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"What can I use for homeschooling that is free and all online and requires no parent interaction and reads outloud becaus the child can't read"


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5 hours ago, whitehawk said:

It seems to be about 50-50, and only that much if you count things attached to virtual school enrollment (e.g., free laptop), if links like this are to be believed. Most states seem to want homeschoolers to pay their own way. I think we should be able to get copies of any textbooks in use in the district where we live, enroll in extracurriculars after a semester waiting period [so parents don't withdraw and not-school failing high schoolers], and use the state test as our required standardized test if we choose.

Re: the OP, I saw a lot of this on Facebook this spring. IDK if people took the hint when the answer was usually "Check out books like TWTM from the library" or if I left the group where it was happening most.

I'm uncertain how to accurately gauge this, because this link shows many of the states on which the above link says there's no option or it is not operating to actually have options. I didn't read through all 50.  I only brought it up to say that I am unsure how to figure out accurate numbers.  If the point is to have access to state funds in SOME way, but also needing to be accountable to the state, I agree that it is not unreasonable.

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38 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

 

I just left a comment on a post in one of my homeschooling pages on facebook regarding this. I'm a bit annoyed by the article and said I found the title misleading as children grow. Here is the article: https://raisingwildflowerkids.com/2018/05/08/you-can-homeschool-in-less-than-two-hours-per-day/

She shaved off an hour of school a week from brick & mortar for things like passing out Valentine's. Umm, no, I don't think they are doing that type of thing an average of once a week. 

Articles like this also neglect that fact that  kids have homework.  She forgot to add that back to her total.    She also shaved off time for art/pe/music/read aloud time. I clicked on the "about me" tab and her oldest is 7.  I sure hope schools are doing art/music/pe/read aloud time for 7 year olds.  The kids I know are getting more than 1 hour and 47 minutes of teaching and work time.  It just feels like she wants to justify her 2 hours a day, so she fiddles around with the numbers to make it fit so she feels better about herself.   Although I do think a 7 year old doesn't really need much more than 2 hours of academics a day anyway.  It just bothered me she shaved away good things to get her total time down.

 

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54 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I actually JUST posted a little mini rant about this very sort of thing in the Accountability thread earlier in the week.

The state of Ohio says I have to provide assurance that I will provide 900 hours of instruction.  Our elementary school here has a 6 hr and 15 minute day.  Take off half an hour for lunch, half an hour for recess after lunch and then another 15 minutes for the morning recess I have found typical of elementary schools and that works out to 5 hours a day, and multiplied by 180 days, that's where the 900 hours comes from.  But I know there's no way that all 5 hours, every day, spent in school are spent on academic instruction.  Now, I do consider things like art, music, and the other "specials" part of the academic instruction.  But really, once you factor in all the time spent taking attendance, doing indivdual standardized assessments, walking to art class, walking back, time lost to 2 hour delays, even though those still count as school days, etc etc etc....public school kids really are getting far less than 900 hours of actual instruction per year, and I think it kind of holds homeschoolers to a higher standard than the public school.

But, having said that, I don't think 900 hours will be a problem for us, it's not like I have to track it anyway, and most importantly, I would never intentionally do LESS work than I plan just because the public school is not providing as many hours of instruction as homeschoolers are supposed to.  

Our state is 1000 hours/year, but I suspect what they mean by 1000 hours is "what is normally taught during the public school day PLUS extracurriculars PLUS reading outside of school work PLUS what would be sent home as homework PLUS lots and lots of discussion and answering questions".  At least at the elementary level (my 5th grader is just now at the 1000/hours of "planned seat work, assigned reading, and music"). The problem is that I don't think it's been made crystal clear to PS parents that there is an expectation on ALL parents to provide some educational opportunity, instruction, or guidance outside of normal school hours, not just homeschoolers.  1000 hours looks daunting to parents who are new to homeschooling, but for those who have been working with and reading to their kids and helping them pursue interests, you aren't adding another 1000 hours on top of what you've already been doing.  For parents wanting to homeschool who are working long days or have never made things like reading aloud and library trips and educational exploration a priority, 1000 hours may be an insurmountable mountain.

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55 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

I think the author subtracted too much time for things. She was like "10 min. here, 10 min. there" but it does not take 10 min. to do some of those things and kids are not handing out Valentine's or having a party every week of the year. I do think there is less than 5 hours of actual classroom work done, though, if you have to subtract things here and there. Some of us were saying that many schools do not have a morning assembly, either. Perhaps a news channel segment or announcements, though. I don't know what most do. 

My state doesn't require us to document the hours/days, but for a while I did track what I considered a day (which was not close to 5 hours. Ds isn't that old). I don't know what you mean about 2 hour delays... was that a weather thing? I would think those are generally compensated for later in the year by adding a half day or something. 

 

My daughter is a 2nd grader. Every morning they assemble in the gym before school starts and only go to their classroom at bell. I believe on Fridays they hold a short morning assembly (less than 30 minutes) and do all the things there they normally do in morning announcements -- Announcements vary from 5-15 minutes depending on what is announced. But is one place they really involve the students. It is not adults sitting there talking at kids. Every week a different class is in charge of announcements and they send 4-5 kids to the library. Each kids chooses a part to do. One does the weather (they have to figure out what the weather is). One kid is the main announcer and will manage transitions, introducing people, etc.. One kid leads the pledge, another the school song. I would consider this academic time, even if not book-time.

 

(And the announcements is not just audio. It is video. So they are presenting, working with visuals, at the same time)

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17 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

Our state is 1000 hours/year, but I suspect what they mean by 1000 hours is "what is normally taught during the public school day PLUS extracurriculars PLUS reading outside of school work PLUS what would be sent home as homework PLUS lots and lots of discussion and answering questions".  At least at the elementary level (my 5th grader is just now at the 1000/hours of "planned seat work, assigned reading, and music"). The problem is that I don't think it's been made crystal clear to PS parents that there is an expectation on ALL parents to provide some educational opportunity, instruction, or guidance outside of normal school hours, not just homeschoolers.  1000 hours looks daunting to parents who are new to homeschooling, but for those who have been working with and reading to their kids and helping them pursue interests, you aren't adding another 1000 hours on top of what you've already been doing.  For parents wanting to homeschool who are working long days or have never made things like reading aloud and library trips and educational exploration a priority, 1000 hours may be an insurmountable mountain.

 

Agreed. Ever since K, the stated expecation was 20 minutes of reading/day (minimum) on top of other homework. (it is encouraged to be year round but I'll only include September-May to make my calculations easier for hte school year. 36 weeks)

That, all by itself, accounts for over 2 hours (140 minutes) a week -- 5040 minutes or 84 hours of reading alone.

Edited by vonfirmath
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One of the teens at cheer is considering going to PS-she's currently homeschooled, and  commented that "I guess my mom forgot that I needed PE"-the three other homeschool moms in the room all made comments to the effect that "No, we count cheer as PE, and you get far more than the 150 hours required during high school in one year of cheer".  I am confident DD has had more hours spent on music and PE than she would have gotten in a public school setting, although not the variety of activities in either. (I admit, she would have gotten more structured visual art in a school setting). I'm also not sure how things like Health, nutrition and wellness fit in, since DD has gotten those mixed in to day to day life, not as a weekly or twice weekly class.

 

I suspect the time spent on assemblies and other non-educational activities is probably matched by the time that comes out of our schedule to drive to X outside co-op or class, or when you have a lot of interruptions at home (like when you're homeschooling a 2 yr old, or when someone is sick, or even when it's just laundry day so you have to stop every 45 minutes or so, unload the washer, and load the dryer). Those days tend to be much more like a PS day in length. The shorter days have usually been those when we were at home and had few/no interruptions.

 

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1 hour ago, LuvToRead said:

Articles like this also neglect that fact that  kids have homework.  She forgot to add that back to her total.    She also shaved off time for art/pe/music/read aloud time. I clicked on the "about me" tab and her oldest is 7.  I sure hope schools are doing art/music/pe/read aloud time for 7 year olds.  The kids I know are getting more than 1 hour and 47 minutes of teaching and work time.  It just feels like she wants to justify her 2 hours a day, so she fiddles around with the numbers to make it fit so she feels better about herself.   Although I do think a 7 year old doesn't really need much more than 2 hours of academics a day anyway.  It just bothered me she shaved away good things to get her total time down.

 

These type of articles ALWAYS conveniently forget homework and evening activities that are part of normal school culture. It might take a class full of kids an extra 5 minutes to come in from recess and settle at their desks, but these kids are also doing homework, and basketball practice, and maybe attending their school’s International Night that week.

I get cheering for your team, and believe that it’s nearly impossible to screw up K-2, but some families seem unable to leave the relaxed routine behind when it’s time. If you live in a decent school district your child can gradually slip behind from lack of academic discipline alone. It’s EASY to get a 6 year old working ‘ahead.’ Keeping them ahead with a 3-4 hour school day might not be the best plan as they hit middle school. 

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4 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I think that's pretty unusual though.  Most states typically require 175 to 185.  How many school days does your state require if districts are going only 4 days a week?  And how long per day are the kids in school?  If they aren't increasing the school day by much, I imagine those kids in those schools really aren't getting a whole lot of instruction time.  

 

Do people who do track their hours actually tend to count drive time to places as instructional time?

 

I'm pretty sure Texas is moving away from counting days and moving toward counting minutes -- so school districts COULD do a longer school day/fewer school days schedule if they wished. Last year, because of so many late starts, our district flirted with the idea of extending the school day for the rest of the year instead of using a makeup day. They ended up using the makeup day instead after the upset the idea caused among parents. (Would not have bothered me. I think a extended school day would get more actual learning done than the extra day at the end of the year.)

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1 hour ago, dmmetler said:

I suspect the time spent on assemblies and other non-educational activities is probably matched by the time that comes out of our schedule to drive to X outside co-op or class, or when you have a lot of interruptions at home (like when you're homeschooling a 2 yr old, or when someone is sick, or even when it's just laundry day so you have to stop every 45 minutes or so, unload the washer, and load the dryer). Those days tend to be much more like a PS day in length. The shorter days have usually been those when we were at home and had few/no interruptions.

 

I think this is a good point and we should bring it up when people start the conversation about how much time is wasted in ps.

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1 hour ago, dmmetler said:

One of the teens at cheer is considering going to PS-she's currently homeschooled, and  commented that "I guess my mom forgot that I needed PE"-the three other homeschool moms in the room all made comments to the effect that "No, we count cheer as PE, and you get far more than the 150 hours required during high school in one year of cheer".  I am confident DD has had more hours spent on music and PE than she would have gotten in a public school setting, although not the variety of activities in either. (I admit, she would have gotten more structured visual art in a school setting). I'm also not sure how things like Health, nutrition and wellness fit in, since DD has gotten those mixed in to day to day life, not as a weekly or twice weekly class.

 

I suspect the time spent on assemblies and other non-educational activities is probably matched by the time that comes out of our schedule to drive to X outside co-op or class, or when you have a lot of interruptions at home (like when you're homeschooling a 2 yr old, or when someone is sick, or even when it's just laundry day so you have to stop every 45 minutes or so, unload the washer, and load the dryer). Those days tend to be much more like a PS day in length. The shorter days have usually been those when we were at home and had few/no interruptions.

 

 

But there are also plenty of public schooled kids who are also doing the music outside of school, (And yes, cheer too. A friend of mine in Sunday School has her oldest in cheer and is always posting about going this competition and that one; they have traveled quite a bit due to the competition schedule.. The kids are public schooled)

My husband and his sister participated in Seattle Youth Symphony in after school hours "back in the day"  And I took private music lessons outside of school hours -- every band student I knew in HS was taking private music lessons somewhere.

I am very jealous of Homeschooled students on Wednesday nights when we're working on AWANA -- who have put their AWANA verse learning into their school day. It can be quite challenging to figure out how to manage it otherwise and I imagine how nice it would be to just assign it as a school subject...

 

I don't remember health, etc. Taking much time even when I was in school (And it was a 1 semester course in HS. But made no impression on me long term versus other classes I had to take).

 

(I expect if we managed to actually do the homeschooling I want, we'd do either some sort of karate or swimming as our PE as our family is not very athletic.  But we'd also get to more parks than we manage right now with being able to do it in the morning before it got too hot.  Trying to get the work done would be the big challenge because I already see the tendency in myself to let the kids have screen time when I'm tired and that could quickly get out of hand if I didn't reign it in!)

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27 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

I think that's pretty unusual though.  Most states typically require 175 to 185.  How many school days does your state require if districts are going only 4 days a week?  And how long per day are the kids in school?  If they aren't increasing the school day by much, I imagine those kids in those schools really aren't getting a whole lot of instruction time.  

 

Do people who do track their hours actually tend to count drive time to places as instructional time?

174 days minimum for a 5-day week, 142 days minimum for a 4-day week, all schools have to have 1044 hours of instructional time.  "Special cases" can have less school days.

And actually, the handbook for the school my older kids would be attending says "170 student days".  School hours are exactly 7 hours a day on full days, but some of those 170 are early release days.  That's cutting it very close if you don't count lunch and recess.  I wonder if schools are "making up" those hours by having nearly every kid sign up for summer school.  I know very few PS kids that aren't doing summer school these days.

I don't count drive time as part of the activity, but we usually listen to an audiobook that goes under reading or whatever content subject it was for.

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14 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

While you can count that as educational/acedemic, it seems more so for the select few that are involved. For the others it may be a time to zone out and be like, "yeah, I know what the weather is..." And you could argue that this is inefficient use of time compared to covering that information at home (many don't do a pledge, many don't have announcements etc.). I'd say aside from those doing the research and practice with public speaking, it can be seen as a waste of time. 

I'm blind, there were two article links and that's why I didn't see anything about assemblies at first. But the second link is about a UK school. https://monkeymum.blog/2015/09/13/time-is-precious/ 

 

Of course it will always be more efficient to teach 1 student than a classroom of 18-ish.  You can focus only on that kid and their needs.  No argument there.

5 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

I played basketball for parks and rec, but that wasn't til 6th grade? I don't know what age that starts, but I think many schools don't start school teams until the children are at least 4th? 5th grade or so?? 

When ds went to private school he had homework often, but events at the school? Not so much. When I was a student in public school I don't really remember after school events, but I do remember homework. 

I feel badly that ds just started going to public school this year and they don't have music. I don't think they have art, either. Their "specials" are library, computer lab, and PE. He didn't have library the first week because they hadn't found a librarian yet. Thank goodness they found someone. At the private school he had art and music, too. He does have art supplies here, but he's lost a lot of interest in art over the years. 

All this to say I wouldn't assume a child in b&m has all the extras, nor do I feel all homeschoolers provide those extras. It's not always practical. Ds showed some interest in keyboard (from attending the private school) but I knew darn well he'd fight me if I made him practice so we didn't bother to invest in a keyboard. 

 

No, not every kid in B&M does the extra. But an awful lot of them do something. We do scouting and Choir at church and AWANAs.

Friends have their kids in softball and choir and karate

Other friends choose to do AWANA, Choir, and Gymnastics

The friend in cheer does Cheer, Scouting and has her younger ones in soccer.

Etc.

 

For after school events -- with all the other stuff going on it really feels like TOO much. 1 night a month PTO meetings. 1 night a month PTO planned activity. 1 night a month school planned event. (Reading Night, Science Night. Each grade puts on a play some night throughout the year. Holiday Festival. The Carnival. Math Night.)  Then there are the extracurricular activities like DI (Destination Imagination), FIRST Lego League, UIL events, etc. that if your kid participates also takes chunks out of your time.

We'll see how middle school goes this year.

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1 minute ago, heartlikealion said:

I was meaning overall I might see the whole thing as a waste of school time and not do it at all. If you want the kids to get experience with public speaking it might be better done another way (in their individual classrooms). I'm not sure what they were researching in the library, unless you mean they were pulling up the weather website. I guess it's a school spirit thing to do the song. /shrug If it's not affecting the rest of their day badly, I guess I see no harm. Just seems like something that homeschool blogger would list as "30 min. wasted" and cut off her list lol

 

I wonder if she would consider morning basket time wasted too? after all, the kids may not pay attention. And its only helping the child who is reading.

You can consider any time wasted if your incentive to do so is enough. Different kids do announcements everyday. So today it is these 4 kids and tomorrow its a different 4 kids. Kids can make up jokes that might be used on announcements. Especially when it is your class doing it, there's an awful lot more incentive to be engaged. Or if you hear your name mentioned (One day a week they read out all those who reached a milestone in AR points. So as you progress and take tests, you will be recognized). They also read out kids who meet other milestones, and make announcements of future events coming up. During book fair weeks, each day they have an advertisement for one of the books at the book fair. During award season, there might be short reviews of books they can check out at the library.  Lots of variation and reasons for kids to listen and not just tune out. Though yes I'm sure there is tuning out that happens as well.

You can lead a horse to water.

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21 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

Wow.  So for those schools on a 4 day week, if they are cramming all those 1044 hours into just 142 days, that means they are doing 8 hour+ days for those 4 days (incl lunch and recess).   That's kind of a long day for the younger kids.  Though..........I guess if many/most have been doing daycare, it's probably not really much different.  

 

 

 

Generally speaking, I don't think 900 to 1000 (or even 1044, though the number seems oddly specific to me.)  hours of instruction time is all that crazy.  I do however think that what counts as "instruction time" in a school isn't always what a typical homeschooler (typical for this board anyway) would consider instructional time.  

I think it's 1044 because 1044/174 =  an even 6 hours/day.

The 4-hour days are for financially strapped rural districts, so they can (ideally, but not realistically) shave 20% off their building and transportation expenses.  Also, some of these districts are still closing on the opening days of hunting season, because otherwise so many students and teachers would be absent.  If they already have those Fridays off, it's a little less disruptive.  I went to college and worked in a rural area where the districts conveniently scheduled "in-service" days in early November. 

TBH, we take time off for hunting season too.  And no, I don't count sitting in the woods as school work (just the hunters ed and conservation courses).

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1 minute ago, happysmileylady said:

Yeah I know that it's about operating costs, but gosh, 8 to 8.5 hrs a day just feels like a really long day for a 1st or 2nd grader.  I can see it making sense for a 6th or 7th grader.  

No kidding.  My introverts would not have handled that well.  Heck, the 33yo in this house struggles with being around non-family humans for 8 hours a day!

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I'm in two Facebook homeschool groups, and I haven't seen any questions like these.  I know those people are out there, though, because I met a couple of them in person.  They were friends, and one had pulled all her kids out of PS a year or two before.  I think there were four kids.  They were doing some online option, or they would have been, if she had gotten all of them signed up in time, which she hadn't.  So the younger ones weren't really doing school, because she didn't teach them on her own, it just wasn't part of her idea of what "homeschooling" was.  And she had some serious health issues that disrupted everything for the family anyway.   I heard one of the girls read, and she was definitely struggling and below grade level.  I tried to help out a little - gave her some workbook stuff for the little ones, tried to get the older kids together with mine to play (they were seriously unconnected with the community in general, much less the "homeschool community"), but the parents seemed to want to keep themselves to themselves, really.

The other lady was her friend, and seemed to have reservations about how good of an education her friends kids were getting (I witnessed multiple attempts by her to turn playtime into educational time for her friends kids, stuff like "and we can make it a counting game!").  Then she pulled her own four kids out of school because of some issues with only one of them.  This was about the same time I pulled my DD to homeschool.  This other mom really seemed to want to give her kids a good education, but didn't seem equipped at all, or to have any concept of "homeschool" outside of what she'd seen her friend do, which was all online.  (I, on the other hand, had multiple friends who had either been educated at home the old-school way, or who were old school homeschoolers.  It was a revelation to me that there were so many options now that didn't involve unit studies or Abeka-style curriculum.)  So she found a not-free online option that she wanted, but it cost more than they could afford.  And given her husband was an alcoholic blue-collar worker who insisted for reasons of his concept of manliness that she not work, they weren't ever going to be able to afford it.  And she was sort of at sea, because one of her girls was high school age.  I tried to be helpful and sent her a link to Easy Peasy All in One homeschool, which I decided was not up to my standards but would have fit her situation, but I don't know what she ended up doing, because we lost contact soon thereafter.  I saw her about six months later, though, and she told me emphatically that she was putting the kids back in public school.

I think homeschool could be done cheaply and adequately, using online and library sources and inexpensive books.  But I think doing so requires a certain amount of knowledge that such things exist, and how to go about finding them, that some people don't have, especially when their examples of homeschool are not those things at all.  And if you have to constantly worry about your family having food on the table, the time and effort required to do all that may not be there.  So maybe some of the people asking about free online options are coming from the same sort of place.  Not all , but some.

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On 8/17/2018 at 9:12 AM, heartlikealion said:

I just left a comment on a post in one of my homeschooling pages on facebook regarding this. I'm a bit annoyed by the article and said I found the title misleading as children grow. Here is the article: https://raisingwildflowerkids.com/2018/05/08/you-can-homeschool-in-less-than-two-hours-per-day/

Agreed.

She's counting 335 days a year.  0.o   We've done weekdays year-round since the beginning and probably never topped 250.

I found it very possible to do K-2 in under 2 hours a day of instructional time (as opposed to free reading, let's-go-to-the-museum-just-for-fun, etc.), ~220 days a year. In fact, I think I kept seatwork to 30 minutes in K, because that was all my kid could stand, and he learned to read and do math right at the same time as kids who go to full-day kinder. But having gotten beyond that stage (as well has having attended PS K-12 and taught middle school), I'm very suspicious of someone making blanket statements about how little time homeschooling takes. I don't see how to do 5th grade or higher in under 4 hours of instruction + independent practice. Then again, I'm not about to try to hold school on weekends (after soccer? after church? or while camping? in between baking?), and we probably give up 12 days a year to grandparent visits alone.

School does lose a lot of potential instructional time--the highly regarded private school where I taught allowed 45 minutes a day total for changing classes, for example. It was the special events category that really bugged me: I couldn't plan a 5-day rhythm because I never got more than two or three weeks in a row in which I saw all of my classes all five days. But this blog and the monkeymum one both overstate things. I absolutely did not have kids sitting and doing nothing in the first and last five minutes of every class, for example. It takes about one minute to sit down, copy down the homework, open your notebook and start the first assignment (which is why I began every class that way: so students didn't have to wait for everyone to arrive, and nearly everyone was actually working at the official class start time). It takes perhaps 15 seconds to shut your notebook, gather your things and head out of the classroom, just like it does to switch subjects at home.

At that school, our teacher guidelines indicated that middle-schoolers could be assigned up to 2 hours of homework a day total, and many of them reported doing close to that after their 7-hour school day and however long it took them to get home. (Some lived just blocks from the school, others not even in the same county.) DS is definitely going to be done for the day by 2PM, leaving time for scout badge work, learning to cook, free reading, piano lessons, and other things I don't count as school. I agree with people saying that homeschooling lets us do a more personalized variety of educational activities during the day, but not that we can just expect to not have to spend more than 2 hours on academics.

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It also seems like both blogs are focusing on early elementary, which has a lot of slack time because they need to match the length of the school day to younger child body clocks. When your other posts are “how I teach kindergarten” and “how I teach 1st grade”, it’s just not super-relevant to me, since my Homeschooler is in high school, where 2 hours a day for a single subject isn’t all that uncommon. 

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50 minutes ago, maize said:

Most homeschool blogs are by moms of young kids.

By the time the kids are in high school there is no time to blog.

And pics of teens slogging through   Quadratic equations and writing essays are nowhere near as sweet as photos of preschoolers counting jellybeans and making puppet shows of whatever book we read that day.

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22 minutes ago, fairfarmhand said:

And pics of teens slogging through   Quadratic equations and writing essays are nowhere near as sweet as photos of preschoolers counting jellybeans and making puppet shows of whatever book we read that day.

Plus the teens roll their eyes at you if you try and take their photo...

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All this discuss in of counting hours and day.....good gravy. How about we just teach the kids what they need to know and stop worrying about looting time. 

 

Ok ok that is the best autocorrect ever......looting time.  Bahabaha......

 

counting time. 

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22 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

All this discuss in of counting hours and day.....good gravy. How about we just teach the kids what they need to know and stop worrying about looting time. 

 

Ok ok that is the best autocorrect ever......looting time.  Bahabaha......

 

counting time. 

Some states require a certain number of hours/days.

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5 hours ago, maize said:

Most homeschool blogs are by moms of young kids.

By the time the kids are in high school there is no time to blog.

 

4 hours ago, fairfarmhand said:

And pics of teens slogging through   Quadratic equations and writing essays are nowhere near as sweet as photos of preschoolers counting jellybeans and making puppet shows of whatever book we read that day.

 

4 hours ago, LMD said:

Plus the teens roll their eyes at you if you try and take their photo...

 

This is all true.  But it got me to thinking that maybe I’d start up my blog again, and go ahead and talk about homeschooling high school in it.  Maybe make it daily blog (I used to do a daily blog) with an overview of what was done that day.

But then I realized that to really discuss the ins and outs of what it’s really like to homeschool a high schooler, I’d have to share the downs as well as the ups.  And at this age (son is 16), I’m not comfortable putting that info out there.  It’s ok to say, “7 year old Timmy is struggling to subtract, but he still loves learning about volcanos!”  And even when Timmy grows up, he won’t much care that his mom blogged about when he was 7 and he struggled to learn to subtract.  

But it’s not ok to say, “16 yo Ralph should be in Alg II, but he’s behind so we’re still in pre-alg and I worry that colleges won’t accept him...” (My son is not named Ralph and I totally made up the “math problem” because there is no way I would actually share personal information like that online about a 16 yo young man.) 

So, if I wanted to blog about homeschooling high school, it would only show a partial picture. I wouldn’t delve into the nitty gritty of what really goes on. I’d have to keep the information a bit sanitized to protect privacy.  I could write about what I do as the teacher—the amount of time I put in for prep, or which college hoop I was jumping through that day (writing course descriptiions over the weekend...time to write the transcript...etc).  But it would have a different feel from a blog for littles.  I’d have to be much more careful about what I wrote.  

So, yeah...I can see why homeschoolers don’t blog about high school as much.  

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41 minutes ago, maize said:

Some states require a certain number of hours/days.

Well yes I know.  But I think that is my point......lets turn in what we need for the state and stop worrying about it.

 

i clearly remember thinking, holy crap I know I educate my child more than that in the normal course of life....so I clicked off the boxes and went on with our day. 

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13 minutes ago, Garga said:

 

 

 

This is all true.  But it got me to thinking that maybe I’d start up my blog again, and go ahead and talk about homeschooling high school in it.  Maybe make it daily blog (I used to do a daily blog) with an overview of what was done that day.

But then I realized that to really discuss the ins and outs of what it’s really like to homeschool a high schooler, I’d have to share the downs as well as the ups.  And at this age (son is 16), I’m not comfortable putting that info out there.  It’s ok to say, “7 year old Timmy is struggling to subtract, but he still loves learning about volcanos!”  And even when Timmy grows up, he won’t much care that his mom blogged about when he was 7 and he struggled to learn to subtract.  

But it’s not ok to say, “16 yo Ralph should be in Alg II, but he’s behind so we’re still in pre-alg and I worry that colleges won’t accept him...” (My son is not named Ralph and I totally made up the “math problem” because there is no way I would actually share personal information like that online about a 16 yo young man.) 

So, if I wanted to blog about homeschooling high school, it would only show a partial picture. I wouldn’t delve into the nitty gritty of what really goes on. I’d have to keep the information a bit sanitized to protect privacy.  I could write about what I do as the teacher—the amount of time I put in for prep, or which college hoop I was jumping through that day (writing course descriptiions over the weekend...time to write the transcript...etc).  But it would have a different feel from a blog for littles.  I’d have to be much more careful about what I wrote.  

So, yeah...I can see why homeschoolers don’t blog about high school as much.  

Bingo. I used to mommy-blog, too. I loved it! But it began to give me pause when I read parents blogging about older kids and putting out family scenarios that are nobody’s beeswax at all. My son also went through a phase in which he begged me not to put ANY photo or mention of him on FB at all. So I honored that. And I just let my blog fizzle away. 

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1 hour ago, Quill said:

Bingo. I used to mommy-blog, too. I loved it! But it began to give me pause when I read parents blogging about older kids and putting out family scenarios that are nobody’s beeswax at all. My son also went through a phase in which he begged me not to put ANY photo or mention of him on FB at all. So I honored that. And I just let my blog fizzle away. 

I understand this completely, and I’m so thankful parents protect their kids’ privacy, but...can I just say that I WISH there were blogs about the older years? I felt like I knew what I was doing when they were younger....and I didn’t read the blogs much at all. Now, I want to hear about the transition to middle school (I just bought Farrar’s book). And special needs education too. That’s another area that doesn’t get much blogging coverage so as to protect privacy, but I just feel like I’m foundering around doing my best when what I really want is an auntie to hold me hand and help me figure it out. ?

 

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6 hours ago, BooksandBoys said:

I understand this completely, and I’m so thankful parents protect their kids’ privacy, but...can I just say that I WISH there were blogs about the older years? I felt like I knew what I was doing when they were younger....and I didn’t read the blogs much at all. Now, I want to hear about the transition to middle school (I just bought Farrar’s book). And special needs education too. That’s another area that doesn’t get much blogging coverage so as to protect privacy, but I just feel like I’m foundering around doing my best when what I really want is an auntie to hold me hand and help me figure it out. ?

 

I remember once thinking this about books on discipline. Ninety-thousand books about managing behavior with little kids; two or three that mention teens at all. Now that I have teens/young adults, I understand better why this is - “discipline” for older kids does not follow a formula, but for little kids, it might. I felt like I didn’t have a good model for how to interact with older kids or how to inspire them to make good choices and I was mostly feeling around in the dark. But my big kids seem to have turned out well so far so I guess something went right! 

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On 7/29/2018 at 9:31 PM, Farrar said:

I feel like sometimes we tout the free and cheapness of homeschooling a little too hard. I mean, there are amazing, full curricula out there that are free. There are some great responsive learning technologies out there that are making stuff more accessible to all people. But it's still true that you mostly get what you pay for. And you will probably need to spend either time or money in order to find something that really works well.

It feels like a lot of these parents want some 21st century version of the Robinson Curriculum - remember that nonsense, where you were supposed to buy a box of old, vintage books and throw them at the kid and them leave them alone until they miraculously got into Harvard?

Robinson Curriculum from what I have read and researched recently actually requires a TON of teaching and tutoring in preschool and primary levels...especially in reading and writing....the math is a bit informal for my taste....I think kids need more than "master math facts" and it should be updated-imho.  But it talks about encouraging copywork and teaching reading through phonics and now includes Alphaphonics for this purpose.  This requires work...and although very basic all of the moms I know that follow his recommendations add in Montessori styled activities, puzzles, and read aloud in the younger years. In grades 3 or 4 and up the teacher does tutor the student once they have been encouraged to reread the lesson or play like they are teaching the lesson...as orally going over something difficult can help some students overcome blocks...and he wants them as independent as possible in reading and math...but once a child is really stuck that it is acceptable to step in.  In regards to writing his method requires tons of parental work.....daily correcting and discussing written narrations or essays.  He includes spelling and grammar books for those without natural spellers....so there is more tutoring time.  I guess I see his method as the kids can study content subjects independently through reading widely...aka a literature rich environment and he wanted to enable children to teach math to themselves using great textbooks (I personally believe with him being math brained that he cannot understand that not all children have his genes and thus natural math abilities)...but he doesn't say don't tutor children who have done due diligence and are still struggling. 

Robinson has helped many low income families be able to homeschool....offering his CDs for free and they include tons of vocabulary work for books he recommends....obviously one can pick and choose ones own favorite books and look up or make exercises for them in addition or exchange.

  But his style is a math lesson, reading between 1 and 2 hours on a variety subjects or phonics lessons,  do vocabulary sheets for books read, spelling and grammar for the 4th-8th using included programs as needed, and copywork, written narration, or an essay daily.  This doesn't sound lazy to me at all.

My personal view is that adding in more science, chronological history, and geography is ideal....but to say it is lacking in parental work is not true.  I can see low income families looking at it and being relieved that they can homeschool-due to his scholarship and a library, but only because of finances not because of lack of work ethic.  I can see large families wanting to maximize their tutoring time to the basics (I am that minimalist style mama), but want to surround their children with a buffet of literature, science, and history subjects through living books and like the idea of a basic progression (that is my pattern oriented math brain...lol).  I however, would not feel it was because of laziness...just that we need to focus on priorities.  So I guess what I am saying is that I don't equate Robinson users with lazy not want to teach our children type homeschoolers....just that they are more back to basics and encourage independence once reading well.  

Think about binding those old books- I would just put them on a Kindle? that is a lot of work in and of itself.

Ambleside Online and Old Fashioned Education are also inexpensive programs that only require an ereader or lots of book hunting and printing math programs?.  Ambleside is more Charlotte Mason...so lots of direct teaching and Old Fashioned Education is more traditional.  

 

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Schools do waste time homeschoolers don't waste, but it's not in walking to classes and attending assemblies. It's in making everyone learn the same stuff at the same pace. No one can move ahead if they already know the material, so they are stuck there waiting for the teacher to explain to kids who are struggling. Kids who are struggling have their time wasted because when it's time to move on, it doesn't matter who doesn't get it. (I have a child who has been on both sides of this equation in public school.) They waste time in teaching to a test that's going to be forgotten ten minutes after it's turned in. But I feel like some homeschoolers probably replicate this kind of time wasting by following a curriculum too closely when they could be modifying it to suit their own child.

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On 8/17/2018 at 10:54 AM, vonfirmath said:

 

Agreed. Ever since K, the stated expecation was 20 minutes of reading/day (minimum) on top of other homework. (it is encouraged to be year round but I'll only include September-May to make my calculations easier for hte school year. 36 weeks)

That, all by itself, accounts for over 2 hours (140 minutes) a week -- 5040 minutes or 84 hours of reading alone.

I agree that this should be done by PS students as teachers don't have time to listen to 35 children read individually daily, but this should already be being done by homeschooling parents during reading time and could definitely count towards hours...kwim.

  I homeschooled a friends kids and I only required reading to parent and the parent to read one chapter or one picture book nightly...I figured since I homeschooled for free that expecting her to spend 30 minutes nightly was reasonable....it kept her up to date with the children and allowed them to have a routine.  That situation was different as she was going through SO MUCH and this allowed her to relax and bond with her kiddos before bed.

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11 hours ago, Garga said:

 

 

 

This is all true.  But it got me to thinking that maybe I’d start up my blog again, and go ahead and talk about homeschooling high school in it.  Maybe make it daily blog (I used to do a daily blog) with an overview of what was done that day.

But then I realized that to really discuss the ins and outs of what it’s really like to homeschool a high schooler, I’d have to share the downs as well as the ups.  And at this age (son is 16), I’m not comfortable putting that info out there.  It’s ok to say, “7 year old Timmy is struggling to subtract, but he still loves learning about volcanos!”  And even when Timmy grows up, he won’t much care that his mom blogged about when he was 7 and he struggled to learn to subtract.  

But it’s not ok to say, “16 yo Ralph should be in Alg II, but he’s behind so we’re still in pre-alg and I worry that colleges won’t accept him...” (My son is not named Ralph and I totally made up the “math problem” because there is no way I would actually share personal information like that online about a 16 yo young man.) 

So, if I wanted to blog about homeschooling high school, it would only show a partial picture. I wouldn’t delve into the nitty gritty of what really goes on. I’d have to keep the information a bit sanitized to protect privacy.  I could write about what I do as the teacher—the amount of time I put in for prep, or which college hoop I was jumping through that day (writing course descriptiions over the weekend...time to write the transcript...etc).  But it would have a different feel from a blog for littles.  I’d have to be much more careful about what I wrote.  

So, yeah...I can see why homeschoolers don’t blog about high school as much.  

Yes.

I regularly toy with the idea of blogging about the upper years.  But, in addition to all of the above, I think I'm so far middle (my definition of middle, lol) that I'd get nothing but grief from rigorous homeschoolers and unschoolers, alike.  Just reading this thread, I'm sitting here like, "Ew, why would I do all that?" and "Well that sounds like educational neglect!"

Plus, I don't ever want to mistakenly give someone the impression that I know what's good for THEIR family.  I have some thriving slackers in my house.  I will literally give my kids credit for exploring dirt.  I enthusiastically support pooping on public school standards and creating our own based on a combination of whims and what we deem to be important human qualities.  Many times, in many areas, that makes for much higher standards, deeper research, and greater application. And sometimes it's just playing in dirt.  But I can absolutely see all that being disastrous for a family with different children, different resources, a different type of commitment to the facilitation of any and all wild ideas, and different goals.

Perhaps a good title would be "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME", lol.

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I'm still blogging about our homeschool, and I have two in high school at this point. I do agree that it can be somewhat of an unrealistic picture, because I try not to get bogged down with any potential struggles. On the other hand, I'm not necessarily shouting about the things my children excel at, either. It's more just a wrap-up of what we're studying, what books we're using, field trips, stuff like that. Which maybe makes it not useful to anybody but me...I've found that I'm really happy I wrote it all out the first time around, because it makes going through it again the second (and third!) time much easier!

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17 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

Yeah, I’d rather not count hours.  Thanks Ohio.  I don’t do this because I want to.

I know you are new to Ohio so I thought I would just mention that Ohio law requires that we provide 900 hours, but it does not require that we actually count the hours or keep a record of those hours. 

Fwiw, I am also in Ohio and I consider counting hours a waste of my time.  Each year, I check the box on the NOI form guaranteeing that I am providing 900 hours and don't give it another thought until it's time to check the box the next year.  

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10 hours ago, Quill said:

I remember once thinking this about books on discipline. Ninety-thousand books about managing behavior with little kids; two or three that mention teens at all. Now that I have teens/young adults, I understand better why this is - “discipline” for older kids does not follow a formula, but for little kids, it might. I felt like I didn’t have a good model for how to interact with older kids or how to inspire them to make good choices and I was mostly feeling around in the dark. But my big kids seem to have turned out well so far so I guess something went right! 

 

When I take the kids in for their yearly checkups, one of the routine questions the doctor asks my kids is something along the lines of, “When you do something wrong, what happens?”  (I can’t remember the exact wording.). I guess they’re asking to see if the kids get beaten (?) or if the parents are overwhelmed with how to raise kids (?). I don’t know.  It’s a weird question and I’m not sure what they’re looking for.

Every time the doctor asks it, my sons and I look at each other like, “Huh. What *does* happen?”. Basically, I’m just always winging it! 

I still do the age old technique of trying to catch them doing right rather than doing wrong.  They will often forget something like cleaning out the dishwasher if I ask them, but once in a while one of them will do it without being asked and I always make a point to give a sincere thank you when they do things like that.  

ETA (in case anyone was curious):   And if they forget to clean out the dishwasher when asked, the consequence is that as soon as I notice, I make them stop whatever they’re doing to do it.  And if they’re sound asleep or away from home, I ask them to do it as soon as they wake up or get home.....and by then a bunch of dirty dishes will have piled in the sink and they’ll have to handle those as well now.  Natural consequences whenever possible.  And when these things happen, I stay as neutral in my tone of voice as possible.  DH tends to allow his irritation to show and that isn’t as effective as staying neutral and pleasant.  I guess I try to act more like a boss than a mom in those sorts of instances—professional instead of emotional.

6 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Yes.

I regularly toy with the idea of blogging about the upper years.  But, in addition to all of the above, I think I'm so far middle (my definition of middle, lol) that I'd get nothing but grief from rigorous homeschoolers and unschoolers, alike.  Just reading this thread, I'm sitting here like, "Ew, why would I do all that?" and "Well that sounds like educational neglect!"

Plus, I don't ever want to mistakenly give someone the impression that I know what's good for THEIR family.  I have some thriving slackers in my house.  I will literally give my kids credit for exploring dirt.  I enthusiastically support pooping on public school standards and creating our own based on a combination of whims and what we deem to be important human qualities.  Many times, in many areas, that makes for much higher standards, deeper research, and greater application. And sometimes it's just playing in dirt.  But I can absolutely see all that being disastrous for a family with different children, different resources, a different type of commitment to the facilitation of any and all wild ideas, and different goals.

Perhaps a good title would be "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME", lol.

 

Yes!  Yes to all of this!!!  Triple yes!

2 hours ago, MrsMommy said:

I'm still blogging about our homeschool, and I have two in high school at this point. I do agree that it can be somewhat of an unrealistic picture, because I try not to get bogged down with any potential struggles. On the other hand, I'm not necessarily shouting about the things my children excel at, either. It's more just a wrap-up of what we're studying, what books we're using, field trips, stuff like that. Which maybe makes it not useful to anybody but me...I've found that I'm really happy I wrote it all out the first time around, because it makes going through it again the second (and third!) time much easier!

 

I like this.  I’m still thinking about blogging about high school, but I would focus more on the general content (what classes we chose and why for that particular student) and not so much about each student’s actual grades or accomplishments or failures.  I would probably focus a lot on what is required from me as guidance counsellor trying to figure out college stuff, but with HUGE caveats that my way isn’t the only way, and that there is probably a better way out there that I wasn’t aware of.   ?

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Quote

hen I take the kids in for their yearly checkups, one of the routine questions the doctor asks my kids is something along the lines of, “When you do something wrong, what happens?”  (I can’t remember the exact wording.). I guess they’re asking to see if the kids get beaten (?) or if the parents are overwhelmed with how to raise kids (?). I don’t know.  It’s a weird question and I’m not sure what they’re looking for.

Every time the doctor asks it, my sons and I look at each other like, “Huh. What *does* happen?”. Basically, I’m just always winging it! 

 

I can totally relate to this. I remember one time I was having lunch with a friend and the subject of discipline (by that, she primarily meant spanking) came up. [Sidebar: never a fanatical anti-spanker, but never thought it represented the apex of good parenting so I generally didn’t spank.] Well, anyway, her kids were being unpleasant little turds, especially the middle, who was maybe around 10. She was getting frustrated because the kids would only “shape up” with endless threats and it wouldn’t last besides. She said to me something like, “I just cannot get that kid to mind!” And asked me something about how I get mine to behave and I said something about how spanking wasn’t really a method I used and by this point none of my kids had been spanked in years and years. She replied something like, “Well how do you get them to mind? What do you do when they misbehave?” And it did  make me think, “Hmmm. What *do* I do?” I really just wing it. I try to understand what the behavior goal is, I guess, and I go from there. 

We actually never did finish this conversation because literally as I sat there, asking myself, “Hmmm. What do I do,” the kid caused some major commotion and the lunch date ended soon after. 

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On 8/17/2018 at 1:04 PM, heartlikealion said:

I played basketball for parks and rec, but that wasn't til 6th grade? I don't know what age that starts, but I think many schools don't start school teams until the children are at least 4th? 5th grade or so?? 

When ds went to private school he had homework often, but events at the school? Not so much. When I was a student in public school I don't really remember after school events, but I do remember homework. 

I feel badly that ds just started going to public school this year and they don't have music. I don't think they have art, either. Their "specials" are library, computer lab, and PE. He didn't have library the first week because they hadn't found a librarian yet. Thank goodness they found someone. At the private school he had art and music, too. He does have art supplies here, but he's lost a lot of interest in art over the years. 

All this to say I wouldn't assume a child in b&m has all the extras, nor do I feel all homeschoolers provide those extras. It's not always practical. Ds showed some interest in keyboard (from attending the private school) but I knew darn well he'd fight me if I made him practice so we didn't bother to invest in a keyboard. 

 

That was not my experience growing up in a rural district where the schools were community social centers OR raising my kids in a suburb that was practically built to give kids these opportunities. People here are very active but I’ve met more than a few homeschoolers who want to focus on that extra two minutes it takes to come in from recess. 

I saw this TODAY and thought of this thread: 

“Hi all.  We have a (teen) year old (student) and new to (City) city.  After some research I do not think city schools are a good option so we are looking at homeschooling.  My husband and I both work full time and ideally would like to find somewhere in (City) city where (s/he) can go most days and then we could host one day a week if needed. We are looking at doing an online curriculum but I would still like the setting with some type of structure with a couple other children the same age.  Would anyone be interested in a setup like this.  We are also willing to pay for someone to take the majority of the schooling/teaching on.”
 

Either the definition of homeschooling has changed so much that I’m not keeping up OR this person really wants a private school without the price tag. I just don’t get how the above scenario can be thought of as a homeschooling option and I never saw questions like this even five years ago. 

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5 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

One came across one of my groups just the other day:

"Decided not to send my teen back to public school. Looking for a cheap homeschool to send him to."

This is legal in my state, to be fair. (Two families may make one homeschool).

Absolutely unheard of to expect a stranger to take on educating a teen, cheaply, right now as school's about to start with the parent not explaining what is wrong with continuing the previous schooling choice, but... um... good luck to them.

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8 minutes ago, Danae said:

 

Sounds like they think a  "homeschool" is like a "home day care" where someone is running a small school as a home business.

Omg, I never thought of it this way. I think you’re right! A LOT of posts make more sense through that lense. ::shudder::

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8 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

 

That was not my experience growing up in a rural district where the schools were community social centers OR raising my kids in a suburb that was practically built to give kids these opportunities. People here are very active but I’ve met more than a few homeschoolers who want to focus on that extra two minutes it takes to come in from recess. 

I saw this TODAY and thought of this thread: 

“Hi all.  We have a (teen) year old (student) and new to (City) city.  After some research I do not think city schools are a good option so we are looking at homeschooling.  My husband and I both work full time and ideally would like to find somewhere in (City) city where (s/he) can go most days and then we could host one day a week if needed. We are looking at doing an online curriculum but I would still like the setting with some type of structure with a couple other children the same age.  Would anyone be interested in a setup like this.  We are also willing to pay for someone to take the majority of the schooling/teaching on.”
 

Either the definition of homeschooling has changed so much that I’m not keeping up OR this person really wants a private school without the price tag. I just don’t get how the above scenario can be thought of as a homeschooling option and I never saw questions like this even five years ago. 

Geez. I would be so tempted to say, “I know of a place just like this and it is virtually free of charge! There are trained and certified teachers and support stagf there and also additionaly, free activities like sports and drama, music and art. It’s called City Public High School.” 

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6 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

One came across one of my groups just the other day:

"Decided not to send my teen back to public school. Looking for a cheap homeschool to send him to."

“Mine is a cheap homeschool, but unfortunately it is very exclusive.” 

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Another request I saw today was for a high school art history class, needs to include assignments and grading, and be free and online. I don't even understand how the dots are not connected that SOMEONE is working to make that happen, and should be compensated for it.

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On 8/17/2018 at 9:37 AM, BarbecueMom said:

Our state is 1000 hours/year, but I suspect what they mean by 1000 hours is "what is normally taught during the public school day PLUS extracurriculars PLUS reading outside of school work PLUS what would be sent home as homework PLUS lots and lots of discussion and answering questions".  At least at the elementary level (my 5th grader is just now at the 1000/hours of "planned seat work, assigned reading, and music"). The problem is that I don't think it's been made crystal clear to PS parents that there is an expectation on ALL parents to provide some educational opportunity, instruction, or guidance outside of normal school hours, not just homeschoolers.  1000 hours looks daunting to parents who are new to homeschooling, but for those who have been working with and reading to their kids and helping them pursue interests, you aren't adding another 1000 hours on top of what you've already been doing.  For parents wanting to homeschool who are working long days or have never made things like reading aloud and library trips and educational exploration a priority, 1000 hours may be an insurmountable mountain.

We often forget about all the school assemblies or interruptions of lessons for announcements etc.

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