Any advice for a new homeschool mom?

Question

I am pulling my kids out of public schools and am going to homeschool. Any advice?? I am leaning towards LifePac. Any pros or cons as to why or why I shouldnt use that?? Thanks

I have a duaghter going into 5th grade. A daughter going into 1st. A son going into pre-K and a 2 year old. Thanks!

Answer 1

We used a partial LifePac (bought from local recycle homeschool supply store) for History in our first year of homeschooling.   It was great for me but not so great for my son.   It just was not his style of learning.

You have an advantage of having smaller ones coming along.  IF you were to buy the complete LifePac by grade level and then it did not work out, you can find a use for them with the younger ones coming along.   If it turns out not to be your daughter's style, it may very well be the right thing later on for one of the other children.

We use lots of video and audio from online and the library.  My son's reading has greatly improved in the 3 years that we have homeschooled but video is still the most efficient way for him to learn.

I would caution you against taking advice to do distance learning/online programs.     It may be the easiest way for you  as teacher ,but it is not the cheapest, nor in my opinion, the most effective way to learn.    You know your children.  You know their strengths and weaknesses.   You have the freedom to direct them with creating your own curriculum.   You lose that freedom and ability when you enroll them in online classes.

Answer 2

Have you thought about the k-12 public online schools.  I'm debating on whether or not in taking my kids out of the public schools.  I'm still in that "I don't know if I can do it", stage.

http://www.k12.com/schooling_programs/k8...

Answer 3

Panic! Get it out of the way quickly, so you can move on to the fun stuff.

Find your ACTUAL state laws on homeschooling. Do NOT trust any other source, as many well meaning folks and individuals quote them not quite right.

There's NO single right way to do this. You do NOT have to follow the instructions exactly or the pages in order in any curriculum. Many moms will torture their kids with pages on pages of review for a concept their kid knows forwards and backwards simply because they have pages for it.

Whats right for me, may not be right for you - that's OK!

You have permission to stop using a curriculum that is not working for your family. Sell it, give it away, line the bird cage with it and find something that works better. This is still OK even if its your local homeschool guru's favorite curriculum.

Trust your instincts and have fun.

Involve all your kids - even the youngest isn't to young. They'll be thrilled with their own "homework" (a coloring page often works). Plus, if you give them something to do, they aren't coloring on big sisters stuff.

Save your sanity and teach all the kids the same topic in history and science - just assign homework at the proper level for each kid.

Reenacting a viking funeral using a Barbie doll will make you the coolest mom on the block.

Chickens should not be mummified. One day that statement will actually make sense and that's when you'll know you're really a homeschooler.

Great reading site for the three youngest - starfall.com

Answer 4

For the 5th grader, I'd recommend Teaching Textbooks for mathematics personally.

VegSource.com/homeschool is a great website that have parents AND students on there, that has message forums and you can chat and get answers to questions. Very friendly place from my experience and they also have questions regarding programs like these on there and many parents ask where to buy such products, etc. You get a response usually within 24 hours or less and its free to signup.

Answer 5

I would hesitate to select a curriculum for *all* the kids.  They most likely have different learning styles.

I've used a *few* Lifepacs here and there, but my son finds them boring.  If he had them for all of his coursework, he'd get very bored very quickly.

I would *first* find out what each child's learning style is, *then* pick out curriculum.

I myself would find Lifepac boring as all get out because they don't fit my learning style at all - nor my teaching style.  Just filling in "worksheets" and reading from the same small book would drive me insane, but that's JMO, YMMV.  :-)

Answer 6

I use Sonlight. It uses the Charlotte-Mason Method. It has everything you will need for the whole school year. It is quite expensive, but you don't have to do any lesson plans. It is faith-based, and used many secular books. The concept behind them is teaching and talking to our kids about wrong and right. They also use other workbooks, but this curriculum is parent-child intensive. It would be expensive at first but the majority of it is reusable (books) and only a couple of non-consumable items for your younger children. I love it and cannot wait to use it. We are starting in the fall, and I wish I can start now.

Answer 7

We have used Lifepacs occasionally for a class or two but my kids didn't like them. They don't retain as much information either. I'm not saying it would be like that for every family, but for mine it didn't work.

We are what I guess is called "eclectic" now. We use all types of different methods and curriculum. Feel free to email for more info!

Good luck!

Answer 8

First of all, it's great if you can pick a style to go with. This might help: http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/meth...

I haven't heard of LifePac, but I actually wouldn't recommend using any boxed curriculum. They aren't tailored to your child, which is one of the major reasons many of us homeschool. Why drive your child through something that doesn't suit? The program that works for your daughter may not work for your son. Of course it might work too, which would be great :)

http://homeschoolreviews.com/ is an excellent site. Often people will post why they did or didn't like a particular product. If someone says their kids hated it because the book had no coloured pictures and you know your kids don't care, then have a look. If someone says their son loved X maths product because of the manipulatives and your kids also learn best that way, then that could be a good choice for you. If your kids hate manipulatives, it doesn't matter how many other people say they are great, it's not the right choice for you.

A really good idea is to draw up a table with grade level down one side and subjects across the top. Do your best to fill in the gaps with curriculum or even just books to check out of the library. This table may look different for each of your kids, but it will help you clarify your long term goals. You can't really make short or medium term goals until you know where you want to end up.

The most important thing to remember is none of this stuff is set in stone. If you use Lifepac this year and don't like it, you can find something else. Most of us are end up pretty eclectic. I'm planning to use two different maths programs, Miquon and Ray's Arithmatic, follow The Well Trained Mind's suggestions for early years English (reading, writing and grammar), K12's music curriculum (etc, you don't need to know the ins and outs of everything, I just wanted to give examples.)

Think about what you want to teach, how you want to teach it, when you want to teach it and how your children will learn best. Some people believe in starting children with writing as soon as they start learning to read. Some prefer to wait until they are reading confidently, some prefer to teach writing before reading. Do some research and find out which theory you agree with. Some things are obvious. You can't teach a child to write until their fine motor skills have developed enough that they can hold a pencil properly. Maybe you can teach them how, or maybe you just have to wait until they get it for themselves. Some people feel it's important to teach grammar. Some don't. Some insist their kids learn an instrument, others leave that to personal interest. Obviously you have to satisfy the law's requirements, but after that, do what you want to do. Just because everyone else uses this or that product, doesn't mean that it's the best choice for your family.

Answer 9

I don't know anything about LifePac. But homeschooling is great. This way they will not have warped views and concepts coming from public schools. However, just make sure to keep them plugged in with some group activities (ie- sports, church, community centers, 4-H, community projects, etc) so that they will not be socially underdeveloped.

Answer 10

I haven't used LifePacs, so I can't say anything about them.  

But I would note that I've read over and over again (and had it verified by many that I know) that the biggest mistake veteran homeschoolers say that they made when they were beginners was to spend a lot of money on curriculum.  So, take it slowly and be wary of spending much money.

I would also suggest that with the spread of ages of children that you have, you would do well to find some materials that you can all do together.  For example, "The Story of the World" by Susan Wise Bauer is great for history; we've read the books aloud, as stories, and even the preschoolers have enjoyed them and learned some history.  For science, we've checked out a lot of "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" videos from the library and even the preschoolers have gotten into them because of his silly antics.  While you'll have to have separate math programs for each child and separate language programs, if you want to, you can combine a lot of the children's activities by doing unit studies or lapbooks or by using a lot of "read alouds".  Combining as much as you can is a sanity-saver, in my opinion.

Answer 11

OK, you should make it an online school because it is easy to manage and setup. And to make sure your kids dont visit bad sites buy

http://webwatcherkids.com