I was just wondering if some of you could tell me some of the good and bad things about homeschooling? I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old who aren't quite ready for school yet, but its never to early to start thinking about what to do. I dread having to send my babies to the public school system in this town because it is FILLED with drugs and crime. The teachers don't care, the kids aren't learning what they need to be.....there were drug dogs at the middle school.....the MIDDLE school! I've also thought about sending them to a Christian school, but the tuition is so high we'd never be able to afford it. It is important to me that they learn and grow but also that they are taught our faith, not evolution or anything like that.

We live in a very small town that doesn't appear to have any homeschool support groups or meetings or anything like that, and I was wondering how your children interact with other kids? Are there programs I'm not aware of? Can your children still participate in sports programs?

What if I don't feel qualified to teach? I'm sure I could handle elementry and middle school but some of the things I learned in high school I have no idea how to do now....

Do colleges accept homeschooled children? I've heard that they don't accept the credits.

Do any of you run into family members looking down on the fact that you are homeschooling your kids? I think a few of mine may, and I'm not sure what to say to them. I know it's my decision, but sometimes I care to much what other people think.

I need help! I'm desperate for a plan and some advice!

You have lots of good questions and I want to give you my thoughts, but I dom't have time right now.

I'll be back later though.

I totally understand where you are coming from. I didn't want to send my children to public school either, more so because of the trailers then drugs and crime here though. I thought it was crazy to take a 5 yr old and put him on the bus at 8am and then not see him again until 3:30 or so in the afternoon. I just can't comprehend that as a mother. We also couldn't afford the Christian private school tuition at $5k a year (we have 4 kids!) We have been homeschooling for 2 yrs now and love it. It just really works for us and when I asked my boys if they want to go to school next year (my soon to be 7 yr old and my 5 yr old) they said no they want to be homeschooled again!

It may seem like there is no one in your area that homeschools but I bet you there are some! I thought the same thing. Go to yahoo groups and type in your county or state and homeschool and see what comes up. Lots of homeschool groups use yahoo as their message board. There are several things you can do for interaction or "socializing". If your child goes to sunday school they will be with children their age, recreational sports (soccer, baseball, ect), music or art classes, playgrounds during the weekends or even after school hours on the weekdays. Im sure there are many more. Check out your local art galleries, nature centers, estuaries, historical societies or anything that can be remotely educational - most will have homeschool classes or homeschool days (even the science center, aquariums, zoos, and amusement parks!)

Im sure you are more than qualified to teach high school subjects. If you choose a curriculum they will come with teachers manuals that you can review in advance and learn the stuff to teach your child. If you still don't feel like you can do it there are always distance learning schools, online schools and some curriculums even have dvd that teach subjects for you. Also many community colleges have classes for homeschooled students for the high school grades like chemistry and biology and such. There are so many options out there now adays!

Colleges are looking for homeschooled students!! I started college in 1997 and had several homeschooled students in my graduating class and homeschooling has caught on even more since then. There are also many options now so that your student can get official transcripts like going through an umbrella or doing an online curriculum that gives transcripts. There really is no reason why your homeschooled child can't get accepted to college unless he/she doesn't want to go.

My sister works for our school system and loves the fact that I homeschool. She is very supportive of us homeschooling and wishes she could do the same with her children. My in-laws however are not so supportive and believe that my boys belong in traditional school because its the way that it should be. It is tough sometimes but you have to do what is best for your family and for us that is homeschooling. I just kindly tell them that they are learning more from me in 2 hours a day then they would learn in 6 hours at school and they have the rest of the day to explore their other interests (sports, reading, music, art - whatever they enjoy they can do more of).

I think homeschooling is the best option out there. Your child can go as fast or as slow as he/she needs to with no pressure from anyone at anytime. He will never feel inadequate because he can’t pronounce a word right or has a different learning style then others in his class. Being homeschooled they have more freedom to learn what they what and study that subject as long as they see fit. If they really love dinosaurs they can study them until they learn everything about them instead of two weeks and then they need to move on to something else. I really can’t say enough about homeschooling. If you have any questions I didn’t answer feel free to pm me or I will check back with this thread. If I can help in anyway please let me know.

Ericka

My advice is to start reading about homeschooling - there are tons of good books (probably here on PBS or at your library).  It has been around a long time and the resources avabilable to us homeschooler now are mind boggling.  If there is a subject you don't feel qualified to teach there are video curriculums that your kids can use, there are classes your kids can take.  You do have to do your research though to find these things -b ut they are out there.

My 12 year old son went to public school for 4 years and then he was diagnosed on the autism spectrum.  That's when we decided to homeschool. He was bullied, misunderstood and mostly ignored in school - I refused to let him have that kind of experience for his middle/high school years.   He also was in the gifted program in ps  but wasn't really challenged there at al.  Homeschooling allows us to accelerate through the subjects hes is really great at and then slow down for the ones he's not so great at (like writing). 

You may have heard the phrase "teaching to the test'  to describe public school - IMHO that is what it is.  Kids are taught how to take tests - they don't actually get to use critical thinking, original thinking or too much creativity.  And the other drawback is everybody has to learn the same thing at the same speed and those that excel have to wait for the others to catch up.

One of our local middle schools just hired a full time police officer - that gave me pause- they felt the threat of crime/bad behavior was so great that a police officer needs to be there all the time?  Why would I want my son to spend 6 hours a day at a place like that?

Jane

Jumping back in here to give my two pennies. We are currently homeschooling our three youngest and the eldest is in college. She had no problems with enrolling. As a matter of fact the admissions director at one of the schools she applied to told her they 'prefer" homeschoolers because overall they tend to be more mature, more motivated, more respectful.

PROS of homeschooling: (our personally feelings on it of course)

CONS of homeschooling:

• It is time-consuming.
• You may end up with no time to yourself.

The cons I listed apply to me and others may be more organized or have kidlets that love school and speed through it joyfully every day. I have one that loves school, one that doesn't hate it but doesn't like it either and one that is still trying to get the hang of what school really is. lol. So my days can be long sometimes.

I don't have a lot of time to myself but DH is great about taking the kidlets a couple of times a month and giving me an afternoon to myself.

You asked about programs and participating in sports programs. That all depends on your district.

I would suggest you go to HSLDA.org and seeing what your state regulations are. Some states require a college degree in order to homeschool, some a highschool diploma, some require little or nothing in that area.

Once you're well imformed of your rights and responsiblities you could contact your district to see if they offer programs to homeschoolers. Some will require you to be a charter school member which means that you homeschool but use the schools curriculum and report to them. Many people don't care for that, esp if they have religious convictions to teach their kidlets about God.

Don't feel like you're not qualified to teach, there are curriculums that walk you through everything, some are even scripted and you just read it. There are online options, tutors, etc.

In the beginning our famillies were skeptical and thought we were sheltering them too much but after they saw how well they did, that they didn't have socialization problems and that a 4th grader broght a knife to our local elementary school, they changed their minds.

Holly, I can answer one of your questions. I have 3 college age young adults who were homeschooled through high school. Two already have their Bachelor of Arts degrees from colleges and the youngest is now a junior at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA   None of my three had any trouble at all getting into college and they all got excellent grades too. Two of them earned several scholarships which helped with college tuition. One of them only attended one semester of college classes and then was able to complete the requirements for his degree from home by computer and by CLEP testing. He saved considerable $ and was able to continue working from home in his web design business while he finished his education. Homeschooling worked very well for each of them and I learned a lot too and we all enjoyed and benefitted from it. Blessings, Peggy