Home-schoolers: How DO you offer an entire K through 12 education to your students?

Question

"...but how can they offer an entire education?" is a comment that came as an answer to another question on this Answers board. It implies that "they" cannot possibly offer enough material and activities to provide an entire K-12 education. The fact is that many students have indeed received a complete K-12 education at home and they are now in the workplace and college -- some have graduated from college and are now well into their career.
The answers that home schoolers give to my question should provide a better understanding of the reality of home school to those that aren't sure about it.

In our own home school we offer everything our students could possibly need to master every area of academics. We focus on the basics for 12+ years. They learn to think for themselves -- the hard way. They have math from basic facts through Calculus and Physics. They study writing from penmanship through college essays. The read everything starting with beginning phonics and progressing through the best of literary classics, historic autobiographies, science texts, etc.... Our base list of books was compiled by a scientist that home-schooled his own children. We can find any book, material, expert, etc.. to help learn anything the students need to know.
The idea is to teach the child at a young age how to read, compute and follow a simple outline for academic study. With the basic tools of learning as his/her own the student can learn by self-teaching. There is no limit to how much the child can do when they study in this manner.

There are not "mandatory attendance laws" that regulate people that study at home.

Compulsory attendance laws were made to confine and educate children that were otherwise idle. These laws dictate that a child should not be running the streets and causing trouble -- they are required to be supervised and monitored in a classroom setting.

Go to http://www.hslda.org and find out the truth about home education in every State. There isn't enough space in this answer place to post ALL of the information that is currently available.

I should have said, "Attending public school is NOT mandatory in any State in the US."

Answer 1

If, after all this time, the public school system has been having so many people programmed with the wide array of classes that the above-poster describes, we must have not just Leonardo, but Renaissance people (and not just men) in the several millions by now. Actually, those subjects are quite well offered to homeschoolers if it is their parents' or their choice, and not by parents only. I'm sure he didn't read any of the suggested links. There is such a shocking level of ignorance of what homeschooling is today, and it seems that many would prefer to keep their preconceptions than to actually be educated...... ironic concept right there, isn't it?

Answer 2

In my family my parents worked together. My mom is a Buisness education graduate. So she is great with the teaching part and also is fabulous with English. So she heads that up as well as studying foreign languages with us. My dad is an engineer and covers the math for my brother (I am in college now.) My brother goes to a co-op for science and guitar classes. I personally took Precal, Physics, and Anatomy online through the potters school which is amazing.

You can teach all of it because the younger stuff is easy and is not hard to teach and the older levels you can teach what you feel comfortable with and get outside help when you aren't confident. My mom taught me to write amazing English papers... my college profs couldnt' find anything wrong and even told me I should have cleped it all. My dad has given me an amazing physics background. I am pre-med and doing great. My hardest subject is chemistry and it isn't from homeschool it is just that organic chemistry is HARD! Everything else no matter the subject has turned out with an A!

Answer 3

It's all about resources! You can get textbooks and other things, including textbooks designed for homeschooled kids. You can sign up for classes that may be offered in your community. Homeschooling groups may have people able to provide classes or workshops.

Since kids can do distance learning through correspondence or online methods, and many of these things are accredited in some way, I don't get why so many people seem to think it's so impossible for kids to learn a wide variety of things from k-12 at home. I think the problem is that people think of high school teaching, where the teacher lectures about stuff for half or all the class, kids taking notes, then doing their homework later. They think that homeschooled parents do -that- kind of teaching, not realizing that homeschooled kids become more and more responsible for their own learning as they go along and parents are there as guides and assistants.

There are other ways of learning things! But that's not the mentality drummed into us in school: the teacher knows the material and we are to receive his or her wisdom so that we may learn. There's little or no encouragement to seek out other resources, be they people or books. We end up with a narrow focus and don't realize just how much is out there that we could learn on our own.

Answer 4

No school anywhere offers a complete education; for those who believe public schools do, I suggest they also take a fresh look at the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Peter Pan. What is the goal of education? What goals do homeschooling parents have for their children, and why are so many willing to sacrifice so much to attain them? Public schools by and large are far more appropriate as government-sponsored daycare facilities than as places where children actually learn valuable ideas and concepts; in fact, it is now generally required for parents to teach ABC's, counting, social skills etc. BEFORE their child even enters kindergarten. God Bless Homeschoolers, this country should rise up and call them all Blessed, for their children will be our future leaders.

Answer 5

Just expose them to the world & you'll find that most of what they learn is what they need in order to become functioning adults who can eventually support themselves. I home schooled & although my child took longer to get a full time career, I wouldn't have changed a thing, except the few years that I gave in & put her in public school at the urging of the Grandparents. The child did learn that she was smarter than the other children & this lead to boredom, which lead to her unhappiness & I could not watch my child die a slow death in a so-called "normal" atmosphere. What I learned is that our children may not learn like we did, but we are not them & they are not us & they certainly aren't the school's! We spent a lot of time exploring the world & learning together. We were friends & that led to a learning environment that was one of safety & my child knew that I would not allow an outside source to bully her into stupidity! She is now 27 & a proud employee of the U.S. Government. I never thought that would happen. Life is full of surprises. Happiness is all that really counts in the end & although she has no legal high school diploma, she is steadily employed & happy! You don't need a diploma to attend Jr College, just pass the entrance exam & you can attend. Most people don't know this & they are educated in the public school system!

Answer 6

I live in Indiana, and the only thing required of us is to homeschool 180 days out of the year. It doesn't matter WHICH 180 days either. My kids are both doing 4K this year (they're 3 1/2 and 4 1/2), and they're doing great so far.

I think people that talk about the whole "K-12" thing are looking at their whole education, instead of considering that the schooling goes on one year at a time. Not to mention, grades were invented to separate learning levels in a group setting.

Answer 7

I have nothing to add, except that my state (KY) does in fact have mandatory attendance. We have to have 189 days in school. That is really the only requirment. We have to send a letter of intent to homeschool to the school board, teach the basic subjects and be in school 189 days per school year.

I think it is rather easy to offer a K-12 education when the parents themselves completed the same.

Answer 8

Well, Selfteach, you know...the gig is up, I care nothing for my children at all, heck, we don't even really homeschool, I want my children to be stupid so we keep absolutely no books in the house. They aren't allowed to watch educational programming, only reruns of Ed, Edd and Eddy. They don't know what a tree or lake or ocean looks like because they are confined ONLY to the house, I still wipe their butt's too so that they have to rely totally on me. We have absolutely no art or craft materials and I only feed them hot dogs, lest they should desire to want to force me to teach them to cook other things. Like the tribal Australians we don't speak with numbers but use talk like "a, many, few" you, know, so that they don't learn how to count or do math. My delight will be in knowing that I have ruined their lives, that they'll fear other people so much that they'll be social outcasts that their only choice will be to live off my husband and I the rest of their natural born lives!.... muhahahahahaha

LOL, of course you all know that I'm kidding but damn, isn't that pretty much what the naysayers think we're doing anyway despite the fact that we don't? May as well feed their imaginations.

Answer 9

I think that homeschooling would probably work just fine as long as the children are getting a diverse education. Ofcourse there is also the need for some socialization with other children. I wasn't homeschooled, but even though I did not fit the educational requirements for preschool, it was recommended I attend simply to learn how to socialize with children my own age. All of my siblings were 15+ years older, and that was all I knew. So as long as the educational and social experiences of a traditional school are substituted with alternatives, then I think its a swell idea.

Answer 10

I love Home Schooling my children! I plan to home school as long as I can manage. My choice was to use a set curriculum by Alpha Omega, Switched on Schoolhouse for my children when they reach 3rd grade. K-2 grade I am mixing Five in a Row and Lifepac. When the children get up in Junior High and High School I may use Switched on Schoolhouse Academy. I may also use Community College to fill in elective courses in High School. I feel with the resource we have I can home school K-12! Even with my limited education of a High School diploma.