I Need Your Opinion?

Hi J..
We are homeschooling our children and it is not as hard or terrifying as I imagined it would be. The hardest part for us was choosing the curriculum. Most curriculums have teacher manuals that guide you through how to teach each lesson to your child. The school district sent us a bunch of stuff (which seems like it was meant to scare us out of this choice, but who knows their intent). Two important things to do (in my opinion) if you chose to homeschool are to: First, join HSLDA (I think it is www.hslda.com). It is the home school legal defense association. If your district gives you a hard time, they help. They are a great source of info also. The second thing would be to find a home school group in your area so you can have some other moms to talk to and group activity things for the kids to be involved in.
Good luck, what ever you choose! Happy to help in any way I can if you send me a private message.

J.,
What about placing your daughters in one of the magnet schools or Project Choice schools. I saw that you are from New Haven, you can send your girls to one of the schools in Wallingford (for example) and the city of New Haven provides transportation. My son got into Wintergreen Magnet School this year and is doing fantastic and my youngest is in the Wallingford school system, he too is doing very well.

On the subject of homeschooling, I have a friend who does it and has know she will give you some advice and guidance if you are interested, if so let me know and I will gladly give you her name and e-mail address.

Hugs,
T.

I know you have to buy into the work. You sign up, pay, get all the books and other stuff and you have to teach your children (just like a teacher would) you also have to test them and send in the tests for grading. You have to make sure your child gets all the work done, you have to set a schedule each day. Most people that homeschool also bring the children on trips to museums and such. Be prepared to work hard so your children will succeed. It;s good but you also have to make sure your children have friends since they won't be in school. You should try to get them involved in sports, crafting, drawing or dance classes. You have to make sure they see other children.. Good luck.

If you feel up to it, and you can do a better job than your local school options, I say GO FOR IT! I'd HIGHLY recommend Calvert School. It's based out of Baltimore, and your tuition covers a BOX full of goodies - everything from the lesson plans, to books, to craft supplies, to pencils and paper! All you need to supply is the kid, and the desk!

Good luck, Mama. (Oh, and I'm sure people will point out that your kid should get SOCIALIZATION. I'm sure you already know that - a dance class every week, or regular playdates, should fulfill that requirement just fine! We attend church every week, and our daughter is in the nursery there - that's two hours of interaction with other kids, and it's done just fine so far!)

It's much harder than most people think. It's so easy to fall into the trap of worksheets and drilling- which is not the point, right? If you can really do the research, and feel very comfortable with both reading and math, then it may be worth your while.

But reading is such a complex thing to teach- phonics + whole language + comprehension strategies. And math gets pretty tricky, outside of drilling the basics. Are you ready to teach the "why" behind pre-algebra? (Starts in 4th grade!)

Good materials cost a lot, too. Particularly the math manipulatives and science experiment materials.

Be ready for lots of field trips, tons of time reading on your own first, tons of research to find help from local and online experts (both in education and in the specific areas of study).

If this all sounds fun to you, then go for it! It can be so rewarding! But don't go in blind. Take some serious time to look into all of this, to make sure it's what you want. Expect hours of planning, per day, outside of the actual instruction you give your kids. That's time you WON'T have with your kids, you know?

My family is also considering homeschooling. Everything I've read about it, makes it seem like the only viable option for our family. Also though, I've heard that it is a way of life...your whole family life will change. That's all I can really say, I don't know how helpful this was. Good luck!

I was homeschooled along with my younger brother and sister because my parents didn't like the option of public schools in our area and the private schools were too expensive.

It is not easy! Like all good things it takes a lot of work and patience like you wouldn't believe:-) Making a schedule and sticking to it is the best thing you can do and make rules ahead of time of how you will handle things like vacations, sleepovers, errands anything out of the normal school day. I say this because being able to pick up and go and extra stuff, to me, is one of the great benifits of homeschooling but if you don't have a plan your kids will totally take advantage (we couldn't help it!). We were involved in co-ops and church groups for homeschooling as well as taking classes as early as age 15-16 at the community college.
I could go on and on about good and bad of homeschooling but overall I am so glad that my parents made the decision to do it and year after year were able to stick with it.

Oh Yeah- make your husband play a big role in all of this and lock up the teachers manuals and answer books!

Good luck with your decision.

Hi J.! I have been homeschooling for seven years now. I have three kids and sometimes it gets crazy but I wouldn't have it any other way. I will tell you there are so many curriculums out there that it can get overwhelming. So the curriculum that I use is called ACE (Accelerated Christian Education). Now I don't know if you want a Christian based curriculum or not but that is what I use and I love it. It has everything there and it teaches your kids and you are just there to help them if they get stuck. Also there is a curriculum that is called Abeka that a lot of the schools use. It is harder so I will warn you about that. Though they do have videos that go along with the curriculum so your kids can see how things are taught. It is more expensive I will also warn you about that as well. The websites for those are www.aceministries.com and www.abeka.com You can check those out or you can google homeschool curriculum and you will be inundated with alot. So don't get overwhelmed and remember that you are providing the best education for your kids. You have them for just a short time and then they are out on their own. Emjoy them! You can email me if you have any more questions! God bless
Lisa

HI J.
I loved homeschooling. Recommend it highly, especially if you have any and I do mean any differences with the local school district. You don't say how old your girls are!

There is so much curriculum out there. www.christianbooks.com and ask for catalog especially homeschool catalog. That will get you some ideas for curriculum. It is also a discount house.

Write me
I homeschooled my girls through high school. They are now in college. One is commuting, the other on campus. journalism & fine arts respectfully, 3.8 & 3.7 GPA respectfully. We used North Atlantic Regional High School in Lewiston, ME for our credits.
God bless you
K. SAHM married 38 years---- adult children 37, coach; 33, lawyer; and twins above.