Hi everyone. I'm in the midst of a revamp of the abqhomeschool web site. I'm not changing the message board (yet!) but I've added a couple of new boards. This current one (Getting to know you) will have space for people to post polls or questions about homeschooling. We already have a couple polls, but I was trying to think up new ones and maybe post one every month or so. The other new board is called Around town, where we can post about events coming up in the community.

Can anyone think of some good polls/questions? I'm hoping the answers will make interesting reading. I love talking to other parents about their homeschooling experiences and park days and such, so I thought it might be fun to share our perspectives.

Anyway, here are a few questions I've come up with. Please reply with more!

Why did you decide to homeschool?

What has been the biggest challenge in homeschooling your kids?

What has been the greatest reward in homeschooling your kids.

What assumptions have you had to abandon from when you first started
homeschooling to now?

What is your favorite homeschooling activity?

Do you homeschool all year long or take vacations?

In what way has your (possibly former) career affected the way you homeschool your children?

What are the most supportive things people have said to you about your choice to homeschool?

What are the least supportive things people have said to you about your choice to homeschool?

What's your favorite reply to either of the following statements
"I could never homeschool my kids. I'm just not the type."
"I couldn't stand to be at home around my kids all day long"

How long do you plan to homeschool?

What about:

Where do you get your material from?

Have you found economical ways and do you have good tips to obtain good, economical material to teach?

Do you feel the state should provide for (more) part time classes for homeschoolers, like they do in California?

These are all good questions or topics and I think we will think of more as we go along....I can not think of any more right now...Tabbi

Hi
I just signed up on to your site. We are a familly travelling the country for a year and are home schooling. We have 3 children 12, 10 and 6. We will be visiting Albqurque for 3 weeks and were wondering if your or your members could suggest any major fun (and educational) activities for my children while we are here.
Really looking forward to our stay in your city.
Siobhan Cassell

How about "what's the #1 piece of advice you wish you'd been given your first year?" or more simply "what advice would you give to newbies?"

I really like Crystal's idea of a place where we can recommend books on particular homeschooling styles/philosophies.

It's a great idea, Elizabeth.  I can't wait to read everyone's answers!

I'm not sure if this is too complex a question but I would love to know how everyone runs their homeschool schedule, and how closely that schedule is met.  Do you have a regular schedule, routine that you follow, or none at all?  For example: Do you "school" for 6 weeks then take a week off for the 36 weeks. Do you go M-F or do you take Friday's off with the weekend? Do you map out your 180 days in advance and try to follow that?  I keep hearing that "learning happens all the time" which I completely agree with but I just want to hear about what routines and schedules families follow if any?

My husband works night and sleeps all day so I'm curious as to how creative we can get and what kind of (flexible) schedule we can keep but also keep some consistency.

...any thoughts?

Thanks!

"Schedule" - I am not familiar with that word - LOL!!!!

We are relaxed homeschoolers.  We try to get some math, grammar, reading in every day for my older son.  But every day brings new challenges to the "schedule" so we don't follow one.   My kids (like all kids) are amazing question askers  We find a lot of educational value in finding answers for the questions and exploring them.  Sometimes they can be answered quickly like for instance with a quick science experiment.  Or they turn into a full fledged unit study.

As you research homeschooling and meet homeschoolers you will see such a wide diversity of styles.  That's the beauty of it - you use what suits your family.  Some homeschoolers are very scheduled and follow a school routine and there are classical learners, natural learners, relaxed homeschoolers, electic homeschoolers and unschoolers.  And that probably doesn't even cover all the different styles.

Carol

To weird lopez5. Iam a lopez as well and my husband works nights. what i do is try to do all my out door activites in the morning, while ruben sleeps. The nice thing about albuquerque is we really dont have bad weather so we dont have to plan to many indoor activites. I buy an annual zoo pass for a family of five,even though we only have stevie it allows us to take friends.IT KEEPS US BUSY.