Deciding to homeschool?

[JetteZ]

For those of you who considered homeschooling your children, what made you decide it was the right or wrong choice for your family?

My husband is looking for a new job and several places he has interviewed at have been areas with terrible public school ratings and quite a drive to a Catholic school.

One of the reasons he is interviewing is so that I can be home more. We don’t want to move only to need me to work to afford private (non-parochial) school but I’m nervous that I wouldn’t be a very good teacher.

We’d like to figure out if we should even consider homeschooling as an option for us so I’d very much like to learn how others have made that choice. Thanks in advance for any insights you provide!

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

How to decide to homeschool?

It’s a year by year, child by child decision.

Even the author of the book, “Teaching in your Tiara” by Rebecca Frech eventually let her children attend outside schools.

When children are young, depending on your area homeschool can literally be just days of outing and fun with some reading, writing and math lessons. In my area you can do activities and classes for the K6 crowd and fill your weeks and never stay at home if you choose. Art, Science, athletics, STEM, are all cheap and readily available.

For older children–middle school and on–I would recommend a curriculum. I worked in higher ed. Best students were ones who homeschooled middle/high using a curriculum. Nex best were private schoolers, then those who attended good public schools. Last came those who were “unschoolers” and attended bad public schools.

Honestly, if “teaching” is all that is holding you back, do a packaged curriculum. They not only give you books and lesson plans but they tell you how to teach a concept and many now have videos on tricky subject matters. And, like with my 4th grade niece last year, if all else fails and both you and the curriculum can’t teach a subject there’s always youtube. Last year we practically lived on the channel “Mathantics” because it worked for her. Plus she could play the video 100 times so she could remember what to do. It was great because she got frustrated with me “you’re just repeating what you told me last time!!!” but watching the video over and over was somehow fine.

 

[midori]

There are usually three main reasons for homeschooling: your kid is faster than everyone else; your kid is slower than everyone else; or you disapprove of the way the school system handles certain subjects and want to convey information that’s grounded differently.

My siblings and I homeschooled, because we were in a really drug-and-gang-infested school district. It used to be really awesome, and I was in the Honors classes with all the other overachievers, so I never really bumped into the drugs-and-gang stuff, but it was also the time they were starting to mainstream ideas like “Heather Has Two Mommies” in the lower grades, and I remember there was a 5th grade prostitution ring— yeah, all of us got pulled out.

I did well, because I was self-contained. I preferred books to the social aspects of school. I didn’t really have any close relationships with friends (we moved a lot, so family was where my close relationships and stability were). The competition of being at the Head of the Class was nice, but it was ultimately just an ego-boo, and it wasn’t something that was important. With four kids, my Mom had a more college-style approach to the upper grades, where we had our reading assignments and we’d do our work independently, and then we’d talk about it to make sure we had the concepts down, and then we’d test to make sure those concepts stuck. But it wasn’t really spoon-feeding-- that was kept more for the lower grades. We used a lot of her textbooks from college and undergrad, and working in that style was good practice for going off to undergrad. Occasionally, we ran into certain classes that we weren’t equipped to teach-- like inorganic and organic chemistry-- and in those cases, I’d enroll in the local community college during my senior year. It turned out I was able to transfer those hours to my 4-year college, and it saved me a good 8 hours’ worth of hard science, which was awesome. Especially because it was 8 hours at, like, $60/hour, not 8 hours at $300/hr.

 

[midori]

My siblings, though, weren’t as self-contained as I was. My sister was more dependent on friends. One brother still has a chip on his shoulder-- he was always an introvert, but he blames some of his awkwardness on “not going to school and having friends like a normal person”.

We had a homeschool group that we’d use occasionally— they offered things like Prom and Graduation, which was nice to join together and do. Other homeschool groups in major urban areas might offer group sports, like basketball/soccer/baseball/volleyball. Some do things like Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts. Or you can do your own extras independent of the homeschool community, like horseback riding, or ice skating, or 4-H. And there’s always the local church Youth Group. There are a lot of options for getting out there and interacting.

It’s important to figure out what kind of educational theories/approaches you support, and which ones you don’t like, because there’s a ton of curricula out there, and it can be overwhelming if you don’t know the differences between this and that. For example— I homeschooled my kids for kindergarten, but DH wants them to meet the local kids, so they’re going to public school. But I still do a bit of after-schooling. So, take math-- there’s the Spiral Method and the Mastery Method. Saxon is one example of the Spiral Method. You do a little bit of fractions, a little bit of measurement, a little bit of time-telling, a little bit of word problems, a little bit of money problems-- and the topics repeat from grade to grade, so that by the time you hit 6th grade, you’re able to do all those things. Saxon Math is one example of the Spiral Method. Then there’s the Mastery Method, where you focus on one kind of math: single-digit addition, double-digit addition, single-digit subtraction, double-digit subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, and throw in a smidge of time and money problems— and you get really good and doing that one thing before you move on to the next kind of math. Math-U-See is one example of the Mastery Method. I knew that my local school district taught Saxon Math, which is a good program, but it’s so ADD, it can be frustrating if you don’t get enough experience with a certain kind of math. I preferred the focus of Mastery. So I picked up some Math-U-See because I thought it was a better fit for how I thought Math ought to be taught.

 

[midori]

I think Charlotte Mason has some good ideas for handwriting and nature study and habits, but I disagree with her on how to teach kids to read. I think Well-Trained Mind has some good ideas about the importance of literature and history and music and Classical Education, and they have some great forums, but I might prefer a more Catholic resource on how to teach history than some of their materials. And someone who prefers to Unschool would totally hate the rigidity of a classical approach.

If I was uncertain about whether I’d be able to teach certain upper-grade subjects, or perhaps wanted to have my kid graduate high school with an associate’s degree, I might look at enrolling either partially or fully in an online school. If you just do it normally, they’ll take their GED before moving on to college.

But there are a lot of variables-- the parents, the children, the values, the priorities, and so on. It can be very daunting, but that means you’re taking it seriously. Good luck on your reading!

 

[Lemuel]

We homeschool. Public schools are prisons. Just remember, if you send your kids to prison, don’t complain when they get treated like prisoners.

 

[KathleenT]

We haven’t made the choice yet. Our girl is 8 months. But I was never going to send my kid to Catholic schools or homeschool. Then the world lost its mind.

Now, I am eyeing both options and reading up when I can. My husband is still staunch public school but who knows…

So I don’t have any advice but just want to say good luck and I will say a prayer for you!

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

We haven’t made the choice yet. Our girl is 8 months. But I was never going to send my kid to Catholic schools or homeschool. Then the world lost its mind.

Now, I am eyeing both options and reading up when I can. My husband is still staunch public school but who knows…

So I don’t have any advice but just want to say good luck and I will say a prayer for you!

Depending on your state you can get the full public school curriculum for free and access all extracurriculars. Mine has free 100% cyber school from grade 6 and up.

Join your local homeschool group–there’s loads on facebook. Just look at the fun stuff those kids do!

 

[Lemuel]

I’m always glad to do the right thing!

 

[Lemuel]

You’re welcome. I’m always happy to do the right thing for my kids!

 

[KathleenT]

You realize if all teachers took that attitude, they would be out of a job? That union only goes so far.

 

[KathleenT]

Thank you! I just checked…my state is one of them! Wow, I had no idea!

 

[Lemuel]

You realize if all teachers took that attitude, they would be out of a job? That union only goes so far.

If more public school teachers were out of work, that would be less tax money that needs to be stolen from people who have no use for the public schools.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

Thank you! I just checked…my state is one of them! Wow, I had no idea!

GREAT!

Now “homeschooling” can be a way easier sell. Your children can get the “same” education PLUS you can take them out for all the really neat things that homeschoolers do.

My husband and I were homechooled and I was in an anti-homeschool state. He was in a homeschool friendly one. We were both taught before “cyber school” was a thing. We both did a curriculum, but in his case, the curriculum allowed him to sub out the math and sciences to the local public school. So he got Catholic based reading, english, history, etc but took science labs and advanced math with knowlegable teachers.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

KathleenT:

You realize if all teachers took that attitude, they would be out of a job? That union only goes so far.

If more public school teachers were out of work, that would be less tax money that needs to be stolen from people who have no use for the public schools.

In many states, homeschoolers have a right to attend classes and use all public school facilities as well as do extracurriculars.

Paying for children to be educated is not “stealing tax dollars”. I know of atleast 2 cases of families with SPED kids who are better off in a public school due to the intense amount of help they need. The other children in their families are a mix of Catholic school and homeschool depending on the individual child’s needs.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

It would great if more kids were home schooled. My wife has been an elementary teacher for many, many years. It is so challenging to teach those who want to learn when there are so many other issues impacting the classroom. I find the home schoolers who come to our local library are avid readers and excited learners. The families that I have come in contact with home school for reasons other than religion–actually they are not religious at all.

I posted about this on another thread. The contingent of athiest/non religious homeschoolers is the fastest growing bunch.

 

[Lemuel]

One of the downsides of homeschooling is that it deprives our kids of the social integration they get in public schools. My kids don’t know much about buying and selling drugs, how it feels to smoke weed, what teenage sex is like and how they should love and accept LGBT behavior. Among other things …

 

[Lemuel]

Paying for children to be educated is not “stealing tax dollars”.

Forcing people to pay for a service that they neither want or need is stealing. Just because it is done under the color of law doesn’t make it any less evil.

 

[Lemuel]

The contingent of athiest/non religious homeschoolers is the fastest growing bunch.

Atheism and non-religion is being forced on kids in public schools, anyway.

 

[JetteZ]

Some posters mentioned my concerns in teaching; I’ll try and address that first. One is my kids age range: one is 8 the other 2. I’m not sure how to keep them both occupied and learning when they are at such different developmental stages. To be honest, the “not fair” whining I’m imagining when one is getting time the other isn’t, or the two year old is playing with playdoh while the other has to math, well, it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

My husband and I are fairly well educated. I’m a public accountant and he has his masters in information technology and library science. We share a love of history, reading, and our great at fostering learning and exploring the world around you.

Creating and sticking to a schedule, planning my day, etc… not so much. Spelling and grammar… I was never very good at remember formulas and equations either. So, I think we’d be great at shaping our kids into happy learners but we’d flounder at developing executive function and memorizing specifics.

I think having a curriculum, even if for younger years it was loosely followed, would be something that I’d need to keep us on track. I’m an accountant specializing in taxation: I NEED BOXES TO CHECK!

If we are able to make this move I think his current school would give me information on what they use and I could use it as a starting point to find curriculum. I know they use Fundations for spelling/grammar and he’s done well with it (even in 2nd grade it was Greek to me but he got it).

Regarding the reason to home school/child abilities/view on public school: The 8 year old is very bright and is just a sponge when it comes to natural sciences; but, he has some fine and gross motor skill delays (which is quite normal for bright children per the specialist we were referred to by our pediatrician). We are addressing them through his current Catholic school but it has been a challenge to get services to come in and we (my husband and I) feel our son would be better served if we had the time to work with him more and be present during his therapy to know what to do (right now we both work full-time and then some).

Our 2 year old seems very bright too (she runs verbal circles around her preschool peers) but, she’s two (3 right before Christmas) so I wouldn’t make an assumptions on her intelligence just yet.

The main reason for a move would be so that I wouldn’t have to work as much (or at all); we want more flexibility for our family and we both feel that for home life management I’m the better fit. That’s not to say I’m better at all things; my husband is WAY more naturally tidy than I am and is a much more through cleaner. So, taking my wages out of the picture (although DH would make more money) likely means private school tuition for two wouldn’t be an option any longer. We aren’t opposed to public schools since I’d be more available to be a presence at the school and could supplement as needed. Right now we made the decision for Catholic schools in part because the public school has, repeated, failed to become fully accredited. My husband and I both graduated from public schools that served us very well.