Homeschooling....

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Yep, I think we're making the plunge. Wait, what we're doing isn't 100% homeschooling, it's technically the South Carolina Virtual Charter School, an online public school through the K12 curriculum. I'm fearful and excited at the same time, I've always wanted to teach my children!

There are many reasons we're seriously contemplating this option for my stepson, who's in 5th grade. He had 3 different schools for 4th grade, and I for one want to make sure he's on target for middle school, without a doubt. He's doing great in his classes at his current elementary school with us (he's living with us this year) except for math. He's failing math at the moment. He understands the concepts, but the way they are "assessing" the kids offers 0 forgiveness for error. I can remember when I was tested on division, there was like 20-30 problems, maybe 1-2 word problems at the end. How do you give kids a test of only 3 questions, and a type of question that is combining rules of divisibility and division that they've never seen before and call it a test? Ofcourse, my kid didn't have a clue what the question was asking, so he ended up with a 17. On top of that, the teacher doesn't call these things tests, she calls them data collection. The first data collections of the year weren't for a grade. So the kids think all data collections are just class work type things, and when my stepson didn't understand, he knew we would go over it together (I have to check and correct his classwork because the teachers don't check for correctness, just completion). Then, even though the majority of the kids in the class failed this "test" the school has a policy of no grade lower than a 60 gets to go into the gradebook. So on paper, this test looks like all of the kids at least got a 50 or better, which isn't true.

Don't get me started on P.E. once a week. Or the fact that after almost 9 hours of school, he then has 1.5-2 hours of homework every night plus projects.

Additionally, the online public school would afford us greater flexibility in his visitation schedule, so he can go see his Mom for longer periods of time, including doing school work there and it counts as "being in school." I can work it so he has a "light" week, even if he is in daycare during the day, he and his Mom can do one lesson in the evening and it counts for attendance (and I would arrange his school lessons so that it supported a light week probably every 4-5 weeks of instruction).

I'm hoping it works out. Yes, it means I will have less time to write, probably initially. However, the benefits far outweigh the cons. We aren't forgetting his socialization, we will go on field trips with other kids in the school and he takes golf lessons once a week with a bunch of other kids, plus he has friends here in the neighborhood. Anyone else have homeschooling experience?

[Celeste Stewart]

As a person who attended 8th-10th grades in South Carolina, I can tell you that the school system there was horrendous - at least back then in the district I attended. I had a couple of wonderful teachers (my English/French teacher, Mr. Faulkner, was fantastic) but most of the rest weren't even certified teachers. Those years were a complete waste of time. We did go on some cool field trips though: Fort Sumter and a bunch of Civil War sites, plantations, etc. Fortunately, I had a strong foundation from my earlier schooling halfway across the globe on a tiny Pacific Island.

I'm sure you'll do great as a homeschooling mom!

9 hours at school? In our district, my 5th grader has 6.25 hours most days with a weekly "modified day" of just 4 hours (I hate modified days). They have tons of days off too like a full week off for Thanksgiving, three weeks for Christmas, two weeks for spring break, and a bunch of half days for parent teacher conferences. From Nov-January, there's hardly any schooling going on. Then in the summer, they only get 8 weeks off because of all the excessive days off throughout the year. It's more like year-round school but they don't call it that because that would be unpopular, but really, that's what it is. Aye, don't get me started. That said, the school district is one of the best in the region, so maybe they know what they're doing.

I'm struggling with my daughter's teacher. She has this "organizational" system that she insists the kids use. Basically, it's a huge binder containing ALL of their stuff with workbooks, atlases, composition books, and other stuff all squeezed in. She insists the kids keep everything in this binder. It's huge and heavy. Even if my daughter has only four worksheets of homework, she has to cart this massive book back and forth to school. I bought her a rolling backpack because of the weight of this darned binder. Plus the teacher "inspects" the students' binders before she lets them leave class at the end of the day. The kids are getting out of class a full 20 minutes after the bell. Not happy about that, either. The homework is bad, too. It's supposedly "unfinished" classwork, but it takes three hours to complete (illegal in CA by the way). Something tells me this teacher needs to brush up on her own time management skills.

[Elizabeth Ann West]

I misspoke about the hours at school. DSS catches the bus at 6:40 AM and the morning bell is at 7:25 AM, final bell is 2:00 PM, he's home around 2:20 ish. So it's 7 hours of school, plus the 1.5-2 hours of homework. Plus I have to check his classwork for correctness. I mean really, what's the point of them doing the work if the teacher isn't going the check for correctness?

[Celeste Stewart]

So, I'm not happy with my daughter's teacher (as if you couldn't tell from my earlier post). Today was progress report day. This kid is a freakin genius if I haven't told you all that before. Her teacher wrote a note encouraging her because she was "so close" to turning her Cs into Bs. WTF? You're kidding me, right? Turns out, the teacher had made some major mistakes in her scoring. One of my daughter's social studies' (her favorite subject) tests was mistakenly scored a 12%. Fortunately, I still had all of her papers and was able to go through each one and double check the math. You won't believe how many mistakes I found! Some major, others not so bad, but still enough to make a difference.

I requested a meeting to go over each mistake and set the record straight. Now I'm wondering if I should go through her science, writing, and spelling work. Sheesh. I already have a spreadsheet detailing some other issues such as how long homework is taking each night and how ridiculously late she releases the students. I guess I'm going to have to micromanage every single graded assignment from here on out, too.

Elizabeth, a friend of mine used to teach at charter schools and she really loved the system, at least from an educator's perspective. Do you get to decide when to start it or do you have to wait for a semester to end?

[Elizabeth Ann West]

With K-12, you can start at any time. Celeste, there are California public schools available online. We aren't going with the online schooling option at this time because of things we've learned about the other household, we don't want to give the opportunity for stepson to visit longer there, at this moment in time. We aren't ruling out online schooling for when he is a little older, but right now, it would open the door to more serious problems. So instead, I'm just going work with my stepson to gethis grades up and being vigilant with his school work.

[Celeste Stewart]

Ah, makes sense. If he were to go to school "online," then he could conceivably go to school anywhere. Smart thinking. That could be an interesting article - the pros and cons of online homeschooling for children of divorce.

[eek]

Hey Elizabeth.
Just wanted to say an encouraging word about the steps you're taking. I homeschooled my girls in their elementary grades. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably choose something like K12. We were overseas and at the time online schools were newish, and the private online schools were pretty expensive. I ordered materials and taught each subject, with an emphasis on lots of reading together and projects. It was fun, but EXHAUSTING. We joined a homeschooling group of mixed expatriates, which was really cool. Most of them subscribed to the unschooling philosophy. That wasn't my cup of tea, but there was no pressure. Kind of nice to see the other side of things - not that it swayed me.

Anyway, hope the transition into schooling at home goes smoothly. Bet you'll both really enjoy it, and you won't miss the aggravation of doing homeschool after a day of public school.
Emma

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Emma. We aren't going with homeschooling right now. Kiddo is doing much better in school work, and I have figured out some great supplements. For math, on days he doesn't have any math homework, he has to raise 1,000 grains of rice on freerice.com in the 2 math categories (multiplication and pre algebra up to level 6). It works well because I can track his progress and he like it because he's raising food for kids who need it by practicing math (take that Math Blaster). Turns out the entire class failed the Division unit, so the teacher is slowing down her pace (how about teaching the kids before you test them AND stop the nonsense of this isn't a test, it's a data collection, but I'm going to grade it secretly). Now that the kids have caught on to this "data collection" BS, the grades went up because they cared. My kid? 100 on his Division retest.

English, he's a little annoyed with me on. I started making him write his spelling words 3 times each, then look them up in a dictionary on another day, then use them in a sentence another day, and review them Thursday right before the test (just like I had to do in elementary school). His spelling scores this week? 105 and 119 (there were bonus words). So good old Mom knew what she was talking about! I also make him correct all of his classwork.

One more week in the 9 weeks, and I expect all A's and B's on his report card. We won't do the homeschooling right now because stepdad has not one, but two DWI charges, the latest one with their daughter in the car. So really not feeling the whole let's do something so kiddo is spending MORE time at Mom's house.

[eek]

Gotcha. Glad things are looking up. Had no idea freerice does math too. Thought it was vocab only. Gotta check that out for my kids...

For those interested, freerice has the following subjects:
Art (famous paintings)
English (grammar, vocab)
Languages (French, German, Italian Spanish)
Chemistry (basic and full list of symbols)
Geography (Countries on a map, world capitols)
Math (basic/pre-algebra, multiplication tables)

[karrie1908]

Hey, just another positive, I pulled my son from public school here at the start of his fifth grade year. He was not thriving, the school was quick to label with a disability and he had a horrid teacher. I left my daughter in that year as she had a great teacher and I focused soley on my son. I am happy to report he entered high school this year with a grade 9 course already done and he is only supposed to be in grade 8 this year but he is doing remarkably well with grades in the 80's and 90's. My daughter is still at home and also thriving. I was appalled at the amount of catching up I had to do with both of them when they spent so many hours at school.

Now a few things we have noticed when my son went back to school. It is important to still write tests that are timed if they plan on going to school for high school this is the one area we have found my son needed some help.

All in all it has been great and I recommend it to anyone... I am not your typical homeschooling mom, I am single and work from home though so it works...

Good Luck!

[Karbyn]

Us, too! We start after Christmas - I'm not going to send him back.

My son started 6th grade this year, junior high, with high hopes, but it is just as bad or worse than elementary school was. They've had five years of a fair try and that's long enough.

Let's hear it for homeschool!

[jadedragon]

I had a mix of home schooling/correspondence, public and private schools at all levels through University. Social interaction is missed if home schooling and to this day I don't always play well with others. If you are going to home school be sure to hook up kids with other kids at church, home school group, outside activities or in the neighborhood.

On the plus side, for a kid that excels in school, or one with learning challenges, home school can be the best choice. I learned a lot more at home than they could teach me in class. Schools are forced to teach to somewhere between average and below average to catch as many kids as possible. The outliers don't do well in this situation.

[KateL]

As someone who, like Jadedragon, experienced a mixture of home schooling and normal schooling, I agree wholeheartedly that social interaction is something which requires extra attention. Particularly ensure that children have the opportunity to mix with others without their parents around - whether in a youth club or church group etc. School playtimes and lunch hours when they mix with their peers allows children's personalities to develop in their own right, and that is something which can be stifled a little if they are constantly under parental supervision.

My experiences weren't traditional home-school. I wasn't well enough to attend regular school through ages 13 - 16 and was allocated 1hr per day of home tuition by a state tutor. I did all my coursework and exams from that, and had to learn everything else from worksheets and textbooks, especially the subjects my tutor wasn't familiar with. (Sociology being the main one.) I managed to do well despite the very limited education, but I do think the best thing home-schooling taught me was how to learn. In schools the children learn how to pass tests, whereas having to take responsibility for my own studying and then facing one-on-one scrutiny of my understanding really did enable me to absorb a wider range of information.

One of the most important things to remember is how important it is to initiate lively discussion about the topics being studied. Reading about a topic is fine, and listening to facts and outlines is equally informative, but discussing the subject does help it stick. It also gives the student a chance to stumble across new ideas and approaches which aid their understanding of the topic as a whole. Another bonus is that it gives you the teacher the best chance of discerning areas where their understanding may be lacking or incorrect, which would not necessarily show up in schools unless they were tested with the right direct questions.

Good luck with it all!

[Karbyn]

Social interaction -

I agree it's always good to be aware about that. I certainly wouldn't want my son to be isolated, of course.

However, it's the "social" part of things that is the main concern we have. He is smart enough to do well and he gets on great with the teachers, but badly with other kids his age and I hardly think that being picked on and teased incessantly for years counts as "social" behavior. I know he's a little different, we don't deny that, but if they won't be his friends, at least they could leave him alone in peace. But they don't.

We'll do fine with Scouts and Camp and Parks & Rec and various other places where there is more structure and more supervision and more safety than the school is (apparently) able to provide for him.

[Judith]

I homeschooled my three youngest. They are all grown with children of their own now and all are doing well. They had plenty of social interaction with kids their own age plus with adults. Interaction with adults is something they don't get in public school . We rented a pizza shop at a beach one summer and the kids had to place orders for supplies, work with the sales people that came in and the customers. It was a great experience for them.