Hello, from MA.

[Noreen Claire]

Hello.

 

Joined the site last year, having read and reread The Well-Trained mind several times, though I've never posted.

 

I've been thinking about homeschooling since my oldest (now 20) was little. I now have a 1st grader, preschooler, and a toddler at home as well. The 1st grader loves school for the social aspect, but is bored to tears with the academics (mostly Language Arts/Math, I haven't seen any science/history at all this year). He reads voraciously, and is reading well above his grade level. I am seriously thinking about letting him finish this year in the public school and then teaching him at home.

 

As my husband and I are both public school teachers by trade (I've been home for 4 years), it feels like treason even thinking about homeschooling. However, I just feel like having all of them home next year makes the most sense for my family right now. 

 

Thanks for reading. See you around the forums,

Noreen

[Ethel Mertz]

Welcome, Noreen. I've run across quite a few homeschooling parents who were public school teachers or have a spouse who is, so you are not alone!

[Tammyla]

Welcome~

[Nan in Mass]

Hi from another person in Mass!

That's how I wound up homeschooling my youngest. We decided to homeschool the middle one because he's wired a bit differently and the teachers began cautioning me about how badly he was going to do on the MCAS years before he had to take them. Ug. He wasn't learning well in school, so it was a pretty easy decision. We made it in third grade but sent him to 4th because we knew the teacher was good. Meanwhile, his little brother learned to read early and was reading well but not writing yet at the end of kindergarten. I selected TWTM in a large part because it thought it was normal to a have reading but not yet writing kindergartner. We decided to keep both home for 1st and 5th, then send the youngest to school for 2nd. Well... I can't say homeschooling was fun, especially the first fall when I had to convince the middle one that he did indeed have to work hard at school, unlike in public school, and that it wouldn't kill him to right more than half a sentence. Public school had him so confused about what he was able to do but disliked and what he really couldn't do and math that he was a mess. The only way I could figure it out was to push him hard. If he did it, then he could. If he wound up in tears, then I knew he really couldn't. It was horrible horrible horrible, but by the end of the first few months, I knew what he could do and what he needed me to teach him and we settled down pretty happily. He began working hard. Youngest read piles and piles of library books, did handwriting and math workbooks, and worked on drawing, chess, and recorder. I read aloud. We started Latin. By the end of the year, I had realized that it was going to work much better to homeschool two at once than one child by himself. Middle one was definitely learning more at home with me, and youngest was very happily teaching himself, when we weren't all working on the same thing together. It was a yearly decision until high school. I wound up keeping them home until they began taking community college classes towards the end of high school. : )

Nan

 

ETA - WRITE ug I did proof it.  Honestly!  I just can't spot mistakes until the next day, usually.  And my spelling is always sort of wobbly...

Edited February 12, 2016 by Nan in Mass

[Angie in VA]

I just love Nan!

 

I was a public school teacher, but I had left the profession a year before my first came a long. I knew too much from both sides of the desk to send my baby to school, and I had already taught her to read when she was 4, so I asked DH if we could homeschool her since we already were doing that. His thoughts were 1) how much could we mess up kindergarten? and 2) We would homeschool as long as it was beneficial for everyone. She is now a junior in college. (We have a junior in high school too who was always been homeschooled and has started earning college credits.)

 

I know a man who teaches in a great school system whose dc are homeschooled, and, my favorite, we know a high school principal whose 4 dc are homeschooled. ;)