Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Don't worry about curriculum, workbooks, or anything "school-ish" right now.

Allow plenty of time - at least two months - for deschooling to occur. Even if your child has never been to school, you probably have.

Relax, enjoy the time together, play and explore your community! Rather than re-create school at home, turn the world into your classroom!

Invest in some wonderful art supplies.

Seek out local play and support groups and look for the gentle, relaxed mamas and children when you get there.

Check out all the amazing resources in your neighborhood: libraries, museums, co-ops, support groups, playgrounds, parks, nature centers, wildlife rehabs, forests, beaches, it's endlessly delightful through a child's eyes!

Don't feel like you have to "do" school or lessons or anything that others are inevitably going to ask you about. Just smile and tell them you're both enjoying the adventure and learning lots along the way. You don't owe anyone proof of anything.

Remember that you will never, ever have this special time with your child again. Children grow up quickly and then before you realize what's happened, they're off in the world on their own.

Savor every moment. :heart

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

My advice would be to keep it fun. My 4-yo dd has taught herself phonics and is starting to read on her own...surprised me with that!!!! And I just started doing fun games with her like go fish. I take construction paper and cut it into 12 or 16 "cards" and she picks words she wants to learn and I write them on the cards. She loves to play the card game and it is a fun way for her to keep her busy mind engaged without much structure. Also the other day at the park she was digging a hole and asked me to dig with her. We pretended we were archaeologists and we found a pyramid, an ancient Egyptian gold coin, a diamond, and a sphinx. We had lots of fun. It was a great moment together. It was really nice later to hear her telling my dh "Mommy and I were archaeologists at the park and we found......and we found a sphinx. Do you know what a sphinx is daddy? It is a statue of a lion, but it has the man's face. Maybe it was the face of the pharaoh...." It was just a game we played, but she learned a little about ancient Egypt.

There are lots of ways of teaching in a fun and still probelm-posing, critical thinking way without too much structure and it is great to be able to design your child's education specifically for them.

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Where to start?

1. Commit your school, your children, your teaching, your curriculum...everything...to God. Allow Him to make the choices.

2. Know that the first curriculum you choose will most likely not be the one you stick with. Don't be afraid to buy used curriculum...or older curriculum. You can often get a good deal on older editions...just make sure you plan ahead enough to update things that need to be updated.

3. Don't allow yourself to feel pressured to create a genius. Let's face it...all homeschooled children cannot be Spelling or Geography Bee champions.

4. Find your own style. You may be an unschooler, or relaxed schooler, or you may have school at home.

5. Slow down...and enjoy your children. If a child suddenly gets an intense interest in something, go with it!

6. School does not happen between 9 and 3. It's ok to go to the grocery store. It's fine to take a day off to prepare for a garage sale. (Just not all the time.)

7. Think outside the box! Pringles containers can become pencil boxes. Sidewalks can become chalkboards.

8. You must allow yourself some planning time. We do unit studies, and in the middle of each unit, I plan for the next one. This includes making lists of what I need to borrow, buy, copy, make, etc.

9. Use the library. Ours has programs for homeschoolers! I reserve books for the next unit about a week and a half before we start that unit, so they have time to be shuffled between libraries. This also gives me a chance to look them over and reject books that don't line up with our worldview.

10. Never, never forget to thank God for the awesome privilege and responsibility of teaching our little ones. Remember that the most important thing we can teach them is about God, and His amazing love for us. Without that, all the reading, writing and 'rithmatic matter not at all.

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

:tu I agree with Celeste....Read "The Well Trained Mind" it will shape your views of homeschooling forever!! GREAT Book!!

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

I was a high school French teacher for 5 years in the Chicago Public school system. I only had one class on Special Education issues and from what I understand is that that is normal for non-special needs teachers. Now specifically special ed teachers have a lot more training and classes to deal with the varying degrees of the special needs students. The reason I am considering homeschooling is the one-on-one factor which is a lot more effective than 28-35:1 ratio.

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Ditto Kym. :)

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Been Homeschooling my DD for Two months now and I learned one thing real quick don't find homework based on their age just their abilities couse my DD is ok doing a grade ahead.

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Keep an open mind--there's no "perfect" curriculum! Once you find what works, though--stick with it as long as you feel is appropriate to avoid gaps.

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

:popcorn More, more... ;)

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

n/t

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

"God does not call the equipped; He equips the called." :amen

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Amen :amen

I also wanted to add what I tell every new homeschooler I talk to . . . get ahold of the book "Things we wish we'd known". When I got it it was 50 homeschoolers and I think it's up to 150 or 200 but they are veterans sharing their experience and what they wish they'd known when they started :tu

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Pray, pray, pray~ :amen As for our house. We use a curriculum that I adore and my daughter does too :highfive I guess the best practical advice is to be organized, have a game plan for the year, but be flexible on a day to day basis. We get out every Wednesday for Exploration day, in which there is no book work, just science experiments, exploring nature, crafts, reading ect... :mrgreen It's nice to break up our week that way and it's worked into our curriculum. May God guide you, and He will! :grin

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Where can I get that book Crystal?

Re: What is your best advice for a new homeschooler?
 

Don't bring public school styles/methods home! Be a student of your child and learn how they learn. :) Read the book "Learning without labels" if you have a child who is a "different learner". Or even if you have a typical learner!

:)