help please about homeschooling?

Dear mom!

there is a lot for free. Besides the library, where you can get books, videos and magazines...you can sometimes trade your old books for others at homeschool curriculum fairs. But the internet offers a great plethora of materials. All you need is your computer, internet access and a good printer!

FREE:

High school math sheets (link 1)

Biology quizz worksheet and FREE Literature worksheets (links 2&3, choose books that your library has, assign the reading then print the worksheets)

American Government sheets Link 4

Literature for download/printing/reading from the Gutenberg Project (link 5)

Oodles of History, Health, Nature, Physics, etc on the PBS/NOVA website (link 6)

Great stuff on National Geographic (link 7)

If you are not sure what to teach... the last link has high school divided by grade and subject matter, so you know what they need.

If all else fails, request to borrow the actual school books form their local public school, or to take them for a couple of days, run copies, and work with those. You should be fine. YOu should be able to teach them all for less than $100 if you do it this way, you would use up paper and ink! So: use cheap paper (turn in old cartirdges when you buy on at Office Depot so you get the paper for free) then also set your printer on "draft mode" so that it does not use too much ink!

Remember to take trips, go on walks, take advantage of free lectures or demonstartion, get the kids into some volunteer work, or samll jobs to help out and learn how to work!

You live in a "no notice" state. That really opens up your options.

You can teach your children yourself, join a homeschooling co-op where parents share teaching responsibilities, or get friends and relatives involved in teaching your kids.

If you have to work full time, than you might consider private school. Tuition can be expensive but most private schools offer some kind of financial aid. Kids with exceptional school records sometimes recieve full scholarships to the best (and most expensive) prep schools in the country.

For a brief summary of the laws in Michigan visit:

http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?State=MI

I'm really sorry things are so hard for you right now. It is difficult to think clearly when you are under so much stress. Did you check out any of the sites everyone suggested to you on your last post of this question? The BEST place to get information about how homeschooling works in your state is the Home School Legal Defense Association, www.hslda.org

Each state is different, as I mentioned last time, and what may be true for me in Texas, or someone else in California, may not be true for you in Michigan.

Check them out.

Here's a link you should look into on legal advice stuff for homeschooling. Three of your kids are old enough to have parttime jobs and can pay for thier own curriculums. In Indiana, you can get a workers permit at age 14, but I don't know about Michigan. So what you need to do, if they don't already have it, is get a workers permit if they need one for MI, and get thier driver's liscences. Have them get part time jobs, and find out all the legal info you need, and then just go for it.

Check out this website: www.homeschool.com. Since three of your children are old enough to quit school they can go to any school program you want them to. You can home school in Michigan but I dont know the exact procedure-I know you have to register the children with the school district in your area so that the law can see they are being properly schooled (for your 14 year old). This site can direct you to all that information and on that page there are other sites you can find. Good Luck

Check out the following link. It is for the FreeHomeschoolTools Yahoo Group. Members offer and receive homeschool items fro free (postage is all that is paid). There are members from all over the workd on the group and so much advice available to you.

Good Luck

Homeschooling itself is free. Other than purchasing paper and pens and things like that. There are second-hand places for textbooks, homeschoolers who are done with their books may be able to sell you theirs for a greatly reduced price or even give it them to you. The public library will have lots of stuff, too. Definitely check out the book "Homeschooling on a Shoestring".

Contact a local homeschooling support group to find out more specifics about what you need to do where you live for them to get diplomas, for you to get resources, etc.

K12.com is a very good online homeschooling academy. Its free and reliable. Its curriculum is excellent. The Highschool courses are very, very, very good. It pays for part of your internet fee, provides all textbooks, lab materials, a computer, and fax/printer. I love it. The teachers are very nice and helpful. As long as your children don't mind spending alot of their time on the computer, I think they'll like it.

I'm soooooo sorry that your having trouble. I understand how public school is bad. I would try buying courses over the Internet. If you find homeschooling getting to hard, there's still Private schools. ;)

The FREEEST homeschool is the Public Library. Check out some books and learn them!

School is about MATH, SCIENCE, HISTORY, POLTICS and all of that is in the LIBRARY but it takes work and YOU have to get involved.