Joker Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Ah that's another one I didn't think of. We rarely get sick around here. I'm sure that would be different if my kids were in school. This has been the biggest con of my dds going to public school. We are on year three and have had the flu twice (never had it before). Both times it started with oldest so I guess she is just more susceptible to that stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 PMing you, OP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragons in the flower bed Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 This has been the biggest con of my dds going to public school. We are on year three and have had the flu twice (never had it before). Both times it started with oldest so I guess she is just more susceptible to that stuff. Us too. My kids have spent a few months each in two different schools, and each time, we had a flu-like thing (aches and pains, low grade fever, sniffles, post nasal drip, sneezing and coughing) the entire time they were enrolled. Entire. Time. Maybe we're allergic to school. When no kids are in school, I get sick about a once a year, as fall turns to winter. To try to survive, I gave them immune boosting supplements, increased the amount of dark greens and garlic and red pepper in their diets, and was a handwashing maniac. But it made so little difference that I gave up after a couple of months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Definitely more clothes. DD attended a parochial school that had uniforms, so she had polos, blouses, jumpers, slacks, specific leggings and tights, culottes, sweaters, fleece indoor jackets and even limited range of color of hair accessories. All of which was shed within minutes of arriving home in favor of something more comfortable. Now, at age 9, she has a much more eclectic sense of style, mostly pieced together from discount racks and t-shirts from kid-events, plus jeans and leggings, with the occasional tutu or set of fairy wings or viking helmet added-I'm pretty sure everything in her closet put together, including her cheer team uniform and dance class outfits costs less than enough uniform parts to get through185 7 hour parochial school days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 "Agreed! I have to get up at 4am and the bus comes at 6:30, I'm not functional the days she goes to school from lack of sleep and were just getting into the groove of school work with dd13 when I have to stop and go get dd7 off the bus and then deal with snack and her telling me all about her day and just on and on, it really cuts into school time with dd13. When I work I won't even take a client before 10am because I NEED my sleep, if I get up before 7am I have a really hard time functioning that day from exhaustion (dealing with adrenal issues). I am very used to setting my own schedule and keeping to the schools insane schedule just is not working for us." This. These reasons trump the reasons to keep her in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 Wow, are you kidding me?! That's a bit ridiculous. So long as the clothes are not looking tattered and dirty I do not see the big deal. Since when do we have to wear a different outfit every single day!? Now see, I thought we were just slobs lol:) Nice to know others wear the same thing 2 days in a row:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 On the clothing front. My kids have a dress code but not a uniform. They have to wear a collar every day, and their usual outfit is either a blouse and jumper, blouse and skirt, or a one-piece dress with a collar. They wear shorts or leggings underneath. This is all fine with me, I enjoyed shopping for it (eBay is my friend), and my kids enjoy dressing this way. Our dress code dilemma is with dress-down days, which are rather frequent. They are "allowed" to wear pants or jeans but NOT leggings, and a "Christian T-shirt," whatever the heck that means - or "school spirit wear," which of course costs $$$. Well, I am not going to buy pants, jeans, Christian T-shirts, or spirit wear just so my kids can dress down. So my kids do not dress down on dress down day. Isn't that funny that we can't afford to dress down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 My kids sometimes wear the same clothes from Friday to Sunday if it isn't nasty. Who cares? I wouldn't send them to school like that - unless it was a uniform. People would talk. Though I did forget to comb their hair the other day - first day back, musta left my brain on the cruise ship.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 "Agreed! I have to get up at 4am and the bus comes at 6:30, I'm not functional the days she goes to school from lack of sleep and were just getting into the groove of school work with dd13 when I have to stop and go get dd7 off the bus and then deal with snack and her telling me all about her day and just on and on, it really cuts into school time with dd13. When I work I won't even take a client before 10am because I NEED my sleep, if I get up before 7am I have a really hard time functioning that day from exhaustion (dealing with adrenal issues). I am very used to setting my own schedule and keeping to the schools insane schedule just is not working for us." This. These reasons trump the reasons to keep her in. I love you lol:) Between the above and the fact were now down with the bloody flu thanks to her 1 day at school on Thursday I filled out the paperwork to enroll her back into a K12 VA this morning which works for us. "I" need the level of structure it gives even after 8 years of HS'ing. I need to be accountable to someone and my kids to someone else otherwise (its very helpful when they won't do their work and a teacher calls asking THEM why its not done, removes me from being the bad guy even though I'm doing the work with them) I'm honest enough with myself to know they won't get the education they need because I'm a lazy HS'er at heart:) (yes I know, a lot of people don't like VA's but they usually work for us as long as they don't require Study Island which the state VA just did away with:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Well yeah that's the stupid thing. People would talk. Like really someone has nothing better to do than think about that?! OY..... I think I should have been born on another planet or something. Yes, unfortunately that is the reality we must deal with, whether we like it or not. ;) My kids already have the deck stacked against them in a Lutheran school. A single mom who isn't a church member and doesn't volunteer at school, brown skin, and a few other things depending on each person's individual bias.... We'll just change our clothes whether we need to or not. ;) Though I reserve the right to hang them back on the hangers rather than wash them every time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Yeah getting up at 4 am would kill me. And I'm even somewhat of a morning person. If I had to get up at 4am to get my kids to school, my kids would be in court for truancy before Christmas. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Lost sleep, because I have to wake up at 4am to turn on the heat, we can't afford to run the heat all night and why should we when were toasty warm in bed? I agree, you need a programmable thermostat. I have one and love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 You know, I don't know if you can always blame less sickness on school vs. homeschool. We got sick a good bit when the kids were younger. Now that they're older, it's a lot less. But if I had pulled the kids in 3rd grade, then, hey, I might think it was homeschooling, not just normal. I can easily believe that there are a lot of hidden costs in b&m school. But I guess I think there are a lot of hidden costs in homeschooling too. It's just a different route. If lost income is a factor, I don't think you can make it out that homeschooling is cheaper, but otherwise, it's just different costs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 If I had to get up at 4am to get my kids to school, my kids would be in court for truancy before Christmas. :p My ds swears if he were in public school he'd just show up at noon. :lol: Yeah, right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Yeah, I think the sickness think is largely timing. My kids were never sick until they went to preschool, and then they had one thing after another for a year, and then they were pretty much done with that. Many times I've heard it said that the first year of whatever group program kids are in - whether it's infant daycare, preschool, KG or 6th grade or college - plan on them being constantly sick that year as they run through the one-time bugs everyone is always passing around. The only reason I would worry about that is if I had a child with immunity issues / asthma, which the OP does have. Kids can grow out of some of these things, so it makes sense to keep them home longer. But sooner or later, they are going to meet most of those germs. If I have to pick a time for my kids to be sick, I'd rather it be as a young child, when there is less cost to missing things / being under the weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 My older kids just didn't get sick when they were babies and rarely as homeschool aged kids. It turned out to have more to do with not having older siblings bringing germs home from public school than anything wonderful in my breast milk or the sheer awesomeness of my parenting. ;) The little survived and so did "Typhoid Mary", but we sure didn't save any money by sending a kid to PS, even if you assume that I would have had the same problems with him that caused me to turn his sister over to Wes Beach instead of writing her transcript myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASDAQ Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I have four from baby to seven and they get sick a ton. And as soon as one gets sick, they all get it. They may not be in school, but they seem to find tons of places to pick up whatever crud is going around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Homeschooling costs us $$$$$, my earnings after taxes and after school care. More if I took myself to a different industry with the same education. Homeschooling is the most expensive decision we have ever made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I've used it. Our house is 120 years old, and has the high ceilings that go with that period of time (in this country, at least!). It is a NIGHTMARE to heat. I've considered wood stoves, but think I can't handle those — too much work. We use thermo-accumulative electric heaters (great idea, but probably not available in the US?). They contain bricks. You turn them on during the night when the electricity is cheaper and they are supposed to stay hot all day. Due to the high ceilings, they don't. They work great in "normal" houses though. Two or three or these flower-pot heaters in the room make the temperature go up by 5 degrees Celsius during the daytime! I was rather skeptical when someone recommended it to me, but it works! Yes, that is a disadvantage, but isn't it easier/less expensive to cool your house in the summer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 I'm curious what materials everyone is using that educating a 1st grader makes it so darn expensive that it makes B&M look cheap? The most I have EVER spent in a year was $3k and that was paying for vision rehab software and all the goodies you can imagine, including an ipad (which dd7 then 5 accidentally shattered the screen). Usually I spend maybe $300-$600yr and that was both kids now we live in a state where we can do duel enrollment so I can pick and choose charter school classes/materials at no cost to me and if you pick the right charter it also comes with things like Brainpop, Discovery Education, Reading Eggs/Headsprout ect which means I don't have to pay for it. I also have a lot of HS materials left over from dd13 over the years that I can use with dd7 and there are tons of free resources online/apps. HS'ing can be expensive but it just hasn't been for us over the years but I'm also cool with using K12 classes and materials which can be gotten for cheap/free. Next year I will have to pay for math though, not willing to suffer through K12 math again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I love you lol:) Between the above and the fact were now down with the bloody flu thanks to her 1 day at school on Thursday I filled out the paperwork to enroll her back into a K12 VA this morning which works for us. "I" need the level of structure it gives even after 8 years of HS'ing. I need to be accountable to someone and my kids to someone else otherwise (its very helpful when they won't do their work and a teacher calls asking THEM why its not done, removes me from being the bad guy even though I'm doing the work with them) I'm honest enough with myself to know they won't get the education they need because I'm a lazy HS'er at heart:) (yes I know, a lot of people don't like VA's but they usually work for us as long as they don't require Study Island which the state VA just did away with:) Good! I am glad you've got a plan! And I don't know about the K12 VA program where you are, but a neighbor here uses it, and it seems to dictate a lot of how each day is spent, which would help with child who gets difficult if not busy. Our neighbor has classes and other work and PE all required of her--as well as long distance groups to get involved with. Add in some chores time and outdoor play time and she has very little time to drive anyone crazy which is good bec. she has a single parent working from home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueTaelon Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Good! I am glad you've got a plan! And I don't know about the K12 VA program where you are, but a neighbor here uses it, and it seems to dictate a lot of how each day is spent, which would help with child who gets difficult if not busy. Our neighbor has classes and other work and PE all required of her--as well as long distance groups to get involved with. Add in some chores time and outdoor play time and she has very little time to drive anyone crazy which is good bec. she has a single parent working from home. People new to the program drive themselves crazy trying to do EVERYTHING the OLS assigns which is not how the program was designed to work. We got some very good advice when we started years ago, teach to the objective, it doesn't matter HOW its taught, only that the child can pass the lesson test. Its amazing how many Brainpop episodes cover the same exact material in a k12 lesson in minutes rather then an hour:) Even doing every subject and her goofing off she was done in 3 hours or less last year. Neither of my kids go over 3-4 hours doing school work, they are both fast learners so we don't need to do the constant repetition a lot of kids need:) Its why the program works for us, it doesn't spend tons of time on the same concept and for the most part it moves at our speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ollibreh Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 My kids get the bug from going out anyway so it does not matter whether they go to school or school at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mytwomonkeys Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 My daughter attends public school now. My son is still homeschooled. Homeschooling is more expensive for us by far. Not to mention the income I lost when we decided that my being here to homeschool was best for our family. I don't regret it. We love homeschooling. But it was not the cheaper choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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