Sister Michelle
Administrator
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Saviour
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Post by Sister Michelle on Nov 3, 2012 7:51:32 GMT -5
We are going on on 7th year of homeschooling. But it is only recently that we have hit a good groove with schooling!
Love the Charlotte Mason method
Journeying With Joy
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Post by mamalambnc on Nov 4, 2012 17:04:46 GMT -5
I homeschooled my 2 youngest...graduated one in 2007 & the last one in 2011. We used Christian Light Education (CLE) I loved it & miss homeschooling.
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jen
Charitable Lady
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Post by jen on Nov 5, 2012 6:34:30 GMT -5
I want to start our oldest next year, but I'm feeling overwhelmed with all the curriculum choices. How do you sort through all that's available and actually choose something?
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Sister Michelle
Administrator
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Saviour
Posts: 1,065
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Post by Sister Michelle on Nov 5, 2012 9:32:37 GMT -5
The very first thing I would do is read books on the different styles of homeschooling and find the style that fits your families needs and beliefs. I would do that before I look at any curriculum choices
Journeying With Joy
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jen
Charitable Lady
Posts: 229
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Post by jen on Nov 5, 2012 12:17:52 GMT -5
Doesn't the style of teaching and learning vary from child to child anyway?
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Post by Kristi_M on Nov 5, 2012 12:17:51 GMT -5
Hi Sister Michelle and everyone. Long time no visit (for me, I mean). We homeschool, and have for nearly 17 years. We have used many different curricula/methods of homeschooling and enjoyed the Charlotte Mason method very much (we used Old Fashioned Education for a few years with my youngest). It's a nice, easy way of doing school. I am like you---I didn't get into a good groove until years after I started. It was tough at first with 2 young children, my oldest in mid 1st grade when we started. When my son began school the following semester, it was really tough, and when my third was born a few years later, I was DYING, ha ha. But after a few years, things started clicking a little better, with the exception of rebellious kid attitudes and all that. At this point, we have graduated our eldest daughter (2007) and our son (2009), our daughter in the Air Force and our son in college studying engineering. We have only our youngest, who just started high school this year. It's nice now, easy, and it's becoming a reality that I'm going to be finished with this journey very soon---3+ years left. I will have taught my children for 20 years, which is quite an accomplishment, seeing that as a younger person I NEVER thought I'd be able to do anything for 20 years, ha ha. Anyway, enough about me. What books are you using? Are you using OFE?
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jen
Charitable Lady
Posts: 229
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Post by jen on Nov 5, 2012 12:31:04 GMT -5
Another question, sorry to double post, but did any of you have access to your local public school's academic requirements for each grade? Did you compare between their requirements and what you were doing, just to make sure you met or exceeded their academics? I've been on our department of education's website, but their "syllabus" is mostly mumbo-jumbo if you ask me! (Yet another reason why I don't want those people in charge of my children's education!) Our neighbour is a public school teacher, and I sort of want to ask her how curriculum selection is done on the practical level, but I know she disapproves of homeschooling so I don't really want to get into all that, ha ha.
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Post by Kristi_M on Nov 5, 2012 12:51:37 GMT -5
Sure, Jen, it does. What works for one, doesn't necessarily work for the other. AND what works for one, doesn't necessarily work forever with the same child! I compared, but not with my local school's academic requirements. All public schools are required by your state to teach certain things. For me, I did print the requirements of the state of California and referred to them now and again, especially when I was using OFE or putting together my own curriculum for any given grade. It wasn't something I was a slave to, it was a just a guide. It was helpful, though.
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jen
Charitable Lady
Posts: 229
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Post by jen on Nov 6, 2012 7:53:31 GMT -5
I would like to do something like that, but maybe I'm looking at the wrong part of their website or something. What I found wasn't helpful at all. I was hoping to see specific practical goals that would tell me how much they should be able to read and write, and how much math they should know by the end of the year, etc. Like you say, it would be a helpful guide!
I'm not in the States, so I'll probably have to do some mixing and matching just because there isn't much in the way of Christian publishing here. Some of the Christian publishers that do have Canadian versions of their books don't keep up with the public school academics. Kids who do ACE, for example, (which was very popular with Christian homeschoolers here when I was growing up) generally end up a whole year behind by the time they reach high school, so DH has forbidden ACE!
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Post by Kristi_M on Nov 6, 2012 8:48:37 GMT -5
Ahh ok. I wish I knew something about Canadian homeschooling that I could share with you. Are you able to purchase curriculum from the states, like Abeka or Alpha Omega? I would imagine that even doing that even using either of those could be completely different than Canada's standards. Are there many Canadian homeschoolers? Do you know of any online forums for Canadian homeschooling? I googled around a little and here are a few. Perhaps you can get some questions answered at one or a few of them? List of Canadian forums/lists/support groups, etc. www.leapingfromthebox.com/hs/elists/canada.htmlHere's a site that talks about homeschooling in specific provinces. homeschooling.about.com/cs/supportgroups/a/hscanada.htmCanadian Homeschoolers Board cpeicheff.proboards.com/There are more, but those are the first three when I did a search for "canadian christian homeschoolers forum".
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jen
Charitable Lady
Posts: 229
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Post by jen on Nov 7, 2012 19:49:55 GMT -5
Thanks, I'll check out those links.
I do know quite a few homeschoolers, but they're all doing it very differently. Some of the ladies I know are very opinionated, and maybe it's unteachable of me, but I don't want to invite huge lectures on how I should do things... I really just want to get a grasp of what I need to teach, and what's available to help me teach it. I find it's hard to do research online, because all the companies say their books are great, but you can't look through the books and see what they're really like.
We're able to purchase curriculum from anywhere, but the vast majority of what comes from the States would have American history, American spelling, math and science with Imperial measurements, and Spanish rather than French as a second language, so my guess is I'll have to mix and match no matter what happens.
When you chose your curriculum did you have the opportunity to actually look at the books in detail before making your choice, or did you mostly go by your research about it?
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jen
Charitable Lady
Posts: 229
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Post by jen on Nov 7, 2012 20:51:07 GMT -5
Okay, I have to say I really like the Canadian Homeschoolers Board. It's got activity and a lot of topics, and what appears to be nominal Christians there as well, so that may prove very helpful. Thanks again!
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Post by Kristi_M on Nov 8, 2012 10:13:28 GMT -5
Your welcome, Jen! I'm glad you have found a place where you can get some support. BTW, I usually just went by research about the books, unless I was able to get a hold of a copy at a used curriculum sale or something like that. Suffice it to say that before I started using Alpha Omega, we switched around a lot. LOL
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tbhas6
Senior Member
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Post by tbhas6 on Nov 11, 2012 13:13:32 GMT -5
Hi Jen,
We are in our 11th year of home education. We began home schooling when our middle child contracted a life threatening illness. Our two youngest children have always been home schooled. Our middle son did well with home school and is currently serving in the U.S. Navy.
When we removed our middle son from public school, he was all over the place academically. This forced me to "mix & match" his curriculum. I continue to "mix & match" with the younger ones as I've found favorites through various curriculum providers AND as Christi stated in another post above, what works with one child doesn't necessarily always work with him/her OR other children.
Something that has helped us with curriculum choices is attendance to curriculum fairs. The vendors usually have copies of the text books and teacher's manuals. For the vendors who provide computer or satellite schooling, they will usually have interactive programs or examples for review.
When living down south we were also blessed with used curriculum stores which allowed us to not only reduce our curriculum costs but also served as a venue to researching various curriculum. Now that we live in a VERY rural area, we are blessed to have a "home school library" through our home school group. This library has donated used curriculum that can be borrowed for an entire school year or for a few days, whatever is needed.
Now that we live in rural Montana I am very thankful the Lord opened the doors of home schooling to our family so many years ago. (We do not know what our futures hold but God does.) Our county does not provide school bus service to our area, thus we are responsible for getting our children to school - regardless of weather or road closures (yes, they have prosecuted for truancy when excessive absences occurred even if the roads were impassible). Also, our fuel costs associated with driving them to and from would be over $2,200 (US dollars) per school year at current fuel prices. By purchasing used, re-using what I can and re-selling when finished, I have always home educated our children for less than $600 (US dollars) per year. For our current personal situation, public education is more than 3 times more expensive than home education.
I hope this long reply provides you some ideas for finding curriculum suited to your family's needs and offers encouragement for the research process.
tb
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jen
Charitable Lady
Posts: 229
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Post by jen on Nov 12, 2012 14:56:09 GMT -5
Thanks, tb. I think just because of the way I am, I'll have to see the books before I buy anything. I know there are curriculum fairs here, but not very often. I think it's once or twice a year. Maybe what I should do is ask to borrow and look at what others are doing, just to get some idea. I'm afraid this will open the floodgates of opinionate people driving me crazy, but researching online isn't helping me at all at this point. I'm an experienced teacher, but my subject area is rather narrow, and not strictly academic, so this is all a big headache to me, lol.
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