We've been educating our children at home for 11yrs and I often get asked by those new to homeschooling, or entertaining the thought of homeschooling, which sites/books I could recommend as they start their journey into educating at home.
Please note:
I’m neither condoning nor recommending all the content these sites ‘share’ – they
are just links that may have items of interest for you and your family as you home
educate. There are so many sites for homeschoolers now, that it just a
matter of finding one that caters to the things each mum is looking for.
Adding this thought:
Children learn so much by osmosis which constantly has me beseeching God
about the character I’m displaying, tone of voice I use, attitudes, etc … in
short; am I living daily before the
children the life of a godly woman; not a perfect woman – no one is, but one
who is endeavouring to portray the word of God we believe in, not just talking about
it.
I’ve found that home education is, primarily,
more about me and my relationship with Christ, after that it’s my relationship
with my husband, then my children – and any academic achievements we may be
making whilst educating at home are secondary.
For us the first lessons are always about character and relationships. Academics follow that.
3: About
us, as mothers, while we teach.
4: Other
links that may be of interest, and don’t require payment to use their sites:
Audio Books (click Search area and then browse through areas of interest for your
children)
HS
Starfall check content first – the site has
developed hugely since we used it
5: Some
sites here are Payment Required:
HS Book
Depository (free post
to most countries) this is a site I like to use to purchase homeschooling items – sorry, some of the front page ads are yucky!
HS
Christian Book another
spot to purchase homeschool items (see side bar for categories) though often
we’ll be able to source it at a better price through book depository.
HS
Rainbow Resource (good
site with lots of homeschool items. It pays to work with overseas
companies to ensure packages they send are broken down into smaller lots, so that
the amounts listed on each parcels sending label do not exceed around $420 NZ –
otherwise we get charged for importing tax (just as if we were a brick and
mortar school or a
business). We weren’t aware of that the first time we purchased a big
homeschooling package from overseas and we got stung with a hefty importing tax
fee.
HS Reading Eggs Not 100% sure of the content here as I’ve never used this - it came out after my children were already readers. However, other mum's who's opinions I appreciate do recommend it.
6: Other Sites
7: A few books/links about homeschooling (mostly
for earlier years) that I usually onshare to potential homeschoolers:
I think one of the practical things that has helped
me with our home educating journey was another home educator encouraging us to jot down
our long term goals for our children. The goals are not set in concrete
and my husband & I prayerfully considered the general outline of those goals, and
while a few have changed as we’ve gone along most have remained the same.
These are the areas we created goals for:
Bible and Message
Character
Emotionally
Socially
English (Language Arts)
Read
Write
Type
Math
Basic accounting skills
Financially
History
Science (& nature)
Computer skills
Music
Art
Handcrafts
Life Skills
© Mrs. D.R. Gilchrist 2015
It is always so encouraging to find items to use with the children that support our Christian worldview. We happened upon a colouring book recently that does just that, Walk with Me, which details key events during Brother Branham's ministry. 
