Hello, I am Mary and have 2 children (daughter-7 and son-4). We have been homeschooling for three years. We chose to homeschool because I just wasn’t ready to let my little girl go away for 6.5 hours every day. I would say we are very eclectic in our style of schooling. Looking forward to learning from everyone on the forum.
Hi! Im Emily and I am brand new to homeschooling. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. We are doing K4 now, and starting Kinder next year. I was never going to homeschool, and then I felt a calling. When God calls you to homeschool, there is no turning back! LOL. I’m excited to start this journey and I am looking forward to all of the wonderful experience everyone has to share. I feel like we will be traditional learners, but I am open to different styles.
Hi, I’m Lisa. I have 3 awesome cutie pies ages 9, 6 and 2. We use Heart of Dakota, which is mostly a Charlotte Mason style of curriculum. I homeschool because I don’t want to torture my children who are wiggly and I am NOT a fan of the Common Core initiative. I also wanted to install more traditional Christian values and to my children that I know they would not get in a public school atmosphere.
Hello! This forum looks like it will be fun! I’m in my 5th year of homeschooling. I have 2 children, a 7th grade son and a 2nd grade daughter. We definitely do an Eclectic style in our homeschool. I do love Charlotte Mason and try to lean to that style of teaching. We started homeschooling after my son’s 2nd grade year in public school. We weren’t happy with the public school system. I was watching children from my home before we started homeschooling, and I have continued with that. I am currently taking care of a 3 1/2 year old boy during the days.
Thanks for putting this together!
Hi, my name is Krista. I’m a newbie. Both in the terms of replying and/or following a blog. Please be gentle with me. ;). I have 4 children and actually have been toying with the idea of homeschooling, which is why I am on here. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas of anyone out there that has pulled their children out of public school to homeschool. The reason I have been thinking about homeschooling is because I have a daughter with a language disorder and the public school system doesn’t seem to help her or meet her needs. If I did homeschool, I think mine would be a combination of traditional mixed with “out of the box” thinking, or basically whatever it took to accommodate her needs. Thanks for reading.
I have 2 boys and have been hs 3 years now. Started mainly because my oldest is on ASD spectrum. Also we wanted to do Christian education. I have since used COAH as a resource and used the curriculum in the first 2 yrs.
Hello! My name is Wendy, and I’ve been homeschooling my kids since the beginning (so, roughly 5 years as our state doesn’t require kids to start until 7). I have three boys, now ages 11, 8, and 2 1/2. As a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I teach with what some of in that group “Crew Schooling.” This means that most of my curriculum is provided for free in exchange for my posting a review on my blog. Right now, we’re using Spelling You See, Fix It! Grammar (from the Institute for Excellence in Writing), GPALEARN for math (an online program), Visual Learning Systems for science (another online program), and others I can’t think of off the top of my head. I think that means we’re “eclectic” since I don’t use a boxed curriculum. We decided before we even had kids that we would homeschool. The reasons were personal, and mainly revolved around the overarching topic that “the school that was putting out graduates wasn’t the same one that I graduated from” (even though it was, indeed, the same school). Knowing some of the graduates even just 5 years after I finished high school, and what didn’t know cemented our decision. We’ve never regretted it
I have three kiddos, 10, 5 & 1. My oldest has been in public until I pulled her out one month ago. I automatically enrolled her into k12 which is still public school at home but we will not be using k12 again next year! I want to homeschool to connect deeper with my children!
Hi all! I’m Amy and have homeschooled for about 14 years. I went back to teaching this year and have felt “homesick” all year and have the desire to return to homeschooling. I have a couple of people that think I’m crazy for giving up such a “wonderful job!” I know God gave me this job this year because my husband’s plant burned and he has been out of work for 3 months! Please pray for our family as we pray about this deep stirring in my heart! I have 3 children ages 22, 16, and 6. I used mostly a traditional method with a mix of unschooling depending on the child. I originally began homeschooling because as a single mother I spent years working and going to school and sacrificed the time I could have spent with my daughter to get my teaching degree. When I got married my husband supported my desire to just have “one year” to stay home with her and homeschool her that year. We loved it so much that we continued with it! I have loved the flexibility and being home with my children when they are sick! I am happy to be here and thankful for all of God’s many
blessings. I love how he guides us to just what we need!
Hello! My name is Kelly and we have 5 kiddos. One has already graduated college and is off on her own, but we also have a 2nd grader, 4th grader, 5th grader and very busy boy that just turned 4.
We are still finding my “style”. I wish I knew… but for now we seem to be a mix. I come from a corporate setting, so that has really messed with my head and homeschooling.
We are very new to homeschool. We just started the end of November 2014. We started for a few reasons. One was Common Core and the other had to do with our faith. My oldest was really struggling with the Common Core math. The more I researched it, the more uncomfortable we were with our children being a part of it. So our adventure began!
Days are long and quite often I feel very inadequate. But then I see the light bulb go of for one my kiddos and now we are where we need to be. I feel very blessed to be able to do this. And I am so thankful for sites like this! Erica you have encouraged me so much and I have utilized so much from your posts. And like so many others, were you to come to my house, it would look almost like a mirror-image classroom. So excited for this community and the support it will provide to all of us.
I’m Erin and we’ve been homeschooling since my oldest was preschool, so thus is our fifth year. I have four boys ages 18mos, 4, 6, and 8. We are a mix of traditional and eclectic. We are in Alaska so no laws and tests to govern us except we have joined a charter which only requires a little paperwork and testing and oats for nearly everything we need. Love that!
I am Deb and have a 6 yr old in Kindergarten. We have “played” at homeschooling for the last 2 years for preschool, but nothing consistent. And for Kindergarten I am having the same trouble…being consistent. Besides my 6 yr old, I have 3 adult children (well…2 on earth…but that’s another story). I have no idea what my teaching style is because we haven’t “settled” into any one thing. I love Charlotte Mason’s ideas, tend to lean towards traditional so I won’t mess up, and love using all types of ideas I get from blogs and the internet…which I guess is eclectic. Maybe this is why I have trouble being consistent…I am not firmly rooted in one style and find myself bouncing around a lot. I started homeschooling because I knew it was what God wanted for my daughter and our family. It took me a long time to come to that conviction, but once I did I haven’t let go of it…despite MY failings as a teacher. My daughter has some special ed needs with speech and has a lot of trouble with letter recognition. That is probably one of the reasons I try so many different approaches…hoping something will help it stick. Enough, I know! I was only supposed to give my name and homeschooling info and turned this reply much more involved than I should have. Anyway, this is us. Nice to meet you all.
I’m Sarah and I have one child, a 5 year old daughter. She would be in kindergarten by age, so I guess this is our first semi-official year home schooling, but I’ve done all of her preschool learning with her at home and we don’t have to do anything official until she’s 8 years old. We decided to homeschool for a number of reasons, our daughter is advanced especially in reading and math and I didn’t want her to be bored or the problem child in a classroom, we want her to be a kid for as long as she can, and we have no faith in the current common core curriculum/standards. We are also loving the flexibility we have, not being tied to someone else’s schedule for learning.
I/we (I say I because I do the majority of teaching) like the Charlotte Mason method of learning, but we do more copywork/workbooks than I think she would recommend, this seems to be how my daughter learns well, but I like to use a lot of classic literature and follow up with notebooking for narration. I also think that a classical method seems to provide a solid education, so I’m sure we’ll be using some classical methods/curricula as well.
My name is Amanda. My husband and I have 2 wonderful children. My oldest is only 28 months and my youngest is 10 weeks old. I am feeling very called to homeschool when the time comes and I’m gathering as much info as I can. We’ve started a few activities that are age appropriate for the two year old and we look forward to starting your letter of the week program soon!
Hi all, I’m Lindsey. I have a 7.5 year old, 9 year old and a new babe due in May of this year (surprise!!). We are in our first year of homeschooling. I’m not sure what teaching style I like best, I’m still figuring things out. We use Sunlight curriculum, so maybe that’s traditional?? We started homeschooling because we felt God was calling us to do so and although it is seriously the hardest thing I’ve ever done, it is so rewarding and fulfilling. Looking forward to connecting with others here and having a community to share and support!
Hi!! My name is Kim and we have four kiddos; three girls and one boy, ages 8g, 6b, 3g and 1g. We’ve been homeschooling for 4 years.
I used to be a public school teacher; however God opened the door for me to stay home after our second and since our oldest wouldn’t be able to start school when she turned five (because of her late bday), although she was more than ready, we decided to go ahead and do kindergarten with her and see how it went. We’ve been at it ever since!
I would say that I lean towards a more traditional / eclectic style. We love hands on activities! I have a visual/auditory learner and one very kinesthetic learner! I look forward to learning from you all!
Hi! I’m Danielle. We have been homeschooling for 4 years now and have 4 kids ages 8, 4, 2 and 1. We tend to like a Traditional/Eclectic style, but honestly just go with what works best for each kid. We really like Sonlight and use that for our main curriculum along with some other add ins. Honestly, we started homeschooling because it just ‘feels right’. I know that really does not explain it, but that is just how it is. It is just right for our family.
Hi This is my first year homeschooling. I am homeschooling my 6 year old who has autism. It has been a great option for him with improved behavior and steady academic growth. I use a combination of approaches for him and have found the online community of homeschooling families to be a great resource.
My name is stephanie. In june i will have 4 children. I have a 6 year old boy, a 4 year old daughter, a 11 month old (in a few days) son and im like 25 weeks pregnant with another boy. This is our first year offically homeschooling. We are schooling year round. We live in indiana. We dont really have a prefered method of schooling. We do a little of everything so i guess that would be considered electic. I think i spelled that wrong. We homeschool mainly because God placed it on my heart when i was a child. My husband and i both agree we dont like the way the public school system here works. Ive seen personally how the school system here treats children with special needs and we both dont like it. We also want our children to be able to learn how they feel comfortable. I think thats it.
I am a mom of 5 kids- ages 9, 8, 7, 5, and 2. I homeschooled my oldest exclusively for 2 years when we saw too many problems at our public school for us to live with and had no other options. We ended up loving homeschooling, even though it started out as a “default” choice, but we also found a grades 1-8 private school we really liked during that time. For the past 3 years, I have homeschooled kindergarten and sent my older children to the private school. We are seriously considering going back to exclusive homeschooling for everyone next year though. We feel it being placed on our hearts for a variety of reasons including more family time due to my husband’s crazy work schedule and a better fit for the learning styles of a couple of our children. We’re in the midst of a lot of prayer to see if this is the direction we should take right now.