Hi, I am April. I have 3 kids, 16, 6 and 3. We pulled the 16 year old out of private school 3 years ago. And our 6 year old started this year. I believe we are traditional. The 2 littles use a lot of the printables offered on this site. I have always liked the idea of homeschooling but was scared. Then financially we couldn’t keep up private school and the public school is not good here, so we are homeschooling. We are blessed to be in a community where there is a lot of family homeschooling or planning to, because of the schools here. I love how much time we get to spend together!
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Hello! I’m Melanie, mother of 5 children. My youngest is one month old and my oldest will soon be nine. We have been homeschooling for four years now. At times it has been a struggle for me, but it is well worth every moment. We started homeschooling because that is what God would have us do. We do not want our children to be taught and raised by the public school system (government). We have used Waldorf curriculum, which we really love, but have gone more towards traditional lately. We moved from VT to TX in Sept 2013. We then went from TX to SC in Nov 2014. We will see where the Lord leads us next.
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Hi, I’m Iris. I am a mother of 3 with a baby due in exactly a week from now. My kids are 8, just turned 6, and 2 1/2. I am teaching 2nd grade and Kindergarten this year. I used to teach public school until I became a Mom. I never thought I’d homeschool, but here I am! I love it most of the time. 
We have a great co-op group that we are part of - great support for both me and my kids! I think this forum will be a great place to share advice and ideas. Thanks for setting it up Erica!
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Hi. I’m Becky. I have 2 boys, 5 and 7. Right now I only homeschool my oldest full-time. My younger son attends a developmental kindergarten. We are hoping to begin homeschooling him next year, if we can get all the services he needs worked out. I love the adventure homeschooling provides, and it has been so fun to learn with my boys and find out what excites them.
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I’m in the stage of getting ready to START homeschooling this year with my oldest. I have three kids (5, 2, and 5mo). Since I still have yet to even begin, I can’t say much about “our style”, but I’ve been greatly enjoying and drawn to the classical style outlined in “The Well Trained Mind” by Susan Wise and Jessie Bauer.
I’m homeschooling because I feel it’s the better plan that God has for me and our family.I was becoming more and more attracted to the thought of homeschooling as I heard other mother’s talk about their children’s schools and curriculum, as well as when I thought about how much further my son already seems to be than the public school kindergarten level. I sort of fought the thought of homeschooling as I thought of myself to be very inadequate for the job. But God knows better than I and can certainly strengthen the weak! I now feel such peace and excitement about it.
Hopefully I can pull a lot of tips and help from other, more experienced, homeschooling parents here! 
Hello, I will be a first time homeschooler this next school year. I am so excited, because I know that my children will have a better education without all the drama and chaos of public school. I will be homeschooling two 9th graders, and 8th grader, and a 5th grader. I am disabled, but can still move around. My oldest daughter was unfortunately afflicted by the same disorder so she is having a hard time in school. We are going to start with her 9th grade year again when I start homeschooling. I am going to use a Christian based Curriculum, but have decided that I will be letting the children do electives as well, like French and Spanish and other things as well. I am homeschooling all three of my children and another child that is like a son to me. I live in Michigan and there are some real loose terms on homeschooling, but I want all of these children to be able go onto College and have a great future, so I am not going lax on their education. All of them are really excited as I am (if you can’t tell by the continuous rambling lol). Thank you for letting me join the community. I need all the encouragement that I can get. I hope everyone is doing well, thank you again and GOD bless.
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Hi. My name is Teresa. We have one child. He is 8 years old and this is our third year of homeschooling. We started homeschooling for several different reasons. We enjoy that our son learns at his own pace. Although there are times I second guess myself, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. We are traditional homeschoolers.
Hi everyone! My name is Kaylene and I have three boys, 5, almost 4, and one and a half. My oldest boy started first grade in September (at 4 years old). My middle son has dyspraxia, an extreme expressive communication delay, sensory processing disorder, and is on the autism spectrum. My youngest has an extreme developmental delay and is developmentally 9ish months old. We started homeschooling my oldest because he isn’t “supposed” to start kindergarten until September, and by then he’ll be doing second grade in most subjects. He would be bored and disruptive in class (he’s one of those kids that HAVE to answer the question if he knows the answer), so he would be in trouble all the time. We’re homeschooling my middle son because with his various special needs he would be lost in a traditional classroom and the special needs resources in our area are under budgeted and under staffed. We’ve been homeschooling since last June when we realized our oldest was desperate to learn. He did “kindergarten” between June and September and started first grade. We are fairly eclectic using different types of curriculum. We’re using workbooks for core subjects and some unschooling and we’re pretty much all over the map.
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Hi my name is Felicia. I am going to be starting my home school journey this Sept with my daughter Lily who will be 7 and going into 2nd grade. I also have a son Asa who is almost 4 years old. I’m not sure my style yet. but i am looking forward to it very much… especially the time i will get to spend with my children. Any tips on starting out would be great! I did write out my Home school vision for our family which is such a great idea! Love it!
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I am Kassie,
This is my second year Homeschooling. I have 2 children Princess-9 and Hero-6 (Not real names) I have no clue what Style we do but we started off with alot of work and as we found things didn’t work and completed books to fast we are down to only a few subjects. Homeschool can be expensive so we cant buy a new book every time the “planned” one doesn’t pan out.
I started homeschooling because I felt like it was what I needed to do for the strength of my family. Princess is a beautiful little butterfly that loves to be social but in the school she was in was being bullied and had no TRUE friends and because of that her choices started to reflect the desperation within to be liked.
I am SO happy with the results of bringing her home and now with Hero getting to start he has THRIVED going from Kinder math to 2nd grade all this year, he just flew through it!
I love homeschooling but hate the stereotypes that follow it.
My (least) favorite two are “Aren’t you worried about socialization?” HAHA if you knew my kids you would know I would NEVER have to worry about that.
and 2 “Oh, wow I do not have the patients you do I could never homescool.” again HAHA there is yealling, crying and good days too I AM NOT patient but I know what is best for my family and am willing to grow as a mom/wife/person by challenging myself to BE patient and calm.
I use Erica’s site ALL the time you help me feel more confident and I am so very greatful to her for that!
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Hi I’m Cara, this is my first year homeschooling. I have boys. Currently teaching first and sixth grade. My style is all over the place. Some Montessori for the first grader, some classical for my sixth grader and then unit studies mixed in for good measure. We choose to homeschool when my older son decided he did not want to attend middle school after completing his elementary years in Catholic school. My youngest did Kindergarten at the Montessori school and miss it terribly. We do not have a Montessori elementary school in our area so we decided to give it a go at home. We are calling this year “Our Grand Experiment.”
Hi I’m Teresa and this is my first year of homeschooling. Both my sons were in public school last year and my husband and I felt like the Lord was leading us to homeschool. Several incidents happened at school that reassured us that this was definitely the way the Lord wanted us to go. I have two boys, 6 and 9, that are super active. Although we follow a more traditional method for schooling right now, I am leaning more toward Charlotte Mason for next year. Thanks for starting this forum. I have really enjoyed your blog and the resources on your website.
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Hello, my name is Kayla. This is my second year homeschooling. I have a 7-year-old boy, an autistic 5-year-old girl, and a busy 18-month-old boy. My oldest attending public Kindergarten, but came home everyday with his shoulders slumped and told me he was a bad kid. We found out that he is hard of hearing and background noise from a classroom makes him mostly deaf. So, he got in trouble all the time for not listening, but he couldn’t hear anything. My high-functioning autistic daughter attended public Pre-K, but the so-called “experts” placed her in a Kinder class with 8 other students who were non-verbal. He biggest weakness is speech and they handicapped her more. So, she joined us at home and can now talk at an almost 4-year-old level. I use Montessori mostly for my daughter and Charlotte Mason for my oldest. My littlest just joins in the fun for now, but I have started some Montessori teaching for him too. I love your blog and have followed it for at least two years now. Thank you for all the work you put into this.
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I am Antoinette. I have a 6 year old son. We have been learning from each other since we met. Our homeschooling journey began when he asked to learn to read at 3… and we haven’t looked back since.
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Hello! My name is Sam. I have been homeschooling for almost 2 years. I have 2 boys- my oldest is almost 8 and my youngest turned 5 on Thanksgiving. I tend to lean more toward the Traditional style of teaching. We started homeschooling after feeling a calling after a bad experience with public school. We never had it in our radar, but now we can’t imagine how our family would function without it. It has been a wonderful choice for our family and we pray it continues to be for years to come.
Hello all, I’m Krip from snowy Va. I started homeschooling by accident, and NOT my own children! I baby sat for two different ladies and their special needs toddlers. As time went on, with no money and few free resources, I pitched the homeschooling idea to one. Needless to say, both moms have trusted me with their jewels going on two years now and it’s been a huge blessing for all involved. I like to incorporate Montessori & Charlotte Mason the most.
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I am currently in the planning stages for our first year of homeschooling. When we begin, I will have a 8,7, and 5 year old. My 5 year-old also has special needs (deaf +) which was one among many factors that led us to our decision. I am approaching homeschooling from an eclectic approach and trying to find what might work for each of my 3 very different children.
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Hi! I have a 7 y/o who is deaf and hears with a cochlear implant so functions as hard of hearing. I’m curious to know how you approached reading with your ds who is hard of hearing. My son is delayed in reading/language and I’m trying to plan for next year.
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Hello! I am Katie and this is my first year homeschooling. I have three children. My husband and I are currently looking into Classical Homeschooling model. However, I have been traditionally teaching my oldest. I decided to homeschool because I felt that my children could get a more well-rounded education at home. I did practicums, internships, and taught at some of the local schools where my children are zoned. The schools have “A’s.” However, they focus on the subjects on the standardized tests and teach the other subjects only if they have time. I was not comfortable with this for my children, so my husband and I decided that homeschooling would be our best option.
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My name is Allison. I have not officially started homeschooling since my daughter has not reached school age yet but I am strongly considering it when she does reach that age. I am trying to research all that I can so that I can be ready when the time comes.
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