Home Schooling - Miami,FL

I am a mother of 2 wonderful children. My son is 7 and my daughter is 1 1/2. I chose to do homeschool with my first one when he was 3. I am a sahm and I enjoy being every minute of the day with them. I am thrilled and happy to be doing this and my husband and I do not concider public school to be an option. I do not regret my decision at all. There is a websited online called www.fpea.com . This website will help you to find a mom's support group as well as answer all questions and doubts you may have. They also have an anual convention for all homeschooling parents and families. You can also find that information on there wehsite. I never push anyone to homeschool, but if this is a thought you have than I encourage you to do it. Also, when my son was 3 we did alot of workbooks from Dollar Tree. They have alot of neat educational workbooks for only a $1.00. There is also a website called http://letteroftheweek.com/ . I also did this with my son and he LOVED it. It is alot of fun and you can print everything for free. Really you can do alot of your homeschooling for free online or as he gets older you can purcahse unit studies or curriculums. That is up to you. One more website you can use as he gets older is http://learningpage.com/ . I hope this helps you to make the right decision for your family. Pray and ask God for guidance. I wish you the best.

Y. F.

P.S. Have fun with it they are little only one time in there lives!!!

P.S.S. Please ignore advice from those that do not agree with homeschool. All children that I have came in contact lack NOTHING!!! On the contrary they are well rounded, well behaved, educated, responsible children that can carry themselves properly in public, with good manners and politenes. And NO they DO NOT LACK in "social skills" at all. We have 60 kids in our homeschool group and they are not shy around anyone not even adults. Again I wish you the best!

At your daughter's age, homeschooling is not a chore nor does it require any special curriculum or books. It is daily life lived out loud! Tell her what you see, what it is, what it means. Teach her letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make and reward her when she can spot them in the world around her. Ask her to count the number of coins and pay for a treat herself. Give her courage and confidence to interact in the world (school does not do this for her). Take her places that require new skills and teach her manners. Read to her. You as a parent can do so much more for her than school at this critical time. I think that one hour, one-on-one with you, is equivalent to 3-4 hours of school time.

I'll share our favorite game with you (can be played anywhere and is still a car favorite for us). We call it the guessing game. I say "I'm thinking of something that starts with the letter 'L' and it's an animal that roars." If your child is just beginning the alphabet, then I make the sound of the letter when I say "L." Then your child guesses. You are welcome to give more clues until she gets it. Then it's HER turn. This is the most important part; She needs to take turns coming up with a word and a clue. When it's your turn, be sure to cover all letters of the alphabet: "I'm thinking of something that starts with the letter "y" and you say this when I ask you if you want to go to the park."

Good luck and have a great time. Don't get bogged down by the term "homeschooling."

I have three kids: 6,8 12. Have homeschooled them each at various times and for various intervals. Will do it again next year for all three when we travel abroad. When my kids did start school they were very prepared.

I asked the same question when I considered homeschool a year ago. I still feel like I am learning the ropes. One thing I realized is it is not as scary as I made it out to be in my mind.

You will need to pick a curriculum. Don't let this overwhelm you. There are many options out there and you just have to pick what works for you. This area was difficult for me, but someone reminded me along the way that I will cover much of the year of public school in a matter of months so not to stress too much. One of the major considerations for me was how comprehensive did I need lesson plan (does it need to be step by step and detailed for you). Look at many options and find what works for you. There are so many resources out there it is incredible.

Here are some links that might get you moving.
http://www.starfall.com/ (this is my son's favorite...he is 3)
http://www.fiardigital.com/
www.parentseducatingchildren.com
http://edhelper.com/
http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php
http://www.time4learning.com/

When your child/children reach school age you will need to send a notice of intent to the county http://www.palmbeachschools.org/HomeEducation.htm

The above website also explains (once school age...not preschool)the 3 options you have for review at the end of the year.

Hope this helps

I homeschool 3 of my children, preschool, kindergarten, and 3rd grade. I started when my 3rd grader was in Kindergarten. He went to a regular preschool. The first thing I did was join groups like this one and a homeschooling group. You can talk to others and ask all sorts of questions. Then look up the laws in your state. (I just googled "laws for homeschooling in Georgia, Florida) You'll need to know when you have to register her (usually at 6), what things they require etc. It's nothing too hard. But under 6, you don't have to worry about all that yet.
The next step is just to pick what you want to use. I use Abeka, but there are tons of others. I use Southwestern books for science right now, and Rosetta Stone for French. For the first couple years I got the curriculum (which outlines lessons and tells you what to do) as well as all the student books. But this year I just got the student books. We make our own schedule. For my daughter who is 4, I just got her books she needed for basics - letters, numbers, small words, and an art book. We only do one or two pages a day. Then I read with her and we do fun stuff. I do the same with my 5 year old. My 3rd grader has a little more work, but it still only takes us about 1 1/2 hours to get through all the actual school work. I hope this helps a little. There is so much more I could say :) Feel free to contact me if you want to chat about it. Personally, I love homeschooling, there is so much freedom. Last weekend we took a field trip to the beach.

edit: I wanted to comment on something else I read here. I think whether or not your kids are behind, depends on you doing your job. In Florida they require testing or evaluation at the end of each year. My children are actually ahead of their peers.

I am a former teacher and learned A LOT in college about children and schooling (obviously :) ). I feel very strongly that children do not need formal schooling until they get to Kindergarten-age. If you take her out of daycare now, the best possible thing you can do (backed by LOTS of research) is to provide plenty of toys that encourage imaginative play, joining in with her but letting her take the lead, and giving her lots of chances to work on her problem-solving skills. Let her lead you in what she's interested in, and teach her accordingly. I have a 2-year-old, and it's amazing how much I have taught her informally, just by explaining the answers to her questions and showing her things that excite her. I'm not saying you can't teach her things like the alphabet and numbers (which my daughter also knows), but don't push it! Do it when the opportunity arises, and move on to something else when she's had enough.

Also, according to one of my college textbooks, research shows that most children are not developmentally ready to write their letters on lined paper until about 6 years old. In addition, I don't know if you've ever heard that they don't begin formal reading instruction in Sweden until about age 8, but that they have the highest or one of the highest literacy rates in the world.

From experience and from what I've read, the children who do best in school are the ones who are good problem-solvers, and can use their imaginations. Children who come from very academic preschools lose their advantage around 1st grade.

I think it's awesome that you want to do the best for your child and mothers are the first teachers, so go with your heart and do it!!!

That's a great idea. Your daughter will get much more from staying home with you anyway as she fills her reservoir of security and love. Just relax. Let her help you bake, do dishes, do laundry. Read her stories. Do easy little crafts. Go to the park, the zoo. Meet a friend at the park etc.

I "home schooled" all 5 of mine in pre-school. One thing I did that worked out great was I taught each of them to read. I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner -- available on Amazon.com. It is awesome and every one of them started Kindergarden reading fluently.

Good luck,

Sandee

Hi R.,

Everyone of the ladies that homeschool and commented before me are right. As a matter of fact, anyway you choose to educate you child is right. You are the parent and you, of all people, know how your child learns. The important thing is that they learn and they get to the goal that they (or you, at her age) have set. Johnathan Lindvall, a noted homeschooling "guru" has home-schooled all of his children and didn't start formal learning until his kids were 9. If I'm not mistaken they all went to Ivy League schools. Nine is the appropriate age when most children can sit still.

Check with your local school board for the state's legal requirements and start investigating curriculum that fit your lifestyle, your little one's learning style and your basic core beliefs. Google home school curriculum and local home school support groups and ask for suggestions. (Like one mom said, don't let it overwhelm you. You have plenty of time.)

You have so many more options and so much more freedom than public schools and your child will never be pigeon-holed. If you daughter learns faster than most, run with it. If you need to slow things down to make sure you drive a point home, then slow things down.

My girls are 16 and 13 and have been home with me since the beginning. My 16 year old has already determined which Chiropractic University she will attend and already knows what she has to do in her undergraduate studies to get there. Both of them will tell you they would have never done it any other way.

God bless!

M.

Hi R.,
I have just started home schooling my 4 year old daughter. I'm still learning a lot myself. You can check out www.homeschool-curriculum-and-support.com. A web-site that I like is www.lisawelchel.com. She also has a book that I read (you can order it off her site) that I enjoyed. It just told the stories of 15 families. It made me feel like I can do this. I don't know where you are located but there are some co-ops in the central FL area that I'm planning on looking into (you have to have a child of kindergarten age to join at least that is what I've been told). I know that I'm going to need a lot of help to make this work. I hope that these web-sites will help you. There is a store in the Seminole Town Center Mall in Sanford that has a lot of resources and they have a web-site www.trendyteachers.com. Take Care!
M. Ott
Orlando, FL

Hi R.,

My sister-in-law has 6 kids from ages 5 to 16. She has homeschooled all of them. She says the best thing she did was to join a homeschool group. They switch off subjects with each other. For example she teaches piano and art lessons and one of the other moms teaches her kids math and science. Also, they have a sports league, a band, orchestra, chorus, etc. This way the kids are getting the necessary social skills.

Like one of the other posters said, you need to check out the rules for homeschooling in Florida. There are still certain tests that your child will have to take at certain ages (FCAT; FL Writes) so that the state can be assured your child is learning.

Good Luck!

R.,
At 3, start with short increments. Introduce her to different things, but make it fun, not to structured. ABEKA books (online) has a great curriculum for her age. But, don't get everything you see and overload her. Take 2 or three things at a time and only spend 5-10 minutes at a time on them. Give her nice long breaks and make it a very gradual thing. Maybe 1-2 times a day at first and then ease her into it. During the off time, reinforce what she is learning during the on time. Continue to reinforce as much as possible.
Take Care,
T.
mom of 4
homeschooled 2 of 4 for a few years

Just curious to know why you woudn't do public school. I would give a school a chance first before signing on for such a huge resposibility. And is she in daycare all week or in a preschool program for a certain # of days? Sometimes teh shorter day programs are all a child at that age needs and the rest of the time she can bond with you and her new brother.

I don't homeschool myself but I just want to remind you that giving them an education at home is ok but a childs interaction with others their age and with other authority figures w/o you around is very important. It is a way they develop so many skills that are not truly "teachable" but required for living as an adult. (For example, there are not many jobs out there where they let you take your work home and not interact with co-workers or customers)

If you can make sure that they have access to this as well as you homeschooling then sure. Plus when they are 4 Preschool (VPK) is free anyway so you don't have to worry about cost. also look into playgroups too where the moms take turns supervising while you can leave and run errands. Having the little ones home all day to teach etc can be taxing on you too. My mom tried it with my little sister and it was just too much.

i also noticed now that my oldest is in VPK (and preschool 2 yrs before) and always seemed willing to learn stuff from his teachers but not so much with me. it was almost like it was too much pressure to please me. I finally backed off and he has learned so much at school and is reading at an elementary level. i just enjoy working with him when he gets home. Then he feels like he gets to show off to me all that he has learned.

plus remember you also have a 4m on your hands as well- balancing the two of them can become a handful.

good luck with whatever you choose and just see which way helps your little ones grow mentaly and socially the best.

Hi, R.. Well, I didn't go the homeschooling route myself, although I explored it very thoroughly to see if it was a good option for my son and me.

It's actually a whole way of life, depending on what curriculum (course of study) you choose for the child, and what your teaching style is. I am sort of a natural teacher, so I was always showing my kid something cool about science or art or books anyway. However, I was not a very well disciplined person while my son was growing up, and I realized I was not going to be able to enforce the kind of structure my son would need to have home as his classroom (along with museums, the planetarium, and other field trips). I also really, really suck at math, and I would not have been able to instruct him much beyond the elementary level.

The curriculum I was most familiar with was the Beka system. It was the most well-known and most widely-used of the homeschool systems at that time. It was actually the curriculum used by his first couple of private Christian schools -- my son hated it. It is INCREDIBLY boring and repetitive. My son was a fast learner, and the Beka system that I saw back then didn't allow for an above average or gifted child, not that I could tell. I would've ended up throwing away about half the materials, which would have been a waste. I still would have had to design lessons for him since he wanted to learn at an accelerated rate, but I was not trained to do that at that time, so the Beka elementary stuff would not have worked for my son and me.

The higher levels of the Beka system are mostly independent study. The teacher/parent in those grades is just a facilitator, someone to ask questions of, and not someone who gives much or any instruction. That didn't sit well with me, either. The schools my son was in that used Beka for the upper grades had students who were bascially on their own. Because that school library was so small and limited, these kids basically spent all their time in the public library trying to learn something without much help.

I don't remember the other homeschool curricula I looked at briefly at that time -- it was 20 years ago. Other parents I have spoken to and read articles from have stated that a good teacher/parent is disciplined enough to set up a small schooling environment and teach through scheduled times every "school day," just as a professional teacher does. The parent/teacher has the advantage of being able to tailor lessons to his/her child, to go more quickly through what the child gets easily and to spend more time helping the child through the more difficult parts. The homeschooler can also take the child on more frequent field trips such as to museums and such, walks in the park which can become a biology lesson, and use educational programs and DVDs as well, so it can work out quite well for some folks.

Now, understand that it can take a lot more patience to teach your own kids than it does to teach other people's kids. A parent has more emotionally invested in how well or quickly the child learns, and it's harder to be objective. Discipline problems can be worse if the child is not very compliant and enjoying the process of having Mom or Dad as teacher. My son, for one, refused to do the homework he got from school, never cleaned his room without a fight, and wouldn't follow up even on fun projects that I gave him to do, so my household was not a good situation for homeschooling. It's way more involved than sitting and reading a book to your kids.

So think about it before you invest money and all in homeschooling. It can be a wonderful experience for everyone, but it can also be a disaster. I suggest that you try sitting with your child for a day and play teacher, and see how the two of you feel. You might also talk to people who are already homeschooling kids of that age group and see what they are doing, and think about whether or not that would work for you.

Good luck in this! I hope everything works out for the best.

Peace,
Syl

Actually, I do not have any advice on how to start. But I do have a suggestion that might help you figure out what you want to do...
When my daughter was 3.5 yrs, I began teaching her to read. There is a workbook called "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons". You can buy it at Barnes & Noble for about $20 or get it online on Amazon for much less. It does exactly what it says. But also teaches them the alphabet (and writing it) and reading comprehension. I did it with my own kids and it was a learning experience for me as well. I learned that I could never homeschool my son... we did not work very well together and it quickly became a chore (even though he learned to read quite well and was well ahead of his peers at 4yrs old bc he could READ!!). I learned that my daughter LOVES to learn and is very self-motivated to learn any and everything. That I could probably homeschool her easily if I chose to, and she would thrive. I never have, b/c I don't think it would be fair to homeschool one and not the other for many various reasons. But she also is an excellent reader.. in fact she was reading my son's 1st and 2nd grade school reading books (he is 3 yrs older than her) for fun and her own enjoyment and amusement when she was just turning 4 yrs. (She could read on her own with comprehension VERY well, and had completed the 100 lessons prior to her 4th birthday).
I believe that a big part of homeschooling has to do with the personalities of the parties. Just teaching your daughter to read using this program will help her get "ahead" of the curve and also give you an idea what it might be like should you choose to pursue homeschooling. (And please don't think that she is way too young... most 3.5 - 4 yr olds can do this book quite well.. the lessons are short and well defined and the only supplies you need are a blank piece of paper [to cover up the pictures until the end of the stories] and a Magna-Doodle for her to practice writing skills. )
Good luck with whatever you decide..

P.S. Let me just add...
When I say "homeschooling" I am referring to K-5 and up. I don't think (before kindergarten or 1st grade) that kids need to be focused on academics 4 hours a day. We put our 4 yr old son in a PreK just to learn social skills as I have been a SAHM all along and he had never spent any time in daycare or nurseries or away from Mom, etc. We chose the school carefully, that they did not "push" academics. It was all about learning more structure (bathroom breaks, snack, playground time, circle time, etc) and interacting with other kids without mom there. He loved it. Most public schools are teaching reading in K5 now though, so if you keep her at home for that, be sure you start her reading by then.
Just my 2 cents...

I was going to homeschool my first daughter. I explained to her what going to school vs. learning at home would mean and she really wanted to go to school so I enrolled her into the public school system. I'm so glad I did. It takes dedication and patience to make a child sit down and learn a lesson. There are websites (tons of them) to help you out. WWW.homeschooling.com is a good place to start. There are others...just type in "homeschooling." If you want to try it out, perhaps you could "practice" during the summer and see how it works for you. I did a "practice" run during the summer and I just found it to be such a struggle to get my daughter to sit down and listen. She wanted to play, wanted to go outside, wanted to do everything but listen what I was teaching her. I lack patience. I knew it would not work for me and she's in 3rd grade now (second daughter is in 1st) and both are doing really well. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Hi R.,
my name is M. W. and I have a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son. I home school them both. It has been an amazing blessing to be home with them and to be able to teach them. Most of my friends send their kids to private school and my daughter is at the same level or more advanced. We spend 2-3 hours each day doing 'school' and then she plays and/or we have activities such as piano, voice, ballet or swimming. She is learning by leaps and bounds. I am using a great christian home schooling program by Abeka Academy. You can check it out at www.abakaacademy.org.
If I can help you out in any way, feel free to call me at ###-###-####. I live in West Miramar.
Good luck!

Hi R.,
You should check out a free website -
free-to-homeschool.com
It will give you valuable information about homeschooling and give you some ideas of how to either work at home or save money! You should definately check it out if you are considering homeschooling. I check it often and have learned several ways of how to make money from home! Take care!
C.

If you are considering home schooling up until your child starts Kindergarten...Go for it! It's a wonderful way to bond with your child. If your considering home schooling all the way through school then I'm going to offer some advice to you that will probably be one-off from what the other Moms are going to say...don't do it :). I was a teacher before I resigned to stay at home with our baby and I will tell you that it was awful to see home schooled kids come into "general population." I can honestly tell you that 4 out of 5 of them were so far behind academically that they were staffed into Exceptional Education programs in order to catch up (I taught SLD and I was responsible for getting a lot of these kids caught up). If you do choose to home school your children please get them involved in sports and play groups. Children who are home schooled (at least the ones that I've worked with) are also lacking in social skills and it seperates them from their peers and isolates them. I completely agree with you; our school system in Orange County is not the best but the teachers are trained and have the proper curriculum to teach your child. Stay involved and on top of your child's teacher and your child will receive a proper education. I hope that this doesn't upset other Moms; I did not mean to offend. In all honesty, I was a teacher, I have a Masters Degree and I personally would not attempt to home school my child because the educational requirements are ever changing and can be difficult to adapt to. Good luck with whatever your choose. It's so hard to make decisions for our children when all we want is what's best for them.

If you haven't already gone online to find some resources, do so. There are so many support groups and web pages which help you know what curriculum to use and just basically support your decisions. I started this year officially and I did what you did last year asking around and going online. I couldn't wait to get started once I had! So far, I'm extremely pleased with the atmosphere here in homeschooling. I meet the best people through support groups and find the neatest things to use working with my 6 yr old daughter. I also have a three year old son and a 14 month daughter whom I intend to homeschool as well. I've been married for 7 years and I live in Broward County. Perhaps I'll see you around in the different events and field trips since we're in neighboring counties. Take care and have fun!