Thinking about dipping my toe into homeschooling....

[Okiemommy]

What can you tell me about it? It seems like it would be hard one day,and the next I think it is something that I could do. I have a nine year old, a four year old, and two year old twins. It seems like homeschooled kids have so much more hand-on activity/learning. That is something that I think would greatly appeal to my son especially, who has ADHD. Soooo....

I would really like to know whatever you would like to share about the ins and outs of homeschooling, how it is practical for your family, what you like about it, and any links to information as well. Thanks!

 

[heatherv]

Our story: (sorry it's long) I haven't been homeschooling very long. We started Jan 08. We had talked about it/thought about it/wanted to do it since our 8yo was beginning kindergarten. We just kept moving and I didn't think we should, knowing we'd have to move again shortly! Wow that was a mistake! Homeschooling travels much easier than public/private school! Esp. since we wouldn't have had to plan our moves around the school year schedule! No transferring paperwork, files getting lost etc.

It has been the best decision for our entire family. Some days it's hard. Our 8yo has high functioning autism... so the hands on activities work wonderfully awesome for him! We're able to plan his curriculum around HIS interests.. not the teacher's! That works best for him! We can also plan his day/s around what's going on with him. If he's having a bad day... and we'd sent him to public school we'd have 5 phone calls before noon (from teacher or principal). Now if he's having a bad day... we can go for a walk in the woods (one of his fav. things to do) and learn there.

For our 6yo, she was in kindergarten because of her birthday... yet she was successfully accomplishing 1st grade work, better than most the first graders. So she was very bored "playing baby stuff". We had a few meetings w/ the teacher and principal about this.. and the teacher could give her 20 minutes a week of small group time where she'd work on her with more challenging things. The problem was.. that wasn't enough for her... so she'd come home and give herself assignments. She loves to learn, and wasn't given the opportunity to do that at school. She wasn't allowed to do anymore than what assignment was given to her. This really frustrated her to the point of causing behavior problems at home...unless we'd give her work to do. At home, I still insisted she finish the requirements of kindergarten curric. which she completed in 3 weeks. She then took a week off, and started first grade. She works at her own pace. Which means she'll work 10 hrs a day for a few days... then play for a day or two (or more) then work. It's funny how she works! But it works for her.. and that's what matters!

I love being able to plan our curriculum around trips (work or vacation) and places we're going! We all love making our own schedule that works for OUR family.. not everybody else's. My parents love it b/c they don't have to plan their visits around a specific schedule. They get SO MUCH more out of their education that way. Plus they're not doing boring monotonous (sp?) "busy work" which my 8yo absolutely hated. They're not wasting most of their days standing in line, waiting for everyone else in class to get in line. Waiting for the teacher to get done helping 15 other children when they need help on a question.

I don't spend my evenings (or what I used to call the "hell hours") going through the 20+ papers sent home each and every night.. what a waste of time and trees! Filling out papers, signing papers, trying to get dinner in them, then homework done, baths, packing snacks or lunches, sending in $$$ every single week for something different. (PTO collecting for this and that, $$ for required books every month, $$ for required supplies, $$ for field trips) all that.. it was soooo chaotic, AND expensive!!! Now our evenings our peaceful.. and it's so lovely! I absolutely despised going through those backpacks after school!

I have a better relationship w/ my children now. I am absolutely blown away by the work they do! When the special ed. teacher tells me my son who is in the 3rd grade can't even do 2nd grade work.... then he comes home and does 5th grade reading and math. Science is grade level, but we do it much more because he loves it and is interested in it. At school they only had it twice a week for a short time. Now I gear his other subjects (reading/writing/math) around science.

Our 4yo goes to preschool part time in the fall. (3 half days) which will help give me more one on one time for harder assignments with the older kids. Plus we'll go to the library during that time once a week. It's too hard for me to take them all to the library. The toddler usually sleeps then (hope she still will in the fall)! She's good w/ some playdough and some blocks too. That usually occupies her when she gets fussy. Or she does her "coo work" and colors on paper while the rest of us are working. I have "school box" for her and bring it out when I need to focus on the other kids and she's being distracting. (so not everytime that we do school work, only rough times) The box has quiet toys for her... including the washable markers (she LOVES markers)... and other fun quiet things for this special time.

The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner!

My first advice is to search and learn about the different styles of homeschooling. Then figure out what you'd think would work best for your family. That's a good start! We'd tried a couple different styles.. and now we've combined a few to suit our needs.

 

[Okiemommy]

Thanks so much! I need all the information I can get, so I don't mind it being long at all lol! I feel like my oldest would benefit from specialized subjects being integrated into the reading writing arithmetic so to speak, b/c of his attention span. If He's not interested, he literally is unable pay attention.

 

[Arctichicken]

Heatherv,

That was so great to hear your story. I have been indepenantly h/s my 4 (out of 6, 2 are under 2) kids. I have now started with a real curriculum program and I'm really enjoying it. We are getting ready for all of our supplies to arrive and the kids are so excited. Good luck to all of you home schoolers out there. I really think our kids get so much more out of life with us as their teachers!!!!
Stephanie

 

[Okiemommy]

I am reading a lot on homeschool.com and I am finding a wealth of information on homeschooling. Thank you for the recommendation to look up homeschooling styles!! That led me to homeschooling.com.

Still please, anyone feel free to share their story about homeschooling. Any information is helpful, and you never know if you story will inspire and encourage someone to home school!

 

[Tutter]

My children are no longer school aged. However, though they began in public schools, and one was even put into a magnet school, we switched to homeschooling when they were 8 to 12 years old.

We never regretted it, and all of them have done well for themselves in their lives since.

I understand that there are different styles of homeschooling. Ours was that I chose the books, the lessons etc., but we had a certified teacher that each met with, one on one, once a week. He was in charge of math, since I knew that we were going to get past my abilities to teach higher math well shortly, with one child already going on 13.

Meanwhile, he looked over some of what we did through the week, though he did not involve himself in my lesson plans. The benefit was that he made sure they had all their credits and got their actual diplomas, and were able to go on to college if they wished, without taking any other classes, etc.

I feel that we were closer to our children for homeschooling, too. Plus, I saw a huge gap in what my children knew, as compared to their friends who were not homeschooled. That I really liked.

One thing to remember is to make sure there's adequate social activity. It's not difficult, but you have to plan for it. Mine took field trips we planned, were involved with the local Police Activities League, where they took and competed in, Tae Kwon Do, got together with an astronomy group a few weeks a year etc.

In this day and age of computers, almost anything you need to know is at your fingertips. You can even plan great lessons around articles from places like National Geo etc.

And remember, everything is a lesson. Banking (Don't neglect the things they will need to know every day, like making change, writing out a check, etc.), cooking, etc. You will find it becomes second nature to point out things at all turns, whatever the time of day or night, and teach something interesting about common things.

Plan well, and enjoy!

 

[patandchickens]

So here's two related questions (hoping that the o.p. doesn't mind this on her thread) --

- those of you who homeschool, if you had it to do over again, would you start right from kindergarten that way, or do you think it is useful to the child (or the parents ) to send them to school for a year or couple years first?

- do you think the answer to that would be any different if we are talking about a somewhat socially backward/awkward kid (well, at 4 anyhow - who knows what he'll be like in a year or two but probably not radically different) living in a rural area with no neighbor kids to play with? We could certainly enroll him in a couple classes or clubs or that sort of thing, up to a point, but it would not be nearly as much quantity of time interacting with people as he'd get in school.

I'd be very interested in hearing peoples' ideas on this, since (like the o.p.) I am seriously interested in homeschooling our two (currently 1 and 4) but am up against a Certain Amount Of basically ignorant buttheaded resistance from DH and am also not absolutely convinced what would be the best thing to do.

Thanks, and enjoying everyone's posts on this thread,

Pat

 

[the simple life]

I have also considered this for the past year. My only concern as you said Pat, if your child is socially challenged, I am not sure to what extent, he/she may need the everyday interaction with other children. I know that homeschooled children do get together with other kids and groups, I am not sure that is enough in kids with who have a social deficit.
This is the reason I have not started homeschooling yet.
Even though I have a large family and my kids have alot of social interaction through siblings, acitivies,friends etc. I feel that although I would love to homeschool him,I have a son with social deficits. He needs to go to school to experience interactions of daily life in the mainstream world.
What comes naturally to so many kids is completely foreign to some. He benefits from gym where he has to participate in team activities, show and tell where he has to speak in front of the class, lunch, where he has to sit with other children and make small talk (which is a much bigger feat than you may imagine) recess where alot of the social interaction happens.Plus other subjects where he has to wait his turn, raise his hand , walk in a single file etc.
For some kids who have behavioral, emotional,social issues etc. this is too much pressure for them and they learn better at home.
For others they need to be exposed to the daily grind of socially responsible choices and to learn to interact.
This is why I haven't started homeschooling sooner.
I don't know if this helps you at all Pat, but thought I would give you my view on the socially challenged child.

 

[Okiemommy]

And remember, everything is a lesson. Banking (Don't neglect the things they will need to know every day, like making change, writing out a check, etc.), cooking, etc. You will find it becomes second nature to point out things at all turns. whatever the time of day or night, and teach something interesting about common things.

I realized that I have started to do that! It's like one day a switch was turned on and I had explanations of our world around us just coming to mind.

So here's two related questions (hoping that the o.p. doesn't mind this on her thread) --

- those of you who homeschool, if you had it to do over again, would you start right from kindergarten that way, or do you think it is useful to the child (or the parents tongue) to send them to school for a year or couple years first?

[1]- do you think the answer to that would be any different if we are talking about a somewhat socially backward/awkward kid (well, at 4 anyhow - who knows what he'll be like in a year or two but probably not radically different) living in a rural area with no neighbor kids to play with? We could certainly enroll him in a couple classes or clubs or that sort of thing, up to a point, but it would not be nearly as much quantity of time interacting with people as he'd get in school.[/i]

I'd be very interested in hearing peoples' ideas on this, since (like the o.p.) I am seriously interested in homeschooling our two (currently 1 and 4) but am up against a Certain Amount Of basically ignorant buttheaded resistance from DH and am also not absolutely convinced what would be the best thing to do.

Thanks, and enjoying everyone's posts on this thread,

Pat

Nope, I don't mind at all! I would like this thread to be a place where people who are considering homeschooling, can come to get information and inspiration on it

I did want to mention though, on the part that I itallicized(sp?), that I have read that it is beneficial to home school kids that are socially backward, or awkward. From what I understood, the " but it would not be nearly as much quantity of time interacting with people as he'd get in school." part of it is a common misconception; I read that it is actually more beneficial to homeschool a child of that nature due to the way that public school classrooms are geared. They are unable to foster multiple types of a child's individual strengths and focus on weak areas as much as would benefit the child b/c their are 20-40 kids in their class. IOW kids with emotional/social issues get lost in the system.


If anyone can either confirm or deny this, please feel free to add to this, b/c I am definitely not an expert!

 

[Okiemommy]

We posted at the same time I think they're both good viewpoints. It depends on the child, I think.