Homeschooling Help...

[tiredmama]

My husband and I are prayerfully considering pulling our boys out of the local public school and homeschooling them. I am a credential teacher, so I would feel comfortable being responsible for their education. We have a program associated with our church in which the boys would be enrolled through a local charter school on their "home study" program. They would then go to enrichment classes held two days a week at the church. I have also looked into other programs online, but was curious if anyone would like to share their experiences. What are the benefits and challenges? Any suggestions to make the transition smooth? Are their programs and curriculum you prefer? Are there any websites you can share? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[tturt]

What are their ages or grade levels? btw, think this is an awesome idea.

 

[dayhiker]

I think home schooling works best when the kids are self motivated to learn. If the kid is always having to be pushed to study, then I think having the school and the parents putting an expectation on the child to learn works best.

 

[tiredmama]

My boys are 10 and 8. (5th and 3rd grade) I am not a fan of common core standards and was reprimanded by the local public school for posting my thoughts (never attacking, just that I feel the curriculum is not in my boys best interest) on my own personal Facebook page. As a result, I am no longer allowed in my boys' classrooms as the teachers are uncomfortable with me. Neither one of the teachers has access to my page but someone else "reported" my post to the school. What I had posted that day actually had nothing to do with common core, but I shared that I was sad about a very unBiblical perspective that was going around my son's classroom. I never attacked the teacher or school or mention their names as I was only stating I was sad about what I had observed. I truly want to homeschool my boys, if that is God's will for our family. I just trying to figure out if this is what He wants...So, with that being said would love any feedback anyone has about homeschooling.

 

[tturt]

Someone on the forums just recently started homeschooling her son. I don't remember which one. You might want to do a search for her because she was nailing down resources.

She was facing a lot of problems from her family about doing it.

 

[Jonteel]

What are your questions?

 

[Sammy-San]

My boys are 10 and 8. (5th and 3rd grade) I am not a fan of common core standards and was reprimanded by the local public school for posting my thoughts (never attacking, just that I feel the curriculum is not in my boys best interest) on my own personal Facebook page. As a result, I am no longer allowed in my boys' classrooms as the teachers are uncomfortable with me. Neither one of the teachers has access to my page but someone else "reported" my post to the school. What I had posted that day actually had nothing to do with common core, but I shared that I was sad about a very unBiblical perspective that was going around my son's classroom. I never attacked the teacher or school or mention their names as I was only stating I was sad about what I had observed. I truly want to homeschool my boys, if that is God's will for our family. I just trying to figure out if this is what He wants...So, with that being said would love any feedback anyone has about homeschooling.

What topic was that-gay marriage, abortion?

 

[tturt]

When the grandchildren were in elementary school, I've seen coverage of other religions but not anything about Christianity, non-traditional families, magic and witches, etc.

 

[Sammy-San]

When the grandchildren were in elementary school, I've seen coverage of other religions but not anything about Christianity, non-traditional families, magic and witches, etc.

What religions, and what do you mean by "coverage"?

 

[razzelflabben]

My husband and I are prayerfully considering pulling our boys out of the local public school and homeschooling them. I am a credential teacher, so I would feel comfortable being responsible for their education. We have a program associated with our church in which the boys would be enrolled through a local charter school on their "home study" program. They would then go to enrichment classes held two days a week at the church. I have also looked into other programs online, but was curious if anyone would like to share their experiences. What are the benefits and challenges? Any suggestions to make the transition smooth? Are their programs and curriculum you prefer? Are there any websites you can share? Thanks in advance for your help!

We homeschooled our 5 kids till last year when our baby started high school. It is, like raising children, both very difficult and extremely rewarding. Like you I have my degree in education as does my husband. Because of this, we put together our own curriculum from things we collected during our education, web sites we visited and books and other materials we found. One year we tried on line education and it didn't go well at all. There were other issues in our household that year which could address some of it, but on line education has a reputation for not producing good results.

One year we were given materials, trying to think of the program...Abaxis or something like that. Some of the stuff I thought was well done, others not so much. Of our kids, our eldest (all our collected materials) had grown tired of the library and had "read everything in the city library that was interesting" by the time he was in Jr. HIgh. Our second, was dyslexic and yet, he tested out of reading when he applied to college. He never mastered spelling, but that is another matter. Our third did well, but did struggle his senior year because as I said, there was a family tragedy that he wasn't dealing well with. Our daughter was the first to go to any public school and excelled, even graduated 2 years early. Our baby is currently a sophomore in public school and likes it though he is struggling some with adjusting.

OUr decision to send the last two to high school was two fold and something not everyone who home schools talks about. the first reason is that we moved to a good district, which is important. But the second reason is that not everyone takes a home school diploma very readily. This was a problem for some of the older kids, and so if they finish in a public school, their diploma is from that school no matter how many years they attended. This means that they could go 1 year (our daughter did two and a friend of ours will finish trade school, 2 year) and has no problem because the diploma is from the public school. OUr youngest, if he gets his adjustments straight, will go 4 years just because he wanted to try it and had friends in school that his sister introduced him to.

Well, that's my two cents and advice.

 

[razzelflabben]

My boys are 10 and 8. (5th and 3rd grade) I am not a fan of common core standards and was reprimanded by the local public school for posting my thoughts (never attacking, just that I feel the curriculum is not in my boys best interest) on my own personal Facebook page. As a result, I am no longer allowed in my boys' classrooms as the teachers are uncomfortable with me. Neither one of the teachers has access to my page but someone else "reported" my post to the school. What I had posted that day actually had nothing to do with common core, but I shared that I was sad about a very unBiblical perspective that was going around my son's classroom. I never attacked the teacher or school or mention their names as I was only stating I was sad about what I had observed. I truly want to homeschool my boys, if that is God's will for our family. I just trying to figure out if this is what He wants...So, with that being said would love any feedback anyone has about homeschooling.

this is another great reason to homeschool. When my kids were in school, common core hadn't even become an issue...if I had young kids in school still I would not allow them to be taught common core. In fact, we are watching carefully our youngests high school curriculum and are prepared to pull him if necessary.

 

[Hank77]

My husband and I are prayerfully considering pulling our boys out of the local public school and homeschooling them. I am a credential teacher, so I would feel comfortable being responsible for their education. We have a program associated with our church in which the boys would be enrolled through a local charter school on their "home study" program. They would then go to enrichment classes held two days a week at the church. I have also looked into other programs online, but was curious if anyone would like to share their experiences. What are the benefits and challenges? Any suggestions to make the transition smooth? Are their programs and curriculum you prefer? Are there any websites you can share? Thanks in advance for your help!

My daughter is homeschooling her son, this will be the second year, 5th grade. He is an only child, so she has to work harder to see that he has time spent with other kids to develop good social skills and can function in the world outside the home. She does this by taking him to the public school for PE and art classes. He also gets to still see his friends from previous yrs. It has worked out well. She uses a Christian program that has proved to be above the public school standards and the classes are streaming online videos administered by certified teachers.
Where you are a certified teacher yourself and have two rather than one (playtime together, rather than alone), and the program through your church, I believe you would find it very rewarding for the boys and you.
This site may be helpful to you as well.
http://www.hslda.org/about/

Different states have different requirements for homeschooling, so it's important to know and follow them. Our state requires the parent to give a written notice, to the local public school, that your child will not be attending. This has to be done each year at least two weeks before classes start.

 

[Red Fox]

Why are some people resurrecting dead zombie threads? Anyway, if the OP is still around and she reads this, I've been homeschooling my children for 11 years (ages ranging from 21 to 8), three of my children have already graduated and have moved on to college, so if she has any questions, she can PM me if she wants to.

 

[razzelflabben]

My daughter is homeschooling her son, this will be the second year, 5th grade. He is an only child, so she has to work harder to see that he has time spent with other kids to develop good social skills and can function in the world outside the home. She does this by taking him to the public school for PE and art classes. He also gets to still see his friends from previous yrs. It has worked out well. She uses a Christian program that has proved to be above the public school standards and the classes are streaming online videos administered by certified teachers.
Where you are a certified teacher yourself and have two rather than one (playtime together, rather than alone), and the program through your church, I believe you would find it very rewarding for the boys and you.
This site may be helpful to you as well.

I have heard the argument a lot about socializing and I don't really know if it is valid or not...our kids did fine and for a lot of reasons, we weren't attending church regularly while they were in school...but then again, we have 5 so that might have been the key...really not sure about that whole socializing argument.

http://www.hslda.org/about/

Different states have different requirements for homeschooling, so it's important to know and follow them. Our state requires the parent to give a written notice, to the local public school, that your child will not be attending. This has to be done each year at least two weeks before classes start.

Excellent advice...in Ohio we had to write a letter of intent. The first school, tried to give us grief, so I pulled out the law and our education and the combination resulted in them bending over backwards to accommodate and allowed us even though our certificates were expired, to do the evaluations. I did mine in an IEP format which worked very well for us....very good advice to check out laws in your state and be prepared.

 

[mnorian]

Why are some people resurrecting dead zombie threads? Anyway, if the OP is still around and she reads this, I've been homeschooling my children for 11 years (ages ranging from 21 to 8), three of my children have already graduated and have moved on to college, so if she has any questions, she can PM me if she wants to.

I would say Nov 2014 is moldy but not zombie dead.

 

[Red Fox]

I would say Nov 2014 is moldy but not zombie dead.

When you have to go through pages and pages of older threads to dig it up, it's a zombie thread.

But to each his own, I guess. Moving along....

 

[Hank77]

I have heard the argument a lot about socializing and I don't really know if it is valid or not...our kids did fine and for a lot of reasons, we weren't attending church regularly while they were in school...but then again, we have 5 so that might have been the key...really not sure about that whole socializing argument.

Yes, I think having siblings can make a big difference. My grandson's one complaint was that he missed his friends and didn't have anyone to play with at all. She also worked it out for one of his friends to come over after school on Fridays for a couple of hours and he would spend the night about once a month so they had a great time. We'll see how it works out this year.
She goes to a very small church, there is only one boy there who is in his age group, they get along OK too.

When you have to go through pages and pages of older threads to dig it up, it's a zombie thread.

LOL
I didn't notice the date on the OP or I wouldn't have responded.

 

[tturt]

Even if the OP isn't around anymore, this thread will probably show up in searches. This topic comes up all along on these forums as well.

 

[beaverpond]

My daughter is starting her second year of homeschooling. She is not a huge fan, but a bigger fan than going to public school.

Some people think she does not socialize enough, but when they want to play with her she is too busy with this youth program or that youth program or this activity or that activity or gone on this play date or that play date...I think socialization is not really her problem.

I waited to voice my opinions on social media until we had our final answer about how I felt about the school district's administrators. I didn't care who knew how I felt, what was done was done. There was no turning back as we were already set to homeschool and filed paperwork to do so and had already ordered the curriculum that we were going to use.

Some people started to give me a hard time about homeschooling our daughter, but when they found out that at one time I was a certified teacher in a nearby district...that pretty much put a sock in their mouth. They did not realize that I worked as a teacher for a few years. It just was not something I was that into at the time. Just as many did not know I spent time working in Law Enforcement for a couple of years. A medical issue prevented me from continuing on in this field. Then I spent 20 years working in retail as to which 15 of those years I spent in management. Now I am back at teaching and I am also working at recreation in one recreation program and one youth program. I am loving every minute of it.

Along the way we are inviting some of her friends to learn with our daughter so not to derail her education. Parents of her friends have not been against it at all. We go on field trips and she will bring friends with us and we do some baking classes in the kitchen and we invite them to help out as well and join us for the meal. What a joy it is for them to join in the fun of tasting the food that they help prepare. Things like lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, icecream cake, blueberry buckle, etc...and I am talking about making everything from scratch including all the sauces and meatballs and even the icecream. Like I said, what a blast.