Welcome to the group

Zeza - posted on 11/27/2009

Hello Heidi

I am homeschooling my daughter Jessica age10. Only started this year. Thank you for creating this site. Would like to know if it has been easy to be mom and teacher?
Thank you.

Michelle - posted on 11/27/2009

Hi All , I am Michelle and I have two sons Jesse 10 and Joseph 14. We started homeschooling due to Joseph being sick and hospitalized 5 times in the 5th grade. I tried to keep him in the public school and go the home bound route and let the teacher come to us. After 2 weeks and no teacher and no assignmets I was threatened to be fined $200 a day for each absence because the principal had not file Joe's homebound paper work. I ask for a ARD meeting and was told until Joe was listed as a special needs child I could not have and ARD I then said fine I am going to withdrawl him and homeschool. All of a sudden I could have my ARD and my home bound papers would be done is 2 hours and oh please do not withdrawl him TAKs testing is in 3 weeks. To bad so sad to late I want him withdrew. Jesse was in second grade at the time and having educational delay and I left him in the P/S to finish the year but requested he be tested for learning disabilities. He had a few all requiring one on one help so I started h/s him is third grade. That was 2 yrs ago. Joseph(8th grader) is currently doing college level math and 11th grade level most everything else. Jesse (5th grade) is doing 4th grade language/reading 6th grade math and various grade level social studies and science as we skip around in our books looking for point of interest.

Greta - posted on 11/17/2009

(cross posting with other group with same name) Hi. A long post here! I’m relatively new to home-schooling. We tried online schools (OHVA and Connections Academy) with my stepchildren after they had been in city schools, but the curriculum was very nearly the same, still entirely progressive, so I, favoring a (non-neo-) classical approach, found it to be as inadequate as anything. They didn’t like it either, and for different reasons, they have gone back to city schools. My husband and I hope, however, that one may be interested later in some sort of home-schooling, especially since, although he’s in 7th grade, he has been reading at college level since last year, and although the school put him in all honors classes, he is never assigned homework. I haven’t seen his books yet (won’t bring them home) but I suspect they are as outcome-based and watered-down as all his others have been.



Our daughter is 4 and has been having informal/classical home-nursery-school. She is very excited about home-schooling. I explained to her (in simpler terms) the neglect I, a moderately gifted student, endured in school—in kindergarten, required 6 grades of acceleration in reading, 1 grade of acceleration with double pace in math, got only 2 grades of acceleration in reading, the math at normal pace with no testing on facts, later got held back a year in reading despite perfect grades (transferred from the well-regarded-but-sub-standard private school to the slightly worse public school, which had single- but not double-grade subject acceleration and no grade skipping), and received little education in grammar, mensuration, and U.S. history, and none in higher arithmetic, higher algebra, trigonometry, world history, logic, or Latin; not until after the start of 7th grade did I understand I was supposed to learn things in school, I fell behind at least 8 grades in reading, had trouble composing a simple essay, and I barely understood anything in my favorite subject, math. She is exceptionally gifted (made it to 4th-grade reading level with no lessons, then to 6th with 5 months of lessons, is now learning a little Latin too, and wants to go to Oxford and Yale and to become a mathematician), the schools are generally worse now in all the things I mentioned, and the schools in this (different) city are rated second-worst in the state. (The worst are in a nearby city—Yay, Mahoning Valley! ; ) The curricula are all pretty much the same, i.e. LCD, now with NCLB anyway—so mainly it means they are full of violent and ill-bred illiterates, many in gangs.) Obviously, it would be a disaster to send her to one.



My tentative plan: finish teaching myself everything I missed out on, and use mostly Classical Christian Homeschooling (this one: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org ), with the reading list of Great Books Academy (selections are more classical), some substitution of books from The Latin-Centered Curriculum (composition and science selections are probably much more rigorous, science appears to be objective, i.e. non-theological), and supplementation with some classic books found on and in Google Books, Internet Archive, the 19th-Century Schoolbook Collection, and the Dover Book Catalog.



Our general aim can be illustrated by this list:

http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/undergrad/doc...

and these tests:

http://www.rense.com/general75/pass.htm (two tests here, one is in comment section)

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/quizzes...

http://records.viu.ca/homeroom/Content/L...

http://records.viu.ca/homeroom/Content/L...

http://records.viu.ca/homeroom/Content/L...

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb//ottawa/...

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2004/j...

http://www.kansasheritage.org/orsh/libra...

http://books.google.com/books?id=jnYXAAA... (original version of what is now the SAT)

http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.co...



My biggest challenges now are differentiating the parts of the curriculum that have been integrated, like, using classic reading books with a pupil at differing levels of reading (6th grade, as I said), analytical (2nd grade?), and elocutionary (1st grade) abilities, and figuring out what books at the higher levels of college-preparatory math use classical methodology, are up-to-date regarding developments in the science, are appropriately rigorous, and have comprehensive coverage of topics. I’d very much welcome advice, most of all from anybody also using a classical non-neo-classical method with a gifted pupil or student.

Kari - posted on 10/15/2009

Hi, my name is Kari. I'm 26 and have two beautiful kids, Eliana and Ari. My daughter Eliana is 5 and I started homeschooling her last year for preschool. My husband wasn't too crazy about the idea at first but once he saw what I accomplished with her, he has turned out to be my biggest supporter and now we are homeschooling kindergarten full time. My son Ari is only 9 months, so he isn't an "active" homeschooler just yet :)
I'm a SAHM and I love it!

Tiffany - posted on 09/04/2009

Hi, my name is Tiffany, I'm 42 and the mom of almost-6 yr old Boy/Girl twins. So far, we've done Preschool and Kindergarten at home and our kids are doing very well. We're just about to start 1st grade next week. I love homeschooling. I love seeing the excitement when my kids learn something new. Also, I love that I get to spend so much time with my kids.

Tracy - posted on 09/01/2009

Hi, I am Tracy mom of 3, (6,3.5,17 months). I believe that we all start homeschooling from the moment our children are born, but this is our first year being "official". We are pretty eclectic, mostly unschooling, with Five In A Row being thrown in this year. I want my children to see that learning is fun...even if that means not letting them realize they are learning just yet! My oldest is very reluctant to do/try new things and has some sensory issues (that thankfully are starting to resolve themselves). My middle child would probably be diagnosed as ADHD, but really he is just being a KID. What do schools expect out of children that do not get enough time to be what they are? My youngest is learning all on her own...just by watching and doing!
Hope you all have a great year!

Kelli - posted on 08/17/2009

Hey everyone, I am a stay-at-home-mother of two children ages 7 and 3(next week). Our daughter started reading and writing self taught at 2 1/2 and went to Montessori for K till we moved, as a military family. She was in the public system for 2 year and did not adjust well at all. She is what they called highly advanced. Her behavior and willingness to learn were taking a turn for the worse, so we moved to an area with a Montessori school again, but that was still a bust. So we took the previous schools recommendation of homeschooling to heart and now I am a homeschooling mom as well and would not change that. Especially if it gets my child to love learning again.

Kelly - posted on 10/22/2008

Hello everyone....I am looking forward to seeing everyone's different ideas on how they homeschool. I am a 40 year old mom and I have been homeschooling since 1997. I have four children, Zack is 16 and my daughter Jordan is 14..they attend public high school and they love it...they are on the honor roll and are involved in sports and after school activities...my favorite club they are in is the Christian Fellowship Club..they pray before school and meet once a week for a Bible study. My younger two I still homeschool, Gretchen is 11 and Michael is 9. I also belong to a homeschool group in my area that has really helped me along the way. I work about 5-7 hours on Friday nights at a Christian Bookstore a friend of mine owns...my life is very busy and I wouldn't trade it for the world...I love being able to see my children grow and know that when they do go into the world on their own, they will be able to stand firm in their faith and be confident in who they are...that's been the biggest blessing with my two older kids in public high school. I am very proud of them and continually pray for God's guidance on all their lives.

Thanks for having this available. God Bless!

Heidi - posted on 10/22/2008

Welcome Yvette, sounds like you also have a very busy household. I work full time outside the home but my hours are random. I work on call 24/7/365. My husband works a similar schedule and we both teach equally in our homeschool. I also sell Usborne books part time which has been a wonderful asset to our homeschooling. I highly recommend their books for homeschool use.

Welcome Kristi. Experienced homeschool moms are always welcome! I think it's great you are writing curriculums. I've read about, sampled, borrowed and purchased literally hundreds of curriculums and resources. We are an eclectic homeschool and incorporate lots of different curriculums.

Kristi - posted on 10/21/2008

I just joined Circle of Moms and thought I'd join the homeschooling group cause y'all are my kind of peeps. I'm semi-retired...my girls are 19 and 20 so we finished a couple of years ago but now I'm training my own service dog so that's my new 'homeschooling' venture...lol!

I teach digital scrapbooking and organizing digital scrapping supplies classes online. I'm working on a curriculum for homeschoolers...the class would cover design principles, a little bit of art appreciation, and of course digital scrapbooking. In Texas the course would work for either technnology or fine arts for high school credit...I haven't looking into the requirements for other states yet. I'm not accredited but I wrote my own curriculum for my girls and one graduated from public school in the top 10% of her class and the other scored extremely high on her ASVAB test (she enlisted in the Air Force but was separated due to a medical condition.) So I think I have a good resume as a successful homeschooling mom. Anyway, I am happy to be here and look forward to getting to know y'all.

Yvette - posted on 10/21/2008

i am a mom of five and love homeschooling. i also work part time and it does get hard but i enjoy the time i spend with my kids and know what they need a little more help in. my childern are 7,5,2,1,and 5mths. next yr i think it will be harder because i will have more in dif grades so i hope i learn some tips on here to help me out. thanks!!