Can I homeschool my kids even if I am a foreigner and my English is not perfect?

Question

I have a 4 and a 3 yr old , I was wondering if I can homeschool my kids. I speak Romanian and French and my English is ok but not perfect , I do not know a lot about education here in the US, but I heard the schools&teachers here don't have high standards of education , not to mention the moral values in the schools today . I heard the students don't have any respect for the teacher,are noisy in the classroom , they don't learn too much , which made me think about homeschool , but I am not to confident I can do it, especially that I am not a teacher. I consider myself educated, I went to nursing college in Europe , and know a lot about History,Geography,Chemistry,Biology etc
but I still don't know how to teach my kids and what they should learn . Also I have limited resources to buy curriculums when the public school is free. What do you think about public schools are they that bad?

Answer 1

Well, I'm not fond of the public school system. Your kids will not be socially isolated if you homeschool, you know that. You won't let that happen.

You can certainly homeschool your kids if your English isn't perfect. About half the kids that go to my local public high school don't speak English fluently, and your English seems fine to me.

American schools are bad, it's that simple. At my local high school -and the elementary school I went to- kids are always loud, there are fights in the hallways, kids are getting high and pregnant in school. The educational standard is low, because the whole system across the nation is mismanaged, choked, and never intended to do what we think it's supposed to do today.

You don't have to be a teacher to homeschool your kids. Many teachers don't know much about their subjects, they just teach from a book.

The idea of 'should know' is actually arbitrarily decided by someone in an office who doesn't know your kids. Think about it. What gives that person, who's never going to meet you, the authority to decide what facts are valid for your kids? Trust yourself.

Homeschooling is actually cheaper than public schooling, assuming you're a normal person and not the beau monde families that get on the news, who have better facilities than schools do. My family spends about $2000 a year homeschooling me and my twin sister.

You can either buy a curriculum or make one of your own. It will be very cheap now, actually, since your children are young. You can go to any bookstore and buy some workbooks in at least English and math. Then you can go to the library and take out other books on other subjects, or get them from a used bookstore, or from other families. Homeschooling is very cheap and much easier than people think it is.

You've taught your kids to speak, write, walk, and be human beings so far, why must you turn that responsibility over to someone whose only qualification is 'college' that's mostly crowd control? My cousin is a teacher in New Jersey, and she said that her teacher training -which she went through about two years ago- was 99% learning how to deal with fights among, keep a large group under control, and how to be authoritative. All things exclusive to the school system.

You can do it. At least try it. If you aren't satisfied, you can put them in school, but I think you should give it a shot.

Answer 2

Why not just educate your kids in your own language and see that they take some classes that will help them speak english well?

As far as the idea that public schools are the only place to find socialization, well, unless you live somewhere very isolated or plan to lock your kids up in the house, the idea that they will have no outside interaction as a homeschooler is ridiculous. There are scouts organizations, co-ops, community centers, parks, playgrounds, library programs, 4-H clubs, church activities, summer camps, sport teams, volunteering, making friends with the neighborhood kids-- soooo many things kids can do.

I'm beginning to feel really sorry for the people who think schools are the only place to socialize or learn or work with others-- they must not take their kids many places besides school, or maybe they didn't get to do much else when they were young. Kinda limited compared to all the homeschoolers I know who spend so much time out and about in the world in so many different settings.

MSB

Answer 3

Welcome, yes indeed you can home school.
You are more qualified than most teachers graduating from any teaching college today.

English is my second language too, I am from Europe as well.
We have successfully home schooled, and are still home schooling three now.

Most of the home school curriculum available is written in a manner so that the teacher/mom, or dad do not necessarily have to have any prior knowledge of the subject.

I am still amazed at the fact that we have been able to teach every subject, and have learned a thing or two along the way with our children as well.

Most , if not all that you have heard about the ills of the public school system is true, and then some.
There may be exceptions, and there are many good teachers who are trying their best in a failing system, however that my children would be lucky enough to be able to go to the exception is not a chance we are willing to take with the upbringing, and education of our children.
We also believe that the education, and upbringing of the children is our God given responsibility, and duty; not to be delegated/outsourced to strangers.

You, and your husband are already your children's teachers, you have been since they were born; home schooling becomes a natural extension of what you are doing now.
Who teaches them to talk, walk, play, color, who reads to them, points things out, and teaches them right from wrong?
The answer is mom, and dad.

Your children are still very young, and need little formal academics now, if any at all, so you have a year or two to research home schooling.

One of the best things you can do, is find a local home school support group; join them, and participate in their activities, and field trips.
This will give you a chance to talk to other home school families, and ask questions.

The other option is to attend a home school convention in your state, they will have speakers, and workshops on all kinds of home school topic's; many vendors will be there to present their curriculum's and books.
A convention will give you a chance to preview many different curriculum"s before making a decision on what to use.

I will give you some web sites to get additional factual information on home schooling.
I hope you, and your husband will find home schooling just as wonderful of an alternative to conventional schooling as we, and millions of other have.

Good luck.
God Bless.
http://www.hslda.org/
http://www.nheri.org/
http://www.nhen.org/
http://www.americanhomeschoolassociation.org/
http://unschooling.com/

Answer 4

Hello!
I homeschool my two children ages 11 and 9. I immigrated from Germany to America over 20 years ago, since my English skills did not come from School but rather from daily interaction with English speaking people I was hesistant to homeschool.
What I found out was that I actually learned myself as I went through the lessons prior to teaching it.
Now 5 years later I am self confident and assured that I do not "mess up" my children for life teaching them at home, but that I rather give them a gift.
I still dont know everything there is to know (who really does), but the doubts and fears subside after you see results in your children.
There is a mass of curriculums, support groups and homeschool activities now that will help you along in your homeschool journey if you so desire. You dont need a lot of financial resources to homeschool just the willingness to invest time and energy.
As far as your question about what I think about public schools and are they bad - for us the public school system does not allow for the individual freedom of the student to express themselves, the peer pressure is something to be avoided, the possibilities of school violence from educators and peers is not worth the "free education", just some of our reasons for homeschooling!
Either way you decide I wish you the best of luck - your children are still very young and you have time to investigate and decide when the time comes!

Answer 5

Didn't you ask a question not that long ago about this?

Yes, you can still homeschool your children. Even native speakers don't speak/read/write their language perfectly.

As I recommended before, as much as is legally and physically possible, homeschool in Romanian and/or French.

You do not have to have a teaching certificate to teach your children. Do you need a daycare certificate to be able to look after your kids? Do you need a certficate to teach your children how to count to 5? 10? 100? How to add 2+2? Tie their shoes? Of course not.

What they should learn can be easily decided by picking an all-in-one English program, if you wish. It'll all be there. Or you might get some English math resources, for example, but talk to your children only in Romanian when you actually do the work. There are tons of graded materials out there with the "what to learn" already decided. Teachers in public school don't learn in teacher preparation what kids of each grade level need to learn; they teach based on the state curriculum or on the resources available.

Each public school, each classroom, is going to differ in terms of how 'good' or 'bad' they are. Personally, the way many schools are here, I really don't want my kids to go to school until at least high school--and even then, I'm not sure (we've had recent bomb threats at one school and a letter left at another one by a student who was threatening to come to school with a gun and, I'm assuming, shoot at various individuals). The morals in school are not great here; the kids tend to go to school for 7 hours then have a bunch of homework to do (and despite school board recommendations of no more than an hour a day of homework at the elementary level, a slow reader might take a full 30 minutes to do their reading assignment, then take another 30 minutes to finish math, then another 30 minutes to an hour to work on a project, THEN they're expected to do another 15-30 minutes of silent reading from a book of their own choosing--2 hours, right there).

Kids can get far more done at home and then have time to be kids when they're homeschooled.

Since you've still got time to decide, this is what I'd recommend you do: search online for a local homeschooling support group (or two or three) and get to know the people better, go to park days and other events that are open to people who are looking, join online chat groups/Yahoo groups to continue learning about homeschooling and be able to ask your questions in a better forum than this one. As you get a better feel for what homeschooling is, you'll know better if it's a good choice for you or not.

Answer 6

your English is better than many who graduated from the schools here.
of course you can home school!

if you'd like a prepackaged curriculum to help you get started try k12.com. in many states you can participate in a virtual academy program and receive all the curriculum materials for free, along with a loaner computer.

many homeschooling parents find after a year or two that they prefer to make their own curriculum, and there are excellent resources available to help you with this. try the Core Knowledge series
(What your _ Grader Needs to Know)
or Home Learning Year by Year: How to Design a Homeschool Curriculum from Preschool Through High School by Rebecca Rupp.

google homeschooling, and unschooling, and Waldorf, and Montessori, and Classical Education.
you'll find a spectrum of possibilites for educating your kids at home.
feel free to contact me if you have any more questions. I'm fairly new to it myself, but we're getting great results and having a wonderful time so far, and I'm always glad to share what I've learned.

Answer 7

I think that it is awesome that you want to home school your kids, but I am going to have to discourage you. But don't dispear, it's all for good reason.

Your children need to be able to grow in their social wellbeing. This is usually done by mixing with other children. School is an excellent opportunity for students to do this in a real and relevant way.

The curriculums at school are especially designed for a students growth. It covers a lot of Key Learning Areas that are crucial for life skills. This includes english, ways of communicating in English, and the functions of the language, which would be very benefitial to learn. Schools are usually well resourced - being funded from the government.

You seem a little concerned about the morals and values involved in sending your children to a public school. In many cases I have seen, and I can testify to this - children learn their values and morals predominately at HOME. This is a parents ideal job to properly invest in a student.

School choice is important. Look around at schools in your area, at their resources and values before you enroll your students in it. If you are concerned, you can get involved with the school community to make it a better place =]

Hope this advice is helpful, and that I havent talked too much!!

Answer 8

Everything you have heard about American schools is true...but there is so much more that is positive.
The advantage about homeschooling your kids is that you can teach them well, if you're a responsible and intelligent parent. There are tests to confirm that they are up to grade level and the state can provide you with the "tools" you need to be sure you are teaching them the correct things. You can also use accelerated learning because you know your kids best.
However, it is important that they learn English better than you have. Not that you have needed to have "perfect English" but if they want to stay in the U.S., they need the grammar and the vocabulary. But, trust me!...they also need to know Romanian and French. I live in the U.S. and most people where I live speak Spanish but most of my friends, including my husband, are German and speak it. Even the U.S. is a lonely place if you only speak one language. I've had to learn some Spanish and I'm starting private German lessons in July. I took two years of French in High School, but remember little of it. Remember, we are a global community more than ever before. Just make sure that your kids know their math, science and literature...but make sure they are also socialized and well adjusted in U.S. culture.

Answer 9

English is my third language... I didn't start learning it until I was 12yo (I'm 22 now, and have been living in the US for 2.5 years now).

Teaching really isn't that complicated, and you already know what you need to teach. The first few years they have to learn reading, writing, arithmetic... all pretty basic. Obviously you'll have to throw in stuff like PE and arts as well, but they're kids... they'll run around and draw without you having to ask them. For science you just talk about nature, the weather, etc a bit and if possible plant a little garden with them, own a pet or w/e, and for social science you might enjoy reading up a bit on American history and such and telling your kids about it from time to time, as well as try to take them to some local museums (lots of them have free Tuesdays or such... look it up). So anyway, the first few years are pretty easy to do without a formal curriculum. Also, remember there are such things as libraries. :)

As to how the schools here in the US are... I'm Dutch, but my husband is American and he pretty much confirms our worries. Also, I went to college here for a couple of years and I'm not too impressed with how much the American students learned in highschool. If you want to have a clue about what's average for high school seniors, go to your library and borrow a GED prep book and take one of the practice tests. They test the GED on high school seniors and 40% of them fail. I don't know about Romania, but the GED reminded me a lot of the primary school end test we got at the end of 6th grade...

Find a local homeschooling support group. Join some mailing lists online (from Yahoo Groups, for example). Go to your library and look at whatever books they might have on homeschooling. Personally I'm planning on using unschooling with my kids. Anyway, you can do it. :)

Answer 10

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