Getting ready to take the plunge, could you answer some questions?

[AlisonCHL]

Hi everyone,

I've been "trolling" for a few weeks as I prepare to start homeschooling my 5 year old daughter. We are a Franco-American family living in France and while I have found the local pre-school acceptable on the whole, I can not fathom my daughter attending primary school (which she would start this fall).

1. How much money do you spend on homeschooling? The prices of various curriculums and "online schools" are all available online, it's everything else I'm wondering about: art supplies, books, projects, etc and also what I'd call "activities" or lessons your child participates in like dance, music, sports...do you have a homeschooling budget? How do you break it down?

(FYI I don't see unschooling working for us, but I would like more flexibility than a full curriculum like Sonlight, I'm thinking that we would get a language arts curriculum and a math curriculum and I could come up with the rest? But I really don't want to spend hours and hours preparing materials...)

2. Are there any other one-parent-one-language families out there? How do you make bilingual homeschooling work? I'm the English speaker and am not worried about English, but I can't take on the role of teaching her written French too. My husband is NOT on board with homeschooling so I am thinking I would need a tutor to do French with my kids, but this obviously has a cost and I don't know where I would find a person with the right mindset and who is willing to work with us.

3. I am a better mother when I get 2-3 mornings/week away from my kids. I run a small business and I want to continue to do this, and I don't want to be completely worn thin to the point that I can not ENJOY homeschooling. We have a toddler and I'd like one more child at some point. We have no family nearby. How do you keep balance in your life? I just don't see how this could all be done without me being exhausted and feeling totally trapped by the kids and housework. Do any of you manage to homeschool without feeling totally burdened? How?

Thanks,

Alison

[OTMomma]

First off- you don't need a lot of curriculum for kindergarten, all the research actually shows that doing developmentally appropriate play based learning is best at that age.   We used some of "Five in a Row" - which are unit studies based on reading a great children's book- its a Christian curriculum, but that wasn't overt in my opinion.   Overall, I don't think I spent anything on Kindergarten I wouldn't have spent anyway- we would have paid for soccer anyway that year, gone on trips to the zoo or museum, and made art at home.  I guess I did buy more books, but I love books, so I might have bought all of those anyway.  Most of the time I say our homeschool budget is about $50 a month- but it varries.

We are a single language family- but I would think you could hire a teenage baby sitter to keep the kids while you work who would speak and read to your kids in French.   I think living there, your child will naturally learn to read French if she speaks it.  Do they have french Sesame street for her to watch?  Things like that helped my kids a lot with learning to read English. 

Speaking of going to work- I have 3 kids- ages 8,3 and 1, and I work a couple of afternoons a week.  It does helpe me feel good about myself and the extra money is nice.  I've never been good at housework- and I plan to soon start paying someone else to clean the house- I'd rather spend my paycheck on that, enjoy my job and my time at home. We had a housekeeper for a while and it made my life much happier.   

Peace,

[AAK]

Originally Posted by AlisonCHL 

1. How much money do you spend on homeschooling?

2. Are there any other one-parent-one-language families out there? How do you make bilingual homeschooling work?

3. I am a better mother when I get 2-3 mornings/week away from my kids. 

Hi, welcome to the board.  

1.  The amount has varied with the ages.  My 5 year old attends a dance class once/week that costs about $30/month.  I enroll my kids in piano when they begin 1st grade and that is $65/month here.  When she enrolls in piano, she will still be allowed to take dance if she wants, OR a different year long class.  My kids each do a sport as well.  Soccer here is less than $50 and includes both a fall and a spring schedule.  (about 8 weeks each)  If the sport were a year long thing, it would count as the "class" they chose.  These restrictions are for the sanity of the family.  If we get too busy we stop enjoying it.  (My 5 yr old is the youngest, so we have classes, etc for 3 kids going on)  

In regards to curriculum, I do have purchased materials for math and language arts.  Language arts varies with age.  For my 5 yr old (kindergarten next year) I will buy Singapore math 1A & 1B, I will use the I See Sam books for reading, and All About Spelling level 1 for spelling.  Reading will also include anything within her current ability.  It may also include some workbooks if she desires.  I will use HWT for penmanship.  For Social Studies and science we use the library!  Seriously, I have purchase things in the past for these subjects and have been disappointed.  If I were starting without any materials, I would be spending up to $100 for the kindergarten year.  This also includes "fun" brain things like hidden pictures, mazes, etc.  Supplies (art, paper, random things) would be less than $25 for the year.  

2.  We are a single language family.  If I were living in France, I would make sure my kids learned to speak it through exposure.  The idea of a French teen to babysit is great.  I wouldn't be worried about writing the language at all at age 5.  I don't teach my kids English grammar at age 5 either.  We discuss a few things like beginning a sentence with a capital letter and ending with an endmark.  We go over the 3 endmarks (period, question, & exclamation point) and when you use each.  

3.  Who is caring for your children now while you work?  Could that continue?  If not, could you switch your hours to later in the day so that the French teen (mentioned in #2) is finished with school and could watch the kids.  Just because the "school day" begins in the morning for many kids, it doesn't HAVE to be in the morning for you.  You can teach your kids in the morning or afternoon.

Amy