Home schooling - All advice desperately needed and appreciated!

Question

Hello, everyone on Y!A !

I am thirteen years old and will be home-schooled when the school term begins this fall. There are several options that we are looking at, and have not decided on one yet, but there are questions I have that apply to all of the options available, and I was hoping to get some answers. I will be in year nine, and here are the courses I need to take and a few that I would like to take:

Geometry, English, History, Social Sciences, Geography, Latin, French, Art, Some sort of Science - I am not sure which I am supposed to be placed in just yet, and perhaps a few others.

No matter what, I will be basically teaching myself these subjects, and I have been left to arrange these matters.

First Question: What supplies will I need? I know the obvious ones like pencils, paper, pens, and things, but if you can list a few things that I probably don't know about, like record-keeping, organising, and which course books are best, that would be fantastic.

Second Question: How will I organise my own schedule? I know that I have the ability to teach myself whatever I'd like to learn, I have done it plenty of times before, and I have the discipline to do the work, but I do not know how to do this. I have always been in public schools until recently (I withdrew in June), so this has always been arranged for me by the administrators and guidance counselors. How will I make sure I know all that I need to know, learn everything properly, learn complete information and not just partial information, and learn it at the proper pace? How much material makes up one lesson? Shouldn't I be doing more than eight subjects a day? Please help me here - this is one of the biggest concerns I have. Also, please keep in mind that I have lessons after the 'school day' will be over, so it is important that I finish on time but not too quickly!

Third Question: Homework, Course books, and Marks, oh my! How do I measure my progress in learning? How do I know what marks I've earned? How do I keep track of this? How do I record it? If I wish to return to public schooling in the future, how will I submit these marks? (Please do not say the government will provide this information - we have been everywhere asking about it, and every person that we have asked, all of whom should have known the answers to these questions, replied "Oh, I don't know, you'll have to talk to [Insert department/person/title here] about that!" or something of the sort. We finally talked to a woman who has home-schooled all eight of her children [one is a friend of mine and the same age/year] and learned that there is no information provided for parents wishing to home-school their children. Apparently the law is that a parent is responsible for his/her child's education, and if the parents do not choose to be responsible, public education is provided. Otherwise, you're on your own.) How do I set homework for myself? How do I evaluate my work? What sort of essays and things should I set for myself? How will I know how much is the right amount? Where can I find good, reliable course books that I know have correct information? How can I be certain what I've learned is from a reliable source?

If you have any advice regarding these matters or any information about home schooling in general, please respond! If you've got success stories or tales of horrible disappointment and failure (perhaps I can learn from your mistakes! I am sorry if you've had difficulties!), please share them! Websites and tips are also greatly appreciated! Thank you all so much for helping!

I may add a bit more to this later, but for now this tiny box seems to be affecting my ability to think!

Answer 1

Here are a couple of sites that may be of help to you. One of them offers homeschooling textbooks and the other is basically a how to for homeschooling. I wish you the best of luck!

Answer 2

First, can you tell us if you're in the US or another English-speaking country?  The curriculum choices that are available in some are difficult to find in others.

Also, what do you prefer as far as coursework?  Do you learn best by reading the info in a textbook and completing an assignment (essay, research project, whatever)?  Or do you find it easier to learn with a teacher on a DVD or CDRom explaining the information to you?  Do you prefer a literature-based program, or would you rather have a project-based (hands-on) type of curriculum?

Lastly, what sort of worldview would you like to study from - secular or Christian?  There are really great and user-friendly choices in both, but obviously they would be different choices.

Congratulations on taking charge of your education!  It is a transition, but it's one that's completely worth it.  The one thing I will say, up front, is to allow yourself not to feel like you have to follow the public school model.  It works ok for what it is, but it doesn't mesh well with a student learning on their own.  You now have the freedom to learn in the ways that make the most sense to you, at the pace you prefer, and according to your interests.  You do need to set a course schedule and keep yourself accountable to it - which it sounds like you're more than capable of doing - but it's completely worth it.

If you can provide the information I asked for above, I (and others) would be happy to point you toward curricula that would work well for you.  :)

Edit - for History, Geography, English, Social Sciences, Lit, Arts, Writing, Philosophy, and Humanities, I'd strongly recommend TRISMS.  It's a lit-based research program that has you study various time periods in-depth - the civilizations, arts, sciences, literature, politics, religions, social movements, etc.  Because it's lit and research based, you can study with your own choice of research tools and your own chosen viewpoint(s).  You build your own coursebook, and everything is very clearly scheduled out for you.  Each lesson gives you numerous suggestions for lit pieces and research/reference tools.  It's also extremely flexible, so it would fit well into your schedule.  (For 9th grade, I would suggest either Discovering the Ancient World or Expansion of Civilizations.)  Here's the link: http://trisms.com/  It's also extremely affordable, as many of the books and other resources you'll use are either included in the text itself or available online or at the library.

For science, my favorite by far is Apologia.  You would most likely start in either physical science or biology, though if you've already had biology, you could go to chem.  It is written from a creationist viewpoint (as the author is a creationist Ph. D.) but includes very complete explanations of evolution and other points of view.  It's very, very readable and comes with both CDRom and MP3 supplements.  It's also written specifically for homeschool students, so all of the experiments are user-friendly.  http://apologia.com/store/?PHPSESSID=3ab...

For math, I suggest one of the following three courses:

Teaching Textbooks http://teachingtextbooks.com/v/vspfiles/...

VideoText Geometry (2-3 year program that includes geometry, trig, and pre-calc) http://videotext.com/geometry.htm

Math U See http://mathusee.com/geometry.html

For Latin, the one that I use for my high school classes is BJU Press Latin 1 and 2.  It's easy to use and understand (use the teacher's manual to check your work) and comes with an audio CD.  I believe you may also be able to find the class on DVD.  Here's the link: http://www.bjupress.com/category/Latin+f...

For French, I would suggest Auralog Tell Me More http://www.tellmemore.com/individuals__1...  You can get it either on CDRom or DVD with online classes.  This is the best program I've found, and the one I'll be using for my son in the years to come (he's a bit younger than you).

(I majored in linguistics and teach Latin and other languages to middle and high school students.)

For art, ARTistic Pursuits is good; it's a self-paced course that goes through both art history and art theory.  If you're able to take an outside class it would probably be better, but this curriculum would fit well with your schedule.  http://www.millerpadsandpaper.com/Search... will give you the best price - just choose the senior high options in the drop down box.

Hope that helps!  These are the best that I've found (and having a gifted student along with teaching classes has caused me to look far and wide).  They are flexible enough to fit with your schedule but open enough for you to really study things as indepth as you want to.  Each is also very easy to schedule - they come with planners built right in.  Everything there, except for the TRISMS and the science book, will also last you for more than a year.

Hope that helps - and good luck!

Edit again - candygirl, you're still a homeschooler, hon.  Unschooling is one philosophy (method) of homeschooling.  There are many different ways to do it.  If you're schooled outside of a public or private classroom, you're homeschooled.

Answer 3

Use Saxon Math. It's the best.  

Answer 4

The best advice I can give is that after you get the books or before you need to sit down with a calendar and fill in all your holidays and days off. I try and have my son who is going into 3rd grade have close to the same days off as traditional school. After that we pick a start date and then count the 170 days of requiered school until we come up with an end date. Now for assigning yourself the cource work it is actually already done for you by chapter but here is an easy way. EX there are 36 weeks in the spelling book so that is one chaper a week (exclude the week during the year that only have 2 days) each lesson has 4 pages so 1 page a day and the test on the 5th day. You may have 1 chapter every 2 weeks and a lesson each day do the review questions in each lesson and the additional questions you will do just fine. I have had no help from the local school where I live because 2 educated teachers could not handle 11 kids in grades K-2 so I have homeschooled since we moved here and will continue until we moved. Also the kids in the class we more then a grade below grade level. I still can't figure that one out. Best of luck to you.

Answer 5

If you are in the US try the Home School Legal Defense Organization. They have answers to the requirements of your state as well as info on cirriculum and tips on getting started.

I use have used Seton, Kolbe, and Catholic Heritage Cirricula because we are Catholic - they have daily lesson plans available as well as reportcards and some have HS diplomas. Seton has experts available for you to call if you get stuck. They send you the books and a list of additional supplies that you might need.

Although I am home to help if needed, my kids started being responsible for their schooling (with a little guidance) in seventh grade. They are now excelent self-starters and are great at teaching themselves all types of things (knitting, guitar, etc).

Don't let anyone give you any c**p about socialization, my kids have lots of friends and are quite active.

Good luck with everything!!!

Answer 6

I will be an UN-schooled 10th grader. I was home schooled, until I found this book:

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to quit school and get a real life and education.

Its written by Grace Llewellyn, and basically she teaches you that your curiosity will teach you, not Saxon math books.

Answer 7

Okay, well for one a computer will be your best friend so if you don't own go to a library.  Second, you will need school books which you will probably have to supply yourself (I did) so find a teaching store or a learning store because they will have the books you need.  Second, you may not have to organise a schedule all by yourself because like all the homeschooling still goes through a district like either your school district or the homeschooling office so they should help you, and if the homeschooling office isn't like anywhere near you, go to the school district because they will help you out.  Pretty much you should just figure out though if you have a 7 hour day, how long will the classes have to be to fit them all in.  Oh, and although yes, in public school you would have more than 8 periods, some of them would be like lunch or electives which aren't like required in home schooling.  Okay, for homework, you will have to turn in a report to the homeschooling office and for tests and stuff you will just have to test yourself, don't worry, when you go to buy books just buy ones that are like meant for teachers because they will have tests in them already.  Go to your school district (once again) for a lpot more info, they will help you out.  Pretty much you play by your own rules though, you can learn however you want however you will eventually have to take the ACT's and SAT's so maybe you should base your curriculm around that so when the time comes you will be totally prepared for that.  So, you can make your math class watching a video, playing a math game, or learning from a book, whatever works for you.

Good Luck, homeschool is fun and you learn so much more because you don't have distractions and don't spend half the day taking role and having to deal with like kids messing around.  I was homeschooled last year in 8th grade and it was fun.  Also, makesure you do extracurricular activities as well like piano lessons or like plays in your town or like anything that interests you because that will look good on a resume.

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