*** Homeschool List ***

[doodlebugs-mom]

I am interested. DD is only 3 but we are leaning towards homeschooling for you education in the future.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I'm going through my annual 24-hour remorse bug..happens every year on the first day of traditional school...the rest of the year I am fine...but that first day!!! I get that "oh noooo---it's too late now" feeling. Ha ha.

 

[disneymom3]

I would love to see a complete curriculum based on worksheets printed free online!!! The only cost would be paper and ink! Talk about low cost homeschooling!!

For first grade, I did not buy one workbook or curriculum item for DD. I bought reg books of course, but I printed all math sheets, writing pages and unit study stuff from online sites. We studied the human body, outerspace and Lewis and Clark as well as Tall Tales and Fairy Tales that year. Went through a lot of paper and ink and spent a lot of nights online, but it did help me really figure out where we were and what kinds of things worked best in preparation for choosing curriculum.

 

[meandtheguys2]

I'm going through my annual 24-hour remorse bug..happens every year on the first day of traditional school...the rest of the year I am fine...but that first day!!! I get that "oh noooo---it's too late now" feeling. Ha ha.

You know, I always loved the first day of school! It is one of the few days I feel bad for my kids!

 

[disneymom3]

This is our first day of school, but not the districts (we can follow our own schedule in MN) I am thankful it is rainy and we have fun activities planned anyway.

On the first official day of school we always do something fun like the Children's Museum, Zoo or Chuck E Cheese. It's our way of saying, "Wooohooo! We homeschool and can do whatever we want!" Helps a lot with that first day of school guilt!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Well the guilt has passed---we did our lessons today--and patting myself on the back that daughter can now read 13 words....she has to pace at 18wpm before she can play a game--let's just say she reads them F-A-S-T. And she loved playing the game that is with our phonics curriculum. First day, schmirst day! --we just started week 4.

It's 10:30 and we finished school early--so I'm letting them watch Sesame Street (i know, i know)---but they love Elmo's world. A lovely little treat.

 

[Good Ol Gal]

It's 1030 and my kids are just eating breakfast!

We're just getting ready to start our work for the day. We're working on counting money this week. I made worksheets for all four, but at their different levels.
ds4 gets pennies, ds6 & dd8 get mixed coins, ds10 gets coins and bills.

have a great HSing day everyone

 

[meandtheguys2]

We don't start until next week. Today is a park day with friends...must be a socializaion day...

Have a good day, all!

Michelle

eta: Don't you just love making up your own schedule?!

 

[Kilted_Yank]

We don't homeschool as my wife and I both work outside of the home (wearing the golden handcuffs, here!), but I am enjoying reading these pages and about the various curricula that so many of you use.

We plan to use some of these things as a supplement to our daughter's public school education.

 

[sweet maxine]

Well the guilt has passed---we did our lessons today--and patting myself on the back that daughter can now read 13 words....she has to pace at 18wpm before she can play a game--let's just say she reads them F-A-S-T. And she loved playing the game that is with our phonics curriculum. First day, schmirst day! --we just started week 4.

Lisa loves Pooh, which curriculum for phonics are you using? I'm trying to find something to use for my 4/o (will be 5 in two weeks).

ETA: I just wanted to add, we started our first day today! We've done a couple of pages in our lowercase alphabet book. I decided for math today we would work with beans for counting and addition. He loves it and is really having fun! He's asked me to work with the beans again tomorrow! I may be on to something here... I did realize though this morning that he doesn't understand subtraction yet. We're sticking with counting and addition for now. I'd rate the first day a success!

 

[JMSMommy]

First day of school for public and private schools here...and our 25th day of homeschooling for the year. Today was the FIRST day DS6 asked to start his learning work.

So far, he's written his Bible Verse (working on memorizing Psalm 23 so he's writing out verses from it and reading and repeating to me). He's done 2 pages of his Explode the Code (I'm about done with the book). He read Magic SChoolbus: Time of Dinosaurs book. He's drawn an alien figure from his "How to Draw Spaceships and Aliens" book. Now, he's building train track sets with his brother (DS2).

It's been wonderful. I got some cleaning done, and able to set up for the science experiments! My poor kitchen may never be the same after this afternoon.

 

[Kewz1]

We started school today. Had to make son stop his work to eat lunch!

Good first day!!

Kristen

 

[DreadpiratK]

WOW, my hat's off to you folks. We don't even think of starting school untill September, and then usually not untill we get home from our anual vacation, usually the middle of the month! My kids are still in full summer mode, with jobs and camp and visiting the GP's.. They would absolutely flip if we tried to do school now. But, we probably go longer in the spring than you do, to make up for it. That's one of th great things about homeschooling.

This was a big day for us, though, my DW is taking our oldest son Ben, who is 15, to register for college. Seems like we just decided to keep him home from 1st grade, and now we're finishing up with his schooling.

 

[thinkpinktink]

We officially started High School today. It was a great day. We have been hs'ing since kindergarten. It just seems like yesturday that he was learning how to read and write. I remember the day I was making pancakes for breakfast and he figured out what addition was all about. I know the next few years will fly by but I am thankful I will be there every minute of it. He was gone a good portion of the summer being socialized with scouts. Have a great day everyone. There really is no better feeling than hs'ing, other than being at disney.

 

[Good Ol Gal]

Is anyone a member of Enchanted Learning?

They have some good looking worksheets that I may be interested in, but don't know if they only show samples of the good ones and that I'd be wasting my money on only a couple of sheets.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Lisa loves Pooh, which curriculum for phonics are you using? I'm trying to find something to use for my 4/o (will be 5 in two weeks).

we used scaredy cat phonics---www.joyceherzog.com I had bought the first level which is just letter sounds...we had started it in May and then tabled it b/c we wanted to do other things. By the time we started school--she already knew the letter sounds and I had to go and order the vowel pack. It is reasonabliy priced--I did have to cut out the flash cards....you use the cards to teach and then for playing the games. Mrs. Herzog has written songs for all sorts of phonics rules (though--the kids like it..she is NOT the best singer.....but as I said, the kids like it). We are on Lesson TWO--and each day I replay the audio portion--and then we work on stuff.

The gist is that vowels say their name when they are brave and when they are scared they say something different. Scared "a" says ahhhh, Scared "e" says ehhhh. Very catchy.

This was the one area I feared teaching---and it is working out well. This program was developed by Mrs. Herzog when she taught special ed classes---she's had some students she was told could never learn to read---the scaredy cat system was developed when she did teach these kids to read.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Is anyone a member of Enchanted Learning?

They have some good looking worksheets that I may be interested in, but don't know if they only show samples of the good ones and that I'd be wasting my money on only a couple of sheets.

I am--I love their worksheets...I was using the letter pages to help the kids create alpabet pages.

Don't know much beyond that--but will probably hunt around and introduce something soon.

 

[sweet maxine]

Thanks for the info about teaching phonics! I'll look around for that.

Now, does anyone here have any idea where to find the Five in A Row system of teaching? Should I just order from their website, or could this be found in one of the bookstores around? I did look at Books a Million this weekend, but had no luck. I did find a copy of the book by Debra Bell though, and it has been very helpful to me. I feel as though I'm just too much of a newbie, so I'm reading as much as I can. I guess everyone makes mistakes though, and I'm sure I'll have some things I'll mess up on. I just want to be as prepared as I can be.

 

[sm4987]

So glad I found you all. Looking at homeschooling my children next year. I'm in need of lot's of help as far as programs and such. Any information you have to give me will be wonderful! My kids don't want to go to school, we are such a close family. So since I'm a SAHM, I say why not. The kids next year will be in 5th and 2nd grade.

 

[disneymom3]

Our local Christian bookstore has quite a bit of homeschooling books avail and you can find Five in a Row there. I would look at Rainbow Resource as they usually have the best prices if you don't have somewhere local to just get it from.

Sheree--welcome! Awesome that your kids want to stay together and stay home with you. There are lots of different curriculums being used by the folks on the list and lots of different styles. Ask any question--I dont think one has gone unanswered yet!