Homeschooling help

alex76

I am unexpectedly going to be homeschooling my 7 year old after an awful incident at her school. How do you pick a curriculum? Where is a good place to look for info? I am so lost. We have the option of using a charter school homeschool program, but I really don't care for Common Core. Is it better to go with a school rather than do everything yourself? Any help is so appreciated.

Shanny

We started home schooling with my 7 year old this year as well. First thing I would suggest is to watch the documentary "Class Dismissed". It's available to rent on Amazon Prime for $3.00. I saw it a few weeks into the school year and I wish I would have seen it before we started, but it was still incredibly helpful. Then I would try and find local groups in your area (via Facebook, meet up.com etc). That's a huge help. Like I said, we are very new to all of this but I'd be happy to answer anything I might be able to help with.

Also, best decision ever....enjoy!

Yankeebratt

I have been homeschooling my 18 yr. old since he was in first grade, and have never regretted it. Choosing a curriculum felt impossible at first, and we have tried several, but you will find the one that best suits your family. We tried Abeka first and it was just too rigid for our liking. We then tried Sonlight and LOVED it. As he got older and more capable of handling alot of the workload on his own, I found that using an online curriculum made both of our lives easier, so we are currently finishing up his senior yr. with Monarch by Alpha and Omega. It all really does depend on how your child learns.
One curriculum I will suggest you atleast try is Math-U-See. This is THE BEST math curriculum there is in my opinion, and my son loves it too. Each level comes with an instructional video that helps alot. It also comes with manipulatives, which we loved in the early yrs. I honestly can't say enough about this curriculum. I have always watched the videos with my son, which is almost a must in the higher levels...unless you have great working knowledge of calculus! I believe they now have a spelling curriculum too.
One last thing, it is extremely easy to fall behind when you are homeschooling. Life happens and it is too easy to say "we have to do this today, so we will make up school on Sat." and then something happens on Sat. and soon you find yourself scrambling to catch up. My advice is to set a schedule and stick to it no matter what happens.
Good luck, and have fun with it, it is difficult at times, but so worth it.

alex76

Thank you both for your replies. We're slowly figuring things out. I actually feel pretty excited about it at this point.

old mama

I started homeschooling my son last Oct. after some medical issues and am continuing it this year. Money was a huge issue for us as it was unexpected. I didn't have money for an on-line program or anything but I needed to set it up fast. I bought second hand texts books on line to meet our State's requirements which for us in Nebraska as Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Health and Science. I planned to do something more formal this year but again just bought second hand books. Homeschooling has worked great. Our days are more relaxed. We can incorporate errands and make them educational and count them as hrs. If he is ill we can just skip that day knowing it is easy to make the hrs. up when others are on vacation. If we want to stop and study a subject we can. After raising 19 children and getting kids off and ready to school and dealing with peer pressure and stress and all the other garbage kids have to deal with in public school homeschooling is the best decision I ever made.

hopeful2016

I homeschool my 9 year old daughter. I use an online program through connections academy. For me it was easier if I was a learning coach and she had actual teachers even though they are lower michigan. Local school considers what we do as homeschooling. Connections is free in our state thankfully or I would have been lost in finding out what I had to do. I couldn't have her in the local school anymore. I was used to my children being in great schools and with both the older kids getting bullied and the curriculum being horrible here I pulled her out before 3rd grade. My son decided to stay in for his senior year. My oldest daughter left for Job Corp when she was 16 because of the bulling at this school. She graduated in their business class and high school last year. She now has a 6 month old and is pregnant with her second. I love homeschooling.

TheOtherLovingMoms

hopeful2016 wrote:

I homeschool my 9 year old daughter. I use an online program through connections academy. For me it was easier if I was a learning coach and she had actual teachers even though they are lower michigan. Local school considers what we do as homeschooling. Connections is free in our state thankfully or I would have been lost in finding out what I had to do. I couldn't have her in the local school anymore. I was used to my children being in great schools and with both the older kids getting bullied and the curriculum being horrible here I pulled her out before 3rd grade. My son decided to stay in for his senior year. My oldest daughter left for Job Corp when she was 16 because of the bulling at this school. She graduated in their business class and high school last year. She now has a 6 month old and is pregnant with her second. I love homeschooling.

We use connections academy also. We are homeschooling 3 of our grands. Our son graduated from connections 3 years ago.

OneSmallStep

I need to update my signature but we now have 3 older children we are adopting. We have been allowed (since they are still in foster care) to homeschool them for 11 months now. They have really blossomed. My wife is a school teacher but we still feel homeschool has been the best thing for them. We are currently using a mix of things for curriculum. We are looking around at the options available pre-made since I'm homeschooling 4 kids (10, 8, 7, and 4) I am interested in making it easier on myself lol.