My husband and I have 2 sons, 5 and 3, and a baby girl due in April. I work full time, but I do 95% of my work from home. My husband works for the same company as I do and he works anywhere from 50-75 hours a week; his schedule is crazy!

Our 5 year old is set to start Kindergarten in public school this coming August. Poor kid missed the cut-off date because his birthday is December 21st! He has been attending a local 'pre-school' but it is nothing more than cut and paste art projects 6 hours a week; no curriculum at all.

I am seriously considering homeschooling our children and may take this spring and use it as a 'trial run' before deciding for sure before school starts. My worry is juggling a new baby, homeschooling 2 children (we would start a program for our 3 year old as well), and working full time. Is it possible or am I just dreaming?

Welcome!

I can't give you too much help or advice about the work thing - as I parent/school full time -and only have one little one at home currently.

But I wanted to welcome you, and let you know that things are a little slow around here on weekends (especially Sunday early in the day). I'm sure more people will chime in soon with helpful advice. I stayed home from Church today with a little one who has a cold : (

Hope you like it here!

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http://stuffedveggies.blogspot.com/

Welcome! Here is a previous thread that will fit into your circumstance...

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1894


This former thread does not involve working full time, though. If this is something you truly want to do, then, yes, you can make it happen. Is it going to be easy? Nope. Being home full time and homeschooling takes a huge commitment of energy. This also depends on your support system around you. Do you have other people in your life that can help you out on occasions?

As you read the former thread I linked, kids at such a young age do not need anything fancy or long hours of "learning." Most learning comes from observation and hands-on activities. Books on cd will be valuable to you as you juggle the baby and other duties. Leap Frog will always remain a great source of learning the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make plus the simple math dvds. My son loved them and really helped him in Kindergarten.

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Prayer should be your first response.
Not your last resort.

Welcome!!!! Yes, homeschooling is still possible! It will be challenging, but hey, parenting is challenging, and this is just one small facet. :0) With your children as young as they are, you really don't need too much in the way of curriculum. What I'd suggest is a "mother's helper." This could be an au pair (live-in) or just someone who comes in to help you while you are working. You can start the homeschooling project and then let the helper carry on with it while you do work.
Take a look on this page for some simple and inexpensive things you can start on with your kids: http://homeschoolchristian.com/curricul ... /index.php
At one point when my children were very small, I worked full-time from home. I had an au pair, and the children understood that when my door was shut, I was working. Worked great!

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Take this year and play. Read to your children, play with your kids, do lots of snuggle time. You will be amazed at how much you all learn, about each other, about all things in life, about love and joy and how life doesn't need to be separated into subjects and time frames. That your yard is full of science and math and physical movement and music. That your kitchen is full of reading and math and science and patterning. That abc's and 123's and do re me... is where ever you sing with, talk with, play with, ask questions with, answer questions with your kids. Your older ones will learn about caring about and for a younger one. You can learn from everything you do, and you have been learning this way all along, as have your children. They are little for such a short amount of time. Don't rush the curriculum. Don't rush anything. Live each day with as much love, joy, and attention to the uniqueness of each other and your kids will continue to grow, mature, naturally learn along the way.

Thanks for the encouraging words and the information! Our 5 year old (it is strange saying that since he JUST turned 5!) is so educationally driven it is crazy. We just started on reading and he is picking it up so quickly that even I am impressed. He is very much like his Mama; he needs to be challenged. My challenge now is challenging him while making sure he is getting a rock-solid foundation in everything he is learning and is NOT rushing through things!

So wonderful to hear about your son - that's a real joy!

I encourage everyone who is starting to teach reading to read "Why Johnny Can't Read" - by Rudolph Flesch. It really helped me a lot when I started -it's a classic from 1955, so is easy to find at libraries.

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http://stuffedveggies.blogspot.com/

You've already begun homeschooling and didn't even know it?!

Informally, I guess we have.

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons is a good book.
Get phonics cards to work with.
half an hour a day . Have him practice writing.
That would be the first things I would do with a five year old.
Then move up to what color colors are, numbers, counting, you can get those cards at the grocery store.
any more than that I would not do.
I need to write a book. I really do. Now that we are through and DD is in college I see where we could had done more on one subject and dumped a few.

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