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Comment by Robyn on July 17, 2011 at 8:33pm

Just joined.  Saying hi.

Comment by Dawn K on May 31, 2011 at 5:15pm

Hi Shantelle - The first place to start is to find out what your state laws are. Curricula is hard and can be really overwhelming; my advice is to take your time choosing, don't feel like you have to have all your curricula choices made when you start homeschooling. I started by picking just two subjects. We started slowly and then added subjects as I got a better feel for how my son and I worked together. 

 

Consider different homeschooling styles and what you need to teach (hand holding/scripted vs. outline/basic framework), and also how your son learns best. Identifying these things can help you eliminate curriculum that won't work for you vs. those that can work. There are some good free resources although personally I find that mostly you get what you pay for and I use the free stuff more to supplement rather than as full curricula.

 

A good site to check out for advice (not that you can't get good advice here) is secularhomeschool.com  Good luck! It can be hard, but so worth it!

 

Comment by Shantelle C Gotte on May 31, 2011 at 3:53pm

Hi, thanks for starting this group! My son is 6 y.o. and he is completing his kindergarten year in a regular school. I had homeschooled him since birth, and didn't realize how much pressure there was in a trad school to believe in a religion. Because of this (and the fact that the trad school system is not sufficient for a gifted/talented child) I am going to continue homeschooling him from now on as well as my 2 y.o. daughter. I have questions about how you go about dealing with truancy and getting materials that are not super expensive so he can have an actual curriculum at home. I just used different things I found on the internet before, but I don't know how it works when your child is of actual school age. I'd appreciate any advice yall have! Thanks!

Comment by Happy Happy, Joy joy on October 4, 2010 at 1:21pm

Thanks Proudmumma. I will check that out. I have not been on here in so long. I should check back more often.

Comment by qıƃ ɟ ǝıɔɐɹʇ on September 24, 2010 at 7:36pm

Hey, Julian,
I'm the mom of a 19-y-o unschooler who has, in recent years, been sampling various colleges. I decided to unschool him before he was born, mainly for religious reasons. Namely, I didn't want him to receive the message from mainstream society that there was something wrong with him for not believing... at least not until he would be strong enough to withstand that kind of pressure. That's not to say that he didn't mingle with lots of other people, just not in a position of weakness, where teachers and opinion leaders could pressure him unduly.

Maybe you could hook up with debate at your local community college.

Comment by HeathenMom on September 24, 2010 at 12:09pm

Hi Julian,

I can sympathize with you, my son went through a lot of teasing and bullying when he was in 1st grade because kids found out that I am raising him to be a freethinker... the reason I began to homeschool him.

Good luck to you all with getting those teams formed. :] Also, I don't know if it exists or not but have you tried looking (googling) for online chess teams? I highly doubt there would be online debate teams, unless you count the typical online communities. ;]

Comment by Julian Harden on September 24, 2010 at 6:47am

Hi Everybody,
My name is Julian and this is my first year in homeschool. I started the year @ a private high school (non-religious) but during a debate, everyone knew I was a freethinker, and I started getting a lot of crap from some 12th graders. My parents got sick of the school looking the other way, because they are christian and we're not. so they pulled me out. My mom is frustrated with the fact that here in Atlanta, the OVERWHELMING homeschool groups are religious. I miss debate and chess team, so my parents are trying to pull together some teams from the UU congregation we attend.

Comment by Happy Happy, Joy joy on January 28, 2010 at 9:39am

Heathen mom, I'll try that.

Comment by HeathenMom on January 27, 2010 at 7:08pm

@ Lea

For the homeschoolers you could suggest:
"this thread makes baby jesus cry! ;] "

When talking with the atheists:
"please provide a source that justifies applying that label to all homeschoolers."

My personal favorite (when I just am sick of it all):
"I resemble that remark...well the atheist/homeschooler part."

I hope you get some other (better) suggestions. My personal style is to inject humor to provide levity so the 'anti-homeschool' response is more to remind other atheists that we try to follow logic and the 'facts'.

Comment by Happy Happy, Joy joy on January 27, 2010 at 10:31am

I wanted to ask if anyone else knew how to handle this issue.
When I’m online and chatting with other homeschoolers, inevitable religion comes up and the religious homeschoolers have disparaging things to say about atheists. Then when I am chatting with atheists there are inevitably disparaging, often passionate and insulting, comments made about homeschoolers. I find myself on the defensive no matter what. What to do?

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