iso homeschooling info

**Sara Noel** · 10-11-2002, 08:52 PM

This goes out to all the homeschooling moms on the forums. Please share with me some good solid info about homeschooling.
I'm interested in knowing what curriculums you use, how many hrs per day/per week spent.
I consider this often. At the very least, I am interested so I can offer a good supplement to his public education. Please, no post is too long in this area. I love to read about different experiences and different families and how they approach homeschooling and why.
So, right now I am interested in preschool curriculums.

Sara

**nealy** · 10-11-2002, 09:17 PM

I am actually really interested in this subject as well. My son has been in the "system" for three years and I am just not happy. Fortunately I live in colorado so we have a charter system that takes our tax school money and sends it to an independent organization they in turn offer school supplies and the assistance of an acredited teacher to help you withlesson plans etc. if you wish. I think that is the route I may go next year. Any other info out there would be very helpful.

Nealy

**QuilterMom** · 10-12-2002, 12:13 PM

My ds is 3 1/2 so we are doing homeschool preschool. I do send him to our church's preschool 2 days a week for 3 hours each day, but I do not expect him to get any real *learning* out of that program. It's mainly a way for him to have play time and interaction with other kids (we don't have anyone in our neighborhood he can play with) and it gives me time to run errands alone.

On preschool days I do a variety of things with him..... we are working our way through the primer books for Explode The Code (a phonics program). Right now we are working in Book A - Get Ready For The Code. I also have Book B - Get Set For The Code and Book C - Go For The Code. You can read more about the set on christianbook.com http://www.christianbook.com/Christi...&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

On preschool days we also do an odd variety of worksheets (I have tons of workbooks I've picked up at Goodwill, Dollar Tree, and yard sales) - I just randomly pick out what ds will do. Some days he wants to do a bunch and other days he's not really in the mood so I just go along with what he's willing to do. He is also working on a homemade alphabet book - I cut out letters and pictures from magazines and he selects which letter he would like to do that day.

On the 3 days a week that ds not go to preschool, we do our actual homeschool lessons. I am using a mix of Before Five In A Row curriculum www.fiveinarow.com and making my own thematic units from ideas I find online.

Right now we are doing We're Going On A Bear Hunt (from the B4FIAR curriculum). Here's a sample of our days....

Day #1:

Discuss day of week (we do this every single day)
Discuss month of year (we do this every single day)
Say Pledge of Allegiance

- Read We're Going On A Bear Hunt
- Discuss the feelings of the characters on the grass pages in the book
- Grass scene coloring page
- Tracing page (GRASS) - make my own at http://www.kidzone.ws/tracers/none/index.asp
- Use ASL flash cards to fingerspell bear and grass
- Song... Bear (found online)
- Fingerplay... Five Little Bears (found online)
- Cooking... make Beary Good Trail Mix and eat it as we go on a bear hunt (I hid 2 of ds's teddy bears in the house)
- Connect-the-dot (revealing a bear)
- Read bear fact sheet (from the Enchanted Learning site) and make a height/length bar graph comparing ds and a bear

For our Bible lesson I read and ds repeated Romans 4:7. Then we read from The Beginner's Bible 6 stories that dealt with people going on a journey (since they go on a journey in Bear Hunt).

Day #2:

Discuss day of week
Discuss month of year
Say Pledge of Allegiance

- Have ds *read* Bear Hunt and record him on a cassette. Listen to the cassette.
- Discuss the feelings of the characters on the river pages in the book.
- River scene coloring page.
- Tracing page (RIVER)
- Use ASL flash cards to fingerspell hunt and river
- Song... The Bear Went Over The Mountain
- Fingerplay... Little Brown Bear
- Bear themed concentration/match-it game (found online)
- Reinact story - act out scenes as I read the book
- paper bag brown bear craft

For the Bible lesson I read and ds repeats Romans 4:25. Read 1 story from The Beginner's Bible (involving a journey). Read a Bible story/related book from our personal collection.

Day #3:

Discuss day of week
Discuss month of year
Say Pledge of Allegiance

- Read Bear Hunt book.
- Discuss the feelings of the characters on the mud pages in the book.
- Mud scene coloring page.
- Tracing page (MUD).
- Use ASL flash cards to fingerspell bear and mud.
- Song... Little Bear
- If I Were A Bear I Would...... (I printed out bear themed paper online and ds will dictate to me as I write down the story he creates).
- Gummy bear math and bar graph - guess how many gummy bears are in a pack, sort by color and count and make a bar graph.
- Play-doh alphabet... use alphabet cookie cutters (they are actually jello jigglers alphabet) and play-do to spell bear, hunt, grass, river, mud.
- Bear CD craft.

For the Bible lesson I read and ds repeats Romans 5:5. Read one story from The Beginner's Bible (that involves a journey) and read a Bible book from our personal collection.

I hope that gives you an idea - if you want me to post what I have planned for the other 3 days of Bear Hunt, I'd be happy to.

For homemade thematic units I do basically the same thing. I pick a theme and see how many books I can find in our library system. I write all those down so I don't have to hunt them down again when it comes time to put them on hold. We usually read on average 4 books a day for a theme and do the other activities..... day of week, month of year, Pledge of Allegiance, ASL flash cards, tracing page, song, fingerplay, poems, crafts, worksheets, etc. Basically whatever I can find online.

Some of the themes we've already done..... Christmas, Winter/Snow, Shapes, Alphabet, Colors, Valentine's Day, Birthday, Easter, Hawaii, Ocean/Ocean Animals, Animals, Nursery Rhymes.

Some future themes I have planned or am in the process of working on... Apples, Autumn, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter, Dinosaurs, Weather, Transportation, Goodnight Moon (from B4FIAR), Corduroy (from B4FIAR), The Carrot Seed (from B4FIAR), Spring, Summer.

**QuilterMom** · 10-12-2002, 12:18 PM

Take a look at this thread here in the homeschooling forum and you'll find a great number of the sites I use listed.....

The Early Years

**homesteadmamma** · 10-15-2002, 09:10 PM

Homeschooling can be challenging and yet so rewarding.

We've been homeschooling now for 7 years and I wouldn't have it any other way.

We've used Alpha Omega constantly along with supplements, but it has been our biggest success. Our kids are special needs and so it works well for us because we can go at our own pace.

One of the first things I would do is read a book on learning styles. A great book is The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias. You'll find out tons of information there and more than likely find that both you and Zachary have different learning styles.

Then read books on homeschooling. The best book I've read is by Debra Bell The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling . Read anything by Dorothy and Raymond Moore you can gets your hands on. Here are a couple of their titles. Home Style Teaching
Home Spun Schools

The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook

The Moores are pioneers in the homeschooling movement and have worked hard to bring homeschooling to where it is today.

Any book by Cathy Duffy or Mary Pride are also excellant. Here though you throw out some of the stuff if you don't agree, just as in any book. They are both well know for doing articles on curriculum, what needs to be taught and how.

Anything by Diane Waring or Sharon Hensley also. Sharon speaks on homeschooling special needs children.

**Sara Noel** · 10-15-2002, 09:23 PM

Thank you for the replies. This will keep me busy reading for awhile.
I am familar with b4fiar and have heard of some of the others.
Once, I have done some more reading, I am sure I'll have to more questions.

sara

**homesteadmamma** · 10-15-2002, 09:23 PM

Next you need to decide what type of homeschooling you want to do. Do you even want to use a curriculum or do you want to use 1/2 curriculum and have free style.

Once that is decided, you go from there. Take it in baby steps and make sure you've done lots of research before you begin homeschool. Our kids have thrived in homeschooling because they do so well one on one. Many kids don't. But ALL kids and moms can make homeschooling a success if they work hard at it and yet have fun with it.

Here is a post I had also done in regards to homeschooling the special needs child.

Homeschooling our special needs child - websites

Our school starts around 9:30 and goes until 11:30 in the morning and then we have 1 hour of school in the afternoon. We do our math and language arts first thing in the morning, when the kids are awake and raring to go. Bible, History/Geo and Science are done in the afternoons. We do History/Geo the first semester and then Science the second. It helps the kids in retaining what they are learning and doesn't swamp them with stuff to remember.

Fridays are our fun days when we have arts and crafts. btw - my kids love History and that has been one of the best things about homeschooling. When kids love something, you can delve into it more thoroughly and have fun doing it.

We take our breaks the same as the public school kids do, but if we feel like sleeping in or taking a day off to smell the roses or watch a baby robin on our steps, we do it without any guilt whatsoever.

HTH