Where Should I Look First for Homeschooling Info?

I would check out the forums on welltrainedmind.com. Even if you don't go with the classical model, these women have a wealth of information and great opinions on the different curriculum available to homeschoolers. I have also found great reviews on curriculum at homeschoolreviews.com. There is so much information out there.

I also recommend reading So Your Thinking of Homeschooling by Lisa Whelchel. It has a nice brief overview on the methods that you can use to homeschool.

I wish you all the best in your exciting journey. I don't have any experience with taking a child out of school, but I think January would be a great time to pull your DS out of school. This will give you time to reserach / select & purchase curriculum and will give your DS some time to prepare for the change. I have read that some people allow their children to go through a "deschooling" period so if you wanted to do this you could kind of gradually ease yourself into homeschooling and try and be where you want to be when your school year starts next year (which can be whenever you want it to be).

I use Abeka, www.abeka.com. The curriculum is layed out with lesson plans that follow the books. You do not have to create your own. It was very nice for me as I am not a school teacher by trade. I started my son with their Kindergarten program, and now I am using their 1st grade & Pre-K 4 program. I have a 6 & 4 year old. They respond well to it & it is easy to follow. There is a homeschool book fair on Mother's Day weekend in Arlington every year at the Arlington Convention Center. They have all types of homeschool vendors there.

Homeschooling has been very nice and flexible for our families needs as well.

Good luck. I enjoy watching my children learn what I teach and they get so excited.

M.

Mardel's Christian Bookstore has the best materials covering all ages/grades in all areas of study. Start anytime. Field trips relative to any course of study are possible because you already have car ins. and there is no school board to get ok's from.Lewisville has Home Educator's Resource Store. THEY HAVE EVERYTHING. God's blessings on you and your kiddo.

This past summer we discovered iqAcademy. It is an online charter school that is federally funded. This means that it is free for the student. There are NO fees! Everything is online (even the textbooks). Our daughter is in the third grade as well and she loves this program. The curriculum is already set so there are no worries about whether or not you are following the correct studies. She can, if we wanted her to, ease right back into public school. Right now she is working at her own pace (which means ahead for her) and we can suppliment on our own when we find something that she wants to look into more. There is not a certain number of hours or set time each day that she has to be "in school" and they supplied a laptop that we can take with us when we leave the house. Since the textbooks are online, we can travel very easily. All we need to bring in the laptop. If you have any more question, feel free to email me and I will be more than happy to answer what I can. By the way, she is assigned to an accredited teacher who meets with her "class" once a week in an online seminar and monitors her work. All the assignments and tests are graded by iqAcademy and recorded. Lauren gets a progress report and has to take the TAKs benchmark just like any other Texas third grader. My email is ____@____.com and the website is www.iqacademytx.com. Good luck!

I'm not a homeschooling mom, but I LOVE this resource:
http://www.heartoftex.org/archive/2009/November.html
Lots of activities geared toward homeschoolers, resources, links, articles, etc.

Good luck!
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Hi there!

I have some links on my website for homeschooling - www.fortworthstorytime.com. I've linked to some good HS websites and curricula there.

My son is a 2nd grade homeschooler, and we do an eclectic mix - some ACE, some BJU, lots of good reading and nonfiction books from Sonlight and Usborne.

Determine your values first off. What is most important to you? What kind of person do you want your child to be when he grows up, and work backward from there. It doesn't have to be a school replica at home. It can be tailor made for your family, and picking and choosing from curriculum instead of a prepackaged deal works the best.

Hi M.,

We have been at Coram Deo Academy for 4 years now - it is part time school, part time homeschool. I don't know that I could handle the whole schooling portion myself and I really like their curriculum. They do offer a completely "at home" version as well.

I would suggest also checking out the Home Educator's Resource Store in Lewisville. They have a ton of curriculum along with resources and the people who work there all homeschooled.

Good luck!