My son Evan, who is five, is graduating out of his preschool program (today actually) and my husband and I decided to homeschool him next year. Hence the discussion.
I figured I'd start this thread so everybody can offer all of their tips and ideas, curriculum suggestions, memories of their awesome or horrible experiences, etc etc. I'm absorbing all the advice I can get.
The curriculum that I picked out are:
Sonlight for pretty much everything (Bible, History, Geography, Science)
Logic of English (Phonics and Writing)
Shiller Math
Now, here's the thing. Evan is already reading at a first or second grade level. I suspect we'll burn through his English program, especially if I can get his handwriting caught up to his reading skills. I know this is a benefit of homeschooling, that you can go at your own pace, so did you or your parents order a new curriculum halfway through the year if you completed one early? Kansas requires 186 days of teaching in the school year, so I figured if I DO run out of material, I can just order next years' stuff and start that.
Absolutely. I hear of so many people switching up curriculum from year to year and with each child. I suspect I'll switch things up once my second kiddo hits kindergarten, if for no other reason than she'll have heard all of these stories already.SnowAngel, in the books thread wrote:You definitely have to time to experiment with curriculum since you just getting started.
Hahaha, yeah. I finished up my rough lesson plan last night, and this is my number one concern... the amount of time I'll be reading out loud. It wouldn't be a problem if Evan was my only child, but he's not. I have a toddler (and a three year old), who will be vying for my attention while I'm trying to teach Evan.SnowAngel wrote:I think the problem is never really the number of books, but the lack of time for the number of books.
Yeah, I'll probably look into some supplementary stuff from them in the future.SnowAngel wrote:Oh, if you like science/math then Timberdoodle is definitely for you.
Whereas when I grew up, I didn't know ANYBODY who was homeschooled. Several private school attendees, but no homeschoolers. But I sure know a lot of them now! I don't know about nation-wide, but here at least it's taking off big time.SnowAngel wrote:Most of my cousins and many of my friends growing were homeschool, and everyone had a slight different group of curriculum.
Some other thoughts I might mention, I've joined a field trip group officially already. We've been on two field trips with them, which is great. I'm unofficially part of a co-op group which will meet for 10 weeks this fall, also looking forward to that. Evan is and has been in gymnastics for several years and I'm starting him (and Ariel) in swim lessons again this month. What other social things have homeschoolers been a part of?