thinking about homeschooling

[nealy]

I am thinking about homeschooling my Ds who will be in third grade next year. I am on the fence right now, leaning toward homeschooling but I am scared that I will some how mess up or won't have enough time to do it all. How was your first year homeschooling, what helped you get prepared? what didn't work for you? Any input would be great!


Nealy

[cinnamon]

Hi Nealy!

Although my oldest is in first grade (homeschool) we have been planning and studying about hsing for 5-plus years, so it doesn't feel like our first year. It is a daunting prospect to take charge of your child's education, but it can be successfully done!

What didn't work for us? Trying to imitate School at home. The school's formal schedule, textbooks, worksheets, etc, are necessary for them because they have huge groups of kiddos to teach. What we are doing is more like tutoring. We do lessons for a couple hours of day at the couch, in bed, in jammies, at the school table - whatever!

I would suggest you start by reading tons of books. Also, try to find a local support group that will let you hang out at a parent meeting. You can ask a lot of questions and get a good feel for things.

Some great books:

The Homeschooling Handbook
The Unschooling Handbook
Educating the Whole Hearted Child (Christian)
The Charlotte Mason Companion (Christian)

HTH!

[nealy]

Thanks so much for responding, I did join a homeschooling group on yahoo, I am looking for a support network where maybe group field trips are set up or maybe lesson swaps etc. are done. I am really excited about this but terrified at the same time.


Nealy

[guest2]

Hi Nealy,
Ask at your local library if there is a local homeschool group in your area. The librarians should be able to put you in contact with someone else homeschooling in your area. Most homeschoolers spend lots of time at the library and have developed good relationships with the librarians. You could also look online and see if there is a support group in your local area. I don't know what your or if you have any certain religious preferences, but there are Christian, Catholic, LDS, Muslim, etc. homeschool support groups out there. I'm the group leader of our support group that covers 2 small farming communities in Eastern Washington state and we are a Christian based group, but love to help and encourage everyone that wants to homeschool.

One of the things that has helped me the most with homeschooling my 3 boys (started homeschooling them in 4th and 5th grade 5 years ago) is discovering their learning styles. There are some really good books out there on this subject and I highly recommend you find out what your son's style is so you can teach to it. It will make learning a whole lot more fun and productive for both of you! another thing is to help your son rediscover his love of learning if he has lost it. We spent the first year learning about things that my children wanted to. We made a list of their interests and I designed unit studies around those areas. I still had them do a good solid math and grammar program (I highly recommend Saxon Math). My oldest son is a 9th grader now and will be starting advanced math here in about a week. He has already finished Geometry, Alg 1 and 2. He has been going at his own pace and loving it! His younger twin brothers are about to start Alg 2 (they have a week left of Alg 1). Saxon makes it easy for the kids to learn and my kids are now mainly self taught when it comes to math. I'd love to write more, but I have to run for a bit. Hope this helps!!!

[nealy]

thanks so much, My son loves to learn but he becomes frustrated easily, I have heard wonderful things about the saxon math program and plan on using it next year. I would really like to see him become a self motivated learner, I know my role as a mother and teacher can help him with that, he is also very physical, a kinestetic(?) learner but he is also visual, We are going to have some fun next year. I will check out the library next week,

thanks,

Nealy