Stone Circles School

Putting together your own preschool curriculum can be accomplished in a variety of ways. In the broad sense there is the option of purchasing a homeschool preschool program from one of the many preschool curriculum providers.

Take on the approach of an everyday life experience with your preschooler. This is accomplished in a much less structured avenue. Lots of reading to your preschooler and exploring life and their world together emphasizing what they enjoy doing while they are learning. If you’re a bit stuck in the middle with what you prefer being a bit more on the structured side of a packaged preschool curriculum but your budget is definitely more in line with the latter, then why not design your own preschool curriculum!

Start with a rough outline of what your learning goals are for your preschooler. There are websites available with criteria that will help you with evaluating your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Just do a bit of searching on early childhood educational development evaluation criteria and you’ll find checklists that you can use. Read the rest of this entry »

Thinking about going the homeschooling route? I’m not aware of any official homeschooling text book for parents that are out yet. So, here are some basic answers that you may have in the beginning. The reasons for homeschooling are as varied as the number of families now homeschooling. So with the reasons for homeschooling now behind us, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of homeschooling as we move forward.

A home school schedule allows for the family to be together a much greater portion of the day and this leads to stronger family relationships and this generally will continue right through the sometimes difficult teen years. Also, when parents spend the entire day around their child they are much more in tune with the child’s thoughts and feelings. Behavioral issues can be intercepted and addressed at a much earlier stage. Also, by using your homeschool schedule and your own homeschool lesson plan, you can spend more time in areas that your child needs more work before moving on. This is a definite drawback of the public system.

One area to explore and become familiar with in the pre homeschool stage is your local state laws. In a nutshell, in some states it is very easy to satisfy homeschooling requirements, while in others it is not so easy. Either way, do a little research on this subject because you must be familiar with whatever the home school mandates are for your area. Read the rest of this entry »

Getting Started With Homeschooling. Before jumping into all the decisions surrounding the actual teaching and homeschooling of your child such as: what curriculum, what books, what materials, the home school calendar, organize this, organize that…. Before you do any of that first get familiar with with this bit of homeschool information…..your state’s home school laws, rules, and other regulations. Some states are quite easy and others require much more work. The HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) is a great place to start. Legally you do have the right to homeschool your child. Just make certain you comply with the individual state’s regulations.

Homeschooling does require a huge time commitment on your part. And that commitment depends on the level of homeschooling you do. The subject that is being taught and even the ages of the children involved. One question that always seems to come up, particularly from outside influences, is whether the parent is

qualified to teach or not. If not the parent, then who? Who better to teach and homeschool the child? No one wants their child to be successful more than a parent. Plus, nobody would argue against a one to one teaching relationship between teacher and pupil and for the vast number of cases this is exactly the teaching environment in the homeschool classroom. Read the rest of this entry »