Homeschooling tools, tips, and tricks

[Kguillemette | 1,599]

I feel like it's time for my family to break away from my local public school system, at least until covid has settled and we can return to normal. One of the issues my family has been dealing with is trying to keep up with a very rigid but modestly executed learning plan, complete with zoom meetings my kids cannot attend, live online instruction through Google meet, which is a issue seeing as apparently we made the mistake of getting Amazon Fire tablets.

I came across these complete curriculum sets on Amazon, and they look awesome! Some reviews say you need to supplement social studies and science, but that shouldn't be too hard to do. Those are two subjects I am good with.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/141149881X/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

Many of the online learning games that the public school uses look like they would be great tools too. Happy Numbers, XtraMath, etc.

Does anyone know any *proven* Youtube channels or apps that can be downloaded to Amazon tablets that would be effective for homeschool?

Anyone have experience or some of our local teachers want to chime in with tips and tricks?

At the moment, we are utilizing a section of our basement as a "school" area to minimize distractions so our kids can work independently and we can still care for our house, work, and have family activities. The next step is to actually transform it to a true learning area and dress it up as more than an art table that gets the crap beat out of it. I'll post some pictures as we move along with it.

[RH | 5,196]

I can't help with curriculum but my wife and I homeschooled for two years, prior to last school year and this year we put both our kids in virtual learning through the public school.  So, we're "schooling at home".

I will say this.  If you and/or your wife can dedicate the time to teach your kid (or two kids) you'll be shocked at how little time you have to spend teaching your kids. We were no slackers. My daughter was learning spelling & grammar, Singapore math, history, science and Latin for those two years and we could finish all of her school work before lunch time.  We'd listen to songs in the car for history, math facts and Latin to supplement and that was it.

She took her standardized tests and both years, in her worst tested subject she was "only" one year ahead of her peers.  At the end of the second grade, she was reading at the level of a fourth grader in the middle of the year.  Now, my daughter is naturally smart in many ways, but I don't consider her to be way above average intelligence. We were just intentional and we limited what was available for free time so she gravitated towards reading on her own.  Also, we bought a lot of "fun" science toys.  You can find some cheap microscopes, electronics kits and even some chemistry kits but most of those are crap this day and age.  Apparently ever chemical other than baking soda is dangerous so you won't find much in those kits.

Anyway, you'll get out of it what you put into it, but you also don't have to expect to do much.  Traditional school takes a lot of time because even with a class of 20-30 rather obedient children, it takes time for teachers to quite classrooms, walk around to enrichment classes, take long bathroom/water breaks, and speak for a minute to ever kid once or twice a day.  You can short cut most of that with one-on-one education and you can cover all your subjects for younger kids in 2-3 hours.

Good luck and I hope the best for you.  The best curriculum will probably be what works best for you and your wife.  Of course, if you want to put your kids back in school in a year, you'll want them to be caught up with the school curriculum, but if you consider doing home school for the long haul, there really is tremendous freedom in what you have available.  So long as you are covering the basics and can motivate your kids to enjoy educating, you'll likely end up with a smart cookie (or two, or however many kids you have.)

Edited September 29, 2020 by RH

[Kguillemette | 1,599]

Thanks for the words! One of the driving factors is the realization that while we are not teachers by any stretch, we are adept at following up with our kids and making sure they do a good job at whatever it is they need to do. I can teach the lesson fine, I feel. Coming up with the work to practice the lessons if the hard part. I underestimated the amount of existing materials that already exist out there we can use. (See the link for an example.)

[jonebone | 1,329]

Don't sell yourself short on the Amazon Fire tablet.  I got two HD Kids 10 Editions for each kid.  My 6 year old uses a school issued laptop for herself (a bit easier with keyboard) but the Fire tablet still works.  All you have to do is sideload Google Play and it's easy enough to do.  Then you get access to the full Android apps without any restrictions.  You can use Chrome instead of Silk, etc.

 

https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/07/11/install-play-store-amazon-fire-tablet/

[Hammerfestus | 4,099]

I got what you want.  What you need. You want Mars Moose?  I got you.  You lookin for that Secret of Googol?  Yeah, I got that shit too.  Whoa whoa whoa.  The Unknown Variable?  That’s gonna cost ya. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Agreed on Fire Tablets working surprisingly well once you configure them properly.  Zoom works just fine on it.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,042]

What grades are the children in? 

[Kguillemette | 1,599]

4, 2nd, and K. My K is non verbal and needs one on one instruction. We have an IEP for her, but with Covid going stronger than ever, we need to sacrifice it. Hard as it is to do. Covid is forcing this issue. 

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,089]

I don't know how "low" in math topics it goes, or if its just Algebra up. But I used mathtutordvd.com for myself quite a bit. $20/month and it got me from trig through Differential equations. Everything in a logical order, every step of a problem explained, a"quiz" for each lesson and worksheet for every lesson, and most importantly to me anyway, the answer to every problem fully worked out to see how it's supposed to be done. Highly recommened, I think they my do science stuff too

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,042]

At that age, it might be most beneficial for them if you learned about early childhood development. For me, the biggest draw to an elementary teacher is they know which students are experiencing academic roadblocks and use tools they've accumulated to circumvent those roadblocks, tools gains from 1000s of personal experiences. 

Homeschooling, you only have a handful of references to go off of, mostly just your gut in terms of how well is your child developing mentally. I would suggest that becoming familiar with early childhood psychology would be a benefit if you're going to be the teacher as that is the minimum requirement for going into any classroom. 

Also, the biggest asset an instructor can have is their questioning techniques. It's taken me years to get it down but asking the right questions is much harder than giving the right answer. As an instructor, your main goal is to facilitate questions. Answers are far less important than getting the student to wonder about the topics. But this often frustrated the students lol since they mostly want answers. But again, that is part of the psych thing bc frustrating is an avenue to deeper learning.

Things to know would be Blooms taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge. Also take a look at some rubrics teachers are evaluated by like the Danielson's Rubric. To know what is expected from an instructor will give you more purpose than just sitting down a textbook and reading the directions. There's so much more to learning than that (as we all know) and the instructor is the one that makes that difference. 

[fcgamer | 4,985]

I like @RegularGuyGamer's post, he highlights some of the reasons why teachers are such a valuable resource for education.

To touch slightly on the subject of learning/teaching hours and what grade a child might place in, academically, if / when returning to the school system: it takes little thinking to grasp fully why the kids would test higher than their peers. It's the same reason I prefer self-study when learning languages, than being in a class at a uni or community college. You can move at a quicker pace and don't have anyone holding you back.

On the other hand, the major drawback is the lack of interaction with peers, and other people, and I've personally seen some people take a hit, socially, from being homeschooled during their formulative years. With covid-19 raging on though, this becomes a moot point , but I'm just mentioning it as something else to consider for later.

[Estil | 1,291]

So I guess homeschoolers really do blitz those spelling bees like in that one episode of South Park?

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Estil

[Estil | 1,291]

On 10/1/2020 at 4:22 AM, fcgamer said:

On the other hand, the major drawback is the lack of interaction with peers, and other people, and I've personally seen some people take a hit, socially, from being homeschooled during their formulative years. 

Yeah I suppose I can see how that and over protective parenting can backfire...

 

[OptOut | 8,965]

Hit them early, hit them often. Never stop hitting.

[Estil | 1,291]

12 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Hit them early, hit them often. Never stop hitting.

You sure about that?  I mean they could one day choose your nursing home.  

[Kguillemette | 1,599]

So 3 weeks in to our homeschool program, we are starting to get into a real groove. Some days, getting the kids to keep focus has been impossible. For example, we had a record of 3 hours of a single page of subtraction review. But those days are more and more less common as we get into the routine of it.

 

What we are doing is 4 pages math, spelling, and reading from the work book on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday is 4 pages language arts, writing, and test prep. Then we have a special on Fridays, like a hike, art project, something like that. We follow up each day with an episode of Magic School Bus and an expansion of the lesson from the show. Then we sing along to an educational youtube video.

Each school day has taken roughly 2 hours on average, which surprisingly covers a lot of ground. 

 

So far, so good!