Thoughts like these damage homeschoolers everywhere

Posted by Taz's Mom on May 7th, 2008 filed in Homeschool
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Take a read through this blogger’s view on homeschooling as based on the 2 families that he/she has seen in action.

I must say, it’s sad that a person who dealt with only 2 families of thousands would make such sweeping statements. Not all homeschoolers are Christian families who base their teaching strategies on fear. Not all homeschoolers are holed up in their homes shunning the outside world.

Socialization has to be the word that I hate most being thrown at homeschoolers, because our children interact with the world on a daily basis as they would in normal society once traditional school is over. I have to say that I hope this person gets to know more families who homeschool so he/she can gain a more open perspective on how homeschool works for others.

Tags: against+homeschool

Summer Camp is a-go

Posted by Taz's Mom on May 7th, 2008 filed in Extras
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Just signed him up for the 8th week of YMCA summer camp. I am so excited for him. His godmother said she also wants to take him to the Franklin Institute soon. He is ready to go for the summer camp at our church, too. This kid is going to have an awesome summer!

Tags: summer+camp

Summer camp!

Posted by Taz's Mom on May 2nd, 2008 filed in Homeschool
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My son’s godmother has said that she will treat him to a week of summer day camp. I have chosen two that we might do. The first is from the YMCA for a week, the other from his Jiu Jitsu class. I am hoping that his delayed shots record won’t deter them from allowing him into the YMCA program. Thanks Titi Brenna!

Tags: summer+camp, summer+day+camp

10 pages in 3 minutes

Posted by Taz's Mom on May 1st, 2008 filed in Homeschool, Language Arts, Math, Reading, Vocabulary
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Today was a pretty okay day for learning. I let his father take over the Math lesson to give me a break, and give him a feel for what I go through nearly every day! That took an hour, even with his father right next to him helping. The kid just DOESN’T want to do the work.

Then I gave him some pages that were to relax his brain before the next daunting task. He got 10 pages done in 3 minutes, and 17 pages in a total of 10 minutes. It was in a Pre-K/early K book and he nailed every page. Then I gave him the vocabulary page with color words and he did that more quickly than if i had just given it to him right after Math. I think his rythym is like mine. Hard work, brain rest, more hard work.

The number line did help him in the Math once he settled down and decided to listen to his father. We got a good amount of work done AND he learned more about perseverance, his new favorite word.

Tags: math, vocabulary

Right brained children, ADHD, dyslexia

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 30th, 2008 filed in Homeschool
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I was reading the page How To Tell Why Your Child is Struggling from HSLDA today. I must say, my son is SO much of what is on the page, that I broke down into tears.

He gets the tags cut out of every shirt he wears
he won’t eat vegetables unless they are baby food consistency
he doesn’t like eating his food all together, he separates it out as much as possible except with PB & J most of the time
He cant stand his hair being brushed/combed
He hates meat most days, but I got him to like a few things
He abhors loud noises other than the ones he makes himself
I have to warn him in plenty of time before I can transition him into doing other things ESP leaving the house
He would rather eat bread, potatoes, and noodles than anything else on the planet save chicken nuggets
He only just got used to jeans, although if they are hard he won’t wear them
He has issues with so much energy it’s bursting from his ears. He can focus on so much, but usually not school work ESPECIALLY not math.

By all intents and accounts, my son would be categorized as ADHD, but we don’t believe in labeling a child and putting them on meds. His diet is already mostly avoidant of sugars and dyes. He eats lots of fruit all the time. I try to make as much from scratch as possible. He drinks lots of water; even his juice is watered down.

I hate that he has all these things going on. I know that he would be called ADHD and dyslexic. It’s one of the reasons I am happy to have him home with me, instead of tearing up somehwere else.

Tags: right+brained+learners, dyslexia, dyslexic, adhd

Math vs Taz

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 30th, 2008 filed in Math
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Pennies, fingers, flash cards, jumping jacks, other objects, math out loud…

He is STILL fighting math. Right now he is working on a page that should have taken him about 1/2 hour. It’s now nearly an hour and a half.

I am so tired of this. He KNOWS most of this crap. It’s the fact that he doesn’t want to RELATE what he already knows. He knows how to get the answer if he doesn’t know, but he doesn’t want to translate that into an action. Then he has the NERVE to get angry when I erase the wrong answers he scribbled across the page so he could just be done.

UGH.

edited to say that I am going to try the number line next. He seems to get the concept, but we shall see.

7 medicines your child should not have

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 29th, 2008 filed in Health
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I find it interesting that this comes out after so many years. I mean, most doctors will either give you the generic penicillin (amoxycillin) or tell you to get an over the counter product for your child. These are the recommendations for children, especially under 6 years old:

no aspirin
no over the counter cough/cold
no anti-nausea meds
no adult meds
no meds prescribed for others
no expired meds
no extra acetaminophen

Some of those are common sense, like adult/expired/prescribed for others. The thing that irks me is number 2. Tell doctors to stop telling parents to just get the OTC stuff and cut the recommended dose in 1/2 or water it down! It’s absurd. They also have a few suggested things to avoid, such as chewable meds or herbal remedies. Check out their reasons why, and let me know if you agree with all this. Are you as mad as I am that doctors have been telling us to give these drugs yet they are unsure of whether or not they will harm our children?

Tags: medicines+to+avoid, children+medicine

Math, Phonics, Reading & more

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 23rd, 2008 filed in 84, Curriculum, Homeschool, Language Arts, Math, Reading, Spirituality, Vocabulary, Writing
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Today we got him his second library card. When he was younger, he had one for the local library where we lived. He would never remember getting it, since he was so small. Now, he is excited to be able to take 4 books from the library every 2 weeks.

He picked out some really good ones to start with. The one we red today was called Read A Picture Colors and Numbers. He did very well, learned some transitional words and such like “a”, “to”, “you”. I also tested his recognition with words he is spelling and color words. I have a Fisher Price Phonics book that does this beautifully.

We got into our first fractions. I am going to devise a board of sorts with fractional pieces, unless I can find one already made for cheap somewhere. We reviewed some of the basics of telling time. He is doing great with that. I am going to end up getting his 1st grade curriculum pretty quickly, since we transition back and forth between the K and 1 levels of work.

Other than the fact that he enjoys whining about pretty much everything except learning a bible verse and coloring, he is doing well.

Earth Day at home!

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 22nd, 2008 filed in Field trips
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Well not really “at home”, more like at the park. I found some things online that I knew would picque his interest, so I printed them and we went to the park for a few hours. Everyone got up late today, so I wasn’t pushing for us to hurry up and do school as soon as we got up. It worked out great. We did a scavenger hunt for things in the park and he drew pictures of them. Then he did a maze to put the apple core in the trash. Next, he demonstrated how to keep our environment clean by putting some trash into the receptacle. Lastly, he just played in the glorious afternoon sunshine and lovely dirt…which we all know is the true show of appreciation for the Earth and what it has to offer LOL.

Tags: earth+day

Speeding through this curriculum

Posted by Taz's Mom on April 17th, 2008 filed in Homeschool
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We have gone from unschooling to more homeschooling since he desires more structure. I guess it’s still unschooling because it’s what he needs, not what we told him he needs. We are finishing his preK and K books at an alarming rate. We just got finished 2 this week. We are still working in My Father’s World K program and Rod & Staff K program with some supplementals I found at the dollar store. There is nothing like a fully packed workbook for a dollar…

Anyway, I am looking at how much we are going to be putting aside for his next set of curriculum. The plan is to stay in My Father’s World and Rod & Staff. The two together give us a balance of hands on and seat work that is unparalleled. I would like to get into more things about astronomy and science within the next year, too. I know he will love that.