# Is home schooling for us?



## GBov

I am just starting the research on whether or not I want to home school my kids. With another move on the cards they don't want to start another new school so have started asking if I will home school them rather than send them to public school any more.

Ages 11, 13 and 15 and they all get very good grades, mostly As and Bs right now.

So those of you who home school, what are the pros of it? Do you enjoy doing it? Is it fun? Hard? Easy?

Any information you lovely people would like to share is gratefully appreciated.


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## rosehaven

GBov said:


> I am just starting the research on whether or not I want to home school my kids. With another move on the cards they don't want to start another new school so have started asking if I will home school them rather than send them to public school any more.
> 
> Ages 11, 13 and 15 and they all get very good grades, mostly As and Bs right now.
> 
> So those of you who home school, what are the pros of it? Do you enjoy doing it? Is it fun? Hard? Easy?
> 
> Any information you lovely people would like to share is gratefully appreciated.



Good morning!

What state are you moving to? This will help me answer.

Rosehaven


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## GBov

rosehaven said:


> Good morning!
> 
> What state are you moving to? This will help me answer.
> 
> Rosehaven


We are in Florida. Its an interstate move rather than one out of state but its one of many and the kids are sick of changing schools lol.


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## Elffriend

GBov said:


> So those of you who home school, what are the pros of it? Do you enjoy doing it? Is it fun? Hard? Easy?


It's fun and easy and hard, depending on the day.  I'm done homeschooling now, but I educated two kids from kindergarten through high school. There were wonderful days and days I wanted to pull my hair out. The good far outweighed the bad.

The pros are probably too numerous to list and differ from family to family based on each families' needs. I liked that my kids could work at their own pace. I liked that I could pull together curriculum from many different sources to fit each year's goals. There were no bells ringing to tell them to stop doing some really interesting science experiment and move on to math. They could technically be in 7th grade but doing 8th grade math, 7th grade history, 6th grade spelling and reading at whatever level they were comfortable with. There were a lot more field trips with our homeschooling group than the public school kids went on. Doing a full days work homeschooling takes a lot less time than in a traditional school setting. There's less busy work, less disruption, more focus on the actual work of the day. Kids can work at a desk or table, or curled up on the sofa, or spread books across their beds. If you need to take a day off, you can do that whenever you need. You, and your kids, get to be in control.


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## Southern Forest

I'm a teacher in public schools in Mississippi and have seriously considered home-schooling my own kids. That is not because of bad schools...I've been blessed to work in successful, albeit rural and relatively high-poverty schools. The only troubles I have seen are the state tests, which are onerous to deal with. I have taught algebra and while my kids (students) have always done well (in the top 10% of the state), it wears one down dealing with it year after year. As I can teach history, science, and mathematics up to and including calculus, plus I'm a writer so I figure literature would be fine, I have sorely considered a straight-up move to home-schooling. I have a close friend whose wife home-schools his kids in Alabama, and they live in one of the top districts in the state. He just was to ensure that their moral education is included with the three R's (he's also a writer who does IT work). The only think keeping us back is the lost income. Whilst I get income from writing and forestry (I'm also a registered forester), the retirement and steady pay-check of a teacher's salary in Mississippi is still nothing to sneeze at. Okay, it's easy to sneeze at, but it's not nothing!

To me, the main consideration would be what level of knowledge you feel comfortable with. History is pretty easy to cover, literature less so, and chemestry/physics/upper math can be daunting. If you feel up to the task, those can all be tackled with the right perseverance and willingness to self-train. Too many times, though, I see folks "home school" in this area, which is basically dropping out of school. Those folks are not doing right by their kids, but they don't care as they dropped out themselves.

In the end, if the lack of income and the level of education you have do not get in the way, all is well. In our area, home school kids can even compete athletically and do other socializing-things.


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## Lisa in WA

I very highly recommend The Calvert School. It's a rigorous education and they finally offer high school now. I used it with my daughter and the teachers manual is a masterpiece. It tells you exactly what to do and the kids get a superb education. I used it with my youngest daughter and she just started law school. I think it really helped her learn how to learn.
My daughter and I both have such happy memories of our homeschooling days.

http://www.calverteducation.com/


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## PrairieClover

The Calvert School is a very good one, but as far as I know only goes through 8th grade. I knew some kids who used it and the following year enrolled in the community college (since they qualified and were still under age), it was free. 
Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart, lol. It can be hard, fun, very interesting, boring, hair-pulling and lead to burn out if you push too hard, kids don't work as hard you want, etc. 
Sometimes when going from regular school to homeschooling kids need a phasing in/phasing out period. Even though they've just had a summer break, they were expecting to go to school maybe? 
I can suggest several different websites to check into, either for the homeschool yearly plan or materials to buy. I hold no interest in any of these companies and do not receive any compensation for mentioning or linking. 
Rainbow Resources has a lot of curricula and offers highly-respected opinions on materials. 
Love to Learn dot net has good prices. 
Memoria Press is classical education and a good resource for Latin materials.
Saxon Math is popular, some like it, some don't. I find it easy to use.
Charlotte Mason Education, check out: ambleside online. This has year by year planning for a more "relaxed" approach. 

If you are truly interested, deeply considering it, I can give you more resources to look up on the 'nets.
When first starting out I read John Taylor Gatto's Dumbing Us Down. I also read Homeschooling for Excellence by David and Micki Colfax who were school teachers and left NYC due to violence directed towards them, who turned to raising their kids in the country in California. After college, one was appointed to be the Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy by Pres. Obama. 
I was told I was being brainwashed reading these crazy books. Mr. Gatto was named NYC Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.
I just wanted my kids to learn and not be afraid. I started homeschooling because my little first grader was being bullied in the restroom. The teacher's answer to my displeasure was for him to use the faculty restroom. Really? 
Are my kids geniuses? No. Yes. Maybe. I had hoped they would do really well, but it was hard. Now, we are nearly finished, just a couple more years to go with the last couple of kids. Drugs, including heroin overdoses and deaths, and teen pregnancy in high school were and still are pretty popular past-times in the school districts we have lived in. 
Don't skimp on the basics: reading, writing, spelling, math, technology, science, history, geography, art and music, exercise, and chores. No television most of the time. Restrict the internet usage. Some kids just can't stay on task unless you are standing or sitting right next to them, so be aware of that type of behavior/personality/habit.
Take it easy on them and yourself. If you are a guy and you want your wife to do it then forget everything I have said. This was all on me, not my husband. He has been supportive through it all.
I did the planning. I never used companies like ABeka or other boxed curricula. I pulled it together from various resources.


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## Lisa in WA

PrairieClover said:


> The Calvert School is a very good one, but as far as I know only goes through 8th grade. I knew some kids who used it and the following year enrolled in the community college (since they qualified and were still under age), it was free.
> .


As I posted, it finally does offer a high school curriculum and I provided the link so you can verify. I wish they'd had it 8 years ago.


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## PrairieClover

I'm sorry, Lisa, I don't know why I didn't see what you said about Calvert. I don't want to step on toes on the forums here and be seen as pot-stirrer. I guess my main point with Calvert was that it was good enough, the kids did well enough, that community college was next for them after 8th grade with Calvert.
Last night I later saw that this thread is a few months old.


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## moorethemerrier

GBov, do you have an update?


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