homeschooling

[smelltheroses]

for those who homeschool where do you live currently? Do you live in the city or in the country (rural areas)?

What do you find is peoples reaction when out and about errands do people question y ur kids aren't in school?

what are the challenges of homeschooling?

[sittingpretty]

I un-school - which is homeschooling but I don't follow a set curriculum - I go by my childs interests and in her case we focus on life skills due to the fact she is special needs and life skills are better than anything else.

What do you find is peoples reaction when out and about errands do people question y ur kids aren't in school?

some are "oh thats cool, I wish I could do that"

I have had others question me and what education I have to do this LMAO and I point out that the educated folks could not handle my kid anyways so why does it matter.

what are the challenges of homeschooling?

NO BREAK OR SPACE I get overwhelmed and cry cause I am desperate for space
mind you I am also single and disabled myself

[Ingalls]

I don't homeschool right now - some people refer to the fact that I don't put my kids in jk by saying "Oh I forgot you homeschool for that" um no, I just don't put them in JK lol
But I did homeschool previously for a year and a month.
Anyway, I made my own lesson plans, went with what I thought made sense to learn at that age, or what seemed a natural progression, and also went with what interested him, too.
I was in a small, northern town. Mostly people thought I was insane, but the family across the street had homeschooled their then teenaged daughter the entire time that was neat. They used a religious, bought lesson plan though, so it didn't relate much.

Not related to homeschooling but just related to a question you had - I frequently have my kids out and about with me during school times. I am almost never asked why they're not in school. Occasionally someone will say to them "Shouldn't you be in school" but they say it in a rhetorical way, and it's usually over before it began. When I have been questioned at all, whether they're with me because it was when we were homsechooling or with me because I felt they needed a break or because I needed their help that day, I usually just answer with something simple, like if they ask why they aren't in school, "We had plans today" or shouldn't they be in school, "obviously not today, eh?" or so on. I dont' go into details because it is nobody's business.

And when we homeschooled my only complaint would be that it was hard to find materials that weren't religious, but I made most of my own. That was easy for grade one not so easy as they age.
Oh and, I had a hard time getting a social life going for them. That was the only reason we put him back in school when we moved out of that town; he needed friends. If you drive, or if you have a lot of friends with kids, you could easily still have them in enough stuff or around enough kids that school is not needed. I couldn't get him to things though, and knew nobody with kids as old as him.

[melissawilliam]

And when we homeschooled my only complaint would be that it was hard to find materials that weren't religious, but I made most of my own. That was easy for grade one not so easy as they age.
Oh and, I had a hard time getting a social life going for them. That was the only reason we put him back in school when we moved out of that town; he needed friends. If you drive, or if you have a lot of friends with kids, you could easily still have them in enough stuff or around enough kids that school is not needed. I couldn't get him to things though, and knew nobody with kids as old as him.

I don't home school, but I am curious about this. Teachers buy all of their own materials and resources and you can order online or download copies from Scholars Choice, and from what I have seen I think there are more non-religious resources.
Another great website is called TeachersPayTeachers, and you can find many resources on any subject. Some are free, some worksheets are $1-2, and some units are $5-10 (all on average). If a unit lists books to go with it just check that you can order them from the public library, and you can put on hold and have any London library books shipped to your closest library within 2-4 days (usually).
Math Prodigy is a free Ontario Math website. RazKids is a great reading website and costs a decent amount of money, but is definitely worth the cost from gr1-3. If you really are struggling to find resources or ideas for teaching a topic, look up if a topic is in the Ontario Curriculum and what grade it is in, then visit a local school at 3:30 and ask if you could speak to a teacher of that grade.

[Ingalls]

I don't home school, but I am curious about this. Teachers buy all of their own materials and resources and you can order online or download copies from Scholars Choice, and from what I have seen I think there are more non-religious resources.
Another great website is called TeachersPayTeachers, and you can find many resources on any subject. Some are free, some worksheets are $1-2, and some units are $5-10 (all on average). If a unit lists books to go with it just check that you can order them from the public library, and you can put on hold and have any London library books shipped to your closest library within 2-4 days (usually).
Math Prodigy is a free Ontario Math website. RazKids is a great reading website and costs a decent amount of money, but is definitely worth the cost from gr1-3. If you really are struggling to find resources or ideas for teaching a topic, look up if a topic is in the Ontario Curriculum and what grade it is in, then visit a local school at 3:30 and ask if you could speak to a teacher of that grade.

What I meant is that a lot of homeschoolers follow a specific curriculum which is to say, a series of books, workbooks, cards, etc that go in sequence for that specific age group. They tend to have religious themes. Perhaps not all do, but I was up north, where internet was very slow so downloading anything was difficult, we didn't have any stores except Home Hardware, a few boutiques for tourists, The Source,
and The Bargain Shop.
I did peruse the Ontario curriculuum but honestly found parts confusing and parts disappointing. That's why I winged it. I figured some thigns make logical sense to teach a kid in that age group, and some sparked his interest so we ran with those, and some just naturally followed the progression.
I think we did great given that almost everything they did until about grade four was repeating what he already knew.

Websites are handy and all if you live in the city but if you're rural or northern your internetm ay not support it. I remember it taking so long to load londonmoms that I often couldn't post. I certainly couldn't go to game sites. Plus i don't see any need for computers to
be involved in learning to read. I know they get used a lot in schools but I didn't see any need. My first two learned to read from me,
and it didn't involve computers. they did fine.

[luckymama]

We have been homeschooling for about 9 years but we live closer to Chatham.
People don't generally ask us about not being in school. If they do we just tell them. We have been doing it for a while so I don't care what others think about it. I know it is the right decision for our family. Sometimes it take a bit to get there.
Disadvantages? I really can't think of any right now. I would say that I don't get a break but I would rather have my kids with me anyway. Some days though.... lol
A lot of people wouldn't ask a teacher because the reason they homeschool is because they don't agree with the curriculum. A plus of homeschooling is being able to choose curriculum that suits us. I wouldn't use the school curriculum. We don't use text books.
A lot of curriculum is Christian based. We are Christian so I have never looked at secular curriculum. I hear there isn't as much as Christian though.
It is unbelievable how much there is to choose from!

[melissawilliam]

What I meant is that a lot of homeschoolers follow a specific curriculum which is to say, a series of books, workbooks, cards, etc that go in sequence for that specific age group. They tend to have religious themes. Perhaps not all do, but I was up north, where internet was very slow so downloading anything was difficult, we didn't have any stores except Home Hardware, a few boutiques for tourists, The Source,
and The Bargain Shop.
I did peruse the Ontario curriculuum but honestly found parts confusing and parts disappointing. That's why I winged it. I figured some thigns make logical sense to teach a kid in that age group, and some sparked his interest so we ran with those, and some just naturally followed the progression.
I think we did great given that almost everything they did until about grade four was repeating what he already knew.

Websites are handy and all if you live in the city but if you're rural or northern your internetm ay not support it. I remember it taking so long to load londonmoms that I often couldn't post. I certainly couldn't go to game sites. Plus i don't see any need for computers to
be involved in learning to read. I know they get used a lot in schools but I didn't see any need. My first two learned to read from me,
and it didn't involve computers. they did fine.

lol, I get the up north issue!!! My internet connection was actually good 9 years ago on the reserve, but sometimes it shut off and I had to reset it (a couple times a day, lol). Then I learned there were 2 Scholar's Choices - Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. I mapped it out and ended up leaving Ontario and driving 4 hours to Winnipeg to shop at Scholar's Choice, lol. You must have been farther north than I was, since I was lucky enough to be 1 hour from the "huge" city of 18,000 of Kenora, lol, which had lots of stores, so anything really needed (Tims, Walmart, Home Depot, etc., but nothing specialty), so I drove there every Saturday for groceries and Tims and items
The big push is 21st century learning so technology incorporated with all subjects helps with reading/math/project creation but the bigger idea is teaching 21st century skills for the future work force.

[Ingalls]

I think they have a lot of years to learn to use technology, well after they've learned to read, write, add, subtract etc without the use
of it, but I know that's not a popular opinion. I'm fine with them using it in school, I just didn't see the need for it in our own learning.
And yeah, we were pretty far north. Timmins was about two hours away, but the problem was that required a car, which we didn't have for the first six months or so that we were there. Our car was still in London. Or windsor. I forget.

We went to Timmins once a month after that.
Actually, I did use some workbooks that were prefab, that i lucked out in finding at a local thrift store some church ladies ran. Mostly
though, I just drew up what I thought he should be working on. I worked full time days and dh was full time nights so I basically prepared
some work sheets for him to do in the morning while I was gone, that reinforced what we'd learned or expanded on it, and then we
did some other work together after supper. It worked for us I guess as he was advanced in the core stuff like math, reading, grammar,
punctuation, science etc. Sure, he missed some stuff....we didn't do a unit on Arctic animals, for example, like some kids might have, but
we did a ton of stuff on space, or a lot about endangered species(some Arctic ones), or learned about stuff school kids didn't.
It balances out
Sorry to hijack, OP!