considering homeschooling.... looking for info

kaiyagirl29

My son is only 2 years old right now and we have baby #2 otw. I keep thinking about both of their futures and how much education means to me. But I also see how public schools seems to be getting worse with shootings, bullying, etc. And even elementary school aged kids are bringing in weapons to school. So I keep thinking how in 3 years when my son's ready for school, and in 5 years, when my daughter's ready to go....how much worse will the crime in schools be? It scares me so much. So I want to hear from the moms and dad's who home school.... Tell me more about it. How do you manage 2 different age groups when teaching your kids? Where do you get your lessons/supplies? Is there any certifications you must have? Any info I can get would be great. And what can I do NOW to get my son on a head start? I'll appreciate any input. I'm truly considering this so I wanna get prepared. Thanks in advance!

LJM0521

I have a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 1 year old.  The boys do school while baby girl naps.  Whatever we can do together, we do (history, science, Bible).  The 3 year old sometimes participates in math and phonics and sometimes I give him another activity.  I'm often surprised by what he's picked up just hanging out in the room with us during school time!  I keep playdoh, puzzles, arts and craft supplies, and educational games in our school room for him to play with whenever he is bored with the 5 year old's work.  I bought our curriculum from our state's big homeschool convention, but you can order it online.  I think I even saw ours on Amazon.  Each state has different requirements.  In VA, we do not have to have any certificate (although you need a high school diploma).  Kids need to be tested or evaluated each year starting in 1st grade, but that's it.  You'll have to check what the requirements are in your state.  As far as what to do now, read read read to your kids.  You want learning to be fun, so I wouldn't do anything formal beyond that.  My boys learned shapes by playing an "I spy" type game while driving (we pointed out all of the shapes on the signs as we passed them.  They got a kick out of it!)  They learned colors simply by us pointing them out.  "Oh look, there's a blue ball, a red one, and a yellow one!"  It wasn't anything formal.    

kaiyagirl29

I'm in Virginia as well. So I guess you answered that one question for me....lol! I wanna do shapes, colors, ABCs and numbers with him to start. Typical toddler stuff. As for reading.....he loves books. At bedtime we read a book of his choice every night. We did a smart thing....at his baby shower, instead of having people put a card with his gifts, we asked they each bring a favorite children's book and write a special message in it to the baby. This started a library for him. So he's gotta ton of books to choose from. But I really appreciate the ideas and advice. Thanks so much!

Elliecat17

There are lots of great resources out there to help you homeschool if that is what you want to do. Look into some of the resource guides. Here are some of the one's that my mother (who homeschooled 5 suggested to me when I began planning). I apologize that many of the are Catholic based.

For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School

Catholic Homeschooling by Mary Kay Clark

Designing your own Classical Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist

Catholic Education – Homeward Bound: A useful guide to Catholic Homeschooling

101Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy.

AnneGregor

Hi!

My nieces and nephews has been homeschooling for seven years now and is using curriculum from AOP every year. It is so nice to know that AOP is there with so many great products to make mom's life easier. This is their website: www.HomeschoolingOption.com

Hope this helps!

Anne