Need Help!

[CrystalStorkson]

i've never done this before so if i'm doing it wrong, sorry :) Anyways i'm the mother of 2 girls ages 5 and 12, and my husband and I have decide to home school them. i've been searching the internet for everything i need to get started but there are so many options i don't know where to begin. i'd like to buy the curriculum in a package, either by the quarter/ semester or by the year and i don't want to do it on-line. I would also like to find a local home school group, so my girls stay social. If anyone out there has any good ideas plase let me know, thank you.

[moominmamma]

Welcome!

Take a deep breath! You don't need to decide everything at once. It's too overwhelming to do that, and besides, people tend to make poor choices if they jump in feet first like that.

When were you planning to start homeschooling? No matter when you'd planned to begin, there's plenty of time to figure it out. That's because your "figuring it out" is best done not beforehand but while you begin living a life without school. Your kids will benefit from a period of "deschooling" (decompressing from school). Their interests and passions and natural learning styles will begin to show themselves during that time, and you can be observing them, listening to what they're asking for, what they want, and doing your own research. 

What are your reasons for homeschooling? That will very much influence the right choice for a learning approach for your family. A family that is homeschooling because the children were unchallenged, or are not fitting in emotionally and socially at school will want something very different from a family that is homeschooling because of unaddressed learning delays or because of concerns about unwholesome influences in a secular system. 

In general I think the best approach is to not go with a complete curriculum. Although it's appealing on a superficial level to have to make only one choice, and to then have everything laid out in front of you, the reality is that very seldom will a complete curriculum fit a child optimally in terms of level, pace, interests and learning style across all subject areas. My suggestion would be to carefully research curriculum in one subject area: maybe math programs for your 12-year-old, and maybe reading or math for your younger child, and to possibly make a preliminary decision in one area ... and to put off curriculum decisions in all other areas for a while until you get a sense of where you're at and what you want. Instead do some historical fiction readalouds, watch documentaries, visit museums and explore the outdoors and engage in some family travel and explore interests and hobbies and just generally exercise all the flexibility and opportunities that life-learning, family and community have to offer.

As time rolls along you might find yourselves all really wishing for some structure in a particular area. And that's fine: research and purchase if that's the case. But if you wait until you've identified an interest and a need, you'll be so much further ahead in the long wrong. You'll be aiming at a specific target, with a lot of knowledge and understanding forearming you. 

"Buying something to cover all the subjects" is in my opinion a short-sighted approach to optimal homeschooling, as it minimizes a lot of the flexibility and responsiveness that makes homeschooling so great. People love to recommend curriculum resources they like, but those likes are as individual as the families they come from. Your best bet is to start small and add gradually as you discover more about what your own family's homeschooling style needs to be. 

Good luck!

Miranda