Hi Everyone,  My name is Stacia. I have a 2 1/2 year old that I am considering homeschooling. I have two other grown sons ages 20 & 24 who did the public school thing and I don't see that it was much of an advantage.  My little guy is so smart and I want him to be able to develop to his fullest potential. I know he is young but want to start now to figure out how this all works.

Hi!  I started researching homeschooling when my son was 18 mo old, and I'm SO glad I did!  It kept me from avoiding panic by giving my a lot of time to understand educational approaches and my son.  

It is never too early to start looking at everything out there.  There are so many different homeschool approaches and materials, that the more time you have to take it all in, the better.  We are pretty new to homeschooling and we are constantly looking into new things and reevaluating what we are doing.  I wish I had had more time to get ready for this adventure, but since we decided to homeschool when my daughter was already 9, we did not have much time to take it all in.  We have learned so much in the last year and still have a lot to learn.  While I know that my daughter is benefitting from our homeschooling, I feel my boys will gain so much more from it because they are homeschooling from the very beginning.  My two-year-old is already homeschooling in a sense, since we incoorperate learning into our everyday life, instead of saving it all for a classroom.

The most important thing to do right now to prepare for the possibility of homeschooling is READ books about homeschooling and READ, READ, READ to your little one.  Best wishes to you and your family!

 
Hi everyone!

                    I too, have a young son who is two years old. We have already started to research homeschooling as well. This message board, especially, has been an extremely valueable resource!

                    Although, i have had little input in the discussions; I've been grateful to learn so much by reading the posted threads.
                 
                     Would like to wish you the best of luck and here are a few links to sites I've found pertaining to toddlers.  http://www.familytlc.net/index_twos.html

http://WWW.EverythingPreschool.com and http://WWW.Starfall.com (better for 3's learning to read, but my son loves the graphics)


                                     Thanks, Ally (Mom to Levi 2  1/4)
 

Hi Stacia,

I also started researching homeschooling early, I think it was before my son turned two. Starting early gives you a great opportunity, as Jess pointed out, to relax and research at your leisure, without feeling you need to start "doing homeschooling" right away. There are many homeschooling books at the library. The ones I enjoyed reading most (maybe because they reminded me of the failings of my own education in that same bygone 60s era) were John Holt's How Children Fail and How Children Learn. Actually, they aren't about homeschooling. They're more about schools, but they provide lots of food for thought.

Now, as a vastly experienced homeschooler of a 6 year old the most surprising thing to me has been the contrast between the homeschooling approach that appealed most strongly to me (unschooling) and what seemed to appeal to, and work best with, my son (structured but eclectic, for want of a better term).

Good luck with your journey, and welcome to the message board.

Ally, thanks for mentioning http://www.starfall.com -- isn't that a great site?

Thank you all for your great input. I will go to the library to look up some books. How do I find out about the events on the calendar. I would like to attend some of them so Erik can have other kids to play with.

Stacia, there are a couple of ways you can find homeschooled kids for your son to play with. One way would be to post here on the board seeking people interested in playdates. Another way is to come to co-op events. The co-op calendar is available only to co-op members -- not meaning to seem unfriendly, this is just for the privacy and security of our kids that we keep it off the public message board. If you're interested in becoming a co-op member, you can come to a new member event (typically a park day). To find out about those, I'd suggest going to our home page http://www.abqhomeschool.com and clicking the "How to Join" link.