Planning on Homeschooling in a few years

[Sarah4boys]

My son is two, and I am planning on homeschooling him (I am a big planner, in case you couldn't tell). What did you do, or would you have done to get ready for homeschooling? I read WTM at least annually, so I am not too worried yet about schooling, but what about the other aspects? Also, when did you start teaching your children to read. WTM says you can start at 3, but is that really feasible, or desirable?

[Seeker of Schole]

Spend time together - read, cook, play, read, work together. Read some more. When you are ready start a letter of the week type of activitiy, keep it fun! As for reading, use your child's pace to determine that. At 2 1/2 my dd(4) knew all her letters and sound. She was not ready to learn to read until now (4 1/2). I tried a few times in between, but it was a struggle so I put it away. This time around she is picking it up very easily, and enjoying it.

 

I think one of the things that I like most is that "doing school" is already a normal part of the day for her, and when I tell her school time she comes running and is excited to do whatever we have for the day. That was accomplished just by doing simple crafts (she loves crafts) and calling it school when she was younger (she wanted to do school like her older sister), so now she associates school with fun, and she learned her letters and numbers that way.

[PeterPan]

Hmm, good question! Well I'll tell you what my SIL told me before I started, because I think it still holds true. Get your photographs and your house in order. Seriously, the best thing you can do is do everything else. Learn how to cook, can, sew, scrapbook, clean, anything else you plan to do. That way you won't have that learning curve or disorganization later, as life piles up. There's nothing like 10 years of photographs sitting around to make you realize you should have had a plan earlier! :D

 

As far as stuff with your 2 yo, well I would do puzzles, read alouds, phonemic awareness (A says /a/, B says /b/, clap syllables, rhyming), read nursery rhymes. Just do preschool stuff and have fun together. Search the boards for toddler and preschool threads. The MFW toddler and preschool stuff is ADORABLE btw, just wonderful. It's totally the kind of stuff you want to be doing right now. Just enjoy it. You don't realize how much all that is building the language base that he'll use in a few years when he learns to read. I wouldn't try to teach a 3 yo to read, mercy. If he tries to, more power to him. But I've never had kids who were destined for that. I doubt the majority are. Do all your fun preschool stuff for the next two years and enjoy it. It will naturally slide into more schoolish stuff, and you'll know when he needs it.

 

As far as actually getting him ready, it's phonemic awareness, gross motor, fine motor, lots of PLAY (imaginative, indoors, outdoors, games to work on turn-taking and social skills, games to learn basic facts, etc.), painting, exploring. It's probably stuff you're already doing. With my 1st dc I didn't spend money but was just very low key. With my 2nd (10 year gap), I'm much more active. I buy a lot of Melissa and Doug things and games games we can play together. I think they're really very valuable. Playmobil, oh my playmobil. How I wish we had had this for my dd! Tons and tons of fun. Age 2 is a little young. Try Thomas the train. Or get plastic animals from the Dollar Tree. Lots of Melissa and Doug.

 

Have fun! :)

[katilac]

Limit screen time.

[Garga]

Teach them to read when they're ready. I forced it on my oldest, and he didn't pick it up until last January when he was firmly 8 years old. I mean, he could read, but it was painful for everyone to try to listen to him. We struggled and cried for many years before his brain was finally ready to get it. When he was ready, it was easy.

 

My younger son has learned when most other kids learn: somewhere between 5 and 6 and reads fairly fluently now (he's 7.)

 

Try to generate interest, but if it's not there, back off for a few months, then try again, or you're just beating your head against a wall.

 

I love SWB, but at the same time think that some of her stuff about reading (ready at 3 yo) only fits a certain kind of child. And I'm humbled to say that, because I was sure that my children would read early and fluently. I was shocked when they didn't.

[Ellie]

I don't know what anyone could do to prepare for homeschooling, other than having children. :)

 

Teaching children to read and write and all that is just an extension of involved parenting.

 

I guess, though, that a kind of preparation for yourself would be to read as much as possible regarding education: John Holt, Mary Pride, Mary Hood, SWB, Charlotte Mason (who wasn't a homeschooler, but whose methods work well in the home), Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and so on.

 

It would also be good to eventually know what the homeschool laws are in your state.

[Mergath]

What I've been doing is reading up on subjects in which I'm a little shaky, which for me would be math concepts and some of the sciences. I'm finding it is much easier to teach something that I have a firm grasp on myself. And you'd be amazed at some of the technical questions they have when they're still toddlers.

 

Also, spend a lot of time not just reading to your kid, but in front of him. Seeing the people around you love reading is a great way to inspire kids to read, too.

[Beth S]

My unconventional answer is to continue to build a healthy relationship with your child.

 

One in which he respects your direction, wants to obey you, understands the hazards of disobedience, and enjoys learning from you (informally at this point).

 

On the parent's side, I really had to work on giving a patient response to him, to give 100% of my attention (instead of having one eye on the laptop screen), to discipline in a calm and teachable way, and to quickly apologize when I failed!

 

Reading together on the couch is a wonderful way to begin to learn together now.

 

Enjoy these early (difficult) years, knowing that you are laying a foundation for your lifelong relationship (both as parent/child and teacher/student).

 

In the blink of an eye he will be 15 years old and 6 feet tall!

[StartingOver]

I am not the norm, but all my children started school at 2-3 ish. They move at their own pace. We start with letters, then sounds, then play blending games. " Go get me that C ( sound ).... U ( sound ).... P ( sound ). When they can understand and go get the items, we start reading. I used 100 easy lessons the first time around. This time I am using Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching reading. We use the white board, blocks, & magnets. They never see the book. We are Bob books and McGuffey too as they are short and sweet.

 

We do the same with math learning number names, then values. With my son we started with Singapore. With my daughter we have started both Singapore and Miquon. She loves the rods and has just started writing the answers down, previously she would just show me the rods for each problem.

 

Emma loves First Language Lessons, and All About Spelling. Other than that we are just reading aloud. Everything is done as she wishes..... if she isn't in the mood that is fine. She isn't required to do anything at all before age 5 in my house, and even then it is just short lessons.

 

I say go ahead and try.... if you meet resistance at this age just back off and try again later. Read, read, read to them. Even if they don't seem to be paying any attention at all. ;-)

[hsingscrapper]

My son is two, and I am planning on homeschooling him (I am a big planner, in case you couldn't tell). What did you do, or would you have done to get ready for homeschooling? I read WTM at least annually, so I am not too worried yet about schooling, but what about the other aspects? Also, when did you start teaching your children to read. WTM says you can start at 3, but is that really feasible, or desirable?

 

I taught Dragon to read at 3 3/4. He wouldn't leave us alone when we tried to read. It was time! I used OPGTTR and let him pick the color of the day for the letter card.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

The second link in my signature has suggestions starting kids at (I think) 18 months. She's got a ton of awesome suggestions, check it out. :001_smile:

[MeaganS]

You sound like me. I always had homeschooling on my radar, but when I read the WTM when my oldest dd was 8 months old, I was sold. She's 4 now and we've officially started homeschooling preschool, although I won't consider us real homeschoolers until she would be in school.

 

As for reading, that's hard to say. Some kids are ready at 3, some aren't for much longer. My oldest dd knew all her letters and sounds by 2 years old, but she is only just now ready to start blending, which is still earlier than I hoped (she's ASD). We've started with OPG and she's doing well, although her attention span for it doesn't last too long.

 

What I've been doing to prepare for homeschooling is educating myself on different theories and styles and approaches to different academic subjects. I've read many threads on the pros and cons of different math curricula, for example. This has helped me learn about different approaches (asian math vs. traditional, spiral vs. mastery, the pros and cons of different manipulatives... what manipulatives are, etc.). Now that I'm starting to use some of these approaches, I've found it incredibly helpful. I can "wing it" when I need to and I see that there is a hole in what we're doing. It has shaped the way I think about math education. This is just an example, but I'm finding that the more knowledge I have, the more comfortable I am being flexible and teaching how my daughter needs me to. Also I just find that stuff fascinating, so that may just be me.

 

I don't think things like Letter of the Week or any other of the super-young curricula are necessary, but they can be a fun place-holder for the parents and the children seem to enjoy them. So long as a parent follows their child's cues, preschooly learning can be fun. You'll find a lot of people on both sides of the fence concerning early learning, but just do what is right for you and your kid.