Homeschooling for a 2 yr. old?

[Jenny]

We will most definitely homeschool our children. But right now, the oldest is 2 1/2 years. Chuck thinks I do a good job of teaching the children, but he's the one home all day with them for now. He thinks he (and they) may do better if he had a more organized, fun guide to teaching things like colors, numbers, letters, motor skills, etc. . . We'd greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks,

Jenny
Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

[Freeholdfarm]

Jenny, are you on any homeschoolers lists? I could make several recommendations -- A-Beka's preschooler materials would be one -- but there is so much stuff out there now, that you might get better ideas from someone who is currently homeschooling. But A-Beka has good quality materials, and a good curriculum. You would have a hard time going wrong, if you just used their stuff all the way through -- except that I would suggest using the Saxon math books. Have you looked into the Classical curriculums at all? I don't have any first-hand experience with these, but if I had children to homeschool again, that is what I would use. My oldest daughter is starting a Classical curriculum with her children now. I don't know which one she's using, though.

Kathleen

[Jenny]

When we first started trying to adopt, about 6 years ago, we thought we were going to get an 11 yr. old boy, (but we didn't) so I did lots of checking into programs and materials. A few years ago when we were still at the homestead, we had a high school student from another country live with us for a year, so I homeschooled her. Her English was pretty good, but not good enough for a regular curriculum. I had to look around and choose subjects and materials from different companies, and just build my own program to fit her needs and abilities. So, I've had a little experience with homeschooling, but not much. Never looked into any of the programs for preschoolers. Didn't know there were any. I'll check with A-Beka, and others.

In Alaska, you can pretty much do anything you want for homeschooling. I don't think I'll use A-Beka for our curriculum when they get into "school", though. From what I saw, it looked like an excellent program, but possibly too structured. When I was homeschooling the teenager, I did get an opportunity to look at lots of materials. Most companies were happy to send me sample programs for her to help us choose. Even though most were not appropriate for her (because of her language difficulties), I got a pretty good idea of the ones I wanted to use in the future. Then I found that several of our friends had been using the same ones I was leaning toward for years with their children.

One thing we found was that most schools would not allow us to enroll in a formal curriculum because we cannot mail work out to them regularly. The state programs (or maybe they're borough district programs), were the only ones who would. I certainly wouldn't want to use a public school program. I know lots of families who do, and it's not much better than sending them to public school. And we definitely want a Christian education for them. I like the idea of putting together our program to fit our children's needs and our family life.

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I'll check on A-Beka and others tomorrow.

Jenny
Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

[Anataq]

What exactly is a Christian Education? Do you mean bible study etc, or do you mean avoiding the touchy evolution science teachings etc....

-Anataq

[Jenny]

No, it doesn't mean avoiding things like evolution. It means teaching from a Biblical, Christian prospective. Christ is more than the core of our lives. Christ IS our life. Education should not be separated from that. One way to look at it is, like the example in the Bible, Christ is the vine and we are the branches. Without Christ, we are dead, but in Christ we have eternal life. But, in this case, the different areas of our life, including our children's education, would be the branches. Without Christ as the core, and the focus, the rest would be dead and worthless. The best "education" in the world would mean nothing without Christ.

Certainly, for example, the color red is red, and 2+2=4, but if a Christian family wants their children to understand that Christ is not just someone they read about on Sunday mornings, He should be included in --- no, be the main focus of every aspect of thier lives. We want our children to be good stewards of their money when they get older, and handle their finances in a way that will glorify God. It would not be very effective to ignore Him during basic math lessons, then try to teach them God's views on money as they're heading off to college.

A secular education avoids Christ and glorifies man. A Christian education brings glory to God through the life of the child we are raising for God. We often refer to our children like I just did --- as "our" children. But they are not ours. They belong to Christ. We have been blessed with them to raise according to His plan. Children are not just something to take care of until they can do it themselves. They were put on this earth by God, who has entrusted them to us. They are to carry on His work. What an incredible responsibility we have. Praise God that He doesn't just toss them to us, then go on His merry way. He is always with us. Praise the Lord ! ! ! ;D

Jenny

[Freeholdfarm]

Jenny, I was blessed by your reply. Those were my goals, also, in educating our children. My oldest daughter is now providing a Christian education for her own children, and my middle daughter is ministering full-time as a Christian school teacher and preparing to become the wife of a fine young Christian man. So far, I believe my goals have been pretty well met. I thank God for that, because I couldn't have borne it if I'd lost my children to the world.

It sounds like you've been doing some research and have good ideas. Yes, there are actually quite a few homeschool programs for preschoolers. I think it probably started 1. because of parents being impatient to actually *do* something with their children, and 2. even more, because of Moms working with their older children and needing something to keep the littler ones occupied -- they see older sibling doing 'school' and they want to do school, too. Whatever the reason, there is a wealth of good materials out there. The hardest part is deciding what to pick!

Kathleen

[Egumuq]

There is a great homeschooling web site you may want to check out, I plan on homeschooling our son, he is 18 months old now, so I have checked out a few sites and this one is great. groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschool-Alaska/

Pam (Anataq's wife)

[Jenny]

Kathleen, it sounds like you have done a remarkable job in raising your children. What a blessing! ! ! ;D You are such an encouragement! ! ! ;D

Welcome to the forum, Pam. Glad you joined ;D and thank you for the homeschooling link. I posted a question there, so hope to get a few responses. Looks like an interesting forum with lots of experienced homeschool parents. Posts are listed as they are made, so it's kind of random and a little harder to get around the site. But, still, lots of good information.

I did do some looking online, but didn't have much time. Most of what I found was for children a little older --- say about 4 or 5. I'll look again when I have more time. I also looked at Abeka, but didn't have time to really check out what it has to offer.

Thanks

Jenny
Alaska HOMESTEADING Journal

[Freeholdfarm]

Hi, Jenny, your boys are still little, so there's no hurry. It's best to take your time, and check things out before you buy anything. One thing I found in all our years of homeschooling was that it was really easy to spend a lot of money on curriculum and stuff, that wasn't *really* necessary. If you are careful, you can find good materials that will last for years -- re-useable for all your children -- and maybe even good for several grades. That will be a savings right there. When the boys are a little older, I would recommend Alphaphonics, by Samuel Blumenfeld. I just recently got a copy for my sister to use for her two little girls (the same ages as my granddaughters, LOL!), and when she's done she'll send it back to me for my youngest daughter. Juniper will probably never learn to read, but I don't intend to give up on her. My sister has the Robinson Curriculum on CD, and plans to use that through all her daughters school years. It seems to be a really good program, but I do see some drawbacks. For one thing, you have to do a lot of printing off of material (the child isn't supposed to do the work on the computer). Also, you need to buy a lot of supplemental books, which isn't too bad, because most of them are good ones to have. But many are out of print and hard to find. The program doesn't have a lot for kindergarten and first-graders, which is why Pam needed the Alphaphonics book. Of course, most parents can do first grade without too much help, but the phonics material is pretty necessary, as most of us weren't taught to read that way, so it isn't something we already know. I was, thankfully. My mother homeschooled me for first grade, as our homestead was, at that point, about six miles from the nearest school bus stop. Alaska hadn't yet started using the standard public school curriculum for homeschooling families, so they provided Calvert for me. Calvert, while not particularly Christian, is academically an excellent program, and they did use phonics (then, I don't know if they still do).

Well, I need to go to town, sigh. I'd actually like to live off the road system, so I could mostly just stay home!

Kathleen

[Jenny]

I'd never heard of Alphaphonics before, so I checked it out. Sounds GREAT! We have friend who have 7 children and they have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. All of thier children are excellent readers and very bright. When we get to that point, it may be a toss-up. I know some families start getting much more structured in their approach by the time their children are 2. I've been looking at homeschool forums and reading about different methods and don't think that's necessarily a good thing, at least not for our children. Our oldest seems to "shut down" or either start clowning around when we're obviously trying to teach him things. If we provide something to let him discover it himself, or quickly, and in a fun way, interject something, it works much better.

I just ordered the book Slow and Stead, Get Me Ready. THe author is a retired kindergarden teacher. She has a little preschool forum linked to the website for Practical Homeschooling magazine. Sounds like a good approach, and her book also has a guide to let parents know where children should be, in terms of various aspects of development. Sounds like the main thing is be patient and go at the child's pace. We don't want too much structure, like workbooks and such, right now. Just something to let us know that we're provide good "toys" and activities to help him develop and learn as he should, without all the glitzy fluff.

I know what you mean about it being easy to spend lots of money on curriculums. With the foreign teenager we had living with us, I had to constantly remind myself of the goals --- both general and in specific subjects. Lots of really fantastic stuff out there, but I had to keep asking myself if this expensive program would REALLY help her learn any better than that inexpensive one. And, you have to sift through lots of "fluff", and junk that has been marketed well. It just takes time to evaluate things and decide what's best for your family. Sounds like you went through that, and may still be going through it with one of your daughters? We know another family whose daughters are now in college. Like us, they didn't have much money to pour into homeschooling, but wanted to provide a solid Christian education for their children. They spent lots of time finding materials. They never spent much money, but their daughters are amazing.

Thanks so much for the input. Sometimes when friends talk about their children, or I read about other families, I begin to worry that maybe we're not doing enough. I think I just need to relax and have fun.

Thanks,

Jenny

[Freeholdfarm]

Yup, relax and have fun! We started homeschooling when my oldest daughter was in second grade, and middle daughter was in kindergarten. I can't even remember the name of the curriculum we used now, but by the end of the year I was pretty discouraged, as the girls had only completed about half of the work. At the time, we were living in a tiny rural town (more of a village) in Oregon. The public school had two classrooms for five grades, so we decided to put the girls in there the next year, as I felt like I'd failed at homeschooling. To my amazement, the girls were up with or ahead of their classmates in every area! We let them finish the year out in the public schools, but then went back to homeschooling, until we moved to where we had a church with a good Christian school. Later I found out that the curriculum we'd started out with had a reputation for having a LOT of work for such small children, and I wasn't the only one who hadn't managed to finish all of it in one year. Anyway, after all that, I was a lot more relaxed about what we did, and the girls always scored in the 90th percentiles when they had their standardized tests.

We tried quite a few different things in the years that we homeschooled, and one suggestion I do have is, after you look things over pretty well, to make a plan and stick to it as much as you can. We were using material from different curriculums almost every year, and since different curriculums cover subjects in different years, we almost missed a couple of things -- poetry, for one. It helps to have one of those guides to what a child is supposed to learn each year -- you don't have to follow them slavishly, but it helps to have reminders so you don't accidentally miss something.

Another thing we introduced when the girls were old enough (reading well) was goal charts. I would plan out their work for the week, and write the goals for each day on the chart. The girls kept track of what they had actually done, and wrote that on the chart. (By this time I wasn't standing over them 'teaching' all the time, just answering questions, helping with new concepts as necessary, and checking completed work.) They always had their year's work done by April, at the latest, LOL! I could have gotten more work, and kept them going more or less year round, but they were reading a lot, and doing other real-life educational things, so it didn't really seem necessary. I didn't want to push them through school too fast!

One BIG advantage of homeschooling when we were in Alaska was that they would get up early and have their work done before the sun came up, around ten or so in the middle of the winter. Then they could play outside in the daylight for at least a couple of hours, and usually did, even when it was way below zero. They had a homeschooled friend who lived about half a mile away. They all had sleds, and the girls each had a pony, so the children had a lot of fun. I felt sorry for the public-schooled children, who went to school in the dark, and came home in the dark. The only time they saw the sun was on the weekends.

Oh, and about the goal charts. We used those for several years, and it taught the girls to be responsible for how they used their time. When we did finally put them into the Christian school, in the middle of the year, it was an adjustment for them. But because they had learned to manage their own time, they adapted quickly. And, when they went to college, again, they did well because they had learned to manage their own time. A lot of youngsters go off to college and flop totally because they've always had someone poking and prodding them to make sure they got things done. Then they go off to college and don't have that anymore, and they flounder.

My oldest daughter told me a couple of weeks ago that she's expecting number four around the first of August. And my middle daughter called last night, all excited, as she is now officially engaged, ring and everything! Her fiance seems to be a very mature, responsible, young man. He's only been saved a little over a year, but has already grown in the Lord tremendously, and seems to be very stable and strong. Middle daughter is a mature and committed Christian, and has been waiting a long time for the man of God's choice for her (she's twenty-six), so I'm really happy and excited for her! And hoping I'll be able to get back to New Hampshire for her wedding!! When I look back, I can see so many things I wish I'd done differently, things that could, and should, have been done better. But God watches over His own, and in spite of my mistakes, these children He gave me to raise have mostly turned out pretty well! So, trust in Him, relax, and enjoy those little ones -- they don't stay little for very long!

Kathleen