Are their any homeschool parents out their with any advise?

Question

what kind of homeschool do u do? unschool, eclectic,formal curriculum?? let me know your style of homeschool and the activities u do with your kids..

Answer 1

This is a link to a similar question where you can find many answers given; to learn more about the many different forms of home schooling you may want to visit:

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/

http://www.unschooling.com/

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 2

We're a relaxed eclectic. No specific resources other than lots of library books and what the kids find or I find here and there or that I feel are helpful or important.

Activities: read together, silent reading, write stories together, when able they write stories on their own, find science books with experiments to do, created a timeline that we add things to, look at books on history, colour maps, visit historical places and go on other field trips, arts and crafts, play recorder, I'll play on the piano for them, etc. The bulk of our formal school time is taken up with some math (this is usually either out of a workbook they've chosen or a lesson/worksheet I've come up with on a topic I've decided to have them work on; it is sometimes in the form of games), some language arts work and then it's up to them what they will work on, although I might initiate a topic or project idea. My son is sill rather young and immature, so he does end up having a very short work time but almost always ends up looking through books or reading with me or doing art at a later point in the day.

Answer 3

eclectic. we unschool, and I plan to use the Classical Education model to teach history, and a variation of the Waldorf practice of building their own "textbooks" from the materials they study (we will do webpages, they're more easily editable and creating them is another skill, and a valuable one these days).

we read a lot.

I bought a poster about the parts of speech at a learning store, and put it up. my son read it, we discussed the various terms, and he now can often identify whether a word is a noun, a verb, an adjective, etc.

he spells words on the fridge with his fridge magnets.

I used my scanner to make him a chart for his room on coin values, (use two of each and you can show both heads and tails that way) and then had random "pop quizzes on their values and names, and he won any he could ID. it didn't take long before he learned them all.

when he was learning how to read I labeled TONS of stuff in the house with index cards so he had a text rich environment and could connect the word with the item.

we have many impromtu lessons throughout the day on varying subjects. cooking, for example, is a chance to discuss chemistry, nutrition and math.

you might want to google "homeschool blog" or "unschool blog" to find more of this type of thing.

Answer 4

Hi,

I am new to homeschooling and I am using alpha omega lifpac's. It seems to be great for us. It is pretty structured and I did have a "plan". We have a school room that is just for school and crafts. Well my great schedule has gone out the window and I now see that the joy of it is that we can do what we want and their is not time frame that we "have" to get something done. From what I have heard a lot of people tend to overdue it in the beginning. I am learning and taking the Q from my boys. They are pretty much leading the way and so far it is working out great.

We have a lot of activities in the area. Our public library has free or discounted passes to a lot of great places in the state. I am working on places for us to go.

Next week we are going to the Audubon Society for a lesson on birds.. a bunch of homeschool families pitched in and are paying for it. It should be a lot of fun.

We also got (from the Discovery Store) a great weather thing that goes outside. It tell the wind direction, temperature, and measures precipitation. In the morning we going outside and take a look at it all, I am also starting to teach them about different kinds of clouds and that helps in the morning.

I have found (in a short time) that homeschool is so rewarding and the relationship with my boys is great. I also seem to have a lot more patience.

Good Luck To You...

Blessings!

Answer 5

Relaxed eclectic.   We are a two income family and we school around our schedules leaving assignments to be done when we are not here.  

Outside activities include church, community sports, spectators at school sports, community events, and just getting together with friends.  Our son has more time for being social because he does not have to spend after hours getting caught up with what was supposed to have been learned and done in class.

Answer 6

i use www.k12 .com lots of outtings teachers and fun stuff cuirriculm from california  activites we go to museums chocalte factores farms parks lots of stuff try it it is awesome every one love k12 and hello to all from azva

Answer 7

Geez...you are home schooling with that kind of grammar and spelling?  Scary.

Answer 8

I guess you could classify me as eclectic...I pick and choose whatever works for my daughter. We do Math-u-see for Math, LLATL for language, The Weaver Vol.1 for everything else, but I also have the Positive Action for Christ Bible, I purchased it a year ago and well, I just decided to use it this year too, in addition to the Bible in Weaver. Then I also have a bunch of other curricula that I like, purchased, but haven't used yet...like Galloping-the-Globe...for geography...there's just so many good ones out there...we want to do them all :-)

Answer 9

I guess we're more formal I want the oldest a least to sit and do her work without complaint! hahahaha! We used Sonlight last year but we couldn't afford to buy it this year so we went with ACE and we like it better! We are part of the home school association and we use a co-op. A lot of home schoolers also do ballet or some kind of sport as well

Answer 10

We are very eclectic.  I use whatever works for my kids.  All three use different things except for math.   There they all use Math U See.

I let them choose their own handwriting course, what they want to study for social and science.   Then I choose their English program for the age level.    

If I wanted them to learn a curriculum that was set out by someone else I'd just chuck them back in school.     That's not why we homeschool.

Answer 11

I'm am not a homeschooling parent but a student. I am currently enrolled in laurel Springs in 9th grade and I like it a lot. It is very self directed so the parents don't have to get involved that much. The curriculum is great and very informative and you can (if you really want to) get the entire school year done in about half the time it takes in normal school, which I love.

Answer 12

We're unschoolers

Answer 13

Charter schools (wpccs and state charter schools using K12 curriculum) are not homeschooling. They are public schools, (or if you prefer charter schools) paid with tax dollars, that just happen to be 'school at home'.  I don't have a problem with educational options but let's call it by it's real name.. don't try to pass it off as homeschooling.

To answer your question... We have used unit studies for most of our homeschooling years. This format  fits our lifestyle and my son's learning style.  We have tried many materials from Abeka to eclectic (mostly pulling things together online).  For the last few years we used Learning Adventures which was wonderful with hands-on activities, fun learning and in depth studies. Everything but Math is included. Currently are using Notgrass American History.  I would recommend both of these products.

As for outside activities.. Boy Scouts, Order of the Arrow, swimming, tennis, baseball, youth group, volunteering, Homeschool Co-op, homeschool group activities and field trips.

Answer 14

If you live in PA look 4 wpccs the books are free

Answer 15

We are eclectic homeschoolers. For Science, Home Ec, and Geography I wrote our own curriculum, we use Saxon Math, Rod and Staff for English, A Beka for spelling,  Social Studies and Health, and we check out all our books at the library for reading.

I use the Internet for virtual field trips for places that we would otherwise never be able to see like Mount St. Helens. also the Internet is a great place to find additional worksheets and lesson plans.