My wife is starting to homeschool my sons (Age 3 and 1) now and may continue this thru elementary. I'd like to know if anyone knows any web sites that has material that we can pull from. Maybe some ideas or a format to start with. I know when they get to age 5 or 6 we'll probably need to get an actual published cirriculum. Thanks in advance, Mike

-- Mike (smfine@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002

Answers

You can go to www.theeducatorsnetwork.com they have lots of ideas. Polly

-- (jserg45@hotmail.com), January 03, 2002.

try www.Kaleidoscapes.com

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 03, 2002.

I don't quite know how to say this, but why worry about schooling 1 and 3 year old kids? If you and your wife plan to do this long term, you'll soon have enough to keep you busy. Let the kids enjoy themselves. I usually start with reading - Engelmann's Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - at age 5. Don't rush it!

-- Christina (introibo2000@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002.

The best book I read way back when I firstthought about homeschooling out two kids was by Raymond Moore entitled School Can Wait. It emphasizes that we should do things with our kids, just the ordinary household chores of the day. Don't tell them to go clean their room, go clean their room with them, do dishes with them, clean house with them. Then read to them a lot from all types of good childrens books. Take them along when you visit an elderly person. A child's body is to immature to handle long periods of close confined work such as is required of them in a traditional school setting. Moore says they don't develop until 8-10 years old, particulary the eyes. Any of Raymond Moore's books are great. We by the way did homeschool our two right through highschool. They are now married and doing beautifully.

-- Nancy (nannyb@huntel.net), January 03, 2002.

Two good sites to learn more about different homeschooling methods and philosophies are unschooling.com and home-ed-magazine.com. A lot of new homeschoolers may not even realize there is more than one way to do it. Also, check with your state regulations to see if they even require you to follow a cirriculum. Many do not. The above sites should give you links to find out your state's requirements. That way you'll know ahead of time was is expected and you can plan what you are doing now to ease into what you'll have to do later. I highly recommend Home Education Magazine! They usually list lots of great websites, books, activities, etc. Their free on-line newsletter is good, too, and always includes new websites they have explored and feel are good for homeschoolers. Good luck!

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), January 03, 2002.

My recommendation is to spend your time reading to your children. They will learn it's value and will associate it with wonderful experiences with you. If you want to get them thinking - teach them while doing little chores. Your three year old can sort socks (teaches them color, matching, a work ethic and spending time with you), or help you sort as you fold - like shirts or colors, etc.

After teaching my daughter at home through to high school graduation I can tell you she learned more science when we were in the yard than in the classroom. You can show them pictures of roots, stems and leaves or you can take them out and pick flowers, pull out weeds and see those roots, feed the birds, etc.

At this age they don't need worksheets, materials, sitting, etc. They need to learn to enjoy learning. Many times they learn through just playing. They know there is gravity because every time they drop something - it falls. But, they are too young to put labels on everything they learn. So enough you will start getting the "why questions" - why is the sky blue? why do leaves turn colors in the fall?

I truly believe that the best learning comes from experiencing your world. I cannot encourage you more to make it all fun.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), January 03, 2002.

Read to them. Simply read to them. Curl up together on a comfy sofa and read any book, any story they like, as many times as they like. Share the magic of reading with them, and then get out of their way. They'll be so far ahead of any planned curriculum you won't need one, and you'll end spending all your time trying to figure out how to keep up with them on their educational adventure. Good Luck!

-- Julia (charmer24@juno.com), January 03, 2002.

Reading to them from now on will be very beneficial, as has been expressed above. It is so valuable to their success in every endeavor. But the note about helping them learn everyday tasks is also extremely important. As a public school teacher and mom I have observed we are raising a generation of kids who don't really know how to do much except be entertained. It is not their fault, we have just been so busy we haven't taken time to teach them things other than how to rush from one scheduled activity to another. I am speaking to myself here, as I learned too late that I had done this very thing. The kids grew up climbing around under my loom, knowing that I spin, raise sheep etc, (once when I packed up the 3 year old and the spinning wheel to go to a demonstration, she asked where we were going, and I told her we would be teaching some ladies to spin. She asked, "Why don't they know how?" (She thought everyone knew how.) But I never sat down with them at the age of 6 or 7 and taught them to do these things. Now as teenagers they have no interest in learning them. Handwork (spinning, knitting, sewing, carpentry,making things) is so important to developing eye-hand coordination, problem-solving skills, learning to follow directions, seeing the fruits of their labor, and learning to stick with a task until one gets results. Our parents taught us this - we need to be sure to teach all the little ones we can. So everyone who knows how to do something, teach any available child. They love it. Some of my best knitters at school are on the boys varsity basketball team, and some of the girls who have learned to knit won't go anywhere without their knitting now. It's not too late to pass on our knowledge and the joy of doing worthwhile work, even to pre-schoolers. Best of luck with your homeschooling, and enjoy your little ones and the time you'll have learning together.

-- Taylor (bptaylor@ccrtc.com), January 03, 2002.

Hi,

I am a adminstrator in a early childhood special ed program, we also ahve to day care children too. I took this position after w emoved here because i am still trying to figure out whare all the children with severe disabilities are in AR. Its different here. soooo Here are some websites I use for lesson planning www.freeworksheets.com http://www.preschooleducation.com/ http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/ http://www.sitesforteachers.com/

Hope this helps. I also have a vast collection of other information relating to pre-school education. I even have copies of the childhood screening tests we give in case you are interested in testing their developmental abilities (hate disabilitiy word)

We administer standardized tests so these tests may help if your school system asks for the end of the yr standardized tests. I many states such as VA, NC and NY they require parents who homeschool to have their children tested at the end of the yr by their tests in order to contine their homeschooling.

I homeschooled our youngest son from 10th grade on and he did very well. I didn't ahve to follow the state of VA regs for homeschooling because I was a licensed teacher so i was under the certified regs. Josh was required to study for 3 hrs a day. So what I did was teach him for 2 hrs and do an hr independent study then he worked for a local plumber and learned a trade. He did very well and is doing well now as a plumber. He jsut didn't want to go to a big school, and in VA where we lived the schoold systems were county wide vs town schools in Ny so the schools averaged 700 -1000 kids in high school. We just were not used to the larger schools as the school system we lived in back in NY had 700 kids k-12.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002.

WOW! Thanks for sharing those great sites with Bernice!

-- Bren (wayoutfarm@skybest.com), January 03, 2002.

Thanks for all the responses. To clarify: I don't really want a planned cirriculum. I wouldn't even call it "homeschooling" yet (although for the purpose of the post i did). We read to both. I won't do any more for my youngest. Someone said "don't rush it". I feel that's a mistake. Start early. My 3 yr old can count to 15 and knows his alphabet...that's a start to build from. I don't want to sit him in a chair for 4 hrs and "teach" to him. I am looking for fun ideas that are educational. I wholeheartedly agree that the quality time we spend with them will be the most advantageous to them. Thanks again, Mike

-- Mike in PA (smfine@yahoo.com), January 04, 2002.

I agree Mike! I started my son at the age of two. He is now 6,knows all the stuff normal kindergarteners do, plus all the presidents, states,solar system,animals etc.. I never pushed, just made each day and each experiance a learning on! I will say it is also the time spent.Hope you and your wife enjoy as much as I have!-God Bless

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), January 04, 2002.