How many Dis'ers homeschool?

[Tink561]

I use Sonlight with my three sons. They're in 6th, 7th and 10th grades. My oldest also participates in the local high school's marching band.

Are there anyother DISers from Palm Beach County?

 

[hokiefan33]

I homeschool my nine year old daughter. She has never been to a public school and never will! I love the DIS boards full of so much information!

Happy homeschooling!

Gosh, you make a public school sound like a drug house - "never been to a drug house and never will!" Why do you think they are so bad?

I was in private school through the middle of 3rd grade, public school from middle of 3rd through middle of 4th, homeschooled from middle of 4th through 6th, then public school from 7th-12th. And I can tell you that by far, the best time I had was in public school. In homeschool, many parents like the fact that they have control over what their kids learn (or don't learn), the flexibility of the schedule, etc... But many parents (and I'm not saying all, or even you, just some) overlook the fact that homeschooled kids are not surrounded by other kids in a normal school-like setting. To me, this is where you learn to get along with others (outside your family), and how you learn to interact with other people your age, who may be more economically, socially and parentally advantaged (or disadvantaged) than you. You have to remember too, that a lot of homeschooled kids (and their parents) have a label placed on them that they aren't normal or are "weird" (right or wrong), and in some cases (again, not all) it is b/c the kids are not able to function well around other "normal" children, in many cases b/c they have never had to. And while in homeschool, while my mom loved it, I always missed that interaction with other kids my age, so I begged to go back in the 7th grade.

The world is going to happen whether you homeschool or not, and if you teach your kids well enough at home, you can combat whatever they learn in school if you don't like it.

Just my 2 cents worth. Not a slam on homeschoolers, just a different picture.

 

[TNKBELL]

Disney's Youth Education Series is for any youth group consisting of 10 or more students and is well suited for HS groups as well. Basically you get a substantial discount on park hopper tickets but my info packet is just current until 9-05 so I don't have the prices for October yet, I called and it will not be out until spring 05. In addition to discounted ticket prices, for every 10 students 2 chaperones are free!! The group just meets for one 2-3 hour program at one of the theme parks or resorts and the topics are chosen by the leader from a list of about 20 different programs. Each youth is also given a Disney Y.E.S. t-shirt and there are discounts for lodging at the value and moderate resorts also. My family is planning on a trip in October 4-11th. You may contact Disney about this program at 1-877-343-5387 or online at www.DisneyYouthGroups.com. The ages of my dks at the time of travel will be ds 8 ,ds 6, dd 4, ds 1. If anyone is interested in participating please let me know. We would need to name our group and choose the program. It's a great opportunity!!

 

[2cutekids]

Thank you, TNKBELL! Are the discounts that much cheaper? Hmmmmm.....I may be starting my own group......

 

[TNKBELL]

The discounts are pretty substantial according to the previous years park hopper passes,( for example a youth 3 day ph is 113.50 including tax and don't forget 2 free chaperones!) but with the new ticket pricing I'm not sure what the new rates will be until they are released in the spring. The info packet they sent also includes mention of affordable prices exclusively for youth groups, but no mention of pricing. The cms are very friendly and can be called at the above number in my previous post and will answer any questions.

 

[CynJ]

Anyone have any experience with HS'ing with foster children or adoptive children?

I personally feel very strongly about HS'ing being the way to go and DH and have been talking about fostering (with plan being to adopt) but I don't know if that will fly with the state.

 

[Selket]

I plan to homeschool my 3 year old as he gets older - he has severe food allergies and is also type 1 diabetic. I want to homeschool him for at least a few years until he is old enough to handle those issues more on his own. He's just 3 now so I have a few years before we formally start. But I've found a local homeschooling co-op that has a preschool program so I think we'll start that just to get in the groove of homeschooling

Does anyone use the K12 program? I've looked at that one and it seems great.

 

[TNKBELL]

I would start by finding out what your state requires, every state is different in it's rules regarding hs. I don't know about foster parenting only because readjusting to a totally different ps system might be difficult for the child after the luxury of hs! God Bless you for considering fostering!

 

[sha_lyn]

In GA you can not HS a foster child from what I have read, but I have no idea about in other states.

I don't use K12 but know several who do, and if I ever go back to using a packaged curriculum it is hte one I would pick. I'm not certain if they do it every yr, but they ususally have deep discounts in april-may to clear out their stock. I will probably start using if for DD around 5th grade or so.

 

[ptrbryant]

Would you PM me once you get the 2005 info on the Y.E.S. program? It looks like our dates may be flexible (won't know them for sure for another 1-2 months) and maybe we could join in!
Thanks!
Karla B.

 

[ptrbryant]

I noticed that no one's responded to your message yet and didn't want you to feel ignored! :-D
One of the things about homeschooling is that there are many, many reasons why families choose that path. It sounds like, in your experience, you had a good public school available. In too many cases, a "good" public school just is not there. I lived in Philadelphia for 20 years and, if I were still there, one of my main reasons for homeschooling would have been to keep my DS out of the complete mess the public schools face there (nearly daily violence,etc.). The private schools there, starting in Kindergarten, were running about $15,000 a year. No way we could afford that on one income.
In our situation, the main reason we homeschool is that my DS8 has marked auditory processing and articulation problems. In short, he cannot follow what's being taught in a classroom setting with 25 other kids around and other distractions. Also, because of his articulation problems, I can assure you the label "weird" would have been cemented on him at least 3 years ago by his peers. (He did attend a parish preschool and his classmates thought he was from France! Once it was clear he had problems speaking, he was ostracized and became a very sullen, negative child.)
I also don't want to keep him in any bubble. He takes TaeKwonDo 3x a week and has made alot of friends there (he'll be testing for his Black Belt next month!), he does many things with other homeschooled kids and 6 of his cousins who also live here are homeschooled as well. He has speech therapy 2x a week and I'm encouraged that many of his issues, if not resolved, will at least be more manageable in time.
Some things I've learned as an adult, however: aside from being in a traditional school setting, there is no other time in your entire life when you will sit in a room all day with everyone else your same age; in general, homeschooled children seem better able to have sensible discussions with adults and children both older and younger than themselves than those who have spent nearly all there social hours only with kids their own age; adults are more accepting of differences in others than peer-pressure conscience kids; ultimately, every caring family will do what's best for their children.
Take care,
Karla B.

 

[summersfam4]

I can't believe I haven't replied (or maybe I have and I'm just scatter-brained, but I didn't see it lol)! We are homeschooling our girls. DD1 is in first grade this year and it's our first year! DD2 is only 21 months, but she's learning lots of colors, songs, and ASL. We decided to homeschool DD because public school here was not an option after all our state ranks 49th and our county test scores are in the 40th percentile of the states average. I'm not going to say that all of our schools in the area are that bad or that the children don't learn as much, but I do think that we can do better and that's just MHO. There are a couple of private schools in the area, but 2 are out because we don't agree with their spanking policy, and also we are fairly open about different types of religion and these schools are very strict about their ways of thinking. The other school we liked and planned for DD to attend, but we were disappointed when they wouldn't consider her for 1st grade even though she reads, writes, and is very advanced in math (I know this subject can be very argumentitive but this happened to be how we felt). If they had tested her and decided she didn't qualify that would have been ok with us, but they were only willing to consider the states age limits (we would have even been ok about holding her back at a later date if she wasn't able to grasp more mature concepts but again this was not a consideration for the school). We have started with the Abeka program because of the great reviews that we heard from others, and we really like the Math & Language, but we are planning to look around more for next years Science & History as we would like to find something we thought was more fulfilling (Any suggestions?). This way we can also travel when we want (DH is self employed), & we have the other benefits of DH speaking fluent Spanish, and I rode horses & showed for a stable for years, so DD1 is riding, speaking Spanish, attending an Art Class, swimming, and various other accompanying activities that many children both PS and private school don't get to do. This just works better for us. We are a live and let live family so I'm all for doing what works best for your own.

Kelly

NICE TO MEET YOU ALL!

 

[ptrbryant]

Yes, our science was getting a bit boring---and this with a DS8 who LOVES science! I've seen that Singapore tends to rate near the top internationally when it comes to both Math and Science and had read for sometime about Singapore Math. We actually prefer Math-U-See, but it leaves some gaps when it comes to testing time, so I "filled in" with Singapore Math...pretty thorough! Anyway, I then saw Singapore Science was available (all through their website www.singaporemath.com). I ordered the textbook, workbook and activity book. They arrived yesterday and we dove right in! They're quite good and the photographs in the textbook were of better quality than I thought they'd be. You might want to check it out.
Take care!
Karla B.

 

[summersfam4]

ptrbryant,

I like the looks of Singapore science, I might just order that this weekend and replace/add to what we already have. I appreciate the suggestion. What are you using for Language Arts and History? I love to hear reviews of the different material out there because next year like I said, I plan to break it up and not buy it all from one company. This being my first year I figured that having all materials come from one company would help the lessons flow together, but now I see that I am the one who will be making it flow together . We plan to homeschool all the way through high school at this point in time (when we were thinking about the private school we had planned to bring our kids out during middle & high school due to high horomone levels, unsteady emotions, and of course violence in schools today, so it's not really that big of a change plus the girls are happy at this point & I 'm getting smarter too lol)!

Kelly

 

[sha_lyn]

We love singapore math. However I'm dissapointed wiht the science. It is very "light" IMHO.
Now I am looking at Great Science Adventures http://www.commonsensepress.com/resellerpg.htm

 

[phamton]

We decided to homeschool DD because public school here was not an option after all our state ranks 49th

Actually, Florida is 39th. http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm Nevada is 49th.

Edited to add: I see you're not in FL but "north of Florida." I homeschooled my 2 youngest sons. The youngest just graduated this summer and his brother graduated the year before. We got started late. Their older siblings went to public schools and I started home schooling when our younger sons were in 8th and 9th grade.

 

[sha_lyn]

the site posted isn't ranked by test or any gov criteria. It takes in many factors including drop out rates and class size, and the % students vs. % of school admistrators. I don't think many of those factors are important.

 

[phamton]

the site posted isn't ranked by test or any gov criteria. It takes in many factors including drop out rates and class size, and the % students vs. % of school admistrators. I don't think many of those factors are important.

So what ranking do you think it most accurate? I couldn't find any site that ranked FL as 49th. Could you provide a url of a more acceptable ranking site? They all seem rather subjective to me.

 

[TNKBELL]

Yes I will pm you when I recieve the new info packet on Disney's Y.E.S. program, our dates can be a little flexible within a couple of days either way, so it would be nice to get a group together and save some $! It probably won't be until early spring maybe March. I'll let you know!

 

[Xx Princess xX]

hi my half sisters are homeschooled and my parents were thinking of putting them in school but my 6 year old sister is in grade 1 and is really smart she does 3rd grade things and says its too easy so if they were to put her in school shed be really bored. but i think it would b better anyways because if she goes into high school kids would not like her that much or they might but shed b behind in socializing because everyone would have there own groups and she wouldnt know where to fit in but its not going to happen for a little while anyways shes only 6 so.. nothing to worry about YET!! lol

Jessica