Anyone Else Currently Homeschooling?

[tortoise]

This subforum doesn't get much activity - I wonder if there are other homeschool families here? I'm homeschooling DS9 over here in WI. He's a fantastic puzzle and most of my homeschool questions I direct to a different specialized forum. But hey, I'm here and always willing to talk schooling and homeschooling. I have a particular interest in educating children who are statistical outliers.

 

[Alaskan]

I'm great with academics, but struggling with teaching the youngerone life skills.
Do you have tips or inspiration?

That is one thing that I did/do well at.

The kids when they were little did everything with me. So they cooked with me, and fixed fence with me, helped paint the barn, change the water filter, etc.

Tiny kids can hand you stuff, and mix or what have you.

By age 6 they would make homemade biscuits, scrambled eggs, mac and cheese.... the basics.

And by 6 they could forage mushrooms by themselves, and were assigned an animal and all involved chores.

My 13 year old made ribs this Saturday for me, and last week repaired the washing machine. For the washing machine I told him to look up you tube videos and handed him the part. He had to take off the back, top, and front (including the front loader door and gasket). At one point he came to me to ask for pointers, and then I asked the 15 year old to help him for 10 minutes or so, before youngest was able to go back to doing it on his own.

With the ribs this Saturday... they were perfect... but he didn't make any sides... I guess I have to work on that next, "a complete meal."

When you do a few projects together (cooking, or repair work, or foraging, whatever), at first you go over everything step by step. You explain EVERYTHING.

Like, for mushrooms, we need to use a book to figure out what we have. We have to make a spore print if we aren't sure. We have to find out any poisonous look-alikes. And go through all steps and all resources that you use, and how they can use them. And go over the "what we do if it all goes wrong".

I remember when kid#3 got his first knife, we went over and reviewed all safety stuff. And yep, he cut himself anyway. But, it was during office hours so it didn't cost much to take him in and get stitches.

I think it is so important to give your kids opportunities to fail, and to succeed. Figuring out how to deal with failure is a huge life skill, and helps to teach how to find a work around, how to think creatively, and how to see failure as an opportunity to try something different, not a reason to despair.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Don't forget financial budgeting, including balancing a bank account.

 

[Britesea]

My Aspie son is 27 now, but I home schooled him- with a few abortive attempts at putting him in public school. First time was when I got tired of the school calling me up within a couple of hours of dropping him off (every...single...day), telling me to come get him because he had thrown up. Apparently the stress of dealing with a classroom situation was just too much for him. Later, the school system talked me into trying again, but I eventually realized that their so-called "special education program" for him involved parking him in a classroom with the Downies and similar extremely handicapped; the teacher was actually using him as a teacher's aide, lol, but he wasn't learning anything. In fact, that time caused serious problems because everything was so easy for him that he decided he didn't want to learn anything if he couldn't "get it" immediately.
The last time we tried was high school. After 1 quarter, he admitted to me that the bullies in his class had decided he was gay, and they were so merciless that he was eating his lunch in a classroom of another teacher that worked through lunch. That one really got me mad-- even the coach of his PE class was joining in the bullying apparently, because he's simply not athletic. The teacher who was letting him eat lunch in the classroom apparently didn't see the need to report the bullying, and when I called the counselor I left a message for him to get back to me about it. When I didn't hear from him after 2 weeks (I gave him PLENTY of time to return the call!) I finally pulled him out of school. A week later is when I finally heard from the counselor, asking me why he wasn't coming to school .

I didn't follow any fancy curriculum or anything while I was home-schooling him. We read books together a lot- my favorite history books were the "Don't Know Much About..." series. I used a tutor for higher math because I'm not good enough to teach it. We watched documentaries about everything under the sun (and beyond). When he finally took his GED, he passed with honors. He's going to college now, studying Accounting, although he hopes to get the money together from a job in that to go on and study Cosmology. It took a while to convince him to try college, because he had gotten such a bad taste in his mouth about education because of his experiences, but I think he's enjoying it now.

I may not have been a professional educator, but by the time he was old enough to start school, like most parents I had already taught him language, how to feed himself, dress himself, and the rudiments of the scientific process and to not be scared to ask questions or express personal opinions. I figured if I had taught him that much, I could teach him the rest.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

People talk about my polite, sweet, helpful boys and I just shake my head in disbelief.

We always have a big dinner at the end of our summer session for our kids. We call it a Recognition Dinner and we recognize all the kids who have been exceptional for the year. Among other awards, we give a Mr. and Ms. Manners. I'll never forget the year that we called out a young man's name and his mama 'bout fainted, lol. Mr. Manners for MY son - I think you've got the wrong kid! Right then and there she raised the bar and told that young man that if he could be that good in public that she expected better from him at home.

I don't think he was really happy with that award, lol!

 

[tortoise]

I'm planning to switch back to homeschool for the coming school year.

Putting DS11 in public school for the last school year was... painful... but a few good things came out of it. He got to experience some natural consequences about hygiene, grades, deadlines, missing the bus, etc. He got "schooled" on what an appropriate pace of work and production of work is for his age. He made friends... and more enemies than friends. Got harassed enough about his intelligence to dislike school all over again. The environment was enough structure to demonstrate that his ADHD is probably not ADHD and he doesn't need medication. (He got A honor roll without medication.) It also exposed his underacheiving behaviors clearly.

I got a chance to regroup. I read A LOT of parenting and education books. I found a few gems, tested out their advice, AND IT WORKED! DS11 started talking and I was able to figure out the origins of some of the behavior problems of our past homeschool experience. He thought homeschool grades don't count. He thought there were no consequences. (How he thought that I cannot imagine!!!!)

I starting testing out a new routine and schedule on weekend toward the end of the school year. It works! I found HomeSchoolMinder.com which solves all of my recordkeeping stress , has a student login which reminds DS11 of public school's online gradebook, and generates professional looking reports. It's so awesome!

I set up a schedule that has rewards and consequences built right into it. Totally limits his passive power behaviors.

All systems go, I think! I'm not committing to homeschool or not until the last moment (filing homeschool documentation the week before public school starts), but I am feeling confident!

 

[Britesea]

Personally, I think college is over rated. Unless you are going for a small handful of careers, Trade schools are a much more viable option. For some reason, our society has decided that only people with a college degree have any merit, but look how fast they scream for help if their car dies, or the plumbing, or the electricity. Not to mention going out to eat. All of those are trades that don't need college, and some of them pay amazingly well.

 

[flowerbug]

agreed to all of the above. very important to teach every child how to fend for themselves and the basics. don't count on the schools to do it.

 

[Alaskan]

I did well with DS14's life skills. He can cook, bake, any household cleaning, laundry, weed, garden, muck, feed/water, etc. Willingness to do the job right is different from ability 😅😣

DS6 ... not so much. He is more mechanical/construction oriented and helps or watches DH with fixing and building. He also can't (won't) make a sandwich - but he can slice fresh bread 🤔. Can't/won't clean his room - he believes he can't and won't try. 🤦‍♀️ I think its a motivation problem, but I'm not sure what to do about it or how to prioritize.

At 6, DS14 could hang up clothes, fold small laundry, clean his room, waah dishes, cut veggies with a paring knife, etc.

With your younger one.... different brains work differently.

I had 2 where I had to brake up the job into tiny bits, or they truly couldn't do the job.

So "clean the room" wasn't manageable.

But make it into super tiny steps
1. Pick up all clean clothes and put them back into drawers
2. Pick up all dirty clothes and put in hamper
3. Pick up all toys and put away
4. Pick up all books and put away
5. Pick up all trash
6. Anything left on floor find a place for it
7. Sweep
8. Find me, let me see if you missed something

And in the above list. The first time do it with them and explain each step. So with picking up clothes, pick up an item and explain how you decide if it is clean or dirty. Discuss this with the kid. Then have kid pick up one item and quiz the kid. Ask what he is looking at to decide clean or dirty. Ask him what he does when it is clean. This step might need to be broken down too. Because you have to fold, which might be a 20 minute lesson right there...... and then socks go with socks, this spot is for shirts, etc.

So yes, 2 hours later you and kid will have finished a job that would have taken you 10 minutes by yourself.

Take a deep breath, remember how wonderful it is to learn patience. Remember this is how he learns. If it was really difficult for the kid, then repeat it all the next day. You might have to redo your list and brake it down into even smaller steps.

As part of the work together, teach him how to check off on a check list or use picture cards.

Depending on the kid, you can post a long list of all steps, put it in a page protector and put a dry erase markers next to it. Then the kid can check off each step.

When they couldn't read well (I had one slow reader) I used little cards, like index cards. Each index card had an icon (like clothes hamper, books, bed, etc). For the cards I had 2 pockets on the wall. One pocket for cards that needed to be done. The other pocket was for completed cards.

Always the final point to check off is your inspection.


You come in, you find one concrete thing to praise "I see you got all books to the bookcase. I am so happy to see they are picked up." then give him one to three (NEVER more than 3!!! They can't remember more than 3), things to do, so say " I would like you to straighten up the books and put them in neatly."

Amd yes, with some kids the final point was repeated 10 times! But.... it gets better. Always praise first, never criticize, just kindly amd calmly point out whatever still needs to be done.

One of these checklists is posted inside each room. So, one in bedroom, one in bathroom, one in kitchen. I never needed one for animals, but if you need one for that I would post it in the mudporch.

And there has to be a clear deadline.

So for example, all bedroom chores must be done before lunch... if that means you are helping him in the bedroom and no one gets to eat until 2.... well.... hopefully that is enough of a deterant that things work better the next day. But delaying lunch is not a punishment, simply a consequence. Stuff has to get done. We can't think in filth, we don't want to attract rodents... we have scheduled this to be done before lunch... we will figure out how to get it done.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My oldest needs that too, I have to give her one or two things at a time or else the meltdowns/shutdowns ensue.
Also it’s only October and I’m already over half the curriculum I picked out. Revisiting some plans and ideas the next few weeks🤔