So who all here homeschools, and why style or system do you use?

I just thought a little chit-chat amongst all the sales would be grand.

Annabelle is almost two and a half and we have been doing Waldorf for a long time. I just checked out "The Well Trained Mind" and that system seems better for Annabelle since she looks like she'll be an early reader. I'm trying to mesh the two so that it's a bit of both. We'll be doing the corse they have laid out with a bit of Charlotte Mason and a whole lot of handicrafts thrown in.

Currently it's just learning all the upper case letters, which she knows most of. There is lots of free play and going out of the house to the park. I try and stick to a rhythm as much as I can, and we do a circle time.

I believe this is my 9th year of homeschooling. My two oldest are graduated from homeschool and are in college...and TODAY is my 17 year old's first day of college! I can't wait until she gets home and I can hear all about it.

I'm now homeschooling my 6 year old, and my 3 year old joins in. We are loosely doing Five in a Row. My approach through the years was a "relaxed" style that involved lots of reading, reading, reading...and I stressed volunteerism as well as took advantage of apprenticeship opportunities. We did Math too, but an incredible amount of our schooling came from reading quality books.

This has been our first year of homeschooling Lauren, who is in 7th grade. Actually, we are more a part of a "cottage" school, as she does most of her work with two other 7th grade girls. She's a self-starter and does most things on her own.

This will probably be our only year of homeschooling, though:) That's a long story that I'll post sometime in the future when I have more time to type.

My four year old tells everyone she goes to "Home School!" when they ask her if she goes to school...

Our method? Madness LOL. Really I do very little schooling with her, mostly my method is reading to her, talking to her, answering her questions and letting her play educational computer games when I am working.

She is reading simple books and signs (like gas, stop, walk, etc) in English and knows most of her Hebrew alphabet as well. I did start doing some structured projects to get her Hebrew skills up to par with her English.

My mother gave my daughter toy money which has been a lot of fun for both of us, she is doing well with her money concepts. My dd loves counting and can count up to 100 already, we used to count in the car when we were waiting for my dh's train. Her math is also coming along, she understands and is good at addition, subtraction and fractions. Most of that was picked up through real life which I think is great.

We do a lot of cooking and reading together and we talk and paint and do projects but I guess she is mostly unschooled.

I am not sure she is going to go to school until second grade for a variety of reasons. I probably should have a real ciriculum before then!!

Any ideas!!

my name is branwyn (27) i hs my almost 7 year old and i was hsed myself.
we are relaxed homeschoolers (not unschoolers) and we have 4th grade calvert (we do not follow the lesson plan) and developmental math as well as easy grammar.

this is our 15th year. Three down, three to go. We use, for lack of better term, a modified Socratic method. Love it...cant imagine ever doing anything else.

I have a 7, 4 and 2 yr old and we homeschool.
I do not know what approach we use.
We use a variety of different things.
Right now for my oldest, we are using:

Explode The Code, phonics
Miquon Math
We have a little workbook for Map Skills
For science, we have picking subjects and hitting the library and finding books on that subject. If possible, we tie in a field trip or experiment.
For social studies, we just started reading about Native American history. I think we wil be in this subject for a while.
My dd loves to talk about travel and different countries/cultures, so we do a lot of reading about this!
For Spanish, we have Power Glide for children and we check-out Spanish videos and books from our library.

I am getting ready to add some music instruction to her schedule. I had planned on starting music earlier, but life caught up on me!

I believe my 4 yr old needs something a little more structured. I am looking into a curriculm for him.
Right now, I have some workbooks for him and our youngest child.

Hope

We are homeschooling my 7 year old dd while waiting for a place in our 1st grade Waldorf....

Last year we used FIAR loosely.....but read tons of books and followed my dd's lead on where to go.

I've been loosely following "The well trained mind" of classical education this year. We have a 3 family co-op of history and I love love love their program!!! Can't say enough about it. It's called "story of the world".

My just 4 yr old ds just follows along in what he's interested in.

Nanci
mama to Izzi and Griffin

I had never heard of the Socratic method until this thread! I looked it up and it looks great, but like something that would be good around the teen years. How do you apply it?

Here's what looks like a good link for anyone else that hadn't heard of it - http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/html/what_is_the_socratic_method_.html

We're here!

We're going to continue to keep Sam (3) at home, and plan to have him learn using an eclectic, largely child-led approach. Not radical unschooling, but not school-at-home. Somewhere in between.

He's advanced in some areas (taught himself to read at about 32 months), so we're able to use books as a primary resource for him when he finds a new interest. Other things we do: music with 'real' instruments whenever possible, arts'n'crafts, all sorts of museums, cooking, city hiking, nature hiking, library, etc. I find it easy to do the home ed thing in a city - there are so many resources, as well as a very supportive home/unschooling community.

Tara

this year I only have my 2yr old at home. He knows colors, shapes, misc. other tidbits. One of my older kids is at a parochial middle school this year(tho we aren't religious) and the other is at a delightful public school (4th grade)

Dh and I discuss what sort of schooling the kids will have year to year.

With my older kids during homeschooling.....dh & I developed our own curriculum based on The Well Trained Mind, State Guidelines and family whims!

My boys that are school age are homeschooled, and the others will be, if things continue as planned. We use a variety of things, finally landing on Tapestry of Grace for our skeleton this year, building the other subjects around it.

I try to be relaxed with the younger set, mainly teaching them to read so they can delve into other interests by reading.

Josh will be 15y in a few weeks and he has always homeschooled. For the last few years we have been unschooling.

He does a education computer program in the morning, and works on designing computer games for the rest of the day.

He has no interest in going to an actual school, and is currently looking into online colleges.

I have been reading about different approaches, intrigued by some, loving others, doing unit studies when we are interested, doing workbook style thing when we are not. . .

I actually sat down with my oldest dd the other night and we made a list of all of the things she feels that she has learned this first year od "school". Funny thing? the things she learned on her own outnumbered the things I taught her 2 to 1. I was teaching her how to add single digit numbers, she told me that she can add double digits and do some light multiplication. . .

So she and I decided on a "guided unschooling" aproach for the rest of the year. I gave her a list of what I expect a first grader to have mastered, she can decide when and how to work on things, and I am always available to help with a project, drive to the library, or just talk. I can't wait to see how this unfolds. . . I think it's gonna be a wild ride!

We homeschool.

DD just turned 4 years old and we are almost done with the Kindergarden material. LOL We unschool. What ever is her passion at the time, we immerse ourselves in the subject. Right now, it's Mermaids, Selkies, Native Americans, volcanos, and Magic Tree House books. LOL

My dh tends to get a little worried sometimes that we should be more stuctured. But, I like the freedom of unschooling. At least for right now. Plus, it's working out great with dd. She's thriving on it.

As for additional things, my dd has been riding horses for almost a year, so that's a big part of our time. We also visit the library 2-3 times a week, go to preschool story time, and rotate other classes in and out of our schedule (Kindermusik, Gymnastics, Yoga, etc). We also have a homeschool play group that meets once a week and does group trips together. Whew, that sounds like a lot! LOL Now, I'm tired just typing all that.

Anyway, we love homeschooling and hope to continue through my dd's entire education.

We homeschool too!

Our style is pretty Waldorf inspired. We're using Sonlight this year but are planning to switch to Oak Meadow for next year.

We are in our second year of homeschooling, and have been unschooling since April. At first we worked on unit studies I designed. Megan would pick the unit. I'd get excited and get 20 library books on the subject, and surf the web picking up project ideas--basically, I did a GREAT job at killing Megan's interest, lol.
Now that she is unschooling, I am just AMAZED at how long she is sticking with subjects that she's interested in. When we are at the library, she really makes the librarian WORK for her, running around until the perfect book is discovered. Megan really knows what she needs to do to learn what she wants to know!
It's a great ride, and we are loving it! We can't wait to see how Henry's journey unfolds, as, unlike his sister, he will never go to school.

We're homeschooling starting next fall. We're going to start with the classical approach described in The Well Trained Mind.

We homeschool, or rather PLAN on homeschooling as we haven't officially started anything

Ds just turned 4 and we still don't have any sort of "structure". Now that I see others' posts, I'm worried that we should. He's not even technically old enough for preschool in the school system until this fall, so I really haven't been too concerned about schooling. We DO, however, belong to a local group of moms, most of who homeschool and we just started a preschool co-op, so that should add some structure. We do stuff at home, but nothing sit-down-and-learn-this-now type stuff. He just talks alot about "Did you know that tree starts with P ??" LOL which shows me that he's interested at least.

Dd just turned 2 and we're pretty much doing the same thing with her as we have done with ds.

I don't have any intentions of sending either one of them to school at least for a few years (or maybe longer, who knows).

Wow......how did you all get started? I have NO idea how to do this (this meaning teaching my daughter at home). My son was in daycare when he was her age. They taught him colors, numbers, letters, songs, how to color, etc. I must REALLLLLY suck at this. Maddie knows her colors. She can SAY her letters and numbers, but she doesn't recognize them. She doesn't count on the one-to-one basis (meaning.....one, two, three....while pointing at specific items). Ken and I both have been mentioning that she doesn't know a lot of what Harrison did when he was her age. It's not fair to compare. She's VERY smart and is a sponge. But I just don't know where to start. I don't know how to teach letters. I read when I was three.

PLEASE!!!!!!!!! Help me!!!!!!!

what a great group of mamas!!! now ya'll get on over to the Alternative Learning board here @ AW & let's expound more there!!~ LOL!!


ds is 4 & very bright...he is learning to read, knows his #s , letters, colors,etc.... i'd love a structured curriculum, to keep myself on track...lol, but really feel like we are leaning towards unschooling... ds his very creative & asks many questions...we then explore what his intersts are.

i finally found a HS group here in my town..although they are pretty christian & i am not sure how much religion i want in his education, kwim?


dd is almost 14m so she just loves to be read to...LOL!~

i'd love to see everyone in the AL forum...!!~ :)

i am going to post over at AL now!

see you there :)

t

we are homeschooling.

Austin (6 - would be in 1st grade) and Nathan(5 - would be starting K next school year) are both doing mainly 1st grade work. This is what we use, mainly:

Five in a Row (loosly) (A & N)
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (N)
Dr. Seuss books, when they are ready (A)
Saxon Math 1(changing this soon, though) (A & N)
Complete Book of Science gr 1-2 (from Sam's Club!) (A &N)
Draw Write Now (A & N)
What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know
and
books, books, books, books, books, books

On really nice days they play outside. :-) Sometimes they do computer games or do things at pbskids.org.

I woudl say that we are more de-schooling Austin, because he was really turned off to doing 'work' in Kindergarten! We follow what they are ready for, and try to find ways to make them interested. We got them a Math Blaster for Christmas and that has helped Austin sooooo much - he hated worksheets. Sooo... we're doing the Math Blaster for him to do addition and subtraction on now. For telling time, he has been using his new watch and is really getting telling time by the 5 minutes. :-) This also helped him learn to count by 5's.

We have lots of resources in our house, and do them as we see needed or as the kids want. Sometimes we do structured things, but more often it's through play. :-)

Mix of curriculum~ we are big in girl scouts, karate, church, 4-H (doing a big project on feeding/housing wild birds this year) and the support group. Jessi is in grade K but almost finished with first grade material and ALex is in 2nd and in that grades material (she's more of an artsy type).

I do think that the alternate learning board should be a bit more lively. I just thought this would be a nice way to kind of jump start everything : )

This is our 5th year of home schooling and we have certainly tried many different approaches throughout our journey ... The few things that have been consistent each year is that we do not use any text books (boring!)..and we don't test...

My oldest two sons are completely different..

Taylor (13) loves to read and his hs days are filled with reading good, whole, living books! He then writes a one page essay each day on the topic of his choice (usually regards history, particularly war history, since this is his passion..He hopes to be a History Professor) He uses Saxon Math. Keaton dislikes reading and is a visual learning..He also reads, but learns more from hands-on activities. We are still experimenting with different math programs since he hates math! Jack is 4 and we are doing a Charlotte Mason approach with him ... lots of reading books, craft projects, and time outdoors.

Taylor and Keaton have been getting a little bored with our "routine" and have expressed a desire to have a little more "fun"..Last year I was introduced to a wonderful unit study program called Learning Adventures..It is history based and incorporates every subject except for math. We will be beginning the program next week. I spent a lot of time researching the program before ordering.. and after spending weeks with their yahoo group and "talking" to so many moms who have been looking for a way to introduce some excitement and fun into their homelearning... I am confident that this will be a wonderful change for the boys....and for me as well. The program involves reading books that we will choose from our library and also incorporates tons of hands-on activities that we can pick and choose as we see fit ..and as time allows . The program is adaptable for all grade levels and is extremely affordable.. I know I probably sound like a spokesperson for Learning Adventures.. We are all just really excited about it. I have been needing to bring a little more structure into our home learning.. especially with a 25 month old to care for and also expecting a new baby in March.. We are also planning to get more involved in outside activities this year..i.e. homeschool groups, 4-H, music.. .. so having more of a structured routine will allow us to better schedule our time for such activities........

What a great thread!

We're seriously considering it. I see so much here I've never heard of, guess it's time to join the new library and hit the books again!

jessica

We homeschool, mostly unschooling, but dh got frustrated with that. lol He needs to see more structure.
We have a loose schedule. I have a 2 1/2 hour schedule that I try to follow three days a week. We have reading time, writing time and math. time. I call them learning blocks. Dh is in charge of teaching math. Right now he's using a big abacus (love Ikea!) to help him get the concepts.

That's about it for us. :) The rest of the time we learn by playing, exploring, and making things.

bumping for the evening crowd : D

We HS our seven year old using Miquon Math but really we also have her in enrichment classes held through the school district. She goes as much (well at most 3 days a week) or as little as she wants. We do 2x a week and it is WONDERFUL! Very lucky to have this program! they do mostly hands on things like festivals, crafts and they even did a hey ride where they pretended to be traveling to the west (this was after they read Little House On the prairie).

Ugh, I still havent decided what we are going to do. I didnt put Sarah in preschool this year. But she gets Music and gymnastiics, library and when there is a arts and crafts going on somewhere we go to that.

Mostly I play games with her, candy land, monoply junior, memory, and jigsaw puzzles, have pretend play with puppets. She can spell her name, count to 25, add and subtract simple numbers, 2+2=4. 5-2=3 etc.. SO I am thinking we are homeschooling to a certian degree. We also read books. And she tell me the letters and then we sound out the words.

I would love to hear some curriculums ( bad spelling). I still dont know if I am going to put her in preschool next year. Everyone around here says I should, but I am not convinced. Annd if she goes to preschool she has to give up her other activities she loves so much.

Well, i will definately be paying attention to this thread for ideas. .:)

Denise
http://www.TwiddleBritches.com

We have a unique situation. Keep in mind, I am in a very rural area so I don't have the opportunities that city dwellers have.

We have a local homeschool charter school. The classes are merely social and enrichment classes. All education is left up to the parent. The beauty of this situation is the charter was designed for maximum benefit and minimal accountability. IOW-I have absolute freedom of choice for homeschooling my K-student. Many charters are not like this.

I use mainly an unschooling approach. Right now Ds is on a reading frenzy so we are focusing on that. However, I don't school every day. This does concern my dh, but he is a worry wort about education! LOL

Curriculum I have and DON"T use is:

Phonics Pathways
Saxon Math (about a grade level behind)


What I DO use:
Handwriting without tears (sporadically as his desire is sparked)
Index cards (for everything)
Some computer games appropriate for his age (sparingly)
Answering a million questions
Worksheet books because he loves to do worksheets.
Real items from life (money, shopping lists, etc...)

In his charter school he has the following enrichment classes (attendance is optional)

Drama
Literacy Club (story time for older kids)
Gardening
Math/Science workshop (hands on activites)
Art
PE (group games with kids his age)

All of his enrichment classes are with K-3rd or 4th grade. I love the mixed ages.

My 4th grader has been homeschooled since kindergarten using (mostly) the ABeka curriculum. We like it, but do not use it exclusively. MY 5 year old is doing a bit of unschooling, teaching herself letters and numbers. I don't feel she is ready for formal schooling yet, especially phonics.

We live in China, so we have lots of freedom homeschooling... no one is keeping track of us! We last lived in Kansas, though we call Nebraska home now. It is nice not to have to deal with reporting and regulations.

Plan to homeschool 3 year old dd and baby due in 2 mos as they grow.
:)
Serena

Homeschooling here too!

I pulled my 10 year old son from pvt school last year....and never looked back! Wooo Hoooo!

So I "teach" a 10 year old, 6 year old and 2 year old. Oh and we've added a puppy to the mix, just to keep it extra lively!

We had to detox my oldest for almost 6 months. That was painful but worth it. Now, we mostly follow an unschooling approach with the exception of math and grammar. I'm more comfortable following a math book because I don't want to miss ANY of the fundamentals. I use a grammar book because I'm a Scandinavian from Minnesota and we dangle our prepositions. :)

Katie

Tara started a new thread over in the A.L. board at http://www.amitymama.com/vb/newreply.php?s=&action=newreply&threadid=68396

Wow! Homeschooling in CHINA. I would love to get Annabelle out of this country. Chinatown in SF is actually fairly close, though.

homeschool here too;
nak..
we use sonlight and love it.
we use saxon and math steps for math
handwriting without tears
exploring creation for science.
the kids 13,11 &7 all attend enrichment classes at the charter school...
chemistry, oceanography, river cutters, garden & drama club, cooking and art.
they also take ice skating lessons and are involved in 4H
whew, reading that made me tired... i love homeschooling though sometimes i want to send them away for the day on that yellow bus :beep beep:

Originally posted by ^i^Katie^i^
I use a grammar book because I'm a Scandinavian from Minnesota and we dangle our prepositions. :)

*snort*

I listen to way to much NPR and have spent too much time in MN.

(I'm a closeted Dane)

We hs, too! I think my philosophy of hsing post is still on Alt Learning.:)

I hsed my stepson for 7th, 8th and half of 9th grade but then his mom wanted him back in school.

With my own kids (7,5,3 and 13 mos), I practice what my sis calls "organic learning." (((((

We have Math U See, which is EXCELLENT but the kids whiz through pretty fast so we only get it out now and then and then cement the concepts by talking about them and playing with them as they arise in daily life. Other than that we keep the TV off most of the time, read a lot, do crafts, play, bake, write stories, and live life.

I do teach reading as early as there's an interest. My oldest was fluent at 3 and has taught herself TONS. My 2nd is gifted physically, but has hit the snowball stage in reading and has finally begun to really enjoy it. My 3 yo has no attention span for sitting and looking at words, but loves to be read to and to try to read books back to me. He also likes to play Word Rescue (free dowload game) and can read several words from that. I've learned from having several kids that they are all different learners and you have to expect different things and do what is FUN and what suits them, not just what you think should work! :)

Anyway, once they're reading it's a cinch because they follow their interests with unbridled passion and teach themselves more than I ever could!

We started out very much school at home. My kids and I burned out. We now unschool. The girls are involved in Brownies too and that takes time. I have some basket ball players too and computer users. We have at least 50 computer games and tons of board games. They read all the time and learn about whatever interests them. I have seen more growth in their learning since doing that then any other method we have used.

we homeschool!:thumbsup:
we use our own curriculum and follow a faith based curriculum (i.e. 1 little 2 little 3 little witches ...) HTH!

2nd year homeschooling my oldest dd, but first year homeschooling the whole crew! We follow a classical approach (The Well Trained Mind).

Wow, there are a lot of people using WTM! WAHOO!

Originally posted by ESMcKeeman
Wow, there are a lot of people using WTM! WAHOO!

Sorry I didn't check all the replies but where I cann see more about this?

ITA :)

About "The Well Trained Mind"? Well, there is www.welltrainedmind.com and the book. I have it and would be happy to let you thumb through it when you come up for tea ; )

Originally posted by ESMcKeeman
About "The Well Trained Mind"? Well, there is www.welltrainedmind.com and the book. I have it and would be happy to let you thumb through it when you come up for tea ; )

Deal! LOL! As long as you know I have no clue what it is :p
So Friday it is :)

I was homeschooled along with my sisters, and so was dh with his siblings, and now we are hs'ing our own...I can't pinpoint exactly for how long, since we have been teaching since th beginning, but the oldest, Suki, is 8.

I was mostly unschooled, but dh's family did relaxed homeschooling, which makes for a bit of questioning when they try to figure out what the kids are doing for school. They are totally supportive of homeschooling, but I would be surprised if they ever really heard about unschooling.

My kids both have very strong wills, and it can really make life and learning miserable if I try to sit them down and say"this is what we are learning now". So I find unschooling to work perfectly. They, and everybody else, it seems, think they do little to no school, and yet they are pretty much on par or above for their ages (oh, wow, what a surprise..the kids are actually learning something, even though I never do any school with them :rolleyes: )

We use workbooks, but only when the mood strikes, though I do try to make sure they follow through and finish a page if we start it, I have ten million books on every subject under the sun, we have videos, we talk to people in many different fields, and play a million educational computer games. Suki is way above her age level for reading, and Kalki is a bit below, just because he has very little interest in that kind of stuff. I think he is turning out to be a whole word learner, though. And he is learning the alphabet, the sounds of the alphabet, and phonics, all in one go, because he feels like it now. (I would be very interested in the downloadable word game mentioned earlier...Candace?)

For math, Suki is on par, and Kalki is below, though, because he has zero interest in it. He can manipulate professional 3D graphics programs, though, and find his way around any computer(on a basic level, of course. He IS only five!) The only reason we aren't going to him for tech advice is because he can't read! LOL

We will never do "real" school, though vocational school might happen if they decide they want to learn something that would be best learnt in a classroom setting (even I am going to be doing THAT! When the kids are old enough, I finally decided what I want to be when I grow up! LOL I want to take a professional grade dressmakers course. After the kids are older, though..I don't want to be trying to take care of little kids, and go to school...ick)

Well, that turned into an epic! LOL

I have always home schooled. Grace is in first grade this year (a year ahead of where she would be), Daryn is doing Kindergarten level work and Josie does her letters and numbers in her little workbook so I guess she's at preschool level.
I'm not sure what "style" we use. I buy the school books that I think will help the children learn the best, we do them every day at the same time, and that's it. I don't use any one particular curriculum because I found that I like bits of this company, bits of that one, so we have a mix of books here.
DH was home schooled all his life and I was home schooled from 4th grade till I graduated at 16 years old.

Originally posted by ESMcKeeman
So who all here homeschools, and why style or system do you use?

I just thought a little chit-chat amongst all the sales would be grand.

Annabelle is almost two and a half and we have been doing Waldorf for a long time. I just checked out "The Well Trained Mind" and that system seems better for Annabelle since she looks like she'll be an early reader. I'm trying to mesh the two so that it's a bit of both. We'll be doing the corse they have laid out with a bit of Charlotte Mason and a whole lot of handicrafts thrown in.

Currently it's just learning all the upper case letters, which she knows most of. There is lots of free play and going out of the house to the park. I try and stick to a rhythm as much as I can, and we do a circle time.

Hi mama :)

We homeschool one. When we homeschooled everyone, we used Waldforf inspired methods and our "gut". *lol*

Right now we only have one homeschooling and she homeschools some years and is in public school other years. (depends on her health)

Since she floats back and forth, we use a curriculum that I put together from a variety of places to make sure she can easily move back and forth between home and public school.

Saxon math is hands down the best....for homeschools and public schools. (strong opinions on math from this mama *lol*)

Beyond that, I just go with the program that fits the learner.

So.....I'm not sure if I'd be shunned by other homeschooling mamas since I am not homeschooling all of ours and for the reasons most homeschool in the first place.

Hugs,

Michelle

Here's the game:

http://www.free-games-net.com/games/wordresc.shtml


They also make Math Rescue. The game has worked on everything except Windows XP for me. If you buy the CD it has word rescue 1,2, 3 and Math rescue 1,2, 3.

Michelle, I don' think you'll be shunned, LOL! :) I agree that Saxon is very good, but since I discovered Math U See, I now prefer that. Before finding MUS I was a staunch admirer of Saxon. I've since learned that different kids respond better to different methods. Surprise!;) Saxon helped my stepson tremendously but I wish I'd known about MUS because though he learned to manipulate #s when he knew "what kind" of question it was, he never really understood why. That makes real life application more difficult, so if this sounds familiar to anyone, they might want to look at MUS. But Saxon and homeschooling did take him from placing in the 12th %ile (from the bottom) on a National achievement test in 6th grade PS to getting 58/60 on an Algebra placement test when his mom went to re-enroll him in school, so I'm very happy about that! :)

This is our first year homeschooling our oldest , Alexxus. She is 5 1/2 and is doing great with her kindergarten. We are planning to use sonlight for her next grade level...for now we are doing a mixture of unschooling, following her lead and doing lots of simple worksheets, some computer educational games..etc. We started her a year early with school, she wasn't suppose to start traditonal Public school till next school year, but she was ready to go now so we went ahead. She has mastered everything needed to read and she can already read a bit with some help..so I think she is doing awesome! I am so glad we are homeschooling her..we will continue till she is finsihed with high school levels.

Max is four and we're going to try a little more strcture starting next month (madness has prevailed since the baby -- who is helping me type, bear with me...)


He just started soccer and will be joing the local homeschool group once a week for science and music enrichment.

We are about to try a a packet from MotherGoose Time, just to cut down on my prep time and because he's really gwtting into doing "projects".

We are also workinf on phonics and addition and subraction -- because he wants to.

EMily and squallin' harlan

Homeschooling a 9yo, 7yo, 5yo "formally" and Cam (4) just follows along:) Hailey (2) prefers to color all over my table:D

We are using Sonlight very loosely and pretty eclectic for everything.

Homeschoolers here, too.

We're using Beyond Five in a Row for oldest dd and FIAR for younger dd. We don't follow it very closely. We also use Miquon Math and Handwriting Without Tears.

I think we'll use Ambleside Online next year -- it's Charlotte Mason. And if we're going to use her approach, I think it's high time I learned how to spell her name. ;)

Homeschoolers here, too.

We're using Beyond Five in a Row for oldest dd and FIAR for younger dd. We don't follow it very closely. We also use Miquon Math and Handwriting Without Tears.

I think we'll use Ambleside Online next year -- it's Charlotte Mason. And if we're going to use her approach, I think it's high time I learned how to spell her name. ;)

We homeschool :D Bryce is 6 1/2 and in first grade. We do Sonlight. It's not working quite as well as it did last year....

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with him. He tends to be a difficult child.

And while I love the flexability that hsing gives us, I do think that there needs to be some work done whether he likes it or not....

Wahoo! We broke the two page mark!

We homeschool here too! We've been doing Waldorf here since she was born, but I was very sparked by your original post a bit ago about WTM, Elizabeth (which I had been told was very Christian- so I'd never read it) Anyway, I've now read the book and we just started Phonic Pathways since Sage has already known her letters for a while and ask so many questions.
It's been difficult to figure out my feelings about using *any* ciriculum, since I'd never planned to do so, but Sage is very into structure and order.
So, THANK YOU, Elizabeth! You have had a profound effect on the lives of this little family.

See you all over in the AL forum :)

I'm doing a bump. This post has SO much great information!!!!!!!!!!

I'm bumping this because it took me a long time to FIND this post. THANKS!

Thanks Missy! Seems there are as many ways to hs as there are kids who do it :)

This will be my frist year homeschooling Karinna. We tried to put her in kindergarten but she missed the birthday deadline by 19 days. So we'll be using Oak Meadow's first grade cirriculum (since K already reads and does math) and Muzzy for Spanish.

Wow I did not realize there were so many homeschoolers here at Amitys. We have been homeschooling for the past 4 yrs My son age 8 currently doing second grade work. Proud to say we are skipping 3rd grade and going into the 4th this fall with him. He reads on a 12 grade level. My daughter age 5 has been reading for over a yr now. I tried the Core knowledge series and didn't realy like it that much.So I switched to School at home grade 2 I really like this as it gives us some structure. Since it tells you what to do for every subject. So far all I use it for is to give me an idea of what we should be covering every day.I guess we pretty much unschool here and take a lax approach. I am not worried about their education at all. They are voracious readers imo you can learn anything as long as you can read. They are extremely inteligent children. Bragging rights here. lol. My son could tell you anything you could ever want to know about dinosaurs,cats,birds,fishing, cooking,snakes,etc... I could go on and on. Whenever he is interested in something he dives right in. I take him to the library and get every book and video we can on the subject. He will read and watch them over and over until he has memorized everything. His last passsion was cooking. He would watch the cooking shows on pbs on saturdays. He makes better lasagne than I do now.So I guess you could say we also do unit study. A mix of school methods for us. So far the only thing I am doing with my daughter is using the book teach your child to read in a 100 easy lessons. Wich we have kinda stopped using because by lesson 50 she figured out how to read. She just turned 5 So I haven't really focused on anything else for her. She actually knows everything her brother does because she is right there with him learning as he does. Wow that was a mouthful for me. Sorry ladies I get really excited when I get to talk about their education.

Tayzah

I'm glad you bumped this Missy :)

We're a homeschooling family too. We lean toward unschooling, but I don't consider us complete unschoolers - somewhere in the middle, like lots of homeschoolers ;) We're a second generation homeschooling family, I was homeschooled from age seven on.

i haven't had a chance to read all the posts yet, but Noah's almost 9 months old and we're unschooling :)

I'm posting over in the AL forum! See ya there!

Originally posted by harvestgirl
i finally found a HS group here in my town..although they are pretty christian & i am not sure how much religion i want in his education, kwim?

It's funny you said that, Nicole...This is exactly the way *I* feel about my kids going to PUBLIC SCHOOL, lol
The Christianity is practically SHOVED down their throats, and it makes me cringe-literally.

Wow, some of these comments really make a Christian feel welcomed in this thread :( We homeschool. This year we are using Camrose Academy as an outline of what to do, when. www.camroseacademy.com

Next year, I plan on using TWTM as well. I got the book for $5. The only drawback is that the last chapter is printed first, but for $5 I can skip pages.