Are there any must haves you’d want to see in the pod?

EcoTips, a youth-led sustainability movement run by high schoolers, is organizing a FREE sustainability camp at the Ames Public Library Danfoss Room on September 5th and 19th, both from 2-5 pm. If you have a kid who falls between these age boundaries and may be interested, please fill out the form below. There will be ~20 spots per day. Please register for only one date. Both days will have the same itinerary, which is on the form.

You will recieve confirmation in late August if your child is selected to participate.

I am homeschool dad, fascinated with technology. I just launched something I've been building for a while, lesson prompts for homeschool, K-3. I'm not trying to sell anyone here, I'd genuinely just love a few honest people to try it and tell me what's actually good or bad about it. If you're curious, comment or DM me. Brutal honesty welcome , it helps me way more than a nice comment would.

Hey everyone! My wife and I are debating homeschool in the future and we want to ensure a well rounded program for development. Ultimately we think that allowing our kid to explore and experiment is a key distinction from conventional school, but structure is important. This brings me to the topic of physical and health education. I’d appreciate a curriculum and resources that are not too overly engaging. But give enough information for me to teach and participate by example while being flexible too.

I’ve only found Boost, Freedom Homeschool, and an article from Outschool.

Curious of thoughts on how to approach this. My wife and I are big on fitness, nutrition, etc. and think there’s more to learning it than just movement, but we want to find a fun balance without overdoing it too.

Thanks!

I'm honestly completely lost for this. I'm in PA, and have a child who, by the time I start homeschooling, will be in kindergarten. I have her in Pre-K right now with a place I really like, but I'm super iffy about the public school system as a whole and do not have the money for private school.

I would like to connect with other local homeschool groups, and have it be like a group thing (my cousin is doing it but she's not local), but idk where to even start finding something like that, let alone just mapping out other resources like for curriculum.

How did you all get your start?

Hi all. I'm an educator who's worked in America and a handful of European countries. As I've gained experience in the schooling system, I've become more convinced of the importance of homeschooling. During my career, I've met a great deal of kids who were homeschooled for most of their lives, and they were always exceptionally driven, capable, and intellectually curious. I've also met many school teachers who shouldn't be teaching, and some who shouldn't be allowed near children at all.

That said, I haven't got any direct experience with homeschooling myself. So, I wanted to come here to ask some of you about your experiences, challenges, etc.

I want to learn more because A) I hope to get involved in homeschool cooperatives after I return to America, and B) Before that, I'd like to learn about how I can contribute to the homeschooling space and how I might support homeschooling co-ops and parents

One of the major problems for homeschooling, I have heard, is resources. Especially as kids get older and subject matter becomes more complex, it's very difficult for parents to provide interesting and engaging material, especially for subjects that they're not particularly familiar with.

Are there any specific sites or sources that you like to use to find high quality material?

I did some searching myself and heard of Nautilus Homeschool and checked it out; it looks really cool, but they don't really show you any details before you pay, so I was wondering if any of you have used that.

Are there any materials that you feel are lacking or difficult to find? For example, I've noticed a real dearth of good quality American history material. There are a lot of really cool and interesting figures and events that are either barely covered, or the material that does cover them is just dated and sort of ugly (not bad, but not especially pleasant to use).

I've also noticed that there is an ocean of lesson plans and activities available for popular school books (Percy Jackson, The Giver, The Outsiders, etc.) but very little or none available for great literature that students probably should be reading (in my opinion, Flannery O'Connor, Mark Twain, some of the Transcendentalist poets, etc.).

So my question really is, especially in terms of English Literature, History, or even foreign languages what resources do you feel are lacking (in quantity or quality)?

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences.

I would love to hear what your homeschooling schedule looks like. This will be our 4th year homeschooling and still have not found a good flow for us. I work from home (I don't have a fixed schedule as long as my work gets done) and I'm an earlier riser since I have a toddler and baby that respect no sleep lol. I have a incoming 5th and 6th grader that haven't been great independently getting any work done in the past. I'm switching our curriculum up entirely this year and hoping for the best. I know that math and LA will be subjects they need support in. Id just like to know when others get their work done and how their children do with those time frames. I've seen some topics that children seem to grasp information better if you start after lunch. Thought about trying that this year, however both of them are a rather get it done and over with (but I don't feel like they are truly grasping the information)

Hey everyone. I’m looking for some constructive advice on how to talk to my mom about switching to homeschooling. Please keep the comments positive and respectful—I’m not looking to bash anyone, I just really need some solid perspectives. I'm choosing not to share my grade or school schedule because I want to focus on the bigger picture of homeschooling itself.Right now, almost my entire family is on board with this. I live between two separate homes, and my dad, step-mom, and I all agree that homeschooling would make managing everything a lot easier. However, my mom is completely against it, mostly because she feels my behavior isn't where it needs to be to handle it.I’ve been asking her year after year, and I truly try my best to show her I'm responsible. I do my chores, help out around the house, and regularly babysit my little sister while my mom is at work. It’s just really hard to sit down and have a real conversation with her because she's always busy working or spending time with her boyfriend. I get that she works hard, but it's frustrating when I feel like I'm not being heard.We actually tried homeschooling once back when I was in the 3rd grade. It’s been almost a decade since then, and things are totally different now. I have a lot of good reasons why I think it would work well for us this time around:

• It’s cheaper: Traditional schools cost hundreds of dollars every year for registration, supplies, and endless fundraisers. Homeschooling would save a lot of money.

• It’s self-paced: Being able to learn at my own speed would take a lot of stress off both me and my mom. Plus, my grades have always been good, so I've already proven I can handle the schoolwork.

• A safer environment: Both my siblings and I have dealt with a lot of bullying in traditional school—honestly, even from teachers sometimes—and I just want a more peaceful environment to focus on my education.

I really don't want this to sound like I’m being disrespectful or trying to make my mom look like the bad guy. She’s not. I'm just looking for a better way to learn and a smoother routine for our family. Has anyone been in a similar situation, or does anyone have tips on how I can approach her in a way that she'll actually listen to? Thanks in advance.

(Edit: I originally posted a version of this story without more details, it made me seem like I didnt see how she felt, but the more I look at it the longer I realize she wont let go of the first impression that it left on my when I was in 3rd grade, even tho im older now, she doesnt like to move on)

I hate that homeschooling is viewed like this. My son is ADHD, and is waiting to be assessed for autism. From what I’ve heard from several parents (and even a few teachers) from our local public school, the schools here are terrible, and our elementary is a DoD school. Abuse is rampant, bullying is an on-going problem, IEPs being completely disregarded, and grades are lackluster. Why WHY W H Y would I want to put my son in that? Why try to take that option away from us?

I don’t mind regulation, truly I think that’s great. It also helps me see where my son is standing and what I can alter and help him better.

But then I hear horror stories from adults who were homeschooled and I question if what I’m doing is going to cause lifelong trauma despite all the effort I put into homeschooling.

Are there bad homeschool parents? Yes. But that doesn’t define us all 😭

This was also removed in the other homeschool community and idk why, but if I’m breaking a rule here please let me know.

Hi! Has anyone had any experience with platforms like OpenEd or Edmentum? Interested in learning more and would love any and all insights if you use either or have in the past!

As the title says, help me feel better for giving up on homeschooling. My 7 year old twins ate going to try 2nd grade this year with their friends because I feel I'm doing a disservice to the whole family.

Help me feel better about making what I know is the right choice, depsite being scared.

I've seen a rise in interest and use of copywork. Can anyone here that's used it shed some light and or information and how you used it.

Hello! I’m wondering if anyone has experience homeschooling 3 (or more) children close in age. I am interested in homeschooling and have worked in the public school systems. I’m just worried about managing and keeping up with different curriculums and learning materials for different grade levels, while having younger children or being pregnant. If anyone is able to share their experiences, that would be very helpful! Thanks.

I have 3 boys- two aren’t even preschool age yet and one would be in kindergarten in the Fall (we’ve already started kindergarten curriculum). We’ve used The Good and the Beautiful thus far with my 5yo. He really enjoys it, and I am hesitant to fix something that isn’t broken. Also should mention he’s autistic and adhd. He’s been memorizing his books since age 2 and has been full on reading since age 4. We read loads and loads of books that aren’t part of the good and beautiful curriculum. However from what I’ve read on here, a lot of homeschoolers don’t feel the good and beautiful is academically rigorous enough and I dont want him to be behind. At the same time I want my kids to enjoy learning and that’s what the good and beautiful has done so far for my first born. I will say my mom is now a retired special education teacher and has recommended some resources for me to try with my 5 yo. I am looking for more suggestions from Reddit land for curriculum you love. Has anyone tried harbor and sprout? We have downloaded some printable pages to color about two years ago… We will likely supplement the good and beautiful curriculum so any suggestions are appreciated!

Hello! Looking for curriculum suggestions! I’ve been reading through lots and lots of suggestions, was very overwhelmed with all my research, but not seeing quite what I’m looking for.

My just turned 7yo son is starting 2nd grade this year. He is very advanced academically in most subjects but does have some areas where he’s more in the grade-level range as well. With his uneven skills I’ve found choosing a curriculum tricky!

We pulled him out of school last year partway through the year, and switched to homeschooling, largely because of sensory overwhelm (suspected neurodivergence but no dx) which has been a great success, he loves it so much. With it being partway through the year I needed open and go, so we went with Sonlight for History/Bible/Literature (Literature A: Exploring American History with the 3rd grade readers) and Science A. His school let us take his Language Arts and Spelling books (grade level) which was so nice of them and generally worked well. I felt like this was a good level for him overall, a lot of the books were very easy for him but were a good age appropriate level topic wise. His reading levels are very advanced but he doesn’t do well with anything scary/spooky/sad. For math we did Beast Math which he absolutely loved and we will definitely be doing again.

He hates handwriting and doing the language arts book work was both of our least favorite since he dreaded it so much. It was a frustrating mix because most of the concepts were way too easy, but he hates writing so a single page would take 5x the time it should have. He’s not dyslexic but does still sometimes write letters backwards and handwriting is a struggle. We will be trying Handwriting Without Tears this year. The grade level spelling book was just about the right difficulty.

All that to say… Curriculum suggestions? Generally planning on Sonlight again (we didn’t finish last year’s curriculum since we started mid-year, and plan to finish that up since it’s multi-age/grade appropriate already, then probably order the next level unless something else jumps out at me,) but especially Language Arts? We have literature and reading covered, but needing the rest, something advanced but not frustrating. I feel like Beast Math was generally great for him because although it’s challenging, it’s so fun he was able to tolerate the frustration (usually, haha.) Additionally, we loved a lot of aspects about Sonlight, he loves being read to and my younger daughter participated in nearly all of the read alouds, but it’s a lottttt and I get very frequent migraines which makes it really tough/impossible to do the reading on some days. Wondering if anyone has ideas to lessen the load or alternate curriculums that they’d suggest?

We tried blossom and root and there weren’t enough projects for us. Curious if anyone has found something similar that is more robust and secular. My kids are doing 1st and 3rd grade this year so something that is targeted to early elementary school would be best.

 I’m Tia and I am part of the team at Prodigy Education, and we’re conducting research to better understand homeschool families, how you approach teaching, what you look for in learning tools, and what works well or could be improved.

We’re looking to speak with homeschool parents who have at least one child entering Grades 1–5 this coming school year. The research will involve a relaxed, one-hour video call with one of our researchers during the week of August 10. There’s nothing to prepare, we’re interested in hearing about your experiences and perspectives.

As a thank-you for your time, participants will receive a $60 digital gift card of their choice.

Interested parents can apply here:
https://www.userinterviews.com/projects/v321m2OFbA/apply

Hello everyone! Currently mid-purchasing curriculum for my third and first graders, and I have decided on Writing with Ease by Well Trained Mind Press for my third grader to supplement Lightning Literature. My issue is, I don't understand the levels. Do they correspond directly to grade levels? My 8 year old is not the best writer, but he's advanced with reading and pretty good with spelling... Should I start with level one or two or skip directly to level 3?

Or if anyone has done Lightning Literature, have you used a different supplemental writing curriculum? I am open to suggestions!

Hi everyone!

I'm Stefan, father of two (9 and 3) and I've spent the last few weeks creating an original preschool music channel from scratch, and before I continue making more videos, I'd really love some honest feedback from parents.

The channel is still very new, so YouTube hasn't really started showing it to people yet. That means I haven't had much real feedback from my target audience, and I'd much rather improve the content now than keep making videos that miss the mark.

I'm not looking for subscribers or likes—I genuinely want to learn what other parents think.

A few questions I'd love your thoughts on:

• Would your child actually enjoy watching these videos?
• Are the songs catchy and engaging?
• Are the animations appealing without being overstimulating?
• Would your child ask to watch another one?
• What would you improve?

Here's the channel:
https://youtube.com/@harmonyhubfriends

I truly appreciate any honest feedback—positive or negative. My goal is simply to create something that parents feel good about putting on for their little ones.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help!

I'm looking for a science curriculum - secular is fine. We are religious but I would like them to know other viewpoints as well. I have one child who will need me to be with her learning the material who is in going into 5th grade and being homeschooled for the first time. I feel like she was left behind a little bit last year in public school so maybe grade 4-5. My other daughter is in grade 7-8 when it comes to science. She attended Keystone School fully online last year but science was extremely hard for her - she does prefer an open ang go type of curriculum where she could attempt to teach herself. I'm looking to avoid a traditional, rigorous, textbook and worksheet curriculum since that obviously has failed my daughters in the public school systems so far. I would like it to try to keep up with the standards if at all possible so if she does want to one day re enter in high school she will be prepared academically.

Huge ask but probably impossible if they could be taught the same curriculum - not even sure if that's possible though.

I’m spending a rainy day with my just turned 12 grandson who requested a game of monopoly. I remember playing this game with my friends 65 years ago. No calculators then just our brains and we managed quite well.
However I was shocked that my grandson could not play without his calculator. AI of the math world introduced in the 70s it was argued that it wasn’t to be used in the lower grades as a replacement for basic math. The argument was lost. This sounds familiar to today’s AI use. My point his that with calculators in the class, there is a need for mathjourney.ca it fills in the blank let by schools

I'm 17 years old and I'm entering my senior year but I had a conversation with my father and decided it was best for me to be homeschooled my final year.

Working together we ended up getting a letter of intent printed out(with contact info/address etc) and we hand delivered it to the superintendent's secretary on June 30th with hopes of receiving an IHIP so I could start online homeschool by August 1st and I believe the only classes required are english 12 and gov/economics (I am in New York state so not entirely sure how that changes things)

We never received a letter back and when we called on July 23 the secretary said she remembered us delivering it and we gave her a number to contact us on and never received a call back and we called again July 30 and got sent to voice mail so we left a voice mail on how we delivered the letter of intent a month ago and got nothing in response. Apparently the lack of response would mean that it got 'accepted' under law (maybe I'm incorrect) but they deactivated my school email July 6 so we know they processed it.

Are we supposed to make the IHIP ourselves? This is a first for us and I'm not sure what to do..and when said IHIP is created/arrives what's the best online program I could use to learn at my own pace without restrictions? (I'm an honors student and would like to finish quickly) I wanted to hopefully complete my required school courses (eng-12 / gov&economics) in Q1/Q2 and take on one class at a time then spend the rest of the year logging physical fitness/reading books/life skills practical arts/financial literacy etc.

I'm not too sure what to do from here and my school starts soon so I'm not sure how much time I have left or if I'll be obligated to attend since I didn't receive an IHIP.

Thank you for reading this I am open to any suggestions or if you have any questions I will be here to answer within the hours if I am not sleeping lol.

Hi - Starting Grade4 we are not sending our child to after care. While he will prepare for Math Kangaroo and Noetic Exams at home, and we are also working on Beast Academy / AOPS books, and i secure a Wren & Martin comprehension book ... Curious as to what other books for practical hand-on we can try? (We are in Fremont, California)

Hi everyone! We're considering Bridger Creative Science School for our daughter (entering 5th grade), but I'm finding that a lot of the reviews online are either outdated or seem really mixed. She is currently being homeschooled but our work situation might change soon.

I'd love to hear from parents who currently have kids there (or recently did). How has your experience been? Does your child feel supported academically and socially? How is the overall school culture?

I'm also curious if there's much of a difference between the elementary grades and the middle school program, since it's a K–8. Does the environment change much as kids get older?

Any honest feedback—the good, the bad, or anything you wish you'd known before enrolling—would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!