Homeschooling- How to get started?

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Hello, everyone. I hope that I’m posting this in the correct forum. We are planning on homeschooling our little girl, who will be turning three in just a few months. I have two major questions.

The first is concerning research. I want to spend this time, while I still have plenty of it at my disposal, figuring out what kind of approach I want to take with my daughter’s school and what kind of curriculum I have to choose from and how to incorporate our Catholic faith into it. I do not know much about the main schools of thought, and I am wondering if there is anyone who can point me toward either online resources explaining the differences or books of some kind. Also, what blogs or forums are there that are really great resources about getting started. Anything at all would be helpful, because every time I’ve tried to look, I’m totally overwhelmed.

My second question is about getting started with preschool sometime soon. I DO NOT want a structured curriculum or a plan that has me sitting down with her for a set number of hours, but what I do want is some ideas for how to turn ordinary tasks into educational ones. I have found that I am often silent (I’m quite introverted) when we are doing things together, and I feel that if I have something in mind already of that I would like her to learn, I am much more apt to teach her appropriately! My husband is deployed and will be gone until April of next year, so we have very little structure in our day (since I stay at home), and I feel like I’m just totally lacking in creativity about things that we can do together that would be fun for her and that I can make educational. We live in a townhome, so I can’t even really let her play in the backyard here! I just need some ideas that I can take and make our own!

I would really appreciate as much information as anyone can give me in these things and in how to get started in general. I know that I will not be the kind of mother who can successfully follow a strict schedule and lesson plan or one curriculum, so I am hoping to get as much information as possible to create something that works best for us, one year at a time.

Also, does anyone have any help for how to learn more about my toddler’s learning style? Is it too soon for that to be recognizable?

Thank you so much for any help!!!
 
I’m not a big fan of pre-school. I just think they are better off in the home. Although if it is an only child, a few hours of interaction with other children is probably a good idea.

We used Seton home school for our children.

setonhome.org/

Peace,
John
 
I’m a homeschool student and my family (three girls, two boys) use(d) Seton homeschooling too. It’s really a nice program and you don’t have to worry about being behind public schooled kids in regard to the difficulty. 👍
 
I would point out that you don’t state where in the world you are.

It’s important to make contact with a group with people in your state or Country. you need some level of local support even if you are not using their method or curriculum. The laws on home-schooling vary markedly in different places and you need the local support to ensure you are able to comply with the local laws.

The last thing you need the the social workers shoving their big noses in 'cause you didn’t fill in the right form.
 
Since you’re still pretty much at the stage of colors, shapes, letters and fingerpainting, it’s probably best to leave it at that for a while. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the different curricula available (Seton, Mother of Divine Grace, Kolbe, Catholic Heritage Curricula, Our Lady of Victory - did I forget any?) so you don’t have so much rush later on. Some of them have full lesson plans while others just list the books to use and let you plan the rest. It would also be a good idea to get to know homeschool families in your area so you can get to know what their routine is like.

It may be too early to attend a full conference just yet but some conferences have a free session for those discerning homeschooling (warning: these sessions tend to focus on the roses (e.g. family dynamics, tuning the learning experience to the child) more than the thorns (e.g. not enough time to do all the chores by yourself). Usually only paid attendees can attend the “dealing with thorns” sessions)
 
SonCatcher said:
Seton, Mother of Divine Grace, Kolbe, Catholic Heritage Curricula, Our Lady of Victory - did I forget any?)
Click to expand...
Also, Angelicum.
Here are the links:
kolbe.org/
chcweb.com/catalog/index.html
setonhome.org/
motherofdivinegrace.org/
angelicum.net/
reginacoeli.org/
olvs.org/index.asp?PageId=758
staa-homeschool.com/

In addition to this, look into a couple of methods: scholastic, classical, & Charlotte Mason are good to start with. Get an idea of YOUR philosophy of homeschooling, and then compare these to the various providers. You certainly don’t need to use a provider, but a lot of people starting out like to follow a specific program as they get their footing. Each provider has varying degrees of flexibility, so if you don’t find a program that fits your preferences perfectly, you might be able to still register with your closest to favorite provider, and then make changes and substitutions to customize the education.

Going to a homeschooling conference is a good idea. Not only can you attend talks, but you can also look at the materials in the vendor hall. You can do this at any conference, but the vendors are very different at a Catholic conference than a secular or protestant one. FYI, The IHM conferences are free. So if you live near one, check it out. Or google Catholic Homeschooling Conference and see what IS near you.

Books that I read that were helpful to me were:
Laura Berquist’s “Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum”
Bauer’s “The Well Trained Mind” (not Catholic)
Mack & Whitman: “Catholic Homeschool Companion”

For preschooly stuff, there are a couple of non-academic preschool programs out there:
Little Saints: catholicpreschool.com/ is a hefty program that is very preschooly, in the fun way. It is a lot of work for the parent though. My favorite thing about the program is the huge book list that it has - worth the cost of the program to me.

Catholic icing: catholicicing.com/catholic-preschool-curriculum/ is one I’ve just learned about. It looks very nice, and if you’re familiar with the Catholic Icing blog, then that will give you an idea.

Catholic Heritage Curricula (see above link) has a preschool program that they include with their Kindergarten lesson plans. It is very basic and gentle.

Seton has preschool, but it is workbooky and academic. If you’re just looking for some things to do at home with your child, you might want to make use of free internet resources.
 
Thanks so much for all of your replies!! I’m so grateful for all the help.

Thank you, thykingdomcome, for all the links and great information! I am so happy to have a place to start now! I’ll be looking into everything you wrote about. I really do appreciate it!

I found out that our parish has a homeschool group that I can become a part of, so I am super excited about the prospect of meeting some local families that can continue to help me on this path.

Thanks again for all the help!
 
ThyKingdomCome said:
Also, Angelicum.
Here are the links:
kolbe.org/
chcweb.com/catalog/index.html
setonhome.org/
motherofdivinegrace.org/
angelicum.net/
reginacoeli.org/
olvs.org/index.asp?PageId=758
staa-homeschool.com/

In addition to this, look into a couple of methods: scholastic, classical, & Charlotte Mason are good to start with. Get an idea of YOUR philosophy of homeschooling, and then compare these to the various providers. You certainly don’t need to use a provider, but a lot of people starting out like to follow a specific program as they get their footing. Each provider has varying degrees of flexibility, so if you don’t find a program that fits your preferences perfectly, you might be able to still register with your closest to favorite provider, and then make changes and substitutions to customize the education.

Going to a homeschooling conference is a good idea. Not only can you attend talks, but you can also look at the materials in the vendor hall. You can do this at any conference, but the vendors are very different at a Catholic conference than a secular or protestant one. FYI, The IHM conferences are free. So if you live near one, check it out. Or google Catholic Homeschooling Conference and see what IS near you.

Books that I read that were helpful to me were:
Laura Berquist’s “Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum”
Bauer’s “The Well Trained Mind” (not Catholic)
Mack & Whitman: “Catholic Homeschool Companion”

For preschooly stuff, there are a couple of non-academic preschool programs out there:
Little Saints: catholicpreschool.com/ is a hefty program that is very preschooly, in the fun way. It is a lot of work for the parent though. My favorite thing about the program is the huge book list that it has - worth the cost of the program to me.

Catholic icing: catholicicing.com/catholic-preschool-curriculum/ is one I’ve just learned about. It looks very nice, and if you’re familiar with the Catholic Icing blog, then that will give you an idea.

Catholic Heritage Curricula (see above link) has a preschool program that they include with their Kindergarten lesson plans. It is very basic and gentle.

Seton has preschool, but it is workbooky and academic. If you’re just looking for some things to do at home with your child, you might want to make use of free internet resources.
Click to expand...
I’m replying so that I can look at this post when I have more time…very thorough post. We’re planning on homeschooling our children–who aren’t even born yet!:rolleyes:
 
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