My favorite sites

http://www.homeschoolmath.net/

http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/index.php

http://quizlet.com/

http://www.easytestmaker.com/

http://www.purposegames.com/

http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/

http://www.k12reader.com/common-core-standard/ccss/

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/repair/how-to-repair-small-engines.htm

PBS

Pinterest

YouTube

http://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/spanish_for_children

http://www.skillsyouneed.com/writing-skills.html

Early childhood sites
http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.spellingcity.com/

http://kidshealth.org/

http://www.kidsspell.com/custom_spelling_lists.php

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabetp2.htm#a

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/

http://www.dogonews.com/

http://www.timeforkids.com/

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

Just to name a few. any books you may have at home that teach anything from how to clean anything, cook books, farming or gardening books, building books, etc. are all great for teaching your kids.

Long term Homeschooling

My oldest is 12 now. My youngest is 7. I still do many of the things I always have. Here are some of the changes I have made.  I have made class schedules that alternate every other week. I can fit in more curriculum that way. I learned how from my old college class schedules. I did mine the same way. I also use regular books on farming, small engine repair, and others as textbooks. I added Jewelry making to our creativity class. Instead of an arts and crafts class they learn skills they can use. My husband intends to do wood shop with them as well. We just need some more supplies. like saws and drills. My kids are getting into animal husbandry even to the point that my twins asked for a calf for their birthday so they can raise and sell when it is grown. We finally have Spanish speaking software about 12 discs.We are using Skype language and YouTube to learn Spanish better. My kids are quite the good cooks. They can bake bread, muffins, and make pizza. They cook Spanish rice, prepare and season meat. They bake, fry, and stew all sorts of recipes. Besides all their basic classes like math, language Arts, history, Science and writing. They study Geology, ecology, geography, biology, and anatomy. They study environments, weather patterns, and sociology and whatever is interesting to them we try to add in. Most of this is found on the internet, in the form of reading material or Documentaries. I have a really good laser printer now so I have no shortage of work sheets. best of all I get to teach them religious instructions on my terms according to the bible with the help of  http://sermons4kids.com/ and other sites for kids. I still love teaching my kids even though it has been much more challenging now that they are almost teens. I just feel free knowing that they are getting a great education. Learning skills that will benefit them in life and still be able to pass an entry exam to college one day.

How we got started.

I have been a home schooling mom 7 years. My oldest home schooling child is 10. His name is Jean-Luc. He started at age 3 on the computer and with a "Jump Start" work book. We used a program we bought at office max that taught my son his upper case letters and his lower case letters. The work book taught him to start writing his alphabet and his numbers too. It also taught critical thinking and more. I loved it and so did he. He only watched educational TV like PBS, Nick Jr, and Noggin. He also had a V-smile which is educational video games. My twins are a year and a half younger then Jean-Luc their names are Jeffrey and Joshua and they started school at age 4 and a half because of the arrival of their sister who was born on Oct. 19th 2007 in Pennsylvania while we were staying at my moms for 7 months. We came back to Puerto Rico our home in March 2008. Puerto Rico has no real home school laws accept that my right to home school is protected by the constitution of Puerto Rico. I could teach my kids agriculture and nothing else and no one could say anything to me. We started schooling again in September of 2008. The twins had less resources. I started them on a regular penmanship note book for alphabet and numbers. Jean-luc was starting spelling words. I had flash card vocabulary words and we did everything verbally (study and quizzes). I added those same words to the twins curriculum when they were ready. When we finally got them a computer and the internet Our curriculum really began to grow. You can find just about anything for education online. They have been reading an online history book for a few years now called kidspast.com. We are almost finished with it and will be moving on to the history of war in america I found a list on wikipedia.com. I get all their math from a site for home schoolers. Homeschoolmath.com has a wide variety of work sheets but they don't actually explain how it all works. To teach them math I use youtube and education.com. On those sites and some others I can explain in detail how to do math problems and figure out how to get from one step to the next. We had a regular science text book in the house so we used that till it was finished. Now we study science online on different sites and for different areas. We go to geology.com and weatherwizkids.com and kidshealth.com. There are some great geography sites I have been using for a couple of years now and the kids love them. My daughter is now five she started her letters online at Starfall.com when she was 4. We used regular penmanship notebooks to learn to write her letters and numbers and her full name. This year (2013) we have finally gotten a fully working printer so I don't have to have them or I write out assignments anymore thank GOD!!!! Because of this I will be starting this school year with state wide approved testing straight from the internet and printing them out. I want to see how well they are actually doing. This has not been an easy journey and I have had a lot of opposition from other parents and teachers from the public school system. I don't have a lot of time to myself and my housekeeping can suffer at times. I have gotten the kids involved in the house work as they have gotten older. This takes a huge burden off my shoulders but it still can get out of control at times. other stay at home mothers get the whole day to clean their home while their kids are in school. Even working moms don't have to deal with such a messy home because their families are at home less. The more people home and the more time spent in the home can make for a messy home. I have to cook three times a day every day. The bathroom is used more often. It all adds up.  I still love doing it. It's rewarding and I hear terrible things about the public education system here in PR, so I am not thrilled about putting them in public school. I just believe they will be better students having been home schooled. They don't have to deal with so many distractions as other kids do, plus they have farming as part of their curriculum since we own a farm. They can graduate from high school levels having a trade or specific skill they choose. Their options are greater as home schoolers. Public school is always going to be there and if I need to I can always put them in. For now I like things just as they are and I am hoping for them to get better and better.