Homeschooling Parents Journal

[Shel]

I know there are a few of us on the boards, so I thought I would open a public journal for us to share curriculum and project ideas, and offer support. Maybe we'll even draw in a few new OUAL members!

I homeschooled my oldest 2 boys after pulling them from Christian school. Now they are in a public school. The oldest is thriving and loves it. The middle son, Jacob, has begged and pleaded to go back to homeschooling, and after much thought, his dad and I have decided to go for it (I think :lol: ) His grades are fine, but he's not happy in school. His dad and step-mom will do most of his schooling in the basics during the week, and since I have Fridays off I will pick him up Thursdays and do the minor areas.

Now our daughter is going to start kindergarden next year, and we have gone back and forth on private, public and homeschooling, and I am pretty sure we are going to homeschool her. It's going to take a lot of planning since I work part-time, but the more we talk to other parents, look at her and what we want for her, I think it's going to make sense for us to do it. She's even said over and over that she wants Mommy and Daddy to be her teachers. She goes to preschool now and likes it okay, but I think she'd do better at home. I think :biggrin:

It's such a hard decision to make sometimes.


Alright, where are the rest of you? Sabrina? Suzi? Cortney? (that I know of!)

[sabrina]

Woohoo.... I am here. I am in serious need of some motivation to get my tush in gear and get going again. Thank you for opening this.

[Suzi]

:woo: Shel!!! I am going to give it a go!! I am TOTALLY in the dark about what needs to be done so I am looking for how-to's for sure. I am tossing around how to choose a curriculum, if I even WANT to go that route or do "unschooling"...so many considerations!

Shel and Sabrina, I'd love to hear how you selected curriculums in the past. Are there some you like more than others? If so, why?

[Shel]

We'll use mostly Abeka with Riley. The older 2 used it from preschool to 5th grade and we love it. Their phonics program is the absolute best. Jacob could read Lord of the Rings in second grade. We found that Abeka math and history slid downhill as they got older, so we'll look for something different then. I have a feeling we'll use Saxon math for Jacob.

[sabrina]

We are kind of using a mix of stuff. I purchased a curriculum to be used this year for a K4 type of program. However, we haven't started it yet because we were in the middle of remodeling the basement. It is My Father's world. It is a Bible based curriculum. I do feel it does a decent job of helping them learn phonics/read but it lacks in Math, history and handwriting. I will be supplementing with stuff from my sister-in-laws website for some sight word booklets anc other activities. She was a kindergarten teacher and has done an excellent job of helping me figure out what to do so far. For history, I think we are going to stick to some fun stuff. We are reading the American Girls and Little HOuse books right now and I think we will do activities from those books for history. I will also do a little with Geography, as in learning the continents and oceans. I am still trying to decide on Math and handwriting and what I want to use for those. Bible study is included with My Father's World and we will also be doing Awana. We have a homeschooling book fair coming up in March and I will be going to that to look at the different Math, handwriting and history curriculums as well as all-inclusive. If I find something I like better then I will go with that.

Here is my sister-in-laws website www*dot*hubbardscupboards*dot*org. She has many useful things and links on that site.

We are starting in March and will be schooling 3 days per week. We will go through the summer and start four days per week in September. I am planning on taking the month between Thanksgiving and New Years off to concentrate on Advent and Christmas activities and do minimal school during that time. Just enough for her not to lose it all. I should be able to finish the curriculum no later than March and at that time we will do a study on Character traits from the Bible.

That's my plan and of course all of this is subject to change at a moments notice.

[AmyP]

I'm reading mainly out of interest. I'd love to homeschool Sarah, but I'm not sure if it suits us. She's still only two, so it's way too early to really be concerned. Right now, I'm trying to work with her on various skills where she's behind and she is not much for listening to me. She'll probably be in the special ed preschool in about a year (thankfully the 3-year-old program in our system starts when they turn 3, she'll do a half year of that and start the 3-year-old program again in the fall) so we'll see how that goes. I figure I can always pull her out of it if it isn't working.

My mom is currently an advisory teacher for third and fifth grades at the Calvert School. Basically, parents send in every 10th or 20th test (I forget what frequency) and some compositions, and my mom grades them, writes comments, and sends them a letter praising the things they did well and suggestions on how to improve the things they didn't do so well. Their curriculum is more than likely what I'd choose if I homeschooled. I like the third party grading system and that they lay out what to do each day. You don't have to follow it, but it's nice to have a guideline. Third party grading is optional as well, but you won't get a certificate for completing a grade level from the school if you don't use it.

[sheila]

Just as a note, the Q&A/Debate portion of this thread has been relocated to the Homeschooling Q&A and Debate (http://www.onceuponalife.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34062) thread in The Kitchen. Please direct all questions and comments about homeschooling there. This jounal is for Homeschooling Moms. Thanks.

(please consider this an S&P warning despite the smilies)

[Shel]

Thank you Sheila :)

[sabrina]

Thank you.

[mrs.knip]

I will be homeschooling Maggie for kindergarten since we live so far away from our school (37 miles) and right now the way their bus schedule is she would have to be on the bus at 7am and not get off the bus until 5pm and I think that is way to long of a day for a 5-6 yo. So we will homeschool kindergarten and then we will send her for 1st grade.

[sabrina]

Okay, Ladies, I am in Indiana at the moment (Delphi, Shel). I will be back in Michigan tomorrow. I am planning to start school with Emmalee next monday.

I want to try to list out some goals I have for us to accomplish over the next little bit.

1. Get started and start with three days per week.
2. Make a lesson plan for the next three units (hopefully done by Monday).
3. Set up a daily schedule to plan our days for the next three units.

I am going to stay out of the other thread because it is just too frustrating for me. I will be making one comment and then leaving it alone after that.

Are any of you that are homeschooling going to join the HSLDA? We are in serious debate about it.

What are your plans for curriculums or what are your desires for them to learn during kindergarten?

[Suzi]

Sabrina, can you tell me in what instances you'd need HSLDA? I mean, I know they are homeschool legal defense and all...but do homeschoolers REALLY need organized legal defense?? :eek: :lol:

I also don't know about joining...I'm just asking because I don't know. I feel so GREEN!!! :silly:

[sabrina]

There have been several instances where it has been needed by several friends recently. They were reported for truancy. The police showed up at their doors. They called HSLDA and everything was taken care of right away. I guess I am one of those people who is better safe than sorry.

[Suzi]

WHOA...no kidding??? I guess I never thought about truancy officers showing up at your door when you homeschool. I mean there are so many kids out there actually TRUANT that it seems rather ridiculous to be hunting down homeschool kids... :rolleyes: I think I'm with you, Sabrina. I'd rather be safe than sorry for what...$100 a year I think?

[Shel]

If you tell the truance officer you are homeschooling, and provide the letter you send to the state to register, you won't have a problem. I got stopped at the mall once with Kaleb and Jacob, and we just told the guy we were homeschooling, and he said "Great" and went on by.

[Cortney]

I'm here! :)

[sabrina]

If you tell the truance officer you are homeschooling, and provide the letter you send to the state to register, you won't have a problem. I got stopped at the mall once with Kaleb and Jacob, and we just told the guy we were homeschooling, and he said "Great" and went on by.

But we don't have to register with the state. We don't have to do anything except start homeschooling.

[sabrina]

On Saturday, I went to a homeschool book fair. I was able to look at the two curriculums I was considering for math and look for a Bible curriculum. I found both of them and purchased them. I was tossing between A beka math and Horizons math. I decided on Horizons. I was also tossing between Bob Jones Bible and A Beka Bible and decided on Bob Jones Bible. I feel good about my decisions but I am hoping that neither will be too advanced for Emmalee. I have heard that Horizons math is pretty advanced. Time will tell and I can always make up extra worksheets for her and take it at a slower pace if need be. She looked at the Horizons math workbooks and is very excited to get started. The Bible curriculum will not be here for a couple of weeks. I looked at history curriculums as well and most didn't really start until 1st grade. I think I will continue on with making up my own for now. We will continue to read the American Girl books and Little House books and do some activities related to those books. We will also do a bit of geography as well and learn the continents, oceans and states. Obviously this will all depend on how well she is doing. I am concerned about the reading and writing curriculum though. Dh and I talked about it. He said to try to work with it and if I don't like it after working with it for a few months then I am free to order a new one. This one does include some math, Bible and science but I didn't feel the math was strong enough nor was the Bible. I think the science is okay for this age. I did check out Apologia science at the book fair. I personally felt that what they have available for K is just a little too advanced as the book can be used for K-6. It looked geared more toward the upper end which is fine and it could easily be brought down to a K level. But I think we will work with what we currently have for now and know that I can always add to that one or purchase a new one later.

Now for handwriting. Ugghhh...I have no idea what to use for that. I have not been thrilled with anything I have seen thus far. She is already pretty good at writing most letters and numbers. I do have workbooks that teach her the proper way but I don't know. I guess I am questioning which style right now, Italic (getty-dubay), stick/ball, (d'nealian), or cursive. I can see the italic as being the easiest transition to cursive but she is a already doing the stick/ball method. Both have their pros and cons. I am seriously considering asking her which she would prefer to learn but I think since she is already doing the stick/ball method to keep that up and use what we currently have. There are many ways to teach penmanship without using an actual curriculum and I think we may just do without one for now. If I don't feel she is getting it then I will switch to one.

I will be working with Eoin on a lot of the same stuff as well just not as advanced. I already have a curriculum in place that I have used and I kept notes on everything we did and I can try to cater more to him with crafts and worksheets.

So have any of you made any progress on choosing what to do for kindergarten?

[Shel]

There is a homeschool fair here next weekend. Jacob's dad is coming down and I may go as well, but I had already promised Riley we'd go to the Easter egg hunt at church and it's the same day. We'll see what happens with David's work schedule. I think we may stick with Abeka for Riley, just because Kaleb and Jacob had such great success with it at both private school and during homeschooling, at least for the younger grades. We may do mostly classical approach with Jacob. So many decisions!

[sabrina]

I agree Shel about so many decisions.

I went into the homeschool fair specifically with the intention of purchasing a whole A Beka curriculum but as I looked at the other booths and what they had to offer, I changed my mind. I did like A beka's reading program though and if the one I have doesn't work we will definately be ordering that. I did bring home the catalog to look at again as well.