Does anyone here homeschool? I'm thinking of doing it with Casen this next year. He is only 4 so he by law can't be in kindergarten, I wanted to test him into it but they won't allow it. He is very smart, I know I'm his mom and all say that lol, but he is reading, writing, spelling, adding, subtracting, rhyming and more. He is doing most of what they do in kindergarten, he is probably mid-end kindergarten level to beginning 1st grade level. The only preschool I found that would actually challenge him will be $400 a month and Mark has just started back working after being unemployed for 7mo so I really can't see us paying that at this point. But I'm really clueless where to start. I have printed worksheets out for him before for him to do BUT I want to do an actual curriculum and it be like he is in school where it all flows kwim? Anyone have any advice or websites with more info?

I don't homeschool since Aiden isn't even close to school-age yet, but I was thinking about it for him for preschool, since I volunteered for a 4K class and was just appalled at how it was run and how uneducated the teacher seemed. I'm not sure how much good this would do, but I have this link bookmarked:

http://www.ehow.com/information_1239...paign=yssp_cat

It would take some searching through, but you could probably find some useful information.

--After a little searching myself, I thought this might help out, too. For setting up a "school" day:

Create an opening and closing routine for your school day. The opening activity often includes a welcome song, a calendar activity, a discussion of the weather and a description of the day. The closing activity includes clean up, a reflection of the days activities and answering any lingering questions.

I will be home educating my children as I was home educated myself and feel that it was a wonderful experience. I won't be following a curriculum though as I prefer the 'unschooling' method, where you enable the child to learn rather than teach them things you think they should know.

I recently read this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-one-Prac...7821280&sr=8-1 and it's really good. It covers children that are at school as well so you could use it with your older kids as well.

Thanks girls! Yeah I like the unschooling but with a bit of structure, I can't see allowing him to fully run it. But I'm all for teaching him what he wants to learn and furthering that. Math, reading and writing are things he really enjoys, he is always asking me to show him new things and teach him about stuff which is how he's learned what he does know. But I just wanted to add a bit more consistency to it, do it daily with him, but by following his lead

I'll be home educating Jack, but haven't started researching it much yet. I just know that I'll be using some montessori methods (child directed learning). I'm really excited about doing it! I'm looking forward to the things we can learn together as well as what I can teach him

Thanks for the link to that book Marley

First let me say that I have no experience of home-schooling or even having kids so bear than in mind when you read this! Also I'm in the UK so things will probably be very different to in the US.

Anyway, the first thing that popped into my head when I read your post was whether you're just wanting to home-school until Casen is old enough for school, or is it a permanent thing?

I used to work as a children's bookseller so I know there are quite a few publishers that publish really good quality work books and answer books etc for teaching your child (in the UK anyway). Obviously you wouldn't just want to use those (how boring would that be?!), but they might provide a decent structure to what you're teaching, a sort of backbone that you can interpret in your own way and add things to. If you think Casen might, at some point, go into mainstream education, I think it would be a very good idea to look at what workbooks etc the local schools use. If you use the same ones, if Casen did go to school, you'd be able to show them exactly what he's done and he could just carry on. If you used different ones, I think they would be quite likely to just start him at the level they think is average for his age and if he's advanced, that would be a complete waste of time. I remember from when I was at school that when new kids would start, if they hadn't done the same reading scheme at their old school they had to start on the average level for the school year. I always felt really sorry for them!

Yeah I'm only doing it because he isn't of age for school but he is mentally ready for it so I want to further that since he enjoys learning so much. We have actually done tons of workbooks, he will sit down and work through one with little to no help, so I was thinking maybe some from places that actually do the curriculum might help? I need to look into it all more. But that's a good idea to contact the school and see what they are using for their kindergarteners and 1st grade. My plan is to put him in kindergarten next fall...2010...and then see what they think, probably test him into a higher grade then. I'll have to look at TX requirements for homeschool though, maybe if I follow a certain curriculum they will put him directly into 1st instead of testing him in?

can anyone tell me how to get the ball rolling with regards to homeschooling in the uk? Faith is nowhere near school age yet but i dont want her to go to school and be treated like a number she is an amazing extension of me and id like to treat her that way

Basically in the uk if the child has never been to school, you don't need to do anything. Check out the education otherwise website for loads of info about the law in England (though not Scotland)

Glad this has be posted I really want to home school Edward. Will keep an eye on it xx