Homeschool World Forum

[Ann B]

Hi everyone,

I'm Ann (39), married with 2 daughters. The eldest (14) is going to school (and doing just fine), the youngest (9) is being home schooled. We live in Belgium, Flanders to be more accurate, that's the Dutch (Flemish) speaking part of the country.

We are now in our third year of homeschooling and still struggling to find the right approach. Actually, today (Nov 14 2011) we - again - made up a new plan. My daughter is extremely stubborn, seems uninterested in whatever I try, is a little perfectionist, is very social but has problems communicating with most kids of her own age, is very creative, has a lot of phantasy, looks at everything in a different way, … Briefly, she's a really adorable kid, but she can occasionally drive you nuts.

She recently taught herself English (watching way too much tv) and anything in English now is 'cool'. So I'm surfing on that wave for the time being.

We decided to do math in English, use a curriculum for learning (better and more) English and let everything else be integrated in unit studies. For the x-th time everything we now planned is new to me. I feel like I'm constantly reinventing our homeschooling methods and sometimes that's a bit overwhelming. Luckily I've learned to relax and not stress about it anymore (it used to really freak me out).

Belgian methods and programs are very, very different from American programs. That leaves me with tons of questions. We've bought Math Mammoth, but that's definitely way more than just 'math in English'. I hope I'll find some answers here. Unit studies are also totally new to me, so lots of questions there too.

I hope I can count on all of you to get me pointed in the right direction. Thanks in advance! In return, I hope I can help out some of you too with some tips and tricks I use.

[hscoach]

Your daughter sounds very smart. Welcome to the forum!
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Laura L. Barth
http://www.freehomeschooladvice.com

[TheAssistant]

It's so great that you're not stressing! Good luck with everything!

Here are a few unit study links--hope you find them useful.

http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/unitstudies.html

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/unit-studies/
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[Ann B]

Define 'smart'. I guess she is kind of smart, but I also think that's the largest cause for all the problems we have with her...

Not stressing at all... but you might want to stay far away from us whenever the inspectors decide to visit us again... I can predict a small earthquake...

Thanks for the links. I'll check them out. I'll probably launch one or more questions somewhere on the forum too.