Home Schooling

Well I think the time has come to home school our daughters. I won't even go into the public school mess and the crap they are doing to our kids these days. Any recommendations for good programs, internet courses, etc. How did you do it? How is working out? What about college acceptance? Thanks for any help.

[Hakim]

Hi Cowboydoc,

We homeschooled our sons Ibrahim & Muhammad from about 3rd grade thru the end of high school. They both "attended college," at the State University of New York at Binghamton, considered the "Harvard" of the NY state university system. Straight A's for both of them.

I could tell you everything about home schooling. It is not right for everyone, I suppose, but for most people it is the answer to your richest dreams for your kids. They will just love it, specially on your farms.

For several years we "did it all" ourselves (in New York) and filed the "quarterly reports" and related stuff for the school district.

Then we enrolled them in a physical, non-traditional school, Oak Meadow School. Oak Meadow has several levels they can provide--- assigned teachers and curriculum, evaluation portfolio style, and some that just do an annual grade. Prices vary.

The nice thing about Oak Meadow is that they are an actual state-accredited high school (in Vermont). So, your girls will get an actual high school diploma. Once you enroll them at Oak Meadow, they will "transfer" from the local school, and you need have no other interaction with the local district.

Oak Meadow also has a real, live, graduation ceremony, held in June, which our sons attended. They have one on each coast. It makes it meaningful, and gets around the "GED" problem for independent home schoolers.

Oak Meadow is one of the oldest (or maybe THE oldest) home schools in America, and as a matter of fact, provides curriculum materials for thousands of US grade schools and high schools. So, it is certainly "acceptable" in terms of the quality of the education.

The head of Oak Meadow is Dr. Lawrence Williams, who has a PhD in Education from Columbia University. I could not be higher in my praise for the experience. It costs maybe a few hundred dollars a year per student.
Link to Oak Meadow School.

There are various ways to approach homeschooling, and Oak Meadow will assist you whatever way you choose. The methods range from "school at home," meaning they do everything EXACTLY like school, just at home: pledge allegiance at 8:20, same texts books, same lunch break, same vacations, etc.

The other end of the spectrum is "unschooling," which is basically letting your kids find their own way, and you guide them. This was basically the way we went with Ibrahim & Muhammad. TBN, actually, was a significant part of their educational process for several years of high school (English, grammar, graphics/art, etc.).

I would never consider any other way except homeschooling for my children.

Hakim,

Wow I couldn't have asked for a better person to give insight on all of this. I appreciate your comments so much and really hope that I can pick your brain as this progresses. Our parent/teacher conference today cemented the fact that I am doing the right thing. I'm getting tired of getting treated like a second class citizen in my own kids lives.

I will look at the Oak site and get back to you. Thanks again for the help getting started.

[Bird]

From what I know of your boys, you certainly did a good job, Hakim.

[Hakim]

Hi Bird,

Thanks for your thoughtful and kind comments. But considering how much you have provided to all of us, especially to them, in the form of insights and wisdom, and your constant, caring oversight, not just about tractors, but the way to live one's life with honor, dignity and service, I am giving half of any credit -- to you.

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] My experience with home skool kids is that their education is no better than what their parents can give them. If the parents are sharp and well educated, it's OK; otherwise there will be gaps in their education that you can drive a truck through. I had a kid working for me who was a hi skool (home school) grad and he could barely write. By that I mean he could barely form letters let along form sentences and paragraphs. In home schooling, so much depends on the parents. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I recently sat in on a high school business class and the teacher made several comments about the Bush administration that were inaccurate and of a definite liberal slant. The 20-minute educational TV program they watched at the beginning of the class was also liberal-slanted. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] The BIG ADVANTAGE to home schooling is that the kids will not be taught to challenge what they have learned at home as far as values are concerned. Many schools are liberal, pro-homo, anti-God, and VERY subjective when it comes to morality and values. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[fivestring]

Good on you, Doc.
Good luck and hope everything works out good.

[BrianP]

OK ......

Perish the thought a dopey Canuck should intercede, especially within the context of 'pro homo, anti-god, etc., etc..' [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

Our major issue, and our sole issue, was the quality of education our kids would get. Public school is lowest common denominator and expects everybody to learn at the same rate. Some kids learn to read faster than others, some may be quicker in math and slower in reading.

Public schools frustrate and impede bright kids and slower kids.

Properly designed home schooling should be 'just right': always challenging the kids, but never making them feel stupid. These days, a bright kid is likely to be prescribed Ritalin, or sent to counseling. Not so bright kids may be sentence to ‘special’ classes. If there was an interest in education at public schools, the advanced kids would be challenged more, and the not so advanced kids would have their reading, or math, or whatever, worked on to help them catch up, not abandoned.

Some parents take home schooling seriously, some not so much. My wife considers it a full time job and is very good at it. Our neighbors are a different story.

I’d suggest anybody considering home schooling do two things: 1) contact the local school principal and see if there are any support systems for home schoolers such as curricula, and so on, and 2) see if there are any local home schooling organizations.

For the record, we believe it is possible (and necessary) to teach morality, ethics, and so on at home. I can understand devout parents not wanting to participate in a (so called) secular public school system. Most poeple you meet on a day to day basis went to public school. Most can't (or don't) read, few can write intelligently, and the general lever of practical understanding of science and math is abysmal.

I get a little confused by some people’s idea of morality: it is unclear to me where, if ever, Jesus commanded people to be ‘anti-homo’. I thought the general rule of thumb was ‘do unto others …’

[RMeadows]

We homeshool 3 kids, 13, 10 and 7. There are many options. We use Alpha-Omega and Saxon for our lessons.

What you need to do is contact a local homeshool group. Homeshoolers are always willing to help each other. This way you get all the local info you need.

Try www.homeschool.com and http://www.hslda.org. Both of these are great resources. Also, a local resource is http://www.eduevals.com/resources.htm

[fadams]

Hello cowboydoc. I am new to the forum but am a veteran homeschooler and couldn't help posting to this thread. I have nine children, four natural and five multiracial adopted. We have home educated for twelve years. I can not say enough good about it. First, it keeps our family integrity intact. Our childrens best friends are their siblings and parents. The educational schedule is flexible. The boys and I run a trap line during the weekdays. We ski as a family on Tuesdays at the local ski resort on "Homeschoolers Day". I don't have to have "spring break" off to take vacation with the kids. We take vacation whenever we want. We work, study, play, eat, and worship together so our values are their values. I think you avoid the "generation gap" problems particularly in the teen years because of this. Second, it is easy to achieve academic excellence in the home school environment. The teacher student ratio is small. You can choose among a wide variety of excellent commercially produced curriculum. The teachers (you) really care. The teachers (you again) know the students needs, strengths, and weaknesses and can taylor the pace and material accordingly. We have some naturally bright children that we have advanced quickly. We also have a deaf child with a cochlear implant that has special needs we attend to. So we can be as flexible as needed. We have used various curricula such as calvert, christian liberty, abeka, and covenant. Mary Pride's book The Big Book of Home Schooling evaluates these. A piano teacher comes to our house to give the older children individual lessons. Our rule is you can play any instrument you want as long as it is the piano. We also rely heavily on the internet for courses such as Latin, literature, and writing using ISLAS and Wes Callahan's Great Books. As for college entrance, we just sent our first off to Belhaven College in Mississippi on a full academic scholarship based on her SAT of 1410. She got in every college she applied to and was offerred half to full scholarships to several. My 13 year old scored 1380 on his first attempt. This is not meant to brag but to show how well homeschooling can work. HSLDA data does indeed show superior test scores compared to public schools.

There are costs to be counted before homeschooling. It is a big time committment for my wife (but hey, so is nine kids). It requires a lot of support, encouragement, and discipline (wait until your father gets home!) from me. It can be done on a shoestring but we budget $500-1000 per month for it. Criticism from relatives, neighbors, press, etc. are common but becomming less so as it proves itself in the educational marketplace.
I could go on but won't. Hook up with a good local homeschool group, join HSLDA, and enjoy the blessing of educating your children at home.

Frank