Have any of you gone from homeschooling to afterschooling?

[Guest ourcountryroad]

Hi!

 

First post here, but I'm not new to homeschooling.  I just wanted to find a place to ask my questions without all my friends and family knowing our possible intentions before they were real :).

 

My daughter will be going into 4th grade this fall and she is really wanting to go to school. Because our intent is to have our children have a joint say in their education, we are seriously considering this option.

 

How many of you have made this transition?  I would really like to hear some personal experience stories.  I'm afraid of a lot of things (killing her love of learning, being rejected by peers, etc), but excited about others (developing a more scheduled life, seeing how she fits in the 'real world').  How did it affect your children to make the change?

 

Thanks so much!

 

Lisa

[EKS]

I did (but now we're back to homeschooling).  My son homeschooled K-4 and then did private school for two years.  I afterschooled subjects that the school didn't teach (history, literature, grammar) and that they taught inadequately (math, writing).  I had three approaches.  Anything that I could do in a cuddle on the couch format, I did--so we read the Human Odyssey series aloud and also classic literature.  Anything that the school taught inadequately, I tried to piggyback my instruction onto theirs--so every day my son and I went over the math before he did the homework and whenever he got a writing assignment (which was rare), I would use that opportunity to give him some writing instruction.  For things not taught by the school that actually required some output on his part, I bribed him to get them done.  Grammar and additional writing instruction over the summer fell into this category.  By doing the work, he earned something he really wanted.

 

I wasn't sure from your post if you were specifically asking about afterschooling or more about the home to school transition, but this was our experience with afterschooling.

[blackjackoaktree]

Our kids pop in and out of school every few years becuase we have the same policy of including them in the decision, plus, we had to enroll all of them in school during a particularly hard year for me. We really haven't had any problems, in fact, the issues we do have are personality based and happened whether they were in a classroom or a co-op or 4H event etc. 

 

 

I do afterschool everyone who has chosen school. Once I get a feel of what they are covering (and I do touch base with the teacher at the beginning of the year to get a feel for what they cover) I pick out some subjects not covered.

 

Honestly, if they are starting at the beginning of a school year, nearly every kid there is just totally discombobulated with back-to-school and routines and switching over. Some take longer to adjust than others, and that includes kids that have been in a school/daycare setting since birth! And every teacher does things differently, so they will all be learning the new routines together.

[Guest ourcountryroad]

These are very helpful responses!  Thank you so much!  This is so new to me and quite unexpected as we had planned to homeschool until her request last week.  I know I won't be able to just let the school completely take over her education, so these ideas on how to help her without making every moment of her life be about doing an assignment is great.  

 

 

[displace]

We after schooled prior to homeschooling. Things I found helpful were audiobooks of SOTW, read aloud literature, fun computer math games like dream box, salsa Spanish, etc. we also after schooled reading and writing because of LD. I'd talk with her if there are subjects you insist on teaching if the school doesn't cover them (language, spelling, whatever), before starting.

[ebunny]

DD went back to school as per her wish at 8 (3rd grade) after homeschooling for roughly 2-3 years. Social transition was quite rocky.  But then, she would have struggled in a school setting anyway given her personality, so there's that. Academics are fine, although she works nowhere close to the level that she was when she homeschooled.

She is 10 now and has more or less adjusted with the system of schooling.

 

Afterschooling is limited to weekends as her school days are long and she needs a good amount of free unstructured time to unwind.

[LLMom]

Most of my children are now in private school. They were a bit older than yours, but they transitioned very well both socially and academically. I don't do a lot in the way of after schooling because they go to a good school using a classica curriculum. I do read a loud good books to them because school takes so much time that they can't read a lot of books whether a classical school or not!

[AprilMayJune75]

I have done this as well. We homeschooled up through the end of 1st grade, and starting in 2nd grade, DD began attend a Classical Christian school. Overall, her school subjects are challenging and very well taught, except for math. We have supplemented with Math U See at home over the summers as well as played board games and covered some new materials during the school year that she struggled with topics/I needed to teach topics that their computer program seemed to skip altogether. We also snuggle on the couch and enjoy quality children's literature (as read-alouds) in the evenings at home (a few chapters a night, so we make it through 8-10 books a year). I taught her cursive at home. This summer she asked if she could start learning Latin, so after a recommendation from a homeschooling friend, we started a gentle program that we will continue even after school starts in the coming weeks. 

 

Like other moms have mentioned, I try to keep the lessons short and some of the methods a little more relaxing/fun -- and do a little more on the weekends than during the school week -- because school days are already long enough. I work long hours and want DD to just have some time at home for unstructured play, or to have opportunities for us to just talk and spend time together.

[Guest ourcountryroad]

Thank you all for your responses!  We are officially going to make the switch.  Placement test from the school found that she wasn't up to par with her geometry, but is ahead in her multiplication and division.  So, we will be doing geometry at home.  The teacher mentioned that they don't do much geometry in 4th grade, so she has 'missed' that part.  The teacher was willing to come up with work to catch her up, but I went ahead and purchased some Mammoth Math Geometry and I am having her do that.  Hopefully, that will be enough to catch her up.  I need to touch base with the teacher.

 

This is all new to me, but I think the benefit will be that my younger children get a more focused and purposeful education at home.  We had a kind of unschooler's approach before, but that doesn't transition very well to public school on paper :).  

 

Thanks for all your advice, looking forward to getting to know you all better this year!

[Momma2Luke]

This has been a great thread for me to read.  My son has been homeschooled from K- Gr 3.  He's entering a Catholic public school for the first time in a couple of weeks for Grade 4.   I'm a little nervous as to how he'll transition.   He's very, very bright (for example,  he's completed his grade 4 Math Mammoth curriculum already) academically,  but it'll be a transition for him socially (he's an only child, but quite extroverted).  He's not overly compliant, but has a very strong sense of right and wrong...  one of the things that already has him upset, is learning from a friend that he has to ASK to go to the bathroom.   In his mind, this is a basic human right that no one should have to ask permission for.    :)  Soooo, we'll see how that goes! :)  I'm a bit nervous on his behalf... he needs to move a lot and gets distracted very easily.   

We plan on afterschooling using SOTW 3,  Beast Academy 4a and 4b, studying chemistry and the periodic table and lots of read alouds and scripture study.