Who is homeschooling this year?

[farm_mom]

Farmschool Mom, thats definitely a good reason for homeschooling, that is a scary allergy for your family, sorry.
I think homeschooling is great for hands on learners who would otherwise be bored at school and not do as well as they could.

Are you guys talking about making kindergarten or preschool mandatory?
Kindergarten has been mandatory in our state for 35 years now, but haven't heard too much about the preschool being mandatory yet.
They are however pushing a full day kindergarten to be mandatory.
Seems like a long day for a 5 year old in my opinion.
Thats another good reason for homeschooling, it feels like you don't have enough time with them as it is when they have to be sent off to school so young.

Kindergarten is mandatory, and you're right, there is a huge push for pre-k and preschool. Our pediatrician asked when we were starting my daughter in preschool when she was only 2 1/2!! I was shocked! And yes, many of the schools in our area have started making kindergarten a full day. My nephew had to start out at all day K like that and his mom said he'd come home zoned out, tired and cranky.

 

[farm_mom]

. My daughter is severly anaphylactic to peanuts/tree nuts (so much so that she can react to peanut butter on other people's breath) and my son is an active, hands on learner (much like his father) whom I am afraid they will want to drug if I put him in the system.

Two of mine are allergic to nuts.. and was a hassle/pain it was each year educating the teachers and staff on how to keep them safe.... then to have idiot teachers who just don't think it's a real threat and then have to rush a child to the E.R. (two times in one week) b/c of such idiot teachers. I'm not knocking all teachers.. I have some best friends who are teachers. It's just the ones who don't care and think they're opinion is sound medical advice.
To walk into the lunchroom and see a child sitting next to my daughter at the "nut free" zoned table, with a PBJ on their tray and putting their hands on my daughters tray.. well.. that was enough! I sat in that school all day for 3 months to train and retrain and make sure everybody knew the severity of nut allergies (this school had never experienced a nut allergy prior to my chlidren) then a week later is when I came into the lunch room and found the kid sitting next to my duaghter w/ a PBJ. You learn very quickly to not trust other people when it comes to your child's life. The incident w/ the teacher (above mentioned) was in the same school w/ my son, in the classroom (classroom parties are awful.. and almost weekly)

Using whichever curriculum works best for your individual children is SOOO wonderful when it comes to kids who need hands one! What a difference it makes!

Thank you for responding! It's like a breath of fresh air to talk to someone who gets it! I find that I struggle with peoples attitudes in our own large family and our circle of friends/acquantances. I cannot even imagine shipping her off to a bunch of indifferent strangers. I often find, like you that people just don't get it. They think you're being an overreactive parent. They think it can't really be that bad. And so they're careless, or worse trying to prove themselves right. I deal with many, many people with that kind of attitude. Then there's also those people who take it seriously, very seriously, like my sister. She looks at the label for EVERYTHING, is always like my second in command at large family gatherings helping me keep other people from feeding the cute little girl they see. BUT, my sister is so scared of a reaction, and terrified of the epipen that that in and of itself becomes a problem. I cannot trust that if a reaction occurs, she won't freeze up and be too scared to use the needles in those extremely important seconds after the reaction starts. So yes, trust is a major issue for me, and I think it will be until my daughter is old enough to know for herself what is safe and isn't safe. But, in all honesty, we made the decision to homeschool before my little girl even had her first anaphylactic reaction, so it isn't the main reason we homeschool, but it certainly helped solidify our position.

 

[patandchickens]

Jr Kindergarten (= pre-K? you know, for the year before they are scheduled to go to 'real' kindergarten) is going to become mandatory -- and full-day! -- in Ontario in a couple years, from what I've been told. (I will confess to not looking for any sort of official release on this because I have no intention of sending kid #2 to any mandatory full-day JK *anyhow* )

Go figure.


Pat

 

[heatherv]

In our state kindergarten is not mandatory (yet) but we heard recently that it is going to become mandatory. i'm not sure if that's this year, or next? But when we pulled the kids out of school mid year last winter, the Sherrif's deputies came out to question my son's absence, not my daughters, b/c she was in kindergarten and it's not mandatory for her to be there.

Farm Mom... your sister is alot like my mom. She's very neurotic about reading the labels, just as I am... and that's nice to have someone else backin' you up and on the lookout. But she DOES panic if something happens. She does not have a good emergency response reaction. My first son used to choke alot as a baby. Small airway or something? And she'd freeze and panic if he choked, when all you had to do is pick him up and whack him. I took first aid and CPR class w/ her. I had her practice on dolls, and w/ him. But she couldn't be alone w/ him as an infant, my dad or someone else had to be there. She just panics. My brother was half dead in her basement a couple years ago, and instead of doing CPR, or calling 911.. she called me (2 hrs away) while I was at work.

 

[Woodland Woman]

heatherv I think we are going to give nature journals a try. One of my kids loves collecting all sorts of natural things.

Chirpy It was hard sending my oldest to college even though it wasn't too far and we saw her every weekend. She did very well and I'm sure your son will too. I love how homeschoolers can relate to everyone. The wonderful thing about homeschooling is that we can use a curriculum and teaching style that fits our children instead of trying to fit our kids into a cookie cutter system.

I think in my state you don't have to send your child to school before age 7.

One of the reasons I homeschool my youngest 2 is because they get reactions to scents. Everything affects them from air fresheners to scented laundry soap and fabric softeners, perfumes, cleaners, and chemicals. They are also on special diets and cannot eat anything unless I make it or it is approved.

 

[FarmerChick]

my daughter (3 1/2) will be signed up for pre-K again this year. she loves it. I just never plan on homeschooling. I will be sending her thru the system.

But I enjoy reading all about how you handle the homeschooling. very interesting to read.

In NC I noticed many moms are doing this type of schooling. I never really thought about homeschooling til I had my only kid 3 years ago...LOL...not a subject I was curious about. So it is nice to read about a new subject.

 

[Harley's Girl]

When do you start your school year?

Is this your first year?

What are your goals?

Are you doing anything different or special?

I am homeschooling for my 12th year. We are starting Monday Aug. 18th. This year I intend to go on more fieldtrips. I like to finish school daily by noon. We are going to memorize scripture. I intend to enjoy my children more while they are young because they grow up before you know it.

We are!!! This is our first year, we will be teaching K-12 curriculum through the Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA) My goals for my daughter are to be able to teach the bible and include God in her daily lessons. I know that if she were in a traditional Brick and mortar school God would not be included in her daily studies. She will be in 1st grade. Our first day is Aug 25th. But we can log in now and do some lessons. She loves it. Today I asked how she liked her school work, she looked at me all puzzled and asked what school work? Then I explained to her that she was doing math work for school! :coolsun She was thrilled to know that THIS IS her school work!!!! I am really excited to begin full time. I am also planning on taking many trips to different museums in our area! And a trip to Cosi is only an hour and a half away. I am really blessed to have my best friend and another close friend to be home schooling through the OHVA also. Most of my family has been less than supportive. My friends and I have a great support system. We are looking forward to getting our materials and begin school. Good luck to the rest of you making the leap too. May God bless you and your children on the way.

 

[smithx9]

Hello,
From Smithx9...we homeschooled our children until the oldest was 12...then due to circumstances, we put them in our church school, which is where they have been for the past 4 years. Now all 7 kids are in school, and we are coming home! (PTL) We use ACE curriculum which is mastery based, and when they learned to read, the kids do most of the "teaching" themselves.
We have one son who has been disgnosed as dyslexic this year. He is receiving "therapy" from a wonderful Speach Pathologist that goes to our church. She is also helping with our youngest (who is a twin) that has Cerebal Palsey. He is very bright, and has a great memory...but he is not reading yet (8 years old)..This is a challenge, but we are looking forward to him learning this skill...

My husband and I also think there are so many things for children to learn that they cannot learn in a box (classroom)...There are also so many ways that they can be a blessing to others in our community with the freedom that comes with homeschooling.

I ordered our curriculum on Aug. 14th. I wanted to start sooner, but the timeing did not work out....I should get our "stuff" by the end of this week.

Hey, do you know kids will learn on their own (I am not into the unschooling thing in general....but) My oldest kids know more about what is on our paper money than I do. At least than I did until they told me) Check out you five dollar bill....do you know how many times the bill says five dollars? I guess they got curious when we watched National Treasure....and through reading Nancy Drew....

How do you plan to make sure you "Keep ON Track?" I would love to know!

 

[Homesteadmom]

We are in our fourth yr of homeschooling & we started the first of Sept., we will not be taking too many breaks this yr as we are behind a full grade level. I was taking care of dmil who was terminal & had a baby also(unplanned) so something had to go & it usually ended up being schoolwork. But he did watcha lot of educational videos & a lot of the discovery channel & national geographic channel too. So he got a lot of that stuff. Plus he picks up things real fast & easy. So we will get all of 3rd grade & get started on 4th this school yr.
He is doing well with getting into a routine of it this yr too. I am trying to get us done by noon also & then we have the afternoon for chores & playtime along with naptime for little one. We will be joining our local homeschool group soon so he can join the PE class one of the moms teaches on Fridays. And he goes to a art class one Weds a month another mom teaches.
It is such a wonderful feeling to see him learning new things & knowing i had a hand in that.

 

[Gravelcreekfarms]

We have been homeschooling for 11 years now. It all started when our oldest son was diagnosed with Autism. They local ESU(Educational Service Unit) wanted him to ride on a bus(he was 3) and go for "intervention" with seven other Autistic kids. Some of the kids were self injurious and had bad stimming behaviors. Our son has none of these behaviors and I didn't want him to learn them. Thus,we started our journey into homeschooling.
We start school usually right after labor day. But during the summer I use every natural opportunity to teach as well. We learned a lot about different insects this summer.And that mom can keep from screaming when she walks into a spider web. :/
I was glad to see that others only school until noon. That is what we do too. The rest of the afternoon is for chores and other activities. It works well for us. Typically, I sit at the kitchen table with the kids and correct as they are done. That way they get immediate feedback and are able to see what mistakes have been made. That way their brains do not process the "mistake" as being correct. I think of all the times I got the wrong answer in school. By the time I got the paper back, we were on to something else and my brain never processed it as being wrong.
I know that a lot of people think that I am nuts for doing this. I'm not saying that it is the only way to do something. It's just something that has worked for us.
An extra bonus is that my two year old daughter has learned her alphabet,can count to ten, and has a large vocabulary. All because she sits and listens as we do school.