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special thank you to Liz from her blog, A Homeschooling Grandma: I Must Be Crazy! for allowing me to share this excellent article, Homeschooling 101, for those possibly just starting out with homeschooling, wondering where to start and what’s available.
I homeschooled my children K-12, started back when it wasn’t cool in 1984. I homeschooled until my youngest graduated in 2002. I homeschooled my grandson last year and am homeschooling him this year. I guess that makes almost 20 years. I will not get a pension, but the blessings abound and the returns are worth it.
Someone said it was not easy. I guess that depends on how you view life. Nothing is easy without God’s help, but that is how we get through each day. I had my share of hair-pulling days, but we get through them.
There were several reason I decided to homeschool. At the time, I did not know a single person that homeschooled, but I had heard of it. I went to the very first National Homeschool Convention that was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began homeschooling that fall. Conventions are a great place, but they can also overwhelm. I suggest you start doing research online. I will give you some tips on where to start.
My reasons to homeschool were not academic, they were a mixture of anticipating career foreign missions in our future and a hard-to-handle (probably ADD) child. Remember, the schools were still practicing a form of Christianity in the ’80’s. While I wanted a Christian education for my children and it was a reason, I will be honest to say it was not one of the top two. I could have put them in a Christian school.
Only in 2005 did I become an advocate for all Christian parents to get their kids out of public schools. We have had that discussion here once and I do not want to start it up again. I can have my convictions.
We used just about everything that is out there at some time or another, and believe me when I tell you that there is a LOT. We used some public school books, Abeka, Alpha-Omega Lifepacs, Learning through Literature, KONOS unit studies, Sing, Spell, Read & Write, Alpha-phonics, Making Math Meaningful, Math-it, Modern Curriculum Press, Switched on Schoolhouse, ACE, BJU, Saxon, Christian Liberty Press, A Reason for…, Keys to…, Covenant Home Correspondance, ISC/Harcourt/Thomson/Penn Foster correspondance, Victory Drill books, and so, so, so much more. We had our own library of books and different curricula. I was in a constant search for the "perfect" fit. It can get expensive.
If you find out your WHY, your PHILOSOPHY and METHOD and then your CURRICULM – in THAT ORDER, your path will be much smoother. (You might google "Bruce Shortt" if you want some good "why" answers.)
I have met many of the homeschooling pioneers and continue to glean and be inspired from them through their blogs. Maybe it is time for me to help inspire others.
My best advice and encouragement is first to pray. These times call for hard decisions for a Christian, that may not be the most popular. They also require commitment, patience and especially conviction.
Secondly, do your research and try to find the method that will work best for your family. Some of the different styles are Unschooling (John Holt), School-at-home/workbook, Unit Studies, Principle Approach (The Noah Plan/F.A.C.E.) Charlotte Mason, Classical, literature-based and a few more. After years of homeschooling by the seat of my pants, I did a year of research before I began homeschooling my grandson. I am more suited to Charlotte Mason’s philosophy. I chose My Father’s World curriculum. It is a combination of Charlotte Mason/Classical and Unit Studies. The Bible is incorporated throughout. Here is the link to my blog where I explain WHY I like MFW. You can look at MFW curiculum at www.MFWbooks.com I like some of the curriculum that has been mentioned in posts above, too.
You can get free curriculum online or you can piece your curriculum together by going to Christian bookstores, homeschooling bookfairs and used bookstores, ebay, Amazon,or homeschool yahoo groups that allow ads. you can also order the different courses that you like through curriculum sellers. This method usually requires you to make up your own lessons plans for each child and grade every year, constantly refering to a scope and sequence from your state or school system. It is cheaper, but it depends on how much you value your time and sanity IMHO. I did this for years, I know,
The other way is to choose a program that you like that offers a complete curriculum. Some complete curriculums also have teachers guides and/or lesson plans. This makes it much easier for the newbie. You find this more in the school-at-home method, but you can find it in other’s too. Some book sellers sell curriculum packages that are entirely made by the same company. Others use some of their own and then pick the best of what is out there and put it together in a package. That is what I use.
My personal picks are those that do NOT use the school-at-home method. I prefer the Literature based, Charlotte Mason (Sonlight, My Father’s World), , Well-Trained Mind, Amblesideonline.com, and/or Classical approach (Veritas Press) with the Bible as the foundation.
A note about "school-at-home." Many homeschoolers use this method (ie: ABEKA). My personal opinion is different strokes for different folks. My experience says, "Why not integrate your classes so you can not only teach History and Bible and Literature and Art and Music together, but you can also teach several grades at once?" School-at-home has a different book for each class for each student and then you must purchase the teachers edition for each. The beauty of schooling at home is you can do it differently.
There are many discounted booksellers that sell some curriculum, too, like www.christianbooks.com and Amazon also sells books used and new, but not usually full curriculum.
My suggestions on first book to read: For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaffer Macaulay.
For Curriculum reviews and homeschool approaches:
http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/,
Old Schoolhouse Magazine reviews: http://www.thehomeschoolmagazi ne.com/Homeschool_Reviews/,
Cathy Duffy’s books and website, Mary Pride’s Books,
You can google any of the terms above and find hoards of info on each.
If I can answer any more questions for you, feel free to PM me. No guarantee that I will know it, but I am willing. Oklahoma is one of the easiest states to homeschool in so I won’t know about laws in your state. Like someone else said, refer to HSLDA.
As far a socialization, my kids are about as social as anybody could be. My oldest is probably the most liked and well-rounded individual that I have ever known (and it has gotten him into some trouble in the past). Both of my kids were very active in their church, in the neighborhood, and in the homeschooling support group where we had activities and sports weekly.
I highly suggest getting involved with a local support group. You will find that homeschoolers come in many forms. Besides the different approaches, there are Christian and non-Christian, those focused on academics or focused on character, those that socialize and those that don’t, those that watch TV, play sports, and those that live the simple life and make and grow all their own food and clothes. I find that I like many from all groups. We all learn from each other.
Something that some seem concerned about is how qualified someone might be to homeschool. My opinion is that if God gave them to you, they are your responsibility and with His guidance and possibly some re-education while you teach on your own part, you are qualified. My husband has two degrees – Political Science and History, also a Seminary degree. I was an A student in highschool in advanced classes and only have 56 hours of college in Music Education. My husband never contributed much to the academics of our homeschool, although he was very supportive. I also do not think that any higher learning that I received had any bearing on the outcome of my children’s education. I think with good sense, basic knowledge, committment, willingness to learn, humility, dedication, conviction, ability to find the person or resources you need, lots of patience, some extra cash for curriculum and books, fellowship with other homeschoolers, a spouse that is in agreement and God’s pleasure – you are set.
A last note: Last night, my youngest son went to his first high school, homeschool reunion. He graduated with about 30 homeschoolers that got together weekly their senior year and our umbrella area support group arranged a fantastic graduation ceremony on the Oral Roberts Univ. campus. I have a blog link about that, too, if anyone wants it. They had not seen each other since graduation 2002, as a matter of fact, all of the ones that met last night have recently or are soon to graduate from college. My son graduated in December, cum laude. They are planning to get together each month, whoever can make it. I, personally, hope that he meets his helpmeet from this group of great kids.
My oldest son chose not to go to college. He runs a Towing company that we started for him and manages several employees and lots of big equipment. He is considering opening two more branches. Success should not be measured on the money you make or the neighborhood you live in or your degrees. I think I was successful and you can be, too.
Reprinted with Permission
If this encouraged you, please thank Liz!
Have you recently read a blog post that touched and encouraged you? If so, please let me know so I may check it out, and feature it here on a Friday for my "Guest Article".
Separate eggs. Place yokes into mixing bowl with sugars and beat until thick. 
Add pumpkin. Sift the cake flour and spices together then add to pumpkin/egg mixture.(Add nuts if you wish to put them in) Mix together at low speed. In a separate bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry. Fold egg whites into the cake batter until most of the white streaks are gone. 
Spread batter onto a 10×15x1 in baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in a 375 oven for 15 -18 mins. 
Once the cream cheese and butter are soft enough to mix. Cream them together then add powered sugar. Should be "thinner" than cake frosting, but thick enough for filling without oozing out. 
After cakes are cooled, unroll, spread with frosting and roll back up. Trim the ends off and feed to your kids, husband or save to eat yourself 
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