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Hi. I’m Barbie! This is my first year of homeschooling by myself. I pulled my son (now 22) out of high school as a sophomore and, with the help of a seasoned homeschooling mom, we got him through school, graduated just 6 months after his class. I now homeschool my 12yo boy. Both of my boys have ADD/ADHD, and are visual and auditory learnings. Homeschooling just works better for them. My two girls (now 25 and 15) do well in public school.

What is unique about me is I work full time, outside the home, as does my husband. So homeschooling looks different for us, but we are finding our groove.

So thankful to be here.

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My name is Emily. I have been homeschooling for 3 years when my oldest started school. We tend to stick to traditional classic homeschooling but supplement some hands-on stuff too. I have 4 children 7,5, almost 3, and 8 months old. We decided to homeschool before we ever had kids. It’s important for us to teach our children about God and Christian Living daily. I didn’t want to send them to school just to have to “reteach” them when they got home. Mostly we love to be together and our still working on motivating to do school work :slight_smile:

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Hello, I’m Jennifer and I’m from Indiana. I began homeschooling our 2 daughters, 3rd and 5th grade, in January 2016. We also have 2 high school aged boys that are in public school. I had never homeschooled until January. There are many reasons that we chose to go the homeschool route. Initially, I chose a box curriculum (A Beka Academy non accredited) since I was just getting started. I’m now looking at going more eclectic next school year for our youngest daughter. I’m especially looking at Math U See or Teaching Textbooks and Mystery of History. Erica, I love your website. I browse it all the time for ideas!! Thank you!!

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Hi Jennifer,

Where are you in Indiana? I have family there and I went to Ball State in Muncie.

Kris Bell

Hi, Kris,
I’m in Angola. My oldest was born at the Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie!

Hi there. My name is Becci. I live in Australia.
We have four boys. Two adults who were mainstreamed and two (aged 6 and 7) who are homeschooled.
We started homeschooling just over a year ago when mainstream became too hard for our youngest two.
Both have anxiety and sensory issues. It’s strongly suspected that our youngest is on the spectrum.
I would classify us as Eclectic homeschoolers with a Charlotte Mason flavour. My natural tendencies are towards a more Classical education (although we aren’t religious) however the boys have a different idea.
So we work on English and Maths each day and then we work on our Theme work. Currently Space and the Solar System.
We do lots of read alouds and we all love reading living books.
Both boys are very reluctant writers so this is a real struggle for me. I love worksheets etc but we have to limit these or the day goes to pot. That has been a huge change for me.
Our 7yo would thrive with Unschooling, but I am having trouble with that. Still Deschooling I guess you could say.
I’m looking forward to having a look around here and learning lots from everyone!

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Hi Everyone, my name is Amber and I am a blessed mother of 10 children! I’ve been homeschooling for 13 years, but every year feels like I’ve just begun. :sweat_smile:
As far as what teaching style I like, I probably like a little of everything as long as I can make it to adapt to US! Over the years we’ve mainly geared our homeschooling towards Charlotte Mason and Traditional.

We MAINLY started homeschooling because we believe it’s was God’s Will for our family. Plus the fact that I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and both my husband we’re homeschooled and really enjoyed it.

Thank you Erica, I’m glad I stumbled across your blog and joined this forum. I look forward to getting to know everyone and learn new things from all of you to better our homeschool.

God Bless!

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Hi, My name is Alison and I have been homeschooling for about 4 years now. We have 4 children, although 2 are currently in a preschool. I homeschool the older 2, and I plan to homeschool the younger ones as well. We live in Lima, Peru as missionaries, so the preschool has served our kids well to get their Spanish language off to a good start since our life revolves around that language outside of our home and sometimes even in our home. We sort of have an eclectic approach to homeschool, and I love all of our curriculum that I have just sort of pieced together from here and there. I have greatly benefitted from blogs like COAH (thank you, Erica!), so I look forward to having this forum as well. We started homeschooling mostly because God had been tugging at my heart about the idea of it when our first child was only 3, and then my husband was happy to jump on board when we went to pay for a full year of private preK for her. Peruvian public schools aren’t acceptable education at all, so private is your only option other than homeschooling if you want your kids to have any sort of good education. The year cost us an arm and a leg to pay for (!!), and my husband was happy to sort of discuss all that God had been teaching me through reading about homeschooling in online communities. And here we are today. Very happy and feeling blessed. That seems like ages ago, but now we actually have found a very small homeschooling community of friends here in Lima, so God has been faithful!

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Hi! My name is Stacy and we live in Alaska.

I’ve been homeschooling for three years (two years were preschool and pre-k, in the fall we will be going into Kindergarten :grin: ) We have only one child (5 years old) who has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and ODD so with that said, I’m not 100% on a teaching style. I love the structure of lesson plans/boxed curriculum because my thought process is all over the place. But I also need a lot of hands on learning for my daughter. We started homeschooling because our daughter has some pretty interesting allergies that most people wouldn’t know hide in a lot of foods. Like, one of her allergies is beef which = gelatin = no marshmallows. Then as she got older and we saw how hard it was for her to sit still and focus for longer than a minute we knew she would have a very tough time in public school.

SO because we have been homschooling for so long, don’t let that fool you. I do have some insight, but I’m very much a newbie to “structured curriculum” because we have never bought or received actual curriculum. I’ve always just pieced together something from Pinterest and homeschool bloggers freebies.
This fall will be our first real, true curriculum purchase.

I absolutely love homeschooling and I hope to be able to continue all the way through high school!

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Omg…I’m about 10 minutes from Angola! I have a daughter in 4th grade!

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HI!
My name is Charmaine, I’m from Bermuda, but plan on moving to Georgia next year to home school our one and only daughter Austyn!
Right now I’m doing a lot of research on homeschooling and am a bit nervous about the whole thing. The preschool she is in now, the owner, home schooled all three of her boys and says that Austyn is a good fit for home schooling :slight_smile:
Why i’m doing it? Because God has put it in our hearts and we want her to be as well rounded and a good citizen that has respect for her peers and people period. Plus, we don’t want the worldly experiences to dictate how she should live her life. :slight_smile: With having said all that!!! I appreciate you and your book (that I have purchased) and website, so far its helped me out a lot!!!
Thank you!!!

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How long have you been homeschooling? Started with Kindergarten; but took the year slow. Now starting 1st grade =)
How many children do you have? I have a 6 year old, 5 year old, and a 7 month old <3
What teaching style do you like best? I prefer using a curriculum to guide us along.
.Why did you start homeschooling? My daughter has a sensory disorder and I felt more comfortable with her being at home with myself. The local school she was zoned for was a K through 8. I was not thrilled.

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Hi, I’m Jennifer. I have a 5, 4 and 8 month old. I have been homeschooling officially for 2 years with preschool and just finished up kindergarten with my oldest. I tend to be more traditional when it comes to phonics and math programs, but like to throw in a mix of styles when things get a little mundane. My husband is a wonderful support and we have chosen to homeschool for many reasons, but mostly so that we are the main influence over our children at this crucial age, to incorporate Biblical truths throughout the day and give our children a Biblical worldview and so that we can do an individual learning plan for each of them based on their needs. Looking forward to getting to know other moms in the same season of life and sharing ideas!

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Hi, I’m Joanna and my kiddos are 4 and 2. I was a public school teacher and realized the school system we grew up in wasn’t the same. I had actually changed careers to teach. I never had once thought about homeschooling till I was in my fourth year of teaching and pregnant. I came across your blog looking for resources for my preschool class. It got me thinking about HS and once I had my daughter I never once thought about going back. I tell people I would have never thought or considered HS if it wasn’t for seeing first hand what is going on in the schools. I felt like I had to go against my own morals sometimes and was becoming someone I didn’t like or know anymore. It made me think of my kids and that I didn’t want them to have be around the same thing just to get ahead or score high on a test. There is more to life then that for that reason style of Homeschooling is Traditional and Eclectic.

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Hi everyone. My name is Brandie and I just finished my 1st year of homeschooling… fwwwwhhh lol. And it was only kindergarten :slight_smile: I have 4 kiddos. 6, 4, 2 & 4 months old. Honestly, I’m not even sure what each of the teaching methods are but from what I’ve gathered so far I think I lean towards eclectic and I guess what would be traditional… I’m been all over this site just learning more and hoping to find the best ways to help each of my kids learn the best way they can. Our decision to homeschool kind of stemmed out of not liking the public school system in our area and the standards (moral and teaching) and ways schools are forced to teach… but really has come down to wanting to teach our kids in through the learning styles that will benefit them the best with the Bible as the ultimate truth behind what we teach. I love the resources that homeschooling opens up to us and the creative aspect it brings to teaching… i.e. museum, aquarium, zoo, trips that can all be involved in my homeschool day. Aaaaand, I’d be lying if I didn’t add the joy of sometimes (errr, a lot of times) having PJ school days :wink: I look forward to learning from all of you!!!

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Hi I’m Nicole. I have 2 children and this will be our first year homeschooling. I don’t think I can say what style we are until we try but I lean towards traditional so that’s where we are starting. We are homeschooling for a multitude of reasons but ultimately because it is what God has told us to do. I am excited to begin the journey and see how our family grows through it!

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I’ve been homeschooling for 4 years. I have 4 children. My oldest is married and has given me an adorable grandson. I have a senior, sophomore and 6th grader still at home. We’re Eclectic. There were a lot of reasons we decided to homeschool, I really feel this is the path God wants us on. Nice to meet you all!

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Hello! I’m Susan. This will be my first year homeschooling. I have 2 children that will be going into K and 1st grade. This blog has helped and encouraged me tremendously. My reasons for homeschooling are very much the same as Erica’s. After reading her post about why they chose to HS, it gave me a much needed sense of peace in our decision! It’s overwhelming but it seems to be trial and error for even the most seasoned homeschool parent!

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I have been Homeschooling for 7 years. My children are 13,8,7, and a 21 year old. My type of homeshooling is Traditional. I started due to the shootings in schools,and due to the public school teaching. I wanted to teach my kids christian values.

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Hi I’m Tammie. I have 2 children: a son 8 years old and a daughter 5 years old. I’ve been homeschooling for four years. I use a mix of styles mainly traditional but changes as we dive into each year. We felt called to homeschool from the very beginning of starting our family. We have enjoyed the journey thus far and look forward to the start of each new school year… well I do, my children, not so much.

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