I am looking for helpful opinion and/or experience from people who have made the decision to/or not to: (1) Put your middleschooler in public school or continued to homeschool them (2) Homeschooled all the way through high school or put them in high school I am facing an important decision and I am really looking for feed back from as many people as I can to make sure I have really thought through all the angles I can think of before I make my decision. I appreciate your help. Rhonda
I homeschooled all the way thru high school. I made the transcripts, course descriptions, and diploma myself. I was worried that perhaps I would do something wrong, but in the end everything turned out fine. My only advice is that if you decide to homeschool high school then try your best to stick it out. It is tough on the the student to try and get homeschool credits to transfer to brick and mortar schools. It usually involves testing for each subject. To me thats too many hoops for a student to have to go thru.
We actually pulled sd out of school in 9th grade. It was the best decision we ever made. Besides being able to control who she had contact with (some of her friends from middle and elementary school were starting to do drugs and other stuff) we were able to work on specific areas she needed strengthening in academically. We discovered our math honors student had difficulty with basic arithmetic because the schools allowed her to use a calculator all through middle school even though we specifically told her math teachers she should not have access to a calculator for her work. This was just one area that she needed to work on. By the end of 12th grade sd told us she wished we had homeschooled her for all of her schooling. Academically she was where she should be and she reverted back to the lovely young woman she was before 8th grade. Many people noticed the change in her and it was definitely due to her being removed from the ps environment. We hope to never have to send dd to ps and will do everything we can so we do not have to send her.
I planned on homeschooling all the way through, but ended up with my oldest going to PS in 7th grade. It was right for him and our family. Each situation is different, I don't think there is one right answer or one wrong answer. We will cross that bridge with each of our kids as we get to it.
I know that every family is different and there is no right or wrong answer. I just want to know why you made that decision. What were the determining factors? if you are willing to share.
You will get as many different answers are there are families on this board. There is no one right answer. For us, we pulled our older daughter out at the end of 8th grade. She will be a homeschooled high school graduate come May. We gave her the option of going back to school for 12th grade, and she chose not to. My 2nd grader is currently in public school because she is not old enough to be home while I'm at work. She was homeschooled for K and most of 1st. She still does her homeschool work, she is in public school at the moment because honestly, it's free daycare for me while I work. I work in a daycare center and they bus her from the PS to the daycare so it's working for us right now. I will need to work for at least another year before I can stay home with her again to properly homeschool her. I also want to add that the PS is not happy with me. I have made our home a (public school) "homework free" home. She does reports or projects but does not do the daily homework. The first week of school the teacher sent out a letter and one of the things it said was that parents need to check homework for accuracy, she does not correct it, she just checks it off as being done or not. That is what made me decide to go homework free. We live in South Carolina, which ranks 48th nationally in education. I know I can give her a better education and we don't waste time on busy work the school sends home.
I'm guessing they use Everyday Math in your district. I found the exact same issue with my older daughter. She was allowed to use a calculator and lost recall of basic math facts.
Heck, most Everyday Math schools don't even teach basic facts! Ours didn't/doesn't?? Why did we send the oldest to PS? Most of it had nothing to do with academics in our situation. I'm not sure how I want to word why he went. He went because I couldn't homeschool him. I know that doesn't answer you very well, but it's were I will leave it. I just could not homeschool that particular child, and it had nothing to do with his education.
We have made the decision to home school all the way through high school for two main reasons: - Homeschool is the best option for an education that will meet my children's needs and help them build their interests. - We will be living abroad during the high school years and have no options for local schooling.
I homeschool through middle school and then the kids decide if they'd like to try high school or not. Dd1 always wanted to try high school and since she is an amazing writer, she chose one that focuses on journalism. Dd2 is a dancer and wanted to audition for performing arts high schools. She got into what's considered the best one in the country is currently a junior there. Otherwise she would have continued homeschooling. Ds is only 12 and will homeschool at least til the end of 8th grade. He's on the fence about high school. We may homeschool all the way through or he might pick a high school that focuses on one of his interests (technology, science, film-making, vocal, drama, math, engineering, etc.). NYC has a ton of school choice, so we'll see.
We put Rachael lin an on-line public cyber-school at the end of her Junior year. She had been homeschooled until then. We did this to take advantage of the PSEO program. This allowed her to take classes dual enrollment at the Community College for free. She was ready for college, and we got her first year totally free. It was a great option for her. I am NOT doing that with her sister, who is a Junior this year. That's because of the differences in their maturity level and personalities. My youngest one I might chose to do it with.
My husband thinks that the kids need to experience high school. So as it stands right now, my kids will most likely go back to school in high school.. We already have one there.. We had another in Jr high, but pulled him out last week due to illness and days missed and the state public school policy on absences.. Even though his grades were fine, they were not permitted to pass him onto the next grade.. No exceptions.. So he is home, and we will get him ready to attend high school next year.. And YES, if you do decide to homeschool through high school, make sure you stick it out because it's a HUGE pain in the butt if you decide to put them in once they are past entry year in high school.. Here, if your child graduates from the public school they get 2 free years at the local community college.. That's provided that they meet certain qualifications.. Such as keeping a 2.5 GPA and doing community service.. Homeschoolers are not eligible for this.. So that's another deciding factor in sending the kiddos back.. Once my girls get to that point, I will most likely let them decide.. I do want them to go to college, but we can always find another route.. i HATE public school with a PASSION.. Blanket rules and teaching to the test annoy me..
have any of you had a child that was homeschooled from day one that you put into public school in either middle school or high school? What was that transition like for them? My son has been homeschooled all the way and I worry that throwing him into that environment without ever having experienced it before would be really difficult for him. How was it for your kids?
My kids are still young, but I can give you my personal experience. I was home educated grades 1-8th, chose to go to public high school 9-10th, and then finished PSEO 11-12th. There was some adjustment, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I was blessed with a good group of friends and a very small school. The actual work was a non-issue. Even though my grandparents used what may be considered by some to be bottom of the barrel materials, which we didn't keep up with very well, I was still at or above grade level. Socially, I was awkward. But my homeschool experience was very sheltered. My "socialization" was with family and weekly trips to the laundry mat! lol It worked out well, with no regrets. Highschool was the perfect transition for me, but may not be for everyone. As far as the future, I'm not sure what my kids will do. I fully believe that teens should have a say in where they want to go to school. Depending on how mature they are at the time, I will probably leave the decision up to them. I would never send them for middle school, though.
We plan on homeschooling all the way through to graduation. We decided this was the way it would be even before my daughter started Kindergarten. While I believe it is very important for teens to be able to "socialize" with teens, Em gets plenty of this from playing piano, singing in choir, attending youth groups, going to youth concerts, etc... Public school as we know it didn't always exist. Teens in the past thrived beautifully without experiencing high school. As far as we are concerned, there is nothing in the public high school that can't be learned through homeschooling and living life. High school, at least around here, is not a good thing.
Like I said, we enrolled Rachael during her Junior year. That WAS a public school. No, he didn't go out to a high school building, but she did go out to the community college. Her biggest adjustment was the requirements from the high school teachers: "This is an SENIOR HONORS ENGLISH CLASSS!!! Why are they making us write lke we're in midde school?" Or in Health, she was given a situation (being offered drugs) where she had to write out various responses, the pros/cons of each respne, and then pick which she felt was the best response. She had two responses...saying yes and saying no. The teacher said she needed at least four, which drve Rachael crazy. Finally a friend suggested one response migt be to "quote Bible verses at the other person until they got disgusted and left you alone", lol! So she decided to use that as one option.
Okay , heres my take-- My ds was home schooled all the way to high school when we found out he wanted to go out to school. We prayed and asked God to provide for a private school in our area , I actually prayed a certain amount that I needed it to be in order to get my acceptance that it was God's will for him to go out. So. God came through and ds went out to school. I sometimes wish I had not prayed that prayer becuase our lives were never the same. All the cooperation organisation and loving family times we had as a group were broken. He grew up to the worlds standards of knowledge of worldly things and excelled as a student besides all the garbage the kids told him an done teacher. Even in a Christian school you find teachers who will teach your child to be worldly in the wrong ways... but over all he survived, we changed schools because the first one was more interested in his shirt being tucked in then what was important to us. The second one was a home school style high school we loved it. child 2 went only for senior year, I have prayed for each of my kids and I took part in the school when they went out.
I daughter went to middle school for Band in 6th grade and went full time for two semesters. Then she just took two classes for 7th grade. For 8th she will be 100% homeschooled because we don't know where we are living and don't want to try and jump around the systems unless she and the others went full time. She transistion just fine and knew quite a few of the students and everyone on her bus. She liked going to school and was a little sad to not go full time but she likes being home and getting to the point and just getting it done. If she knows the subject at home we can just review and move on but in school you couldn't do that. She wants to stay home for high school but also wants to do marching band which as far as I know is a school event. I am no longer looking for her to play sports since it wasn't easy for sports where we lived and she does it more for enjoyment than competitive. As for high school, she wants to stay home as of now.
My oldest will be going to high school full time next year.... Sad but he wants too. My middle will be going half day. He is very social and is looking forward to middle school. I'm still working with my 2nd and littles. We'll see where that goes...
