Schools... Private, Home or Public?

[MiniGirl]

Do parents provide all of the funding for home schooling? If we did go that route, I would definitely want to put DD into certain activities that I wouldn't be able to teach her such as learning a foreign language, dance, music and gymnastics. Does the State provide any funding for things like that since we are paying school taxes but not actually using the public school? Or do we as parents have to pay out of pocket for things like that?

Also, how do you teach them if you're not trained to be a teacher? Do you just follow workbooks or a certain curriculum? I did well in school but have not had any experience teaching children and I don't want to be the reason my kids fall behind in any way.

Believe me, you can spend a lot of money homeschooling your children, but you don't HAVE to -- especially in the earlier years. There are many free websites and there are also many ways to get used curriculum. In the early years though, a good set of manipulatives (which can be just about anything), access to lots of books (library), and pencils, paper, crayons, etc, are really the only supplies you need.

As far as teaching her goes.... I would be willing to bet you are teaching her things now. Her numbers, letters, colors, etc. Well, you just kind of keep doing the same thing. As they need more, you will go deeper. For example, first you teach your children to recognize and name letters. Once she is doing that you start teaching sounds and finally putting them together into words. You will learn how she best learns and will be able to teach her in that way.

Homeschooling is not for everyone, but it is a wonderful choice for many of us. It can be tough at times, and I do sometimes miss my "me" time. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world though.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

I voted public, but only on the premise that you move to a school district you like. This is what I plan on doing. I lived in a wonderful school district growing up until the 5th grade. I moved to one that didn't even have a high enough math class for me to be in (when in my old school, it was a big class at the same level) and I had to be in 6th grade math (a lot of repeated stuff), and do it again the next year, when I was in the 6th grade.

With that said, I will do anything in my power to send my kids to either a good public school system or private school.

 

[smb6]

Well, there is certainly no right or wrong answer..... But I will say that while public school is certainly not perfect, my 5 children are doing well in it and I will keep them in it until that changes. I can't really afford private school and do not feel qualified to homeschool. I am happy with our public schools and will keep them there unless something changes in the future.... I like to stay open to change if needed....

 

[mamacatnv]

What is a Charter school? It's free? How is it different from Public school?.

I'm not an expert on what they are. My DD attends a local Charter and we are thrilled, I mean totally thrilled. Our school is ranked "High Achieving" there are only 2 elems, and no middle or high schools in our district with that kind of ranking. Our school is heavy on math and sciences, its awesome. The school is fully accredited and well known here in N. Nevada. It started out 10 years ago as a middle school 7th/8th grade and has now expanded and covers K-12 with 2 campus's, one for the elem and the other the mid/high school. They are currently looking for a 3rd campus to move the high school to.

We have a lot of competitive clubs:
Lego Robotics, Future/Sim City, Science Olympiads etc.
We don't have organized sports, we are not big enough.
We are headed to Las Vegas (8 hours away) for the Future City regional competition next month.
Our goal: Beat the Homeschoolers! they are our biggest competition.
Kids must try out to be in most of these clubs, not all kids make it and that is just the way it is.

Here is what I do know:
We are a public school and do receive funding from the state.
The school is autonomous and can spend the funding anyway they choose.
They are still accountable via standardized tests etc.
Our teachers receive the same benefits of the other teachers in our district but openings at our school are rare and highly sought after. Our percentage of "qualified in their subject" teachers far surpasses our district average.
Enrollment is open to all kids but there is a process and then there are academic requirements that must be met in order to stay enrolled.
Behavior problems are not tolerated.
We must provide all transportation to/from school as well as field trips
Class sizes thru 5th grade were capped at 18
I pay $150 per semester for DD to attend.
I also must purchase uniforms.
All books and most supplies are provided
our technology is state of the art
Security is top notch, the entire school has surveilance

We have to maintain our school, the District has nothing to do with the property or what we do. We recently put in shade structures. The parents dug the holes, the parents did all the work etc. there was no having to go through the district etc. which is soooo dang costly. Parents paint, parents plumb etc. everything has permits etc. its not like it is done half way but its done by us not the corporate giant of waste that is our local school district.


My DD is challenged at every turn, she is expected to excel, the kids are taught that competition is good and there is lots of academic competition and an extensive reward system.

The staff is dedicated and love what they do. Even in 5th grade my DD had 2 teachers. The school assessed the talents of the kids in 4th and 5th grade and then paired them up with the teachers with the best suited strengths.
Example, DD's Home room teacher was really strong in Science and Math so she had all the top science/math kids and that is all she taught. She had the 5th grade in the morning and the 4th grade in the afternoon. Meanwhile one of the 4th grade teachers was really strong in reading/language so she taught those subjects exclusively to the 2 grades. The result was that DD got the best the school had for each subject she was taught.
This has continued into the middle school where DD is now.

I agree with all others that every single household has different needs.

Both my kids went to private all day K
DS then went public all the way through high school and is now a Jr. in college. I will say he was not as prepared for college as we would have liked and I know a lot of that had to do with the overall fair quality of his public school education. However, the majority of the private schools here are religious based and not any better and often are worse than our public schools.
Private does not automatically mean good. Know what you are signing up for.

DD went public through 3rd grade, same school her brother went to but what a difference 10 years made. By the time she got to the 3rd grade the school was failing miserably, all the staff that was around when DS went were gone. In a nutshell the school sucked so we started looking for alternatives. We found our charter and put DD into the enrollment lottery for 4th grade. She got a spot and this is where she will stay until at least 8th grade.
I would like her to stay through high school but she is not into athletics so that opens the door for us to variance her to high schools other than what we are zoned for.

Only time will tell. She loves the middle school and I am thinking this might be where she stays until she finishes high school. This school averages 16 graduating Sr's a year and they all went on to 4 year colleges. It has impressive statistics.

Warning, not all charters are created equal, some even here in my area have become the place for the problem children, and even worse the problem children with the problem (oh not my child!) parents. Like private, do your research and know what you are getting into.

Good luck, its a never ending decision process this whole being a parent thing!

 

[Sorsha]

I chose public school because I believe in it, and because personally my experiences with it have been wonderful. My children have done very well, and have had wonderful opportunities. They have had (mostly) good teachers and enjoy going to school each day.

On the other hand, our one experience with sending our kids to a private school, many years ago; a small religious school, was a literal disaster.

Now mind you, back in the dark ages, before I had children, I worked for a Montessori school, and I loved it. I think it is one of the best methods of education out there, and I saw children absolutly thrive in it. I would love to send my kids to a Montessori school, and would do so in a heartbeat, if it weren't so cursed expensive. I just could never afford it.

Homeschooling, I would never recommend to anyone. No offense to anyone who does it, I am sure it can work out very well for some, but I have seen it go too wrong too often. We used to attend an extremely conservative church (see afore-mentioned reference to small private religious school) that was big on homeschooling... if you weren't keeping your kids seperate from the Big Bad Secular World by putting them in the Church-Approved school then you had darn well better home-school them and Keep Them Safe. Hence I grew up with a generation of kids who were so incredibly sheltered that they never went out, never did anything, never watched TV, never read from any books that weren't Bibles or Bible-based, never learned any music that wasn't church hymns, never associated with anyone who wasn't a church-member, never dated, never did ANYTHING. Then all of a sudden, one day, they were an ADULT. And there was a WORLD out there, and they had no idea how to exist in it. It was really really sad. My only advice to those who choose to homeschool is make sure you teach you kids how exist in the real world - socialize them by having them join 4H or Scouts or take them to Gymnastics classes or swim lessons. Join homeschool clubs and sports groups... let them go to camp and go out with friends to the movies... etc... just make sure they have all the advantages of their counterparts so adulthood doesn't sneak up on them when they aren't expecting it.

Ok... sorry... off my soap box now ... can you tell I had several teen friends who had been homeschooled this way go crazy and get on drugs, get pregnant, run away, etc when they realized there was more to life than Bible verses and sewing lessons?? I am sure most homeschoolers don't do things this way... this is just my knee-jerk reaction because of how I was raised.

 

[tvguy]

We didn't intend to send our kids to private school, but the child care we used also had a private school attached, so we tried it.
Never really knew if we were throwing away the tuition money, it took 25% of our take home pay, more than our house and car payments combined.

Then our kids hit college, and both said they were astonished how far behind their college classmates were that came from the public school systems.

I think the most interesting thing I saw was a stat about the incoming Freshman class for the fall of 2009 in the California State University system. They had:
1) The highest average GPA in CSU history.
2) The highest average SAT scores
3) The highest rate of failure on english and math entrance exams, which translates to the highest percentage of students needing to take remedial math and english classes so they were prepared.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Homeschooling, I would never recommend to anyone. No offense to anyone who does it, I am sure it can work out very well for some, but I have seen it go too wrong too often. We used to attend an extremely conservative church (see afore-mentioned reference to small private religious school) that was big on homeschooling... if you weren't keeping your kids seperate from the Big Bad Secular World by putting them in the Church-Approved school then you had darn well better home-school them and Keep Them Safe. Hence I grew up with a generation of kids who were so incredibly sheltered that they never went out, never did anything, never watched TV, never read from any books that weren't Bibles or Bible-based, never learned any music that wasn't church hymns, never associated with anyone who wasn't a church-member, never dated, never did ANYTHING. Then all of a sudden, one day, they were an ADULT. And there was a WORLD out there, and they had no idea how to exist in it. It was really really sad. My only advice to those who choose to homeschool is make sure you teach you kids how exist in the real world - socialize them by having them join 4H or Scouts or take them to Gymnastics classes or swim lessons. Join homeschool clubs and sports groups... let them go to camp and go out with friends to the movies... etc... just make sure they have all the advantages of their counterparts so adulthood doesn't sneak up on them when they aren't expecting it.

Please do not lump all homeschoolers together and think that all homeschoolers are like this. Not all homeschoolers shelter their kids. I think it's the parenting, rather than the type of education a child has, that can shelter a child too much. Helicopter parents exist in homeschools, public schools, and private schools.

There are plenty of homeschoolers who get out into the real, secular world and do a variety of acitivites with non-homeschooled kids, go to the movies with friends, watch TV, go to camp, have an i-pod with the latest music plugged into their ear, etc.

 

[scrapquitler]

can you tell I had several teen friends who had been homeschooled this way go crazy and get on drugs, get pregnant, run away, etc when they realized there was more to life than Bible verses and sewing lessons?? I am sure most homeschoolers don't do things this way... this is just my knee-jerk reaction because of how I was raised.

Well sure. But I also know many kids who went to private school who went crazy, did drugs and got pregnant or ran away. I also know people who went to public school who did the above things. No one way is perfect and guarantees that your children won't have issues later in life.

I think the problem you had with those homeschoolers you knew from that super conservative church was that they were in a super conservative church. We homeschool, and guess what? There are no bible verses in our homeschool lessons (most homeschoolers aren't homeschooling for religous reasons, at least not in my area), and my kids are more socialized than most kids that go to private or public schools...mostly because they are rarely AT home. they are out at gymnastics, dance, volunteering, playing at the park, visting their friends, exploring museums, etc etc etc.

The schooling and education one gets is a matter of what they make of it. There are kids who succeed even in poorly rated schools, and at the same time, there are kids who fail even in top rated schools. Some of those kids in good schools will be poorly socialized, some won't. No guarantees....

 

[ENSOCK]

For us the public school system is out. I would have to move to another parish completely to get them into a good school system. We do private now and love it. The classes are small and it is a good school. Most of the kids there go to collage whereas in the public system most do not. The Catholic school here is not a good school. There was bullying and other issues mostly they look at your last name and base the discpline and grades on that instead of treating everyone the same.

The only drawback is that it is expensive. I pay $7500 per school year for 2 kids but that is cheap compared to the other schools around. My DSIL pays that for 1 child at a different school.

Good luck on your decision.

 

[Sorsha]

Please do not lump all homeschoolers together and think that all homeschoolers are like this. Not all homeschoolers shelter their kids. I think it's the parenting, rather than the type of education a child has, that can shelter a child too much. Helicopter parents exist in homeschools, public schools, and private schools.

Well sure. But I also know many kids who went to private school who went crazy, did drugs and got pregnant or ran away. I also know people who went to public school who did the above things. No one way is perfect and guarantees that your children won't have issues later in life.

I think the problem you had with those homeschoolers you knew from that super conservative church was that they were in a super conservative church.

The schooling and education one gets is a matter of what they make of it. There are kids who succeed even in poorly rated schools, and at the same time, there are kids who fail even in top rated schools. Some of those kids in good schools will be poorly socialized, some won't. No guarantees....

You are both absolutly correct. No worries! I know that I have a tendency to look rather unfairly on homeschooling, and I can't help it. I also know, reasonably, that it can be done well, and that most parents DO do it well. That why I said, as I posted; "this is just my knee-jerk reaction because of how I was raised." No worries.

However I cannot help the fact that I was raised that way, and I also cannot help the fact that I still live in an area where most people who homeschool still DO do so either for religious reasons or for anti-government reasons. Fact of life in l'il old backwoods Montana.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We chose homeschool b/c we couldn't afford private school for our budget. I wanted religion as part of their curriculum and all the extras that I'd have to work with them anyway if I wanted to incorporate it, the time involved would allow me to just fully teach them instead.d

We love the flexibility of homeschooling and I get to choose their curriculum that best suits my kids vs a curriculum that had to be selected to suit the needs of hundreds/thousands of children.

I am not anti-traditional schooling though.

Pros of public/private school...

*Kids for the most part will do well as long as you stay on top of things
*You get free time to pursue your own interests be it some type of or hobby.
*Kids can get lots of friends. While my kids have friends, we have to actively work at it, where at traditional school--there are lots of kids to be friends with on a daily basis.

Cons
*inflexible scheduling--you are at the mercy of the school to plan your life when it comes to vacations, doctors/dentists appointments at such. Even if the absences are excused, your child misses out. In homeschool, we just stop lessons, do our appointment, come back and pick up where we left off.

*homework--you aren't let off easy just b/c kids are in school all day. You still have to manage them when they come home. (not helicopter, but guide them towards good study/homework habits). This means that even though you don't homeschool, you are still involved in their education (which in and of itself is a positive thing).

*standardized testing--if you happen to be in a teach to the test district, well, that comes at the expense of tabling regular lessons to learn how to take the test. Common complaint by teachers that I knew as well as students in Florida. Nope, sorry--we can't do XYZ, we have to practice FCAT questions so we can boost our test scores. To me--that is NOT an education. But I understand the need with familiarizing students with the format of the exam so that they don't do poorly simply due to format.

*Activities--your children's activities will have to be limited due to the obvious reason that they are in school all day. My children can do more b/c they don't spend 8 hours in a classroom. So that is a bit freeing. If they were in traditional school, we'd have to cut back. Not a bad thing to cut back, but something to consider since activities for a traditional student would come at the expense of family time.


In the end, you do what is right for you. Researching is a good start. If you want some really good feedback on homeschooling, I would limit yourself to those who have seriously considered it even if they decided to not do it versus people that have known bad homeschoolers and wish to paint the whole notion of homeschooling as a big mistake. Especially important when you list 2'cons' that are HUGE misconceptions about homeschooling. You kids can and will be socialized once you begin networking with local homeschoolers and you can at least manage your child's education through senior year even if you personally aren't teaching her Trig, British Literature, Chemistry, etc. There is a nationwide network of resources to accomplish those things.

Additionally, if you are fortunate to live in a state that allows dual enrollment, our child can take those courses as a dually enrolled student at a local community college. That was my plan until we moved to Virginia where that privilege isn't free.

For public/private, ask your friends whose children are in those situations what is good and bad for their experiences. I really feel your decision should be based on what is available to you. You may live in the most wonderful school district in the United States for all you know and might be missing out on some opportunities. Look at your county website and see what is available.

Best of luck with your decision.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I apologize, I do have an incomplete sentence in the above post and a misused word and my dang computer won't let me edit it.

 

[shortbun]

I'm not voting because I'm a big public school fan who is becoming disenchanted with our school system. Not enough money, teachers are bad, children are bad, administrations are politicians with political speak. My son's Humanities class has been watching movies instead of reading real books. They actually watched Oliver Twist instead of reading Dickens' words and recently watched I-Robot and Avatar as examples of Imperialism to co-ordinate with the Imperialism section of the Social Studies section. They have not read a single novel this year and they were scheduled to read 6. The year is half over. In his advanced science class, he is the only one earning an A. He is over a month ahead of his Geometry class and his teacher just keeps feeding him things to do. He's smart but he's no genius and all this is because the kids in his classroom are lazy...that's what the Humanities and Science teachers have told me. I'm over it. We are considering a private school for next year. At some point one has to decide not to sacrifice their child for the 'greater good.'

 

[scootch]

It really differs per area. Where we live our catholic school is one of only 2 private schools and very inexpensive($2200) per year. For a class size of 11-15 kids, it is so worth it. Our public schools have classes of 28-32. I cannot even imagine that. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Art 1]

Our 3 went to private schools. Public schools were never an option for us.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

I agree with a PP about Charter Schools. I LOVE my kids school. The class sizes are actually slightly larger than the public schools, and there are not teacher aides. However, the parental involvement in PARAMOUNT in our school. There is at least one parent in the classroom every day, not including the lunch parent. There is no cafeteria, so no money to spend there, I make their lunches everyday. We do have the option 3 days a week for a hot lunch from different local restaurants (one pizza day, one taco day, and one Chick-Fil-A day) for a cost but we don't do that. The school has an amazing record for academics and after 4th grade there are lots of clubs and athletics. The school also runs K-8, where most private schools in our area run K-5, so that is a plus as well. The enrollment is through lottery and there is a sibling preference. For example, if there are 75 slots in Kinder and there are 40 siblings, then there are only 35 slots up for the lottery. Last year there were over 250 applicants for Kinder so it is a tough school to get into. We were blessed that my son got in the lottery for Kinder which meant my 3rd grader got in on sibling preference this year.

Good luck, I know what a hard decision that is!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I do like a neighbooring school district but unfortunately, the law here in our area is that you have to actually live in the district where your child attends school. They make you provide two different proofs of residence so we'd have to move in order for her to go to that other school district. This was actually our original plan, but the housing market has tanked and there is no way we could make enough money to pay what we owe on our mortgage.

What is a Charter school? It's free? How is it different from Public school?

I have absolutely nothing against home schooling. My brother did home study for most of his high school so he could graduate a year early. I'm just not sure it would work for us. I have no kind of teaching degree and would just hate to think what DD would be missing out on.

I would look into the neighboring school district. I have a friend who sends her daughter to our school and pays tuition even though they have 4 public schools in her town.


You didn't have multiple choice but 3 of my kids attend public school and the youngest boy attends private school. We switched him because he had 2 years of really bad teachers and couldn't subject him to a 3rd year with "The Screamer". He is thriving where his is now!

I would suggest visiting the schools, and possibly volunteering to get a better feel for how the school operates.

Oh and here, the charter school is a lottery system so you won't get in if your name isn't chosen. You can resubmit your name every year though.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Move and go to a good public school district is my vote.

We cannot afford private, we do not want a religious school, & we do not want to homeschool. Easier in the long run to move into a good school district for us.

 

[castleview]

We did the public schools route. DH is a public school teacher and I used to be. We know how the system works so it's familiar to us.

If I were in your situation, I'd either look into moving or private schools, but be careful as not all private schools are good, politics can be just as rampant as they are in public schools (heck, I've even heard of them in some homeschool groups), class sizes can be high and not all teachers are certified.

The more I think about it, moving sounds like your best option due to the expense.

Whatever option you choose, you need to be involved in your child's education. I'm a believer that you can get a good education in any schools as long as the student is motivated and/or the parents are involved.

 

[Nicolepa]

Do parents provide all of the funding for home schooling? If we did go that route, I would definitely want to put DD into certain activities that I wouldn't be able to teach her such as learning a foreign language, dance, music and gymnastics. Does the State provide any funding for things like that since we are paying school taxes but not actually using the public school? Or do we as parents have to pay out of pocket for things like that?

Also, how do you teach them if you're not trained to be a teacher? Do you just follow workbooks or a certain curriculum? I did well in school but have not had any experience teaching children and I don't want to be the reason my kids fall behind in any way.

First of all, stop worrying about high school. That is 10 years away, a lot can change. Worry about the next couple of years. Every homeschool family I know (including me) goes on a year by year basis.

Second, of course you are qualified to teach your child. You are more qualified than any teacher out there, especially in the younger years. You know your child better than anyone. Did you teach her the ABC's?, Counting? Kindergarten isn't hard, basic counting, alphabet, maybe reading. You learn how your child learns best as you go. I have 3 children, my oldest goes to public school, my middle child is homeschooled. This is our 2nd year. And my youngest goes to preschool 2x a week. I started out doing a Virtual Academy and after a year that wasn't working anymore, so I switched to something different. It's about being willing to be flexible.

Now for socialization. Kid's don't really get that much time to really socialized in school, they get lunch, but if they aren't quiet enough then it's a silent lunch. And recess, which again can be taken away for behavior, or lack of school work done. Etc. My son is involved in Scouts & Church. That is enough for him. My daughter would need more, but the fact is when you homeschool you have more time to do these activites with them because you aren't spending 7 hours at school and another 1-4 hours a night doing homework.

Most school districts allow you to do the after school activites they offer, and may allow them to do band, choir etc. But, at least here, band doesn't start until 5th grade, foreign language Jr. High, dance, never etc. So again these are things that you don't need to be worried about right now. It doesn't matter if you homeschool or public you will still have to probably pay for things like Dance and gymnastics.