I have made it through these last years of homeschooling by listening and learning from online parent communities.  There is always someone else experiencing your situation or somewhat close enough to relate to you.  One online parent community I have found very helpful is the Time4Learning one.  There are so many subjects to pick and choose from to help you out. 

My current situation is my oldest wants to attend public school.  You what!?!  Seeking advise through forums has helped me.  Now I just have to put some serious thought into and see what will be best for her and our family.  She has a good head on her shoulders but I am afraid of the temptations out there.  My youngest tells her she is crazy!  She said, “I like doing school in my pj’s and being done way before the neighborhood school bus comes around!” 

 When I chose to home-school and did all the research and did all the curriculum reviews I knew I was making the right choice with Time4Learning.  I test her every so often and she seems to be ahead of her grade level.  What if she goes to school and is bored because she is ahead of them in their studies?  Maybe that will be a blessing!  Just maybe she will be bored and want to be home-schooled. 

 I am sure some answer will come to us in time and we will have to take that leap into the unknown and hope for the best!

Oh, it was awful.  My third grader and her multiplication facts.  Nothing I seemed to do would get those numbers inside her head to stay!  What’s a mom to do?!

I used bits and pieces of several different math texts, trying to hit on something that worked for her.  I thought maybe if I presented it a different way, something would click.  She seemed to understand the basic premise, but memorizing the facts was just not happening.  You know, when the tried-and-true flashcard method just doesn’t keep their interest, you’ve got to get creative!  So off I went to find something….different.

How about online math flashcards?  Yea!  The novelty of it kept my daughter’s attention as she played along.   And she really learned her multiplication facts this way.  It’s also a great idea to use for periodic review, to reinforce what the kids have learned.

I’ve been impressed with online math curriculum because it teaches the kids what they need to know, in a way they like learning.  Bright colors, engaging graphics, even sound effects…isn’t that better than some boring old math textbook any day?

Does your curriculum include social studies? Do you think that social studies is an important part of your child’s education? I do, and I can tell you that I am eternally grateful that I don’t have to come up with all of the content to teach my child social studies. I firmly believe that if you don’t learn from history you are doomed to repeat it, but if I had to go out and collect every little piece of the information my child needed to be well versed in social studies, well, lets just say her education would not be as well rounded! The curriculum we use is Time4Learning, and they provide us with a great social studies program. It contains history, civics, social studies, and economics. Even though it is a well rounded curriculum, sometimes you just have to get something that is less…well….lesson-ish. On occasion we just need to expand on what we are learning. Take Ben Franklin for example. Historically speaking, the study of Mr. Franklin can be kind of dry. To lighten the mood and still get the information covered, you can certainly turn to word searches and true and false questions. Maybe add some special rewards if the fun material is mastered. My daughter certainly enjoys learning “the fun way” as she calls it, and it never ceases to amaze me that she will choose to start her day of lessons with something like social studies. It makes any extra work you have to put into the lessons worth it to have them say, “Can we start with social studies today?”

It’s adorable how the younger kids want to be like their big brothers or big sisters.  My preschooler wants to “do school” along with her older siblings.  I’m all for it, but I wish there were more of me to go around!  I’m stretched pretty thin just trying to get the older kids through their lessons for the day.

I was relieved to find some preschool learning games that I could let her do while I’m working with my older kids.  She’s proud of herself for “doing school”, and she’s learning a bit at the same time.  It’s a great solution!

Of course, playing computer games tends to evolve into full preschool curriculum, and pretty soon I discovered I’d introduced my preschooler to schoolwork, almost by accident!  And she loves it!

As a home-school mom I feel I have to make things more creative to keep my girls from the doing the same ol’ same ol’!  Writing and spelling WERE a bore to them.  After they do their spelling ritual I print the printable handwriting worksheets of their word list then they can practice writing them. Having them also write a sentence for each word.  Later in the week they usually do their online keyboarding games, but I have added that when I give them their spelling test on those words they type them out.  Therefore, getting more keyboarding in and spelling at same time. 

Now only if I can be more creative with math!