If you are considering homeschooling but are overwhelmed and don't know where to start I hope this post will help you. This is a compilation of resources and information explained to make it simple (hopefully) for newbies like myself as I start on the home school journey.
Since I will be doing home school for my girls anyway I will share what we do on this blog to help anyone else with ideas etc. Be sure to like our facebook page, and subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss out on any ideas.
For starters, here's some explanations and resources below:
Growing up with friends that were home schooled my experience was that they were the "weird" kids usually with extremest parents who feared the government. They basically enjoyed a life of summer time with rarely having to do any real school work.
At first I envied that! While I was sitting in a classroom all day they were sleeping in, watching tv, playing, etc.
But then as I got older I could see the value in education as I was actually learning things in school and they weren't in a learning environment at home. I had the ability to make new friends all the time, to be a part of clubs, to hear opinions and ideas outside what I would normally be exposed to. Whereas they were only surrounded by their family and limited friend & neighbors and their influence or opinions & ideas.
Now let me start by saying not all home schoolers are like that, that was just my experience with the ones I knew.
So although once I had kids I liked the idea of teaching my kids at home, but didn't want it to be like the friends I knew, and valuing education we've had our kids in public school.
Until this year I didn't realize there were good resources out there that supported and helped parents home school and teach their kids. With 2020 we started looking into some home school options. I am so grateful for the friends we have now that home school and have been a great support and resource as we navigate this new adventure. Here are the resources and programs I've found that are so far amazing.
For our girls we have chosen to do My Tech High. We have a combination of MTH course (Computer Science- Minecraft class), 3rd party (P.E.- Gymnastics), & custom (Math, Language Arts & Science)
These are the resources we're using-
My Tech High (no cost)
With MTH your kids have a lot of flexibility for homeschooling. Some schools are even offering their own programs with MTH. Basically it's a way for your kids to be home schooled with varying degrees of parental involvement depending on your availability or education.
Once enrolled with MTH your student will be assigned a certain number of periods and has 3 options for EACH period (meaning you can choose different options for each period):
- Enroll in a MTH course
- These are courses that are run and taught by MTH. They provide all class materials, lessons, teachers, assignments, etc. Basically this is an online class for your student.
- Enroll in a 3rd party course
- This is a course offered by a 3rd party. It could be a local business in your area. There are some restrictions on this such as it has to be a verified business, classes must be groups (no one-on-one lessons etc.) An example of this type of class would be my girls' gymnastics class. It counts for their P.E. class, and taking them to a local business that offers classes it qualifies as 3rd party.
- This type of course has a reimbursement allowance of $300 per student per year. You pay for the course then submit a receipt and MTH will reimburse you.
- Enroll in a Custom Built course
- This is a course that you are going to design and use yourself. You do have to submit the type of curriculum you plan on using for approval. For example, for the Math requirement class for my girls we use a combination of subscription apps (listed below) as well as workbooks (also linked below).
- This type of course has a reimbursement allowance of $225 per course. You pay for your subscriptions or order the curriculum's then submit the receipts and get reimbursed.
MTH also offers a Tech allowance of $500 per student in 1st grade & up, and $250 for kindergarten students. The tech allowance is a reimbursement for supplies allowing your student to participate in MTH and allows for the purchase of things like a computer, laptop, tablet, internet payments, etc. There are some restrictions on what can and can't be purchased so you'll want to check the website for more information before purchasing.
The biggest thing to keep in mind when purchasing a computer, laptop or tablet is that if you buy a new one it will belong to MTH for a couple of years so if you withdraw from the program you will have to send the device(s) to them. But if you purchase used or refurbished it's yours from day 1.
Here are some highly recommended curriculum apps we're using this year-
Education.com ($60/year)
Covers: Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Coding, Common Core & more.
Ages: Pre K- 5th Grade
This app & website has a variety of resources and is a good place to get a well balanced educational curriculum.
Adventure Academy ($45-60/year)
https://www.adventureacademy.com/subscription/offer/c09c263/ This link is $45/year price.
Covers: Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, & more.
Ages: 8-13
A fun game that teaches a variety of subjects in a game setting. Your kids will have so much fun it wont even feel like school. They can also connect and play with other friends.
Reading Eggs & Math Seeds ($59-89/year)
Covers: Reading & Math
Ages: 2-13
I've heard so many great things about both of these apps! I can't wait to see how my girls do with them. Seriously, almost every mom I've met that home schools has raved about these apps. You can get them together with a subscription.
Elephant Learning ($35/month with financial assistance scholarships available)
Covers: Math
"On average, children learn 1.5 years of mathematics in 10 weeks by using our system 30 minutes per week."
Ages: 2-16
This app claims to teach your student a year of math in less than 3 months. I'm going to try it out for a few months and see if it's worth keeping.
Hooked on Phonics (App- $6.99/month, Workbooks- $8.99/month)
Covers: Reading
Ages: 3-8
A classic program that is now available in both app and workbook. I signed up to get both the app and monthly workbooks for my girls.
These are the workbooks & resources I ordered for my girls:
I wanted some flash cards for some fun games and on the go learning options.
The ten blocks are a great visual aid for Math. The sight word magnets I got to put on our fridge for a fun visual reminder. The teal gadget is a book binding machine- I got this so I could create some workbooks of my own. (there's tons of resources in my pinterest boards)
The magnetic white board and make your own magnets are for the girls to track their daily assignments.
All these workbooks are from the same publisher- I really like them! They are both cute and good quality. I ordered one and loved it so much I checked out what other books they made. They will even email you extra freebies if you email them.
After spending TWO DAYS printing out free worksheets to assemble math & language arts workbooks for the girls I realized there were probably better options....... so I turned to amazon. Luckily I found these 3 books and am so impressed with them! They are all worth every penny. They are good sized books and have full color pages.
I found these DK Eyewitness books and really like the quality and content. We'll be using these for our monthly science topics. These are the first 2 I ordered. The DK Eyewitness publisher literally has HUNDREDS of books, so I didn't realize at first that some are geared more towards kids whereas some are more for adults. They also have some that are "workbooks". So keep that in mind when ordering.... I got the Chemistry book above but I'm pretty sure it's one of the more adult ones so I will see when it gets here. But the Weather workbook is really cool.
Be sure to check out my YouTube Channel for some video reviews and updates.
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