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lovemykidstoo 09:51 AM 10-21-2015
A woman that I used to care for her boys just started homeschooling her older boy. He's in the 5th grade. He's been in 2 different schools and has a hard time socially. The younger son is in preschool. It made me wonder, because I know some here homeschool, why you did that. Waht are the pros and cons of homeschooling? Thank you !!
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lizzlee 10:07 AM 10-21-2015
The main reason my family started homeschooling was to meet the special needs of my son who is on the autism spectrum. I worked in the school he attended through first grade and watched him struggle every day and decided we could meet his needs better at home. I'm a Christian and throughout his last year at school I felt that I was being called to homeschool him and his brother...but that's another story.

Some of the pros are that I can make accommodations to meet his learning needs, both boys have a lot more one on one instruction than could ever be available in a classroom, the boys usually finish school by around lunch time and are able to pursue other interests or help me with daycare or chores, we have more freedom to follow interest based learning: for example my eleventh grader is taking geology as one of his high school science classes and has set up a youtube channel as part of his computer science class, we can school to accommodate my husband's sometimes odd work schedule: if he's off Friday we can take off and do school on Sunday or whenever, the pros go on and on...
The cons, high school math (ugh), feeling confident that they're learning what they need to learn, and making ourselves be structured and diligent without the accountability of a school system.
The "s word" is not a con, I don't believe most kids get much positive socialization at school, and most homeschool kids that I know have as much extracurricular stuff going on as kids in public school.
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finsup 11:04 AM 10-21-2015
We have choose homeschooling for our kids (still young, my oldest is 4) because we feel its what God has called us (personally) to do. A few years ago we started looking at the local public schools and private ones. The public ones are not doing well. Parent reviews aren't happy, kids are doing worse, more and more discipline problems are happening, common core, and a big one, not faith based. We knew that wasn't the right fit for us. There are some good private ones but we're on number 3 now and have left our family size up to God. Private school wise, the costs add up rapidly. I love that with homeschooling I get to choose exactly what their taught. I get to see when they first "get" something. That we will have so much freedom to really let them develop and pursue their interests. I love that we can work at our own pace. Cons...sometimes I feel a little sad they won't have the same experiences I did. I did pretty well in school and had a lot of good memories from that time. I just hope they will look back and say the same!
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Blackcat31 12:02 PM 10-21-2015
I am not a homeschooling parent.

My kids are 24 and 27 and if I had to do it ALL over again, I would have 100% FOR SURE homeschooled my youngest.

Maybe, maybe not my oldest but for sure my son.
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Angelsj 12:02 PM 10-21-2015
Huge pro: Every child can work at their own pace. Genius at math, but behind in reading...no problem, and no one is labelled. I can have one in 5th grade math and 2nd grade reading and no one knows or cares.
Time for their own interests. My youngest daughter spends an hour or two every day playing her violin, drawing, creating manga or riding horses. My son loves minecraft and archery. He also has a strong interest in creating and editing videos for you tube.
Once school is over they can do their own things, typically no homework, or very little. We also accomplish almost everything in four days a week, so I can work outside the home the other three.
Con: It is not easy and requires commitment. I truly believe even a mediocre home school parent can beat virtually any public school, but it does require commitment from the parent to do the job well. That said, if there is a desire, you can do this! It is much easier to do than someone who has never tried generally believes. Especially if you start young and use a good support group with long term home schoolers to support you.
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Unregistered 01:00 PM 10-21-2015
I would recommend online home school for some one who wants there kid out of public school and u didnt have the time to homeschool yourself.I did online school from when I was about 10 or11 .I really love it it was only a couple hours a day and u can do it anytime and if dont want to do it one day its fine.work at your own pace so u can go fast or slow be in a higher grade things like that.I personally hated school I think maby I have anxiety, I also experienced some bad schools.I was also babysitting very young fulltime since I was not in school it was nice making my own money at such a young age.I really loved kids from young age.
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Nisaryn 10:43 PM 10-21-2015
I started homeschooling my daughter this year for 5th grade mainly because she was identified as Gifted/Talented in 3rd grade. The school she went to at the time was AMAZING and she had tons of opportunity to be challenged in her regular classes and able to follow her own personal interests. Then we moved....the school she went to for 4th grade was just terrible. She was re-tested (because our paperwork from her previous 2yrs wasn't enough "proof" apparently) and scored in the 99th percentile, she was put in Seminar classes except for one issue...her school didn't offer seminar classes and didn't even have a G/T teacher. Her regular teacher wasn't able to offer 'tougher' work for her and the Principle basically told us 'I don't believe that any child has greater needs than another'...... which isn't what G/T is about AT ALL! We pushed for my daughter to get extra work, apply herself to different projects, she used to do tutoring but they said she couldn't do that either, etc. etc. so we decided to pull her and do homeschool. We use the Bookshark curriculum which is reading/history heavy. She loves it, on Fridays I don't have any kids so we use that day to plan field trips and work on her extra personal interest projects; currently she is making her own game in RPG Maker and learning HTML and Java. She wants to learn C++ this next semester. Girl loves her computers! So really, we only homeschooled because her school here was crappy but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I never realized just how special she was until I actually had the time to get to know her! She loves to help me with the daycare kiddies but only after all her work is completed for the day .
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LysesKids 02:27 AM 10-22-2015
Originally Posted by Nisaryn:
I started homeschooling my daughter this year for 5th grade mainly because she was identified as Gifted/Talented in 3rd grade. The school she went to at the time was AMAZING and she had tons of opportunity to be challenged in her regular classes and able to follow her own personal interests. Then we moved....the school she went to for 4th grade was just terrible. She was re-tested (because our paperwork from her previous 2yrs wasn't enough "proof" apparently) and scored in the 99th percentile, she was put in Seminar classes except for one issue...her school didn't offer seminar classes and didn't even have a G/T teacher. Her regular teacher wasn't able to offer 'tougher' work for her and the Principle basically told us 'I don't believe that any child has greater needs than another'...... which isn't what G/T is about AT ALL! We pushed for my daughter to get extra work, apply herself to different projects, she used to do tutoring but they said she couldn't do that either, etc. etc. so we decided to pull her and do homeschool. We use the Bookshark curriculum which is reading/history heavy. She loves it, on Fridays I don't have any kids so we use that day to plan field trips and work on her extra personal interest projects; currently she is making her own game in RPG Maker and learning HTML and Java. She wants to learn C++ this next semester. Girl loves her computers! So really, we only homeschooled because her school here was crappy but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I never realized just how special she was until I actually had the time to get to know her! She loves to help me with the daycare kiddies but only after all her work is completed for the day .
I can totally relate... I had the same problem with my youngest dd; we had her IQ tested at age 9 after fighting with the school for 6 months & it was high, but WV considered gifted children special needs and didn't have anything to offer... heck they wouldn't even let her skip a grade even though she could already do 8th grade maths. Homeschooling was a blessing to me also, and we could move every few years & she wasn't lost in bureaucracy shuffles. DD put herself thru College & as of last month, after graduating boot camp, is Stationed in Monterey CA thanks to the Navy
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lovemykidstoo 05:49 AM 10-22-2015
Thank you. Very interesting information.
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Controlled Chaos 07:33 AM 10-22-2015
I have taught in public and private schools and had an incredible experience as a teacher in both. My dd is in public school now for kindy. We could never afford private, so if the public school were not good I would consider homeschooling. BUT I am a huge believer in public schools. I learned a lot from my good and bad teachers in my journey through public school and I know my parents could not have provided those same learning experiences even though they have advanced degrees. I think it is a very personal and case specific decision.
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LysesKids 07:58 AM 10-22-2015
Originally Posted by Controlled Chaos:
I have taught in public and private schools and had an incredible experience as a teacher in both. My dd is in public school now for kindy. We could never afford private, so if the public school were not good I would consider homeschooling. BUT I am a huge believer in public schools. I learned a lot from my good and bad teachers in my journey through public school and I know my parents could not have provided those same learning experiences even though they have advanced degrees. I think it is a very personal and case specific decision.
See my parents also had higher degrees as do many of my siblings and my dad told me if Homeschooling had been an option in my school days, he would have gladly done it as I was bored in many classes, plus I was sick a lot; he saw how I homeschooled my 2 daughters & believes that I did the right thing for them (yep, even though I traveled & did childcare lol) - My children all have great careers now & my older dd supplements my oldest grandsons work due to the EIP not doing enough to help
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Cozy_Kids_Childcare 08:52 AM 10-22-2015
I'm doing a ton of research on this right now. My middle child wants to be homeschooled soooooo bad. I just wanna make sure I'm 10000% prepared for it. My oldest would put up a huge fight to be homeschooled. My youngest might end up being homeschooled next year for Kindergarten.

Our schools only teach what is on the yearly standardized testing nothing more.
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daycarediva 10:04 AM 10-22-2015
I homeschooled my dd for early elementary. She's now 16. It started as due to a medical issue (dialysis 3x/w, the tutor provided by the school was awful and unreliable). I was able to work evenings, dh worked days and we homeschooled her (all her desk work was done while on dialysis). She chose to enter school and all but one year of middle school, has been happy with that decision. She entered school academically advanced, we opted not to bump her up a grade for social reasons/age. She has always been very shy, so school was good for her. She could graduate a year early (at 16) but she's opting not to since she is able to take free college credit courses if she stays in high school next year. She is taking math, english and science at our local community college as a junior this year, and has a work-study internship through her advanced placement class. Amazing program/public high school here. We pay $15 per course + books. When she graduates high school in 2017 (at 17 years old), she will be a about a year shy of a bachelors degree AND being a licensed veterinary technician and applying to graduate school. She will have a job for the veterinarian that she does her work-study program for, AND he said she could work summers there when she is home for college. At 17. I could NOT have replicated those opportunities.

Ds/14 with autism-He is in a private school, his therapies are built into his day. The school provides so much therapy per day/week, and we are able to supplement that and his private therapists travel to his school (pd for by out ins and copays OOP). Lots of hands on, vocational, life skill learning. The social aspect of it is also really good for him. He has made amazing progress. I could NOT replicate that. They also have a sports program. He exells at all things physical. He won a punt/pass/kick competition. He is doing special olympics things at school as well to compete. They allow him to pursue his own interests. He loves claymation, stop motion animation, comics and video editing. He's getting REALLY good. He is also at grade level, but we didn't push for a regents diploma because the demands stressed him out (unnecessarily, he will most likely never be able to live independently, so we aren't worried about college).

DS/10 He is in all advanced placement classes. Very similar to our daughter. He is doing the exact same thing she was academically, except ds is way more outgoing (he is class president for his grade, 2nd year in a row. Joins/participates in EVERYTHING, easily makes friends, etc.) We had discussed homeschooling him, but since he loves his friends and we know how well he can do academically there, we just decided to supplement. So he takes classes/sports/clubs outside of school as well to pursue his many interests. Eg. Lego Robotics, fiddle (already plays viola), snowboarding, hockey, football, chess club, theater, YMCA classes and activities. In addition to orchestra, chorus, student government, kindergarten helper, debate team.

DS/7 has ADHD. He has really struggled with the demands/developmentally inappropriate practices of public school, but he flourishes socially. We have had a heck of a time. For K, we LOVED his teacher and she allowed for a lot of movement and hands on. Ds did well. We came SO CLOSE to pulling him out to homeschool last year. We didn't simply because he is Mr. Popular. All of the kids love him (teachers, not so much). He's a class clown, and a total jock. He is on/slightly above grade level, so no enrichment activities. We also had a meeting with the school district to discuss his placement this year. They were amazing and heard our concerns and found an awesome placement for ds. It's an integrated classroom (for kids with HFA) so there are more adults, and a LOT more hands on/active work with a little more support since there is 1 teacher and 1 aide with 16 kids instead of 1:24 last year and nothing hands on. They have child led interest projects, they do challenges each morning instead of deskwork. Eg. repairing a flashlight, replicating this lego shape, an I SPY hunt around the room.
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