How many Dis'ers homeschool?

[mousy_in_canada]

We home School!
I am home schooling my 3 kids right now, the 4th is 3 so she does not do much yet, I love the idea that we can go to WDW in January! save some $ avoid the crowds and do some schooling at night in the cabin!

I am looking for a unit study about Disney world, and I am having a hard time finding it, anyone know where I can track something down? My kids are in grades SK,2 & 3.

TIA

 

[ptrbryant]

On another thread, there's alot of criticism about considering WDW "educational" in any way. I disagree, mainly when it come to EPCOT. What I did was had my DS8 study a bit about each of the countries in the World Showcase before we left. Not only did I feel like the "education" side of it was more legitimate, but it made the World Showcase more interesting for him. You could also do a mini unit on ocean life before visiting the Living Seas, etc. I kind of checked out what had the most potential, then created pre-trip units to tie in.
Have fun and good luck!
Karla B.

 

[TNKBELL]

My family will be going to WDW in October 4-11 2005 and would love to arrange a Homeschool Group to participate in Disney's Y.E.S. program. If there is any interest please pm me for the details of the program. The ages I homeschool are DS 8 DS 6 DD 4 DS 1. So I currently have a 2nd Grader and a K. and Pre-K.

 

[ehallison]

We homeschool - an 8yo and 11yo. One of the reasons we like it so much is that my hubby travels for business, so we have the flexibility to go with him whether it's to Orlando, Denver, or anywhere else. We don't have to worry about getting the teachers' approval.

 

[sandyluvsdisney]

I'm a new mom, and i would love to find out more information on homeschooling?
After reading some threads here it seems like everyone is having a good time doing it.

Thanks

 

[ptrbryant]

Hi, sandyluvsdisney,
I think one of the best starting points is the Homeschool Legal Defense Assoc.'s website: www.hslda.org. It tells you all about the laws regarding homeschooling in your particular state and has links to local groups. We truly love homeschooling and haven't found many homeschooling families who would change things by choice (sometimes, events in life make it impossible to continue to do so).
Good luck!
Karla B.

 

[crazymomof4]

I enjoyed taking part in one about 2 yrs ago and recognize some names of posters here from that one.

We homeschool our kids after 6th grade. So, my DS15 is in his 3rd homeschooled year and my DS13 just started in September. I have one son in PS (2nd grade) and a 4 yr old still at home.

I find the hardest thing is battling my own high expectations of what I want homeschooling to be. I just read a tongue-in-cheek article about the "Ideal Homeschooling Mom" The article basically said the she doesn't exist. We can never do all that we want to do, only do our best.

Any thoughts?

 

[blestmom]

I find the hardest thing is battling my own high expectations of what I want homeschooling to be. I just read a tongue-in-cheek article about the "Ideal Homeschooling Mom" The article basically said the she doesn't exist. Any thoughts?

So true! I have been homeschooling for 10 years now, and I've struggled with trying to be the 'perfect' homeschooling mom, and comparing myself to others. That just doesn't work. We are happiest when we are more relaxed.

 

[WayneWatsonFan]

So excited other homeschoolers are on this message board!

My wife and I homeschool our three children, DD12, DD9, DS6. This is our second year doing it, and it's going great. Just a wonderful educational choice for our family.

Glad to see www.hslda.org listed above, great place for homeschool info. Mike Smith does a daily Homeschool Heartbeat commentary on our local Christian radio station, WDAC 94.5.

 

[crazymomof4]

Well, I feel good. I met my goal for the winter break. (Since I have a son still in PS we follow the public school calendar.) I told myself that, over the break, I HAVE to get caught up on marking all of the backed up school papers. I just finished. Whew! What a relief! I feel rejuvinated and ready to forge ahead.

I'd like to share something that I incorporate into our homeschooling. It's called Cable in the Classroom. The cable channels "A&E" and "The History Channel" each have 1 hour of programming every weekday devoted to this. "The Discovery Channel" offers a similar program. The huge variety of shows along with the accompanying discussion questions, vocabulary,etc. (found on the websites) are high quality educational material that is at your fingertips and FREE! The toughest part is remembering to set the timer on the VCR to tape the programs. I usually set it before I go the bed to record the next morning. I leave notes to myself all around the house to remind me to do this. --Ha Ha

Here are the three cable channels that offer educational material that can be used with their programing----------------
http://www.historychannel.com/classroom/classcal/root.cgi?year=2004&month=9 This is the History Channel's site.

http://www.aetv.com/class/classcal/root.cgi?year=2004&month=9 This is A&E channel's site.

[See following post for the Discovery Channel's site.]

With regards to learning from WDW: When my first two kids were little, long before I homeschooled, I did something similar to what ptrbryant did. We put the names of each of the WS countries into a hat. Each week we drew a name of a country and learned about it. I got videos from the library. Looked up recipes native to the country and made a dinner and dessert. I got age appropriate books about the country from the library. We learned a few words in the language and played games native to the country. It was fun and they learned so much. As ptrbryant said, if done before the trip, it makes the World Showcase more interesting for the kids.


ptrbryant Thanks for posting that link. I just visited the site and copied (to read later) some articles about avoiding homeschool burnout. Also, I like the idea about doing an ocean life unit before visiting the Living Seas. I have an oceanography unit planned for DS13 this school year. I could use some of that material and include all of the kids. DS7 loves sharks!

 

[crazymomof4]

I don't know why the link for The Discovery Channel didn't show in the above post. I'll try it again:

school.discovery.com/ontv/ad.html

If that doesn't work, I think you can go to the Disc. Chann. homepage and click on "assignment discovery".

 

[Tink561]

We homeschool our three sons. They're 11, 12 and 15. We're in Palm Beach County...about 2 hours from Orlando.

 

[sandyluvsdisney]

Thanks for the information Karla B., I will look into it.

Happy New Year!

 

[tisha]

We have been a hsing family for 11 years. Love it! Love it! Life could not better be. 18yods (graduated last year), 16yods, 14yods, 10yods and 5yodd.

I am so excited about visiting WDW. We booked through a travel agent and she was worried about scheduling around school. Not a problem.

We are staying for a week the first part of February. We took a Disney cruise about 5 years ago. Dd was just 10mos old. She does not remember any of it. This trip she will remember.

We are going to see Cirque du Soleil while at WDW. We got tickets on my oldest ds's bday. This is going to be awesome. All the kids are excited. We have a few dvd's of different Cirque shows, so we know what we are in for.

 

[Jodi3530]

I also homeschool my kids are 3 and 5 ( turning 4 and 6 in the next month) I am still very new to homeschooling but now that we have start can't imagine sending them to ps.
sandyluvsdisney When I first started thinking about homeschooling my biggest worry was where do I get school books from but wow with the internet the possiblities are endless but this one was my favorite as you can request to get there one huge catalog with all the grades and more books to choose from than carter has pills plus the prices are very good. http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php I hope it is ok that I put this here.
Jodi

 

[ptrbryant]

It's become like the phonebook in our home in terms of use and usefulness! I think I end up ordering at least 85% of my things from there each year...could do 100%, but we love Math-U-See (though I think RR started carrying it recently) and Handwriting Without Tears. Otherwise, it's without peer imho!

A big pat on the back to all homeschooling parents for having made it through the 1st semester this year!

Karla B.

 

[100AcreMom]

I'm in my second year of homeschooling DS 10 & 9, and I have DD3 in preschool. We are considering private Christian school for next year, but a big concern is not being able to travel to WDW during the off-season. At least we have our priorities straight!

 

[sskem96]

I am homeschooling dd5 for Kindergarten. We got our curriculum through Christian Liberty Acadamy. My main reason was she didn't turn 5 til Sept. 29, but in Illinois, you have to be 5 by Sept 1 to go to PS K. Our original plan was to just HS her this year, then send her to PS 1st grade next year. It's going really well though, and I'd like to cont. it next year. I also have DD8 in 2nd grade at PS. I'd like to HS them both next year if I could talk DH into it!

 

[2cutekids]

I homeschool my twins DD6 & DS6, and we all love it! I feel so blessed that I have a husband that really supports and encourages me with it. I have quite a few friends who would love to try it, but with no support at home they aren't able. I know there HAS to be some Homeschooling Dis'ers from Arkansas......Were are you? And of course, one GIGANTIC perk is we can travel to Disneyworld ANYTIME we want (low crowds & value rates - hooray! ) I've never heard of the Y.E.S. program.....what is that? It sounds interesting

 

[Tink561]

My family will be going to WDW in October 4-11 2005 and would love to arrange a Homeschool Group to participate in Disney's Y.E.S. program. If there is any interest please pm me for the details of the program. The ages I homeschool are DS 8 DS 6 DD 4 DS 1. So I currently have a 2nd Grader and a K. and Pre-K.

I'd like to hear more about this as well.