Both my children attend public school and as much as I would love to homeschool them I know it isn't a good idea. My son absolutely refuses to be homeschooled and wants to stay in public school with his friends. My dd who is going to be 10 really would love to be homeschooled and considering that we think she may be ADHD it would probably be a good idea for her. Problem is, mommy may be ADD herself and I can't even complete a list of chores so the thought of ME trying to teach her really scares me. It's not one of those things you can say "Oh well if I screw up it's no biggie" you know?

So what I would like to do is since the Georgia educational system is so lousy, I would like to do a little homeschooling on the side with them as kind of a boost. Help them excel and be where the better parts of the country are educationally if that makes sense.

What are good curriculums, books, etc for 4th grade and 8th grade as well? I would need something Secular as we are not Christian and I would need something that I can't botch up. My 8th grader is doing Algebra...I can't do Algebra so I would need something that would be able to boost him but not depend on me.

I'm not trying to be lazy btw. I would LOVE to be able to teach the kids myself but I just know MY attention span and retention just isn't where it should be and I won't have them suffer for that.

I'm sorry if I didn't make sense but hopefully someone can figure out what I'm saying and asking for here. Feel free to ask questions and thank you in advance for any help. :)

I don't have any helpful advice for you, but I'm just wondering where in GA you are :)

South Georgia...Valdosta. :( I'm 2-3 hours away from all the fun. LOL

have you read the well trained mind? it gives some great ideas on supplementing education.

sorry so short, i need to run to the HFS before it gets too hot to move. bbl with some more ideas for you!

I guess it might make it easier to let everyone know that I haven't read or looked into really anything that has to do with Homeschooling. I've talked to some friends who homeschool several times but never got into it much knowing I couldn't do it as well. I've always had the interest though just never knew where to start on what I want to do.

So truly...ANY suggestions are welcome. ;)

I WAS a homeschooler, but financial situation sent my kids to public school this year.
I plan to continue to supplement my kid's work at school.
My dd is using the same math at school she used at homeschool, so that is good.
Right now, I am supplementing her reading.
I suspect my dd is dyslexic.
I have told the school and they said they will test her 'sooner than later' ?
My dd struggles with reading.
At home, I am doing Explode the Code with her (phonics), Hooked on Phonics (phonics, guess you figured that :) and I have her read to me.

Right now, I plan to supplement science and history.
Dd is a history and science buff and most of the NC schools do not do any history until 4th grade. (She is a third grader.)

For you, Saxon Math is a really solid, easy to teach math program.

Sonlight is christian, but you can secularize it.
There is a yahoo group for secular sonlight users.
Fantastic history!
The Sonlight Forums are really helpful, I think you could find others that supplement public school with Sonlight.

Tanglewood:
http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/grade4.htm
http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/grade8.htm

Hope

Thank you and bumping in case anyone else has some input. I appreciate the responses so far and will look into all of those. :)

2nd both The Well Trained Mind (which may be at your library) and Tanglewood. Just a thought but stick mainly with doing what ever they struggle with at school but choose a different approach. Like if one struggles in spelling, spelling power may be a different approach than what she/he has at school (also a Tanglewood book).

Jenn ;)