As I explained in my post about how we came to our decision to homeschool, I really don't know what I'm doing. Thankfully I have some great homeschooling friends who are helping me a LOT, but you all know me, I like loads of information in front of me before I make any final decisions.
So below I'm just going to list my questions, and if you would be willing to help me out in the comments, I'd be so grateful!
In the fall we'll have a 2nd grade son, a 5th grade daughter, and an 8th grade son. (Plus our son who is going into his third year of college, but still living at home, so he'll be helping me as much as possible!)
Before I asked you my specific curriculum questions, I'll update you on what I know for sure so far…
So far I know that we'll be out of the house two days a week, one full day and one part day, and the other days we'll have our normal at-home school day schedule, which I can guarantee you will begin much later than the up-at-6:15 mornings we've got going right now. The full day will be at a school where classes are offered for homeschoolers. It's only 10 minutes from our house and full of great class options. For those in junior high or high school, they offer full classes for regular school credit if that's what you decide to do instead of your own curriculum at home. For this year anyway, I'm mainly using that day for enrichment type classes. The part-day that we'll be gone each week will be at the homeschool building on the other side of town for band. So I've mostly got all of that stuff figured out. Update: Or so I thought! Our son really wants to continue to go to band at his current school like other homeschooled kids did last year. This means driving him there five days a week… I may just do that for this upcoming year and have him in the homeschool band, too, as a way to transition him into that all of the way. We're still fuzzy on that part of the plan…
Here are my questions and where I desperately need YOUR help:
1. With the popularity of homeschooling exploding, I'm sure there are amazing online resources to find out the answers to all of these questions and more, but there are so MANY homeschool online forums and websites, how do I know which ones to utilize without getting overwhelmed with information?!
2. Can you tell me, what is your favorite curriculum? Do you put your own curriculum together or do you like to buy from somewhere with a whole kit? I've heard that Sonlight and Mother of Divine Grace (Classical curriculum) are good – I've already started reading Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum.
3. Does anyone use the Kahn Academy free curriculum? Is that just math, or more? And what ages is that geared toward? Any opinions on the Robinson Curriculum? (That guy is hard core!)
4. If I don't use a set curriculum, how do I know which topics to cover at which ages? Do I have to look at my state's requirements?
OK, I ended up with too many questions to put all in one post, because it would be a nightmare later going back to see what your specific suggestions were in the comments for each specific topic. SO now I'm breaking it down into separate pages from here on out.
For the questions above, please comment below at this post, but for these next topics, comment at the specific post for that question.
- Language Arts Advice Needed!
- Math Curriculum Advice Needed!
- History and Social studies suggestions?
- Geography and Science suggestions?
- Latin/Foreign language suggestions? The video here had me intrigued.
- Faith curriculum advice?
- Special interests, typing, iPad apps?, good computer games for learning, misc. subjects – what have I forgotten?
- Summertime help!
- Time management tips?
- Discipline, motivation, sibling issues – I would love your advice!
- Do you work at home? (Besides all the Mom or Dad stuff you do?) I need advice for this more than anything else!
- What's your best advice overall?
THANK YOU all so much for your help!
Donna says
Kelly,
I know this is a bit late but… I really DISLIKE Shurley Grammar. https://www.shurley.com/ I taught at a private school that utilized homeschooling curriculum. It is rhyme/jingle based (kids learn by memorizing jingles) but the way it is organized and presented is HORRIBLE.. Horrible to the point that not only were the kids in tears but SO WAS I!!! Later on I taught at another private school that used Abeka exclusively for 2 year olds through first grade and I loved it… We used the basic set and added a few extras (https://www.abeka.com/) you could easily go broke trying to buy all the extras but the Abeka people seem to have a handle on education.. although I did supplement from other areas and publishers.
Alexia says
contact carole joy seid. at http://www.carolejoyseid.com. i dont make a move now without her consults. she is the best on classical, charlotte mason education with an incredible literature list. she also has seminars that are great. she really simplifies the process for you. LOVE her!!
Jacqui says
https://www.lifestyleoflearning.org/
Betty says
Kelly,
Our family is in its 18th year of homeschooling. I have a college graduate, a college junior, and a high school senior.
I really like the comments made by Lara, Kymberly, and Toni:
EASE INTO IT!
All your children WILL BE different (but learn from each)
FOCUS on a few things – the rest will follow (I like Toni’s list)
My list to focus on: (after 18+ years):
1) READ the Bible (and Bible stories) with your children as a family.
2) READ ALOUD WITH your children (as a whole); it builds family time and love for literature. (I did this for many years – at least 10)
3) USE Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) – there is a huge learning curve BUT WORTH IT!!!!!! (There is a DVD set that helps you learn it – maybe you can do it with a couple of moms – taking turns babysitting and interacting with the IEW curriculum)
4) Aim to do MATH every day! (no matter what curriculum you use – see my FYI below) However, there may be lapses in this, even a week at a time. BUT MAKE IT UP IN THE SUMMER. IT”S IMPORTANT!
5) You can’t “do it all”. Seek help in the form of a FEW outside classes, co-ops, clubs: BUT HAVING SAID THAT – PLEASE MAKE some TIME TO STAY HOME, ALSO!
FYI – I am doing research on mathematical proficiency in homeschool graduates – Most of my 15 participants used Saxon (for at least 3rd -8th; even if they didn’t like it. They (the students) appreciated the discipline and rigor and repetition now. Those graduates were ALL GLAD they used it; they all scored above 600 on the Math SAT test and all were very good students who either are in college or graduated. They said they completed math in the summer, when they couldn’t get it done during the typical school year.
Our family has homeschooled for 18+ and I never used Saxon with my children. I wish that I had at least tried it after interviewing most of these students. (We used Math U See for K-8th; in 9-12th it was a combo of ABeka DVDs, VideoText, Jacobs Geometry and community college classes)
Note: One participant said that Saxon would have “killed her interest in math” and she used MATH U SEE and now she has a CHEMISTRY degree from Clemson (with high honors).
Hope this helps.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Hi Betty,
Thanks so much for all of this! Can you remind me/tell me more about Excellence in Writing (IEW)? (What ages, what type of writing is it good for teaching, etc.)
Thanks!
Kelly
Debra says
We used Robinson Curriculum for a few years and it has changed the way I homeschool. Now, although we vary a bit, I still follow that same method. I LOVE it. Simplify! We focus on the basics, and we have no tv going or videos (only as a family). Instead my kids are always reading things whenever they can. They know way more history than I do, that 2 hour reading block is priceless. I guide what they read during that time. I have always had them read a little bit in their current history book (H.A. Guerber), a litte in a science book (apologia), and then whatever book they are reading. (Henty, etc). My children are pretty well read because we make the time for reading. No boring textbooks, except math. My oldest is 15, my youngest 7.
Laurie Detweiler says
It is exciting that you are homeschooling. Classical education is amazing and it will change the way you look at education. Our four sons are grown and doing things that we never dreamed of and they all believe that it is because of their classical education. It is an education that works with children in the way that God wired them. Have you looked at Veritas Press? I am just a little biased about this curriculum, as my husband and I own the company. We offer a curriculum that is very flexible, and is set up to meet the individual needs of a child. We also offer online classes that are incredible. We have great teachers and studentsfrom all over the world. Take a look at our web site and if you have any questions please feel free tho ask.
KatieB says
We used Seton religion materials up to 8th grade, then the Didache program for high school. Our first year homeschooling, we only did Language Arts, Math and History and lots of reading aloud, as our daughter definitely needed a healing and decompressing! I found Math U See our 2nd year and it was an excellent fit—frankly the ONLY curriculum that allowed our daughter to actually get through Algebra and Geometry(not a math girl at all!). Sonlight is our hands down favorite for History and Science—we used the lit based SL science and then the Apologia. For Language Arts, I love IEW theme based books for writing, Easy Grammar, Winston Grammar and Wordly Wise. All of these particular materials are basically independent as the kids get older, which is a big plus for a working mom.
I will warn you against any Bob Jones or Abeka for history as they are quite offensively anti-Catholic. Sonlight is a Christian curriculum company, but we have never had a problem with offensive materials. I had used a few of those textbooks alongside Sonlight early on not realizing this, and my kids became quite adept at exclaiming shock and then ‘Mom, I’m not reading this because it’s anti-Catholic and not true!’. Lol!
Another reason Sonlight is my favorite is because of the schedules! It’s all there, pre-planned out for a 180 day school year. It has come to the rescue again and again, but most especially during our daughter’s health struggles. She had always gotten stomachaches, headaches, been moody and was literally ALWAYS sick. She practically didn’t finish 1st grade because of these issues. Bringing her home to homeschool starting in 3rd helped, but not totally. By 2005, her symptoms had just escalated to out of control. She was missing school days laying on the floor with stomachaches or headaches. Weeks of school missed with colds etc. she literally got an entire year behind because of this. Until we tested for Celiac in 2005. She was 100% positive. And so was the rest of the family. So began our journey of learning how to heal bodies ravaged from food. We battled with this until I found out about leaky gut and thankfully found GAPS in 2011! Well after our daughter had graduated and the bad gut bugs and wrong foods had tormented her physically, mentally and neurologically—this is where I say thank God for homeschooling. And of course that Sonlight schedule. Stopping school continually and then being able to just pick up right where she had left off was priceless. 😉
Cynthia C says
Hi, my husband just came across your blog when he was searching for a GAPS diet website. We are going to start it in a few weeks due to some very bad leaky guts in our boys.
Funny thing is, we embarked into homeschooling last school year when our triplets were starting 2nd grade and our youngest dd was going into kinder. I kind of developed my own using countless resources, Laura’s book, Designing your own Classic Curriculum to start, then read everything under the sun about Catholic homeschooling. I finally ended up using some CHC, some Classical Catholic Memory – which was awesome, started using Connecting with History, Right Start Math and various other things. We quickly discovered my oldes dd was dyslexic, so we began by hiring a Academic Language therapist to instruct us as to how to implement a program using much of the Scottish Rite program for dyslexica.
I decided to enroll and take the plug with Mother of Divine Grace this year, in order to simplify, and their new online tool will make my organization less time-intensive! Hurray! Anyway, looking forward to reading more of your blog!
Carey says
Read great literature. Here’s a fabulous resource to finding literature sorted chronologically in history: All Through the Ages by Christine Miller. The information in this book helped me form our booklist each year based on what area of history we were focusing on. Especially in the early years all you need is reading and math. Oh, and field trips!
alexia milner says
we used my fathers world for 1st grade. she was actually a kinder, but i keep her a year ahead. we loved the way mfw taught reading. this year, i am using bob jones hs books and a little of mfw. we are also doing singapore math. she takes french and goes to greek school, ballet and yoga as extra stuff. she will start her 3 year of french in the fall. i really believe language early on is a great way to get their brains to work in different ways. my three year old will use bob jones preschool curriculum. its very sweet and easy to follow. i also bought evan moore books to teach geography, maps and some history books as well. then i realized, the most important thing she needed was to read. so we concentrated on that all through spring. we also continue it thru the summer and finish up stuff we didnt complete in the school year. we do hs 3 days a week only. it takes about 2.5 hours. but 2nd grade is more self led so i wont need to sit right by her and now she is reading like a champ. i have a friend whose 5th grader is going back to hs after 5th in a private school. he hated it. so, next year he is going to do an internship at the dallas zoo one day a week because that is what he loves! my 6 year old has ulcerative colitis so we kept her home because of that and i think we will until she gets thru puberty, then put her in a college prep private school for high school. the only thing is that the day can get away from you, so be careful. thats my biggest problem. i cant do hs if the house is in a mess, so sometimes that gets me behind. but you can easily catch up. we love it. its a great lifestyle.
Kimberly says
I have homeschooled my daughter for 8 years now – 3rd through 10th and still going. For all of these years, we have done nothing more than “school at home”. I see that now, of course. But God has been working on me lately and put it into me to seek something…..more. So I have been. I am not an out-of-the-box type of person, yet I always lean toward the “path less traveled” in most things. So this discovery God has sent me on has been hard for me. Yet, I am now convinced that this path He has been trying to reveal to me, is the path we need to take. This “path” is in reference to a different way of home schooling. And I had to tell you about it because I felt convicted to and because of the 8 years I wasted with my own daughter’s life because I was ignorant to anything any different. I’ve had this desire for something more out of our lives, our way of doing homeschool for a while now. And my first insight into that “more” came from what I read in Safely Home by Tom Eldredge. More of the “more” insight came from Barb Shelton’s website http://www.homeschooloasis.com where she spoke of Lifestyle of Learning – an ideal of how homeschooling should be, from Marilyn Howshall. Teaching The Trivium, a book by the Bluedorns, website: http://www.triviumpursuit.com, is another source I gleaned from. The Bluedorns prefer a sort of reformed classical education method, but what I read in their articles “Ten Things to Do Before Age Ten” (with your child, of course), “Ten Things to Do from Ages 10-12” and so on, runs along the same vein as the other things I had begun to “see”. When I continued on with my re-organizing of some older homeschool binders (for me), I came across some more info on this same idea: Words like “Real-Life learning” and “Unschooling” were there. Some fellow mothers had given out some info on it several years ago and I kept it, but never used it because as I said, I am not an out-of-the-box type of person and I couldn’t swallow that information at that time. Something about my second child has made me relax:) Well, the final straw was in my mailbox today – the July/Aug newsletter from No Greater Joy. (I love this magazine and these people!) The very first article, entitled “Greater Expectations”, and what do you think it was about??? Real-life learning, a lifestyle of learning, un-schooling, whatever anyone wants to call it – it’s relatively the same. Whatever it is, it’s less textbook and more real-life. It’s living and learning at the same time and spending quality time with your kids. I’ts hands-on. I love the idea of it. Now I just have to make my brain wrap around living outside of the box.
Please, please check into this before you start. Not that you couldn’t switch later, but I don’t want anyone to miss out on all that homeschooling can be and was meant to be. I don’t want anyone to miss out on their kids at the price of ignorance and textbook only knowledge.
God be with you.
KitchenKop says
Thank you so much!!! I already regret not having started sooner, I don’t want to have to look back with more regrets about how I began, so thank you so much for this. I’ve already requested that book from the library!
Kelly
Victoria Carrington says
I agree wholeheartedly! Please pray about and consider “relaxed” and “relationship based” homeschooling. I am in my 16th year of homeschooling and also wish I had realized this sooner. Check out ThatMom on FB or her website. She also has a new book out. I will try to find you the link. Most of all, have fun and enjoy your family time!
KitchenKop says
Victoria, do you mean Ur That Mom? I’ve been unable to reach her or find her lately, I love her stuff too! Sadly she’s a busy single Mom now, so I wondered if she still had this business…
Kelly
Kerstin says
I started homeschooling in the 6th grade. So far, we have done a mix of things.
Started with math Mammoth – lots of worksheets like he wanted, but we did the review books, and caught him up to where I thought he should be. When he got tired of that, we switched to Life of Fred – not as much review, but he does make you remember things – and best of all, it applies the math more to real life (or at least a pretend life)…and the story is fun.
We are reviewing history by doing Story of the World – although it’s written for a lower grade level, it is giving a great overview of history so we can concentrate as needed at the high school level.
For Grammar, we first did Jr. Analytical Grammar, and then this past year stuffed all three years of Analytical Grammar into one year. This has given him a good background in sentence structure – he learned diagramming – and while he never wants to do it again, he did very well at it.
For Science, we at one point started Supercharged Science, and plan to go back to it this year. Her approach is to do experiments (most are very simply and inexpensive), then study the science behind it.
This year we will concentrate more on writing – we are going to use Brave Writer and see how that works. I have a friend who has done some of their courses and loves them.
Beyond that, we also do a variety of other things- many videos off the history channel or Nat Geo (and I plan to use their website to supplement science this year). I also am planning to see how using the interactive textbooks I have heard about for the iPad will work…it should be a fun year this year.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
shelly says
I homeschooled my children until just a couple years ago and I do miss it. My input after 12 years of homeschooling experience is to use Sonlight and try to combine levels for everything except Math and Language Arts. The last several years, I was doing 2 levels for my 5 school age children and then customizing their math and language arts according to their abilities and understanding. Enjoy spending the time with your children- I miss that time snuggling while we read aloud.
Christie says
Check out SimplyCharlotteMason.com. I have a 2nd grader and a kindergartener and the things she recommended that I tried worked. The things I did differently did not work. So we are going whole hog on her curriculum requirements. Welcome to the amazing journey of a lifetime.
Stacy says
HI, Congratulations on deciding to home school. I imagine your kids will come to all appreciate the flexibility and realize that they will still get to see their friends.
The very first place I recommend and the highest priority would be go to Home School Legal Defense. https://www.hslda.org/ There you will find out all the legal requirements for your state. They also have great information about curriculum, special offers/events, etc, etc, etc!
For general curriculum, I love Timberdoodle.com! They do have kits, or you can pick and choose what you are interested in. We use Tapestry of Grace for History/English/Art/Worldview. It’s great because you can use it for different age groups. An overview plan is laid out for you and you pick and choose from that what you want to actually use.
michelle waite says
I think the Charlotte Mason Companion is a good starting point. It is a literature based curriculum so you can you use your library instead of buying lots of text books. If you have kids who love to read, you can gently guide their reading so that they cover a good variety of topics. We are starting Classical Conversations this year, because they provide good techiques for teaching the kids subjects that scare me and they also help make memory work less daunting.
I started Writing With Ease by Susan Wise Bauer this year with my 3 grader. I love it and would reccomend the books to anyone. I had a hard time getting my kids to summerize readings. Bauer breaks the process down so that the kids can write a 3-4 sentence summary of a passage by the end of the year. I also love the way she teaches grammar. I wish I had her as a teacher when I was young. Her Story of the World history books are amazing too. They teach histrory better than most my college professors.
KitchenKop says
Michelle,
Is Writing with Ease for all ages? Is it a workbook style or ? My kids struggle with summarizing, too, so this is appealing. Is the grammar part of that or separate?
Others have recommended “Story of the World”, too, that sounds awesome!
Thanks!
Kelly
Elise says
So excited for you! My big suggestion would be to heck out The Well trained mind (great book on classical education) and look for a Classical Conversations group near you! It’s a great program with tutoring to learn tr new grammar one day a week- gives some classroom interaction, support, art & science- and then you take it and in with it the rest of the week! It’s like doing classical education with help and accountability but still being the teacher/parent:) also, kids might not be on board right away- its okay to say- this is the call we are making for our family, even if they don’t agree! You are the parent and they will come around- especially of you are lovingly pouring into them:) this coming from a second generation homeschooler!
Holly says
The Charlotte Mason method is awesome …. right now we use Sonlight because I can teach more than one grade with it, add in the correct Math (after many tries we’ve settled on Teaching Textbooks) and you’re good to go …. I would also suggest amblesideonline.org … you also need to just take time this summer to think about what education means/looks like to you and go from there. Expect some bumps in the road and for it to take the whole first year to figure things out!
Peggy says
See what happens? I take a break from the computer and you post THIS…something I know about for a change! We just finished year 22 of homeschooling, with 6 years remaining. I’ve graduated three of my six so far.
1. Start with learning styles. “The Way They Learn” was a game-changer for me. I stopped trying to get my verbal girl to learn by doing, and my visual boy to memorize learning songs! Duh!! The “Ultimate Guide” books by Deb Bell are excellent as an overview. In general, the BEST curriculum isn’t something you can buy: it’s a library card.
2. We are VERY eclectic. I write unit studies, we use some computerized courses, some DVD lecture college-style courses, some book/workbook combo courses, depending on the child and the subject matter.
3. We looked into Robinson, but I didn’t want the kids so tied to the computer (or spend boucoup bux on printer ink!)
4. You don’t HAVE to follow anything until high school, and then only per your state requirements. Most states require x number of credits in this subject and y in that subject for high school graduation, but at the pre-HS level, there are no strict requirements. Your mileage may vary. Have you checked out HSLDA.org? They have a great section on your state’s laws.
As far as missing stuff, don’t sweat it. It’s not like you’re going to get your child into 10th grade and suddenly remember you forgot to teach him how to read. State history, perhaps. But really…it’s just a social studies subject. Perhaps “Food Justice and Dietary Freedom” would be a better course for him anyway!
Dot says
Hi Kelly,
Welcome to homeschooling. By the way I love your blog and website , I have learned so much from you. Thanks! I have completed my homeschool journey and can now tell you that you will not ruin your kids lives. I am not much good at teaching yet my children have each achieved differently. One is a Barrister doing is PHD at the moment, the other a Bee keeper and my daughter works with us from home. I just provided them with lots of books and opportunities.
A great place to go and learn some things is http://www.excellenceinwriting.com Andrew has lots of Audio downloads which teach about homeschooling, some free and others cost $3 but it is wonderful infomation when starting out. They also have the top writing course which is worth every penny you spend and the kids love Andrew. It is taught on DVD’s at least to start.
For Math I recommend you look at Teaching textbooks or Math u see.
For science Apologia.
Another website to read just to give you a completely different approach and I am not saying do it as I realy ike the Charltte Mason approach but the Robinson Curriculum is about a family who homeschooled without a Mum and Dad worked. I have seen it turn a family of non readers into readers. I think the story is inspiring. Help for us work at home Mum.s
I have one other hobby horse and that is if your children are going to learn to type use Dvorak rather than qwerty as it only takes 5 hours for them to be touch typist with Dvorak and 30 with Qwerty. They can also double their speed easily. You can use either on every computer as windows has it as a language and the computer can easily be switched over.
All the best in your home school Journey
Dot
Marilyn Moll says
Kelly,
So excited for you to start homeschooling. I homeschooled my older two for all 12 years and graduated them from homeschool high school. My youngest just graduated from public school. She “eased” into public school, by attending it part time so she could keep up with her piano lessons.
I would strongly encourage lots of “real books” that will engage several kids at once if possible – possibly themed to a topic of study like “Civil War”, or “westward expansion”. I totally agree with the ease into philosophy discussed by many posters above.
When I was overwhelmed with home business, and homeschooling, I was reminded that language arts and math are the only “requirements”, social studies, science etc are all enrichment. So focus on basics and don’t worry about the rest for now. Let the children develop interests!
I think the Sonlight curriculum has a awesome read-aloud and reading books by age level to use and I would strongly consider you look at that. It is a Charlotte Mason styled-curriculum in a box – but you don’t need the whole box just the books many of which are in the library.
I agree with other posters that you don’t want to spend a ton of money on boxed curriculum. I also used AlphaOmega for subjects like history and science since it was self-paced.
I totally understand the desire to get your life back. Public High School kept my daughter so busy there wasn’t really time for anything else except some piano practicing. I’m kind of sad about that, but living in a small town there were no other options for interacting with peers, she did have opportunities that she would never have had in a big city public school like participation in the Show Choir, and Marching Band.
OF all my children, the public school child is most influenced by pop culture and I’m sad about that. The older two are now college grads – one is a mom of two and the other is a 1st LT in the US Army, so my fears of an inadequate education were ill-founded. I think the character qualities you can instill at home will outpace any deficits in curriculum content.
Can’t wait to hear more.
Heather Sheffer says
I’m so glad you have asked this question. We recently decided to homeschool our boys (ages 3, 6, and 7) and I was planning on using the K12 online public school. However, we just decided to move across the state line and K12 is not offered as a public school in MO. Now I need to figure out what we’re going to do for curriculum! Thanks for all of this valuable information. I can’t wait to look into the links more.
Debbie Thompson says
How exciting for you! I have been homeschooling 4 out of our 6 kids for the past 12 years and absolutely love it. Sure there are days that will stress you out and make you wonder if this is right, but believe me it is so worth it.
We have used various programs-loved Catholic Heritage Curricula and we followed Mother of Divine Grace to some degree. Last year I found an online school that made me re-examine my views toward homeschooling. It is called The Classical Liberal Arts Academy. I don’t know if I could have done it starting out because it is so different than what I thought school should be, but it has blessed our family.
KitchenKop says
Debbie,
Please would you elaborate on this statement?
“Last year I found an online school that made me re-examine my views toward homeschooling. It is called The Classical Liberal Arts Academy. ”
Thanks!
Kelly
Debbie Thompson says
Kelly
When I first started homeschooling, I thought homeschool had to follow the model of public (and Catholic) schools. And I did do that for maybe 10 years more or less. Then through a message board (4real forums-its a Catholic Charlotte Mason site-did Charlotte Mason style for awhile) I heard about CLAA. Checked it out and really liked it. It is really different from what the kids were used to, but now that we have been doing it for a year they have got the hang of it. Check out their website www. classicalliberalarts.com
Melissa @ Dyno-mom says
Kel, I have ten kids and a blog (though much smaller than yours!) and my oldest got into college. He starts at Wyoming Catholic this fall. I have been home schooling since my oldest was 6. f I can do it with ten, you can do it with three (four). I have tons of advice and would tell you I much I love Catholic Heritage Curricula. But you have my email if you want to hear what I think, I won’t monopolize your blog here. I do want to say, yay! Good for you! I have every confidence in you and your abilities!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
I’m just beginning to ponder what next fall will look like, so I’m re-reading everything here again today & am reminded of what a great resource all of you have been, I’m so thankful!!
So Melissa, and others who have mentioned Catholic Heritage Curriculum, can you tell me more? (Or direct me to a blog post where you explain more about it?)
Thanks!
Kel
Martha says
Welcome to homeschooling! We use Robinson and I love not spending money year after year on new stuff. We don’t follow everything exactly the way it is layed out as none of our kids show any desire to go into a scientific field. They all hate math and we’ve been using Saxon all along. I’m praying about changes in that area for the coming year. I’ve recently learned of Kahn Academy and we may utilize that or just choose a different math curriculum. I do love the self teaching aspect though.
NeverLookBack says
I second the Ken Robinson Videos -!! It is fantastic and a great confidence builder. He is another proponent of wide spread homeschooling.
Here is a link to a number of his videos on TED. The first on on “School Kills Creativity” is really good. (If you haven’t looked around – pretty much ALL of the videos on TED.com are terrifically education and quite interesting).
https://www.ted.com/search?q=ken+robinson
Toni says
Well, you can certainly tell them about the things that interest you, food, for instance. Whatever you are attracted to, grappling with, outraged by, awed by, tell them. And ask them what they think. Be a learner yourself (and I know you are) and your hunger for knowledge will transfer to them without your having to think much about “How?” The key is stop putting limits on what will “interest the kids.” (Curriculums are notorious for doing this, putting a brain on a track, essentially saying “You can learn only what I teach, in the steps and order in which I teach, and can only move on when I say so.” ) They are real human beings like you. One concept to get rid of that Public school instills in you is that children are, what should we say, not quite human, not capable of much, requiring a certain de-naturing of ideas before they can “digest” them. Educating kids is a lot like feeding them food: give them the real stuff, what gives YOU energy. They CAN handle it. More than that they will thrive on it. My son and daughters are today very strong, unconventional thinkers. They were from day one because we never allowed them to think of themselves as capable of nothing more than “See Spot run.” (We started reading with Blumenfeld’s How to Tutor and went right into Thornton Burgess’ Mother West Wind Tales, normally what schooled kids would have to wait until maybe fifth grade to read. We were moving to the country. The books fit, so the kids struggled with the “advanced literature”–and loved it! Mostly loved that we were not babying them.) So those other things tugging at your brain should be the things you share with your kids. They will bless you for it one day, when their kids have healthy homes to grow up in–because of what you taught them about food. It is this education in the midst of real life that makes it relevant and, therefore, something that will be instilled into the fabric of their lives, never to be lost. See Ken Robinson’s TED talk on youtube.
Stepping down off my soapbox. Best wishes and prayers.
Erin says
We put together our own curriculum…I realized that I shouldn’t be trying to recreate public school curriculum because, oh, wait, I pulled them out for a reason!! Just like you treat your children differently with regards to discipline (not different rules, just individual approach to the conversations), you will find you’ll be tailoring your children’s curriculum to their needs. My daughter lost math confidence after first grade, so we’ve taken math slowly to make sure she feels confident. Still, she’s finishing 7th grade and is finishing 7th grade math via Teaching Textbooks this summer, so even “slowing down”, we have a kid who is doing really well and is right at “grade level” (whatever that means). (We started with Singapore Math, which I liked a lot, but Teaching Textbooks solved the “arguing with mom about how we want to do it” problem I started having with my then 12-year old son. Both kids love our spelling/vocabulary curriculum (and my older homeschooler has just taken the SAT for the second year and says it has prepared him well).
http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.com has a lot of different curriculums/products to choose from.
Good luck, enjoy your kids, and, as you’ve seen, there are a lot of people willing to talk with you about their own journeys.
Mindy M says
After homeschooling for 17 years I have some don’ts for you.
DON’T do public school at home.
DON’T try to figure everything out yourself. Many have gone before you.
DON’T get 3 different curriculums. Chose some things that you can all do together. Bible, history, science. Use a curriculum made for homeschooling a family not a 6 hour work day.
DON’T think you are competing with public school. It is common knowledge their system is failing.
DO relax and enjoy your children. Remember what is most important to teach them. If they know HOW to learn, they can learn anything.
Children are not a container to be filled but a fire to light. Give them wings.
KitchenKop says
I’m reading over all my comments again so I don’t miss any bits of wisdom and I LOVE this:
“Children are not a container to be filled but a fire to light. Give them wings.”
Thank you. 🙂
Genet says
🙂
Wow Kelly, you are going to have MORE RESPONSES than you are going to be able to read. We homeschool and I won’t bore you repeating what has been said here. Start simple. Don’t stress. You don’t have to cover things in the same order as the public schools. You don’t have to do ANYTHING like public schools. 🙂
As far as which groups to join ??? I recommend LOCAL. Most areas have LOCAL homeschooling message boards and support groups. That is the BEST place to start. Start this summer going to homeschool events locally or “social activities” with the kids.
Decide the basic “gist” you want to follow. Catholic? Then stick to that basic idea. I’m not Catholic so I can’t help you there, sorry.
But are somewhat Classical/Charlotte Mason-ish. We do http://www.classicalconversations.com and love it.
Decide what is best for YOUR family and
dont stress over the rest!
God Bless and ENJOY !!! 🙂
KitchenKop says
Genet, I’m reading every single comment and devouring it all!!! 🙂
Audry says
By the time my kids are in 4th grade, they do school by themselves unless they need a spelling test or have questions. You can work while they do school. If you want more info. Email me and then we can talk on phone if it helps.
Audry says
Please don’t use a non Catholic one.
Audry says
We’ve always homeschooled our children. We now have a junior , a 6th grader, a 4th grader, and a 4 year old. We use catholic heritage curricula. No planning. No tuition. Slow and steady wins the race. You can use their religion. Or the Baltimore Catechism which we like.
Carma says
Kudos for thinking about homeschooling for your kids’ sake! For your own sake, let me tell you a secret that veteran homeschoolers know: most homeschoolers start out very rigid and scheduled, trying to match what schools do. Most (not all) end up either loosening up over time, or going back to regular school, because that can be overwhelming, and the more you homeschool, the more you realize how unnecessary it is!
So my best first advice is: RELAX. You taught your kids to walk and talk and dress themselves, without even much trying on your part – certainly without a curriculum to guide you! If your kids were typical, they had a 10,000-20,000 word vocabulary by the time they were 6 or 7 – without a formal curriculum. Most learning can happen just as naturally and painlessly … so don’t freak out about it! You might like to have a look at the Christian Unschooling blog: http://www.christianunschooling.com. And remember to BREATHE. You’re not going to break your kids. Even if you totally screw up teaching them formal academics (which you won’t), consider that they’ll still be better citizens by virtue of having been civilized at home, rather than “socialized” by bullying, peer pressure, and jockeying for social status for 12 years.
Tara Serene says
We are just beginning too! But we are past the curriculum picking stage. I started a “newbie” blog about it all and our curriculum picks and websites are there if you want to look….
Erica says
We use K12 and love it! We use it thru a public virtual school and have teachers, field trips etc. but you can also use it independently choosing all or only some of the courses. The history is phenomenal as is LA/Lit.
It is a gret balance between on and off line work and the students become more independent (but still require learning coach help and guidance.)
Meg Logan says
You could pull together your own curriculum by using a free online guide.
I like Ambleside Online, its a real book based curriculum, with just a basic outline of things to do, and when to do them, you fill in the details. It’s based on the Charlotte Mason method, but I find CM to go really well with Classical. We are classical homeschoolers with a CM bend.
I have used Khan Academy for math, in grades 2-8, its a good program and is becoming better year by year. You’d want each child to have a separate log in, and you would have a separate log in then assign them to yourself as a teacher/coach (I can’t remember how to do that… you’ll have to look around.)
Given that you work from home full time, I doubt you will have the time to plan out EVERYTHING for three children. Think about what things you want them to be able to work on independently, and consider “compromise” curriculums that allow for less hands on planning from you.
We really enjoy Tapestry of Grace, it allows for joint family learning, and has a “choose your own adventure” type feel in the curriculum, since you don’t do EVERYTHING, you pick and choose. I have used it for three years now and I don’t ever want to stop. The literature program is excellent, and the history is wonderful too. It is protestant in nature, however… I have discovered that online they have alternatives for Catholics, and they make notes of things you might want to skip or whatnot. I’ve never noticed any “anti-catholic” remarks.
Tapestry would allow all three of your children to study the same point in history at the same time, and to coordinate projects, and geography together. It is very classical in that it uses real living books, and not “twaddle”, and focuses on the three stages of the Trivium. It has a writing program, which I found OK, many people love it… as a teacher I struggled with implementing it.
Have a great curriculum planning journey! Its fun!
Amanda says
Hi Kelly!
I was home educated my whole life. I am in my late 20’s now, married, expecting our first child, and working on several business ventures with my husband (who was also home educated!). Any fears you have that you will royally mess up your children’s lives are not based on reality. One of the most important lessons I learned as a child is that my life is what *I* make out of it, not what has happened to me. Your kids will be just fine!
As for some ideas on developing a curriculum for your children I have these suggestions (based off my experiences growing up):
1) Remember that you are homeschooling, not public schooling from home. You don’t necessarily need set school hours, or chairs and desks, or lots of busy work. Schedule time for learning every day and let your children focus on the content that they find interesting.
2) Learn the requirements that your state has regarding homeschooling. The state I live in requires 1000 hours a year in 5 core subjects. They have very friendly homeschooling laws. Learn your state requirements and build your curriculum to meet the minimum that they expect. As in other aspects of life (such as food….) if you give the government an inch they will walk all over you and then press charges against you for trying to be cooperative.
3) For your younger children I would suggest a curriculum similar to the Charlotte Mason method or the Thomas Jefferson Education (you can google both terms)- there is just the right balance of structure and independent learning that will balance well with younger children. For your older child, your son, I would suggest letting him take charge of his education (again while meeting the state requirements as necessary) and study what he finds to be interesting. Encourage him to pick a topic or subject and follow it as deep down as he can take it. Have him record his thoughts and ideas so you have proof that he is doing the work, and let him run wild. My youngest brother got into film making as a child- he was bored one day and decided to make a movie using the rest of us as characters. Since then he has taken up photography, video editing, and special effects production, and hopes to make a career out of it later in life. Allow your son to start exploring what he might want to do as an adult- he needs to start learning those things now!
4) Give your kids some detox time! The good thing about starting this after the end of the school year is that it actually gives your kids some time to detox from the stress and frustration that they may associate with learning. Don’t worry if fall comes around and your kids aren’t ready to put their noses to the grind stone- this is VERY normal. During this summer give them plenty of opportunity to work outside (hello gardens!!!) and be outdoors and explore. Let them get back to nature and their very deepest roots, and see how they start to take hold of things! Read books together, learn new songs, take hikes, go to historical sites and learn how to do cool things like make fire from sticks. Show them how much fun it is to ACTUALLY learn things instead of just studying for tests and exams.
5) Allow them to watch television, but lure them away with more entertaining options. A lot of parents struggle with this concept. My mom used to walk into a room and see us zonked out in front of the TV and think that we were just wasting away and rotting our brains. She tried everything she could to get us to watch less TV, including grounding us from it and locking it away. Her goal was to get us to spend our time learning things, but it only ended up making us want the televison MORE because now it was the forbidden fruit. Take the forbidden fruit aspect out of the equation and suddenly your kids aren’t watching TV because they have to get every second in before the parents come and turn it off- they’re watching TV because they are bored! Leave things out for them to start exploring and making stuff- big boxes, papers, crayons, yarn and crochet hooks or knitting needles, fabric with thread and pins, electricity science kits, strategy games, memory games, even flash cards with fun and unusual trivia! The possibilities really are endless. Leave them where your kids will naturally come across them and become curious. Watch and see how they become interested in things they would never have touched while they were in public school because they wouldn’t have had the time.
I’m sorry this is so long, and I know you’ve gotten a lot of other comments from parents who are currently homeschooling their children. These are just my thoughts coming from watching things my mom struggled with when she was homeschooling all of us. I plan to use many of these strategies (and more) with my own children. We’ll see how I do once they start reaching “school age”. 🙂
Good luck Kelly, we’re all cheering for you!!!!
Amanda
Carla says
Oh – also along the lines of Robinson, you do NOT need to buy the CDs. They are formatted for printing your own books, which in today’s world of kindles and ipads is unnecessary. Most of the books on Robinson’s lists can be downloaded for free at http://www.gutenberg.org or other places. 🙂
Carla says
quick answers: I tried Robinson, didn’t like it. Coming out of a school environment to Robinson was too hard a change. The things that drew me to Robinson you can get in different ways:
1. Independent learning (I work from home, too): check out http://www.urthemom.com; she has GREAT info on teaching your kids to be self-learners with any curriculum you choose; also look into Sue Patrick workboxes (although these are a bit more mom-intensive, we use them because they teach my daughter to work independently).
2. Classical literature and not dumbed-down modern material. We do classical education. Look into classical conversations if you are interested in Classical ed: http://www.classicalconversations.com. They are FANTASTIC and have great programs that will take your kids from elementary to high school.
Good luck!
Julie says
I am SO not even at a point of giving advice… I have one little, newly 6, and we’re easing into this thing. I’m going more with a “Charlotte Mason” approach – TONS of reading, TONS of good books! My only textbook purchase has been Apologia science: https://www.apologia.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 . My mom used it with my science-hating high school aged sister – and she absolutely LOVED it. My other recommendation is this book: https://www.apologia.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 . It took me from “Wow, hope I can do this” to being a warrior-mama “No way anyone else could teach my girl the way she needs to learn the way her MAMA can!” Haha! Buy it, you won’t regret it! Her curriculum critiques are great, but the learning/teaching style info in the first few chapters, to me, has been invaluable. Blessings to you & yours!!! I think you’ve made a good, hard decision! xoxo
MaryEllen says
I was called to homeschool when my daughters were finishing 4th and 1st grade. I was most attracted to the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education (see the book For The Children’s Sake). Sadly, I let my worry that it was “not like school” cause me to use a more traditional plan. We struggled through, changing methods and books, until I found https://amblesideonline.org
We made the switch, back to Charlotte Mason, using Ambleside. Everything was much better, we were happier and they were learning. My oldest dd graduated from our little school in June ’11 and was accepted at her first choice university, a small Christian liberal arts school and granted a partial academic scholarship. She is majoring in English and is thriving there. Homeschooling has been a blessing to our family. My girls still took their dance classes, they had youth group, they maintained friendships. Homeschooling doesn’t mean they don’t get socialized, it means they get socialized by a greater variety of ages, and spend time with people they really choose to be with, not a false environment of 30 kids the exact same age.
My advice is to find a copy of Cathy Duffy’s top 100 book, it has a survey in it that helps you identify your educational philosophy. I highly recommend reading the FAQ at ambleside online. And pray.
Yes, you need to listen to your kids concerns, but don’t let them be the ones to make the decision. You want to get them on board with the ‘try it for a year’ plan, but you are the parent and if God is calling you to do this you need to listen. Assure them that they can still see their best friends. Spend some time de-schooling, they need to relax and get away from the stress of school for awhile before you start making demands on them academically. Do a family read aloud from a great book each night. Go to the beach, the zoo, whatever. Enjoy being together. Spend the summer educating yourself, and when you are ready, start SLOW! Don’t jump in with both feet, don’t expect 6 hours of school work everyday. Also, it is easy to get caught up in all the “extra” activities offered to homeschoolers and end up feeling behind all the time because you’re never home enough to do what you have planned out.
Niina says
I am soooo excited for you. This will be one of the most rewarding journeys you will ever take.
We homeschool classically. I just finished reading A Thomas Jefferson Education. Short read and a wonderful way to set your homeschool path. I am so excited to be redeeming my own education.
We use Classical Conversations as our base curriculum. We use Phonic Road to Spelling and Reading for language arts (after 4 years it goes into Latin). For math we use Math-U-See and Life of Fred.
I will be praying for you as God directs your homeschool path. Blessings!
Bethany says
I highly recommend https://www.cathyduffyreviews.com/ I struggled to figure out what to use for our daughter until I went to this free website. Cathy Duffy came to our homeschool convention and talked about how it works. You take a survey about how your child learns best and how you learn best. Then it will give you suggestions based on the results that might work for that child and YOU. Each curriculm lists pros and cons. It saved us so much time by narrowing the choices down. We love what we ended up getting and it is working very well for her. Good luck on your homeschooling adventure! And God Bless!
CathyG says
I’m like some of the others above–been homeschooling the entire time and now added the hippy food part to our household! I have 18 year old and 12 year old daughters. The 18 year old will be a college junior this fall! Not that we’ve done anything amazing with her and she’s not a brainiac, we just kept focused and so she just got her Associate’s last month. Anyway, my advice is to go to hslda.org and read up on MI laws. If I remember correctly, MI is one of the easier states to homeschool in–yay for you! Then go to your state’s homeschooling conference–I think all states have them. You can touch all the curriculum at the vendor fair, you can go to all kinds of workshops, take your hubby and go to different workshops, etc. And one other thing–we pushed quite a bit with our oldest and then slacked off for our youngest. It truly doesn’t really matter until middle school time–for elementary, just give them the basics read/write/math and then add other things that your child finds extremely fun and interesting. Be relaxed! By middle school time, then go more traditional as far as which classes but still do those extra things they really enjoy. For high school, we pretty much were very traditional in class selection–math, science, language arts, social sciences, Bible–and kept that focus. My daughter started taking college classes the spring of her junior year in high school and they were all online so it worked extremely well with her job schedule. She was able to get her Associate’s through all online classes! Since it was a community college, she took a placement test (COMPASS) for them but we did not do the ACT or SAT. Wasn’t needed so why do it??? Most school districts have a dual enrollment option as well where your child can take a class or 2 or those extracurriculars at the schoo while you homeschool everything else. Nice if you feel you can’t do particular subjects. Anyway, keep focused on Him and you can’t go wrong!
NeverLookBack says
Info on California open texts: https://www.opensourcetext.org/
Here are a bunch of California approved texts: https://www.ck12.org/flexbook/
Don’t miss the https://www.khanacademy.org/ . Free videos and they are GREAT.
Also, look on youtube for Vi Hart. This lady is grossly intriguing and educational – https://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart
For College level – MIT has open coursework – https://ocw.mit.edu
For grade school – just involve the kids. Even when they are playing video games, they will quickly discover the need to read – and thus the interest so that they can play their games.
And as always – Google is your friend – just search for items and don’t stress over a curriculum…. who approved it anyway… the very people that you are trying to not emulate !
Kristy says
Hey – we are earlier in the age spectrum, and we do Classical Conversations which is like a co-op and it helps cover what would be hard to cover – like latin! Lots of HIstory programs are good at multiple ages like Story of the World and Mystery of History.
Find what works for your family, and give them a “healthy diet” of good literature for their brains. In the afternoons when you have to work they can be reading, working on independent projects, and feeding their curiosity.
And as for being a bit stressed, it will happen, mostly because these are your kids, and you know this is important and you want to get it right. But you will do a great job because these are your kids and you love them enough to do your very best for them even if it is hard.
Nicole Rice says
Hey Kelly, not that you would remember me- but we met at WAP conference in Dallas (and I have a picture I’m not allowed to publish for proof :-P).
Anyways- big congrats on this first step! I was homeschooled all the way through (as were my 6 sibblings)- and it was such a blessing in my life. I learned to learn, and to think- not learned to repeat what was told to me. I’m not homeschooling my children (my son is 7 and my daughter is 3). Here’s what I was say- as a homeschoolee, and a homeschooler:
1. Make it your own. It does not have to, nor should it look like public or private schools. Anymore than your kitchen should look like a tyson factory.
2. Enjoy the process, enjoy learning. School systems suck the fun out of learning for many. Your kids may have to re-learn how fun it is to learn. Give them that time and space. That’s ok 😀
3. Let them follow their interest. There are obviously some standards that need to be met for graduation purposes. But the world we live in is changing. No longer is being “well rounded” enough to make you stand out. Everyone is well rounded. Be an expert in your field of passion. That is what makes you stand out. So if you child is passionate about math- let them go for it with gusto – rather than holding them back to make sure their history is at the same level. Does that make sense?
4. Charlotte Mason! Look into her. It’s not the way I was taught (I used practically every curriculum out there (in my time)-). It’s what we are using with our children. She inspires a love of learning. There are several ways to use her approach to education. I create my own curriculum using the footwork laid out by https://blog.carolejoyseid.com/. I strongly encourage you to listen to her lectures. You will feel empowered, inspired, and the freedom to make there education individual. She combines Charlotte Mason and Robert Moore into more than just a education. Best of Luck!
Oh- don’t worry about the kids. They’ll come around. They need time to re-frame their world. It was AWESOME being able to get up in the morning and knock schoolwork out- and have the rest of the day for passions, interest and various activities!
KitchenKop says
Thanks Nicole, and I don’t remember “said picture”, but I thank you for keeping your word and not putting it out there anywhere, because Lord knows, there surely must be some doozies floating around of this NON-photogenic chick! 🙂
Aleecia Hibbets says
Loved reading your posts and am excited for you and your new adventure! We are also taking the plunge this year: we’ll have a 2nd grader and a 4 year old homeschooling. We signed up to use Classical Conversations and are really excited: it looks like it’ll be a great way to get a good, challenging (but fun!) classical education at home. I’ll supplement with things as needed (Bible, classic literature, math, language arts, etc.). My nature is to stress and plan, but I’m choosing to try to enjoy every minute with my kids and to trust God for each step.
The Classical Conversations website is here: http://www.classicalconversations.com. I have only heard good things about this program and am so excited to start this fall!
I am also juggling a lot like you are: my other 2 children (my oldest and youngest) are both severely disabled with a genetic disease, and I also work part-time from home. My husband is in med school, so that keeps him very busy. But he is very supportive (of all my craziness, haha). It sounds crazy that I would want to add homeschooling on top of all of this, but I know this is what the Lord is leading us to do. He will provide.
Looking forward to hearing your updates as you being your h/s adventure!
Laura Smith says
This website is a godsend. It’s Waldorf, homeschooling, child development and parenting all-in-one. I encourage you to check out Waldorf as well as the Unschooling movement. Oak Meadow always looks nice to me, too. Good luck!
https://theparentingpassageway.com/category/homeschooling/
Our Small Hours says
I don’t want you think I’m trying to spam in your comment section, but I have several posts on this subject on my blog that might help you. Here is the link to my home schooling page on my blog with some of my home schooling posts listed:
https://www.oursmallhours.com/p/homeschooling.html
1. I couldn’t help but get overwhelmed at first, but I do recommend Cathy Duffy’s curriculum book (100 Top Picks for HS Curric, I think it is.)
2.I make my own curriculum and talk about how I do that in my HS posts. The first year I home schooled I spent over $1000 on packaged curric for two children that we barely used because we hated it. I may go back to a packaged curriculum again when I have the money to experiment, but for now I make my own and it costs less and less each year because I reuse a lot of things.
3. No opinion on Kahn and if Robinson is the guy who makes the curriculum that the children can do themselves, I think it’s great, but it’s not for us.
4.Again, I’ve written about how I do this so I won’t blab on about it here. I recommend the What Your nth Grader Should Know series, Home schooling Year By Year and your state’s requirements.
Good luck, mama! You can do this!
Kelly says
We use Accelerated Christian Education for all subjects and love it! The wonderful thing is that it is self-teaching, so no matter what is going on in our family life, the kids can get school done with little input from me. That doesn’t mean I don’t help them or teach them. It just means that they CAN do it without me, and get all the basic knowledge under their belt, and any spare time can be used to pursue other interests, or for me to teach them things that I am interested in teaching them (like cooking). It doesn’t require any parent preparation, is easy to take along with you when you need to run errands, and is character based and has Bible verses throughout all subjects.
cassie powell says
I too feel the call to homeschool. We did private up until two years ago. My kids are 17, 12, 9, 4, 2. Public school the last two yrs have been a nightmare. My problem is, we both must work full time. How do I do this?
KitchenKop says
Do you work full time from home??
KitchenKop says
Cassie, you have to read this: https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/view/rc/s31p56.htm
!!!
Elizabeth says
dearest,
I don’t know you at all, but I too, heard the call to homeschool my
children. Pay close attention to their hearts, because of all the fronts
God could have come down and fought for, He chose to come down and He fought for our hearts. As far as curriculum goes, figure out what they love. Is it reading or music, or science? Use their natural love for an area to guide an emphasis in that area. Think out of the box. If a curriculum doesn’t work, find something new. In a nutshell, we love Susan Wise Bauer for history and geography for the younger grades. Saxon Math worked well for my boys, MathUSee for my daughter. Jay Wile at Apologia can’t be beat for Science as far as I am concerned. I liked Rod and Staff for English and Grammar. Read lots. Don’t worry, keep the big picture in mind. I am at the other end of the spectrum. My homeschooling days are almost over. My oldest starts at Loyola University in Chicago come fall. He is transferring there after having earned his Associates Degree by age 18. (I started them in community college at 16) My other son is enrolled full time at the local community college and then hopes for Notre Dame. God will really have to work a miracle to make that happen! I doubt my daughter will go on to college – all she wants to do is sing. God has a plan for them all. Just be there, and help them find their way. And, don’t forget to pray, and pray a lot. hugs.
Betsey says
Welcome aboard. I will he homeschooling 4th grade, second grade and have a six month old. I love Shillermath, language lessons by Queen Homeschool, and amblesideonline. We follow a charlotte mason approach to the classical method. My favorite catalogs are timberdoodle and veritas press. I love the old schoolhouse magazine and donnayoung.org. As a general rule stick to the basics as much as you can, look over your state requirements and teach Bible first! Homeschooling is a lot about grace, for you and your family. I for one don’t know how people get up so early to meet that yellow bus! I love having my own schedule and deciding what’s best for my kiddos.
Toni says
You’ve helped me a lot with food. Now I hope I can help you a little with homeschooling. Many new homeschoolers are bound up in curriculum. We homeschooled all of our five children from age 3-18, and we used limited curriculum. We followed the advice of Raymond Moore at the beginning, because he was almost all we had back in 1980 when we started. Unschooling was mostly his approach, and we found that it worked very well. Others are giving you similar advice, not to over-emphasize curriculum. I would go even further, as Moore did, and say that a large portion of the VALUE of schooling at home is actually lost by getting tied up in curriculum. Text books, especially, encourage children to “play the system,” which you will not be automatically immune from by schooling your kids at home. You will tend to do as was done to you, i.e., do public-style school at home.
Having said what NOT to do, I would advise you to be careful to DO a few really important things:
1. Talk to your children, debate, analyze, challenge, argue (nicely), by so doing teach them by example to think, speak, defend truth as they see it. A by-product (not really, because it is always part of the goal): they will see the worth of your values, that they are for real, and not just answers on a test.
2. Take them places to serve (e.g. nursing homes)
3. Give them skills, ways to use their hands, homemaking (as you’ve said, very important) and lead them to work.
4. Give them real books to read, and talk about the books. (I think selections of great lit is better than whole works. When my kids found the authors they liked they read everything they could by their favorites as well as the required samplings from the lit course. Robinson would say read the whole works, and all the classical ed people would say the same.)
5. Be models to them of people who pray and obey. That is one of the biggest things. (See the new book, The Promise of Jonadab. I haven’t read it, but the description sounds like what we were after as we homeschooled.)
Too many suggestions, maybe. You’ll come to the right methods and means for your family as you move along.
Jlynn says
I have to wholeheartedly agree with Toni. We began Homeschooling in 5th grade due to my son’s migraine headaches. I never thought I could teach him everything he needed to know before heading off to college and I was right. His headaches took over our lives and all our curriculum went mostly unused. On the few days he was pain free, I let him relax and read what he wanted, or work on the computer where he taught himself web design. We totally ended up un-schooling, which I thought sounded ridiculous until we were forced into it by our situation. He took French from a friend, debate with our coop and music theory at a private school that welcomed homeschooers to take just a class here and there. We cobbled a transcript together with the help of Inge Cannon’s transcript resources (which I would highly recommend). He not only was accepted into university, but was offered a scholarship based on his SAT scores alone. He even tested out of a couple of first semester classes. He was the only one of our kids who graduated in 4 years. He is working now in a field he loves at a University – in charge of their new technology resources for all the media needs of on-campus and online students. I can only look back and marvel at God’s grace. It was totally God’s grace. But it was great to be able to give our son what he needed. A break. And the freedom to learn in his own way.
One curriculum idea that worked really well for us: We covered History by reading biographies chronologically. History became one of his favorite subjects.
KitchenKop says
Jlynn, wow, that IS a powerful God’s grace story! And how COOL is that, that you just did what you could, and his true interests and skills just came right forward. (I pray his headaches are gone, what an ordeal for him!) It must be true what everyone is saying, that it’s really really hard to screw this thing up irreparably. That helps me *relax* as another commenter suggested. 🙂
KitchenKop says
Toni,
This comment of yours freaked me out, but only because I KNOW I need to get MUCH better in this area:
“Talk to your children, debate, analyze, challenge, argue (nicely), by so doing teach them by example to think, speak, defend truth as they see it. A by-product (not really, because it is always part of the goal): they will see the worth of your values, that they are for real, and not just answers on a test.”
I hope you and others will give me more advice with this. I tend to not “engage” them as much as I should and I think it’s because I get so distracted with all the other stuff tugging at my brain all day. We talk a lot, don’t get me wrong, whether it’s about things going on with them or what we’re doing that day, etc., but not so much in in-depth conversations like you mentioned. How do I BEGIN when I know I’m bad at it??? (Thank you!)
Jlynn says
Homeschooling should help with this because you now will have so much more TIME with them. Ask them a LOT of questions to find out how they think. As they see you really want to know what makes them tick, they will probably open up more.
Stacey says
Well, I’m not actually homeschooling, though that’s where my heart is. I do have a couple little answers for you though 🙂
First of all, a great forum for homeschool parents is https://homeschoolspot.com There are lots of wonderful parents there that are available to answer questions, give advice, etc. It’s very easy to use as well, which I like. I’m a member there (EmeryShae).
An excellent book that I have is called Educating the Wholehearted Child, by Clay and Sally Clarkson. They give a wonderful perspective on homeschooling, and it’s really a huge resource!
Kymberly says
I have homeschooled my four boys since birth, and they are now ages 15, 13, 10, and 9. In regards to curriculum, every year has been different. Allow yourself to change your mind, even mid-year. Some years have been more book based. Some years have been more experience based. Within each year, and for each child, give yourself permission to rethink and adjust. Some subjects, like history, work well with lots of audio-visual material and can be taught to the family as a group rather than individually. Be willing to experiment, and to back off of a subject for awhile if your child needs a break. Tune into what seems to work well for each child, rather than what might appeal most to you (using textbooks for every subject, using all texts from one publisher, strict time schedules, etc…). I have been very eclectic in my choice of materials. This year, with math for instance, my two oldest boys are working with standard Prentice Hall Algebra and Pre-Algebra textbooks (you can purchase texts, teachers editions, solutions manuals), my 10 year old is working from Specialty School Publishing workbooks, and my youngest is not using a book at all. For him, we are just trying to cement all of the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. We focus on major skills (rather than on memorizing soon forgotten dribble): reading, writing, math, being able to research and synthesize information, to think critically, and to express one’s self both verbally and in print. We try to utilize materials and experiences that support the goal of honing these valuable life skills, at each child’s level of capability. Life is curriculum (homeschooled or not), and we parents just need to continue to remember that we are raising whole human beings and not living databases. There is no one right educational path or outcome. You have done a courageous and magical thing. You have made school a choice for your children rather than a prison sentence! That alone may be life changing for your family. If your kids want to stay in school, they can now learn to be their own engines to support their desire to attend (get themselves out of bed, WILLINGLY do their homework, etc.). They will no longer feel forced, and perhaps you will no longer have to cajole them. Also, I know several families who homeschool one or some of their children while the others choose to attend school. Anything is possible.
Visit the Simply Charlotte Mason website for valuable advice about curriculum and methodology. Tweak the recommendations to suit your needs. Read John Taylor Gatto’s Dumbing Us Down if you haven’t already. Anything by him is gold. However this turns out for your family, it will be just right.
Mary says
Hi,
We are finishing our first year of homeschool this summer. I also work part time (taking the kids to the office with me-yikes!). It has been wonderful, though not without it’s ups & downs. We have been using the Catholic Heritage Curricula. It was a great way to start for us because you can get ready made lesson plans. There are also other programs that offer lots of over-the-phone help. I believe my sister uses St Thomas Aquinas Academy, which is very good. Trial & error!
Lara says
My biggest advice would be to ease into it and not spend a lot of money up front buying oodles of curriculum until you’ve worked with the kids for a while and figured out their interests and learning style. In contrat to that advice, I recommend requesting the Rainbow Resource catalog and signing up for homeschool buyers coop (it is an online group that organizes buying opportunities so homeschoolers can get the same group rates on many items like the public schools do).
If your time allows, asking the kids what topics they are interested and finding/creating unit studies to explore those areas might ease them into it and spark interest.
I piecemeal our curriculum together from many different sources and even my two who are in the same grade use different curriculum due to their differeing skill level and learning styles.
Good luck!
Rose says
I love queenhomeschool.com , and I’m so grateful that Sandi helped me think outside the box! Too much busy work for my children and their eyes glaze over. (mine too)
We love Life of Fred math, and I believe it works well for my children as they love to read.
I’m excited for you, and your children! Pray that this will draw you closer to the Lord and each other.
Lisa says
Love love love Life of Fred!! especially if your kids have missed out on some math concepts, and love to read – you could also read it to them all together if necessary. It`s all about Fred coming across math concepts as he lives his life and then learning/teaching what to do in each situation. And it’s not a huge money commitment up front!
We use https://amblesideonline.org/WhatIsCM.shtml and this link will take you to the page that explains who Charlotte Mason is and what her educational philosophy entails. I started out wanting a classical curriculum ala Well Trained Mind and switched to Ambleside the summer before my oldest started kindergarten (he’s now 10) and have never looked back. I love that it includes so much of the arts – poetry, artist study, hymns, folk songs – as well as using living books to teach history. Narration is the art of telling back and has been such a blessing to my kids – they don’t love it, would actually say they hate it if you ask them lol, but they have an amazing ability to remember what they have read, to tell it back, moments, days and even weeks later and is so so worth the struggles some kids might have at the beginning learning to do it!! Along with the Ambleside website, there are many yahoo groups for support and if you are interested in the curriculum, I would be pleased to share a couple of the schedules/weekly reading lists that I’ve found to help with actual implementation of the program. You can check out the Ambleside FAQ here: https://amblesideonline.org/FAQ.shtml.
Blessings, it will be so worth it! Also remember that the first year is usually a struggle for any new homeschoolers especially ones coming out of a school situation, so don’t be completely discourages if it takes a while for things to gel – if you decide to continue the next year, it will be better!
Lisa
Lisa says
thought I’d add that I have 5 children to homeschool – 4 boys – 10, 8, 6 & 2 and 1 girl – 4 and have homeschooled them all since birth 🙂
cecilia says
I have been reading your blog for a while now, and I have to admit that I am very excited for you that you are interested in homeschooling.
If I may, I would like to suggest that you read the books Homeschooling WIth Gentleness and A Little Way of Homeschooling ( https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_22?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=homeschooling+with+gentleness&sprefix=homeschooling+with+gen%2Caps%2C185 ) – even if you are not interested in unschooling, they give a beautiful, Catholic perspective on alternative education.
Meridith says
Welcome to the wonderful world of homeschooling! I’m opposite of you, I started with homeschooling and then added the hippy food just recently. I’m pretty sure, all my friends think I’ve gone off the deep end, but once you step outside the box it’s a lot easier to question other things that you took for granted.
I think everyone who homeschools worries about screwing up their kids, we can’t pass the blame onto anyone else. If you didn’t worry, you wouldn’t be a good mom. It took me a while to really settle into a groove with my kids, but once we did, it was great.
You’re right, there is as much different advice as there a homeschoolers. Isn’t it great! That’s the beauty of homeschooling, we get to pick and choose what works best for our individual families. My advice would be to listen politely (I sometimes struggle with this, as a lot of the advice is totally unsolicited) to whatever advice people give you and then go with your gut. If it doesn’t work, you can always switch to something else.
Find a few people that homeschool that you trust and counsel with them. I found my best friend through homeschooling and we now do lots of thing together. I get lots of great ideas from her.
Good luck and God bless.
Amanda says
I put together our curriculum. The boxed curriculums usually don’t allow for much customization and tend to cost quite a bit. For digital curriculums like Robinson’s remember that you either need to print the stuff off or each kid needs their own ereader. Before picking out curriculum you should also decide whether you want secular, Christian, or a mix. If you are catholic, be aware that most of the christian curriculum are evangelical or reformed and many have catholic bashing in them. They also tend to be from a young earth creationist pov.
The general homeschool philosophy/practical how-to book I like the most is The Well-Trained Mind. They also have a forum that is my main Internet connection to the homeschool world. You don’t need to have read the book or even homeschool according to their philosophy to use it (there are many who homeschool in many different ways on there) and it is free.
Melissa Fritcher says
We use k12. A computer for the family is provided, all the curriculum is provided, books, materials like music, languages, science experiments. We also have a teacher per child we interact with frequently – we’ve tackled all kinds of issues with them from going too slow to going too fast, to materials/units we find objectionable and working out alternatives. The teachers and the school also plan functions and field trips through out the school year. we also easily supplement in a very unschooling way – documentaries, our own field trips, and geeky discussions as a family. http://Www.k12.com.
carrie says
We are just starting out homeschooling, so I don’t have much advice. But I have a friend who loves regina coeli academy http://www.reginacoeli.org. Great for the upper grades. I couldnt personally mix curriculum together so we enrolled in Seton. It is neat to hear your transition. We took a different route. I became Catholic, then decided to homeschool, then Traditional Catholic, then we transitioned to traditional foods. Yep completely against society. God led direction, which we know is right for us. Wish you all the best this next year. Looking forward to reading more.
Dan says
We put together our own curriculum. The oldest child is our testing ground, and with him we get to know how each company’s curricula are patterned. We get an idea then if the curricula would be a fit for our other children or not. We have been using Saxon Math, ABeka for History & Geography and for Science, and Easy Grammar for – well, grammar. Aside from grammar we do not teach language skills, per se, because we don’t have television and thus the kids are total bookworms, and we have noticed that their reading skills are flourishing without our input. We give them creative license in many ways, so they are filling in the gaps by learning blacksmithing, crafting, mechanics, and whatever else stirs their imaginations. We also have them in charge of the goats (including milking) and the chickens, and they learn business principles by selling their products and then being responsible for buying the feed. Their ages are 9, 10, 11, and 12.
I guess what I’m getting at is that you DON’T have to try to match the public school-designed curriculums! The most critical piece is that they love God and their neighbors deeply. As long as you provide a basic structure with some basic subjects, the real learning will happen naturally.
God bless your new path!