Hi Kayla,

I have some "serious mom questions" for you about home-schooling. Peter Parker and I are talking about implementing the home school thing when our kids reach the 6th grade. They're at a great elementary school so we'd let them each finish out the fifth grade and then make the transition which would give us some time to do our oldest daughter alone for a 2 years, (the "experiment") then her brother, etc.

A few questions if you don't mind:

1. How long have you done this?
2. Do you like it?
3. What do you like about it?
4. Is it your mom, your dad or both?
5. Is it just you or do you have a sib
that's being homeschooled too?
6. Do you have a schedule for the day? About
how many hours are you doing your work?
7. Have you missed not being in regular school for stuff like proms, cheerleading, band, sports, etc.? In other words, do you feel like you're missing out on anything or lacking socialization? (I'm sure Kiersten is just snorting over that one!)
8. What type of curriculum have you used?
9. College?


Thanks a bunch!

Woah okay no problem I answer these questions like everyday

1. I have been homeschooled since the 2nd grade.
2.,3. I do like it very much because I can do it on my own pace and I don't have to deal with all the junk that goes on in all our schools around here. We don't have very many good schools here and the one that I would be going to isn't very great at all. I have a friend who goes there and she never has any homework and gets away with alot of things that she shouldn't be able to.
4. It's just my mom my dad works all day, but I am in my last year of highschool and I basically teach myself
5. I have a younger sister who is homeschooled two and has always been.
6. I wouldn't say I have a schedule I just work until I am done, but since I am at home I will do other things inbetween so there's not really a start/stop time. I would have to say I think I work between 5 or 6 hours a day.
7. Well in Florida homeschoolers can participate in any normal school activities. Right now I am playing Varsity soccer for the highschool that I would be going to and I plan on going to the prom with my friend that goes to that school. But yes I do feel like I miss out on all the socialization that goes on in schools, but the schools around here only talk about stuff that I don't care to know and I have many friends that are either homeschooled also(Which some of the homeschoolers are quite strange, but there ARE normal ones lol) or I have other friends that I talk to that I have met in random stuff that I do.
8. I have used all christian based curriculum umm.. "Abeka" which is okay, but I didn't really like it. I use to do all subjects with that curriculum. Then I use "Saxon" for math which I am done with now. And I use "Opologia" (sp?) for science. That was all last year. Right now I have two credits one in American Government and one in Chemistry and I am taking them online with a program called Florida Virtual School and it's free. There are teachers that grade your work and oral calls they set up so you actually talk to them. Right now I have a 99 in American Government and a 98 in Chemistry so they're going well.
9. College? Well right now I am planning on going to a trade school in Tampa for Interior Design, but we're not sure how much it is or if we can afford it. Soo.. we will see I guess

I think I answered everything

wow!!

Just to let you know i attempted homeschooling...but think that its best to do it before they hit middles school...if i would have been homeschooled through middles school..i prolly would have finished school...but i got with the wrong crowd in middle school...6th grade was when it started...the wanting to fit in and junk...before that i didn't care...i hated going to school cause i was always the one who got picked on...but i loved learning...until the middle of 6th...so lucie...i personally think it's a good idea...although i don't know if that means much from the high school drop out who is trying to get her GED...or High school diploma...i'm trying...anywayz...ttyl

Muchos Gracias to the mighty Kayla!

We live in a really small town although I must admit that it's large enough to have three high schools/three middle schools. The elementary school my kids go to (and will subsequently go to when the other two are old enough) is a "Magnet" school in Math, Science and Technology so it supposedly has an emphasis in excellence in those areas although it's also winning awards in reading scores too. I like it because it's racially diverse,very well-organized and overall, a great place to be. My two oldest who attend there now (2nd and 4th grade) love school. My daughter's on the student council and they're both straight A students. When #3 goes to kindergarten in 2007, he'll be going there, for sure.

But middle school here is vastly different. Amy will go from a situation with 60 kids in her grade to at least 300. (several elementary schools feed into each of the three middle schools.) And as AJ stated and as I know well since Peter Parker taught middle grade band for 13 years, things get strange in those years. Because we're in a "controlled choice" zoning situation, there's no chance of jumping zones to a different middle school or high school and the other two besides our zone, aren't too hot either. (even though our zone high school team has been state champs in football at least twice since I've moved here in '93.)

We have about three private schools but one, while being technically a "Christian" school, is notorious for things I'm not comfortable with like parents having to sign the student handbook that allows corporal punishment and a whole host of other religious things that I'd probably take issue with in addition to being notorious for hiring teachers who aren't certified by the state. The other "Christian" school here does have certified teachers but it's still really new and I'm not sold on it either. The third school is very good, and very expensive, $7,000 plus a year per student. There is another school over the GA line in AL that has a good reputation as well, but must be honest here, one-income/small business owner household just can't afford $7,000 per year in private school tuition. Even with scholarships which are available (and I think I read that even Sallie Mae is now handing out loans for private school) it would be really hard on us. I will make a little salary as an instructor at the college here, but private colleges don't pay that great either.

I don't know, we were at a party at our church Saturday night and I was talking with a couple of other mothers who home-schooled. One kid had done two years of Japanese and another two years of Latin and he was only 15. Like your situation, he was helping teach the younger brothers. The curriculum they were using was not one of the ones you mentioned, but it did utilize the Saxon math series which my kids are already doing. We just thought middle school might be the ideal place to start. We'd have 2 years with Amy by herself to get the bugs out before Jonathan moved into the scene.

Peter Parker is going to ask me how you "do chemistry" at home with no lab. Does your equipment come with your curriculum? (LM tries not to visualize Kayla blowing up her bathroom with her handy-dandy Bunsen burner.)

We do have a good home school network in full force here that has regular field trips, dances, etc., for the kids and I think with her private music lessons, sports, church, etc., she'll have plenty of socialization. We're a really close family -you get that with lots of kids living in a small house- so I think it could have good effects all the way around.

Final question for Kayla...

Do you get sick of being with your mother all the time? Does she get sick of you? (you know what I mean...I hope!) I worry a little that my daughter might get tired of being around me all the time but that's probably unfounded.

Are there some days when you don't do school at all or are you pretty much at it M-F like regular kids?

You seem, for what it's worth, very well adjusted. I mean, gee, Kayla, you're probably one of the funniest people I don't actually know!

I didn't know you were planning on going to prom Kayla!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh I know she gets her labs in the mail, with the experimental goggles and everything! I told her she had to wear them or else she would get chemicals in her eyes, but I think she is afraid she will look bad in them or something. *Laughs* But who is gonna see her? Lucie, I think as a mother, you should put ur foot down on Kayla's foot, and tell her to wear her chemistry goggles!

As for the socialization thing...I just won't comment. I will just stop now.

If Kayla goes to the prom, she must post her pictures here! We insist!

Of course, it's probably at least 3 months away...

Ah, the prom. All those Lionel Richie songs performed by not totally starving cover bands. Well, Lionel Richie and Styx and a little Mother's Finest...

yes kayla...thats is a total must see....i'd post pix from my prom...but wait...i didn't go to one....i'm still trying to talk a few of my younger guy friends into inviting me...thats just proves my theory about my life even more...gosh..i'm gonna stop talking cause i'm upsetting myself even...be back after i cry...Amenda (AJ)

I homeschooled Steph in her last year of middle school. It worked out fine and I was able to take her out of town where she attended two other schools which helped in her socialization portion of her schooling. She attended some classes in Tennessee where my God Mom teaches, and My girlfriend is one of the founders of a christian school in toledo and she went for almost a week there.

She was well prepared for high school and passed her intrance test well.

So it depends on the child and I guess which curricullum you use.

Thank you Cece! Ya'll just keep on convincing me this is a good idea and we're going to have a great time reading A Tale of Two Cities together!

One good thing about today's proms vs. proms from 1978 - 1982:

A significant improvement in undergarments. The strapless bras has come a LONG way since then...

Even now, I can feel that thing I wore as a 10th grader, slip sliding away...

Haha, really? I had no idea that they had made advances in bras over the years..I mean a bra is a bra...how can you really improve?

Unless like, they were made of plants or burlap bags or something back in your day..

ooooooooooooooooooooooo, paybacks for all the Canadian jokes



NEWHOS...

LOL....

quote:

Haha, really? I had no idea that they had made advances in bras over the years..I mean a bra is a bra...how can you really improve?

Oh, if you're, "packing," as some say, a bra can always be improved!

what a great discussion...i feel sorry for any poor guy who opens up this one..LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Lucie Manette:

quote:

Haha, really? I had no idea that they had made advances in bras over the years..I mean a bra is a bra...how can you really improve?

Oh, if you're, "packing," as some say, a bra can always be improved!

And considering I am one of those very unlucky ones who is packing waaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much, there can always be an improvement.

Sheesh, I need a miracle.

Cece knows what I mean about the strapless bras...

NOT COMFORTABLE!!!

hahhahahaha girl girl girl, I could not, would not ever wear one for safty reasons, lol.

well i for one am glad bras' have come such a long way. i need the extra help u know. and kayla u have to post your pics up here from prom and u too aj if u get to go. how is teaching going lucie??

Haven't started yet. Most likely it will be the spring term.

(They're in that J-term now. But the evening studies division is still more on the quarter system so it will be mid-late March if they offer the class they've approached me about.)