The Separation of School and State

First of all, I disagree with their ideas and goals. I also find them disingenuous based upon this graphic they have on their home page:



Notice that the states they chose are largely in the Rocky Mountain West and Northern Great Plains...all of which are much more sparsely populated than those in the East, or California. Also, those states have a greater square mileage than many others, so they make a map that sends out a false message. I would rather see this as a fair and unbiased graph, rather than a map meant to purposely make their position seem more popular than it really is.

 

To me there can be no separation of school and state if you take out the aspect of religion.

I homeschool my children and believe I have the right to because raising my children is part of the freedom I have to practice my religion. If we take the aspect of religion out of the equation then I have no guarantee of that right.

 

Very well said, thank you for that comment, it is very encouraging. From home one school parent to another, thank you.

 

I am just pretty glad that it is possible... I am going to homeschool my kids (once I got any)...
In Germany (the state I live and grew up in) this is illegal and I am thankful that it is possible.

 

We homeschool also

We homeschool our three children, also.

 

Welcome Beth and Janet. The homeschooling forum is pretty quiet but if you ever need help or have cirriculum questions this is the place to ask. We have been homeschooling our 4 children for 5 years now. I have a 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 10th grade student.

 

yes

We've been homeschooling our children as well for about five years. Ours are in the following grades: sixth, fifth and third.

What curriculum are you folks utilizing?

I started out with School of Tomorrow, then switched last year to Abeka. This year, we use Abeka for language, math and health for the two oldest. History is Mystery of History, Christian Kids Explore Biology, Christian Kids Explore Chemistry and Avko spelling.

The third grader is pretty straight Abeka, with the exception of spelling.

The boys really love electronics and building, so we have been able to provide kits for those interests.

I'd love to hear about what everyone else is using. Here, in Bedford, New Hampshire, our school district is very homeschool friendly....we have never had any difficulty here.

 

We used Abeka for kindergarden, then mostley Bob Jones. We used the Satalite program for a few years but got frustrated with it last year and switched to ACE this last year. We really like it. To us it is a real homeschool program where BJ was a traditional program modified for homeschool.

We are also using Rosetta Stone for language. Love that also.

Our public school district is very home school friendly. Our oldest took drivers ed and our children have participated in sports programs as well. When I talked with the principal about drivers ed he told me with no reservations, "This is your school, you pay taxes for it and if you want to participate in any part without using everything that is fine." He has encouraged our children to participate in fine arts, music, sports, science fair, basically anything we want, and at the same time shows great respect for our choice to homeschoo. We are pretty lucky I guess.

 

My hubby and I have thought about homeschooling our four children, so that we can make sure they receive a good Christian education. Everything seems so expensive, though, like curriculums, etc. Texas is a very home-school friendly state; all you have to do is send a certified letter to the school saying that you are going to homeschool. You don't have to report anything or have your kids tested annually or anything like that. I think if I was going to do it, I would keep records, though, just so that CPS couldn't try to pull any baloney because of it. The only requirements are that you teach your kids math, english, reading, science, and social studies. I guess I really just don't even know where to begin with it. Anybody have any suggestions to help us get started if we decide to do this?

 

Youngmom4:

Hey, how is your recovery coming?

The decision to homeschool is not something to take lightly (and I am not implying that you are). There are a lot of things to consider. First, what are your other options? Are there Christian school options available to you and what is the condition of your public school system?

Second I would ask what are you willing to invest in schooling? I know its your kids you would give them everything, but what do you have to give? You said everything seems expensive. Well it is expensive. Homeschooling is going to cost you some serious money. That being said there are many options that are more cost effective than others. If money is no option then get each kid a laptop and a stack of dvds. If your financial condition is more like the rest of us then start looking for used books and make sure you can reuse your stuff for multiple kids. If you have a good local homschooling association they may have an annual book fair or something like that where people get rid of old books. Ebay and other online sources are good places to look for books. We live within a few hours of GreenvilleSC so when we were using BJU stuff we went bought a lot of stuff off the scratch and dent pile. You said you are a stay at home mom so I am assuming you have time to invest in teaching. What is your educational level? Do you feel capable to teach this? Some people will say, “you’re a mother of course your qualified to teach,” but I would disagree. Some people have no business homeschooling. Some because they don’t know basic stuff to begin with and others because they just don’t have the temperament and gifts to teach. Are you willing and able to teach your children. In our home there are some subjects I teach and others my wife teaches. As our children have gotten older my wife is just not comfortable with some of the math and science. When they were younger I did not have the patience for the phonics and spelling. It works for us.

You said that in Texas you don’t have to have your kids tested annually. Whether or not the state requires it I would recommend annual testing. How else will you know if you are doing a good job? We test ours every year. Not so much to evaluate the kids but to evaluate ourselves as teachers and see if we need to make any adjustments.

Anyway, you asked:

I would start by looking around for a local home school group. They will help you understand any state requirements and can help with books. Just starting out I would pick one curriculum and get the full program. You can pick and choose from multiple programs later. Also I would pick up a copy of a homeschool magazine and read what other families are doing. We subscribe to The Old Schoolhouse and I love it. There are lots of advertisements in there for curriculum as well. You can check out The Old Schoolhouse at:

http://www.theoldhomeschoolhouse.com/


Good Luck!

 

You can also register with Home School Legal Defense. This organization will provide you with all your particular state's laws/requirements for homeschooling. There are 50 states and as many differences between them.

I agree with all that North Carolina Tentmaker has said btw. We are homeschooling since March 07. It is trying at times, the most difficult part for us has been choosing a proper curriculum. Again, we have followed pretty much the same method as has already been stated. Purchasing used material, etc. whenever possible.

Here is a link to HSLD:

http://www.hslda.org

Here is a phone #:
540-338-5600

May God Bless,
bro. Dallas:wavey:

 

I've already checked out the Home School Legal Defense website...that's how I found out my state's requirements. :thumbs: Thanks for the tip, though. As to my educational level, I am currently in college myself, although I am in the process of switching from Kaplan University to Liberty University. Unfortunately, Liberty doesn't offer a pre-law program online, so I'll be taking the BS in Criminal Justice program. In any event, I have a 4.0 GPA, almost halfway to my bachelor's, so I think I can handle teaching my kids. :laugh: Honestly, my biggest concerns are the cost and my own lack of patience. I am really smart, so when my kids don't get something, I get aggravated really fast. I am a very left-brained person dealing with two very right-brained children (my oldest two); thank God my younger two are showing left-brained tendencies...they will be so much easier for me to teach.

Our public school system actually isn't too bad. We live in a very small, rural community, and most of the teachers are members of one of the churches in town, though not all are. As of right now, I don't have any major concerns for my children's spiritual health (other than that they aren't being taught anything about God at school), but I am afraid that with the recent laws passed in California, there will be fallout for public schools nationwide. If that were to happen, we would no longer consider this optional. It would become a mandatory thing, really fast. I've done a lot of research and found several different standards for the different grade levels. I guess right now my biggest thing is starting to prepare. In other words, I don't plan to pull my kids out of school tomorrow, but if it becomes necessary, I want to make sure that I have as much information as possible and am equipped to make the transition.

Of our four children, our biggest concern is my oldest son. He does very poorly in school, has a hard time getting along with his peers, and this year has taken up the habit of being disrespectful to his teachers. He is the one we were thinking of pulling first because if he's disrespectful to me, I'll just use a little Biblical discipline to set him straight. Right now, I have the school testing him for learning disabilities, though, so I don't want to pull him out of school before we find out if there is some kind of learning disability that I would not be equipped to handle. He's twelve, so it could be an LD or it could just be that he thinks he knows it all. Argh, kids really should come with an instruction manual...I mean a detailed instruction manual.

B/t/w, my shoulder is healing well; thanks for asking. I have to do PT three times a week, and it gets really sore but better every day. I'm at least down to only having to take pain meds at night. This is probably the longest post I've typed since my surgery, though!

 

good points

Youngmom, the previous two posters gave excellent advice...I wholeheartedly agree!

The only things I could add are the following: first, don't be afraid of a learning disability. I personally believe that children with disabilities absolutely thrive at home. There is SO MUCH to choose from in terms of curriculum....just as an example, the visual learner does very well with Math-u-see. Children with dyslexia benefit greatly from spelling and math programs designed by a dyslexic man...just google for AVKO to see what is available.

You can modify the curriculum for any child!

The special education department does not have all the answers. You can do everything with your child that a special education teacher would do. If you want to discover your son's learning strengths and weaknesses, it would be better to take him to a child neurologist and have him assessed there.....you would get a diagnosis. If your child is a visual learner, you could plan for that...if auditory is the strength, plan accordingly.

I have two children on the autistic spectrum and one child with mild dyslexia....we are doing great at home with our learning!

As far as not thinking you have the patience, lol, believe me the Lord WILL use our children for our sanctification! You WILL grow in the fruits of the Spirit as you are home and teaching your children, lol. God has used our children to show ME the "old man" which still crops up. There will be lots of battles between the flesh and the spirit!

However, if you are pursuing your own education, perhaps you should not be considering homeschooling....teaching four children, keeping up the house, loving and caring for your husband, not to mention your own personal Bible study and prayer and serving the brethren will keep you very, very busy.