My oldest is 7 and in 2nd grade. Before Abeka (unaccredited) he did learn to read in 100 lessons, which was great and he was reading during the lessons! He knows his sounds, can blend beautifully.. But he refuses to read in real life. It’s like he believes he can’t do it? I genuinely don’t understand it.. i feel defeated bc I don’t know how to help him. I encourage him to read and sound out. We’ve given him motivation, if he reads he can play Minecraft. Lol and he’s excited about that possibility but he won’t make progress by reading outside of his lesson in that specific book. 😭😭😭

I just started homeschooling my six-year-old boy. He previously attended Montessori hybrid programs. This is our first year doing actual curriculum/homeschool time.

We are just on day two and deep in the struggle bus. Tears have been shed. Words have been said, but I have been trying to keep a cool head. We are only doing master books, math, and teacher kid to read at 100 easy lessons. The ladder of which we have been working on for a little while and has gone over more smoothly at times than others. I don’t want to be in a power struggle with my son, but I also don’t want to teach him to give up. When we crack open the books, he is willing to do one or two lines and then starts the complaining, and excuses and trying to reason out of the work. I know other mamas have faced this, and this is a little bit of venting because I know once we get more in a rhythm things can get better. Still open to kind advice on how to support him through this. Part of me wants to do a little bit of Unschooling, but I also do not want him to “ fall behind“ because I know he is so smart and capable.

My son (7) has struggled with handwriting (or any drawing, really). He's really just now starting to show control and interest in letter formations, but does not yet know how to form all letters upper and lowercase.

We're starting LOE foundations B. I chose to go with cursive, as I've read it can be easier for kids that struggle in that department. Should I spend some time working in a cursive workbook before we begin? Will we be able to jump in or will he be missing pertinent information from A?

Thank you!

[Not sure if this is the right forum for this ?]

Does anyone have any experience with this program? The middle and high school sessions look interesting but there's no information on instructors or any reviews or details.
https://www.njit.edu/precollege/saturday-morning-stem-sms

This daily discussion is to chat about anything that doesn't warrant its own post. I am not a mod and make these posts for building the homeschool community.

If you are new, please introduce yourself.

If you've been around here before or have been homeschooling for awhile, please share about your day.

Some ideas of what to share are: your homeschool plans for the day, lesson plans, words of encouragement, methods you are implementing to solve a problem, methods of organization, resource/curriculum you recently came across, curriculum sales, field trip planning, etc.

Although, I usually start with a question of the day to get the discussion going, feel free to ask your own questions. If your question does not get answered because it was posted late in the day, you can post the same question tomorrow to make sure it gets visibility.

Be mindful of the subreddit's rules and follow reddiquette. No ads, market/ thesis research, or self promotion. Thank you!

Everything we use for school runs on the same laptop and tablet he’d otherwise be messing around on, so a blanket block breaks the school day. I also can’t sit next to him for six hours. I’m trying to work out whether filtering at the router covers the TV and console too, or whether it has to be on each device. What’s the setup for those of you further into this?

Hey guys, we are currently leaving the good and the beautiful, I need kindergarten suggestions and 2nd grade suggestions for reading/spelling/language arts. I have no clue what to switch to because TGATB seems so different from any other program. I'm thinking about All About Reading for my second grader but I may have to start at level 1 due to TGATBs gaps in learning compared to other curriculums. I do not comprehend programs that have too much and skip so fast, would you recommend AAR? And what about for a kinder student?

Hi. My son suffers from in-class, school-based anxiety. I thought it was largely because of an undiagnosed learning disability for years (the school district dropped the ball several times). I recently got him privately tested and have a 504 in place, but 4 days in, his stomachaches are back, and he can't get to in-person school. He was previously homeschooled for the last year and a half. We used MI Academy, and it was fine, but I'm not sure how much he actually retained. There are some fantastic opportunities at our high school with their elective courses, and I'd hate to see him miss out on the social part of these years, but I also don't want him to be anxious all the time. So #1, I'm looking for some input on the best homeschooling programs for high school, and #2, I'm looking for some advice, input, or support because I honestly don't know what to do.

Homeschooling pre-K. I'm glad we started homeschooling my daughter at age 4. It feels like this is my "testing year," but I still feel like I'm not doing enough. We do two letters a week and we also do numbers and shapes, but I'm not sure what a routine for a 4 year old should look like. Has anyone used a curriculum for that age? What worked for you to teach letter sounds? And how many activities do you do for pre-K?

Are there any non-religious video based homeschool programs like Abeka Academy (the non-accredited option) where the videos are filmed in a classroom with real children? Is there no secular competitor?

Dear r/homeschool,

My wife and I homeschool our 3 daughters (16, 13 & 7)

With our oldest getting older we're thinking more about "records" and transcripts, etc. Was thinking about building an app that takes a few minutes to update each day that keeps track of stuff she's doing (and can also quickly import past stuff) that we can use w/ an umbrella school and for university if she wants to go; that we can also use for our other kids too

Have also been thinking a lot about how the world is changing for the next generations of kids -- in some fields college is becoming much less relevant and actual experience has become so much more valuable

In my case, I never finished college yet have been able to guest TA at Stanford, edit O'Reilly books, work with Fortune 500 companies etc just because I had a bunch of viewable work people could reference online that built credibility enough to open the doors to opportunities. I think this'll continue to prevail into future generations where AI is going to play a much wider role in identifying people/candidates/connecting opportunities/handling intros etc.

Anyhow, starting to digress :)

I wanted to ask you all if an app/site that helped you all organize curriculum, projects, etc., around your special curriculums would be helpful? Or do you already use one or have a good system that's working well?

My vision is people being able to use what they do when they're younger -- courses, projects, etc., compiled into a format that not only satisfies transcript reqs but outputs to a reference that helps people connect to future work & collab opportunities (e.g. 'Wow, this person did x, y, z when they were 17? Let's def reach out')

Would appreciate knowing what you all think ❤️

I've buried two children one 7 years ago age 8 I found him dead. My daughter two years ago she was 19 she had a car wreck. Most days I am heavy and don't want to do anything. I find myself pushing through school with my 9 year old. I don't enjoy it someday. She is already behind so missing more days is out of the question. I keep things simple in school. Has anyone else experienced trauma and finds themselves pushing through? Surely I'm not alone!

I’m really sorry if this a question that’s asked a lot, but if I wanted to homeschool my kinder aged child, what are the steps?
My child is starting in public school tomorrow but something about it doesn’t feel right, we have such a bond and I would love to have her learn at home. We’ve both shed some tears today about being apart 😞 something in my gut tells me public school isn't for us

Hello. I’m a 14 y old girl and I’m homeschooled. I came here today bc I really just need some friends. I don't have many people to talk to in real life, and I often feel pretty lonely. I’m really looking forward to connecting and chatting with people who understand what homeschooling is like…
It’s a bit scary and tough, but I’d love to make some wholesome friends or hear from other homeschooled teens/parents on how you handle loneliness?

Are there any homeschool pods or micro schools in Colorado near Littleton/Highlands Ranch/Lakewood area? Any teachers who are homeschooling a 3rd or 4th grade girl and would be open to taking in another 3rd grade girl for pay? We are struggling with a new school and contemplating options. Probably need to give the school more time but if she doesn't settle in, I'd like to know if anyone would homeschool her for us. We used to homeschool but my work is insane and requires travel so I can't do it anymore. It would need to be 4 full days a week (though I realize a lot of that time would just be play).

It’s our first year homeschooling. My oldest is 6 and has woken up around 6am naturally her whole life pretty much regardless of bedtime, and she usually brings her 3.5 year old sister along with her for the ride as they share a room. She attended a school which started at 8 for the last 3 years and getting her up and ready on time was never once an issue. I always see people cite sleeping in as late as they want as a perk of homeschooling, but sleeping in is apparently not in the stars for our family.

Anyway, my first grader also wakes up full of energy and ideas about projects she wants to do. For example, this morning before I opened my eyes she reminded me about the cardboard playground she wanted to build for her dolls. I always ask her to let me have my coffee, feed the baby, and cook breakfast etc before I help her with what she wants to do. I’m wondering if it makes sense to lean into her early morning enthusiasm and prep the night before so I can get to work with her right away. Does anyone “do school” FIRST THING in the morning with their early rising kid?

I am so befuddled by this issue, but my 7yo daughter cannot seem to retain the names of numbers past twelve. But it's only by visual recognition that she can't recall. If she's playing hide and seek and counting, she can easily spout off the number sequence up to thirty (which I know is just memorization for he​r) but if I write 22 on paper, it will end in a complete meltdown because she just cannot remember "twenty-two". Even counting objects, let's say she gets to 19 and we pause while I grab more of said object, she has to start back at 11 in her head to get the memory momentum going again to remember what comes after 19. Every school day we are spending like half of her math time working on just exposure and repetition, but *as soon as* we move to something else, it just poofs out of her brain and she forgets. I'm working from a multiple sensory approach. We could practice random visual recall of the twenties for 5 minutes, then do one single recall of thirty, and she will forget twenty in that ​transition. I don't even want to move further in lessons until she has this down, but this is week 3 of really cracking down and focusing on it and there has been zero improvement. Does anyone have any insight on how I may be able to help her better or even just experiences of what helped your child if they struggled with remember number names? We suspect she has ADHD (for different reasons) but she has had zero issues learning and retaining phonics so idk if that could cause issues only with numbers

Looking for the best sex education videos for a 13 year old.

Thank you!!

I am changing my mind last minute on math and got to wondering... there was a math that keeps getting recommended that I'm told is similar to the old Saxxon Math (not that I'd know what that is, as we haven't used it), but is Christian-based. Does anyone remember what this math is called?

Also, how does one make math religious? I am highly perplexed by this. Are we algebraically solving for number of mangers? lol

ETA 1: While we attend church, we're not looking for a Christian-based math, so I'm wondering if we can overlook the faith portion of the curriculum. But I'm mostly perplexed how one can make something like math bible-based in the first place. Science I can see, but math?

ETA 2: I think it was Shormann Math that was recommended to me that's religious. How are they making math religious?

We’ve been using The Good and the Beautiful for years. My daughter loved it and is in their high school courses but my other three are boys. My oldest son just doesn’t love it. He’s in the 6th grade and I’m wondering what anyone else has found that offers a similar academic level as TGTB. We tried Masterbooks a couple years ago and matching levels was a nightmare as when I ordered the same grade level, I needed to go multiple grade levels higher to match what he needed.

Has anyone found a curriculum that felt like a lateral move without having to do a ton of placement tests to find the right grade?

I have two younger boys that only enjoy poems about meadows and flowers so much (IYKYK), so I need to find something to switch to for all of them.

I don’t know if I have much of a point here other than venting. But if anyone has had a similar experience, I’d love to hear how your kid worked through it and how you’ve supported them since.

Back context: My middle child has always been a little behind the curve…everything from walking to speaking was at the late end of normal, but still technically in the normal range so that it was never flagged as an issue until later. He’s been in speech therapy since he was 3. It has helped immensely but we still have articulation issues. He has always struggled following instructions, particularly in group settings. Transitions are hard. Etc. We are working on getting diagnostic testing done to know exactly which flavor(s) of neurospicy we’re dealing with.

We kept him at home fully during kindergarten but signed him up for our co-op’s enrichment day this year after seeing the progress in behavior in other settings. That was a mistake. 2 weeks in and they just don’t have the staff to handle him because he was needing 1:1 support. I do not blame the co-op at all. They’ve been amazing with my oldest who is now doing hybrid school with them. It’s just disappointing because I was so hoping he could make friends and have some independence this year.

I guess the most frustrating piece is he is doing so much better in some settings. But with new environments it’s like we reset to zero. He can’t control any impulses, he gets over sensitive to other kids playing around with him and then gets angry if he feels they’re making fun of him (majority of the time they’re not, he just misinterprets things), he doesn’t listen to anyone in charge….its a chaotic windstorm.

As mentioned earlier, we’ve got testing scheduled. Hopefully a diagnosis will help us find the appropriate supports for his unique needs.

It’s also hard to have an oldest kid who excels at a lot of things and has a lot of friends and then try to not make things feel uneven for the middle kid who just has more difficulty with social settings and needs more support. And that’s why we homeschool - to meet them where they are - but I don’t want my kids feeling like they were given different opportunities when they grow up one day…it’s just hard and I need a handbook for this .

Also… can we stop with the “he’s just a boy , boys develop slower”?? Because I’ve heard that from friends, relatives, doctors, and speech therapists. While it may be true in some respects, we’ve got to stop ignoring parents concerns for boys because “they catch up” … except for the ones who don’t catch up… and then you just wish you’d pushed harder earlier.

This daily discussion is to chat about anything that doesn't warrant its own post. I am not a mod and make these posts for building the homeschool community.

If you are new, please introduce yourself.

If you've been around here before or have been homeschooling for awhile, please share about your day.

Some ideas of what to share are: your homeschool plans for the day, lesson plans, words of encouragement, methods you are implementing to solve a problem, methods of organization, resource/curriculum you recently came across, curriculum sales, field trip planning, etc.

Although, I usually start with a question of the day to get the discussion going, feel free to ask your own questions. If your question does not get answered because it was posted late in the day, you can post the same question tomorrow to make sure it gets visibility.

Be mindful of the subreddit's rules and follow reddiquette. No ads, market/ thesis research, or self promotion. Thank you!

Hello!

My 3 children are in a private montessori school. We have been at this school for 7 years. We absolutely love the school and have been so, so grateful for it ALWAYS. We feel so lucky to have it.

Cut to: the school is suddenly in a constant state of dramatic change. Staff and teachers are quitting weekly and we are now only keeping our kids there as long as their current teachers remain- which doesn't seem like it will be much of a wait.

I work from home, full-time, with minimal room for flexibility (but not *NONE*- my manager is reasonable).

My 7 and 9 year old boys are kids who will definitely need IEPs. I've been advised by friends who work in public schools as counselors that it is better to request and pursue an IEP prior to enrolling your kid.

My idea is to homeschool for at least a few months, if not the rest of this school year. Someone tell me I can do this while working and it won't be an absolute nightmare (like I'm worried it will be). My husband is in support of this plan.

What should I do/plan/get/etc? How should I approach this? Any advice or direction is appreciated.

I'm in Indiana. The homeschool regulation seems to be very minimal in my state.