A Question about Home Schooling?

Question

My mom is tring to look into having my sister do home schooling but she wants a good program but one that is not to much money do u have any idea where she could look for one??

Answer 1

Many states have virtual academies that are in partnership with K12 (www.k12.com).  When you live in a school district that is served by one of these virtual academies, your materials, textbooks, computer, and printer are supplied to your home without any cost to you.

The website has a lot of great information.

Answer 2

there is a online homeschooling program that is free... it is called conections acdemy

Answer 3

How old is your sister? If she's high school age, look in to community college.

First, your mom and your sister should take a learning styles test. My family used Discover Your Child's Learning Style by Victoria Kindle Hodson. Your mom and your sister may see things completely different ways which would make homeschooling tough. For example, my mom is Producing: the classic public school dream child -loves making lists, putting things in order, learns best from text- while my sister is Inventing: the classic public school "basket case. Needs to look out the window, pull stuff apart, bad at switching tasks quickly, and as a personality thing she's always despised being told what to do by someone she doesn't respect. They fought every day when we did more traditional homeschooling. Now she's a Jedi, and her sensei/Jedi master has given her a huge reading list. She's going through it, getting a really good education too. I'm Performing with a tied second in Inventing and Thinking/Creating. Performing means I'm a kinetic person: I need to move and be physically engaged. Inventing means I take things apart -not so good at putting them back together, we're missing a lock on our front door >_> <_< - and Thinking/Creating means I spend a lot of time thinking about how things could be improved or changed. My sister and I were dismal failures in school but are doing quite well being homeschooled. The curriculum you choose should be based on what your sister scores, not on what your mom does. After all, who's doing the work?

But, do you really need a curriculum? Find out what the homeschooling laws in your state are; some states have virtually no rules while here in NY, you need to file detailed progress reports every quarter. Granted, nobody really reads them but you still have to fill something in and take standardized tests. Find out what the standards are and then see what your sister wants to do. For English you can just go the library and keep track of what your sister takes out. I personally got my love of history from historical fiction, I'd recommend that as long as you check the accuracy of the books first. For science, find out what you have to do and then get a book of experiments. There's a book called [Blank] For Every Kid. It explains how something works and then gives you an experiment to demonstrate. I always thought they were a bit trite, but they got the message across. Your math options are largely dependent on what grade she's in, so far I've been assuming elementary/middle school. It's easy enough to find math workbooks at bookstores, but if she's beyond long division, try Saxon. If you don't like the math books you use, look in to finding a tutor and getting a class together. That's what I'm doing, and math is my favorite thing to do. My tutor kicks *** -she's a little bit crazy, and talks about numbers like they're people- and the special advanced kids like me get to spend about half the class goofing off because we finish our work faster. Rosetta Stone works wonders for languages, and they have a homeschoolers edition I'm using. It's not accredited, but your sister could just take a test in the chosen language when the time comes.

Look around on eBay, and join a homeschooling co-op. What happens in my group, is one person buys a hardcover textbook and then the thing's in circulation for the next six years or so. Sometimes you can swap years in the same curriculum: let's say your kid just finished Algebra I and is ready for Algebra II, and someone has a younger kid who just finished 8/7 and an older kid who just moved on to Trig. Everyone benefits.

I got all my history books -for an online class- for about $40 and normally the textbook alone is $60.

The thing to remember is that you don't have to sit down and 'do school' every day.

Answer 4

Congrats, homeschool will be a great experience for her, and I am glad your family is open to expanding educational and social horizons.........As to your question, I buy homeschool books used and I create my own curriculum for my kids based on the books......I get the books as cheap as $8 per text book.

Disregard some of the above answers-my kids have a different schedule each day and the 'changing up' is really good for them, keeps the hum-drum away. My kids have school at the park sometimes too! Many people just don't "GET" it, and want to make homeschool look bad, even though many have never even tried it......sad, isn't it?

Answer 5

I love people who post on this board who haven't a clue!! Ranting on and on about socialization, etc. Come on

check out http://www.hslda.org for legal requirements

then http://www.rainbowresource.com (as mentioned above) has a great catalog. Bit overwhelming but good (don't do resources that's a g*y site!!)

  http://www. homeschooloasis.com has great planning ideas, forms, philosophy info for Mom and ideas on how to use the library, etc.

http://www.timberdoodle is cheap, fast and home based.

http://www.sonlight.com is a good company and they have payment plans available

http://www.amblesideonline.com is a free Charlotte Mason based curriculum - you will need to download some ebooks and use the library.

There's all kinds of ways to do this cheap/free/barter systym your Mom needs the confidence to do it!

Answer 6

Well, I used these two programs, and they really worked out great for me:

Seton:

http://www.setonhome.org/

Calvert:

http://www.calvertschool.org/calvert-sch...

Both are pretty good, but Calvert was excellent. Seton is Catholic, but you don't have to order the religion books if you don't want to.

Answer 7

If your mom is serious about this, she needs to be a grown-up and find this out for herself, not send her child online to ask strangers.  

Which makes me think this is your idea, not your moms.

Answer 8

while the advantages of home schooling are obvious in that the parent gets to extend the period when they have complete control of their children's lives,,,, i think it misses out on the basic dutie of parents which is to equip your children to be in dependant and well adjusted members of a wider community,,,,this does not happen with home school nor does it happen in any of the special interest schools (christian etc) it is probably a deep seated need to live out the parents life fantasy's through their children much like those abominable mothers of children in beauty pageants mercans are so fond of....

Answer 9

The nay-sayers are out today.  Too bad, it seems the best time to responses from people who actually know about homeschooling is during the summer when we aren't as busy actually homeschooling.

Anyway, there are a lot of wonderful "programs" out there if you are talking about a complete curriclum or correspondence school.  You can also piece together your own program from various sources.

For some of the best complete packages:

http://www.abeka.com

http://www.sycamoretree.com

http://www.aop.com

http://www.hewitthomeschooling.com

http://www.edanywhere.com

http://clonlara.com

For supplies to put together your own program:

http://www.rainbowresource.com

I have no idea why ANSWERS highlighted parts of my answer, or even if it looks like that everyone else, that is wierd.

Answer 10

Kudos to your mom for looking into homeschooling. I don't know her reasons for wanting to homeschool your sister but I hope she does understand the local and state laws in her area. Many states make you jump through hoops in order to make the choice to educate your own child.

As far as curriculum: Your mom needs to decide if this is going to be long term or just to get through this year. If it is just for this year find out what the standards are for your sister's grade and make sure she learns that this year so she will integrate for next year. Does she want a secular based curriculum or Christian? Does she want to be hands on or have your sister do more independent work? There are textbook curriculums and satellite schools. As far as cost, that varies for each family budget. Some great resources have already been given and googling will give you hundreds of choices.

It is sad that many people stereo type homeschoolers even though thousands have journeyed on to college and great careers and have had many successes. Yes there are some that abuse the privilege that the homeschooling pioneers worked so hard to achieve but you have lazy public school parents too. On the whole, homeschoolers score high on tests, have good study habits, are prepared for college, and have great social skills.

Answer 11

A.C.E is good.

Abeka is also good.

Life Pacs are good.

They all have a certain structure. It pays to have a structure.

Don't worry about what people say about the socialization stuff. You get plenty of it at home and outdoors with people of all different ages. Home schooling equips you to deal with all age groups. It also gets you ready at an early age to think and function like a true adult would. Public school tends to restrict socialization to peers.

Answer 12

Depends on state rules

In California it has to be an accredited program, that means something like Penn Foster or ABeka

In NY it has to meet the sylubus, that can be anything that meets NYS detailed listing.

In states with minimalist rules library books, thrift store books will work just fine.

Some parents who have finished and don't have more kids coming might put their stuff on E-Bay at the price that bidding brings...

Answer 13

I would send her to public school. Your sister is going to miss out on a lot of life experiences by being taught at home!

Answer 14

The library is free and most libraries have textbooks you can check out, eBay has great deals on used school books, and other homeschoolers are usually willing to swap books, ie you get sixth grade books and they take your fifth grade books.  We traded books with other homeschool families all the time.  Or, have your sister plan a grocery list using sales ads from the paper, give her a set budget, and then have her go through cookbooks to plan a week long menu!  This will involve research, writing, math, and problem solving.  Using your imagination is the cheapest thing you can do!

Answer 15

Maybe try the local community colleges.

Good Luck!

Answer 16

Here's the one we're looking at:

http://www.homeschools.org/

It costs less than some I've seen, and they have the option of having them keep records for you - which costs more than just getting their curriculum.

Answer 17

queenhomeschool.com - they deal with a lot of "Charlotte Mason" style learing - very easy.

they have every subject except for Math.

for math books, try mathusee.com.

hope i've helped

Answer 18

Does your mom know how much self discipline it takes to home school a child?

I have seen a lot of people home school and even though I know some people that have done a very good job, I have seen a great many more that have messed their children up for life.

Many of these people have home schooled because they are just two lazy  or do not take responsibility to get up and see their children off to school.  

I do not know what your mom's reason is for wanting to home school, but she needs to look at it long and hard.  When she home schools, this means that she is the teacher, it does not mean sitting a child down in one room and going on with your life in the rest of the house.  

She can't just take off and do her own thing down town. The child needs to be at home in their classroom.

I have seen kids, shopping with their mom at 10: am and mom telling me that they are though with their lessons.  I have been to some of these peoples houses at 9: am and mom and kids are still in bed.

These children need the same schedule as a public school. They need to to learn that school is the top of the list.

If your mom is afraid that she is not getting a good education, then buy some books and tutor her at home.  Take her to museums and other educational places.

Another problem that I have seen, is that some of these parents aren't smart enough to teach these kids.  I am sure that your mom is, but tell her to think about it a little longer, because it is really a big responsiblity