So Tell Me About Home Schooling

There are a lot of blogs/websites out there on the subject of home schooling. thepioneerwoman.com is one of them. She has an entire section dedicated to home schooling and her experience along with others. http://www.latter-dayhomeschooling.com/ is another one, and although it is a religion based site there are a lot of different experiences and ideas about homeschooling there, plus there are links to different homeschooling moms. Good luck.

I pulled my 3rd grader this past February - best decision I ever made. I found that the schools in Massachusetts are no longer teaching the basics and focusing only on the MCAS tests. It was making me crazy.

I pulled her and it was the best thing I ever did. I will probably put her back in a year, once she understands the basics better.

I use Singapore Math
BrainQuest text book for 3rd grade
base ten cubes
iphone apps like flash money and crazy coins
and numerous down-loadable print outs online

Homeschooling allows me to focus on what she needs to work on, rather than just giving her "busy" work. It is a custom education for my child.

Remember that, historically, all people were homeschooled!

I want to add to my original post: Some have said homeschooling is expensive. I am here to say Homeschooling does not have to be expensive at all!

I buy almost all my curriculum second hand. If I can't get it used from the local pool of homeschoolers (at the USED curriculum fair), then I get it from ebay , accents in education.com or Alabris.com.

I use as many non - consummables as I can. Meaning, you don't write in the text , but write your work on a separate sheet of paper.

For example, I paid about 20 bucks each for my Rod and Staff English grade 1 and 2 student/teacher text set, used. This is used by all three children eventually. Then when we are all done with it, I turn around and resell it used to someone else for about 15 bucks. So I end up paying about 5 bucks each for all my Grammer book sets- for grades 1 through 8. In all, $40.00 bucks for ALL my kids to have Grammer/English books from 1st until 8th grade! Less than 2 bucks each per year!

For learning to read, write and spell, I use "Spell To Write and Read." by Wanda Sanseri. You can also find this used. I got the spelling guide and the teacher book, plus a few of the other needed supplies, for less than 70 bucks. Even if you bought it new, it would be around 100 bucks. (You buy the basics, not all the flashy extras).Here's the good part, it teaches ALL THREE SUBJECTS to all your kids for eight consecutive grades. I have been working out of my Spell to write and read books for seven years. Less than 3 bucks per year, per kid.

For science , I use Apologia., I get them used for around 15 bucks.I take all three kids through the same book at once. So thats 5 bucks each kid per year.

For History, I use "Story of the World". Again getting it used, I pay about 10 bucks for the reading text, and buy the Activity guide new from Amazon for about 30 bucks. That 40 bucks per year, divide by three kids which use it all at the same time, thats 13 bucks per kid per year. If I resell the curriculum when I am done I pay even less.

All four of these Curriculums are TOP NOTCH curriculums with very high ratings and produce excellent results. In fact, I consider Spell to Write and Read the best of it's kind on the market (besides the Barton System) and is one of the lowest priced curriculums. Barton would probably run in the $400.00-800.00 range.

I have many HS freinds who go to the big curriculum fairs at the convention centers and buy all kinds of expensive flashy programs at brand new prices and they end up never using half of it.
It's fine to go and look, and get ideas, but hold your pocketbook! The key to keep costs down is to do your reasearch 6 month ahead of buying time, know exactly what you need, buy non consummables, stick to your shopping list, and buy used if possible. keep your books nice and resell them later.

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I started homeschooling from day 1, my oldest is now in 7th grade. I have three that I school. I have never regretted it. It has blessed my home so much. Many of the problems that families post on here with their kids, I have not experienced, because I can control the enviroment they are in and who they interact with.

Teaching was a daunting thought at first, but I took every day- one day at a time, and behold, I got through it! I never thought I'd be able to school in jr. high, and here we are. So never under estimate yourself. God will equip you for every good work.

There are many fabulous books and curriculum out now for homeschoolers. There are hundreds and hundreds of curriculums to choose from! Most of them are scripted, which means it will tell you what to say, and then what the child is suppose to say back. They come with answer keys also. No worries!

Here's an example of some good stuff: My 3rd grader was doing diagramming in English! My first grader was doing all her schoolwork in cursive, with beautiful writing, better that mine. My 12 yr old published an "A to Z Birds of America" book, She wrote and illustrated herself. She won the Newberry award from the Library for it. She got a leading part in the church play every year. She taught herself how to use the microscope by 5th grade, and was doing micro photography by 6th.

My kids don't ask for designer anything- they don't even know what it is. Our 12 yr old neighbor kid grew up with my daughter- they are best freinds. Boy has she changed.She (and all the other kids at that school) listen to rap music in the school cafeteria. They put it on every day and pump it out in the ceiling speakers!She wears tight pants , hoop earrings and makeup. She texts boys and has a phone with 60 boys phone numbers in it.

My 13 yr old daughter can't stand rap and thinks it is nasty/violent. She dresses modestly with long shirts and hates tight clothes. She doesn't wear makeup , doesn't have a single boy's phone number in her phone, and doesn't know how to text people.
Her freind's favorite pastime- texting, and hanging out with freinds away from home.My daughter's favorite pastimes- photography , reading, and journaling.
The neighbor tells my daughter she "doesnt really know her- that she is different at school". Turns out she likes to bully other kids and she likes to cuss and flip kids off. She's right, she is changing emensly, not the same kid we grew with all these years and loved.

ps..I also use the book "well Trained Mind". I have found a few curriculums listed in it that I used, and I would not recommend to others.

My email is ____@____.com if you'd like some curriculum recommendations.

I've read the responses you've received so far, and I'll try to add to the list rather than to repeat what you've already seen. We've done both classroom and home school. I've also taught in the public schools.

Pros - Your children will eat real, homemade lunches, not the industrial-agricultural surplus that children are fed at most schools. They also will not have access to vending machines full of junk that some schools use to make up for budget shortfalls. Your kids will not be exposed to asbestos, be in a building in which the heating, cooling and plumbing do not work properly, or a building that would not pass a basic safety inspection. (While this certainly doesn't describe every school, it does describe more than it should.) Your kids will not be in a building that strangers can enter freely without detection. You will not be driving for half of your day. You will not be hit up constantly to make "voluntary" donations or participate in fundraiser after fundraiser for your supposedly free public education. Because you won't be losing huge swaths of time to crowd control, you will be able to finish an entire day's schoolwork in 4-5 hours, leaving more time for music, art, family outings, play, exercise, and a social life that does not revolve around school. If you choose, you can teach your faith alongside the school subjects.

Cons - Your extended family and /or friends may think you're out of your mind, and might not be shy about saying so. Be prepared to deal gracefully with the turkeys in your life.

Pros: You get to really know and love your children!

Cons: You get to really know and love your children when they are not in such a great mood!

Pros: You can move at your child's pace, stay longer on one subject and move ahead in others. The result is a child who totally understands everything before moving on.

Cons: You have to follow the rules of your state. Be sure to research what they are before you start. Some states have testing, or mandatory hours you have to keep, or mandatory records you have to keep.

Pros: You control the environment your child is in. They will be very socialized and be able to interact with people of all ages. You can keep them from hanging around kids who swear or are promiscuous.

Cons: You do have to equip them to survive in society, and that means every kind of person that's out there! We talk about the different kids of kids out there: bullys, criminals, etc. And we teach how to AVOID or HANDLE those people :)

Pros: Field Trips!

Cons: Paying for Field Trips!

Pros: Choosing the curriculum that works for you.

Cons: Paying for the curriculum that works for you.

Pros: Hanging around with other homeschoolers

Cons: People who make rude comments or try to convince you that you are wrong and are going to ruin your child (yeah...have they looked at the statistics on homeschooled kids? Socialization? Isn't school for learning...and don't they tell you to sit down and shut up?)

Pros: The result is a child who is bright, socialized, and ready for the world.

Cons: It takes a lot of time, energy, patience and money to get there. But it's all worth it in the end!

I am a public elementary school teacher and mom to a bright 4 year old. I never thought I'd homeschool but 10 years in the public school system has changed my mind. Public education in my state (Illinois) is at the bottom of the nation, but across the board education in the US is much less rigorous than other nations. Since we are a global society you want your children prepared to compete with job-seekers from other countries. Also, since you have boys, homeschooling offers an alternative to sit-and-listen style teaching that is required in an over-crowded public school classroom, and brain research proves this style is geared at girls. Boys are dropping out of school and universities at alarming rates, and being diagnosed with learning disabilities and behavior disorders just because they learn differently. I don't mean to cause alarm, I've just been doing a lot of research of late since I'm supposed to be enrolling my son in KG next fall. This past year of homeschooling has been wonderful-we're using 1st grade materials already since I can instruct him one-on-one. I pick the unit studies based on his interests, and he's so excited to begin schooling each day. We use more of an apprenticeship style, how education used to be in the past. There are tons of resources online, but I also agree to check out homeschooling support groups and books/magazines/programs at your local library. The more mentors/teachers your boys have to follow-especially men who love reading and learning- the better off they will be. A serious con is be prepared to lose time to yourself for a number of years. It is so hard even to get laundry or house cleaning done with a preschooler and a toddler, much less a shower! But I believe it will be worth it in the long run, and you'll look back and cherish these years.

Pros - It is fun, it is rewarding, your children will have unique opportunities for expression and creativity, true life lessons can be incorporated into curriculum. Too many more to name, I have all these pros in my mind, but you certainly don't want a 20 page list. My only regret is not homeschooling beginning day one of Kindergarten.

Cons - Only one, you and possibly your husband will have to invest time into your child's education.

By the way, my children are both in college, and have done very well.

I love homeschooling. I have a 6th grader and a 3rd grader at home.
With homeschooling you set your own schedule. The last two weeks we have been getting the house ready to sell so we haven't had school and I have had a lot of help.
Math lessons can be done in the kitchen, half a recipe or double it. My daughter groans because I make her do cookies and give me 3/4 more and such.
It is a lot of work. It's not just a let's do school thing.
I am reteaching myself some of preAlgebra and Grammar. Also it is challenging trying to get everything into your day.
I have the book The Well Educated Mind from Susan Wise Bauer. I love this book and it spells out everything from preK through 12.
Some people say the children will not be socialized the right way. Mine are doing just fine although we do wish there were more kids to "hang" with.
Join a homeschool group in your area. That will help with having kids to play with also get involved with your church and the Sunday School.
I do the Workbox system my own way. I have each subject in it's own metal magazine holder from Target. My 6th grader can pretty much run with speling, Grammar, and history. She needs a math lesson every other day.
You are able to also add piano lessons and violin lessons if you want and some areas have homeschool gymnastics classes.
You can do it if you put your mind to it ad you will love it.

I home school my family of 4 children. 2 toddlers and 3rd and 5th grade. It is tough for us because I have to focus on my young ones and still address subjects for my older ones each day. We also go to a coop called classical conversations.It is a national coop in many cities now. I recommend it if you are interested in memorizing and classical schooling. It helps you get on a real good academic path. Home schooling in general gives us lots of quantity time that at times is high quality too. I enjoy getting to help them with relational issue, read the BIble to them etc.. all wonderful touch points in the day. Each year gets better and better. I think it gives my husband and I more time with them to help prepare them for life. I think they pick up less bad habits and have richer personalities. We are involved with lots of activities and friend. I try to limit our schedule so there is lots of time and energy for family and church. we still take standardized tests so me know how we measure each year. I love my little ones and they make our home schooling life rich. But it would be more doable with 2 and you could do wonderful with schooling 2. With lots of academic perks.

I'm a homeschooling graduate through PA Homeschoolers (www.pahomeschoolers.com, might be www.aphomeschoolers.com now). If you check out their site, you can look way into the future for your boys and check out their online Advanced Placement courses for high school. I loved homeschooling. I did well in college. And I teach one of those courses now! :)

I have a 4.5 year old boy, and we've started "homeschooling" in a very un-regulated sort of way... and we LOVE it. :) What I love most is the opportunity to be REALLY involved in my son's life, to share our values in everything that we do instead of delegating that a teacher that I don't know. They grow so fast, I want to be there for every bit of it! And I want to tailor his academic and extracurricular schedule to his needs and skills, going slower where we need to and quickly where he's strong. I want to "raise him up in the way he should go," and though my husband had a good public school experience (and I love him and think he turned out quite well *wink*), I still think the best avenue for us, personally, to do that for our children is to homeschool them.

PA Homeschoolers published an excellent article on socialization and homeschooling recently. You can find it at: http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/post3006.shtml

Best wishes with your decision!

I have been homeschooling my kids for the past 12 years. I would not do it any differently. Homeschooling allows kids to learn at their pace. If you want to spend more time on one topic, you can. Each child can delve deeply into what he or she is interested. It really instills a love of learning. I could go on and on.

Yes, it takes time and patience, but once you start, that is trivial to the benefits. One con I can think of is the urge to scream when you hear the repeatedly asked question about socialization. There is so many activities to be involved in within the community, church, and clubs.

Totally love it! We are sending our oldest to school next year (3rd grade), but we're keeping our younger son home for kindergarten. We just haven't found the right system for the older one. It's with mixed emotions that we're sending him, but healthwise, I just can't keep looking. The school we found is far from the traditional school.
Both my boys are already way ahead. My 3 yo reads and does simple math, and my 6 yo is at the top of his 2nd grade class according to achievement tests. Both boys totally love school and can't get enough. I should add, both have learning difficulties that we have to work with, too.
I think you'll love it. There are a lot of homeschool groups around to get involved with, too. If you need help finding resources, I've gotten connected with quite a few, and would love to share. Have fun!!

Cons- Your children may act like they don't like it now.

Pros- When they graduate and are better at EVERYTHING then all their college classmates they realize how thankful they are that you did.

I was homeschooled from 2nd grad through 12th. I had some spats with my mom, but I learned a lot. My advice would be to join a homeschool support group. I graduated through MACHA and had a real prom (we did a cruise on Lake Minnetonka-fun!!!) and a real graduation ceremony. However, when I was younger we were in a group that did weekly classes. I took Spanish, creative writing, Speech and a few other courses through them. It was great to get out with other kids.

P.S. I plan on partially or fully homeschooling my son. If I don't fully, then I would have him enrolled part-time with a private school for any classes I don't feel comfortable teaching.

My mom (a teacher for 25 years) home schooled my girls the first half of this year. It was the best experience ever! We only stopped because my dad was transferred out of state, and it broke my heart to have to re-enroll them in private school.

Pros: You go at your child's pace. In our case, this meant our youngest, who started this year in pre-K, is now at the top of her private school Kindergarten class. We didn't mean to move her up a grade, but academically she learned so much being home schooled that in January she was reading independently (1st grade reading material). The one-on-one attention means they can move forward so much faster than the "lowest common denominator" method that school teachers are forced to use when they have 20 kids of differing abilities.

Another positive is that you can use non-traditional means of education. For us, this meant a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the local Zoo for our science curriculum. We were able to speak with the experts at each and really get some hands-on experience. To learn about the idea of fractions for my older (2nd grade) daughter, my mom had her cooking in the kitchen and measuring whole cups vs. half cups of ingredients. They would go to Starbucks and buy hot chocolate, and my older daughter would be responsible for estimating what the cost would be, counting out the money, and ensuring they received the correct change, for a unit in math. These things are hard to do when there are 20 kids involved!

I loved being able to choose curriculum that really worked, rather than what was popular. For my kids, I felt that Carden language arts was fantastic, as well as Saxon math and McMillan science. I taught them French myself, conversationally.

Cons: It's not cheap. If you want to buy good curriculum you do have to lay out a good deal of money for it, BUT this is still far less than you'd spend on private school tuition.

You do have to be totally involved (i.e. rather than purchasing French curriculum for them, I found it more effective to speak to them in French, and then developed my own curriculum around that - however you could just buy online software if you run into a subject that is not your strength.)

In short, if my parents hadn't moved out of state, I'd have kept home schooling my kids until high school. My biggest concern before doing it was that they would have trouble socially, but I found the exact opposite to be true. Since home schooled kids interact with adults much more frequently (on field trips and in everyday life), as well as other children of all ages, they tend to be exceptionally well-rounded socially.

I say go for it. You won't regret it! =)

Hi J.,
I'm glad you ask:)
Home schooling is one of the best ways to educate your little ones. My sister has been at it for 20+ years and we started this year with our 5yo. You have to decide what's right for your family but with all the garbage that's being taught in the public arena we couldn't possibly consider placing our most precious commodities in the care of the secular schools. We have moral and religious reasons for choosing home school over public and believe whole heartily there is no other option. Home schooled children well excel over their public educated peers. These children are better equipped to handle adulthood and the real world because they have been taught and trained to deal with real life situations and circumstances. You don't have to be an Einstein to teach your kids at home either. A whole lot of love, patience and common sense goes along way. One of the most frequently heard concerns from people outside the home school world will be regarding "socialization" of your kids. These "concerned folks" will try to convince you your kids will turn out to be some sort of green-horned mutants if they don't have the proper socialization that the public forum offers. Don't be too surprised if this "concerned citizen" isn't a grandma or grandpa. I've yet to meet a home schooled kid that couldn't socialize. We are training our youngsters (4 and 5) to become godly, responsible, enjoyable adults. Have you ever noticed that kids know how to be a kid by nature. So there's not much to teach a kid in how to be a kid right? They need trained to be a responsible adult. So when we have adult guests over for dinner (which is a regular at our place) our kids get along perfectly well with them. And more often then naught we are complimented on how well behaved and how enjoyable are children are to be around. You will not find this type of "real life" teaching at a public school. We are also active in our church and our home school network. So there is a lot of socialization going on amongst our kids. I experienced a real Mom moment a couple of months ago when my 5 yo daughter learned to read. It wouldn't have been the same if someone else had taught her. I would say that moment was as exciting to me as the day she learned to walk:) I know this is long and I've shared just barely the tip of the iceberg about some of the positives of home schooling. I wish you well. L.

I pulled mine out of public school to homeschool them. It's been wonderful. They are so relaxed and they enjoy learning.

I have too many pros to list.

So far no cons.