can anyone help with homeschooling?

Question

i home school my 10 year old and have done since he was 7, we're doing great and he's working years ahead of himself, my 5 year old wanted to experience school so i let him but he too now wants to home school, my 10yr old already had the ground work done when we started, but my 5yr old is just begining, does anyone have any tips for starting out from scratch, im a little nervous

and all you do gooder anti-homeschooling people need not answer, nothing you could say would change my veiws so you'd just be wasting your time and energy, so go give your opinion to someone who actually wants it

Answer 1

Games are a great way for little one's to get started.
Puzzles, blocks, counting, etc....
Do things that build his knowledge base --- bake cookies, sort lego by color, etc. etc. etc. Practice recognizing letters and sounds from road signs and cereal boxes.....

Try "The First Reader" by Phyllis Schlafly --- get the book and the writing practice book.

Use pennies and flashcards to learn how to work out math equations.

Use a clock to learn to tell time.

Coloring books are great too --- find educational one's in stores such as "The Learning Palace".

Reader Rabbit computer software is fun for little one's too.

The basics that your 5 yr old will need are phonics and math-facts memory. Once he learns to read and compute sums he will be well on his way to learning for a life-time.

Simply:
1. Count with him every day. Show him how to add 2 pennies to 3 pennies and get 5 pennies... and so on and so on. Work for 20 minutes on numbers and then move to writing.
2. Teach him how to write his name one letter at a time. Let him fill up a page with one letter each day. Later, one word over and over, and then small sentences.... when the page is full he is done with writing.
3. Read to him every day for up to 2 hours. After he begins reading on his own --- he can read for as long as his attention span will allow. If he reads for 30 minutes then you can read to him from another book to fill in the time.

Answer 2

Quality Education has some great tips. I began homeschooling when my daughter was beginning 5th grade, but my 2nd grader has known nothing else. Beginning at the beginning can be intimidating. If you are working on reading, I would suggest Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I always found it was good to have my little one do the same things my older did, only on his level. When we did US Geography, he did state coloring pages and we had a cool talking puzzle that gave him state, capitol, and nickname. He can name those three facts for about 2/3 of the states, STILL (and correctly identify where the states belong). When she would have science, I would do a quickie kitchen experiment with him or we would read about animals or plants. Whenever we went to the library for readers, his would always be close to the same topic as hers. We studied the presidential election when it was going on, so he had easy readers I read to him on the subject while the older one did webquest hunts and things like that.
We also worked on handwriting, sorting, shapes, colors, number and letter recognition, things like that.
I didn't do a "formal" curriculum with him until this year. That slow start gave him a passion for knowledge. Now I call him my little sponge.
Good luck to you

Answer 3

When you say "just beginning" I am assuming you mean learning from scratch without having any kind of educational base to build on. It is very intimidating. My son began his education in private school and only started homeschooling from 4th grade on (he's in 8th now) but my daughter has never had private or public schooling. My wife and I taught her from scratch and it has been a challenge. She's in 4th grade now and we have just begun "Connections Academy" which is a cool thing our state offers. It is homeschooling through the public school system. Anyway, both my children had to take state-mandated placement tests to see where they are. I am proud and happy to say that my 100% home taught daughter tested out at grade level right where she should be. So, don't let anyone dissuade you. Be patient, be consistent, be loving, and go for it!

Answer 4

I teach pre-school, but before that I taught kindergarten for years. So I know quite a bit about teaching 5-year-old children. There's really no mystery about it, the key is to go with what your child is interested in.

Children that age are so full of curiosity and wonder about the world, so take advantage of that. Figure out what your child is curious about and make a fun project out of it. You can incorperate all the domains of learning into one project... math, science, reading, writing, as well as artistic, physical and social development.

For example, say your child is excited about zoo animals. (I don't know your child of course, but that's a pretty common interest for that age.) There are so many things you could do with a topic like that! Research animals on the internet, and write mini-research reports (literacy) If you're feeling ambitious and you have the space, encourage your child to design a zoo or a natural habitat for the animals. (science) He or she could make clay sculptures of animals to put in the zoo. (art) You could show your chld pictures of animal fur and notice the patterns (math) Oh, and of course you could take a field trip to a zoo. The possibilities are endless!

Homeschooling gives you the perfect opportunity to do this kind of individualized education. And by the way, there's no reason the five year old and the ten year old couldn't collaborate on some projects!

Check out this site for more info on doing this type of project with kids: http://www.project-approach.com/

Answer 5

My second was so much easier than my first- My oldest wound up doing a lot to help teach my youngest ho to read and do basic math. I found that rather than spending a lot of money on a preK and Kindergarten curriculum, I found really good workbooks at the local book store, I used a lot of puzzles and games and my oldest would play the games and use the flashcards with her. My oldest would also do most of her reading out loud to my youngest and practice her own flash cards and things with her. It is amazing how much they pick up and learn when you don't really think you are actually teaching them anything.
The main things that oyu do not want to overlook are doing some kind of math activity every day, use counters that you can buy or even make together, read out loud every day, make letter flash cards and put words and pictures on the walls for them to see. Put maps on the wall and play games, make crafts, do activities to reinforce whatever concept you are working on.
Kudos to you for sticking to your convictions and making the sacrifice to give oyu children the best!

Answer 6

In nearly every county in America, there is an association of Homeschoolers. Check at your ligrary otr take out an ad in the paper--they will be of huge help.

Answer 7

yes this simple have your older child star him out with u and he can help him along as much as possible gl lol

Answer 8

Have you ever heard of "unschooling"? It might work.