Hi M.,
I applaud you for wanting to do whatever is best for your son. We have chosen to homeschool so far. I have 3, a first grader, a four-year-old, and a baby girl. We did some parts of My Father's World Kinder with my oldest last year, and loved it, but did How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for reading so he was ahead of MFW. So we skipped that part. This year we're loosely using Sonlight, but doing Singapore Math, Biology for the Grammar Stage for science, and I'm making up my own writing assignments for writing.
For kinder, we spent a couple of hours a day, tops, on formal curriculum. So much can be learned through exploring outside, playing games and reading books "for fun". This year, we're spending a lot more time for first grade, sometimes 5 hours or more including breaks, but some days not so much. I do my planning a week or two at a time, and plan heavier days and lighter days depending on what else we have going on, such as field trip or play group opportunities, doctor appts, etc. The rule for homeschool, especially in Texas where the law provides a lot of freedom for each family to choose, is flexibility! Make it work for your kids. But a "typical" stay-at-home school day for us might look like:
- 1st grader gets up and reads for fun on his own, get baths, change baby
- late breakfast
- read Bible
- 1st grader does science while I do a reading lesson with pre-K son
- take a break (put baby down for a nap, boys play)
- I read a novel aloud to boys and discuss
- lunch
- read history
- listen to geography songs cd & look at the map we're working on
- take a play break, do some chores or check email
- do math (age appropriate for each boy)
- do some writing
- play til dinner
- read to kids before bed
It really varies daily and you just have to try different things to figure out what schedule works best. Then, you change it up every so often to keep it from getting boring! Some days we get a little ahead in some areas, some days we fall a little behind schedule in some subjects. I just try to keep us on schedule by the week or two-weeks.
I know we have spent in the hundreds of dollars each year for school, but that includes curriculum, extra books and materials, lots of field trips and the gas to get there, and co-op. We are a part of a Christian co-op in Plano called N-Tech, which costs about $100/semester for us for application costs and class fees. It is worth it for us, because it gives 5 extra enrichment classes per semester, things I would not do at home, like sports classes, art classes, fun stuff like Legos, as well as reinforcement classes like Math Games, Grammar Games, public speaking, etc. Also, I've bought most of my stuff used, but not all.
As for social opportunities, my boys both play soccer, so we have 1 practice and 1 game each week during the fall and spring, go to church usually twice a week, co-op 10 times in the fall and 10 in the spring, plus other field trips where we usually go with other kids. They play with the kids in the neighborhood. They are doing fine. Not being with the same 30 kids all the time I see is more of a positive than a negative, though it's a trade-off, granted.
Sorry if this is a bit stream-of-consciousness! Just wanted to respond while I had a quick minute! Feel free to email me if you have other questions or want to talk! Good luck deciding!
