I am seriously considering homeschooling my son. He brings home bad grades but when we are working together he does better than his school work. He "tests" into higher grades but he's bringing home D's and F's. His teacher has him isolated in the room (desk apart from the rest) and seems that he is the ONLY badly behaved child in the grade. I witnessed Friday several boys squirming around on the floor being loud and couldn't be calm and they were not reprimanded. I spoke with my cousin whom homeschools her beautiful ones and she recommended that I use Sonlight. I am still in the DARK here on what curriculum I should use that is affordable. In Oklahoma I can withdraw my son from public schools as long as he has at least three hours of "other education". Let me know if anyone can help. Thank you, Katrina. You can call me Kat if you like.
Kat, I have found it very interesting that the subject my son likes the most is sometimes the subject he would have the lowest grade in-history. When I used the traditional textbook method he didn't do well. But, he can tell me more about history than I know. I am still trying to figure out the way we will do all of our classes, but with history I think I am leaning towards Charlotte Mason-who uses narration (the child tells you what they read) among other things. I would research teaching philosophies and while you are doing that give him some stuff to do and keep it light. I don't know the law in Oklahoma, but maybe you could take a small break to help him get rid of the negative feelings towards learning that the school has given him. Even if you have to "do" school a certain number of days, you can choose how to space it out in a year. Also, keep in mind, school activities are not limited to time at a desk/table. Exploring outside,going to museums, reading a newspaper, watching a documentary, etc. are educational opportunities. I haven't used Sonlight. I have been intrigued by them, but my son does not like to read so much. The great thing is that they have a great return policy. If it doesn't work for you, I believe you can work for 1/2 the year and then return the product (even the used stuff) for a refund. Don't quote me on that but it is something along those lines.
It is funny but when I first started homeschooling that is what my friend was using, I looked at her binder and it really was not for me. We went with Alpha Omega's Life paks and horizon Math back then. It was easy for beinging home schooling. There are ten books per year per subject so you knwo that you are keeping up with the lessons. They give you an example of 2-3 weeks per book as well! The lessons are interesting enough, they have a few boring ones but so does every currriculuim I have tried since! ( been at thiis for 13 years now) SOS is a computer version of the same lessons. Depending on your child's style of learning there are many kinds of books out there, I tend to recomend an easy to start kind for your first year then go searching for what else is out there in the mean time. Mainly because most people are scared in the first year at least that they are not getting enough done, well with Life Paks you have it all layed out. If you are experienced in teaching at all try Aplogia for Science, Horizon for Math, what grade is your child? And welcome to homeschooling, I think you are making a good choice it will be so much fun watching, taking part and sharing with your son as he learns along with you the Joys of homeschooling
BMattK's mom, you sounds like me two years ago, we just moved from CT to IL, it was a huge disappointment for me. I knew my kids know materials but school program is tooooooo tricky. From first grade teachers teach kids how to pass their tests, but “test tricks” are different in different states.
Welcome! I do use sonlight for science and my ds loves it. We use abeka for language, math and Bible. Spelling workout for - well spelling, history is simple schooling our own Colorado Moms curriculum. Let us know what age your son is and we can try to help you with curriculum. As TMom said when you are first starting out it is sometimes better to buy a boxed curriculum that is until you get your feet wet. The second year you usually start picking it apart because you have a better understanding.
Last year I was where you are at now. Just not satisfied with the school and their treatment of my DS. They had seperated him and his grades declined also. I made the choice to homeschool, even though I have lost my job and can't afford to buy curriculum for him. We are doing it completely with the internet and the websites the wonderful ladies in here have helped us find. All for free, and yes, it's working. There are sites on here that you can use to start out with until you get a feel and can research curriculum that will work best for you. Any number of people on here would be willing to give you curriculum feed back, or help with site information. Including me. Feel free to pm me, just click on my ID here. There is a posting of free sites on here that allows you to search what you are looking for. It is alphabetized, and has a built in search option. I don't remember the post, but maybe someone on here will and tag it for you in this thread.
I use singaporemath books for math and science, Wordly Wise and FridgeWords for vocab. Toefl books for grammar and Google for the everything else.
Ive looked into Sonlight, and I will be using the Science for my daughter next yr (5th grade). There is no textbook but there is about 10 different books on the human body, blood and guts, fossils, etc that look extrememly interesting!. My dd would not do well with a science textbook, but seems very interested in this program. It also has a teachers book, to pull all these books into lessons. Says that there is expirements and such as well. I did look into math, and social studies with sonlight as well, but the big binder thing turned me off. Seemed too structured. I want history to be fun so she'll actually learn it so I got the what your child needs to know in 5th grade and am using it as a guide and teaching that on my own using books that I can find on the subjects Spelling is easy. Google 'whatever grade' spelling lists and many different sites with spelling words come up. Anything you can get free off the net I would. Spellingcity.com is awesome and really helps my dd learn her words. You put your words in there and they make games for your child using your spelling words. There is soooo much on the net for free. Saves alot of money! My dd also did the sample math lessons on teachingtextbooks.com and really liked it, so Im getting that for her next yr as well.
My son (now 3rd year homeschooling) was the same way.... tested off the charts in their "standardized testing" stuff.....he was bored. He's 2 grades ahead in math (though I just moved him back to 1 grade ahead instead because he's getting confused and too many stupid hormones now)...... it's just what works. I do suggest things that have a placement test of some sort. I like Alpha Omega because it was so easy to just say "here" and I didn't get overwhelmed as a new teacher. Most of the lessons are self taught or easy for them to get. We are now a mix of Ambleside Online and Switched on Schoolhouse AND Life Pacs (I put them out there for DS for language arts).
Welcome. We've been homeschooling for almost 3 years now. We use Sonlight for history/geography and reading/readalouds. We also use an eclectic mix for other subjects....with 3 kids and 3 different learning styles. Don't be overwhelmed by the choices. You can bring him home and have zero curriculum in the house....while you take your time to consider options, let him read some good books from the library and print off some math sheets from online. It doesn't take having a full curric (or any) to get started.
A site that really helped me figure out what was going to work for us and our budget was www.homeschoolreviews.com. Some reviews sound like a paid ad, but if you weed those out--not too hard--then you will get some great feedback from real homeschooling parents. Best wishes on your decision. You obviously know which direction we'd swing on homeschooling, but its different for everyone. We homeschool our ds13 but our dd10 is in public.
Wow! You all have so much information for me. So, what I am thinking the steps are withdraw my son from the public school system and get a curriculum that is simple at first and I can always upgrade to a more difficult one if need be. My husband and I just received an amount of money that would cover the curriculum packages. I just wanted to make sure to choose the right one. THANKS SOOOOOO MUCH!!!! Kat
Welcome to the board and to homeschooling! As a 20+year veteran of homeschooling, I'll tell you now that you will find as many different curriculums and ways of teaching them as you'll find homeschoolers! The trick with homeschooling is to sit down and write out what YOU (as a family) want to accomplish for your children, then find the curriculum that (hopefully) will best meet those needs. Include HOW you wish to teach, time you want to spend in preparation, space available, and mostly, think long and hard about what you want the "homeschooling" atmosphere to be like for your child. Do you want "school at home" or do you want a more relaxed learning atmosphere? Name your school - you will need an official name to access many things. This statement of purpose and name are very important. I would say absolutely indispensible. I would suggest you peruse the old threads on here. There are hundreds about curriculums and you can probably learn a lot more here than from the catalogues. A good place to start, IMO, for curriculum selection and reviews is to order the Christian Book Distributor's catalogue. They have a homeschooling issue. You can get it here, along with their online catalogue. But order the hard copy, as there are many reviews and useful info in it! www.christianbook.com I also suggest purchasing a good planner and copying a typical course of study. I have always used unit studies heavily, but they do require work. Whatever you decide to use, remember that homeschooling is not a 9-5 job. It is a lifestyle. You will be homeschooling in the evenings, on weekends, over the summer. You will be surprised how much of what you already do with your children is actually schooling. I have an acquaintance on another forum that won't use the word "schooling". She calls it home "learning" . I, too, much prefer that terminology. In my mind, it is not AS important what is taught, as what is learned! Wishing you all the best in your new life venture! It is the most thrilling and fulfilling thing you will ever do!
Thank you all very much. My mother is against me homeschooling. She states that he (ds) will suffer without "friends" and/or interaction between other children. I feel these children are merely children he attends school with. He has some (SMALL) behavioral issues and that makes the teacher isolated him from others. He hates school and I feel bad that he doesn't want to be there with other children and teachers. He has been diagnosed with O.D.D. Oppositional Defiant Disorder which means he reacts without thinking and that gets him into trouble. He used to throw tables and show violence towards other children, but now since he has shown NONE of the old traits the teachers keep judging him by his past behavior. Anyway, I am grateful for all of your opinions and help. Kat
Well, I decided to go with Lifepac for now and go from there and possibly exchange curriculum out with others if I need to change anything!! You all are great about answering my questions! THANK YOU!!! LIFEPAC® 2nd Grade 5-Subject Set (That's what I just invested in.)
We use LifePacs for everything but Math right now (for which we use Math-U-See). My oldest is also 2nd grade. I do see a time in the future when we expand out to other options, but I keep getting so overwhelmed trying to pick one (science, especially), that I'm sticking with what works for the moment. lol. You'll get the hang of it in no time. The hardest part of homeschooling for many people is tuning out the well-meaning advice of people who have no clue what they are talking about. You know that your son will still have plenty of opportunities to interact with other children. Eventually, your mother will also see that he is growing into a socially competent child.
Have fun!!! Don't worry - it's funny - my kids are more socialized now than they were when they were in public school They NEVER would have been able to do as many extra curricular activities as they do now. I think you guys will like the LifePacs - they are simple to go through and will definitely build up confidence!!
