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 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).
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Shannon- mama to JJ, Janae and Peyton
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!!!!!!!
__________________ Missy
Live in such a way that if anyone should speak badly of you, no one would believe it.
Location: and it's one time keep it slow wind them up & here we go
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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!~
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. :-)
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Heather Mitchell
Recycle small electronics safely & help get supplies to an Ethiopian orphanage! Contact me for information about how YOU can help.
cell phones, MP3 players, iPods, handheld game systems, ink jet cartridges, etc.
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).
__________________ Mommy to girls Alex, Jessi,Andi,Mikki and our boy Zak!
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........
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.
Location: Right where I wanna be- south bay area of sunny CA
Posts: 13,655
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).
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KD
newly single mom to three awesome kids
Military wife of a deployed soldier. 
Mommy to girls Alex, Jessi,Andi,Mikki and our boy Zak!
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