Hi all! I've recently stummbled upon this nifty site. I'm very glad I did! I'm going to start "officially" teaching my 5 year old this year. I think I want to start off with a prepackaged all inclusive plan. From what I've read, I'm sure I'll branch out on my own as soon as I get my insecurity in check ha! I'm in Texas and I know I'm not required to report anything to others who might be more "official" than myself For that I'm thankful. So, anyhoo. Any advice? Name of schools that you like? Anything? Anything at all that might help?!
I am also from Texas and I used a very eclectic group of curriculum for my 2 six five year old boys (just turned 6). I used Math U See, Hooked on Phonics for Reading and Spelling, Bob Jones University for Bible, and Reason for Handwriting. If I had to use one curriculum though, I would have used Rod and Staff, which I have some of that in line to begin using for the 1st grade now. I did not know about it when I first started, but have since found out and really like it. I have some of their matireial now and it looks great. Another curriculum I really like is A.C.E., which I graduated from myself years ago and I liked it when I did it. It still looks good. When the boys get older, I see myself using a combo of that and Rod and Staff. CLE also seems to be a popular one that is very user friendly, but I did not like it so much for my boys at that age. There is a lot of free stuff on the net for that age also. On this Homeschool Spot, there is a group for websites that has Rae's Web Sites posted. It is a wealth of information. Best of luck to you in your decision. Enjoy!
Welcome! I'm in the Austin area, and I have two boys. I really like several things, and all for different reasons. I started with an Abeka kit, but I've branched out since then. I used Explode the Code for phonics, I've used Abeka, Rod & Staff, and Miquon for math, I really like R&S for reading and English, I like Apologia for science, Mystery of History for social studies, Abeka for health, um...what else?...oh! Handwriting w/o Tears for handwriting (although I also like Pentime, Abeka, and StartWrite a lot), uh... I don't know. If you're thinking about doing foreign language, I'd look at Song School Latin for the K-2nd age range. We loved it, and they're coming out with a book 2 soon as well, so you'll be able to do it for 2 years. I'm sure there's something I haven't thought of ... OH! I like Sequential Spelling, but I wouldn't suggest starting it until you've seen a pretty good grasp of phonics. I'd say 1st or 2nd, maybe? I don't know. I love HS'ing in TX. Every time I read a horror story, I think about how thankful I am to live here!
Welcome. If you haven't found it yet www.starfall.com is very useful for little kids to learn to read. And reading is really the first goal of learning I think. Of course learning other things like basic math and other subjects are also good.
I started out using Sonlight my first year. It helped me get my feet wet and branch off into doing my own thing in later years.
Thanks for the info so far guys! Northernmomma, nope I hadn't found that site before. Thanks a ton! Dd loves it. I was blown away when she read a few sentences (for the first time ever) in one of the stories there without skipping a beat today! We have been working on letters and the sounds they make off and on since birth I think, I had no idea some of it stuck. When she paired up what she already knew with the way they have that set up she did great....I cried Thank you again. We'll def be visiting there often.
Welcome! I recommend Headsprout for reading instruction. I have my 6 year old using this and my older son used it to learn how to read a few years back. www.headsprout.com I add literature and some phonics worksheets to round out the subject. Horizons Math (www.aop.com) is good for math instruction, IMO. We play math games before we do the instruction portion. I am somewhat loose for the younger grades and prefer to be interest led for science and social studies. Instead of using a curriculum, we use things like Magic School Bus dvd's, Jeff Corwin, read aloud books and art to learn about those subjects. For instance, I might read a book about some animal. Then we draw it (Draw*Write*Now or other similiar), and write a sentence or two about it (copywork). If available, we will watch a Jeff Corwin or other nature episode about it. I find that if I have too much bookwork or worksheets, my dd6 just can't handle it. That's why I stick to just two subjects with 'real' curriculum (Math and Reading). HTH
Welcome! We are eclectic homeschoolers as well. I also concentrate on the two biggest subjects- reading and math- for my dd (1st grade). After that, I piece together stuff for sci, soc studies, etc. There are a ton of web resources out there. I like the spectrum math workbooks, honestly. It's old-fashioned type math, with plenty of practice. So far, it's working out awesome for my kids. (as always we suppliment when I feel they need more practice on something). I use the phonics program from "Why Johnny Can't Read" and suppliment that HEAVILY with flashcards, practice, visual reminders, and books. (my dd has serious confidence issues with reading, so that plays a huge roll as well) We also LOVE www.starfall.com. It's free, and there's lots of activities on that website as well. I'm not certain what you mean by school? We don't use an online one here, and have no personal experience. A big part of my decision was to make sure my kids get the best education possible- tailored to THEM. I don't think we'll try online versions just because it will be more like the education they would have received in ps (minus the irritating social politics, of course)
Another free reading site is www.progressivephonics.com. Also look at http://wordlywise3000.com/ for free vocabulary.
I'm kind of old school since I home schooled all three of my kids and am now schooling my gs (K). I am sticking with You Can Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He loves reading and he loves this course! It's so easy to teach for me and just really very stress-free. It sounds like your dd is more than ready for it and would do great with it. For science and history I mostly just do field trips and things like Science in a Bottle or other experiments that I find online or in books. For math I've started with Math in Focus. It is good, but has an awful lot of time-fillers. It's hard to just skip to where you need to be. But it is a good program. I purchased it off eBay for a little less than from the site.
Thank you so much for the info! I have some great starting points now, thanks to ya'll (hey I'm in Texas, we even type like that haha)
My Daughter Turned 5 August 2011 We debated putting her in school or homeschooling. We chose to put her in the Austin school system and found she was bored, but since she could use the social skills, encouraged her to make friends and do her work diligently. Now we moved to Houston and the Kline school district (or at least the school she began in last Friday) is awful. I don't know what to do I am trying to figure out the laws here (fairly new to TX from the North). She is not "fully registered" yet because I have to provide them with everything but my underwear size. We have been ostracized by a handful of the staff at her school for choosing not to vaccinate. The attendance woman even spoke loudly throughout the office "this girl has never even had so much as one shot!" which I found very inappropriate. I emailed (after speaking with in person) the principle about my concerns and he blew me off. So after having trouble with this woman again, I emailed the principle again carbon copying the superintendent and wouldn't you know it... no response. Anyway getting closer to my question at hand... I have been trying to figure out when reading the laws posted online about homeschooling is 1) Can I pull her out of the public school system to HS and 2) is she old enough or does she have to be 6? The language is so odd. Anyone know? Btw great information on this thread!!! =D
Yes, you can pull her out anytime. You just have to notify the school in writing. If it were me, I'd give them two copies... one that you hand-deliver, and one that you mail with confirmation so you have proof they got it. You have to start EITHER: (1) the year she turns 6 or (2) immediately, if she's already been enrolled in PS before age 6. That puts you in case #2. Going to school w/o vaxing is super easy in TX. You just have to get a form from the state and have it notarized. Don't let them push you around.
I don't have curriculum advice, but... 1. Please be flexible- if it works, fine; if not, ditch it. 2. Go at your child's pace, whether it is really fast or painstakingly slow. Throw out all fears of being on target. 3. At this young age, please don't think you have to do school for hours a day. Very little time can work wonders and be less pressured than a whole day of "school."
My DD just turned 5, and we're pretty relaxed. I'm mostly focusing on establishing a routine...wake up, get breakfast, do chores, then do school for about 30-45 minutes, then we're free to do whatever through the rest of the day. Today, we didn't even do any school work since I was kind of out of it since we had some family stuff going on. She is already reading, so I'm concentrating on making sure she knows the phonics rules. I'm using Charlotte Mason's Delightful Reading for that, and she loves Starfall. We use Shiller math, and I have other things for copy work. Science is normally just spending time outside. We are working on introducing French, just for some variety, but going very, very slow with that. My DS is learning his letters, too, so I'm kind of doing a letter of the week theme and giving DD worksheets that go along with his stuff so that she feels included in the fun with coloring and such. Like this week was M is for monster (going along kind of a Halloween thing, but trying to stay away from Halloween itself). I got most of the stuff from 2teachingmommies.com and http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/, and they had both preschool and kindergarten level worksheets. Everything is such a mod podge, but it seems to work for us.
We homeschooled our son from fifth grade and up, and this is our twelfth year schooling Other People's Kids, now including said son's first son (age 6 -- he did kindy in public - what a wasted year! :cry. A great place to start kindy is the ABC Readiness Series (sold by Rod & Staff and CLE) which now has books A through I. Some people have used R&S first grade reading as kindy and then CLE first grade for first grade (I haven't, but some have). Personally, we focus on reading, writing (English), and 'rithmetic, and Bible until third grade, filling in science and social studies with read-alouds, free stuff on the internet, etc. Pentime (carried by CLE and Rainbow Resources) is a handwriting program I like a lot.
I second "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." My little sister used that book and... well, she decided she'd read my copy of The Glass Menagerie a few months ago. She's six. Of course, it might not work for you or your daughter's learning style, but it's really worth a try.
I tried 100EZ when dgs was 4. About 12 lessons in, he'd had enough. Period. Not his style, I guess, because he seemed to be ready for it and had asked me to teach him to read. We quit at that point. Now that he's back, and we're using CLE Learning to Read, he's going great guns. He's older, really wants to read, and it changes tasks often enough he can go a while without burning totally out. Read some, write some, color some, review some, listen some, some visual discrimination worksheet, spell some... He's so proud of his spelling!
I'm loving this thread! I'd actually meant to start a similar one in regards to my 4 yr old dgd. The 5 yr old is in her second yr of ps but the 4 yr old wasn't able to get in this year so I want to start doing more with her. I showed her the starfall site and she is very excited about that. Their mom (my oldest) still doesn't agree with my hsing my youngest but I had to laugh the other day when the 5 yr old and I had the following conversation - "Grandma, Joyce doesn't like regular school so she gets to do her schoolwork on the computer?" "Yes" I told her. "I wish Mommy would let me do that". Out of the mouths of babes!
