We have 5 children ages 3 to 11. I have home-schooled them from the very beginning. Whenever I tell people I home-school I always get the same response, "I could never do that!" or "That sounds like it would be a tough job".
I want to help people realize it's not as difficult as they may think.
First, WHY we home-school. There are several different reasons. Number one for me is I want to be the one responsible for the content of the information my children are learning. There are some curriculums being taught in public schools today that I STRONGLY disagree with. A second reason is the way in which they are taught. In public schools the class sizes are usually large. The teacher has to present the information to all the students in the same way. I know from having 5 kids not all learn the same way. By home-schooling you have the flexibility to teach your children in the way the learn best.
Next, HOW to home-school. There are different ways this can be done. There are different home-schooling curriculum out there. I choose to make my own curriculum. This can be a little more difficult and time consuming, but I like to customize my curriculum. For my kids, I have 4 different grade levels. So I research for each subject and grade level what goals should be reached by the end of the school year. I use the internet and printer for just about everything, with just a few schoolbooks. Most of the sites I use are free, with just a couple that I pay for.
Here's a couple of links for my favorite ones:
This is a great one because it has printable worksheets for all grade levels and subjects.
http://www.tlsbooks.com/
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-This one is great for full lesson plans. They will include a reading portion followed by questions and answers. It has a variety of different topics for Social Studies, Science, Language Arts, and Math. You have to sign up and there's a limited membership and a full membership. The limited membership is free and what I have always used. I've always managed to find plenty of material in the limited membership so I don't really know how much more the full membership has or how much it costs.
http://www.lessonsnips.com/
The last one I'll include today is one I have used for years to create tests. It's free to sign up and you can create short answer, multiple choice, true or false, and matching questions. You can print them and they are all saved under your account. Over the years I've accumulated over 70 tests on there. It's great for going back and reviewing for end of the year tests, and also a great way to keep track of what they've learned. You can pay to upgrade, but I've never done it so I don't know what all it includes.
http://www.easytestmaker.com/
UPDATE 09/16/2013
We just found this excellent home-school teacher resource. This site is very easy to navigate and covers almost every subject!
http://www.teachersfirst.com/matrix.cfm?var3=0&var2=5
I hope this helps anyone who wants to start home-schooling they're kids. For me the best part is spending time with my kids. I've made so many great memories and that's the biggest reward of all. I will be sharing more tips and tricks soon, so stay tuned.
~Suzanne
