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Catatonic
10-15-2009, 04:19 PM
Howdy, I've got a 4 year old at home that will be going to school soon. I am trying to talk my wife into home schooling but I don't know if she'll go for it. If not I'd like to at least supplement his brianwashing myself on a regular basis.

Does anyone have any free resources they'd recommend? I don't know anything about how to teach a child, and I would like to do something to negate all the BS he's going to be put through in the near future.

torchbearer
10-15-2009, 04:20 PM
we should put together a homeschooling support group so that more people can get access to resources.

roho76
10-15-2009, 04:48 PM
My wife and I like this site.

http://www.letshomeschool.com/index.html

Catatonic
10-15-2009, 09:15 PM
we should put together a homeschooling support group so that more people can get access to resources.

Honestly I've thought the same thing for a while

Like a line of C4L education material that could be sold to support the campaign

Baptist
10-15-2009, 10:03 PM
Does anyone have any free resources they'd recommend? I don't know anything about how to teach a child, and I would like to do something to negate all the BS he's going to be put through in the near future.

I'll find a few links for you.


But I don't think the success rate for negating all the stuff he's going to hear is that high.

I'm a non-traditional student-- I'm 5 to 7 years older than the other seniors on campus. And I can tell you that these kids have been stupified way more than I was. A lot has changed in a few short years. I can count on one hand the number of intelligent conversations I've had with classmates. And I have yet to meet a single student (besides myself) who has had the balls to take a firm stand on something in class.

These kids are toast. I can only imagine what your kid is going to put up with.

My wife and I will never put our kid in public schools. We would rather live in a mobile home or apartment instead of a home if that is what it takes for one of us to teach the kid. We are going to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to homeschool our kid (unless I happened to find a really cool private or church school, which I don't believe is possible).

Catatonic
10-16-2009, 08:01 AM
I'll find a few links for you.


But I don't think the success rate for negating all the stuff he's going to hear is that high.

I'm a non-traditional student-- I'm 5 to 7 years older than the other seniors on campus. And I can tell you that these kids have been stupified way more than I was. A lot has changed in a few short years. I can count on one hand the number of intelligent conversations I've had with classmates. And I have yet to meet a single student (besides myself) who has had the balls to take a firm stand on something in class.

These kids are toast. I can only imagine what your kid is going to put up with.

My wife and I will never put our kid in public schools. We would rather live in a mobile home or apartment instead of a home if that is what it takes for one of us to teach the kid. We are going to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to homeschool our kid (unless I happened to find a really cool private or church school, which I don't believe is possible).

I don't think he'll be in public schools forever. My wife is foreign so she doesnt really understand what I'm talking about when I tell her about the way our school system works. Once she sees how bad it is it will be easier to convince her.

Of course if I didn't have to work 70 hours a week to scrape by it wouldn't matter because I could just do it myself.

Brian in Maryland
10-16-2009, 12:13 PM
We homeschooled our daughter. She is in her last semester of college now and doing very well academically.

We did not register with the state that we were homeschooling. We did not want anyone coming in to our house and checking up on us.

We used Alpha-Phonics to teach her how to read. ( link http://www.howtotutor.com/ )
She learned to read very young and had a very large vocabulary at a very young age as well.

The author Sam Blumenfeld tells how dyslexia has been deliberately ( yes deliberately ) created in children though the whole word method of teaching vs. the phonetic method. Studies had been done showing that the whole word method caused dyslexia. These studies were well known by the designers of the programs used in “public” schools.

I don’t remember what we used early on for math, I do remember we used Cuisenaire Rods, a type of manipulative to give a concrete understanding of math. Kind of like blocks. Kids love to have there hands on something. Here is a link to a page that shows them about half way down the page on the right of the center section. http://www.thedowsschoolroom.com/math.shtml I don’t know anything about this website though.

That page also shows a Saxon Math book, which is what we used later on. I don’t remember at what age we started with that.

We were not very formal with our teaching, we always made it fun. We did all of this before the internet. My wife found a local homeschool group and got a lot of material handed down or lent to her. My wife and daughter both made good friends there. They would go on field trips together, play, etc.

If you are not familiar with John Taylor Gatto, I highly recommend reading him. His book “The Underground History of American Education” is a real eye opener as to the real purpose of government run education in America, ( to make good little obedient citizens, using the Prussian model of education). I have the book but, it looks like it can be read in it’s entirety on his website.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

There are some good videos on Youtube with him, well worth watching.

When our daughter reached high school age we did enroll her in the homeschool extension of a parochial school. We did this to be sure she got an actual diploma from an accredited school. It was a thorough program and geared toward college prep. There are other ways of handling this though.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of materials we used. We used a lot more.

I would definitely add some kind of musical education to this. Our daughter started violin lessons at 4 or 5. It has been shown to actually increase intelligence, due to the whole brain nature of learning an instrument. Unfortunately she only stuck with it for 3 or 4 years. We could have made her continue but, that would have been deleterious. Physical education of some sort also. Our daughter started ballet lessons at 3 and continued until starting college.

A good education does not require six hours of instruction ( i.e. boredom ) a day, administered by strangers that don’t love or care about our children. And, parents become friendly, beneficent strangers in the process.

If your child has to go to government school, at the very least do the alpha phonics with them before they have to start. I think 4 should be a good age to start, in very small doses each day. Every child is different though and only we know our children. I don’t mean to presume to suggest what you teach your child either. This is just how we did it. And when I say we, I mean my wife did 99.some percent of it while I worked. I helped with more advanced math. Not that I am a math wiz, but we would figure things out together and it was always a lot of fun.

You may want to check out Home School Legal Defense Association also.
http://www.hslda.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1

Free people educate themselves. Homeschool for excellence!

moostraks
10-17-2009, 11:28 AM
I hate to be the doom and gloom but it would be best if you don't have to undue the damage. For the time it would take you to teach a supplement you could go far on your own to teaching in totality. Since I don't know what state you are in I can't guess what the requirements are, but we have tried numerous curriculums before we found one that clicked and the older two who attended public and private school prior to homeschool were much more difficult than the younger ones regarding cooperation (my oldest started homeschooling in fifth grade).

My two favorite curriculums that are a package curriculum are from mennonite based companies and heavy on religion (Rod and Staff and Christian Light), then I have more open ended that range from pricey to not so bad but they are very eclectic. Bob and Nancy's has some interesting books for those who are very artsy and eclectic http://www.waldorfbooks.com/edu/index.htm good for the younger ages but definately need some work to make practical lessons from it. Another good but pricey curriculum is Enki http://www.enkieducation.org/. It also requires some planning though. I also use Ambleside online for many of my ideas:http://www.amblesideonline.org/ They are awesome for honing in on what to teach and suggest some great resources you can get from the library in most cases. In your case I would probably start with them (Ambleside) as I know their resources so far probably fit your described current situation and you don't have to pay a dime until you gather suggested books not available at the library.

Good luck!!!

teacherone
10-17-2009, 11:43 AM
In regards to phonics---learning to read--- I am a private school teacher and use Letterland. It is an amazing system. I have 4-5 year olds reading fluently by the end of the school year.

I combine it with the GINN reading scheme (starting the GINN after the children have learned all their phonemes and dipthongs) and by the end of the year, the kids are reading complex stories with great intonation.

You must make sure to make it fun-- both programs have awesome teacher resources as well.

Letterland: http://www.letterland.com
Ginn: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ginn-New-Reading-360-whistles/dp/0602256453

Let me know if you have more questions.

LBennett76
10-18-2009, 06:43 AM
I'd like some resources for middle school age. My son is 10 and in the fifth grade and I really want to supplement his education. If I could homeschool him I would, but I'm a single mom and have to work. The school is just holding him back and forcing him into mediocrity. He's in a gifted class, but they just work on projects. He's extremely intelligent and being in a village of less than 5000 people, he's just kinda stuck educationally. Any links for age appropriate stuff would be great!

pinkmandy
10-18-2009, 12:15 PM
For little ones, www.starfall.com and www.enchantedlearning.com are great! Once he has learned his letters I highly recommend the Hooked on Phonics program. It really is awesome and you can get new sets on ebay fairly cheap. If there are learning issues and he needs a little more help then I'd recommend Scaredy Cat phonics first then once he can read short words switching to HOP.

I'd also recommend searching for a local homeschool group on yahoo and attending an outing. That might greatly alleviate your wife's concerns and might even make her supportive of homeschooling.

pinkmandy
10-18-2009, 12:16 PM
Teacherone, I'm going to check out Letterland for my 4 yr old. That sounds neat!

pinkmandy
10-18-2009, 12:20 PM
I'd like some resources for middle school age. My son is 10 and in the fourth grade and I really want to supplement his education. If I could homeschool him I would, but I'm a single mom and have to work. The school is just holding him back and forcing him into mediocrity. He's in a gifted class, but they just work on projects. He's extremely intelligent and being in a village of less than 5000 people, he's just kinda stuck educationally. Any links for age appropriate stuff would be great!


I'd also recommend finding a yahoo homeschool group to you as well- or maybe in the next town if your area is so small. They have outings on weekends at times as well or in the evenings. They may have some clubs or something he might be interested in. Plus you never know what opportunities might arise! I know families who work and have homeschool co-ops of sorts. I know another family that owns a business and their employees homeschool. They have a room for schooling at the office and take turns with the teaching. You just never know, kwim?

Also check w/your library as they often have different activities for kids of all ages. :D

LBennett76
10-18-2009, 03:33 PM
Our nearest populated place is 1/2 hour away with 10,000 people. Other than that it's 2 hours to Pittsburgh or 2 hours to Columbus. We're in coal mining/farm country. High unemployment/poverty. I don't know of anyone homeschooling because there are private and religious schools, but they're quite pricey. The library only has activities for very young children and now less because of the 70% funding cut that Strickland dished out. Ohio may not have libraries for very much longer. It's quite sad.
I'll check Yahoo groups, but I highly doubt there's anything closer than 2 hours away. :( I'll get back to ya if I do find something.

teacherone
10-18-2009, 03:43 PM
Teacherone, I'm going to check out Letterland for my 4 yr old. That sounds neat!

cool! i have had tons of success with it. let me know how it goes.

heavenlyboy34
10-19-2009, 11:12 AM
Thank you for your eloquent and inspiring post, Brian! :cool::D

We homeschooled our daughter. She is in her last semester of college now and doing very well academically.

We did not register with the state that we were homeschooling. We did not want anyone coming in to our house and checking up on us.

We used Alpha-Phonics to teach her how to read. ( link http://www.howtotutor.com/ (http://www.howtotutor.com/) )
She learned to read very young and had a very large vocabulary at a very young age as well.

The author Sam Blumenfeld tells how dyslexia has been deliberately ( yes deliberately ) created in children though the whole word method of teaching vs. the phonetic method. Studies had been done showing that the whole word method caused dyslexia. These studies were well known by the designers of the programs used in “public” schools.

I don’t remember what we used early on for math, I do remember we used Cuisenaire Rods, a type of manipulative to give a concrete understanding of math. Kind of like blocks. Kids love to have there hands on something. Here is a link to a page that shows them about half way down the page on the right of the center section. http://www.thedowsschoolroom.com/math.shtml (http://www.thedowsschoolroom.com/math.shtml) I don’t know anything about this website though.

That page also shows a Saxon Math book, which is what we used later on. I don’t remember at what age we started with that.

We were not very formal with our teaching, we always made it fun. We did all of this before the internet. My wife found a local homeschool group and got a lot of material handed down or lent to her. My wife and daughter both made good friends there. They would go on field trips together, play, etc.

If you are not familiar with John Taylor Gatto, I highly recommend reading him. His book “The Underground History of American Education” is a real eye opener as to the real purpose of government run education in America, ( to make good little obedient citizens, using the Prussian model of education). I have the book but, it looks like it can be read in it’s entirety on his website.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/ (http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/)

There are some good videos on Youtube with him, well worth watching.

When our daughter reached high school age we did enroll her in the homeschool extension of a parochial school. We did this to be sure she got an actual diploma from an accredited school. It was a thorough program and geared toward college prep. There are other ways of handling this though.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of materials we used. We used a lot more.

I would definitely add some kind of musical education to this. Our daughter started violin lessons at 4 or 5. It has been shown to actually increase intelligence, due to the whole brain nature of learning an instrument. Unfortunately she only stuck with it for 3 or 4 years. We could have made her continue but, that would have been deleterious. Physical education of some sort also. Our daughter started ballet lessons at 3 and continued until starting college.

A good education does not require six hours of instruction ( i.e. boredom ) a day, administered by strangers that don’t love or care about our children. And, parents become friendly, beneficent strangers in the process.

If your child has to go to government school, at the very least do the alpha phonics with them before they have to start. I think 4 should be a good age to start, in very small doses each day. Every child is different though and only we know our children. I don’t mean to presume to suggest what you teach your child either. This is just how we did it. And when I say we, I mean my wife did 99.some percent of it while I worked. I helped with more advanced math. Not that I am a math wiz, but we would figure things out together and it was always a lot of fun.

You may want to check out Home School Legal Defense Association also.
http://www.hslda.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1 (http://www.hslda.org/Default.asp?bhcp=1)

Free people educate themselves. Homeschool for excellence!

moostraks
10-20-2009, 09:12 AM
Our nearest populated place is 1/2 hour away with 10,000 people. Other than that it's 2 hours to Pittsburgh or 2 hours to Columbus. We're in coal mining/farm country. High unemployment/poverty. I don't know of anyone homeschooling because there are private and religious schools, but they're quite pricey. The library only has activities for very young children and now less because of the 70% funding cut that Strickland dished out. Ohio may not have libraries for very much longer. It's quite sad.
I'll check Yahoo groups, but I highly doubt there's anything closer than 2 hours away. :( I'll get back to ya if I do find something.

Hey you are kinda sorta in my neck of the woods as I am in NE Ohio (ok so we are roughly 155 mi away but better than nothing as I can give a wee bit of help). *Waves* Don't be discouraged. We have a great many resources you just need to know where to look. There is an OH Homeschool list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oh-homeschool/ that is fairly active on yahoo groups, so join us. They are a great resource. Plus I know there are numerous families in different areas so if you join and you can put out the word you are looking for likeminded folks.

Also OHEN http://www.ohiohomeeducators.net/ is another one I hear highly touted but I mostly stick to the yahoo group for local issues.

I was rather impressed with the support for libraries they were able to muster in as defeated an economy as we have here. So I wouldn't fear a complete destruction of the library system.

Another idea for groups would be to find a curriculum style you like and join those list groups. I am on Charlotte Mason and Waldorf groups as well, and you never know who might be nearby for support.

Most of the lists I am on are supportive of any effort to engage in responsibility regarding your child's education as long as it doesn't undermine the homeschool movement.

moostraks
10-20-2009, 09:14 AM
I'd like some resources for middle school age. My son is 10 and in the fifth grade and I really want to supplement his education. If I could homeschool him I would, but I'm a single mom and have to work. The school is just holding him back and forcing him into mediocrity. He's in a gifted class, but they just work on projects. He's extremely intelligent and being in a village of less than 5000 people, he's just kinda stuck educationally. Any links for age appropriate stuff would be great!

The Amblesideonline link goes up through 11th grade resources if you're interested.
http://www.amblesideonline.org/