Home Schooling - Columbus,OH

Not a goof fit for you or him.
Plus being with the kids all day long would make you insane!

9 YO's hate school. But they deal with it.
Hope it gets better for him!

I think your feelings are probably pretty normal. I am also a working mom (though I can do so from home, so my schedule is flexible), and I homeschool my two girls (who are in 4th and 6th grades this year). Up until this year, they both went to public school. My older daughter was quite successful in public school - straight A's, lots of friends. My younger daughter has ADHD and has always been a grade ahead (she's 8; most of the kids in 4th grade are 9 or 10), so school was challenging to her for many reasons, although she, too, always had straight A's. I only mention this so you know where I'm coming from.

Anyhow, we made the decision to homeschool mostly because the girls were not enjoying school at all. Both of them would cry on a pretty regular basis. The homework they were being assigned was tedious and unnecessary (they clearly understood the concepts, and several hours of homework wasn't helping to reinforce the concepts, but was actually making them dislike the subjects). They were both pretty bored in class. Then, Common Core math was introduced, and that sealed the deal for me. I pulled them out of public school, and have been homeschooling all year.

There are a few things you should understand about homeschooling, that most people don't realize:
1) You can teach your child the concepts a lot faster than your child would learn them in a class of 30 kids. We spend less than 4 hours per day on schoolwork, and my girls are well ahead of their public school peers.
2) Homeschool curriculum is made so children can (for the most part) do most of their learning independently. On a typical day, I sit at my desk and do my work, and my girls sit at their desks and do their work. My ADHD kiddo requires quite a bit of reminding to stay on task, but once she is focused, she has no trouble completing her assignments. My older daughter checks in with me as she completes each subject, and occasionally she will come sit with me and we will do math together (she's doing pre-Algebra, so many of the concepts are new this year). But really, the curriculum is much more complete and self-explanatory than you would find with school textbooks.
3) Did you pass 5th grade? If so, you will not have a problem teaching your child this level of work. ;) Although I have a liberal arts degree from an Ivy League university, I can assure you that never once have I needed to call upon my college course notes to teach my kids anything. I have several friends who have homeschooled their kids for years, and who have not themselves graduated from college. One friend in particular just had her 3rd daughter apply to college, and her daughter was accepted everywhere she applied, just as the other two were.

There are many different kinds of homeschooling:
1) You can go with a charter school/virtual academy - which is not so much homeschooling as it is doing public school while sitting at home. An example of this would be K12. We used K12 for a short while and decided that it wasn't for us, but there are people who use it and love it.
2) You can go through a charter school and choose your own curriculum, while being supervised by a master teacher. I have several friends who do this and love it. One huge benefit is that the charter school will give you money each semester to purchase materials or sign up for extra classes. The downside is that you have to stick pretty closely to the Common Core, and they will want your child to participate in standardized testing (you do have the right to refuse this, however).
3) You can choose your own curriculum and homeschool independently. The benefit is that you don't report to anyone, and can do what you like with your curriculum. The downside is that it can be expensive, depending upon the curriculum you choose. You should also keep records (schoolwork, grades, etc) in case the department of education ever wants to see them (highly unlikely - they have bigger fish to fry!).

If I can help answer any questions, feel free to PM me. I can say that although I never saw myself as a homeschooling mom, I'm so glad we chose to do this, and I feel it has definitely been the right choice for my kids.

In my opinion, if you are this hesitant about the idea of homeschooling, you should not do it. You have to be really, really committed to doing it. It's a huge undertaking and one that will eat up a lot of your time.

Between working full time and being a single mom, I wouldn't think you would have the time or the energy to be an effective homeschooler. Like you, I absolutely wouldn't have the patience for it either and would worry that my son would tell me I was making him do too much.

Maybe you can find ways to do more together at home after school and on the weekends. I think you need to explain to your son that his job is to go to school and that you can't be his teacher because you have a job of your own.

i was a working homeschooling mom, and made it work. best parenting decision we ever made.
that being said, your situation does not sound geared toward success. working from home, as you know, is challenging enough without adding homeschooling into the mix. while i wasn't an overseer sort of homeschooling mom and my kids worked independently 90% of the time, you DO have to be available, you have to be able to drive all over hellandgone to go to libraries, field trips, co-ops and activities, and most of all, you have to be enthusiastic about it. if you're underwhelmed at the prospect, i struggle to see how you could make it work.
i'm a big homeschool promoter, and if you decide to proceed, feel free to contact me any time. but it's a fact that homeschooling isn't for everyone, and i lean to the perspective that you should be all-in to make it work. it's not just an educational choice, it's a family philosophy.
khairete
S.

I home school 2 children and I home schooled another one who is in college now.
Your kid is asking you to be home schooled, and he is not having major problems at school. I do not think is the right reason to home school right now. You do not want to do it, and it seems that you have your plate full. To be honest, I do not see immediate success in home schooling for you.
I am not the most experienced home schooling mom, but I do know that homeschooling is a family decision, a total change in your lifestyle as a family and individually; it is not for everyone as another mom said here; it IS WORK for everyone in the family IF you want to do it right and want your kid being successful in college and happy.
There are many curricula for home schooling depending on your expectations, goals, and your kid's learning style. There are eclectic, Faith-based, classical and many more to choose from, all can be found in the library, online or a local home school group, which can invite you to know a little more about what actually is the life of a home schooling family, success, cons, and pros, challenges and everything. Every home schooling family is very different, and home school for different reasons. If you finally decide to home educate your child be prepare to change your routine as a mom and wife, and that of yours as well. In spite of the challenges I have encountered, I can say that I do not regret AT ALL my decision of home schooling even though I never, like you and many moms, thought I would do this. Yes...you will need patience, and you will need to learn how to manage your time and being organized and teach the same to your kid; you will need to teach your kid how to be independent and reliable and consider that every minute of the day is a learning experience. It is fun, and interesting, but it requires a LOT of work, and sacrifice many times your "me time".
I hope you take the RIGHT Decision, and the right decision is what works FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILD.

I was at an event and some moms were talking about home schooling. One mom said her 2 twins wanted to be home schooled. Like you, she worked from home But she did not want to home school and needed the school time for herself. She said she made a deal with them. She would home school during their break that was coming up and they schooled on holidays. They had to finish their current year. Well, she made them get up at 6 am, just like they do during the year. They had to get ready for school and be at the table on time with their supplies. She did not give them recess. They did take breaks away from the table for walks and such but they were quizzed. They did not finish school until 5 or 6 or something like that. They hated it. She had no problem getting them to go to school the next year. I thought it was a pretty smart way to show them.

Your son may be thinking that if you have to keep reminding him to do things, likely at school as well, he will have it easy at home.

Look into a hybrid option which does 2 or 3 classroom days while you teach the other 2 or 3. You also get to use teachers curriculum which means you don't have to lesson plan. Even so, its a part time job, so if you feel maxed out with your full time job, I wouldn't do it personally. I am finishing up home schooling my kindergartner and that was work! Now they say I should plan on spending 4-6 hours a day at home school for first grade.
I do know that as a child can read their own directions, they can self direct. So third grade may in some ways be easier. I don't have the experience to say.

I simply need those hours away from the kids so I can appreciate when they're home.

Kids have a skewed idea about what home schooling is all about. I'd work out a daily schedule for him, starting at 7:30am with breakfast, showered, dressed to the shoes, etc...then classes start promptly at 8am. No recess, no playground so recess is not needed, can have a bathroom break.

No snow days, no spring break, no days off for teachers meetings, tossing in a boring field trip somewhere he doesn't find interesting can be a nice little bonus...just make the daily schedule into a monthly schedule and continue it through June and July.

Make it sound as boring and like drudgery so he will know exactly how difficult it will be.

I sometimes would want to stay home from school to watch TV, Days of Our Lives didn't always get the summer drama resolved before half the USA went back to school..

I quickly realized I wanted to go to school, I got tired of cleaning my room, working on the attic, and deep cleaning the kitchen cabinets was totally not fun.

I would not get to see my friends and I hated not getting to go play on the bars at school.

PS

My friend home schools her kids and feels since they don't have a set time they "have" to get up they shouldn't have a "set" bedtime. I've often been talking to my friend into the wee hours of the morning and her kids are still up.

I asked her why and she said they don't have any logical reason to be in bed....ummmm, okay, but what about when they go to college or get a job? She said there were evening classes and lots of people work nights every day.

Okay.....I would be nuts if it was 3am in my house and the kids were still up playing video games and just eating dinner if they were hungry. Not in my house. But she does have a point, if they really have no reason to get up other than it's "time to get up" according to what "I" want then I guess they really can make up their own hours.

I would never rake a job that doesn't sound appealing. ; )
And your son sounds like mine.
No WAY would I homeschool.
(Mine has suggested this as well.)
All that goes through my mind is "when was the last time you made your bed without me reminding you?" Or about the most recent grousing over school homework.
(((Shudder)))
Good luck whatever you decide!

I have a friend who lived oversees for a year and homeschooled her 9 yr old. She's actually a teacher herself and said it was very taxing on her. She wasn't even working so just imagine. Why don't you offer to teach him an additional subject (kind of like an honors class) this year and see how he feels next year. Most likely by then he will be over the idea.

It will not work for you an don't feel bad! The best curriculums and resources are all out there so you have all the material you need broken down for you and it is superior to what your local school teaches, and there are networks with lots of activities and classes that are very enriching, and you can travel and do all kinds of in-depth learning without the limitations of being tied to a school, and you don't need to spend as many hours as a school day learning, so there is more time for extra activities and music lessons and stuff, so it DOES WORK for many people-I have numerous cousins who graduated college early with awesome grades and have awesome careers and were able to do missionary work and all kinds of extra projects that helped them get into college because they weren't "in school" all day. But you HAVE to want to do it and be passionate about it, or you will not pass on a love of learning. Don't do it. It's very difficult even for someone 100% excited about the task. You have to be 100% involved not at all like sending a kid to school.