s/o At what age does homeschooling "count"?

[73349]

Take a poll?

 

I know some groups do not admit homeschoolers until the oldest child (or the oldest at home) reaches kindergarten. But then again to the state, we are not yet homeschoolers, in that my child has not reached compulsory age and we are not allowed to register yet.

[AimeeM]

Our co-op only asks that nobody register who hasn't the INTENT of homeschooling past pre-k (homeschooling just for pre-k is popular around here, because public pre-k is only offered to low income families; as soon as they hit kinder, though, they are sent to school); so, as long as you have AT LEAST a pre-k child/student (not only younger than that) homeschooling, you can join.

I would love to say it should be all inclusive, but for the sake of the GOALS of these groups, I understand why they are trying to weed out those who are only "homeschooling" because aren't yet able to send their child to school.

[LucyStoner]

I think that education is part of parenting and parenting starts right away. That counts for more than anything.

 

That said, I don't call my 4 year old a homeschooled child as he is not of school age. I totally see why many homeschooling organizations are open to members with at least 1 school age child and not during the preschool years.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Yeah, it really doesn't matter, right? People can say whatever they want.  But I will totally cop to rolling my eyes when people talk about homeschooling their pre-K kids.  Especially when they are militantly "unschooling!"  I mean, duh, right???

 

My point being neither to bash unschoolers nor those who teach their pre-K age kids at home . . . my point just being that when your kid is 4, can't you just call it life?  Do you have to call it any kind of schooling??  Why the label?

[Farrar]

I say when they hit preschool age. We lost ALL our friends to school when my kids turned 3 yo and if we hadn't had the "homeschool" label to look for more, we wouldn't have been able to find any. I get why some people roll their eyes at it, but there's a lot of education in those years, even if it's done in a natural, everyday way (I mean, we didn't buy curricula back then), and I think there was purpose and intentionality to what we were doing.

 

I'll add too that I've heard that it's common for people to "cave in" and send k'ers to school but that didn't happen to hardly anyone we knew and I credit the fact that we had such a strong "preschool homeschool" community - there was no question in the minds f any of those parents that the social community and the activities were out there and t wasn't jumping blindly alone into it. So for me, that's another argument for letting the term be freely applied.

[ErinE]

Yeah, it really doesn't matter, right? People can say whatever they want.  But I will totally cop to rolling my eyes when people talk about homeschooling their pre-K kids.  Especially when they are militantly "unschooling!"  I mean, duh, right???

 

My point being neither to bash unschoolers nor those who teach their pre-K age kids at home . . . my point just being that when your kid is 4, can't you just call it life?  Do you have to call it any kind of schooling??  Why the label?

 

What she said...

 

Before the state's compulsory age, you're just being a parent. You're home schooling if the child is of school age. I used to be a part of a group that encouraged anyone to attend including those with intentions of homeschooling and the children's ages started skewing towards pre-K and younger. I'm fine with tag alongs as I have them myself. There's just a different social need when kids are older.

 

ETA: to clarify terms. I think homeschooling is a way of life for the families I know IRL regardless of the children's ages. Home schooling is something done as an alternative to public or private school

[AimeeM]

Yeah, it really doesn't matter, right? People can say whatever they want.  But I will totally cop to rolling my eyes when people talk about homeschooling their pre-K kids.  Especially when they are militantly "unschooling!"  I mean, duh, right???

 

My point being neither to bash unschoolers nor those who teach their pre-K age kids at home . . . my point just being that when your kid is 4, can't you just call it life?  Do you have to call it any kind of schooling??  Why the label?

Well, some of us are doing structured, formal education at home with the pre-k age kiddos, not just "life", lol. Many states' compulsory age is like 6 or 7, so it would be hard to even call that kindergarten, kwim? Most students, by that age, are in grade 1 or 2.

If we weren't homeschooling my middle pre-k child, he would be in private school pre-k, so I count him as "school age" :p

[Ellie]

Up until the point when children are kindergarten age, I'd consider it parenting.

 

Even in states where compulsory school age for all children isn't until 7 or 8yo, most people will send their children to kindergarten and then on to first grade. People who don't send their children to school at that age are homeschooling.

 

I don't mind it if people with pre-school-age children come to our support group activities, because (theoretically, lol) people who are homeschooling will be good role models, and the little children will have friends who are homeschooling and so homeschooling will seem more normal to them than going to the local neighborhood public school, KWIM? But they need to understand that field trips and whatnot will be planned for school-age children, not preschoolers.

[8filltheheart]

When you start having conversations with people, and the person you are having the conversation with avoids stating ages and couches everything in terms of yrs of homeschooling and experience with teaching, I have learned to interrupt and ask the ages of their children. Bc yrs of "teaching and experience" with school agers is a completely different conversation than "from birth."

 

Here is a real conversation I have had. I was talking with a new homeschooling family that moved to town. (Their oldest was 14 and in 8th grade. I did not know that. I had only met the parents.) At that pt, I had graduated 2 kids, our oldest was a sr in college majoring in chemical engineering, our 2nd oldest was in a program for Aspies at a CC, our next oldest was jr in high school, and the next one after was in 9th grade.

 

The conversation went something along the lines of my introducing myself (to the husband....he was talking to mine). He told me that dh had informed him that we were also a homeschooling family. He asked how many yrs we had been homeschooling. I told him that we were in our 17th yr and the info above about our oldest 2 graduating from our homeschool and that the next 2 in age were in high school, in 9th and 11th.

 

He interrupted to say that they had been homeschooling almost as long, 14 yrs. He went to tell me that his wife loved putting on conferences about homeschooling and that she was always willing to share homeschooling info with others and that I might want to set up a meeting with her bc she would have a lot to share with me about how to homeschool.

 

Ok, I thought that was odd. He didn't know anything about me or our family other than a very brief conversation. I was wondering if they had kids that had been accepted into Harvard or something bc he was absolutely sincere. :). I asked him what their oldest was doing now that she had graduated. When he didn't immediately answer, I asked what grades their kids were in. Only then did he state that their oldest was in 8th.

 

Shortly after that, his wife walked up and he introduced us as a family that had been homeschooling for 3 yrs more than them.

 

Lol.....ok. They were both very sincere in their beliefs, but I'm sorry, no, the 2 are the same. I had taken 2 through high school and a 3rd 1/2 way through. They hadn't even finished middle school with their oldest.

[Crimson Wife]

I'd say kindergarten for new HS families, but pre-k for younger siblings in current HS families. If the family has demonstrated a clear commitment to the HS lifestyle then I'm fine with considering their pre-k students as being HS.

 

If someone is doing pre-k at home with the intention of sending them to a B&M public or private kindergarten, then I'd lump them in with the "afterschoolers".

 

ETA: We did join a HS support group in February of my oldest's pre-k year. By that point we had already made the decision not to enroll her in a B&M kindergarten and I wanted to meet some experienced HS families since I didn't know any.

[twoxcell]

 

Before the state's compulsory age, you're just being a parent. You're home schooling if the child is of school age. I used to be a part of a group that encouraged anyone to attend including those with intentions of homeschooling and the children's ages started skewing towards pre-K and younger. I'm fine with tag alongs as I have them myself. There's just a different social need when kids are older.

Well in our state the compulsory age isn't until the year your child turns 7 before September 1st, so I just registered my older dd this summer. She has definitely been homeschooled for some time now. ;) I guess I would say that it becomes official when your kids start K, but if people ask me where my kids go to school I say that we homeschool our kids. I don't say we homeschool only my K and up kids. I honestly do not think it really matters. I'm fine with Preschool and PreK kids being included say from 3-4 and up.

[regentrude]

Until the kids would normally enter school, either with kindergarten or 1st grade, I would not call it "homeschooling", but simply parenting.

I do not "school" my 2 year olds - I play with them, stimulate them, educate them, parent them. As do parents who, later, will send their children to a public school.

 

ETA: our "homeschool" group is inclusive and has members who have children younger than school age. They are absolutely welcome. But they usually say about themselves "I will homeschool my kids".

[Rosie_0801]

Other: It depends where you live.

 

Where I used to live, once your child was three, there were three options:

 

1. You were a good mamma who sent your child to preK

2. You were a good mamma who homeschooled

3. You did neither and were a lousy dirtbag who didn't care about her kids.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Since I don't go to co-ops etc. I don't care!  I didn't tell people I homeschooled until my kids were doing kindergarten work.  But I privately knew I was homeschooling before then because it was deliberate schooling with them.  And it was about the lifestyle for me more than what number was on the cover of a textbook.  

[mom2scouts]

I answered kindergarten in the poll, but in some cases I would also include preschool for 3-4 year olds.  In my area, almost all children are in some kind of formal school by that age. A mom who was planning to homeschool and started doing more formal learning with her preschoolers is probably a homeschooler.

[maize]

I answered K but I did start telling people we homeschooled when oldest was three or so because people were always asking how she liked school. Everyone in the area sent their kids to preschool. I already knew at the time that I would be homeschooling long term so it was the answer that made sense.

[abba12]

I differ, but I suppose it comes from my background

Because both my husband and I are grad homeschoolers who believe in homeschooling, the idea that we would homeschool our children was just a given for us. It was never in question and ps has never been an option. We were both elder children, and are still watching our younger siblings being schooled, so we knew what it involved, more indepth than most starting out since we had both played roles in our younger siblings educations over the years.

I tried to go to mummy groups etc, but found myself very out of place while they talked about childcare and preschool and how they couldn't wait until their kids were old enough to be out of the house a few days a week (and how 'wonderful' that step would be for them). Simply, I couldn't fit in.

It is only the label of homeschooling that allowed me to make any friends, and find playmates for my daughter who wouldn't disappear next year. My sister went through the painful experience of all her friends leaving for school, and losing contact with anyone who wasn't at their schools, in their classes, every day. I didn't want that for my kids.

 

So yes, I consider myself a homeschooler. I also consider any family who has the conviction and intention to homeschool, homeschoolers, even if their child is a few weeks old. Because for me it's a lifestyle. Our home looks different to the homes of my daughters peers who are going to pre-school because we are homeschoolers. We have different activities, toys, structure and setup in our house due to it. 

 

Having said that, if I were asked 'how long have you been homeschooling', I would count it from the K year in my state. So if my eldest was in grade 2 I would say 'I have been officially homeschooling for 3 years', even though I have been using books and doing formal school much earlier. If they want to question why I say 'officially' then I will explain that our intent to homeschool affected the way we raised our children from birth and the lifestyle we have lived. But these early years of preK, while I am treating them formally, are still quite different, and I don't think it would be right to say I am in my 4th, or even 6th year of homeschooling when I have a 1st grader :P

[Catwoman]

I always get a kick out of it when a mom says she has been homeschooling for 10 years... and her oldest child is 10 years old. :rolleyes:

 

I guess some people just like to pad their resumes a bit... ;)

[Catwoman]

I also consider any family who has the conviction and intention to homeschool, homeschoolers, even if their child is a few weeks old.

I think that's ridiculous.

 

If a couple's oldest child is still an infant, they are not homeschoolers. They are PARENTS.

[Χά�ων]

I do not believe in formal education before age 7 but I get that most people go with the kindergarten age. I joined homeschool groups when DS was 3 to get to know people.

[twoxcell]

 

I always get a kick out of it when a mom says she has been homeschooling for 10 years... and her oldest child is 10 years old. :rolleyes:

 

I guess some people just like to pad their resumes a bit... ;)

If people ask me how many years I have homeschooled I only count the years since my oldest started K even if we did do preschool work before that. ;)

[go_go_gadget]

We were part of a preschool co-op with six families, meeting in our homes or in parks. Each of us planned an activity for group according to the weekly theme, and we spent quite a bit of time planning, preparing for, and executing these. I don't think that that quite falls under the heading of ''standard parenting'', though it certainly isn't on the same level as what we're doing now. Saying that we were homeschooling was a more accurate answer to the question ''Is Kiddo in preschool?'' than simply saying ''No,'' so that's what we said. Now, we didn't go around pretending to be experts and certainly didn't consider those two years to be equal to the experience of those had been homeschooling older children for two years, though. I can't speak for our friends, but I know that at the point that my oldest would have gone to kindergarten (which was the same point that I started using curriculum), I referred to it as being my first year of homeschooling, not my third. So I voted ''other''.

[LMD]

I put Kinder.

 

But I do remember how exciting it was when my oldest was 3/4 years old, and how it felt like we were doing so much and really homeschooling.  I wouldn't want to dampen the excitement of another parent.  I think there's a bit of leeway for 3/4 year olds where there is a clear intent to homeschool.

[Carrie12345]

When I say so. Anybody got a problem with that? :-)

 

It's never really been an issue for me. We started when ds already had a few years of school under his belt, and it's just been assumed all the subsequent babies would be homeschooled. I've never been asked if my toddlers were actively homeschooling.

 

For the record, our state doesn't require registering until 3rd grade.

[Matryoshka]

When people ask how many years I've been homeschooling, I do typically count from K.

 

However, I considered myself a homeschooler years before that.  Around the time everyone else sent their kids to preschool, we created our own homeschool/preschool group one day a week, which morphed into a large coop with three classrooms going that lasted till my olders were in 3rd grade.  Someone else in our circle organized a field trip group once a week.  When my kids were just 4, a bunch of us started a homeschool chorus that lasted 7 years.  True, I wasn't doing a lot of academics at home yet other than phonics and early math skills that I would probably have done just as part of "parenting", but all those group things we started then were in large part a response to "what am I going to do with them if I'm not sending them to preschool?" and "how will I find community if we homeschool?".  The fact that we had that extensive contact with and support from other families on the same path is a large part of what made it easy and even natural to stay on that path, so I hate to see when people who want to homeschool are turned away from groups because their kids aren't K-aged yet.

 

My answer to the poll was "when everyone else sends their kids off to preschool".

[Crimson Wife]

If a couple's oldest child is still an infant, they are not homeschoolers. They are PARENTS.

I'd call them "future homeschoolers" if they intended to educate the child at home rather than enrolling him/her in a B&M school. But yeah, what they are doing NOW is parenting rather than homeschooling.

[MinivanMom]

I'm happy to let people call themselves whatever they wish regardless of their child's age, and I'm glad that most homeschool groups welcome parents of preschoolers.  However, I did not consider our family to be "homeschooling" until we kept our oldest home from kindergarten, and whenever anyone asks how long we've been homeschooling, I always count from kindergarten. 

[Korrale]

This is a mixed one for me.

 

I would say technically when they are required to register here is it 6. But you can register a 5 year old for kindergarten.

 

Then on the other hand, what if a two or three year old is doing grade work where they are working through curricula? How is that different to if the child is five or six doing the same work?

[boscopup]

I say they're homeschoolers starting at K. I didn't send my oldest to preschool, but did intend to send him to private school for K+ (and did send him for K and half of 1st). While he was home for preschool, we weren't "homeschooling". I wasn't even actively trying to teach him anything. We just lived life. It worked very well, and he learned a lot. No curriculum necessary (I think curriculum would have actually slowed him down and/or burned him out). We did this because my DH didn't think preschool was necessary, since he didn't go to preschool when he was a kid (his parents couldn't afford it). We could afford it, but since it was unnecessary, we didn't send the kid. When he started K, he was already reading independently and doing math well, so our "not schooling preschool" obviously didn't harm him. ;)

 

My other kids have dabbled in K+ level curriculum as preschoolers, but they're not really "homeschooling" either. I don't require school prior to age 5. At age 5, we start "K" (doing whatever level they're at in reading/writing/math).

 

As far as reading good literature to children from birth, etc... That's good parenting. Many b&m schooled children have had parents that did that as well. I can't think of anything I've done differently between my oldest (whom I intended to send to school) and my youngest (whom I've intended to homeschool since 18 months). I read to them either way. I talked to them either way. I answered questions either way. That's being a parent who values education. What on earth would you do differently at 6 months if you intend to homeschool? I can't think of anything.

[carriede]

My point being neither to bash unschoolers nor those who teach their pre-K age kids at home . . . my point just being that when your kid is 4, can't you just call it life? Do you have to call it any kind of schooling?? Why the label?

Because we're eager to join the club! :)

 

I don't know if I'll count these prek years in the future, but for now it is important for MYSELF to call it homeschooling. In using that label, I'm preparing myself and my family for the homeschooling lifestyle. AND I'm intentionally doing more structured activities than I would be if DS were going to public school for K next fall.

 

Plus, MOST 4 year olds in our county go to prek, especially since prek is offered for free at the public schools. I took my kids to the grocery store earlier in the month, and someone asked me why DS4 wasn't in school. I thought to myself, Already? I'm getting these questions ALREADY?!

 

FWIW, I currently consider myself an "aspiring homeschooler". Not sure if I'll upgrade myself at K or 1st. Depends on the work load I guess.

[boscopup]

Then on the other hand, what if a two or three year old is doing grade work where they are working through curricula? How is that different to if the child is five or six doing the same work?

 

There is a difference between letting a child work ahead for fun and really needing to teach a child because they are school age. A 2 year old doesn't NEED to do school. If they're that advanced, they'll probably teach themselves without curricula. They might enjoy doing the work, but if they one day decided they didn't want to do the work, you could stop and put it away for a year or two or 3 and not worry about it. If your 8 year old isn't wanting to do their work, you have a problem. You can't just put it away. You have to figure out how to educate that child when they aren't in the mood to do whatever it is they don't want to do.

 

Some days, my 4 year old joins in all of the reading/spelling that my 1st grader is doing (they're roughly at the same level in reading/spelling, and the 4 year old is maybe a bit ahead in spelling). When I start dictating review words, the 4 year old often drops out when he's bored or his hand gets tired. That's fine. He can do that. I don't require ANY school from him. The 1st grader has to keep going. ;)

 

So they may be using the same curriculum, but the expectations are different, and my responsibility as their teacher is different. The state won't have any problem with me not teaching my 4 year old how to spell. They will have a problem if I'm not teaching my 1st grader.

[Mergath]

We started telling people we homeschooled when dd was four, because that was when people really started to think we were freaks for not sending her to preschool. :P  If we wait until we have to report to the state, we won't be able to call ourselves "official" hsers until dd is in second grade, which seems a bit extreme.

 

Honestly though, I don't really care when people refer to themselves as hsers, and I've never understood why people work themselves into a case of the vapors when they hear someone with a three year old say they homeschool.  I mean, who cares?  Of all the hs-related mommy wars, this one has to be the dumbest.

[Dmmetler]

I say when they register officially-which usually will be age 5-but sometimes age 6 (K is mandatory here). Having said that, I joined a homeschool group when my DD was three. Preschool groups had not worked we'll because she was so asynchronous and demanding a lot more, and I stumbled into a group of homeschool mamas (and one dad) who met for park day play for the kids, and mommy chat. There were younger siblings DD's age, and they welcomed my being there to learn more. I actually did enter DD in K, reluctantly, at age 4 when she was offered early entry, but actually kept coming to park days because those women were my friends and I loved seeing them. (DD missed them too-I actually scheduled dentist appointments and the like on Park days so I had an excuse to keep her from school that day so she could see her friends). And they put up with me, even though I wasn't homeschooling. When we got fed up with the school and it just wasn't working well, I had this great group who had already walked that path, and encouraged me and helped me figure out where to start.

 

And I'm still there-and I welcome parent of preschoolers who are interested in homeschooling. Even if they end up putting their DC in K-it doesn't mean that they'll stay there, and it's much easier to take the less well traveled road if you already know people who are on it.

[SKL]

I was "homeschooling" Miss E for KG when she was 4.5.  My intention was to make sure she got credit for KG despite being young for it.  It ended up not being important since a KG accepted her just before Christmas.

 

The 3 Rs were done in the evening, but it was more rigorous than B&M KG and I kept a log showing that we more than met all the requirements in every subject.  So I call that homeschooling.

 

So my answer is when the child is doing KG, not when she reaches KG age.  Some kids do KG early, some do it late.  But KG is school IMO.

[matrips]

 

True though. Your group was a big help in those early years, just to know folks were out there. Even though I thought you all a bit crazy the night a bunch came over and started talking about classical education and Latin. Yet here I am years later...

 

I say when they hit preschool age. We lost ALL our friends to school when my kids turned 3 yo and if we hadn't had the "homeschool" label to look for more, we wouldn't have been able to find any. I get why some people roll their eyes at it, but there's a lot of education in those years, even if it's done in a natural, everyday way (I mean, we didn't buy curricula back then), and I think there was purpose and intentionality to what we were doing.

 

I'll add too that I've heard that it's common for people to "cave in" and send k'ers to school but that didn't happen to hardly anyone we knew and I credit the fact that we had such a strong "preschool homeschool" community - there was no question in the minds f any of those parents that the social community and the activities were out there and t wasn't jumping blindly alone into it. So for me, that's another argument for letting the term be freely applied.

[Soror]

Well, I count from 5/k and up. Our group, which is very informal, doesn't have any requirements as to ages, although I could see the reasoning behind it. We always end up w/ a ton who are just there until kindergarten starts, with park days and field trips like we do it doesn't matter much.

[sbgrace]

We didn't send our kids to preschool, but I still didn't really consider myself as a homeschooler until K. I really don't care in the least how others think of it.

 

Someone wrote upthread about connecting with people in the pre-K ages who intend to homeschool. I would have loved that when my boys were little, whatever the label attached or not attached to the group.

[mom2bee]

I guess when you start doing work that is school level, whether that level is PreK/K/1st?

[mmeblue]

Eh, it depends.  I'm comfortable saying it's silly to say you're homeschooling a newborn.  

 

When DD was 3 and I quit work and we pulled her out of daycare, I started a kindergarten curriculum with her.  I used air quotes and said we were "homeschooling."  That was my way of saying we were doing some structured stuff, but it wasn't necessarily the whole deal.  

 

This year, she's 4, and would qualify for VPK (Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten).  I have her doing a full 1st grade curriculum; I'm keeping track of her work and my lesson plans and the books she's read.  This year, I say we're homeschooling, no air quotes.  We're not registered with the state (she's too young), but I'm doing everything I would need to do if we were (I haven't decided yet if I'm going to ask a friend to look at a portfolio for us, but it's likely).  DD is tall for her age, and I've had people ask when they see us out during the school day whether we homeschool; I'm fine with answering yes to that.  Do I think every family with a 4-year-old at home is homeschooling?  Not necessarily, but I wouldn't argue with them if they say they are.  On the other hand, I haven't even looked into joining any groups, because I assume they are for families that have kids who are officially registered homeschoolers.  We have friends with young kids that we hang out with at the playground, etc., and that's serving us well for right now.

 

Next year, because of when her birthday falls (late January), she'll fall under the compulsory education laws, so we'll be officially registering as homeschoolers for her official K year.  If her birthday were a week later, we would be able to wait until the following year to register.  Since some kids who are kindergarten age fall under compulsory attendance laws, I would say all kids who are kindergarten age should be able to count as homeschoolers.  At least in Florida. ;)

[Matryoshka]

For a more tongue -in-cheek answer that came to me when reading another thread just now...

 

There should be an option on the poll for "not until you've mummified a chicken"... :)

[RoundAbout]

I considered myself a homeschooler from the beginning, but didn't call myself a homeschooler until my kid was in K. Until that point I was always careful to say "we intend to homeschool." Most of my friends who sent their kids to preschool were good parents who still did a ton of at home learning so it felt ridiculous to differentiate myself in that way.

 

I also think its a whole different world when you have school aged kids. People get a lot more nosy and concerned about your decisions when your kid is 5+ and should be in school. Homeschooling is also just a lot more complicated and the responsibility weighs more heavily than it did when he was 3 and just learning his colors and numbers.

 

I don't have a problem of preschool parents joining groups as long as they don't dominate it or sign up for inappropriate field trips. This happened in a few groups that tried to start in my area and it was disappointing. Last year, I was really trying to find older or same aged friends for my son and yet most of the groups were full of 3 and 4 year olds. I just thought that was strange given there were a ton of preschool playgroups around.

[Desert Strawberry]

Other.

When you purchase or prepare and implement a formal learning program.

Imo if you do  formal  preK at home, that is homeschool .

If you do formal K at home, that is homeschool. 

If you do no formal schooling at all, ever...I'm not sure what to call that. 

 

For my family, it's different for each kid.

I started my first at 3, because he has learning trouble, and I needed practice. We did early preK, preK, K, and K again. By first grade, I was a pro, and he had made huge gains with his problems. 

I started my second at 4 (actually he completed the whole prek program in less than 3weeks when he was 2.5,so I set it aside for a while.) Because he was ready.

My third is taking a less academic, more hands on approach. He won't start till he's 6 or seven. 

I have no idea what I'll do with #4. He's only 2. I don't know what he will need.

 

We don't register till age 7,and everyone starts before then. 

 

It's irrelevant when they would start ps, because they aren't going. That's like calling an 18 yr old who doesn't go to college a freshman,because his peers are going.

 

 

 

 

[ByGrace3]

We call it homeschooling the moment we make a cognitive decision to keep that child at home for his education instead of sending them to school. My olders went to Pre-K at a school. Everyone around here does K-4. It's the new kindergarten. Next year when my youngest starts K-4, she will be "homeschooled" because we chose to keep her home for her education instead of "going to school." It is not "parenting". What I will do with her is beyond "parenting," it is schooling. 

[Desert Strawberry]

It used to bug me because I had pipe dreams of sticking with the same people for years.  That didn't turn out so now I really don't care either.

We joined a homeschool group when my oldest was 3 so that I could learn and network. All of the families who are still in the area are still homeschooling. We still see each other at events. His 2 best friend's families are ones we met when he was 3. My second child was 4 weeks old, and his closest friend was 2 weeks old when they met. 

Sometimes those bonds stay strong .

[ocelotmom]

I'll add too that I've heard that it's common for people to "cave in" and send k'ers to school but that didn't happen to hardly anyone we knew and I credit the fact that we had such a strong "preschool homeschool" community - there was no question in the minds f any of those parents that the social community and the activities were out there and t wasn't jumping blindly alone into it. So for me, that's another argument for letting the term be freely applied.

 

Same here. I intended to homeschool from well before pregnancy, but I'm pretty sure I would have caved if I hadn't joined up with a homeschooling group when my oldest was 3.5 - both DS and I needed the existing social support/peer pressure to get over that hump.

 

That said, I never said we homeschooled when he was pre-kindergarten-age. On the other hand, I did say I was homeschooling DD1 when she was 4.5, because we were actively doing K stuff... and, 2.5 years later, she's still not actually compulsory school age in this state for another few weeks.

[Farrar]

We joined a homeschool group when my oldest was 3 so that I could learn and network. All of the families who are still in the area are still homeschooling. We still see each other at events. His 2 best friend's families are ones we met when he was 3. My second child was 4 weeks old, and his closest friend was 2 weeks old when they met. 

Sometimes those bonds stay strong .

 

Ditto.  My kids' best friends are kids they met at age 3 or 4 and they turn 9 (eek!) in a couple of weeks.  Our tiny, four family co-op is going into its fourth year and our Destination Imagination team is going into its fifth.  My kids have probably had a more stable peer group than most kids at large ps elementary schools.  I know we're lucky, but I agree that it can happen.

[Desert Strawberry]

Am I the only one who doesn't see a huge shift when a child reaches a magical "school" age? I don't see much difference between what my kid did at 3 and what he's doing at 10. More advanced, more formal, more independent, yes. But a gradual shift. Maybe because he's atypical...but I see less of a shift with my other kids. I'm starting to teach my four year old to read,  the same way I read with my 7 yr old. 

The whole debate seems arbitrary and unnecessary to me.

[Matryoshka]

Ditto.  My kids' best friends are kids they met at age 3 or 4 and they turn 9 (eek!) in a couple of weeks.  Our tiny, four family co-op is going into its fourth year and our Destination Imagination team is going into its fifth.  My kids have probably had a more stable peer group than most kids at large ps elementary schools.  I know we're lucky, but I agree that it can happen.

 

Yep.  We had a huge playgroup that came out of LLL that started when my kids were, well, still nursing.  It started small, but grew to around 30 kids (w/ about 1-3 kids per family).  I think I was one of the only original members who was already planning on homeschooling (no, I didn't say I was already doing it then ;) )  By the time the older kids in the group were of the age to go to preschool, I think all but one family in the group had decided to homeschool, and the one person who had two school-aged kids actually pulled them out around the same time!  Pretty much all those families homeschooled for years, and many are still going strong - I feel like my kids grew up with a larger, closer group of friends than if they'd been in school.

 

[abba12]

I think thereis a difference between being homeschoolers, which, to me, applies to parents of newborns intending to homeschool, parents of 3 year olds, 10 year olds, and even graduated students, versus activly homeschooling, which i consider K onwards even though we begin formal work earlier

[ErinE]

I prefer to ask how old the child is then how long a child has been homeschooled then start off with years homeschooling. Like 8FilltheHeart mentioned, I think someone who's homeschooled for 12 years and graduated a student has more experience than someone who's "homeschooled" for 12 years and has a 12-year old.