HOMESHOOL HELP!!!

i AM KRYSTAL RAMIREZ AND I AM LOOKING FOR ANY HELP TO GET STARTED HOMESCHOOLING MY CHILDREN. ANYONE ONE HAVE ADVICE? PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO SHARE IT WITH ME! T

Hi! My name is Soniah, I'm in Holyoke, MA. I just started homeschooling my two kids (5 and almost 4) and I'm a bit lost myself. At this point what I really want is to find homeschool children same age as my two boys. Do you have any specific questions? What are the age of your children?

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Krystal you can find all the Information you need to get started. Every State has at least one Support Group.
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I am also wanting to get started homeschooling my children. I have a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 1month old. I have begun the basics with my older girls but don't know how to go about finding a good curriculum and whatnot.

I have been homeschooling for many years so anything you want to ask..go ahead! Believe me, hsing kids when they're that young is pretty easy and you don't have to buy an expensive curriculum(unless you are looking for an intensive method of hsing).

Shirley

I sang the ABCs (in English and French) to my child every time I changed a diaper, put her in the carseat/stroller or did other daily things. By the time she could speak, she knew the song in both languages. Same with numbers. Kids learn everything better with songs. You can make them up and they won't know any different!!

You can also do (harmlessly sneaky) things like get the laminated placemats with Sesame Street characters on them with colors/shapes/letters on them for meals/snack time and they will see it 5 times a day. They can practice letters on them with crayons and it just wipes right off (there are special crayons, but regular crayons work just fine)...

I use every opportunity during the day as a "teachable moment" explaining how things work and what they are. For example, sandwiches and fruits are used to teach fractions just by cutting them up ("Would you like it in HALF, THIRDS, FOURTHS, or SIXTHS today?" and she got to pick, then we would take on piece away and do a little math lesson like that - 4 "take away one equals three", "three plus one equals four"). It took 5 or less minutes so she didn't get bored, in fact got to look forward to choosing (making her own decision!) what her sandwich would look like, and eating each section of orange/apple or other fruit and "taking away" and counting backwards as she went. She's now 5 so she can subtract... WOW! And she does it on her own even when I'm out of the room, I can hear her!

The things above cost me almost NOTHING (wink) and are simple, quick and fun ways to inject learning into your daily activities. You trick them into learning and they don't even know it. For example you can teach them about suction by showing them how they can put a small cup up to their face and suck the air out and it will stick to their face (they love that!) - viola! Your mini-science lesson.

With young children with short attention spans it's really easy and fun and there are many, many FREE online things you can find. They don't need the 6 hours a day, an hour or two here and there is fine, especially if you space it out with playtime (and quiet time accounted for) in between. You do have a life and errands and all that to do, too!

Plus search flea markets, yard sales and book stores (including Goodwill and such) for activity books, mazes and so on that encourage critical thinking, finding patterns, what doesn't belong, etc. And, if you can find an "Anti-Coloring book" those are the best b/c they encourage imagination versus the run-of-the-mill coloring books where they just color within the lines.

Just remember to keep it fun - you are the antithesis of the boring, regimented school! You care about your child like no paid teacher ever could. You can read their cues because you know them so much better, and figuring out the way they learn (listening/visual/tactile or a combination thereof) will help them and you along the way.

Enjoy your time with them and they will enjoy it also. Ample praise and encouragement goes a long way, reminding and help with errors does too. They will never be perfect and errors are actually good b/c they show where more effort needs to be put.

Believe it or now, I'm just starting, and we're having lots of fun already.