Entering the world of homeschooling

[firstbaby]

we've decided to homeschool my older DS next year for K. We're in Virginia and I don't know where to begin!!! What do I need to know? What resources should I check out? I've read in admiration what the homeschooling mamas here have shared :) I am a fairly organized person but also have a 3 year old so I'm worried about getting off track. Any tips / resources / advice? Feel free to PM me if you are more comfortable with that! TIA!

[brittone2]

I'm not sure exactly what kind of info you are looking for.

I'd start with familiarizing yourself with the law in your state if you haven't already. That is always a good place to begin. In some states you don't register with the state until a certain age, in other states you don't register with the state at all. It really varies.

Have you read any books? Are you leaning toward a particular philosophy? Are you thinking "school at home" or more "child-lead" or are you unsure?

A great treasure trove of info is this site:
http://www.besthomeschooling.org/

Some great articles on relaxing and enjoying the journey and not getting too hung up on trying to replicate school at home, as well as links to all kinds of fabulous resources.

eta: congratulations on your decision...enjoy the journey :)

[egoldber]

This site is informative:

http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/

By VA law, your child does not need to register for school until the year they turn 6 by September 30th, so I wouldn't even worry about registering for K.

There are several VA homeschooling Yahoo groups that you may want to join.

My older DD is in public school in FCPS, but I've looked into homeschooling a lot. I keep it in my back pocket as a fallback if I need it.


but also have a 3 year old so I'm worried about getting off track

I seriously wouldn't worry. I have read that in school they only spend about 2-3 hours a day on actual instruction and your child will get significantly less one on one time than that.

[AngelaS]

http://www.hslda.org is a good site to read about the laws of your state and possibly find homeschool groups near you as well. :)

Feel free to PM if you have questions. :) We loosely follow The Well Trained Mind and are in our 6th year. :)

[alexsmommy]

http://www.hslda.org is a good site to read about the laws of your state and possibly find homeschool groups near you as well. :)

Feel free to PM if you have questions. :) We loosely follow The Well Trained Mind and are in our 6th year. :)

Not to hijack but...Angela,
I am going to pm you one of these days, but do you have any "real world math" suggestions? I feel like I always felt like I was not good at math because is was so abstract to me. I'd like to supplement the kids school math with something at home that makes it more real and concrete in an effort to avoid the same disconnect I felt.
I know there is NOTHING about my personality that lends itself to homeschooling - though I think it is a great alternative for many families. Yet, I keep reading about all this great homeschool hand on stuff that I wish my kids were getting in school. I am going to start some type of history stuff with DS1 this summer because he is so into geography and I truly believe you should grab a kid when his attention is naturally into something and teach. Luckily, my mother was a history major and my father minored in it so they will eat it up if I bring over a curriculum to work on with DS1 on they days they watch him.

OP - good luck! Seriously, I volunteer in DS1's half-day kindergarten room and actual instruction time is not that much. She instucts, then gives a related activity, and helps the kids work on it. I think he has an outstanding teacher and has learned a ton this year in spite of the reality of the actual instruction time. I can't imagine your three year old will interfere with what you need to cover.

[brittone2]

nak-
I'm not Angela, but you may be interested in manipulatives for math. Math U See is one program that uses a lot of manipulatives, but you can also just play with them without a "curriculum" built around them. Cuisinaire rods, tangrams, geometric solids, an abacus, a base 10 set, snap cubes, pattern blocks, etc. are all great and can build solid foundations. I just picked up some books by the Cuisinaire company at my DH's university library recently...they show a bunch of hands on activities for the different types of manipulatives (there's one book on pattern blocks, on one cusinaire rods, one on snap cubes, etc.) and they talk through the different concepts that you can show w/ these manipulatives.

DS enjoys the Story of the World series for history (we just use the CDs). It is definitely a slight Christian slant (which may or may not be a problem for your family; also, it isn't as obvious of a slant as some other curricula, so your feelings may vary on that one...) but you can definitely balance it out to give a more broad view. History Odyssey gets good reviews too.

[KBecks]

I am reading a good book, Homeschooling our children, unschooling ourselves, by Alison McKee. Very good so far. I don't know if we will HS or not, my DH prefers traditional school, I love an individual approach but don't know if I'm right for it.

[alexsmommy]

nak-
I'm not Angela, but you may be interested in manipulatives for math. Math U See is one program that uses a lot of manipulatives, but you can also just play with them without a "curriculum" built around them. Cuisinaire rods, tangrams, geometric solids, an abacus, a base 10 set, snap cubes, pattern blocks, etc. are all great and can build solid foundations. I just picked up some books by the Cuisinaire company at my DH's university library recently...they show a bunch of hands on activities for the different types of manipulatives (there's one book on pattern blocks, on one cusinaire rods, one on snap cubes, etc.) and they talk through the different concepts that you can show w/ these manipulatives.

DS enjoys the Story of the World series for history (we just use the CDs). It is definitely a slight Christian slant (which may or may not be a problem for your family; also, it isn't as obvious of a slant as some other curricula, so your feelings may vary on that one...) but you can definitely balance it out to give a more broad view. History Odyssey gets good reviews too.

Thanks! This sounds like what I am looking for on both fronts. I have read several homeschooling blogs that also recommend the Story of the World so I'll look into those CD's as well. We'll just "balance it out" like you said.

[firstbaby]

Thanks for the replies so far! Very helpful!

The child lead philosophy appeals to me. DS is a very interested / motivated learner. He could sit for hours last year and print letters, wanted to know how letters made words, loves to sit and cut paper, etc. He loves all kinds of learning games and just enjoys new things. When he asks me questions that I don't have a good answer to on the spot, we write it down to later look it up together.

From recommendations on this board, I have How Children Fail and Teach Me to Do It Myself, and the new edition of the Well Trained mind is on order in terms of books. Now I need to make the time to read them, LOL. I am also interested in picking up Before Five in Row, but haven't gotten to it yet.

DH is on board with HS'ing K but not enthused about continuing beyond that. I really feel like I can offer DS so much and would love the experience of HS'ing. So, I am very motivated for this to go well! I currently WAH and plan to really cut back my work commitments/hours to make the HS'ing commitment and I think that scares DH, too.

I would love any other suggestions, comments, resources, etc. Thanks again SO MUCH!

[brittone2]

John Holt has some great books. Just as a disclaimer though, I love the book How Children Fail (and also How Children Learn, Teach Your Own, etc.), but his notions on special needs/differently-abled kids are pretty terrible. He was a product of his times though...he wrote many of his books decades ago, kwim? So I try take the good and leave the bad behind, kwim? I just thought I'd mention that since I really enjoy a lot of Holt's books, but his comments on special needs children etc. are pretty terrible (sadly). I've recommended his stuff here before but just want to make clear I totally disagree with him on many of his comments about special needs children, but I think he has some fascinating observations that makes his books worth reading. He wrote How Children Fail in the 60s I think, so that explains some of his thinking I guess.

John Taylor Gatto has some good ones...Dumbing Us Down was one of his interesting and more readable books.

My DS is very self-motivated and curious, and sounds a lot like your son. We do very little direct teaching, because he's learning so much with us following his lead that I am afraid to screw / that system too much LOL ;) I wouldn't classify us as 100% unschoolers, but we're definitely child-led for the most part.