Home Schooling - Venice,FL

We did public school for most of the years becuase I need to work to help provide for our home (expensive cost of living in NY) but my daughter began online schooling in 11th grade with Liberty University online academy. It costs about $200 a month and she logs on and get her work done, they do the tesing and they issue the diploma. It's worked best for us for my daughter. It would not work for my second child as there's a lack of discipline needed to get the work done.

As another post said, there is bound to be changes in the coming 4 years so while it's fun to see what's available don't get too attached to anything!

It's okay to think about it this early...I knew before my children were born that it's what I wanted to do, and I started researching, shopping, looking, etc, very early on as well.

I don't agree with "relaxed" methods, Montessori, or "unschooling." There may be a few people who do these things properly, but I have seen too many "relaxed, unschooling" children who were so far behind in the important areas but could tell you every constellation in the sky or the name of every subspecies of bug, etc...but couldn't add.

I homeschool online through the K12 program and I love it. The curriculum is excellent, mastery based, and very advanced compared to what public schools (at least in my school district) offer, and you CAN work at your own pace and enrich like a traditional homeschool. We are a Christian family and I have so far been THRILLED with the K12 history course, because it's done chronologically and includes a lot of Christian history while being a completely well balanced course. There isn't any sort of religion class, obviously, but I find that this is something that's easy to tailor and design on your own.

I suggest you hold off a bit. I'm sure things are going to change over the next 3 - 5 years. It could be fun looking though.

The only comment I have is to be careful about Montesorri. My GD went to a Montessori school for k - 2nd grade then switched to public school. She was way behind academically and did not know how to behave in a classroom.

A Beka is christian based. I don't have any experience with it, but a lady at the Waldorf school my son went to used it prior to her children switching to Waldorf and she said it's quite an advanced and tough program. Check into Waldorf education, I did my own Waldorfian type program when I homeschooled my son for grade four thru our county office of education. The field trips were fantastic! He returned to the Waldorf school for 5th & 6th grade, then I homeschooled using the K12 CAVA online school which was very good like the previous poster states. good luck!

One thing you can start doing now on your own is Letter Of The Week. It's FREE online. It's a great program to help with homeschooling and even offers curriculums that you can tweak to make your own. They actually start with infants! So you could use this for free at home now gearing her up for school age. But they also offer school age through around age 10. Check it out at www.LetterOfTheWeek.com.

I used this with my triplets for 2 years for home preschooling since I couldn't afford 3 kids in preschool. They were 2 1/2 to 4 1/2.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

I have been homeschooling my kids since 2005. Not a lot has changed since then, so researching now is definately not a waste of time. Besides, you can starting teaching them everyday with just a little and then when they start school, you are technically already doing some! Anyway, I use a Christian curriculum called Accelerated Christian Education. I LOVE it because it is all centered around God's word, they learn about creationism, and they have to learn a bible verse with every little booklet. I started with this and have kept with it for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, my kids LOVE it! Second, even though I can't buy it used, and I can't resell it when we are done, I am assured that they are learning everything they need for college. I was always concerned that I would miss something and they would not be ready when they graduate, but with this curriculum they receive everything they need. The only thing I don't do with A.C.E. is Math. My kids like Teaching textbooks. It is CD's and they do it on the computer. I did Saxon Math for many years, but eventually it was not working well for us. Teaching Textbooks can be used by as many students as you want but only installed onto up to 3 computers. Anyway, good luck. There is soo very much out there. The research for what you are looking for is worth the effort. Here are the links to the two different curriculums if you are interested: http://www.aceministries.com/ http://teachingtextbooks.com/

Google "unschooling." That's a relaxed style, you can make it Christian based because you're the one doing it. Even when I homeschooled my grandson through a charter school our facilitator said there was no problem using Christian materials, I just couldn't submit samples of his work with scriptures on them because the school was through a public school district. When I begin homeschooling my guy I plan to use an online K -12 curriculum that supplies his books and materials for free, along with an unschooling approach, it works best for me.

As far as her not learning what she needs to know by the time she's ready for college, that's why you'll need to research college admission requirements years before she'll be attending and keep abreast of them, to ensure she learns what she needs to. It's a responsibility we acquire when we homeschool. Along with teaching her how to take tests.

Also be aware you may desire a relaxed approach now and your daughter's personality or life in general may change your direction by the time you're ready to begin. And things in the homeschooling arena change or modify on an ongoing basis. You're right, there's no harm in seeing what's out there, you just won't know for awhile.

There are many great, flexible programs out there. There are even some home-school co-ops that have in-person classes twice a week...

There's a convention coming up in May- You may want to check it out-
http://www.fpea.com/convention/about/