Pattie McHugh - "I've had to be willing to make a change. What works for one won't necessarily work for all in a large family. While I'm opposed to changing curriculum every year, I think there comes a time for a particular child when you find its not working for them. When this happened in our family, I asked other moms, who had been homeschooling for a while, for advice. I also hunted in curriculum catalogs with good bibliographies and descriptions of their products.

We had used A-Beka phonics to teach all our children to read and it worked very well. But when our daughter, Megan, began kindergarten, she had no interest in learning to read. We didn't push it. In the first grade, she was still very reluctant and complained that her eyes hurt. We took her to an optometrist and discovered that she had delayed eye development. She was farsighted. The doctor recommended some eye exercises to strengthen them." (prescription eyeglasses would make her dependent on them, and wouldn't help her eyes become stronger.)

Pattie has been very pleased with "Teaching Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons". "The thing that attracted me to the book at first was the big, bold print. Megan could read it without any eye-strain. The print gradually decreases in size. It's worked well."

When something isn't working, that doesn't mean you've failed... but something probably needs to change. When there are changes, (such as a move, a new baby, children getting older...), as dynamics of the house change, you may need to change organizationally.

We overcome it by sharing the responsibility. All of us take turns with Micah (the toddler) so that the older ones are able to accomplish what they need to. If one needs individual time whoever isn't working on something crucial, jumps in to help. They sense when help is needed... and don't always have to be called."

Myleen Sweet: People taking advantage of you to watch your kids since you are home. Especially if they don't send them with school work. Leaning to say no to that, or doing too many classes or extra curricular activities...saying no to doing too many things that would distract us to finishing our school work...being firm. I've had to say," no, we're doing school... sorry!."

Pat Parker - Taking a child out of public school where they hadn't been taught correctly. How could we repair the damage? We had to get into solid phonics curriculum and had to begin with the basics. We got a program from The Reading Foundation, called "The Good Book" program which is a solid phonics. The purpose of this program is to help children learn to read the Bible . For math, Math-U-See was wonderful. Working at their own pace was helpful for the math. It is also more important for the child to learn the material than to grade well on a test. Tests aren't always the best method of evaluating learning.

Have discipline to get the basics done daily. Don't skimp on the basics (Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic). Other subjects are important too, but those are essential. It's important for the Christian family to spend time reading the Bible every day. Our purpose is to be equipped to serve God.

Sandy Groves - "Being trained to be a teacher made it difficult to realize and put into action that I needed to move away from standardized curriculum and into a lifestyle of teaching and learning that would meet my children's learning style and our God-given family goals.

Sandy is available to talk with parents about how they can develop lifestyle teaching and learning and answer brief questions about Spanish. (540) 635-6764.

Leslie Minko - Initially, we had plenty of support. The kids were young and had lots of socialization.in the homeschool group. My problem was family/parents. In 1987, when we began.homeschooling wasn't such a popular thing to do.. They knew I was doing it, but were very concerned about the socialization aspect.

Now - my brother is homeschooling and my sister is thinking about it. The solution was to just keep on doing it. I tried not to get discouraged or take it to heart that they didn't understand. I didn't let it become a stumbling block to our relationship. I knew we were doing what the Lord wanted us to do.

Paula Wilson - Getting the work done in a reasonable time limit. We worked out a schedule, giving the children a choice which subjects came first.

We kept going till the work was done. Some years we took a lunch break, others we would get done before lunch. There were a set number of classes. If a child finished early, they could read or move on the next lesson. We covered the same subject at same time but the children were in different books. They would work out doing all the material in 180 school days, go through the books to find a half way and the 1/4 and 3/4 mark. We planned a party day when those were reached. For instance, we had 1/4 cake w/ 1/4 candle for the 1st quarter celebration! This gave them a measure of control. We took summers off, attending and working at a camp in NY for 5 weeks. If we traveled during the school they had to keep a journal of what was seen or done.