Who is considering actual homeschooling in the fall if schools are open or closed?

[Tinijocaro]

Just curious if anyone is considering switching to homeschooling if schools are open or closed. I realize most parents must go to work and don't have that option, but for those who do...

I mean actual homeschooling where the parent makes the lesson plans, teaches the material...not what went on this past spring with distance learning where everything was prepared by the teacher and the parent had to ensure it got completed. That wasn't homeschooling. I imagine actual homeschool would be much, much easier than distance learning.

My four kids will all be in college in the fall. Not sure what I would have done if I still had any in school. If my job was cut (I'm a music teacher), then I def would homeschool.

 

[amylevan]

I am.

I have gone as far as to review curriculum and choose which for each of my children. I have not purchased anything and am holding off making a decision until I see our district’s plan.

 

[DopeyDame]

I'm the opposite. I'm considering homeschooling is schools *don't* open. I'm not dealing with the fiasco that was distance learning again. If I have to be doing the work anyway, I'm going to chose material that if interesting and beneficial for my kids.
If school is back (full time or hybrid) then we'll stick with the school's plan.

 

[aggiedog]

14yo ds is toying with the idea of the Texas K-12 program, which is public school online. I would NOT homeschool per se, as I work full time and DH has no interest in teaching either. If DS wants to try online, I'm ok with him trying, but honestly I don't think he'd like it. He's social, and likes his friends. Also, this past semester was a free for all. Our online schooling was literally "sign in at some point before the end of the year and you get whatever grade you had in March." That translated to hours of video games and the occasional zoom meeting for ds. Next semester would be vastly different. I was willing to toss last semester out. I'm not willing to do that for the next 4 years. And the K-12 program is 4 hours monitored time per day and we'd require him to do something constructive with the other 4 hours. Not sure he gets that. LOL

 

[Tinijocaro]

I'm the opposite. I'm considering homeschooling is schools *don't* open. I'm not dealing with the fiasco that was distance learning again. If I have to be doing the work anyway, I'm going to chose material that if interesting and beneficial for my kids.
If school is back (full time or hybrid) then we'll stick with the school's plan.

That makes sense and I guess either way, some may choose homeschooling. Just know that teachers were literally THROWN completely unprepared into the situation of having to do distance teaching. Including me. I teach 4th and 5th graders to play the string instruments. That was fun to teach by computer. It was really quite awful. I was severely limited by my lack of knowledge of various programs needed to teach remotely, as most teachers were. I believe it was hard on everyone-kids, teachers, and parents.

 

[DopeyDame]

That makes sense and I guess either way, some may choose homeschooling. Just know that teachers were literally THROWN completely unprepared into the situation of having to do distance teaching. Including me. I teach 4th and 5th graders to play the string instruments. That was fun to teach by computer. It was really quite awful. I was severely limited by my lack of knowledge of various programs needed to teach remotely, as most teachers were. I believe it was hard on everyone-kids, teachers, and parents.

Oh for sure! I know teachers didn't sign up for it either and were thrown into a situation for which they weren't prepared.
I have a rising 3rd grade and rising 6th grade. My then-2nd graders teacher did the bare minimum and clearly just couldn't handle the technology. But my then-5th graders teachers were heroes! They did all sorts of things to keep the kids engaged and moving forward.
For a number of complicated reasons, including equity issues that districts rightly have to deal with, I don't trust the district to implement a successful district learning program, despite the absolute best efforts of everyone involved.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Oh for sure! I know teachers didn't sign up for it either and were thrown into a situation for which they weren't prepared.
I have a rising 3rd grade and rising 6th grade. My then-2nd graders teacher did the bare minimum and clearly just couldn't handle the technology. But my then-5th graders teachers were heroes! They did all sorts of things to keep the kids engaged and moving forward.
For a number of complicated reasons, including equity issues that districts rightly have to deal with, I don't trust the district to implement a successful district learning program, despite the absolute best efforts of everyone involved.

We were told to offer new material, but keep it very light. For my subject area, participation was incredibly low, as were all the special areas. I understand that specials just weren't a priority, but I still ahd to plan and learn as if I had full classes. All that work (much more than if I had been at school) and have barely anyone show up was so discouraging, but I understand everyone was just trying to keep their heads above water. An all-around sucky situation. I think if a grade level has someone on the team that is super creative AND great with technology, then they probably were able to handle distance learning really well. I've seen it in my own district.
I can't imagine any scenario that is good-going back full time? No way. Kids will end up back home by Halloween due to outbreaks in the school. Distance learning? We all know how that went. Hal and half? Why? just why? Seems there is no good way to handle this. I honestly think parents should just homeschool if at all possible. No danger from catching covid at school, not having to deal with distance learning.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

I will be, but that may not be a fair response, as I have been homeschooling for the last 22 years. I have never been so thankful to be homeschooling as I was in March when things with our schools were imploding and we were veritably untouched and unaffected in our day to day life.

I used to be a contact for our local homeschool groups when we lived in Oregon. Every August, my phone would ring off the wall with people who decided that this was the year they were finished with the school system and were going to give homeschooling a try. (There were a LOT of homeschoolers in our area there, but only a fraction where we live now.) I have been wondering all spring what the statistics would be like for people who decide they are going to truly take the step to homeschool through the pandemic. I anticipate the numbers may sky-rocket.

With all of the rushes we have seen on other items (toilet paper, hair trimmers, etc.), I have to admit that I was a little concerned about whether there would be a rush on certain popular homeschool curriculum options (non-virtual ones). I had my curriculum for the year figured out and all of the major items that I wanted to use, ordered back in April, just to be safe. While it may be a bit of an issue, I anticipate that most parents who are looking to do this for the short term will likely turn towards more online educational options as opposed to researching math, language arts, and other curricula on their own.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

..

 

[aprilchem]

We have already made the decision to homeschool in the fall, for the first time. My kids will be in 6th, 8th, and 9th grades.

Honestly, for us it's more about getting them a good education this year rather than fear of COVID, but we also want to them to be safe, too. Our district did a terrible job of online learning in the spring, and although they're trying to open the schools in-person in my area, I predict it won't be long until they're shut down again and back to online learning.

I've already picked curriculum and filed my Letter of Intent with our local school district.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I spent a lot of time stressing over this decision, but in the end I decided to go with distance learning to stay in the school system. I just don't feel confident doing it all on my own.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My DS is in college, and current plans at his school are to go back. But if I had
younger kids, I do think this would have made me take the plunge into homeschooling.

 

[wenrob]

14yo ds is toying with the idea of the Texas K-12 program, which is public school online. I would NOT homeschool per se, as I work full time and DH has no interest in teaching either. If DS wants to try online, I'm ok with him trying, but honestly I don't think he'd like it. He's social, and likes his friends. Also, this past semester was a free for all. Our online schooling was literally "sign in at some point before the end of the year and you get whatever grade you had in March." That translated to hours of video games and the occasional zoom meeting for ds. Next semester would be vastly different. I was willing to toss last semester out. I'm not willing to do that for the next 4 years. And the K-12 program is 4 hours monitored time per day and we'd require him to do something constructive with the other 4 hours. Not sure he gets that. LOL

Only you know your kid and if they’ll stick to it but my sister let first my nephew and then my niece do this. They’re both essentially 8th grade dropouts. She just gave up on trying to get them to do it and they really had no motivation to begin with. My 14 year old son expressed interest in this but I had a hard enough time getting him to do the busy work they were given for the last quarter. It’s going to be a really rough school year if we go remote. I see lots of tears to come, mine and his.

As far as homeschooling I’ve thought about it but I get overwhelmed at even knowing where to start. I also feel it will be a constant battle with DS. He needs the structure of school. DD will be fine no matter what but she desperately misses her friends. I know the right thing for my kids personally is traditional school but at the same time I’m really leery of sending them back.

 

[FigmentSpark]

My son is going into grade 11. No homeschooling. We will have to take what the school system gives us. I would like to see departments within the school getting together and assigning units to teachers who will then do the videos for it. Each teacher marks the learning, but they shouldn't all have to figure out ways to teach the same content to individual groups of 24. Some teachers are better at the tech than others and that needs to be evened out, as well.

 

[katie01]

I’ll have one in college, one in high school, and one in junior high this year. My college student is still mulling over the choice of whether to live on campus, commute the 25 minutes, or learn remotely. We are pretty sure we are going to homeschool the other two kids. Both did very well with distance learning, but this year we’d be doing our own curriculum or some mixture of online schooling and textbook learning. They both attended private schools, and both schools have said they are offering zero remote learning options unless the whole school has to go to remote learning. I understand their position completely, they don’t have the resources to do both remote and in person teaching at the same time. But I feel like schools are going to be opening and closing and quarantining all year long, and I feel like it will overall be better for their health and their education to consistently home school from the start. I am both nervous and excited about the challenge. I think one of my kids is actually going to love the ability and extra time to explore more subjects of interest. I’m a little worried about the high schooler just because of the increased difficulty of subject matter at that level, but I think with all the online resources out there, we can make it work. They are both excited to not have to deal with the social drama and “fluff” wasted time of school, but will miss their friends, so I hope we can find ways to socialize still in safe ways

 

[Derry Wade]

Definitely considering it for my rising 5th grader who's in public school. My rising 8th grader's private school did an amazing job in the spring and I'm confident that will continue for fall. I'm working from home through at least January -- otherwise I wouldn't be able to consider it.

 

[JimMIA]

I think it depends a lot on what the child's age is, and what the available resources are. We have not home-schooled, but Florida has an incredibly robust online system called Florida Virtual Schools. It's free, and the friends who have used it have found it to be very good. https://www.flvs.net/

We have one family whose daughter graduated HS last year from FLVS, and another who will graduate next year.

They even have an actual in-person graduation ceremony at the big arena at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Our DD will be in school at UCF this Spring when her "skate-sister" graduates, so I'm sure we'll go up to join her family for the ceremony.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I’ll have one in college, one in high school, and one in junior high this year. My college student is still mulling over the choice of whether to live on campus, commute the 25 minutes, or learn remotely. We are pretty sure we are going to homeschool the other two kids. Both did very well with distance learning, but this year we’d be doing our own curriculum or some mixture of online schooling and textbook learning. They both attended private schools, and both schools have said they are offering zero remote learning options unless the whole school has to go to remote learning. I understand their position completely, they don’t have the resources to do both remote and in person teaching at the same time. But I feel like schools are going to be opening and closing and quarantining all year long, and I feel like it will overall be better for their health and their education to consistently home school from the start. I am both nervous and excited about the challenge. I think one of my kids is actually going to love the ability and extra time to explore more subjects of interest. I’m a little worried about the high schooler just because of the increased difficulty of subject matter at that level, but I think with all the online resources out there, we can make it work. They are both excited to not have to deal with the social drama and “fluff” wasted time of school, but will miss their friends, so I hope we can find ways to socialize still in safe ways

All four of mine will be in college in Sept. Two undergrad and two doing grad school. The two grad students and one undergrad will all be at the same school, and classes are happening on campus. My freshman daughter has severe asthma and we really had to wait to decide what to do with her. She won't be dorming till this is over. She decided to live home and commute the 40 minutes two days a week. She will have a mix of in-person classes and online, so for her it's working out great to only have to commute two days per week. We will take it semester by semester.

 

[WDWDancer]

My 3 are all early elementary and we made the decision to homeschooled this year.

 

[Tinijocaro]

My 3 are all early elementary and we made the decision to homeschooled this year.

Honestly, I'd probably want to do the same if I was in your shoes. To be taught by a loving parent, HAS to automatically be better than distance learning. It also HAS to be better than going to school with a mask on and trying very hard to stay 6 feet away from people, spending your day cleaning your desk, washing your hands constantly. Even if the parent isn't "qualified" to teach, I think there are homeschool programs that get you started and I'm sure there are homeschool communities to go to for help. I personally think most parents are qualified to homeschool, but do they have the personality? Do they have the type of relationship with their kids where instruction would be readily accepted? Those things are more important than being qualified.