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I am struggling with the decision of whether or not to homeschool. I am a former elementary teacher and have no desire to go back! It was a terrible experience! My son will begin Kindergarten at the Catholic school across the street and he's really looking forward to it. One of my concerns is that he's really smart for his age. He's been reading for 2 years now. I've seen the little alphabet workbooks that they use in his class and he is going to be so bored!! It's only half day so I thought I might try homeschooling in the afternoon to see if I can do it. We're trying to move and it would be fairly easy to make the switch from there. I've begun reading books on homeschooling and have seen several websites that are very helpful. I just don't know where to begin. How do I know what curriculum is best? Which one is most affordable? Are there any all-in-one kits or should I shop around for each individual subject? He's beginning Kindergarten but I really believe he's at least on a 1st grade level in most areas. I guess I'm a little afraid to take that leap. My husband would support me if I choose to do it but doesn't really care one way or the other. I doubt he will be much help. My parents would be fine with it but my mother-in-law will throw a crying fit! How do you deal with those attitudes? I'm just crazy enough to believe that this thread on freerepublic is a "sign from God" pushing me in that direction!!

Any info anyone wants to provide would be much appreciated! Thank you so much!!

For a first grader, I wouldn't worry with a curriculum. I'd just go to the library, get lots of books every week, read to him, have him read to you, etc.

Then I'd get a math workbook and start to teach him some simple math in order to figure out what his learning style was in math.

Can he learn math by simple instruction, does he need manipulatives to understand the concept, does repetition really help him, is he a visual learner, etc.

Once I got a handle on how he learns math, then I'd find a curriculum that suits his learning style.

You can do it. Some people have vey supportive families, some have very unsupportive families. I have both. You would be lucky.

My father in law is against homeschooling . I do not care. I told him calmly that my husband and I have decided what is best for our family. I will answer any questions he has and I will listen to any concerns, but bottom line I decide.

Some of the best advice I had was to know exactly why I have decided to homeschool, so when I am confronted by those negative people , not only will it NOT effect me, but I will know what to say.

Not everyone is going to like it or support it. I view myself as a revolutionary, and I am proud of what I am doing. This gives me strength, also knowing I am doing the best for my child. My father in law knows little about putting a child's needs above his own

Here is a quote for you: Just because something is popular does not make it right. Just because something is right does not make it popular. Best of luck to you... freep mail if I can help. You are smart enough, brave enough and entitled to homeschool your own child! You can do it.

Home School Legal Defense Association

National Association of Christian Educators

but my mother-in-law will throw a crying fit! How do you deal with those attitudes?

Grandfather Education Report

Our Schools Are Still at Risk

Learning at Home Home education is the fastest growing alternative to public schooling-and a good one at that.

Education Next: A Journal of Opinion and Research - Published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford and the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard. A forum on education policy and school reform that includes evidence-based original research, critiques of other research projects, and book reviews. Full text free online.

Education Policy Analysis Archives - A peer-reviewed scholarly electronic journal publishing education policy analysis since 1993.

Volume 10 Number 26 Bauman: Home Schooling in the United States Home schoolers are not especially likely to be young or old. They are about as likely to be of one sex or the other, with perhaps a slightly greater percentage female. In some ways, however, home-schoolers do stand out. Home schooled children are more likely to be non-Hispanic White, they are likely to live in households headed by a married couple with moderate to high levels of education and income. They are more likely to live in households with three or more children and they are likely to live in a household with an adult not in the labor force.

My advice: Simply begin. Determine what you think it's important for him to know, and read about it....sharing the oral reading tasks. Things will shape themselves from there. Honest!

Dad's are, IMHO, an essential part of the picture: many friends homeschool without dad's help, but it gets hard for the moms when junior approaches teen-hood.

Suggestion: get dad to share his favorite childhood book--shared oral reading--with the lad. Nothing overwhelming. Sit back and watch what happens. Hubbs might become addicted. That's what happened to me, and the homeschooling was very successful....especially because I was involved: there's a discipline/testosteronie thing that kicks in if needed....and it occasionally is.

Finally, just committ to a single year. It's easier to handle at first if you see an escape. (You probably won't want to escape after a couple month's doing the schoolin'.)

Go to Catholicity.com, best Catholic links, education, homeschooling. They list all the complete curriculum providers, and a good selection of sources for books.

We have used the Seton Home Study School for 8 years, www.setonhome.org. A benefit of their program is that you can enroll for a particular grade, but buy individual subjects at whatever grade level you need. Their kindergarten is very basic, except for religion. We only used it with our oldest. My 2nd son (now almost 7) did their 1st grade and part of 2nd last year. I ordered the 2nd grade for him this year, but I expect we'll be exchanging for some 3rd grade subjects fairly quickly.

"I'm just crazy enough to believe that this thread on freerepublic is a "sign from God" pushing me in that direction!!"

Well my dear, if you have an interest, FR is a wonderful place to declare it because there are good people here who will take you under their wing and support you. Mrs. Tiggywinkle did that for me. She encouaraged me to make the leap and our lives will never be the same. We are happier than I thought we could ever be.

I had a curriculum for my daughter in the 1st grade and she was miserable, so I put her back in school. Last year for 6th grade we pulled her out again.

If you want something organized, I highly, highly, highly recommend 5 in a row for that age. Since you are a teacher, you probably love books. 5 in a row is extremely easy with little preparation, it's inexpensive ($25 max), and all the books used you probably have at home already or you can get them in the library.

I think when you are first starting out, it's easy to get overwhelmed and you want to spend $5,000 on the best books and curriculum, soon to have a nervous break down, give up, and put your kids back in school. LOL Get the easy "5 in a row", Saxon math workbooks, lots of art supplies, plenty of days in nature getting dirty collecting things and HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!

Homeschooling doesn't have to be expensive or stressful. I'm sure if you need anything, people here could loan or give you some books. I have some things I could give you. My son just finished 1st grade.

Your son reminds me of myself - I could read at 3-1/2 (an older sibling taught me). After two weeks in first grade I, too, was bored with efforts to teach me to do something I already could do. The school promoted me to second semester first grade, then had me skip the second semester of second grade. Thank goodness the California schools were that flexible, many years ago. With homeschooling, the child truly advances at his own pace. My niece is homeschooled under the Bennett curriculum (Pennsylvania Virtual Charter Schools, pavcs.org), and is doing quite well.

I'm a home schooling grandma. I'm homeschooling two of my grandsons, and have the two year old little doll here at the same time. I'm 60. It's much easier than you realize. There is always mess, but there is always mess with kids, so what the heck. We didn't know anything about home schooling when we started either. But the public school spent my grandsons first grade year examining him under a magnifying glass, diagnosing him, providing no discipline, no direction, no help, and when they labeled him Aspergers Syndrome and possibly ADD, they prescribed a course of action, and immediately did the opposite. Not knowing much about homeschooling, we decided to go with Calvert School. They provide a complete curriculum as well as ATS teachers to grade tests regularly, and provide the necessary evaluations to satisfy the school district.

I am very happy with this program. We start math at 8:30 and are usually done with school, including 1/2 hour of required reading daily by 1:30, and sometimes even earlier. The boys are studying all summer, so they will be ahead of their public school counterparts, and I never allow a mistake to go uncorrected. They aren't going to be allowed to guess what words mean by context, and grow up misunderstanding everything politicians and TV commentators say, because they really don't know WHAT they are saying. We will diagram sentences, do shape planners to write, work on grammar until they are sick, sick, sick of it, but they won't anymore think that Britain is in Brazil, somewhere right near France! They will know and be able to identify every blasted country in the world! Because I insist. They will know that evolution is a "theory" and what a "theory" is, as well as what the difference in a fact and opinion, fact and belief.

My daughter is not terribly religious, and neither is her husband, so Calvert is a perfect fit for them. However, it's not cheap. It's just our only acceptable option. These kids are just not going back to public school.

I get tired, but everyone does. One never knows how much growth comes from taking on a job like this. I'm growing, too. I'm learning from my grandkids. If you don't stretch yourself, you can't possibly grow, but you'd be surprised how much happier you would be knowing WHAT they are being taught, and being somewhat able to control some of that. Good luck with whatever you decide and God Bless.

Oooh. Your post has so much I'd like to respond to, but I'll just give a small piece of advice. You're probably a little overwhelmed at the prospect of taking this on. Don't look at it as a life long commitment. Look at it as "I'm just going to do this until Christmas, to see how we're making it. If it's not working we can look at something else." We've always left ourselves an "escape hatch." In fact, we used it once when my wife had a brief but intense illness. Other than that, we're on year three of our "experiment."

God is indeed wonderful, eh?

My advice to anyone beginning the adventure that is homeschooling is to do a bit of research. Being a former elementary teacher you're probably familar with learning styles. Start there when determining what types of materials you need.

Most new homeschoolers prefer to do an all-in-one curriculum just to get their feet wet. Again being a former teacher, you may not feel this need. There are many, many different flavors of homeschooling from school-at-home to unschooling. Research the various types to find the one that sounds like it'll fit your family best. I particularly liked The Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual by Cathy Duffy. (I think I have the title right) It was a big, big eye opener.

To research your state's laws regarding homeschooling go to hslda.org and nhen.org. You may find that you want to join one or both organizations.

I'd suggest finding a homeschooling group in your area. Often there are specifically Christian groups or groups that emphasize an age group. The latter tends to be a double-edged sword. Catering activities to younger children is a definite plus, but having a mix of age groups is, too. You may find you want to join more than one.

Most homeschoolers I know face at least some reluctance from family and friends if not outright hostility. Neither side of our family is thrilled at the idea. Depending on their reasons they may just need time to adjust or if they're openminded enough perhaps some information will help ease them into the idea. In some cases, family members just have to agree to disagree. You need to do what you think is best and others need to respect that.

One last thought: my favorite book on homeschooling is called A Patchwork of Days. It's a book about a "typical" day with different homeschooling families. I recommend skipping the first family, it's the author's and I find it way, way to preachy and perfect. The book gives a good idea of the various ways homeschooling can fit into a family. It's a good one to ease your mind about whether you can do it.

As a former teacher, you would be great at homeschooling! Nothing to worry about! My oldest at 4 was already reading at a level a few years in advance, and the local public school preschool was nothing more than fun time. You will be amazed at how much your child will learn at home and so easily because he won't have to hold back to wait for the entire class to catch up!

We don't use an expensive curriculum but instead rely on workbooks, the bookstore, used books, and the library for our materials. But, I know Christian homeschoolers who use Abekka http://www.abeka.org/ or Konos http://www.konos.com/ Just mentioning those two because I haven't seen them mentioned yet, though maybe I just didn't get around to those posts.

Also, though I've never read it, I'm told that "The Well Trained Mind" http://www.welltrainedmind.com/ is a good introduction to homeschooling.

You'll do just fine. Good luck!

Hello, fellow frustrated parent of an advanced reader. BTDT, and it's not easy. Mine were in public school and the school had a required reading course. There were different levels but our daughter was already past all of them. The school was very strict about following the course so there was no way around it but thankfully in 1st and 3rd grades we had teachers who encouraged reading and understood our dilema. See, our daughter would read half the big thick take-all-year-to-finish reader in one night which freaked the school. The school library was pretty good, but the books the other kids in class were checking out were too simple so I had to send a list of what I thought was more on her level. I had them make me a list of all the books in the library along with each reading level and points (many schools use reward points in their reading programs) and I took a week each year to cull out the garbage and make a list for daughter. Of course the school freaked again that I was limiting her choices - not, since the list had over 350 titles by author, and alphabetized (hey, she learned to alphabetize, how to use the library, and get to know favorite authors which wasn't learned in school). The lists were made up from books I remembered enjoying, her favorite authors, reviews (easily found online at amazon, etc), certain classics, and award winners. The award titles and authors can be found online by searching Caldecott, Newberry, and etc. Yes, non-fiction was included. As you are aware, books on higher reading levels contain subject matters that aren't appropriate at younger ages so I had to consider that in the lists and tried to keep her limited to books at around 5th and 6th grade levels when she was in 1-3rd grades, raised it to certain 7th grade level and more classics with the 4th and 5th grade lists. Of course I included non-fiction.

Anyway, that's my story so take from it what you wish and can use to help your son. Don't forget to use the public library and ask the librarians for help. Good luck, you'll need it.

Ack, posted too quickly above. I meant to say that we were seriously considering homeschooling but out in the boonies from a small retirement community, the kids wanted to stay in public school just to have friends. Yes, there are ways to be with other kids (they are involved in activities) but the drive to anywhere here is too far so leaving them in public school for the socialization was right for us. However, the school wasn't giving them all they needed I chose to enrich them with our little version of part time homeschool. Since your son is looking forward to K, you might consider doing half and half. It's not carved in stone that you can ONLY do public/church school OR homeschool, so do your own thing and what works for your family.