[Paiblyelaxy]

I'm homeschooling my kids. Still new to it. Only in our second year of 'formal education'. There are TONS of resources out there for homeschoolers. Most will turn up if you do an online search. But it's hard work to read through all the reviews, because you usually see only the positive ones and everything you read sounds wonderful.

If I cannot find an Orthodox curriculum, I may just purchase a Catholic one, instead of Protestant. Don't write off all Protestant curriculum. Most are not heretical - in every sense of the word - just incomplete. They have most of the resources anyway. The only one that I was totally turned off by was the 'Christ Centered Curriculum'. I also don't buy any of the Bible Curriculum - you don't have to buy an entire curriculum - you can pick and choose bits and pieces and put together something that works for your daughter.

My reason for not buying any Bible curriculum (I've only been orthodox for two months) - was simply because I didn't want 'Bible' to become a compartment in our school life, like Math, Literature, etc. Bible isn't a subject. It's Life. We learn it in church, we learn it while living in Obedience. And while I agree there has to be a regular amount of Biblical teaching, I dont' see why it has to be any different from the teaching that I am receiving as an adult. So we read the scripture portions from the lexicon, we read about the saints, we do our morning and evening prayers with a psalm for the morning and one for the evening and we have TONS of theological discussions that sort of go on all day and all night (sometimes!)

My son's only in the 2nd grade so I dont' have any advice for higher grades. But - from some online homeschool groups that I'm a member of, I hear that it takes a while to unwind after having been at school. So, don't expect too much of yourself or your daughter - which will only end up frustrating both of you. Homeschooling isn't 'doing school at home' so it wont' work too well if you try to structure it the way schools are structured.

I was homeschooled for the first five grades - out of necessity - no schools. I started going to school in the 6th grade. I tested at the top of my class that first year and for about 2 years after that, but then, my interest in learning started to drop and in high school I graduated at the bottom of my class. So, what I'm hoping to give my kids - is what I had during the first 5 years of school - a love of learning. I'm not so sure how well I'm doing!

Anyway - depending on what your goals are for homeschooling - it would be best if you write off at least this one year as an experimental year. Try different things, see what works, and don't be afraid to let go of the things that don't work. Curriculum fairs are the best way to see a lot of books for FREE. Although you can't really judge whether something will work or not until you try it out, at least, it would give you a better idea than online reviews.

If you go to www.hslda.org you should find information about all the state requirements for your state and also homeschool meetings/curriculum fairs in your areas. I haven't been to one yet because the timings weren't all that great, but I hope to attend a fair soon.

Let me know what specific things you need and I'll see if I can tell you where to get the info. Have you sent in a 'letter of intent' to the school district? They need to know that you're going to be homeschooling. When they receive your letter they should send you a few forms to fill out. Depending on which state you're in - that might be real easy, or real hard!

Welcome to homeschooling

Mary.