LDS Homeschoolers

[Jenamarie]

Anyone here do homeschooling? Even though my DD has already been through traditional pre-school, and is enrolled for Kindergarten in the Fall, the idea of homeschooling has recently filled a lot of my thoughts, mainly because of a couple families in my ward who are doing it, and how wonderful and smart their kids are. I also love the idea of not having to worry about my kids being bullied like I was in elementary school, and also the flexibility in being able to take family vacations in the "off season", and not having to worry about the difficulties of having a child switch schools during the school year because of a move (we plan to move in the next 2-3 years, and obviously can't predict or plan on it happening during Summer vacation.)

Some questions I have are:

How much time during each day do you dedicate to "school"?

Do you have a "classroom" in your house, or is it just your kitchen table? Where do you keep your school supplies?

How do you handle teaching kids at different grade levels at the same time?

Do you buy pre-made curriculums, or come up with your own?

[Avrham]

hello my wife is very interested in home-schooling for the kids(4) 2 oldest go to school(primary) she has studied the benefits pros/cons in Australia you must follow the school curriculums set by the Board of Education for all year levels, but you can teach them anyway as long as they have reached a standard level especially to get in University/College its full-time commitment I heard you need at least 2hours a day and then there's the social learning ie gaining life experiance, it really depends on if you believe in rope learning to educate your kids

[Elgama]

I am in the UK so its a very different thing, my kids are 5 years, 2 years and 11 weeks

How much time during each day do you dedicate to "school"?

About an hour - my main goal is to teach reading, wrting, arithmetic and algebra, after that we are child led

Do you have a "classroom" in your house, or is it just your kitchen table? Where do you keep your school supplies?

Kitchen Table and we have a cupboard in the kitchen

How do you handle teaching kids at different grade levels at the same time?

so far works quite well - we are aiming to teach our kids to learn rather than teaching our children

Do you buy pre-made curriculums, or come up with your own?

Don't use anything really we have the Draw, Write, Now books which are fantastic and give us books to read, etc and I use a Peak Maths textbook for maths - rest we go to things at the library, Ellie attends Rainbows (Beaver Scouts for girls), ice skating with the local Home Ed group

-Charley

[Islander]

There are two families in my ward that home school their kids. One family has all small kids under 14 and they are really good kids and quite smart. The other has 4 in college already and 3 more thru various stages of High School, all at home. They are all well adjusted, smart, sociable and well rounded kids.

Traditional schools, at least where we live, really offers very little in terms of "socialization". If exposing children to drugs, alcohol, sexualized relationships, violence and just plain antisocial behavior has "value" I truly fail to see it.

[Guest Alana]

In my area there are a few homeschool options. One is to do it all yourself. You registar as a independant school and you're not accountable for any state or local testing. My friend does this and she uses a book that lists what you learn in each grade in general. For reading her oldest studies scriptures.

What I'm most interested in is charter schools. I have an other friend that does this. They are given a curriculum guides. This means that they can either teach how they want, or refer directly to this book which has each thing that they learn explained out, with pages to fill out for the child. In this area, the charter school gives the parents an allowance of $1800 a year per child to purchase approved supplies and classes for the child. They have a list of approved classes. Right now my friends are taking Tae Kwon Do and horse riding. They've also done art classes, dance and girl scouts. They can use this allowance for pens and papers and books also. The charter school kids are registered to this school, which gets money from state and local. The kids meet once a week. Kindergarten through 2rd grade meet together, as does 3th through 5th. During that time they learn and do group activities. They also have field trips occasionally. On Fridays they have an optional meeting time for parents where 'child care' is provided, so that parents can discuss ideas. Also, every 3 months the main teacher comes to you homes as a support.

Third option that I'm aware of is through the local public school, you're given the same material as the kids in regular classes and follow along with them at the same pace. I don't know much more about this program.

[Guest]

If exposing children to drugs, alcohol, sexualized relationships, violence and just plain antisocial behavior has "value" I truly fail to see it.

Look at it this way... if Adam and Eve had stayed in paradise, they wouldn't have learned to choose right over wrong on their own free agency.

I have more admiration for somebody who stays honorable in such an environment than somebody honorable whose honor has never been challenged.

[Jenamarie]

Look at it this way... if Adam and Eve had stayed in paradise, they wouldn't have learned to choose right over wrong on their own free agency.

I have more admiration for somebody who stays honorable in such an environment than somebody honorable whose honor has never been challenged.

But is public school the only place a child's honor can be challenged?

[NeuroTypical]

We homeschool our two kids, 8 and 5.

How much time during each day do you dedicate to "school"?

The formal sit-down-and-do-something portion is maybe 11-12 hrs/wk total. That amount goes up a little every year.

The prepare-the-kid-to-be-a-mature-contributing-happy-member-of-society portion is a little hard to quantify, but probably about the same amount of time.

(In Colorado, the state requirement is 172 days/yr, 4 hrs/day average)

Do you have a "classroom" in your house, or is it just your kitchen table?

Kitchen table. And the car, the McDonald's play place, the park, doctor's offices, and anywhere else we happen to be. We have most of the 'sit-down' stuff in a binder my wife hauls around. We have a dry-erase board in the living room, and the front door hallway is where we hang large-print artwork that we got from a Dept of Education grant for schools.

Where do you keep your school supplies?

Anywhere and everywhere. We've got a bookcase of crafts in the kitchen, a bookcase of books in the kid bedroom, a bookcase of curriculum and math stuff in the living room.

How do you handle teaching kids at different grade levels at the same time?

We're finding that to be a bit of a struggle at first. 8 and 5 - one can't read or write or spell, the other is still learning to spell. They tell me that as our kids get older, they get more self-directed and capable of following lessons themselves. Right now, it's rather haphazard.

Do you buy pre-made curriculums, or come up with your own?

Our overall philosophy is found in the Well Trained Mind book. We follow bought curriculums for math, language/grammar, and history. Latin, reading/spelling, piano, chemistry, and typing do involve a book or program, but don't involve a formal curriculum.

And of COURSE we expose our children to "drugs, alcohol, sexualized relationships, violence and just plain antisocial behavior". The purpose of educating kids, is to create healthy, capable, smart, strong adults that can handle the realities of life. You can't do that and hide reality from them at the same time. We just expose them in ways that are unlikely to result in their adopting such crap into their own lives. We've visited casinos, and they've had a good look at the rows of unhappy people chained to slot machines. We talk to cops and have sat behind bars and thought about consequenses. We talk with folks who have overcome addictions, about how better life is clean. We talk about pregnancy and kids and shacking up and being ready and not being ready. It's not that hard - so far, they've come up with perfectly comforting answers to "does that sound like a good thing to do?" type questions.

Homeschooling is hard. You need energy, and you need to reeeeeeeealy love to spend a TON of time with your kids, every day. Not everyone should homeschool. Not every kid should be homeschooled. But if it's in the kid's best interests and is happening, it is beautiful.

LM

Edited July 17, 2009 by Loudmouth_Mormon

[Vort]

One of the main reasons we homeschool is one you don't hear much: We like the idea of our children learning things from us. And if in teaching them those common areas of math and reading, we also get to know them better, how can that be a bad thing?

Homeschooling totally rocks. I don't consider myself an evangelist for it, but if you have an idea that it might work for you, I strongly encourage you to give it a shot.

How much time during each day do you dedicate to "school"?

We don't have a strict "now we're in school, now we are not" system. I think my kids spend somewhat more time in actual learning activities per week than do their public schooled friends. They also continue during the summer.

Do you have a "classroom" in your house, or is it just your kitchen table? Where do you keep your school supplies?

Kitchen table or living room floor, or wherever else. The kids generally store their school supplies on their bedroom shelves.

How do you handle teaching kids at different grade levels at the same time?

You don't. You teach the eight-year-old her math, helping her out for ten minutes, then while she does her worksheet, you help the twelve-year-old with his writing assignment.

Do you buy pre-made curriculums, or come up with your own?

We have never used preset curricula, but we do buy workbooks and other scholastic items to use for homeschool.