Homeschooling Only One

[psreit]

I'm new and I know this is my 3rd post within 24 hours. I appreciate the responses to my questions. Hopefully this is my last for a while. I was just wondering if there is anyone homeschooling just one child with HOD. Our 3 biological children are adults. We have an adopted 6yo dd. I plan to use Beyond with her in the fall. Although 2 of our bio dds are at home, it is still like having an only child when it comes to homeschooling. If anyone is using HOD with just one, please let me know how it is working. DD is a social butterfly and I'm already planning on ways to get her with other kids aside from our local homeschool group activities. She does like one-on-one, so I'm thinking she will do great with HOD. She likes to be read to, but she doesn't like a lot of seat work. She is very hands-on. It sounds like HOD has a good variety. I welcome your thoughts on this.

Pam in PA

[LynnH]

Hi Pam,
I am homeschooling only my ds. He is 10 and doing Preparing. This is our first year homeschooling and he loves it. He says he will never go back to ps again. He loves the mixture of the projects, the reading and seat work. It gives him a lot of variety during the day. We go to co-op on Mondays which we are able to do since Preparing is only scheduled 4 days a week. He also does Karate and his best friend lives 2 doors down and is homeschooled so he gets plenty of interaction with other kids. For him I think he knows how negative the socialization at school can be and he would much rather be at home.

[annaz]

I am; 9 yr old dd. We did Beyond last year and started Bigger this year. We definitely have different issues than families, don't we?
HOD is working well, because it's fun and it's less independent (Beyond and Bigger). I know it grows with more independence later. I do the bible verse study excercises with dd to make it more fun and because there's almost a project every day it's more interaction for us. It definitely beats all workbook work.

My dd is a social butterfly. I am NOT. But we have karate twice a week in the late afternoon, we also have a neighbor day every other week with all the homeschool kids in the neighborhood (we live in the boonies). We do have a homeschool group, that has a game day every Friday, which I don't attend. I don't like to go, go, go. I have a neighbor that takes dd to Awana on Wednesday nights and I just signed dd up for baseball. That's a lot. Personally I won't take dd to Awana. I don't like going out at night, but my neighbor is part of it and wants to take her. Baseball is a first this year and we'll give it a whirl. It backs right up to karate and since it's new, it's only once a week.

Our homeschool group does do one-day type things and I do that as to not screw up our schedule too much. But "usually" it's karate and neighbor day. The baseball thing is only for 3 months. Then I make sure dd has somebody to play with on the weekend. Sometimes our church has kids' outings too and I'll have her go to those.

[psreit]

Annaz,
Thanks! When I tried K with dd, she just would not respond to me as her 'teacher'. She still has security issues stemming from her past. We didn't adopt her until she was 3yo. She will be 7 in May. She enjoys school because she has made friends, but at the same time she shows disappointment that she has to leave me. The more I read about HOD and hear from those using it, I am so excited about doing this with her! We don't have kids in the neighborhood her age to play together. I have made arrangements to spend possibly 2 days a week with a family from our church. The mom has 7 children to care for, ages 1-7. Her husband passed away unexpectedly. She is homeschooling. So, this way, dd has kids to school and play with and I can help take care of the little ones. So, both families benefit. I am not crazy about doing that much running, but for dd sake, I think it will be worth it. Otherwise, she gets bored and wants to watch TV. I want to put limits on that. I do get involved in some activities with our homeschool group, but there are limits there, too. I did quite a bit of running with the older ones and a person can get weary of that.

I got dd some little garden tools. She loves to be outside, so she will enjoy having her own little garden to care for. It's tough right now with the cold and snow.I am trying to think of constructive things for her to do when school work is finished. Needless to say, i will be involved, so unless I have her cleaning and cooking along side of me, I won't get much of my work done.

I am soon going to order Beyond. I know I have months to wait to begin, but I'm anxious to see it and get everything together. I usually begin some things in July or August anyway. Sorry for rambling, I'm just so excited! I wasn't sure if homeschooling would work for dd at all. I wish I could begin now, but I have to let her finish K at school. I already feel confident that HOD will work for us.

Pam from PA

[Tansy]

My DD1 goes to p/s so I'm only H/S one. She is 7 we adopted her at age 5 she also has leaving mom issues. She just love love loves HOD. I'm not a Go go go go parent ... either. We did Dance/Gymnastics for a while but now she is too old to do the "during school hours" Class.
I have a play date arrangement with another Homeschool mom every Monday we switch off and our kids play.
Every Wednesday I watch 2 kids 3-6 for one of the Moms who goes in to the ministry. And our ministry has meetings though out the month where the kids play like mad afterward.
I try to do all the realistic field trips with our homeschool group.
We were involved in girl scouts (a home schooled troop!) but this year we have quit that due to certain aspects of it.

[my3sons]

Hi Pam, and welcome to the HOD board! The ladies did an awesome job of answering your questions here. I can see that homeschooling with 1 may have special considerations, so I'm so glad you asked and got some great answers. I do think you'll love doing HOD with your dd. It gives some special one on one time that we may just not get or do much with on our own otherwise. I'm going to throw out a few ideas here you can take or leave. One thing you could do is do Beyond just 4 days a week. This would take you a little longer to get through, but you could either start it early (since you are excited to begin anyway ), or just have a longer year. Then, you could just play with the mom with the 7 dc once a week. The reasons I am saying this is I get together with my sister once a week, and we have 7 dc between the 2 of us. It seems that this is enough, and while it is fun it is hectic. I cannot imagine trying to homeschool or doing it several times a week, but I do have more than 1 child at home, so you will know best what balance you'd enjoy there. I also wanted to link you to some posts where ladies share what they do the rest of the homeschooling day, as this is super helpful to being home overall:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2170&st=0&sk=t&sd=a
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4929

It's nice to meet you, and I am excited for you to begin Beyond!
In Christ,
Julie

[EmmaLismom]

Hi Pam and welcome to HOD!

We are in a very similar situation. We have 2 older kids who both live at home and a 5.5 year we adopted when she was 20 months old. She has MAJOR anxiety issues over leaving mommy as well as changes in scheudule/routine so homeschool seemed like a logical choice for us. EmmaLi is a little behind so this year we are doing LHTH and should finish up sometime in April. I want to start LHFHG in May and do "school" year round. Em is in dance and active in church activities but we don't have any homeschool groups local to us so that's the only outside interaction she'll get. She is a social butterfly but I am NOT so I do worry about how much interaction with other kids she'll get but not concerned enough to send her to school. We found HOD late this fall and we both LOVE it so far. She is doing really well with the one on one time and I look forward to many more years of HOD!

Dawn

[psreit]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I have some time to plan my weeks, but I'm determined to make sure Angelina's days are filled with enjoyment, whether in work or play. It's going to mean more of my personal time, but it's worth it.

Pam in PA

[blessedmomof4]

Hi,
I am homeschooling only my 10 year old with Preparing, and it is going very well. I found that using the guide as written is working well because I always tend to want to add more and then get stressed. I am confident she is learning what she needs right now with a lot of fun mixed in. Since it is four days a week, we both get to do other things, either together or apart. She has neighborhood friends she sees every day, and we get done so early she has way more free time than when she was in public school. Also, being the youngest, I think she really loves getting me all to herself

[momofone]

Just want to say "hello"!
I'm in the same boat as you. I have an almost 9 year old "only" that I'm schooling. I am just now beginning Bigger with him. I know that HOD will make it fun and I agree about possibly doing 4 day weeks. I'm planning on doing maybe 4 and a half day weeks, if we can swing it.

That way, we can get out of the house and try to mingle with others. I think you've picked a good curriculum that will enable you to have that kind of flexibility. Hang in there!

Tina
ds- 8, jumping in with Bigger

[psreit]

I'm committed to this. My HOD guide should be on the way. Today I had a bad experience, though. DD's teacher sent some work home because she is missing some school for trips we're taking. DD became upset because I asked her to do something a little different than 'how her teacher does it'. It will be an adjustment to bring her back to homeschool, but I am confident that BLHFHG will be a lot of fun for her. I am not creative, so I am grateful for the variety that Carrie has laid out in the guide. I think dd was bored with what we did prior to sending her to school. Also, getting her out with other kids more often will surely make a difference. Maybe Mom will be a good teacher after all. I'm going to need a lot of patience and prayer.

[Tansy]

I'm going to need a lot of patience and prayer.

you got it

[my3sons]

Patience and prayer are two of my best helpers in homeschooling (when I am good at remembering to use them). Just remember to tell your dd when she comes home that YOU are the teacher, so she'll need to do it how you want it done at that point - no "ifs, ands, or buts". She may give you a tough time at first, but it's important to establish your authority as her teacher right away. You ARE a good teacher - right now - already! You're the parent God chose for your dd. He planned for you to be her teacher in life, and now in school as well. I have to remind myself of this calling often - it's a God give purpose we all have as parents, and He does equip us for the task. I'm excited for you to begin, and looking forward to hearing about the year as a whole - as that's often where the biggest gains are made.

In Christ,
Julie

[annaz]

This was probably our biggest problem was teacher vs parent. I learned a lot! I learned a lot of patience; still am. I'll also say that when my dd was around 6-7, she was less than pleasing to be around for school. She saw it as me interrupting her play time. So I got out the ugly teacher mask. It was a scary mask from Halloween that was my dh's from a few years back. I told her she'd get the ugly teacher on her ugly days. Funny....I never had to wear it after that.

[psreit]

Thanks for the encouragement. I chose to put dd in school because I felt that I needed to focus on the role of being her nurturer because of some emotional issues from her first years in and out of foster care. I recently told somebody that having her in school has given me time to observe and refocus. DD can do more than she lets on sometimes and she will use her emotions to get me to give in. Sometimes it is authentic, but discerning that is hard at times. So, this has given me some insight to how she IS able to perform. Other than some struggles with handwriting, she has been doing very well. I'm thankful the Lord directed me to HOD while 'surfing the net'. It didn't take much time to convince me. I'm away from home until tomorrow. I don't know if my copy of BLHFHG will be there , yet. But, it should be by the end of the week. I can't wait to see it.