I feel like we should create a post to compile tips for Pedes that have had to deal with their kids be freed from indoctrination camps/schools.
So I'll start. Please fellow homeschool parents, jump in.
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Do NOT try and recreate public school. PS is designed to teach en mass, typically a one size fits all approach. Why do that when you can customize each child's learning to their personal strengths, deficits, and desires. A kid who excels at reading should be pushed to read more challenging stuff. A kid struggling at math should have more time and resources dedicated to that.
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Get a guide. Seriously, unless you are a teacher, we often dont know what to teach and when. Guides are helpful in setting benchmarks and giving ideas on how to approach it. You are not beholden to them, so you can and should alter it to fit your kid. We started with a book called "The Well Trained Mind" by Susan Bauer.
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Teach more than just academics. Everything is educational. Teach them about your faith, running a household, maintenance of vehicles, rhetoric, home repair, anything that we hear others complain that schools don't do.
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Seize the little moments. Use everyday things to teach an academic lesson. Cooking uses math and also teaches task management. Dinner time discussions become etiquette and rhetoric lessons.
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The internet has loads of resources for homeschool. Sift through them to find worthwhile ones. Some are trash or leftist influenced so be mindful of it.
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Get them involved in a sport outside of the home. Its easy to focus on the mental and neglect the physical, dont.
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Keep them connected to peers outside the home somehow. Kill the excuse that homeschool kids arent socialized (read: corrupted or groomed) unless they are in PS. By keeping them in positive peer settings, you get all of the benefits and none of the downsides. Ex: Church youth groups, Trail Life or American Heritage Girls, sports leagues, hobby groups, homeschool groups.
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Do not feel like you need to spend 8 hours a day on lessons. A couple of quality hours of lessons at home beatsa full day of PS. The rest of the day can be filled with little natural learning moments.
That's what I have to start with. What else does everyone else got?
LOVE THIS! I was home schooled by my mom and we both loved it!
I read tons of American history books and I HIGHLY recommend the TV series, Liberty's Kids, as a excellent accurate way to get kids and young teens interested in the revolutionary war.
The Dear America Diaries were some of my favorite books and they have I think a hundred of them.
My Name Is America diaries are for boys, also very good.
The original American Girl books are excellent, the newer ones have gotten way to woke for me.
Little House on the prairie, the Drover's Road collection, the boxcar children, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsy Twins, Anne of Green Gables. 👍 Also, there is a excellent Christian American history series for kids and early teens called The American Adventure series. There are 50 I think altogether, from Plymouth Rock to the end of WW2. Here's what they look like. https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/american-adventure/42555/
Liberty Kids is great.
I still remember the tar and feather episode 17 years later.
That was such a sad, but very poignant episode. Very well explained and written!
And yes, it's a great show! I still pull it out and watch a couple episodes now and then. 😁
My son is a history & war fanatic so will have to check out the My Name Is America books if I can get them anywhere to be sent to us.
Awesome! I hope you can get them, I'm sure he would enjoy them very much!