The Big Switch .... To Seton Home Study

To switch or not to switch that is the question!!

I have been searching and questioning this whole process for about a year now. 

The first time I talked to my husband about homeschooling he was of course 100% on board.

Yet we still struggled with if we should home school or send them to a private Catholic School. 

I wanted to send them to a private Catholic school however I couldn't find one that fit with my needs and wants. Along with my husbands needs and wants for our children's education. 

Most of the Private schools in the area we live in had common core. That was NOT something that was acceptable to my husband and I at all. So we looking slightly into online Catholic Schooling. In which our children would be home with us but they would get books and a lesson plan from a Private Catholic school. After some time of searching I felt like " what was the point when I could just full on home school the kids. It can not be that hard since I see people doing it all the time." 

BOY WAS I WRONG! 

Home schooling is not as easy as I thought it would be. Though we did enjoy is most of the time. There was a lot more work to be done on my part. Just coming up with what we should and should not have our children learn was harder than I thought it would be. There are so many options out there for what your child can learn and different ways to teach it all. 

When I found out I was pregnant I didn't think it would effect our home schooling at all. I was again wrong and I learned the hard way. 

So after doing a lot more research and truly looking into all of the different options we have for our children's education. 

We think we have figured out the best way to go about this coming up year. 

After a long talk and the kids also researching the school on their own. We all decided to sit down and vote about it and check again and again to make sure we could afford it.

We are very Happy to be making the BIG! 

Switch to a Private Catholic Home Study Program. 

Where out children will be able to get a great education along with having some of the fun educational things we enjoy doing. 

The school is accredited and it is awesome from what we have learned.  

I do not personally think it is a homeschooling program. It is no different ( okay in my opinion better than ) the k12 public school at home option that some states have. 

We pay a tuition just like any private school, my kids turn in their call work and do testing and its graded by the school. 

They have a school song, uniforms, a teaching staff, a honor code, books and a lesson plan for each child. The best part is they have options of what classes they take. 

They are hands on and we can not wait to start!

We wrote a list of everything that we wanted in a school and this school has just about everything. 

The only thing missing is that there of course is no sports for our kids to play. However we have found many different things for the kids to do sports wise. 

We could not be happier and are so greatful for everyone who has contacted us to give us your opinion of different schools. 

We will be doing the full year round schooling and the kids are so excited that they have already started. They are doing so many things trying to make sure that their 4th and 5th grade years go as awesome as they want them to. 

I look forward to sharing the journey with everyone. I will post more about how Seton is working out. For our family as we go along. 

-Stephanie

Home Schooling On A Budget!

The first thing that you need to know is that homeschooling takes work. I am not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you its so easy and you dont have to do much. In real life everything takes work but home schooling is not that hard. 
It depends on how how you want to bring in money honestly and help your family. while you are sticking with a budget.  

The best ways I have found are. 

* coupon - yes I said it. start getting those coupons ready y'all. I am not joking. There are a lot of  ways to do it but I like just starting out with working one deal  at a time. I am not a huge coupon person but I am working on it. I went from spending $300 every two weeks for cleaning supplies and food for my family of 4. 
Now I spend $230 every two weeks. its not much but I save $70 every two weeks and that's $140 a month. 

* we do NOT use common core books sense we are against common core. my kids books are about $30 each per school year. from barns and nobles. However I have learned that the best thing to do is use the tools that you have already. Printer and ink!
get online and print out the lesson plans the night before that you want to do for your kids. 

* Internet! there are so many free online games for every age range. To help making learning fun. I can't even list all of the sites we use. ( I will write a full list of the ones we have used the most in another post. ) Games are free and fun and help you teach your kids

( every public library allows you to print off things and to have time online if you do not have a computer at home. )

*  Netflix's and Hulu! 
Lets face it just about everyone has hulu and or netflix's ( netflix's is the best ) 
There are so many different things that you can do with netflixs. I  have not yet started on hulu at this point. 
 I can not sit here and write every link there is to go with different movies and shows on netflixs or hulu so heres the simple answer. 

here is a link you should join this group on face book and there are so many ways to help teach you children of every age with tools on netflixs. feel free to join this group. 

Home Schooling With Netflix's


* Join a group of other moms

Yes I said it!

there are always groups out there that will help you a long your way. They do classes with each other and build on what they already know. They teach classes and support you no matter what stage you are in. When it comes to your home school journey. 

I myself am still learning as I go so if there are any other tool or fun things you think I missed feel free to email me and let me know or post a comment.