Homeschooling Support Group

hi! Welcome! One of the 1st things you need to do is look into your state's requirements for homeschoolers. Some states require you are associated through the schools still and/or use their curriculums. Others require that you can provide good "proof" of what your students have accomplished throughout the year w/ you being in control of their curriculum, medium of presentation, mode of assessments, etc. Put in a search for home school requirements for your state in a search engine and it will bring up difft. sites for you to look at.
After that, if you find you have freedom, evaluate what YOU know about your children. How do they like to learn? What subjects are they best in? What subjects do they steer away from?
Why does your 2nd grader want to be homeschooled? Are there problems for him w/in his current school? What are his expectations? What are yours? What are your husband's?
There are difft. curriculums available online in many difft. price ranges. I do a lot of my shopping at christianbook.com but that is because we do use a christian based curriculum. There are many GOOD used books on ebay. Check out Amazon, etc.
Many people can come up w/ an entire curriculum, if they're not mandated so, w/o ever purchasing a text book. The internet and public libraries store such a vast amt. of information. Part of our materials are internet based, many are library based and then we have some texts as well. We also do some unit studies (central themes that can encompass many difft subjects.)
If your students are hands-on learners plan field trips to go along w/ themes w/in subjects, even if they're just field trips online or through books.
No two children learn the same way. What works for one might not work for the other. From your profile info its very obvious that you understand the differences in your children very well.
There are many books out there that can help you figure out what type of learner your students are. My opinion on that is that if you can acquire these books through the library skim through them. I wouldn't purchase them (because I can't afford them and because I have read many txt books from my education days for teaching elem. ed. and spec. ed. and have developed my own philosophies. PLUS, just because a book says it, doesn't mean your child's going to do it!)
Does he enjoy reading? drawing? building things? acting? Unless your state mandates it, if he likes acting he could act out entire books to prove that he has a working comprehension of the material (Let him dress the part & video it for proof! as well as home-movies!), or let him make grand illustrations from what he's read to prove his learning. He can make models out of many difft. mediums of solar systems, habitats, etc. He doesn't necessarily have to put down A. B. C. or D. to a multiple choice test to show he knows his stuff.
As to your preschooler... play.. play, play! I LOATHE worksheets! I was taught they are not developmentally appropriate. (*As is manuscript writing -- i.e. sticks & circles! We used D'Neleian.. that spelling doesn't look right to me tonight! Sorry!) Children learn through play as we well know! My children grew up w/ cut outs on the walls. Letters, colors, numbers. Laminated (w/ contact paper at home) "posters" that depicted all of the above, plus labels on common items to see how they were spelled. The word chair w/ a picture of a chair, laminated and stuck to a chair showed my children what chair looked like.
Read, read, read! Read lots of books w/ your 4 year old. Do lots of drawing, play doh, role play, nature adventures, make and act out w/ puppets. You can have themes for her (They can even be watered down versions of some of the things your 2nd grader is doing) but it should be in FUN, so she does not dislike the notion of school. This is preschool. It's setting the foundation for "sit-down" education. Her attention span needs lots of difft. things throughout the day. Repetition (not mundanely! but making sure concepts, sounds, etc are kept on the front burner) and consistency are important.
Homeschooling for us incorporates so much more than "just" reading/writing/arithmetic. It includes learning to act/react w/in the family unit, the church, the community. It involves health and hygiene, cooperation, responsibilites, etc. We'll be learning more "household abilities" this year - basic "Home Economics" from cooking, sewing, savvy shopping, to making and keeping schedules, & learning about budgets. That is all a part of learning. Everyone in school should learn those things.
As to your daughter's speech: when I was going through my educ. classes, we were told that until children are around the age of 5 they can (and do) have "issues" w/ different sounds and blends in their speech. It's nothing huge normally, its a developmental process. Some take a lil longer to pull it all together - some need additional guidance. and yes, some never acquire it. I know a 19mo. old who is just now getting sounds and beginning words down. He had tubes put in his ears late last fall, so his inability to hear the sounds put him behind. Now he is picking up the sounds in leaps and bounds and I believe he'll be up there w/ his peers in no time w/ his abilities.
Reinforcing sounds and blends that a child is having issues with works wonders. Making up rhymes, silly tales, even simple tongue twisters (they might not be for you or me but they might be for her!) Have your "letter of the day" as part of your "curriculum". Many 3-5 year olds are "having troubles getting" the "R", "L", "S" sounds and several blends. They're the latter of the sounds to roll correctly off the tongue. Have fun w/ the sounds by doing lots of repeats but don't make it a chore or she'll bore w/ it, catch on to what you're doing and possibly become frustrated with the whole process. "Roly Rhonda Rides Rudolph in Rhode Island" -- while "Slippery Sammy Slithered on Slimy Soup". (Find a recipe for slime and make it, make some soup, look up seals, slugs, etc...)
Always remember that just because you choose a certain "type" of learning w/ your children, you can change it up. You can alter it if it's not working at any time, you can also use one type of learning for one subject and another for a difft subject based upon what you evaluate are the best ways your student can learn.
Also, remember that in public schools, children do not spend that much time actually doing their lessons. They might be there from 8-3 (or whatever) but they spend a LOT of their time in transitions (btwn subjects, while teacher deals w/ individual problems, lunch, gym, recess.) You won't be doing "formal instruction" for 6-7 hrs. a day! Plan a library day. Join a homeschool group in your area.
I tell people out in public that my daughter is ALWAYS in school. She is constantly learning from the environment around her, including whatever that particular person does for a living, how they interact w/ others (speech, interpersonal relationships, etc.) She learns at the doctor's office. She learns at the grocery store.
These are things "off the top of my head" that I feel are impt. in our homeschooling adventure. I hope that some of it might help. I'm not going to go back through here and pick it apart. Please note its about 3 hrs past my bedtime, so you won't be finding perfect grammar or punctuation. I just wanted to get something to you.
I'm not a professional in any "ranking order". I'm a homeschooling mom who became frustrated w/ the public school systems many years ago. I have most of my degree done in Elem Ed and Spec Ed but never completed it. I'm just a mom trying to help out where I can! So these are just guidelines I've used throughout the years working w/ other children as well as my own. My daughter, at age 4, could read newspaper articles. She was never forced to sit and look at or reproduce letters or words. We played and read a LOT of books. We had visual letters and words in our surroundings every day. We talked a LOT. Play stimulates their minds!
By the sounds of your profile, you have a very busy, active life! I wish you the best. If I can be of any help feel free to message. Hope you have a great week!

I have home educated my son who will be 15 in January,for 6 years and 3 and a half months now. I think it would be quite fair of me to say that I have quite a bit of experience in home education or home learning by now. My son and I both detest the word school. It is a harsh and upsetting reminder of how his educational life used to be. You need to remember that not everyone who home educates,is a christian,and therefore does not wish to follow a christian based curriculum or attend church. I strongly believe and others in my home educating circle believe that it is important for a child to understand comprehension and grammar skills by writing them. Also the parent or home educator can see in front of them when written down,whether the child understands where things need to go. It is okay to act out comprehension but there is no surety by not having a written record of it. I and others would also disagree that worksheets are not developmentally appropriate. They can work very well and especially with a child who has a disability such as my son,who has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Not just myself,but others I know who home educate,have found worksheets to be an invaluable addition to their curriculum. Written work we find over here in Australia is a fantastic way of keeping a record of progress and can be gone back to and shown to the child and let them see for themselves how they have improved. There are subjects which some children do not like as much as others,but there can be fun ways of teaching a not so popular subject. I believe all subjects need to be covered. There are ways of teaching any boring subject and actually making a child eventually enjoy it.

Hi and welcome, Jilly!

Homeschooling is a very big step, but one of the most worthwhile things a person can do, as far as I'm concerned. I homeschooled my children from 1986 - 2006. 20 years!! WOW!! I would love to say that I loved every minute of it, but that just wouldn't be true.

We learned as we went and there were times of trial and times of joy, times of burnout and times when everything just went wonderfully! Just like anything else we do in life. lol.

You have asked so many questions it is hard to answer them, especially since most of us could probably write pages and pages on each of the questions. Why don't you ask one question at a time in a separate thread? Then we can be a little more specific and hopefully be able to help you a little better.

I think my first question would be do you want to teach them Christian or non-religious curriculum?

There are a myriad of options available - everything from a satellite school where you simply guide the student and the school you sign up with keeps the grades, corrects the papers and tests, and even often gives them things like standardized tests. These are very structured environments, much like a public or private school, but "at home". Then your options run the full gammut to teaching totally from the library and developing your own curriculum. Most people pick something in between, purchasing a full curriculum or piecing one together from different publishers depending upon what they want to teach, how their children learn, and how each fits with their lifestyle.

There are workbooks, computer curriculums, even online schools.

The best thing I could recommend to you is to get some catalogues and start looking them over. Lots and lots of catalogues. And get hard copies of them so you can sit and peruse them at your own leisure.

As to meeting your second grader where he is, you will be able to determine that within a couple of weeks. You'll see his weak areas and his strong areas. That will pan out as you go. And don't worry if you miss a little something or cover something more than once. That's what most curriculums do. They repeat things every year, and then build a little more on it. So if you miss something - he's bound to get it later.

As to your daughter's speech impediment. I am no doctor, and I think if I were you I would consult one. My daughter had trouble with her r's and s's until well into grade school. She eventually outgrew it. I don't know what problem your child has, but sometimes I think we just push them too hard.

As to where to start - the suggestion to find your state's laws was excellent! It is the best place to start, so you know what you face. hslda.org is the best place to go for this information. It is the watchdog organization for the entire country for homeschool law. They have a listing of the law in both condensed and full form for every state. Just type your state's name and "homeschool law" into the search area and you'll be taken to your state's laws for home schooling.

Another good place to start is to write up a statement of purpose. This is mainly the WHY you are homeschooling. Think this through carefully and write down why you and your spouse are passionate about homeschooling your chilren. What do you hope to accomplish by homeschooling? This statement of purpose will see you through the hard times for the next "X" number of years.

I think one other thought to leave you with is that homeschooling is a lifestyle. You must be committed to changing your whole life around to be successful. However, remember, it does not have to be forever. It can be for one semester, one year, until high school, whatever ends up suiting you and your family. It is not a contract signed in blood for the next 10 years of your life. lol. You need to be fully committed, but you need to not lock yourself into the option of quitting when the time is right. (who knows? YOu may end up doing it through high school! ;) ) I schooled two of mine through high school and one went back into public school as a sophomore. Change is always an option. Keep your mind open. :)

God Bless in your endeavor!