Homeschool – What it looks like to us..

During A’s second grade year I had discussed the topic of homeshcooling with my husband and he agreed that we would bring it up to A and see what she thought and go from there. She got home from school one Friday and I brought it up. She had a lot of questions but wasn’t quite ready to go through with it so we continued on with her in public school. She finished her second grade year and again I brought up homeschooling. She continued to want to go to public school since second grade was better than the last three years were so we went with it. 

During this time I had done lots of research and reading different homeschool blogs to see what it was all about, what was required to teach, what was required as documentation, etc. Virginia seems to be a state that falls in the middle of the spectrum of documentation and requirements by homeschooled families. We do 180 days just like public school does (I don’t need to document attendance, though), end of the year assessments are required to be turned in by August 15 (unless you have a religious exemption), a notice of intent (NOI) must be filled out and turned in each year by August 1, and we have to do the four core subjects (math, science, history, and language arts/English). Some states are way more strict whereas some states are way more relaxed in their requirements.

A’s third grade year went a lot like her first grade year did – lots of issues with bullying and shit. So we brought it up once again and this time she was ready to roll with it. So I printed off all of the necessary paperwork (NOI and list of subjects being taught) and got my diploma ready and turned it all in and her last day of public school was November 28, 2016. We just finished our first year and she will be moving up to fourth grade in September. 

We do an eclectic approach, meaning that I pull from different resources to teach her. We don’t use one full curriculum to teach all the subjects. Her learning style is worksheets or projects, that’s how she remembers the information. I don’t do weekly tests, I want her to know that she is more than just a grade, that numbers don’t define her. I have a schedule but for the most part we go with the flow and work based on her needs. Math is her weak point so that’s where we spend a good majority of our time. She does workbooks, online work, and projects in all the subjects to help her soak up all the information. 

For fourth grade we have moved to a mostly online approach to start out with to see how that will go. She did well with the online testing at the end of last year so I am hoping that she will enjoy doing her school work online as well. 

I keep a binder of worksheets that she does so that I know where we are at, what needs more work, and just in case of an audit. 

I’m drawing a blank but I will post a more in detail blog a little closer to when school starts to go over the actual products we use or have used. 

Do you homeschool? If so, what approach do you take? Leave your answer in the comments!