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SimpleMom 03:18 PM 12-06-2011
I've made the choice and I'm going to Homeschool!!! Yay! Super excited....super scared LOL

I'm going to add on more K-ready stuff and geography type things now. I've been doing mostly pre-k things up to now.

Any advice( from any of you who do this with daycare) on what works/doesn't work due to Daycare things would be great!

Thanks!!
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Michael 03:20 PM 12-06-2011
That's great. This site has been very helpful for us: http://www.k12.com
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SilverSabre25 03:21 PM 12-06-2011
i'm in the early stages of doing this with my dd (prek stuff right nw) and honestly I have to say that lapbooks are awesome!! They are easy to scale to each child's level and you can do them with the dcks too if you want.

Also, doing school doing naptime
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AmyLeigh 03:41 PM 12-06-2011
Yahoo!!! Welcome to the team!!!


If you need advice, support, a place to gain LOTS of information from mom's who have BTDT, check out The Homeschool Lounge. There are people from all over the homeschool spectrum there.
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Cat Herder 03:51 PM 12-06-2011
Originally Posted by Michael:
That's great. This site has been very helpful for us: http://www.k12.com
That is what I did, too. K12 was really great. The kids were VERY advanced when they went back to brick and mortar for junior high/high school.

Check to see if your State has a Virtual Academy. If so it will be at no charge to you.

Study Island is a godsend, too.
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Michael 03:58 PM 12-06-2011
Originally Posted by Catherder:
That is what I did, too. K12 was really great. The kids were VERY advanced when they went back to brick and mortar for junior high/high school.

Check to see if your State has a Virtual Academy. If so it will be at no charge to you.

Study Island is a godsend, too.
We homeschooled up to college. Tutors
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Cat Herder 04:24 PM 12-06-2011
Originally Posted by Michael:
We homeschooled up to college. Tutors
I am soooo jealous!!!

The tutors around here charge between $50-$85 an hour.

I barely make more than that for 50 hours of care for one child...with 6 kids, max allowed.

K12 Virtual Academy made it possible fo us to get a jump start though.
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frgsonmysox 05:00 PM 12-06-2011
We homeschooled for a few years. It's a lot of work, but so worth it. Look into lap books and work boxes. They were amazingly helpful for my children.
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AnneCordelia 05:12 PM 12-06-2011
I was homeschooled! It was awesome! WTG!
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erinalexmom 04:34 AM 12-07-2011
My daughter is in a charter school. She goes to "school" two days a week. Then does the rest on-line. One piece of advice I have is, do as much as you can during naptime. Also, if you can colaborate with other homeschoolers in your area

By the way Michael, my daughters charter school is a k12 school love it!
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cheerfuldom 06:02 AM 12-07-2011
we are starting homeschooling next year too. pre K and K. we also have a university model school in our town so homeschooled kids can go and take just the courses they need and the parents do the rest at home. a great option once kids get into advanced math and such. we also have homeschool groups that do PE together and such.
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themoorethemerrier 07:30 AM 12-07-2011
WHOO HOO!!! It's soooo fun! And it's easy once you find your groove.

Right now my girls are "K", 1st and 2nd. We are child-led "free rangers". I have a scope and sequence that I loosely follow. If I think one of them isn't reaching a specific goal I know that they are able to hit, I sneak in a few learning games.

My Kindy girl uses Rod and Staff workbooks, which were inexpensive and very helpful for practicing all the skills needed for the following years.

My older girls get in writing skills (write letters to family members, thank you notes, stories, etc) during our table project time.

We follow their interests, and include anyone with piqued interest in our study. Lately it's been about where babies come from but we've found appropriate resources to help explain how babies are created, how they grow in utero, how they "get out" and how to take care of them after they are born. I was rewarded with lots of pictures of a mommy getting an ultrasound, babies in the womb, and even a fetal snowman with umbilical cord.

I have two all-age story times, one at each snack time. Bible stories in the morning and usually a Dr. Suess in the afternoon.

We practice counting and mathematics with basic things like hopscotch, counting in 2s, 5s, 10s with bunny hops, treasure finds and in general those stone beads. I do practice the addition, subtraction and multiplication tables by rote and then have speed drills.

The only time it's difficult to juggle the day care with homeschooling is when it comes time for my girls to read out loud. There are a few too many yelling toddlers for them to concentrate. I choose during nap, after dc hours or bed time.

The biggest thing here is to make it fun and take advantage of every teachable moment! Can't wait to hear updates about your adventure!
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SimpleMom 04:31 PM 09-05-2012
How do you gals configure friendships for the kiddos when homeschooling? That's my biggest "challenge" right now. We are doing amazing with skills and such! She does seem to miss playing with kids her age through the day. Her dc pal just entered K, and so isn't here any longer
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MrsSteinel'sHouse 04:40 PM 09-05-2012
We homeschool. We use Seton (www.setonhome.org) I like it because it is complete and my kids graduate with a diploma. Dd is a junior in college now. Ds is in 10th. Homeschooling gives us a lot of flexability to travel to competitions for him. He is a competitive shooter. He got to shoot in the Jr Olympics this past summer.
Daycare and hsing. when they are little it is easy.. naptime. The upper elem require a little more time management. The nice thing is you can explain for 15 min or so go back to the littles and check in later. I always kept a list of items they could work on if I wasn't available, spelling, items to read etc.
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Michael 04:53 PM 09-05-2012
Originally Posted by SimpleMom:
How do you gals configure friendships for the kiddos when homeschooling? That's my biggest "challenge" right now. We are doing amazing with skills and such! She does seem to miss playing with kids her age through the day. Her dc pal just entered K, and so isn't here any longer
When we go out we try to makes friends with those that are our children's age. You have to be provactive and selective. Also do a search for homeschool groups in your area. If there are none it maybe a good time to start one and let others know about it.
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Angelsj 05:29 PM 09-05-2012
Get them into one or two activities here and there that they enjoy. They will find friends more easily if they are doing compatible activities. Take advantage of youth enrichment (art classes, summer fun stuff, swimming lessons). Check with your local community center. Look for home school groups in your area, and ask them.

I have four kids currently in college/trade school, and all of them were home schooled through high school. Some places they found friends: neighborhood, local school through band or choir participation, youth groups for church, Bible camps, activities such as dance, TKD or gymnastics, home school groups, swimming pool...etc.
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AmyLeigh 10:12 PM 09-05-2012
Originally Posted by Angelsj:
Get them into one or two activities here and there that they enjoy. They will find friends more easily if they are doing compatible activities. Take advantage of youth enrichment (art classes, summer fun stuff, swimming lessons). Check with your local community center. Look for home school groups in your area, and ask them.

I have four kids currently in college/trade school, and all of them were home schooled through high school. Some places they found friends: neighborhood, local school through band or choir participation, youth groups for church, Bible camps, activities such as dance, TKD or gymnastics, home school groups, swimming pool...etc.
I second the activities. Weekend playdates with current friends are important, too. After a while, your dd will learn that her same age friends aren't available to play until x time. Once my odd made that adjustment, she was fine. She has friends from church (locally and in other towns), dance, and swim lessons. My ds just started gymnastics and is happy there are other boys his age in his class. He's more of an introvert, like his mom, so it wasn't as big of a deal for him.
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Countrygal 05:24 AM 09-06-2012
I allowed/allow the children to join one club. My three we were in 4-H. There is a LOT to do, and they formed life-long friendships. Gs wants to join a model airplane club, or I'm thinking about Boy Scouts.

The other place they had friends were from church and our local home-schooling group.

Sometimes my kids wished they had more friends, but what they didn't realize is that even when you are in a "traditional" school, you still only have one or two "besties" that you hang around with all the time.
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SimpleMom 06:57 AM 09-06-2012
My local hmschl group meets btwn 1 and 230 in the pm on a weekday. Have you ever taken dck's with you to these or found someone to come in to watch dc while you go with your kiddos?

I like the 4h club idea. I do have her in soccer, one night per wk church group, and a morning church service with kids. Hopefully that will work well. I also found another group for mothers and daughters.
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Country Kids 07:06 AM 09-06-2012
This was always our biggest problem! Everything was during the day with homeschoolers and we rarely could do things- Alot of the 4-H clubs was even during the day because thats when the homeschoolers did them. It was frustrating.

We did join one 4-H club and she really like it but it there was only two others in it.

People did offer to pickup and we did do that but I really wanted to be able to participate. I did take dcks when I only had a couple. No one seemed to understand why we couldn't do things because I worked. Also, I and one other mom where the only homeschool moms we knew that worked! It was very frustrating at times.
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MrsSteinel'sHouse 09:56 AM 09-06-2012
Dd did dance classes and piano when she was younger. She did 4H when she was older. We hosted kidlets from Japan 4 times and Dd went to Japan. She loved the library and volunteered there when she was 13-16 and they hired her at 16. She had a limited group of friends. Now that she is at a small college with lots of like minded young people, she has awesome friends. There just were not that many here that we loved.

Ds- Cub Scouts was his first group activity. He also did 4H a couple of years and then at 9 he joined 4H shooting sports. He is now a competitive shooter. He has friends from all over! He is still in Scouts and is working on his Eagle. He doesn't have a really close friend but has a larger circle of friends. He is comfortable in all the groups he is with. He was on the jr fair board this year and had a great time.

I really try to not be too social. There are enough things that pull our kids away. I really liked the fact that because of childcare I had a reason NOT to go to all of the homeschool stuff. Even in that group it is very material and the same "cool" and "uncool" kids exist. By feeding our kids interests instead of trying to belong to a group has really helped my kids be themselves. Dd has done great in college. She is head of a household this year, prefected a summer program for hs kids, and was on the dean's list. She is an elem ed major and wants her masters in library science. Ds does well at scout camps and this past summer he was at training and then traveled to the jr olympics with his team and they only had great things to say about him. My kids do well in social situations because they have always been with a wide range of people. Ds shot with a bunch of men on the range when he was 13 doing tacticle shooting. He was invited to join them. This is a special group of guys and the leader is well known. The conversation went, do we let a 13 yr old do this? Well, he is not an ordinary 13 yr old! He handled it well. These guys love him and take great pride in him. One is a judge and he always asks me what I did to raise him. Socialization begins at home. Being respectful to mom and dad and the littles. My kids know how to take care of little ones, to love them and care for them. Then it broadens out from there. I do require my kids to use Mr and Mrs for adults. It sets the tone that they are to be respected. It also helps when they are in those senerios with older people, they are not your "friends" you treat them as adults.
Ok I am climbing off my homeschooling socialization soapbox. FInd your own kids' genious and it will all go from there!
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Countrygal 04:18 AM 09-07-2012
Originally Posted by SimpleMom:
My local hmschl group meets btwn 1 and 230 in the pm on a weekday. Have you ever taken dck's with you to these or found someone to come in to watch dc while you go with your kiddos?

I like the 4h club idea. I do have her in soccer, one night per wk church group, and a morning church service with kids. Hopefully that will work well. I also found another group for mothers and daughters.
Actually, at the time, all of the kids were too young to join 4H (have to be 5), but they all ended up joining right when they turned 5 So it worked out well. I would have had no problem bringing the dckids with me to a meeting or outing. They are very educational and a lot of fun! I'd just call it a field trip.

Back in the days when my kids were in 4H was much more active than it is now, tho. At least around here. If you are in an area where there isn't much going on, I'd still consider Boy or Girl Scouts.

IMO, it sounds like your daughter gets plenty of interaction, at least during soccer season, but she might enjoy something else on the off seasons.

Oh! We also did gymnastics one year, until dd broke her arm in it one day. She never wanted to go back.

Also, if you have a hsing group locally, they usually have events, some in the eves to accommodate whole families. Picnics, field trips (littles are almost always welcome), tours, speakers. Definitely something you should check out. Our hs group has field trips and I am hoping to rejoin this year and just take the one or two dckids with us! They all love field trips!
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MrsSteinel'sHouse 05:14 AM 09-07-2012
Oh and Ds did floor hockey at the YMCA for years! Loved it!
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