Tag: homeschool

This could be my favorite part so far.  I get to decorate, organize and prepare for school!  I am so excited.  I have combed through so many great homeschool room ideas and have been completely inspired.  I would have loved to run out to Office Depot or, better yet, the Container Store.  However, that just isn’t fitting into my home school budget.  I picked up some clear steralite drawers from WalMart, they have 3 big drawers.   My husband surprised me with a cool one on sale at Target.   Those have been very useful.  I also had a tall 7 drawer container which currently holds paper, paints, stickers, and other craft items.

For my birthday my mother gave me the white cabinet, which is the “Teachers Cabinet” it is perfect. **and now a shout out to mi madre** – THANKS MOM!  I need just a couple of more items, like a wall map of the world, 1 more file organizer would be great to organize weekly lessons.  This week I get to go and laminate more materials at Mardel – should be the last run until schools starts.  Also, I will be ordering Math Manipulatives from a Sonlight mom, excited about getting that done.  I will post pictures of the school room soon!

When you decide to homeschool, I am finding out, that there are so many options for every facet of home education.  In Colorado, a child who is 7 years of age and older must register with their county.  Registering is simply filling out the letter of intent, this is one from Jefferson County.  It must be turned in 14 days prior to the start of the school year.

Something I found out today while searching the Christian Home Educators of Colorado’s website, is that you can register with Independent Schools.  Independent schools offers perks such as testing, attendance tracking, record keeping, diagnostics, support, and more.   Some schools offer yearbook class and field trips.  If you sign up with an Independent school you do not have to register your child with the county.  There are several Independent schools in the Denver Metro Area and around Colorado.

One more option I came across is registering with an out-of-state Correspondence school.  When I browsed the list I noticed that a lot of these schools are run by Christian and non-Christian curriculum publishers like Alpha Omega, A Beka, Bob Jones, Calvert, Cambridge, and more.  Here is a link to the list of Independent and Correspondence Schools.

I looked around Alpha Omega Academy’s website and it looks interesting, something I am going to investigate.  ONE THING to note about the Correspondence schools – enrolling in these alone does not fulfill registestration requirements in Colorado.  Check your state laws here at the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Wow, the list of Home-schooled famous people throughout history is quite impressive. I wanted to share because it is vital evidence that home-schooled children lead, productive, compassionate lives.
Today’s list is comprised of US Presidents that were home-schooled:
• John Adams
• John Quincy Adams
• Grover Cleveland
• James Garfield
• William Henry Harrison
• Andrew Jackson
• Thomas Jefferson
• Abraham Lincoln
• James Madison
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt
• John Tyler
• George Washington
• Woodrow Wilson

Looking for all the homeschool info I can get my hands on I came across, probably one of the most valuable sites around.

It is for the Home School Legal Defense Association. Here is the description the have:

Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.

You can click on your state and you will be taken to your state page. It contains all homechool news, legal notices, current legal battles, etc. Also, it lists all requirements for homeschooling in that state. Plus so much more!

I am still checking it all out. I am so glad that I am finding so many resources, it’s pretty awesome and ENCOURAGING!

As you know, I am traveling down the investigative path to home schooling. I have done tons of reading and have had some things really speak to me, I wanted to share:

1. One Mother pointed out that when we send our kids of to school, we are missing the best parts of their days. Their brains are sharp and ready to learn. They are enthusiastic and energetic. By the time my son goes to school for 8 hours, then I work in the evening – When I finally see him – he is so tired, cranky, you name it. This concept really clicked with me. I want to spend the most productive parts of their days with them.

2. Socializing… I already got told by my mother in law that home-schooled kids aren’t socialized. One mom that I met with last week said you will hear so many times, her point – What kind of socializing are they getting? It is not all the same, there can be negative consequences for unsupervised socialization. Some people just aren’t on the same page as far as appropriate behavior, appropriate media, etc. So yeah, what kind of socializing are we talking about – has to be the first question you ask back.

So during all my Homeschool research I have names of recommended books, I have read some blogs, ordered catalogs from almost all curriculum makers, Christian and Secular. One thing that had not occurred to me, which completes baffles me, the library! Especially the library I work at.. it is huge. I was sitting at my desk and duh – it hit me … I immediately went to the appropriate section and picked up 5 books all of which are sitting on my dining room table. Can’t wait to dive in…

Another tiny tidbit – also looking at possibly combining online schools with home curriculum…

Exploring Education Options – Homeschooling Option:
Before I had children I didn’t think much about education options,  just didn’t think about it at all. I suppose at the time, I just figured that if I ever had kids I would just send them to the local public school. Then we had children and once our oldest became of preschool age we started to discuss options.

There was headstart, local private, secular preschools, and Christian preschools and homeschooling home option was also there. We did go with the latter, decided to test homeschooling out while he was a preschooler. We purchased workbooks and some manipulatives. I worked with him and he was very receptive. We would do lessons while the baby was sleeping. This went smoothly for a few months then I became pregnant with our third child and I was completely sick and wore out. It was at this point that we looked into a local Christian preschool. We signed him up for Tues./Thurs. 8:30-2:30. This was a great help while I was sick and taking care of our middle child. So as far as homeschooling went, I just didn’t see how it would be possible with 2 little ones to take care of too.

However, here we are just a few years later. My oldest will be 7 in August and entering the 1st Grade and my middle child has the option of continuing Preschool. That being said, the tuition for the both of them at the same school is around $700.00. If I kept the oldest one in his private school it would be about $1000.00/month. Which is about what I make in a typical month. Hmmm…

Did I mention that my dream job, besides being a movie star, was to be a teacher, an elementary school teacher. Recently, I met with like minded women, 2 of which are already doing homeschool and are quite successful. I found the information they provided to be very helpful and I got very excited about the idea of teaching my kids! I am diving into curriculum options, online options, co-op’s, parent groups, etc. Follow me and I will fill you in on what I learn. It is a whole new world to me but I am way excited about how much information and help there is out there. I will be attending the Colorado Homeschool Convention in June, featured speaker is Voddie Baucham.

This Week I am looking into:
Sonlight Curriculum
Alpha Omega products
Classical Conversations
Homeschool Blogs
Reviews, reviews, reviews

Are you homeschooling or considering it? Come back for more…