# What are my options?



## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

The schools here have became very absurd in several ways. My children are minorities in their school and are frequently subjected to racism because they are white. All in all its effecting their grades and attitudes in a negative fashion. 
We are unable to afford private schools so we are considering home schooling. How do you home school though when you cant remember jack about most of the things you learned in school? I rebelled against language arts so I have trouble with basics such as good grammar and other things that I wish now I had not blown off. I dont remember much about advanced mathematics but I was good at it and never made less than a A in that class, along with social studies and history, but dont ask me to figure it out now. I have memory problems as it is.

So how does some one lead the blind if they are blind themselves? Is there online material? Can something like the ACE curriculum be used in a home school environment? I went to a private school and that was the program they used, however I did not get credits. 
I love my daughter but even though shes smart shes also dense on learning new things which scares me as I dont know if I can teach her and keep my sanity but somethings got to give.


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

If your problem is mostly with the environment of the public school, check to see if your state has the option of the online schools, aka virtual schools. You do the schooling via computer (which most of them provide) at home, but are still enrolled in your local school district and receive their materials and teacher support.

If you have concerns about the content of what is being taught in the public schools as well as the environment, there are also independent options for online schooling (BJU, for example) that are considered to be more like traditional homeschooling because the student is not enrolled in the public school system. Be sure to check to see what your state rules are for homeschooling. (HSLDA usually has up to date information regarding the rules for each state.) Unfortunately, this option tends to be a bit pricey for many budgets, but all the instruction is provided and the parent doesn't have to do much of the teaching.

HSLDA has done studies that show that a parent's motivation for their child to get a good education is just as powerful as the parent's level of higher education. So you don't have to know it all, just know how to find help to fill in the gaps. For example, you might know someone at church who is a retired public school teacher who would be willing to help with your daughter's learning challenges, or your mother may be a math whiz who could fill in as a math tutor to get over any rough spots. The bottom line is just to make sure that the material does get taught, whether by you or your designated substitute.


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## kirkmcquest (Oct 21, 2010)

If you aren't confident in your lessons, don't do it. Teaching is a full time job and its not something you can do without investing a lot of time and energy into doing it right. The consequences for doing a poor job are major.

I am not saying you can't do it, just be prepared and do 'your homework' before embarking on this monumental task. It is a shame that black on white racism is so prevalent and goes largely ignored by popular media/culture. Can't you move to a better district? That might be easier than investing years of effort into home schooling.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Cannon_Farms said:


> The schools here have became very absurd in several ways. My children are minorities in their school and are frequently subjected to racism because they are white. All in all its effecting their grades and attitudes in a negative fashion.
> We are unable to afford private schools so we are considering home schooling. How do you home school though when you cant remember jack about most of the things you learned in school? I rebelled against language arts so I have trouble with basics such as good grammar and other things that I wish now I had not blown off. I dont remember much about advanced mathematics but I was good at it and never made less than a A in that class, along with social studies and history, but dont ask me to figure it out now. I have memory problems as it is.
> 
> So how does some one lead the blind if they are blind themselves? Is there online material? Can something like the ACE curriculum be used in a home school environment? I went to a private school and that was the program they used, however I did not get credits.
> I love my daughter but even though shes smart shes also dense on learning new things which scares me as I dont know if I can teach her and keep my sanity but somethings got to give.


You could opt for Georgia Cyber Academy. It's free, it's through public school system and they do the teaching and provide all the necessary equipment, including lab equipment for science classes. Here's the link.

http://v7.k12.com/ga/

I have not used them, but a neighbor did, and she didn't have to do anything other than make sure the kids did their homework.


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## shellmar (Apr 4, 2008)

Cannon_Farms said:


> Can something like the ACE curriculum be used in a home school environment? I went to a private school and that was the program they used, however I did not get credits.


I use the ACE curriculum. My oldest DS received credits and is in his first semester in college. My son received his diploma through our evaluator. Our evaluator has a private school. I'm not sure of the laws in your state, that is something you will have to check on.

There are many resources available to homeschoolers today. Perhaps there is a homeschooling group in your area where you could get help to get started.

Homeschooling can be very challenging, however, it is also very rewarding. I think that if you and your children are willing to work hard, you will succeed.

When I started to homeschool, I was not confident that I would be able to do it. But you know what? I can. You can too. 

I believe that you will do a good job because you are concerned that you won't do a good job. Because of this concern and love for your children you will work hard to learn the concepts and then be able to teach them to your children. Sometimes I find myself learning right along with the children.


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## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

I had a rough childhood and never did well in school mainly because I was in 23 different Elm and middle schools. However when a dear sweet lady took my education under her wing and put me into private school I excelled with the ACE curriculum, at that time the school was just starting and I dont remember if the ACE was not credible or the school itself.

Sonshine, Im really liking the program you posted, I cant find where they get full credits or not but since its still a public school I dont see it not being.

As far as moving, granted I was silly not to look at the schools but we are in a strong agriculture area that isnt heavily populated however the town of which we live in is dark. Most of the folks I have meet are nice enough but throw farm kids in with city black kids who think having a dog is nasty, well it just doesnt go together. 
My son of course is the cool kid so he doesnt have as much problems, however hes more worried about being cool than his future, my daughter is the main one who gets picked on, shes got issues to begin with. 
We dont have a huge mortgage but we are upside down in our home and we moved here because it was an affordable area, being close to ATL and another major city its the furthest we could move out and keep our jobs.


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## Whisperwindkat (May 28, 2009)

Most curriculums have teachers manuals that can accompany them. These teachers manuals actually guide you in teaching the material. There are also many online programs that do the teaching for you. When you get to higher academics in high school you might want to think about dual enrollment at a local college. We already know we are going that route with calculus. Our daughter will get college credit and high school credit at the same time. Dual enrollment is typically cheaper than traditional college enrollment so it is also a good way to get some of the basics out of the way at a cheaper cost. Don't worry as long as you are committed to their education then there are many things out there in the curriculum world to help where your educational skills might be weak. Blessings, Kat


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## kinderfeld (Jan 29, 2006)

We are currently useing the A Beka Book curriculum. www.abeka.com 
I am mentioning this because it offers a variety of options for the homeschooling parent. You can choose to teach the children yourself, or do an accredited program that gives you the option of teaching yourself then mailing to their teachers to grade their work, or use dvd's or online where their teachers teach your children. 
If you look on the website you can find out when they will have a display near your area. Then you can talk to the represenative. The one we spoke to homeschooled his children useing the dvd program. The information he gave us was very helpful. 
From my own experience, homeschooling my children is challenging and very rewarding. My sister is a teacher, who completely objects to the homeschooling idea. You will get that alot and not just from teachers or family. But when your child is begging for you to teach him and loves learning, it will make all of the difficulties feel not so important. 
If you are looking for a book to read about homeschooling, check out your public library. Ours has over 30 books on homeschooling and several resources. The library is a wonderful resource for homeschoolers.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

They'll get the same credits they would get through public school. Basically it's public school online. I've actually wanted to get DS in this, but he would need special ed, and have never been able to get in touch with that department to ask about it. BUT, I had given my neighbor the link when she wanted to pull her DS, and she got him started in a week. They shipped everything she needed for him, plus, in our area, you can even still do parent/teacher conferences. Your area may have a different way to set those up, but here you actually go to the school and meet the cyber teachers, that way if you have questions you can talk to them face to face.



Cannon_Farms said:


> I had a rough childhood and never did well in school mainly because I was in 23 different Elm and middle schools. However when a dear sweet lady took my education under her wing and put me into private school I excelled with the ACE curriculum, at that time the school was just starting and I dont remember if the ACE was not credible or the school itself.
> 
> Sonshine, Im really liking the program you posted, I cant find where they get full credits or not but since its still a public school I dont see it not being.
> 
> ...


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

You will be amazed that you will just learn along with your kids. Teacher's book are a great help with your not sure of the answer yourself (yep, I use them regularly). We've been homeschooling from the start and by the time my oldest was in 3rd grade I had already doubled my understanding of grammar!! We have just now found a great spelling program (DS is 6th and DD is 2nd/3rd). I'm learning as much as they are...I never knew spelling rules, I grew up just rote memorizing how words were spelled. Now that we are learning the rules and whys my kids are expanding their ability to spell word by the 100's a week....not just 20! (And, yes, I am learning to fix many of the words I have never been able to spell, too, and we just started Level 2 of the 6 level program!)


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## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

They dont seem to teach the rules of spelling anymore its all about phonics site words. I had to teach my kids how to sound out words. I can see where they are going on the whole phonics thing but once again they are forgetting the foundations and trying to make learning a one size fits all aspect.

I think we are going to try the public program for now starting this fall, they only have a few more weeks of school left so I cant see changing that now. Im hopeful that they will least get some good root growing time and see its not that hard to learn.


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## Sunbee (Sep 30, 2008)

You can do this. You can read and write and do arithmetic, right? You can learn the rest along with your child.
Any good book intended for homeschooling will be designed to explain what's going on. My kids use Saxon math, and everything is explained. My eight year old can pretty much read and understand the instructions himself--every now and then he asks for help but he can nearly self-teach himself at eight.
Look up some different curriculum options, see if you can find a local homeschool group that fits you (there are all sorts of different homeschool groups) or an online group, if you can't find a local. Don't get too overwhelmed. Remember there are not only new homeschoolers like you, but there are also second generation homeschoolers like me, and curriculums and methods aren't always labeled as to who they are best suited for.
Use your local library in your research. They may not have the curriculum books that you want to see, but they can almost certainly get them via inter-library loan for you. Most librarians are very supportive of homeschoolers--we're big customers.
Think about what results you want to have when you're done and pick a curriculum, or design one, that will get you there. Do you want your kids to do calculus in high school, or are you happy if they do algebra in high school and leave calculus for college? Will you be happy if they master four foreign languages, or are two years of studying one enough? Do you want them to be able to read in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, or is English sufficient? Some homeschoolers do much more academics than public or private schools. Others do much more on hands on education--don't care if the kids can read Latin but they should be able to plumb a toilet and build a shed. Many are somewhere in the middle.
One more thing--you say your daughter is smart but dense on learning new things--has she maybe learned from her peer group that being smart is not sexy? Some or all of that may self resolve once she's been out of that environment for a while. Read the thread on deschooling if you haven't already, it has some good advice (I think--never had to deal with that issue myself).


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## Cannon_Farms (Aug 28, 2008)

My son is the one more geared to Im going to make people laugh and not pay attention, my daughter is more like yaadaa yaadaa oh look squirrel, several minutes later after talking about the squirrel is back to yaadaa yaadaa. Shes been evaluated and isnt really full ADD but I dont think shes far from it, and shes either hormonal or bipolar and I mean that in a serous way, Im hoping its just hormones but I think that she could do better in a quieter environment.

My strongest suits are common sense and Science, anything that does with agriculture and livestock. Pretty much myself in a nut shell, if it interest me I excel in it, if not well.....


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## Immaculate Sublimity (Apr 30, 2003)

kirkmcquest said:


> If you aren't confident in your lessons, don't do it. Teaching is a full time job and its not something you can do without investing a lot of time and energy into doing it right. The consequences for doing a poor job are major.
> 
> I am not saying you can't do it, just be prepared and do 'your homework' before embarking on this monumental task. It is a shame that black on white racism is so prevalent and goes largely ignored by popular media/culture. Can't you move to a better district? That might be easier than investing years of effort into home schooling.


Say what? I unschool, I've unschooled for 15 years now. My oldest is enrolled in University of Michigan persuing linguistics and doing just fine. Teaching wasnt a 'full time job', Nor did we use any particular sort of 'curriculum' and we didnt have formal 'lessons' at all. however... there were things to be learned in everything we did - just in living. I guess you could say our 'unschool' was in session 24/7/365 if my kids had an interest in something, or a question, we covered it - day or night, weekends holidays and vacations - and ESPECIALLY if the power was out, for some reason they wanted to learn MORE then. If I didnt already KNOW the answer... we got on line and learned it together(when the power was on, of course). Many of my friends and family saw us as a train wreck waiting to happen - some even eagerly anticipated it. Funnily enough, their kids either didnt get accepted to University, or had no desire to go. Heck, one of them - their major concern was - "if she's homeschooled, hows she going to go to prom" as if 'prom' were the be all and end all of the educational career. *just laughs*

The consequences come in if you do NOTHING at all. And they can be major in that case, but I think you'd be amazed how much kids simply WANT to learn stuff. When they want to learn... they are FAR more receptive at retaining the information you give them. As opposed to having something they dont care about at all - shoved down their throat.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

Cannon_Farms said:


> The schools here have became very absurd in several ways. My children are minorities in their school and are frequently subjected to racism because they are white. All in all its effecting their grades and attitudes in a negative fashion.


Do the kids want to stay home, and learn there?
Do the kids realize this is not "stay home and watch tv" but that they will have to do school work?
Are they willing to give you 100%, and are you willing to give them 100%?

If yes, go to www.hslda.com and click on your state to find out what ALL the rules are before you yank them out of school. You can also find homeschool groups / co-ops in your area that you can join.



> We are unable to afford private schools so we are considering home schooling. How do you home school though when you cant remember jack about most of the things you learned in school? I rebelled against language arts so I have trouble with basics such as good grammar and other things that I wish now I had not blown off. I dont remember much about advanced mathematics but I was good at it and never made less than a A in that class, along with social studies and history, but dont ask me to figure it out now. I have memory problems as it is.


I have (by today's standards) a 5th grade education.....yet my kids scored well enough on their ACT / SAT's to reward them with scholarship dollars. I am blessed that dh is a math wizzard, and my gf is the grammar master. 
That is where a good home school group / co-op comes in handy. All the parents pool their gifts, strengths, and brains, and help each other out. 



> So how does some one lead the blind if they are blind themselves? Is there online material? Can something like the ACE curriculum be used in a home school environment? I went to a private school and that was the program they used, however I did not get credits.
> I love my daughter but even though shes smart shes also dense on learning new things which scares me as I dont know if I can teach her and keep my sanity but somethings got to give.


CLASS by Christian Liberty Academy sends you everything, tests and all. You just mail them back and they keep all the records, do all the scoring.
We did this 2 years, then went out on our own.
BOB JONES also has a satellite school.
ABEKA has a full dvd program, where they sent the dvd's, test, quizzes, etc. The kids do the work, turn it in, then when they turn in the dvd's from the first session......they mail the next session.


The most important thing is to go to Home School Legal Defense Associations web site, find out your states rules, make contact with you local home school groups.

See if your area is having an Annual Home School Convention. (Should be on the www.hslda.com site) THAT is a HUGE source of GREAT information.


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