Still Thinking About Public School

Hi L.,

It is not odd you are thinking about it so early. I am part of two large homeschooling groups and do not know what you might mean by the bad things you hear about it. But if you want to discuss them with me feel free to email back. (I homeschool our 4 children) But if it interests you in the least, then there is a homeschool convention you can go to this summer in Phoenix, check out www.afhe.org If you are not in AZ then check into your state Dept of Ed and get info about homeschooling to look into the conventions there.

I was a former teacher and can give some ideas about how to check out the schools you might be thinking of in a few years.

Good luck!

I am going to have to go with the others who say home schooling is the way. I was valedictorian of my high school class of over 400, but almost failed out of college my first year because I didn't have to study in public school. Because of the large class sizes in public schools, the teachers are forced to teach to the "average and below" students leaving the children who are more advanced to get bored. They are not able to help children to their full potential. Even in the advanced classes, they are still teaching to the middle. But when you homeschool your children, you are able to individualize their studies to fit their needs. You make your class fit your family. Homeschooled children outperform public schooled children by an overwhelming amount. One thing I hear people say about homeschooling is that it is bad for a child's socialization. This may have been true 20 years ago when relatively few people homeschooled, but it is not the case today. There are many home school activities where kids get out and play with others their age, but even without these, homeschoolers are being prepared for the "real world". There are very few jobs where you work with only people that are the same age as you. You need to be able to socialize with people who are older and younger than you. A homeschooler has the opportunity to develop this skill. Also, a typical homeschool day takes half as long a typical public school day because it is more concentrated (individualized)and there is no "homework" :-D, so it leaves more time for volunteering, sports, part-time jobs, other interests and most importantly, family time.

I do not know much about private school or charter schools, but I would say that the student/teacher ratio is still not low enough and I've always heard that is where the "bad" kids go when they are kicked out of public school.

look into arizona tution organization (asto) and arizona tution for private school (tops) they are great resources for private school . It would be wonderful if you have a support group or family members to do this for your child(ren) and they will get the money back in their tax return each year up to 97% of their donation. Let me know if you have further questions.

I had to go back and see what other responses their was. Many of my friends do home-schooling as well and have been great at it and with it... Monessori is wonderful, but it takes a type of child to do well in that setting though, I thought it really is individual study. I think.....one of my kids would do well, but the other may not. And as far as public...I think the other lady is right, it really depends on the teacher. But it is hard to see what is coming each year. One of my issues with public schools is the class sizes...they are too big in my opinion . Private is about $4000 a year. Monessori can be higher then Private. Charter schools are good with small class sizes, but their are great ones and not so great ones. You should do a lot of research on Charter schools. hope this helps.

I totally understand where you are coming from. I started the school search when my first was just over a year old. I have done lots of looking and we found there are many different options. I think homeschooling is great for those moms that can do it and there is lots more support for that now. Many of my friends homeschool and their kids do great and are very well-rounded. We went with Montessori, only we do not have to pay for it. The school we go to is a Mesa public school and the Montessori is on the campus. It is an amazing program and all the teachers are awesome. I have two children there now with another to start Kindergarden next year. It may not be for every kid, but most do fantastic. It is a very tight knit group and the classes are smaller than traditional. There is one teacher and one aide in every class. Anyway, we love it! If you want more info let me know, I would love to help. Good luck in your endeavors.
E.
____@____.com

It's great that you are starting to think about all this so early - you have a chance to get all the best information without too much pressure to decide right now.

I would do more research into home schooling. I'm not sure what the bad things are that you've heard, but a great many of my friends have either been home-schooled themselves, or are now home-schooling their children. These are great people, and great kids, and it has really impressed me positively. Home-school can be whatever you want it to be, as you are the creator of your kids' school environment. I know several areas that have regular home-school groups, where lots of home-schooling families get together and have group activities. It may not be the right choice for you, but make that choice from the best information, not hearsay.

You might also check out Waldorf and/or Montessori schools. Are you in Albuquerque? There is a new Waldorf school starting here called Tierra Madre, which has a sliding scale fee structure. I ams till looking into this one, so don;t have much information to share at the moment.

Keep looking, and I am sure you will find the place that's right for you.

Hi L.,
I think that it is great that you are already thinking about school for your kids. With another one on the way you won't have much time later. :o) I had four kids in five years and it wasn't until I had to think about how I was going to work around my eldest child's school schedule while balancing three babies that I even thought about homeschooling. ( I think I even told my friend that she was going to warp her son by homeschooling him! Oops!)Now guess what? We are homeschooling? No really we are! I never thought I would, but now I love it.
My husband travels with work and we can take off of school when he is home and do things with him.
My friend's mother-in-law was sick once and they weren't sure if she was going to make it. My friend's husband went out of town to care for his mom and my friend and their daughter had to stay here because she was in school. They wanted to go but the daughter couldn't miss school. Thankfully, the grandma is okay now but it would have been so sad if they couldn't get to say goodbye because the girl might miss a spelling test or something.
I saw that another mom recommended the homeschool convention.I would agree. It can be overwhelming to someone needing to make a decision right now. But you have plenty time before making a choice. For the price of the ticket you can listen to lectures by other homeschool parents and professionals from all over the country. There are exhibit booths with all types of curriculum. It was really exciting to me to see how much is available. The folks who put on the convention are at AFHE.org ( AZ Families for Home Education)
It is really fun to meet and talk with not only parents but the kids you see there. ( And not one of them has three heads - imagine my surprise! ;)
Good luck to you and congratulations on your little girl and the new baby on the way!
If you need anything feel free to contact me ____@____.com
S. :o)

Hi L.,

I'm not sure about the cost of private school but my 2 oldest kids go to public school and my youngest goes to a charter school, only because we had a situation at the public school with the teacher. It is all about the teacher, not all about the school! My kids have had great teachers so far. I have only had 2 teachers I have had a problem with. The first one the teacher knew she was wrong after all of the testing and meetings with counselor and everything. The second teacher was this year and it was about the disipline or lack of it I should say. She started a disipline plan after I talked to her but saw it wasn't good for his self esteem. The plan was writing a sad or happy face on his hand with a marker. Can you see the many things wrong with that? HMMM, self esteem, reaction to the marker, and labeling a child. Yes, my son is hyper and loud but it is something he can't help. So I pulled him out of that school only because there was no other teacher for kindergarden. What you can do is go sit in on the classes to see if you like the teachers. I am planning on doing that soon to see wich teacher I like for my son. Also there is a web site that rates the schools. The charter school my youngest goes to rated a 3 and the public school my oldest kids go to got an 8 and 10 is the highest they can get. It is a good thing I am planning on putting my son in kindergarden again. I do have to say that his kindergarden teacher now has really worked with him and has been really careful about his self esteem. My second son was on the priciples list but had a little bit of a hard time with fractions so now he is on the honor roll but he soon will be back on the principles list because he understands now. I am glad for that. Check this web site out at greatschools.com. About homeschooling, I don't know much about it but I heard from someone that her son was homeschooled and when he applied for a job he had to go get his GED before they would hire him. Like I said I don't know much about home schooling. I'm sure there is a way the kids get there diploma. Just remember it is all about the TEACHER!
Good luck!

Hi L.,

I just posted my experience with a private school, which started off great, but ended up horrible. My children have had far more successes in a public school with awesome teachers than they did in the private school. I think the key really is the teachers. However, some private schools are not about the children, rather about running a business. I have also found very little recourse if something unfair happens at a private school. Ultimately, it's a personal decision, but in my experience, I wouldn't pay money to send my children to school when it's offered for free. Even if the education may not be 'as good' we, as parents, can change that for our children by being involved, checking homework, etc. The money for private school tuition would be best spent at Disneyland (my opinion only, of course).

Private schools are expensive. My daughter attends one and it is about 10K a year. They teach a year ahead and are academically advanced. We will not stay there because we can't afford that easily and once my son starts school, we'd be looking at 20K a year! I'm a SAHM. We are looking into charter schools, but I agree that some tend to be where the kids go when they have behavior problems, but that is certainly not the case with all. Both private and charter tend to have a lower teacher/student ration. I'm hearing mixed things about some of the public schools here, some great, some not so great.

At this point, I am not considering home-schooling. I feel that there are so many options to explore before I choose that. I also think that the social, sports, and team aspects of school are important and don't know that I could achieve the same at home. There's a lot to be learned about time-organization, responsibility, working with kids and teachers you may not like, etc, that I think are benefits to public/charter schools. Also, until my son is older, I cannot imagine being able to devote enough time to home-schooling my daughter with a 2-3 yr old demanding my time and interrupting constantly! Maybe if both kids were school-age, it would be more of a consideration to me.