Well all that snow is just about melted and we are supposed to get hit with another big one! I sure hope not. The homeschool review I was supposed to have earlier this month was postponed due to schools being cancelled because of snow and it's rescheduled for this Friday.
I haven't blogged in about a week or so. Since reading that homeschooling book i posted before I've been having too much fun with Spencer and more hands on approach to his learning. Boy has it made a difference!
Originally when I started homeschooling him I bought the CALVERT home school curriculum. I'm glad I did because I really didn't know where to start. Even though I went to BYU studying elementary education, I had never been a teacher and didn't know everything that I should be teaching him at each level. I was very nervous, but leaving him in the public school was looking less and less to be an option and we just couldn't afford trying a private school. One day during the summer of 2005 a friend of mine I was close to when we lived in Annapolis called me out of the blue. I hadn't talked to her in probably a year. In our conversation it came up that she was homeschooling her next to youngest and would be doing the same with her youngest once he was old enough using Calvert. It's an accredited curriculum and you have access to education counselors & advisory teachers who grade your students end of unit tests which you send to them. They keep a copy there and this goes to the county school board so you don't have to worry about doing reviews with them. But after 2 years of using Calvert, I decided to try a different route because with his Aspergers he had difficulty in his reading/writing, but excelled in math, science. I needed to do something that was not all same grade level inclusive. When I did this it was not such a struggle/fight for him to do school work....especially the language arts. He wouldn't shut down and not try. Slowly he has worked himself up to a level where he is reading without struggling to sound out the words. He still doesn't like writing, but he is doing it.
After I read the homeschooling ideas book I decided to put more effort into doing more things that he really liked/showed interest in. Mainly this involves science and experiments! We've been doing 2-3 related experiments a day and have started to wait until the afternoon to do this, when Jack is home, because he loves them too. :) This was one they really liked!
I haven't blogged in about a week or so. Since reading that homeschooling book i posted before I've been having too much fun with Spencer and more hands on approach to his learning. Boy has it made a difference!
Originally when I started homeschooling him I bought the CALVERT home school curriculum. I'm glad I did because I really didn't know where to start. Even though I went to BYU studying elementary education, I had never been a teacher and didn't know everything that I should be teaching him at each level. I was very nervous, but leaving him in the public school was looking less and less to be an option and we just couldn't afford trying a private school. One day during the summer of 2005 a friend of mine I was close to when we lived in Annapolis called me out of the blue. I hadn't talked to her in probably a year. In our conversation it came up that she was homeschooling her next to youngest and would be doing the same with her youngest once he was old enough using Calvert. It's an accredited curriculum and you have access to education counselors & advisory teachers who grade your students end of unit tests which you send to them. They keep a copy there and this goes to the county school board so you don't have to worry about doing reviews with them. But after 2 years of using Calvert, I decided to try a different route because with his Aspergers he had difficulty in his reading/writing, but excelled in math, science. I needed to do something that was not all same grade level inclusive. When I did this it was not such a struggle/fight for him to do school work....especially the language arts. He wouldn't shut down and not try. Slowly he has worked himself up to a level where he is reading without struggling to sound out the words. He still doesn't like writing, but he is doing it.
After I read the homeschooling ideas book I decided to put more effort into doing more things that he really liked/showed interest in. Mainly this involves science and experiments! We've been doing 2-3 related experiments a day and have started to wait until the afternoon to do this, when Jack is home, because he loves them too. :) This was one they really liked!
this one was fun too!
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