I was talking with a parent considering home schooling but undecided. Seems as if home schooling is accomplished in many different ways-some very structured, others less so. There is a rise in home schooling. Can you share some of your experience. How you decided on home schooling, at what age, and how you accomplished it. Did you have regular meetings with other home schoolers? This is now a big movement. How did you make it successful for you and your family? What were the biggest challenges? Is there any age you think is more important than others for home schooling?
I have three children D16, S18 and S20. All three attended private pre K-K programs in MA and D16 also attended a private first grade. D16 and S18 started public school when they entered 9th grade and S20 will likely do the same.
We started homeschooling when it became clear that we could not afford private school for all three children and that the only public school in our town would not meet their educational needs.
S18 taught himself how to read at three years old, because he was mad that older sister was starting to read - gotta love sibling rivalry at a young age! By age 5 he was reading Harry Potter books independently. We tried to enroll him in the local public school early, he has a Fall birthday and missed the cut off for K registration by 24 days! The school asked for outside testing (the Woodcock Johnson and a few other inventories that I don’t recall, administer by an educational psychologist) before they would consider letting him enroll early. All areas accessed were at advanced grade equivalency. For the most part they showed he was functioning between second/third grade level but his reading was closer to fourth grade. We met again with the elementary school principle and K teacher and toured the K classroom. We were concerned that it appeared that the class was still working on initial consonants sounds near the end of the school year. We questioned them about what they would do with a K student that came in already knowing how to read. The K teacher told us that our son would not be allowed to read in class as that would be “intimidating” to students not yet reading. When asked what they would do with him while the other students were working on there initial consonants sounds and sight words we were told that he would need to sit in the “listening corner” with head phones on and do work sheets “because everyone can always use more work on their listening skills.” The principal then stated, “it’s been my experience that children’s reading scores generally average out at about third grade.” He had just reviewed our son’s test scores so I was a little puzzled by this comment and replied, “so if I put my son in your school for the next 4 years you will reduce his reading level?” And without hesitation he said, “Yes, education is not about the individual it is about society and your son needs learn to wait while his peers catch up to him, just as he needs to learn to stand in line and take turns.” I can’t even tell you how taken aback I was by this comment! I’ve been in involved in special education for years and designed IEPs to allow my students to make the very best of their individual strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses. Yes, MA is one of the most socialistic states in the country but this was just absurd!
Still, H was not sold on the idea of homeschooling, this was more than ten years ago and homeschooling was not as common as it is today. We had already rearranged our work schedules to accommodate for childcare. H was working a four day week and I was working two days on the road and a half day from home with the kids so we only had a babysitter one day a week. H’s big concern was about curriculum, so much of the homeschool curriculum at that time was designed for families that were homeschooling for religious reasons and that was not what we wanted. We went to a homeschool curriculum fair and we were able to find several resources that we felt we could use but H was still not convinced. He wanted to be able to compare the homeschool curriculum to the public curriculum. It just so happened that there was a national public school curriculum conference in Orlando that month so we fly down just to see the curriculum at the trade show. All of the people at the conference had bar codes on their conference badges that, when scanned, told the vendors the state, the grade level, position and school district. Since we just had a one day pass to the trade show we didn’t have a bar code and this took vendors a little off guard. Without fail, we were greeted with, “Hello! What state are you from? Our text books meet your state’s minimum standards!” I don’t want my children to meet any state’s “minimum standards” I want my children to excel and be challenged to meet their potential! This was enough to sway H to accept the idea of home schooling. We had D16 tested at the same time as S18 was tested and she was also preforming 2+ years above grade level so our thought was that if we homeschooled for two years, even if we did nothing, the kids would still be in the same place if we would have put them in public school so why not give it a try?
We stared out as very classical homeschoolers, following the “Well Trained Mind” curriculum but ran in to issues with the state. MA is an “approval state” and the local school has to approve your homeschool curriculum and they didn’t like the idea that I was teaching my elementary age kids Latin even though I was using an age appropriate text (Minimuse) and hired a state licensed Latin tutor to come in once a week. After the first year we realized that the kids did better with a less prescribed curriculum and more freedom to explore their own interests. Accelerating academics just for the sake of getting ahead is never a good idea. I started college at age 16 and I can tell you from experience, dorm life at that age is not fun. Instead, we encouraged our children to seek out their own passions while making sure they were on track with the basics. We tried to individualize their homeschooling as much as possible but this created other issues with the state. So we moved to Texas because of the more friendly homeschool laws. The lower cost of living in Texas also allowed me to stay home and teach the kids full time.
In the early years we used Singapore Math, Growing With Grammar, Wordly Wise, MacGraw Hill Science (same as public schools), the History Of US, The Story of the World, Kids Discover magazines and Horrible Histories and Murderous Math books just to name a few. S20 needed some more help with reading so he use the “Explode the Code” books to learn reading. We also use various local co-ops and one day schools and on-line programs like Aleks and UT’s K-16. We encourage our children to own their own education and learn the things that are important to them and use what ever resources work for them at the time. We are a great example of “Eclectic Homeschooling.”
H had a sabbatical the year before our oldest started 9th grade in public school and we were able to take a 10 week road trip from Texas to Florida up the east coast to Nova Scotia, over to Quebec and back down through the midwest. We alternated camping and staying in hotels and with relatives along the way, we even stayed in a lighthouse on the Bay of Fundy! I was able to tailor their art, history and science lessons to all the amazing museums and historical sites we visited. On driving days the kids would do their on-line course work. Because we were able to travel during the traditional school year, there were few crowds and we got off season pricing;-)
Homeschooling was the best decision for our family, it has given the children a very strong academic foundation and allowed them time to develop their individual interests and talents.
I started homeschooling at a young age, I knew how to read before kindergarten and am still homeschooling now as a freshman. I started out with much of the same curriculum as the person above. I assume that you are high school age or close to that so I will share what I am doing now as well as my future plans.
For history, literature, and government, I have a co-op (which is basically where you meet with other homeschoolers and the teacher (usually a parent) will go over the material and lecture). The co-op is nice if you have other homeschoolers that are as serious about education as you. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of time and you would be better off with using an online class.
For biology, I use a curriculum called DIVE biology. It is a self-paced course where you watch the lectures and then do the homework. You also get lab credit from watching and doing the labs, which about half of are AP level.
For math, I use Art of Problem Solving. These are only for people who want a great challenge. The material is geared towards the top 1% of students and the homework is minimal, but hard enough that it could take you 10-15 hours a week to complete.
For writing, I have a tutor. Every week, she sends out the work that we need to complete. We go over this once a week.
I also take Computer Programming with Art of Problem Solving.
Next year, I will start taking AP courses with Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, a online AP class with a very high 5 success rate.
The biggest plus about homeschooling is the flexible schedule. If I have something during the week that prevents me from finishing my work, I have the weekends or I can cram it on another day. I swim competitively, and have 2 travel meets during the school year. WIth homeschooling I can usually work ahead (even on the online classes) and get my work done so I’m not making my grades go down.
The biggest challenge about homeschooling is that you have to be very self-motivated.
Good luck!
I am not a student. A parent who has one child nearly ready to apply to college is considering home schooling her other.She is doing a lot of research but I told her I’d ask on this site because direct information from people who home school or are home schooled would be very helpful. Thank you for all the information. Your efforts are very impressive.
I have four children and I homeschooled them from pre K - 12th grade. All four got into college/grad school without any problem. My youngest will be at West Point (USMA) this June - class of 2019. Yes, colleges like homeschoolers.
I looked at what the local school was offering and I wasn’t all that impressed. So I began homeschooling and never had a reason to stop. It was a wonderful option for our family. I used a variety of curriculum over the years. I was always a part of a homeschool co-op and we participated in classes with other homeschoolers for many years. I would strongly encourage all homeschoolers to meet regularly with other homeschoolers. It is truly helpful for you and your children.When my children were in high school, they began taking some classes at our local community college.
Did your homeschoolers miss the social aspect of typical school?
@lostaccount Not having the social aspect of a typical school could be seen as dodging a major bullet - literally. But seriously, I’m home schooled and I never missed the social aspect of a typical school. I don’t miss not having access to drugs, peer pressure, and gang violence. Yes, I know that not all kids at public school are like that, but it’s still a part of it. As a home schooler, you can pick the social situations you want your kids involved in.
In my area there are plenty of social interactions for homeschoolers, park days, co-opts, scouts, 4-H, chess club, teen nights… They even have their own dances and prom. Personally I think my kids had much more time to socialize when they were homeschooled than they have now in public school.
We chose to homeschool 2nd-8th with one and 1st-8th with the other. The choice initially was due to needing flexibility for medical issues and therapy. We continued because of all the benefits we enjoyed, flexibility, pace, social life and keeping our family close.
We were a scheduled kind of family when it came to the school day. Our typical school day included math, reading and grammar (phonetics, spelling, vocab) plus one subject like history, science, art or writing where we could work on it for hours at one time. We also included weekly music, dance and foreign language lessons. The kids over the years regularly participated in community sports, scouts, church, and local community theater (not during the same time frame!) They also met at for group classes with other homeschoolers. We took many field trips and participated in lots of home school group activities.
Our biggest challenges were on the financial side. Buying some extra curriculum outside of what was provided through our local program could be very expensive. Overall, I didn’t feel we had a lot of challenges educationally, we established a routine and learned our kids learning styles early on so that made it easy to present and teach topics.
I’d say our choice was successful overall as transitioning to a traditional public high school was not a problem and will soon have two college kids. We looked into several 9-12 home school programs but found the local high school to be a better fit for both kids as neither kids enjoyed the online courses, independent study type course and the small group classes they took in 7th & 8th grade.
Sounds like you were very organized playingjenga. Congratulations on your success.
Same to all others who posted and who home school. Thanks for your replies.
Hi @lostaccount - We meet again
I know this post is a few weeks old but I thought I would chime in. I have two children, and like your friend, have one who is in public school and one who will homeschool next year. The child in public is heading into his senior year and traditional public school has served him very well. My younger son (13 years old) is a disaster and I am pulling him out of the local school district due to administrative and special ed issues that have not been addressed.
I am in CA so we have several options from a true homeschool - parents registers home as a private school, or work under a private school umbrella - to a hybrid kind of option - parents join a public charter for independent study or do a full online program. I choose the later using the independent study option. Since I am starting with an 8th grader I felt I needed assistance, and the public charter supplies funding to the parents for curriculum and ECs as well as provides special education support, speech, occupational therapy etc at their own expense. @bookreader expressed in another post that there could be issues with lack of freedom but I felt that the special education support was more important.
The nice thing (or negative thing depending on how you look at it) is the support from an educational specialist monthly. He or she tracks the necessary paperwork and helps the parent choose curriculum. The school that my son will attend next year has a huge, almost overwhelming list of vendors, and the EC can help me sift through. I plan to use several online options because I think my son will do better having to work with a schedule that is set by someone other than me. I am going to supplement with live science activities through several homeschool programs at the local science centers as well as art classes, swimming lessons, and continuing his figure skating. The charter will help fund all of this. Charters in CA typically offer $1800-$2000 a year for k-8 and around $2400 a year for high school.
My son socialized very little in middle school. He has a group he eats lunch with but has no outside contact with anyone really, so he wont loose much socially. His skating is where most of his friends are, and a significant number homeschool. That is actually how I learned about several of the options. The rink is a vendor so they attract homeschoolers. He has been skating for 5 years with the same kids, does shows, attends classes, so the social aspects are already in place. I just need to make more of an effort to get him out and about more often. That will be on me. There are two local social groups that I plan to look into.
I am really looking forward to next year, especially getting him out of this miserable situation where he has little support and is really doing poorly in school. The independent study program may only be for one year or we might continue it depending on how he does. I do like our local high school, but I want to let my son decide.
Hope that helps.
Thanks lknomad, very helpful. I’ll pass that along.