supplementing at home/homeschool

amother

Sun, Jun 03 2012, 2:02 pm

For those of you who are not happy with the secular ed. your sons are getting in yeshiva, are there any of you who supplement at home. I don't mean like really homeschooling (I can't do that for several reasons), however, seriously supplementing. How do you do it? Do you follow a special curriculum? If so which, etc.

Please let me know, as I am really considering this

thanks

granolamom

Sun, Jun 03 2012, 4:38 pm

I was doing that for a while.
Its hard because after a full day of school the kids are tired and have homework, I am tired and have other responsibilities.
pretty much I chose one subject to supplement (in our case reading for one child, math for another) and we did 10 min every night and on weekends and in the summer we did 30 min/day. more than nothing....

for math I used a homeschooling curriculum (math-u-see) and for reading I bought a workbook of high-interest non fiction pieces with some multiple choice comprehension questions at the end (my child needed to learn test taking skills as well so this worked for us). this year I'm also doing some writing, I got my kids journals and I write notes to them while they are in school, they write back to me before they go to bed. its totally voluntary but if they want a note, they need to leave me a note. and they love getting notes so they write alot.

I know someone who picks her son up from yeshiva after kodesh and homeschools secular for a few hrs in the afternoons. that's another option.

allgood

Sun, Jun 03 2012, 4:54 pm

My wish was to take my son home for English and do what frenchfry says she does. Unfortunately, I got to work and it means he finishes Hebrew half an hour before I would be able to get there. I'm waiting for him to have Hebrew for longer and then I'll start homeschooling him.

For now here's what I've done:
Got my kids lots of books and also take them to the library often. They read to me or me to them. I've done charts to keep them motivated.
Math skills, problem solving, and the likes, I will stick in all the time no matter what we are doing, by asking them loads of questions and listening to what they have to say.
My son showed interested in a specific era in history so I brought him books.

Being that he gets home pretty late that's all I've managed to do. In the summer I have time for lots more. I like the ideas granolamom gave especially since she's using such a short amount of time Smile

Frenchfry

Sun, Jun 03 2012, 6:14 pm

I work once a week. On that day my son goes to a neighbor and completes a lesson independently. If he doesn't finish all his work, he does it when I get home.

The half hour might be surmountable. Would you hire a tutor for the half hour, or leave him with half hour of independent work till you get there? It isn't such a long time.

allgood

Sun, Jun 03 2012, 7:07 pm

Frenchfry wrote:

It's a bit complicated. I'm divorced, xh pays tuition so I wouldn't be saving anything by pulling him out, which means it would be an extra expense. I can afford the materials I would need, but not the tutor. I don't want to start asking favors from others in order to do this as I already need to do that enough. I figure the 2 years I need to wait in order to do it will be okay if I keep motivating him at home, and since he's a bright child I don't feel all that bad.

Frenchfry

Sun, Jun 03 2012, 8:04 pm

No, you probably won't save on the tuition in any school. In fact, most schools will give you a really hard time pulling your kid out.

One thing you should keep in mind, is that the longer a child is in school where the workload is a joke, the harder it'll be to get him into a good work ethic when you do take him out.

There are days when due to carpooling technicalities my son leaves school a half hour late. I just give him work to do and an incentive to finish in the half hour. If the school isn't opposed to your taking your kid out, perhaps they'd even give him an area to work.

granolamom

Mon, Jun 04 2012, 9:59 am

allgood wrote:

you will be amazed at how much you can accomplish in only 10 min a day if you are focused and consistent.
and if you keep in mind that its more than nothing, you wont be discouraged by setting aside such a tiny bit of time.
just keep your goals reasonable