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Another newbie, advice welcome
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Hello,
I see you get alot of posts from new homeschoolers. Well I have posted in a few other areas but thought I would introduce myself and see if anyone has thoughts to share regarding starting our journey. I have 3 kids- my son is oldest and will be starting first grade (at home) over the summer. My Dh wanted to try it out first to make sure it’s at least somewhat doable before we file paperwork to keep him home. (Paperwork due by mid-August)
This puts just a little pressure on me! Although I do plan to keep it relaxed and just introduce the idea of homeschooling, I also want to start him some of the actual thing I plan to use so we can get into it and see how it all works. So I’ve been looking at all the subjects and am sticking to alot from the curriculum guide with just a few changes. (Debating about what to do about history and just did a post about that)
My other children are a daughter age 3 and a baby boy age 8 months. Any advice on starting homeschooling with this range of ages would be much appreciated. Thank you.
Hello and welcome! You are at the beginning of a wonderful journey and you have come to the right place for encouragement and advice!
Unfortunately I can’t offer a whole lot of age/grade specific advice as my boys are a little older (just finishing grades 2 and 5). However, this was our first year homeschooling, so I can offer a little insight into getting started.
First of all, what are your biggest concerns as far as whether or not homeschooling will be “doable”? Finances? Family schedules? Caring for younger kids in the mix? Or is it self-doubt? Trust me, no one has it completely figured out and there will be a lot of bumps in the road. If you are leaving the option open to throw in the towel if it doesn’t work out in the next few weeks, then you are less likely to work through the challenges and give up too soon.
I was at a homeschool convention last June and heard a speaker say that a lot of people say “I’m going to try it for a year” and then renew that each year. The problem is that when we do that we are not really fully committing to the whole process. Using Sonya’s Planning Your CM Education was really great for me in terms of figuring out where I want my kids to end up and how to plan a strategy to help them accomplish just that.
I do know that there are circumstances that make homeschooling only a temporary option for some families. There is a woman at my church who has homeschooled her kindergartener this past year and plans to keep him home for grade 1 primarily due to her husband’s work hours. If her son was in school all day, dad wouldn’t get to see him all week long. They may decide in the future to send him to ps if dad’s hours change or he takes a different job.
IF you really are not sure if you will be homeschooling I would not invest a great deal of time and money on a summer curriculum. I would simply focus on teaching reading, writing and math for the summer and keep lessons very short. Take lots of opportunities to observe nature. Read aloud LOTS of great books! I would not worry about starting history over the summer. Start small, don’t over whelm your son, or yourself. Start only one subject at a time and add something new each week until you are doing all of these subjects.
Before anything ellse, pray. Look for God’s guidance and trust Him to lead you. There will be lots of times that you will doubt your ability to teach, or think that you must have been crazy to even start, but hang in there. Pray. Trust God. You can do it.
Hi Laura, (I assume that is your name from your username), welcome!
I have a couple of questions for you too…. Did you son did Kindergarten at a school? Also, it sounds like your husband isn’t sure about homeschooling?
Something that happened with my son, who had done preschool a couple of years before we started homeschooling – was he remembered all the great times at preschool, forgot the partial year of preschool that he hated going, took all the media messages that he was supposed to be going to school, along with well meaning people asking how school was going – and he complained a LOT about homeschooling for a while. His picture of school was playing with great toys – not doing schoolwork. If your son did Kindergarten, he might actually need a bit of “deschooling” time to adjust – and he might not be happy about the idea of doing school through the summer while his friends our out playing.
If you do need to do a “test” try for your husband, I would agree with keeping it light and simple… Nature Study, Reading, Writing, Math…. and with a light schedule. Short Lessons!
Welcome! I agree with 4myboys. Pray and don’t spend a bunch of $$ if you’re not sure. Most families have at least one parent hesitant to take the homeschooling plunge. It’s new territory, but the blessings and benefits are totally worth it!
Since it’s only first grade and summer, I agree to just focus on math and reading and writing, keeping lessons no more than 15min. or so per subject. Since it’s not official, could you maybe just do something like this 3-4 days pwe week, w/Fridays as nature time, or a fieldtrip, or an art project? Yep, lots of good books…make sure they’re living books. You could look on the free curriculum guide here for literature readers. If you wanted to cover a little history (not necessary) you could pick a fun history reader, too.
To simplify w/having young kids in the house, you could do bible and/or lit. readings as bedtime readings. You could complete your school day during nap times, if desired. Just keep it simple:) Blessings, Gina
I will have a first grader, 4 year old and 2 year old. This was our first year homeschooling for Kindergarten. We loved being together! One tip was to use meal times as an anchor for certain subjects. We do breakfast and Bible time. I take advantage of the times when their mouths are full and the littles ones are more likely to listen as they fill their tummies. We read Bible stories and memorized scripture then and learned songs for the NT and OT. We also do snack and storytime in the midmorning. I put the youngest in an exasaucer, the older to on little mats, gave them a snack and read story books that appeal to everyone. At lunchtime we have pictures of the composer, artist and the hymn we are learning on the wall near the table. They can listen to the music and we can look at a painting then. We have begun reading a poem at lunch also from the “When we were very young” book. Love that book b/c it appeals to the three year old as well as the 6 year old. I spent the first half of the year trying to shoo my little ones away, and still struggle with that. I’d say try to include them as much as possible b/c the whole family is learning, not just your first grader. Save the subjects that need more concentration for when the little ones are napping, for us this was math and learning to read. And if at all possible, still try to have a little quiet time for yourself and for your older child sometime during the day. You will likely both need a little space. I’m also learning that more is not necessarily better. This is hard for me b/c I don’t want to miss out on anything, but I love how Sonya talks about being able to soak up what you are learning and reading about and really sit in it instead of reading so many books you can’t remember what you’ve read. Excited for you and hope you really enjoy it!
Welcome Laura! You will find a lot of great help here.
I would have to agree with the large amount of nature time. It is good for all of your children, you can read small bits of the books you’d like to go through, 10 minutes is plenty of time for his age, and have most all of the day available for playing outside.
I encourage you to let go of the notions you have from your own schooling, assuming you went to a public school, because even though you may know you want a different approach for your own children, those pesky ideas of what schooling is from our own experience can still get in the way sometimes. Give yourself and your son a lot of grace here as you both learn what homeschooling is as well as learn the academics.
It’s ok to make mistakes. Do not assume that your experiment will be exactly like what you will do through the year. This is a time for you to try something and then realize that the way you implemented something may not be how you intend to continue in the months or years ahead. The same is true with the books you use. I can’t count the number of times that I have gotten a book to use with a child and then found that it didn’t work well for one reason or another though it was perfect for one of my other children. It’s ok. Teach the child, not the curriculum. 🙂
Enjoy your new adventure!
~jacqleene
Wife to P for 23 yearsMom to LA – 22, R – 20, H – 17, L – 15, & A – 11
Wow thank you for the great responses. I feel much less anxious after reading them. 🙂 I think we will just focus on the “three R’s” over the summer and while we are doing that I can explore my options as far as history, science, etc.
My husband’s view of success is actually whether or not I get overwhelmed. I got my nursing degree and quit my first nursing job after four months, so he is worried that I will pull our son out of public school and then just quit homeschooling and send him back! I don’t feel that is a concern- because the main reason I wanted to quit my nursing job is because I missed my kids too much! That and no matter what challenges homeschooling might present, my kids come first and there is no way I would put my son back into public school in the middle of the year! So I just need to show him that we can enjoy homeschooling and my son will learn what he needs to.
Yes, my son went to kindergarten this year and LOVED it. So I am hoping that he does not complain and ask to go back to school every time we have a tough day homeschooling or if he doesn’t feel like doing the work. I can just see him likely getting into the attitude of “I don’t want to work on math right now, I wish I was back in school so I could just play with my friends”. After all kindergarten is pretty fun and even though I plan to make homeschooling as engaging as I can- I think that he will have these fond memories of public school. Still, there are some aspects of it he doesn’t like…being in a classroom all day with no windows, being bored because he is finished with his work but the other kids aren’t yet, having to rush to catch the bus each morning, etc. Hopefully we are able to make a smooth transition over the summer and when I implement a “full” first grade curriculum in the Fall public school will no longer seem like an option.
Thanks again for the advice and support.
Sounds like a good plan Laura!
Some things I did with my oldest when he was complaining about being home for first grade…. we would go and play at the nearby school’s playground…. (I didn’t plan it – but it was often at about recess time….) – the bell would ring – all the kids had to go inside…. and he could continue playing. I would make the occasional comment about the other kids having to sit at their desks, etc…. It eventually got better! (Now his nephew, the same age as my son, wishes he could homeschool… lol)
Wow! Your post is so much like how I felt this time last year! I badly wanted to keep DD home, but DH was reluctant. All through her K year I kept thinking how much I wanted to teach her and involve the whole family in activities. We did a trial run of two weeks in the summer, and we had fun!
Now, I will say, DD did complain a lot in the beginning about wanting to be in school with her friends. She mentioned it nearly every day for the first 2-3 months. I reminded her that this is where she was, and that this was something we believe the Lord wanted us to do. I also told her that she would be sitting at a desk all day and wouldn’t have the freedom to move about as she does at home. And she wouldn’t be challenged. This spring she started playing homeschooling with her dolls, giving them math work. And she now thanks me for homeschooling her. So, don’t be surprised or discouraged should your DS complain wanting to go back.
My younger children are two boys, ages 5 and 2, so this past year they were close in age to yours. I will admit, I haven’t done a very good job of keeping them entertained like I would prefer. My older son attended pre-K for two days/week. He will start K, and I’m actually looking forward to it so I have things planned for him to do. This next year I want to be more diligent about getting the main part of school done early so that we can spend a good part of the day outside doing nature study and letting the kids play. If your youngest is napping twice def. try to get as much done as you can during that time. And you can have certain toys that can only be played with during school time for your 3 y/o.
Thanks it is so good to hear from someone in the same boat.
I am expecting some resistance from my DS but hopeful that he will enjoy homeschool over the summer and that I can find more positives to point out over being in public school. (Like you said, not sitting at a desk all day, getting to go places with me like Children’s Museum, etc.) I will try to be intentional about making sure my 3yo is either involved or has something specific to do- and I only plan on doing HS during the baby’s naptime for sure! (In the Fall at some point he will probably drop his morning nap and then I plan on HS in the afternoon only, if we we can manage that)So far the toughest thing has been the response I’m getting from some people. Politely disapproving would be an apt description. The only thing I can do is move forward, pray alot, and expect that if this is something God wants for my kids/family that it will all work out.
My DD didn’t ever attend school, but I still had to ‘sell’ it to her a bit. I just made sure to point out every benefit I noticed. “Look at all the kids riding in the school bus already, and you got to sleep in and are eating breakfast in your pajamas.” etc. etc. It didn’t take long for her to buy in to the idea completely.
We do most of our schooling in the afternoon during naptime, too. It’s not ideal, but I haven’t found it to be a problem. I run a home daycare, so will likely always have some nappers, so we will probably always be afternoon schoolers. We do some of the family activities (devotional, nature study, etc.) in the mornings and everyone just tags along.
Enjoy the journey!
Joanne
Hello Laura, welcome! You’ve receieved great advice from all the experienced HS moms here so you have a terrific starting point. I’ve only been hs’ing a year, but my situation is similar to yours in terms of my kids being able to compare HS to PS. We pulled our boys out of PS halfways through gr 1 and 2 respectively. So, they’d both had the full experience of PS, friends everyday, recess play, field trips, pizza lunches, etc. that your son will have in his memories. Unfortunately it will be a little trickier for you becuase your son had all the fun “K’ year stuff but didn’t have grade one and all the seatwork that starts at that age. He hopefully will have heard all about it from other former schoolmates and will know that gr 1 is very different from K, whether HS or PS.
What I would suggest, if possible, would be for you to try very hard to join a few of your local homeschool groups for field trips, park dates, co-ops or whatever you can, so that your child can meet “veteran” homeschool kids who will talk enthusiastically to your son about their HS’ing life, just naturally as playground talk. These kids will probably have lots of stories to tell your child as well about why THEY think HS is so amazing over PS…because they’ll have been living the life for a length of time and very likely love it. My experience is that most HS kids, when around other HS’ers, talk up a storm about how great their life is compared to PS’ers! This worked beautifully for my boys in getting them to forget PS – AND to remember that there was a lot about PS that wasn’t so fun. My boys LOVED in those early days seeing that other fun, “normal”, social kids were HS’ed just like them, and that these kids who’d been HS’ed for years and years were loving it.
Best of luck and enjoy this new journey with your son and the other little ones as well.
Blessings,
Andi
I am expecting some resistance from my DS but hopeful that he will enjoy homeschool over the summer and that I can find more positives to point out over being in public school. (Like you said, not sitting at a desk all day, getting to go places with me like Children’s Museum, etc.) I will try to be intentional about making sure my 3yo is either involved or has something specific to do- and I only plan on doing HS during the baby’s naptime for sure! (In the Fall at some point he will probably drop his morning nap and then I plan on HS in the afternoon only, if we we can manage that)
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