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?
Here's a very solid CHRISTIAN based homeschooling curriculum and community. Classical Conversations
Core beliefs: Bible: A Christ-centered worldview is the foundation through which all subjects must be viewed and eventually integrated.
Parents: Parents are a child’s first and most influential teacher.
Method: To recover the knowledge of how to teach and learn effectively and efficiently, using the “tools of learning” (i.e., the classical model).
Community: A healthy academic community provides accountability, structure, fellowship, and the ability to impact culture.
Mentors: An experienced, inspirational homeschooling mentor, who facilitates a weekly community gathering and models learning, offers exponential rewards in the “learning-life” of the parent and student.
Students: All students can learn to “train their brains to retain,” use information logically, and communicate well.
Skills: There aren’t any difficult subjects, just poor learning skills.
Curriculum: Classical Conversations provides visionary, skeletal curriculum guides and syllabi, allowing parents to continue to direct and own the details that best suit their personal priorities and student dynamics.
Model: By nature, a homeschool family of younger children closely resembles a one-room schoolhouse model—multiple ages under one primary teacher, the parent.
Resources: If America’s one-room schoolhouse teachers could produce some of the greatest leaders with very limited resources, then so can today’s homeschool families!