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I’ve been asked over and over. Don’t you homeschool? You’re so EARTHY and all!
No! Do I look like a crazy person?
As I’ve aged, I’ve learned one thing for sure. Anything that I say I will NEVER do…I end up doing five minutes later. And this is just one more on the list.
I am homeschooling my preschooler and in the fall, I’ll be homeschooling the rest. Why? About a million reasons that wouldn’t have convinced me three weeks ago. So I won’t go into that. But, I’ll tell you what pushed me over the edge. Three of my friends were all talking about doing it the same day.
See, it’s one thing when unknown ‘crazy’ people are doing something. It’s another when three of your friends start talking about it. One moved districts and her middle schooler hates the new school. Another has a special needs case. Another wants an orthodox Catholic education and private school is too much money. Since THESE people considered it–I was poisoned. I’m not responsible.
But, I’m totally doing it. And looking forward to it.
YIKES!
Ivory
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speaking only from my own experience: it will be the best decision you’ve ever made.
You’re not alone. I’m planning on homeschooling my daughter when the time comes too.
Congratulations!
Welcome to a wonderful way to live – because that’s what it really is! Two daughters ages 15 and 13 – they’ve been home for school from the beginning. Get thyself into some sort of support group – your three friends and you can be your own support for each other. But do find some moms who have been around the block on this and they’ll help you out immensely. And most of all, have lots of fun – and read, read, read to your kids. You can’t go wrong with that!
We’re starting homeschooling next month. My husband and I decided just about five minutes ago. I needed a diversion, so I opened up your blog and found this! Crazy…
I’m scared, a bit, to homeschool. But I can’t handle the lazy, inept, careless “teaching” that happens at the only middle school in our town. I can’t handle it one minute more!!! If I did my job the way they do theirs, I wouldn’t have a job. So now I have to do both my own job and theirs as well. My husband will help tremendously, so I’m already that far ahead…
Welcome….I have been waiting for you! Join our homeschool group; you will be glad you did! Email me offline.
I, too, thought it was nuts. But now the combination of a tight job market and our local public school district in such dire financial straits that they are cutting art, music, gifted, gym and libraries out of the budget, I’m thinking about it. And I’m terrified at the prospect. But if a couple of my friends were doing it too, I’d be on that bandwagon so fast. Any idea what you’re going to do?
B R A V O , IVORY!
and BRAVO to all who home school.
the US needs some well-educated people.
your kids will be the leaders of tomorrow.
THANK YOU for caring enough to give the very best.
Crazy person here
I have just completed 16 years of home education. My youngest just finished. The oldest is a college student in NYC; the youngest will be 18 on Monday, and leaves for Australia on the 26th. There is a huge community of us —I’m glad to share my experiences if you’d like—just shoot me an email. Welcome!
We didn’t start out homeschooling, but began 11 years ago and have continued. It was a scary thing, assuming total responsibility for our children’s education. I mean, if they didn’t “turn out”, we couldn’t look around and blame anyone but OURSELVES! But we have found so many advantages and now, all these years later (and so many years to go, as we have a 3 month old), we wouldn’t go back for anything. I enjoy teaching my children to read and love that moment when something they’ve learned sparks an interest to delve even deeper. It is not just schooling, it is a way of life. Congratulations Ivory on this new adventure and may God bless your journey!
I’m sure you’ll do fine.
My mom homeschooled both my sister and I and it was one of the best decisions for our family. Mom only has a high school diploma but she was an amazing teacher! I am in my last year of schooling to become a chiropractor and my sister is doing her undergraduate work to become an elementary teacher, I’ll say my parents did well! You will be a great teacher and your kids will benefit greatly from learning at home.
Nope, you’re not nuts at all! It won’t always be easy, but it is so worth it.
We accidentally stumbled into homeschooling 4 years ago and have loved every moment since! Our oldest son’s birthday is in early Oct and he missed the kindergarten cut off in our district by days. Turned out to be one of the happiest accidents yet!
I was like you I didn’t think I could ever. It was not a desire at all, but here we are in our first year. My daugther attened a wonderful Christian school but with the slow economy we could not afford to continue sending her. I am so glad we chose this. There are days I think ahh what am I doing but the rest of the wonderful days so out weight those.
I was drug kicking and screaming into homeschooling last year. My daugtherwas was into her 9th day of 4th grade was having alot of problems with her teacher. Then I was having a lot of trouble with her teacher and the principle, when the teacher told me if I was a better parent she would not have problems out of my child at school. My daugther was within the top 5 of all the 4th graders in the county, we have 5 elementary schools in our county, she just likes to talk. I don’t know where she gets that from. So I pulled her out of public school and started homeschooling her.
God has a way of opening the door for you to do the things that he wants you todo, and apparently this is what you are supposed to do. Have fun with it, enjoy the time with your children, teach them what you want them to learn, cuddle with them while they are doing the math that you printed off the computer and thank God for this time in your lives.
God bless and hae fun with it. They will learn….
I’m one of those crazy people! I homeschool all three of mine; pre-K, 5th grade and 7th grade. None of mine have ever spent a day in any other school. They and I would not have it any other way. There are so many resources available to you now, online, support groups, co-ops…. And if, when the time comes that you want to pull your hair out or are confused by the options available and you want to talk to someone who’s been there, I’m here. I have continued to homeschool through lay-offs, working two jobs, staying-at- home, working-at-home, divorce, single parenthood, re-marriage, pregnancy, nursing, sickness, moving; you name it. I can’t say that we have never missed a beat, but we have certainly kept on dancing.
Through it all my kids have thrived and excelled. They get to work at their own pace however fast or slow that may be at the time. And they still get to socialize- dance class, church, group classes at the Zoo or Science Center, etc.
If you’re interested, I even have some of our pre-school books that I was getting ready to pass on to a new homeschooler.
Congratulations on your decision and good luck on your endeavor.
I will be the creep and say it — only crazy people home school. Well somebody had to say it. But I have to admit that some of the best undergraduates when I was in graduate school were home schooled.
I am going to beg that you, especially those of you who are doing this to get a better education for your kids (rather than particular political or religious reasons), continue to help with the struggle for better schools, or as a nation we are going to be in more trouble than we already are — kids who cannot home school need and deserve a decent education.
I’m another “crazy”! =) We’ve homeschooled our four always graduating our oldest a couple of years ago, my 2nd oldest graduates next year, and then I have two 7th graders to see to the finish line. Homeschooling is a grand adventure! I wish you all the best!
So what sort of activities do you set up for kids for the socialization aspect of non-homeschooling? And what do you have to do for the board of education to show you are meeting whatever standards there are for education?
I was lucky enough to have grown up in a county with one of the best public school systems in the country. Sure, I had some questionable teachers but most of my teachers were award winning, master degree holding, passionate professionals who really took the time to connect with me and help me develop. Public school system did me well.
So, given my ignorance about the needs and benefits of homeschooling, I look forward to reading about your homeschooling adventures! Your kids are lucky enough to have parents who are so invested in their development.
Love, love, love homeschooling. I can’t imagine sending my kids off every day to have someone else teach them. I get to customize their educations and focus on things that they really enjoy. If they need a little extra help somewhere, I know it immediately. No wasted time while the teacher handles problems. No wasted time anywhere. We have lots of fun. I know that homeschooling isn’t for everyone, but it’s so, so right for us.
Good for you! And your family! We’re in our ninth year of homeschooling and love being “crazy!”
Betty
Welcome to the asylum. We have lived here and enjoyed it for over 25 yrs. Only the 16 yr old has not escaped
Alas, the oldest 4 have gotten away and are establishing their own asylums (bwahahahahaha)…running cackling into the night…
You’ll love it. We’re homeschooling (very informally at this point) all our kids and really see the benefit especially for our active boys.
The person that asked about the school board – depending on the state, most homeschoolers are not to report to the school board but typically directly to the state’s department of non-public education. Every state has different laws and standards re: homeschooling but the majority allow parents much freedom in school choices with minimal reporting (annual test scores and attendance typically being two of those).
I’ll be watching your blog to see how it goes, I have considered it myself due to the fact that I don’t think my son who is in the g.a.t.e program gets enough of a challenge in his regular class, so he has been falling asleep .
I was homeschooled as a child and it didn’t work out very well , but my mother was a single parent and worked and I think it was just to hard for her to deal with.
What happens once the kid goes to high school? Do they just go get a g.e.d?
Have fun
We’re doing a co-op preschool this year with our oldest (Joy School- love the curriculum!) and will send her to Kindergarten next year. I plan on homeschooling the year after that. (Because really, kindergarten is only 2 1/2 hours a day…and it’s KINDERGARTEN! So much fun 
She’s already taught herself to read, so I’m not too worried about academics ;0)
So excited to hear about your decision! I’m a 2nd generation homeschooler, and I LOVE it. Loved it as a student, and love it as a Mom. You’re living life WITH your kids, and you won’t regret that! I am able to tailor each of my children’s eduation to their specific interests, devote time to the areas they need more help in, and take time off when WE want a vacation. Congratulations, and have fun!
An excellent reference (and links to other references) is this page by a fellow I know. http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/ Both of their kids are/were homeschooled (unschooled, actually, which is slightly different). The elder is currently a sophomore (junior?) at a good university. Both kids are poster children for successful kids.
We are lucky enough to have our older two in a dual-immersion (Spanish/English) public school program. The teachers there are what we want teachers to be (caring, motivating, enthusiastic and flexible – and parent involvement is a big thing, not like another program I met where parents were not welcome). The program only goes K to 5th grade. I’m not sure what we’ll do after that.
I always wanted to be homeschooled myself, and I always planned to homeschool, but my eldest (3rd grade) is enough like me that I could see it wasn’t going to work, at least not in the early years. Now that she can read (two languages!), we could probably work together. I’m seriously thinking about switching to homeschooling once they’ve gotten their 6 years of Spanish under their belts.
The youngest (3.25) “does homeschool preschool”, as her sisters like to tell everyone
So maybe they would be interested in homeschooling eventually.
My daughter has home schooled her 4 children for past almost 20 yrs..They have alol done exceptionally well with their studies & never missed out on anything.. They meet up with other homeschoolers in their area ( north of Brisbane, Australia )) & play sport & also do craft .. l homeschooled my yougest daughter for last 4 years of her high school education (( we lived out the back of woop woop & trevelling to school each day was near impossible..My daughter got her school certificates & did okay…Good luck with your homeschooling lvory.. Regards, Pam Clarke..
Bingara, NSW, Australia..
I’m very interested to read more about your adventures. I guess I am “homeschooling” my preschooler too; we pulled her out of her preschool and I figure I have a few more years before I have to make the formal declaration the school system. I, too, am a little nervous about it. I was not homeschooled, and I don’t know anyone who was. But I have been reading a lot about it and it just feels right to me. The very best of luck to you!!!!
Yipee!! you’re coming over to the darkside.
I’ve written about our experiences with homeschooling our kiddos, from an urban outdoorsy/earthy perspective here at:
http://fimby.tougas.net/Homeschool
Can’t wait to hear more about your adventures in this.
I have an 11 month old and have wanted to homeschool or possibly “unschool” since he was in the womb. However, being a single working mom I am doubly terrified, but I truly believe if you think you can do it, you can. So, here’s to taking the plunge and bravo to crazy people!!!
Awesome! Best of luck to you
WOW!!! I can’t even get all of the positive comments on one page! I had no idea the asylum was full of such friendly people. Thank you to all of you!
And Handcrafter…I’d love to hear more about your preschool materials. Right now I’m using that Sing, Spell, Read, Write thing for preschool and have at least cracked the back of Peak With Books. I can use Peak for two years, but Zach(3) will be through SSRW before the summer.
And Alice, fear not. My husband is a public school teacher. We are ALL OVER the school system issue.
You will absolutely adore it. There is nothing more fulfilling and joyful
Welcome to the club! Hope you and the kids enjoy it as much as my three and I have. In a pinch I like to pull out printables from the net. Otherwise we are using the set of old fashioned books that were originally printed for one room school houses. Look up Ray’s arithmetic and McGuffy’s readers if you get curious.
We actually have a decent school district where we are that’s working to improve itself–my husband actually works at the high school. But that’s not keeping us from homeschooling! Haha. I just homeschool my oldest who is 4-1/2 in a “preschool program,” but frankly, she’s doing kindergarten work. I had the same problem when I was growing up, but my birthday was such that I could get moved up to the next grade and was only a few days younger than everyone. Not so with my daughter.
Besides, I know the BIG reason everyone talks about the need for public school is socialization. And frankly, I think kids learn POOR socialization at school. (Extremely obvious from what my husband sees in his classes.) I mean, really, no one is there teaching them how to be a friend, to be nice, to say sorry, or how to interact properly while maintaining individuality. That sort of stuff needs 1-on1 attention/direction. PLUS, even if they do learn friendship skills at school, they will probably still have trouble talking to anyone that isn’t around their own age. I’m still struggling with this one as an adult–talking to some of the women at church with older kids and such. It’s a skill that public school kids tend to lack.
(P.s. It is very funny how life has a way of teaching us things we say we’d NEVER do. I used to say I’d never have a natural childbirth, breastfeed, not make my kids cry it out or homeschool. Thankfully, my hand was led in the opposite direction… and all the better!
P.p.s. Welcome to your new circle of crazy friends.
P.p.p.s. For my Pre-K/K program for my daughter I’m using Handwriting without Tears and Singapore Earlybird Math. Everything else is less structured and usually just involves books from the library.
**raises hand** I’m one of the ones that loves to read your blog and would say “Why is she not homeschooling?”. Welcome to a incredible community! My DD, now 21, just last night was telling me how thankful she is that she was homeschooled. We started when she was 8 and she graduated at 16. In reply, if I may, to someone’s question about a GED, my DD didn’t get a GED, she took entrance exams to get into college. The college wanted a transcript from me so they could see what courses she had taken. She was accepted the summer before her senior year and asked to do her senior year there (which I allowed). Colleges are beginning to seek out homeschooled students and in her experience were easy to work with as far as gaining entrance. She had a graduation ceremony (there were 5 in her class, which was large for our group) complete with cap and gown and a diploma! It was a wonderful experience for me too! Oh Ivory, with all the “earthy” things you do, you’ll be able to teach them so much! I’m so excited for you!!!
When our own daughters were young my best friend and her husband decided to homeschool. She talked to me about it but we decided to send ours to public school. In retrospect, I wish I had listened to her. If I had it to do over, public school would not even be an option.
Yep, I’ve done it. I homeschooled my daughter through half of 6th grade and all of 7th grade. It was the most rewarding, frustrating, enlightening, exhausting thing I’ve ever done. I saved up enough for parochial school this year, not sure what I’m going to do next year.
Best of luck. No matter where you go from here, you’ll be grateful for the experience.
Congratulations!!! I’m home-educating my DS, 5 1/2 years. It’s fun and challenging. And I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Through our local co-op he has made friends with some terrific families.
I’m homeschooling my preschooler as well, and in the fall I will be starting her in Kindergarten curriculum. The thing that really pushed me over the edge (besides my good friend poisoning me) was the fact that my daughter is only 3, but testing ready in acedemics for K. All she is lacking is motor skills, although she has most of them. I don’t feel confident in the standards public schools have set for our kids, and I’m glad that I’ve made the committment so my daughter can get the best education possible at her own pace. But I go through my moments of, What was I thinking?? because we are having another baby in the spring… AACK!
We’re going to use Sonlight, if only for 1 reason and that is that the lesson plans are d.o.n.e. But I do like their stuff otherwise. Good luck, can you make sure you post lots of stuff about it on here for the rest of us newbies?
welcome to the family! we could start our own insane asylum, all of us who’ve commented on this post. our family just started homeschooling this year, our little brain trust was never challenged in kinder since she had learned her alphabet at 18 months and started reading when she was 2 yrs. From the sounds of our investigations last year, she wouldn’t have been challenged in first grade either–since no school was interested in testing or bumping her up a grade to teach her things she didn’t know already.
) And don’t even get me started on the 1st and 2nd graders that we know of that wear makeup to school!
A definite must for homeschooling, i’ve discovered, is to join P&R programs that interest your children and join a local homeschooler’s support group. We have met so many nice homeschooling families from our Irish dance classes, then were able to encourage them to join our local H.S. support group, so now we’ve all been planning the field trips we’ll take our kids on and really been emailing up a storm. Definitely the best of what we’re “missing” from public school venues.
booga booga and Merry Christmas!
I home schooled two of my sons and have never regretted it. They are now 24 and 20 respectively, and are doing well in life!! I was terrified that I was going to ruin their lives with my substandard teaching and methods. But I didn’t!! Both of them decided to go back to school for their high school years, and both were honor students. It’s better than you think.
Thanks so much for answering my question amy =). Ivory I look forward to reading your adventures in homeschooling.
Hello,
I don’t even have a little munchkin yet (a couple of weeks to go), and I doubt very much that my wife and I would homeschool. But boy, reading through the positive, warm, helpful, thoughtful, genuine comments actually got me choked up. You sound like a great bunch of centered folks. ( I still wonder if you’re not all secretly crazy, but we’ll see, maybe I will be too in three years).
well, we ARE crazy–crazy in love with our children, head-over-heels crazy about giving them the best we can. you want teacher accountability? you’ll never meet any teacher who is more accountable than a parent. you’ll never find another teacher who cares more about her (sometimes his) students than the parent teaching her own. you’ll never find a teacher who will go as far as the parent will go. and you’ll never find a teacher who will stick with her students like a parent will.
it isn’t for everyone–but for the inmates, it is the most rewarding journey of a lifetime.
Well over 100 colleges and universities have LONG ago admitted and sought out home educated students, including the US military academies. Here are 2 good sources of info for high school. We have graduated our 4 oldest – they now have a master’s (nursing), a bachelor’s (communications), AA (criminal justice – military police/recruiter), and in college, also CJ. We just have our 16 y.o. DS at home after over 25 yrs. of HS.
Dual enrollment (doing community college during jr. and sr. yrs. of high school) allows a student to count those college classes as his high school courses. By the time he graduates from high school, he has up to an AA!
http://www.hslda.org/highschool
http://www.thehomescholar.com
I have been homeschooling for twenty years, and it has been MY greatest learning experience. Enjoy every moment you have with your children; the years go by too quickly.
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