New Home Schoolers in Doha
Some families come to Doha to find that school placement is not available or the right fit for their child. If you are in Doha and find yourself faced with home schooling, the content below should give you a place to start. If you are coming to Doha and will continue to homeschool your child, “What is it like to Home school in Doha?” is a great place to start.
It is helpful if you decide what your goals are before you start to look as that will narrow your search. I found this article very helpful and it will help to avoid costly mistakes.
http://www.time4learning.com/homeschool/welcome.htm
You may find this site helpful for working through a Step-by-step guide to designing a program that fits your family. http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/Homeschooling-Guide.html. Or if you prefer, 102 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy is also highly recommended for its help setting goals and choosing curriculum for your children.
Start with a list of goals in mind. Here is a list that I made.
- Hands on learning projects
- Multiple age levels
- Living Books
- Coordinated literature and selections for reading aloud.
- Includes language arts, writing by level, history, vocabulary, geography etc.
- Includes lesson plans
A new homeschooler list might be like this:
- Limited books (shipping costs)
- Online
- Limited parent participation
- For one year or until seat is available.
- One package
- Inexpensive
Once you have goals it becomes easier to pick what fits your family’s needs. This list below is a good place to start.
On Line: These programs are particularly easy to use if you are schooling short term but it can work for long term as well. To learn more about the pros and cons of this type of program go to
http://ezinearticles.com/?Pros-and-Cons-of-Online-Schooling&id=201685
Primary (Elementary)
This is an inexpensive option that becomes less expensive if you purchase one year at a time. There is a demo period for new users but you must give them credit card information to access this service. They now cover all levels Primary through Secondary.
Secondary (High School)
www.k12.com or a similar all online program. Many countries have similar style programs to this one so if you are from the UK look for UK k12 online and see what comes up.
These choices should make the transition back into the system pretty smooth.
Here are some other online schools that members of our group have used:
www.jubileeacademy.com (abeka online program)
Switched on Schoolhouse is their online program. You can
request a demo.
http://www.homeschool.com/Keystone/default.asp
We used this program through a charter school for 2 years and
really thought they were very professional people to work with.
High quality courses.
http://www.americanschoolofcorr.com/
http://www.calvertschool.org/engine/content.do
http://www.oakmeadow.com/ (hands on with lots of projects)
http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com/home/hmain.asp
More parental involvement:
Distance learning courses and prepackaged curriculums that come
with lesson plans….
www.abeka.com – Jubilee Academy is their online counterpart.
Alpha Omega Publications (life pacs version).
www.konos.com (unit studies, great for teaching multi-ages)
The following are suggested lesson plans and schedules. They include
plans for k-12. This is a great alternative if you are working under a
tight budget. You schedule how fast you work through the materials.
Books can be purchased through your favorite bookseller or through Kindle.
Qatar National Library is also a great option where families can check-out books.
Parent planned study
This would be where the parent assesses the needs of the student
and develops a curriculum around those needs. There are many places
you can go to obtain curriculum or materials. Here are some of my
favorites. There are many more in the links section on the group.
www.thebaldwinproject.com (public domain books)
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page (public domain books)
www.handsofachild.com (lapbooks)
www.currclick.com (Ebooks)
www.audible.com (Audio books)
Child Directed Learning
The child chooses what areas they wish to study. Parents act as
facilitators and inspiration. To learn more you can google for the
following subject lines. This is particularly good for a motivated child
or one a child that needs to detox and obtain a love of learning.
Thomas Jefferson Education – This will work with almost every other
program and compliments them nicely
Unschooling
Child led learning
Moore Foundation (Raymond and Dorothy Moore)
Doha Home Educators 