My name is Julie and I'm fairly new to... the idea of homeschooling as well as this site (Hi!). The more I research, the more I want to do it. I'm a SAHM to two girls, and I love it! My oldest daughter just finished a program Florida offers called VPK (voluntary preK). Basically, most kids start a year earlier than K because the state pays for them to go to school a few hours to "prepare" them for K. She went to a private Christian school that I have nothing but praise for. Her teacher was wonderful, Em had fun learning and making friends... but the desire to homeschool keeps growing for me. Next year I plan for her to attend the Christian school because they offer half day K. After that it will go on to full day, and at the moment, I have no interest in doing that. So, I'm pretty certain our homeschool journey will begin for 1st grade. I know I'm thinking pretty far in advance and maybe don't belong here just yet, but I'm wanting to absorb so much in order to to be successful. I've heard of many parents struggling so much during the first year, that they burn out and decide it's not right for them. I've talked to some homeschool parents and read homeschooling books. To my delight, it gave me more confidence that just MAYBE I can homeschool my kids without "screwing them up for life" (something I confided about to a veteran homeschool mom). In my endeavor, the one thing I have stayed far away from is the actual curriculum. Whenever I attempt to just look into it, I get completely overwhelmed because I want the perfect one (of course) and they all seem to scream, "I'm great!" I've read about how common it is to buy and it turn out to be a mistake for that particular child. I hate to make an expensive mistake. We are a Christian family so I would like that to be incorporated into their education, but I also want it to be academically challenging. Right now, we're "practicing" with a summer bridge book that Em loves to do (which thrills me to no end!) Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. I know I don't have much to offer here since I'm not officially a homeschooler, but so far I've loved just lurking and looking forward to becoming a part of it.
Welcome! A great place to start is to learn your kiddos learning style. You have plenty of time. Observe her as she plays and "works" on "lessons". All children do not learn the same. Some children are hands-on learners, others are visual learners, and so on. It will be easier to pick a curriculum if you know how your child learns. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can work with your child where she is at. No matter how much homeschooling experience you have, buying curriculum will sometimes be a hit and miss deal. We are on our 10th year of homeschooling and although I know for the most part what will work, even I make purchases I later regret. So you just move on. Don't kick yourself for it. You learn as you go. By learning your child's learning style before you begin purchasing curriculum, it will help narrow things down. At least a little. lol Also, you will find that as your child ages, her style might change a little. In our early days Ems thrived with a traditional method. After a few years I realized it was time to become more eclectic.
I definitely agree with Patty. Learn her learning style. Then find curriculum that fits that. There will be trial and error. I did similar for my oldest son's kindy year and bought a box curriculum that didn't work out for us but I was able to re-sell and make back most of the money I put into it. For myself and my teaching style piecing together our curriculum has been amazing. I'm so glad I skipped the box curriculum this last year and pieced together things that I thought would work well for us. Math was the only "mistake" this year and even that wasn't horrible, he still learned what he needed to though it wasn't always the most pleasant experience. I read on forums a lot. I read a LOT of reviews of the stuff I was considering. I read on the specific curriculum's forums if they had them to get a better feel for how other moms were doing using the curriculum. And I went with the ones that I thought would fit well for my son and my sons in the future. To make it simple for myself since I decided boxed wouldn't work for us I jotted down a list of the subjects I needed to cover and filled in each one as I found what I wanted to try this past year. I'm looking eagerly forward to the fall with my 2nd grader, kindy, preschooler, and tot.
Julz, you belong here if you THINK you belong here! Welcome! This is a GREAT place to ask questions and read and research...
At the beginning. Okay, I'm just kidding....the title just begged for that to be said. HI! Welcome. Something that might help you is to find out what curricula the Christian School will be using for your daughter. A lot of Christian School use Abeka or Bob Jones or CLE. So....sometimes you can stick with what the school is using. That way if you change your mind in the future, she's with her contemporaries. Now....that being said....I think I'd take time to learn what her learning style is and figure out how she learns best. Does she do well with sitting in her chair and working....compartmentalizing subjects, or does she learn better when she's hands on and getting "dirty" so to speak. A good book to read is Cathy Duffy's Top 100 Picks. She spends a good deal of the book helping you determine your child's learning style THEN the last half of the book are different curricula available and how they fit into those learning styles. It's a great book. Continue to pray and search your heart as your daughter is in K. Also, be aware of your state's laws and regulations regarding schooling. You may need to register her since she'd already been in a school....or they may have an age, etc. Each state is different. WELCOME, and GOOD LuCK!!!!
Welcome. As far as curriculum, don't stress, it's homeschool, if it doesn't work...you can change it! That's the beauty of it! I think it usually takes some time to find your groove, and sometimes your groove changes, so you change with it. The curriculum isn't really as important, IMHO, as teaching your kids HOW to learn, because you'll never be able to teach your child(ren) all he/she/they need to know. (Don't worry, public school can't either )
I have also just started home schooling 9 DS and 13 DS. I have also found I like to piece together the curriculum. I just started home schooling in mid-May after the boys finished with school for the year. We will be homeschooling year round so we have already started. First I tried some used texted books. The reading and then answering questions on a separate sheet of paper did not work for my boys. I started using consumable workbooks, and it is going MUCH better. They also have to read everyday, so current events out of the news paper, and lots of other hands on stuff. I prefer Spectrum workbooks, but I also have Evan-Moor, Daily Grams (Daily Grammar practice sheets), American Education Publishing, Flash Forward (for reading), Harcort, Sylvan, Kelly Wingate, etc. Basically anything I run across that calls to me that feel I can incorporate into the kid's daily learning schedule, and would be easy for them to work with. I also have sites on the internet I use to print off worksheets for extra practice. The nice thing about making your own curriculum is that you can supplement whatever you need. For instance 13 DS is extremely behind in school (long story, adopted him when he was 12.. was bounced from foster home to foster home and school to school). He is currently working out of a 5th Grade Math Spectrum book and has done just the first few pages of review. He hit the wall with a page on fractions. He tried multiple times and was getting very frustrated, so we stopped in that book and I went to the book store to find him a fraction workbook. I found him a very thin 3rd grade workbook that just covered fractions... we are talking the initial teaching of fractions. He was a bit irritated at first saying, "But that's 3rd grade". I reminded him that now that he is home schooled, we ignore the grade level it says on the front and focus on what it teaches between the covers. I told him once he finished that book and had a good grasp of fractions, we could go back to his other math book. He was fine with that and will be starting in his new fraction book tomorrow.
Thanks for all the great tips! The curriculum her school uses now is A Beka, and it would definitely be affordable to purchase the entire curriculum. However, I really like the idea of finding her strengths and weaknesses and choosing curriculum based on that. A Beka is much more expensive to just pick certain subjects. So far, I'm reading many good things about Saxon math so I might go with that. Otherwise, I've looked at some things for other subjects but haven't nailed it down... which is fine for me since I have plenty of time. I'm just glad I've been inspired to look into it. I included art and Bible in my subject list, but I'm starting to think I could do those myself using the library, art supplies, and devotions/story books. When I looked at some of the details of the books in those curriculums, they seemed so simple (especially for the cost). I'm still indecisive though. I'm also curious what you all are involved in for socialization... To be honest, I'm not all that concerned about it. Maybe I should be? We have friends, lots of family, our church, and we visit a nursing home my grandmother is in (I say this because I feel this is one of the ministries I'm being led to and would like my kids to be involved as well). I've been looking into churches with homeschool groups, but the only one I've found so far requires church membership.
Nope. This is not a worry or concern at all. LIVE LIFE! That's all the socialization your child needs.
Julz, I just love the preschool workbooks from Rod & Staff (see www.rodandstaffbooks.com). There is the "About Three" set of 4 little workbooks for 3-4 year olds, and a set of kindy books lettered from A-I they call the ABC series and the GHI series. These work gradually up to beginning first grade. After that, I highly recommend Christian Light Education's reading, math, and LA for first grade. They are so much gentler (although less colorful) and less complicated to teach than Abeka, but they'll definitely get you where you want to go. Abeka has umpteen books for this and that, with TMs for everything, and a quiz book, a test book, a notebook, a this book and a that book... CLE is so much simpler to deal with. www.clp.org But in the end, it's just as thorough an education as Abeka. I'm not trying to dissuade you from Abeka if you like it. I just want to offer you other options.
I have found that homeschool groups and co-ops just don't work for us. I don't feel the need to join groups that are only homeschoolers. I found that homeschool groups and co-ops schedule everything during the school day and we would never finish our "school" if we join them. We do cub scouts starting in 1st grade for the boys. We do 4H starting in 4th grade. We play sports year round through the parks and recreation in our city-baseball, soccer, basketball...I am a member of a homeschool yahoo group that is a calendar type deal where people put things of interest up but you aren't obligated to do any of the activities. You can pick and choose what you do from the calendar.
My two cents... First, don't spend loads of $$ on curriculum. Try free stuff. You would be surprised how far free can take you. Second, every HSer makes a curriculum choice they later regret. It will happen to you as its happened to all of us. Don't beat yourself up about it. Your child will not end up in prison if you make a few bad choices. Third, be prepared to change directions. Things happen. For our family, we change so often I get dizzy trying to keep track of what's going on. My wife will pick up a spelling book at a garage sale. She puts the oldest to work on it. It's too easy. She gives it to the second. It's too hard. She throws it in the trash. The oldest suddenly has a thing for pirates. She starts studying pirates. Then I discover this other great resource for child whatever. He likes it. and so it goes... We finally gave up on curriculum. Our goal is simple....try to teach each child something every day. ha! and I think you do have to worry about socialization. I may differ from some others here.....but I think you have to be intentional about finding opportunities for them to mingle. For us, it's child #2 that is really antisocial and it is essential that he have lots of interactions with other children and adults. enough for now....
