Home School WebChats - Hosted by Gayle Remisch

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:05AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
time check

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:05AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
Just checking in for the homeschool chat. However, I
probably won't be able to stay long. I am expecting
(needing) my wife to drop my lunch off to me at work.
Yes, I forgot it at home. Don't I have a great wife.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:06AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Hello, and welcome to the Homeschool PTK chat, sorry
I'm late, last minute door nockers.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:06AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
Hi Gayle. How has your week been?

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:07AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Wonderful, you're a lucky man, my husband is super too,
before when I was at the Thursday chats, he would make
supper and bring it up to me at the computer.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:07AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Pretty exciting, I finally got my Teachers Kit, It's great.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:08AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I'll be going to get the posters Laminated this weekend.
Which reminds me, I need to ask Marc or Jan how I can
get another "INternet in the Classroom poster, mine got
destroyed.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:09AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
How's yours been.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:10AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
They did a very nice job on it. Didn't they?

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:10AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I'm just downloading my e-mail, 33 messages since this
morning, sheesh, too many mail lists ;)

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:11AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I love the Navigator, I loaned mine to one of the schools
to try and so I've been missing it.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:11AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
Gayle, I will be back in 15 minutes. I have to go meet my
wife. Be right back....

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:12AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I had my kids all draw pictures of Mars, and the 2 moons,
they did a great job, I'm thinking of getting them scanned
and sending them in. They all remembered stuff like,
Mars is half the size of earth (incorporates fractions and
Math stuff for them as they're only 4 1/2).

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:21AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I'm still here, has anyone else dropped by?

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:30AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
I'm back. Sorry I had to leave leave like that. I just read
your comment on the pictures that your kids drew. That's
one of the things I like about teaching. All the things that
they pick up on. As for me, I had a make-up class for my
first class. This time 20 more kids showed up and about 6
parents. For me (and my house) it was almost
overwhelming.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:30AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
In doing activities for K-2 level, I've found it easy to
incorporate, language, math, science, art and a host of
other things come to life for the kids.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:32AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
We're growing so fast 6-8 families, that we need to find
another place to meet. My place isn't big enough. But
most halls and such want too much money. The public
library wants $30 per hour (Canadian of course).

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:33AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
How much time are you able to devote to MTO as far as
classes go? In my case I am hoping to have a 2-hour class
every other week. This won't be nearly enough time, I
think.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:36AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
Our support group has used rooms at a church that some
of the members belong to. For the use of the rooms the
group offered to vaccumn or replace bulbs, etc.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:38AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I'm pretty much Un/de-schooling so we don't follow a set
curriculum except what the kids are interested in or new
things that I introduce. So as long as it is like this
program, where we can do all sorts of subjects then we
do. But technically we get together every Friday morning
to work as a group on different things.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:39AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Unfortunately, churches near here all want $$. They have
lots of volunteers but they still need to pay the bills. So I
suppose they'd rather have it sit empty than have it used.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:44AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
That is a shame about wanting the $$. After last night, I
think that I will probably have to split the group up in
half. At times we were on the verge of chaos. We were
doing the first rocket activity with two lines strung from
my living room to the dining room. It got pretty crowded.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:46AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Sounds like you had a blast, D. We'll be undertaking that
next week. We got a late start.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:48AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
So you are Un/de-schooling. Are you a purist and totally
following the lead of the children? As for us we more or
less take a unit-study approach and throw our curriculum
together from various sources.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:49AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
I'd really like to coordinate the group we've got first
before we split off. The other two big groups in London
are at capacity, and before we even had our first meeting
we had 5 families. Both myself and a friend met people
last night who are interested in coming out, new
homeschoolers. They need the support part first and
reassurance and a little course on their legal rights to
homeschool. Do you have to register with anyone, file
plans, be assessed?

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:54AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
That is great about the growth of your group. Helping out
the new h/s'ers is very important. Now (mid-year) is
about the time when we see a wave of people pulling
theirs kids out of school to start h/s'ing. As for h/s'ing in
Texas it is very "free." We don't have to register, or have
our materials reviewed, we don't have to be trained
educators and our children don't have to be tested.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:55AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
As for testing of the children, many h/s'ers will have
them tested more for the parents assurance than anything
else.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 11:56AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
No, I'm not a purist. I had never intended on
homeschooling. I started with staying home with my
daughter (Anna) and needed some income so I satarted a
Home daycare. Not wanting to leave them sitting in front
of the TV all day,(also so I wouldn't get bored) I started a
weekly theme program and tried to follow daily subject
format. Monday-Music/Math; Tuesday-Phys.ed./Science;
Wed.-Life Skills/Language; Thurs.-Art; Friday-Crafts.
But now even though we still have the weekly theme
format, we tend to be more flexible with it. If something
we're doing really gets their interest then we'll do it until
they don't want to any more. ie: the Weather Watcher
activity from LFHST, after that first week, they just
wanted to keep doing it so we must have gone out every
day for at least a month and a half after that doing it
daily. They loved it and learned soooo much.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 11:56AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
The state does require that we teach on 3 subjects (3 R's)
and "good citizenship".

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 12:01AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
That is a great idea for a day-care to do. I would guess
that that would take more time to prepare than more
facilities would be willing to expend.

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 12:04AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
I am going to need to get back to work. Keep me posted
on how your activity goes.

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 12:04AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Our regulations here state that "a child is excused for
attendance at school if he/she is receiving satisfactory
instruction at home or elsewhere." Also, there has never
been a court case won against a homeschooler, in fact one
case led to the law defining that Compulsory education
was the requirement not compulsory school attendance.
That was a big bonus. They also do not even try to define
"satisfactory instruction." I firmly believe that I'm
responsible for my child's education not the teachers, not
the schools and certainly not the government. But this
could get into a book, check out my site...
http://www.wwdc.com/womblegarten

Gayle, PTK-Homeschool Webchat Host: . . . . Wed, Dec
11, 12:05AM PDT (-0800 GMT)
Have a great week, see you next week! bye 4 now, Gayle

Don (TX, Homeschool): . . . . Wed, Dec 11, 12:08AM
PDT (-0800 GMT)
I will check out your site. And by the way I went to the
site that you mentioned a few weeks ago (sepschool). I
thought that it was very interesting. I agree with many of
the views. I need to get back to it to read some more of
the articles. Have a great week. Bye.