# I have some questions about homeschooling children:



## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

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*I have some questions about homeschooling children:*


1. How far do you teach a child 12 years ?

2. what do you do if you become stumped on how to teach a subject ?

3. How many hours a day does the child do school work ?

4. Is this a 5 days a week teaching ?

5. If the child does not make the grade this year 
does the child have to take the class over next year ?

6. Do the children get a report card and grades ?

7. If they get grades, who does the grading ?

8. When the children are finished do they take a GED Test.

9. Do they get a diploma and who gives it to them ?

10. If they get a diploma will companies recognize it and hire them paying the same money they would to a person who has a diploma from a public school after graduation ?

11. Does the parent have to be taught first so they can teach ?

12. Do colleges recognize children and accept them after homeschooling ?


Just some thoughts I have.



bumpus
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## texastami (Sep 13, 2002)

bumpus said:


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> *I have some questions about homeschooling children:*
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Hope this helps your thoughts...


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## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

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texastami ... I appreciate your help.


I pray the Lord bless you for it.

bumpus
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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

1. How far do you teach a child 12 years ?
I taught my oldest 10 years (grades 2-12), but tutored him in calculus while he was in college. 

2. what do you do if you become stumped on how to teach a subject ? Find someone, or a class that they can take to learn that subject. There are many co-ops, tutors, & classes available now for home educated students

3. How many hours a day does the child do school work ? In early grades only 2-4, in later grades it's really hard to tell, as they tend to do school in bits and pieces. Some days it may only be a few hours, other days they may spend many hours just working on one project in addition to their other school work. We track hours in high school, and figured ours averaged over 8 hours a day. However, PS students do homework in addition to their school time, and we counted service projects and the time they worked at the courthouse.

4. Is this a 5 days a week teaching ? For us yes, we tend to take off from mid May to mid July. We have other friends that do year round at 4 days a week.

5. If the child does not make the grade this year 
does the child have to take the class over next year ?
I don't move on until the child understands the concept. This is one of the reasons we home educate. If we are using a text and they need more work, I find it in other books, using manipulatives, on the internet, or possibly with tutors. Sometimes we'll skip a topic and come back to it when they are ready for it (usually only in the very early grades). To be honest I don't test much in areas that are not concrete (like spelling and math are). I want my children to be able to intelligently discuss a topic, rather than just be able to pop answers out.

6. Do the children get a report card and grades ? In our area yes, but we turn them in to our cover school, and the cover school issues them. If they use a tutor or class, usually the teacher of that turns in the grades.

7. If they get grades, who does the grading ? In our case mostly me. For outside classes, tutors, music lessons, I get the grades from the teacher or tutor.

8. When the children are finished do they take a GED Test. 
Not so far. I have graduated two, both went to college and had no problems getting in and were accepted at every college they applied to. We actually got scholarship offers from some schools they didn't apply to. The oldest has graduated, and the 2nd is doing very well in college.

9. Do they get a diploma and who gives it to them ? 
In our case our cover school issues a diploma. 

10. If they get a diploma will companies recognize it and hire them paying the same money they would to a person who has a diploma from a public school after graduation ? 
In our area, most companies do not realize the difference between a home school diploma and traditional private school diplomas. However, for both of my son's, the only reason they were interviewed for their first jobs was that they put home-educated on the application. 

11. Does the parent have to be taught first so they can teach ?
Except for most of the science and math, I honestly don't remember learning most of what I have taught my children. For history, english, the arts and many other topics, I have learned along with them.

12. Do colleges recognize children and accept them after homeschooling ? Our two oldest sons had no problems. The schools look heavily at the college SAT or ACT scores.

Additional comments:
Both our oldest 'dual enrolled' while in their senior year of high school. Both made A's in those classes. 2nd son took one clep test, and wished he had taken more. So when he began, college, he already had 9 credits.
When we began looking at colleges about 6-7 years ago with our oldest, one college recruiter told me that home schoolers were either extremely well prepared, or woefully unprepared for college, with very few 'middle of the road' type students, but that the woefully unprepared was a very small percentage.

Just some thoughts I have.
Actually your thoughts are questions - but good ones. I teach my children to question respectfully, I think it's a good thing.

Dawn


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I think you will find that this is different for each home schooling family. Also different states require different things.



bumpus said:


> .
> *I have some questions about homeschooling children:*
> 
> 
> ...


I think a lot of info about home school is different according to where you live. It is best to check on state laws where you live.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

One of my friends has graduated three homeschooled kids. ALL THREE got FULL tuition scholarships to college based on their ACT scores, and the grades they got in online AP classes. The youngest one got a full ride to VANDERBILT university. Yea, I think we are past the point where homeschoolers don't get into college!

Cindyc.


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## sewfine (Aug 7, 2003)

Bumpus will not be able to answer any guestions for a while, because he was banned from HT for a week.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

bumpus said:


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> *I have some questions about homeschooling children:*
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> ...


Great questions!


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## shadowscribe (Jun 24, 2008)

I'm going to answer these both as someone that WAS homeschooled and someone that intends to homeschool my kids.

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1. How far do you teach a child 12 years ?*
Yup, 12 years, just like public and private schools.
*
2. what do you do if you become stumped on how to teach a subject ?*
Co-ops, private tutors, friends/family that know the subject better than you (my husband will be handling all upper-level math and science because that's just beyond me), dual enrollment with community colleges.

*3. How many hours a day does the child do school work ?*
Like many others have said it depends on how much the child is focussed that day. When I was homeschooled it could take me anywhere from 4 hours to 7 depending on how focussed I was and what exactly I was doing that day. I've noticed that for my younger siblings (up through 3rd grade) 2 hours seemed to be about the norm. 4th to 6th grade seemed to be about 3 hours, and after that 4 to 5 was average.

I'll expect my children to use up about the same, if not a little more, time. If they're consistently finishing something, like math or grammar exercises, "too quickly" then there's always room for more.

*4. Is this a 5 days a week teaching ?* A lot of people go five days a week, others dont. I intend to do hard-core school Monday-Thursday, with things like field trips, music/art lessons, and the weekly visit to the library to be on Friday. I also intend to school 6 weeks, take a week off, school six weeks, take a week off...year round.

*5. If the child does not make the grade this year
does the child have to take the class over next year ?*
One of the things that I've always admired about all the homeschool families that I've ever respected is that the education is focussed on UNDERSTANDING and not sheer volume or memorization. You dont move onto the next "step" in the subject until the child has a firm grasp/understanding on what you're working on now. It's pointless for them to not get simple division and then move on to larger, more complex problems and just say that you'll go over the "trouble spot" at the end of the year. It will screw their learning for the rest of the subject matter. As the teacher you have the time in the here and now to take an extra day or two to go over it and practice it until they understand.

So no, you shouldnt ever have to "repeat" a year like if you flunked a grade. Homeschooling is not designed to allow failure. If the kid's failing, the problem is most likely you and the style in which your trying to teach him than in the kid.

*6. Do the children get a report card and grades ?*
That is completely up to you. My parents would "spot grade" my day to day work and if they saw that I was having a problem I'd have to do extra problems/exercises. My tests were graded. We didnt get report cards, but that is something I do intend to do with my kids. I'll probably have a grade spreadsheet and keep track of their day to day grades as well as their tests and issue a report card every 12-15 weeks or so to let them know how they're doing.
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7. If they get grades, who does the grading ?* You do. You're the teacher.

*8. When the children are finished do they take a GED Test.* You dont have to. I certainly didn't. I saw no need for it...I had a diploma and I'd gotten into the University that I wanted to. Why test more than you have to?

*9. Do they get a diploma and who gives it to them ?* In theory I have a diploma. I never wanted an official one though...again, I never saw the point (though I think my parents have one somewhere that they printed and signed for me...they wanted one more than I did! I think to prove to the neighbors that they werent crazy and that a homeschooled child could graduate!) One of the highlights for me of homeschooling was the fact that I didnt have to dress up in a silly gown and attend a grad. ceremony. I have transcripts and records of my work proving that I graduated. 

*10. If they get a diploma will companies recognize it and hire them paying the same money they would to a person who has a diploma from a public school after graduation ?* I dont see why not. In general most homeschooled children score higher on standardized testing than the majority of public schools. Several years ago my mother was very ill and so schooling lapsed quite a bit for several months. All five of my siblings scored in the 90% or higher (scored better than 90% of the people that took the test). My brother, at 14 (just starting HS freshman), took the ACT and scored a 24. That is a good enough score to gain him entrance into 60-70% of the nations Universities. 

*11. Does the parent have to be taught first so they can teach ?* Any parent can teach their child. I knew a homeschool family who consisted of parents that hadnt completed further than 7th and 10th grade, respectively, yet homeschooled their children though highschool, with grades that have gotten the 2 that have graduated thus far, full-ride scholarships. There is no offical "learning" that you must go through. You just have to be willing to brush up on things you're shaky on, learn things that are new to you, and constantly research...and in subjects that completely baffle you, be willing to admit that you need to find your child a tutor, a co-op or something similar.

*12. Do colleges recognize children and accept them after homeschooling ?* YES. I graduated from homeschool. I applied to 6 different Universities. Was accepted by all six, offered a full-ride at one, and partial scholarships at 3 others. I know a gentleman that work in my Universities Admissions department and he has told me time and time again that a homeschooled individual with good, solid test scores, and a good GPA, with the usual amount of extracurricular activities is more likely to get in than someone that is public schooled...why? Because homeschooled students, in general, know how to manage their time, be their own boss, and use a library to its fullest. They are more likely to succeed because they know how to and because generally a parent as a teacher is a much harder task-masker (as far as understanding and learning goes) than a paid teacher. A parent-teacher is after an education of understanding, a paid teacher is after good test scores. There's a world of difference.


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## RockyGlen (Jan 19, 2007)

bumpus said:


> .
> *I have some questions about homeschooling children:*
> 
> 
> ...



Just like everything else - there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. The right way is spectacular. The wrong way is disastrous.


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