Homeschooling Progress

November 20th – I have been homeschooling Karen since the beginning of the school year. She would be in the first grade at public school, but is advanced. I have her clipping right along and we are nearly through the first grade math book. I have only been using the book as a reference and cherry picking some of the pages out of it, especially those with word problems. I really think we’ll be doing second grade math after Christmas and I will have to purchase the books.

                Jenna started homeschooling in early October. She’s been doing well too. She is nearly through Chapter 3 in her “Go Math!” book. Chapter 2 dealt with fractions and we had to wade through that in detail because Jenna didn’t have a good grasp of it. She is a math whiz when it comes to fractions now! That’s what good old 1 on 1 can do for a child! It also was a nice refresher for me.

              Chapter 3 deals with absolute value and introduces her to negative numbers. It’s a cinch at this point, but will get trickier when we start using negative numbers in math problems. We should have chapter 3 wrapped up by Thanksgiving.

              Jenna is also working on her autobiography. It has been slow going but it’s rather lengthy. Look for it on her blog in the next few weeks. You can find her blog here: www.jenna.durnanfamily.com

                Sean started homeschooling in late October and we have had to throw the books away for him. He obviously has been allowed to pass through the grades without having mastered basic math. No more number lines for him! It’s all standard algorithm from here on out as that’s what he seems to understand best. I have him doing large addition and large subtraction where he has to borrow and carry. I am also having him do math drills in basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. His skills are slowly sharpening. I am very proud of the progress that he is making. I also have him doing 1st grade math right along-side Karen. It’s good review for him and in some cases, he is having difficulty with some of it! I am not going to teach Sean any new math until he gets the basics mastered. End of story. This is what should have happened with him in the public school. Maybe they couldn’t have done it there, but I have that freedom here to home.
                Jenna is doing science from the Spectrum series. Next year I’ll start with biology, earth science, and chemistry. Not all at once though! Each year we’ll pick a new subject. Karen and Sean are doing the same science from the Spectrum series. They just learned about magnetism together and this week are working on learning about weather. We took a break from the planets right now and we’ll return to them after Thanksgiving.
                All three kids are doing language arts. Jenna and Karen are doing the Treasures series that they were doing in school. We’re doing one story per week. Sean was not up to snuff with his grammar so I am only using the Treasures series for his spelling. His grammar is coming from a different book that I found on Amazon. It is used for homeschooling and is taking Sean back through the basics. Right now we’re dealing with nouns. Sean couldn’t even tell you what a noun was when I started home schooling him. He can tell you what they are now, but he’s still struggling. The beauty of home schooling is that I can keep working with him until he gets it. He doesn’t advance until he does.
                Sean is doing American History. He is reading about Christopher Columbus right now. I’ve timed it so that we’ll be reading about the pilgrims next week! He is enjoying it. Karen isn’t doing history yet and neither is Jenna. Jenna is next up for Sean’s American History book, followed by Karen. I’ll be adding more History and Geography lessons soon.
                There’s so much more to add, but suffice to say, the kids are thriving in the homeschool environment. I’ll describe our typical school day. We wake up at 7 a.m. This is later than what we were waking up when the kids attended public school. Normally they’d have to catch a bus at 7:20. There isn’t this mass chaos in the morning anymore and that’s been a blessing. We wake up and have breakfast. Our school day starts at 9 a.m. We school until Noon. We take a break from Noon to 1 for dinner and then school from about 1 until 3. That’s a typical day. Of course, we have the luxury of tweaking that schedule should we need to. I’ve been schooling as late as 8 P.M. on days where I’ve had to. I try and get my kids to get their work done in 4 days and on Friday, we can watch television or do other fun things. If not, then it’s schooling on Friday too! We pack a lot into the 5 hours of schooling per day. The kids also get library time and they also get to go for walks with my wife for exercise.
                My kids don’t have to ride that bus for half an hour each way anymore. They don’t have all that “fluff” that goes along with a public school education. My kids are learning and they’re doing damned good if I do say so myself. If you ask them about what they’re learning, they’ll tell you. Karen can already tell time to the nearest 5 minutes, and if she has a clock that she can read the minutes on in front of her, she can tell you to the minute! She can identify numbers up to a million and she can add 5 digit numbers over top 5 digit numbers! She knows her addition and subtraction facts up to 20 and she can tell you measurements on a ruler to the nearest half inch. It’s only November and she can do this! She can read at nearly a fourth grade level, and she’s just flying through this stuff. I’m so proud of her! This wouldn't be the case if she had stayed in public school. I’m so glad that I’ve made this move.
              I've also been having the kids read a lot too. I am using Pizza Hut's Book It program where the kids can earn a free personal pan pizza for meeting their monthly goals. Their calendars are up and they write down how much they read a day. Karen's monthly goal is 400 minutes. Sean's is 600 minutes and Jenna's is 800 minutes. Karen and Sean struggle as they don't like to read alone the way Jenna does. I enjoyed having that program as a kid and so far, Jenna has been the only one who earned a pizza. She met her goal last month and looks to be on target to meet it this month as well. The other two have their work cut out for them!
                Stop and visit with my kids if you want to see what they’re up to. I keep the work that they’re doing and can show anyone the progress that they’re making. They enjoy showing off what they know!

 

CPI – Option 2

            CPI option 1 mainly deals with having a human being oversee your homeschooling program. Either the school provides you with a teacher (HSAP option) or you go out and procure your own teacher (Supervising Teacher option). CPI option 2 doesn’t require a teacher, but instead, you use testing to show the state that you are teaching your child. It’s this option that has changed and is causing some confusion right now.

            CPI option 2 has two options; Opt-In reporting and Opt-Out reporting. The Opt-In is the same as it has always been the best I can tell. You have your child tested and you supply your local school district with the results of those tests in a timely manner. With the law change, you can now “opt out” meaning that you don’t have to tell the school anything. This is where it becomes a little fuzzy. With CPI option 1, you still fill out the Form A. With option 2, you don’t have to fill any form out. I’m not even sure what kind of notification you have to give the school. It’s really a gray area right now and personally, I would advise against option 2 unless you know what you’re doing or have a good lawyer at your disposal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of clarification on this option in upcoming years. Option 2, Opt-Out reporting, does seem to allow you to have your kids to take annual testing at the local school for free. Under the IPI, you don’t have that option. However, under option 2, it doesn’t appear that you can open enroll, but if you Opt-In and choose to report to the school, you can dual enroll.

            If this sounds confusing, it’s because I’m confused by the "opt out" option myself. I would highly recommend you choose option 1 if you want to have access to dual enrollment and testing and don’t want a supervising teacher of any sort. It's a lot more straight-forward and simple to understand. Otherwise, I recommend going with the IPI where the rules are also pretty clear. The only difference between the IPI and CPI option 2 Opt-Out that I can see is access to free testing at school. I think those under the IPI can access free testing at the local AEA (Area Education Agency). There may be some differences in being able to teach driver’s education to your child but those details haven’t even been clarified yet as far as I know to date (November 2013).

            CPI option 2 looks like it would be appealing to those who want the benefits that go along with dual enrollment through school without the hassle of a HSAP teacher or procuring the services of a teacher of your own out of pocket. As stated earlier, testing will be made available through your school or your local AEA. You have more freedom under the CPI option 2 than you do a HSAP, and you don’t have to worry about finding and keeping a teacher happy. As long as your kids show progress in their testing, you should be good. 

            I can’t possibly cover all the issues and topics that surround homeschooling in Iowa here. There are websites chock full of information out there. There are groups that you can join that will also help show you the ropes. Just do a Google search for them. You’ll have no trouble finding them out there. All I have wanted to do here was show you how easy it is to homeschool should you decide to do so.

            I have chosen the IPI option here my first year. I did it because it was the quickest and easiest way to get into homeschooling while allowing time to learn more about it myself. I may choose a different option next year depending on what it is that I think I may want from our school. If I don’t need any classes or testing from our local school, I will just keep choosing the IPI option. I like freedom and the IPI truly gives me that. I wish you the best of luck should you decide to pursue homeschooling. I have been at it for four months now and I love it. My kids are doing some really terrific things and we’re building a bond that most parents can only dream of having!