Week 2 of Homeschooling went very well. Although I have learned some valuable lessons already, that I'm sure other home school moms will nod their heads emphatically about as they read them.
1. Always be sure to read through the curriculum BEFORE purchasing it to insure that your child is compatible with it's style and format. We got a late start and therefore didn't have time to familiarize ourselves with all of our options. Trey received an 80% on 3 different quizzes on Thursday, not because he doesn't know the answers, but because the style of the quizzes are so different than what he needs. (Example: My son has ADD and gets distracted by all the colorful illustrations. He finds them "too busy" for the page and gets distracted by them. What I have done to alleviate this is to re-type the same questions in the same order onto plain white paper. I asked him to re-take the test and he got a 100%!!)
2. Just because something says "Grade 3," it doesn't necessarily mean it is academically challenging enough for even a typical 3rd Grader. If you want your child to stay up to speed with what public schools are teaching, you will want to hand pick your curriculum to follow or at least compare to what they are learning. Example: My second grader is bringing home more challenging things than the material my 3rd grader is reviewing. I say "reviewing," because all of the material he has seen so far, he already mastered in either the 1st or 2nd grades. (Example: all he is doing so far in math is addition and subtraction. I originally thought they were just starting off with a review of previous lessons. WRONG! That's the main subject matter for the next several months.) I will have to supplement just to keep him from getting complacent.
3. When you buy a "Boxed Set" of curriculum, you are assuming that your child is at the same level in all subjects. I didn't account for the different strengths and weaknesses of my son. (Example: Trey's Reading Comprehension is very high, and his Reading Speed is very slow. So I have to try to find short stories {so he can be finished in a reasonable amount of time}, with a strong content level {so he can stay challenged}. I find that he enjoys magazine articles and newspapers, as opposed to lengthy books. He still likes the lengthy ones, but I find that he enjoys it more if I read it to him, or if he reads only a chapter at a time. )
4. I seriously underestimated the amount of time and preparation that goes into being a Homeschool Teacher. This is not to say that I'm not up to the challenge. I had done my homework and knew that it was going to take a lot of work. I didn't jump off the deep in without knowing what I was getting myself into. That being said, it's STILL a lot more work than I thought! If you read every book out there about homeschooling, and you think you have a good idea of the time and preparation it takes...take that number and multiply it by 3. I realize that by the time one gets a routine down, that number might go back down to the original estimate. Gosh I hope so!!! LOL.
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