Home School Thread

I home school my youngest son. He's spent the last few years at DoD schools where they were self-paced and we found ourselves with a very bright child who would have had problems fitting into the public school system here in the States.

We decided to home school when our choices were;
A) Have him move up 2 grades
B) Have him stay in his grade (age group) and just suffer through the two years until his class caught up.

We went for home school. We do the Time4Learning program.

Thought I'd open up a thread to see if there were any other home-school parents out there and see what you're doing.

This might make a good forum for different programs (on line) as well as extracurricular activities that other parents do for their kids.

Peace

beez

I have home schooled all my brood since 2001. It started out as a frustration with the system,combined with moving to a home in between two school districts. Literally my older children needed to go to school in one town and my younger children in a completely different town, due to the elementary and middle schools locations. Over the years I had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the curriculum and had it out with more than one teacher. I had been introduced as new neighbors to a couple of teachers, married with three children, who home schooled. He still worked as a teacher but she remained home and taught their children. I became quite close to her and she taught me all I needed to know. Basically they followed a Christian based curriculum, as many do. I believe she used *Abeka.(sp?) However, she used it just for core subjects. Most of her teaching was self directed by her children's interests, and whatever the family chose to study. I suppose that qualifies in some circles as "unschooling". So I follow her lead. I do not have anything Christian based, but I have text books for each grade in all core subjects, and the rest is self directed learning. We use library resources, internet, and books that I buy secondhand.I have come under fire from people, when they don't fully understand how it all works, and they are so wrapped up in the daily schedule of public school that they cannot even wrap their brains around an alternative way of doing things. They believe my kids sit at home watching tv all day, or playing video games. Well, we do not own a game system, and never have. My kids do not online game either. We do not have cable tv. We have internet, books, and outside.And my kids are quite outdoorsy so that works for us. Over the years depending on where we lived, I did try to put them back in school for whatever reason, and it never worked, especially because I have a son who has health issues and a daughter with cerebral palsy. My son was missing a lot of school due to being sick all the time, and my daughter has unique learning challenges that none of her teachers seemed to be able to cope with. I was being asked to help her more at home, then she was doing in class because her teacher could not give her the one on one time she needed. All in all it works fine for us, and my eldest children have gone on to further their education and have successful jobs that equal any of their public school educated peers. Now though my direction is more focused on teaching my younger ones to be entrepreneurs due to the employment situation and changes in society. It's my feeling that is a better way right now, than just teach them to be a cog in the machine.I can definitely say that I use ATS as a resource for teaching, as there is a wealth of information here. I love it when one of my kids points to an online article about government corruption or an injustice in society. That's what makes me feel like Iam doing the right thing. Our kids are our future, and when I see some of the young people today and their attitudes about their own future, let alone us as we age I get scared.

a reply to: AccessDenied
Thanks for sharing your story.

We don't do religious teaching and try to do the state minimum, but after that, we go all out for the sciences and language.

Writing, reading (actual book reports) are big in our home.

a reply to: beezzer

I did the book reports for awhile. Right now mine are focused on writing their own books,illustrated and everything. I may take it up again in the fall when I replenish my inventory of novels. It's spring and we tend to read more in the colder months.

We homeschooled until 5th grade. Then we switched over to a Catholic school.

For homeschooling we used St. Elizabeth Ann Seton .. and of course we were signed up with HSLDF. We also went to the YMCA for a lot of programs like swimming an soccer and 'home school art class' (special for homeschoolers) and we also got together with the local homeschoolers with a social group that went on field trips and did things together a bunch. Plenty of rock solid education in a safe environment and plenty of GOOD socializing in all the programs and with the neighbors. ALso The transition to Catholic school went well in the fifth grade.

a reply to: beezzer

Almost the same situation here. Only, both of my kids are grown and gone. My son graduated from a public HS (I thought him carrying a GED into college would be a blight on his record). His senior year was a waste of time and led to him picking up some bad habits only 'real life' could cure. Think ahead, brother.

FWIW, I think you and the missus are doing it right.

Right now, we're thinking of private school if we can afford it.

But if that doesn't work out, then it'll have to be some form of homeschool. I'm looking at the Classical Curriculum because of the emphasis it places on logic and rhetoric and critical thinking skills. The private school we're looking at uses this curriculum.

It will be a Christian school, but both my husband and I are Christians without a home so to speak and we want our son exposed to religion in a more formal setting than just the things we do in the home. So, we're not worried about it especially as I was going to integrate Bible study as part of our homeschool anyhow, reading/writing exercise.

One big problem on the horizon is now company's will not employ anybody home schooled i read of that lately in Ohio

well, i was home schooled.... my past gets very dark and twisted and i don't want to derail the topic, but i never went to school, in fact i was barely allowed outside of my home growing up

I didn't set out to homeschool my daughters, but upon relocating from Idaho to Michigan, the school counselor advised me that she was expecting me to show up the 2nd morning of school. 1st day of school, my daughters came home quite upset about how the teachers were not respected and the kids were all talking about partying, drugs and sex! They wanted to learn, the school counselor told me, the public school system is not the place for them. She told me to seek out private schools or homeschool them. All of the private schools had waiting lists, so I went to library and checked out book, 'homeschooling for dummies'. It offered me many alternatives, websites, groups, and had details on keeping journals.

I went with a more classical education style and ordered my student and teacher books online since they were pre-teen. when they were 16, I did enroll them in an 'accredited' home high school course, to ensure they had an accredited diploma to provide to the college of their choice. Most of the course was known to them so they completed the requirements in only a year. The tran.journaling were quite helpful in dealing with authorities regarding them getting real time work experience through part time jobs and getting into the districts drivers training programs. In my area, employers/state of Michigan, need to have an authorization form from school officials for a minor to be employed.

Certainly, these may not be issues you will have to deal with at the beginning, but is was extremely helpful for me to know early in order to make sure my records were all in order. I also agree with the poster above about checking out YMCA or other organizations to ensure your child does get socialization with others their own age. Also, you may luck out and find that you have a homeschooling support group near you. Great way to exchange ideas and allow the kids to know others being homeschooled.

Don't know if this is helpful, but good luck in your home schooling endeavors. I did find it rewarding and nice way to refresh my own education.

Great thread. I have two kids who are real extroverts, if I told them they couldn't go to school anymore they would think that their legs had been chopped off or worse. But I was ready to home school them if public school didnt work out for them, they love it and are thriving. They are in a small school in a small town, this helps. To the parents who home school, hats off to you.

We stick to a straight curriculum for school work.

As for socialization, we do church activities and do local things in our community.

But I really want to thank everyone who has participated and shared within this thread.

For the issue about hiring?

That's somewhat disturbing. But our current course that we're on sees our son in junior college @ the age of 16. Hopefully that'll secure him some formal foundation.

This is a great thread, I am just bumping it up a bit.
Second.

This is a pretty cool site for independent learning. I use it for myself to brush up on things like maths and science. Sure it could be helpful for home schoolers.
www.khanacademy.org...

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
This is a pretty cool site for independent learning. I use it for myself to brush up on things like maths and science. Sure it could be helpful for home schoolers.
www.khanacademy.org...

Im not home schooled, but i used Khan's Academy for my extra calculus help. Its a nice site.

Alsodid somer brushing up on old studies like DNA translation and transcription.

This is a trailer for a film/doco I saw the end of a while back. It is being shown on TV here tonight. If you watch it you will get the gist of it. I remember when I saw it, seeing the anguish of the patriarch as his grandkids were taken to school and I almost cried. It is at 2:08.

Well Beezer...

I was home schooled while my family did a missionary stint in South America when I was 10 years old. Did the Calvert home School courses for several years. When we returned back to the United States i was placed in what would be a regular school grade. But after the first day, the teacher had me sent up a grade. After a week the next teacher had me bumped to a higher level grade.

So all in all I got bumped up two grades all because of an correspondence school course. Don't get me wrong, That Calvert course was the hardest course that I ever had to contend (even after being back here in the states and going to public schools).

Would I do it with a child of my own? Absolutely!

a reply to: beezzer

I homeschool my boys too. Well, technically just the oldest, but my three year old finished two workbooks this year too just hanging out with us. My oldest son just successfully completed the second grade. I also use a Classical type curriculum. I use Saxon for math, and we are all happy with it. I also use a science text to give us our base lessons, but with science there is no end to the experiments and nature adventures. We are lucky that we live in the woods, so one day he wrote up pages of observations for several critters. It was deep winter and he didn't even have to go outside to make his observations, they all came to visit near windows.

I don't use a base text yet for literature. We have workbooks to practice our basic English concepts and learn the rules, but it's predominantly book heavy. He's been reading chapter books since the first grade, and he has ready access to more classical literature as well some time honored kids books. We read constantly.
He is interested in learning other languages, we will start working on one next school year, he has not decided which one yet. He's not a history fan. He is a rare mind that absorbs and understands math and literature equally, but he really hates history. I have had to get creative and he likes to read so we made it through this year. We use the Story of the World Curriculum for history, but I also rely heavily on other books. We read our way through things. He is interested in our founding fathers and early American history, so we ended up spending a lot of time on that this year.

Now it's summer, time for baseball and fishing. He's a whiz out in the woods, he knows what is edible and what not to touch. He can catch and clean a fish, he actually fillets a salmon beautifully. His were nicer than his dad's or our friend's. He can also start a fire with a magnesium bar and steel. I'm proud of my little man, and he's growing up so fast.

I always worried about socialization, but it's been a non issue. We have friends whose little ones are close in age to ours and they have been friends since a year and a half old. He has friends from his short stint in public school and visits with them. He is also in baseball, so he's learning how to work with a team of kids his age.

All the way around it has been a wonderful experience for us. I would be lying if I said that there weren't bad days. I'm tough on my boys, and we are together 24/7 so there are always bound to be rough spots. He and I are closer than ever though, it has continued our bonding past a point that would be possible if he went t school every day. I'm lucky to have the ability to teach my boys, they are my world.

a reply to: woodsmom

My wife has those days as well.

But she wouldn't trade them for anything.

We're on our last week before we take a break from his studies. My son recently asked my wife if she'd "home-college" him as well.

a reply to: beezzer

There is nothing worth trading them for. Not a thing in the world.

Now if only the home college idea were possible with an accredited degree at the end, it would be perfect!
They need to get smarter than us at some point though, right?

It's encouraging to see the idea gaining more traction. The more people who see the merit in teaching their kids something other than the status quo the better. I know it's not always possible for everyone, but it's an option worth exploring if things aren't working out in public school.