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 )
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)
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.
__________________
Erin
Mama to 4 High-Energy Kids
Grace (9)
Daryn (7 1/2)
Josie (6)
Alena(2 1/2)
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.
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!
__________________
Candace: Mama to Mollusc, Sluggie, Fishy, and the homebirthed Prawn!
P0F4X0
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.
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.
__________________
Kelli
wife to my career Army soldier
mothering 2 girls & 5 boys
"From a biological perspective, the ultimate act of failure is to raise helpless kids." -- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
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 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
__________________
formerly known as sagemama
Sage Emma 10-21-99
Torin Rory 05-05-02
Rhys Maryn 11-15-04
MacEwan Arthur 05-23-2007
)
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! 
We are homeschooling!
Linear Mode
