My Second Homeschooling Conference, Oh If Only...

I'd had more time. Despite all my planning for a better convention experience, this year looked a lot like last year in that I just didn't have the amount of time I should have had to really explore. While I knew time would be limited, I'd hoped to have had at least 4 hours to digest everything I was presented with. Unfortunately, what I ended up with was about 2 hours and 15 minutes! Nice. The convention was a 2 day deal and I got 2 hours and 15 minutes. I paid $35 and I only got 2 hours and 15 minutes!

Last night my husband shared with me that he had to work this weekend. Now, that never happens. He hasn't worked a weekend in a year. I reminded him that I had this convention and he said, "well, better get up early, because I have to leave after lunch." Yay, that's just so wonderful. What could I do? So, I had to rush once again this year. Through the stations, through my questions, through the process that I'd been anticipating for sooo long. Sometimes things are just outside of your control though, you know? I guess I should really be grateful that I got to go at all, and I am.

Despite the lack of time, I did make a decision. I am 95% sure I know what I'm doing this fall. For starters, I totally eliminated the prospect of A beka. It's a great curriculum, but after really studying it (for about 20 minutes) I didn't fall in love with it the way I thought I would. One of the big drawbacks was the cursive handwriting that my 7 year old son would have master. He's simply not ready for that. In fact, his penmanship needs much improvement before I'll be comfortable moving on to cursive writing. I think third grade is a better time to introduce a new writing style... for him and me both! lol

I also checked out K12, which is another great program and one that an area public school uses for those enrolled in their homeschooling program. I have only a couple issues with this situation. The first being that technically, I'd be under the thumb of the public school system, but the bigger issue is that the program isn't all that flexible. I'd have to teach my 2 kids separately every step of the way and that would mean schooling from morning until dinner time. That's not what I'm looking for. You can register for K12 independently as a private school and not go the public school route, but it's not cheap. I think through the school system you pay less than $50 for the whole ball of wax, but the way I understand it is if you enroll independently, the cost is $94 a month for the first child ($70ish for the second), plus you have to buy all the books and materials. The monthly charges are for the services, which include online record keeping, assessments, learning materials and I'm guessing a lot more goodies that I didn't have the time to learn about. One of the other big drawbacks to K12 is that it's secular. Not my first choice.

The only other two booths I had on my must see list were Heart of Dakota and My Father's World. You may remember, we're currently using My Father's World first grade, but I wanted to really look at the second grade materials before committing to another year. I also wanted to compare MFW with Heart of Dakota, which is very similar. In fact, they're so similar I can't really say for sure which one I like better. After visiting with the creator of Heart of Dakota for about 20 minutes I felt confident that both my kids would do well with her products and loved the fact that they could both use the same materials. Teaching my kids together would certainly make things easier. There was only one problem... we already have MFW first grade and my daughter will be starting first grade this fall. My son did soooo well with it, I just can't bring myself to shelf it to try something new. The second grade curriculum for MFW is structured such that my soon to be first grader can follow along with much of it, and I'll only need to pull out the first grade materials for math, phonics and reading. So, that's what I've chosen to do.

Here's what I'll be ordering:
YAdventures in My Father's World Deluxe Package (2nd grade)
YI Can Do All Things (extra art book for my 1st grader, the above package includes 1 book.
-other extras included in the above package that I'll order for my 1st grader include: State Sheets and Cards and State Flags Stickers)
YSpelling by Sound and Structure (for my 2nd grader)
YPrimary Language Lessons (for my second grader)
YSingapore Math, Math 1B and 2A (for my second grader)
YFinally, I'll order the consumables for MFW first grade, so my daughter can reuse my son's curriculum from this year.

This all adds up to nearly $500. I'm trying to remind myself that this isn't a bad price for homeschooling 2 kids for an entire school year. Still... ouch! I didn't purchase the materials today while at the convention for a couple of reasons. One being that I didn't want to do anything impulsively. The other being that I couldn't find anyone willing to help me. Yes, I said it. I was really quite disappointed with MFW today. In fact, had I not already been an established customer, I wouldn't be a customer at all. I ventured to their large display multiple times and had a variety of problems with the staff. Oh, I'm really a stickler when it comes to customer service and I was sorry to find a lack of it here of all places.

I was able to catch the attention of a couple of women, but they didn't want to help me the way they should have. In fact, one woman couldn't answer a basic question for me and instead of inquiring, simply said "I'm sure it will be fine". That answer didn't even make sense. She kept saying it though. I'd asked her what was included in the first grade consumables package... whether it included the math book or not. I still don't understand how "I'm sure it will be fine" was an answer. I asked her if the price of $50 included this book and still don't have an answer. After I returned home, I emailed the site to ask the question. Hopefully come Monday I'll know?

About 15 minutes after getting nowhere with one employee, I caught the attention of another employee. Things started off on the right foot as she helped me configure the right mix of materials to successfully teach my 2 kids together... or at least as much as possible... or so I thought. We were deep into conversation when another customer interrupted to say that she just wanted to listen in on what we were discussing, she even said... "I don't want to interrupt, just keep talking". Despite that statement... the employee turned her attention away from me and focused all of her attention on this other women. When the other women was done asking her question, the staff member turned and walked away from me to straighten up a display about 6 feet from where our conversation had somehow been severed. I just stood there wondering where the camera was. I mean it was awkward and weird. I've never had that kind of experience before. Sure I could have asked her to come back, but I was actually thinking to myself that I didn't need that kind of help. Ok, am I being unreasonable? I've worked many customer service jobs in my life and not once I have I done something like that. This woman then saw me several times and wouldn't make eye contact with me. I had to wonder if I had something sticking out of my nose, but I'm pleased to report that a trip to the ladies room revealed nothing to have explained this woman's behavior... so it must have been something else, or maybe I was unintentionally sending off some weird kind of vibe? I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I really felt let down today. I guess I'll really never know what the problem was. Maybe it doesn't even matter. It was just odd. It really made me uncomfortable and sorta made me feel unwelcome.

Just to set the record straight... I love MFW and I had a great experience last year discussing the curriculum at length with one of the creator's daughters. I forget her name, but she was very helpful. I kept reminding myself that the lack of customer service wasn't a reflection of the curriculum, just those individuals who opted not to take the time to help me out. How sad though. Maybe these ladies today were just having an off moment?

This is probably one of the longest posts I've ever written, so I better end here. Just wanted to report what my homeschooling convention experience looked like... as short as it was. I'm glad to be home where no one avoids eye contact and I don't feel like a leper. Home sweet home indeed!

Eclectic is Electric!

Oh, I'm just having a bit of fun here, but I do so love the eclectic classroom. I didn't even realize we were eclectic until I started digging into homeschool conversation & articles on various methods of teaching, and yep! We fit the description to a capital T!

What does it mean to be eclectic? It means you take what you like from a variety of sources and build your own curriculum. It follows the thinking that not one shoe fits every foot and runs with it.

As an eclectic homeschooler, you might purchase a packaged curriculum and use it as your core material, but tweak it and supplement all over the place until you have something specially catered to your child's individual learning style and interests. Other eclectic homeschooling families prefer not to have a packaged curriculum at all... they piece every last detail together from numerous resources both online and off. It's really an awesome approach and there are no rules! Freedom... there's that wonderful word again that comes up in so many of my postings here. I just love freedom! Ah, it's so empowering.

If you'd like to do some further reading on eclectic homeschooling, here are a few recommended links:
EHO Eclectic Homeschool Online magazine, Christian perspective
Eclectic Homeschooling on the Web General overview, resources, discussion board
Homeschool Diner Overview, links on a variety of homeschooling subjects and resources
Homeschooling Blogs (eclectic and unschooling) Instead of listing them individually, I've found a list of blogs rated as best for eclectic or unschooling by the Homeschooling Blog Awards site.

If you know of others, be sure to comment below. :)

Impressed with My Father's World

Not that I have much to compare it to, since we are after all just starting out on our homeschooling adventure, but so far it's been wonderful!

My 6 year old actually seems to be enjoying school and I'm loving the fact that I know exactly what to do each day. Going from random workbooks I'd picked up at Wal-mart, Target, and Sam's to actually having a teacher's manual with a planned out curriculum is priceless. We've been supplementing MFW with the workbooks we already had and that's really working out beautifully. There seems to be a perfect balance between activity and actual writing in workbooks and on worksheets as to not overwhelm my son, which is something we've struggled with before.

It's also nice to be able to incorporate Bible lessons into his curriculum. It's like Sunday school and homeschool combined and I love that I get to teach both! I'm guessing at the end of his first grade year, he'll be a star student in his Sunday school class! lol I've already heard that he's quite the expert on Joseph. lol

Another perk to MFW, something I'd read and been told by a friend is that it works well for planning lessons for childern of different ages. My daughter is nearly 5 and is following right along with us for various parts of the exercises, but when it comes to the math, it's time for her nap! She does participate in some of the basic math concepts, at a different level, but once we get into some of the supplemental material I've provided my son, it's really too much for her and she ends up getting restless and bored. I have her color pictures through some of the more challenging concepts, but for the most part it's all about doing things together until nap time. : )

Homeschooling Across America with Caroline

There are just so many creative ways to homeschool and yet just when I think I've seen them all I find this woman who has come up with the revolutionary idea of hometraveling! lol

Visit Homeschooling Across America and follow 9 year old Caroline as she travels with her very ambitious mom across the United States on a 6 week course in history, geography, and government.

Her journey begins after Labor Day, so you've not missed anything yet. I'm quite excited about this idea and wish I could do the same with my own kids! Who knows, maybe someday we will. It's such a wonderful idea and would definitely be a worthwhile way to learn and explore while at the same time building lifelong memories between parent and child.

According to their site, you'll be able to track Carolyn's travels on a map and listen to podcasts. You'll also be provided with reviews of all visited sites and their personal experiences. Sounds like they'll have some videos too!

They hope to give other homeschooling families great insights on where to take their own road trips/field trips for the best in first hand educational learning.

Which Home Teaching Method Is For You

By Mary Joyce

As a homeschooling parent you will be able to pick from one or any combination of home teaching resources that best fit your philosophical or religious beliefs. Much of the success of your teaching endeavor will depend upon integrating your teaching method with your child’s learning style. Hence the question, after you have committed to homeschool teaching …. How do you teach your children?

Read everything about homeschooling you can … then read some more. Obviously books and articles, but in today’s world, online at home teaching information is abundant. Get a feel for what fits for you. Don’t forget about discussion forums on the web. Join them. They are a great homeschooling resource.

As a parent you obviously spend a great deal of time around your children. Now after spending some time reading and learning about various home school teaching methods and perhaps leaning toward one (or more than one), it’s now time to perhaps observe your child in a different light. Focus now on how your child learns. That’s right make notes. Maybe your child learns better by listening, maybe by doing, or perhaps the best teaching method may be more visual.

If you are just starting out, a more traditional school at home approach may be the easiest to get up and going. And this is fine. Remember being comfortable with the teaching methodology is a large part of the recipe. Using this technique usually means the expectation for the child is to learn certain unit studies and certain times.

There are many different types of school at home curriculum packages that you can choose from. Don’t worry if you don’t find any one that you feel perfectly matches your home teaching style. In fact, many home schooling parents use a combination of several different packages that they have, over time, modified and tailored to meet their specific family’s needs. What you don’t want to do is try to force a particular curriculum to work. Again, pick and choose what works for you and don’t forget about the many online homeschooling materials available to you.

Read. Read some more. Observe how your child learns. Pick and choose and co-mingle more than one homeschool curriculum if needed. Modify your home teaching methods over time for a best fit, and the chances of a resounding success for you and your child will be greatly increased!

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and the primary contributor to the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com/ for a complete list of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, ideas, and curriculum information.
Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.

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