Homeschooling Families - Need Assistance, Please

[mrsltg]

Hi All-

I am about to become a SAHM (not planning to return to work after the birth of my baby.) I have not been unemployed since I was 15, so this is a big shift for me and for my family. Anyway...

DH and I have always wanted to homeschool our kids but given work circumstances were unable. Oldest dd is currently in first grade at a private school. We love the school, but want to try homeschooling for second grade. All parties (dh, dd, and me) have agreed to try it for one year and make a decision treating each year independently. I have been surfing the web for information but would like some firsthand information.

1. Is there a publication (magazine or newspaper) you recommend?
2. Curriculum - what do you use, and why?
3. How old are the children you are homeschooling?
4. Any other advice?

Thank you for your help. The amount of information available is overwhelming and I would like to determine a good starting point and set off from there.

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

You might want to see if there is a Virtual Classromm in your area. My DD 10 is doing Connections Academy, but I'm not sure if they are in your area.

www.connectionsacademy.com

 

[mom2att]

1. Is there a publication (magazine or newspaper) you recommend?
How about a book? My favorite is "The Well-Trained Mind" by Susan Wise Bauer.
2. Curriculum - what do you use, and why?
Many of our curriculum choices have come from the above mentioned book. We don't use one set curriculum, but rather a variety from many sources.
3. How old are the children you are homeschooling?
DD 11, DS 7, and DS 4. None have been to traditional school. We started officially homeschooling when DD was 5, and are more strongly committed than ever.
4. Any other advice?
Go slowly, expect bumps along the way, and enjoy the ride.

 

[adoptionmomma4]

I am new to home schooling this year. My kids attended a private school and most recently a public school in our new area up until now. My children are 2, 6.5, 8 and 10 (I need to change my siggi ). We really don’t have set grade levels I am roughly doing grades 1, 3 and 4. My kids are all over the place in different academic areas. I have a 6-year-old who reads at a 4th grade level and a 4th grade child who is struggling to read. This is why home schooling is working so well for us.

The information is very overwhelming. I highly suggest the book the PP wrote about. We use The Well Trained Mind as our home school “Bible”. I also do not use a set curriculum. We use a lot of different pieces from many different curriculums to make a system for each of child. We are using English from Rod and staff and The Well Trained Mind, Math-U-See, spelling work out, explode the code for vocabulary, history from Christian liberty press, science from apologia, hand writing with out tears etc.… One thing that helped me was looking at the rainbow resource website and catalog. There are so many curriculums available and there are great descriptions in that catalog. We also had the teachers who is doing our assessment meet us before the start of the year and make curriculum suggestions, which was great.

I think the most important thing to do is to find a curriculum you like teaching. I have a friend who HATES what she is using. She is using it because her MIL wants her to. My friend is miserable everyday and will probably not be home schooling next year. Also look for a home school group in you area. Our group has been invaluable to us.

Good luck to you. Deciding to home school was one of the toughest decisions we have ever made. I like you am taking it one year at a time. I think my 6-year-old is going to school next year. Well…. that is what I tell myself on days like today

 

[Dawnflower]

Hi

I am a homeschool mom to 1 7 yr old boy. Like you, I had worked since 15 but when he was born, we had made the decision that I would stay home. Homeschool just kind of happened to us, we had not planned it, a neighbor homeschooled her high school girls and we became friends and it took off from there.

Advice, do NOT let yourself before overwhelmed, frustrated, etc... You can go crazy picking a curiculmn. I hate to say we started confidently in one direction and quickly realized that was a big mistake for our family and learning.

Some moms can just pick one thing and go from there, I need things REALLY laid out for me. I have a friend who uses something called "five in a row" I have to admit, it is fun and wonderful, she can get the book and teach everything from it, I myself need a book that goes day by day and tells me WHAT to do.

Get involved in your homeschool community, I live in Louisville Kentucky and it is really large here. There is so much support and co-ops and things available to most people in a decent size city.

Good luck, if I can help you or answer any questions, please pm me and I will be glad to help if I can!!

Dawn

 

[npmommie]

I second the advice for Well Trained Mind.
they have some good advice and recommendations for curriculum. The most important thing is be familiar with the homeschooling laws in your state
www.hslda.org can give you that information.
get involved with other homeschoolers, groups,etc in your area, they will help you and you will get good advice from experienced homeschoolers.
the amount of info and curriculum out there is over whelming.
we piece together lots of different material
we use
Singapore Math
Learning Language Arts thru Literature
Story of the World
those are the only set things we use. I have a 2nd grader and a preschooler. We have a really relaxed eclectic style, we are not "sit at a desk all day and do school" family, we lean more toward being very very relaxed, to unschooling.

oh and rainbow resource is great for materials, their catalog is like a huge city phonebook
www.rainbowresource.com

good luck, we love homeschooling!

 

[AFL]

Homeschooling is different every year for every family and every child.

My oldest is 16 and will be graduating from home this year. He has never been to school, other than 5 days of kindergarden. He is advanced and handicapped, a classroom was the wrong place for him. Other than a few years of virtual school, which I needed him to do at the time, I have done my own programming plans.

My baby is 15 and in grade 9. He went to public school for the first time this year - I needed him to go, he wasn't willing to work for me anymore. So far he's not sure if he likes school, but he just got his first report card and I'm happy with his marks. This is a real relief to me b/c my biggest fear was finding out I missed something in he education. I'm not opposed he him coming home again in the future, but I think he will probably stay in school and will enjoy it and do well.

My advice is to relax and enjoy the time with your children. Have fun, especially with science and socials. If something is stressing you or your child, drop it for the day, it's not worth fighting over. Be flexable - life happens, and sometimes you learn more from life than any book. And remember the average homeschooled child can accomplish twice as much in half the time, compared to in a classroom.

Good luck
AFL

 

[disneymom3]

Hi there--be sure to check out the Homeschooling List thread on this board. Lots of info there. Will probably take you several days to read it, or just jump in and ask any questions there. ALso, what I have done before is post on there that I started a new homeschool related thread and then started the new one so that everyone who subscribes to that thread can have a heads up.

As for books--I really like A Charlotte Mason Education and Homeschooling The Early Years by Mary Pride. Sorry, don't know the author for the first one. To me, even to this day Well Trained Mind is very overwhelming. And I have been home schooling for going on 6 years now. Maybe I am just slow!

As for what I use, it depends on the child.
Math
DD 6th grade is using Teaching Textbooks
DS 2nd is doing a combo of Singapore and games. Upon the advice of the lady who runs the homeschool store here in town I am switching to mainly games.
DSK uses various manipulatives and Moving with Math and will switch to Singapore in 1st grade. (All my kids do Singapore until they will get to the TEaching Textbooks level and I don't like their kindergarten books.)

Reading
Explode the Code and the intro books for the boys including Beyond the Code
DD uses a McGraw Hill workbook about once a week. She also does Jump In which is a writing program and Wordly Wise for vocab and spelling.

Boys also both use Handwriting Without Tears which I really like even though I fought it for a couple of years. Now wish I had used it with DD.

We did three years of Story of the World and are now doing a cultural US geography book that I am writing with two other moms. For history also did unit studies on the Gold Rush, Dinosaurs, pioneer times and Louis and Clark.

For science we have used Real Science 4 Kids, Apologia, Janice VanCleeve's Human Body for Every Kid, Scholastic science and this year using Janice VanCleeve's combined book and focusing on creating science fair type projects.

At our co-op we also do Meet the Masters for art, but honestly I don't like it very much. Not creative enough for me.

My kids as I said above are 6th grade, 2nd and Kindergarten.j

My best advice is to play games if your kids get stuck on a concept(Games for Reading and Games for Math by Peggy Kaye are a good place to start) and to find a group of other homeschoolers in your area.

 

[PA Princess]

We are currently in our second year of homeschooling...my kids are 2, 7, 12, and 13. Previously the older kids all attened a private school.

Something that played into the curriculum I selected was what the kids had done at school...especially in math and language/reading. I did not allow these things to bind me to a curriculum, but it gave me a chance to look at see...is that working for that kid and should it continue.

For instance, my older 2 had done years of math in ABeka, they liked it, they did well in it, and so we stuck with that for math for the two of them and it has worked well.

However, my youngest school age child had Abeka language/reading (a phonics program I really like) but it just was not a good fit for her and she really struggled. I selected a program called Scaredy Cate for her, and it seems to be really a great fit.

Happy shopping

 

[mrsltg]

Thank you all very much! I really appreciate the answers and time provided. I will read through the homeschooling thread as well as search for the books mentioned to read reviews etc., and get a feel for what matches us.

 

[Eeyore's Girl]

I'd like to toss in another book for you to cosider: The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debra Bell. Not only does the author touch on the obvious questions such as curriculum, she also addresses practical concerns. One of yours may be: How will I school my child when I have a younger child to care for? Then, there's the homeschooler's FAVORITE question: What about socialization? Also, another reason I like the book is she's really honest and lays out the bad and ugly right along with the good associated with hsing. So many of the other books I read were great for pumping up the enthusiasm, but lacked in areas such as how to deal with extended family that thinks you've lost your mind by not sending your children to school. There's lots of pratical advise and wisdom to be gained from this one. The author is a Christian, and of course writes from a Christian perspective. Just thought I should throw that in there in case you're looking for a different approach.

Good luck!

 

[ILoveDisney&Cruising]

I highly recommend checking out: www.hslda.org

A wealth of info there - from state laws to resources to finding a local homeschool support group, which I'd also highly recommend. I don't typically 'join in' groups very easily, but for the past 6 years our local support group has been my lifeline!