My neighbor stopped by the other day and told me she was having some problems with her child at school and has decided to homeshool. I was very surprised at this statement since she and her husband are constantly asking me questions about the subject and not really acting like they thought it was a great idea for my family. Anyway I proceeded to ask her about the way she wanted to home school. She really had no clue. We talked about purchasing a curriculum, going to the library and getting books, or just even taking a GED test and being done altogether.
We began to discuss the idea of purchasing a curriculum and letting the company keep transcripts. There are so many different places to purchase a great curriculum. I explained that there are many great sites to purchase a wonderful curriculum to name a few there is Seton Home School Study Program, ABeka, Bob Jones University, Kolbe Academy and Calvert. I said we needed to discuss what did her child wanted to do after school was over, for example; to begin college, attend a trade school for one year, or even just begin a job. My neighbor stated her daughter was unsure. I proceeded to tell her that I felt a school that offered you a choice of ways to graduate would be the best route to take. A regular diploma, summa cum laude, or magna cum laude choices would offer the best way to graduate. Any of these choices are easy to accomplish if the student is willing to co-operate.
Next we discussed the company keeping records of her grades as opposed to her mother keeping all the records. My neighbor felt that the company keeping records was definitely the way she wanted to proceed. You see she works full time and would rather not have to worry about all those issues. I agreed since that is exactly what I do with my children.
Her child also spoke to her about just testing out and then taking a GED test to complete high school without having to do complete any other work. I suggested since the child is only sixteen it would be best to complete high school. This I explained was only a suggestion and that she the mother had the final decision. I felt that the child would be better off in the long run with a high school diploma at such a young age then just having a GED. I am not saying that children who have obtained a GED did not go a long way in life with this type of diploma. I am just stating how I feel about this situation; each person has to make that personal choice for themselves.
I will be posting updates on the progress of this conversation and more to come as my neighbor makes her final decision about homeschooling her child.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Let's Get Started!
We find myself ourselves navigating the world wide web in order to find information, but the only problem with that is we are not sure of the heading the we need to type into the search bar. Well that is the same for homeschooling! You have so many questions and sometimes you just don't know where to begin or even how to ask the right questions. It is not that complecated really! So let's begin with the basic question that you may be asking yourself, are you sure you want to homeschool and what are your reasons behind wanting to take on this task? There are many different answers to this question and I hope that I can give you some answers.
First of all my husband and I agreed on homeschooling since the cost of private schools for elementary school was so high. So we thought we would try homeschooling for one year and that if it didn't work out oh well we would pay the money and send our daughter to private school. Well, eleven years later here we are, and we still have not regretted homeschooling her one day! Second question, the reason behind homeschooling was the cost of private school, but more than that it was what the school environment was going to be teaching our children. The fact that going into kindergarten she already knew the material being taught was another reason, so why pay for something that she already knowns. To let our child sit in a classroom not learning anything else new, no way!
So we began our adventure, yes I call it an adventure because there have been days where I have learned more than I have taught. We did not own a computer so there were no web searches for me, the good old library is where I did my reasearch making phone calls, asking for catalogs, brochures and anything else I could find on the subject. I learned many things, not only about different styles of homeschooling but also many differnt curriculum's that were available to purchase. I also learned that many people never even purchase a curriculum they just go to their local libraries to obtain all their books, for teaching, studying, and research. We could have done that also, but where we lived at the time in Ohio we were required to report to the city superintendent's office to ask permission to homeschool our children. So we decided to purchase a curriculum and that way we were safe in teaching what the state also required. I also joined the organization Home School Legal Defense League (aka HSLDA), in order to be safe guarded in case we had any legal issues they would provide an attorney for me at not additional costs. The fee to join the group was one hundred dollars and the curriculum we purchased offered a discount if you joined the HSLDA group. Great so we were covered on all angles, if we needed an attorney we were covered, the superintendent was satisfied we were teaching the norm, we had transcripts, and we began our journey.
It seems so easy, well some things were easy and others not so easy. For example, what if your spouse does not agree with you homeschooling, what if family members thought you were nuts for doing something like this, what curriculum do we choose and how do the kids socialize? All of these questions needed to be answered and yes we found answers to all these questions and more! But for right now just think about homeschooling and what is in the best interest for your family, your child, and those that are around your family. Will this help you family draw closer to each other or make thing more stressful? You need to ask yourself these questions, no on can answer those questions for you, but one thing is for sure, homeschooling only works if you have both parents involved and on the same page. So please don't make any decisions without some type of support, you will need it later on down the road. So for now look over some different things in your life and see where your children are at in learning, if you need to pull them out of school then do so, don't let anyone tell you can't homeschool, because I am here to tell you that You 2 Can Homeschool!!!!
First of all my husband and I agreed on homeschooling since the cost of private schools for elementary school was so high. So we thought we would try homeschooling for one year and that if it didn't work out oh well we would pay the money and send our daughter to private school. Well, eleven years later here we are, and we still have not regretted homeschooling her one day! Second question, the reason behind homeschooling was the cost of private school, but more than that it was what the school environment was going to be teaching our children. The fact that going into kindergarten she already knew the material being taught was another reason, so why pay for something that she already knowns. To let our child sit in a classroom not learning anything else new, no way!
So we began our adventure, yes I call it an adventure because there have been days where I have learned more than I have taught. We did not own a computer so there were no web searches for me, the good old library is where I did my reasearch making phone calls, asking for catalogs, brochures and anything else I could find on the subject. I learned many things, not only about different styles of homeschooling but also many differnt curriculum's that were available to purchase. I also learned that many people never even purchase a curriculum they just go to their local libraries to obtain all their books, for teaching, studying, and research. We could have done that also, but where we lived at the time in Ohio we were required to report to the city superintendent's office to ask permission to homeschool our children. So we decided to purchase a curriculum and that way we were safe in teaching what the state also required. I also joined the organization Home School Legal Defense League (aka HSLDA), in order to be safe guarded in case we had any legal issues they would provide an attorney for me at not additional costs. The fee to join the group was one hundred dollars and the curriculum we purchased offered a discount if you joined the HSLDA group. Great so we were covered on all angles, if we needed an attorney we were covered, the superintendent was satisfied we were teaching the norm, we had transcripts, and we began our journey.
It seems so easy, well some things were easy and others not so easy. For example, what if your spouse does not agree with you homeschooling, what if family members thought you were nuts for doing something like this, what curriculum do we choose and how do the kids socialize? All of these questions needed to be answered and yes we found answers to all these questions and more! But for right now just think about homeschooling and what is in the best interest for your family, your child, and those that are around your family. Will this help you family draw closer to each other or make thing more stressful? You need to ask yourself these questions, no on can answer those questions for you, but one thing is for sure, homeschooling only works if you have both parents involved and on the same page. So please don't make any decisions without some type of support, you will need it later on down the road. So for now look over some different things in your life and see where your children are at in learning, if you need to pull them out of school then do so, don't let anyone tell you can't homeschool, because I am here to tell you that You 2 Can Homeschool!!!!
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