Anyone homeschooling young children?

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We are homeschoolers as well but I can't help with curriculum because we don't really use any. We are unschoolers and have a vast library but not really any formal curriculum. Hope you are able to find something you like!
 
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We also have a VAST library, it continually expanded over the years. It's amazing what you can learn when you know how to read. I think we now have about 7 bookcases holding a gazillion books. I think we started with 2.
 
First year for us so we went with Time4Learning... with some supplements (IE specifically Texas history instead of just US for son). Definitely will not be using it next year as even our 8 year old feels it's too "cartoonie"... n'mind what our 12yo thinks of it. A decent program, don't get me wrong, just not my kid's taste. Might work quite well for younger ones though.

Talking with DH I think we've pretty well settled on trying the unifiedcurriculum.com set. Overall it'll end up costing $10 more than T4L, but that's not including the supplements we had to have. UC is all inclusive. It's also a hands on one, as opposed to online. Pretty large shift, but we're thinking it's worth a go. Plan to attend the HS Book Fair here in Arlington the first week of May, may give me more ideas, but for now I'm pretty well settled on UC.

I started a topic some time back discussing the various ones we were looking at. If you'd like to hop over there and see the links and what advice/opins folks posted you can find it here https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=439172

Best of luck in your hunt and WAY TO GO for caring enough about your kiddo's schooling to sacrifice your time and money to see it done right!
 
I homeschooled for the first year, this year. I did Pre-K with my oldest. He is "old" for his grade, but didnt meet the age cut-off for Kindy this past year. I didnt' want him to go to preschool 20 hours a week...that is just too much, IMO. I love our preschool, but it is a 5 day program and no exceptions.

So I kept him home and talked with other hoeschooling friends. I decided against a formal curriculum that you can buy, like Abeka, and formatted our goals based upon kindergarten skills. I bouht workbooks, lined paper, craft supplies, etc. I keep free worksheets online and make up a lot of my own stuff. Each week we have a letter and practice writing that letter, making a page in our alphabet book and doing activities related to that letter. Each week we also have a "theme" like counting 1-5, writing those numbers etc. Or a recent theme was "money" so we did lots of things related to that.

For young kids, keep it fun and fast paced! Try not to "hover" and stare at them expectantly. LOL But I do create Lesson Plans to keep it consistent, in general, and know that over the course of the year we are hitting all the requirements.
 
Kindergarten can be like your "shake-down cruise", where you focus more on establishing your routines & methods than worrying about completing a curriculum. Some kids adore workbooks and that sort of material, others thrive better on hands-on learning with games & manipulatives. You also want to figure out how you function best as facilitator, if you prefer a ready-to-serve curriculum or would rather contrive your own lessons from an outline. And then hope that your preferred methods mesh well with your son's preferences!

Three great books I recommend to all beginning homeschoolers:
The Homeschooling Book of Answers by Linda Dobson http://www.amazon.com/Homeschooling...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302917045&sr=1-1 Addresses all those basic HS questions, gives many different perspectives
Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp http://www.amazon.com/Home-Learning...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302917135&sr=1-1 A great outline of what to teach and when.
The 3 R's by Ruth Beechick http://www.amazon.com/Three-Rs-Ruth...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302917208&sr=1-1 Very practical, down-to-earth advice on teaching the basics to beginning learners.

Kindy should be fun for you & your son, be sure to include a big unit study on chickens!
 
I was homeschooled, myself, but my mom didn't do kindergarden. We went to the local school only for that. Granted, it was only half days and barely 4 miles away from home.
The curriculum we did from 1st through 12th was Seton Home Study: http://www.setonhome.org/ . It is based on the Roman Catholic faith, but it is very thorough and could be used without the faith elements. Glad you're going to homeschool!
 
Oh suppose I should mention that the only curriculum I consider is secular. I feel that dedicating your life to a religion, any religion, is a very large decision and not one that should be forced by default onto children. Mine will make their choice when they're old enough to understand all the rules of each religion and figure out which, if any, suit them. I don't want to risk pressuring them into the wrong path, which I admit might just be the one I've chosen. I won't know until I die whether I've chosen the right one so I refuse to make that decision for anyone else. Prolly way more info than you wanted but just so you know if you visit the topic I made the links I mentioned are secular, though several folks suggested some great programs that were not.

Donno the HS laws for TN, here in Texas HS=Private pure and simple and as such children who are HS (or Private schooled) aren't subjected to the standardized tests that public schools teach to. However any online/etc program that receives public funds, such as K12, the program at Texas Tech, etc are required to do those tests which is why, though K12 is free, we opted for another path. I just do not believe that there is any such thing as a standard child, therefor a standardized test or standardized curriculum is bound to fail. Do they do TAKS, TAAS or STAAR type tests in TN? Or if they do are you okay with those? If so then by all means check out K12.com and see if they don't offer it for your state!
 
Thanks so much for all the info and suggestions! Off to check
out the links
smile.png
 
Pineapplemama- TN requires standardized testing once per year for 1st through 12th grades, unfortunately. It doesn't count for anything, thank goodness!
 

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