Okay so miss Sophia has started in cycle 1. She is doing great with the math in fact she has almost completed two math workbooks in 3 weeks and is coming home and not arguing about doing ixl. In fact asking to do it. She asks that I sit with her and do her math book with her, which is me just sitting next to her while she does her maths. She does not seem to be too interested in doing much else and her teacher seems to be letting it go for the time being.

This gets on my nerves and frustrates me buuuut I have to let it go and let the teacher do her job. If at the parent teacher interview later on this term and I see Sophia is not progressing like I would hope then I can have a discussion with my husband about bringing her home.

I have already been fobbed off by the teacher about Sophia's reading level. Apparently its okay to drop 11 lvls in reading??!?. I asked for Sophia to be given lvl 25 + but apparently there are no books that are at her psychological level. So I just sign off the books Sophia brings home and and I get her to read her chapter books to me instead and I put in her reader log what she's actually is reading.

So that is where I am at. At this point of time I am certainly leaning towards homeschool but I still am torn. Sophia does seem to really enjoy school so at the moment I am letting it go. I still keep her ahead as much as possible at home. So we will see.

I will keep you updated.

I am very prepared to homeschool! I just wish my hubby was a bit more on board with me. I think this is a great way to teach your kids. Her ideas are very Montessori. That is the aim of a good montessori school to learn something to mastery. I want Sophia and Anneliese to master their subjects and I have always believed that they will. Hence one of the reasons why I send them to a Montessori school but I am beginning to think Homeschooling trumps it all.

Yes schools offer camps and semi socialisation but their is sooooooooooooooooo much time wasted (even in a montessori school) I would be very keen to get my dd's off to a fab start have them finished school early so they can spend more time on their interests or studying at Uni if they wanted to. I think once they are propelled and motivated they can learn anything.

No, not 20.  And (this won't go over with the feminist crowd too well, but what the heck), I always wonder if I would have gone slower if David was a girl.  The idea of having a little girl that's 11 years old starting in college would have scared me a lot more than David, and I would have worried a lot about her social development.  So you can do less...just don't get to the point where you're doing it in your "spare time", because, if nothing else, your school will take care of filling up that time.


Hi Robert I have been lurking around this thread and not commenting yet, than I read your above comment and it struck a chord with me. I am a mother of two little girls who are early learners and so many times I have held them back because of my fear of them being so far ahead and starting Uni at 14 or 15 just scares the heeby jeebies out of me. As it is my eldest daughter has been accepted to start school almost a year early and has started reception or what you call kindergarten at age 4 instead of 5. She has taken to it with gusto but I now think into the future when she goes to uni she is going to be almost a year younger than everybody else and not being able to go do the stuff other uni kids can do or getting mixed up in group more to social naivety rather than smarts.

Unfortunately that is a real reality for girls even though they do mature quicker than boys do. I feel horrible that as a parent at times I have held her back because of this fear of what 'could' happen to her as an adult and largely felt that the reason I haven't home-schooled her is because the system will slow her down and the internal debate continues. I do send her to an excellent Montessori school which I love but have spent weeks frustrated with even to accept Sophia at the level that she is at.

I think it is a point that at times I have held her back because she is a girl and I am afraid of what will happen even if it is unlikely to happen. I have worried that she would not be accepted by her intellectual peers because the age gap was too big. But this is silly talk. You make a very valid point and I don't think it is sexist at all. Once they go to Uni and even if most Uni courses are online if they are going to do Medicine or Law they have to show up to the institution and I can no longer protect them especially when they are under-aged.

I have started her on ixl for her to do after-school and that is not that tough for her. She is flying through it and I think it is time for something harder. I appreciate you making the above point and I think I need to challenge my own perceptions and allow her to fly than to worry about what will happen if XYZ happen, and think what sex she does not matter I have no right to hold her back because of it.

Thank you Robert.

Kimba

I have been very intrigued by the We can do thread but I see Saxon does not seem to have an international curriculum which includes the metric system. Or hopefully im wrong and I missed it on the website...

If there isn't can someone recommend a math curriculum that I can use at home with my dd? That would be as good or as close to as good as Saxon.

Thanks in advance.

Kimba

I love the art work of Akiane her work is just so moving. I think her parents had the foresight to give the right environment to nourish her gift. I think Akiane's talents would have never of flourished if her parents had sent her to school. The more I think about it. The more I see homeschooling to be the best place for children to freely discover who they are and be allowed to develop their interests where the parent is unlikely to hold the child back in their pursuits as the state is.


Everyone has a gift and Akiane's parents were good enough to realise this and give them every opportunity to allow their kids to flourish.

@ PokerDad: The Monti school I send my eldest dd to just received a grant from the commonwealth gov to bring a social worker into the school to work with the kids through a Therapy Program called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. When I showed this to my husband I said I send her there to learn not for a hippy love in session. I said I think we are putting too much into feelings and not enough into learning. I just feel so sick too my stomach about this that I probably wont be be consenting for her to do this.

I also wasn't aware that sooooo many children need therapy these days. I don't recall my own childhood an unhappy one and nor do any of my friends remember their childhoods needing therapy. UGHH I am soo over it that like you I think I could throw up. I do not doubt their are children who need it but it is getting ridiculous. 

Kimba

Oh Mandab,

Thank you thank you very much. I'm still so frustrated. They have put her up almost a year early at least I should be thankful for that. She is almost 4 1/2 and it is very rare that they even do that. Sophia seems to be enjoying and is coping well with the 9-3:30 days. Does not seem tired at all. Maybe because she is not challenged....? I will give it a year. It is very hard because I feel like I am watching her go backwards and I know it has already started because she normally can't wait to read a chapter of Magic Ballerina to me she read her readers instead and when I asked her why. "Because their easy Mummy"

SIGH didn't think it was going to be such a battle especially in a Monti school.

Okay so my dd went off to school last tuesday with no problems what so ever but came home with level 15 readers and she left the preschool on lvl 26. I wrote a polite note to the teacher saying where S left off and I would like her to be kept at that level. She was reading Magic Ballerina over the holidays in fact she completed 6 of the books. I get that S is a bit behind in Maths but that is largely because she is so stubborn when it comes to learning maths but still ahead for her age, she also can write but refuses to.

But the reading gives me the poos. Apparently according to her teacher (This is the note I got today)

I realise that Sophia is a very capable reader. I am letting her choose her own readers as 'reading for enjoyment' and is relevant to her psychological phase of development - NOT to the constraints of RR Levels.

Now am I over-reacting? This is a private Montessori school which my husband and I pay $6500 for my dd to go there. Do you know how much awesome curriculum I could buy for that price if I was homeschooling? I am beginning to feel I am paying for an expensive baby-sitting service. SOOO FRUSTRATING

My husband says we need to give the school at least 2 terms to a year before we make the decision to homeschool and He said I need to be prepared to do the work as he is not interested in schooling them himself (no surprise there) + he has to work.

Need advice PUH_LEASE before I lose it.  >

Kimba 

I know how you both feel. Sophia is now at school and came home with Lvl 15 reading books when she is at lvl 26. Now I know we just had a 7 week break but I don't believe that equates to an 11 lvl drop over the school holidays when she was reading chapter books at home. Sigh. This is the most frustrating thing about school!!! I don't make her read anything to me that is under lvl 25. It is just a case of training the teacher and working with them as a team. Unfortunatley you will get teachers who are prepared to work with you and teachers who aren't.

My dd loves school but at the price I pay for her to go there the teacher can work with me. I will continue to work with my dd at home but when my child knows what she knows I will not subject her to boring lower reading levels and boring grammar work especially if the teacher knows that she can read.

Also if you have a problem with what the teacher is doing just ask for a meeting with teacher explain where your child is at. If the teacher is unwilling to work with you go and see the principal. Once your child is in the school system you really have to advocate for them and almost train the teacher into what you want.

ARGHHH I know how you feel.

Kimba

Wonderful Ella, you have inspired Miss Sophia to learn the violin to.

Oh and it looks like there is a congratulations in order for you to Aangles Baby no 2 has arrived. what did you have??? Another little reader/math and musician to enter the brillkids ranks

Kimba

http://richardgill.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/focus-on-national-tests-robs-children.html#comment-form

Hi everyone!

I came across this today. All the maths charts are free and can be printed http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/mathsCharts.html

No, not yet, but i want to. Along with a whole heap of other things    I have watched it. I love it to. let me know how you go

http://www.artventure.com.au/  I just stumbled across this. Lots of parents in the Adelaide homeschool groups are joining up to do it.

Kimba

My eldest daughter loves the Magic Ballerina series by Darcey Bussell