Re: Home school or traditional school?
Asked by inquisitive-creatures

Question:

Does anyone else on here homeschool? What are people's ideas and opinions on homeschooling versus everyday normal schooling?

My Advice:

Home schooling is the hardest and the best

thing that I've ever done.  Starting as a baby we taught our 1st son Math, and Reading.  We bought our first school book set at 4.  He flew through it and then we went to a book store and bought his 1st grade set of books.  By the time that he was suppose to start Kindergarden he was already in the 1st grade.  With this we decided to home school him. 

Choose between your own curriculum and book sets.

Own curriculm

For the early years we used a mixture of books from Wal Mart and a library sales.  I found this fine then but putting together your own curriculum is hard and takes a lot of time.  You have to remember what was taught and build a plan of what to teach next.  In addition, you have to find books and lessons on each topic in the right order and right age level.  If you choose the path of building your own lessons and curriculum the internet does offer many free lessons that you can follow.

http://www.teachkind.org/Lessons_and_Activity_Sheets.asp

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/

These are a few of many. Check out what is required in your state. http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp

Bought curriculum

Buying a set of curriculum was the choice that we made.  First it was so easy to pick up a couple of boxes that covered the subjects that we wanted to teach. Second, everything is laid out for you and we choose Lifepac .  With these you do not have to worry about being asked to teach something in Science that uses skill that have not been covered in Math or English.  Probably any curriculum that has all of the main subjects that are required by your state will work well.  Horizon is another one that is available but does not go all the way up to high shcool. 

This has been really great.  At one point I did try to go back to work.  At this time I found out what I already suspected.  My son has dyslexia and this caused a few behavior problems do to the fustration of a normal school atmosphere.  With that we pulled him out and continued on with our schooling. 

What's hard.

1. Being the one and only teacher every day.  If you do it wrong there is no one to pick up the slack.

2. Being mom and the teacher.  You have to push a little to keep your child/ children on track sometimes.  This can get tiring on some days and after school is over you are the mom now.

What's Great

1. You are with your child every day.  I know this conflicts with my it's hard statement but it's true.  This is one point that is both great and bad.  On the many great days it is wonderful. You learn everything about your child, know everything, help him through the hard times and see him grow in every way.  You see those eyes light up when he finally gets the idea that 1/4 is one part of four or how to draw a person better than a stick.

2. You can go at your child's pace.  If he is slow in Math then you can get extra lessons in the area that he needs to work on. 

You can speed through History and Geography and then fill that time with Art or Music. 

3. You can teach your child anywhere.  This means that if your husband travels for work you can all go with him.  Just bring the books and your on your way.

4. Although there are some limitations set by state, you can take breaks from school work any time that you like.  For example we have our school week from Sunday thru Thursday.  This fits into our schedule much better.  We can also take vacations at any time that we like.