Comments on: Homeschool Failure

By: a homeschooling carnival – January 27, 2010 :: Garden of Learning

a homeschooling carnival – January 27, 2010 :: Garden of Learning — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:40:34 +0000

[...] presents Homeschool Failure posted at Roscommon [...]

By: Homeschool Trenches − a homeschooling carnival – January 27, 2010

Homeschool Trenches − a homeschooling carnival – January 27, 2010 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:09:13 +0000

[...] presents Homeschool Failure posted at Roscommon [...]

By: Sally

Sally — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:48:42 +0000

Just blabbing here… Teaching Textbooks has been great for us, too, or for most of us. I love it because there is NO teacher prep. My oldest daughter loves it because it is according to her learning style, and it has enabled to her teach herself more than a year ahead in math. My second daughter does NOT love it, because she hates math no matter what curriculum she uses. And we, too, have skipped grades, because, as the commenter above said, how much addition and subtraction and etc do you need? Now I also have math-apt Teaching-Textbooks-taught ten year old who is ready to start Algebra. I see that as a problem. Isn’t she missing something?? What do I do now? Saxon? I don’t have time for teacher-prep.

Good success with your move. This too, shall pass. ) I read of a homeschooling family who quit school completely for an entire year, while they built a house. The mom was really worried about her kids keeping up. But in a year they all tested right where they were supposed to. Maybe this story will be repeated in your lives also.
.-= Sally´s last blog ..Sight Reading Bears Fruit! =-.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:42:42 +0000

Don’t worry! I have been there a million times. You can recover. New babies, moves abroad, so many things. Just this year my kids wanted the summer off (when they hadn’t even started in the fall) and after all of that (while I was working full-time) they got it all done and on-time. We just had a strict “to-do” schedule of mostly independent work and they had to work 6 days a week. It has gone just fine.

This is the beauty of homeschooling. You can be flexible to take turns in the road without screwing the whole year up.

I also used to try to reinvent the wheel and do every last detail myself. This year we tried Laurel Springs. I haven’t been really excited about the curriculum but having a teacher follow us and give me constant encouragement and helpful suggestions made a huge difference in our progress and especially my stress level. They also allow for you to replace their resources with others if you wish (and we did).

Hang in there!
Natalie

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:59:12 +0000

I know what you mean. Us moms are good at feeling guilty no matter what! We don’t use packaged curriculum for anything else, but even this isn’t really working out. I guess I get to change what I do yearly with one subject at least.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:00:35 +0000

I don’t know when I feel more guilty – when they’re doing too much “school” or too little! I have never used a boxed curriculum or anything like that….but through the years we have managed to find a few things that just plain work (at least for a couple of kids). I cannot say enough about Teaching Textbooks. My oldest is doing pre-cal and sometimes I can hear the lecture and EVEN I UNDERSTAND IT and believe me – that is an accomplishment! We don’t use all of it, I’ve found we can often skip grades because honestly, how much addition and subtraction can you learn? But we use it for algebra, geometry, and 6th grade.

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:06:30 +0000

And Renae, I've managed to find a math program I like, but not one she likes so much. Other than this one. It actually does manage to challenge her a bit without losing her (except fractions. I thought the whole thing was going to fail on that alone!) .-= Dana´s last blog ..Homeschool Failure =-.

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:04:31 +0000

JJ–I could totally just let it all go and let her learn from the adventure…except math. I think maybe it is because I always struggled with math, but I can’t let it go, even with the idea of “catching up” later. It stresses me.

I know that is really my issue, but I’m having difficulty with it. That and everything is so up in the air. We still don’t have a move date, yet it continues to linger two weeks in front of us. We’ve been moving in two weeks for almost two months now, and snowed in here at the same time.

It doesn’t seem to bother me as much when we are actually working out there. There is so much to do and so many experiences…and so much math as she helps me measure and plan all the building projects. But here, we’re just sort of in limbo, and that is a good time for me to stress.
.-= Dana´s last blog ..Homeschool Failure =-.

By: Renae

Renae — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:44:19 +0000

How frustrating! We simply did not do any math during our move. I didn’t even think about remedying that, because we like our curriculum so much.

It was a bit of a challenge to get back into our routine, but we double up math lessons now and it’s going fine. We’ll be back on track in a year even with being “behind” before we stopped.
.-= Renae´s last blog ..How I Choose Curriculum =-.

By: JJ

JJ — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:26:05 +0000

Just noticing that algebra etc doesn't sound as if it's proven so important to you or your husband as you live and love this real family adventure with your children. (Not the one struggling to find curriculum and make it work properly, but the one curriculum SUPPOSEDLY is serving!) .-= JJ´s last blog ..I Did the Math — This Sums Up America’s Mess =-.