I think you're doing a disservice to your children...

....has anyone else heard this kind of comment when explaining that you are, are even thinking about, home schooling YOUR children? HA!! Gotcha!!

I'm a stay at home dad in Oklahoma who has decided to home school our kids. About a year and a half ago I quit my job to stay home with the kids b/c my wife and I felt horribly guilty dropping them off at day care. One conversation led to another and...here we are. I have two daughters, ages 5 and 2, and a son, age 12 who is currently in the 7th grade at a private school. One advantage to my situation is that my 5 year old missed the cut-off for kindergarten this year, so i'm basically doing kindergarten at home as a "trial run". So far it's been slower than I thought, but I think i'm getting the hang of things now. We do basic stuff like talk a LOT about stuff, letters, sounds, numbers, etc. Nothing concrete, although I think I would feel a bit more confident if I had a little more structure. One disadvantage of my situation is that my son is almost in high school at this point, and he's vary wary of home schooling, although I'm absolutely convinced he would thrive. With the two year old I'm just trying to keep her from strangling the cat and taking her dirty diaper off and throwing it for fun.

I have already done some research on Oklahoma home school laws and we are basically the wild-west. I really do lean towards children needing to take aptitude tests, but I love the independence that regulation free home schooling provides. I have been looking for home schooling groups, but many groups want you to sign some sort of pledge/agreement in regards to Christian teaching. To each their own, but that's just not my thing. Our family is Catholic, and while i'm sure there's a Catholic group in my area, I think i'd rather find a group that's not religious based (and yes, we go to mass every Sunday).

I have a ton of questions but i'll save those for a little later. I've been looking for a good forum for a while and am grateful I finally found this one. Looking forward to reading the board, getting more organized and helping others out once I am.

P.S. Sorry if my subject line caused yer blood pressure to spike.

 

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LOL Welcome! Actually your subject line made me laugh! I figured we had another troll. Homeschool moms eat trolls for lunch.

Welcome!

 

Welcome. For some reason, I assumed your post title was a quote from someone addressing you about hs'ing. :lol:

My ds13 was in public for the last two years. He requested to homeschool again. Dd10 is still in public...for now. I'm assuming the communication lines are open with him about the idea of homeschooling. The important thing concerning him is that you and your wife make a decision and are completely convinced you are making the right one. He will adjust. My ds chose hs'ing this year (although from here on out he won't have a choice....high school is absolutely at home), and he still sees his friends from ps often. He has friends from all sorts of places that he sees on a regular basis. Your ds will find out that he really isn't missing out on any socialization at all. All he is missing is the drama of the school day.

 

My thoughts exactly!!!

 

After having several discussions over the past several months that started with someone explaining to me how my child will be a social outcast if home schooled, or that I am not qualified to home school, i'm now pretty calm and confident in my conversation. I just try to explain that we are home schooling to provide a more child-centered, well rounded education. He will also see his friends from his current school in the neighborhood, and we are planning to have him join activities like music lessons (he wants to learn drums, Lord help us) and a local theater group. In engaging in group activities he enjoys, he's more likely to base his friendships on mutual enjoyment of an activity, rather than just who is sitting by him in the third row that also doesn't want to pay attention in class. By the time i'm done talking about the reasons I plan to home school other folks just get a glassy look. To be honest, I think it's often b/c they feel guilty that they don't do it, but I'll steer clear of throwing gasoline on the fire. For now.

My son had a choice at the beginning of the school year whether he was going to finish 8th grade at his school (8th is the last year). Because of his grades and failure to accept responsibility, we've decided that he no longer has the choice. But like I said, I really do think he'll end up loving the new set-up.

The wife and I have been talking about home school for a while now, and we are absolutely convinced it's the way to go. We can make due on one income for now, I have gone from being very intimidated by the whole thing to sneaking in some home schooling on the boy over this Christmas break.

My biggest hurdle at this point is getting organized and creating a lesson plan of sorts for my five year old. We need to decide on a reading program, and we'll go from there. Like I said, we do a LOT of talking....and she's constantly flooring me with the information that she can retain and process.

The boy will be signing up for a "virtual middle school" to complete 8th grade and we'll see where we go from there.

Thanks for the welcomes. Much appreciated.

 

Welcome to the Spot!

By all means, fire away on the questions.

 

First of all, be sure to read the post on bean dip: http://www.homeschoolspot.com/showthread.php?t=5712&highlight=bean

It has SO MUCH wisdom in it!

Second, protect your wife. Instruct her that all arguments, etc. are to go through YOU. As head of the household, it is ultimately YOUR decision, and if any family want to fuss about it, they fuss to you. If they start giving her grief when you're not there, she can say, "Discuss it with him!" and walk away (or hang up or whatever). If family won't respect reasonable boundaries, sometimes it's necessary to back away for a while. We did this temporarily (on an issue other than hs'ing), and are now on good terms with his mom. She knows not to push the bounaries again. Others have backed away more permantly (often due to dysfunctional extended families to begin with!) Basically, do what you have to do for the protection of your wife and kids.

 

Good post. I wholeheartedly agree that's a good approach.

Sometimes, though, I just feel the overwhelming need to shame one of the critics
by turning their logic back around in them. Thankfully, these folks tend not to be close friends or family. Our immediate family is actually very supportive.

 

Hello,
We are not yet hs, but will be next September. Our oldest is only 4. I've wanted to hs since before our oldest was born. I recently posted about getting cold feet, I'm still nervous about the decision, but I am commited and am looking forward to next year. Most people in our lives know our intent to hs and know me well enough not to even bother trying to talk me out of it I have a sneaking suspicion that my FIL is hoping I will change my mind last minute, but he'll come around.
I visit the spot for the amazing and insightful education. The members here are awesome and very inspiring and insightful.
You have a great sense of humour, which I'm sure helps with hs . I wanted to say congrats for making the decision being the dad and staying home and educating your kids, that's great!
Katrina.

 

Welcome!! I'm also starting to homeschool our 5 yr old! Honestly, we do very little "formal" schooling during the day. Most of it is talking, answering questions, reading, and letting her be a kid and have fun with her sister!

 

I think it's super that the dad is staying home to school the kids! That's how we did it -- since I'm the "education" person, I'd do lesson plans, and DH and DS were supposed to do them. Didn't always work out the way we'd planned, and DS wasn't always enthusiastic about being at home, but now that DS has two sons of his own, he wants us to do the schooling!

 

Welcome. We're getting ready to start another K year here. We also found that while there's some work that looks like traditional school work, most of the real "work" (read: actual learning) looks like play. A LOT like play.

 

Welcome to the forum!

I am starting my second time around with my grandson, who lives with me. I love everything about homeschooling, even sometimes feeling unworthy or uncertain. It just means there is always room for improvement!

I love the fact that there is no limit to what/how you teach your child. The possibilities are limitless and boundless! What other job or employment has that in it's job description???

Join in and hope you like it here.

 

Jackie, thanks so much for that link. I hadn't seen it before, and it is soooo great! It should be made a sticky if it isn't already!

 

Country, I'm surprised you haven't read the Bean Dip post before now! It's constantly being refered to. Christmas Eve, my uncle was in town. I've not seen him for about ten years (black sheep, lol!), and Mom mentioned that we homeschooled, so he started asking about regulations, etc. He wasn't being obnoxious, just curious. Mom's sister was there, too, and she has a good friend who "knows" how dysfunctional socially ALL homeschoolers are :roll:, and of course my aunt brought up this lady's "professional knowledge" on the subject. I shrugged it off, commenting, "I'd just offer her the bean dip and not worry about it...." I think Rachael was the only one who heard that, and she about lost her pop out her nose, lol! She's an expert at passing the bean dip around!

 

Welcome!

 

Funny girl! LOL

 

I am so happy to see a stay at home dad that is willing to home school. My husband has been laid off twice in the last two years. I am the "bread winner". We have talked extensively about homeschooling our daughter. Since NC changed the cutoff date to the end of August, her birthday is in Sept., she is at home. We've practically been homeschooling her from day one. We just never really called it that, until now. As the months go by and the time for her to start public school approaches I become more and more adamant about home schooling her. I substitute teach while working on lateral entry for middle grade science. Yes, I want to be a public school teacher. No, I don't want my child to attend public school. Does that sound strange? Or, does it make perfect sense? Our issue is totally convincing my husband that he can do this. If I make out the lesson plans, he will be responsible for putting them into practice. I know it can work. But, he's going to take a little more convincing. Since he doesn't see what I see in the public schools he's having a more difficult time accepting that homeschooling is what would be best for OUR child. We haven't argued about it and I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that. Sorry to go on and on. I am just so excited about having someone to converse with.

 

I am a former public school teacher, my husband teaches math/computers in a public high school. My children have been homeschooled since birth. Because he's IN the system and sees it first-hand, he has the ammunition he needs to talk down all the people who criticize. So no, that does NOT sound strange!

My advice to you is to stop trying to convince him. Pray instead. Let God do the convincing for you.

 

yea, do like Jackie said give them the bean dip and let them enjoy.

Jackie, you are to funny.