Home School

Well I have been looking everywhere for the answer to my question but I get all kinds of different answers. Does anyone know from experience about how to home school your child? what are the requirements? does it cost anything to homeschool your own child besides the cost of textboooks? I live in michigan so some standards may not be the same but help of any kind would be appreciated. Thank you

I have limited experience as per what you are asking, as I was the one homeschooled rather than the one homeschooling, but I was homeschooled thru 9th grade. I know that the requirements are state to state, and there is no cost outside of your own chosen curriculum.

other than that, I can only applaud your choice. while I was homeschooled I wasn’t as happy about it, but looking back it was good for me.

MB:

There are LITTERALLY hundreds of local, state and national Home School Organizations, that are VERY organized, have National Conferences and can send you Free material out that spells out everything. EVERY State has those organizations, especially one as large as Michigan.

Some big questions you need to research NOW:

  1. Do I have the patience and ability to “stay on task”, even though you are at home? (That’s hard for a LOT of people).

  2. Do I have the knowledge to Teach subjects that will keep my kids competitive? (Home School Curriculums have been THOROUGHLY worked out by a number of organizations).

  3. Does your Local School District allow partial participation for Sports/Choir/Band/etc.?

  4. What Colleges am I looking at? What do they require from Home Schooled kids?

  5. Above all: QUESTION YOUR MOTIVATION FOR WANTING TO DO IT, AND BE VERY HONEST WITH YOURSELF!

Just some thoughts!

Good luck!

Mufasa

MB:

“Motivation” is very personal; but if it’s not because you can deliver a better education than the Local Schools, and is NOT a desire to keep them away from “heathens”; then you’ll do okay.

“External Motivation” is always bound to fail.

Mufasa

I agree with everything Mufasa said…But to answer your question, every state is different and every school district is different and requires different things.

I work with troubled adolescents so first and foremost, if there’s a judge invovled, you need that judge’s permission first.

If not…Then you just need to contact your school district and find out what their requirements are. There’s usually a home schooling coordinator that will help you set it all up. You do have to provide the books, but most will be at the library. Where I live, it’s a mandatory 4 hours a day school day and testing is sent in once every semester.

School Districts are usually pretty cooperative.

You just need to know the rules and requirements, AND FOLLOW THEM!

Mufasa

I home school my children. They are currently a grade ahead and set to enter college at 16 (just as I did).

Home School regulations vary from state to state. Do a look up on “home school legal defense” they’ll have the laws listed for your state. Contact the board of ed, hopefully they can find some support groups for you. Curricula is generally your choice, I like Switched on Schoolhouse myself. Many Private schools now offer support where you can take only one class. For instance if math was never your strong point, you can have your child take upper level math classes at the school or hire a tutor or perhaps their is a co-op in your area. Other than that, there are generally so many field trips, contests, and extra curricula activities available, you’ll have to pick and choose. My girls do home school specific events and are in team sports and dance classes that are county wide.

I’d be happy to answer any questions you have, I run one of the support groups in my area. PM me if you want.

Not trying to discourage you, I dont blame you for not wanting home school your kids due to the problems going on in todays school system. But, I have known a few families that have home schooled their kids. If your not carful, your child may be smart, but will have zero social skills, and will not be able to function normally in public functions. Please, be sure if you are going to or do home school your child to make sure you include social functions and events with other children, other wise the social skills they are supposed to aquire in the school system will not happen, and they will be labled as “weird, strange, as well as other things” I am not trying to make a joke, but I have seen it alot where home schooled childen have not been able to function with other children.

My mom started teaching me at home back in 91’. That was in Va, which was a great state to be in for “home-schooling”. We had a HUGE group, our own sports teams, cheerleaders etc. It was great.

Then moved to Green Bay WI & it sucked the big one. Then moved to Ill, also not a great state for it, back then at least. Then moved on to Fl. and it was decent. Anyways, it varies, do some searches, ask around etc.

I did all my school work thru a place call “Citizens High School”. They’re based out of Fl, I believe. I’m sure now it’s done with the use of the internet.

Good luck!

Great choice on deciding to home school. I think it was on of the best decisions my parents made for me as far as schooling goes. You are really doing your kids a favor. As far as advice definitely check out home school legal defense. They are a great resource. Anyway, good luck.

If you do home school, please ensure your children have plenty of interaction with children outside of the controlled environment.

If it’s for purely education reasons, you might just want to do additional tutoring above what public school assigns.

It is admirable from a knowledge prespective, but keep in mind that it may be a detriment to the child’s social life and social development unless you really go out of your way to insure otherwise, and social development at least as important as acquired knowledge in kids. They have plenty of time to study everything on a higher level in college or graduate school. Either way, good luck.

[quote]BADASS MENTALITY wrote:
My mom started teaching me at home back in 91’. That was in Va, which was a great state to be in for “home-schooling”. We had a HUGE group, our own sports teams, cheerleaders etc. It was great.

Then moved to Green Bay WI & it sucked the big one. Then moved to Ill, also not a great state for it, back then at least. Then moved on to Fl. and it was decent. Anyways, it varies, do some searches, ask around etc.

I did all my school work thru a place call “Citizens High School”. They’re based out of Fl, I believe. I’m sure now it’s done with the use of the internet.

Good luck!
[/quote]

Ha!

I were “home-schooled” back there in the 90’s’. We had sports cheerleading, and stuff etc. It were good. Some states like FlA and chicago, ILLin. suck some don’t. It varies. Anyways, use the internet or aks people.

Good Luck!

[quote]pushharder wrote:

This is the biggest myth about homeschooling. I speak from experience as we homeschooled both of our children from grades 1 - 8.

The only time you ever hear concerns about “social skills” is from people who never homeschooled their kids. They just know somebody who did it and they know that the kids’ skills are inadequate. They never mention the kids in conventional schools who have social skills problems.[/quote]

So the impartial observer is wrong and the person with a vested interest in their own children’s upbringing and socialization has got it right? Wait, maybe you mean the popular opinion is wrong based on your sample population of 2 (without any sampling bias)? On top of it all, you’re using this knee-jerk, emotionally-biased tripe to argue against parental caution and the suggestion of increased social interaction?

And the comparison of select individuals and their social pathologies compared to the worst of the gross population is a horrible non sequitur.

Denying something doesn’t make it go away.

At least, that’s what their moms tell them.

When I was 15 I was kicked out of school and started being home schooled for a bit [before I just dropped out all together]. There were all kinds of functions and sporting leagues. While pretty much everyone I encountered was nice, they weren’t what I’d call social. That might also be 'cause I was a punkass kid and made them nervous/anxious,or that their folks didn’t make it a point to get them around people thy weren’t used to, I don’t know. My point is that the social distortion that takes place in homeschooling IS NOT A MYTH.

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Mr ian wrote:
…If your not carful, your child may be smart, but will have zero social skills, and will not be able to function normally in public functions. Please, be sure if you are going to or do home school your child to make sure you include social functions and events with other children, other wise the social skills they are supposed to aquire in the school system will not happen, and they will be labled as “weird, strange, as well as other things” I am not trying to make a joke, but I have seen it alot where home schooled childen have not been able to function with other children.

This is the biggest myth about homeschooling. I speak from experience as we homeschooled both of our children from grades 1 - 8.

The only time you ever hear concerns about “social skills” is from people who never homeschooled their kids. They just know somebody who did it and they know that the kids’ skills are inadequate. They never mention the kids in conventional schools who have social skills problems.

If anything homeschooled kids tend to have superior socialization skills.

[/quote]
Push is absolutely right. Homeschool kids have better socialization skills because they learn to socialize with adults and that, my friends, is where it’s at. You don’t want your kids socialized by other kids.

My observation about people with the opinion of Mr. Ian is they are involved with public schooling or close to someone who is.

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
When I was 15 I was kicked out of school and started being home schooled for a bit [before I just dropped out all together]. There were all kinds of functions and sporting leagues. While pretty much everyone I encountered was nice, they weren’t what I’d call social. That might also be 'cause I was a punkass kid and made them nervous/anxious,or that their folks didn’t make it a point to get them around people thy weren’t used to, I don’t know. My point is that the social distortion that takes place in homeschooling IS NOT A MYTH. [/quote]

You just basically said you weren’t socialized very well by the system. You were in it until 15 and it made you a punk-ass kid. If you had been homeschooled the whole way, you may have done better. Clearly, by 15 a huge part of your “socialization” was complete.

[quote]on edge wrote:

Push is absolutely right.[/quote]

So you assert that caution should be thrown to the wind when homeschooling your kids and that encouraging them to interact with other kids is a bad idea?

And this is your “observation” based on the hundreds of kids you’ve homeschooled? Or are you spewing innane, baseless rhetoric like everyone else?

What if I was homeschooled by my mom and my dad is a public HS teacher, where would that put me? Because I happen to agree w/Mr. Ian’s recommendations and would appreciate it if you could fit me into one of your neat pre-conceived bins.

[quote]on edge wrote:

You just basically said you weren’t socialized very well by the system. You were in it until 15 and it made you a punk-ass kid. If you had been homeschooled the whole way, you may have done better. Clearly, by 15 a huge part of your “socialization” was complete.[/quote]

Wow! Does it cure blindness too? Without knowing anything other than he attended public school and dropped out you can accurately diagnose that public schools made him a punk-ass and that homeschooling might have helped him?

Sorry to be so demanding for things like “evidence” and “proof” , but wouldn’t you want to actually know something about him before saying that it made him a punk-ass kid?