My journey through homeschooling

[stjohnjulie]

M2M, how much time a day do you devote to homeschooling? How much time do the kids devote to it on their own?

I am pretty sure that we are going to be doing a distance program with Luca next year for either part of the year or the whole year. I want him enrolled in an accredited program that has both online and text book kind of work. There are SO MANY choices and it's tough to figure out which ones are the better programs. There are a lot of forums out there, but most of them are geared towards homeschooling alone. I just do not have enough time in my day to be Luca's only teacher. I need support of other educators (via email or online help) and will also hire a tutor on island who has a teacher's certification.

Where I live... the public schools are struggling. The private school that he has gone to for the last 7 years is just not working (and it costs $10k a year).

We have had a very difficult year. I am not sure what is going on at school....but he has been in trouble so much and when they tell me what he has 'done' I just can't believe my ears. I don't know who they are talking about. But one thing I know for sure is that there is something going on at school that does not happen at home. He is an emotional wreck several times a week from things that happen at school. I just need to get him out of there and get him feeling loved and safe and secure. So I want to keep him away from the school until he can get strong again. I do want him back in a brick and mortar... but I don't think he can handle it right now. It must suck for him to know that the school he has always gone to doesn't want him.

[mom2many]

I can spend anywhere from 3-5 hours a day. However, Aiden requires complete hands on and 2 hours of that is him. Otherwise they just call me over as needed. Cole also requires more hands on with math so that's a portion of that time also. Vanna is pretty independent so doesn't need me nearly as much as the other 2 do.

As for them, our program has a requirement for how many hours they need to work. Aiden works his full 2 hours, Vanna is supposed to be 4 hours but she get's it done a lot quicker then that. Since Cole is closer in age I'll give a better breakdown of him.

Math
Language (4 parts to it)
Spelling
Literature (I hate their book choices, so I do my own. With teacher permission)
History
Science
Art

He also had National Math Lab for an hour a day, it was extra tutoring. He can very on how long it takes to get done. Some days, 4-5 hours was enough and other days he needed longer. We always break his days up, he does 2 subjects and then takes a break, 2 more and another break. I tried to just get it done with him, but the ants in his pants would be to much so breaking the day down into sections made his day more manageable.

Honestly, it will come down to how independent your guy is. Like I said, Vanna, is very independent, but Cole requires more of my time and obviously so does Aiden. Next year I am trying to come up with a better schedule, Cole will be entering junior high and NEEDS to be more independent. We are looking into a 504 for him, which will help some.

I think your guy will do fine from what you have said of him in the past.

[stjohnjulie]

What is a 504?

Luca is really independent. He breezes through his work right now. That is another reason why I want to give distance learning a shot. He probably could advance pretty quickly if he isn't bound to a set schedule. The two that I am looking at right now will tailor make a curriculum for him which I really like. Part of the reason why he can be a pain in the ass in school is because he is bored.

[mom2many]

A 504 is similar to an IEP, just on a smaller scale. It allows for some modification of his curriculum or even how we do his school work. This year we didn't have one, but as an example, his spelling list was to big. So every test he would fail, instead off doing every single word I broke the lessons down to 10 words and focused on those instead of the 25. I'd much rather he learn 10 correctly then 25 wrong, but this summer we will work on all of the words we didn't get to. A 504 would mean the school would automatically do instead of me.

[stjohnjulie]

I see. 25 words is just too much. You are right to put him in the position to succeed instead of fail. This is the kind of stuff that makes so much sense to me.

Luca has been treated very poorly and he doesn't make things easier by being a pain in the butt. He is very smart, and he tends to dominate class discussions, or answering questions, and when he isn't allowed to he just becomes a distraction in another way. It's just time for a change for us. Thanks again for all of your feedback!

[mom2many]

You're welcome!

Hope it works out for you guys. Sometimes traditional school isn't the right choice.

[nwcrazy]

My neighbor homeschools her young children, and they are doing fine. We considered homeschooling our daughter; but realized that, as an only child, it would be nice for her to be around other kids her age on a daily basis. So she attends a public school for kindergarten. In the fall, she'll attend a magnet school for first grade.

My hats off to those parents who are disciplined enough to take care of ALL of their children's educational needs at home. Personally, I like having our daughter go to school. Then I can pick and choose what I want to teach her at any old time. It's reassuring to me to know that ALL of the bases are covered as far as her education is concerned. But if I'm honest with myself I don't think that I'll be able to follow a curriculum day in and day out

[nwcrazy]

BTW I wouldn't read too much into statistics showing which students do better in college. It's really about parents supporting their children. Homeschooled children will have a disproportionately higher number of more involved parents. So obviously the stats will show a better average. But I suspect if you take schooled students that have supportive parents, you'll see high performance in K-12 and college as well.

The problem is that the school system is made up of a student body orders of magnitude larger than the number of homeschooled children. And a student body with tons of students with parents that aren't supportive. Hence, the skewed stats.

[momforever]

This is a very interesting topic- I have thought about homeschooling - although I think I prefer to have a break from the kids and work out the house so I have patience for them when they come home. It is interesting though that what has been discussed is only the academic side- what about the social aspect. Do your kids go to any clubs or scouts? How do they feel about the fact that they are not in school and especially when asked what school do you go to etc. Are they proud of their status or embarresed? How do they interact with other kids who go to school. My biggest concern with homeschooling is that the kids don't get left out of regular social interaction and feel in any way inferior to school kids.

[stjohnjulie]

The socialization factor is something that has always been a big one for me with my oldest. He was an only child for a long time and I'm not a very social person and his father is more on the anti-social side. He has been in the same school, with basically the same 10 classmates, for the last 7 years. Early on there was a boy who he really liked, but he moved away in 1st grade. After that, he just never clicked with anyone and it has made him feel like an outsider. The trouble the school tells me he has with the other kids is not something I see when he is doing things that aren't with just the same 10 kids he has in his class. Other group sports and other activities outside of school he doesn't seem to have any problem finding a friend to hang out with. So I am lead to believe that there is some kind of negative dynamic happening with the school directly.

I did tell my son that if we choose to do this distance program for the next year that he has to pick two outside activities that he cannot quit (which he seems to do too much of). We have limited options where I live, but I know we can find two things that other kids participate in that he can join.