The Green Family's
Eclectic Homeschool Page
Welcome to our little home on the web. My name is PJ and I am a homeschooling Mom of 3. My 2 boys are both homeschooled. I also have a daughter who is near graduation in High School. She goes to public school by her choice. It is my goal with this website to offer ideas and information to help new homeschoolers and the seasoned ones as well. Our family has experienced both public school and homeschooling styles of education. While in a year-round public school, we homeschooled our children during their month-long breaks. After our move to another area of the country, we began homeschooling the boys exclusively and love it.
Why Homeschool? This question has as many answers as there are families who choose to homeschool. Each family has it's own reasons to homeschool their children. Oneof the most common though is a dissatisfaction in the way the public schools educate the children. For our family, this was the case. One child who was bored at school and not being challenged academically was wrongly labeled ADD and we were encouraged to seek medication to "correct" the problem. The other son was diagnosed Dyslexic and the school gave inadaquate assistance to help him work around that challenge. We found both situations unacceptable and decided to homeschool at that time. Homescholing has been a great answer to both situations. Both boys are learning much more now and the problems they were experiencing in public school no longer exists. For them, homeschooling works.
I describe our family as Secular Ecclectic homeschoolers. Many people who homeschool buy their children's curriculum from religious-based homeschool programs. We chose not to go that route. We chose to find other resources for curriculum. Some of the items we use are textbooks & workbooks, Boy Scout merit badge requirement books, books and materials purchased at a book store, educational CDROM programs and other resources.
If you choose to homeschool your child, the first thing you need to do is find out what your state's education laws requires. Each state has it's own set of rules as to what records you must keep, whether or not you need to have the assessment tests done, what subjects you need to teach, etc. You can find out this information through the county school superintendent's office. They can also direct you to the local homeschool association in your area. The homeschool association can offer you alot of help in getting started.
Basic records that I keep are:
1. A lesson planner/grade book - this tracks attendance, grades & lesson information
2. Curriculum list - I made a form on my computer in which I am able to record the child's name, grade level, school year and for each subject, the book title and publisher information.
3. Immunization records
4. A portfolio of their work - this is simply a folder with a sampling of the work in each subject
These records are all we need in the event that someone from the county superintendent's office should stop by to check on what we are doing. With the exception of the portfolio, these records are the same as the ones that the public schools are required to keep.
The biggest piece of advice that I was given when I first started homeschooling was to be organized. The more organized you are in what you are doing, the more successful your homeschooling experience will be. There are many websites available that give you a listing of a typical course of study for each grade level. If you are uncertain as to what your child should be studying at their age, these sites will give you some ideas to start with.
