Jumping into Homeschooling, any advice?

[Jamielane]

My oldest daughter is in ninth grade . She has a health issue called Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia,what it is , is that her body produces massive amounts of adreniline and it makes her heart beat very fast all the time. A normal heartrate for her is well over 150 at rest and it skyrockets to well over 200 with some of the most simple tasks. Stairs? No way. Running? Only if she is being chased. Just walking from class to class up and down stairs in a HUGE high school? Not so much. In the tail end of 7th grade she was on a homebound program through the district she was in , same thing for 8th grade through the end of January. She went back to the middle school on a restriicted schedule,this worked fairly well. Now that she is in high school and needs credits to graduate this plan isnt working. She is still missing more school then she is attending and learning almost nothing because she is never there. At least at home with me teaching her the best I can she will have an education. I found a cirriculum I like and I am ordering it today. The expense of getting started is not going to be easy money is so tight right now but this is an un avoidable expense. If there ater other homeschoolers out there can you please share your experience with me? What worked for you, what didn't, great resources, things you wished you knew before you started, ANYTHING you can tell me will be appreciated and helpful. As far as her condition goes, I don't see much changing in the near future, there is no procedure to fix the problem, she is medicated now but we have to be very careful as the meds make her blood pressure drop causing her to pass out . She is an amazing young lady who is brave and tough and wants to learn. If thats going to happen I am going to have to teach her. Thank You in advance for any help you can give.

[nuisance26]

~I was homeschooled from 5th grade up. In high school my mom let me choose my own curriculum as long as it included English and Math. I was also completely responsible for doing my work whenever was best for me.
If your dd is responsible than I recommend this approach. If she plans to go into college than you may have to include other college prep curriculum. Colleges usually provide a list of prerequisite course studies for most majors.
I also highly recommend that she get a part time job if she doesn't have one already. She may also be able to get something in a field she's interested in pursuing as a career later. Even crafting things or selling on Ebay is a good start.
Consider joining The Homeschool Legal Defense Association(HSLDA). It's about $100 a year but you get access to their network of used curriculum and free legal defense if you ever have a homeschooling issue.
And lastly, check out your community college. Ours offers online college courses to high school students for free. Your dd may be too young but they may be willing to wave the age requirement if she passes the entry exam.
Her desire to learn and your desire to see her succeed is a winning combination. I believe you'll both do well!~

[Moor]

We are homeschooling our children. We purchased a cirriculum that dh and I both agreed on. We supplement with things like trips to the zoo. We both teach them music, and we both are involved in physical education.

Our kids enjoy it. But you really have to make sure that she is doing her work. I have to keep on my youngest all the time. My other daughter, not so much. But I have set aside three hours a day for them to do school work. That includes craft time, or any extra things that we get into.

[Thevail]

I found Netflix to be amazingly helpful. They carry documentaries, entire language courses, and a lot of educational DVDs that you may not find very easily at the local library.

For a high school aged kid, I found anything by the Standard Deviants to be really good.

Also for languages BBC online has some amazing free resources.

The next bit is hard learned theory, and obviously our family is different than yours, so your mileage may vary...

Be prepared also to have some interesting emotional challenges related to being both her parent and her teacher. Parents tend to think of homeschooling as the child not having to leave home to get an educuation.. the child may tend to see it as never getting to leave school.

Also, while the freedom to do what you choose when you want seems to be the biggest upside of home schooling, it can lead to self-discipline problems for the child. A future boss/job won't be quite as "free spirited" and open to doing things at your own pace as the parent/homeschooling environment is.

It's important to have at least some actual "assignments" with a deadline for completion, just so that they get used to the idea of being held accountable for completing things correctly and on time.

Also, depending on your education (and how much of chemistry or French you remember from high school) it can be difficult to teach certain subjects that the child may be interested in. You can learn with them.. which is great, but sooner or later they'll have a question you just can't answer.

We have a local college, and I was able to hire once a week tutors for our daughter in some subjects which I was not really fluent.

I think the most important thing we managed to teach our daughter while she was home schooled was to think for herself. Not to just memorize and regurgitate absolutely everything that a book or program or even teacher told her. But to ask "why", or "why not", or "how can I do this better or faster".

[scrap_candles]

I homeschool through the Ohio Virtual Academy. I am not sure if Michigan has one but I know they have them in many states. They are still state funded schools so all materials such as books, workbook, even a computer and printer are furnished. The kids also still take the OAT's tests here that are required in the public schools. I just have to take them somewhere one or two days in the spring to do the testing.

I wanted to homeschool but was worried about chosing the right curriculum so I was very happy to have found the OHVA. My 5th grader is taking pre-algebra, spanish, literature, vocab, history, art, spelling, and language arts. Since everything is there it makes it very easy as far as planning lessons, etc. And it will be easy to re-enroll him in public school since he will have taken the testing and things.

[Missy]

I homeschool through the Ohio Virtual Academy. I am not sure if Michigan has one but I know they have them in many states. They are still state funded schools so all materials such as books, workbook, even a computer and printer are furnished. The kids also still take the OAT's tests here that are required in the public schools. I just have to take them somewhere one or two days in the spring to do the testing.

I wanted to homeschool but was worried about chosing the right curriculum so I was very happy to have found the OHVA. My 5th grader is taking pre-algebra, spanish, literature, vocab, history, art, spelling, and language arts. Since everything is there it makes it very easy as far as planning lessons, etc. And it will be easy to re-enroll him in public school since he will have taken the testing and things.

To find out if there is one available in your state, go to www.k12.com click on find a school. you can also google homeschool options with your state. I used COVA for a long time. This year we are going it "freestyle" Next year we might do something different.

my advise, be flexible, and breathe., If somethign isn't working, don't panic, find something else. There's alot of stuff out there, don't try to do it all at once. Take your time so it's enjoyable to you and your kiddo.

[pollypurebred39]

Consider a co-op. Just research well. They provide fellowship with other students, sometimes fun classes like art and music, home ec, sewing cooking ect. Some provide gym and field trips, while she may not be attending gym, maybe an easy field trip might not be out of the question. Like maybe a trip to a play or concert? My youngest craves the company of his peers and is involved with groups like Rangers (he's in 8th grade, it goes all the way through 12th), A performing arts group and helps on the CK Crew at church.

Remember to have fun and enjoy your time together learning is important, but so is this vaulable time spent as mother and daughter. Take some time to relax and enjoy this time together. Maybe take up a hobby together like ceramics, try some new recipes, host a book club where she gets to pick the book every month and invite guests, make blankets together for the homeless, or maybe have her organize a toy drive for a battered womens and children's shelter. There's so much you can do together besides academics. Enjoy your time together.

[Missy]

PollyPureBread, my son is in Rangers too, Dh is a commander

[Minner77]

I homeschooled only one year (just one of my sons in 5th grade, to get him back on track) and it was so long ago that I can't recall everything.

Some things stand out, though, such as
- Be thoroughly prepared. This is school, not just a free-wheeling adventure (although it can be a lot of fun!)
- Check with school district authorities for the rules and regulations re time requirements per school day/year, testing, your credentials, required reporting, required testing, etc. Some districts are much stricter than others.
- Some kids are self-motivated, some aren't: a major reason I homeschooled was because my son needed major attention, so I was not able to give him assignments and leave him unattended. Maybe you'll be luckier than I was (as other posters here have been), but be ready for a daily time commitment on your part.
- I flat-out stink at science, but was incredibly lucky in that when I discussed my plans with the science teacher at my son's school, she gave me a slightly older book AND teacher's manual -- complete with answers, lesson plans, etc. -- that absolutely saved my science curriculum.

Wish I could be more helpful, but I homeschooled before the era of the Internet, so that awesome resource was not available to us. I did buy part of my curriculum, borrowed some, picked the brains of other homeschoolers, and cobbled together the rest, all based on my individual assessment of DS's needs together with the curriculum mandates and our individual goals.

Best of luck to you!
~M

[pollypurebred39]

Missy, LOL! So's mine! How about that!

Polly

[old_lady_in_the_shoe]

We homeschool and always have. I have a 12yo ds and a 17 yo dd who started college this fall. We are not a real hard core curriculum users. I made sure they had a good math source and used mostly saxon math for the higher grades. You can get them with the dive cd's that help teach them (which is especially nice for algebra and above). We also use rosetta stone for foriegn lanugage...it is easy to use and really good for long term use. Other than that, we pushed reading...whatever they want, with an occasional one required from me. With the reading and math skills, they can learn what ever they want and can teach themself anything. We like journaling and nature journals too, they make things different and give the kids something to work on that is their own. The best thing we ever did was just ask the kids what they wanted to learn about and did small unit studies on that subject. You can get writing, reading, math, science or social studies, not to mention computer skills, vocabulary and more all off of a subject that you child already wants to learn about... so ask and then find some websites and set them free. Get books from the library, they are a great source for free (or next to free). Look for books and websites for homeschooling for cheap and free...they are usually filled with great sources and places to print tests, worksheets, and more. I know that if my son picks a book to read, I can go onto the www and find some sort of worksheet, test, vocabulary works or printable about that book...it is not hard to do, but takes a bit of time to get started. Don't get bogged down with the "details" and have fun. YOu can also find games and such that help with learning that work wonders for kids. Boggle, scrabble, life, monoply, and tons of others. So have fun and try to have fun too.

[Thevail]

The other amazing thing about home schooling is that it's easy to avoid the "theoretical trap". It's fun and relatively easy to find practical ways to use math, or science etc. in real life.

I think that really helps some kids who have a sort of disconnect with the abstract schoolwork type of learning.

[Jamielane]

I am trying now to find the curriculum that is best for us. I am finding most of it is religion based and that is not really what I want. Money is a real factor though so I have found one that I like that is religion based but I think we can work around the religious stuff that I am neither qualified nor interested in teaching her in a school envioronment. She attends a christian church occasionally with friends and I am not opposed to it in any way at all , I just dont want school to be bogged down with bible lessons. I see this curriculum also has what they call an academy that can still be done with workbook based school not online classes. My daughter will not be able to do only online classes. Her mind doesnt work that way. She really needs a hands on workbook to take it all in. She has MAJOR adhd which she is medicated for but her mind is like a sieve when you just talk to her . In order to retain things she HAS to write them . Nice thing about the academy is she would earn transferable credits, have teacher support if she needed it, get an actual diploma when her education is complete and give her some real structure. Plus they also would supply a school code for her to take the ACT later. The glitch you ask? She doesnt want the academy. Just me, her and the kitchen table. Now mind you even with the academy I would be the teacher but she wants it to be more "freestyle" so to speak. I dont know if thats so she doesnt feel the pressure to do things in a certain amount of time like "regular" school or she is really looking for something different. I have to delve a little deeper into that discussion with her today. Thank you so much for everyone who has offered advice and their real life experiences. I am , quite frankly, scared to death but at the same time, super excited. I am so grateful to have found this website earlier this year. It has taught me so much and I learn something new here everyday. The people are very supportive of each other and that is quite refreshing. Thanks again!

[joyofsix]

You've gotten such great advice I'm not sure I can add much. It'll be ok. She'll have to be able to get more at home than at school with her health needs. I homeschool little ones (3rd and K) but I do know that 'doing' school at home will probably lose it's appeal for her and you. It's a nice way to start but being able to adjust her and your schedule and work when and how you want will be wonderful. If she is responsible I would give her the lessons a time frame and let her go. IF she has trouble getting things done on time THEN I would become more involved. Of course answer questions if necessary. There is so much on the net it is unbelievable. Spend some time just looking and reading. And her too.

[old_lady_in_the_shoe]

jamielane,
I would suggest that you give her the freedom and see what she can do...with guidelines...for example... On reading with my son, he pics out about 10 books that HE wants to read, I go through them, check the levels and let him know which ones I deem ok. from them on, I break each book down into about 10 learning days and on a post it, I write the dates out and what pages he should be reading...then it is his job to do that over then next couple of weeks. I check in here and there, give him a worksheet or ask him a question but that is it. When he gives me the book back, I log it all in my logs, with the dates from the post it in the beginning of the book... This allows him the freedom to "choose" what he wants to read...and I do let him read "stuff" that I don't really think is "great" school stuff, every once in a while...now at age 12 he reads a 300 page book in 7-8 days.

you can do this with other subjects too...if your dd wants to learn about butterflys, then set her free on the internet, or with library books and see what she comes up...have her make charts, migration maps, and write a small report on it...give her guidence on the report and help her turn it into an essay...have her do art on butterflys too...if she wants to learn about it, then she will do it...

if she doens't "do" it then give her a list of vocabulary words about butterfly stuff and have her look them up on line or in a dictionsary and see if that helps. If she wants the freedom to pick and choose, then she will do it, if she doens't do it then go back to a traditional curriculum.

on the curriculum itself, the school should have to provide some of the books and such that you need. You pay taxes and can use their educational materials (in most states) I would suggest looking into that. The councilor should be able to help with that too. They never offer, but it is usually available when asked for.