Kimba15: Would love to hear more from you about your teaching your children and what you did?
Here’s a copy of an email I have sent to my friends who’ve inquired:
Before I began homeschooling, I attended the CHEA Convention (see below), researched, fasted, and prayed a lot. I got my answer and that gave me the strength to continue through all the obstacles I/we encountered.
I have five children with ADD. My husband, K, would not let me get them medicine. So, I found ways to help them learn that were interesting to them. If you have kids with ADD, let me know and I’ll give you my resources and information on that subject.
Here are some of the things I found and /or did while homeschooling:
I attended the Christian Homeschool Educators Association (CHEA) Convention http://www.cheaofca.org (there are also CHEA’s in other states as well) each year, in the summer, where I learned better how to teach my kids and bought curriculum, etc. If you offer to work, they give you discounted or free convention entry. I always worked all day Friday, while they were getting setup, attended the curriculum exchange, and spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the conference. I would join every other year, just before convention. The membership was good until the end of the month, which meant I could attend two conventions at the discounted rate for the cost of one year’s membership fee. I do not know if this will still work, they may have wised up by now.
There are public charter homeschools as well as virtual charter homeschools in CA. They are a great resource if you do not mind their rules. They are usually strict about lesson plans and work samples. But they also set up community days, outings, and keep your cumulative file (cume file) for you.
Note: If you do not use a public homeschool/charter school, be sure to keep detailed lesson plans and monthly work samples. Also be sure that any group you use, or if you go it alone, use Home School Legal Defense Association www.hslda.org: They are relatively inexpensive and will defend you in court if the state comes after you for not sending your child to the local public or private schools. Think of this as legal insurance and plan to join.
When we first began homeschooling, I was teaching K, 3rd and 5th. It was an incredible challenge but the rewards were/are great. You have an incredible bond with your kids and they also have a bond with each other. They got to excel in whatever they wanted, stayed up late, slept late, went to school in their pj’s, attended incredible amounts of field trips, park days, special event classes, Catalina Island Marine Institute Camp, Space Camp, Outdoor Ed, and many other incredible experiences.
My philosophy is that experience is the best teacher. So I found many outings that interested my kids and/or me and many that I felt they would benefit from attending. Then, I would find lessons in their books to mark as completed.
They lived a sheltered life until high school. (I enrolled them because I did not have a homeschooling high school available to me when L, my eldest, was ready and I did not feel adequate in teaching upper level math and science.) After I sent L off to high school, I could not tell P and all the younger kids they could not go to public high school. So I sent them and they had a culture shock, especially L…
L told P of her experiences and P was more prepared than L and on down the line. Even though they had the initial shock, they had a strong moral base and knew what was right and wrong.
We had “Opening†every day: Song, Prayer, Flag Salute, Scripture Memorization (see Memlok below), Scripture Reading, Classic Plan (see below), and I read a chapter out of a good novel that was geared to the older kids. We read the Little House books, Jungle Book, The Chronicles of Narnia, many of the Madeleine L’Engle books (A Wrinkle in Time, etc.), and many, many others.
We used:
·Memlok http://www.memlok.com We used the King James version.
·Janis VanCleave’s Science Books These are all experiments http://scienceprojectideasforkids.com/books/ Janis used to do exibitor’s workshops at the CHEA Convention. They were incredibly entertaining and helped instill the love of science.
·Beautiful Feet History www.bfbooks.com Expensive, plan to buy at the used curriculum exchange and be one of the first to enter.
·Saxon Math www.saxonhomeschool.com (at that time, about 80% or more of all homeschoolers used Saxon, which has a daily review along with the incremental lessons). I still have some of the (now out of date) books for 4th-8th grades.
·Daily Grams http://www.easygrammar.com Daily grammar review- a few minutes per day to grammar mastery
·Family Math http://lawrencehallofscience.stores.yahoo.net/familymath.html
·Mental Math-begin with Mental Math in the Primary Grades by Jack Hope, Larry Leutzinger, Barbara Reys, and Robert Reys available, inexpensively, at Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/Mental-Math-Primary-Grades-01614/dp/0866514341
·Total Language Plus www.totallanguageplus.com from fourth grade up. (I read all the novels during the summer for the following school year.)
·Critical Thinking Co www.criticalthinking.com
·Start Write-Handwriting http://www.startwrite.com software
·Hooked on Phonics www.HookedonPhonics.com (There is probably something comparable out there, now but I loved this and even the pre-schoolers could use some of the beginning stuff.)
·Miller Pads & Paper www.millerpadsandpaper.com (at CHEA Convention) has the most inexpensive school supplies I’ve ever found. Plan to buy all of it for the year, if possible.
·Excellence in Writing www.excellenceinwriting.com
·Learning Wrap Ups http://learningwrapups.com great for daily review, in the car, or away from home while waiting at a Dr appt, etc.
·Number Maze Challenge Math review video games. Here’s a good review I found but you might be able to find it cheaper on another site: http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/math/4/maze/merge.shtml
·Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software www.broderbund.com/store/broder/search/keywords.mavis%20beacon Here’s a good review: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavis_Beacon_Teaches_Typing If you decide to use this, the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is easier and quicker to learn and use. However, the QWERTY keyboard is widely used on cell phones, etc. and they’d probably have to learn both, which is not a problem if you start them early.
·K12 Curriculum http://www.k12.com This is our current curriculum. I do like it but some of the other curriculum is more enjoyable. However, the history is incredible. It reads like a well-written novel.
I did not start with all these curriculum but we’ve used all of it. K speaks Spanish so he gave us lessons but there are plenty of language courses out there.
E, my youngest, used a K12 virtual charter school (California Virtual Academy or CAVA) in 7-8th grades. They provide a free computer, printer, and the entire curriculum, including microscope, chemicals, CD’s, software, art prints, paint, brushes, etc. Please see the website above. They have a Community Day each week where the kids get together with accredited teachers and learn while the parents take a break or have a parent meeting/support group session. (I was able to take an online course during this time.)
I am currently using the Pimsleur www.pimsleurapproach.com conversational Spanish course to refresh and learn so I can increase my home based business within the Spanish speaking community. It is easy, full of review, expensive, and good. Spanish just comes out of my mouth when I hear someone speak it, now.
If you do not choose to use a public/charter homeschool, find a homeschool group in your area.
Homeschool groups are especially nice for park days and field trips/outings. You get discounts in groups and the kids get to make lifelong friends. School groups also get in free to a lot of places that would otherwise cost too much to attend.
We also began 4H at the same time as we began homeschooling. It is an incredible resource for learning in a caring environment. We found that only people who care about raising incredible kids got involved in 4H. My boys also did Boy Scouts. We did not get involved in Girl Scouts, which was K’s decision. I cannot rightfully explain it so I will not attempt it.
Make sure you have the Lord’s support in this endeavor before you begin. This is not a light undertaking and you need a strong testimony of homeschooling before you begin.
Here are some of the drawbacks to homeschooling:
·Your house does not get cleaned as often unless you have a maid.
·You have less time for yourself.
·You have to put other things on the back burner while you set homeschool as your priority.
·Your kids’ best friends in the local neighborhood, at church, and in 4H do not think of your kids as their best friends because they see their other friends almost every day/all day.
·Your kids’ homeschooling best friends might live far away.
·You’ll be questioned by many people as to why you would homeschool. You need to have your answer ready, before you begin.
Here’s some other advice I have for you before you begin:
·Do not expect to have a three course dinner at 5 or even 6 every night or you’ll have a nervous breakdown. Simplify and be flexible.
·Even a sick child can listen while you read to them.
·Find someone to trade babysitting with so you can take some “ME†time away from your kids.
·You can do math in the grocery store, occasionally. (When you run out and have to go no matter what.)
·Learning while on a field trip or traveling and experiencing is a lot better than books any day.
·If you haven’t already, make up some games to play in the car. Here are a couple we played a lot:
§I’m Thinking of Something that’s… Someone says this line and fills in attributes of their thought. Other players try to guess. The person who’s “it†can give hints as needed. The person who guesses the answer is “it†next. We’d take turns in a circle to let everyone have a guess.
§I See Something that’s… Someone says this line and gives attributes of the chosen item. Other players try to guess. The person who’s “it†can give hints as needed. The person who guesses the answer is “it†next. We’d take turns in a circle to let everyone have a guess.
When we did not have a car available and it was a holiday but too cold to go to the park or something, we played Crazy 8’s, Monopoly, Numero Uno, Scrabble, etc.
Our first year, L was in the 5th grade. She was upset that she would miss Outdoor Ed (a week-long camp with the local public school). So we began our school year with a camping trip and I taught her a lot of the skills I learned in Camp Crafters. She was satisfied and she got to go in the fall instead of the spring.
Whenever we needed to raise funds to pay for outings, camps, or supplement family vacations, we sold candy. If you want more information on this subject, just ask.
I may remember more and post again later.
I hope this helps.