come out come out wherever you are! i have been home educating our children for 7.5 years. we love it! tell me:

how long youve been homeschooling
your methods


have a blessed day.

We are relative newbies to homeschooling. Started about 2 weeks ago. Currently we are working through a public charter school that provides all materials.

It has really been an adjustment, but so far we are loving it.

B*B
MoonMaidenRavyn

I don't know if this will help anyone, but this lady has been homeschooling her nine children for 15 years. She put together this lesson plan for writing. I thought I'd share it!

Home Schooling - Writing.com

We aren't currently homeschooling but we have in the past. When the girls are in public school we suppliment their education at home. Thankfully where we are living they enjoy that we work with the kids and don't follow any "grade" levels. If they ask a question we help them find the answer. Or we do little things on our own.

Two years ago though we were living in Wisconsin and the last year there we homeschooled them. Their behavior with each other was so much better. It seems when my kids are in public school their whole demenor changes. They also learn so much more when they are being taught at home. The first school they attended down here was in Arkansas. They wanted to move my oldest up a grade because she had already learned all they taught in 3rd grade. We chose to not go that route because of her personality. But now in Missouri they do not advance children or give them harder work if needed. So my girls are once again sitting in class bored. My middle child is in the 2nd grade this year and amazed us all on her report card. She managed to bring her A's up to A+'s. lol They have a goal this year of making the A honor roll all year and making perfect attendance. Thankfully the Gods so far are on their side and any time they have been sick is on their scheduled breaks.

Anyway, while I am not strictly homeschooling at this time, I will definitly keep an eye on this post. I love to learn all I can because we never know when we may go back to it.
When we were homeschooling we did a mix of techniques. We used Goddesss Moon Academy online, a bit of unschooling, and a bit of traditional schooling methods. For those just starting out my recommendations is to read as much as possible about the different techniques. Then it is a matter of trail and error. Some things will work well for you and your child(ren), others won't. But your learning along with them so it is ok..just switch it up until you find your groove.
Make sure to follow your local laws for homeschoolers and there shouldn't be any problems. If anyone in the states needs to know their laws, you can find them at www.hslda.org/laws
Blessings,
ladyalpha

Hi,
My sister is looking to home school my nephew and she is having trouble finding out how to get started. She lives in Georgia and has asked me if I can help find out any information or direction in which to start looking. My nephew has a speech problem and the school he is in is not taking the time to understand him so he gets frustrated and acts out. Any information that I can get to her would be greatly appreciated.

Love and Blessings, Dragonsilver

Hello, I home educate all 3 of our children, (now 16, 14, and , and have done so for the last 5 years or so. We got into home ed because our middle daughter has learning differences which the school refused to acknowledge, our son is dairy allergic, and the oldest daughter bought home a picture she had to colour in for home work which upset her greatly, it being a famous painting of 'saints and sinners' being sorted at the so called pearly gates, graphic details of what was happening to the 'non believers'!
We use a mix of things, mostly child led. Most of the stuff available online is Christian based I've found, but there's alot of helpful stuff out there. I found Enchanted Learning great and subscribed for a while. Will probably subscribe again before long!
We are in the UK, home ed is relatively new publicly here, wish I'd known it was an option from the start. We get no help what so ever, financialy or otherwise, but there is alot of home edders in our area and we now belong to a group for ideas and support. It's Christian based, but they seem ok with us, I ignore the 'one' that always seems to crop up in life! I go to an online pagan group here in the UK for my shot in the arm of pagan sanity

BB Lunarsea

Thanks for all the information on places to check out. My sister really appreciated all of it.

Love and Blessings, Dragonsilver

I've been home schooling my youngest daughter for 5 years. We use the trial and error method.. school books and common sense, we are in the 8th grade now..

Ok I know this has not been touched on in a month, but I am now trying again to figure out what to do about my youngest.
I am trying to find out what I can do to help her advance in school.
They have been great with her so far, in school, we have a great program no child left behind and they really where great in her yearly years of school. Now its getting tricky she has always been in a regular class with support. Now going into JR. high they want to put her in a SPED class,
I am torn as most of the kids in the class they told me are there for emotional and behavioral issues. She has non of those problems. And she is very intone with people around her, she becomes invested in there emotions etc. I tried to tell them that I was afraid she would become the other kids advocate and not work on advancing her self, they just laughed and said �O a future social worker� I wanted to yell not if you don�t ******* teach her..

Needles to say this has become all consuming for me. I just don�t know what to do�

You can talk to the school and request their inituitive for the school year for her grade. The school in Arkansas gave me theirs when they wanted to pass my oldest up a grade. And here in Missouri they sent me one, without requesting it, to let me and other parents know what the kids will be required to know by the end of fourth grade.
With this information you can go through and see what she already knows how to do and what she needs to learn yet.

I would also work with her at home on things that she is interested in. By learning and enjoying those things you can incorporate many different subjects in it. That will help her in school.

As for her being in tune with others, that is great. However, you really need to stress to her that helping others is wonderful but not to the extent of damaging herself (which includes grades and work).
I would also go back to the school and talk to her teachers. Let them know that your a hands on parent that does not believe they have the added job of raising her daughter. If they notice that her work is not being done or her grades are dropping, you need to be notified immediatly so you can work with them and her.
I have found with respect this normally is received well.

I wish you and your daughter success.
ladyalpha

Thank you,

I will ask for that from them. It will give me a good starting point.

I have told her many times that she does not need to worry about everyone else if she cant take on her own issues, she is working on it.
I have been trying to find web sites that have lots of different ways of learning math. And so back to scouring the web
Thank you again for your input

Your welcome. What type of math are you looking for? I know you mentioned she is starting Junior High. So are you looking specifically for sixth grade math? Or a different grade?
I have different sites saved on my computer that might help her but I would have to know what exactly to share. That way your not wasting time going through a bunch of sites that are useless for you. lol

You can also do different science things to help her with her math also. Those subjects go hand in hand. There are other things, such as building projects and designing things that also incorporate math skills.
Learning comes in all forms, not always necessarily workbooks or sheets. Although I do feel they have their use and purpose. Just as a suppliment, I personally like to have the kids follow their own intuition and preferences, since they have no choice while in the school setting.
Also, rewording things in math really helps. I am not good at math by any stretch of the imagination. lol But, a lot of my problems at school came from the fact that it was not being explained in a manner I could grasp. 'How many times does this go into that for division' was one that would screw me up every time. However, as I came to realize and taught my children..it is the same as 'this times what comes the closest to that number'. Another way I taught my girls when they were really young was that division was a matter of making things fair. If you have 2 kids and 4 cookies, how many cookies do the kids get so it is fair?..they could immediatly answer 2, since it was something that as children they could not only grasp but could relate to. lol I then let them know they just divided.
It has really helped them now later in their schooling careers because they have the confidence in themselves from doing little things at home like that.
Long division still trips my oldest up at times. All the different steps in there, she sometimes forgets what she is supposed to do next. So I just have her run through the directions in her head as if she was telling someone else how to do it. That seems to help her. And when she is doing it at home she knows I am always here to help when I can. It is sad though when 4th grade math trips me up. LOL

Oh, I would also talk to the school and find out why they want to put her in those classes. If it is just for one subject or if they feel she has a behavioral problem or what.
As I mentioned above, I sucked at math so I was put in a remedial class for a little while until I could catch up when I was in the fifth grade. It really helped me get back to where the other kids were at. They tried to place me in there for reading when I was in the fourth grade but that lasted long enough for me to read to the remedial teacher..I was sent back with a note stating that I read perfectly fine. I just couldn't read in a group. lol
So I think it is very important to keep the lines of communication open with the school and make sure that you all know why she is being placed there. It may be that you know something about your daughter that they aren't realizing. Or vice versa.

Thank you so much!!

I had a lot of problems in school my self. So I know this is going to be a thing we have to deal with for the rest of her school day�s. :roll:

Well with the math she is just lost I think it would be best for me go right back to the beginning with her.
She has problems with remembering the steps.. Steps to any math problem, and she just isn�t convinced she is going to need this information so its harder for her to recall.. I think I should start with 3rd grade and work up from there.

She was having such a hard time with division also, until I broke it down in terms she was interested in like if she had a horse ranch and had X amount of horses and X amount of people came to buy them how many horses would each person get. She grasped it then, but the next days home work we had to start allover again� And it goes like that�

And they say she does not have good reading comprehension, but when we read at home or I ask her about what she read in school or on the standardized tests etc. she can tell me in great detail, and once she is going she starts quoting hole sections that she really connected with.
I have tried to tell them this and I think they just take it as I am defending her bla bla bla.


They want her in the sped class because they are introducing science this year and going into more depth with history, and they don�t offer extra help for those two subjects. So they think she will be lost with the added work load. And she is not very organized and they have a rotating schedule running on a 6 day cycle.
And she would have 4-5 different teachers, with 2 as math and English extra help.
But when she gets into high school she would at least know the routine..

I tried to point out that perhaps science would give her a different perspective on math and she would grasps concepts she has yet to place. Specially since science in JR. high is much more hands on building models of cells checking out the water marsh at the school using microscopes etc. They disagreed with me, and in the SPED class they do non of those things in there base line science. And in history they begin to learn about Greek mythology and ancient civilizations and these things interest her. But when they get into American history that�s another story I know the names and dates thing will bombard her.(as they still do me)
I just don�t want her to miss out on things that would spark her interest and get her going.
HMMPH

Any how, I really appreciate the help in finding web sites. I found some but after a bit I was just going in circles..

Here is one site that has so many different worksheets for various different things..from math to history.
http://k6educators.about.com/cs/helpforteachers/a/tools4teachers_2.htm
That is the second page. There are five pages offered on the site, so I'm sure there are a few things you can use.
I can't remember exactly which one this one was, so I just copied the link: http://www.kidzone.ws/math/dynamic3.htm

This one: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/west/main.html
It is for going west across America with Louis and Clark. It is interactive and fun for kids.

This one is math games: http://www.aplusmath.com/Games/index.html

This is for learning about the Vikings (very cool, imo): http://www.regia.org/vikings.htm

Another Viking: http://www.surfnetkids.com/vikings.htm

For Science: http://scorescience.humboldt.k12.ca.us/

For Various subjects: http://www.brainpop.com/

There are a few others that I have if you need more. I have one that is really cool for learning different cultures, if I remember correctly. But, at the moment I can't find it. So I will look for that and come back if/when I find it.

Don't you have to give them permission to have her put in those types of classes? (Sorry, I really don't know how they work, so just wondering). If so, I would give them permission for those things that you know she needs help with, the others I would say no with the reservation that if you notice later that she does need those classes you will agree then.

Thank you soooo much! (boogie)
I didn�t get to look at them yet the older kids are itchen to get back on, so I just put them in favorites.