I have actually started to blog about homeschooling several times but each time my post has drifted off topic onto something that has totally nothing to do with homeschooling so I have scrapped it and went with the nonsense. Sometimes my nonsense is interesting… at least to me. LOL.
This is what we are up to. I actually just started a homeschool group for my area because I just couldn’t find anything for my kids near me. Right now it has me and one other family. I am slowly plugging away at promoting it. I am a little nervous about it but if it gets to be too much I will just try to pawn off responsibilities on darling hubby like I usually do.
We do school year round at our house. It’s interesting because I have read several homeschooling blog posts about this. I think there is a pretty even split among homeschoolers on this. Some do year round and some take the summer off and follow the school system’s schedule. I prefer year round so that we can do cool stuff throughout the year. One of the many perks of homeschooling.
I just ordered a bunch of new curriculum. I have mentioned that we use Time4Learning.com for our main curriculum but we also do other activities to go along with it. This is what came in, well some of it anyway.
I also ordered some stuff for Lyndsey Lou-Lou. (In case you didn’t know that is what she calls herself. I started calling her that a while back and it has stuck. She introduces herself to people as Lyndsey Lou-Lou too and they just look at me funny. If I already blogged about Lyndsey Lou-Lou just ignore me. I have a bad memory.)
We use Handwriting without Tears for our handwriting program. I absolutely love it. If your kids struggle with handwriting I would highly recommend it. It was designed by an occupational therapist and it is really great for kids that have issues with fine motor skills or have developmental delays.
For math we use Singapore Math. A lot of homeschoolers don’t like Singapore Math but I think it is great. I have used it since Jeremy was in kindergarten. I like it because they teach mental math and how to do problems in your head. They also do a lot of word problems. One of the reasons I like it is because Singapore teaches advanced math at a much earlier age than we do and I want my kids to excel in math. I do not worry about teaching them higher level math because I have always done well in math. Not that it matters, they are still doing basic math at the moment but when they get to the more advanced stuff I think I can handle it.
I am more excited about homeschooling than I have been in a long time. It is really exciting watching your kids learn. It is weird when I think about it too much. Jeremy is nine years old now. I can’t believe we have been homeschooling this long.
I think my kids are pretty normal kids too, not that I care about that but they are. We were talking about homeschooling and socialization on the homeschooling board the other day and Heather (aka Butter) was talking about how some kids are just weird. I think that is so true. They have weird people everywhere and I don’t really think it has that much to do with where you go to school. I have known a lot of homeschoolers over the years and most of them were pretty normal. They dated, went on to college, and if you saw them in a crowd of kids you wouldn’t be pointing your fingers saying, “Oooh oooh oooh there’s the homeschooler over there, the weird looking one.” I have met some weird homeschoolers too but they probably would have been weird anyway.
As for my kids turning into weirdoes, well there is a good chance that could happen. Their mommy is a weirdo so I am okay with that. Hee hee.
Tags: homeschooling
I am so glad that you posted this. DH and I both feel very strongly about homeschooling, and so I’m trying to soak up as much as I can about it, and trying to stay “in the loop” with all things homeschool. We are also planning on doing a year-round schedule! I just think it makes more sense
I give so much credit to parents who homeschool. I love the concept I just don’t think I would ever have it in me to be that organized and structured. And hey, being weird never hurt anyone haha! I plan on raising my kids weird just for the heck of it LOL!
i love homeschooling our daughter, although we unschool her so if she wants to use a program or workbook, she chooses it - otherwise, we learn in other ways.
the craziest thing abt socialization is that WHY would anyone want their kid to be socialized with a bunch of other people the SAME AGE? it makes no sense. you don’t go through life that way! i love that our daughter has friends of all ages, from age 2-90.
we also do year-round - learning doesn’t stop in june. in fact, there are SO many cool things to learn in the summer - the life cycle of a lake, or wildflowers, or astronomy, or travel…
great article!
I didn’t know you homeschooled. Alexei will be 9 in December and we’re coming up on our 4th year of it (his 4th, Ibis’ 2nd). We have our days, but overall I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m going to have to check out Handwriting Without Tears, I have heard lots of good things about it. We mostly use Harcourt products since DH works there but I’m always looking for neat stuff. We’re lucky to have a very strong hs community here and the kids get to have a twice weekly PE in the school year put on by our parks department. I’m pretty sure we have some of the weird kids, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the trees LOL