How about a "tips for homeschooling" thread? - Page 2

[GiantGi]

subbing!

[mykdsmomy]

Don't get caught up in the "my kids would have more fun IN school because then they could have those fun holiday parties and do all the fun crafts that whatshername's kids down the street do".

Own your decision to homeschool and make it work for YOUR family. Plan holiday crafts so you don't feel like you're missing out. Green eggs (natural dye?) for St patrick's day. Heart pancakes for Valentine's day. National no school on your birthday

[zjande]

DO NOT surf around in homeschool blogs & get totally overwhelmed by all the super awesome ideas & homeschool activities out there! Just create a list at the beginning of each year of what your goals are for the year, and try to stick to it. And don't worry if you don't have a gorgeous school room/art room/display of the universe room in your house like some bloggers do. Try not to be jealous! LOL

Can you tell I speak from personal experience?

[littlemizflava]

I will not say i am new to HSing because i have been teaching my dd since she was small. she is gifted. i guess you would say i started HSing when she was about 1. she is amost 8 and my ds is 3.5. we would be labled unschooling. my children do "school work" but they are the ones wanting to do it.

1-just go with the flow, you can be using different forms of homeschooling at one. this is your school, pick and choose what you like and use it. this is your world there is no right and wrong.

2-unless you "have to" dont follow grades, advance them when they know and keep them at the same if they dont.

3- dont rush if it takes 2 years or more to learn it, it just means that their brain is not ready.

4-every child learns at a different pace and in a different way. if they dont grasp it one way try a different method.

5-i say no box sets. you can not skip up or down grades when they are packaged for one grade level.

6-if it everything in your HSing world is not working take out what is not working and try something else.

7-you can NOT mess up your child or HSing

8-always remember schools and homeschools have nothing in comon. you dont need to take summers off, you dont need to learn 5 days a week, you dont need to X hours a day. remember schools have lots of fillers in them. 20 min of hs is more then a child may learn in a whole day at school.

9-learning does not happen between set hours! follow when they are most willing to do things (mine do their hs in the night before going to bed)

10-learning starts at birth and ends when we die. everyday in between we are learning. it is easy to do HSing with a mix of ages because you can put the younger one to do their HSing work as well which can be almost anything because they are still part of the HS learning and not left out.

11-try to know what you will want buy look around find the one you love then try to get it on sale or used. always watch for what is the weekly sales and what is on clearance.

12-dont be afarid so say "i dont know" because i think our children must know that everyone can not know everything, but you must say "lets learn it together/lets find out". (internet seaches are big here)

13-my most important tip is ASK THEM! they know what interests them, they know what they want to learn. when they are part of the desiding and the picking they want to learn

[summermay]

Homeschooling can be the gift of a prolonged childhood. There is just one childhood, hopefully it's going to be a cherished memory for dc.

[phathui5]

Give yourself permission to rearrange your house to fit your homeschooling family.

[jewelsJZ]

subbing

[jrabbit]

subbing

[blsilva]

I'm subbing too. Awesome thread

[ZanZansMommy]

DO NOT compare your kids to other homeschooled kids & don't compare yourself to other homeschooling Moms.

This goes along with looking at those beautiful blogs where the mom makes everything in the house, has time & energy for 6-10 crafts a day, reads to her children, bakes, does lessons with her kids, makes a quilt & meanwhile her entire dining room table has been turned into Mesopatamia & it's gorgeous. (Can you tell I'm jealous too?)

Just enjoy the journey, it'll be over before you know it.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by ZanZansMommy

DO NOT compare your kids to other homeschooled kids & don't compare yourself to other homeschooling Moms.

This goes along with looking at those beautiful blogs where the mom makes everything in the house, has time & energy for 6-10 crafts a day, reads to her children, bakes, does lessons with her kids, makes a quilt & meanwhile her entire dining room table has been turned into Mesopatamia & it's gorgeous. (Can you tell I'm jealous too?)

Just enjoy the journey, it'll be over before you know it.

riiiight.

[moma justice]

don't be a fraid to outsource or homeschool with out being home very often....
my dd( 6.5) attends a very part time co-op school (3 mornings a week) while i have a paid position in the same co-op school. in the afternoons i work at an arts based afterschool program that is attended by ps kids and hs kids. i need to work and i feel very blessed that my jobs allow me to bring both children (ds is 2) and allow them to learn and explore and be social while i am being paid. sometimes the schedule feels a bit intense....but it would only be more so if i was carting one off to school and the other off to day care 5 days a week for 8 hours a day. AND on the 4 days we are home we pack in more learning than a ps kid gets in a month (just guessing). like today when my dd sat and did TWENTY pages in her singapore math workbook....b/c she LOVES it and then we walked to the library where they read for an hour, stopped in at our fire station on the way home where we were given an awesome spontanious tour and demo, came home and she sewed and embriodered for an hour, and then read and colored and played with her brother for the rest of the night.

[mama2myloves]

[chrissy]

Originally Posted by zjande

DO NOT surf around in homeschool blogs & get totally overwhelmed by all the super awesome ideas & homeschool activities out there! Just create a list at the beginning of each year of what your goals are for the year, and try to stick to it. And don't worry if you don't have a gorgeous school room/art room/display of the universe room in your house like some bloggers do. Try not to be jealous! LOL

Can you tell I speak from personal experience?

[mykdsmomy]

Surround yourself with other homeschool moms that "get it". If ALL of your friends send their kids to school and you're the only homeschooler in your bunch, then (imo), it makes things harder.

School is your home and home is your school. Work it!