2008-09 local Homeschoolers Roll Call

[phathui5]

So, let's meet our area homeschoolers for this year! (Hint: you can refer back to this thread during the year to find homeschooled kids to play with, or moms to have over for tea)

Your name (or username of you prefer):
# of kids:
Kids' ages:
How long have you been homeschooling:
What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself:
Any curriculum you recommend:
Please share a local homeschooling tip here:
What area do you live in:
Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out:

[lotusdebi]

Hi!
I'm Debi
I have two boys,
ages 6 (7/02) and 2 (3/07)
We've been planning to homeschool all along. We officially started last year.
We're relaxed eclectic homeschoolers
My favorite curriculum is: a large dose of the outdoors!
I recommend joining the local homeschool yahoo group lists, and participating in as many fun field trips and activities as possible.
We live in Pasadena, which is in northern Anne Arundel County.
Other homeschoolers in my area can definitely PM me to hang out! But, they should know that my kids are super-active, spirited, loud, and challenging. And prone to tantrums.

[phathui5]

Your name (or username of you prefer):

My name's Liz, for those of you who don't know me.

# of kids:

4

Kids' ages:

This fall, they'll be 8, 5, 3 and 1. I have three sons and one daughter (almost 5).

How long have you been homeschooling:

We've always homeschooled. This is our fourth official year. Patrick is in 3rd/4th grade and Delilah is a proud kindergartener.

What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself:

A relaxed, eclectic classical homeschooler.

Any curriculum you recommend:

I loosely (and with added Anabaptist perspective and resources) follow the outline in the book The Well Trained Mind.

Please share a local homeschooling tip here:

There are lots of unexpected places you can go on a field trip here in Maryland. Last Friday, a friend took us to the National Museum of Dentistry and the kids really liked it. Also, right here on my street in an inconspicuous house, is Moore's Candies. We went on a nice tour there last week.

What area do you live in:

Parkville/Hamilton. North of Lauraville. In Baltimore City.

Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out:

Yup.

[homewithtwinsmama]

oh

[UltimateSerj]

Your name (or username of you prefer): Susan
# of kids:4
Kids' ages:10,7,5,1
How long have you been homeschooling:7 months! took them out of public school in January!
What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself:
a lazy one? i want to do more but coming out of school my kids really need to do just nothing so for now we are unschooling with a bit of me trying to put some school work in between.
Any curriculum you recommend: not yet tho i have seen a lot of things i like the look of, i am to scared to buy something i'll end up hating
Please share a local homeschooling tip here: everything is a field trip! lol
What area do you live in: Hagerstown, Washington county
Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: yup! please do!! specially if you have a 10 year old girl ( or even a boy!!!) my 10 year old is really looking for homeschooled friends!!

[Pinky Tuscadero]

Your name (or username of you prefer):Suzy
# of kids:4, all boys
Kids' ages:7, 5, 2 (3 next month), and 4 months
How long have you been homeschooling:all along- we've never done any school
What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: unschooler but I prefer child led or interest driven
Any curriculum you recommend:nope
Please share a local homeschooling tip here:Check out Annapolis. It's the oldest capital in the US still in use. It's chock full of history that you can walk through and even touch.
What area do you live in:Anne Arundel
Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out:No thanks. I have enough friends!! YES! Of course! Please!

[darien]

I'm Darien, and I have 2 boys, 11 and 3.5.
We've been hsing for 4 years, and are unschoolers.
A tip-- Value Village thrift store supplies most of our "homeschool materials."
Fave Curriculum-- No, but I've collected more great websites than we could ever use!
We live near Hyattsville (PG County), and would love to meet new friends.

[boatbaby]

Your name (or username of you prefer): Cindy

# of kids: 1

Kids' ages: 4

How long have you been homeschooling: Just getting started. Don't have to be "official" until next fall for Kindy

What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: My son turned me into an unschooler.

Any curriculum you recommend: Lots of time in nature and lots of reading!

Please share a local homeschooling tip here:
Washington DC is one big, fat, and mostly free resource with the Smithsonians at our doorstep!

What area do you live in: Annapolis

Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: Sure, if they have sea legs

[AmyB736]

Your name: Amy
# of kids: 2
Kids' ages: Next month they will be turning 5 and 2
How long have you been homeschooling: I just started...my daughter "should" be in Kindergarten but I'm signing a maturity waiver since I'm still new at this. Then next year it will be official.
What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: Leaning towards Unschooling
Any curriculum you recommend: Nope
Please share a local homeschooling tip here: Spend lots of time together, exploring the world around you. Involve your children in as much of your dialy routines and activities as they want whenever possible.
What area do you live in: Kent Island, Md
Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: Absolutely, PLEASE do! And I'm often in Anne Arundel County since that is where my husband and I grew up.:

[ewp11100]

Your name : Erin
# of kids: 2
Kids' ages: 4 and 17 months
How long have you been homeschooling: I've always wanted to homeschool! I think I've finally convinced my husband I can have an income and still do it! I've been teaching since birth, lol.
What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself:relaxed, eclectic classical homeschooler, with teachable moments (or months) of unschooling thrown in, isn't hat whats GREAT about homeschooling
Any curriculum you recommend: I don't use a "brand name" one but a pre-k curriculum I have designed and accumulated over years of teaching
Please share a local homeschooling tip here: There are TONS of free stuff around you just have to do your homework! We love the library!
What area do you live in: Right now western AA (jessup) but we will hopefully be moving to Northern AA (Brooklyn) if we an ever get this freakin house to sell!
Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: I would love to hang out, we are always on the go though.

Nice to see so many familiar faces!

[phathui5]

What's up with everyone being in AA County? You should move to Baltimore City with us. Here, when we say that we homeschool, nobody questions it.

[ewp11100]

Originally Posted by phathui5

What's up with everyone being in AA County? You should move to Baltimore City with us. Here, when we say that we homeschool, nobody questions it.

That's funny because when we tell everyone we are looking for a house in Brooklyn people are all "well it's a good thing you want to homeschool!"

[UltimateSerj]

Originally Posted by phathui5

What's up with everyone being in AA County? You should move to Baltimore City with us. Here, when we say that we homeschool, nobody questions it.

At least AA county is close by to baltimore! no one is in washington county with me!! ( actually i know there are a lot of us :P ) i haven't gotten questioned yet!

[xixstar]

Your name (or username of you prefer): Karen

# of kids: 2

Kids' ages: almost-13, 3-weeks

How long have you been homeschooling: starting again this year, briefly homeschooled when dd was 8 and we lived in PG County.

What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: unschooler

Any curriculum you recommend: nope

Please share a local homeschooling tip here: don't have one yet, I guess - other than I find the Maryland Homeschool Resource Netrwok (mhrn) list to be rather useful for hearing about various things about the state.

What area do you live in: Carroll County - on the border of Frederick County - equally far from Baltimore, Frederick, Westminster - so near nothing, or so it seems.

Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: Absolutely, love to hang out with other homeschooling family. Also happy to host activities and such.

[phathui5]

(x-posted on BWHE yahoogroup)

I've set up a tour of Springfield Farm for this coming Friday at 10:30am. We could use a couple more families to come with us so we have a large enough group. It is $5/person. They told me it takes about an hour and a half. We get to learn all about natural poultry farming. You can also get some grocery shopping done while you're there.

Please let me know if you'd like to go. I need to call and give them a head count. They want at least 25 people, but I don't want to get too much over that (though they can split us into two groups if we get to be too many).

http://www.ourspringfieldfarm.com/

- Liz Baer

[panamama]

Your name (or username of you prefer): panamama

# of kids: 1

Kids' ages: 16

How long have you been homeschooling: 1 year

What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: relaxed, unschooly, letting my child become who he is w/o a school telling him etc. no real category, really (or at least we haven't chosen one.)

Any curriculum you recommend: life!

Please share a local homeschooling tip here: DC has TONS of free resources, including some free classes through the smithsonian.

What area do you live in: central PG county

Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: sure

[goobergrl6]

Your name (or username of you prefer): Lisa

# of kids: 3

Kids' ages: 4, almost 3 and 7 months all boys

How long have you been homeschooling: since birth but we do not have to be official yet

What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: unschooler (I LOVE this site! So nice to see so many of us)

Any curriculum you recommend: nope

Please share a local homeschooling tip here: I live right by the first capital of Maryland St. Mary's City. Great place

What area do you live in: Southern MD St. Mary's county

Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: I would LOVE that!

[Carriekl]

Introducing myself

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, newish to mothering, and checking out the idea of unschooling at home.

I have a 4 1/2 yo daughter who is an only. I live in Anne Arundel county. She and I would love to connect with other families to have some fun.

We like relaxed atmosphere, not competitive, just imaginary play and art type stuff.

Anybody out there looking for some low key play?

My name is Carrie and my daughter is Livia. We like pets and have a few ourselves. I'm getting better at technology but am still learning a lot.

[AmyB736]

Hey Carrie!

I'd love to get together and let the kids play. I live on Kent Island but I'm always in AA Co. so we should definitely get together soon. My daughter Alyson just turned 5 a couple weeks ago. I also have a son and he just turned 2. What part of AA Co. do you live?

Originally Posted by Carriekl

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, newish to mothering, and checking out the idea of unschooling at home.

I have a 4 1/2 yo daughter who is an only. I live in Anne Arundel county. She and I would love to connect with other families to have some fun.

We like relaxed atmosphere, not competitive, just imaginary play and art type stuff.

Anybody out there looking for some low key play?

My name is Carrie and my daughter is Livia. We like pets and have a few ourselves. I'm getting better at technology but am still learning a lot.

[Crunchie]

Originally Posted by goobergrl6

Your name (or username of you prefer): Lisa

# of kids: 3

Kids' ages: 4, almost 3 and 7 months all boys

How long have you been homeschooling: since birth but we do not have to be official yet

What type of homeschooler do you consider yourself: unschooler (I LOVE this site! So nice to see so many of us)

Any curriculum you recommend: nope

Please share a local homeschooling tip here: I live right by the first capital of Maryland St. Mary's City. Great place

What area do you live in: Southern MD St. Mary's county

Can other homeschoolers in your area PM you to hang out: I would LOVE that!

Woohoo! Someone else from St. Mary's!

Sorry, my little one is just 15 months so I'm just thread-crashing. I do intend to homeschool, but it's far too early for us to be actively homeschooling...I just saw goobergrl's post and couldn't help but post. It's a small (cyber)world. The funny thing is I was just persusing an, er, "interesting" discussion about homeschooling on a local forum and when I came to MDC for a dose of normalcy and like-mindedness (as I often have to do after reading said local forum) I recognized your screen name, goobergrl! Excellent and articulate response on that "other" forum in defense of homeschooling. I've never encountered such a bunch of close-minded and just plain nasty in all of my life...

Hopefully when my little on is old enough that I can check in here for a homeschoolers role call they'll be a few more of us on MDC from "down south!"