Who else will be homeschooling for the first time next year? (experienced HSers welcome to...

[eclipse]

We've decided not to send my 7 year old back to school next year. His school was really amazing as a whole, but wasn't meeting his specific needs as well as I think I'll be able to at home (though, to be fair, I think they met them better than most schools could - the hardest part about deciding to homeschool was coming to terms with losing his school!) DD was scheduled to start K at the same school - and while I think she would love it and do fine, I don't feel like I have it in me as a mom to both public school (esp at that school because it's a co-op and it takes a lot of parental time) and homeschool. So, she'll be home too. I also have a toddler who will be 3 in September, who will be doing as much K stuff beside DD as he wants to/is able to.

For this year, we've decided to go through one of Virtual Academies. For the first year, I'd like to have some sort of structure and schedule, and as little effort as possible on my part when it comes to gathering materials, planning activities, etc. My 2 yo is very active/busy/time consuming (okay, honestly - he's a lovable, adorable, holy terror). I'll be talking to the enrollment counselor on Monday about placement for the kids. I'm pretty sure DD will start with their regular K curriculum, but I'm hoping it won't be too hard to convince them to skip DS directly to 3rd or 4th grade curriculum. He read Harry Potter the summer before kindergarten, and has been bored out of his skull during the academic portions for the last two years - so i want to get him moving on something that's fun, interesting, and challenging for him. He is hoping that he can mostly just follow the lessons and teach himself, and have me be sort of a tutor when he wants/needs extra help/input. He's great at teaching himself things, so I think it will be good for him.

Anyhow - any other people who will be new to homeschooling next year?

[pollyanna]

My son is 4.5yrs. i'm letting him work at his own pace. I don't have to report until he is 6yrs old. He is finlly becoming intersted in books. :


Pollyanna

[BrokeMom]

DH and I just decided we're 100% sure about HSing our ds's until further notice. He wants them to attend a high school for "the high school experience" : But, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Ds1 is only 3 1/2 right now. I already read books to him, work on counting, shapes, colors, ect. He has a speech problem we are working on. He is/has been way behind for his age. He attended a speech "workshop" last semester which was much like a preschool but with speech correction as it's main goal. He improved a little. When the speech therapist recommended a real preschool for next year, that's when we realized we had to make a decision.

I was HS, but I feel desparately underprepared and scared. I guess I just don't have much confidence in myself to be the educator of my children. I think that's just society's opinion that has worked it's way into my thinking. Anyway, I guess I will probably be needing a lot of advice and support. I'm glad I know where to find it.

[starbound25]

we are 98% sure we are going to homeschool our daughters 4.5yrs and 5.5yrs this fall, oldest was due to go into K but I will be doing a combo K/1st grade curriculum, probably oakmeadow, I am excited/scared/anxious all of it
we live in a very small town with not much support and no groups really to tap into so I am worried about socialization, thinking of a dance or gymnastics class for them

[chrissy]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be homeschooling my kids this fall.

We very briefly hs'ed last fall (for about a month and a half), and honestly, it sucked.

But public school had it's issues too, and I think (hope) that we have a lot of our past problems worked out.

In the fall I'll have a 7yo (first grader), 4 yo, and 1.5 yo. We're going to be using mostly Enki, with OM as a backup in case the Enki proves to be too much work for me.

At this point, I am really looking forward to it. I just hope I'm not romanticizing it.

[xixstar]

We're going back to hs'ing this year. DD is going into the 7th/8th grade and we had a rather unsuccessful experience for half a year when she was in 3rd or 4th grade. We're both getting really excited about it!

[kwg]

This will be our first year! DS went to half day K last year. I alternate between excited and terrified! We have been working on learning how to whistle; that was what ds wanted to be our first hs lesson i have no idea what to do about the baby. He is 18 months and into everything. we can't play a game or anything w/o a struggle. i am hoping he will magically start taking consistent naps.

Can I ask why last year sucked chrissy?

[chrissy]

why it sucked:

well, my oldest is very intense (spirited, explosive, anxiety ridden....). he had probably 67 million tantrums a day.

that part isn't really different. he is still that way, BUT we have found a really good therapist (after a couple bad first attempts) and she is helping a lot.

also, we were new to the area and didn't know very many people. i was lonely. he was lonely. we had neighbors who were hs'ing too, and it seemed like that was going to be a great family friendship, but that didn't really work out the way i thought it would.

also, i decided to hs late in the summer and it took a while to get my materials. then the stuff i chose was very parent-intensive on the planning and i just couldn't get it figured out.

my type A side was coming out too much and i held very tight to my expectations of how our days would go.

public school (our only schooling option at the moment) just seemed like the solution to all our problems.

BUT (surprise surprise) it wasn't. he was a model student at school, but still a terror at home. his behavior at home got worse and worse.

boy, my life sounds bad, huh?! he really is a wonderful boy. he's just having a tough time and i need to be here for him and help him get through it rather than handing him over to a school to fix him or at least keep him for a chunk of the day.

whew, that was long. sorry.

[2honeysmamma]

We are technically homeschooling "next year" for the first time...except that our year started at the beginning of June because we are in India and my kids were going to school here on the Indian calendar...which ended at the end of March. We are "holistic eclectic" and using a wide variety of resources with heavy waldorf and montessori influence...I have a 4 year old ds who I have Oak Meadow for...though he's not interested in the alphabet yet...so we just read the stories and do some of the activities but he loves joining us for History Odyssey!! My 7 yo dd is using a combo of OM, sonlight books for more reading and read alouds, History Odyssey, Right Start math (though we are still waiting for it so we've been playing games and doing some Montessori plus math gnomes from Serendipity blog.) We read alot, we do a ton of art, we do our best to be outdoors alot, though where we live is not conducive to a lot of traditional nature activities found in OM, etc... I went and aligned all the OM social studies in Grade2 with History Odyssey...Ancients because much of it does coordinate and I like both of them. Also we have NOEO science and combine that with some OM science. A little of this...A little of that... I like having alot of resources to choose from and it doesn't bother me that we couldn't possibly do it all... We don't really follow a schedule but are trying to make our days rhythmic. Today we "skipped" school to play with friends who we won't see for a few months as they leave for a U.S. trip tomorrow and don't come back until after we leave for our U.S. trip in August...plus it was lovely here...so we went swimming at the pool in the afternoon...

Honestly...after a month, I can say that some days are hard, some are beautifully easy and most are somewhere in the middle. Some days I feel super organized and we have "flow" to our day and others...other days are best spent curled up on the couch reading! We are having alot of fun, either way! You can read my blog post about our first month at http://wherearethefischers.blogspot.com if you want It should be the second or third most current...

Chandra
expat mama to G(7) and O (4)

[daisymommy]

We will be! We're doing a combo Kindy/First this year, with an eclectic blend of Enki and some other things. I'm excited and scared out of my mind at the same time!!!

[MillingNome]

Will be our first year homeschooling 9 year old ds who is on the autism spectrum. Oughta be interesting

[teagansmama]

This will be our first year as well - homeschooling our "fifth" grader and our "Kindergartener." I plan on unschooling, though I did buy the math from Oak Meadow for my 10 year old as he loves doing workbook type math.

Lots of field trips and natural learning coming our way!

[nathansmom]

This will be our first year although I worked with my oldest last year for preschool. We are using a mix of anything we find that works for us. No set plan. My oldest is 5. Dh appears to be on board but we get alot of flack from other family members. My 3 1/2 year old twins will probably want to do the same things their older brother is doing so I have a few back up plans for when they want to join in.

[Needle in the Hay]

Welcome eclipse :

My DS who is nearly 7 hasn't been to school but this is our first official year. I just sent the letter of intent.

So far we've only unschooled and plan to continue. We've signed up with Clonlara this year--it just seemed like a good idea as we live in a place where homeschooling is quite rare.

[hula]

This is our first year - my son will be in 4th grade. So far, I have no real plan, but have been researching, researching, researching. I feel like we need some sort of structure, but I don't want to buy a curriculum and spend a ton of money right now, when I don't really know what will work best for us.

Originally Posted by daisymommy

I'm excited and scared out of my mind at the same time!!!

[crb]

Eclipse-
I'm right there w/you! DD is also scheduled to start 1st grade. I'm torn - she also read Harry Potter before kindergarten and I found that school didn't quite meet her needs as well as just letting her read and learn independently would, but the school did try and she made a lot of friends. So I'm still actually back and forth - she would probably do fine in school (be a bit bored, perhaps, but be able to read if she finished assignments, etc.), but hsing does sound like the ideal educational setting in many ways . . .
I liked the community aspect and a lot of "school" stuff since I enjoyed school as a kid. Just still in the wondering phase . ..
I also have a toddler who requires . . .ahem . . .a bit of attention

[jenners26]

We're newbies to homeschooling too. I'm so excited to get started! And, even better, DS is really excited! We're gonna be doing a loose kindergarten curriculum. The big thing DS wants to do is learn to read.

I'm really looking forward to this!

[Pinkdiva]

We will be hs for the first time officially. I have a 4th grader, 2nd grader, 1st grader, and then our 3 year old. We've started putting together a schedule for the kids and it's going well. We'll be going through CAVA and I'll be supplementing with science, crafts, biblical learning, still picking out that information.

[CherryBomb]

This will be our first year homeschooling, too. I had always wanted to hs but dh really wanted to put dd1 in Catholic school, so we did 2 years of pre-k and kindergarten there. We just can't afford it anymore, though, so I convinced him to let us give hsing a try!

We're largely using Catholic Heritage Curriculum and throwing in Prima Latina and Story of the World.

[bellflower]

we will be for the first time this year too. my dd just turned 7 and is going into 2nd. we'll be sharing hs with some friends whose parents work a few days a week and we'll be using om. i've been looking forward to it and so has she! ps has been ok for her but it's too much --likes it when she's there and falls apart when she's at home. and then we have no time left. i've always wanted to try this, so here we go! my 4 y o dd will still be in pre-school 3 mornings a week as we ease into this... i have a few concerns but i'll post those in another thread...