r/homeschool

Hi, I've been wanting to homeschool for about a year now, I have a 5 year old, 3 year old and a newborn. I had a really hard pregnancy and we had put my son in a forest school which he loves but we cant afford to keep sending him there more than 1x week. Because the plan was for me to homeschool the rest of the days, but in this new season of life im having a lot of doubts. Am I even cut out for this? Is this going to hinder him? I feel i cant give him the attention he deserves and he is really interested in learning. My fear is if I dont put him in school he will be behind, or should I wait a year to formally educate him. Im so stressed out and hes only 5!

Let's hear it.

I didn’t know Emma Chamberlain was homeschooled. Are there any other successful homeschool YouTubers you know of?
I’m about to have a baby boy, and it would be cool if he had positive examples to look up to.

My child just finished up TGATB Preschool and K Prep so I went ahead and bought Kindergarten. I did a bit of research and discovered that apparently everyone hates TGATB and it's not a strong program for learning to read. Should I scrap that and go a different direction? What about Teach in 100 Easy Lessons? (I own that also.) Since I already bought the whole curriculum, I don't really want to invest a lot of money in something more expensive, so looking at more budget friendly options

Hi everyone! I have a 3-year-old boy and I’m already looking into homeschooling for the future because I personally do not want him to attend a regular school.

I would love to connect with other moms in the area who are planning to homeschool their children as well. Maybe in the future we could even organize a small homeschool group or find a private tutor together for our kids when it’s time for them to start school.

I’m especially interested in meeting families who value a calm, family-oriented, and positive learning environment. Feel free to message me or comment if you’d like to connect 😊

currently thinking about switching to math mammoth since I don't feel like the current curriculum we have builds a strong sense of math concepts.

I'd like something that's pretty open and use and will do the teaching. I don't mind helping out, but especially at mid/upper elem and beyond, I think they should be able to kinda teach themselves and they can ask for clarification on things if needed or I can add clarification if I'm seeing it would be helpful. Prefer offline, but I don't mind having videos and other stuff like that here and there and used on a need basis. Just not looking for a full online course.

Math Mammoth seems to fit the bill, but I always get nervous when making changes. Has anyone used it to the end and it did/didn't work well? I don't want lack of understanding of math concepts to be a limiting factor for my kids.

hello everyone! this is my first post here but I decided to make this post about asking wether I should go back to school or remain homeschooled and just finish early 🤷🏻‍♀️ for context I’ve been homeschooled since I was 6 years old. I only went irl to kindergarten but had major separation anxiety but I also have grown up as a Jehovahs Witness in which my mom made me remain homeschooled having me fear any small thing about going back to school irl (I plan to leave this cult once I graduate) because of ive never grown up with friend, experienced childhood friends, or any form of connection with boys let alone a bf. I’d like to go back for my last year to at least experience the graduation and maybe just maybe make friends but I feel like it’s too late for all of this I’ve missed out on anything a teenager could experience but either way I’d like to hear your advice on it :) thank you

is it more efficient to have school room and play room separated or should/can it be integrated like a normal classroom? i have a large living room so i can always move play time to a giant rug/mat out there. i just want to know what could be best for having her understand learning and play are different (or similar) and sleeping in the school/playroom means you should sleep and not be up playing with things when mom is not there to watch you 😭

I keep hearing online school described as "stress-free" but that sounds too good to be true. Surely there are new stresses that come with it? Would love an honest answer from parents who have actually done it.

I am looking to enroll my son into homeschooling or independent studies for his freshman year. Looking for any recommendations or advice on which ones are good. We live in south Sacramento so the Elk Grove area would be ideal.

Hi guys,

So my oldest (9yo) has a really hard time spelling. She reads to me fine but ahe just can’t spell.

Any tips or extra help books that you guys have tried ?

I recently had a breakthrough making math more interesting for my son by having him help me design a duck pen (how many sq feet per animal, calculating the side lenghts, etc). But he really needs more daily math for mastery.
What are some things that are fun/real that use math in a real life application that would be engaging for a 7 year old?
The biggest problem for us is that we've moved on from basic adding and subtracting. We're bored of doubling recipes. We have the basics down for division and subtraction.
The real life applications for higher math are usually specific to certain professions. Are there any engineering or carpentry projects for kids that would require him to use math? Get him into programming?
And unicorn hunting: any programs/curriculum out there that have this already put together for me?

I was about to buy Math Mammoths Algebra 1 course, but then I realized it doesn’t exist. For some reason I was not prepared for this. What do you recommend for higher Math, starting with Algebra 1?

Advice please!

My tween ADHD child feels shame more deeply than most others. When we point out an error or anything similar they often get frustrated and start to respond rudely - snapping back, sarcasm etc. To an extent I think this response is a habit. Has anyone got advice for how we can break this habit?

Yes we do our best to lead by example and keep our frustration and reactions down, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job at it. I also try to praise her occasionally when her reaction is a bit better than usual, but that hasn’t had much of an effect - it actually makes her feel shame/defensive again as it reminds her that she’s still go to work on her reactions. We try to work on her having a growth mindset - that she’s always learning and mistakes etc show that you are trying. 

Note that she is medicated and the medication works incredibly well. We have tried increasing the dose, but it causes ongoing side effects. So the meds seem to be at a sweet spot now. We are very convinced that these are the right meds for her as they work on a bunch of her symptoms really well. Even her frustration is much better on the meds, just not 100%.

We are struggling big time with my eldest. 9, heading into fourth grade this fall. We use Math-U-See, which is a mastery based math curriculum. Grade three has been all about multiplication. (I think if I could start again I would start with singapore, but it seems like it wouldn't work for us now, since she's so far into math-u-see.)

The biggest problem is that she needs to be coached through every. single. problem. The process usually goes like this -

The problem is "28 quarters = _______ dollars."

Her, "I don't know."

Me, "What information do you know?"

Her "There's 28 quarters?"

Me, "Ok, and what do you do with that information?"

Her, "I don't know?"

me, "Well how many quarters in a dollar?"

"Her "4"

Me, "How can you use that information to solve the problem?"

Her, "uhhhh 28 plus 4?"

Her adding and subtracting and mutliplying are fair. If I tell her what to do with the numbers she can do it. But she has trouble figuring out how to use the numbers. Sometimes she tries, but most of the time she just throws out random guesses willy nilly and will not seriously apply herself. We can spend literal hours on one simple multi step word problem.

Anyone else been in a similar situation? What helped? I am struggling with knowing how to help her understand HOW to use the information she knows.

I don't know if it's a comprehension problem, lack of care, lack of logic?
HELP! 🙃

My daughter will be turning 6 this summer, and so far our home educating journey has been very, very informal (we're drawing from a bit of unschooling, Waldorfy, CM, nature inspired philosophies).

I can see my daughter is developing an interest in math (counting everything, practicing counting to 100 on her own, etc.) and also reading/writing (sounding out words she sees, asking how to spell and write words). I want to gently support her in those areas, and I'm also short on creative time to come up with our own ideas and activities as I take care of our 18 month old and 4 year old.

I'm looking for curriculums (math, phonics, reading, writing - doesn't have to be all of these, but even just a couple to get us started) that are genuinely fun!! I've done lots of research, but so far a lot of the highly recommended math & reading curriculums for her age just seem so traditional and dull. Workbooks and worksheets and flash cards.

Anything game-like that you use? Or story-based curriculums? Or just fun learning games you suggest? I've seen a lot about Beast Academy for math and may consider that if she's ready for it.

Editing to add: thanks for these suggestions - one important thing to note is that we really don't do much with screens or tablets in our family. So when I'm thinking of games, I'm looking more along the lines of card games, board games, etc. Thanks, folks!

Does anyone else struggle to homeschool their children, while also balancing life? I am a single parent, who is in college full time, trying to work as much as possible, while keeping my house clean, trying to chase my dreams of being a writer and artist, and keep up with all my children's extracurriculars and I feel like I am drowning. (My kids are 6 and 2, and are very bright.)

Is there anyone else who is in a similar situation? How do you balance everything and make it work well?

(For extra information: They do sports three days a week, are part of a co-op, and do fieldtrips with other homeschool children almost every week. They've taken an ASL class with me, and my 6 year old is already trying to read her first chapter book, and rarely get stuck on words. She's adhd and gets frustrated easy, but is very bright. They are thriving.

I'm the one that's not. My grades in college are fine, I have even been on Dean's list multiple semesters. However, I'm not working enough to keep up with everything, and am scared I might not be able to keep paying for everything extra they do or even eventually our bills. Plus my rooms always a mess and there is always dishes. I haven't made any progress on my novel in forever, and the only time I do art is when I sell banners on the side to help pay for stuff. I'm running out of savings and panicking. On days I work or have school I rarely get even 5 hours of sleep. I just feel like I'm failing at almost everything, no matter how hard I try to schedule everything out.)