Choosing to Homeschool

I know it is a difficult decision for many people. Do we homeschool, use a private school or public school? We've done all three. Here is what we found:

Public school in Virginia was pretty good. My daughter had Kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade there. I liked the school and the methods, except for teaching reading, but my daughter was reading by the time she got to school anyway. They were into "whole language" which pretty much did not work very well for most of the kids. Public school in Florida was a nightmare. Which brings us to.....

Private school in Florida was OK. They went to the Catholic school and actually had a good education there. for a while. They did with 30 kids per classroom what the public school could not do with 20. However, they also were still into "speed drills" for math and had some teachers who were just not very good and perhaps not really qualified to teach. But they were Catholic, as though that made up for the rest. Sigh. My kids got to be abused while we paid for it.

Which brings us to why we homeschooled. I pulled them out of the Catholic school after seeing the harm that was happening to my kids. Frankly, my daughter did fine there for the most part, but she was getting to the teen years and I could see the writing on the wall. My son had an abusive 3rd grade teacher who did not like his auditory learning style and was not compassionate about his hereditary dyslexia. She was totally toxic and completely changed him after all of the abuse. He got good grades, was a quiet and obedient kid, but she just could not stand him for some reason. Luckily she only taught one more year then retired. I do not wish her luck in her retirement. My son had vision therapy and reads all the time now with no problems. Duh. Here was a woman who clearly hated kids and mostly hated the boys, so why on earth was she teaching? Why on earth did they continue to allow her to teach?

My kids ASKED us to homeschool them. We had talked about it for about a year and they made the decision. Every year after that I would ask if they wanted to go back to school and every year they said NO. My hubby was a little worried that having the kids competing for my attention all day would send me to the looney bin, but it turns out that they never had to compete for my attention. They always had my attention.

Our homeschooling started out relaxed and then turned completely to unschooling. It worked. If you allow kids to get educated the way they want to, they WILL get educated. I thought my son would never learn how to spell. Guess what? Once he was in chat rooms online all the time, he learned how to spell. His desire to NOT look stupid was greater than his laziness about spelling. That pretty much sums up unschooling. Desire. If they desire something, they will work towards it!

Starting to Homeschool, How To

Back in 1998 when we first began thinking about homeschooling I went to my trusty AOL and looked for a chat regarding homeschooling. The chat hosts were great and extremely helpful! If you are considering homeschooling here are some things you need to do.

1. Know the laws regarding homeschooling for your state. You can go to A to Z Home's Cool website and click on your state. They are listed on the left side.
2. Follow the laws. If you need to contact the school district, then do so. Usually you need a "Letter of Intent to Homeschool." In Orange County, Florida, they sent me a form letter. Orange County has a great Home School office.
3. Once you let the school district know, then you are on your way! Follow the laws.

Now what? I know many people have come into the chats, either AOL or A to Z, wondering what to do NOW? "I've pulled him from school, now what?"

First answer: CHILL! Your child will not get "behind" (whatever that means) and he WILL learn what he needs.

Well, now YOU get to decide what to do! I would suggest that you DO NOT purchase a boxed curriculum! Let me repeat this, DO NOT buy a curriculum! If your child is younger, say, 10 and under, I would do a lot of PLAY! Read a lot, play games, TALK quite a bit about everything! Explain a little about the bank (no they do not give us money, it is actually OUR money), the post office, and dry cleaners or any place you go! Take a look at my Learning Math blog post for math ideas. There are a couple other blog posts that are relevant. Also, do not underestimate DVD's from the library. Kids usually love Bill Nye for science. OR you can get videos from History Channel, TLC, PBS and Discovery channel all from your library! Pick a subject, say, Ancient Egypt. Get books and videos about that subject from the library! If you need to keep track, for a portfolio, write down all of the books read and the videos watched. If your child doesn't read yet, read books to him! Even if he does read, nothing compares to quiet time on Mom's bed listening to Mom read a book out loud. (For all of you moms out there, put some feeling into it when you are reading!)

Once your child is older, over 10 or so, then I would add some more structured education. After playing with manipulatives, counting coins and learning to write the numbers, now is the time for some simple math workbooks. You know the kind, from WalMart. Let him play with those but DO NOT force it! Make it fun. A good way to begin grammar lessons would be using Mad Libs. They are funny and fun! We did a lot of Mad Libs during long driving trips with the kids. You can explain what a verb, noun, adjective and adverb are and then you are on your way! If your kids still have questions during the game, then help! So we've covered Math, English, History and Science (don't forget Bill Nye and other videos) so what else do you need? Your child will be well-informed and ready for the middle school and high school years!