Hello everyone! I absolutely love this forum! I already feel as though I am family here, and since I am not part of a local homeschool group or co-op, I think this is an excellent way for me to socialize with other homeschooling parents. My real name is Angela. I am 30 years old and mother of three beautiful children. This is my first year of homeschooling. We are using an umbrella school which is traditionally Catholic. I noticed that most families here are using a more eclectic approach, and I applaud you all for doing so. Everything that we are doing is pretty new to us, but we are loving every minute of it. I am a recent Catholic convert. My entire family is protestant, including my husband and his family. I thought that doing Catholic curriculum would not only help my children learn the Catholic faith, but also myself as well. My husband is completely on board with it, even though he has no desire to convert to Catholicism. I decided to homeschool for many different reasons, but the main reason is I feel like the public school system in our area has really let us down. My son has a reading disability and speech problems, and the school insisted he needed to be in special education classes. I disagreed whole-heartedly. On top of that, my son has been bullied by older children in his school, and no matter what I have done to help rectify the situation the school seemed indifferent to what was going on. We live in an impoverished neighborhood. Most of the parents here are single mothers who are really children themselves who are mostly interested in being their children's friend instead of their parent. I was horrified when I came home from grocery shopping one day and as I was getting my 4 year old and 11 month old daughters out of the car, the middle schoolers that were getting off the bus (our driveway is the bus-stop for the elem., middle, and high school here) were cussing and being completely disrespectful to the adults that were waiting at the city bus stop (which again is at the end of our driveway). My husband is working two jobs to try and move us into a better section of town, but we were sold when my sister-in-law suggested we homeschool since private school was out of the question. The day we ordered our curriculum was the day our 10 year old son admitted that he felt like he needed to act "ghetto" to make friends and feel accepted. It broke my heart. He is a sweet and sensitive young man who can create something out of nothing. He wants to either be an architect or design cars. At the rate he is going at PS, he would be lucky to earn an education fit for a fast food worker (not that there is anything wrong with that, I was a fast food worker for years). Meet my children!! Joseph, 2000 (5th grade): Latin, Geography, Grammar, Handwriting, Math, Phonics, Reading, Religion, Science, Spelling, and U.S History. He plays football, basketball, and baseball. Brianna, 2006 (Kindergarten): Art, Handwriting, Math, Phonics and Reading, Religion, Science, and Music. She's also a cheerleader and plays t-ball. Gabrielle, 2010: Enjoying being the baby of the family. I'm looking for something similar to the "Your Baby Can Read" program. I found a few good things from Rainbow Resource. If anyone knows of anything, I am definitely open to suggestions. I might just stick to building blocks, reading out loud to her, and sesame street...I just don't like her watching a lot of T.V! Thanks for taking the time to get to know me and my family. I hope to build some lasting relationships here, and am looking forward to receiving some invaluable advice from some seasoned homeschoolers!
Wow. Nice to meet you and your family Sounds like you are doing a great job getting your kids out of a bad school environment. And sadly kids do tend to do what other kids do in PS to fit in. It's nice to see them feel freedom to be themselves when they homeschool. Welcome to the Spot!
Welcome and boy do I get your post. I live a half hour or so from you. It's great to see some GA folks. I'm new to the forum as well so I'm not really sure yet how many Georgians are on here.
