any homeschoolers?

[jujurodgers]

I need some help and wonder if anyone is homeschooling their kid(s). I do not really belong to any other forums and live incredibly rurally (none of my friends out here have kids!) and my 9 yr old is having a very difficult time in school. I beleive I need to homeschool him and have no money for a program. Does anyone know of any programs that are free (without spending 40 hrs a week designing a lesson plan). I am self employed and so am at home, although not like I have a ton of time!! Just needs to be done and I have to make it work somehow. I do not want a Christian based program, just general educational needs for a 4th grader in terms of what needs to be known for that age. I have no worries about his intelligence or my ability to teach him things (he is my 5th kid and my kids have generally known more than their peers about many things because I research and write for a living and always chat up about what I am researching!! LOL) but want to make sure he meets the requirements for his age. Thanks for any replies I may get. I know this group is just so helpful and caring and this makes me comfortable asking! :welcome:

[New Day]

Hi Julie,

You can most certainly homeschool very inexpensively. I spend less every year to homeschool than I spent in classroom supplies like tissues and hand sanitizer the last year my kids were in school. Which was 10 years ago!

I sent you a PM with more info, as well.

[havanaholly]

From time to time I've spotted home-schooling materials in thrift stores! (not that that's any help for you). We couldn't afford to homeschool, we both had to WORK when all three boys were in school; but we sure did a lot of extra work with them in maths, and they could all read WELL before they ever started kindergarten.

[sparklepuppies]

I home-schooled a couple of years ago, and was very happy with the site www.k12.com. Some states have a virtual public school that is free since it is public. It is all done online, and there are teachers involved. But they do fill up, so that may not be an option for this year. We used the homeschool option, and paid a monthly fee for the online access. It wasn't very expensive, and the lessons again were online, but I was in charge of making sure they were done. It was nice that I didn't have to do plans, because that just isn't my thing.

Good luck, I wish you and your son the best.

[jujurodgers]

Thanks so much all of you! I did check out the K12 site earlier today but they immediately wanted me to sign up for tuition courses....in NM there is very little regarding homeschooling but when talking with his school today they said they will contact the head office as there is some procedure where I work with the school's curriculum and take him in for testing. NM, by the way, last I heard was last in all the states in terms of education.

[sparklepuppies]

Too bad NM isn't one of the schools with the public school option... :welcome:

Hope you find something to work for you.

Lots of years ago I also homeschooled my daughter, before internet. I just had a bunch of workbooks, and felt like I was making it up as I went along. Luckily she came out of it fine, tested way above grade level the next year, but I think that was more her than my skills. I would definitely recommend some standard curriculum. But homeschooling does have it's rewards, it's a lot of fun the things you can come up to do.

[SMarieCarlson]

have you ever considered natural learning/unschooling? IE: letting the world become the classroom, and letting the child choose what he wants to learn when he wants to? I use this method with my son, every once and a while I will add some lapbooks that I created for our library and if my son is interested in that subject at the time that is what he will learn then.