Any other homeschoolers?

atlantamomof2 wrote: I was just wondering if anyone had any advice about having two children and homeschooling. My DS is 13 months old and he's either into everything or not content with anything and wants me to hold him! He's down to one nap a day finally (about 3 hours) so our "school" time in the morning is when he's up and also when he's sleeping in the afternoon. I know it will get easier as he gets older but help!!!

mammag replied: I don't have any advice but I am starting this next year and have four of my own. Keegan will be about 10mos then so I'll probably be going through the same thing as you.

atlantamomof2 replied: Wow! Good for you! What made you decide to start? Just curious. What type of schools were the older two in?

mammag replied: They are going to public school right now. It's actually a decent school district supposedly but I've been having a lot of trouble with Kristen's teachers and she had a boy harrassing her and telling her he had a wet dream about her (9 years old!!!! ) Then I got the a letter saying she had missed 9 days (5 for pnemonia, 2 when I had the baby) and if she misses 3 more they will report us to the truancy officer. I also just don't feel like they are getting as good of an education as they could.

We are going to be using the K12 curriculum which is really impressive as far as what it covers. I'm excited and nervous but I think it is going to be the best decision for us.

5littleladies replied: How much time do you spend a day doing school? I homeschool my 5 and 6 year old daughters and most days we are done in about 2 hours. My 2 year old is getting to an age where I can distract her with coloring and little projects but last year I would just do homeschool when she was asleep and since her naps usually lasted about 2 hours we generally had no problems. Of course there are the days when things just don't seem to flow right and then you just have to do whatever you can to get everything done. For now I would just try and fit homeschool in during nap time and if that doesn't work try and keep him as distracted as possible-not easy I know, but it truly does get easier.

I'm expecting again in September and am getting a bit nervous about making it all work with a baby to take care of but I know with a little patience and maybe a touch of ingenuity I will be able to do it. I'm sure you will too! Good luck!

gr33n3y3z replied: home schooling in NJ is a pain the the rump
You have to take the kids on field trips so many times a year and send reports in to the state alot of paper work and I think they have to have like 4 hours of class time a day unless its changed.
Thank God our school system is small K-8 65 kids thats it.
So I would never do it But I can understand why alot of parents do it and I will say to you ....... You are GREAT parents to take on such a load you deserve a thumbs up!!

atlantamomof2 replied:
I guess about 2-3 hours but we don't sit down for an hour at a time or anytihing. We get up have & breakfast, I take care of some house cleaning stuff, take a shower and get dressed. Give them their bath (every other day) and get them dressed. Then we'd probably do a math game or her Hooked On Phonics; then I go do some laundry or dishes, etc.; then we might do a geography lesson with her finding things on a map; then I vacuum or get online to print more worksheets ; then......You see what I mean? During the time when I'm doing house "stuff" she's playing with Joshua, doing a math worksheet, COLORING (it's her latest obsession) reading, playing a Reader Rabbit computer game, etc. I like spacing it all out because she has a little trouble sitting still for an extended amount of time (and I don't blame her!) but it just makes it a little hectic when Joshua's up.

I can't wait until he's old enough to join in on the activities we're doing! We do a lot of hands-on things especially for math because that's a big way Maggie learns so I think he'll like these games too. I think as she gets older there will be more things she will be able to independently so this won't be such an issue-(until I get pregnant again! ) Thanks for the input.

kit_kats_mom replied: I don't yet but the daycare provider that I send K too homeschools her oldest and is doing the Abeka preschool cirriculum with the kids she babysits. K loves it so much that I've joined the Abeka website and have purchased some of the school supplies to supplement her education at home.

coasterqueen replied: My dcp started the Mother Goose Preschool curriculum with Kylie in January. She loves it! It seems to be a great program so far.

ammommy replied: I have a question. How can you teach a full day in so few hours? Is it because you can give individual attention and still get through the curriculum? Does the day get longer as the children get older?

Ok, that's 3 questions

5littleladies replied:
Yes-with me sitting there helping them it takes very little time to get things done. Plus they have very few distractions. I am told it does take longer as they get older but still nothing like the time a child spends in an actual classroom.

atlantamomof2 replied:
I know, it seems like such a small amount of time but think of how long it takes a teacher at a school to get things situated for 14-15 students! If someone were to set up some of the math games I do with Maggie it would take forever because there are little pieces for each person, etc. And, like when we do her reading or writing "lessons" it's so quick because it's just me and her and I've tailored her lessons to her learning style so she catches on very quickly. For example, she's learning digraphs right now (i.e. "sh", "th", "sn" etc.) and we act out a single word that starts with those letters like "snap" we snap our fingers. It took 3 times of doing this (13 words) and now she knows 11-12 of them!

I'm sure this is why a majority of children who are homeschooled are at LEAST a grade level ahead of their peers-the individual attention. People think I'm making it up when I say I don't really spend much time teaching Maggie how to read because she has been doing it since before she was 4 1/2.

I'm sure the amount of time does increase as the child gets older but there's probably so much independence in assignments (i.e. creative writing, projects of some sort, etc.) that it may not feel like longer to the parent.

Sorry so long.

ammommy replied: Thanks for answering. I was afraid that the questions would come out wrong, sort of challenging fi you KWIM.
That does make sense because I remember sitting in a classroom waiting for the teacher to explain something for the bazillionth time while I was sitting there thinking "I've got it, let's move on." I got into a lot of trouble for daydreaming in elementary school

mommyangie replied: My child is 9 years old and about to start 4th grade. We have always homeschooled. It was very difficult when the youngest was a baby but is now 3 years old and will start preschool (homeschool) in the Fall so it will be much easier this year.

To answer the question to someone about how we can teach in just a few short hours each day. If you consider that in school a teacher has 18+ students in one classroom and you factor in the time it takes each day to get each student on the same track on each subject, answering all their questions, moving from subject to subject rather quickly since they only spend less than an hour on each subject each day to begin with, taking breaks for bathroom/recess/lunch every day, and going to the library/computer class/art class, etc. on alternating days in most schools. If you really add up the time any given student is doing actual "schoolwork" while at school each day it will turn out to be around 2-3 hours as well for each student after a day of sharing their time with one teacher and moving around and doing so much outside the classroom. Atleast at home the child is one-on-one with their parent and they are much better able to get the bookwork out of the way within 2-3 hours with no distractions. We are constantly learning too. I make a learning experience out of everything we do, from errands and meeting people each day to allowing my oldest to cook and experiment with things around the house. We do so much that a child in school misses out on.

mommyangie replied:
Actually you are incorrect. I'm not sure where you are getting your information from, but I used my search engine and came up with quite a few websites that describe in detail what you need to do to homeschool in NJ. In NJ the laws are very similar to where I live on the East Coast. There is nothing there that states you have to be strict with the recordkeeping or taking children on field trips as you stated. You simply have to send in a letter of intent to homeschool by the time they are 6 years old and keep good records. In most states, you have to keep records but no one usually checks them. I know someone who has homeschooled her kids since the mid 80's and knew of people who were checked on back then, but that was back before there were 15,000 families in our state that are homeschooling. It's very different in this day and time. There are thousands of homeschooling families per state and there just aren't enough people working for the state that can go from home to home and check on them nor are there any that require you send in any papers each year. Most just require that you keep records *on file* in your own home just in case they need them over the years while you are homeschooling. I do that by using a database for grades and attendance.

Here is the link to the site for NJ homeschooling laws. It doesn't even state anything about how many hours or days per year you have to homeschool in NJ. In my state you have to do 180 days atleast, but no set hours per day either.

http://homeschooling.about.com/gi/dynamic/...3009%2Ffaq.html