Homeschooling - Rock Springs,WY

I too am looking for some :alternatives to public school. Do you think you could share the advice you get, please. Even just for informations sake, i'd like to know what it would take. Thanks

Check out this link: http://www.choosyhomeschooler.com/

I was sent to this link when I considered homeschooling and found it to be very informative. I hope it helps you out.

Have a GREAT day!

S.

Hey M.! We are in the same boat! We just decided to homeschool and am full of the same quesstions you are.

In fact, I am writing about our journey as a newbie homeschooling family on Examiner.com. It has some specific information for Colorado. The legal stuff is in the first few articles.

Here is the link if you are interested!
http://www.examiner.com/x-5559-Denver--Homeschooling-Newb...

Check out www.connectionsacademy.com. They have "virtual" schools here in Colorado. All your homeschooling questions should be answered under the FAQ section.

Colorado Christian Home Educators (CHEC)
CHEC has helped homeschooling parents with their children’s education for over 16 years by offering resources, seminars, and support groups. http://www.chec.org/

Check out www.k12.com It's a fantastic homeschooling program complete with fieldtrips and fun activities. Kids can even do some of the work on their own with a computer. My sister has been using it for 2 years for her 3 kids and loves it. I want to order some programs just for supplementing over summer and stuff. They send you everything you need I believe.

I maintain a web site called SchoolChoiceForKids.org that has information about homeschooling, and a searchable database of public schools in Colorado. Anyway, our homeschooling page is a good place to start as far as knowing what the law requires. You can read it here: http://www.schoolchoiceforkids.org/english.php?ID=18

The Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC) web site that someone else mentioned is also a very good resource.

There are also public online schools which allow you to use a publicly-funded curriculum (the early grades don't actually use the computer for course material all that much). You would be teaching your children at home but wouldn't actually be "homeschooling" as your children would be under public school law, subject to the online provider's oversight and having to take CSAPs (homeschoolers have to take nationally standardized tests in the odd grades, but not the CSAPs). You can learn more here http://www.schoolchoiceforkids.org/english.php?ID=14 and here http://www.schoolchoiceforkids.org/english.php?ID=92

I was homeschooled my whole life and am so glad I was. If you think this is best for your children, trust your instincts.

I had the same question and asked my friend and neighbor who has homeschooled. She told me about this one. I told me husband and I think we are going to do it. www.robinsoncurriculum.com
Good Luck!
M.E.

When I was looking into homeschooling, one useful site I found was http://www.hslda.org

In particular the which lists each state, so you can go to the page for your state. You'll find information on the laws, and homeschool groups, and such.

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/

I also recommend k12.com. If your state has charter schools, you may have that option for free with k12. (Idaho has the Idaho Virtual Academy which is a publicly funded charter school using the k12 curriculum - we school at home but are given all the material for free, and we have a teacher assigned to us.) Definitely check it out online!

Hi M.,

Feel free to email me. I'm finishing up our 3rd year HS'g and it's been going great! There are A LOT of yahoo groups, etc to join to find out more info or ask any questions that you may have. If you're living in ID, it's one of the easiest states to HS in.

There's a great book I just finished reading called, "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling", by John Taylor Gatto. Gatto wrote this book in the early 90's, after teaching for over 20 years in the NY public school system and having won the Teacher of the Year award. Very good read. I checked it out at the library.

I use Sonlight curriculum, but there are tons of different things out there to use. There are also lots of different HS structures to use- unschooling, virtual academy (kind of a public school you run in your home with govt dollars), and regular old curriculum schooling.

Seriously, write to me and I'll be happy to help with anything else you want to know, or point you in the direction that could help.

:), B.

Each state has slighty different requirements for homeschooling, so the best place to start would be your state's board of education. They can direct you to where to find all the expectations and legal "stuff". You can also get a copy of the state core curriculum from them - it breaks down everything a child should learn for a grade and it's a good resource of where to start in teaching.

As far as workbooks, I've never been crazy about them, but I know Utah-Idaho supply has a lot of resources. I'm not familiar enough with any sites to recommend, sorry.

Good luck!

How do the girls feel about staying home?

My advice is to be careful when pulling your children out of school to homeschool. I was pulled out to homeschool when I was 11 and absolutely hated it! My mother always told everyone that it was "our choice" so I thought if I asked to go back to public school I would be allowed. No, I was told too bad because that wasn't what my parents thought was right for me! To this day I have resented homeschooling. I feel like I lost out on a lot of opportunity that would have been given me otherwise. I am not against it and feel there are many parents who do a wonderful job and can do so much better than some of the public schools. Infact, I have contemplated it with my own children,( I was the one who "homeschooled" most of my younger siblings) but due to my bad experience would not allow myself to really consider it. Research it thoroughly before you decide to do anything, it is alot of work and requires ALOT of commitment. If you decide to homeschool... all the power to you and do a GREAT job!

There are many homeschool enrichment programs where you can put your kids in one day a week, like orchardoptions.org. They cover things like spanish, music, art, etc... that can be tough to cover homeschooling! It looks like you have been give a lot of ideas and advice. Please know that a parent that loves their children is in many cases the BEST one to instruct their kids--you don't need to be trained as a teacher. Good luck!

M., I have recently made the decision to homeschool my children as well. I am in a little different boat than you though since my oldest will only be starting kindergarten next year. The first place I would look is your state's board of education to find out their requirements like others have already suggested. I don't believe there are "proper" workbooks out there. You just need to do the research to find what fits best with your family. For instance we are going to use a curriculum that is Catholic based. At that I have found four different ones so far to choose from. Regarding sports and learing how to be with their peers. In the state of Colorado, I found that the schools are required to let homeschoolers participate in sports, so your kids won't miss out there. Also, I'm guessing that your kids probably participate in activities outside of school? Whether it be sports, girl/boy scouts, whatever, they are learning how to interact with their peers there. Plus, if you do decide to homeschool, I would recommend joining a homeschooling group in your area. This will give your children the chance to interact with older children of all ages as well as the parent. Plus, if you have any questions, other homeschooling parents can usually provide great advice! Whatever you decide, good luck! I'm definitely going to look at some of the website other moms have suggested too!

Good work looking into Homeschooling!
We too are basically decided that we'll homeschool, I made the decision after borrowing a book from the library called, "The Homeschooling Book of Answers" by Dobson. I recommmend it for sure.
Good job mommin', M.!

I don't necessarily have advice on homeschool, but Colorado Virtual Academy is an online public school for K-12 grades. It's kind of like homeschooling because parents are really the facilitator of their learning, but you have website, teacher and COVA staff support to help your kids in their learnings. Plus, they use the K12 curriculum which is a very good curriculum. Their websites: www.k12.org and www.covcs.org. COVA headquarters are located up on the north end of Denver (Northglenn).

If you are not impressed with them, Douglas County School District also has an online school for K-12 (again free because its a public school), and their curriculum in written by certified teachers. They offer teacher and staff support as well, and DCSD is a high achieving and innovative district. I think they may even provide computers if needed, but that one you may have to check out. Their website is: www.edcsd.org. They are located on the south end of town (Douglas County: Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Rock.)

Chrissy

M.,

This is our fourth year doing Vilas Online. www.vilasonline.org
They are awesome and we take the CSAP's through them and my girls are learing Spanish via Rosetta Stone. It is public school online and we have teachers that help. We did Cova the first year of homeschooling and we personally prefer Vilas. We have friends in COVA and in Branson online. Vilas does field trips and we just love it. My daughters are in 5th grade and 7th grade this year and we plan on doing Vilas all the way until they graduate. Feel free to email me with any other questions. ____@____.com

All I can say if your kids are already integrated in a school and have great teachers then maybe you being part of the solution instead of taking them out. Most parents are not qualified educators. Teachers go through several years of school to do what they do and I commend them fully for that. Parents tend to just do their best out of a book but to be honest, school is about learning peer structure, social skills, academics and sports too.

If you think kids are getting left behind you have a voice, they have a place for you to use it! If you don't like how things are being handled then maybe get some other parents on board to help change things. If all parents pulled their kids out then the teachers would be out of a job. We as parents should be advocating for better education on a level that will serve the community better too.

My daughter is in second grade and struggling in a few areas. During the day I totally got the teacher didn't have time to just work with her when things got tough. But the teacher worked after school with her more then willingly. As a parent my job was to stay in communication with the teacher, which she welcomed and work with her getting extra work for home my daughter and I could work on at home. With just that little extra boost she flourished and got it! Yes, 26 kids per teacher stinks, but to be honest 88% of kids get it, if they need help then get them help but there is a bigger picture too.

There are sorts of ways kids can absorb information. They tend to listen to a teacher more then they would their parent.
Parents being with kids 24/7 is not healthy for anyone either.
They need to get some independence. If you can tutor them where they are lacking at home then do so but be sure you are ready to truly do what teachers do for kids these days. Teachers can be role models, they are educators that have years of experience. I just think very few parents have that ability to share with their kids.
Just my two cents as a parent that loves the school system so far!

Hi M.,
For starters..not knowing where you live I would suggest you go to Home School Legal Defense online. They can give you each states rules/regulations. Your best bet for finding out what kind of curriculum you'll want to use is word of mouth. Ask around in your church or social groups if there are other home school families in your area. Sometimes home schoolers are involved with Christian organizations others are not. You'll need to decide where you fit in that catagory. God Bless You, L.

We have been homeschooling for several years now. There are many ideas out on the interent. Some books I would like to recommend for you to read are "Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver Van Demille and "Dumbing Us Down" by John Taylor Gatto. We use the method talked of in "Thomas Jefferson Education" (TJ Ed.) along with a curriculum called "The Four Year Plan." You can find many, many ideas and curricula on the internet.

If this is your first year give yourself a good two years to find what works for you and your children before deciding it's too much. Give your children time to de-school before you decide it will never work for them. Don't let yourself get caught up in trying to make your children keep up with the neighbor kids with their education. They have a lifetime to learn many of the things that are taught in schools and teaching children to desire to be lifelong learners is far more important than filling their heads with facts they will never use.

Depending on which state you live in will determine what laws you must follow. You will need to go to your local school district for those laws, or see if you can find them online. In Utah you must fill out a "Compulsory Education Form" each year for each child that is in first grade or higher. The state of Utah cannot force your children to be tested. In Utah you may choose any of the available curricula or make up your own if you wish.

I am more than willing to answer any questions in more detail if you would like.