How to get started homeschooling in a structured way?

[mamasaurus]

I have an almost 7yoDD and a 4.5yoDD. 7yoDD is in 2nd grade at the local elementary school. She has Aspergers and is highly gifted. 4.5yoDD is in Montessori. She's pretty bright. I am thinking about what it would be like to homeschool them in the near future.

But... I am a planner. I need structure. I don't think I could "go with the flow" on this. And I don't think my girls could, either. They really thrive on a plan and an organized day.

For those of you who are pretty structured - can you give me some tips on getting started?

I would like to start by having everything set up as much as possible. That means the classroom, the desks, the tables, shelves, books, supplies, etc. I want to have a curriculum to follow and a plan for the entire year before diving in.

Are there some good planners out there for homeschooling? Like check-off systems, or curriculum that is all set up and ready to go with teacher's guides, etc? I need to know what subjects to be teaching, and how to organize my day/week.

For those of you "go with the flow" type people - heaven bless you , but I need a lot of organization and structure, so I'd love to hear from the people who love flow-charts and Excel and color-coding...

Thanks!

[Savoir Faire]

I am a go with the flow person who has a decent amount of structure...I have ADD and so if I don't....well...it goes downhill quickly.

First things first. Go to a teacher's supply store and get a planner. I like the ones where you plan by the week and have plenty of writing space.

There are a whole variety of different methods out there...it sounds like you might be interested in something like Charlotte Mason or the Well-Trained mind for your older child. There's all kinds of things for math-- I'm sure some of the other moms on here could give good advice.

My planner is broken up by week. I wrote down what I wanted to do for each day, including books that I hardly ever get to reading. Then I went and started a file folder for each week with all the papers that I'll need in there. I even have sections for coloring pages and colored paper for the kids, if needed. I keep stickers in there for each season as rewards for doing the work.

As for seating, we just have a kid sized table with two chairs. If your daughter would work better at a desk, I often see them at resale shops for cheap.

I'll come back and add pictures in a bit...have to drop a kid off at preschool.

[mamakay]

The "Learn at Home" series is pretty comprehensive.
http://www.epinions.com/content_37016866436

If you're religious, the A Beka curriculums look pretty comprehensive, too.
http://www.abeka.com/

There's always going to be a certain amount of "go with the flow" with homeschooling, though, in that if your kid is blowing through a certain subject and beyond grade level, you'll probably want to supplement with more challenging materials. Or, if your kid needs extra help in a certain area, you'll need to spend some time reinforcing those basics before moving on.

[Forsanda]

Learn At Home is what we'll be using (along with some other things). Used it in the past as well.

[luv-my-boys]

I am a very structured person, I need to be in a house full of boys all day That was one of my *worries* about HS, I like to have things planned out, See at a glance what we are doing and so forth. I found that a boxed curriculums were a good match. There are TONS of curriculums out there, religous,secular,certain styles like waldorf,montessori and so forth. What *kind* you get is up to you, we use sonlight personally. But literally they give you a day to day schedule , monday this pg,this book and so on. Most boxed curriculums let you literally buy the entire curriculum with every book/supplies/workbooks you will need. You literally open it up and go. For me it was very important my first yr, I knew it was covering everything they were supposed to learn at that level and it was all planned out.

Now our 2nd yr I have been able to use our *box* curriculum and supplemnet other projects and such but I know if I dont do anything but what the curriculum sends they are set.

[elizawill]

i'm kind of in-between structure and go with the flow. for structure, i mostly rely on routine to our day. we have bedtimes, meal times, designated "school" time, etc. this helps me a great deal. i do use curriculum, but i purchase per subject and don't use anything boxed. i also alter things a lot & use most things as a general "spine". even if you end up being very structured, i would still recommend flexibility - it will save your sanity as for what subjects to teach (and what to cover in each subject), i have rebecca rupp's "home learning year by year" & i also enjoy "what your 2nd grader needs to know", which is in the core knowledge series.

[kittie313]

We are structured here too. My oldest has ADHD and some other possible issues (we start figuring it all out tomorrow) and my 2nd girl has motor delays and what I like to call "princess syndrome" (she thinks she is a princess and expects to be treated like she can walk on water, she's a fun one to say the least) Anyway, I use a state virtual academy that provides k12 curriculum. Its technically a public school, but we do the teaching at home ourselves. I have to log hours and submit grades for assignments, plus keep our work for portfolio (not sure yet what I need for that so I'm just keeping all my assignments as they do them) Some find it too rigid, but for me and my ADHD it is a perfect fit. I find it way too easy to just not do anything at all daily if I'm hsing independently, and that got us in a bad spot last school year when my oldest was enrolled in ps mid-year in K. We decided that was enough to show us that we need to be firm and force accountability on me as a parent and home teacher, which was why we chose the virtual academy.

Its definitely not for everyone though. I chose to set up our schedule to work a 6 day school week so that I can have a grace day in every subject, and this way I'm getting all my hours easily for both kids, and if I need to take a day off because the kids all have H1N1 (like right now) then we can just relax and enjoy (or recover)

[Savoir Faire]

it might be good, also, to say what you're hoping. Do you want a pretty rigorous schedule for your kids? What's really important for them to learn?

Right now, for example, my daughter is five. The only formal training we're giving is reading, writing and math. We're not worrying about other subjects until she gets older...so I knew a boxed set wouldn't work for us.

[annettemarie]

I second the planner. I actually have an overall planner and one for each kid. The overall planner has main lessons and the stuff we do together: art, science, Story of the World, field trips, etc. The individual planners detail the main lessons and list their independent work/workboxes.

I don't use a canned curriculum, I make up my own based on the recommended Waldorf main lesson blocks. So, I started out with a notebook. I wrote a month on the top of each page. Then I divided it into 4 quarters-- one for each kid, plus a section for what we do together. Then I figured out how many "learning weeks" we had in each month. Next, I went through and figured out what main lesson I wanted to do for each kid each month. Finally, for the last quarter, I wrote out the stuff we'd be doing together.

So, imagine a page labeled "OCTOBER: 4 weeks" and divided into 4 quarters.

It would read kind of like this:
NICHOLAS (Kindergarten):
D, E, F, review letters A through F
Continue with counting and sorting concepts
Small motor skills
Gnome crafts
Circle times: Apples, harvest and haying, gnomes

KATIE GRACE (third grade):
Native American stories
Continue with the 4 operations
Focus on drilling multiplication and division facts
Forms based on Native American motifs
Cursive

MICHAEL:
Tall Tales (Moving Beyond the Page and other resources)
Continue with fractions
Creative writing and editing
Pronouns

TOGETHER:
Story of the World chapters for the month
Art Masterpieces for the Month
Bach
Emergency preparedness/natural disasters/safety (Science and safety)
Pumpkin Patch trip
Read Alouds: Don Quixote

This, coupled with creating a routine that gives me time with each kid, is really the cornerstone of our structure.

[theretohere]

I LOVE the forms at donnayoung.org. They are free, too.
http://concordiaclassicalacademy.blo...onal-post.html I posted here about how I brought all of our curricula for the year together, and under my organization tag I talk about it a lot.

[Smithie]

OP, have your read The Well-Trained Mind? Even if you are not planning to follow a neoclassical curriculum, those ladies will give you just as much you can stand of specifics and schedules I have probably read the book 5 times and I internalize some new-and-useful tidbit ever time!

[LilyGrace]

We have structure here, but it's cooperative structure. The Kid helps pick out curriculum and fill in the planner. I will second the DonnaYoung site. We use her 6 week Excel planner to tentatively fill in what we're doing and make sure we have all supplies, books, etc. for that week. Most of our curricula comes with teacher's guides and plans even though we use a different company for each subject. The only one that doesn't is our math - it's a go at your own pace sort of thing.

We've also found that there are many ways to keep a structured home environment that do not have school recreated at home. The school model is set up to handle several children working with the same material at a time. At home, special desks, classrooms, etc. are not only unneeded, but can hamper learning by dividing it from real life. We do set aside time for getting through material, but take advantage of the ability we have to learn wherever is deemed best at that time: art under a tree, for example. Keeping a routine rather than a strict timetable helps, too. If math takes a very long time but language arts is short, well, it tends to balance out instead of trying to rush through learning a math concept to finish by 10:30 and twiddling thumbs from 10:40 to 11 after the language arts paper is done.

[Madame Pomfrey]

I agree with planners, but to me the best beginning is establishing a rhythm/routine to the day. Start off with lite learning, perhaps shared stories and puppetry plus some math games in the school time. After a couple of weeks the kids are used to the routine, then adding more academics becomes both natural and easy.

Have a beautiful day!

Lucie

[dawningmama]

We have introduced a good bit of structure to our academics this year (after 3 years of rather "go with the flow" schooling). We're really enjoying it. I have set a rhythm to our weeks and days. It changes with field trips and classes and illness or just a nice day that needs a trip to the park, but it's nice to have something planned for each day.

Anyway, I recommend a planner and a big wall calendar. I also like using a dry erase weekly calendar. This works well for everyone to know when we will be out of the house, what's for dinner, what days we need to be prepared to wake early, etc.

I have our year broken into 6 units of 6 weeks each. I tried to make our unit studies as interdisciplinary as possible. For example, this first unit we are studying the Ancient Americas so we are also reading historical fiction about that period, learning about First Nations art and music and cooking (science) and the advanced math of the Incas, the art and science of hunting and early agricultural societies.

Anyway, we have a very generly rythm to our day and week---which I am kind of throwing a wrench into at the moment by hanging out on the internet. lol

[Momma Aimee]

thanks everyone -- not my post -- but i need to reread and learn more

Aimee

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by mamasaurus

I have an almost 7yoDD and a 4.5yoDD. 7yoDD is in 2nd grade at the local elementary school. She has Aspergers and is highly gifted. 4.5yoDD is in Montessori. She's pretty bright. I am thinking about what it would be like to homeschool them in the near future.

But... I am a planner. I need structure. I don't think I could "go with the flow" on this. And I don't think my girls could, either. They really thrive on a plan and an organized day.

For those of you who are pretty structured - can you give me some tips on getting started?

I would like to start by having everything set up as much as possible. That means the classroom, the desks, the tables, shelves, books, supplies, etc. I want to have a curriculum to follow and a plan for the entire year before diving in.

Are there some good planners out there for homeschooling? Like check-off systems, or curriculum that is all set up and ready to go with teacher's guides, etc? I need to know what subjects to be teaching, and how to organize my day/week.

For those of you "go with the flow" type people - heaven bless you , but I need a lot of organization and structure, so I'd love to hear from the people who love flow-charts and Excel and color-coding...

Thanks!

[meetoo]

We have structure to our day in the way of routine and structure to what i want them to learn. We use a fairly formal LA and math then unit studies for other subjects. Math and LA are all planned out I just open and go. I do add extra's sometimes but that is planned under my unit studies. For the unit studies I use my cheese microsoft word pad, or a plain old note book. LOL. I only like a plan a week or two in advance. I just write down the subjects, what I want to do, objectives, and then what i need. At the end of the day I write down what we actually did . They don't always match up It does leave me with a plan though. We don't do the whole school desk and that kinda thing though. One of the things my DD likes about Homeschooling is doing school on the couch in her jammies.

[*Jessica*]

People have recommended paper planners, but if you like an electronic format I cannot recommend Homeschool Skedtrack enough. And it's free!

[jessicaSAR]

I also use an e-planner. I use the Simply Charlotte Mason planner. Its pricey, but so far it's the only thing that has rescued me from millions of schedules written on random sheets of paper. We do copywork, phonics, writing or grammar, latin and math everyday (4 day a week schedule), and other subjects (history, geography, science, literature) 1 or 2 days a week. The planner is great because once I enter all the info, it lets me print a check-off list for each child each day. Then, in the evening, when I go over their work, I just check off what was completed in the planner and it automatically moves to the next assignment on the next day's sheet. If we don't complete something it just rolls the assignment over until the next day that subject is assigned. I love that feature because missing something for doctor's appts or unexpected visits doesn't mess up my schedule.

I also use a modified "workbox" system where the older girls each have a labeled set of drawers where their subject assignments for the day are stored. I have an 8yo, 5yo and 1yo. This way the 8yo can complete all her independent work without my help.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by jessicaSAR

I also use an e-planner. I use the Simply Charlotte Mason planner. Its pricey, but so far it's the only thing that has rescued me from millions of schedules written on random sheets of paper. We do copywork, phonics, writing or grammar, latin and math everyday (4 day a week schedule), and other subjects (history, geography, science, literature) 1 or 2 days a week. The planner is great because once I enter all the info, it lets me print a check-off list for each child each day. Then, in the evening, when I go over their work, I just check off what was completed in the planner and it automatically moves to the next assignment on the next day's sheet. If we don't complete something it just rolls the assignment over until the next day that subject is assigned. I love that feature because missing something for doctor's appts or unexpected visits doesn't mess up my schedule.

I also use a modified "workbox" system where the older girls each have a labeled set of drawers where their subject assignments for the day are stored. I have an 8yo, 5yo and 1yo. This way the 8yo can complete all her independent work without my help.

It is my understanding that Homeschool Skedtrack does that also ... rolls the assingments over (not sure about printing check lists)

I don't use it yet, but tehre is a whole thread about it -- somewhere.

Aimee