Homeschooling in December???

[MochaMel]

How many of you take the month off or continue until the week of Christmas? Just curious.. We usually take the month off; we have continued this year until today; b/c it's been such a crazy few months wiht the pregnancy school wise.. Finally made the decision today that no school this week at least not formally until at least the baby comes; and then probably wont start up formally until January.. We do lots of crafts, baking, stories about Jesus, etc. instead.

What do you gals/or Dad's do for this month..

Mel

[wife]

Same here. Some years we take off and some we don't. We have worked up until today. My mom is coming up for a short visit, so we cleaned today and then we will be off until she leaves Thursday. We will do a bit next week but I am sure we won't get much done..LOL

[lisaann]

When my kids were in K and 1st I used to take the whole month off. Now, we will probably take off the last week of December and the first week of January.

I have had to really take a strong hold of the reigns of our schedule and make sure not to have too much going on. It takes away from the joy of the season and puts too much stress on the kids and on me too. :panic

[ChayilWoman]

In the past I have taken off from Thanksgiving to New Year's and I have tried to fit in a whole unit between Thanksgiving and Christmas. One was too much free time on our hands and one was trying to get too much done.

This year, after Thanksgiving, I just decided we were going to go at a leisurely pace and finish the units we were working on at that time. We've had a round of ear infections and head colds so this turned out to be a good option. Also, for my oldest one, with the way her curriculum is set up on the computer (Switched on Schoolhouse), this means she has to pace herself and keep herself working to get it all done. I told her it was all up to her. I didn't care what she did when, but I wanted each unit done by Christmas. She chose to finish them up by subject - first History & Geography, then focused on Math until it was done, etc...

[MochaMel]

Totally off subject; but i started the thread.. lol

Chayil: How old is your dd that is using the SOS program? What are the plus' and minus' of it... My oldest ds is nearing highschool age; and at this point we are not sure what we are going to do with him.. Public school around here is OUT! And Private school is completely unaffordable for us. Just curious how you like the program; if it covers all the bases, etc.

May even do this with the 7 and 8 year old with the baby.. Have never schooled with a newborn or young, young child.. Just toddlers and that was definitely an interesting 2 years.. lol

Okay back on topic; there are 23 looky lou's tell me about your Decembers, please in school.. :)

[ChayilWoman]

Patnmel, My dd is in 4th grade.

Pros: It does all of the lesson planning for me and grading, although I do go in and check all of her work to see where problems are and sometimes I give her credit if she just misspelled a word or something. For subjects she enjoys and understands, like Bible or Science, she just works completely on her own. History and Geography she really struggles with so we sit down and do all of that together. Overall it frees up a lot of time for me to take care of DD2,3,&4, esp. since 3&4 are only babies.

Cons: She doesn't like to read and it is a read the lesson/answer the questions format. Even the projects are just mainly reading and writing. I have learned how to add assignments to the set curriculum and have the computer include it in the assigning, grading and timing, so I'm adding lapbooks and some other more fun, hands-on kind of stuff.

If Makarioselpis is lurking out there, I know she uses it for her DD who is in 9th grade. Hopefully she'll chime in and share her opinions.

[makarioselpis]

Chayil Woman thought I should put my oar in! :aha

We did start my daughter with SOS this year because like you we thought a change needed to be made for high school. We are doing this program online through Alpha Omega Academy and they keep all the records and at the end issue an accredited high school diploma which is important to my husband. The great thing for me is that I really don't have to do anything except answer an occasional question. My daughter really likes it and she has very good grades...not that it's easy...she's working hard. She loves being on the computer...she's not a workbook kid like my son is. One other thing I like about it is that she's learning how to adjust to different teachers other than just me!

Public school wasn't an option and neither was private school. This was a good solution for us. If you have any other questions, I'll do my best to answer them.:hat

[MochaMel]

Okay this sounds good for my soon to be 8/9th grader.. He's a year behind so we have been debating about what to do next year.. and this may be a solution. Hubby and I would really like to see him in some type of formal schooling for HighSchool for sports, and other things like that. BUT Private school (under prayer on this) is not at this point looking like a feasable option.

But this SOS might be a good way to go; i definitely do not feel like i am capable of schooling HS on my own. :panic

Maybe not so much with my younger two; ds-7, hasn't started learning to read yet; and dd-8 is NOT a reader; she does not like it nor is she all that interested in learning it.. Though she's doing better this year; we are still not where she "should be" for her age.... I try not to get to hung up on the age for reading; but i struggle with that.

Thanks ladies for the VALUABLE information...

:hug

[lisaann]

Okay this sounds good for my soon to be 8/9th grader.. He's a year behind so we have been debating about what to do next year.. and this may be a solution. Hubby and I would really like to see him in some type of formal schooling for HighSchool for sports, and other things like that. BUT Private school (under prayer on this) is not at this point looking like a feasable option.


:hug


Just wanted to throw this out there. You don't need formal schooling for sports. Your local Rec. councel probably offers many options for sports.

Our ds, 9 years old, has played on the rec. basketball team since K and LOVES it. He has had the same coach every year and get's nervous at the beginning of each season hoping to get Coach Victor again. The assistant coach is a wonderful Christian man that I have known since high school myself. I PTL for these good men that they are there in my ds's life. :thumb

[farmgirl]

Public schools in Washington do have to let homeschoolers try out for sports or any other extracurricular activities. My son thinks he will homeschool next year for 9th grade, but will probably try out for soccer and track, as well as participate in band.

ps how much SOS cost?