*** Homeschool List ***

[disneyfanfamily]

I am sorry that I caused some disagreements with saying that my DH would not allow me to HS. DH and I have an agreement. We both discuss issues and we BOTH have input on things. But there are certain things that we feels strongly about and certain things that I feels strongly about, so that is that. He feels strongly about our kids not being homeschooled. I would like to have the option to look into it, but I know he feels so strongly about it, so I have not done research or anything. Therefore, it is not a battle I choose to fight. If I did feel extremely strong about HS, then I would approach my DH and I am sure that he would be fine discussing it. But they are his children too. I am not going to HS my kids when my DH is terribly against it.

There are other issues that he knows how I feel, and he respects that. I guess I am the old fashion type. We ask each other if we can do certain things...such as he will ask me if he can go golfing with his buddies, or I ask him if I can go shopping with the girls. I guess we ask out of respect for each other.

Really the only thing he has put his foot down on is homeschooling (and I have not tried much to change his mind). But I have put my foot down with him about getting a motorcycle. I said no....but I did tell him he could get one after the house is paid off.

Sorry to cause this issue....By the way, my DH is not opposed at all to other parents homeschooling. He respects it and thinks it is a great thing for some families. We have quite a few friends who HS and my sister does also. But he does not want that for his kids....but, he has even said that if the kids fall behind enough that it may look like they may not pass, he definitely would consider HS. But they are doing well in school...

Sorry if I represented myself or DH wrong. My main reason for even posting on the HS thread was to give my support to you all. I think it is great what you all are doing.

 

[noodleknitter]

no worries! I understand. Our family is similar. My husband would never do something I was adamently against, nor would I disrespect him in that manner. My theory is it takes two to make a good marriage, and if we let that fall apart we've devestated not only our lives but our childrens' also.

Have a great day!

 

[Denine]

We have been HS for 3 weeks now and doing well. We are leaving on Thursday for 16 days in Disney and since we have been doubling up on lessons we will be right on track when we get home.

Of course, we are only doing pre-k, but the structure has been a transtition for DD.

 

[noodleknitter]

We are 8 weeks into it, and have the October doldrums! Sent one kid up to grandma, and am switching them today! (They are helping get the sailboat winter ready!) Willl make another trade on Saturday! Granma's is a great reward for work well done!

 

[disneymom3]

Oh, vhoffman--I just read your post today about the picture your DS drew. That just breaks my heart. Poor little guy. I would suggest playing some games once he comes home instead of regular book schooling. If you do an internet search on games to learn math or something similar you will get a lot of results. There are also some books out there and the author is elluding me right now, but the title is Games for Math and another one called Games for Reading. THey have some great stuff in there. A friend of mine does not use a math curriculum at all until at least the 4th grade level, she just does that book with her kids.

I know you said you had the isbn's of the books from school, but really I would rethink that. For him those are going to have failure associated with them and I would be concerned he would already be convinced that he is not capable of doing it. You could even just go to the book store adn get some workbooks at his ability level. That would keep him working in an order, but be something fresh and new.

sha-lyn--great post about the "socialization." I don't even bother getting into the whole discussion with people anymore. It is such a waste as I don't agree with their concept of how beneficial the "socialization" is at school and the only way I can get my point across is to insult the choice that they think is right for their child. I know I shared on here about the mom we met at the park who raved about how friendly and nice my 6 yo was and then said she would worry about S if she homeschooled.

disneyfanfamily--I totally get what you are saying. If DH was totally against homeschooling I wouldn't do it either. Of course at this point I feel so strongly about it that I am pretty sure our discussion would lead him to agree with me instead of vice versa but when I first started looking into it, if he had said he really didnt' like the idea I would have dropped it. As it was, he was pushing the idea before I was ready to accept it.

For the poster who asked how we decided--basically DD went to Kind, in the ps and I just kept feeling like there had to be something more....something better that we were missing. Through some unexpected circumstances, I ended up looking into hsing and realized it was the best academic choice for DD. I wasn't worried about the social choices as there were some kids in her K class that I personally didnt' think ANY other Kers should have to deal with on a daily basis and I knew of three other families already that were homeschooling so we decided to start our own little weekly gathering. Interestingly, I thought God led us to homeschooling because DD is such a fast learner and she was bored out of her mind in the ps. Now with DS coming up to first grade and struggling with traditional methods of teaching reading I realize that he is the one who needs this the most. DD would have been fine. She would be one of those kids who was bored adn got things done easily and early but she would have coped. DS on the other hand would be labeled a behavior problem because he simply does NOT sit still and he would probably be in remedial something or other because at 6.5 he is just getting how to blend sounds into words.

We continue to homeschool because we are just having too darn much fun! We are also beyond spoiled by the freedom of it. And hey, I am learning more about history and science than I EVER learned in school!

 

[vhoffman]

We just completed ds first week of homeschooling. Its a relief for me and him not to have to deal with the school. I know I said I was going to buy the same books the school used, but I came to the same conclusion another poster had--those books had bad memories for him. Let's make this a fresh start. I've been using a variety of materials, including workbooks, various reading books, etc. Its a learn-as-you-go process.

I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with my dd's school experience. She's also in 4th grade. Seems every night she has at least 2-3 hours of homework. I wonder what they're doing at school all day? Just tonight we had spelling, math, reading, and a project that's mostly busy work involving making a poster about reptiles. What makes the school assume I'm even available/willing/able to plod through all that? What if I worked and didn't get home until 6 pm like many of my friends around here? Honestly, I'm doing all the teaching. Just tonight she had an assignment that was to write a paragraph comparing and contrasting various animals. Well, she didn't understand the concept of compare and contrast! Didn't the teacher even go over the assignment in class? Seems she just said to read the chapter and do the questions at the end. She never bothered to read what she was assigning. My pet peeve with any school is that they emphasize the art-and-crafts so much. Everything comes down to cutting up paper, making posters, drawing pictures, etc. Come on! Can't they think of something more age-appropriate for a 9 year old kid than to color and cut up paper all day? Then they send home the reading, spelling, math for me to teach them! I'm seriously considering taking dd out and homeschooling her, too. Let me hit my stride with ds first. If dd stays in school she never will learn anything but coloring and drawing!

 

[fromscratchmom]

I'm relatively new to disboards, so just saw this thread for the first time. Hope it is ok for me to join in! I'll have to go back and skim through more of this thread. Has there been progress on getting a regular section for homeschoolers?

I'm in my 5th year homeschooling. I'm no longer homeschooling my fifteen year old son in the same way. He is learning from home with a public cyber school. And I am homeschooling my daughters ages 6 and almost 9 in the hardcore make-all-the-decisions-do-all-the-work way. More and more every year I think homeschooling is the bomb and I'm getting more and more sort of anti-public school. I realize it is just based on my own experience and is not necessarily representative of all public school situations, but I'd love to convince everyone I know that they can homeschool. It is not nearly as hard as we all thought it would be back when we were afraid of taking the plunge and just doing it! And the benefits to our family are so much more than we could have hoped for.

But I also recognize that each family needs to make the best decision for themselves and it will not be the same for all. So, I say more school choice, more school choice, more school choice. What can our leaders be thinking to not be advancing that more than they have already? What can be a more natural priority for a "free country" than to allow people to make the best decisions they can make to educate their children, rather than telling them, "big brother says education must happen such and such way?"

 

[learnhome]

I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with my dd's school experience. She's also in 4th grade. Seems every night she has at least 2-3 hours of homework. I wonder what they're doing at school all day?

HA! I often wonder that every day MYSELF?? I had homeschooled all three of my children for over 5 years. Just this year, my two youngest went to school for the first time. First and third grade. I have had a great experience with our public school, so I cannot complain about that. And, my children are doing wonderful (of course, they have never been in school before, so they just have a love for learning.....which shows!! I get compliments on them every day, and my son made student of the month! The school had nothing to do with that! HOmeschooling is what taught my children the love for learning, and respect, etc....)....I had to send them to school due to a change in circumstance....however, my oldest is still happily homeschooled!!

Anyway, my two come home with MORE homework then I did HOMESCHOOL WORK with them I think: how do OTHER parents, who both work full time, have their kids in all kinds of after school sports and activities manage to get this all done??? NO WONDER the children are exhausted and burnt out by high school!!!!

Good luck on your new journey to homeschooling!!! I know you will LOVE IT! And, yes, any parent can homeschool! Remember, you have ALWAYS been your children's first "teacher"......

Chrissy

 

[sha_lyn]

Just tonight she had an assignment that was to write a paragraph comparing and contrasting various animals. Well, she didn't understand the concept of compare and contrast! Didn't the teacher even go over the assignment in class? Seems she just said to read the chapter and do the questions at the end. She never bothered to read what she was assigning

That is one of the reason we started HS'ing in the first place. DS would bring home 4-5 worth of homework a night and have no idea how to do the work. I would ask him what they did in class, and most of the time it seemed the 2 coaches combined their classes and spent the time talking about their GA/GA tech rivalry.

 

[Denine]

DD had a hard time concentrating in school today. She is just too excited about leaving tomorrow.

Just reading about others' experiences with PS makes me hope I can continue HS for as long as possible. I don't want to spend all that time doing homework with her when she should have been learning something in school all day.

I hope we all can continue to HS successfully.

 

[noodleknitter]

You are a slave driver, making that poor kid do school work the day before disney! Go finish packing, put in the travel video and have fun...

Totally jealous of your trip! Have an awesome time!

HSing through the years has been one of the greatest blessings in my life, and thus far the kids agree.

 

[momto2girls]

I'm relatively new to disboards, so just saw this thread for the first time. Hope it is ok for me to join in! I'll have to go back and skim through more of this thread. Has there been progress on getting a regular section for homeschoolers?

I'm in my 5th year homeschooling. I'm no longer homeschooling my fifteen year old son in the same way. He is learning from home with a public cyber school. And I am homeschooling my daughters ages 6 and almost 9 in the hardcore make-all-the-decisions-do-all-the-work way. More and more every year I think homeschooling is the bomb and I'm getting more and more sort of anti-public school. I realize it is just based on my own experience and is not necessarily representative of all public school situations, but I'd love to convince everyone I know that they can homeschool. It is not nearly as hard as we all thought it would be back when we were afraid of taking the plunge and just doing it! And the benefits to our family are so much more than we could have hoped for.

But I also recognize that each family needs to make the best decision for themselves and it will not be the same for all. So, I say more school choice, more school choice, more school choice. What can our leaders be thinking to not be advancing that more than they have already? What can be a more natural priority for a "free country" than to allow people to make the best decisions they can make to educate their children, rather than telling them, "big brother says education must happen such and such way?"

I totally agree with your whole post!

 

[disneymom3]

. So, I say more school choice, more school choice, more school choice. What can our leaders be thinking to not be advancing that more than they have already? What can be a more natural priority for a "free country" than to allow people to make the best decisions they can make to educate their children, rather than telling them, "big brother says education must happen such and such way?"

I just love this part of your post! I so agree with you. Not to mention the financial impact we homeschoolers have on the already overburdened public school system. We are saving them millions of dollars a year! I am always baffled by other parents who think that homeschoolers need more regulation. Why? I don't feel the need to police that you spend every waking moment at the hockey arena, (or whatever you fill your life with)why do you care what I do with my kids?( You clearly being general here.)

 

[sha_lyn]

I know the conversation about HSLDA was a few pages back, but I ran across this set of links. Just a few of the many reasons I'm against them

Home Education Magazine: Let's Not Link Homeschooling to Partisan Politcs

The Ravage of Home Education through Exclusion by Relgion

Homeschooling Freedoms at Risk

HSLDA: What are you buying?

HSLDA and Michael Farris' involvement in the Seelhoff Vs Welch Antitrust Suit

 

[emh1129]

We continue to homeschool because we are just having too darn much fun! We are also beyond spoiled by the freedom of it. And hey, I am learning more about history and science than I EVER learned in school!

This made me

I am really looking forward to HSing next year. I think it will be SO much fun. I just have to keep telling myself that I CAN do it and I will be able to figure it all out

My ds would also be labeled as a behavior problem. I have no doubt about that. He has SO much trouble sitting still for periods of time (unless he's playing with his wooden trains! ) so I think it's just going to be more challenging to find things to interest him, but if anyone can do it, I can

 

[fromscratchmom]

Since y'all discussed it a few pages back already, I'll just post once to sort of cast my vote, after seeing it mentioned once since I joined the thread. I love homeschooling and I am forever greatful for the awesome support we have gotten (and personally benefitted from) from HSLDA. They are the single best group I have any knowlege of for working for freedom for Americans. I'm pretty interested in politics and always looking at news about conservative ideals versus liberal ideals and what is really going on in American politics. And I have never seen a compelling argument against HSLDA. I've seen many that for my person thinking were flawed arguments in one way or another.

For my personal decision I would sooner donate extra money to HSLDA and their work than to either of the major American political parties. In fact I just never would give money to either party.

That is not to say that I agree with every single thing that has ever happened at HSLDA, it is made up of humans, after all. But, for the most part, they are pretty great people and doing a great job!

 

[Belle5]

Since y'all discussed it a few pages back already, I'll just post once to sort of cast my vote, after seeing it mentioned once since I joined the thread. I love homeschooling and I am forever greatful for the awesome support we have gotten (and personally benefitted from) from HSLDA. They are the single best group I have any knowlege of for working for freedom for Americans. I'm pretty interested in politics and always looking at news about conservative ideals versus liberal ideals and what is really going on in American politics. And I have never seen a compelling argument against HSLDA. I've seen many that for my person thinking were flawed arguments in one way or another.

For my personal decision I would sooner donate extra money to HSLDA and their work than to either of the major American political parties. In fact I just never would give money to either party.

That is not to say that I agree with every single thing that has ever happened at HSLDA, it is made up of humans, after all. But, for the most part, they are pretty great people and doing a great job!

what she said! I too admire HSDLA so much! They have worked tirelessly to keep homeschooling legal for us!

 

[loribell]

Hi everyone. I hope you all are having a great day. I am having a really hard time deciding what to do about homeschooling my DD, soon to be 8. She is in the second grade and is a very bright child, she was on a fifth grade reading level by the end of first grade. The problem is that she is, for the most part, hating school this year.

First she is not a morning person and I thought that was the majority of the problem. Last night however as we went to bed she cried for a good 45 minutes about not having any friends, about those that she does play with occasionally are mean to her and are always yelling at her. She said that one girl in particular follows her around and is mean to her. Her teacher just happened to move this girl to set by Ally just this week and is constantly bothering her in class and she isn't able to get her work done so she has to stay in for recess.

She asked last night if I would home school her and I told her I would check in to it. She then asked if she would still be able to go to school some so she could be with her teacher. She likes being able to go to speech, has just a little bit of a problem with her S's. She loves her teacher.

I just don't know what to do. She is home today and I have found a site that I have been able to prinbt some pretty good stuff off of and she is having a blast doing this work.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks so much,
Lori

 

[Ellester]

Hi Loribell! Sorry your daughter is having trouble with school. We pulled our daughter out of public school after the first grade. She was simply getting bored and I didn't see any remedy for it in the upcoming grades. This is her second year at home (along with her sister who started kindergarten this year and her 2yo brother), we've had some bumps but overall we love it! My suggestion to you would be to google some local homeschooling support groups. You may be able to get together with some local homeschoolers just to talk and see what they are doing. You can also try www.hslda.org for info and lots of links (even if you don't agree with them, there is good info on their site). You will need to find out what the requirements are in Oklahoma. She may be able to continue speech with the same teacher while homeschooling, but maybe not. There are tons of books about homeschooling out there as well, you could see what they have at your library and checkout any that look interesting. I'm sure most of us on this thread would be happy to answer any specific questions and give you lots of moral support! Good luck!

~Ellen

 

[fromscratchmom]

She is in the second grade and is a very bright child...The problem is that she is, for the most part, hating school this year.

I had that problem as a child and my first son who used to go to public school had that problem. Homeschooling may not be a cure all, but it does tend to help children become or remain lovers of learning.

First she is not a morning person...Last night however as we went to bed she cried for a good 45 minutes about not having any friends...and she isn't able to get her work done so she has to stay in for recess.

I rarely mention the morning start time as an issue where homeschooling gives an advantage over institutional schools, but I believe that it does. My mom has always claimed that the public schools ought to not start before 9am, even for the highschools. She sights her own public school experiences when her school district went to half days for a year because of over-crowding and says that it was the best year of her whole school career. She was healthier and happier and did better in school, going to the afternoon sessions. I love it that I don't have to wake my kids up before 7:30 and if one of them seems to be fighting off a cold or flu or something, I let that one sleep in until he naturally wakes up. This has been so incredibly beneficial to my relationship with my son since I took him out of the public schools, that I can't begin to put into words just how great it is.

As for having a difficult time with another child. I'm sure that must be hurting her and also hurting you as a parent to see her go through it. Once again homeschooling is not a cure all, but I've found that the small group interactions that my kids participate in are generally far superior to the public school atmostphere for having a positive and beneficial social life. And I love the pro-homeschooling stories you can see in homeschooling magazines and email lists that give all the reasoning behind the belief that many homeschoolers have that their kids are better off on the socialization issue.

She asked last night if I would home school her and I told her I would check in to it. She then asked if she would still be able to go to school some so she could be with her teacher. She likes being able to go to speech, has just a little bit of a problem with her S's. She loves her teacher.

As pro-homeschooling as I like to be, I'd encourage you to limit how much weight you give to this as a factor. Some kids want homeschooling and some want public schooling and many want both, just at different times in their lives depending on what is going on at school and at home (and their personalities etc.). You may find that once you start homeschooling her that she sometimes asks to go back to public school. You just never know. Of my three kids, 2 of them are pretty much always happy that they are homeschooled and 1 of them goes back and forth. She has never been to public school and has a very romanticized view of it from seeing it on television and knowing that a couple of her friends go there. But occasionally one of her friends will say something negative and then she is temporarily glad that she doesn't have to go.

Hope this helps. All the best to you in working through it and making a decision!