Hello We have been living in bermuda for 1 year. My son is supposed to start P1 in September. All the private schools are full. I visited the public school nearest our home and I do not happy about sending my son there. I am thinking about homeschooling but I am getting lots of negative feedback. is it possible to homeschool a 5 year old when I also have a 1 year old. Do you all have outside help to look after smaller children? Which curriculum do you follow? Do you do sitdown lessons? I do not want to send him to a chool whem my gut instinct says not to Confused and worried Amanda
Hi Amanda! Welcome to The Spot. My oldest is 5 and this was his first year of school. When we started last August, his younger brothers were 3 and 1. I had no outside help. So yes, it's entirely possible to school a 5 year old with a 1 year old in tow. If you search back through the forums here, there are many threads talking about how to handle little ones while schooling. I'm sure others here will give you tons of ideas, so for now I'll just say that you've come to the right place!
Hi Amanda and welcome. I hs my 10yr old + 9yr old and also have a 20 month old. Yes it can be challenging at times, but I learned to take advantage of nap times !!! I made sure I was well organised, so that if the LO needed my attention, the other 2 would know what to go on with. I have always encouraged them to be independent learners too. Dont let the negative feed back get to you. We are living as expats in Dubai, UAE, where its the norm to go to school here (all private, international schools). We only homeschool here, as the cost of schooling is ridiculous, so thet also raises a few eyebrows. I have learned to shrug it off.Each to their own. We use a mixture of curriculums- a bit of everything...from Oz (where we are from), the US and UK.
Welcome! Honestly, the younger grades do NOT require hours and hours of "sitdown" work. My son has just finished Kindergarten. He probably did less than 30 mins of seatwork everyday (math, reading/phonics/handwriting).....he did science and history through field trips and listening to his older sisters' lessons (when he could sit still long enough) He finished his K curriculum in the spring and we've just plowed into his 1st grade curriculum. This was our first full year of homeschooling (started with 9 weeks remaining in the previous school year when we moved). My kids will be 1st, 3rd and 5th grade when we start our new year. For 1st grade, our son will use a mix of things. Horizons Math 1, he'll continue with Hooked on Phonics (currently working thru level 3), Explode the Code 2 & 3, Spectrum LA 1, A Reason for Handwriting Level A, and various other workbooks (as needed). I also have All About Spelling that I'm hoping to implement as his reading continues to improve...right now Explode the Code is enough. We're using Apologia Zoology 2 as a family for science. And studying US History as a family (oldest using Sonlight Core 3 and 4, middle using Abeka 3, and my son will read Abeka 1). Welcome Again!
Welcome! As said before it can be done. Also as said before K doesn't require a lot of sit down work. You can make it as fun as you would like. For math I personally like rightstart http://www.alabacus.com/. Now I am not sure how much your son already knows and if you are going to lean toward secular and nonsecular. For phonics you could use Explode the Code books, for science I would just do nature walks at that age. Also http://www.letteroftheweek.com is a great free resource for a free curriculum outline. She has everything lined out for you.
I should also point out that my kindergartner did very little seat work daily, as well. He played a lot of games at starfall.com, we played board games together with my 3yo, we talked and talked and talked about everything. Mostly, he'd say things like, "mommy, can you tell me about bees?" and we'd spend the day looking up stuff about bees. They next day it would be something different. He did some worksheets from workbooks we got at the grocery store (Walmart) and from pages I printed online. But that was about 20-30 minutes a day. And we usually did those while his brothers were napping.
Welcome! We did Abeka from K-8th and Abeka Academy from 9-12. My boys just graduated from high school, Abeka Academy.
No, not really. The girls do more of theirs independently and obviously, I help my DS5. The combo part are the field trips and general "car ride" sort of discussions. Since we're studying Early American history and we live 20 mins from Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, etc.........it works! We're moving incredibly slow thru history because my oldest LOVES history and historical fiction so she's constantly adding other books (from all parts of US history), my middle daughter has just sort of developed an interest but really only thru field trips and her Abeka history readers (she dislikes historical fiction unless its read to her and still its not her fav but she reads her Abeka reader BY CHOICE), and my son likes anything that has to do with "battling"....so field trips with live gun fire are always a hit :lol: The fact that it'll probably take 3 school years to do Core 3 and Core 4 by my oldest is evidence of our creeping thru history....but she doesn't have an interest in Core 5 (and either do I honestly) so this will work by then doing World History in 7/8th grade....hoping we make it to the Civil War next year though.....I'm getting tired of colonial times myself :lol: but they are still loving it. When I mention to my oldest about getting past the American Revolution...she just say "But Mom I love Revolutionary times"....and she does. Rhonda
Welcome. We LOVED games when my kids were younger. Mostly board games...but it's amazing what you can learn with a deck of cards too. Read aloud. Do science at the beach! Mostly you want to foster a love of learning at that age.
A little off topic, but.... I LOVE BERMUDA! :love: Pastel colored roofs, pink sand beaches, tucked away coves, and oh the scooters.
Welcome! I am new too. I will be starting homeschooling with a new baby and an 11yo with ADHD. But after these nice ladies helped me out I am sure I can do it!
Welcome Amanda. You have definitely come to the right place for helpful ideas, tips, encouragement and support. Like you, I am new to homeschooling and to this forum. Everyone here is great! Be strong in your convictions. There is a reason your gut is telling you not to send your child to that school. You can do it! God is always there to lift you up when you feel down.
