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Where do you direct people thinking of homeschooling


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Let's say that a casual aquaintance asks you about homeschooling. Someone that has kids in a sport or scouts with yours, but who isn't someone you really know.

 

Where would you direct them to?

 

I searched how to homeschool and couldn't help but notice that the main results seemed dominated by sites that touted mostly commercial, school at home style programs.

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If they are just sort of curious then I don't really direct them anywhere. I figure most people can work the google these days. If they have specific questions then I just answer as best I can. It's mostly stuff like "No, I don't hate being with my kids all day." and "yes, it is better me than you. You have that one right."

 

I always tell people they are welcome to come over and look at our stuff and see how I do things.

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I also have a hard time with this. Most people want to know how I "do" homeschooling and I find it hard to explain because I don't know how not to. We have a local homeschooling group that does a great job explaining the how to part, and more often than not, I tell them to read the WTM and come to these boards. Homeschooling for Dummies or something similar give good overviews as well.

 

Lesley

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We are fortunate enough to have a homeschool store locally that has a How to Homeschool class once a month-great insight there...Then I refer them to:

1. HSLDA and the local homeschooling charter schools

2.The Well Trained Mind- Because it was the book I wish someone would've recommended to me when I first started

3. The Well Trained Mind Forums to lurk

4. Library

 

And I am always open to talking about how we do things and how I came to my decision to homeschool.

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If they are just sort of curious then I don't really direct them anywhere. I figure most people can work the google these days. If they have specific questions then I just answer as best I can. It's mostly stuff like "No, I don't hate being with my kids all day." and "yes, it is better me than you. You have that one right."

 

I always tell people they are welcome to come over and look at our stuff and see how I do things.

 

I ask because I've been homeschooling for a while, and was thinking about homeschooling, even when my kids were infants. In fact my oldest was in a front pack when I went to my first homeschool curriculum fair. So those days of uncertainty about the feasibility of homeschooling are way in the distant (almost pre-internet) past. [Now my uncertainty is about totally other issues.:lol:]

 

But just for grins (and for character development for NaNoWriMo) I tried a couple internet searches. Interestingly, the great stuff that I know is out there like the Guilt Free Homeschooling site with good info on how to get started or the Homeschool Blog Carnivals on different topics don't get anything near the rankings of package driven stuff like what is at homeschooling.com.

 

I found myself wondering what I would think of homeschooling if this was what I was encountering. Even the Homeschooling A-Z site, which I remember being pretty good is much more advertising driven than I remember.

 

If you were new to homeschooling and checking out internet searches, I wonder how long it would be before you heard about classical education, Charlotte Mason or even something more packaged but still literature driven like Sonlight or Tapestry of Grace.

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But just for grins (and for character development for NaNoWriMo) I tried a couple internet searches. Interestingly, the great stuff that I know is out there like the Guilt Free Homeschooling site with good info on how to get started or the Homeschool Blog Carnivals on different topics don't get anything near the rankings of package driven stuff like what is at homeschooling.com.

...

If you were new to homeschooling and checking out internet searches, I wonder how long it would be before you heard about classical education, Charlotte Mason or even something more packaged but still literature driven like Sonlight or Tapestry of Grace.

 

You're right. I just searched Google for "how to homeschool". The results are: K12, Keystone, Capella, homeschool.com, wikipedia's answer, eho.org (don't know what that is), homeschooling.about.com, Homeschool World, Homeschooling A-Z, and at the bottom some links to books by Linda Dobson and a McGraw-Hill Homeschooling Companion. :confused:

 

It took quite a bit of digging, even in this age of internet over-information, for me to figure out how to "do" classical education at home.

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You're right. I just searched Google for "how to homeschool". The results are: K12, Keystone, Capella, homeschool.com, wikipedia's answer, eho.org (don't know what that is), homeschooling.about.com, Homeschool World, Homeschooling A-Z, and at the bottom some links to books by Linda Dobson and a McGraw-Hill Homeschooling Companion. :confused:

 

It took quite a bit of digging, even in this age of internet over-information, for me to figure out how to "do" classical education at home.

 

I did find some better results on later pages. Guilt Free Homeschooling, one of my favorites, is on around page 3. But wow, most of the sites that I routinely monitor are no where to be found.

 

It does sort of explain some of the responses that I get to homeschooling. If you go from the first scratching of the internet surface, it does look like you're either having to act like a teacher at home or plugging your kid into the computer or the tv everyday (at a not inconsiderable cost).

 

Sort of like my experience a few months back testing a site that was supposed to evaluate your goals and teaching style and kids' learning styles and then recommend curriculum but that didn't feature a number of standout options, totally ignored Charlotte Mason and classical styles and really pushed heavily packaged stuff.

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I know when we were considering it, the first time, just talking to people was the best thing. Trying to search the internet was just too much. At the same time, there was SOOOOO much more out there that I learned about later and had no idea was even there. I agree that the "packaged" stuff is easier to find. I talked to people and went off of their suggestions. Then, followed links to blogs and such that just kept taking me further and further.

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I direct them to two sites.

 

One is A to Z Home's Cool-

 

The other is askpauline.com.

 

The first has all different information including a "Beginning To Homeschool" section that talks about where to start, what homeschooling is, why people homeschool, different styles of homeschooling and so on. It's a very good "general info" type of site.

 

The second is specific to Pennsylvania, where I live, and is fantastic about covering all the legalities- the laws, the portfolios, the affidavits, the evaluations, examples of the various logs and objectives and summaries, and so on and so forth. It was an immense help to me when I first started homeschooling, and I still consult it from time to time now.

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My PT therapist has been very interested in homeschooling. Well she isn't married and has no children yet (and yes, she is strongly into being married before children:)). So I haven't directed her anywhere. What I do plan to do is invite her to be a community judge at our speech and debate tournament in January. It isn't a big time commitment (about 3 hours total) and it is a great way to be introduced to older homeschoolers (which allays any fears about what happens to homeschoolers).

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Just as an aside, I would say over the years I've changed the way I help people. At the beginning I was so excited that someone else wanted to homeschool that I would spend a huge amount of time with them and give them a mini-tutorial! My husband says I probably scared off several people by (a) intimidating them with the highly academic classical method we use and (b) information overload! So I stopped doing that!

 

I've also been surprised by the number of people who profess to be very interested in homeschooling their children but have not read a single book from the library or looked up anything on the internet. I guess my conclusion is that people like that are probably not going to be very successful at homeschooling!

 

So, in conclusion, now I give them some ideas for a reading list and tell them to come back when they have some background information so we can have a serious conversation!

 

Just a chance for a side rant

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Nine weeks into the school year--'tis the season when public schoolers are dissatisfied with life in the classroom.

 

I work at our local library, and this has been a huge week for people to come in or call with questions about homeschooling. And they get directed to me.

 

I have been doing this for so long that I don't really know where to direct them. I forget they have the most basic concerns: 1) HOW do I file my NOI? 2) What do you do for standardized testing? and a distant 3) What about curriculum? Unfortunately, they often ask the school district for advice and are given such incomplete, incorrect information.

 

I've narrowed my suggestions down to the few library books we have on the subject, the state homeschooling website, and a local homeschool group's website. They want a lot of encouragement about the NOI and about the ability to hs in general, so I've been doing what I can with that too.

 

I really want to have the perfect answer, to give the best help possible, for it to work out as well for them as it has for us--but it's impossible since I don't know these people, nor do I have the time.

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I've had a couple of friends ask me about homeschooling. They were seriously considering alternatives to the dismal school system in our area. I let them borrow one of my copies of TWTM. It was the book that convinced me to homeschool.

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TWTM or the HSLDA website - if they're "thinking" about homeschooling. Boys Adrift makes a great case for homeschooling boys.

 

This sounds horrible, but I've talked a couple of people out of homeschooling. We've got to be realistic about the kind of committment this is.

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