Homeschooling For Dummies

by Jennifer Kaufeld, Jenny Kaufeld

Overview

Get the scoop on how to get started with homeschooling

Turn your home into a school and raise smart, well-adjusted kids Homeschooling lets you spend lots of time with your kids — and teach them your values and beliefs. But where do you get teaching materials? Or find social outlets so your kids can make friends? Covering everything from curriculum and legal compliance to cooperatives and computers, this friendly guide leads you step by step to homeschooling success.

The Dummies Way^™ Explanations in plain English "Get in, get out" information Icons and other navigational aids Tear-out cheat sheet Top ten lists A dash of humor and fun

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780764508882
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/28/2001
Series:	For Dummies Books
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Kaufeld has nearly three decades of homeschooling experience. She is a regular speaker at state and regional homeschooling and education conferences, and frequently contributes expert advice to several communities on Facebook and elsewhere online.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
	About This Book	1
	Conventions Used in This Book	2
	How This Book Is Organized	2
	The Cast of Icons	4
	Jump In--the Water's Fine!	5
Part I	Heading to Homeschooling	7
Chapter 1	Answering the Big Questions	9
	Getting to This Point	9
	Knowing Not to Know It All	11
	Affording It	11
	Hanging In There	13
	Signing up for the long haul	13
	Staying at home forever	14
	Breaking the News to Mom	15
Chapter 2	Taking theLeap	17
	Realizing That Anger Is Not Enough	17
	Ensuring educational excellence	18
	Meeting your child's special needs	18
	Retaining religious convictions	19
	Accommodating family lifestyle	19
	Determining What's Best For Your Family	20
	Creating Solutions for Special Situations	21
	Working around your job	21
	Dealing with special learners	22
	Beginning the Journey	23
	Choosing the perfect time of year	24
	Deciding at what age to begin	24
	Assigning Homework	25
	Making homeschooling more than school at home	26
	Using the extra time	27
Chapter 3	Addressing the Buzzword: Socialization	29
	Making the Question Clearer	29
	Social outlets	30
	Socialization	30
	Presenting the Issue of the Year	31
	Letting Your Proverbial Hair Down	32
Chapter 4	Complying with Uncle Sam	35
	Conducting Yourself (Yes, Ma'am) in Accordance with State Law	35
	Locating Your State's Law	37
	Counting Out the School Days	39
	Calling a Truce: Interacting with Your Local School	41
1	Know your law	42
2	Make sure your ducks are in a row	43
3	Know your law	43
Chapter 5	Getting Everybody Involved	45
	Dad's or Mom's Role in Your School	45
	Drawing on Your Strengths	47
	Filling in the Gaps	48
Part II	Tacking Kids of Any Age	51
Chapter 6	Teaching Your Toddler While You Change Your Baby	53
	Juggling Primers, Preschoolers, and Diapers	53
	Surviving Life with a Toddler	55
	Teaching with a toddler	56
	Teaching your toddler	57
	Covering the Preschool Basics	58
	Teaching with a preschooler	58
	Teaching your preschooler	59
Chapter 7	Covering the Elementary Years	63
	Setting out with Elementary Students	63
	Facing the Facts: It's Tougher Than You Suspected	64
	It's as easy as A, B, C	65
	Going on to the heavy hitters	67
	Eating Your Way through Math	68
	Going Beyond "Our Community Helpers"	70
	Firing Up the Bunson Burner	73
	Timing Is Everything	74
	When timing is off	74
	While you wait	75
Chapter 8	Handling Junior High	77
	Beginning in the Middle	77
	Keeping Track of It All	79
	Putting Grades to the Test	80
Chapter 9	Help! I Have a High Schooler	83
	Starting at the Eleventh Hour (Or Eleventh Grade)	84
	Dancing the High School Subject Tango	85
	Math	86
	Science	88
	History	89
	Languages	89
	Driver education	89
	Electives	90
	Recording Records	93
	Prepping for College	95
	ACTing on Your InSATiable Desire for Standardized Tests	96
	SAT	96
	ACT	97
Chapter 10	Completing Twelfth Grade Doesn't Mean It's Over	99
	Spreading Their Wings and Earning Their Keep	100
	Continuing to college	100
	Marching in the military	100
	Studying at a trade/vocational school	101
	Entering the work force	101
	Strapping on the Tool Belt	102
	Continuing Homeschool through College	104
	Staying at home	104
	Finding a suitable program	105
Part III	Choosing Your Cornerstone: Basic Curriculum Options	107
Chapter 11	Orbiting as a Satellite School or ISP	109
	Riding the Satellite	109
	Opting for a Complete Curriculum	110
	Pinpointing a Satellite Program	111
	Elementary through junior high	112
	High schools	113
	Independent Study Programs	114
	Matching Your Needs with Their Offerings	115
Chapter 12	Does Classical Education Mean Teaching Vivaldi?	117
	Classifying It Classical	117
	Trying the trivium	118
	Forming the foundation with literature	120
	Assembling Your Classical Curriculum Components	120
	Language arts	121
	Math	123
	Science	123
	History	124
	Geography	125
	Art	126
	Music	127
	Latin	127
	Foreign language	128
	Gathering More Information	129
Chapter 13	Teaching Them What They Want to Learn	131
	Unveiling the Integrated Unit Study	132
	All unit studies, all the time	132
	Locating unit studies	133
	Making them last	134
	Changing Pace with Unit Studies	135
	Designing Unit Studies	137
	Subject-ing yourself to this?	137
	Digging for topics	138
Chapter 14	Unschooling: A Walk on the Relaxed Side	141
	Raising Eyebrows and Suspicions	141
	Fitting the Bill	142
	Learning through the Course of a Day	143
	Filling Your Home with Unschooling Tools	145
	Books	145
	Games	146
	Software	147
	Technological and building toys	148
	Videos	149
	Recording Their Progress	150
Chapter 15	Charting Your Own Academic Course	151
	Knowing Whether Your Kid's Kinesthetic	152
	Pulling from Different Publishers	153
	Starting with what you know	153
	Pulling from the stacks	154
	Writing A Curriculum from Scratch: The Diehard Approach	161
Chapter 16	Special Concerns for Special Students	165
	Considering Yourself Capable	165
	Guiding the Gifted	167
	Taking different paths	167
	Rounding up gifted education resources	168
	Teaching the Medically Fragile	170
	Getting the Goods You Need	170
	Special equipment and services	171
	Individualized Education Program	171
	Information	172
Chapter 17	Finding the Sources You Need	175
	Getting the Good Stuff with Curriculum Guides	175
	Looking at Your Local Store	177
	Avoiding the Malls: Ordering via Mail	177
	Attending a Homeschool Conference	179
	Hearing It from the Horse's Mouth	180
Part IV	Nailing Down the Details	181
Chapter 18	Defining Your School Space	183
	Making Room for Chalk	183
	Setting aside the optimal amount of space	184
	Buying too far in advance increases storage needs	184
	Deciding between the Den, the Dining Room, or the Whole Darn Place	186
	Gathering around the kitchen table	186
	Setting aside a special room	187
	LEGOs in the living room and homework in the hall	188
Chapter 19	Keeping the Costs Down	191
	Slashing Curriculum Prices	191
	Choosing an inexpensive curriculum	192
	Finding used curriculum	193
	Writing your own curriculum	195
	Tapping the Fountain of Fellow Homeschoolers	195
	Borrowing books long term	196
	Buying as a group	197
	Asking for the Discount	197
	Making the most of the Net	198
	Breaking Out the Library Card	198
	Understanding Copyright: What Is Fair Educational Use?	200
Chapter 20	Turning Chaos into Organization	205
	Tracking Your Week with a Planner	205
	Seeking the Paperless Society	208
	Thirty Days Hath September	210
	Scheduling for Sanity	211
	Keeping Your School Spotless	212
	Feeling the Burnout	212
Chapter 21	Making the Grade	215
	Deciding Whether to Keep Grades	215
	Writing the tests that they take to make the grades that you record in the house that Jack built	216
	Figuring the grade	218
	Tracking Those Unit Studies	219
	Keeping a State-Required Portfolio	220
	Testing Standardized's Validity	222
Chapter 22	Plugging in Your Schoolroom	225
	Using the Mouse to Whip That PC into Shape	226
	'Net-ting Resources	227
	Electrifying Your Frustration	229
	Connecting with Other Homeschoolers	231
	Discussion or message boards	231
	Mailing lists	231
	Chat	233
	Enhancing Your Subjects with Multimedia	234
Chapter 23	Connecting with Likeminded Souls	237
	Networking Isn't Just for Computer Geeks	238
	Associating and Consorting	239
	Praying for Guidance	240
	Chatting It Up	241
	Getting Together for Socialization	242
Chapter 24	Opting for a Cooperative	245
	TEAM: Together, Everyone Achieves More	245
	Gathering Informally	246
	Formalizing Your Group	247
	Finding a large co-op	247
	Dissecting a large co-op	248
Part V	Making Your Year Sing with Extras	251
Chapter 25	Adding Spice with Special Classes	253
	Making Time for the Extras	254
	Bringing Out Their Inner Artists	255
	Music	256
	Art	258
	Go ahead--Be Dramatic	260
	Speech and debate	160
	Drama	262
	Homeschool groups	265
	Taking Some Laps	265
	Parlez-vous Greek?	267
	Cleaning the House and Calling It Schoolwork	269
Chapter 26	Making It Adventurous	273
	Dirtying Your Hands with a Project	273
	Dissecting an owl pellet	274
	Playing amateur archaeologist	274
	Creating a garden	275
	Building a train layout	275
	Burying yourself in papier mache	276
	Assembling a model	276
	Taming the Boob Tube	277
	Pretending It's Le Louvre	278
	Getting Past Bugs Bunny	279
	Volunteering Builds Compassion	280
	Packing Up the Minivan	281
Chapter 27	Throwing Open the Toy Box	285
	Thinking about Playing or Playing to Think?	286
	Ante Up	287
	Plugging In for Fun	289
	Thrilling the Engineer's Heart	290
Part VI	The Part of Tens	295
Chapter 28	Ten Educational Games That Enhance Your School Day	297
	AC/DC	297
	Acquire	298
	Apples to Apples	298
	Blue vs. Gray	298
	Chrononauts	299
	The Garden Game	299
	Into the Forest	300
	Keep Quiet	300
	Krypto	300
	Oh, Scrud!	301
Chapter 29	Ten Common Homeschool Fears	303
	My child will never make friends if I homeschool	303
	I don't know enough to teach my child	304
	My child will miss out on socialization	304
	I will buy the wrong curriculum	305
	My child will learn less at home than he does at school	306
	I'll never have free time again	307