Lots of new voices here lately...

[Free]

Hi,

 

I am Rashmi from India. I have a 10y.o. son. Ever since he was little, I have been searching for the "perfect" school for him and have failed. He goes to a private school now which is decent but not great.

 

Finding serious gaps in his science and maths knowledge and skills recently, sent me rushing to my computer to search for ways in which I could supplement his education myself. That is how I found the Well Trained Mind Forums. I have been lurking here for a month and have received some wonderful insight into the kind of education I would want for my son.

 

One immediate change that I have already started implementing is discussing books with DS. He loves to read and devours even large books in just hours. After WTM, I now put in the time and effort to read the books myself and discuss them with him.

 

I am glad to have found a really rich and diverse community of passionate and articulate homeschoolers. Homeschooling is not a valid choice for me here in India, but the insight I gain from participating in these forums will go a long way in helping me raise my son and educate him.

[Luckymama]

Welcome everyone! Hi Rashmi--you sound a lot like me (well, except the India part :D )

[athomeinMT]

After reading these posts I really feel like a lurker! I've been at home with my 2 dc for 7 years now! I didn't realize it had been that long until just now! I have a 15yo ds in 9th grade and a 13yo dd in 7th. Where did the time go! We have been classically homeschooling all along, started out with TWTM all the way but have veered off to Veritas Press some, although the ideas are still the same.

Only 2 dc that live here, but I teach science and math classes for homeschoolers and tutor several in a few different subjects, so we might as well have a revolving door.

Maybe I'll find something to contribute now and then. I have been very greatful for all the wisdom I have found here.

Keep up the good work ladies!

[Rosie_0801]

But if it's okay with you guys, I think I might stick around anyhow.

 

There's the occasional thread asking why people who don't do classical ed mooch here, but they are not actually as snarky as they sound. Whoever is asking is just curious. :)

 

Welcome to all of you :)

 

Rosie

[zillymom]

There's the occasional thread asking why people who don't do classical ed mooch here, but they are not actually as snarky as they sound. Whoever is asking is just curious. :)

 

Welcome to all of you :)

 

Rosie

 

hahahaha that's good to know! :D

[suzybluecheese]

This fall I started homeschooling my 11 year old daughter and plan to start homeschooling her sister (6) after this year of kindergarten. The reason for homeschooling is mainly because I got so tired of hearing about the importance of the TAKS from all school officials. But it didn't help that our notorious school district actually wanted to build a hotel/event center - ACK, don't get me started. *sigh*

 

Anyway, I learned about this forum and WTM from a close friend. I believe she goes by mamagistra for anyone who has been around here for a while. She's been a great help.

 

cat

[mandymom]

I'm Mandy, mom to 5 dc. Currently, all of my dc (except for the youngest, who is not quite 5) are in public school.

 

Public schools in Texas (and probably elsewhere) are going through some MAJOR readjustment because of budgets, and because my dh and I didn't like some of the things our district was proposing in order to deal with the budget shortfalls as well as a HUGE dislike of the district's math curriculum (TERC Investigations) and a few other things, we decided we could bring them all home.

 

Our original intent was to traditionally homeschool the youngest and use a virtual academy for the older 4 dc. The thought of trying to plan for 5 different levels completely terrified me! While I was looking for curriculum for the youngest, I found TOG and absolutely fell in love. I talked it over with my husband, and decided that I wanted my children to have that type of education....ALL of them!

 

So, we decided to bring them all home and ditch the virtual academy idea :001_smile: While googling TOG, I found TWTM forum, and it has really help me put words to what I was already envisioning for my dc.

 

I have enjoyed lightly homeschooling my youngest ds this year, and I can't wait to jump in the deep end in the fall with all 5 of the kids!

Edited April 6, 2011 by mandymom

[Serenade]

That seems to happen following spring convention season.

 

Welcome to all! If you have less than, say 50-75 posts, would you mind introducing yourself here and telling some of us regulars how you found out about these forums?

 

Again, welcome to all.

 

Hi there!

 

My name is Susan, and I have two boys, 8 and 11. We are using WinterPromise Sea and Sky this year. This is my fifth year homeschooling.

 

I'm not sure how I first heard about the WTM forums -- probably on the Sonlight forums. I've been lurking here for a while, but more steadily since last December. I don't know why it took me so long to register and get my own user ID. I think these forums can be somewhat overwhelming at first!

 

Anyhow, thanks for starting this thread. I was going to introduce myself when I first joined, about a month ago, but well, I was overwhelmed! :001_smile:

[Jaton]

I live in Texas and just started home schooling in March.

 

I have been doing tons of research, which includes a lot of google searches.

 

When comparing Heart of Dakota to Tapestry of Grace and The Well Trained Mind, I was lead to a thread on this board.

 

Found so much info, I joined and wanted to start asking questions and learning more! =)

 

A lot of my info is in my Sig...

 

I LOVE HOME SCHOOLING!!!! <3

 

I am so excited about this wealth of information here and I am so thankful to have discovered it all.

 

HELLO WTM WORLD!

[allie911]

I've actually been lurking on the board for the past year. I am finishing up my first year hs'ing my two children.

 

DS is almost 7. DD is 5. We are eclectic, but classically-based, and the more I hear from SWB (both at the convention and via audio lectures), the more I lean toward the WTM method.

 

This past year we have been using a mixture of Sonlight for history/read-alouds/LA, ETC, FLL 1&2, SOTW 1, SM, Wordly Wise and RSO Life.

 

For next year, DS will be continuing with SM and FLL (finishing up 2, moving to 3). We'll be adding in WWE. He will also begin cursive this year.

 

For DD, I'm trying to decide b/t IEW PAL and Phonics Road. I paged through both at the convention, but can't seem to decide yet. Anyone want to recommend a course of action? :) She'll be doing Making Math Meaningful this year, along with some RightStart B. She'll be moving to the next level in HWT - I think it's "My Printing Book."

 

Both kids will be doing Elemental Science--Earth/Astronomy for DS & Intro to Sci for DD. We'll move on to SOTW 2 w/ the AG, and will also use the Mosaic free schedule for Medieval times - I'm tweaking it for our use since the author was unable to complete it. We're adding AAS, Song School Latin, and Lollipop Logic/Logic Safari for both kids. We'll continue on with our Drawing with Children lessons and with Artistic Pursuits and will be studying 1 artist and 1 composer per month.

 

We're a fairly liberal-leaning family. We live in the Atlanta area, although we are looking for a way to move to a more rural area. It's a little hard with a DH who is a technology marketing guy :) Not much demand for such in small towns.

 

In a former life, pre-kids, I was a project manager for a promotions/marketing firm. I'm originally from South GA; hubby is from central PA. We love hiking, camping, reading, woodworking and most electronic gadgets :tongue_smilie:

 

Whew! I think that covers it. Glad to be among such good company!

[mamajudy]

Hi, I'm Judy. I've been married 31 years to my high school sweetheart and have 5 kids. We have homeschooled for 20 years. I have graduated 3 so far. My oldest will be graduating from medical school in May, and I have 2 in college: an electrical engineering major and an art major. My youngest 2 are in 9th and 10 grades. I read TWTM years ago and found these boards a couple of years ago. After lurking 2 years and learning soooooo much, I decided to join in on the fun.:001_smile:

[cellocoffee]

Hi and thank you for your warm welcome!:001_smile:

 

My name is Shu-Yi. I am from Taiwan. Cellocoffee's name is from: I am a professional cellist and I love and live on espresso drinks.

 

I heard about this forum through a close homeschooling mother friend/mentor(Sharon in Austin, did you hear me?)

 

I am married for 9 yrs to a sweet TX cowboy and I have two girls, 8 and 2&1/2.

 

Reasons I started homeschooling:

1. Didn't want my DC to loose their Mandarin.(DH kindly only used his limited Chinese skill to communicate with DDs until he can't disguise himself any more.)

2. I teach cello at home mostly during after-school hour. If DDs go to school, I will not see them during the day until their bed time. I don't want that kind of life style.

 

I am so glad to have found a forum like this. It really provides lots of knowledge and stress relief tips.

[vontinney]

Hi-thanks for the encouragement to post! I mostly am a lurker...trying to branch out of my comfy zone and post here and there. My name is Von and we live in central VA, out in the 'sticks with our 2 kiddos and 2 Bassets. :)

 

At winter break we pulled our DS out of middle school and the next month pulled our DD out of 2nd grade (both ps). We had homeschooled our DS when he was in 3rd but then put him in Christian school for a few years and then put him in ps for middle school. It was a disaster-I had a child that went from a fun-loving happy guy to a depressed, sad, smart-alecky kid that spent all his time in his room when not in school. Middle school just didn't work (obviously) for him...so here we are.

 

DH and I have been married for 23 years; we met when we were both in the Navy. We're conservative, non-denominational Christians. In November I closed my online Scrapbooking Kit club (which is a good thing because shortly after that we decided to homeschool). My passion is teaching scrapbooking; I was a teacher at my local scrapbook store until it closed in October. My daughter and I teach scrapbooking at the senior center every other Tuesday...it's a great way to teach her lots of things about stewardship and I get to satisfy my desire to teach scrapbooking so it's a really good thing.

 

I can't remember how exactly I found this board but I've learned so much just from the time I've spent lurking and really am thankful I found y'all.

[blessedwith7]

I've lurked and occasionally posted since about 2003 - is that possible? I just remember sitting in our family room reading the boards with my feet up very pregnant with #4 or was it #5 in the evenings after the kids were in bed while my dh was busy building us a house - so it must have been about then. How's that for a long, busy, grammatically incorrect sentence?

 

We now have 7 kids 5 dd & 2 ds. They range from 13 to 2 years old. We started homeschooling our first dd after some friends gave us "The Well Trained Mind" to read. I've gotten so much information and quite of bit of entertainment from these boards. I've stayed away from them for several months because it takes so much time to keep up with them, but I keep coming back once in a while to see what is going on. I'm sure I'll be spending a lot more time here for a while again as I work on figuring out next year's curriculum.

[Guest mrsajoy]

I use google to find different things for homeschooling. This board pops up a lot, so I finally went ahead and made an account:)

 

My name is Amanda and I have a 3, 4, and 5 year old. This was our first year to homeschool, and we unschooled it. That was hard for me because I'm type A and LOVE to do lists, check off lists, and lesson plans. I was a teacher pre children. This next year we are going to have lesson plans, but it will mainly be goals. Very relaxed:) My oldest is very advanced, so I wasn't worried about him keeping up with his peers. But, I want to hone in on his abilities:) Also, my daughter will be starting Kindergarten this next year, and she is your typical child, and needs some actual structure and learning times.

[TeachingTwins]

Hi,

 

I've been lurking for awhile, and have posted a few times on the K-8 curriculum board.

 

I can't remember where I learned about the WTM, but planned on homeschooling our 6-year-old twins since before they were conceived. We went to our first homeschool convention when they were only 2-years-old.

 

I was a CPA in my former life, but was conveniently laid off from work after maternity leave. That was OK -- I didn't want to go back to tax work anyway. My new profession is homeschool teacher!

 

I've read lots of great ideas from this forum, and enjoy hearing about experiences with curriculum, etc. You rock!

[Running the race]

Hi! My name is Maryann and I frequent the SL Forums. I've been homeschooling for 10 years. We've never done anything else.

 

I've been researching high school and college and have found TWTM Forums full of useful information.

 

You can see info about my kids in my siggy. They all have birthdays in the next couple of months.

 

Thanks for sharing all your wisdom!

[Clover11]

Hello :001_smile:

 

I have 3 children- ds12, dd 3.5, and dd 1. I have been homeschooling my son going on 5 years. I honestly feel like I have just 'come into my own' in the last year or so. I'm finally at a point to where I feel like I'm doing a good job with my son (12) and this IS the right choice. (I have a habit of doubting and second guessing everything I do!).

 

I feel so blessed to have found this forum; it has helped me tremendously in becoming more confident to continue homeschooling during the high school years. Before coming here, I felt like I was clueless. Now I'm forming a plan for the upcoming years! Thank you to everyone here who takes time out of their day to post opinions, advice, and personal stories.

 

Also, quite a bit of the curriculum we have started using for this year came from recommendations here. I love hearing what everyone likes and dislikes about each one. It really helps me choose what will work best for my kids.

 

So...one more time-- THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU :grouphug:

[Bookworm Mom]

I've been reading and not posting very often for a year or more. One of these days I'll get my posts up high enough so I can sell/swap :001_smile:

[funmamacita]

I'm mostly a lurker, too, but I've been mooching good info off these boards since a mom in our Girl Scout troop recommended them to me a year or so ago. My husband and I both work from home and share homeschooling duties for our 9-year-old and 3-year-old. It gets a bit hectic now and again, but we know we're lucky that 90 percent of our time is family time. We would never have guessed that we would end up being homeschoolers, but here we are.

[pfamilygal]

I'm Tamara.

 

This is our fourth year homeschooling. I have six kids. My oldest is severely dyslexic, so that has been quite a challenge. We've done Sonlight, Konos and MFW and finally settled on TOG. We are kind of a mixture between classical and CM.

 

I love to sew, read, cook, crochet and sing. I work on Saturdays (and summer/holiday breaks) as an Emergency Room RN.

[huntchaos]

Hi, this is our first year of "semi-homeschool.". We went with one of the virtual charter schools. However, about half way through, I realized that was not working and I started the search for homeschool curriculums. This board had some of the best review/ideas out there! I have 3 kids, ages 10, 7, and 2. Going with MFW-ECC right now but, seriously considering TOC once I have a good year under my belt. Still undecided on other things. You all make everything (curriculum) sound so good! :tongue_smilie: