First year home schooling

[motherofthree]

This was my first year home schooling my two boys. I would like to know what I can do to make sure they're on track for next year. Just in case I have to put them back in regular school. Please help......... Feeling a little bad I hope I made the right choice to home school them.

[fairylover]

We are in our fourth year of homeschooling now. We have used time4learning since the beginning. The lessons in time4learning are pretty much on track with most school systems. As long as they are getting passing scores on the work and the quizzes, they should be fine. There are lists that you can google for "What your child should know by ..... grade." You can check with them to see if your kids are up to speed with where they should be But I really find it's best not to worry about it. Kids are going to learn. You really can't stop them. The hardest part for us moms is to relax and let them learn at their own pace.

If you really are worried about their levels you can go to the Backpack every day and double check to see how they did on their lessons for the day. I like to print out the lesson plans at the beginning of the year. Then each day as we do the work, I write their scores on the lesson plans. When we finish a course I print out the scores for the whole year and keep them in a notebook. My son has never been to school but this gives me something to look at to see him progress Some people do testing as well.

You can go to the top of this page to where it says State Forums. Click on that and a drop down menu will appear. Then you can click on your state. It really helps to get to know other homeschoolers in your area. Chatting with the moms while the kids play at the park or take a class together helps you relax a bit and realize how wonderful your kids are.

Welcome to time4learning and to homeschooling. It's a journey you won't regret.

[katie11]

Homeschooling is pretty good option. Try getting homeschooling syllabus and track whether you are going on right path.

[fairylover]

I'm not sure where you would get a homeschool syllabus. But you could check your states standards if you are concerned that your child might not be on track. I think the best thing to do would be to trust your child to learn what they need to know.

[GoldenBuffy]

If you really are worried about their levels you can go to the Backpack every day and double check to see how they did on their lessons for the day. I like to print out the lesson plans at the beginning of the year. Then each day as we do the work, I write their scores on the lesson plans. When we finish a course I print out the scores for the whole year and keep them in a notebook.

How do you print out the whole lessons for the year? I'm still learning my way around T4L, even after reading getting started.

[fairylover]

This page explains how you can access the lesson plans. You can then print them out. Click on the subject and grade level that your child is doing. When the page comes up it will say Print This near the top of the page. Each time your child works on time4learning you can go to the "Backpack" to see what they did that day. When you open the page that has the choice of subjects; math, language arts, science, social studies, you will see the little packback in the upper lefthand corner. I record my son's work each day on the copy that I printed out. At the end of the course I go back into the backpack and click on the link that says print reports. I then print out a report that includes that entire course. I keep these in a notebook so I have a written record of what he did that year.

Please let me know if I have totally confused you with this explanation. Sometimes it is so much easier to show someone how to do something than it is to put an explanation into words. At least for me it is.