Any one home school?

[JetGirl]

It's the thought that counts. Thanks.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

An update after receiving our "8th Grade School Package" from Homeschoolstockroom dot com's website.

The choices we had when ordering the package were "basic", "standard" or "advanced", which varied the difficulty of the literature and math. We chose "advanced" and had the additional choice of a pre-Algebra book or an Algebra I/II book. A "basic" level math book would be for someone who struggles with math, the "standard" for someone that did "okay" in math, and the "advanced" for someone that does pretty well in math.

A person, if they know how "hard" of a book they want, can order that book by itself in addition to the package. The descriptions of the grade level/"hardness" of the books was lacking on this particular website. The description was very generic.

The website is simple, easy to navigate, and has all the pertinent CONTACT info within easy reach. Select the package you wish, hit the ORDER button, fill in your info and you're off to the waiting stage. And that was the worst part.

Under their "ordering info" section, the site warns that August - September is their busy time so an order will take a bit longer to process during those times. It said that, during the busy times of the year, expect 2-4 weeks for delivery. It said that a tracking number would be provided on the site to track the status of our order after the "processing" stage. They were half right.

It took 5 weeks for the STATUS to read something other than "processing". There was no tracking number until the STATUS changed to "shipped". It took four days for my order to leave the warehouse or HQ to get it to Ohio, then another day to get it to Indiana.

When I called HSS after the order went over the 30-day mark, they told me to check the website for the most updated info as their computers in the office don't reflect the order status, that they have to check the same website as I do to get the info. I didn't like that as it made things sound as if this was a person shipping books out of their garage instead of a multi-million dollar operation.

Total shipping time: 39 days.

The package cost us ~$600.00 for:
- Three (3) thin Science books
- One (1) 900-page Literature book
- One (1) Algebra I and II book
- One (1) 2" binder of 52 History lessons (One lesson per week)

An 8X11 binder that contains:
- Attendance sheets
- Grade sheets
- Weekly Lesson Planner
- Objective Sheet for documenting activities outside the classroom

- Answer keys for Math, Science, History and Literature

- A cheap kit containing simple experiments for a Science Fair project

All the books are brand new, published by the same publishers that you would see if you were in a public school. The answer key for Science is three separate stapled sets of photocopies. They are decent copies, but I expected something more substantial than photocopies for my money.

First Impressions:

We chose a "comprehensive style" of teaching where "boy" will do all subjects or most subjects 5 days a week. We could have gone with a "block schedule" where he would have studied only one or two subjects a week, rotating subjects each week. We think Boy will do better in the comprehensive style schedule.

There is a large disparity between the educational levels of the four subjects' writing and style.

- The Science books are very simple to read, what I would call maybe a 5th grade level. We could easily do all three books within 2-3 months, but the books are supposed to last us a full calendar year.

- The Algebra book looks like it will be very difficult by the final chapters. This book will take us the full year to get through.

- The History seems to be well-rounded, but "fluffy", or not having any in-depth study of any particular moments, persons or events in history. There are quite a few different items of history in each lesson, just a brief mention, though. We could do this one in 3-4 months of time, even with the REVIEWS, QUIZES, and FINAL TESTS that are included. This, again, is written at about a 5th grade level.

- Literature seems to be very comprehensive at combining English and Literature together in one book. The book contains short stories to be read with questions at the end of the story that test reading comprehension as well as focusing on proper sentence structure, word usage, sentence diagramming and such. This will take us 6-8 months to go through. Some of the questions are at a 5th-6th grade level, but some questions are 8th-9th grade level in difficulty. The book has some oldie stories, such as Edgar Allen Poe's The Telltale Heart. Some of it is "modern" fluff writing.

The books were all written between 2001 and 2008.

I'll give personal observations about teaching the material in my next post so that this isn't so long.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

****I'll refer to my son as "boy" in this post for internet privacy reasons. He is currently at an 8th grade level. This is our first year homeschooling him.****

It is not my intent to slam any public or private school systems. Those schools serve a purpose, just not my purpose. We chose to homeschool (HS) this year for a large variety of reasons (public and private) and there is no one reason why we are doing it. When I refer to what boy is learning or has learned in the past, I only refer to what he learned in his particular public schools and stipulate that his/my experiences may not relate to any other school district.

I have found out how much my son DOESN'T KNOW, stemming from a lack of teaching/bad teaching or a lack of learning on his part. The bad part is that I have a lot to teach him in the next few years. The good part is that I don't have to retrain him to let go of bad information, ideas, styles of learning, etc.

I have found over the last two weeks that boy's mind is very fertile ground to plow. He wants to learn the information that I am teaching him. He gets excited about "school". He asks for school. He's disappointed when we don't use our dry erase board on the easel that is set up in my office. He watches closely when I mark his grades in the grade book each day. He asks, "What's next?" when we finish an assignment. I was sick the other day and had to go to the doctor. Boy said, "I'm bored. I wouldn't be as bored if you assigned me some homework to work on at the hospital."

I almost fell out of my chair.

This is the kid that has fought against going to school for the past couple of years! But he enjoys HS'ing!

What I like about HS'ing is what scares the tar out of me, too. There are very few legal limits on what or how I teach HS'ing. I have incorporated my Air & Space magazine from the Smithsonian Museum into the curriculum as part of his Science and History. Animal Planet TV running a special on bears, foxes and other animals on the Russian tundra? Yep, I can log the time spent watching that as counting toward his schooling hours. That scares me because, even though public schools (PSs) watch some of the same things in class, it doesn't feel like "learning", and I feel like I am cheating the system if I log watching a tv show like that as either additional "homework" or if we watch a program like that for his study work that day. The freedom to teach boy whatever I want feels wrong somehow, and I don't like that.

When we received our HS'ing package from FEDEX, I poured over it to try to discover if there is any political bent to the material - pushing a Green agenda or a Progressive bias. In all honesty, I found some but not as much as I thought I would. The History leans toward being very conservative, the Science leans a bit toward Green living, and the Literature book touches on divorce, homosexuality, and multiculturalism. Nothing that would cause me to send the books back to the publisher to request a replacement of something more to my liking.

I have realized already that I am going to have to pre-order more books to have this program last a full year as we will be done with the majority of them before then.

My brother is a Veterinarian nearby. I plan on having boy spend some days working with my brother because his work utilizes mathematics, biology, chemistry, all in one nice, tidy package. I can log that as learning in addition to what he is studying in his books.

For anyone that reads this and is considering HS'ing, I can clue you in to a few items that have made our lives easier so far:

- Easel and white board
- Flat map
- Mercator map
- Dedicated "school" area = my office with his desk and my desk
- Comfortable chairs for both of us = long hours

Boy has a computer on his desk for internet access and word processing, but he also has ample space to write longhand on paper (which I make him do the majority of the time). Being able to GOOGLE a picture of something or pull up information about a subject is a Godsend! If I can explain it well enough or draw it on the white board - GOOGLE it and it is at his fingertips.

In mathematics, I make boy show his work on his paper (even a scrap paper) and I do not allow him to use a calculator at this point. It has already helped us pinpoint where he went wrong in his calculations when figuring volumes of objects.

I have an accordion file for keeping all his graded homework, in case the State wants to come in for an inspection. They are allowed to do this at any time.

I have my office set up where all HS'ing materials are on a bookshelf that is near my desk for ease of access, and boy has his text books near his desk on another bookshelf.

HS'ing isn't nearly as daunting as I first thought it would be. I realize that I am only two weeks into this adventure, but I am already noticing a change in boy's use of words, putting together concepts in his head and then expressing them, better spelling and use of punctuation and other things.

I just thought of this: Boy and I had to get straight between us that HS wasn't being done to allow him to waste time or for us not to give 100% effort to it. This was me transferring to him a lifetime of experience and information. Squabbling with each other or frustration with each other has no place in the classroom.

So far, it's going better than expected.

 

[CombatVet]

That's some good info, thanks for sharing.

 

[ATOMonkey]

It's very encouraging to hear these stories BTS!! Keep up the great work you're doing there!!

 

[cowboywitek]

I've been home schooled all my life and am a senior this year. my parents are home school representatives for hamilton county.

 

[abnk]

A bit late to the discussion, but I opened a similar thread a couple of years ago when we were considering homeschooling. We decided to go for it for many reasons and have been very happy with the results. Our second grader is where he should be with math and at least one grade advanced with reading. Our kindergardner is a grade ahead in math and reads words like antediluvian and photosynthesis. Science is their favorite subject by far, though. They can talk endlessly about arcane facts about sharks or the solar system or whatever else they soaked. They are also very active in Scouts, sports, and other programs and certainly don't lack friends or social skills.

If you can homeschool, do it. Don't overthink it and don't get caught up in what curriculum is better. As you do it, you will know to adjust the program based on the child's needs.

Good luck.

 

[j706]

My wife home schooled our four until around the sixth grade level. Our thoughts was to give them a good foundation to build from. It has worked quite well IMO. All of ours have done good in school.

The modern school system has way to many distractions IMO. They seem to have lost the main reason why kids go to school. Way to much is put into sports and other silly stuff. And then the fact that many educators are left leaning with liberal ideas.

In my patrol are I am always butting heads with our school systems principal and school superintendent. No common sense at all. They hate me because I tell them what I think. They hate it when I enforce the laws regarding drugs,curfew and defacing school property ect or elect not to enforce other innocent violations. A few years ago a HS senior and a avid hunter had his shotgun in his truck with a few slugs. He was leaving from school to go hunting and had a long drive to do so. He did not have time to go home after school to retrieve his hunting stuff and still make it to the woods. Somehow someone found out he had a gun behind his seat and told on him. Upon speaking with the kid I decided a warning was in order based on the circumstances. The school admin was furious with me. He was not one of the athletes and the school wanted him burned. He is now in his third year at Annapolis. A few weeks ago I charged eight HS students with curfew violation and criminal mischief for defacing the school property during the middle of the night for homecoming. The principal had the gall to tell me that he had approved the deads!! What kind of message does that send? I have zero confidence in most school admin types.

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

After seeing some of the troubles that our local public school is having I am glad that we are doing what we are doing.

Boy thinks it's fun to drive by the school and see all the kids trapped in class.

 

[17Chap]

Great post ABNK!

A bit late to the discussion, but I opened a similar thread a couple of years ago when we were considering homeschooling. We decided to go for it for many reasons and have been very happy with the results. Our second grader is where he should be with math and at least one grade advanced with reading. Our kindergardner is a grade ahead in math and reads words like antediluvian and photosynthesis. Science is their favorite subject by far, though. They can talk endlessly about arcane facts about sharks or the solar system or whatever else they soaked. They are also very active in Scouts, sports, and other programs and certainly don't lack friends or social skills.

If you can homeschool, do it. Don't overthink it and don't get caught up in what curriculum is better. As you do it, you will know to adjust the program based on the child's needs.

Good luck.

 

[RedDot]

I was home schooled for a year, hopped around schools, been in alternate learning programs, tried 2 years of all year round school in 2nd and 3rd grade and 7th & half of 8th grade in a christian school. I was never at the same school for longer than 2 years until high school & college. Moving around like that was very distressful for me as a child. I never flourished socially or academically until high school and college. I strongly suggest letting your children choose at least by 8th grade what school they want to go to- I think there are lots of important experiences to be learned in public school and will prepare them for further learning. Also 4 years of high school will help your child build a social network in a learning environment. I could go on forever about this as I have had a very unique experience in education and learning. PM me if you have any specific questions.

 

[Cru]

Look, I'm all for parents doing whatever they want as far as schooling their children, but SOME of the people in this thread who claim their home schooling was so good might want to check their grammar...

 

[dhnorris]

My 10 year old (homeschooled) knows latin. My wife is the teacher and I make the money. My 7 seven year old reads to the 5 year old and so on. I would love to put the wife back to work but, what decided it for us was the babysitters killing their charges. It seemed like there was one every few months about the time we decide to go for it.