ok.. so my girls are only 2 and 3 right now and my son is 3 months.. but next year i plan to start a pre-k/k cirriculum with the girls. they will be almost 4 and 5 so why not right... i have sooo much to learn between now and then.. miamirn has been helping me tons but we figure get others inputs.. so heres a question for you

how do you know which cirriculum to use?

i would love to find a christian cirriculum but i cant afford to bankrupt myself every year either.. are there any good ones out there?

how do yall know what works with your kids?

im planning to have a set cirriculum for me.. but not for them. i wont do a "classroom" setting completly.. i want to make notebooks for them for the schoolwork.. mia mentioned Lapbooks.. im learning about those also.. but i also wanna learn about animals byt going to the zoo and things like that (if that makes sense) i wanna do the eclectic/unschooling approach..

anything yall can tell me to help me out would be greatly appreciated. ive got time to learn but dont wanna put it off to the last minute either... i have to get my cirriculum into the state or whatever before i start...

also has anyone claimed religious? if so whats it mean??  thanks tons :)  (btw if yall have websites to offer can you please pm them to me also bc ill lose them on here haha)

Hello there!

Yes, you will be able to homeschool without breaking the bank.  Starting early has it's advantages ~ try and get a feel now for the programs that you like, and you can start collecting materials...  You can get a feel by reading reviews, ordereing a Rainbow Resource Catalog, or just getting your hands on misc. stuff from where ever you can.

Can you find a local homeschool convention or support group?  Homeschool laws are different in each state, I wouldn't want to give you bad advice!

If you like the lapbook idea, have you checked out sites like www.homeschoolshare.com or hands of a child? 

For me, finding the right curriculum took some work.  Each of my boys has different styles, so sometimes they use different approaches.  Don't be afraid to be flexible!  Some of the curriculum that *I* loved, didn't go over very well with the kids. 

Don't stress.  Homeschooling is a learning experience for everyone involved.  Your kids are young, relax and have fun!

There is so much out there on-line and in your local library that you really don't need to spend much money at all.  I love the homeschoolshare website mentioned by Erica.  You also might want to check out "Before Five In a Row."  See if you can check it out from your local library or get it on inner-library loan.  I bake cookies and birthday cupcakes for my local librarians.  They are wonderful people, and you should get to know your local librarians well once you start to homeschool.  

Some links that may help you are:

PRE-K/K

http://www.letteroftheweek.com/

http://www.carlscorner.us.com/

http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/science-activities-for-kids.html

http://childfun.com/

http://www.mrsalphabet.com/classroom.html

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/tablek.html

http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/thispartictopic.cfm?BookTopic=1423

Jan Brett Worksheets http://www.janbrett.com/activities_pages.htm

http://www.first-school.ws/themes.html

Learn to read with on-line games http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.teachingheart.net/teachinsects.html

http://teachyourchildtoread.ca/

http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/archive.html

Homeschooling with babies & toddlers: http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/infants___toddlers.html

Homeschooling with babies & toddlers: http://www.everydayhomemaking.com/

GRADES K-12

http://amblesideonline.org/

http://simplycharlottemason.com/

http://www.guesthollow.com/

http://www.lessonpathways.com/

http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/unitstudies.html#free

awesome thanks yall keep the ideas and suggestions coming. :) yall are very helpful

Me and my son do Lapbooks and they are great he loves working on them and then looking and playing with them.

lol im still a bit confused on what a lapbook is but im trying to learn it. lol

Just type in Free Lapbooks in the search bar it pulls up all kinds of info and I also like lapbooklessons.com, That is what I did when I heard about it and I learned how to do them. The very first one we did when he was younger was on the book 'Goodnight Moon" because that was his favorite book and very simple to do for his age at the time. He still has it and will not pass it on to the younger cousins.LOL!

Here are my favorite lapbooking sites:

http://www.lapbooklessons.ning.com

http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/ (incredible free LB's and unit studies! - they load new ones a lot!)
http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ (unit studies, too)
http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks.htm
http://homeschoolblogger.com/joyfulschool/ (unit studies, too - newer stuff at Squidoo)
http://lapbooking.wordpress.com/

Yahoo Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lapbooking (from HOAC)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LiveAndLearnPress (from Live & Learn Press)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lapbooking_made_simple (from Cindy Kinney at Knowledge Box Central)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NaasehVeNilmad (from Biblical Lapbooks http://naasehvenilmad.com/wordpress/)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simplylapbooks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Love_to_Lapbook
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lapbooking7up
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Lapbooking101
 

I just remembered some other great places for lapbooks.  Currently, Hands of  Child is running a $5 weekly special ($7 for the fill-it-in e-books) on their Project Packs.  They load new ones each Wednesday.  This week's is Australia.  Go to the site and click on the large "$5 E-Book of the Week" link.

http://www.handsofachild.com/shop/

Also, A Journey Through Learning has a freebie 17th Century one when you join their e-list.  They also have $1 deals.  The current one is Insects.

http://www.ajourneythroughlearning.com/

Knowledge Box Central has great sales if you're on their e-list.

http://www.knowledgeboxcentral.com/

One of my favorite lapbook publishers is Live & Learn Press.  They also send out good deals and sales.

http://www.liveandlearnpress.com/

You can get all sorts of freebies and great e-book deals at CurrClick.com:

http://www.currclick.com/

Start at "Click on Free Stuff" on the left.  Then make sure to sign up for their notifications.

You asked if anyone "claimed religious," and I haven't noticed any answers to that question. That sounds like the kind of thing that might be different from state to state. You probably won't get a lot of good answers here if you're asking about requirements specific to your state, and should probably seek help somewhere where more homeschoolers congregate, or look up information about homeschooling in your state.

elizabeth thank you.. i didnt know the religious excemption was different everywhere.. i am trying to read all the laws here.. but im also at a loss because we are trying to move so he is applying to jobs in ohio so idk if i should be looking there or here in va lol. i doubt ill claim religious but i just wasnt sure if anyone had or what it meant ya know.

do all of yall have to send in your cirriculum every year? also my girls will be 3 and 4 when i start homeschooling them.. but ill be doing a mixture of pre-k/k cirriculum.. because they will be so young do i need to send in my cirriculum to my state for starting homeschooling or wait until they hit 1st grade? does that question even make sense? lol.. i know ill be starting them a bit early but they will be almost 4 and 5.. they are Jan babies and i dont want them behind because they start late.. does that make sense? im sorry its midnight and im exhausted haha.. im gonna go to bed and try this again in the morning. :)

<< do all of yall have to send in your cirriculum every year? also my girls will be 3 and 4 when i start homeschooling them.. but ill be doing a mixture of pre-k/k cirriculum.. because they will be so young do i need to send in my cirriculum to my state for starting homeschooling or wait until they hit 1st grade? does that question even make sense? >>

It makes sense and this, too, will vary by state.  Most states compulsory education laws don't apply until a child is 5-7 (but could be earlier), so you won't have to do anything at all related to HS'ing until that age, whatever it is.

In many states, there is no, or limited, oversight with HS'ing.  I've lived in KS and IL when HS'ing and both were 100% hands-off, even if the state dept of education (where you need to check) tried to be so.  Other states require standardized testing, portfolio reviews, curricula approval, etc.  HS'ing laws played a big part in my DH's job hunt.  The local climate of HS'ing also was important, just like moving to a certain school district was for our publicly-school daughter's needs.

I've never been afraid of increased regulation of HS'ing because I know I'm doing everything "correctly" already.  It's nice not to have to worry about it, but if I moved to a state with more regulations, I'd just deal with it.  I go above and beyond the minimum requirements just because I love my son and want the best education possible for him. 

?

I

I live in Mississippi and we don't have to send in our curriclum either. Just show proof of it if asked to show it. I do know that I have to go and see the attendence officer for our county every August to sign a paper stating that my son is being homeschooled. I didn't have to do it last year for Kindergarten because he wasn't enrolled in school but will have to do it this year because he will be in the first grade. I do use the A Beka Curriculum for all subjects. So far it works for him and if it doesn't I put my own tweek to it. So far he does real well and if it gets to a point that he doesn't I will find something else that works for him in whatever subject.

As for religion, it is not taught in public schools but I do teach it in my homeschool and I also taught him the Pledge of Alligiance. It didn't hurt me in school and it won't hurt him either. He enjoys it.

ok.. so idk if this will make sense to yall.. but when my kids are a bit older and they wanna play sports/cheering/ music whatever they want to do.. has anyone put their kids into the public school for those things only? id love as my kids get older if they wanna be in band and choir or sports or cheering that they be able to go to the local public school and be a part of these things. i would think its aloud because im still paying for public school even if my kids dont go to it lol but does anyone do it or know for sure?

Hey, that is also state by state.  In NY we are not allowed to participate in school activities.

~ Kelly

While I don't like to push my method of homeschooling on others I feel strongly that preschool and Kindergarten for homeschool can be "done" without a curriculum. I have not seen a packaged program that is worth the price or worthwhile activities. I pieced together good stuff to do from various real books such as a book on crafts for kids that age, a book on art activities, reading real children's picture books both fiction and nonfiction. At ages 2 and 3 that you are asking about workbooks are unnecessary and sometimes downright stupid, with errors and confusing things (coffee mug image wants to rhyme with image of puppy "pup" but we call it a "mug" so my child didn't get it). Other workbooks push for fine motor skills with penmanship that they are NOT developmentally ready for.

Before Five in a Row is a unit study program using children's picture books, I loved that, after that move on to Five in a Row.

We did many real life things like nature walks, children's museums, talking to my kids a lot, playing outdoors, reading TONS of books aloud, cooking and baking together, good imaginative play with good toys not electronic games. Board games and card games, having lots of fun together.

There are many books out there in libraries and bookstores for preschool teachers that have various activities to do with kids if you feel you want to hold circle time in your home so forth and so on, you can use those.

I can't recommend highly enough the WONDERFUL book by Ruth Beechick The Three R's, it's cheap new on Amazon (about $10) and tells you all you need to know to teach reading, writing, and math from birth through end of grade 3, it's short and down to earth and easy to understand (28 pages on each of the 3 R's).

(My sons are aged 13 and 10 now and have never been to daycare, preschool or regular school. They are turning out smart, normal, capable people.)

HTH.

Okay so you inspired me to dig out a presentation I did at a CT HS conference on the topic of how to homeschool preschool and kindergarten. This outlines how to do it without a big box curriculum.

ANYONE who wants this FREE just has to email me at christinemm at snet dot net. It's 24 pages and 7500 words, just ask me for it and I'll send you it, it's a PDF file Word document. Hey, I gave this to the conference attendees I might as well give it to anyone here who needs it.

As I said above my kids are now aged 13 and 10 and are nice, normal, smart, competent people.

HTH.

I love all the web sites that were mentioned and I have used many of them.  There are a lot of free things out there on the internet you just have to look.  If you want a curriculum I recommend both Sing Spell Read and Write and also My Father's World.  The first one is kind of expensive but you can usually find them used at a decent price.  The other one isn't bad, it includes lots of hands on and living books.  I found out the things that were in the kit, bought the basics and supplimented the rest of the stuff.  It isn't difficult to do and it is lots of fun.  This program only starts with K really but I think a younger one would be interested.

The most important thing you can do for your children when they are that young though is to read, read and read some more.  They have tons of time to learn in a formal way.   I say this from experience.  I wish that I had spent more time just reading to my older daughter and not having her do book work.  My little guy does what he wants when he wants to do it.  I keep it around and have it planned but I am not pushing him in any way.

Blessings to you has you move forward in your journey.

Hello,

I am not sure if anyone replied back to you on this or not but in every area it is different. There are plenty of homeschool groups that provide this whether it is band or football or both. Homeschoolers have noticed this need and are willing to provide that instead of having to give up homeschooling for extracurricular activites. If you live near a college or university (I live near UGA) the students get extra credit sometimes if they take on a student to teach. That would be for something like tutoring in a specific instrument. I know for us there are several things that are offered to my kids that are open just to the public like a local recreation department or local theatre. My daughter who is now 15 has been involved in plays and volunteering for special activities and my kids have even been able to take PE classes. Don't worry about things like that until they are ready. Things are constantly changing whether it is your situation or a law is changed or something like that so just take it day by day.

HTH,

Jessica