<p>I am currently a Sophomore in High School. I have been considering getting into home schooling. The thing is it isn't Home Schooling, it's a program called Options For Youth. I am not sure how to explain what it is because I am not to familiarized with what Home Schooling is exactly either, but I went there to get ahead during the summer and I liked it. You basically just go, they give you workbooks to complete at home, you finish it and take a test/essay at their facility. I am sure it depends on the class but I am positive thats the basic idea. I took History so that I would have an elective this year, if it interests you. </p>
<p>The thing is, I am tired of the monotony of school. It's boring, the only good thing about it is that you get socialize with your peers and play sports for free; high school is fun but its not because were in school, its because we're high (on hormones). Other than that its BS; I feel like I go to school to sit in a desk all day talking with my neighbor or doing homework while the teacher talks. The only class that I actually find relevant is my French class because I can listen to my teacher (who is a native speaker) talk and learn how to pronounce things correctly. I am in honors/AP and find that all I do is homework, I don't learn. The teacher doesn't teach she spends half the class talking about herself and her life stories and the rest assigning us work. I feel like I would learn more if I actually had time to read the books they give us instead of BS ing the work/tests and still getting A's and B's.</p>
<p>The only downfall I see to doing the program is that I would have to pay to play the sports I like in a club and I won't socialize as much. The club thing isn't a big deal but what worries me is that I will let down my friends by leaving the team. I am not the best player but I did letter my freshman year, which I'm sure says something.
If I happen to decide to leave high school it would be for my Junior year. If that makes a difference</p>
<p>I am looking for advice and second opinions.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance</p>
<p>Does your school do a good job getting graduates into places (colleges or otherwise) that you would like to go/do after you graduate? If so, I’d stick with it. There’s absolutely no reason you can’t read the books (or other books) even if they aren’t assigned! Learn more than they ask - it’s a good trait!</p>
<p>IF your school doesn’t do a good job of getting graduates into places you want to go/do after you graduate, then I would look into homeschooling options. </p>
<p>That’s the position we were in, so we pulled to homeschool when my oldest reached high school. I have no regrets (both he and middle son homeschooled and both pretty much vastly outclassed their peers). My youngest likes public school too much to homeschool so he started back in school for high school, BUT he’s also doing a bit outside of school - esp with math and science - in order to assist him with his post high school plans.</p>
<p>If you do decide to homeschool, please check out dual enrollment with a local community college. Maybe even if you don’t decide to homeschool.</p>
<p>In some states, you can continue with public school activities and sports even as a homeschooler.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>@GeekMom63 Is California one of those states?</p>
<p>I don’t know. YOU’RE the Google freak! :)</p>
<p>Yes, California is one of those states! And in California, if you are dual enrolled in college and high school your classes are free :). I did this my freshman and sophomore years of high school, freshman year at public school and then sophomore year in online home school. You will not be able to play sports at the college level though until youre eighteen so stick with the club sports.</p>
<p>I feel you on the monotony thing…and I’m here to tell you that it is more than worth it to home school. I loved it and I still have a similar set up now. I got more than enough sleep every night and my stress practically disappeared (I was super stressed out before home schooling). Also, the enormous amount of time you gain just to do whatever you want is one of the best things ever. At first, you kinda don’t know what to do with yourself, but then you think of all these things you get to do that you didn’t before. I got a part time job working for my friends mom and I love it cause Im learning things from her about business and I also get paid (Money is freedom). I have better relationships with pretty much everyone one I know and I also realized that I am much nicer to people than I was before. High school has a way of twisting your head around and getting you confused about whats important. On that same point about the social life thing, yeah, you wont have the social life you did before, but chances are, that youll realize 1) who your real friends are and 2) that the high school social life that everyone thinks is the most important thing in the world is really the most unimportant thing in the world. Being out and away from high school, you will mature at lot because you figure at lot of things out, especially in that first year. I remember some days walking around feeling like I was having an epiphany, I just realized so much! (Haha maybe I was just super immature, I dont know :P)</p>
<p>Youre friends are probably gonna tell you not to do it and ask why would you do that and look at you like your insane, but dont listen to them! If they havent done it, they dont know so dont trust them on that. Try it out for yourself and stick it out for at least a semester. Youll probably find out how much you like it. Also I assume that you have turned sixteen or will be turning sixteen this year. Get your drivers license!!! Do the drivers ed as soon as possible so you can get your license as soon as possible. It makes home school ten times better when you drive yourself wherever you wanna go, whenever you wanna go. </p>
<p>Anyway, Im sorry this is so long and I hope its at least kind of coherent. I will probably think of a million other things I should have mentioned so youll probably see me posting here again. You can PM if you want with questions and stuff too. I would be happy to help. I wish I had someone to help me when I did home school that first year so if I can help you in any way, just let me know . And hey, I live in California, too so maybe were close by each other!</p>
<p>Hmmm…those weird square things were happy faces…I don’t know what happened to them…</p>
<p>Homeschooling has brought a revolutionary change in the education system. In homeschooling there is no separate syllabus for children. Some parents follow prescribed textbooks whereas some don’t follow textbooks. They design their own curriculum by referring to syllabus from different books.
Now students are not thrust upon by books. Here the children also learn a lot of things through their real life experience. Hence homeschooling has proved to be a completely different approach in education.</p>
<p>Whatever your heart desires.</p>