Home Schooling - Toney, AL

I do not personally homeschool but my sister has homeschooled her children for a few years now and you are welcome to contact her with questions if you would like. Her name is Michelle and her email address is ____@____.com has homeschooled her oldest 2 who are 8 and 6 and they are both in the 1st grade. She loves it. Hope this helps you out.

S., I have been thinking about homeschooling myself and have looked up many websites. My sister homeschools all 6 of her children and many of my clients do so as well. They told me of a few different websites. www.classicalconversation.com and www.k12.com they are very informative and have been very helpful in curriculums. Hope this helps A.

I would recommend checking out Bob Jones University Press. They have a better college prep program for kids, and if nothing else they do have the best Language/Arts program that you should definitely check out. I also recommend HorneCot (spelling ?) math- it is one of the best math programs and you can get it all the way up to 12th grade so your child can use the same curriculum all the way through.

Go to the Home School Legal Defense Association's website and it can direct you to each state's laws for homeschooling. There's tons of info there, and great links. I see Yvette has answered you--she's a great resource--take her up on it! (Hi Yvette!) (Our girls are in a Girls' Club together.)

As far as curriculum for the ages of yours, I highly recommend something like Five in a Row: www.fiveinarow.com The curriculum is fantastic, and their message board community is like no other. Wonderful, compassionate, NEVER argumentative moms on that board. They support & lift you up!

Homeschooling isn't always easy, but its rewards are many! Good luck and enjoy these young years--don't get stressed about academics at this age. You just want them to love to learn at this age. There's always time for the big stuff.

Hi S.,
I am a homeschooler and have homeschooled my daughter for 4 years now. There are a lot of different curriculums, Abeka is a great one, it just depends on what you are looking for. I actually piece mine together since I haven't found one curriculum that I like everything from. I would check into an accountability group, like REACH and/or GRACE, there are many other's also. If you want a lot more information, e-mail me at ____@____.com and "get personal". *grin* Let me know if you are looking for religous, non-religous, etc. I can also give you more info on what a "typical" week for us is.
I'm glad you have made the choice to homeschool! It's so wonderful, even the days that you are banging your head against the wall aren't much compared to the overall experience!
Let me know how I can help!
Y.

Hi S.,

I am homeschooling my son for kindergarten now and it work very well for us. There are lots of different curriculums out there and each one is good for a different reason. I have a link to a website that has reviews of most, if not all, of the programs at home. (I'm staying with my parents for a few days.) What makes it bad for one person, may make it good for you -- too much review, not enough review, is it religious, is it secular, etc. I will try to find it and forward it to you. There are great homeschool support websites and groups.
The thing I found most frustrating was that no one could just say, "Do this....". Each student and parent combination is different, so you just have to find out what works for you. Good luck!! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

My daughter is not yet old enough for school, but I have a great suggestion. I am a blogger for Families.com and we have a homeschooling blog. http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/

Valorie Delp is our resident homeschooling mom and she has posted invaluable articles all about homeschooling. She even has written several blogs about homeschooling in Virginia. She has links to the other Virginia blogs in this one.

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/homeschooling-laws...

Feel free to join Families.com and send Valorie a message to ask her more questions.

S., I know that the homeschool laws are different from state to state. I am in Mississippi and we don't have to have a cover school. I use the Abekka program and love it. I have homeschool for the last 2 years. (3rd and 4th grade) I love the flexablity that it gives my family and I love the time my daughter and I have together. It is time that no one can take from us. There are A LOT of great programs out there so make a list of the ones you like with pros and cons. You will come up with the one that works best for you guys. I will give you a hint and that is that we do not order the "kits" from Abekka I order my teachers books and student work books. The "kits" come with a lot of little readers. We go to the library and check out books. If your daughter isn't reading yet you might check out the book "100 Easy Leasons to learn to read". It is a great book and it works.
Hope this helps and maybe we can share some ideas.
M.

Hi S.,
I live in Prattville. I homeschool my three daughters 10, 7.5, 4.5 years of age. The older two attended school. The oldest attended public and private school. The middle only private. In their preschool years and in the Christian school they attended they used the Abeka program. Many people love it, I hated it. Why? It requires only regurgitation of facts, no thinking involved. I researched for a year different curriculums. I agree Bob Jones is a good program, but expensive which is why I didn't choose this. I ened up choosing Alpha Omega Lifepacs. Many don't like this program because it requires critical thinking. The questions they ask require the student to THINK, it is not just giving facts back. It requires them to infer. My older two like this program because they can work independently and as quickly or slowly as they need to. I teach, but it is student motivated. My youngest I just work with on Preschool stuff, usually through play although we do some book work in Explode the Code Primer. I will probably continue to use this and the Rod and Staff Kindergarten set next year in Kindergarten with her.

There is so much around and while it is good to ask advice, you will have to know your child's learning style and find a curriculum that will work for her. Although my older two did fine in a class setting with the Abeka program, they have told me numerous times how much they disliked it. You are going to have very knowledgeable people tell you that this worked for them but this one didn't. They are going to tell you that they hate a curriculum etc. You have to do the research and decide for yourself. If I had listened I would not be using Alpha Omega Lifepacs. I absolutely love them and will continue to use them.

Do research...www.rainbowresource.com has all kinds of curriculum at decent prices, plus they give a short (at time long) review of different ones. I don't know if money is a problem, it is with us. It was important that we find a good curriculum that we could afford.

As for cover schools there are many in this area. I use Evangel Family Christian Academy, a ministry of Evangel Temple in Montgomery. It is has been around the longest and is wonderful. It really depends on what you are looking for. If you want accountability Evangel is a good one. If you want to be left alone, but be covered Dayspring Academy would be good. As I said there are many cover schools.

Take care and enjoy the time with your children.

I feel there are alot of advantages but just as many disadvantages to home schooling. I help my sister-in-law home school her 14 son who is behind and has O.C.D. and he was just tested and his reading level is now up to 3rd grade. I feel that he is one child that needs alot of one on one attention with his school work to keep his attention on the school work. However, he has a really hard time knowing how to interact with other kids. It has hurt him tremendously on that aspect. He is an only child and he doesn't do well with other children. You have 3 children and so they will be able to interact better with other children but there is so much other interaction with extra curricular activities that they miss out on and I believe that it is so important that the children have a chance to interact with other children. I do believe that they grow from having individual teaching from the home schooling that you do, but I am just not sure it is totally worth it in the end. I have had 5 cousins that were homeschooled then a few of them tried to go to college and they couldn't deal with it and dropped out of college. So I am not sure. It has it's good sides and it's bad sides. You will have to just decide on what is really best for your children.There are alot of good websites to help you with the cirriculum and so forth on homeschooling. You should go by the advice the cover school gives you plus add your own choices with that. I am sorry if this confused you even more.

My husband and I will be starting home schooling with our oldest son who will be 5 yrs. this fall. We have chosen the Robinson Curriculum along with the Saxon mathmatic's books. My husband was homeschooled using this program in highschool, but the curriculum runs K-12. We have a belief to keep God in school so with this program, we are able to teach him about religion, the bible and everything he needs to know to be a sucessful adult someday. Hope homeschooling goes well for you no matter what program you chose:)

Hi S.,

I just started homeschooling this year with my 5 yr old in Kindergarten and my 4 yr old in Pre-K. We use Abeka because my son went to a Christian school last year for pre-k and learned alot. He was reading by about Christmas time and now is a very good reader for a 5 yr old. So I decided to continue with the Abeka since my son did so well. So far my daughter is doing well also. I liked Abeka also because it gives you the lesson plans and that was something I really wanted since I have no teaching experiences. I'd be glad to halp you in anyway I can or just to chat! Email me anytime! ____@____.com