New to Homeschooling

[Guest ellijaymom]

I am a stay at home mother of 4 boys and am pregnant with what we think is a GIRL!

 

Levi is 9 and will be in 4th grade and Wyatt is 7 and be in second grade for 2010-2011. This coming year would be their first year in homeschooling.

 

I am deathly afraid of missing something. I want to make sure my decision to homeschool will no hinder them. I have been researching and researching. I want an all inclusive and Bible based curriculum.

 

I looked into Abeka but for two children it was well over 1800 and I simply can not afford that.

 

I am wanting a program that even tells me what I need to get done and the time frame to do it in. Yes, I need structure at first. The following years I will be more confident in my abilities.

 

What do you think of Sonlight? Or do you have any other suggestions for me? I really want to do this. My husband is not onboard butif I show him evidence of my research, that I am serious, and the benefits I know that I can turn him around.

 

Thank you for reading,

 

Liz

Edited March 24, 2010 by ellijaymom

[Lara in Colo]

I also am new to HS and am trying pick my curric. I suggest to read the Well Trained Mind, read these boards for a while, then, when you are truely confused with the facts, ask the boards for help.

 

Lara

[The Girls' Mom]

We use Sonlight and love it. The schedules are very helpful. Just be aware, that it isn't really what you'd call Bible based. The schedule includes Bible, and there are notes discussing some things from a Christian perspective...but everything isn't based on the Bible. Also, there's a lot of reading and read alouds. If you do choose to go with Sonlight, I would suggest combining them in a single core (they aren't grade specific) or you could quickly become overwhelmed. Just get their math and LA on their grade level.

[pamd]

First off. We all miss something and so does PS. I will tell you I struggled my first year until someone reminded me that I started hs to teach my ds about Jesus and family. If you put God first the rest will work out but when you get confused and discouraged this is a great forum to come to and seek other hs experience or encouragement, but remeber you have to do what works for you and your family. I use Rod & Staff and Saxon for Math. Good Luck and God bless!!

[glingo]

Next year will be my first year to HS as well. We are going to go with SL for Science, LA, and History...Saxon for Math. I decided on SL because of the structure.

[Guest ellijaymom]

Thank you for all your thoughts. I really do like SL so far. I have just a bit of time to feel my way through this. Do more research and prepare for the battle with the inlaws.

[JessaMae]

This is our first year homeschooling (we started in Sept 09.) I have 4th, 3rd, and 1st graders and also a 2 yr old. I also wanted a curriculum that was Bible focused and that I could do with at least my two oldest, if not all the kids (for science and history.) We use My Father's World and I love it. It is a lot like Sonlight (from what I understand) except you only purchase a dozen or so of the books you will use throughout the year. The rest you get at your local library. This really cuts down on the cost. Throughout the years, they cover many of the same books as Sonlight. MFW also has hands-on activities and you purchase language arts and math on each child's level. (from MFW or elsewhere - whatever works for your dc) We use Horizons and Singapore for Math; Abeka and Rod and Staff for LA. ~Jessica

[Rosie_0801]

Thank you for all your thoughts. I really do like SL so far. I have just a bit of time to feel my way through this. Do more research and prepare for the battle with the inlaws.

 

Don't battle with the inlaws. Smile and say you'd love to discuss your research and you'll email a copy of your reading list.

 

 

Rosie

[jjcmehl]

I thought about Sonlight, but realized the cost, the amount of readings, and my lack of time with a baby just wouldn't cut it. We are currently using a lot of the Well Trained Mind suggestions. Though, next year we will be using Heart of Dakota (HOD) www.heartofdakota.com This program is literature based (Charlotte Mason), christ centered, affordable, and all planned out for you (day by day).

 

Not that you need more curriculum suggestions ;).

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

This is an awesome resource until you get comfortable (and even after if you have a questions)

 

http://www.worldbook.com/typical_course_of_study.html

 

Hope this helps!

[TracyP]

You might also want to look into CLE. It is an affordable, very easy to use, complete, rigorous, Christian curriculum. I suspect after a year of CLE you may want to branch out into something different for history and science but this would be a very solid way to get started.

[krisperry]

Structured, relatively cheap, and Bible based. You will absolutely not miss a thing: CLE! http://www.clp.org

 

I use a hodgepodge of things myself - Sonlight and CLE among them. I tend to use more living books and whatnot for Science & History so I do not use CLE for those.

 

Good luck!

[Chris in VA]

:DEven tho you say you want structure, consider WTM, because most of the suggestions are pretty "self-structuring."

You just do one lesson a day or one chapter a week.

For example, say you start in Ancients (often missed by ps kids, lots of fun and interesting, and allows you to naturally pull Bible into it). You can do SOTW 1, adding in the readings from the Vos children's bible. You can just do about a chapter a week, have the kids narrate back to you about what you read, and help them write up a notebook page. Pick something fun together at the beginning of the week for an activity from the activity guide.

There. History's done.

 

Math--have you chosen math yet? Most are just one lesson a day. No schedule really needed.

 

Science--oh, there's lots there. Pick two days you want to do science, and perhaps at first, pick a curriculum that allows you to do one chapter a week. Apologia is good for that, and WTM has lots of suggestions, too. Keep them together for science, maybe requiring a little more from the 4th grader.

 

Language Arts--Do Rod and Staff 3 with your oldest and just let your younger son do narrations in history. R&S3 is open and go--one lesson everyday. Do most of it orally. Should take you 10-15 minutes.

 

Read aloud--pick books from the history activity guide, go to the library every 3 weeks or so, easy-peasy.

 

You can use the Sonlight readers, or just monitor your kids' reading. No need to do book reports or anything formal. Ask them to share what they've read at the dinner table.

 

WTM may not come with a grid schedule, but that means you can do a quick one (just draw some boxes on a sheet of paper and copy it, or even just use notebook paper--no need for fancy here) that you can custom tailor. Most of the curriculum is open and go, as I said. Need to keep track of where you are? Just write it down. I have a sheet of paper with 6 hand-drawn columns on it, and I just write the lesson number next to the date. I do one every 3 or so weeks (b/c that's what fits on the lines). If we get to it, I cross it out. If not, I revise the schedule on another piece of paper at the end of the page.

 

A gridded schedule may give you security, but truly, it's not that hard to do one.

 

Go for Sonlight if you want--I'm just saying don't limit yourself b/c you think it's too hard to plan. It doesn't have to look like a teacher's plan book or like public school. :D

[Lizzie in Ma]

I love the names you picked for your children!

 

Lots of folks use a packaged curriculum the first year while they get their feet wet. It can be very helpful.

 

(Just an FYI, Not in any way an Abeka fan, especially their dvds. Blech! If you were to go that way and again, personally, I would not until the upper grades, I would suggest you look at BJU)

 

No insult, injury or slight intended to those of you who do use Abeka, it is solely the opinion of this writer and no animals were harmed while this was being written. :D

 

Sonlight was too expensive for me too, I used the Well Trained Mind as my guide and chose an eclectic mix of materials I love. Don't worry about missing something. There is nowhere in the world that can teach it all. And it shouldn't factor into your goal or play into your fears. :grouphug:

 

There are some great suggestions here for you. I would opt for CLE at first as well. We use it for math and language arts still and I tend to go back to it in burnout years.

 

You an do this, I promise.:)

[johnandtinagilbert]

Take a peak at these:

Bob Jones University

Christian Light Education

Rod & Staff Publications

My Father's World

Sonlight

Heart of Dakota

Oak Meadow

Veritas Press

Classical Conversations

Alpha Omega, Horizons, Switched on Schoolhouse

 

Those are just a few boxed materials that can incorporate everything for you. If those options are too expensive for your budget, you can individually buy materials from the following publishers, to name a few.

Peace Hill Press

Math-U-See, Saxon, Singapore, Math Mammoth

Mystery of History

Bright Ideas Publications

MCT

Apologia Ministries

Amanda Bennet

 

 

If your dear husband (dh) will read a book, invite him to read the Well Trained Mind. It's a real convincer that academics are easily met while home schooling and in fact, it's the rest of the educational system he ought to be concerned about, respectfully.

 

Let him spend an evening on these boards....a place where many fathers have crossed over b/c they can clearly see home schoolers are not all braided, overall wearing or rock stars who can't read, although you will find both of those and everything in between!

 

HTH :)

[Tracy]

For places to research, see my blog post on this subject. When I first started, I couldn't find anyone who could tell me where to do the research, so after I found all of these resources, I posted them on my blog for others who are researching.

 

Tracy

[hmschooling]

I highly recommend Heart of Dakota. All inclusive, completely Bible-based, well-balanced, affordable, and academically solid. I can't say enough great things about it!! It's literature based and could be described as a classical/Charlotte Mason combo. We absolutely love it!

[Guest Cindie2dds]

I second Oak Meadow. I would also suggest Ambleside Online, Simply Charlotte Mason for free curriculum guides and book selections. AO has free texts online and SCM uses worldcat.org to link up their book selections with your local library to reserve them.

 

HTH!