From Christina

Thanks for your email.  It sounds like you’re very excited about homeschooling!  The first thing you should do is slow down and take it easy!  :o)  Your son is only four.  The two of you can enjoy learning together and turning just about everything into a fun opportunity to learn something new.  At his age, just run with whatever fascinates him.  He’s at that ‘sponge’ age, ready to soak up every bit of information he can.  If you can tap into that natural love for learning and nurture it year after year, you’ve already done far more for him than any school ever could.

I’ll try to answer your questions or steer you in the right direction for information.

All of the homeschooling parents I know end up using a mish-mash of curriculum and learning materials.  As you progress together, you’ll find that one program or another really works with him and others do not.  Saxon math was a great choice for my daughter in kindergarten and 1st grade but in 2nd grade we switched.  The emphasis on fact memorization and lengthy worksheets just freaked her out.

One program we used when they were in that pre-schooler age, was ‘Five in a Row’.  The concept of this program is that you read aloud the same children’s classic every day for five days in a row.  Each day you pull different lessons from the book.  The child really does enjoy the repeated readings and you get a chance to talk about the artwork, or the location of the book (find it on a map, globe, maybe make a recipe from that town/country, etc.), the characters, nature lessons from the book, etc.  A different content lesson each day, all pulled from the same book. The main problem with the program is that many of the books are out of print.  However, once you see how the author creates her curriculum for each piece of literature, you could easily replicate it yourself using different books.

I taught my daughter how to read using a phonics program, Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.  The lessons were so boring to me, the illustrations in the book were dorky, but golly, if she didn’t learn to read!  She is now a voracious reader, easily reading at 11th and 12th grade.  (She’s 12 years old.)  Yesterday she was reading ‘Taming of the Shrew’, the original version.

Welcome to homeschooling!  There is no funding available, whatsoever!  The closest you’ll get is your state’s pseudo “homeschooling” program in which they might give you a ‘free’ computer and a stack of textbooks.  You check in once a week with a ‘certified’ teacher.  Friends of mine who have done this eventually drop out.  One friend complained about the massive amount of time involved.  Longer than a public school day.  When you think about all the classroom crap that doesn’t exist when you homeschool, e.g. taking roll, lining up to go here and there several times a day, time consumed with discipline problems, etc., it mystifies me why so much work should be piled on homeschoolers using these programs.  Unless the ploy is to actually lure them back to the public schools in frustration.  (Disclaimer: I taught school for numerous years and was a teacher trainer for several more.)

A lot of moms go for these programs because of the lure of the free computer and curriculum and their own insecurity, but in my opinion, there’s a high price to pay.  Homeschooling can set you free of tight schedules, questionable curriculum (as in ,”Tell me again why my kid has to learn THIS????”), one-size-fits-all-10,000-kids-in-our-district curriculum.  My recommendation is that you take a deep breath, go to the library with your child, look for books on every subject he’s interested in, and then just dive in together.

Books.  Lots of books.  A good math curriculum.  Math manipulatives, although you can easily substitute buttons or beads or any number of manipulatives you already have around the house.  You truly need so few materials that you’ll begin wondering why on earth our public school system needs billions and billions of dollars.  As time goes on, you and your child will work on various projects together and you’ll need materials for those, but that really is about it.  There are so many free materials and resources online, everything from handwriting pages to flashcards.  We have used a free curriculum called Ambleside Online.  The curriculum is free, you purchase the books.

Christina, I have the feeling that making the transition from a public school mindset to one of homeschooling is going to be the hardest for you!  Are you envisioning you and your son sitting down together over a textbook, answering the questions at the back of the chapter, and then taking chapter quizzes?  I hope not!

Kids soak up an amazing amount of information in so many ways, and as it turns out, textbooks may be the worst source of information!  They’re written by adults who have been away from actively teaching children for decades.  They’re written by committees and have to conform to a pre-set reading level, well below what it should be.  The committee determines how many words or paragraphs are devoted to herbivores, George Washington, the Pacific Ocean, etc., etc.!  You’ll be dismayed when you realize that significant pieces of information are left out or minimized, but that an entire page is devoted to an insignificant character or event just because it’s politically correct.

The very best books you can buy and use with your son are those written by people who have/had a deep love and fascination in one area or another and want to pass along that information to children.  Why limit yourself to a half page about birds in a science textbook when your son can enjoy reading the stories in The Burgess Bird Book and learn massive amounts of information about all types of birds without even realizing it?

Okay, that little lecture aside, there is no “typical” day in the life of a homeschooling family.  In some families the dad is very involved and good chunks of school time happen in the evenings and weekends.  Your schedule should be as personalized as your family.  Sometimes families have to work around medical issues, work schedules, and just life.  For a pre-schooler/kindergartener, “school” really shouldn’t last more than a couple of hours a day, if that.

Just think.  You can combine books, field trips, family travel, nature walks, visits with friends and family, camping trips, home routines and chores, and errands to create an amazing lifestyle of learning for your little guy!  He’s probably a bundle of energy and will become even moreso.  Sitting down with a pile of books will drive both of you crazy.  That’s actually one of the main reasons I avoid recommending an all-in-one curriculum because they tend to be very heavy on the textbook/workbook system.

At this point, this isn’t something you need to worry about.  Your state will have its scope and sequence on their website, and you can use that as a reference point or to give you ideas of content areas to explore.  However, let me tell you a secret about public schools.  In all my years of teaching, I never once, not once, ever finished a textbook.  There were many years that we threw away workbooks that weren’t even half-used.  When I taught U.S. history, we used to joke that our students thought American history ended right after WWII because that’s as far as we ever got!

So don’t be intimidated by your state standards or their scope and sequence.

As far as standardized testing goes, that may depend on where you live.  I’m not an expert in every state’s homeschooling requirements when it comes to testing.  Where I live, testing is optional.  Many homeschooling parents choose to test, just to give them a bit of guidance as to where their children are excelling or may need additional help.  The scores are not reported to anyone, as far as I’m aware.

Even if you should enroll him in a public school at some point in the future, you won’t need to show past schoolwork, test scores, grades, or anything else.  Now, some states do have more stringent rules about this, so check www.hslda.org first to find out if you have to meet any state requirements.

Because almost all of us adults spent some 12+ years in the public school system, it’s really all we know!  It’s hard to imagine that kids can learn any other way other than being grouped by age, sat in desks in rows, given a set number of minutes each day to learn a given subject, have that learning interrupted over and over again by a bell, herded outside for a few minutes of play time, etc.  I could go on and on about the artificiality of the public school system.  What you’re offering your son is an amazing, customized, and authentic education.  It will be centered around his strengths and interests.  You’ll be right there alongside him to see his struggles, and you’ll be partners in learning.  That is such a rich gift you are giving him, and you have my admiration.

Again, go to the HSLDA website, www.hslda.org, and find out what your state requires.  I just had to fill out a form for my state, Arizona.

HSLDA is a Christian organization — not sure what your religious or political beliefs are, but they are the only organization in the country that goes to bat for their members, regardless of personal beliefs or non-beliefs.  Membership is less than $10 a month, and if there is ever a time that an official from one office or another visits your home, asks for additional paperwork or documentation that isn’t legally required, or whatever, HSLDA will be on your side.

Whew.  I’m very passionate about homeschooling and pray that we always have the right to educate our own children.  I think you’re in for thousands of delightful surprises along the way.  Some frustrating days, to be sure, but the joys will far outweigh everything else.

Thanks so much for letting me share my passion for homeschooling with you.

All the best and a big hug for your little guy!