Homeschooling Moms...How Did You Start?

I would advise against any kind of "structured" schooling until at least age five or six. I'd recommend fun, educational activities that your child/children really enjoy. Fill their young years with the love and excitement for learning. Read to them as much as possible while they are watching the words as you read. Paste one letter of the alphabet somewhere where they will see it many times a day and periodically point to the letter and ask them to tell you what the letter is. Talk about what words start with that letter. Leave the letter up until they can tell you what it is when you ask them. Then do colors, numbers and words, etc.. This kind of learning, slow and with lots of patience, will not become a burden to them. I homeschooled my two children for six years. I don't know what state you live in, but Texas has NO homeschooling laws. No testing to make sure children are being taught, BUT if a homeschooled child ever tries to enter public school, then they will have to take a test to see where they will be placed. Sometimes this is very sad for the child if his/her parents were too busy or were unable to teach him/her.....keeping up with peers. Then the other side is that if the child is a speedy learner like my daughter was, then she will test out in a higher grade. Her older brother is 18 months older than and she could always do his work too, so I started using one curriculum and teaching them together. BAD IDEA! She has grown up alot faster than she would have if I had kept her two years behind him where she belonged. It causes lots of friction for the both of them. He is jealous because she is in the same grade as him. It kind of takes away from him being the older, etc.. Your kids are the same age that mine were when I started my homeschool program. Strange, huh? Anyway, they will be Juniors in HS this year. He just turned 16, and she is 14 and will graduate at 16. The high school wanted them to take college courses their 11th and 12th year. I am pondering letting my son, but not his sister because of her age. That means that she would be 16 and graduating from college BEFORE high school with a Associate's Degree and still no driver's license! This is just to let you know what can happen if you don't really have a plan and think ahead. Good luck to you and I hope you will make all the right decisions for your little ones.

Blessings,
P.

Homeschool has been a marvelous adventure for our family. Our style has changed as the kids needs have changed and as I have learned what works best. There are many approaches you can take. First, I suggest you decide 'why'. Why are you homeschooling? What do you want to accomplish? What is your ultimate goal for learning?
Some of our reasons have changed. Initially, I just didn't think the public schools were rigorous enough. Now, I love the flexibility. I like that I can tailor our curriculum to our needs. Ultimately, I want my kids to maintain a lifelong love of learning. I want to give them the tools they need to find whatever they need to (or just want to) know.
In the very early years, the best thing you can do is read. Read, read, and read again. Also, at three, get outside. Smell the flowers. Watch a bug crawl. Look at the clouds. Dig in the dirt. Just let him be a kid. In the meantime, you have time to explore and research different curriculums. I'd say you are a couple of years away from having to worry too much about that, though.

Developmentally it is good if you don't try to have him start writing until he is 6 or 7. What I worked on was reading skills, science, social studies, and bible. All the things we could do without wrinting...
It is fun to homeschool. I hope you have a wonderful experiance and find some groups that can be fun and supportive.

If you are near Rockwall there is a good group called HEAR and in Mesquite there is a part-time enrichment school that is awesome!!!!

Good luck - M.

Please consider the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. I started using this 2 years ago with my daughter (now almost 9) and have a 4.5 year old who LOVES it. You can check out www.simplycharlottemason.com for some idea of the gentle art of learning. Also there is a homeschool book fair in ARlington at the convention center this weekend (May 9-11). They will have tons of information/vendors. It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the choices. If you choose to go to the book fair I would treat it as an opportunity to learn about a lot of different methods and not necessarily make a choice while there (kind of a fact finding mission).

I LOVE homeschooling and it works well for my family. You can also join a support group where you live which I highly recommend. In Arlington there are several to choose from. If you're in the metroplex you will be able to find one wherever you live. Homeschooling is HUGE there!

Blessings and if you want to email me direct, please feel free to. Please know you are embarking on a great adventure!

L.

We have been homeschooling for about 10 years. We used "everything your Kindergartner needs to know" It is a series of books. can't remember the author. we started with those. and went from there. the homeschool book fair is in Arlington; at the Arlington Convention center the weekend of Mother's Day. it is the friday and saturday. 9-5. lots of good stuff to get you started. you can also use the Texas Homeschool Coalition website. www.THSC.org
it has alot of resources. and of course the library. sounds like you are off to a good start already!!!
you can join creative parenting on yahoo.com groups. there are alot of homeschool moms there, me included. they can give you alot of answers. you can also use the THSC website to find a homeschool support group in your area.
good luck,
L.

I found my backbone at www.gopathways.org. It is a terrific organization to help you figure out what's working and not working in your life. I was in an abusive marriage and needed to figure how to get out. I realized what I needed in order to stand up for me in my life and I went for it. I highly recommend Pathways and believe every human being would benefit from it. I understand how you feel in many ways. My mom taught me to be scared of my own shadow. I do not feel like that anymore. Take your life back. Call them. Good luck!

Since you have two children you'll find that they are both different. There's a bookfair coming to arlington on Mother's Day weekend at the Arlington convention center.

http://www.homeschoolbookfair.org/

If you go, it's a bit overwhelming the first time around. Try not to buy anything till you've made the rounds. Ask a lot of questions, and try not to get overwhelmed!

My experience with starting math and reading with my kids was to use Eagles wings for reading and Math U see for math. You really can start as young as you want, just watch for signs of frustration, take it at their pace and adjust to that.

Some kids read at three some at nine. I know that sounds crazy but I know a lot of homeschoolers and folks have differing families and situations. Read aloud TONS!! I can't tell you how important it is to do this. There just aren't words. and although many would say to read right at their level because of comprehension and I would agree, also read way above their level. We were reading through Lord of the Rings aloud when my youngest was 4! My older two were really into the book, my youngest drew, played with clay or puzzles, quietly and we read aloud. Of my three he had the most amazing vocabulary and when it came to reading was able to figure out almost any word he read incorrectly because he was very familiar with language.

Many blessings!!

PS you can find both companies online if you cant make it to the bookfair. Get their names from the website and do a search online.

I didn't start homeschooling until my girls were much older. I did alot of research before I started and found several good programs when I started I used work books from a company call Alpha Omega after that first year I found out they didn't learn that way so now I'm using whay's called unit studies. Some places I would suggest that you look first go to the Homeschool Legal Defence Assosiation they can let you know what the laws are in your state regaurding homeschooling. Then I would do a search on homeschool you'll find all kinds of sites some are aop.com, konos.com, mathusee.com(for when you get ready for it) and homeschoolscience.com again these are just a few there a hundreds out there. Good luck

Some of my friends and I do a little "preschool" for our kids twice a week (they are 3 going on 4 and most don't start school till they are almost 6) and rotate who teaches it so we can get a little break from them and get some housecleaning done. We set up a calendar with a different letter each week and a theme of some sort to go with it. (ie, f - farm, a - airplane, aircraft, n - night, nocturnal, h - halloween, v- valentine, t - triangle, ect....). It makes it easy to plan what you are going to do, gives them time to recognize the letter (and we go over all the letters every week as well to give them repetition and make sure they remember them. We sometimes do science experiments with them (V -volcano and make a little vinegar/baking soda volcanic explosion, or w - weather with a tornado: water in 2 2liter bottles and you spin it) There are some fun websites where you can find simple experiments that will be fun for the kids to do. We also take field trips sometimes (z - zoo, go to the zoo..., for airplanes, we went to a local airport and had a pilot show them around some airplanes, climb in them, ect...) Our main purpose in our group is to make learning fun for them so they will be excited about school when it comes time for them to start. Sometimes we go outside and practice writing letters with chalk on the side walk. I also do things separately with my son - he has a little preschool activity book to work in that he does sometimes during the day. I like to do things with my son that he shows interest in, because if I try to get him to do things he's not so interested in, he looses interest real quick. Besides, I figure once he's in public school, he won't have the opportunity to learn a lot about the things he specifically is interested in, so I'm taking the opportunity now to help him learn those things.

G.-

How wonderful...homeschooling can be such a blessing!

You've received some great advice so far especially the homeschool bookfair and getting involved with a homeschool organization in your area.

I noticed that you asked about scheduling and so that is what I will address. Our situation is somewhat similar to yours; we have a 4 year old and 18 mo. along with a grade schooler.

My 4 year old will be using Sonlight curriculum (P 4/5) along with supplements in math, language arts, handwriting , and art (tagging along with older brother for this last one). So, for my son I plan to use the
P-4/5 core curriculum with Singapore Earlybird Math, Explode the Code (Get Ready, Get Set, Go For the Code) books to supplement language arts, probably Handwriting Without Tears (workbooks and I'll buy and inexpensive chalkboard...maybe) and then Sonlight's (K) level language arts and reading. I plan to stretch this core out over about 2 years so this will be his kindergarten (K-4 and K-5, per private school). We will "do school" 3-4 days per week; following his lead. I expect that he will be listening in on some of his older brother's read alouds too.

Then when my 18 mo. turns 2-2 1/2 I will probably add in Sonlight's P-3/4 core. This way my youngest has something too. From what I've heard, this core has some great books and the older children love to listen to the stories too.

This is just my opinion, but I love Sonlight (www.sonlight.com). It is literature based and has history in chronilogical order with history and readers matching up once you hit Core 3. I also love that you can teach multiple children with the same core and just adjust according to reading, math, and language arts ability. If you haven't already taken a look at this curriculum you might check out their web-site and get a catalog. They will also be at the bookfair in Arlington.

If you have any other questions, I would be happy to try to answer them. I think the most important thing is to just follow the interest and lead of your child...if they want to write let them write and the same goes for reading. You know your child best.

Blessings!
A.

Hi, G.. I was a public school teacher before my oldest child was born. He is now about to turn 11. I have 3 boys (10, 7, 5) who have homeschooled from the beginning. I started my oldest with Saxon Phonics and Math at 5. (It's what they use in the public school here.) I then had curriculum from Calvert for a few years for the two oldest. It is VERY helpful if you are a little unsure about what to do. They have a website: www.calvertschool.org. I then found a book called The Well-Trained Mind that fit my philosophy of education perfectly, so we switched to that and love it. I highly reccomend reading it. You will find many suggestions for starting a pre-schooler. They also have a web-site: www.welltrainedmind.com. Good luck to you.