Introductions

It occurs to me we don't really have a "Hi, glad to know ya" thread here. Some of us have met in the threads, but perhaps some members don't feel comfortable talking about curriculum etc. I love to meet other homeschoolers and hear how they are doing.

I am still schooling my 17 and 14 year old sons. We are in the Spring doldrums, but plodding along anyhow. My 14 year old may go to public high school next year, but my 17 year old wants to graduate from homeschool. I also have a 19 year old daughter who has graduated already from home. Anyone else want to say "Hi?"

Hello all! I have three children ds (8.5), dd (6) and dd (3.5) and we just found out we're expecting again.

I've homeschooled since the start and tried all different kinds of curriculum and resources. I've found some wonderful things along the way. Currently we're mostly using Bob Jones with a hodge podge of other materials thrown in. Next year, I've already decided to do the dvd version. It will make life alot easier with a new baby.

My oldest wants to be a paleontologist-but he's not thrilled about all the school he'll have to do along the way. If he's still interested later on I plan on looking to start doing some college classes with him in high school to help that process alittle. My daughters want to be princesses when they grow up so we are working on tea parties.

#2 What a great goal your daughters have! And I think you are preparing them perfectly. :D I think your son's goal is a fine one too. Does his preparation include lots of digging in the dirt?

Digging in dirt, climbing trees (to prepare for treacherous canyon climbs), and he's already dug up every dino dig kit there is and is begging me for more to do. For his birthday in July, I'm getting him the Rock Explorer backback kit and a rock tumbler. That's the other thing he loves, rocks. The other day he tried to bring a miniature boulder in the car with us. I could only imagine it flying through the air and knocking out teeth or something, so I had to decline. He was very disappointed.

The girls love to dig along side of brother but love dress up and playing house. I don't have the heart to tell them that when they become princesses, someone else will iron and cook for them. he he! OF course, isn't that what we homeschoolers do? Let our kids run wild while we watch soaps and eat bon bons? he he!

I'm a little late coming into this, but better late than never!

We have four children whom we've been homeschooling for nine or ten years now. They are 17 yo dd, 15 yo dd, 11 yo ds, and 6 yo ds. Like homeschoolmom, I've tried various curricula over the years and have finally settled on a literature based curriculum called Ambleside Online that fits us just right...for the most part. I do tweak it a bit.

Our children are all very different from one another and have very different interests. 17yo dd wants to be a professional baker. She also has a part time job at a local fast food restaurant and thinks she would like to manage it some day. However, she complains that their desserts are mediocre and the salad dressings are pitiful. I can see her one day going to the chain's corporate headquarters to show them how to make a proper cheesecake and salad dressing.

15 yo dd likes to draw, paint, and organize. She also has a deep seated love of justice. She can't decide if she wants to be an artist, a manager of music groups or police officer when she grows up. She also loves dogs and horses and wants to own enough land so she can have some of each someday. Oddly enough, she doesn't like riding horses. She just likes playing with them, feeding them and cleaning their stalls.

11 yo ds is a big silly-willy! He has more energy than three of me and is always in the thick of something. I can't even imagine what his future aspirations will be. He loves planning parties and events, playing pranks, telling jokes, building things and playing basketball. He started his own club for the neighborhood boys that meets in a fort he made in our backyard. As far as I can tell, the only purpose of this group is to play and eat the goodies that his big sister bakes.

6 yo ds is an outdoorsman. He loves animals, birds, insects and anything to do with nature. This spring he planted his own raised bed garden using the book All New Square Foot Gardening. He also has a weird fascination with numbers. I've warned all the relatives that if he asks them if they want to hear him count to 8000...just say no!

As for me, I like hanging out with my family, cooking, gardening, knitting, sewing, playing the saxophone and penny whistle, and hiking.

joy2bme - It's always better late than never here! I've been wanting to hear from others, thanks for such a delightful outline of a great family. :)

Hi! I am also a homeschooler I'm 15 Im enrolled in American School correspondents and love it!

Welcome patmaki! It's great to have a homeschoolee here, and not just homeschoolers. :D What have you enjoyed the most about your homeschool experience?

Here in Australia full time Home Schooling is not common in the urban areas – definitely not encouraged by the authorities. Having said that many parents provide additional school type activities at home. I actively encouraged my first daughter with both English and maths up to the age of about 9 when family circumstances prevented me from going further. While she hated having to the extra she turned to me at age 15 and thanked me for having provided such a strong foundation. She has now completed three degrees and hard at work on a Masters degree in Creative Writing.
With daughter Two I started at age 17 encouraging and helping her with English (not her native language). No tears like with the first one but it must have done some good as she is currently working her way through a business diploma course.
Daughter Number Three – and at age 3 – I have started the home education program already with her and we concentrate on English vocabulary and numbers. She is bilingual in Chinese and English but not keen on speaking English outside the home. With only a couple of years to go before school giving her some foundation is quite important.
I am using flash cards, jigsaw puzzles and ABC books as well as reading story books every night. She is a book lover which helps but inclined to tear and scribble in them so I have not started yet on ‘proper’ school type books like the Excel range available in Australia.
Andrew

Kudos to you Andrew, and welcome. I've often thought what I would do if homeschooling were outlawed or restricted severely here. I don't think I would have the gumption to defy the authorities as some do, but I would certainly try to stay involved with my children's learning.
I remember when mine were 3 we used a chalkboard table for writing. Their little hands handled chalk better than pencils. I also found some strange books with very thin plastic pages. Boy did they hold up under abuse! :)

I just announced myself in another homeschooling thread so I apologize for the spamming.

I pulled my 14 year old daughter from public high school in Feb. of this year and started homeschooling. We have had more good days than bad days thus far but spring is here and it is getting difficult to keep her focused on the task at hand.

klagreg - Spring. A problem for all folks, not just homeschoolers. Public school kids and teachers also want to start being dreamy. So hard to motivate, when one's own self is unmotivated. I try to do most of the hard core schooling in early fall and Jan-Feb. The rest of spring is robotic homework and lots of field trips, real life skills and job training. :)

Hello,

I'm an 11 year old homeschooler and I was wondering if I could join. Most people here seem to be adults so I was just checking this place out. I love to read and have little flurries of putting books in my library. I also love to write, camp, play board games, physics, violin, dancing, history and baking.

I hope this place becomes a little more lively!

bookykid - You and me both! It would be great to have you here, maybe if you invite other homeschoolers you know it will liven up a bit. :) In the meantime, I hope you will post any questions about books, etc. that you want to ask, or comments too.

Yes, welcome bookykid! I've been in the states so I've been absent here lately.

Hi, I thought I should introduce myself since I am about to ask a question...:c)

We are missionaries in Costa Rica. We have been living here for a little over a year. I am homeschooling my four kids.

14yodd just started high school. She has been homeschooled all the way through and now also takes a few online classes.

I also have three boys, 10, 8, and 6. The older two spent one year in PS in the states. They all three spent 4 months in private school here in order to help with Spanish acquisition. We ended up pulling them out for various reasons and I am enjoying having them all home again.

I find it is much easier to homeschool here than it was in the states. Pace of life is more relaxed and since I don't drive here I am not filling my days with errands. Now I am actually using all the books I have been collecting all these years!

So good to have you here goodgolly! Do you school all year around, or take breaks according to the system there, or do you have your own schedule of breaks? I've had several overseas friends who are missionaries and homeschool. Their biggest problem was in getting the materials and finding the time what with all the other obligations. Do you find the internet a help with this? If I'm prodding too much, don't mind me :) I just get curious as to how things work in other places.

Not probing too much! I don't mind!

I think we will end up year round. We started last fall like the US. Then in February when the school year started here we put them in. We pulled them out in June after being back in the States for the month of May (a month off for them). I started back into homeschool right away even though the States had just started summer. They probably ended up a little behind with such a crazy year but our tester was very generous and understanding (I has them tested when we were home in May, we are still registered as HSers in FL) I figure we will take breaks as life gets in the way. But we will just keep plugging along...

The internet is a huge help. It really helps not to seem so far away. I can also do a lot of my own shopping and just have things shipped to whomever may be coming down next. Part of what my dh does is run short-term mission teams, so there is always someone coming.

I actually find the lifestyle here more conducive to a 'good school day'. We were having a problem with friends stopping by and being a distraction but I was able to tell them when we pulled the boys home that we were doing school and not to come over until after 2:00. It really helped! Homeschooling here is pretty much unheard of for locals. Actually for the poor, there are many who cannot afford school at all. Our biggest problem was with 2 teenagers that we had sponsored to go to school, who then dropped out anyway. They were then coming over all day and using our internet, swimming, basically being rewarded with our lifestyle (not extravagant by US standards, but for those who don't have much, nice). When my dh first wanted to pull our boys out of the school here I was conflicted. I wanted to homeschool, but did not want to look like a hypocrite to those boys we had been lecturing about dropping out. For someone out side of our culture, who knows nothing about homeschooling it can look like they just aren't going to school! Like I said, though, it worked out. I was able to set boundaries in our home, but still able to love these boys and allow them over. I just want them to know that education is so important! It was really frustrating when they threw away their opportunity this year.

Anyway...probably more than you wanted to know.

Not at all. :) Insatiable would be my nickname. I will add you to my prayers for the homeschooling moms I know. :) No matter where we are there are challenges, aren't there? So glad to hear you are working through them. It sounds like you have a positive and flexible attitude, which I consider essential in homeschooling.

Thank you. Prayers are always welcomed!

Your initial message was from last spring. Any new developements? What did you decide with your 14yo?

I gave him the choice of public high school or continuing homeschool. He chose to homeschool because he thought he would gain more spiritual training at home. Both he and his brother are heavily involved in soccer and basketball. Not so involved in school! I am trying to get them to own their education. Let's just say last week I was in tears. A not uncommon place for me to be in the first week of school. I was ready to put them both in public school and go get a job.

After some weeping, and talking, and forgiving, we made up and are plugging along. I think part of my difficulties are hormonal as well as attitudes. I thank God that He supplies much grace and a marvelous example for me to follow.

Oh, Mrs. Lee, I'm soo sorry about last week. I know it can be very frustrating!! I can't put myself in your shoes, as I do not have any teenagers yet. However, my son struggles with school everyday. How much do I have to do? Can't I do this tomorrow? I don't want to write all of that. It is extremely frustrating.

I had a friend in CA who had her teenager being tutored with some other homeschoolers in english and history. Basically they were learning history through excellent reading and responsible for doing all kinds of papers and things. I know she said it was expensive, but she said that her son really learned alot and was grateful for it. Maybe, you and some other homeschoolers could look into that possibility?

I'll be praying for you!!

Thank you homeschoolmom. :) Today is check-in day. They have to show me their work today and if it's not up to snuff, they are in big Doo-Doo! I have an idea there will be a lot of doo-doo in our house today. Sigh. They are in big time denial over the necessity of school in their lives.

Hello all,
I am new to the homeschooling world. It has been an interesting journey so far to say the least. I left a well paying job as a pediatrician (hence the name kidsdoc) to stay at home with my 3 kids, ages 8, 7 and 3. It has been challenging to me on all fronts, financially we cut our home income to 1/3rd when I left practice and I have been struggling with some interesting situations in the large co-op we have joined. It is a christian homeschool co-op but I really wonder by the way individuals conduct themselves.
My husband and I do not regret the decision, but there certainly have been more surprises in areas I did not foresee.

I will begin to work at a free clinic for the uninsured and the underserved one night a week to keep up some clinical skills.

It has been so cool to get apart of library thing. What a neat idea. I am looking forward to getting to hear and learn about your experiences. Thanks so much. Chat soon.

Kidsdoc4 - I do hope your co-op group will work out the kinks. I ran one for about 4 or 5 years, and it's amazing what happens to nice Christian folks when their kids are involved. :) Ours went relatively smoothly, but after a time, I simply wore out. It requires so much energy. Plus my children turned into teens. I only had energy for them.

You have a lot of stressful situations hitting you all at once! Just know that your children will benefit so much from the individual attention and the lack of school stress, even if it doesn't always look like what you imagined "homeschool" to be, it will be good in the long run, and many good things are happening that you didn't even know would happen. I will say a prayer for you tonight.

Hi All!

I'm kinda between the homeschoolee and homeschooler stages. I'm taking some CLEP (college level) tests and once I get one year's worth of college credits (30) I can get a real HS diploma. I was homeschooled all through school, I've never been to public or private school.

I'm 20 yo and not married yet, so no kids to homeschool yet. : )

Justin

Hi Justin, I'm curious, where do you need a "real" HS diploma? Don't you have your records from HS?

I wonder because so far, my one graduate has had no problem with college, but she did go to a community college. The Home School Legal Defense group work hard at educating folks about homeschool and I thought there were very few colleges that gave them trouble anymore. HSLDA has even worked with the military so that they accept homeschooled kids at the same level as other HS graduates.

Please, if any of this is too nosy, don't feel pressured to reply, as I said, I'm just curious. :)

edited to say: Welcome! And I think it's great to have you in the group. :)

Hi MrsLee,

As to where or why I would need a "real" diploma, other than college, the U. S. Bureau of Labor has found that a worker with a HS diploma on average make $250,000 over their work years than someone without one. And who couldn't use an extra quarter million dollars. : )

I've got to go, be back later.

Interesting take on the Bureau of Labor's education survey, unreconstructed.

DS, now 8, has been homeschooling since kindergarten. We started out using Alpha Omega/Horizon for math and language arts but are using a more varied curriculum these days.

This year that includes Math-U-See, Karen Andreola's Simply Grammar, The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2: The Middle Ages by S. Wise Bauer and its accompanying activity book. Science is covered from a lot of directions -- DS likes science books by Dinah Zike and Janice VanCleave and we take a Charlotte Mason approach to nature study, enjoying Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study as suggested by Andreola in Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study with the Gentle Art of Learning. (At least, I think that's where I first read a recommendation for Comstock's book -- have since found it mentioned in several books and websites.)

The rest of our time is spent on whatever topics DS is particularly interested in. Currently that means airships (zeppelins), WWI/WWII aircraft, and always trains and ships. Especially sailing ships. Horatio Hornblower has been a big favorite for the last year or two.

So that puts us in the eclectic (almost child-led?) homeschool slot, I guess. I'm terrible at labels.

{edited to correct Touchstones but they're still not working.}

Hi all. I have been on Librarything for over a year, but am just getting around to updating with all my books. I entered one and found this group. I hadn't realized there was a homeschooler's group... so here I am.
We have been homeschooling our girls, currently 9 & 11 for almost 5 years. We have tried almost every style from one end to the other, but now we are settled on Charlotte Mason/Ambleside Online. This is our third year and best so far. We are still very eclectic and don't hold to a very firm schedule, so we tend to school year round. We take most of November off for Nanowrimo, although the girls do much on their own. As we are in Florida and it is hot in the summer we usually keep going through the summer.
We just added Latin this year, as my 11 yr old wants to be a lawyer and things getting Latin out of the way now will help. My 9 yr old is the handfull, the one who doesn't want to cooperate, and wants to be "Sissy's little sister" when she grows up. (she expects big sister to foot the bill for all the animals she wants to have.)
I work on writing in my spare time (?) My husband is an Medical assistant at a local dr's office.
We have lots of pets (including 2 squirrels) and an aviary full of pet birds (pheasants, quail, partridges) and around 15 rabbits, 3 cats and an aquarium. We take nature study to the limit.
That's about it!
Cara in FL

I'm so glad you found this group Mom2Two! Think of lots of juicy discussion questions so we can liven things up a bit, O.K.? :)

I'm feeling pretty good that we are down to two dogs, two cats and one goldfish. :)