There are so many things to say here. I'm following the World Book typical course of study. Mostly, my dd wants to do what she wants, even watch cartoons, instead of work. She's still learning even though it's not what I plan for the day. We are much more relaxed this year, thanks to this message board. We are using the library instead of bought curriculums. The juvenile dept has books on every topic. I'm learning more than I ever did in school and I have an AA.
They learn when they are interested. Out of the blue, she wanted to learn about hemophilia and wrote a real good report after collecting and reading several sources. She's in the 9th grade. So I pretty much leave her alone.
I plan each week the week before (with plans for each 6 week period). We used to spend 10-30 min per subject per day. She got wise and decided to do only 1 or 2 subjects each day - one hour each subject. She focuses better, gets it done, and has more time to do what she wants. She and her friend (ps) took 2 handheld microscopes (from Radio Shack) and a big one like we used in school in her room the other night and looked at everything for 1-1/2 hrs. Better than school work.
I use the DK books. Science encyclopedia and Geography. I make up questions and she reads and fills in the blanks or answers the questions. It seems to work. I'm learning more than I ever thought I could. It's a lot more fun since I stopped being so rigid. We used to fight over this and that was killing us. Now we have fun. When I see that she isn't interested, we stop and have fun. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, but now I get more hugs and kisses. She thanks me every day for HSing her.
The neighbors have been a problem. One is a sub. teacher and keeps asking her how many hours we spend every day and doesn't see how we "get away with that". I tried to explain how we don't need to get the class to settle down, don't pass out papers, don't have to discipline the rowdy kids, etc. She has been a thorn in my side, but now I ignore her. They love to talk about us. We are the envy of the ps kids. My dd is sweet, kind, generous, loving, and will set anyone straight when they are mean to other kids. She was assaulted at 3 different public schools before we brought her home. One day when I was stressed out a year ago and told her I was putting her back into ps, she became hysterical and told me more than I had heard before about how the other kids at school treated her. We also had problems with teachers trying to get her on Ritalin. We knew she didn't need it and they just wanted to drug the class to make it easier on them. That teacher had 9 out of 27 kids drugged. And the parents didn't fight her like we did.
