Okay, so I'm reading Mary Pride's book and I'm 99% sure I'm gonna homeschool. I would appreciate any advice for a newbie you would have. Also, I'd appreciate if you guys can post a sample schedule of your day. Thanks! Oh, one more thing, what are good history, science and spanish books for kindergarten? I think I'm going with Saxon math.

I have been home schooling for 4 years now...here is a sample of what we do...I have a 14 yr old daughter and a 11yr old son who has ADD. both of my kids do. reading, science, history, language, math, my son does spelling, hand writing, my daughter does civics, and
Bible(I start off with prayer and a devo with each one of my kids) and they both have a seperate Bible lesson to do. they do everything everday except for my son who does handwriting and his Bible lessons on tuesdays and thursdays.


6:30-7 I get up and start my day
7:00ish my 11 year old son gets up...has his coffee and "brain food". He watch a little TV and eats breakfast.
8:00-8:30 he gets ready for school(gets dressed...depending on the day sometimes he does school in his pj's
8:30 I start or try to start school with him....reading, and history/science.
9:00 I start trying to get my daughter up...she is a total night owl and my son starts his spelling.
9:30 daugther is up and eating breakfast...she doesn't usuall start her school until 10:00 am although she will be in the 9th grade this fall so that could change. My son is working on hand writing.
10-10:30 first recess break for my son and I help my daughter go over her school assignments.
10:30-12:00 school for both kids
12:00-1:00 lunch break
1:00-2:00 or until we are done. finish school
2:00-5:00 free time...kids usually do their chores first and I do some housework. Since I have a serious asthma condition..I have a house cleaning schedule
5-6 I start dinner (we mostly have things to do in the eveings and at night.)
6-9 activities or free time (dad is home from work and dinner is over so this usually means gamecube or a movie with dad. depending on what we have going on. My daughter does theater so she usually has rehearsal 2 nights a week and dance one night a week.)
9-10 my son is getting ready for be and is in bed by 10:00pm
between 6-10pm if I'm home I usually get caught up on anything that didn't get done during the day, and get ready for the next day.
I try to be in bed by 11:00pm and I try to get my daughter to start thingking about getting ready for bed. she is suppose to be in bed by 11:00pm sometimes its a lot later.

we do a home school co-op on friday afternoons and and both of them have different activities that they do through out the week.( my son will start karate this fall) We all are involved in a theater company for kids, I'm the stage manager and both my husband and son work back stage. . I try and schedule any and all appointments in the afternoon. Some days we get everthing done and somedays we don't. things come up and change the schedule so flexibility is a must.

As far as books for kidergarden...look at walmart, sam's club or your local school supply store.

I hope this helps.

Blessings,
Karen

Thank you so much for all that wonderful info. I have bought many books at the Dollar Tree. I am working on writing with ds at the momment. I want to start reading in July. My dd who is going to be 4 next month, is working on the basics like abc's, numbers, shapes, colors and sequences. Everyone is doubting my decision on this but I don't blame them. I've been going back and forth for so long I don't think they even listen to what comes out of my mouth anymore. I have my son preregistered in Kinder but I'm going to call the school to see what I have to do to withdrawl. Kinder isn't maditory here anyway.

We start at 9 am. He does 1/2 hour each subject(economics/accounting(for math because who really uses algebra and trig), spelling, reading, language arts, science, and history. He makes his own lunch so I guess that could be home ec. We are done by 1 pm. From 1-3 while the others are in school, he helps around the house if he isn't in another country with his grandmother. We are usually done the school year by April. This year it will probably be May because he has 3 trips paid for so far this year to Greece, Vancouver and Russia. Yes, he is spoiled.

Will you adopt me and take me to Greece, Vancouver and Russia?

I do not pay for the trips, his grandmother and great-grandmother do. He is the only grandchild and one of three great-grandchildren on his late father's side.

I have been homeschooling for 2 years now and have never had a schedule that we stuck to for very long but next year I will have 2 official students, K&2nd. I have been looking online at schedules and found this website to be helpful. It has the schedules for various years of one family that has a bunch of kids. I think that I am going to try to do something, maybe not quite as detailed as theirs but It gave me some good ideas.

I think that you just need to decide for yourself what is best for yourself and your family in educating your kids. You may not homeschool forever but I think that it is good for boys to start out at home b/c schools just aren't set up for the way boys learn imo. Good luck!

btw, I was not impressed with Saxon K Math but love Saxon Phonics, my ds's reading and spelling is very good for a 6yo (imo). We didn't do a formal curriculum for sr social studies for K. Just books from our personal and the public library.

__________________
:love: married to dh 7 years
ds 6, dd 4, dd 3, dd 1

I have HS our children their entire school careers. We do not keep a strict schedule. However, most days look a lot like this:

7:30-8 Kids start getting out of bed. When everyone is up & dressed, we eat breakfast.
8-9 Chores & free time
9-12 Devotions & Group Activities, Start to work on individual assignments
12 Lunch & free time
1 -3 Finish any individual projects, go to the library, etc.

I put together most of our curriculum from unit studies that I find and "tweak" online (see the sticky thread regarding websites for this info.). This allows all the kids to study the same topics. We just adapt their assignments to meet their abilities. The unit studies cover all areas -- science, Social Studies, literature, etc. So, I do not buy a packaged curriculum for these subjects.

I have Saxon Math from Grade 2 on up and it has worked very well for my children except that we found it a little too repetitive for our taste. So, we just altered the lesson plan to meet our needs. Prior to that I used workbooks purchased at discount stores or worksheets I printed online to match the lessons that I developed on my own. I used Power Glide's Spanish program and the kids really enjoyed it.

As far as advice goes, I would recommend that you read as much as you can and get lots of different viewpoints on HS. Go back and read some of the previous posts on this forum. There is some great info there. Check your state laws and guidelines regarding HS and education to be sure you are meeting all the requirements.

Also, don't be afraid to change the way you do things more than once, if you need to. It will take some time to figure out what works for you and your child(ren). What works for others may not work for you. In time you will find what works best for your family.

Best wishes in your schooling!

__________________

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"Fostering Excellence in Intellect & Character"

My schedule is a lot like Aohkay's. Pretty loose. I don't give each subject a specific time limit, we work at it until it's done, and if we finish one subject quickly we move right along. BUT...it's good to have a loose one. You'll find it will change so many times. YOu'll learn when your child seems to be most alert, etc...
Personally, I"m not a huge Saxon fan at all, plus it's so pricey. I especially disliked the kindergarten one. I hate to say that to you because I don't want to discourage you. Many Kindergarteners start with Saxon 1, I encourage you to look through online samples, etc...We used Horizons Math for Kindergarten and we loved it. We only bought the workbooks which are 10.00 each, you'll need two, at www.rocksolidinc.com. I made up my own manipulatives and games. However, if you have looked at the math program and like it, I say go for it. If you don't like it, that's the beauty of homeschooling, you can easily get something else.

Good luck, and remember to have fuuuuuuun. I can't believe the things "I" have learned while homeschooling. I think I learned more in Kindergarten and 1st grade science then in my entire schooling career! (some college). LOL