Interested in home schooling...?

[AmandaM]

I would like to learn more about home schooling my kiddo's. We live in TX, so we'd be considered a private school. Are there any free curriculums out there, or awesome sights for this? We would be starting in kindergarten...any insight you can give me would be really appreciated. We are a christian family, so faith based curriculum would be great.

[Gypsy]

There is something called the Robinson Curriculum. It costs about $200 to buy. You also need a good refillable printer that prints both sides, and a ton of paper. They sell you all the disc thingies that give you a kindergarten to grade twelve education. You have to buy math texts at about grade 4 and science texts at high school level.
It is a literature based curriculum. You print off all the great books, most of them Christian based, biographies etc. Basically it teaches the kids reading writing and arithmetic. It is a one time payment and you use it for all of your children. The kids do math for an hour, than write a page a day and spend most of their time reading.
I researched it, and really liked the concept. I was already 6 years into what I was doing with my kids and I had some opposition to trying it so I did not.
It was developed by a husband and wife team of scientists who homeschooled their children. The wife died early and so he homeschooled all the children and ran his business at the same time. It is a really great, inspirational story even if you don't buy the program.
I think it would be about the cheapest way if you are starting young and going for the long haul.
Sonlight curriculum is also literature based, but way more expensive. They will send you a catalogue, it is itself a good resource for choosing curriculum.
I think the biggest hurdle of starting homeschooling is to try and find what curriculum and educational philosophy works best for your family and budget. Sometimes it is based on where you live; some laws may not allow certain methods of teaching.
Another great educational philosophy that really breaks convention and can be highly effective for some families is called "Unschooling". Unschooling is really cheap also.
Some people are good at rummage sales, library use etc. so pay very little for educational materials.
Good luck. Research as much as you can before you choose any method or materials.

[clemmmiie]

Hello, I am an ex home schooler myself
When my parents started home schooling me they followed a curriculum, easily found online by a simple google search. I was 11 at the time, as I grew older I started to follow interests and passions I had for myself and moved away from the curriculum. I found this much better for my education, the freedom of being able to choose what I wanted to learn - you learn much more effectively if you are passionate about the subject.

Do kindergarten students really need to follow a curriculum? Surely you can teach them christanity and family values and aswell as educate them and give them the opportunity to discover life and learning for themselves (with a guide from you)?

Just a suggestion
and google will offer free curriculum's if you google it... at least they do for english ones.

[ginger]

Oldfashionededucation.com is free and is awesome!

[kimbug04]

Switched on schoolhouse aka sos im in 8th grade i luuuuuve being home schooled http://www.aop.com/sos/ this is where you can buy it. just go to the library more than my mom that means atleast 3 times a week.