that by Gr. 3, she had not learned borrowing (we went through the same thing towards the end of the year in Gr. 2 with carrying in addition).
I even went through the math book the school had given me when I pulled her (the very one they were using in the classroom). Sure enough, simple subtraction was right there. How is it that they are only teaching simple subtraction in GRADE 3!? I was floored. I remember learning simple subtraction in Gr. 1 and 2!
I thought it was bad enough that she couldn't tell time on an analog clock. But, rationally, I gave that the world is going digital and I'm just anally hanging on to analog. So fine, no analog clocks. But subtraction?! *sigh*
I even went through the math book the school had given me when I pulled her (the very one they were using in the classroom). Sure enough, simple subtraction was right there. How is it that they are only teaching simple subtraction in GRADE 3!? I was floored. I remember learning simple subtraction in Gr. 1 and 2!
I thought it was bad enough that she couldn't tell time on an analog clock. But, rationally, I gave that the world is going digital and I'm just anally hanging on to analog. So fine, no analog clocks. But subtraction?! *sigh*
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Official Virus/Spyware
So my computer is officially dead :( Thankfully I'm now able to use mom's laptop. It's not ideal cause it's old and has issues, but it's better than being offline! I gotta figure out how to hook up my printer to it too. And of course I don't have all my awesome HSing bookmarks cause they're on the dead computer, but that's ok, I have some sites I wanted to check out written in my notebook.
I sooooo can't wait til we start HSing!!! Brianna got kicked by one of her bullies this week. Left a good sized bruise too. Did I hear about the incident from the school? Nope, found out about it from Brianna hours after she got home from school. So done with PS!
We're working on finishing up her old workbooks now so we can start on fresh ones with the beginning of homeschooling. Her father picked me up a Gr. 3 English book so now we're set to start up. There's still several workbooks I *want* to pick up, but nothing we'll be even opening til the new year so no hurry to buy them yet.
I sooooo can't wait til we start HSing!!! Brianna got kicked by one of her bullies this week. Left a good sized bruise too. Did I hear about the incident from the school? Nope, found out about it from Brianna hours after she got home from school. So done with PS!
We're working on finishing up her old workbooks now so we can start on fresh ones with the beginning of homeschooling. Her father picked me up a Gr. 3 English book so now we're set to start up. There's still several workbooks I *want* to pick up, but nothing we'll be even opening til the new year so no hurry to buy them yet.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Confirmation
Well I got confirmation of my decision to homeschool last night. Brianna told me about 2 boys in her class that are calling her a retard and a bitch. Hello!?! We're talking 3rd grade here! I'm going into the school to talk to her teachers today. I heard the words I'd been hoping to hear... "I can't wait to start homeschooling!"
So I'm pretty far behind on my blogging *bad mommy* I've been alternating between not even touching my curriculum books to planning units and lesson plans from the moment I get up until I fall asleep!
I've now got math, science and English done to the end of the year (and even some into January). I'm getting the books to start my next history unit (the history of Christmas) and need to find some local maps and books for our next geography unit (our town and area). Thankfully Lee will be a help here since he was born and raised in the area.
I also found that the local Early Years center provides Scholastic catalogs. Even though the program is typically from 0-6 yrs, they do carry the catalogs for the older age groups! They also carry the science and math catalog and the click (computer/tech stuff) catalog, which the schools almost never hand out.
So I'm pretty far behind on my blogging *bad mommy* I've been alternating between not even touching my curriculum books to planning units and lesson plans from the moment I get up until I fall asleep!
I've now got math, science and English done to the end of the year (and even some into January). I'm getting the books to start my next history unit (the history of Christmas) and need to find some local maps and books for our next geography unit (our town and area). Thankfully Lee will be a help here since he was born and raised in the area.
I also found that the local Early Years center provides Scholastic catalogs. Even though the program is typically from 0-6 yrs, they do carry the catalogs for the older age groups! They also carry the science and math catalog and the click (computer/tech stuff) catalog, which the schools almost never hand out.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Making the decision
I'm still not 100% certain that we are going the homeschool route, but I wanted to start this blog in the event that we do so that I can keep track right from the start.
My daughter Brianna is 8 and in Grade 3. I have been toying with the idea of homeschooling since before my son Isaac started school. He lives with his father so won't be being homeschooled if that's the route we take. Brianna loves school. Why would I pull her out then? I personally hate the system. I love her school and her teachers, but I hate the system they are forced to follow. I think 90% of High School is useless. We've also had problems with Brianna not paying attention in class and not completing work. I believe this is due to boredom.
So, I've spent the last 2 weeks (since school started) researching homeschooling. It appears in my province, Ontario, that homeschooling is as simple as notifying the school board that I will be homeschooling. No approved curriculum, no testing, no one to answer to. I've read the policies and laws from the Ministry of Education and have read dozens of websites that put the policies and laws into layman's terms.
This week I started preparing. Right now I am looking at the possibility of pulling Brianna out of school after the Christmas break. I've gotten my "curriculum/planning binder" started. As I come across interesting things I'm putting it in there so I don't have 35,615,465 bookmarked web sites to go through.
I've also started picking up materials we'd need. The normal workbooks that I normally buy her, but now paying more attention to content rather than just grade level. There's soooo much I'd like to buy, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself either in case we don't go this route then I'd have too much material for my usual part time homeschooling.
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