Decided to homeschool

I also live in TX, actually there are several of us here in Texas. (I guess I'll always be a SC girl)

I have a 18 year old step son, he's starting his 2nd year at St. Mary’s University, a 7 year old son that I homeschool, and a almost 1 year old (in about 2 weeks) girl that I'll hs when the time comes.

I'm in a constant state of "trying to get my house ready to HS) There are a lot of us here who follow the www.flylady.com way of cleaning, and we chit chat about that and everything else under the sun over in the flybabie thread. Hope to see you around.

Jamie Lea

I don't homeschool (but many on this site do). But I have found a few things useful in teaching at home unofficially.

The Core Knowledge series has a book for the elementary levels (I think it goes up to 6, but not sure). The book is Everything Your Kindergartener Should Know. I found a website that has lots of lesson plans based on this book. Let me see if I still have it:
http://www.cstone.net/~bcp/BCPIntro2.htm

If your child isn't reading yet, the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is an excellent book.

Wish we could have that kind of dress code at our school. I HATE the new clothes kids are wearing, especially the high schoolers. Our school is PreK-12, so I see lots of different stuff.

Hope this helps you some!! Both those books are paperback, and were inexpensive. I think they were each under $15 (for some reason $12 is sticking out in my mind, but I'm too lazy to go look them up on Amazon).

Jenny

Countdown to baby!!!

Glad you've joined us! This is a very homeschooling-friendly site. I hear (jamielea?) that Texas is one of the easiest states in which to homeschool, regulation-wise. Have you checked out the state homeschooling organizations?

I've been homeschooling mine since the beginning, and I will have another 5yo starting this fall. I use 100 EZ Lessons to teach reading. I think a basic phonics program, reading aloud lots from whatever you both enjoy, and "real life" math (counting real objects, telling time, etc.) would suffice for kindergarten. Lots of activity and fresh air is usually what K-age boys seem to need!

It is easier here than in Arkansas..i homeschooled my older children in Arkansas and we had to notify the school district of your intent to homeschool and certain grades have to take standardized tests.

I am in Corpus Christi...I am now looking for homeschool groups so daniel can meet other kids.

I have found a program called "Mozart Math" that teaches music and math together. Daniel loves music so much and wants to learn to play the guitar...this will kill two birds with one stone. The whole program costs about $80.

I have also found some great free sites including one for teaching spanish where they can hear the words spoken. Living in South Texas he needs to learn Spanish. If anyone is interested I could post the links.

mindi

Hiya,I'm new here too,and a homeschooling mum.We lean more towards unschooling,and are in Canada:)
What I have found helpful,and wish I had used right from kindy,is the book Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons
Siegfried Engelmann
Phyllis Haddox
Elaine Bruner
It's been really helpful and takes all the guesswork and worry and panic,lol,out of teaching them to read.
I second everything all the other mums have said,great advice!

I am leaning a bit towards unschooling myself. I am going to work with him on reading. He leanrs math on his own. I really don't know how he does it, but he will hust say someting like 5+5 is 10. He helps me to cook and last night, cooking pasta turned into a discussion on waters 3 forms and we are doing an experiment to turn water into ice then to water then to steam...We also had a discussion of weather (a steaming pot with a glass lid explains rain and the water cycle better than any text book). So we are learning by living....