Homeschooling - SUPPORT GROUP

[DMRippy]

HI! I am just starting the adventure and am SO EXCITED! I have wanted to homeschool since I had my first child 20+ years ago. Here I am starting over again with a 3 and 5 year old. I am a member of several groups online but CHICKEN people are the BEST! I wanted a place we could share ideas, curricula thoughts. PLEASE keep this FRIENDLY and no fussing please we all have the same goal with homeschooling even if we all do it a little different.

Let me start by telling what I have been thinking about with mine. Really I started schooling my 5 year old before he could talk. He learned to count really early. Talked early and has not stopped LOL. He is a great reader already. We worked on the basics and he filled in the blanks. He may read on a fourth grade level. Reads everything..... So I am hoping my choice of Robinson Curricula will work well with him. I am not exclusively going to use that through the early years of school but seems like a really good idea. I would like to supplement some science earlier than they do and still not sold on Saxon Math.... but might try it. I have looked into other maths but they all seem to have some love hate relationships..... so trial and error might be the way to go with the math. I want to let the kids lead us with what they want to learn about too. I think that will make school more like an adventure.

Please share websites you find useful, ideas, and what you are doing that WORKS for you and why? So many chicken people I meet are homeschooling and I have not found a thread on here for the PARENTS so lets start one!

Minors are NOT invited to post on this thread, this for their own internet safety and as per the policy of the owner of BYC.

 

[Alaskan]

For math I really think that Right Start Math is the best choice. The downside with it is that it does require LOTS of parent input time. However, teaching only two, it might work with you.

Right Start, is just the best for explaining, working with full understanding of math, training mental math, etc. etc. hands down winner.

Of course, I no longer use it since I no longer have that much time.

I homeschool 5, ages 15 down to 5, all boys.

 

[hbhoffman]

WWHHAATT?? NOO, Now that I'm in my last months of homeschooling ever, I find this thread?? Can't believe it! I graduate my fourth one from high school this June! It's been almost 20 years... for those of you just starting, give yourself a retirement fund and put $ into it every month as though you're working for money because you really are working!
SO In light of me retiring soon, If anyone wants curriculum and is willing to pay shipping, p.m. me! I have Tapestry of Grace, Saxon Math, and various science books and reading books. Can't even begin to list 20 years...ask me and I can go look.
For those of you who have younger ones, Chicken math works great for real life examples and that dovetails really well into science like genetics, hatching, breeds, showing, etc. and of course then there is skills such as building and planning a coop! Don't be afraid to take that math lesson and bring it into the real world such as counting eggs, figuring out how much feed is eaten or needed to purchase for x number of chickens and if y hen goes broody....then how many board feet and what is the cost to keep the chicks??? LOL.
4-H is also a wonderful resource for homeschoolers. And as they get older, so is your local community college for both high school and college credits at the same time. Does wonders for maturity, organization, and challenging them to think better.
Wow, so glad to find you all!

 

[Alaskan]

do you have link? we are in the middle of the "study" process for SAT.

the link is collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice

The stuff on the site is free. you do need to register to use it. You can also use the site to pay for and sign up for real tests.

 

[jaxsteph]

I've homeschooled almost the entire way through, and my oldest is now 14--a freshman this year; whew! I guess the only thing I would encourage all of you newer homeschoolers to keep in mind is this: Our children our resilient. The goal frequently becomes how to teach them EVERYTHING, when it should simply be how to learn ANYTHING. If they know where to go to get the information, and they learn that learning is enjoyable, then they can fill in the inevitable gaps.

Homeschooling is grueling, exhausting, often depressing, always overwhelming, and filled with pressure and guilt. It shouldn't be. This is the chance to get to know your children, and to let them get to know you. It's easy to lose sight of the goal, and get wrapped up in box-checking.

I'd just encourage you all to put down the expectations and give yourselves some new ones: you will fail at things, you will find that there are things you can't teach, you will miss something vital that you should have taught them, and you will have times when school has to be put on hold so that life can be lived.

You can handle those things with grace, love, and forgiveness for yourself and the people around you, or you can make everyone crazy as you freak out over everything. I've done the latter way too often for anyone's good, and it didn't help me at all. So! Give yourself some grace, accept that you will not be a perfect teacher, and be thankful every day for the time you get to spend with your kids. You have already done the most important thing by being willing to give up your own time and needs to meet those of the people around you. Enjoy the blessings that come from that!

God bless!!

 

[DMRippy]

CURSIVE! Trying to teach that right off. I did some reading and it seems most reading issues didn't happen until they switched to teaching PRINT first. Cursive seems to prevent most of those issues. Like in print a B and D look so similar but not in cursive. Mine are just tracing and my 5 year old thinks it is another language but he does great!

The joy of homeschooling.... choices!

 

[hbhoffman]

Northern Applachia: Here's my thoughts for you...
Join HSLDA for about $100. They will give you legal covering, teaching support and answer any of your questions.
Find another homeschooling family to help figure out the nuances of homeschooling in your location.
Figure out what style learner your brother is ie. projects vs. test, oral vs. written, better in am or pm?, can sit or prefers hanging off the couch or citing the facts while running around the yard or trampoline, Can read for hours or prefers the comics, easily writes or struggles to write or even has difficulty physically writing or getting the words from his head to the page, How are his study skills? How are his job skills? How is his executive functioning skills? All of this will help you figure out how he functions best and enable you to get more from him with less time. Will he willingly allow you to teach him? Or is he willing to be responsible and learn while you direct what's next. He should be an independent learner if he is in 9-10th (or higher!) grades.
Lastly see if you have a community college that allows dual enrollment and investigate that. Some students truly do sooo much better in that type of environment that a high school one. He can then get high school and college credit.
Hope this helps and this brings you both closer.

 

[room onthebroom]

I thought that most community colleges were open enrollment? You just take a test to see what level English and math you need to take.

Well, and have a high school diploma, or GED. Is he not getting one or the other?

@Arielle2 Like Alaskan said, My DD has successfully been doing what they call "dual enrollment enrichment classes" 2 days a week at the CC this past semester. Its not part of Jumpstart & she doesn't need a GED because she's only 16. She also gets to keep & accumulate all of the credits she earns for her future education. She can take whatever classes she wants as long as she takes a placement test (if there is one.) She only took one class this semester to ease her into it. Its a beginning foreign language class that required no prerequisites & no placement tests. She is loving it! She didn't want to deal with the nightmarish high school experience & this has been great alternative. There's people in her class between the ages of 15-40+ which has also been a great experience for her. This next semester she will take 2 classes & the semester after that 3 etc... Another bonus was that we didn't have to pay the admission fee's because of the 'dual enrollment' status. We still had to drop a couple hundred bucks on books, student ID & a parking pass (the last two were optional) but no admission fees saved us a huge amount of money. Did I mention that she loves it?

If you scroll back a few pages, you'll see me working thru the mental process of deciding whether to send her to the CC or not, my reluctance to enroll my homeschool with the state, & sound boarding with the others on this site. I want to tell all of you how grateful I am to have you guys here helping & sharing your experiences with me. There's a lot of great groups on BYC & you guys are invaluable!!!

 

[room onthebroom]

Okay, quick question for ya'll... First, thanks @room onthebroom for posting a link to this thread on the Pond.

Is there an option to write a high school diploma for your own homeschooler?

Apparently in CA there is, but we're just looking into this for the 1st time right now & wont actually need it for another 18months, so I don't know all the details yet.

An interesting idea that DH just read, was from a CA resident who had a rubber stamp made up with her homeschool logo on it to make her diplomas & other docs look more official. I love this idea & am trying to keep myself focused on creating transcripts, but my mind keeps drifting to 'what kind of stamp could I make...' Adult ADD is a curse.

 

[Alaskan]

Hey Al, can you describe what you (diploma-wise) did for your boy who's now a college guy?

I cheated.

Spouse made the kids (so me) sign up with a charter school... and so they do the diplomas. But my neighbor homeschooled independently.... and they just printed out a diploma from their home printer.