Hi, my name is Denise and I'm not only new to the board but I'm also new to homeschooling. Completed our 5th day yesterday. I'm overwhelmed by EVERYTHING. New York makes it difficult to homeschool as they don't like it but I'm actually fortunate enough to be in the Syracuse area and not have to worry too much like others in NYC. On top of being a new homeschooling mom, we just moved here from the Baltimore area. So I'm also adjusting to life in a new environment. Some of the problems I've encountered are trying to figure out how other homeschooling moms are able to teach their children in about 3-4 hours. I'm spending 6 and still not getting through all of it and cutting some things out that I feel are insignificant. My daughter is 6 and my son is almost 4. I've decided to homeschool both right from the beginning. My son is doing preschool stuff with Little Hands but we've kind of gotten out of the book and are using sheets that I print off from ABCTeach. My daughter was in the first grade in Maryland at a Christian School and after speaking to one of her teachers, we decided to skip the 2nd grade and move on to the 3rd. So that's where we are now. I did attempt to homeschool my husband's little sister several years ago but we didn't realize she had ADHD. At the time, I purchased the curriculum from Calvert School and loved it. Right now I'm using Bob Jones and have determined that it doesn't really mesh well together. My daughter has spelling words that don't even apply in the English book and writing a story wouldn't even use the words. So I'm thinking of scrapping the $600 I invested (huge for us) and going back to Calvert and investing a whopping $1100 to get the teaching advisory team and their curriculum. I'm just frustrated that it feels like I'm doing something wrong. On a side note - I absolutely love homeschooling them and they are excited about getting up every morning and getting started. I'm really hoping to learn from all of you and getting to know tips and tricks to get over my struggles. Denise
HI Denise I am also in NY. Have you joined a LEAH chapter yet? If so I would recommend it highly. The Upstate LEAH convention is being held in Rochester at the end of May. As for curriculum I know there should be some good curriculum fairs in your area in May. I know that two of the LEAH chapters in our area are having sales and I have gotten great deals on used curriculum and been able to look at stuff before deciding what to use. It is so much easier when you can put your hands on it. I homeschool sd who is doing 10th this year and will be starting with my dd in a year or two. We have her going to ps next year for 1/2 day kindergarten so I can have more time with sd. I am not sure about what we will do for 1st grade yet but she will definitely be home for 2nd. Well welcome to the boards and if you have any questions feel free to pm me.
Welcome. First of all are you trying to do every subject every day? If so slow down. If you try to cram it all in most of the time all you are doing is cramming and your child is not absorbing the info. Now for the how do we get it done in 3 - 4 hours a day, we go all year long (also we don't have a set amount of hours to do or reports to turn in). We hit our basic subjects daily, then add the others in every other day. Also remember that your work does have to be all in the same time frame. You can do your reading before bed, and stuff like that.
I have a sis who lives in Ithaca! They were stationed in DC before they were sent up that way via the Air Force. She is a member here but rarely gets a chance to get on here but I'll try to nudge her over this way. They've been hsing around 5 years now if I remember right. She was in DC on 9/11 and her son was 7 or 8 at the time and it had a big impact on how he handled ps when they went up to NY. We grew up in NY and it was actually hard for her to go back up to the lack of life in the city! If you stick around I know you will get alot of input on the hsing side. Don't be hard on your self and also don't forget to breathe!
Thanks ladies! Jennifer, I was also in DC during 9/11. I was active duty in the Air Force and my husband was also active duty. I was pregnant at that time and chose to get out on October 1st of that year. I've been home ever since and my husband is still in - he's been in now for 18 years. I have already contacted LEAH and they have suggested that I wait to join since they will be charging members the annual dues in a couple of months. I already have curriculum and don't want the daunting task of looking at more. I thought I had gotten something really good based on recommendations of other hs mom's in MD, but it isn't up to my expectations. I'm not cramming all of the subjects in everyday. Here's the schedule I have set up for right now: M-W-F mornings: Bible, Math, English, Spelling T-Th mornings: Bible, Math, English, Science M-W afternoons: Reading, History, Music, Computers (we have yet to hit music and consider any playing on the computers to fill this requirement as they are playing fun and educational games) T-Th afternoons: Reading, Writing, Art (could be coloring or a craft) Friday afternoons: Reading, Georgraphy or Citizenship stuff, Health, French. We have yet to do any of this stuff. I don't know how to balance or how to do this stuff so I feel really lost. Denise
Denise, one thing I would suggest is to just step back and deschool which pretty much means to ease off of the structered work at least temporarily and all of you adjust to being at home. I've had to struggle with this one! My dd was home last school year but my dh was never on board with it and we ended up with her doing the first half of this school year in ps. It was like a giant step back for both of us and it has been hard to get a flow going. I often feel like I'm at step 1! I'm trying really hard not to stress the rest of the school year and get "school" in but no necessarily the heavy bookwork. We only have to have 180 days in so we could honestly be done in a few weeks but we have math that I told her has to be done before we take a break. Are you going to school year round? Either way, I would seriously suggest trying to have fun with the rest of the school year and find out exactly how your dc will learn the best. I hope that made sense!
With the Geography can you include that in your history studies? Also the Health can it be included in your Science? Your outline looks great. Also as you get going further into this and your child gets used to this things will start clicking and going at a faster pace. As you stated this is just your first week so, there will be some time for adjustment. Everything will smooth out for you, you just have to be patient and don't doubt yourself. I know easier said than done.
Also if you go with the suggestion JenniferR made. Why not go to museums and great places like that? You live somewhere where you can learn from so much that is not in your home. Just a suggestion.
Jennifer and Jo Anna, Good idea to combine. Wasn't sure if they should be separate or not. The unfortunate thing about the history is it's based pretty much on times from around the civil war. Okay, not really but they did discuss a knight. Hmmm, don't ever remember knights in my history classes. I'm afraid that the school may not like the curriculum once I submit it but am not worried about them denying me because they can't. I do plan on taking field trips and don't sweat it when we take a day off - which is something we did on Thursday. It was kind of nice just "not schooling" and gave me time to regroup. I know of several things I want them to learn such as presidents and places. Believe it or not, even a lot of schools don't have this in their curriculum which is quite surprising. I'm sure it will get easier the longer I've been doing it but the biggest fear I have is doing my children more harm than good. She was in a great school before and I don't want to bring her intelligence level down with my teaching, LOL. Denise
Denise, I believe I know exactly where you're coming from. I taught in the public schools before we started educating at home, and boy! Did I ever try to bring "school" home! In a group setting, individual styles of learning cannot be accommodated efficiently. In order to present the maximum info to the majority of students and then to keep track of who has answered which questions correctly and at which percentile in the ps classroom, workbooks, paper work, and reams of records are absolutely essential. Eventually I discovered that so many things I used to think of as "schooling" are irrelevant at home. You will need to comply with state regulations, but you can spend an hour measuring with cups, half-cups, & quarter cups making cookies and impart more math to your little ones than you could with several times that amount of time using workbooks. Yes, you can write cookie time down as math--hands-on math. Using the best "math manipulatives" in the world!" Intelligence can be measured, at least in part, by the desire to learn. Foster that! If it includes a lot of paper work, (which one of my daughters loved), that's great, too. You certainly will not be damaging your children at home, unless you become a slave to scopes and sequences like I once was. I wanted the highest standards of all curricula for my children and actually compiled the strictest goals from all the curricula I could find! One of the surprising things I found out was that what is taught when varies with each company and that trying to meet someone else's goals can actually be counter-productive. Ruth Beechick's small paperback booklets helped me gain some perspective. She gives basic goals and sequential steps to meet them. You'll find your pace, and I hope you'll love teaching your children. JenniferR and the others said this better than I, but I wanted to embellish a little bit from our own experience. Best wishes and welcome!
Welcome to home schooling and the Home school spot, you will love it here! How much time do you spend on each subject? At such young ages I never spent more than 15-20 minutes per subject. If you do too much they aren't going to retain all the information. I would keep formal learning to the basics at this age and supplement with field trips and other fun stuff. I would also combine science/health and history/geography. We usually learn the geography of the regions we are studying in history. With health/science I do one semester of health and the next semester we do science. Most of all, relax and enjoy. You will eventually fall into a pace that works for you and your children.
Someone else mentioned Ruth Beechick's booklets. They are called The 3 R's and are great for moms of young kids to read. It was such a relief when I read it... I was a ps teacher for 6 years, and it is tough to think such a relaxed system can work, but I did my best to relax and just make learning fun. It has really paid off. We don't do many workbooks even now, but the kids never cease to amaze me with the stuff they know. - I have a 3rd grader and 5th grader.
Welcome! We've been hsing now for 13 months. My kids are 4th, 2nd and K. Although I thought, I'd be super strict and rigid...the more we do and the more research I do (hardly think a HS book exists I haven't read...:lol....the more relaxed I become. My kids were all previously in the DoD school at Ft. Campbell, KY. Great school, wonderful teachers....but with anywhere (including home) there are gaps that we're filling (and probably making more...lol). My oldest was in the gifted program but hated to read. The one SUPER benefit that hsing has provided........the child NOW devours books. She's no longer tied to what's in the library and what AR test they have...she can read whatever with Mommy's approval. She's doing Sonlight for history and loves the readers (all real books and most award winning ones at that). This gift alone is worth all the rough hs days and we all have them. As you can imagine, with 3 kids and a wiggly K son who is learning to read, it is hard to get things done. We focus on the basics and hit the extras when we can. We live in the Colonial Triangle of VA (DH assigned to Ft. Monroe)....so we've spent many days in Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, etc. They've learned more in a week than all the textbooks I could find at their reading levels :lol::lol: And had lots more fun...what 5 yr old doesn't like to see an old rifle fire or a big cannon fire. BJU does have a solid reputation but isn't for everyone. Hopefully you can tailor it to what your need. Maybe use the history as a "spine" and invade your library for extras. Lots of free extras online for math, etc. You might checkout www.sonlight.com for reading list suggestions. You can see their reading lists online and then head to the library. We deschooled a bit when we began and it definitely helped us as we were getting used to a new house, a new city, a new job for Daddy (after several Middle East tours in the sandbox), etc. Best wishes!
Welcome! I am also just starting out at hsing. I have 3 DD's - ages 8, 7, and 4. I also have a DS, 5 mo. My husband grew up in the Syracuse area (Oswego) and I moved up there during high school. We moved to the Baltimore area in 05 and are now in DE. Small world! I am just going to repeat what others have said - relax. You are doing great and your kids are very young. I would focus on the main subjects - math and phonics/reading for now. Then add others as you are ready for them. :love: - Jessica
Welcome! I was also a teacher, but special ed, so I was use to doing my own thing, as nothing was appropriate for my classroom. DH, on the other hand, was (is!) a high school teacher, and HE was the one that needed to understand the difference between "homeschool" and "school at home"! When I first started, he wanted me to tell him EXACTLY when I was teaching each subject, etc. I told him that when I was in the classroom, I didn't teach that way, and I SURE wasn't going to at home!!! And then, he walked in one day to me cooking dinner, and my then 2YO middle child "hiding" behind the table, an empty cereal box in one hand, blunt scissors in the other, and surrounded by a pile of little clippings. "Do you know what your daughter is doing?" he demanded. "YES!" I replied. "She's working on developing her fine moter skills. Why?" He looked at her, looked at me, and wisely chose to leave the room, lol! That was 9 years ago, and he's learned to relax (a LOT!!!) and trust me when it comes to school! There is one thing you said I want to comment on. Something about being a little worried they might now "accept" what you send them. In most states, they don't have the right to NOT "accept" your plan, unless something is glaringly wrong. We "notify" them that we ARE homeschooling; we do NOT "request permission" to homeschool. So make the plans that YOU feel is best for your family, and DON'T WORRY about the educrats' opinions of them.
I just wanted to say that you are not the only one feeling overwhelmed! I'm in my first year of homeschooling, and I am so behind. I know we won't finish until at least the end of June. Some days I feel like I've made the worst choice in the world by homeschooling, even though I know thats not true. This is a hard journey to take on, but one that is so very rewarding in the end. Hang in there, hon. Just know you are not alone in the way you are feeling!!
