Hi, I'm Donna, I'm 39, divorced with 3 kids still home. I live in East Texas. My oldest daughter did a homeschool that was internet based and everything was done on the computer through the website. I wasn't involved with it much except to constantly remind her that she needed to log on and get her lessons done. I have 3 kids still home. 16yr old going into 10th grade, 13yr old supposed to be repeating 6th grade and an 8 yr old going into 3rd grade. The older one has health issues that makes it better for her to stay home. The 13yr old has learning issues and mental dissablities, fine motor skill problems and speech problems. The youngest is going into 3rd grade and reads at a 4th-5th grade level. I'm not sure I might be insane, but I am so fed up with the schools here, we live in a small town and no choice to send them to other schools so I am going to try homeschooling for this next year. The older one has been bullied by students and sadly teachers too and I have had a hard time getting anything done about it. The middle one has been bullied also. Has been pushed through the last 3 years even though he can't really do all of the work. His grades are in the 40's and 50's all semester long and then all the sudden at the end of the semester he suddenly has 70-75 so its a passing grade. They just started the new STAR testing this year and he didn't pass any of the STAR tests. My youngest is very smart and very motivated to learn everything he possibly can and then some. But he is very sensitive and non-violent. He doesn't like to play with the other boys at recess because all they play is fighting games, pretending to shoot each other etc. So they bully him a lot, call him weirdo and gay because he doesn't like to play the same things as all the other boys. I'm tired of my kids coming home from school crying and complaining that they hate school and they don't want to go back, begging me to please not make them go any more. So this year I am going to try to homeschool. I am lucky enough to have a job that I can take them with me. My boss also homeschools her 2 sons. My problem is that I am going to need all the resources I can get. I already have a hard time making ends meet. I don't have money to buy textbooks, workbooks etc. So what kind of advice can you all give me, starting out with homeschooling? I am assuming this will not be easy. I am looking forward to meeting some of you and maybe making some new friends. sorry this is so long
I also wanted to add.. I have already looked up the laws about homeschooling in Texas. It seems very lax. I guess I am in 1 of the few states that doesn't have very many laws/rules about homeschooling.
Hi Donna, I also homeschool in Texas (with three children, although mine are way younger than yours). I completely understand your frustration with your school system. We are (also) in a small town, and I (at first) only heard what GREAT schools we have. Well, having met more people and listened to both teachers and parents, I have observed the schools are great...if your kid fits in. If s/he doesn't, either socially or because of special educational needs or economically, it can be a very bad experience for parents and children. I have a couple thoughts. First, I expect your children may need a period of "deschooling," a time where they learn that homeschooling isn't like going to public school (in all the negative ways). While they are eager to leave all that stuff behind, it can be difficult to work away from negative associations (or even the idea that the work doesn't need to be done, etc). Basically, if I were in your place, I'd steel myself to be extra patient for a few weeks with both them and myself. Second...as far as gathering resources...While I don't believe there's such a thing as truly free homeschooling (you're always going to need paper and pencils, etc), there are ways to do school almost free. There are online literature based curricula like Old-Fashioned Education and Ambleside Online, but these are very much modeled on Charlotte Mason's philosophy of education which is very different from modern (public) education and you may or may not be comfortable with it. Have you considered enrolling your children in the online school that your daughter participated in last year? That would deal with the cost issue completely. By the way, I think it's GREAT that you have a boss who understands -- both that you need to fill your role as parent and that she is a homeschooling parent yourself. Also, I think your kids going to work with you daily is going to be an invaluable learning experience for your children in and of itself. Good luck with everything.
Welcome! Do you have a library near enough to use weekly? If so, you can do every subject, except math maybe, using library books. That will take some of your time however. Do you have any money to spend at all? ACE..... Accelerated Christian Education... has inexpensive workbooks. Landmark Baptist has inexpensive workbooks. Sometime you can find VERY low priced used books at Amazon online. Pam
There are some great teacher websites that you can order school teaching supplies from. The Teachers' Exchange offers workbooks and other resources that can be used for homeschooling.
As far as money, don't worry, when we started homeschooling we were living off unemployment, and for a few months was actually had no income. I've never spent much on homeschooling curriculum. There are tons of free and very frugal options out there. You might enjoy the links in my signature.
Check your library, thrift shops and even half.com to find some good books to use a curriculum. You could even make up your own test ( a little time consuming but saves money). If you join a local homeschool group you might get connected to some folks you can borrow curriculum from. There are also lots of good used curriculum sites on the web where you might be able to find some materials.
Thank you all for the warm welcome and all your suggestions. The online school my oldest daughter used was a few years ago. Before the divorce and it is quite pricey. They have a payment plan but its still almost $100 per month and I can't afford that now. Also that school had only highschool and college. I really have no money at the moment but I plan to save a bit out of each of my next few checks to put towards getting some used textbooks, workbooks etc. Paper, pencils, notebooks etc. are not that expensive so I already have that planned. A friend of mine gave me an almost new printer with brand new ink cartridges. I just need to find the right usb cord for it. Its usb on 1 end and a weird shape on the other end. I am looking at yard sales to see if anyone has a cord like that. If I don't find one after this next weekend I will start trying to see how much they cost online or if walmart maybe has the right cord. It does print, copy and scan. My friend also shared a website with me that she just found this morning, I haven't checked it out yet but she sounded very excited. She said they have lots of used textbook and some of them are very cheap so I will have to check that out. its called thebackpack. I have also found that there are a few people at my church who homeschool so I'm going to try to mingle with some of them and see what kind of books/workbooks they use. I plan to use secular books if possible. I have seen several christian books over the years and I don't really like them. I like to do our own family bible study and the bible study we do with our congregation. Some of those books have different ideas from what I am trying to teach my kids. I'm hopeing that some of them might have textbooks we could borrow to copy out some lessons or workbooks that they haven't used yet that I could copy and return to them. I have been thinking about this since shortly after this last school year started. There are just too many problems with our school district and our schools. My kids have enough to deal with, with the problems they have without being told by teachers not to be a tattle tale or that being bullied is their own fault and they should just not act so weird etc. By teachers and counselors at the schools. Its not just my kids saying that the teachers/counselors say these things, I have heard it from other kids and some of the parents. I also used to sub for our district... I quit because I didn't like it the people I had to deal with there, teachers, principles etc. Again sorry this got so long
Hi and welcome to the Spot! I would say that probably your high schooler can do just fine with a library and library books, a math book, and the internet. I would guess that your third grader might do just fine with that plan too. I don't know what to suggest for your middle child because I don't know your child or what difficulties he may have, BUT if it were me, I'd call my child 7th grade while still doing his lessons at whatever level he might need. www.khanacademy is free online, for math at all levels, and some sciences. There are lots of sites online for a very small-ish subscription fee (like $25 or so a year for all you can download and print) that might accommodate both your younger two, such as edhelper.com and schoolexpress.com and easyfunschool.com and some more at the top of this page here at the Spot. TheBackPack.com is a very good site for used materials. I've used them a time or two myself. I used to have a lot more, but some of them don't exist anymore and I haven't looked for more since I settled on the few publishers that work best for us.
Check with your librarian and see if they offer any thing like subject kits. Our system has a bunch of them and they have different ones for science, history, art, music, cooking you name it. They were part of a grant from a few years back. These could be used for your 3rd grader easily and for free.
Hi Donna! I recommend Ambleside Online for you curriculum. It is all based online, and most of the books that you use can be found online as well. They have yahoo support groups when you need advice or extra support as well. The great thing about Ambleside Online is that you place your student in the year that you think will be best for him or her. If they find it easy, you can move them to the next year. If it is a challenge, you can slow the pace down so that they can learn at their comprehension level. http://www.amblesideonline.org/curriculum.shtml I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Just let me know!
thank you I will google teacher supplies and see what it comes up with. eyeofthestorm, yes I plan to start slow, especially with my middle son. I think I will have to go backwords a few grades and work him up to where he should be. His spelling and handwriting are awful and he has a lot of trouble with math. He is still struggling with simple multiplication, division and fractions and they were trying to move on to pre-algebra. Pam and Mschickie, we do have a library, but we are in a small town and our library is very small, its just 1 room with adult books on one side and childrens books on the other side, young adult and teenage books in the middle isle. I have already checked with them and the closest thing they have to textbooks is a large Get ready for GED book. My oldest daughter will be going to a free GED class here in town starting in a few months and she can take the GED when she turns 18. She will be 17 in August. She does not want to go to public school anymore and she doesn't want to be homeschooled either. I did get her to agree to the GED class though. She has pointed out to me on more than one occasion that as soon as she turns 18 she is legally allowed to quit school if she wants to. I really do hope that she will cooperate with the GED classes and get her GED. Thank you for all the info
Teacher supply stores usually carry a wide variety of "supplement" materials, not so much "curriculum" but to liven up a curriculum. The schools they teach in provide the actual curriculum. If your library is small, maybe they could do interlibrary loan for you? And they wouldn't necessarily have to be textbooks that you get to use, but "living books" and things like Dorling-Kindersley and Usbourne books and the like, and other nonfiction books, as well as classic novels and such. Maybe even educational videos, or historical-fiction movies (usually old black and whites can be best - less objectionable material). As far as the GED class, in my limited experience, they don't do a lot of actual teaching, but provide materials for self-teaching. They'll test her first, to see where she might be level-wise, and if she's at or beyond the minimal level required to take the test, they won't present much to her. She'll "mark time" educationally until she turns 18.
My oldest daughter took the GED classes here in town and the teacher there was wonderful. She tested them to see what they needed to work on. Gave them materials to help them try to figure it out on their own and then if they still had trouble she would help them to understand it. But she always made them try to figure it out for themselves first. My oldest daughter used to live with her father and hadn't been going to school since she was in 7th grade. Her father had her listed as homeschool but never had her do any kind of school work. When she moved in with us we tried public school and that didn't work out at all. So we got her into an online homeschool and that was great. She did the first 2 years of highschool in just under 12 months. But she got bored with it and slowed way down with it and eventually just didn't want to do it. Thats why I put her in the GED class and she took her GED as soon as she turned 18.
Now that I'm divorced I have a whole lot less income and I can't afford to do online classes for them, it was expensive. I don't like the way k-12 and connections academy do their classes and its a lot more like public school.
Sounds like your oldest who took her GED already is a really bright girl and just got bored with school? Did she go on to college? Sounds like 17 is wanting to follow in Big Sis's footsteps? Here's wishing you ALL the best!
yes Yes my oldest daughter is very bright but she gets bored with things very quidkly. No she hasn't gone to any college. She moved out of state, got married and has a son and now another son on the way. She has had several jobs but never stays with a job for very long because she gets tired of it. Her husband took his GED and is going to a culinary school full time and working about 30 hrs per week, while she now sits at home with her son and waits for the baby. Ugh its frustrating because I know she could be so much more. Instead they struggle because she wanted to hurry up and get married and have a family and didn't want to have to deal with going to any more school. And yes my 16 almost 17 yr old is not wanting to do school anymore now but for different reasons. She hates school because she is different and every one makes fun of her, she didn't have friends at school because she still likes to play with baby dolls and play dress up and she doesn't care about boys. She has aspergers syndrome, she does very well academicaly but has no social skills with kids her own age. She gets along wonderfully with little kids, like under 12, and she gets along fine with adults but the kids at school are really mean to her.
In California many of the school districts have homeschool charter academies. The student is enrolled in the academy and the district supplies the curriculum. All of the schooling is done at home (taught by the parent) and a credentialed teacher visits once every 20 days. We are homeschooling this way currently and it has worked out well for us.
Welcome. I'm divorced too and have been teaching my kids at home for the past 12 years. I have one graduating this up and coming year. I hope you have a great year.
I use Khan Academy a lot. Not for my kids, but for ME. Salaman Khan is an incredible guy, and that site has now gone much further than math and science. History. Economics. Heck, that's where I learned about the 2008 Wall Street collapse. Great, great site. To address the original post, in my experience it's best to have goals, both long term and short term, be organized and as much as possible stick to a schedule. I kind of "unschool"ed it for my first year homeschooling and we got really lazy really quickly. Good luck, and congratulations on making a very difficult decision.
