Dr Phil says....

First, before I get to Dr. Phil. Charlie is still on break. I know I said I would do school with him when we got back, but I had more to do than I realized to get ready for Christmas, and more than I ever thought this week. Since one of the benefits for ME of homeschooling is that I can adjust the schedule the way I want, and Charlie is fine as far as how far along he is with his lessons, we are getting back to school Tuesday. :) We have done a bit of Science about oceans and whatnot since we were at the beach on vacation, but not enough to even finish one lesson, so I'm not counting that. Some of you may get letters from Charlie soon as well, which could be considered Language Arts, if that makes you sleep better at night. :)

On to Dr. Phil. SInce lots of people think Dr. Phil makes sense with most of what he says, and I'm one of them, I figured I would let you know what he had to say about homeschool on Monday's episode. Here it is with my comments in a different color.

To Home School or Not to Home School?

Dr. Phil speaks to his guests, Mike and Jylana, about their debate over whether to home school their 4-year-old son. Jylana believes their son is advanced for his age and doesn’t feel the public school system is equipped to handle his needs. Her husband Mike however, believes that keeping their son out of public school may stunt him socially and won’t prepare him for the real world. What does Dr. Phil think?
Dr. Phil looks to the research:
Children who are home schooled through eighth grade exhibit no disruption in social development and evolution. See? I've been saying that for years. Since before Charlie was born. No one listens to me, but now I have Dr. Phil backing me up. :)
To make home schooling work, parents must make the time commitment, the money commitment, the lifestyle commitment to provide that academic environment for the child at home. Trust me, we have made a money committment. Just ask me if I can afford to: eat the way I want to, buy the things I need for my house, buy the things I WANT for my house, my family, or myself. Same thing with time and lifestyle - I have not had a relaxing hour to myself since we started this thing. Not that I'm complaining - I'd much rather have it the way it is and keep Charlie out of the regular school. :)
In addition, the parents should make the effort to have the child participate in extra-curricular activities of their peer group, such as sports, YMCA activities, the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, church groups and socials, etc. Having made the money committment to home school, we can't afford to join the Y. I have no idea if there is a Boys and Girls club in Pueblo, but it's now on my list to look into. We don't attend church. BUT, Charlie plays t-ball and soccer in season, attends COVA field trips, and plays with a lot of kids in the neighborhood, as well as his sister and various friends, family, and friends of family when we are in Denver. As soon as we move to the Springs (end of May) I'll be rejoining the MOMs club, which is a HUGE social thing for Charlie too. In fact, there are several resources for social interaction for him when we move. Pueblo just sucks. :)
Limited tests have shown that home schooled children have above-average social and psychological development through their exposure to many different age groups and other activities to boost their social development. Yeah, what he said.
However, once kids get to high school age, social development is important. They become more independent and benefit more from being in a public or private school. No one needs to worry about that... at least not yet. Let me get through the first grade before I wonder if he's home schooling for high school.
OK, that's all I've got really. Hope you had a marvelous winter holiday of choice. :)

So, it's been another month...

Well, it's now December, and officially Charlie is on Christmas break. I know, I know, most kids don't get Christmas break till the week before Christmas, but we are going on vacation, and I need a few days to get ready without having to do school, so Charlie's break starts now and ends when everyone else's starts. Go figure.

We are finally at a place where I want to be with school, we have a good routine down for the day and I've discovered that Charlie focuses like a madman if we do just one or two subjects a day. So we are doing a bit of a block type schedule. We actually leaped ahead in History last week because he was sooo into the whole ancient Egypt/Israel/ whatever thing that we just kept going and going one day. Now, he hasn't said a word about it since then, so don't break your neck buying him build your own pyramid sets for Christmas or anything. :)

Here's a quick look at what he's studying in each subject now.

Math - we are almost done with the first semester of work... he has just finished the unit on place value and next up is money and time. We continue to skip straight to the assessments on math, as he already has the knowledge. So far he has only had to do one lesson for not knowing his stuff on the assessment.

Language Arts - we skip straight ot assessments on spelling right now as well, per Charlie's request. He can spell almost anything, so I figure that's OK. For grammar we have just done when to use bring and take, and multiple meaning words. Next up is time order words. He continues to do guided reading assignments and work on his comprehension, which I have discovered is much better when I read to him than when he reads to himself. He also is practicing his handwriting every day with the Handwritng Without Tears program, which is fabulous.

History - we just finished up Egypt and Israel and are now moving into ancient Greece. I've done just a tiny bit of "pre-teaching" with this, using of all things the Disney movie Hercules. Greek gods, greek myths, all of that is one of my favorites, so even if he's not looking forward to it, I am. :)

Science - We just finished animal classification, which at the first grade level is knowing the difference between insects and arachnids, fish and birds, reptiles and amphibians, and mammals and everything else. Next up is a unit called adaptations, which it looks like deals with things like fins, fur, and beaks. However, depending on how much time we spend at a beach on vacation and Charlie's interest level, we may go right to the unit on oceans when we get home, so it's all fresh for him.

Art - he cruised through the unit on ancient art - a lot of the time art follows the history lessons, and he was into the mummy cases and whatnot. We have one lesson left in the unit on patterns - it's called Read about Art and Artists: O'Keefe, Frankenthler, and Estes. Have I tod you how much I love the k12 art program? It's art. Actual art, art history and art theory, not crafts like he would get in normal school. If the local elementary had an art teacher, which it doesn't. Next up is the unit on texture. I love the art, have I said? :)

Music - I don't really love the music, have I said? lol - I think that's cause Charlie doesn't really love it though. Basically with music what I do is read over the lesson, find the objectives, then chuck the whole thing and teach him the objectives my way. He passes the assessments, so Iguess it's working. Every once in a while we try doing a lesson the way we are "supposed" to, but so far all it does is make us both cranky. I don't use the tape or the music they sent us, we use the iPod for the music examples. Luckily I know enough about music theory to find songs with the same qualities as what they provided, but that Charlie enjoys. At any rate, we are in the middle of a unit called "music can be written down" which is writing rythym patterns and whatnot, and next up is "the instruments of the orchestra" which I may have to follow lessons for. We'll see how much he already knows - he surprises me a lot with the music knowledge, I should write a letter telling the music teacher at PWE they did a good job.

PE - we don't really have lessons for this - they are listed but nothings really there. He exercises every day, either we take a walk, he rides his bike, or we play in the backyard. Since there is suddenly snow out, we will probably be doing some of mommy's workout tapes on cold days. The kids find these really fun, and it's good for me too. I guess. :) On days we are supposed to do PE lessons I try to make an effort to do a bit more physical stuff with him.

Other stuff - We continue to do our language lessons as a supplement... Charlie is learning Spanish and I am relearning Italian. We each have our "Speak _____ in 10 Minutes A Day" books and sit next to each other to do a page a day. It's funny though, because the books are meant for people traveling to the country in question, Charlie now knows how to say things like "I need a taxi" and "How much is it" and "Do you know a good restaurant" in Spanish. Kayla learns Spanish from watching Dora and can now count to 10, even though she only counts to 5 in English. Go figure. He also continues to see Jean, the physical therapist at PWE on a weekly basis, although now we are done for a month, since he is on break for 2 weeks and then she is on break for 2 weeks, so that will resume in January.

Charlie is looking forward to going to Disneyland, and even happier that I finally told him we were far enough along with the school year that he didn't need to "take school with him". All of you have a fantastic hioliday season! :)