This is the time of year when the only homeschool discussion list I'm still on heats up a bit.
It's affiliated with this site:
Homeschooling is Cool on A to Z - Best Homeschool Curriculum and Free Information
It's a national loop. We get a lot of new members looking for information. Some of them come for the Friday or Saturday night homeschool chat, too.
It's fun, but sometimes it's frustrating to try to explain something that really defies explanation. What works for my family may not necessarily work for anyone else. Of course that's the best part of homeschooling, one can do whatever works for their own family. It's just one reason I love it.
The new list members usually ask the same questions or variations of them.
Should I homeschool?
If I do, what curriculum should I use?
How many hours a day should we homeschool?
What about their socialization?
What about the prom?
Will my child be able to get into college?
What if I don't know _____? (Chemistry, Higher math, English Composition) just pick one or add another.
What if I have more than one child? Should I teach them both at the same time?
What if one's ahead?
What if I work, can I still homeschool?
A few years back, a friend of mine created a website about homeschooling in Oregon.
She asked me to write the FAQ's for it. If I were asked to do it today, I don't think I'd say too many things differently, but I might add a few questions and answers.
Homeschooling FAQs
I'll have to add a section here on what to do when your child decides to attend school after being an unschooly kind of kid for the last 15 years.
This is an interesting time in my life, actually. I guess it will be awhile before I found out just how interesting it really is.
:)
Oh. And Blogger? I'd appreciate it if your spell check would allow me to type the word homeschool without the stupid red line under it.
Or is it Firefox that does it to me? Either way, HOMESCHOOLING is a WORD, dammit!!
Blogger's spellchecker pisses me off sometimes. It doesn't like "internet" when it isn't capitalized either. If they would just include an "add" button, everything would be fine.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad there are people out there like you that have the patience to participate in online chat and messageboards and repeatedly answer the same questions over and over and over. (Was that all one sentence??) I can do it once in a while, but sometimes people - in person, even - start asking that stuff and I just want to run away. BUT if it weren't for the patient people, I wouldn't have gotten answers to questions I needed early on. Of course,I like to think I had *legitimate* questions. ;) For the record, I never asked "should I homeschool" or "what about prom"
I get these questions all the time too. I answer them to my ability. But it is hard when they do ask what curriculum or how to homeschool when we just do what works for us which might not work for another family. Then again this will only be our fourth year of homeschooling so I think I am still learning myself :).
ReplyDeleteIt is quite annoying that blogger highlights homeschooling when spell checking. How long now have homeschoolers used one work instead of two? Yet it's still counted as a misspelling ugh!
I've been meaning to check that out. Thanks for posting about it. And yes, it will be interesting to see how this year goes. I'm sure she'll kick ass and take names!
ReplyDeleteTry Home Educating. Blogger is a snob.
It may be Firefox, I added it to my dictionary.
ReplyDeleteOh, and what everyone else said, too.
That is cool the way yall have that set up!
ReplyDeleteI use Google tool bar for spell check. It makes me less pissy! LOL!
All the spell checkers do that and it drives me crazy too. I hate read underlines.
ReplyDeleteI read some of the answers in the link and you did a good job. My youngest is 11 and is learning to make DVD's and her own music with Garage Band and put them together. She wants to be a producer. I am close to computer illiterate, but she has gone way beyond what most people do on the computer and I didn't teach any of it to her. The 13 year old is wanting to be a vet. She is always telling me stuff about animals. The boy at 15 is looking at landscaping and works in sales at a tree nursery. It amazes me whenever he stops to examine a plant or unroll a leaf to reveal a spider. It amazes me when he knows the names of plants. He amazes his co workers daily. He has often been offered tips and when he asked about the policy, they said there wasn't one because no one gets offered tips. The oldest is focusing on music and is looking at the arts. She has researched what she wants and needs to go with her chosen profession. I am an un-schooler and I am feeling like I have successful children despite the things I did not teach them.