Homeschooling

[Cortney]

I couldn't decide where to put this thread (either here or education/careers) so if everyone thinks I need to move it, LMK.

Disclaimer: This is NOT a thread to debate homeschooling! I just want support please.


Due to many circumstances (including a not-so-incredible public school district) I think that we may end up homeschooling Morgan (and any other children we end up having) I would like this thread to be a place where any others contemplating homeschooling could come and discuss or a place where those who even support homeschooling could come (including those who choose other options for their kids -public school, private school ,etc)

So.....anyone?

[Jayne]

Cortney, I think it is wonderful that you might homeschool. If I could homeschool I think I would also. The benefits of being with your child and knowing what they are learning and having control over their education is so appealing. For me it isn't an option but I support your decision to homeschool and think that it is wonderful.

Jayne

[Carla]

:aok: I'm thinking of it too because I can't bear for our kids to go to the local schools (horrible places, and I know people in the education system). I figure the earlier you make the decision, the more prepared you can be and this is a huge decision. I've been researching different curriculums and trying to get different opinions on things so I can make an informed decision about what I want to do. I also love that it can be tailored to the child's needs.

I think it's great that you've made this decision and look forward to discussion about this topic :)

[AmyJ]

I, too, have thought about it and was going to start a similar thread!! For us, though it would be for jr. high/high school. In our town, the elementary and H.S. districts are seperate. I teach in the elementary. The H.S. district is HORRIFIC!!! My children will NEVER step foot in there!! :nod:

We are thinking of working with a charter school where the kids are primarily homeschooled, but also have facilitators (liscenced teachers) students can work with.

My other dilemma is: that as a puclic school teacher *I* have only *personally* seen homeschooling situations that have not gone well. And this makes me very nervous. Now, I am NOT saying that every homeschooling situation is bad, hardly. But, I don't have any friends that homeschool and in my teaching career I've had about 10-15 kids (over an 11 year period) that have come back to public school from homeschooling for various reasons. About 90% of the kids *I* had come into my class were signifigantly below grade level, in addition to other issuses. So, of course I worry about that!! :lol: Don't even get me started on H.S. socialization, sports, clubs...etc.... :doh:

I am really excited to hear others stories and experiences.

[Mandy]

I"m planning on homeschooling my children. I'm very excited about it. DH is in total support of it, but it took some convincing to get him to come around.

I have some time to prepare since they're both still so young (18 m & 3 m) but I"ve started doing research already. We're finishing off our basement this next year with HS in mind-they'll be a room just for that down there with a desk for each kid or a table to share, chalkboard on the wall, etc! Also, we're going to have an area to do art crafts & science stuff once they're old enough. I'm planning on getting a cupboard fully stocked with all the essentials (craft ideas book, crayons, paper, bubbles, glitter, play doh, anything you can think of)- if nothing else it'll be good for rainy days. The kids play room will be down there also and I'm hoping to get dress-up clothes and lots of imagination type of things they can play with & pretend. I was homeschooled for a couple periods of time growing up and am in complete favor of it. I know that it depends on the kids and the parents whether it will work, but I'm determined to make a go of it. I was in PS a lot more than I was HS and didn't have a bad experience, we just feel that since it's possible to HS, we'd like to do it. I was HS using ABEKA-a Christian-based curriculm. I'm planning on using that as well. Sam's club has big books for each grade for busy work basically, that will help reinforce everything. I"m going to get some of those especially for the early years-preschool and kindergarten. There is so much out there!

For now our plan is Elementary school. As the kids get older, we'll get a better idea of how they are doing and whether we want to continue beyond elementary.

We're planning on homeschooling our kids for the following reasons:

* Flexibility to take family vacations whenever we want. Our life and days won't be scheduled by the schools. "School" can be done in the morning and afternoons can be free for "Play". If they're not feeling good, we can take a day off.
* Greater influence on what they are learning. We feel we'll be able to provide them a better learning environment. If they have a particular interest, we can spend more time on that, if they're having trouble with something, we can focus on it until they've got it down. We won't have to limit their learning. We can visit places to help them get a real-life experience on what they're learning.
* We'd like to incorporate our religious beliefs into their schooling. We can pray, sing, watch Bible movies, read the Bible & do Bible stories. We want it to be a part of their daily lives.
* Our children will grow up close and learning to get along with all different age groups. Hopefully they'll be great friends. We're planning on having a large family of 4+ kids so they will always have each other. They'll understand they have to help each other out and be there for one another, help around the house (chores), lots of things...
* We can't afford a private school, plus they are over 1/2 hour away.
* I'm not worried about socialization because our kids will have each other, they'll be involved in church and AWANAS every week. We have lots of friends with many kids the same ages as ours that we see weekly. Once they are old enough, our community center has county sports they can be involved in. There are also lots of homeschooling familys around here from what I've heard and we can be a support to one another.
* I"m a SAHM, I love my kids and I want to be around them. I don't want to send them away to get a break from them. I don't want someone else "babysitting" them and telling them what to do, what to learn, holding them back in an area if other kids aren't keeping up.

That's our thoughts on it...as least what I can think of right now. :)

[Brooke]

My aunt and uncle homeschool 2 of their 5 internationally-adopted children. Two are in public school because homeschooling was not a good fit for them - they needed more structure. Two are homeschooled because public school was not a good fit for them - they didn't have the attention span. All 4 of them are very smart and homeschooling has beed successful for them. My aunt is a nurse and works 4 12-hr shifts a week. The 5th child is still too young for school.

DH was essentially homeschooled for jr. high school - he went to school at his church that was taught by women in the church, no trained teachers at all. When he went to public high school, he was way behind in both math and english.

So I have 2 opposite experiences.

[AahRee]

I'd love to, but DH is totally against it. Since Katie is (and will remain) an only child, and since he's a public school teacher, he thinks that public school will be the best place for her. He has agreed, though, that if she isn't doing as well as she could be in public school, we'll find another option - either private school or homeschooling. But if we homeschool, my guess is he'll want me to work and him to homeschool!

[Carla]

I'm kind of upset. We've only told a few people we were planning on homeschooling (those we knew would support our decision), including my IL's who both work in the public school system, although they think that homeschooling is best for some children, or so I thought. Now they're really critisizing our decision and it's a good thing I've been doing research as I've been able to counter their negative accusations of homeschooling. I think now we're just going to decide on our own and try to seek out online support from others in the same situation because faced with the alternative, homeschooling is our only realistic option.

[Sunshine1020]

I am undecided, but my son is about to turn 1, so I have a little time. :)
My dh and I both would love for our children to be homeschooled, but I'm not sure how good at it I will be. Several of my friends homeschool their older children and keep trying to talk me into it as well. As long as they come and help me (one was a math professor at GA. Tech!) I will probably do it. I'm just scared that my children won't develop as well socially if I do it...I know this is totally up to me to make sure they have plenty of other kids around them though! One of my sons favorite people is my friends 12 year old son. Jacob loves when Drew comes over to hang out with us, and I know he will grow up looking up to him. For that, I'm thankful! He is one of the smartest kids I know and very well rounded. I can only hope my children turn out as well as he has!! :)

Tiffany

[Brandi]

I just don't think I could do it. I know I COULD, but I'm not sure that I want to. I think it's great though!

We are planning (at the moment) to send our kids to Montessori school up through Kindergarten. (At that point, I have no clue what we will do, but most likely not home school.) I think the Montessori school is a very good combination of home schooling and public school. At least, it is if you have a good school and a good teacher. Of course, not all Montessori schools are good or even acceptable.

Good luck to all who are thinking about homeschooling. I think it's wonderful. Our town has a very good support system for homeschooling families. I would definitely check out all the opportunities for homeschooling families in your area. I think that if you have a good system there, it would make things SO MUCH EASIER! If there's nothing there, it might be more difficult than you think.

[Cortney]

:yippee: for all the support!!!


:bighug: Carla- I'm sorry about the way your family is acting...

[mrs.knip]

I will probably home school Maggie and our other children for kindergarten. Since our country elementary school closed 2 years ago the closest school is 35 miles away. Which means kids in our area have to be on the bus at 7am and then ride for 1 hour and coming home ride for 1 hour and get home at 4:45pm. I think that is just to long a day for a 5-6 year old. I am a former elementary and preschool teacher so I have alot a materials already and I have classroom experience so I think I could do it! I don't think I would homeschool beyond that though just because I do want my kids involved in activities and get the social benefits out of school.

[Jillian]

Right now our plans are to send our kids to the Waldorf Academy, but they only take 20 kids per year and have 500+ applications, so it isn't to likely. If we can't get them in there then we will home school them (in the waldorf curriculum) untill there is an opening later for them to go to the academy. If we move away from here than we will definitely just be doing home school waldorf. But here we also have a huge home schooling program with gym classes, band classes, choir, art, field trips, etc...at the high school level they even play with the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association) for team sports...so very nice, but if we move we won't have that option either...

[aylhu]

There is a wonderful half day homeschool option in our area that we want to pursue. I've heard great things about it and it will allow a lot of what is good about the school setting, as well as the benefits of homeschooling.

There is a free catalog available here that is very informative for those of us starting out:
http://www.sonlight.com

[AmyP]

I don't have kids yet, but I am seriously considering homeschooling them for elementary school.

Our elementary school district is okay at best. There is once really good elementary school in the area, and we will consider using a friend's address to send them there if possible. There is an excellent magnet school where I'd love to send my kids, but our district is not eligible for ANY magnet elementary schools. I plan to argue with the school system about that when the time comes. There are a couple middle schools and high schools that have magnet programs that are okay, so I will probably send them to public middle and high school.

Private schools in the area are expensive and at least 1/2 hour away. There's a Catholic school down the street, but we're not Catholic so we don't really want to send them there. I have a friend who teaches at a different Catholic school that's not far away that I would consider because their religion classes focus on basic Christian values.

Anyway, my mom just started working for a home school program in the area. It's called the Calvert School. I think the website is www.calvertschool.org (http://www.calvertschool.org) She has three students right now, and they send her their tests and other work and she grades it, writes comments, and writes a letter to the child. She will eventually have more students as she gets comfortable with the program. It's the program we'd go with if we were to homeschool. It only goes up to 8th grade right now, though.

I have ADD and DH has ADHD, and if our kids end up like we did, we doubt a public school will be able to handle them. DH went to three different elementary schools until he found one that knew how to handle a child with ADHD. I didn't have as much trouble, but I do think I would have done better in school if I had a teacher who understood me.

DH is a little concerned about the socialization issues that come with homeschooling, but I think we can get around those. I plan on enrolling the kids in sports and dance classes and music lessons so they can meet other kids. Besides, right now they have at least one cousin that lives only fifteen minutes away. We're TTC right now, so hopefully our first child will only be about a year younger than their cousin Anna. We can certainly arrange some time for them to play with their cousin(s).

There's a teen in my ballet class that is homeschooled right now. She doesn't appear to have any social issues. I plan on eventually asking her what she thinks of being homeschooled and if she's always been home schooled. If I get a chance to talk to her, I'll post what she says.

[Cortney]

Well- for the last 2 years of high school I pretty much homeschooled myself- I used a curriculum (kind of like AmyP posted about) and sent my tests off to be checked, etc.


We live in a not so hot public school district and the only good private school around here is lots of $$$ (I mean- WAY too much for us to send more than 2 kids to- and we definitely want more than 2 kids) Plus, I want to include a little more of a religious aspect into our daily grind and into the kids learning. There are SO many more reasons, but I just want to say kudos to all of you for at least thinking about homeschooling!!!! :)

[Mary DK]

I don't plan on homeschooling my kids since we live in a part of town with great public education and to be truthful I don't think I could do it. Eliot has been doing great at his little Mother's Day Out program and we work at home on reinforcing what he learns each week which is what we plan to do once he enters "big school" like we call it.
Now, one thing that I would love to do is have some kind of at home Bible study for them... the MDO program Eliot is going to is at a church so he gets some of that there but I know that when he starts public school that part will be non-existant and there is no way we could afford to send them to a private christian school... so my question is for those that will be working on making religion a part of their home schooling program... have you found a good program to follow?? Any good leads?? I'm a little better at following a program than at making one on my own so if there is any suggestions I would be forever grateful.

I do have to say that I respect & support all of those parents that make the decision to homeschool... kuddos to all of you!! :aok::aok:

[Mandy]

My mom is using Christian Liberty Press for her curriculm to teach 2 of my sisters and 2 of my brothers this next year. This website describes it: http://ebiz.netopia.com/clpress/ourcurriculum/

They use a little bit of everything, including A beka and Bob Jones University Press. I'm kinda leaning towards this for now. If I did strickly A beka for the older grades, they have a video series to teach the kids which would be helpful in subjects I"m not good at. A beka has just a Bible curriculm for each grade if you are interested in that, Mary. Here's the website to look at them:

https://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/ABekaOnline.acgi$CatalogSearch?Submit=&ID=Z3Vlc3QHMDQwNTI1MDk0ODEwNzM&subject=CURRICULUM

[Mandy]

Here's the link to the DVD Abeka curriculm. You can do it so it's fully accredited-your kids take the tests and records are kept by someone else-but you do everything at your own pace. You'll have transcripts and everything. I remember watching these videos when I was in 2nd grade :) This is actually looking like a really good option. They do K-12th grade also.

http://abeka.org/

[Mary DK]

Thanks Mandy! That's a great site and it seems like they definitely have what I need :aok: Even some Spanish stuff!! :banana:

[harmonielyn]

I love the idea of homeschooling. I was homeschooled when I was little but eventually went to public school. Both homeschooling and public school was my choice even at a young age.

I would love to home school my children. I dont think Ill be able to though. So far our plan to for me to be a SAHM until all of our children are in school then go to work to help with the bills and be able to take family vacations and things like that. I dont want to have to put DD and future children in daycare(nothing against the moms who do). If I homeschooled then I wouldnt be able to go to work. Im hoping to have my children in private school since some of the schools around here arent the best. The neighborhoods we would like to live in eventually have a bad jr high and highschool. The middle schools are ok.

With things happening in school these days (like the Nick Berg video) makes me question having my children in school. I was furious when I heard that teachers were showing this to students without parents permission.

[Cortney]

I went to the MOST incredible homeschool conference yesterday (and wish I could go back today, but we have a family reunion) It was the North Carolina Home Educator's Conference- the book fair was the best with some WONDERFUL vendors and curriculum suppliers!!! :yippee: We're 99% sure this is the path for us!

[Karri]

That is so great, Cortney. I am happy for you. What a great feeling to get that little push that helps you know you are making the right decision for you!

[Mandy]

I'm so excited, I had to share. I found a home-schooling curriculm that starts at age 2 through 5. It's called Hands-On Homeschooling. www.handsonhomeschooling.com (http://www.handsonhomeschooling.com) and covers all the basics through simple activities every day plus it includes Bible.

Some other ones that looks interesting are:

www.fiveinarow.com (http://www.fiveinarow.com) ages 2-4 or so do Before Five In A Row (plus they have other ones as your kids get older) and it's all based on a bunch of classic books, like Goodnight Moon, and related activities to do with them.

www.letteroftheweek.com (http://www.letteroftheweek.com) has a free curriculm for little kids baby and on up.

www.brightervision.com (http://www.brightervision.com)

After doing a bunch of research lately, I've been changing my thoughts on how I"d like to homeschool. I've also realized that for the present, I need something a bit more structured to do with my DD every day since I'm not good at coming up with things on my own. I want to teach her so many things (at her pace) but I wasn't sure how to do it.

Doing unit studies for school age sound like so much more fun and it can be done involving the whole family, including multiple ages/grades of kids. I like the idea of hands-on type learning to help get the kids interested and excited to learn.

A couple programs that sound really interesting are:

www.learning-adventures.org (http://www.learning-adventures.org) A world of Adventures (covers all subjects but math)

http://www.cadroncreek.com The have whole unit studies based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books (Prairie Primer) & it covers all subjects! Another one uses the Anne of Green Gables books.

www.konos.com (http://www.konos.com)


Not necessarily unit study but a possible resource:

www.sonlight.com (http://www.sonlight.com)

http://www.k12.com/curriculum/