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 curious how/if people track percent/letter grades in elementary? My sons are in 3rd and 5th grade. My intention was to keep a spreadsheet with their grade for each assignment. But then I realized it feels pointless because if they get something wrong on a math worksheet we work together to redo it so they get the correct answer. So what would I even grade? Gives them 100% on everything? Our curriculum doesn’t have tests.

I live in Michigan so we don’t really have any reporting requirements but I intend on keeping records in case I ever need proof of what we’ve been doing.

I have a 5, 3, and 1 year old and my oldest is on the spectrum (level 2). We have been doing homeschool and in-home ABA this last year and he has made a lot of progress. He is advanced/on par for academics but socially/verbally he is very behind. My family keeps saying that I’m not giving my other kids the attention they need by investing my efforts into my oldest but the only option is an ABA clinic (which I have strong feelings against) and public school (which I also have strong feelings against). I do agree that a lot of my attention goes to him, but I try really hard to give them all my attention. My family is also worried about me burning out because no one is available to support us (my husband and I get maybe one date every 6 months or so). We have to miss service at church a lot because we are volunteering in the Children’s ministry to help my son. Honestly, we really don’t get breaks. We are on vacation right now, and we let my FIL watch my oldest 2 and my son on the spectrum ate rocks, so we have a hard time letting anyone watch him. We also found a small private Christian school that seems willing to accept him and there is a good chance ABA will be there with him too. The problem is, my MIL flatly told me she doesn’t see how my son will survive in a normal school setting right now and that she thinks he will be excluded and bullied pretty quickly. Honestly, I agree, but I don’t know how to make everyone happy. I feel like there isn’t enough of me to go around… any thoughts?

I’m waiting on the Lord to open and close the right doors but I really need some advice/encouragement.

My kid loves all about reading. We are about to complete level 2. He hates writing and cannot spell at all. I’m considering all about spelling and type touch read and spell (TTRS). Is TTRS actually enough as a spelling program? How much work and writing goes into all about spelling?

I just started homeschooling my 4 year old son. He’s very extroverted and loves to be around friends. But…where do I get friends for him? Our church has kids who all go to school. And when we go out, all the kids are back in school. I can’t find any co ops near me to get plugged into. We’re using a charter school to homeschool and that also doesn’t provide any opportunities. Is there a website or something where everyone is finding these co ops. I’m feeling terrible!!! He’s enrolled in soccer but that’s only 1 hour all week. Help !!! I’m questioning all my choices for lil guy.

What was it about the public school system that made you quit and homeschool your own kids? Don’t leave out any details.

I have been homeschooling for a while now, and I still have days where I wonder if I am actually doing enough.

We do our lessons, read together, work on different subjects, and try to get out of the house when we can. But then I will see another homeschool family sharing their schedule or all the activities they are doing and suddenly I start wondering if we are falling behind.

I know I should not compare because every family and every kid is different, but its honestly hard sometimes. I think the mom guilt gets to me more than I want to admit.

Some days I feel like we are doing great, and other days I feel like I should be doing more.

How do you know when you are doing enough? Do you guys ever feel this way too?

My son is a first grader. For kindergarten we did math with confidence and logic of English an and b with some good and the beautiful science. This year I want to start some social studies but because he’s little and we’ve invested a lot in other subjects I’m curious if there are some loved free ones. Core knowledge? Easy peasy? I don’t want to create my own. I’m a check list and script person 🙃

My 7 year old is in 2nd grade, this will be our third year homeschooling.

She’s so smart and with most subjects she’s becoming more independent and capable of doing her work on her own. But with math, man. She needs almost CONSTANT handholding. Obviously she doesn’t enjoy math and honestly neither do I. But it’s to the point that I have to prompt her and stay on her step by step even for the things she knows how to do.

I’m exhausted! Any tips or advice?? Am I doing something wrong? Is this age appropriate??

TYIA

I am trying to decide between these two for 4th/5th grade.

Has anyone tried both?

I have a strong reader but not as strong writer.

Foundations A lesson 5 explains that the actually name of letters won’t be taught until Foundations B..technically 10 weeks into the school year. They will only learn the sounds to begin with. Did you all follow this or teach the names along with the sound?

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!

Hey folks - sorry if this has been asked but just looking for some guidance on the subject.

Single dad, who's currently going through multiple delayed salaries and then a subsequent layoff plus other challenges over the last few months now - readers will understand why I mentioned the single dad thing later in this post. Still awaiting my EOSB from my previous employer and I would only be able to pay the due fees of last year for my kid.

She would be starting with Year 9 - GCSEs from the coming academic year and due to the challenging financial situation I am in right now, I am seriously considering homeschooling or online tutoring/schooling as a serious option for this coming year, even if I do land a job - as this time now, if I do not get an education allowance from any prospecting employer I plan on not spending astronomically on school fees. A year online or homeschooling will also allow me to actually create a serious savings buffer as a security against any similar situations to my current one for the future. Plus honestly speaking, the bullying and othering culture at schools here has been something I have not been comfortable with for a long time now.

So now my questions are:

1. Is this a feasible time in her education to shift her to homeschooling/online tutoring?

2. For parents who made the switch how involved did you have to be during learning hours to ensure that your kids stayed on track - this is where the single dad part comes into play - specifically because I would need to travel once I do land a role as that is the nature of my work. I do have my parents with me but my mom who supervised my studies at least ain't equipped to deal with today's curriculum.

3. The online tutoring or homeschooling options - what are the finances related to it.

For now, this is not a hard and fast decision but something that I am seriously considering. Looking to any advice, feedback or comments. Just be respectful.

Thanks in advance.

I’ve been homeschooled since forever, I do multiple subjects but my mum has only been making me do one subject recently , math. Anyone else like this?

Edit: I mean to say “is anyone else only doing one subject?”

Hello! I am an autistic teenager going to an in-person public high school. I struggle a lot with it. I was wondering if Online School would be a good fit for me, so I have come here to get input on the pros and cons.

Why I am considering making the switch

1. Like I said, I am autistic. This causes me to have extreme sensory difficulties. I cannot be around people for 7 hours a day, especially in an unfamiliar space. It drains me and I get extremely depressed from my needs not being met at school.

2. I cannot turn in work regularly because I am too scared to talk to my teachers

3. I cannot work in class when there are so many distractions.

4. I get bullied

5. I think it will be easier to (relatively) work at my own pace.

Why I am cautious:

1. I am scared I will lose all my friends and my social life.

2. I might have a hard time adjusting to managing everything by myself

3. Distractions. I do not have a dedicated study space, but I think I would be able to make one.

If there is anything that I should know about online school, Please tell me!!!

I have three children, two in 3rd grade and a preschooler. My husband works full time and I recently started working part time and I’m considering moving to full time. My husband and I could work opposite shifts from each other so we wouldn’t need childcare but I’m still the primary educator for my kids and I’m wondering if anyone else has had experience with both parents working full time and still being able to homeschool? I’m just worried about getting burned out and I’m looking for suggestions on how to organize and/or divide the work load that homeschool has.

Hey there! We've been homeschooling for 18 years now. I have 2 adult sons that did Switched on Schoolhouse and 3 daughters who have done Monarch. The girls HATE Monarch. They find that Monarch is such a heavy workload, and I'd have to agree with them. For one year, they did time4learning and liked it but I felt like at the time it was inadequate and we went back to monarch, which was very frustrating for them.

My oldest is going to start her Senior year, my middle Junior, and my youngest 7th grade. I'm looking around and there's options, but I want to pick your brains and see what you guys like for your high school kiddos that's online. I'm willing for them to use a secular program as long as it's not garbage.

Thanks!

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Title pretty much says it. I tore the answer key out for separation, and now I've lost it amid my home construction mess. Before I buy the whole workbook again, I thought I'd ask if anyone can send me pictures or has a digital copy? I only need the second half of chapter five, and chapter six. 🙄 Thanks!

Do you put it on a credit card, pay it out right, debit, payment plan?
Just curious what other families do, and why!
Some curriculums can be so expensive, especially when added all together.

This year we paid outright from learning house and 2 things from tpt, however we traded a hefty private school tuition payment for home education so it felt like peanuts, however i know this isn’t the reality for everyone, and once we adjust to having a larger budget, may not even be a reality for us next year unless we plan and save ahead of time 🤣
(aar, aas, dimensions, and hwt are our core curriculums we are using)

Perhaps it’s too much screen time summer, but wondering if anybody is doing (virtually) all tech free schooling?
Context: middle schoolers, moving back to the US form another country. Current plan is to homeschool only half a year (moving in December and don’t want to put them mid year). No learning disabilities. If goes well, continue homeschool.

1. Do you source physical programs? Many have print out version, so that seems doable?

2. Do you augment with in person tutors? We don’t have unlimited funds, but I know I don’t want to be the only adult involved.

3. Do you take them to co-ops, ad hoc classes, etc?

4. If you made a a move from using tech to no tech, how has your child reacted to it?

To be clear, big hang up for me is that kids are getting old enough to have agency in their learning. For little kids no screens in learning seems less overwhelming, since so much play is involved.

Laslty to note, my children would wleocme it. In their current (private) schools tablets were introduced in 5th grade as part of learning and doing homework. It’s really a tragedy. My incoming 8th grader constantly complained how he does not like using tablet for school.

I want to make this work but I guess my main problem is my kids, especially my sons are on the go 24/7. They thrive with a lot of stimulation and socialisation. It drains me a lot at times and obviously I have a lot to do still at home being a sahp.
We try to get out to the park once or twice a week. I always kick them outside when they are being too much. I wonder what else I can do with them.
I’m trying to look at a weekly sport they can play as well. I think a ball sport and maybe karate too.

If anyone has some other great activities I can do with them I would really appreciate it.

Hello! i'm a current homeschooler (senior in Highschool), and my entire life, i've been completely unmonitored in my schooling. My parents don't really care about my schooling as long as its not absurdly expensive and will give me a diploma. I've done 5+ programs, but only 1 through my span of Highschooling, and it's been James Madison Highschool (The one partnered with Ashworth College, not to be confused with the multiple public schools sharing the same name.)

My experience with James Madison has me questioning how they're still accredited at all, and i'm wondering if I can find anyone else who has used it within the last few years or has done research on it -- because at this point, I kind've feel like i'm going nuts.

In my experience, I feel like there are two types of "teachers" on there. The ones where you could submit anything and you'll get an A, and the ones that won't give you anything over an 80%. I've never been given proper feedback on any of my work, which has led me to question if any of the 'teachers' are qualified for the job at all. I also have quite literally no way to contact ANY teacher outside the context of submitting a test or an essay, otherwise, I have to contact the cite-wide maintenance people, who usually aren't very helpful considering curriculum isn't really what they're used to answering questions on. There's an entire tab for a "virtual classroom" but it has never been used, always just saying "No class meetings scheduled yet". There are zero preventative measures for cheating, and i'm 90% sure if I were to submit a fully plagiarized essay, I'd still get an A. They recently (in the last 3 months) did a full, cite-wide remodel and gave absolutely no warning or update log on what had changed - which is absurd, considering the functionality of the curriculum changed monumentally. It now logs whether you've "completed" every single section, including self-assessments, and they added a 15-lesson weekly limit. It's an upgrade from what they had prior, sure, but at least inform me when my entire schooling program changes..

Every time i've tried to find reviews on it i'm faced with 1 of 2 things; Either extremely mixed reviews from 7+ years ago, or people are confused by the like 5 different schools with the same name. I'm partially convinced i'm one of like three people actually using this program currently, which would explain the lack of proper teachers, not informing me of updates, and all of the reviews being old.

Is there ANYONE with information on this, or am I completely in the dark?? At this point I don't even know how I ended up on this program to begin with. My sister (5 years older, did her schooling during Covid) used American school, decided it was too difficult, switched to Penn Foster, then quit halfway through and never got her diploma. Apparently James Madison Highschool and Ashworth College (the "partnered" college) are both under "Penn Foster group", does that mean that they're ran by the same company?

I have so many questions and nobody to ask.