Brand New at Home Schooling

[PoetryLover]

My 11 year old stepdaughter will be moving in with us full time and we are leaning towards home schooling her (6th grade). She's arriving around Thanksgiving. I'm totally new at this and am feeling fairly overwhelmed. We don't have a lot of money and so I'm hoping it doesn't cost a lot. Are there free resources online?

Will someone please point me in the right direction? What exactly does a 6th grader need to learn? I'm excited about having her come to live with us and having an opportunity to help shape her life. Home schooling is something that I feel in my heart is the right to do. Please help.

Many thanks!

[Lillian J]

She's arriving at a great time! The holiday season is a great time for starting into some decompression/deschooling time to get her gently settled in with you. Between online resources and the public library system, you'll have lots of good free resources, and you can buy other things she needs as you go.

You can find a checklist of what schools typically attempt to cover by the end of each school year in World Book's Typical Course of Study page. There's a book by Rebecca Rupp that suggests create ways of handling typical studies - Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School.

It would be really helpful to look into unschooling ideas too - because I would imagine that it's going to be an adjustment process for all of you. It doesn't really matter whether unschooling would be a path you want to commit to - it will just be helpful to get a feel for a different way of thinking about learning outside the system. This post is part of a thread called "So, tell me about unschooling," but I couldn't find a link to the main thread itself - just scroll and you can access the whole thing. And this is a helpful thread that just popped up again - Learning about homeschooling.

That oughta' keep you busy for a while! Have fun! Lillian

[zjande]

I absolutely recommend Rebecca Rupp's book, too! I wouldn't want to homeschool without it.

There are so, so, so many free online resources. It's wonderful that you have plenty of time to research & put together a plan. I also agree that a decompression time is ideal.

Here are some lists of free goodies:

This is a thread from another homeschooling board:
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forum...d.php?t=109114 I think there is more than enough to keep you researching & finding what works for you within that link alone!

http://free.ed.gov/index.cfm

http://www.oldfashionededucation.com/

Welcome to the lovely world of homeschooling! This forum can be super helpful & supportive. Ask us lots of questions!

[PoetryLover]

Thank you both so much! I just ordered a used copy of Rebecca Rupp's Home Learning Year by Year.

I've already gone to several of the links.

My concern with a decompression period, although I personally think it would be wise, is that I'm sure her bio mom will be wanting to know what she is learning. I don't really have license to school her the way *I* want. I have to consider her mom's feelings/opinions. It's important that she *know* her daughter is being properly educated. Still, the holidays span roughly a month, and I'm sure she could benefit from relaxing and getting into the new groove (new home, new state, new way of schooling, different parenting philosophies, etc.) But if I were to allow her to "relax into things", I would have to start some sort of disciplined studies immediately following the new year. But I can also follow her lead, and perhaps do a combination of homeschool and unschool...

Thanks for the advice. I do feel that homeschool is absolutely the best choice for her, at least for this first year or two, and possibly beyond. We have her mom's blessing to homeschool. (I had been worried about that, but then she told DH that she and her DH wanted to homeschool the girls, but couldn't afford for one of them to be home to do so.) I want to make sure that I respect bio mom's wishes and concerns.

Thanks again. I know I can do this. I'm nervous and the bigness of the situation is sinking in. (It's only been less than a week since we've learned that DSD wants to come live with us.) I'm going to try to connect with some local homeschoolers.

If you can think of any further advice, please don't hesitate to offer it.

Thanks!

[Lillian J]

I just came across this article and thought of your question here about keeping costs down: Loving the Library.

One way to deal with a decompression period could be to incorporate something really new and especially interesting into it that she's drawn to - something her mom would feel good to hear about. And referring to that time as decompression is probably not a good idea, of course - sounds as if you're going to be taking things slow and easy, and following her lead, so you're way ahead of the game.

Also take a browse through my list of links to interesting websites - there could be some things there she might really enjoy.

Have fun!
Lillian