The previous posters that advised offering to be a resource and then waiting until the asker actually initiates to share show true wisdom. if someone is going to be a homeschooler the most basic skill needed is the ability to self-teach. So, if a parent is thinking about doing it, her first hurdle is researching and educating herself on how to do it. And if the parent can't do that, then homeschooling is unlikely to be a good fit.

Jennifer, here is what helped me: I found greater teaching ability through better understanding. Scripted curriculums, or curriculums that use repetitive phrases were the most helpful: FLL, AAS, HWoT. I would never have thought of myself as a scripted curriculum kind of gal, but it was a great benefit to me as I continued to teach all my children. What I might stumble through on the first kid, I was proficient for the ones following. Sticking with one curriculum for a while helps with that. I also really enjoy learning about how people learn and best practices in teaching. I typically am reading something about learning, teaching, what to teach, etc. Here are books that had a great influence on me. I first acquired them through the library. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma. This is an academic treatment of what works in teaching mathematics. It's not for the faint of heart, but it was an eye opener and game changer for me. I became convinced that I needed to invest in a conceptual understanding of the math I was going to teach. The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. This classic book is everything a person needs to know to be convinced why reading aloud is the best gift you can give your kids. It's a compelling read that argues the point well with both research and inspiring stories. Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom by Daniel T. Willingham. This book backed up my general thoughts on the instructional choices I was making for my kids. Yes on learning math facts to proficiency. Poo poo on the idea that kids must learn by their so called preferred learning style. It gives the pathway on how people learn and remember. Please read! The Power of Play : Learning What Comes Naturally by David Elkind. Play matters. Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better by Doug Lemov. Practice matters. Teach Like A Champion by Doug Lemov. This is obviously a resource for classroom teachers, but it is very applicable to home school as well. This book encouraged me to look at my teaching practices and find more effective strategies. This book has a really wonderful section on teaching reading. The book comes with a DVD to see teachers in action. This book is a great resource. Climbing Parnassus by Tracy Lee Simmons. This is a book arguing why an education in Latin and Greek is awesome. And pretty much emphasizes the point that someone like me will only roll over the low foothills near Parnassus, but better to be inspired to at least imagine the top of Parnassus than to just sit in the valley studying current events as if there was nothing before me. The Well Trained Mind. I still find it instructive to go back to that book. I also found help in listening to SWB's audio lectures. If you can, download them all. http://peacehillpress.com/audio-lectures/. I have even played those in the vehicle while we are driving and the kids get to listen in as well. I like to read articles on the internet for inspiration or to challenge my viewpoint. How about some Don Potter? Endless fount of article links on reading and handwriting instruction. ______ And now having dumped that huge list on you (that I have read over the past 5 years), a person doesn't have to try to learn and fix everything all at once. Just pick one thing. Do one thing. Make one strategy in one area. And if someone compliments you in one area that you are doing well in, remember the compliment. :) You have a lot on your plate with all those little ones. Hugs to you.

We've been with Verizon for years and have had really good customer service. We use ATT for other services and have had a lot of trouble with them. Over the years I have learned to ask for money off my ATT bill when I've had to repeatedly call in to fix something that they had promised but wasn't done. "I've spent a lot of time on the phone getting x issue resolved. I feel my time is valuable. I would like $15 off my bill." I've been successful with that strategy. At least then I feel like I get something for all the trouble of dealing with mistakes and outright lies.

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to quote Brookvalley in the previous post. Error in posting.

I think it would be interesting to discuss the idea of protecting children from potential frightening or traumatizing events. Several folks have expressed that the parents shouldn't have put the kids in the place where they would be picked up by the cops again because that would be frightening...or traumatizing. When we say things like that, are we misusing the word trauma? Is it our jobs as parents to protect our kids from every thing that might potentially be frightening? It would cause someone anxiety to feel trapped in a police car, or to have a cop promise you one thing and then do another. But if kids have been somewhat prepared to think through things, to respond to police respectfully, and to generally not fall apart at the drop of a hat, a situation like that wouldn't have to cause life long trauma. Would it? It was really wrong for the cops and CPS to do that to the kids. It was bad. It was terrible that no government agent informed the parents. Somebody needs to be held accountable for that. But unless something really sinister and violent went on in that police car, unless the parents would work those kids up into a frenzy over being afraid of ever seeing a cop again, then how could it cause trauma? I'm not a PTSD expert. I really am asking. And I am asking people to consider that maybe we need to use more accurate language with ourselves and with our kids. Anxiety and worry is not the same thing as trauma is it?

I wrote down a quote from Rob Dreher the other day. He was speaking on those who would want to closet their religious beliefs in order to still be accepted in their professions, but his words have meaning beyond that issue for me. Of course I am not equating children with things. But if government agents can take away your discretion in how to raise your children, then I guess you have the children "with" you but you've lost the ability to PARENT. And if you can't parent your children... "If you stand to lose everything by standing up for yourself, you have already lost those things, because they can and will be taken from you. And if they never are, if you stay hidden and prosper within the system that hates you, you will lose something more valuable than your professional status."

"I can't imagine letting an 8 yo old play alone," "A 6 year old has no business walking in the neighborhood," "I cannot imagine children walking to the park alone," are the kinds of statements that indicate our sense of community has really diminished. People think it's wrong and bad because they aren't seeing enough kids DOING IT. They aren't hearing enough parents say, "Hey, my kids walked to the grocery store today. It was so good for them!" Apparently it is hard for some to imagine what they cannot see and don't hear about--

I sincerely respect your personal assessment of your child. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't. Truly. I have six kids and they don't all get the same privileges at the same age because they have differed greatly in self-control. Some of them have had privileges revoked. :) Part of the ole learning process. (As an aside, my responsible, non-impulsive, safety-conscious first born broke his arm jumping off a playground slide during "tag-you're-it" recess games at school--off a slide that I had personally helped pick out, watched over the installation of and worked with the contractor and school district to get the safety ground-cover just right. It's not like there weren't recess aides there to supervise. And it's not like it wasn't "safe" equipment. He was just playing. There isn't much room in our society's value system to say, "Sometimes bad stuff just happens." We always seem to have to find someone to blame--which leads to thoughts like these: Those Evil PTA parents bought dangerous swings and slides for the playground!!! Overworked, distracted, poorly paid recess aides weren't paying attention!! Tag is an evil game!! Boys must be made not to run and jump!! I should have know that he didn't have enough self-control to not purposely run and jump off the high slide!! I am a bad parent!! It's all my fault!!) The very sad part of this story is that the parenting assessment and teaching of the family is disrespected by member(s) of their community and agents of the government. Who would call CPS on parents who make the judgment call to keep their kids close at hand? No one, right? And it burns my hide that someone would call CPS and that CPS would overreact over two parents who are intentionally, methodically, purposefully training their children to gain independence and critical thinking skills.

The issue they are guilty of is being non-compliant with newish values on constant on site supervision of children. It's not a law. It's a value system driven by fear of something bad happening to kids, a seemingly kind hearted motive to "protect" kids and a lack of respect for parental discretion. But because the decisions are made by government agents carrying those values, it looks like a law and feels like a law. And it feels very intimidating.

It is more than a CPS-on-speed-dial-neighbor problem. The cops picked up the kids. And didn't bring them home or call their parents. CPS held the kids and didn't call the parents immediately. The parents didn't get their kids back until late at night. There was a whole chain of people making decisions.

A good number of my oldest son's peers have decided to delay driving. They are very concerned and want to put it off. It feels very intimidating to them. And I would not ever want to force the timid to drive.

If anyone is interested, here are some links that inform about potential benefits for children being independent. http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-GEzM7iTk The Decline of Play by Peter Gray. The video isn't long. Two other books that helped me were http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+power+of+play The Power of Play by David Elkind and Last Child in the Woods by David Louv. Food for thought.

The reading I've done has convinced me that kids need time alone and unsupervised for proper brain development in decision making skills. Yes, there are risks when the children are unsupervised. Perhaps they will disobey and not come home on time. Perhaps they will be mischievous. Perhaps they will pick up broken glass. Perhaps they will find themselves in an uncomfortable situation and be forced to think about what they should do. In weighing the risks, I believe more harm is done when kids are not given the opportunity to be independent. The kids first learn how to do things in the house when I am not supervising. Then we work on being outside in our back yard unsupervised. Then we work on being outside in the front yard and the street area unsupervised. Then we train on how to walk places. Then they bike and walk places unsupervised that we have preselected. And then they get their driver's training permit and learn to drive with an adult driver. And then they (or at least the oldest so far) gets a license at 16 and drives places BY HIMSELF. I think putting a 16 or 17 year old alone in a car (or worse! with friends!!!!!) who has not had several years of learning to supervise him or herself is unwise. My 11 year old can cook (on a stove) a meal for our whole family. She has done it enough times that she does not need to be supervised. Even my 6 year old knows a thing or two in the kitchen. My kids know how to walk places--how to get there and back. I feel sorry for kids who don't know how to get anywhere, how to cook anything on their own, how to clean on their own, how to try to fix broken things, how to use tools. We had a 14 year old boy over the day and the kind soul asked if he could help out in anyway. I asked him to sweep. He did not know how to run a broom.So I taught him. He can't cook. He can't (couldn't) run a broom! He isn't ever by himself. He is a smart kid. A really good and kind kid. And I feel sorry for him.

I wouldn't want my kid to get seriously hurt by another kid at the park. I would be cautious and calculate the risks in the environment. But even so, even if one of my kids got punched or threatened or had bad names thrown at them, or had their bikes stolen, I think all of those things we could deal with easier than having the cops take them and lock them down with CPS and put our family under threat of 5 years of supervision. Or worse, having the kids taken away. The way I see it, the worst three outcomes from kids going to the park alone are: abduction or sexual assault by stranger (statistically low, improbable) death or permanent debilitating injury that could have been prevented if I had been standing there right next to them (hard to calculate the risks on that) getting kids taken away by CPS or family put under supervision by CPS

I let my kids go to the park and they haven't had the cops called either. And I'm glad about that. But I worry about it a lot. My anxiety level over it is pretty high, I will admit. I let them go because I think it is good for them and yet I feel scared that some do-gooder is going to flip out. It's not like all these people with CPS on speed dial are confined to Maryland. I have a parent, my own parent! who is freakazoid over needing to keep an eye on kids. She wasn't even so much like that when I was growing up. So if you combine that kind of mindset with having a cell phone--it probably takes about 30 second for that person to go from seeing kids to making the call.

When I say that times have changed, this is what I mean. The fact that a neighbor would call the cops, the fact that the cops would keep the kids in the car for 2 hours, the fact that CPS social workers wouldn't immediately call the parents, the fact people in charge didn't reunite the parents with their children... You see, that's a whole chain of people who believe that parents do not have the right of discretion in how to raise their children as they see fit. And add onto THAT chain all the many, many people who participated in the first event. Isn't is just great that sending our kids to the park is now a subversive act punishable by kidnapping??

If homeschooling does increase, then I think that there will be a bigger market for -- --seminars on how to homeschool --all in one curriculums that come with online support --counseling for parents that have come to the end of themselves trying to make ends meet and homeschool and be perfect parents So get busy all you entrepreneurs. :) And I think that people will need to spend serious time thinking about how much regulation they want and get politically active according to their philosophy.

The slightest bump or wiggle was knocking our AAS tiles off the magnetic board. Today I glued tiny neodymium magnets to the back of the old peel-n-stick magnet strips on the tiles. They are wonderful! Holding strong! I used a 1/4" x 1/16" size with Loctite All Purpose GO2 Glue. :) Hope this can help someone who is tired of dealing with falling tiles. Andrea

I wonder how many parents decide to homeschool because they realize they are spending so much time on (inane) homework for their first graders and all-day kindergarteners that they might as well just quit b&m school to homeschool. I don't see the load-em-up homework, one-recess-a-day, never-ending testing philosophy going out of style any time soon.

Social values on families and parenting are changing, in my opinion. As marriage becomes less utilized as a way to build families, my opinion is that the resulting families in general (not talking your specific unmarried family!) may become less stable, less able for there to be a SAHparent to homeschool. While working and homeschooling is possible, I seem to hear a lot of people here on the forum say that is pretty difficult. Don't know how many folks could sustain single-parenting, working and homeschooling over a course of many years. Also, there seems to me to be changing values about parental rights. If a concerned neighbor feels the righteous and just thing to do is to call the cops/CPS when they see a child playing alone at the park, then the values are shifting in favor of state-government oversight, rather than parental discretion. If the values of society place less importance on parental discretion, than it will follow that government should have a greater role in deciding what parents can teach in a homeschool. There seems to also be a trend to assume that greater government regulation also is an effective problem solving tool. Problems with homeschoolers? Regulation MUST be the answer. When I see the words spoken against Indiana, Arkansas, and cakebakers and store owners with once (as in like 5 minutes ago in the course of relative history) standard religious views getting skewered, then I don't foresee it taking just a real long time for homeschoolers to get their teachings regulated. I would have answered this OP question differently a year or 18 months ago. But not anymore. Many people in our country have asked for a more government regulated, less religious belief tolerant, less pro-parent society and that is what we are going to have. So, if someone wants to homeschool according to what the state wants you to teach, I don't think that person will have a problem. Everyone else is going to get squeezed. But that's my OPINION.

If you would like to add a free option that you can print at your own discretion, I suggest MEP. Personally, I supplement with Math Mammoth and Life of Fred. I have the full curriculum version of MM for 4th grade, but I only print want I want to cover. For instance, DS just finished Delta, so I then printed out the fractions section of MM Grade 4. I will also have him do the sections on geometry and decimals this summer in MM. I use a MM text on Addition/Subtraction that is not keyed to grade level after my kids finish Beta because I like the way MM teaches mental math skills for adding within 20 and with larger numbers. Last fall we were doing LOF on Fridays, but have dropped it for the spring. I am likely to return to it in the summer. I think that adding LOF just to cover some additional SPECIFIC topics would be very expensive and challenging to accomplish. Each book is $16 and the elementary books are not really separated by topic. Plus, if you do determine what level in LOF you want to start out with, you'll be missing the overall arch of the story line. No matter the age of the kiddo, I start them on Apples, the first book. You won't be able to find a LOF about "time" or "money". But if you just want a fun general supplement, LOF is that. The cheapest way to pick extra content that you want to cover is to find some separate skill books on the other topics, or print off free downloads that you scavenge from the internet.

You might want to map out the hours in your day and ask what you would give up doing in order to homeschool. If there isn't anything you can give up, then homeschooling isn't going to work out very well. You could also set up a summer school homeschool experience for yourselves and see how that goes. I've homeschooled a very independent 9 yo and two 9 year olds that were not very independent at all. A needy 9yo can take a lot of time and a lot of energy.

Here is what the "What Your First Grader Needs to Know" book (1991) by E.D. Hirsch argued: "A reasonable goad for first grade is for children to become independent readers and writers--which, of course, doesn't mean that they ought to be able to read any book in the library or write a polished, perfectly spelled essay. By the end of the year, however, it is reasonable to expect that, with only limited assistance, first graders will read books appropriate to beginning readers and express themselves comfortably and legibly in writing." "By the end of first grade, she should know how to count to 100 by ones, twos, fives, and tens, both forward and backward. She should also know how to write the words for the numbers from 1 to 10. First graders should be learning to compare numbers to see which is greater and which is less, and to have a sense of how big 100 is. They can also begin to understand a digit in the tens place of a number means something different from a digit in the ones place." "In first grade, your child should learn more about how addition and subtraction work, and with repeated and varied practice, he should know addition and subtraction facts to 12. "

I haven't used CLE, but I have used FLL 1-4 for several kids over a range of ages. I've also used WWE and some WWS. I don't read the script verbatim. :) And I never thought that having a script meant I was tied down to it with a 2nd Assistant Director glaring at me. But I have found it helpful as a way to keep me on the right track. And after you've done it for 1 kid, it becomes second nature. I really like the way the parts of speech definitions are presented. My youngest kid hasn't even gone through a FLL book, but she's heard the definitions so many times...she knows them, I think. :) FLL is meant to be done together. WWE is meant to be done together. If a teacher needs kiddos to have independence, I don't think FLL and WWE fit the bill. If a teacher doesn't enjoy repeating definitions, maybe FLL and WWE aren't the best fit, unless the teacher can just blithely disregard it (which is totally possible). I personally like repeating the definitions in FLL and the spelling rule cards is AAS and the letter formation sequences in HWoT. I think it's made me a better teacher as I work with my range of kids because I now use consistent, accurate definitions. I was also that lady that LIKED reading the same FIAR book every day for a week. I like memorizing poems and then reviewing them--that's part of FLL. I personally like the conversational tone of FLL.

I hear you. I have a really young 1st grader this year and I"m just not sure how to proceed for next year, whether to say we're doing 1st grade again, or label it 2nd. It's not really a question of what materials I would use, but on the form I have to turn in for the state, I have to designate a grade. If it weren't for the form, I wouldn't worry about it. I looked at some things online and I saw a lot of goals aiming for proficiency with dolch sight words (which I haven't done) and she isn't writing as much as kids at our local public school do since the only form of writing I require is copywork M-TH and writing a personal letter on Fridays. Thanks for posting.