IM A 25 YEAR OLD FATHER WITH A 4 YR OLD A ND A 18 MONTH OLD. WANT TO START MY LITTLE BOY IN HOMESCHOOLING, AT LEAST WHILE LIVING IN THIS STATE-MASSAGE THERAPIST SO IM SELFEMPLOYED AND TIME IS FLEXIBLE-REALLY EXCITED BUT NEED SOME DIRECTION...HELP PLEASE!?
This is a good place to start. There are many different teaching styles and curriculums. Try to make a group activity by contacting one of the coordinators. Have you looked up curriculums on the internet? You'll learn a lot just by looking at those. If your son is just going to start Kindergarten you still have plenty of time.
Hats off to you!! There are so many curriculums out there, at times will be overwhelming. Just a few places to peak at if you haven't already. Abeka, Horizons, Sonlight, Bob Jones, Calvert School, these are a few curriculums that seem to be very popular. Web sights are very helpful and feel free to call the companies, often they will send you sample pages! Calvert School has a placement testing page you can print out, very helpful in the upcoming years! Good luck and network!!!
No matter what type of homeschooling you decide to follow and what curriculum you decide to use, rest assured that you may not find what works best for you right away. In fact, what works for you one year, may not work the next and what works with one child may not work with the other. The best way to find what works for you is by doing it. Don't be discouraged if homeschooling does not seem to fit right away. It will all fall into place.
With that being said, there are so many things that you can look into to get an idea of where to start. Message boards like this one are a real good place to start. You should also check out the Education Resource Center as already mentioned, check out book from the library and do searches online. You will find so much to look at that it will be very overwhelming, but it will give you a good idea what you want to do for your family.
Pre-K and K are wonderful times to start because you do not need to worry about the BIG stuff yet. Follow your children's interests and watch them. Read to them lots and do craft activities. Spend time playing with them and getting outside. Find a co-op or homeschooling group that fits you and your children and get involved. The Albuquerque Homeschool Co-op could be a wonderful fit, since there are many children around both of your children's ages. There are many activities and fieldtrips to choose from. If this one is not a good fit, there are many other groups out there that may work or you can always look into starting your own.
Hope this helps. Best of luck to you! You have an adventure ahead of you. There will be many hard times, but the rewards outweigh any of them.
A lot of us end up mixing and matching subjects rather than using strictly one curriculum like Bob Jones. I use Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Math-U-See, BiblioPlan, Sonlight science, but I still alter those somewhat with suplemental materials. It's awesome being able to create an education uniquley catered to each unique child. So much can be bought used or borrowed from the library. It's taken me 3 years to find just the right programs for my 8 year old, but he's not in any way behind. He reads at a middle school level. I've tried 2-3 different curriculums in each subject since I started homeschooling and I've got 3 more kids to start yet. I may have to use something different for them. The most important thing is that they have fun and want to continue learning. My son learns so much more than I could ever teach him because he loves to read. He checks out books from the library about everything. Kids get so much more out of real books than text books. Magic School bus books are great. Also, DK Eyewitness books. The library is chalk full of them. Christian Liberty press puts out nature readers that are wonderful. See about getting your hands on The 3 R's by Ruth Beechick. These are 3 little books that help parents understand how children think so they can then teach effectively. There's the Charlotte Mason method. There's the classical method. This is the best time to become familiar with everything available. If you want to start doing something in the mean time, just play dominoes with him. Go bowling and have him figure out how many pins he knocked down. Have him measure out ingredients when you cook. Write all the letters onto scraps of paper or get flash cards. Put a few at a time in a big circle on the floor. Start some music and have him run around the circle. Stop the music and have him say the name and sound of the letter he stops at when the music stops. If he gets it right, you remove that card. If not, you leave it. Keep doing this until all the cards are gone. My kids learned the sounds of the letters before being able to recognize them by way of songs. Songs are great. There's also a program that was posted on this forum. Here's the website: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/bjaremko/ and here's the post: http://www.abqhomeschool.com/c.....ighlight=canada#num0 Hope this helps. Have fun
Pages: 1
Author
want to start homeschool/NEED HELP!
Logged
Locked Board
