I posted the other day about my older son being reluctant to leave public school, he will be going into 5th grade and my younger son will be in 2nd. I really want to try and help him transition well and am thinking already about what we could do our first week to make it fun and ways to incorporate educational toys into a weekly schedule for them both. I'll tell you what we already have. Qwirkle - We all enjoy this and play it as a family. I have Math Dice for the older one, but he's not really used it but I think we could incorporate it into our day sometimes. I have Rory's Story Cubes for my youngest and he likes it. We have more Lego than we know what to do with, and lots of other toys and board games but none that I would think of as being particularity 'educational'. Thoughts?

Thanks, no offense taken. I'd much rather carry on as before with them in school and me in My PJ's with a cup of tea watching "I didn't know I was pregnant", but all good things must come to an end I suppose. :001_smile:

I concur, but we are not taking him out just because I want to have him at home or to fulfill any desire on my part to homeschool. I'd prefer if he was excelling in school, but he's not and he's coasting and not doing nearly as well as he could.

Thanks everyone, this is going to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated, but I will take on board all your helpful suggestions, thanks again!

I'm sure this is common and you've heard it all before, and I have read a little about it (mostly about much younger kids wanting to try school) but I simply wanted to share as I am very down about the whole thing today. So a very little background, I have a 1st and a 4th grader, they are in public school and have never been schooled anywhere else, and as public schools go it's really quite a nice one and they've had great teachers. I've never homeschooled before, and I never, *ever* thought that I would, but now we find ourselves about to leap into the great unknown. I was doing ok, and excited about the prospect until last night. Last night my husband raised the possibility of it with the boys, my youngest was delighted. My 11 year old look shocked, said nothing and then just burst into floods of tears. There were no histrionics, he was just very sad and as his mom it was very hard to comfort him. He said he liked school,didn't want to be at home and was worried that his friends would forget who he was and so on, it was heartbreaking to watch. :crying: Ultimately this won't change what we decide to do as I know he can't see the long term benefits and we can. But it really shook me and undermined my confidence before I've even got started :001_unsure: So now I'm sad too and being totally inexperienced in this area I don't know if there are things I can do when the time comes to make this a very positive experience for him. It will just be my two boys at home, there are no babies or toddlers in the mix. Any advice gratefully received.

Yeah, I don't think I can stump up the cash for that to be honest, and I think there would be a family mutiny if I tried to do that instead of a day at a theme park! :w00t: I have managed to look at almost all of the things I think I want/need for next year from friends. I do love to browse though! I will see if we have time to look in one of the large bookshops when we are down there to satisfy the urge.

Just back from books a million, I didn't see anything I was looking for. I've got a few things from some homeschool friends, I'll just need to be patient!

Ok, thanks to both of you :) We have a teeny tiny books a million here in my small town, I might check it out later. We are going on vacation next week to Orlando and I saw that there is a large home school convention happening there. I called the lady in charge to see if we could get into the bookstore/exhibit hall without attending the conference but she said no. :crying:

I was wondering if any of the popular curricula out there are for sale in larger bookstores or Christian bookshops? We are planning to homeschool next school year I'd really like to just have a chance to look up close at some of the books before I buy, I'd probably still buy online. Thanks! :)

Thanks Dolphin, I will have a search later on before I post a new thread.

You have all been *very* helpful, thank you! I have found some of the books mentioned in the thread via the library and will order them today. I don't know what the forum etiquette is but I want to ask some more question about different topics, is it best to do it here or start a new thread?

I forgot about that, my son (11) is also a lefty! I will check out that program. It has been at least a year, maybe two, since he did cursive so I don't think a change will matter too much. My younger son has not done any yet.

Thanks! Where can I find the AAS for sale? I am also thinking about Story of the World for history and adding some Scottish and British history along the way. I will probably go for the apologia too, but the one about flying things as my friend will be doing that one so we can get together with it. I hear good things about the Singapore math books and they look appealing, I'm not a math fanatic so I need something I can work with and enjoy.

Thank you, those links look very helpful already! I will add them to my long list of things I need to read!

Hello, I'm new to your forum! We are pretty sure we will have our two boys at home next year, they are in public school right now but my older child needs an extra push so If I do this they will both be at home. They will be going into 2nd and 5th grade and this is my first foray into homeschooling. :) We have just started to think about it seriously in the last week. I have borrowed a bunch of books from a homeschool friend and I am vaguely familiar with the ideas behind classical education just from talking to other friends over the years, she loaned me the WTM book and I have just started to read that. I have a couple of questions if I may, 1) How do I figure out what type of learners they are and how that should impact the curriculum I choose? I want to avoid buying multiple curriculum that would in the end remain unused due to its unsuitability, if that's possible! 2)My eldest did cursive writing in 2nd or 3rd grade but only for one year, I would like to pick that up again for him and have my younger son try it also. Can you point me to some helpful resources? 3) Spelling - any thoughts on that? I have some ideas already about curriculum for history, English, math, and science but have not yet ordered anything until we are 100% sure that this is the route we want to go down. Thank you for reading this!