Is anyone home schooled?? If so do you like it?
597034
I was homeschooled k-12 and loved it.
1073179
I homeschool my children - and while they are bit younger than yours, I use the unschooling method.  I am in California and we have a group of folks here that homeschool and many of them use the Unschooling method - the method that says children learn in everything they do and their own natural curiosity will lead them to the subjects that they are ready for.\n\nNow I understand that this method doesn't feel right for everyone - and as School District Tests come up, I may need to do something different, but I think that some of this type of learning is crucial to homeschooled kids.\n\nI would also like to suggest to you that there are a ton of web sites that are so great for kids.  My 6 year old has taught herself how to read by using computer web sites, like www.starfall.com and we are starting to work on math skills in the same way.  I have also seen sites that teach science and nutrition (but I haven't looked for history sites yet).  My kids don't even really realize that they are learning, they are just having a good time.  Even games where you  have to kind of collect things or do a series of tasks to win help kids in their problem solving, reasoning and logic skills.\n\nAnd there are lots of creative ways to teach kids stuff.  I taught the 2 year old her numbers by letting her sit on our pool table and play with the balls - eventually encouraging her to put all 15 in number order - 6 months later she can count to 30 herself (though she still thinks 30 is 20-10!) and can do very simple addition problems (3+3=6 is her favorite).\n\nIt can be a daunting task to take on 100% responsibility for our children's education, but there are lots of options for us and lots of help and support.  I have put together a great big list of sites that I have found my kids, and I will include the link below.  Having a computer for each kid and allowing them to learn at their own pace has been a huge lifesaver for me - and it's great for folks using more traditional means (particularly on days when they are not "on" it's nice to have a back up "teacher" for the kids).\n\nFeel free to contact me if I can be of further assistance!\n\nYou can do it!  Peace!
1118007
I have been homeschooled for years, and my mother is a single parent. I am not lacking social or scholastic skills. There are some challenges when it gets to high school, but for the most part it isn't that bad. I am going to public school next year, but I have no problem with homeschooling. It obviously has some to do with how your children learn, how much time you have to teach them, how much they can do on their own, and certain factors like that. It also takes much patience. Good Luck!\n\nP.S. I don't know where some people are getting their facts, but it's not true that kids in public school do better than those in homeschool. I have heard from many people and websites that the exact opposite is true. On my last standardized test, I got post high-school grades on all subjects, and I'm only in 9th grade.
1005759
i had my son home schooled for awhile all i did was go to the public school that was in my district and let them know. from there the school may help you w/ material but if not you have to supply it yourself and you have to report to the school what your teaching the child(ren) and they grade him or her to see if your educating him or her successfully or not.thats what i had to do where i live it may very but this is the idea of it i hope it helps you out.
155980
We are part of a charter program that is web based and we love it. We still have standardized testing, and the younger grades print most of their stuff out early on so they learn to write well. \nAs far as socialization…I laugh at all the misconception people have of home schooled children. My kids have activities every evening since we are home during the day and can handle doing more. They are in scouts (through our church), competitive dance, Tae kwon do, soccer, art classes, and piano lessons-all activities with a mixture of different children. They are learning to be compassionate, empathetic people with very high self esteem. \nYou have to look at your goals for your child’s education. For every un-socialized home schooled child, there is a public school child with very low self esteem from being bullied. Who has the harder time adjusting into society?
991870
well my one friend was home schooled, and its much easyer then real school, but thats just my opinon, but she graduated on time with the rest of us
894647
PLEASE DON'T TELL MY KIDS! They'll think I deprived them of all that fun leisure time all those years!  LOL\n\nI do know of one homeschool family who did that with their son, and it was horrible!  His mother claimed they were "unschooling" and all he did was play video games all day.  My daughters were friends with him and couldn't believe how far behind he was.  He couldn't read, write or do math anywhere near his grade level.  It was very sad.\n\nAnyway, that was only one of numerous homeschool families I was acquainted with.  Unfortunately, that's the one everyone focusses on and talks about.\n\nSue
365642
I know I dislike school. Very much. It's so demanding and challenging for me. I find it hard to maintain. Glad to hear you like it, ENJOY!
680915
I am homeschooled. I'm graduating a year early and I hope it never stops for everyone, I've learned more than if I was in a public or private school. You can also be homeschooled in college through an internet college.
112485
Try http://www.k12.com\nThis one is expensive, but very high quality. I use it with one of my homeschooled children. Much of the curriclum is delivered directly via the online school and the lesson planning/scheduling tools are fantastic! The parent is still the primary instructor.\n\nIf the main reason you are looking into online homeschooling is that you wish to have a teacher do the teaching, you have a broader array of options than just online curriculum. Abeka has a video-based homeschool version of its curriculum. The students watch the videoa of real classroom teachers. With yet another option the student sends thier work in to the teacher for grading and all student records are maintained by the school. \n\nHere are some additional video or computer-based curriculums and supplements:\n\nVideotext Algebra. This series of video modules will take the student from introductory algebra through algebra II. The series has been donated to our homeschool lending library, but we have not used it personally.\n\nDIVE CD-ROMs for Saxon Algebra and for several of the major science curriculums. We have used the DIVE supplement to the Saxon Advanced Mathematics textbook. It provides a computerized whiteboard demonstration of a teacher working through the example problems. It does not give the whiteboard solutions to every problem in the text. There is a new video curriculum out that works out every problem's solution, but I have not been able to remember the name of it. Some internet research might turn it up for you.\n\nCybered - Most of the science courses are offered from midle school level to high school. We have several of these and have used their online subscription service while they had it. These are excellent!\n\nSwitched On Schoolhouse. This one is a complete curriculum with all the instruction, record keeping, and testing being done via computer. I used a trila of this many years ago. It looked pretty good.\n\nThe Institute for Excellence in Writing now has a DVD version of their composition curriculum. We used the teacher led version for our writing co-op a few years ago and it was wonderful. I have not seen the DVD version, but it is taught by Dr. Padewa himself. It should be excellent. One of the students who graduated from our co-op using the teacher led version won a state level composition contest and my son scored in the top 94th percentile in rhetoric on his ACT test. It is really good.\n\nThere are many new online high schools now that I have not researched. Includeing several run by major universities. A bit of research should turn up several of them. I have a few links in 'My Favorites' that I saved a while back. You can start here:\nhttp://www.highschoolhub.org/hub/hub.cfm\nhttp://www.homeschoolersofmaine.org/high_school_&_beyond.htm#Free%20Online%20Courses\nhttp://www.cis.upenn.edu/~brada/homeschooling.html
863008
Way to go!  Awesome plan.  I have a three year old and I work from home and am planning on home-schooling.  I do two things for money\n\n1) I am the office manager for a small construction company that I helped set up, with an in-home office.\n\n2) http://www.treasuretrooper.com/173384.  It's free, easy, and fun.  I do it when I check my email in the morning.  It takes almost no time and I definately look forward to the check each month.
1187201
I was homeschooled through high school, am now in college (I think I'm the youngest in the whole campus!) and I think I'm plenty street smart.  I mean, I can protect myself and have my share of common sense.  Being homeschooled doesn't mean sheltered from the world.\nMy elder brother, a kindergarten drop-out, was pulled from mainstream school when his seatmate on the bus had a gun pointed at his head.  Granted, we grew up in what even the residents referred to as a ghetto, but still, the fact that me and my broher are both still alive and moral says something.\nYou'd be amazed at how many people have asked my mom to a) teach them how to homeschool or b) homeschool their kids.   A friend of mine was being sexually harrassed, reported it to the principal at her school, and was told to "deal with it".  Does that strike you as healthy?\nI believe that homeschooling is more of a protective than an academic measure, seeing as every homeschooling family I've met has chosen that path for moral or protective reasons first and educational reasons second.\n\nSocialization-- the #1 question.  I'm naturally shy in person (not in writing, as you can see!), and I'm quite certain that my shyness is not a by-product of homeschooling.  Neither of my brothers are one bit shy.  In fact, my kid brother doesn't know a stranger.   Extra curricular activities for all of us involve heavily social environments.  We all know how to protect ourselves should we be attacked, we all learn things the hard way, etc.  Though I'll admit to a certain degree of naivete in the past semester of college, by no means does this mean I learned everything out of a book.  \n\nExample:\nDiscussing Native American stereotypes in Poetry/Short Stories this April, I mentioned peyote beadwork, referring to it as "peyote".  My experience with the word "peyote" has always been limited to a group of Native American dancers, all of whom made their own costumes and beadwork.  Peyote, as far as I was concerned, was a style of beadwork, as opposed to applique or loom beading.  I was embarrassed to learn, in that very class, that peyote is a hallucinogen.  The memory still makes me feel naive and wet behind the ears, but I learned a valuable lesson: Open mouth insert foot; Remove foot, insert other foot.  Oh well.\n\nNot all of my education as come from the curricula my mom has pieced together, but I confess a lot of the things I learned comes  from books.  "The Blue Girl" by Charles DeLint, "The Moorchild" by Eloise McGraw, "Dreadnought!" and "Battlestations!" by Diane Carey, (Star Trek novels are my guilty pleasure) and numerous other novels, ranging from science fiction and fantasy to mysteries and romances.  \n\nSo, to conclude, homeschooling doesn't, by definition, mean sheltered from the world.  \nI think Bruce Tinsley said it best, though be worned that the following quote can be described as rude and unkind: "Contary to popular belief, homeschooled kids are not less socialized than other kids. They just have to use smaller words and shorter sentences."\n\nI never said I was a saint.
360634
If you are looking for a complete curriculum, I have heard a lot of people like Abeka - a Christian programs that covers all the basic subjects, I think (though I have never used it myself).  I would highly recommend the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education," by Oliver DeMille.  You can guy it a gwc.edu in the bookstore section.  Check out hslda.org for info on home school groups in your state and info on home schooling in general.  One more piece of advice, don't get too much into the "school" mentality (my child has to do this, this and this at this, etc.).  Be flexible - that is one of the beauties on home schooling.  If your child doesn't like the curriculum you have, find something different - there are TONS of options out there.  Good luck!
295361
I have used K12 through the Arkansas Virtual School for 4th, 5th, and now 6th grade for one of my 4 children. I like the curriculum and we will continue to use it next year with my then 12 year old son. It is rigerous and yet has nice variety. The delivery is mixed between book and computer delivery methods. The lesson planning and record keeping system is fully automated through the online school. It is excellent. It has saved me so much time.\n\nWe also homeschool traditionally. My oldest will be graduating to college next year. I have a 15 year old daughter homeschooling traditionally. Next year I will have a kindergartener. I have not decided whether to go traditinal or virtual with him yet.\n\nYou can learn a tremendous amount about homeschooling by perusing blogs at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com  There are over 3,000 homeschoolers blogging there.
1140393
I was homeschooled from 2nd to 9th grade and went to a Catholic high school in 10th grade til graduation. We tried to get me in for 9th grade but there wasn't room, so they guaranteed me a space the next year.  There were two of us who were homeschooled and entered at the same time/year and both of us did very well academically and socially.  There were no issues related to homeschooling at all. The real issues are about parents and their perspectives about education and relationships, and that affects kids no matter where they go to school.\n\nI did go to the first semester of 8th grade in a public school, and it was so irrelevant and frustrating (because home schoolers are with adults so much that they don't get into a lot of typical middle school stuff) that I asked my parents if I could come home again.  I recommend a higher-performing school or a more nurturing community school if you decide to put your kids in junior high. Everything people are saying here about the crud of middle school was my experience and I didn't need it.  \n\nHowever, the one thing I realized after I entered the corporate workforce in my late 20's, was that I hadn't learned what I call "playground politics" in school (they weren't kidding when they said that "all I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten"), and so I had to be a quick study of how petty politics of personality work (Ironic, huh? I didn't need this in high school but I did need it in the San Francisco workforce!). I'll never be an expert at playing the game but I think it's also because I'm a more straightforward and optimistic personality and had not really experienced the brunt of passive-aggressive tactics before.  \n\nAlso I think it's very important to know the social players in your environment and your kid's environment, and talk about it with them. Make them aware of what's going on around them and teach them to network and have lots of different kinds of friendships, from the loose aquaintances to the tight-knit. My parents didn't teach me that and I graduated from a high school full of the kids of Silicon Valley millionaires with no clue of what was going on around me.  Also have them do a skills/career options inventory early on so they know what they might be good at or interested in doing with college/career and can be thinking about it before they have to make choices in college.  That doesn't have much to do with homeschooling but sometimes more relaxed families don't think about it. \n\nBottom line: homeschooling spared me a lot of grief, allowed my personality to fully develop, and allowed me to read more than my peers, so I have better reading breadth and comprehension, and my mom taught me phonics and grammar so I can spell and write better than a lot of the teachers I had! I had time to enjoy competitive horseback riding and I had to give that up when I went to school. Homeschooling is great when you have friends to do it with and plenty of interaction with the community.  High school is great for getting ready to go to college and it's at the developmental stage where a child is discovering and defining their individuality. It's a good time to go.
51063
i was home schooled from the 6th to the 9th grade. it was horrible when my mother did put me back in school i was so lost socially. i think that children need to go to public school so that real life isnt such a shock to them.
569432
I teach jr. high self-contained special ed. My district has no curriculum for that....hhmmmm, so I teach English, reading, soc. stud. science, and math every day to my self-contained class and I do ALL the curriculum myself, every day,  something different and exciting, for 6 hours every day,as well as all the tons of extra paperwork demanded by special education "in my spare time"  OMG, WHAT was I thinking!!!!  lol