Hi, I’m Kim. A mama to 6 little ones, ages 1-14. I am going into my 5th year of homeschooling and I guess I’m drawn to Charlotte Mason, but I’ve tried it all. I have curriculum ADD, and I hope to settle in somewhere, someday. I’m always looking to be inspired by other sweet mamas, and look forward to gleaning advice and encouragment here!
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Hi! My name is Amber. I am just now beginning our homeschool adventure. We are choosing to homeschool because we believe it’s what we are being called by God to do for our children. We have two wonderful blessings. Our son is 9 and our daughter is 5. This is scary and overwhelming at times-yet very exciting. We are looking forward to this season of our lives and pray continually for God’s wisdom and guidance.
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Hi! My name is Renee and this will be my first year homeschooling (August 2016). I am a former teacher of 11 years…I taught high school mathematics. I loved being a teacher…it was my calling. I had my children at the ages of 33 and 35 and felt like I really wanted to stay home and be a mommy for one year…9 years later I am still a stay at home mom!! 
I have a 9 yr. old daughter and a 7 yr. old son. My children have attended public school thus far…except for Christian pre-school and kindergarten.
My reason for homeschooling is probably more for academic reasons. My children are very bright and very well behaved in school (quiet). I know as a teacher that your main goal is to get those who are academically challenged and falling behind pulled up to an average level. The problem is what to do with those students who are advanced. At the elementary levels students are not tracked/levelized yet…therefore, they are doing a lot of “waiting”…and are not working to their potential. I do not fault the teachers for this problem…they are overworked and understaffed…it’s almost impossible to meet the needs of the “advanced” student at the public school level…at least in our situation/school/state.
I am excited to try homeschooling…I was a very respected teacher among my peers and among my students. I was a good math teacher. Now, I’m not sure how that will translate to teaching at the elementary level and teaching my own children! I would say that my teaching style thus far is very similar to Erica’s…traditional with some fun enrichment activities incorporated! I have spent a lot of time praying about this decision and my husband and I feel that this is the right choice at this time. We do look at homeschooling as a choice that is “right” for today…we feel that we will access our choices at the end of the year and decide if it was the best choice for all involved. I have allowed myself to say that it might not be the best choice for everyone next year…we will just have to see! Any insight is greatly appreciated.
Erica, of all of the different blogs that I’ve seen, I will tell you that I LOVE yours! Keep up the good work…I love all of the podcasts!
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Hi, I just joined yesterday! I’m Alice.
This will be our first year homeschooling. I have 3 children, ages 6.5, 3, and 6 months. I think my style might be eclectic? I’m using ready made curriculum for the three R’s but we will kind of do our own thing for other subjects. We decided to try homeschooling after just feeling lead to do so. I’m excited and nervous about embarking on this journey!
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Hello,
My name is Rhonda. I have two sons, 24 and 10. I’ve been homeschooling my 10-year-old for 2 years. Prior to that, he was in a few private schools (3) and public school beginning with special ed pre-k 4. It’s been a difficult journey, but I’m pretty sure we’ve found our place at home.
I’m divorced, so I’m a single mother. I work full-time after our school day as a Christian fiction author and free-lance editor. Our homeschooling style is kind of eclectic. We use a little traditional workbooks, we use online programs, and we do some unit studies and interest-led learning. We incorporate our faith into many aspects of what we do.
I never thought I’d be homeschooling, but now I know this is the right path for my child. I’m in prayer every day about the ability to keep doing this.
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Hi! I’m Cari. This will be my first year. I’m doing research trying to determine how to begin and what I will need for this journey. Not sure of our style yet! I always knew I wanted to homeschool my children! I look forward to learning new information in the community!
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We are start our first homeschooling year on MONDAY! I have an only child named connor. he turns 5yrs on aug 27th 
im not ready!!! I knew before i ever became pregnant that i wanted to homeschool if possible. Im so excited to get started. I have purchased COAH Letter of the Week and K4 curriculums and Math U See Primer so far. I do have a book called Science is Simple for science activities and have considered Handwriting without tears. Im unsure of my homsechooling style at the moment and im unsre of my sons learning method but i imagine he is hands on. I do know he loves learning and gets excited to do workbooks when we have done them in the past. I am overwhelmed but so excited to be starting our journey. Because his birthday falls late he cant officially start Kindergarten but we are starting anyways to give him 2yrs worth of time to learn to read without rushing or pressure. I plan to satellite through homelife academy or the farm. we live in tennessee as far as laws go.
I chose to homeschool because i dont like what is happening with public schools in my area, the things kids are saying and doing socially, and i absolutely love that things can be catered to his style of learning at his own pace
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Hi,
My name is Jill and I have three children-a son age 6.5, a daughter age 4.5, and a little one age 2. I’ve been homeschooling for one year and I participated in a mom-led preschool the year before. My teaching style is ‘just go with the flow’ mostly. I started college intending to go for a secondary education degree but switched halfway through because I realized I do far better with tutoring one-on-one than teaching a full classroom and I’ve used some of the tutoring skills I learned in college to help me make my lessons fun, interesting, and unique. I love that homeschooling allows me the ability to let my children learn in the way(s) THEY learn best and I can tailor their lessons to suit their interests and strengths. I also love that I have control over how, what, and when they are taught something. I don’t agree with how much emphasis is placed on standardized test scores and how those tests aren’t capable of showing the different ways a child can learn.
We’re approaching the start of our second year of homeschooling my son and my first year homeschooling my middle daughter (she’ll be doing the preschool workbook from COAH and I have the Kindergarten curriculum from COAH as well for her for next year) and I’m a bit nervous about how I’m going to manage working part-time, being a full time stay-at-home mom (We’re self employed so I’m a SAHM who does some work for the business too.), and homeschooling two children but I’m sure I’ll muddle through. For my son, I have a large 1st grade curriculum workbook I found at Barnes and Noble as well as a few smaller workbooks (Sight Words, Math, Counting, Time, Money, etc.) from here and there. He LOVES workbooks and can bomb through the smaller ones in about an hour if it’s interesting so I stocked up on a bunch and will let him choose what he wants to do from them.
We’ll be following the local school schedule so we start in about a week and my kids are getting super excited for the first day. I’m still getting thing sorted but we have all our supplies and books and school area set up so it is just organizing at this point.
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Hi! My name is Natalie and this is our first year homeschooling. We have 3 kids, an almost 19 year old in college, a 16 year old public school junior and an almost 9 year old homeschooler We chose to homeschool him because of several issues at his former school. It just wasn’t working for me…or him. He is very bright and well behaved so he did much sitting and busy work as opposed to learning to his capability.
We are just starting so still figuring out our path!
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My name is Tussie and I’ve been homeschooling for 5 years, and I have 5 children from 16 months to 12 years old. I homeschool because I don’t want the family to be broken up and I want the control of what they are learning. I can’t say I have a direct teaching favorite as all my children range in disabilities. I am just now trying all about spelling and reading due to dyslexia and autism issues. I also use rod and staff for science, history, reading, and English.
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Hello!!!
I’m Christine and I have 3 little ones 3 1/2, 1 1/2 and 12 weeks.
We are officially kicking off our first year of homeschooling come Monday and everyone is super excited.
I don’t particularly have a preference in any one style of teaching. All I know is with having many young children I’ve got to stay on my toes, keep organized and be as fun as possible.
We decided to homeschool for many different reasons from class room sizes, lack of actual teaching that is done in the class room to exposure to other people who may not be a good influence on our children at such an impressionable age. It’s really a shame that somewhere that was always viewed as a safe place when I was growing up is the last place I want to send my little ones.
PLUS I absolutely love my little angels! To spend everyday with them is truly a blessing.
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Hi everyone, my name is Dawn.
We homeschooled our now 22 year old from 4th grade until she graduated. We homeschooled our son from the beginning until 5th grade when he went to public school (at his requests). I would love to homeschool him again but there are so many issues with that one we are hanging on to ps for now. He is in 10th grade. I now have my youngest at home. She is in 6th grade and has been homeschooled since 3rd. I have to admit I use the term unschooling as our style just to cover my very lazy schooling habits but I am really really trying to work on that this year. I have had some great tips from this blog and videos so I am hoping to put them in practice and look forward to learning from others.
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Hi everyone! My name is Chelsea.
We’re in the middle of our second year of homeschooling (grades PrK and K).
I haven’t really decided which direction I lean when it comes to styles as I’m still just observing HOW my kids learn best and how I can best teach them.
We chose to homeschool because we love flexibility! We aim to live a simple lifestyle enriched by our knowledge rather than being a slave to achieving it.
I’m excited to be here and can’t wait to learn from all of you!
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My name is Katharine, and I will begin homeschooling in January. I actually just graduated from college with a degree in education, and have received my teaching certification for EC-6th. I do not have any children of my own, however, I am going to be homeschooling for several families in my community. We will be meeting in a classroom located at one of these families homes. My teaching style leans towards traditional, but I do like to include some creative/out of the box activities or units. I have chosen to homeschool because I have always loved the flexibility and openness of it. I am excited that homeschooling will allow me to work one-on-one with each student and approach their education in an individualized way.
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Hi everyone! I am Lou, mom to a combined family of 24 kids- 5 still at home. I am almost 59 years old, been homeschooling for about 25 years now 
. I am currently homeschooling our 3 youngest, 10 yo son, 9 yo daughter and 4 yo daughter. 25 years ago I got fed up with the public school system and the great adventure began. We’ve gone through just about every style of homeschooling since then, fine-tuning every year. Right now we use IEW as a base for our language arts, Rightstart math, Biblioplan history with LOTS of read alouds, and we also started using fun-schooling journals. My 9 and 10 year olds are both dyslexic and have finally cracked the reading code so we are going to be setting up workboxes as they become more independent. 4 year old daughter is wanting to read and keep up with the gang so she’s starting the COAH Letter a Week activities in her workboxes Glad to be here and looking forward to exploring the website!
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My name is Ashley I am a mother of 2 boys Ev is 8 and Hank is 1.5 yrs old.
I chose to start homeschooling this next fall that way Ev can finish out the year with his friends and give me time to prepare curriculum.
Ive received mixed reactions to our choice but once people understand the boys will not be cut off from socializing they start warming up to the idea.
My husband and I have noticed a change in the school system that is going farther and farther away from the safe environment we had as children. Teachers are unable to control the classes and majority of parents i encounter dont take an interest in their children.
I am hoping to use a more traditional approach of teaching with an emphasis on bible studies and improving family respect and relationships.
this website seems to be a great resource and helps give me confidence to keep moving towards our homeschooling goals.
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Hello All,
I am new to the community and wanted to introduce myself. I am a homeschool mom of 3. I have a 9yo daughter, 5yo son and a 3yo son. They keep me quite busy. I started Homeschooling my daughter a year and a half ago. I pulled her out of public school halfway through the year because she was not doing well in school and I felt led to pull her out and try her with homeschooling. By far this has been the most challenging thing I have set out to do. After my son finished pre-K4 I didn’t bother to put him in public school because I already had her. My 3yo is home with us on Monday and Friday and the other days I put him in a mom’s morning out school at our church. It gives him a chance to be with other kids and mostly gives me a chance to get my act together with my other 2 before adding him to the fold. So far my other 2 love being homeschooled and my daughter says she never wants to go back to public school again. I am happy with the decision my husband I have made and I look forward to learning from all of you seasoned veterans.
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My name is Cathy and I’ve been homeschooling for 9 years now! I have one child who keeps me as busy as 3. I wanted to be that homeschooling mom that placed one order through one company and was done. My kiddo taught me that was not going to happen! I used a mixed variety trying to stay as traditional and classical as I can. This also doesn’t always work.
I started homeschooling for multiple reasons. When transitioning my kiddo into public school the program that they were offering was not appropriate for my child (I previously worked as a special education teacher), and even though there should be “no child left behind” my kiddo was going to be that child left behind. The school also shared a nurse with 5 other schools. They were going to require me to stay on site when my kiddo was at school. I could “sit in the lobby or volunteer” they said. I would have volunteered anyway, but this way not okay. After going in circles with the district and learning that rules sometimes just don’t change, no matter how many years have lapsed, my husband spoke up and said, “We’re homeschooling!” Never thought that would come from his mouth, but am extremely blessed. Now I can offer our child learning experiences that would have never taken place in school, and I can teach with a biblical base that I prefer.
I have been reading Erica’s blog for 8 years. She’s my “go to” when we have a curriculum change to make. I value her opinions and her honesty. I also love the curriculums and other supplies/furniture that she has used, and her links to them. Makes set up a snap.
As years have gone by, we face challenges on a regular basis and they are dealt with immediately. Homeschooling makes this much easier, and am so thankful that the Lord was in that room on transition day.
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Hello. My name is Deanna and I homeschool my 4 children ages 5, 6, 9 and 11. I’ve been homeschooling for 6 years & following Erica’s blog for most of those years. I use an eclectic approach to homeschooling. The main books we use are CLE (Christian Light Education), Teaching textbooks, MFW, and Wordly wise.
We homeschool for various reasons, but the number 1 reason is to aim their hearts toward God.
Looking forward to learning from other moms here at this community.
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Hi, I am Angel and this will be my first ‘official’ year of Homeschooling. I have four children (GK 5, AB 3, DA 2 & JG 18 mos). I don’t have a teaching style yet but am exploring Charlotte Mason and Classical education. We (my husband and I) after much prayer and consideration, came to the conclusion to homeschool our oldest because he is living with autism and we feel like he needs the one on one attention and will thrive from a homeschool curriculum. I am really excited to begin and to learn many new things here in this community!
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