Home School Q&A

  • Thread starter Deleted member 12999
  • Start date
D

Deleted member 12999

I've seen a bunch of threads that have brought this up in one form or another. I've homeschooled 3 kids with wife for last 2 years. I'm not an expert, but we're doing it. Single income family, with 4 kids total. This isn't a shit on public school thread, do that somewhere else. I want to help Mass residents that want to take the leap. I'll need some other state experts to chime in on particulars of other states.

Warning: homeschooling has a strong religious support base. If you're offended by anything religious, just take a deep breath and hang in thread. I can help find secular resources and materials for you.

I put this in survivalist forum because I'm drinking and it seemed to fit. :D
 
It belongs in the survivalist forum! We knew public school was not an option for our two, on a lark we applied for financial aid to a private school. They were very generous and the balance was something we could swing. Now that my situation has changed homeschooling is something I'm giving serious thought to as I am not sure I will be able to swing it forever on one income.

I have not begun researching this thoroughly yet so I apologize in advance for dumb questions...

Where did you find your curriculum? Or did you develop your own?

Are you networked with other homeschooling families?

If you are in MA, are your children required to submit to achievement tests? Or the MCAS for that matter?
 
Not an expert on it, yet, as my wife and I are holding off on having kids until we can go downshift to one or less of our incomes. We'll likely be moving further north to help facilitate this among other things.

Based on my research, both New Hampshire and Maine are very friendly to it. FAQ's on organization websites respective to these states:

HOME Home
New Hampshire Homeschooling Coalition | we support all reasons for and methods of homeschooling

Regulation is this area, in these states, is more relaxed than you would expect relative to regulation as a whole, including days/hours and testing. Both states organizations work with state certified teachers for testing.

The "socialization" aspect always seems to be a major concern, however there is no shortage of opportunity in this area in terms of field trip and peer groups. I know personally that there is a culture in Maine around this where kids will rotate and learn from other parents who home school about their individual professions.

Also of note HSLDA, essentially the NRA of Homeschooling. As you can imagine, like all things pro-freedom, it is constantly under attack.
 
HSDL is a must. Socialization problems are a myth. MCAS exempt as far as I know. Will post links tomorrow.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
 
My father sent me to public school in Florida and then supplemented he hell out of my education to the point that I and all my sibling effectively skipped a grade and went to a magnet school thereafter.

Unfortunately, most of the homeschooled kids I knew were socially stunted but intelligent and eventually grew to be more sociable.

I currently have a coworker who is a christian fundamentalist who homeschools all 8 of his kids and takes his frustrations out on me and anyone else who breathes in his direction (He took/used materials my project paid for and when I confronted him about it he berated then threatened me both verbally and physically.)

I'm not sure how he keeps his job . . .
I'm pretty sure religion didn't help him to be good to his fellow man.

To be clear, this is a value judgement on him, not on religion.
 
To be clear, this is a value judgement on him, not on religion.

It's important to note that homeschooling does not have the same tie to religion it is perceived to have, or had once had. Particularly in this part of the country.

I say this not to deride religious teachings, but for those contemplating it to have piece of mind that you are not limited to zealots for peers. My wife and I are actually agnostic atheists.
 

I hope this provides a laugh.
I do not have children, but I would seriously consider homeschooling if I did. I would not want the values of some liberal socialist being instilled into my child. I applaud those of you who are taking this on yourselves. My guess is that you will have well educated children with good moral values.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The advent of the internet, and social media have really benefited home schoolers. Entire curricula online, ability to reach out and stay networked with other families... Etc.

Tons of businesses are now reaching out to homeschooling groups seeing that field trip money isn't what it used to be from public schools.

For Mass, it helps if your curriculum is accredited. You can just use that as a framework though, and supplement with other modular lesson plans for the subject you want to teach. The accredited curriculum just keeps the state out of your business more.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
 
The advent of the internet, and social media have really benefited home schoolers. Entire curricula online, ability to reach out and stay networked with other families... Etc.

Tons of businesses are now reaching out to homeschooling groups seeing that field trip money isn't what it used to be from public schools.

For Mass, it helps if your curriculum is accredited. You can just use that as a framework though, and supplement with other modular lesson plans for the subject you want to teach. The accredited curriculum just keeps the state out of your business more.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

What made you choose to home school your kids rather than public school? the wife and i both work so its not even and option but i'm just curious.
 
This link has some great MA specific info. We home schooled for a while but we came into some cash and were able to send the kids to parochial school. I suspect that most relegious parents have a very similar objeciton to secular parents in that they don't want indoctrination of their children and a "one size" fits all approach. You will find common ground there if you are not religious and it's not like we walk around with a bible around our necks and ask you "have you found Jesus?" (Although some may in the evangelical world). I suspect that once Common Core gets going you will see a lot more. We belonged to a Catholic group that actually had a few non religious associated with it for "socialization" (bull). Keep in mind that you can get on town sports in MA. it is the law.

Massachusetts Documents

 
Last edited:
What made you choose to home school your kids rather than public school? the wife and i both work so its not even and option but i'm just curious.

This. No kids yet but my brother was intrigued with that option

It didn't happen overnight. We've been pretty much a 1 income family from the start. Our kids went to school in town.... But one day the town decided they were going to split kids up and merge with neighboring town. Kids under certain age all went to one town, above to another, and one principal in charge of both. We had enough of BS and school choice to better district. Still not 100% happy. Wife is religious, I'm getting more liberterian by the day, so we pulled them out mid year and gave it the old college try. That's our story.

I don't just expect that someone can do this overnight, but build a foundation and its possible. Solid schedule is key, and don't try to recreate public school at home, you will fail. Be creative and be different.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
 
My son was home schooled for 2 years he loved it . He wanted to go to a school with other kids because he didn't fit in with the other kids at there twice weekly social / schooling get together . He attends a Catholic high school now and loves it . It seems the staff is pro 2a ( he hasn't been kicked out yet ) in a few classes there has been that forbidden topic in public schools of guns and hunting .
On a side note has anyone looked into Ron Pauls home school program ?
 
I work and have a degree in special education. One of my interests has been in helping families in the area of home schooling as I think that it is ver important to be able to help parents accomplish the goals the want to accomplish with how they wish to educate their children. Any ideas on what aspects of home schooling might be a good place to look as a way to support it? Maybe parent advocacy and representation, curriculum enhancement? I'm starting my own company soon to focus on private work with children struggling in math and science, hot for the longest time have wanted to look at home schooling as a place to apply my knowledge and skill set.
 
I work and have a degree in special education. One of my interests has been in helping families in the area of home schooling as I think that it is ver important to be able to help parents accomplish the goals the want to accomplish with how they wish to educate their children. Any ideas on what aspects of home schooling might be a good place to look as a way to support it? Maybe parent advocacy and representation, curriculum enhancement? I'm starting my own company soon to focus on private work with children struggling in math and science, hot for the longest time have wanted to look at home schooling as a place to apply my knowledge and skill set.

I would say help them navigate what resources are still available from the district. Its complicated for stuff like speech therapy or any other kind of assessment they may need help with in particular circumstances.
 
Better yet, create a 1 hour Intro To Homeschooling class where you go over the process, resources, and laws surrounding it all. Might be a great feeder to your offerings.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2
 
My wife and I wanted to give our daughters a classical education, and had some major concerns about the local school system - so we're homeschooling and have found this to be a great resource: The Well Trained Mind It's available at most libraries.

Why homeschool? Read a little John Taylor Gatto, or watch Waiting for Superman or The War on Kids (both available on Netflix), and you'd think twice before letting them get on the bus.

There are lots of resources available. YMMV.

Tony P.
 
My wife and I looked very seriously into homeschooling but eventually decided against it for a few reasons:

First, we happen to be in a town with an excellent public school system. While we certainly disagree with the politics of much of the town and the school board, we came to realize that there's far less political influence inside the classroom than we were choosing to believe, and we felt it was a little hypocritical to allow our politics to dominate our daughter's education. And frankly I think it's healthy that our daughter is exposed to and learns to navigate all aspects of the political spectrum, instead of sheltering her with just one (ours).

Second was definitely the social issue - although it wasn't the lack of socialization with her peers attending public schools that got is, rather it was the alternative social resources that turned out to be a deal breaker. We understand that there are a lot more resources out there for home schoolers than there were, 20 or even 10 years ago, but although there may be a lot of them, they weren't very diverse. Looking into those resources more deeply we discovered that almost the entire home school community was based heavily on religious and political viewpoints, and those viewpoints were reflected very strongly in the children involved. While both my wife and I lean heavily libertarian, we have little tolerance for social conservatives or religious extremest, and we didn't want to raise our child among people we felt were racists and homophones.

But we really became comfortable with public schools again when we sat down and reaffirmed that just because we were sending our daughter to school didn't mean we were giving up our role as our daughter's primary educators. Rather, we treat the school as supplemental to our own teachings. My wife still writes a home school curriculum, she just organizes it in tandem with what our daughter is learning in school. We have "lessons" in the evening, discussions over dinner and field trips on the weekend (our daughter also takes a lot of "sick" days so we can do things with her outside of school). I hope we're achieving the best of both worlds, but I am still rather envious of those who are able to home school successfully...
 
TonyDedo, please understand that the schools in Concord, Massachusetts may not suffer from the degradation in evidence in so many other cities and towns. Maybe Concord does not have a large population of under-achievers.

My wife and I evaluated home schooling and private schooling for our children, even though my wife taught in the local public system. The biggest problem for us was the fact that our local system relies heavily on so-called "inclusion classes" where they essentially dump the under-achievers and the discipline problems in with the more advanced kids. The theory is that the kids that function at an AP level will just naturally have a positive effect on the under-achievers and the problem children. The reality is that the classes actually bog down and it is the children who want to learn that suffer.

We were fortunate enough to send the kids to private high schools even though it was a financial stretch. My wife no longer teaches in a public system. We have written it off. She now substitutes at a private school.

We are pleased with the end results we have achieved. My son is 25, lives in Oklahoma, has a nice house, a nice job and the beginning of a family. My daughter is 20 and just began her third year of electrical engineering and she is doing very well.
 
Honestly... If I had time, I'd put something together for Massachusetts. I'm just out straight at this point. I've put the idea out to homeschoolers my wife associates with, but I doubt they would appeal to the broad range of people interested.

I have started to research home schooling in MA and begun to compile all the ins and outs of it including things like special needs assessment, participation in extra curriculars, curriculum development and approval, etc.
 
Thank you for this thread and the possibilities for information. My daughter is almost 4, and my wife and I are comparing homeschooling to private school and to public school.
 
The public school system (Douglas, MA) was failing our boys miserably. They felt lost, and would come home with hours worth of homework that required us to "re-teach" the subjects taught during the day. My 11 year old has learning disabilities, and he was barely reading on a second grade level despite the extra "services" he was receiving. The boys were stressed, failing, and their self-esteem was in the toilet. We needed to do something. My wife started to home school our two boys (11 and 13) about 12 months ago.

The same 11 year old, who could not read a 2nd grade book independently, now reads near grade level (5th grade). My older son completes his entire daily lesson in less time that it used to take to do his homework. In short, they are learning and there is far less (academic) stress in the house.

We purchased a curriculum from the Calvert Academy. Students take a placement test and the curriculum is tailored to their abilities. For example, our 11 year old was in 5th grade math and science, but only 2nd grade reading and grammar.

Our daughter still attends public school. She is succeeding and loves it.

Challenges:

Home school is still school and requires effort. If the kids didn't like schoolwork before, that is unlikely to change... it still requires work.
My wife and I rarely get a break... the boys are home all day every day.
We sure miss the income my wife used to earn.
 
Really cool stories I'm hearing. I wish I knew you homeschooled your kids egouin. We could have chatted a bit when you were out this way.
 
Back
Top Bottom