It is official, this week I brought to DS(6's) school a form that he will not return back next year. We are going to homeschool, I can not believe it. On one side I am thrilled, on the other I am petrified as to what I have put my self and my family into. My son is very excited as it is him who is "bugging" me about taking him out of school since November).
A quick background: DS(6), DYS, went to Kindergarten last August. He selected a great school, Magnet science, math and technology. As some of you may remember in October he was accelerated into first grade, with additional pull outs for math with 3rd grade. He was excited there for about a week, until he became familiar with the new and realized that he will still not be learning anything new besides weekly spelling words. I have to admit, that the school really was trying to be flexible and to accommodate DS in his abilities. However, it did not seem to work for DS, it just was not enough. He wants to learn on his own, dive into more complex issues: bacterias and viruses, cosmology, harder math and science, languages.
So here we are, finishing up the school year and getting ready for homeschooling.
I am trying to do some research to see what is available to assist him in his learning process. (I am afraid that my husband is going to hide my computer soon, as there is so much out there.) My son is very advanced in science and reading, medium advanced in math, and almost on grade level with writing and spelling. He loves new vocabulary.
I wanted to ask all the homeschooling parents, if there is anything that worked well in your homeschooling journey, to please share it.
Also, if you know about any resources for cosmology and origin of universe (my DS want's to start history with that), I would very much appreciate it.

We love anything by Neil Degrasse Tyson for origin of the Universe! I'm sure you can get his past programs through Netflix or view them online.

Welcome to HSing!!! Please, please don't take this the wrong way BUT WOW on that school!!! Compared to my school that refuses grade skipping or even subject acceleration, it sounds like heaven. I do understand though that even that was not enough for your son.

I'll write more later as I need to get back to HSing ha ha ha. WE're selling our house and have a showing in a couple of hours so I have to get math done w/ the boys and get the house picked up so we can be out of here for 2hrs. OH no, I only have 45min!

Dazey

Hi Niki,
There is tons of support here on the homeschooling front. Good luck to you and your little guy. I am sure it will work out great. It sounds like if your son was asking for it and you knew he wasn't really learning things that it is a great move. We haven't made the homeschooling leap yet and things are working pretty well with school. Right now he has learned some things this year since they have differentiated so much and we are hoping that next year they will differentiate even more...plus DS actually likes the whole social piece of it (he likes the lunches, recess, gym, and interactions with peers most of the time). So far he likes enough to keep him there....but you never know what the future may hold. Wish you the best of luck!!

Welcome to homeschooling, Niki!

The best piece of advice I got was to buy little-to-nothing that first year because most of what you buy will be wrong for your child. Save yourself time, money and frustration and ease into it with free or at least cheap materials until you find your feet. I tell this advice to everyone, and inevitably people who ignore it come back after the first year and say they wish they had followed it. We relied heavily on the library our first year. Free! And it gave me a wide variety of materials to try out. Now that I have a better idea about my DS8's learning style and how we work together, I am a good shopper. That first year? I wouldn't have been!

Oh, and tell your husband to leave you alone because the Internet is a GREAT way to find free or cheap materials!

The other thing that I wish I had been told before I started homeschooling is that it is vital to get time away from the kids. Be sure you take care of your own needs or you will be no good to your child. Trade babysitting time with a friend, find classes at the YMCA or museum or something that will allow you to drop him off and read a book or talk to adults or stare at a wall. Hire a mother's helper or babysitter. Whatever works for your schedule and budget, but make sure your needs are met somehow!

Ask questions if you have them! We're a friendly group.

Welcome to homeschooling!!! I took Kriston's advice the first year and bought nothing. I made spelling lists out of choices DS picked, math was all hands on and occasional workbooks and lots, lots, lots of free time for him to explore his interests. I took lots of notes on his styles, preferences, etc and then we sat down after a year and came up with a curriculum the 2 of us liked. (We did try an online school in the middle and that was too much). After we agreed on our curriculum it worked great. I didn't have to fight him to do his work because we had an agreement. That was huge for us. So welcome!!!

Welcome aboard Niki!!

I agree with Kriston about not buying much of anything. The one thing I would recommend is a subscription to netflix. We use it for science, history, math.... It's amazing what you can find on there once you get the hang of it. Many of the videos feed instantly to your computer (our your tv if you have a playstation or Wii) They offer up the Discovery Chanel, PBS, NASA specials etc.

You need some time to discover how your child learns and what works for the two of you. One thing that DS7 and I use is what we refer to as the "idea trap". It's a spiral bound set of index cards that my son uses to right down ideas and questions nad just things that pop into his head. It has helped me in determining what his interests are and has made choosing curriculum easier. For instance, he had several different thoughts regarding money, a few questions, a request for more chores so that he could earn money etc. Two months later he is in the early stages of a financial management class that begins with basic money skills and carries all the way through economics, should we choose to go that far.

Hi Niki,

You have lots of options...

If you want to put together your own curriculum, I'd recommend the Home School Buyer's Co-op because you'll save money and can customize your curriculum.

If you're looking for an accredited school, there are also lots of options. However, your school district may or may not accept your DS's placement if you decide to return to public school.

Check to see if your state/district offers independent study or a home school/charter school program. With that option, you'll likely enroll for free and maybe receive a stipend for extracurricular activities.

I have several home school students enrolled in my academic enrichment course, which covers English, Math, Science and History for grades K-12. Students can also take a foreign language through PowerSpeak.

I hope that helps and good luck!

Cornell site for cosmology/astronomy.

Nasa cosmology/astronomy.

Kid's Astronomy Site

Thanks everyone for nice welcoming words into the homeschooling life.

I think that homeschooling is the right choice. We have always done it (DS has never been to school prior to this year's experience). I would say that he is more of an introvert. He likes to spend time on his own, vs. crowds of people. (He does not like summer camps, or any other organized activities.)

Dazed, I know that the school sounds pretty awesome. I have to say, that it is great, but maybe it sounds a little better than it really is. For example, I have found out, that the pull out 3rd math is a "math enrichment" which is more of solving puzzles, gizmos and other enriching activities among a group of gifted children. He did not have any formal math instruction, because this pull out is in time of the regular math. (I know, that the math would be boring for him anyway, but the enrichment alone is not substituting his hunger for learning math.)
However, because I spend a lot of time volunteering at the school to teach Kindergarteners basics of chess, they offered DS to keep coming back next year once a week for his gifted enrichment (at the time when I would volunteer in K classrooms).
So I think that this would work out nicely.

Kriston, I know that you always make this suggestion not to buy too much stuff at the beginning (I have been reading on previous homeschooling posts). It is hard to do! However I do see that there is so much out there for free on the internet and in libraries.
I am not buying anything for science (since that is my son's strongest part) and as he tends go all over the place with various topics. I would keep this flexible, and look up resources as his interests would arise.
I do feel that I need to find at least some guideline for language art (grammar) and math (possibly a math curriculum). English is not my first language, and I am lacking a lot of specific vocabulary. I am expecting this to be a learning journey for me as well. LOL

I will need to work on planning some me time. That is a good point.

Thanks Shari for the netflix recommendation, we just recently joined and I have not explored the possibilities there.
I also like your "idea trap". Thank you for sharing that with me.
I, my self and my son can be very spontaneous with different topics. And we never know where we will end up. Everything usually involves ton of research.

Thanks everybody for recommending cosmology resources, I will check them out.

I am trying to build a good library with some dictionary, thesaurus, some reference books and so forth. Also some books on character building. Is there anything you could recommend?

Hi, Niki! How exciting for you both--homeschooling can be a real adventure--your son sounds like a terrific little guy, and I'm sure you're going to have a great time together!

I have a couple of resource ideas which have worked well for us here, which I'll just toss out to see if they might grab you:

We have really liked MEP math from the University of Plymouth; the programme is fun, it's innovative, it's very challenging, and it's free: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm
I gather that some topics are not taught in the same order as in US schools (?--I'm not American), but if you are not having to do any sort of testing, that will likely not be problematic.

For language arts, one of mine (the extraordinarily verbal one!) loves the Michael Clay Thompson series from Royal Fireworks Press. These books are designed for gifted classroom use, but they are very easy to use at home (they're not all full of group projects, etc.). Each level has grammar, writing, vocabulary, and poetry components.
http://www.rfwp.com/mct.php

Another one of mine, quite a different soul, has been enjoying the Junior English series from Galore Park; these aren't as creative as the MCT books, but there is still a lot of scope for depth and the pursuit of individual interests in some of the assignments.
http://www.galorepark.co.uk/parents.php?category=English

Handwriting has been a little bit of a trial around here, but the lads are making some good progress with the Getty-Dubay series.
http://allport.com/Artists.aspx

What languages are you planning?

We use "real" books (sorry, can't think what else to call them--don't mean to be offensive!) for history, science, art, and music so far, rather than curriculum-ish stuff. I have no objection to that sort of thing, obviously, but I wanted to strike a balance between a fairly programmed (albeit accelerated and compacted) approach to the 3 Rs and a lot of freedom in exploring other topics. I am also juggling three little peanuts, so that affects how we do things, too. I think your reference shelf sounds like a great idea--we make heavy use of atlases, encyclopedias, and dictionaries around here, for sure.

Mostly, we just have lots of books around. In regard to things like character building, I just try as much as possible to pick very high-quality literature for read-alouds; the Victorians, for instance, were very big on character building!

Hope that helps a little--

peace
minnie

The one curriculum I"m totally in love with is Michael Clay Thompson's language art series. Love it love it love it! It's not for every kid but it seems, from the WTM board, to work especially well for boys.

Here's our morning w/ it.
Here�s our Practice Island sentence: The nervous fish in a flash darted away.
I asked the boys what kind of prep phrase (after they completed their analysis) was it and what is it modifying? Nathan said "it's an adverb phrase modifying the verb" and anderson continues with "b/c it's answering how it darted." they weren't fooled by a prep phrase coming after a noun and thinking it modified the noun....they thought about the function!

MCT has really helped them to think of the function of words, their purpose rather than just blindly labeling them.


NIki - our district has a program which was only enrichment as well. It sounds great on paper and I'm sure the kids have a great time in it and it gets them out of class a few hours each week but it changes NOTHING in the regular classroom. And the math pullout was the same ....they played strategy games...which my son loves but also needs to be accelerated in academic areas.

our district was big on the creativity aspect of gifted. Well, some kids are academically gifted and need to go deeper, farther, faster and not just come up w/ new ways to build a better mousetrap.

Thank you guys, this is great!

I have encountered Michael Clay Thompson's language art series many times on my recent searches. Couple other people mentioned that they are using it. It does sound really neat. How old are your boys, Dazed? I am reading that it is aimed toward gifted 3rd graders. I think that it would be excellent match for DS, as he is very artsy but on the same side does not like unnecessary fluff. He is very matter of fact, gets to the point kind of guy. I am seriously thinking to use it, if it is not too early. That is my only concern, at this point.
Thank you Minnie for these wonderful resources, the math curriculum sounds really interesting. I looked at the hand writing program that you have recommended and see that those workbooks are on italics. Are you using that with your children to learn to write italics? Italics vs. cursive? Or are you doing both? My DS is not very keen on writing. So I will have to come up on something to spring his interest.

In fact I have to resurrect his interest for discovering and learning. He used to be this bubbly kid, interested in anything he did not know, who would fall asleep with tens of books opened surrounding him. Now, he hardly wants to read, when he comes home from school. He is not as daring as he used to be. He is extremely avoiding any situation in which he is not perfect. (I asked him about it, and he said "what would others think if I made a mistake").
I hope I can get him back to being HIM again, interested and have fun with learning, while being challenged at the same time.

Thank you all for giving me your ideas. It is a big help.

We are using MCT too and started this year with 3rd grade. It has been wonderful. It's the only curriculum that I've bought and used that I can recommend wholeheartedly for HG-PG kids. It's very fun, but with lots of content and open ended exercises. I had a former jr. high english teacher look at my island level last year and said it was presenting 7th to 8th grade level material. It's also not a big time crunch to get through it unless we want it to be.

I got the Town level of MCT in the mail last week and wow, can't wait to dig in this fall! Big leaps.

We started homeschooling last year in 2nd grade, and I bought very little too that first year. I've really had the time to pick and choose stuff I thought would be good. Singapore math has been great for us too. We're starting algebra very soon in these parts.



Welcome to homeschooling! It does feel a little crazy making this choice. But it's been wonderful for both my kids. They are doing great.

Hi, Niki,

Yes, the lads are learning "cursive italic," rather than regular old cursive. They like how it looks, and that it is relatively easier than "loopy" cursive; all of the cursive italic letters are formed in the same way as the "basic" italic (i.e. the printing), so they don't have to start all over again when they get to cursive. It's a clear and attractive hand, and one that will do us just fine, I think.

I had a couple of other math ideas for you: Don Cohen (the mathman: http://www.mathman.biz/ ) has some neat materials that my oldest has loved. They're very open-ended problems (which has been helpful in the perfectionism department), and I love that they are things that he has revisited several times, with a new take on the problems on each revisit. Highly recommended!

Edward Burger and Michael Starbird (of Teaching Company fame) have a neat book (The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking) that my oldest (he's just turned 9) likes a lot: it's a college textbook for non-math/non-science majors, and has a lot of the "fun stuff" (cryptology, topology, Fibonacci numbers, fractals, tesselations, etc.). It's really pretty accessible to kids, and engagingly written, lots of colour pictures, etc. It's ridiculously expensive new (at least in Canada), but I found a very gently used copy on abebooks for practically nothing.

I did do the Island level of MCT with Harpo when he was 6, and it worked really well. Just as a heads-up, though, there was a fairly significant jump in difficulty level between Island and Town (especially the vocabulary book); it was still fine, but it took us a good bit longer to do the second series.

Do let us know if you have any more questions; there are lots of homeschoolers on this board, and we'd love to help!

peace
minnie

I think there are a lot of ways to approach MCT. My 5 year old *LOVES* the Island level books, listened intently all year, and participated in our discussions. She took a good amount away from it. But she wasn't really able to do much of the actual writing exercises, so we're going to come back to it later. Both my kids physically write probably close to grade level. My 3rd grader did a lot more writing/application than the suggested exercises in the book so he took it to a deeper level (much of his longer writing he typed). I think this is very much the beauty of the curriculum is it's open-endedness. I really don't get any kick backs from MCT, but I think it is brilliantly designed.

I used MCT island level w/ my 4th grade and 1st grader. I thought my 1st grader would be just on the fringe, but he was so taken w/ MCT that he fully immersed himself in grammar. He has retained everything and loves it. He hasn't done all of the writing but I'll come back to it in the Fall with him. FOr writing, I do Writing With Ease so he does copywork followed by dictation. In the Fall, we'll move to Town level. I expect for my 1st grader, we'll be doing an MCT level every other year.

Ok, great. I think that MCT it is. I am so excited to learn as well with this wonderful material. LOL

I was reading an article from MCT about reading classics. I do too think this is very important, now that I have read the article. (I may have missed this information otherwise).

Do you guys have any resources, book lists of classical literature that is recommended for certain age? Or anywhere where I can find this book lists.
My son loves vocabulary, and usually when we read we pull vocab out of text that he did not know. He thinks that is a great fun. But I want the text be something that is not totally over his head.

Do any of you use anything else for vocabulary, or is MCT pretty sufficient in this matter?

Minnie, I like your writing program. Do your kids generally like it? I would think that writing is least popular thing for my kid to do. I thought, that I would just try to encourage his creativity with no worries about the way it looks. But maybe if there is nice program, that is very fun and beautifies the writing just a little bit it may be worth it.

DS also wants to learn typing. Is there anything that you would recommend?

Also, I was looking for some resources for logic, possibly some work books. My son is very very visual. I tried with him some logistical puzzles in form of stories, and forget it. If he just hears it, it takes him forever. But if he sees it, it is a whole new ball game.

Any other resources for highly visual kid, would be helpful as well.
I love this opportunity to be able to ask questions, this is great. Thanks.

I use Amberside Online to find lists of grade level classical literature and borrow them from the library.

I also use MCT as my language arts but I don't do the writing because ds joins a writing class from school.

For typing, we used Typing Instructor for kids. There is also a free program by BBC named Dance Mat Typing.

Critical Thinking company has some good books for logic. Mind Benders is one of them. But I think you will get a better deal with Mindware. They have Perplexors, Math Perplexors, Grid Perplexors, Venn Perplexors, Logic Links etc.

HTH!

Hi, Niki,

I think you'll love MCT--it's really a terrific programme. I wouldn't think you'd need anything else for vocabulary--there's a lot of challenging stuff there.

The kids like the handwriting programme pretty well (handwriting in general is not too popular here, either! But the Getty-Dubay has been the best thing I've found for them, and they like it well enough, which seems like a win to me!) I know lots of people also use Handwriting without Tears with good success, too, so that might be another one to look into.

For typing, we love BBC Dancemat typing--so fun!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

There are lots of literature lists out there--you might have a peek at The Well-Trained Mind, or Ambleside Online, or Mater Amabilis, or the Sonlight catalogue, Judith Wynn Halsted's "Some of My Best Friends are Books," or lists of Newbery winners, or things like that. Our library has a couple of big shelves of titles like "100 best books for kids" or some such thing. Frenchie and I were lucky enough to have very well-stocked shelves as children, and so far, we have had pretty good luck generating reading lists from our memory banks. I like older books a lot, so I follow publishers catalogues from houses that reprint classic children's lit (like Jane Nissen Books, New York Review Children's Collection, Persephone, Fidra, Purple House Press, etc.)

We've used the Bonnie Risby workbooks from Prufrock Press for logic, which are quite good; the ones we have are not super-exciting visually, though. http://www.prufrock.com/showproducts.cfm?FullCat=97

Lots of people like the Critical Thinking workbooks, too (Mindbenders and so on). My favourite things, really, for younger kids, are Sudoku, Encyclopedia Brown (!) and various kinds of logic-y games (like Mastermind, and so on), as well as fun logic puzzles (Dover has a lot; here's an example: http://store.doverpublications.com/0486454746.html )

[We've just bought Mary Haight's "The Snake and the Fox," which looks like being lots of fun (we've only done a couple of chapters so far), but may not be what you're wanting for a six year-old.]

Hope that helps a bit--let us know what you need!

peace
minnie

We use it too. Here are a few links that will be very helpful in figuring out *how* to use MEP.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mep-homeschoolers/

http://ohpeacefulday.blogspot.com/2009/06/mep-101.html

And I'm putting these links because many of the ladies on the Yahoo group below REALLY know their math!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LivingMathForum/

http://www.livingmath.net/

Hope this helps!

I bought several curriculum books when we started homeschooling last year. Some my son liked, some I liked, and some bored both of us to tears. After a year, I finally feel like I know what we will both be happy with in terms of curriculum.

This is what we currently use:

Spelling Workout
Wordly Wise
Rod & Staff English (some religious content)
Minimus Latin
Math 4 by Greg Sabouri
Story of the World - history
Writing with Ease by Bauer
Art/Music - library books
Science - tutor

We belong to two homeschool co-ops and I can tell you I've never come across two moms who homeschool the exact same way. Curriculum choices and schedules vary widely. However, one thing is the same...all the moms I know are trying to do the very best for their children.

I wish you the best of luck! Homeschooling has been a very rewarding experience for us and I hope the same will hold true for you!