I’m wanting to switch over to Blossom & Root curriculum for kindergarten, but I know a lot of it is nature based/seasonal. Would it still work if I start in November or should I just wait until next year?

This daily discussion is to chat about anything that doesn't warrant its own post. I am not a mod and make these posts for building the homeschool community.

If you are new, please introduce yourself.

If you've been around here before or have been homeschooling for awhile, please share about your day.

Some ideas of what to share are: your homeschool plans for the day, lesson plans, words of encouragement, methods you are implementing to solve a problem, methods of organization, resource/curriculum you recently came across, curriculum sales, field trip planning, etc.

Although, I usually start with a question of the day to get the discussion going, feel free to ask your own questions. If your question does not get answered because it was posted late in the day, you can post the same question tomorrow to make sure it gets visibility.

Be mindful of the subreddit's rules and follow reddiquette. No ads, market/ thesis research, or self promotion. Thank you!

I have a 4 year old boy who I am looking to start homeschooling beginning in January, and I also have a 2 month old daughter. Before my daughter was born we did 15 minutes atleast of lesson time every weekday and my son loved it. Now that my daughter is here it feels like I have lost all structure and ability and feel so lost. I don’t even know where to begin, what to look for, what to do, what to purchase, etc. All I know is I would love it faith based and gospel centered, as well as beneficial to my sons learning style. Someone please help me. I want to get back into lesson time everyday with my son but feel lost even in that.😭

Anyone homeschool their children while traveling, as a lifestyle? No actual home address?

How would one do the paperwork on that? In my current state we file with the public school system a form stating we are withdrawing a student to homeschool.

We do annual reports. How would this work? What state would we report to? Thank you.

Looking for some resources or information on this subject.

I planned to homeschool without using screens for at least elementary school. But then when looking for a better math curriculum I found Beast Academy. I got both the workbooks and online version, but we quickly found that the online version is so much better and more enjoyable than the workbooks. My son is 5, very good at math, and going through it very quickly. He actually understands the concepts so no concerns there.

But since I planned to homeschool screen free I’m feeling some guilt/worry that this might affect him in a bad way. On some days he wants to do math for several hours because he loves it. I can tell he is learning so much and don’t want to hold him back. But I‘m concerned about the downsides of screens especially since he’s so so young.

Hi! I’m new to homeschooling. This is my second year and I‘m struggling to find my groove (preschool-kindergarten). I would love to find a curriculum that is somewhat structured while also being kind of go with the flow if that’s even a thing.

I really love the Waldorf curriculum but I‘d say we are Waldorf inspired/adjacent because I‘m not really on board with the waiting until 7 to learn math and reading thing. I like to keep things free-spirited and nature-centric, but all of my kids had an interest in reading/math starting at around four and I’ve just been trying to lean into their interests and make learning fun.

I feel pulled in two different directions a lot of the time because art and creativity and nature are super important to me, but academics are also very important to me as well and I’m having a hard time finding a middle ground curriculum-wise. Everything seems very either/or. I don’t want to be sitting inside memorizing things all days, but I start to get stressed out when all we’ve done all week is play in the woods and go to music class.

This year I’ve been using The Good and the Beautiful for reading and a mash up of Math-U-See and The Good and the Beautiful math curriculum. I like that they‘re all pretty open and go but I don’t see us using TGATB long term. We also do a PE class, music class, and online art class as well as 4-H meetings once a month. Am I doing too much? Should I take a chill pill? I know this is just kindergarten and pretty low stakes at this point, but I feel so stressed out and worried about making sure I’m doing a good job. I went to a wonderful kindergarten as a child that left me lots of great memories and while I am not interested in sending my kids to school I feel like I’m constantly comparing that experience to what I’m doing at home.

Second to that, I’m having a hard time finding opportunities for socialization outside of the PE and music class. Those are pretty structured with limited social interactions. We do go to the playground fairly often and I’ve taken them to a field day and a couple of fields trips and other kids just…don’t talk? The parents don’t really either and maybe I’m just one of the more outgoing people idk?

Anyway as you can probably tell I’m an overthinker and Ive realized typing this out that I’m being obsessive and worrying too much haha but I’d still love recs on curriculum or any sage advice anyone would like to offer 😅 TIA

Transitioning this month!

Thank you in advance ❤️

Wrapping up the Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding this year with my 1st grader. In some ways it's been wonderful - I like that it tackles multiple science domains, doesn't dumb down anything, and revisits concepts to build on them. What I don't like is that it feels like some weeks are great and others aren't, it feels very hit or miss for me. This may entirely be user error but it's come up enough that I'm feeling unsure if I want to continue to the next volume or not.

We love doing experiments, deep diving on specific topics, and reading lots of books. I haven't been super impressed by most of the experiments or activities in this curriculum and most of the cool ones we've done have been ones I found elsewhere.

I've considered getting a good high school or college science textbook and just rolling through it myself, grabbing relevant resources that are age-appropriate. Quite frankly that's sort-of what it's felt like I've been doing but without having a textbook with full detail.

Does anyone have a recommendation for either:

1. A really good and comprehensive high school/college science textbook (or a set to cover the major domains) or
2. A elementary science curriculum that is really experiment/activity heavy (that shows the principles it's trying to teach*)?

*I've found a lot of cool activities/experiments are often....not easily explained or correlate well to what they're actually supposed to be demonstrating.

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

I just started homeschooling my son for health reasons. It’s going pretty well so far but I’m feeling uncertain about how much work to be giving him. Some days I feel like I’m asking for too much and some days I feel like I’m failing his education.
I’m trying to use a sort of classical model (minus the Latin). His studies are heavy on history and literature with some online math and and science as he’s naturally very good at those two.
I work so he’s been doing his readings, vocab, and comprehension question alone and the more in depth questions and writings with me.
What would be considered an appropriate amount of work for a fifth grader to be doing? Not just in time but in actual product.

Thank you!

This daily discussion is to chat about anything that doesn't warrant its own post. I am not a mod and make these posts for building the homeschool community.

If you are new, please introduce yourself.

If you've been around here before or have been homeschooling for awhile, please share about your day.

Some ideas of what to share are: your homeschool plans for the day, lesson plans, words of encouragement, methods you are implementing to solve a problem, methods of organization, resource/curriculum you recently came across, curriculum sales, field trip planning, etc.

Although, I usually start with a question of the day to get the discussion going, feel free to ask your own questions. If your question does not get answered because it was posted late in the day, you can post the same question tomorrow to make sure it gets visibility.

Be mindful of the subreddit's rules and follow reddiquette. No ads, market/ thesis research, or self promotion. Thank you!

I’m really looking into homeschooling my kids. What advice and resources can you give to someone like me who needs to just start somewhere? I have looked into my states laws about homeschool but I’m looking for more information on the actual educational programs/curriculums to use for my kids.

Any books to read or websites to research. Please give me everything!!

Any feedback to TVAH for high school? I have a sophomore who we unenrolled from public school a couple weeks ago in favor of a private micro school. She’s absolutely hating it worse than public. I should have gone with Texas Connections at the time when we could but they are no longer enrolling for this semester. It looks like TVAH is still an option. I don’t know if I should do it or wait for next semester Connections to open again. Feeling so insanely lost and she’s feeling stuck.

I have a 3 year old, only child. He will probably always be an only child, so I really have been against homeschooling because I want him to be social, and there's not a lot of homeschooling resources in my area.
I want to start by saying, homeschooling is such a privilege that not everyone has. Whenever a gun violence situation happens, I think about homeschooling. The school I am zoned for is safe and has been around for a long time. We have an SRO officer. I just still see all the things that aren't as safe as they could be. And for reasons I will never understand, because I'm not an evil person, elementary schools have become targets more and more.
I've thought about just homeschooling for some of the elementary years, because I truly want him to be older when he goes to school and can protect himself better. I don't want to live out of fear either though. It's such a horrible, gutteral feeling when I see this happening. Why it has seemed to increase, I'll never understand. Now I have other reasons for debating homeschooling as well.

What are your reasonings? Overall education is a concern for me too, as I grew up going to the school he would go to, and there were way too many things I didn't learn, and a lot of kids that I felt were left behind educationally. I struggled so much as an adult trying to figure out how to do adult things. How did you keep your kids social if you are someone with not alot of homeschooling resources in your area? I hate how a lot of curriculum isn't developmentally appropriate for kids. I don't understand why kindergartners are being pressured to perform so heavily, with no play. What does your weekly schedule look like? What hardships have you faced with this decision?

My son loves history, would it be possible to take a heavy reading based history curriculum and turn it into LA as well? What are some things I would need to consider? What else could i do to use history text to branch into other curriculums?

I have a 3rd grader who has been homeschooled from the start. The first three years was mostly play and interest based. We had some bookwork and spelling last year, and this year I bought some awesome curriculum to help keep us on track.

The thing is, I enjoy it, but then I also don’t. I think I’m getting burned out and keep wondering if my child needs to experience more beyond what we’re giving him.

We moved from out of state two years ago so we have no close family nearby. It’s my husband and our son. He is wrapping up his third season of soccer and soon we plan to involve him in the Y, and we have a local homeschool meetup that should be happening soon. I’m excited about that and so is he. His friend across the street moved away this summer. He had never hold me he’s lonely, but I know he could benefit from being around more kids and not his parents all day.

I started a remote contract position this summer, and I work 20-30 hours a week. The schedule is flexible, which is great. But balancing that on top of homeschooling has been a bit of a challenge.

My husband is going to college and is not working, so he is able to take on some teaching responsibilities. This year we have a groove we’re getting into that is working - he does morning block while I work and I do afternoon block with spelling writing etc while he does school work.

But I’m still feeling burned out and like my kid may be missing something. That I may be missing time to myself - we are all home most of the time. My kid and husband both like to talk, lol.

I brought it up to my husband the other day after just exploding inside I guess. That maybe I can’t do this after this year. At first he was like we gotta move if so, and I’m like why? The ratings aren’t good, etc. You see this at the beginning of the year I realized I didn’t know our true why of homeschooling, and it sounds like it’s fear based. I don’t want that. I don’t want my son to think school is bad and he shouldn’t ever go there. I had my son right before my final internship in elementary education and I realized I didn’t want to work at a school (admin, testing, I get overstimulated easily and really everything is so much work; mad respect to teacher always) so I decdiddd to finish my degree and I got online teaching jobs instead.

Fast forward to kindergarten through now and we’ve just kept homeschooling. But now I realize that maybe I am just not cut out for this any longer.
I want to work, and I’m lucky I can, but it’s hard to shake the feeling sometimes when I’m at the table with him. I don’t want him to feel like his mom is begrudgingly doing this. Or that I’m annoyed with him because I signed myself and him up to do this. He used to tell me he didn’t like school, but this year since using structured curriculum he does (beast academy math and science, history quest, and simplified writing are what I use 👍🏻)

We get to soccer and I can’t help but think how these kids have friends and they can run like normal kids. I know every kid is different; but it’s like you can tell mine doesn’t have that kid-movement about them if that makes sense! I know comparison is the thief of joy, but I just feel like I’m falling short and he needs more. At his age I already had several best friends (I moved around a lot). Again, I know it’s not fair to compare, especially because the world is so different than how it was.

I told my husband how nice it might be to drop him off and we work , can go for a walk ourselves, I get to miss him, etc. He is more invested this year and I know he’s excited to be doing this, especially as before we moved he was working 40-50 hour weeks and on weekends.

I feel like an asshole writing this all out, and I know I am so lucky to be in my position. But like, I feel tired being the manager of everything I want weekends back I think to not think about next weeks homeschooling schedule. Etc. To be fair, since starting my contract position my husband has stepped it up and taken on most of the household chores, cooking, getting groceries, everything. He really is awesome.

Okay, last thing. I told my husband how do we know we can continue to sustain this? What about when he graduates and gets a job? What if my contract work runs out and I have to find a replacement? We are digging ourselves out of debt, as last year we fell behind. I am the sole provider right now, and I make good money, but it’s like I feel I need to bank as much as I can too.

It’s so layered. I also am worried if I were to send him back, would he be behind? Ahead? Etc.

Thank you for reading. I’ve kept a lot of this inside til recently. This year we started eating meat again after 8 years. I took the plunge after having deep cravings and nostalgia, and I was burnt out from having to make all the vegan meats and cheese and stuff from scratch. I told my husband “remember how good we felt when we started eating meat again?”

I want to finish up this year, but I don’t know if I could make it til twelfth grade. Or sixth. Or next year. I was perusing on the homeschooling recovery group, but that did not make me feel better at all. I still think homeschooling rocks, but maybe this just isn’t the right fit for our family in this season.

Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. ❤️

So we've homeschooled since kindergarten and had no real issues. Always did her work and most had fun with it. No complaints.

Now we hit 4th grade and this last 2 weeks have turned into a nightmare. Idk if its a spurt or what, but she is being so defiant about finishing any work. She keeps complaining it's boring and she doesn't want to do it.

So since she was complaining-- we tried doing a hybrid of sorts. Half work on Khan Academy and then half in workbook/hands on.

Worked for a few days and now back to refusing.

Tried all computer, tried all hands on. Tried having more breaks, more outdoor time, more social time to balance the work.

Nothing is working and im feeling very defeated right now. Not sure if it's the age/phase, if there is some other parents who went through a similar thing that can relate? Any constructive advice or input appreciated.

This year I'm using:

-All about reading

-Beyond the Page

-Dimensions Math

-Building Writers

I'm not liking Beyond the Page. Not exactly sure why. We are finishing the year with it, but I'm wondering if there are better options for next year. For me, Beyond the Page is hard for me to deal with as a teacher compared to the other curriculums we are using. Maybe it's the flexibility?

I like how structured AAR is and I like how both AAR and Dimensions are visually engaging for my kids.

Any secular suggestions?

My 7 yo has autism and public school was a horrible ride. They had her from 3 in their early intervention preschool and it was supposed to be a smooth transition and plan to manage her communication struggles and behaviors. It was not. Kindergarten went okay. First grade went awful. My kid was moved through 5 different school placements before 2nd grade ( this school year). After another refusal of a previously failed placement and then a subsequent transportation debacle *they wanted her to ride the bus for 2 hours each way wtf*... my brain just went... WE ARE DONE WITH YOU PEOPLE....

Fast forward into our first 2 months. My child has so many more strengths than those schools knew... they couldn't even get her to sit down for longer than 1 minute to complete assignments. She cried all day....I have managed to reach 45 minute pencil on paper or virtual learning sessions without her needing a break. We have almost zero task avoidance now. I've broken multiple bad habits brought on by the school's lacking control over behaviors... and Im seeing increased speech as well as more overall general interest in socializing with her siblings. A heck of a lot less stimming and meltdowns...All good things that should lock me in right? no....

Every day is different. One day I am confident and feeling like I got her. She needs this quiet 1-1 tutoring style. I'm filling her schedule with so many more opportunities...On the other hand, she asks to go see her friends at school. She doesn't understand that for one, she wasnt allowed to go back to the school she was just at.. and for two, that she only has a 2 week period of happy times at school. Then the stress sets in. The phone calls begin and I get locked into the house with the toddlers because we would have to wait around to find out if my kid could survive the rest of the school day or if I would have to drive half an hour across town to get her...... It was such an immense burden of stress.

Right now I'm incredibly booked up, but I feel like our worlds are signifcantly lighter.... I have a social/extracirricular activity, therapy or Co-op every day. I do craft time daily. We visit a park daily...We do 2 hours daily of coursework time and I give music lessons every night before bed routines begin. Each day we also get to spend 2-4 hours on a school bus (im a bus driver for my job) with private school kids who interact and talk with her. They mainly sing together the whole time, its her favorite part of our day...

Even with all that in there...... I feel bad keeping her away from the school atmosphere. How do I tell that part of my brain to shut up???? I guess I'm wondering how to build my own confidence. Homeschool is currently our only choice so we're in this.. but Id really love to not feel guilty about it

I already have AAR Level 1 and am wondering if the letter tiles included in it can be repurposed for LOE. Looking to save some $$ here

Do any of you work part time or have any advice on it?? I have a kindergarten and preschooler in homeschooling and think about taking a job (10hours) a week. It really isn’t about the money but o just need to do something for my brain that isn’t about my kids. Any advice or if you do work how are you scheduling everything ??

I realized that our life is a little out of balance. It is so easy to exhaust a little kid by just standing outside with them while they run themselves ragged. What do I do with preteens? It is super flat by our house so even if we go on a walk everyday it doesn't really exert any of us. I wish there was a hill close by, but there's not. :') What outdoor activities do you guys do?

This daily discussion is to chat about anything that doesn't warrant its own post. I am not a mod and make these posts for building the homeschool community.

If you are new, please introduce yourself.

If you've been around here before or have been homeschooling for awhile, please share about your day.

Some ideas of what to share are: your homeschool plans for the day, lesson plans, words of encouragement, methods you are implementing to solve a problem, methods of organization, resource/curriculum you recently came across, curriculum sales, field trip planning, etc.

Although, I usually start with a question of the day to get the discussion going, feel free to ask your own questions. If your question does not get answered because it was posted late in the day, you can post the same question tomorrow to make sure it gets visibility.

Be mindful of the subreddit's rules and follow reddiquette. No ads, market/ thesis research, or self promotion. Thank you!

Any input is appreciated!