STORM2K

In the weed on the bus topic (lol) Home schooling was brought up...

I'm just curious as how one goes about home schooling there child? What has to be done etc...

It's very easy! We had my son in home schooling for his senior year, he lived with his mother since the age of 8, his grades were in the toilet, we went down to Prescott, moved him here with us, he went from a 2.0 grade average to a 3.8 in just 9 months!!! You need to find a charter school that does home schooling, you set the program up on the computer and that's it. I'm sure Furry will chime in on this, it IS the ONLY WAY to school kids anymore, sure......they miss out on school activities, sports etc BUT.....in the long run, it's WELL worth it!

Dennis

It depends on where you live...you just have to apply yourself and you'll do very well in a public school. But like Dennis said, Furry home schools her kids, since the LA public school system is so screwed up.

I have been seriously contemplating home schooling my son. (of course this depends on my future in this country) But I do think it has HUGE benefits. My best friend here in FL has 3 kids and she homeschools all of them. It seems to be a lot of work, but is very beneficial. With regards to the social growth, I had my concerns about that, but the local homeschool mom's here in my town have "banded" together, and have social activities at the park, organized outings, and sporting events.

It takes a huge amount of dedication and dicsipline (as a parent) The discision to homeschool on my part will be weighed very carefully.

We've been very successful with homeschooling our kids. I did alot of investigation on cirriculum, and asked ALOT of questions, found the encouragement from alot of these fine folks we chat with here, did alot of praying and decided it was the best gift I could give my children...the gift of education and the gift of my time. On a selfish note, its rea;;y rewarding to test your children and watch them succeed and know that YOU taught them this...If anyone has any questions on homeschooling, I'll try to answer them, tho I am by no means a pro...I can just share my experiences with homeschooling...Manzi...I highly reccomend it...its a challenge, but the rewards are incredible. Its also nice to be able to shape and mold your children the way you'd want it done.

I understand it is fantastic to home school children. My sister wants to do this with her youngest. How do you go about getting the info and getting it set up to home school? Do you contact someone? Is the info sent to you? How much does it cost? Basically what I would like to know is how did you get started?

Sunny....in Louisiana, all you do is withdraw your child from school, telling them you're going to be homeschooling them. Send a letter of intent to the state, letting them know you're homeschooling and naming your homeschool to the state. They send your letter back to you stamped, saying they are aware...

I went to the local Teacher Store, spent days looking over cirriculum, and picked and chose what I wanted to use. I did not go with guidelined Cirriculum, such as Alpha/Omega, but I may do that for the coming school year, I just want make sure they are not missing needed stuff with my teaching. I have been very happy with some of my books published by McGraw Hill. Many homeschoolers use these books. Suggest to your sister to research the legalities on homeschooling in her state, and do a search on local home school resources. She can email me with any q's....each state is different.

We do alot of really fun projects and just turned our last cruise into an Educational hands on fiels trip...stuying the Mayan Culture all the way through Mexico today....Very fun, educational and can be written off at tax time, as all the childrens homeschooling expenses.

My best advice is to keep strict excellent records of everything...

sunny shine...I just replied to you about this via PM.

I am seriously considering this too Amanzi. Actually, my oldest child is supposed to start kindergarten in the fall and we already have "school time" every day. He is doing 1st grade math now. Since it's not his official curriculum yet, we have workbooks from Target (School Zone brand) and from A Beka. A Beka Book is the curriculum my sister uses. She home schools her 5 children. The oldest 2 (12 & 14) now also use software for their curriculum. A Beka Book is a really good company. They are the largest publisher of Christian and character-building textbooks and are used by more than 250,000 home schoolers. They also have DVD and VHS programs. I'm not familiar with other companies. My 3 year old little boy sees his older brother doing his schoolwork and he says "I want to do my schoolwork." So there's an added benefit...my 3 year old can spell and write some words, is learning phonics, and does some 1st grade math. He is very eager to learn.

I have to make a final decision soon. I hate to enroll my 5-year old in kindergarten and then he'll be bored in there because he already knows what they're teaching. At the same time, my husband and I were both very involved in sports and I want my kids to have those same opportunities. Of course, their education is more important than sports.

Speaking from another angle..........I work in the Ornamental Horticulture Class at a Vocational School. (10th, 11th, 12th grades) We've had many students that have been home-schooled attend this Vocational Center. Most are very successful!

The approach I see our home-schooled kids take towards each assignment is very often in contrast with regular ed kids. They usually take "learning" much more seriously! First....they ask LOTS of questions! This is great! They are not afraid to find out every detail of everything in the lesson. (I wonder if "peer pressure" from public schools make a difference in question-asking???)

Finishing each project or task right down to the last minute detail also seems important to them............not saying that public school students do NOT......but there does seem to be a noticable difference in their approaches. (Perhaps public school relies too much on putting kids into "categories"..........sometimes lowering expectations??)

This year we have 4 out of 50 that are home schooled. 3 have done very well with their interactions; one has had major problems. The one little gal with the problems has a learning disability that has not been addressed or understood by the parents. It's a little scary having the education of a child put into the hands of unqualified parents that do not seem to have the time or patience to make that child successful.

Those of you who are homeschooling your children of high school age, don't forget to look into the possibility of Vocational Education for them! It's avaliable, and often not realized by the parents or students.

Southerngale.......I believe you can still have your children involved in sports, music, art, etc........here in Michigan it is possible.

My brother home schooled his 2 children with great results! Both he and his wife were very involved; their expectations were high, they kept on a very strict daily schedule, had a room set up only for this purpose, and included lots of side trips to different locations to aid in the learning process. Hope this helps give a little insight into this area!........p

Wow so much information. Thank you very much southerngale and furluvcats.

The home school program my son Chris was enrolled in was a GREAT program, he could *jump ahead* of the rest of the class. Each class had a certain number of lessons, he could do as many lessons in a day that he wanted to. Take for instance, he took a World Religion course that had 7 lessons in it, you finish the lessons in 2 days, take a quiz at the end and he wouldn't have another class for the rest of the week! It was a *work at your own pace* program which was GREAT!

The courses that they offer were FANTASTIC! They were *practical courses needed for everyday life*, consumer math- interest rates, insurance rates etc., not your *run of the mill, shove the kids through the class* type courses. For english, Chris took that World Religion course and let me tell you, it was a TOUGH, TOUGH class, I can't tell you how many times he called Bill (aka streetsoldier), Bill is a *wealth of information* in this area of study!! BTW.....THANKS AGAIN Bill for all of your help!

Dennis

WOW thanks guys for all the great info...

And something they do here in FL now, if im not mistaken, is they let home schooled kids participate in after school activites such as Sports, Band, Prom, etc....

My sister has been home-schooling her second grade daughter and Kindergarten son and has done very well with it! They get their socializing and fun with other home-schooled kids at AWANA and then summer activities at the church where my folks and I are members of, too.



Eric

Thanks for all the information guys and for sharing your experiences.

Lindaloo...here is the A Beka website in case you want to share this with your sister.

http://www.abeka.com/

or here's the toll-free number:
1-877-A BEKA BOOK (1-877-223-5226)

Sports and after school activities are available to home schooled kids here in Louisiana, my son plays baseball with a few home schooled kids (tho he attends a private school) the kids play for a public school in their school district.

Same thing here in FL, and i think its just great