Climbing out of the box

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Many of you have watched as my family has struggled along a journey of figuring out how to best educate DS. Last spring, we pulled him from school altogether, and are homeschooling. He is now in 6 th grade. I work full time, so have hired a coach to work with DS while I'm at work.

The coach was getting really frustrated when DS just would not write an essay. She just couldn't get him to maintain focus. He just wasn't gonna do it. After a really challenging day I asked if instead of working on an essay, if DS would be able to do a news report on their current science topic.

He would need to research the topic, write the script, film (either be on camera or direct the "talent"' and then post production edit. He enthusiastically said yes. This covered his science, writing, reading and of course all of the video work, which doesn't fall into a category but sure needed lots of learning and focus.

Here is a link to his Ecosystem News Segment: Shallow Seas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4aVNHIWZpo

Great job!

Great job! That took a lot of effort, he is a very smart kiddo!

Wish I could watch it right now because that sounds VERY cool!

Thanks - it did take a lot of effort, much more effort than writing a simple essay. It is great to see what he can do when engaged, and how important it is to keep him engaged. I wish I could send him off to school to learn, unfortunately the schools aren't set up to find that thing that motivates each child. I don't care what's in the IEP, there's no way he would have the flexibility he needs.

Now, if I could just figure out how he can like math!

The suit and tie is a nice touch.

Thanks - that's a funny story. He doesn't own a suit jacket, so he went through Dad's closet and found a button down black shirt, he folded the collar inside and then buttoned it over a white shirt. We had the clip on tie for a funeral in 2004. Looks like a suit on camera, right?

Have I mentioned how proud of him I am?

Here's our next segment - Ice Worlds.

Please support us in our homeschool journey by watching the video. It helps so much to see the number of views be greater thn 1!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne328JjE ... er&list=UL

Have I mentioned how much better life is homeschooling?

OMG, how cute is your son?!

Nice job! FYI - Math, science and cooking go together really, really well. If you make cooking into a series of chemical reactions, it engages boys well. Make him scale a recipe up and down - it's an amazing amount of math work, plus it has a practical application.

Thanks - I'm really proud of him!

On a non profressional critique: He did really good

My profressional editing critique: He looks a little nervous. Or maybe that's just me.

I really wish they would have engaged me in this way back when I was in school. I'm working on trying to become a published author and all I did was love to write stories. Essays were always a challenge for me because they sucked all the ideas out of me. What ended up happening when I was in school is that you wouldn't get credit for the essay if you didn't have your brainstorm sheet. This really hindered me the kid who had an imagination because I was the type to write it out if I had an idea. No brainstorming needed. Brainstorming took all my inspiration of an idea and took it away because in my mind I already wrote, but in brainstorm format. I also hated having to go book by book on everything I brainstormed. I'm still not very good at writing essays, I still hate them with a passion.

Funny how the fictional writer, hates essays. But loves fictional writing which is a long essay. Maybe I should rephrase I hate profressional non fictional essays based on lectures in class that I am not very good at following.

Way to smash the box mom!

how did the tutor like the results?

This really helped the tutor open her mind and realize that for us, homeschooling isn't gonna be school at home, rather learning at home, how my son needs to do it.

I don't know how he's going to get the basics. Hopefully some maturity and his own goals will help. I know that he wouldn't be doing better in school though.

Pandoras Box - he's definitely not a pro, he also won't do a 100 takes. More like two. That said, it's fun and creative, he learned so much. He thought his choppy editing was funny, so left it in on purpose. He's a great kid, I'm so happy to see that he's having fun.

Thanks for watching!

So that's why I hate cooking so much! LOL!

Really nice job, your son is adorable!

Kailuamom, your DS did a fantastic job! My DD (who is 9) and I both watched this together and she was very impressed with the information (she's a 4th grader and they touched on biomes in her curriculum too, although not in as much detail) and his poise! How fun - please let your boy know that he's helping other students too

ETA: We find that some of the assignments with our homeschool curriculum need "jazzing up" as well. My DD will now write her History summaries in forms of a letter that she addresses to me. During the Industrial Revolution, she was a child laborer, writing to her friend (although we did touch upon how kids would not have the opportunity to go to school. During our study of the American Revolution, she wrote a letter to a friend in France about Washington's inauguration. It's been kind of fun to read the "letters" afterwards. I love that our kids have such a creative bent!

Thanks Audball - great to hear your DD like them too!