Homeschool

Its not as hard as you think

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I am no homeschool expert, but I have been homeschooling for a year so I can give you some fresh eyes on how it is for a newbie. I knew I couldn’t send my soon-to-be 6th grade son back to school after the awful year of failed learning of 2020. It was like he didn’t learn a thing from March until June. But I had my doubts on my ability to homeschool in the school year of 2020-2021.

I didn’t think I could do it because I work full time.

I didn’t think I’d be good at it.

I was afraid we would fight like we did with homework.

I was afraid he wouldn’t get socialization.

I was afraid I would miss something critical that he needed to learn.

I didn’t know what homeschool program to pick.

Full of panic and dread, I knew I couldn’t send my sweet son back to where he was doomed to fail but I was so unsure of myself and my ability to give him the education he deserved. Luckily I had friends who were school teachers and friends who had homeschooled for years to encourage me to take the plunge. Now I’m encouraging you.

DO IT!

Schools have a lot of down time. Kids really only spend 2-3 hours a day actually learning academics in school. If you have an older child, a lot of that will be done independently and not require your assistance for the 2 full hours.

NJ keeps the curriculum standards online, so if you have any doubt, you can check it out. A Bonus, as a homeschooler, I was able to customize the curriculum to my son and get him to ACTUALLY READ, because I gave him books of his interests. My son HATED social studies. In the 6th grade, NJ does ancient civilizations - Mesopotamia through Rome. I was able to customize to include ancient weapons and ancient technology. Ask him about about the efficiency of the Roman army style fighting or ancient Egyptian surgeries, he will be happy to educate you.

I’m not gonna lie, we fought in the beginning, it was hard because we had to do homeschool in the late afternoon after I was finished working. The first month I was regretting my choice, then things got better.

There was plenty of socialization from joining a few co-ops. I found from Facebook homeschool groups. If you search for NJ homeschool on Facebook, you will find tons of resources. He made a lot of new friends.

At the end of the year my son will tell you that he learned the most this year compared to any other year of school in his life. He wrote more papers and did more math.

This year we are doing it a little differently because I’m not customizing my own curriculum I will be using Acellus Academy | Accredited Online School for Grades K-12. Its a little more expensive but I like its adaptive learning style and it is accredited.

If you can’t afford that, you can always go free.

Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool – A complete, free online Christian homeschool curriculum for your family and mine.

Here are some of my friend’s recommendations of accredited school:

Lindsay likes Time 4 Learning (20/month program, 15 for next kid) for her kids.

Mary Joe likes this Christian program Abeka | Homeschool

Kathrine likes this Catholic program Seton Home Study School - Catholic Homeschooling

What program do you prefer? Make sure you comment in the chat.