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What do you think of homeschooling?
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Ellemeno on December 05, 2008, 02:25:44 am ---Well again, remember - she's 5 1/2. I'm sure we will be separate more often as she gets older.
--- End quote ---
Oh, we've had to separate at every age. As my sons have gotten older, we've separated more and more for their sakes. But in the earlier days, we separated for MY sake. Before they were in school, they were in daycare three afternoons a week. And then they were in school. I suppose there are parents somewhere out there who could have been them 24/7 and remained sane. But so far, this could not be said about, for instance, any of their teachers (the elder one's anyway).
Your schedule sounds extremely fun and nice. That would be a pretty idyllic life with a 5-year-old. But some of the things you all do would not have worked well with my kids. Before they were in school, and even after, I took them to a lot of places and activities: firehall open houses, pick-your-own orchards, libraries, nature classes, pools, parks, playgrounds, pet stores, and so on. We very rarely stayed home all day, again for the sake of all our sanity, and we had a lot of fun. Driving from one thing to another, we'd play word games, and they were really good at those. For example, if we were playing opposites, and I said "old," they would point out that the answer could be "new" or "young." Short could be "tall" or "long."
But unless the activity was active and/or competitive enough, my kids would not sit still for it nor invest in the importance of its success. This is the difference I always saw with my sons, again particularly the elder, who of course influenced the younger. I began to notice that other children looked to adults for guidance. The adults would indicate that this is the way things are done, and the kids -- not always, probably, but often -- would do their best to follow the correct procedure.
Mine never did that.
I'll give one example: I took them to the weekly story time at the library once. Roomful of kids their age, all sitting raptly listening to the story. Five minutes into it, mine started complaining. "This is boring!" "Shhhh!" "Let's get out of here!" "Quiet!" They got up and started walking around. We left and didn't go back.
Wait, I'll give you one more example. I took them to nature class at the neighborhood park. That one went fairly well, because there was a lot of outdoor activities -- looking for tracks in the snow, making snow ice cream, etc. But there were indoor parts, where a park district naturalist would talk to the group of about five or six kids about wolves and owls and things like that. My elder son completely dominated those. Every question the teacher asked, he would raise his hand and/or blurt out the answer. Pretty soon all the other kids were sitting quietly while the teacher and my son held a dialogue. I would think, wow, he's really smart and he knows all the answers, but when he gets into school he's going to drive his teachers crazy.
And sure enough, that's exactly how it went.
Ellemeno:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on December 05, 2008, 11:00:45 am ---Oh, we've had to separate at every age. As my sons have gotten older, we've separated more and more for their sakes. But in the earlier days, we separated for MY sake. Before they were in school, they were in daycare three afternoons a week. And then they were in school. I suppose there are parents somewhere out there who could have been them 24/7 and remained sane. But so far, this could not be said about, for instance, any of their teachers (the elder one's anyway).
Your schedule sounds extremely fun and nice. That would be a pretty idyllic life with a 5-year-old. But some of the things you all do would not have worked well with my kids. Before they were in school, and even after, I took them to a lot of places and activities: firehall open houses, pick-your-own orchards, libraries, nature classes, pools, parks, playgrounds, pet stores, and so on. We very rarely stayed home all day, again for the sake of all our sanity, and we had a lot of fun. Driving from one thing to another, we'd play word games, and they were really good at those. For example, if we were playing opposites, and I said "old," they would point out that the answer could be "new" or "young." Short could be "tall" or "long."
But unless the activity was active and/or competitive enough, my kids would not sit still for it nor invest in the importance of its success. This is the difference I always saw with my sons, again particularly the elder, who of course influenced the younger. I began to notice that other children looked to adults for guidance. The adults would indicate that this is the way things are done, and the kids -- not always, probably, but often -- would do their best to follow the correct procedure.
Mine never did that.
I'll give one example: I took them to the weekly story time at the library once. Roomful of kids their age, all sitting raptly listening to the story. Five minutes into it, mine started complaining. "This is boring!" "Shhhh!" "Let's get out of here!" "Quiet!" They got up and started walking around. We left and didn't go back.
Wait, I'll give you one more example. I took them to nature class at the neighborhood park. That one went fairly well, because there was a lot of outdoor activities -- looking for tracks in the snow, making snow ice cream, etc. But there were indoor parts, where a park district naturalist would talk to the group of about five or six kids about wolves and owls and things like that. My elder son completely dominated those. Every question the teacher asked, he would raise his hand and/or blurt out the answer. Pretty soon all the other kids were sitting quietly while the teacher and my son held a dialogue. I would think, wow, he's really smart and he knows all the answers, but when he gets into school he's going to drive his teachers crazy.
And sure enough, that's exactly how it went.
--- End quote ---
I'm relating to this too, K. Story time at the library never held M's attention. It's only recently that the library can be for reading together. At story time M used to wander the room, and I worried about her distracting the other kids, so we quit doing that. Well, and I also learned to accept that 5 or 10 minutes may be all she would do.
Your older son's passion to discuss sounds exhilarating, and challenging to meld with a group. I get that. And I hear you on the need to separate, as I illustrated.
It sounds like you did a great job giving your kids early experiences.
Kelda:
Wow, Clarissa, schhol for Mini-Meno sounds idyllic, as Katherine says! And it works for both of you - which is great. And I love that she knows accents!! ;D
What age do kids start school in the US?
I was four and a half. But I was one of the youngest of my class because my birthday is December and the cut of date for class intake is February so most are 5. Primary one was very much about coming out of shell and learning basic things - you're doing the same thing but in different (more fun!!) ways.
As she gets older of course, you may need to change tact but it seems like things are working perfectly just now. And its great how all the homeschoolers do stuff together. How do you all find out about each other? What you've described is very different from what I guess is my sterotypical thoughts of what homeschooling is from movies etc. Is sounds ike so much fun but also hard work for you. I'm not sure I could do it even if money worries etc were not an issue.
Will she have to sit tests the same as those at school as she gets older?
Oh & whats Waldorf?
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Kelda on December 05, 2008, 06:11:38 pm ---What age do kids start school in the US?
--- End quote ---
Kids start kindergarten when they're 5 by Sept. 1. I started when I was 4, because my birthday is in October, though I had to take a special test to do it. I was always one of the youngest in my class, and though I did fine academically I can see, retrospectively, that I was probably more immature socially. For example, in kindergarten I cried and wanted to go home. "What would you do if you went home?" the teacher asked. "Watch TV?" "Yes!" I sobbed.
They don't allow that at all anymore. My son's birthday is in late September, and he did not have the option to start at 4. Instead, his school district offered a pre-kindergarten program for fall-birthday kids called "High Fives." It was nice, because it followed the same hours as kindergarten, was somewhat academic, and unlike day care it was free. Unfortunately, he then found kindergarten really redundant and caused even more trouble than he might have otherwise.
So he is one of the oldest kids in his class in addition to being one of the smartest. In the years since then, we have talked from time to time with school officials about him skipping a grade, but for one reason or another -- mainly because we moved -- it never quite worked out. But looking back it has always seemed like it would have been easier to have him start early, rather than skip a whole year in which you'd assume they would attempt to teach some worthwhile material. His schools and district have always had inadequate programs for gifted students.
But now that I think of it, I wonder if my own childhood shyness may have been exacerbated by being relatively young, and my son's utter self-confidence may be enhanced by being one of the oldest. Both of our characteristics were in place before we started school, but still ... ???
--- Quote ---Oh & whats Waldorf?
--- End quote ---
I know the answer to this but I'll let Clarissa or someone else take it. Due to having had an obnoxious Waldorf-endorsing neighbor, I'm sort of prejudiced against the program.
Kelda:
Thanks Katherine!
I get confused by Kindergarten too... Is Kindergarten like nursery in Scotland? I'm think probably not from what you said.
All 3 and 4 year old children in Scotland are entitled to a free nursery place with "a curriculum framework for children 3–5"providing the curricular guidelines.
In 2002, the most up to date stats I could find, 96% of 4 year olds and 80% of 3 year olds received grant funded pre-school education in 2000-01.
Formal primary education begins at approximately 5 years old and lasts for 7 years (P1–P7). Kids the move on to secondryschool. Today, sll children in Scotland sit Standard Grade exams at approximately 15 or 16. The school leaving age is 16, after which students may choose to remain at school and study for Access, Intermediate or Higher Grade and Advanced Higher exams. Fomr there they can then move on to univerity or further education.
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