Comments on: Relaxed Elementary Education

By: Elementary Homeschool Curriculum Series | FIMBY

Elementary Homeschool Curriculum Series | FIMBY

[…] Before I go further I need to define the problematic word curriculum. In the homeschooling context when most people ask, "What curriculum are you using?" what they are usually asking is, "what packaged materials and ready made guidelines are you following to teach your children at home?" This is perspective I came from when I wrote the post Relaxed Elementary Education. […]

By: Homeschooling Inspiration « Beside the Sunny Window

Homeschooling Inspiration « Beside the Sunny Window

[…] are notes from one of my favorite blogs! http://simplehomeschl.wpengine.com/relaxed-elementary-education/?doing_wp_cron=1326389351 I believe the focus of the elementary years is to foster, grow and develop a child’s innate […]

By: Jane

Jane

In reply to Jamie ~ Simple Homeschool.

As the homeschooling, elementary-education-degreed mother of an introvert, I have just a couple of thoughts on the socialization process for introverts. My daughter has come a long way, but is still anxious and shy at the beginning of any group activity … it’s just who she is. She was like this in public school. She is still like this while being homeschooled. She is like this at church, and at large family gatherings. It’s just *who she is.*

One way I’ve helped her is by just letting her be this way. I model friendliness, I encourage her gently without pushing (usually), and I often give her the words to say (because I freeze up when I’m anxious, I understand that part of not knowing what to say). And I try to maintain any friendships she develops. Making new friends is hard enough, without being an introvert!

I don’t know if this will help at all, but I wanted to share since I have seen progress, and much of it came after we left the public school.

By: patricia

patricia

I’m a little late to the party. (We were away camping with our homeschooling group for four days. Who says homeschoolers don’t socialize?)

I was glad when you responded in a comment to me that you’d be writing this post, Renee. We seem to homeschool much as you do, and have never used much pre-packaged curriculum. Sometimes I worry that too much talk about curriculum leads newer homeschoolers to believe that purchased curriculum is an integral part of homeschooling. You can always find lots of talk about which curriculum is best, but less talk of whether curriculum is necessary–unless someone is talking about radical homeschooling. What concerns me most about curriculum is that it tends to make us think in school terms, rather breaking outside the box to *really* look at our kids and their needs.

I especially appreciated how you mentioned that while *you* liked a few spelling programs, your daughter didn’t like them, so you moved on. Lucky girl!

By: Nola

Nola

thank you for another great post. I really enjoyed reading it. So far we’ve tried a bunch of things but nothing has really worked well for my daughter. She’s still young (only 5) but she is advanced on her own initiative. I find packaged curriculum very hard to get for her since so far its been boring or too basic. If I try to get something more advanced sometimes it seems to mature (its made for older kids maturity). So right now we are just going with her interests and studying about them and with that comes the other skills. Its working well for right now.

By: Kika

Kika

I don’t love curriculum except for Saxon math. A few other books I quite like for beginning years include the Five in a Row, Draw Write Now, and Bob books. We’ve tried others and sometimes liked something here and there for one child or another (for instance my son who struggles with spelling greatly improved using the Phonetic Zoo/Excellence in Spelling). Mostly, we read tons, do lots of varied writing (letters, reports, essays…), have our kids do reports or lapbooks on topics of interest to them, play games, enjoy music and hands on art/craft activities,and more reading. Not very helpful. I guess I pull things together as I go but just don’t believe that it is necessary to purchase a real curriculum to successfully homeschool in the elementary years.

By: Becca

Becca

I am so happy to read this article and a few that you linked to. This is quite similar to my approach to homeschooling and I haven’t found anyone similar in the 5 months we’ve been schooling at home. You made my day!

By: Our Country Road

Our Country Road

This was an excellent article with a lot of gret info-thank you! But, I have to comment on your DD’s photo. Based on your daughters sense of style she and my DD would be fast friends. The photo made me smile. 🙂

By: Aaron

Aaron

Thank you so much for this post! I regularly need these reminders (to relax, to enjoy the journey with my family, and to remember the key is guiding/instilling a love of learning). I’m greatly encouraged by the comments shared. We mommas have such a huge responsibility – AND THE GREAT BLESSING – of rearing our little ones. Thanks to you ALL for sharing.

By: Jamie ~ Simple Homeschool

Jamie ~ Simple Homeschool

In reply to Sea.

We do have a couple of posts about socialization in our archives if you’d like to take a look: http://simplehomeschl.wpengine.com/tag/socialization/

In my experience, this seems to be the issue prospective homeschoolers worry about most–while those who have been at it for a while realize it is almost a non-issue once you get into it! But it takes courage to face those fears head on.