Hey...so glad to find this website :) . We have just started to homeschool our 12 year old daughter as well and are looking forward to a great year. Basically just beginning to put together the curriculum.
Does anyone have suggestions regarding math programs?
This is sooooooooo not pressure oriented project. It's meant to be F.U.N !! :) I can certainly get together with you and the kids if you like to offer suggestions. Even if you as a family think about a Carol you really like or that the kids like. The thing I am excited about is that everyone will have a different flavour as everyone likes different styles of music too :). If your kids have a favourite carol then sing that! or a poem/scripture. Let me know what you choose :).
Yikes! I all of a sudden feel apprehensive and inadequate about putting together a song all on our own. Is it possible to get some direction and hand-on coaching from you? I'm very excited about this idea!
Thankyou Deb for your kind words :) I am so excited to see what God arranges for the choice of songs and other additions on the CD. I believe it is his heart that wants people our neighbors to know we are Christians by our love.
I was just at your website Lynda and listened to your music there, it was beautiful, you have a lovely voice. Your CD for your neighbors sounds like a wonderful idea along with the "Christmas Bash" at your house. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and music with us, I look forward to hearing more of what God has done in your life as well as more of your music.
Joanne that sounds great! let me know what you choose as a contribution be it a traditional carol or Jesus song/chorus or poem or even appropriate scripture. I can place background music to fit the mood. Pray and see what God comes up with :) Lets be in touch.
Bless you
Lynda
-- Edited by Ozmum on Sunday 9th of September 2012 11:38:10 PM
How wonderful! Sherry, perhaps you could choose a favorite song traditional or not so! what ever you and the children like and then practice practice! I'll keep you all posted re: staggered dates to come on over to my place and record!
blessings
Lynda
-- Edited by Ozmum on Sunday 9th of September 2012 11:36:04 PM
-- Edited by Ozmum on Sunday 9th of September 2012 11:37:20 PM
Wow! what an awesome group of Homeschoolers. I was sad to leave early but really looking forward to meeting with you all. Love to connect individually also :) I have Isaac Tuesday & Thursdays. Also have guitar will travel :) if anyone would like some music in the afternoon! Let me know what themes you are doing in advance and I could drum up some songs or.........we could learn how to write a song together! I have one song to listen to on my website (still 'under construction') is http://lyndabarbermusic.weebly.com You have to type it in your browser bar which is the big one up the top! For more of my songs google 'lynda brennan' soundclick.com and click on my music page. (just so you know a bit more about me :).
I am looking to do a Christmas CD for my neighbors as an outreach for the community--then we have a Christmas bash! at my house. If you have any suggestions of your children's favorite Christmas songs or favourite songs/poems/scripture about Jesus, let me know. They could practice and I'll record them on a compilation for the "When You Rise Up" gang! I have a mini recording studio at home. This could be a real community effort as I am sure there are some great artists,singers,musicians amongst you & the kids. You need to be well rehearsed, capable of singing in tune and ready to go! Let me know as I need to know numbers in order to set dates and stagger recording sessions. The cost will be by donation only, to cover the printing of the cover & blank CDs.... no obligation if funds are tight. I will cover the cost of the CD cases. We don't need to go into a studio! so that saves also. This will be a nice simple production :). Less is more, right?! The quality of the sound will be surprising. I have Garageband in my Mac which I purchased for my own use. I can Burn a master copy and multiple singles. If it turns out that we need hundreds we will cross that hurdle when we come to it! Lets just have a bit of fun and minister to the community. My heart is to give a CD to my elderly neighbors especially. Any further creative ideas welcome. But for times sake we will keep it simple :).
We don't go by any particular curriculum here, just purchased work books here and there for different subjects according to the grades my girls are in as well as educational computer programs. I'd be interested in taking a look at the curriculum samples though just to see what they are like. See you all tomorrow and welcome to Green Ruby and Farmingmama to this site. Blessings
Green Ruby - can you come to the park on Friday? Everyone - I was wondering if it would be worth our while to maybe bring a few favorite cirriculum samples to the park on Friday so that some of the people who are deciding on cirriculum could put their hands on them to flip through. I know as someone who never looked at it before, that putting my hands and eyes on them made a real difference for me. No pressure - just a thought if folks may be interested or are willing.
Hello everyone, wow this is such a blessing having you all here answering some of the questions I have. I am just starting out, have made the desision to homeschool my 12 year old daughter. I'm a little late starting but I'm a sponge right now taking it all in. I have read so many things in the last couple days and my brain is trying to shut down... But I hope and believe I have found the right place here.... Joanne, Lynda, farmingmama and all...I would greatly appreciate a chance to meet and discuss everything..... I'm confused as to what materials to buy, how to start, and so further and so on.... My daughter is waiting some what patiently to begin....saying Mom can we start now....bless her little heart. I have started the membership with hslda.ca and will definately send off that letter of intent. I also have little Joseph but he is only 14 months so hopefully by the time he is ready I will be a pro... I am a single mother and recently left an unhealthy relationship. I started my journey to the Lord 6 months ago...and am very humbled and excited to learn more and more. We have just moved from Brampton on, to london. Any support would be greatly appreciated.. Thank you in advance
Thanks so much farmingmama :) it is so good to know the body is working to support one another. I would love to get together! let me know and I will come your way as you have more than I have! I am at home and will travel :). I also appreciate your honesty. Many hide :).
Thank-you all for your feedback and encouragement and willingness to meet with us. All of this info and support has really gotten us excited about the journey we're about to take. Thanks Joanne for all of that info too. So, So helpful and nice to hear from someone else who has just gone through the same process we are going through. Thank-you also for telling me that you are praying for us. That meant a lot to me. Since we were married 11 years ago, we have only attended church sporadically and have not made God the center of our family so we are also beginning our spiritual journey as well. I had a hard time with my decision as I thought that God wouldn't direct someone who hasn't been close to Him for many years but realized through the past couple of weeks that that is not the case at all. If I hadn't found this site I think I would have just sent my kids back into the public school system. What an answer to prayer you all have been! We have actually decided to home school our children for sure now and I'm really excited. My stress is gone and I feel so much at peace and actually excited instead of scared to teach my kids. Even better is that all my boys are pretty excited about it too and seem at peace with it now as well. Looking forward to meeting more of you ladies and learning from your experiences.
Ozmum, I'll pray for you as well that God will guide you as to what is right for you and your family. And, we can always get together to help each other out if you'd like. So, now I shall send some letters of intent, join the HSLDA and set up a time to visit with Louise at The Learning House. Thanks again ladies.
Sorry I am not sure how to make that a link, but check it out. This is an organization you should seriously consider being a member of if you decide to homeschool. They were very helpful to us for the process of withdrawing our children and if we are ever investigated they will have our back. It came highly recommended from multiple sources as we investigated homeschool. But more than that........ When we were trying to speak to other people about our choice to start to homeschool, we often ran across friends who thought that there would be problems with our children knowing how to 'socialize' etc. This website has links to research done on children who were homeschooled and how likely they were as adults to vote, read books, marry or have children, compared to their public school peers. I found this information very helpful to me. This info, plus God putting me in an observational position of my son and watching him, helped me to learn that our culture suggests that the best way for my child to learn how to socialize is to put him in with a bunch of 7 year old boys. Some might suggest that if we are trying to teach (not role model or experience) our children how to interact with others, how to be kind, compassionate, friendly, a good listener etc that there is a more effective teacher than other 7 year old boys who maybe aren't knowledgeable (or the best example) in this area. Then as a homeschooling parent, I can purposefully decide all the activities we can choose to participate in so that they can be with peers (there are many many options - homeschool and otherwise). This web site has back issues of their newsletters which are full of info and the resource page gives the link to The Learning House. This is a 'local' homeschool bookstore. If you decide to homeschool, you can make an appointment with Louise there and she can help you with a cirriculum program. I found this website to be very helpful after we knew God was calling us to homeschool.
I would be interested in meeting with you as I too am thinking of HS my five year old only. Of course I am feeling a bit of pressure regarding my son being an only child.
I decided to homeschool about 2 years ago with my 2 daughters ages 8 and 13. It has sincerely been the best decision I have ever made. I left my high stress career in a medical laboratory to do this. We definitely took a financial hit, but we have learnt to make do with things, something our society doesn't comprehend. I joined a private christian school, Canadian Christian Academy. They have been supporting and providing homeschoolers for a long time. They took the work out of homeschooling for me. There are tuition fees and education material fees, but I find that it is well worth it. The curriculum (accelerated christian education) is self explanatory. Some of it is boring for the kids, so I find ways to make it interesting. If you stick with it, it is a very good curriculum. They also retain records, provide progress reports and maintain an Ontario School record, so if you ever decide to put your kids back into the system, it can be easily done. They will provide transfer documents. The best part for me is that I have peace of mind knowing that my kids' education is up to the Ministry of Education standards and when they graduate they will have an OSSD.
Hi Alicia, I'll message you privately about getting together with the kids, as it appears that there's not much of a need for a larger group gathering ;)
Hi Farming Mama - I'm one of those too. We have an organic dairy farm near Lucan. We have something else in common - I sounded just like you do only a few short months ago. We pulled our kids out in May. I'm still no expert AT ALL, but what I do know is that for us, choosing to homeschool didn't come down to if I/we could do it, where to get resources or my personal self confidence (still struggling with that one). For us it was a case of obedience. Look to the One who knows you best. Seek His counsel. Does your husband feel this leading too? If one of you (or both) is sure God wants this, then obedience is the name of the game. If it is His plan, then He has the details worked out. Socialization is not a reason to not homeschool. (we could have a whole page/book for that). What we did was interview half a dozen people who were homeschooling and asked a lot of questions. I found this was SUPER helpful. I learned that homeschool doesn't look the same to every person - some do 'school' at home, and some people really do 'school' with simply reading and letting children be creative and really experience life with you. (ie: The woman on here 4 little Canadians told me once that she thinks she will never need to do a 'nutrition' unit with her kids because they shop, menu plan, cook etc with her and the kids just learn by doing it.) So by us doing interviews I learned these different methods of homeschool and was able to envision it for our family better. There are MASSIVE amounts of curriculum out there. If you decide to homeschool then look at cirriculum.... Not knowing exactly what we were doing for every single thing is where we were when we started. It was God's plan I think because then kids helped us 'build' our homeschool (and the organization of it). This was very good for the transition from public to home education. Get an HSLDA membership if you do homecshool. Also, the letter noted above is courtesy to the school, but is manditory to the board I believe. Failure to submit it can result in an investigation. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/extra/eng/ppm/131.html Check out this link. I have to go now, but you are in good hands with Bonnie. If you decide to homeschool, I can tell you some of the ways that we transitioned to help you brainstorm what will work for you. I will pray for you. Joanne
...or, would anyone else be interested in getting together, just to "chat homeschooling"? I'd be happy to have moms over in an evening (would Wed. Aug 29th work? 7:30 p.m.?)... if anyone's interested, mention it here and I will message you privately with my address! Bonnie
As for further thinking about homeschooling, I'd be happy to have you over to chat about questions you have. The most important thing is to trust God's leading here, and not stress about it! It'll be a big life change, but a really, really wonderful one!
Sorry this is brief, but hopefully we'll get a chance to speak in 'real' time :)
So happy to have stumbled onto this website. I would like to introduce myself. My name is Alicia and my husband and our family farm just northeast of London. I have three wonderful boys. Twins who are 9 and a 6 year old. My kids currently go to a public school just outside London. I have two sisters-in-law that homeschool their children and have always had that idea that I would like to do it too, but my own insecurities and health issues have kept me from making the decision to do so. As the back to school time draws near for us this year, I have been really stressed and feeling very burdened and perhaps God is calling me in another direction for my children because just thinking of having to send my kids off to school again every day makes almost gives me a panic attack! I feel like our lives become so distant and there is little time to be spent as a family during the school year and it's always rush, rush, rush. I guesss I have many concerns about what my kids are being exposed to at such a young age as well and the influences that the world has on them for so much time each day. I feel like it's a constant "deprogramming" if you will every day when they come home about why we believe differently than what they are hearing at school. Anyways, I am really afraid not being able to do a good job of homeschooling and keeping my kids well socialized with others. I was always great in school so I know I'm smart enough to do it, just don't have a clue as how to go about it or even where I would be the materials needed. I was just wondering if you all could point me in the right direction to talk to some families about my questions and concerns and maybe a meeting where we could meet other families. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know it's short notice, but I'd even like to start this year if possible. Would I just call the school and tell them they're not coming or is it a longer process to go through?
