This seems to be the time of year when on the forums, Facebook and email loops that there are tons of questions from what I once was~ a newbie to homeschooling;) OR a seasoned homeschoolers that is just needing a change for their families. The questions always are the same, What do you use to get started? How many hours a day do you homeschool? What do you do for socialization? What sites do you use online? My personal favorite that I get~ How can you stand to be around your kids all the time? This questions always throws me for a loop-the others I am more than happy to answer BUT this one I always want to say something that is probably not too nice! I totally understand that every child isn't the most pleasant ALL the time, but to be truthful NEITHER AM I! SO I usually respond by simply saying that my boys and I are closer than most families I LOVE IT!
Now for some of the other questions;) now mind you I am not an expert but this is info that I was given when I started, from research or just basic common sense. To get started you need to figure out where your child stands in a couple different areas. First one is where are they at in their learning process (especially helpful when you have pulled your child out of school) because if they are still learning to read for example you need to find a reading program that works for your family. The other thing that I think is helpful to get assessed in the beginning is how does your child learn? What is their learning style? Another area is doing research on curriculum BUT my suggestion that will save you money and headaches down the road is to join an online or local homeschooling support groups. This will enable you to ASK about curricula that you have heard about BEFORE you buy them. I am going to share my first 6 months with you so that you can see where I am coming from on this subject;) I pulled my boys out after their 5th and Kindergarten years, I decided from volunteering at all their schools that taking 3 months off from school wasn't an option. I didn't want to have to back track and review things that they had learned until Christmas only then to be able to start on the new stuff that late in the school year. SO I started my research in March of their last year in school, made up a "school room" in the living room, went to garage sale to get any books, textbooks I could get my hands on, joined several local homeschooling groups, DID so much research I thought my head would explode and without asking about success stories from other homeschooling families bought a year's worth of curricula. I didn't de-school the boys we took a week off after they got out in May and then started right in with all my shiny new lessons. BIG MISTAKE but it took me 6 months into it to realize it! We were doing school from 8 to 5 almost everyday and still not getting through what I thought that we needed to. After many LONG discussions with some of my new homeschooling mamas they told me with a straight face" YOU ARE TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH!" With that I did a month of de-schooling with the boys, we had so much fun with it! We did field trips, museums classes, nature hikes, art classes with dad you name it I signed up for it. It really gave me a look at what learning should look like;)
Now how many of hours do you homeschool a day? Well this is the question I almost always never got a clear answer on! It's tricky, that question for so many homeschoolers, because what I consider homeschooling they didn't. OR the other way around! Here is what our typical day looks like and it took about 3-5 hours to complete start to finish.
Up at 8am- breakfast,feed and take care of the dogs, get ready (showers, getting dressed etc.)
9am -10am ~ boys practice their instruments for an hour
10am-11am ~ boys do their time4learning lessons (I help when needed)
11am-noon~ lunch break with dad then down time (they play, go outside, etc)
noon-1pm ~ do individual lessons in spelling,grammar, writing
1pm-2pm~ math and silent reading
2pm-3pm ~ science or history
3pm until they are finished~ work for outside classes, any work they didn't get to, special interest research, etc.
They also are required to do some household chores or LIFE SKILLS class, then a big difference between us and regular school is there is almost never any homework! This is something that is a blessing in our house with our oldest! He used to have 3 hours of homework a night to keep up in school! When I would talk to his teachers they would always say it shouldn't take more than an hour.
Socialization is a big question for anyone who hears that you are homeschooling your child. BUT I have never had a problem with it. We have neighbors so when they get home the boys can play with them after supper. We also do a weekly game day at the community center with other homeschoolers and then there is park day on Fridays. My boys are also involved in music classes, swimming and various other activities where they can be around other peers. That first year we were gone more than we were HOME! I have settled down and not signed up for everything that comes along so that we have time to work on other things;)
NOW what do I use that is online? This list is ever growing but here it goes....
Time4learning.com ~ is the only thing that we have kept using since the beginning as far as curriculum goes.
SpellingCity.com ~ OMG if you don't know about this site CHECK IT OUT!
BBC typing and Learninggamesforkids.com typing after all it is necessary for them to know how to type!
Supercharged Science- new find but my boys LOVE it , science experiments you won't believe!
Timez Attack ~ for any video game loving child;)
SecularHomeschool.com ~ online support forum! I love the members on this site could be because they are like me a little Crazy!
PHEW I am tired now, so that's it for now! Feel free to add to this list in the comments below or ask any questions you might have about what I have said.
Happy Homeschooling!
