I wanted to talk a bit about the curriculum that we are using. Some families use what they can find online so that there is very little cost. Some families use private academies online that offer teachers and grades. Some families purchase bits and pieces of curriculum and put it all together to make their own yearly curriculum. We decided that making our own (or using online free/low cost) was not what we wanted.
I was brought up in a Roman Catholic home. I went to Catholic school from Kindergarten until Fourth Grade. When we moved during the summer between Fourth and Fifth Grade, I was given the choice... PUBLIC or CATHOLIC. I chose public. Now we did live in one of the better areas and better school districts, so putting me in public school was completely my choice. I left a lot of friends behind in that move and I think I figured that if I was going to make a change anyways, what difference would it make if I went from Catholic to public. Little did I know that I should have stayed in Catholic school. I attended CCD (night Catholic classes) so that I could receive my sacraments. My friends went through to Catholic high school and I stayed in public school. I didn't do well... I hated it. I didn't apply myself. I graduated NOWHERE near the top of my class... in fact, I was probably closer to the bottom.
When we pulled Eryn out, I did LOTS of research. With a limited budget (with only one wage earner in the house), we really had to look at what we were getting ourselves into. Schools that we were using through the public school were available to us at a private level... but not without the THOUSANDS of dollars of "tuition and fees". That wasn't going to happen. Then there were schools that would supply us with lesson plans, but we were responsible for the grading, record keeping and books. Once again, being a first time REAL homeschooling mom, that was NOT where I wanted to go. One day I found Seton Home Study School. I feel that God brought me to them. They are reasonably priced and supply all services. Eryn receives NUMEROUS courses, including Writing Skills, Religion, Phonics, Vocabulary, and Handwriting. We supplement with Teaching Textbooks for math. Since Eryn has documented learning differences, we enrolled her with Special Services. It's great... they sit down with you on a phone call and talk about what they think would be the best for the child. It's all based on what you provide to them... We took a CAT test and also submitted work from what she had already accomplished.
Eryn has BLOSSOMED under this program. She began at the end of February and is over halfway through the school year. She has received A's in every subject and is just working her way through very well. She is on target to finish the repeat of Fourth Grade in October. We plan on re-enrolling her and starting immediately with Fifth Grade. That would put her back on target and not losing a grade by June of next year. This has been one of the best things we have ever done.
We area also planning to enroll our son, Riley, in their Kindergarten program. He'll start a year early, but he will be right where he needs to be when he goes to public school. I'd personally prefer to keep him home as well, but he will start and see how he does. If it doesn't work, We'll pull him right out as well.
I'll be posting some more information on their curriculum and services in future posts... We've just been over the moon since we started with them and wish we could "shout from the rooftops" how great Seton is!!!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Introduction to our family!
I wanted to introduce ourselves in our first post.
I'm Tara, the mom. Some say that I have a "full plate". I am a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) to two great children, a full-time college student (double majoring in Legal Studies and Criminal Justice), a wife to a wonderful man with a dangerous job, and a caretaker to a child on kidney dialysis.
My husband is Thomas. He works a dangerous job (sorry, for security reasons I can't disclose his job) and helps me with the care of our two kids and will be helping us with this next step of homeschooling.
Our daughter, Eryn, will be 11 in July. She has been in kidney failure since she was 15 months old (October 2001). She started with a disease called Nephrotic Syndrome that progressed to a disease called FSGS (Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis). She received a kidney transplant in October of 2007. Unfortunately, the FSGS reoccurred in her transplanted kidney within 24 hours of transplantation. She was doing well until March of 2010, when she had complications of a kidney biopsy and ended up losing some function of her transplanted kidney. She was on dialysis until June 24, 2010, when she received another gift of life. Unfortunately, the disease reoccurred in this kidney as well and we are starting down the road to dealing with the side effects.
Our son, Riley, is 4 1/2 years old. He is the child that drive me up a wall on a daily basis, says things that NO child should ever say, does things even AFTER you tell him NOT to, and is just an all around normal BOY. It's been a very different experience raising a child that is healthy, let alone a BOY. He's kept everyone on their toes and keeps us going every day. We will be enrolling him a year early (according to local district rules) in Kindergarten in the fall. He's very smart for his age and we don't find a need to delay anything if it's not needed!
We were a previous online public school family until Eryn was diagnosed with dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia in February, 2011. At that time, we were told that the district's online school would no longer be an option for us. We would have to make a very LARGE decision... We could switch to hospital/homebound in which she would only receive teaching from a teacher for a few hours a week or we could fully "unenroll" her and dive head first into homeschooling. Without any other options, we took her out of the district and began homeschooling.
We decided to have a bit of help in our homeschooling endeavor. We are fully enrolled in Seton Home Study School, a Catholic private school located in Virginia that does "correspondence courses". They are fully accredited (through both the church and through SACS), so essentially we just pulled her out and placed her in a private school. Since the state of Florida does not recognize schools located outside of the state, she is a regular homeschooler. We just have the benefits of accreditation and special services for her learning differences in case we ever decide to head back to the public schools. We've dealt with IEP meetings, difficult meetings and "pushy teachers". That's why we are where we are now and we are LOVING every minute of it!!
We'd love to hear from other homeschooling families out there... We'd love some pen pals (both email and snail mail)!! And please feel free to link us to your blog... we'd love to hear some stories from others as well and see your experiences!!
WELCOME TO OUR VERSION OF HOMESCHOOLING!
I'm Tara, the mom. Some say that I have a "full plate". I am a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) to two great children, a full-time college student (double majoring in Legal Studies and Criminal Justice), a wife to a wonderful man with a dangerous job, and a caretaker to a child on kidney dialysis.
My husband is Thomas. He works a dangerous job (sorry, for security reasons I can't disclose his job) and helps me with the care of our two kids and will be helping us with this next step of homeschooling.
Our daughter, Eryn, will be 11 in July. She has been in kidney failure since she was 15 months old (October 2001). She started with a disease called Nephrotic Syndrome that progressed to a disease called FSGS (Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis). She received a kidney transplant in October of 2007. Unfortunately, the FSGS reoccurred in her transplanted kidney within 24 hours of transplantation. She was doing well until March of 2010, when she had complications of a kidney biopsy and ended up losing some function of her transplanted kidney. She was on dialysis until June 24, 2010, when she received another gift of life. Unfortunately, the disease reoccurred in this kidney as well and we are starting down the road to dealing with the side effects.
Our son, Riley, is 4 1/2 years old. He is the child that drive me up a wall on a daily basis, says things that NO child should ever say, does things even AFTER you tell him NOT to, and is just an all around normal BOY. It's been a very different experience raising a child that is healthy, let alone a BOY. He's kept everyone on their toes and keeps us going every day. We will be enrolling him a year early (according to local district rules) in Kindergarten in the fall. He's very smart for his age and we don't find a need to delay anything if it's not needed!
We were a previous online public school family until Eryn was diagnosed with dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia in February, 2011. At that time, we were told that the district's online school would no longer be an option for us. We would have to make a very LARGE decision... We could switch to hospital/homebound in which she would only receive teaching from a teacher for a few hours a week or we could fully "unenroll" her and dive head first into homeschooling. Without any other options, we took her out of the district and began homeschooling.
We decided to have a bit of help in our homeschooling endeavor. We are fully enrolled in Seton Home Study School, a Catholic private school located in Virginia that does "correspondence courses". They are fully accredited (through both the church and through SACS), so essentially we just pulled her out and placed her in a private school. Since the state of Florida does not recognize schools located outside of the state, she is a regular homeschooler. We just have the benefits of accreditation and special services for her learning differences in case we ever decide to head back to the public schools. We've dealt with IEP meetings, difficult meetings and "pushy teachers". That's why we are where we are now and we are LOVING every minute of it!!
We'd love to hear from other homeschooling families out there... We'd love some pen pals (both email and snail mail)!! And please feel free to link us to your blog... we'd love to hear some stories from others as well and see your experiences!!
WELCOME TO OUR VERSION OF HOMESCHOOLING!
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