What Resources are Available About Home Schooling My Child?

Question

Where can I turn for more information about this? I already am familiar with many of the advantages of home schooling. I have a 4 year old that will start Pre-K soon and I am considering home schooling. I'm looking for personal "pros and cons" about this subject.

How does one satisfy educational requirements through homeschool? How is this monitored, and by whom? What do you do and how do you do it? If you have done it (or have been home schooled), what were the results? What about college after home schooling?

Any information about this would be greatly appreciated.

Ok. I should clarify. I do not want responses about "social isolation" or "social education." Home schooling does not = no socialization. That is an obvious consideration.

Answer 1

Each state is different how homeschooling is monitored. You will have to check with your local school corp. I know around here that you have to have the child tested (the same tests they would be taken in school) to move on and to get their diploma.

You can look up what your states educational requirements online. Just look for your state education department website. Look under standards. You can even print them off for further reference.

I personally know kids that are homeschooled that are wonderful bright children. As far as letting the kids have a social life, I know these boys play baseball at our local ballfield, go to church groups, go to the Y, and meet with other local kids that are homeschooled for field trips. One mom told me she found her group online. Also her 2 older boys are both in very good colleges.

I know you can get supplies like books for teaching on ebay as well as at teacher supply stores.

The pros would be that you are able to give your child more one on one attention and are able to adjust the ciruculum to your child's needs.

The cons would be that you would have to spend a lot of time planning lessons and it takes a lot of patience to teach. I know.. I am a teacher.

Oh and I highly recommend using Hooked on Phonics and a great website called Starfall.com to teach your child how to read.
I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Most of your questions can be answered on the HSLDA website (see sources). They have state-by-state overviews of the laws regarding testing, certification, graduation, monitoring, ... They also have articles about college after homeschool and have conducted several studies comparing homeschool vs. public/private school educations.

Your best source of information will come from actual homeschoolers in your area, as they will be familiar with the local school system as well as your state laws. Try to find a co-op or support group to help you fill in the blanks in your questions, because most have probably had the same questions and can help you navigate the first year (the tougherst) and beyond. They are also a good source for curriculum recommendations and some folks will even lend you materials to browse/use before you buy (one of our local groups has an annual curriculum share where you can view other's materials and ask them about them). They can help you through decisions regarding philosophies (classical, unschooling, Charlotte Mason, etc.) They can be a great source for finding classes/teachers as well as social activities (park days, dances, parties, etc.)

Answer 3

HSLDA is a a very good place to start, they will have a listing of support groups there for you as well. The membership that the offer is a wonderful reasource and at a great price. This will protect you from any one who might question your judgement about homeschooling your child. If you decide to go with a church related or umbrella school, I would personally suggest Homelife Academy. They are very organized and reasonably priced. If you need any info on anything in particular, either IM me or email me and I will help answer all your questions.

Answer 4

I would agree that HSLDA is your best starting point for the requirements by state.

I personally was home schooled from K-12. I graduated from high school from an umbrella school (one of the options in FL) which allowed me to have a regular high school diploma. This avoided the issues associated with holding a GED. The personal flexibility of home school allowed me to graduate at 16.

I entered community college at that point without any academic problems. (I also had many home school friends who jumped right into major universities without problem.) I earned scholarships like any other student. I took three years to allow for some extra classes I wanted to take. I had time since I started early. I graduated with my A.S. and a 4.0 at 19.

I loved home school and will definitely be home schooling my own children one day.

Answer 5

Try your local library. They may have a lot of books on homeschooling that will give you an idea of how it all works, what a parent might choose to do, things like that. There are many different styles of homeschooling so don't think there's just one way to go about it. Also, see if you have a local homeschooling support group. Some have activities that anybody can attend in part so people curious about homeschooling can talk to live people and get ideas. Homeschool support groups can vary in style so if you meet one group and just don't click with what's there, don't think that it's necessarily homeschooling the problem but a clash in world views.

Personal pros are that I get to spend time lots of time with my kids, they get to go their own pace for things like reading, writing and math, they don't get meaningless busy work assigned to them, they don't have a ton of negative social influences around them each day, if they're sick one day, or for a week like my son was last year, they don't miss anything at school, they don't spend their evenings doing homework, things like that.

Personal cons would be other people's negative reactions and views, like your child should know something specific by a certain age because that's what everybody in school learns, well, is supposed to be learning, at that age. There are days, for pretty much every homeschooling parent, where everything is just plain frustrating and things don't go as planned, the kids complain about the work or have meltdowns. Of course, the advantage in homeschooling is that you can just scrap a day when necessary if it's really come to that point. If they were in school and things went like that, there's no just scrapping the day for them.

For educational requirements, it depends on where you live. Some places have no strict requirements and parents just use state/provincial curriculum online to get an idea of where there kids should be at for reading, writing and math. Other parents use workbooks or programs that are set for a specific grade level and those kinds of things are usually pretty good at being similar, sometimes better, than typical school levels.

My kids are still in elementary, so I can't share too many results just yet. I know some people whose kids finished their high school diploma early through homeschooling, some just on their own and others doing online schooling, and went onto university afterwards with no problem. I know a couple who did not get their diplomas but did a few college-level distance learning classes and went on to univeristy after that. While getting into the huge classes has been a shock for some, I don't see how it's really any different than it was for those of us who grew up in small towns. I say this because some people argue that kids who don't go to high school won't be able to handle the large classes at college/university, but with that reasoning that means nobody should go to high school in a small town, essentially suggesting nobody should live in a small town or that it's a real disadvantage to do so.

I personally like to follow my province's curriculum for language arts and math but just sort of look and see if there's anything else interesting. All other learning falls on reading, writing and math skills so beyond that, I take what I find that I think the kids will like or they just follow their own interests. We do our book work in the mornings and have our afternoons free for art, music, outside time, nature time, field trips, things like that. People think it's crazy that you can be done in only 3 hours, but people seem to forget how many other things are done at school and that school schedules are not set up for the kids to be sitting at their desks working all day long.

Does this help at all?

Answer 6

Educational requirements and laws will vary from state to state. Some states monitor everything you do while others take a very hands off approach.
You might try checking with HSLDA for ideas of how to start in your state and a list of homeschool support groups in your area
http://www.hslda.org/
You could check with your state department of education.

As far as college go's,homeschoolers are welcome at most colleges and universities.

Answer 7

Hey there,
The ability to read is vital for success. It helps your child succeed in school, helps them build self-confidence, and helps to motivate your child. Being able to read will help your child learn more about the world, understand directions on signs and posters, allow them to find reading as an entertainment, and help them gather information.

Here you can find a step-by-step online program that can help your child learn to read: http://readingprogram.toptips.org

Learning to read is very different from learning to speak, and it does not happen all at once. There is a steady progression in the development of reading ability over time. The best time for children to start learning to read is at a very young age - even before they enter pre-school. Once a child is able to speak, they can begin developing basic reading skills. Very young children have a natural curiosity to learn about everything, and they are naturally intrigued by the printed texts they see, and are eager to learn about the sounds made by those letters. You will likely notice that your young child likes to look at books and thoroughly enjoys being read to. They will even pretend to behave like a reader by holding books and pretend to read them.

For more info visit http://readingprogram.toptips.org
Cheers ;)

Answer 8

Try "Better Late Than Never" or "The Well Trained Mind" or another good one is "Charlette Mason" we homeschool and have for 4 years now and I wish we had started sooner.
Good luck and happy learning.

Answer 9

What about the importance of a social education?