Homeschooling......fill me in

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  • Bigtanker

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    My wife and I are thinking about homeschooling. Our kids will be in 5th and 3rd next fall. We have a bunch of questions and I know there are quite a few INGOers who homeschool. So here are a few we have already.

    Online or offline, which curriculum, cost and other groups for support.

    How is each "school day" run? 6 or 7 hours of "class work"?

    How educated do the "teachers" need to be?

    That is all I can think of for now as we know nothing about it. We're fed up with public school and private schools are really pricey.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    I cant help on your last direct question to me, but I can DEFINITELY help in this one. PM inbound.

    You guys can do this.
     

    danimal

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    Background: the wife has her masters in education, but quit the public school system for many reasons (fed up is putting it lightly). She is the primary educator, I pretty much just help out with math since that is the wife's weakest subject (plus I work all day, she's stay at home to 7 boys ages 13 to 3 months, inc 1 special needs).

    Online or offline, which curriculum, cost and other groups for support.

    • All of our kids we are doing the Abeka books and curriculum, with some of her own stuff mixed in.
    • Currently, with the 7th and 8th graders they have classroom videos that you can watch and do on your own schedule, doesn't have to be any set schedule. Next year once our oldest starts high school he'll be doing the full online and accredited "edition" if you want to call it.
    • The 2nd grader and kindergartner have the benefit of using the bulk of the material and books purchased for the older boys from years past, so we only need to purchase the write-in workbooks for them each year. A full set of books and teachers manuals will cost about $1000/yr per grade before some discounts, but then when the younger one comes up in age it's only a couple hundred for the workbooks for the year. You might even be able to find the used material you need online and just buy the workbooks new.
    • You should be able to find some homeschool co-ops in your area with a variety of activities and courses they have for your kids There's no real rule to what it would cost as far as I know. It's one of those "if you think the cost is worth it" things. For our 4 that are in one it's 1 day a week for just a couple hours I don't think it was even $200 total for all the supplies for the whole semester. It's being hosted and run by a lady who's a friend of a friend of the wife's at a local church. It gets everyone out of the house, and gives the cats and dog some alone time away from all these crazy kids.

    How is each "school day" run? 6 or 7 hours of "class work"?
    The best part is, the school day isn't dictated by some bureaucratic mandate, it's governed by the customer, which is your kids. If the kid gets the subjects and does the work, they're done in a couple hours. Sometimes, they need more time, and the day can run 5 or 6+ hours, but on average, it takes us about 4. We typically start school around 9/9:30, stop for lunch/recess around noon, pick back up for another hour or so afterwards and they're done. There's been a few times the older boys were done before lunch, and there's times they're still doing work by the time I get home (those tend to be "attitude" days, not really because of subject or material). It'll take time to get into a rhythm and for you and the wife to get the hang of things, but you work around the kid, not "the schedule".

    How educated do the "teachers" need to be?
    In-laws homeschool their boys, he's a cop working his crazy hours, and she has no college education herself. As long as you can understand the material you're trying to teach them, you can impart that knowledge to them. What happens if it's something you don't know or can't figure out yourself?... that's what the Internet's for ;). Even though my wife was a teacher, it does give her some advantages, but it doesn't mean you can't homeschool w/o having been one.
     

    churchmouse

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    I have seen how Cameramonkeys family does this 1st hand. It is impressive.
    You can do this. The more sane people we put into this crazy world the better.
     

    doddg

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    My wife and I are thinking about homeschooling. Our kids will be in 5th and 3rd next fall. We have a bunch of questions and I know there are quite a few INGOers who homeschool. So here are a few we have already.

    1. My wife did this, as well as my best friend, and others I know.
    2. We had 2 children, my friend had 4.
    3. My daughter was valedictorian of Lawrence North High School back in the late '90s with a perfect "A", 4.0 average (she's 38 now and a lawyer) and got a full scholarship for college b/c of grades and SAT/ACT scored). My son had a partial scholarship.
    4. One of my friend's daughters makes $180,000 a year as a nurse anesthesiologist. All this said to illustrate being properly educated and successful. My son became an accountant.
    5. I remember watching a PBS documentary about some Alaskan kids where planes dropped off their textbooks and they went to school using ham radio, just to illustrate how "going to school" is not the only way to do it.
    6. Criticism is leveled on the social development aspect of homeschooling, but my own kid's (and my best friend's) demonstrate what a PBS documentary brought out about homeschooling: they were better adjusted using any statistics you care to use: PBS had done long-term studies and tracked how the kids developed in their adult work, marriage, and leadership in life.
    7. My wife took the kids to Homeschool events and interacted locally with a group for field trips, plus we were both very active at church in teaching kids.
    8. Both in my family and my best friend's family we were college grads, and 3 of us were teachers ourselves, my wife was 1st grade.
    9. We all taught at a private Christian school for the first 10 yrs. out of college before we moved to Indianapolis, and the my wife was the kindergarten and 1st grade teacher.

    Online or offline, which curriculum, cost and other groups for support.

    How is each "school day" run? 6 or 7 hours of "class work"?

    10. I believe my wife did 3 hrs. per day.
    11. Working 1:1 or 1:2, is much more efficient, since there is so much wasted time in a school setting.
    12. I teach at an alternative education setting and students must go 3 hrs. per day.


    How educated do the "teachers" need to be?

    13. We were fortunate, being teachers ourselves. It took the mystery out of it, but with today's curriculum and videos, it isn't necessary, but we did not homeschool past elementary school. They have phone numbers you can call for tutoring in things like Math that would be difficult to learn exclusively by video (in my opinion, I'm not a math teacher).
    14. Specifically, we wanted the 1st year of public school to begin with the last year of elementary for the transition, instead of the junior high/middle school years.
    15. We never intended to homeschool through high school or even middle school like some have done (and we probably would do today).

    That is all I can think of for now as we know nothing about it. We're fed up with public school and private schools are really pricey.

    16. Homeschooling is a sacrifice of time and money. We used the Abeka Christian cirriculum, which is the same used at the private school we taught at, as well.
    17. When we moved to Indy in 1985 we specifically moved into Lawrence township into the Lawrence North area (we lived w/i a mile of LNHS, b/c we knew they had good schools.
    18. The schools were probably good enough that we need not have homeschooled, but with our backgrounds in education and my wife being a kindergarten/1st grade teacher, we did it to insure a proper foundation educationally.
    19. After the youngest went to elementary school, my wife taught for a Christian school locally in Lawrence and then worked 1/2 days in IPS teaching kindergarten until IPS went to full day kindergarten, and with her diabetes, she couldn't do full days, and had to retire.
    20. I hope this gives you a perspective.
     

    nighthawk80

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    Unfortunately its the same weekend as the NRA convention, but there is a huge homeschooling convention in Cincinnati April 25-28. They put on seminars/classes for beginner's and beyond. Also, just about every type of curriculum is there to look at and people to talk to about their curriculum. We have been there a couple of times. Almost to much info at times. The best piece of advice I can give you is that don't give up after the first try. It will be hard. The first year will be a huge learning curve, so just go with it.
    Here is the link: https://greathomeschoolconventions.com/locations/ohio/
     

    Hohn

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    We're nearing the end of our 7th year of homeschooling. We pulled our daughter in 1st grade and haven't looked back. She's finishing 8th grade. Our son is finishing up 4th grade My wife is a teacher by training and choice, worked in public schools for several years before moving to SAHM/HomeTeacher role.

    We pick and choose from several curricula. We've been doing Classical Conversations for 3 years now, and the kids have learned a lot from it. IEW is the preferred writing curriculum. We use Everyday Math for the younger one, Teaching Textbooks (online) for the 8t grade to get algebra and such.

    My wife takes on almost the entire burden of educating our kids. She's VERY good at it. She's been asked to teach other people's kids how to read because she's so good at teaching reading, and our kids are both several years past grade level.

    Last night I helped my daughter with her Mock Trial prep. Yes, in 8th grade, she's doing a mock trial and learning the basics of legal proceedings.

    I won't be able to contribute much to our kids' education until the advance to the areas I'm more suited to: chemistry, physics, electronics, mechanics, and post-18th century history. For now, my wife is teaching reading, math, writing, Latin, History and areas of influence we choose by semester.

    I'd STRONGLY recommend you look into a local HomeSchool association. Indiana Association of Home Educators (IAHE) can guide you to local groups. IN our area we have SCIHE (South Central Indiana Home Educators) which offers music education and other activities. We also have CAHE (columbus area Home educators) if I'm not mistaken.

    Poke around on FB and googling and you'll turn up a lot. Best of all, see if you can find someone homeschooling near you that can get you plugged in.


    Be prepared that most of us who HS have overtly Christian motives for doing so, not just the desire for academic excellence. So if you aren't down with all the Jesus stuff, you might feel excluded or get irritated.
     

    KittySlayer

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    Hope you find a good answer for putting your Kids First. We need more parents looking to fill society with future functioning adults.

    Thread drift...

    Background: the wife has her masters in education, but quit the public school system for many reasons (fed up is putting it lightly). She is the primary educator...

    Unfortunately its the same weekend as the NRA convention, but there is a huge homeschooling convention in Cincinnati April 25-28. They put on seminars/classes for beginner's and beyond. Also, just about every type of curriculum is there to look at and people to talk to about their curriculum. We have been there a couple of times. Almost to much info at times. The best piece of advice I can give you is that don't give up after the first try. It will be hard. The first year will be a huge learning curve, so just go with it.
    Here is the link: https://greathomeschoolconventions.com/locations/ohio/

    So my sister is retiring from 30 years of public education. While she enjoys teaching she despises what public schools has turned into. Do homeschoolers look to outside tutors/resources to supplement their kids education? i.e. Bring in an expert on chemistry that mom/dad are just not able to teach their child?

    Would going to the convention be a good place for her to meet vendors looking to hire retired teachers?
     

    Bigtanker

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    We have a friend who is thinking about doing the HS thing also. As my wife and her were discussing this yesterday, this was brought up. If there are a few families that are close by, can each family host the "class" for a day?

    Here's our thinking.

    Our friends have 2 kids. One is in our daughters class. The other is a year younger than our son. Just as an example, let's say Monday's all of the kids are at our house for math. Wednesday's would be at their house for spelling, grammar, writing etc. Is this acceptable or commonly practiced?
     

    doddg

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    We have a friend who is thinking about doing the HS thing also. As my wife and her were discussing this yesterday, this was brought up. If there are a few families that are close by, can each family host the "class" for a day?

    Here's our thinking.

    Our friends have 2 kids. One is in our daughters class. The other is a year younger than our son. Just as an example, let's say Monday's all of the kids are at our house for math. Wednesday's would be at their house for spelling, grammar, writing etc. Is this acceptable or commonly practiced?


    The law back in the late 80s when my wife did this was that you cannot HS another person's child.
    If the "State" inquired due to neighbors making a call, it could mean trouble.
     

    eldirector

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    We have been looking into this as well. Have a couple of acquaintances that home school. We are not necessarily UNHAPPY with our current school, but are always looking for the best opportunities for our daughter.

    @Bigtanker - what you describe is what we hear from our friends. Basically, some days are literally at home, but most days are physically somewhere else. Groups meet at the library, local schools, local parks, or someone's home. Kids of various but similar ages, but all working on a topic together.

    I've also noticed that homeschoolers tend to be very involved in things like 4H, scouts, club sports, etc... Lots of opportunities for extra-curricular activities.
     

    nighthawk80

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    Hope you find a good answer for putting your Kids First. We need more parents looking to fill society with future functioning adults.

    Thread drift...





    So my sister is retiring from 30 years of public education. While she enjoys teaching she despises what public schools has turned into. Do homeschoolers look to outside tutors/resources to supplement their kids education? i.e. Bring in an expert on chemistry that mom/dad are just not able to teach their child?

    Would going to the convention be a good place for her to meet vendors looking to hire retired teachers?

    We have a friend who is thinking about doing the HS thing also. As my wife and her were discussing this yesterday, this was brought up. If there are a few families that are close by, can each family host the "class" for a day?

    Here's our thinking.

    Our friends have 2 kids. One is in our daughters class. The other is a year younger than our son. Just as an example, let's say Monday's all of the kids are at our house for math. Wednesday's would be at their house for spelling, grammar, writing etc. Is this acceptable or commonly practiced?

    I know several people who will "tudor" other kids. Several churches will put on classes using retired teachers for subjects like math and science. Some Classical Conversations campuses utilize retired teachers.
    Our kids do the Classical Conversation thing as well. They also have taken science classes at a Church (churches seem to be the best resources for the "extra" classes).

    As for going to the convention to get hired, she might be able to. At the very least get they could get networked with the right people to find something.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    We have a friend who is thinking about doing the HS thing also. As my wife and her were discussing this yesterday, this was brought up. If there are a few families that are close by, can each family host the "class" for a day?

    Here's our thinking.

    Our friends have 2 kids. One is in our daughters class. The other is a year younger than our son. Just as an example, let's say Monday's all of the kids are at our house for math. Wednesday's would be at their house for spelling, grammar, writing etc. Is this acceptable or commonly practiced?


    That's the co-op model. Some use it. Classical Conversations I think is one that uses that. One of our friends does it and they meet at a library and break off into groups where a different parent teaches different subjects. We just mix and match curricula for what suits our kids' needs. We just switched math for our son because he has issues with drill and kill practice practice practice busywork. We switched to one that doesnt rely so heavily on pounding it in via practice problems. It explains it, has them do it a couple times, then reiterates it. If the kid gets it they move on. If not they can go back and hit it again.

    Our method takes about 2 hours a day.

    And Indiana doesnt have any reporting. You just have to record the number of days of instruction. I think the wife just has a calendar that she crosses out the days that we do school to make sure we get the requisite 180 days. Its not uncommon for us to do school on weekends, or even go 10 days straight schooling, and then taking a week off. Its what works best for our schedule. And we dont do summer vacations. Our kids have a HELL of a time getting back into the swing. So we just take a week or two off here and there. It works wonders for us.

    And there are homeschool groups all over that get together for field trips, socialization, etc. Last year I hosted a field trip to my office (we do life safety stuff) where they watched a presentation on fire safety by Kasey the fire dog. Afterward they took a tour of the training facility and learned all about fire alarms, CCTV, clean agent systems (CO2 dump that fills the room and smothers the fire... VERY impressive) and got to watch a water based sprinkler head work.

    This spring I'm organizing another to do a scale model of the solar system that is 3,000 feet long. I posted about that here last night looking for a wide open space.


    My only ***** is the curriculum we use has a worthless science section. The labs are simple and use everyday things like food coloring, but they are obviously not tested. The wife swears the author did them all, but they frequently fail, and in some cases just looking at the description I can see they arent going to work. So I find other ways to do it.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    And if anyone else (like Eldirector) wants more info, PM me and we can get hooked up on facebook and I'll also loop in Mrs Monkey. She and her group are a trove of info.
     

    HoughMade

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    Others here have covered a bunch of the particulars. I'll offer a, kind of, 30,000 foot perspective.

    I have 4 kids. 2 of them are in college. All were "traditionally" home schooled through 8th grade. That means that we bought curriculum, books, work books, CDs (it was a while ago for the older ones). My wife did almost all of the instruction. She is not a trained teacher, She has an associate degree in secretarial studies. She is very intelligent and studied the lessons before the kids got to them. It worked great. We voluntarily had our kids take standardized exams in a structured environment like any school student and the did great. We wanted to track their progress for our own purposes.

    In the mean time, they would learn things like how to figure out a budget and a grocery list and how to shop and keep a check book by working with my wife.

    With me, they learned DIY skills, using tools, mechanical diagnosis and repair, etc. (My youngest son and I are pretty good at washer and dryer repair....haven't found anyone willing to pay my normal fee, though).

    Along with the school theory, plenty of real world- hands on.

    At 9th grade, 3 of my 4 kids started with an online public charter school (The youngest starts next year). This enables them to take classes that my wife does not feel comfortable teaching and to end up with an Indiana Core 40 diploma. For instance, my oldest son took 2 years of Chinese (Mandarin) and some programing classes. My older daughter took French and all the science and math they had. Both of them graduated with an Academic Honors Diploma. My daughter was in the top ten in a class of over 500. The schedule remained flexible enough to allow the kids to participate in family activities that broaden their education.

    My kids have always participated in a homeschool CO-OP. This is several families (about 70 in ours) that come together once a week and they have 3 "elective" classes. Could be drama, some sport, art, writing, speech...whatever.

    As I said, the older 2 are in college. My older son is graduating from Grace College in Winona Lake this May. He will have obtained his degree in 3 years. His major is Information Technology with a Minor in Entrepreneurial Management. Nearly all his electives were in web design. He will be starting a job as a web content developer in Northern Kentucky in May. Good salary, great benefits, opportunities for advancement. Not bad for a home school kid.

    I say all this to say this: home schooling is what you put into it. If anyone is afraid of it resulting in limited options, I wouldn't worry- I'd act. there are plenty of ways to make sure that is not an issue. I am all for it if you are willing to make it work. It takes more time and effort than many other education options and if you are up for it, it is very worthwhile. This is not to denigrate any other educational choices. I was not home schooled. I went to a combination of public and private schools. Do what works best for your family.
     
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    NyleRN

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    My wife homeschools our kids. We have 5 kids but the 5th just turned 3 so she schooling 4 right now. She doesn't use the same curriculum per se for each kid. She may use math and science from one and english and history from another. She's figured out how each child learns. That's the beauty of homeschooling. Most school days last 4-5hrs. We're also part of a co-op group. There's about 7 couples that homeschool that we attend church with. They all meet once a week and split up into groups and each mom does a lesson with a certain age group. It's usually interactive hands on learning type. Sometimes they do a field trip
     

    Bennettjh

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    I know 3 families that homeschool and they cover the whole spectrum.

    One family at our church is the poster child for homeschooling. 4 kids, oldest 3 have been through Purdue, youngest is finishing up. Some of the best kids you'd want to meet. Well educated, Respectful, well-mannered, responsible, etc.

    The other family at our church that does it has 12 kids. Probably 7-8 are school age, mostly boys. I'm not sure how book smart they are but they're good kids as well. Hard-workers, good head on their shoulders. Their Dad teaches them a lot of outdoor type stuff. He does woodworking on the side so they help him there.

    The last family is a family friends' daughter. The kids quit public school because it was too hard, had to wake up at a decent hour and get ready. Mom decided to "teach" them. That consists of going to the childrens museum a couple times a year. Mostly they learn Facebook drama.

    From the outside looking in, I think you get what the student and teacher put into it. :twocents:
     

    Hoosierkav

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    We have homeschooled our kids for a few years now.

    It's not always a blissful Norman Rockwell kind of thing. When the kids get utterly stubborn and disrespectful because the assignment is stupid and you're not a real teacher and this isn't a real school... it's important to have a school hierarchy ("You just wait until the Principal gets home!"), and to realize the burden placed upon the primary teacher (parent)--my wife is truly dealing with the kids all day long, so when I get home, she needs to get away from them :)

    The flexibility is great, but it does also lend itself to "eh, let's go fishing today, and we'll do school tomorrow", so being focused and organized is critical. But, the 1:1 is a wonderful thing, especially if the child struggles with anything--it took a year for my wife to undo the "performance anxiety" he developed during the timed reading assessments; as he changes his interest from week to week, she can adjust the topics/activities to meet his passion de jour, which helps to keep him engaged. When she sees he needs a break, he gets to go shoot some hoops, ride his bike around the block, go listen to music... all things that get him re-engaged.

    It's definitely a journey.
     
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