homeschooling thread with resources?

[diaduit]

Do you think we should have a homeschooling thread with resource links, advice and general chit chat?

All my children 17,14,9,5 will be homeschooled from Sept.  So many factors coming together to make this decision so I definitely feel its the right decision.
I'm in Ireland so i'm trying to figure out how to start.  My youngest two are fine but my oldest two need to do A levels or Gcse's as our national examinations for entry into college might be a stretch too far for me to homeschool.

[Michael Wilson]

It would be nice for those who are homeschooling and those who are either thinking about it, or have already done it.

[MundaCorMeum]

We're starting at the end of July.  I follow more of a year round schedule, doing six weeks on, one week off.  I only take six weeks off for summer break, as opposed to twelve.  I save the other six for advent, Christmas, and New Year's.  It's nice to be off then, and focus on all the liturgical richness without worrying about school work.

Are you building your own curriculum, or using prepackaged?

[Jayne]

Do you think we should have a homeschooling thread with resource links, advice and general chit chat?

All my children 17,14,9,5 will be homeschooled from Sept.  So many factors coming together to make this decision so I definitely feel its the right decision.
I'm in Ireland so i'm trying to figure out how to start.  My youngest two are fine but my oldest two need to do A levels or Gcse's as our national examinations for entry into college might be a stretch too far for me to homeschool.

There have been a lot of discussions of homeschooling here over the years.  Usually they are posted in the Family Life sub-forum.  It might be helpful to have a stickied thread or two there with a current discussion and includes links to previous ones.  This could make it easier to find information.

[diaduit]

That's what I mean Jayne. A sticky...I'm in an area with very poor internet, on hols in Co Clare. I'll root when I'm at home.

Munda , I'd like to build my own but probably not possible because I'd need an established examination for leverage to get to college.

I'll post more when I'm home. Tks

[queen.saints]

The ladies doing Mother of Divine Grace seem to be a really lovely and supportive group. I've never used it, but recently got a chance to see some of their younger children's curriculum and it looked similar to Our Lady of Victory, except really pretty (always a bonus!) Though, Our Lady of Victory is ideal if you want to get through schooling as quickly and efficiently as possible and they are very, very nice as well and traditional Catholic. Their prices are also extremely good value.

https://www.olvs.org/

[coffeeandcigarette]

Do you think we should have a homeschooling thread with resource links, advice and general chit chat?

All my children 17,14,9,5 will be homeschooled from Sept.  So many factors coming together to make this decision so I definitely feel its the right decision.
I'm in Ireland so i'm trying to figure out how to start.  My youngest two are fine but my oldest two need to do A levels or Gcse's as our national examinations for entry into college might be a stretch too far for me to homeschool.

I would look around your parish and see if there is anyone who has successfully homeschooled their children through those exams. Do you have a mom who has just had a child finish any of these? Someone serious, not someone who's kids just stopped being educated. I am taking about a mom who works hard and has gone through the whole thing. We can certainly have a thread, and I would love it! I would recommend that you get some face to face help on your own turf as well though. Especially since things like exams, etc are so different in Ireland than in America, you are going to want an Irish perspective.

[diaduit]

Thanks ladies, this thread even has given me some starting points.  I looked at your link Queen Saints and it was excellent.  The books are a massive cost plus postage would be nearly $600 for one child plus tuition and registration.  I wouldn't know if the curriculum could lead to exams here but I could use it for kindergarten for my 5 yr old and then use Religion and art for all the kids.  I will look into it some more.  One thing I have to stifle in myself is my lack of appreciation for arts/literature/humanities etc....just because I have no value on them doesn't mean its not for one of my children.  So I will develop this some more using OLVS.

Yes Coffee, I do need something more 'local' so I went further and can see A levels and GCSE's are readily available as online options where there are test centres in Northern Ireland which is hardship but doable.  I am actually getting more relieved and happy with our decision as I see other options.  I'll give you a brief description of what getting to university is like in Ireland and how A levels is so much better.

Once you pass 12yrs old here, you enter secondary school.  First 3 years are spent preparing and studying for Junior cert which includes upto and mostly 9 subjects. English, Irish, Maths, History, Geography, Science, Business studies, Home economics, language (usually French or german) , extra subjects or mixing and dropping some would include woodwork and technical drawings for boys or art/home economics as a mix for girls.
These can be done in Higher level or lower level.  First three subjects are compulsory. In the last couple of years they have started CBA - classroom based assesments (projects and presentations) which are part of the Junior cert exams but do not get graded into result.  They are nearly a profile of your work in school - a complete waste of time and actually take away a massive amount of time from actual learning

So from JC , the student gets a feel for what they would like to do for the final examination the Leaving Cert.  After JC they have the option of doing Transition year (basic doss year but good for overall maturing and a bit of a breather before entering 5th year) or going straight to 5th year, then its 6th year with the LC in June.  Now to understand the LC and the impact it has on young adults is hard to explain but I think its like your SATs in US but I'm not certain.  From the time your child starts school at 5 yrs of age, every parent in Ireland is preparing them for LC.  IT is the ultimate exam and the one that decides your Uni, college, career.  All teachers, parents, peers are zombie focused on this exam.  Mammies go bananas getting extra grinds, hounding kids to study, watching the friends to see if they are taking it seriously...you get the picture!  IT is the most stressful two years in any young adults life, more stressful than college and its horrible for students and their parents.
 
For LC, you pick 4 subjects to specialize in which would be considered for your college course and English, Irish and Maths are compulsory (Irish is not for international students but it may affect entry into Civil service - used to but not as much now).  So if you liked tech graph and woodwork, it would seem you should pick engineering subjects but you would still keep a science subject such as biology just in case and a language.  Again its higher and lower and this is where it gets cutthroat: each result is given points and obviously higher level result gets more points than a lower level.  There is tactical studying involved.  e.g you get 25 points extra just for sitting higher level maths so even if you get a D, you still manage an extra 25 points plus the D or H5 result but higher level maths requires constant hard graft for the two years, plus grinds and it absorbs so much study time as its very difficult.  You might want engineering but you keep a subject like history as your 1 in 4 because you like it and your quite likely to get a high result in it as a higher level subject.  So its tactical as well as unbelievable pressurising.

Ok so keep in mind that the LC is as ingrained into our psyche as the 1st amendment is to yours.  I have discovered that our kids can sit the UK version of JC and LC- GCSE and A levels and it is considered for college level here.  The Irish leaving cert is a level 4 on the QQI scale (I think that's international!) and upto maybe 10/20 years ago was considered to be extremely credible but this has changed since the left wingers really let loose in education and it has dummed down so much.  GCDE and A levels I think are level 2 and level 3 respectively.  WHO CARES, colleges accept them. 
SO, my local adult education centre is offering level 4 engineering (my oldest son is showing good aptitude here) free, one day per week, he can do A levels in Math, English and possible a science subject (compare this to 7 subjects in leaving cert!!) at home.  The level 4 engineering is a stepping stone into full apprenticeship or next level 5,6,7,8 etc so on in college.  Its basically cutting out the faff and he is concentrating on level 4 to get to level 5 and so on.
I think this is a win win for him.
My daughter is more home economics, science , art and unfortunately home economics is not offered on GCSE but I'm not deflated on that yet.  So in summary I do need for the kids to do some sort of accredited exam and I think UK system offers the best solution without all the stress of our Irish system.  IF I do a structure like this it keeps Government agencies on homeschooling happy I think!! and I feel I can do this.  There is some cost involved but when you add up the cost of uniforms, field trips, lunches, transport, supplies, books, etc I'm probably at the same cost.

Giving you a picture of the examinations was important and if anyone has any input into UK (or even EU) system I would be very grateful.  I can top up on OLVS for catechism and general character formation.

So supplies, what would you need?
My oldest two will have a laptop each.  I want to allocate an hour per day of reading good quality books but its so expensive (picking a book here and there is not reliable enough to keep momentum going on reading) so I might invest in kindles each.  I could do it on laptop but I would like that they take time out each day and go to their rooms or out in the gardens with their devices and read what I download plus it gives me an hour to decompress!!!

I am designing a big long table made of a white board surface for scribble notes  and shelving over each section for each child.
Rise at 7.45 a.m.  prayers and into breakfast and let them shake off the grogginess after waking up.  By 9 a.am dressed and chores for a half an hour.  Time to relax until 10 a.m. prayers at start then classes.  Oldest will sign into their subjects.  I will supervise younger ones with their learning, finish at 1 p.m. on prayers but last 15 mins to record/document what they did.  One day every two weeks a field trip alternating with an art project. 2-3p.m. do some reading.

I know life will not work out exactly as planned but if I can keep some order or structure I'll be happy.

thoughts anyone? btw I very rarely get uninterrupted time to type so my replies are short and abrupt, apologies

[queen.saints]

For shipping, AddressPal can help save a huge chunk of the costs. You do also see a good number of the books Our Lady of Victory uses in the free box at any SSPX after Mass social room.

[coffeeandcigarette]

You are absolutely correct that a standard US homeschool curriculum will do nothing for you when it comes to the GCSEs or A-levels. They would not help with Leaving Cert either. For those grades (approximately year 2 on) you are going to want local help. For anything under that, you could use whatever you want. As long as you have the children at a good standard for math, and English, you can begin them on their GCSE journey at the right age with no difficulty. I am guessing that your two oldest will be fairly out of anything curriculum wise from the US. Don't worry about your daughter and the home-ec. I am pretty sure the GCSE do offer sewing, baking, culinary, and possibly some needlework. That is all home--economics, but broken up into categories. 

I would say for the two secondary school children, to get some help from homeschooling mom in your parish designing a program for them, with some lovely extras (theology/music/art/nature/classic literature/etc). This will be so much more helpful than anything we can say. For any other children, what you have in mind as far as a schedule and things sounds great! I would go to icthusresources.com (uk site) and grab some books from them. They import a lot from the US and have some nice stuff. I don't think I would buy history from them as they are a Prot outfit I believe. Best stick with Christ the King Lord of History (Anne Carroll) and a really good Irish history for children. There are some fantastic Catholic world history programs that cover years and years of school, but that would be something for you to think about down the road maybe, and it would involve shipping. One thing a lot of overseas moms do is to order books/etc and have them sent to an acquaintance in the US when you or someone you know is going to visit there soon, or they are coming to visit you. Then you get the books brought over on the plane. So much cheaper. Even if you did a whole suitcase of books, it would be about 50 euro to get them to you as luggage, vs hundreds and hundreds in the post.
  Per the Kindle idea. It is a good one if you don't want to grab a lot of hard cover books (also eliminates shipping concerns). I bought Kindle paperwhite for my kids and it is really great. It does have internet though, so you would want to disable that probably. You can get so man of the great classics and a lot of really wonderful spiritual books for almost nothing or free.

[queen.saints]

https://freelyhomeschool.com/



Thought this website could be useful to this thread.

I don't agree with the "letting children to themselves" philosophy they follow, but they've done a lovely job of collecting really beautiful schooling resources.