Should i home school my kids? anyone with experience please answer.?

Question

i have 5th,4th,2nd graders, and one who will be starting Kindergarten. do you think it will be too much money and too difficult to teach that many grades if I only have about 4-6 hours a day free to do this?

Answer 1

I don't think it's a good idea...mostly because of the social aspects. Kids who are homeschooled often feel VERY lonely and left out, and really miss out on very important aspects of social interaction.

See these articles before you choose to do this:

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/144135.aspx

http://www.homeschoolinkwell.com/negativ...

Answer 2

When we were doing school-at-home, it took two hours a day to work through all the curriculum and worksheets, with four kids (one of whom had special needs and a LOT of intervention)

We still finished in four months through everything the school would be doing. It was cheap (we got curricula from used book sales) and easy because we all worked together (5th, 3rd, 1st and kindergarten, with a four year old who wanted to do kindie work as well)

Answer 3

You can do it.  I know many, many families with multiple children who homeschool.

You can homeschool for free using the library and Internet.

When you begin, be sure not to rigidly place your kids in specific grades.  Allow them to learn what they need to know, at the pace that works for them.

Be well.

Answer 4

Yes. Albert Einstein was homeschooled. Many other geniuses were home schooled. Somehow or rather the best person to teach your children remains the parents and the child can self learn. It saves money and parents can bond with the child while ensuring discipline against corruption.

Answer 5

I home schooled 2 who are both in University.  I did not home school 2 who both have a Master's degree.  There has been no difference educationally.  However,  the 2 who were home schooled say they wish they would have had more socialization, and all in all, wish they had gone to school.  I would not home school again as it left me exhausted and always second guessing myself.  At the end of the day I have no guilt about the two who went to school but a bit about the 2 I home schooled.

Answer 6

Once your children know the basics of reading, writing and math they can do very well in their studies.

Your role should be three things; 1. Supervision, 2. Example, and 3. Encouragement.  "SEE"  :-) (my own acronym)

This goes 2 ways -- You SEE to their needs and they watch and learn from you.

If you keep things simple (KISS; keep it simple sally -- an old acronym) you will witness amazing results.

Check into the method and recommendations of the Robinson Curriculum.  It is a self-teaching plan that enables the student to become a life-long learner.  It gives them power to be capable thinkers --- they don't have to rely on spoon-fed information.  They figure out how to study and how to obtain knowledge for themselves.

The day of a self-taught child includes one lesson of math at the appropriate level, one page of writing and two or more hours of reading.  The parent models good study behavior by being in the room and doing your own work.  You are there to monitor the environment keeping it free of distractions.  You also encourage and offer "help" only when it is truly needed.  The students are free to work heartily at completing their studies -- they don't have to stop for a bell!

The younger children may need more input from you in order to polish up their phonetic reading skills and their math-facts.  But once they are proficient readers they will only need to master math-facts before forging ahead into the wonderful world of academics.

4-6 hours of study with a self-teaching plan is the target for the children.  You should be able to do it without any trouble.

As the children learn they begin to follow their own individual interests.  They can learn all about horses,  drama, sewing, building, singing, piano, violin, landscaping, painting, history, science, etc.  The list goes on and on.  My children have done all of these things and more.

My children are almost all adults.  The youngest is 17 and will be completing his pre-college studies next year.  His brother is 25 and was home-schooled from the time he was born --- he went to the 8th grade at a local private school but had more home-work than regular home-school.  My 2nd child is in college -- she is getting A's in all of her classes.  My 3rd child is a brand new wife and works as a nanny.  They were all home-schooled for grades K thru 12.

It doesn't have to cost much money at all.  Stay away from the pre-packaged regular "curriculum" that will cost hundreds of dollars every year.  The Robinson Curriculum is very inexpensive --- the 22 cd set is $195 and can be used and reused by the entire family for every grade level.  Math texts must be bought separately but those are easy to get in used condition.  http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com

Find out about curriculum sales, and home-school conferences in your area ---- you can start with http://hslda.org and then find the link to your state.  

Every state has a home-school organization.  Oregon's is http://oceanetwork.org

You can learn about all of the research and other information at http://nheri.org

Answer 7

Yes, you can definitely homeschool 4 kids with 4-6 hours per day, especially when they're that close in age.  Your younger kids will only need 1-2 hours per day total, and not all of that requires you to be right next to them.  Your 4th and 5th graders will likely be fairly independent with a lot of their work, once they get used to homeschooling.

It doesn't need to be expensive, either - you can actually use unit studies in which you teach all 4 kids at the same time, and then separate them out for their skills work - the kindergartener works on matching and tracing, the second grader works on word and sentence formation, the 4th and 5th graders work on research skills and paragraphs, etc.; same with math.

I encourage you to attend a homeschool convention in your state, you can browse through a bunch of different curriculum  choices to see what fits your family best.  You can also attend workshops and classes, and pick the brains of different vendors to get ideas :)

Hope that helps!

Answer 8

I think that you should home school your kids it would not be to much money ..............

Answer 9

I've been homeschooling for 16 years and it's been a wonderful experience for my family.

You can homeschool for very little money.  There is no need for expensive curricula, the internet and library are terrific resources.  There are also plenty of used books etc. available.  

It also isn't time consuming to homeschool, 4-6 hours a day is plenty.

Best of luck to you :D

Answer 10

I home taught my daught up till I think high school...The school district took me to court one day because my DFS worker didn't think I was teaching her well enough. When I got the court order my DFS worker came by and told us not to bring any of the work Nina has done because the judge wouldn't want to see all that. I went against what she said and took every bit of it. The judge asked me if I had something to say and I said I did...I brought up the school work I had with me. The school District guys wanted to see it and asked me questions like...Who came up with the work ideas?...Who Came up with the grading system and many more...I came up with everything!...The guys looked up at the judge and said...You honor...I wanna close this case...Nina is being taught lots more than any school here in Utah could teach her...The judge dropped the case and my DFS worker was PISSED!...

That is my story of home teaching my daughter...But I only had one to teach!...

Good Luck with your decision!

WooHoo! I get 2 points and you get a STAR!

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Hugsssss

jo_luvz_anz

Answer 11

my mom and dad has all day and thats difficult enough so i think 4-6 hours might not be enough, but you never now just try it.

hope this will help!

good luck.

p.s if u need any more help email me at [e-mail]

Answer 12

You should totally do it! It is FUN! Weaver curriculum will be good it is a unit study combining all subjects and it is for grades K through 6th! Hope this helps!

Answer 13

4 to 6 hours is plenty! If you just take out all the time wasted going between classes, getting organised at the start and end of each lesson and all the other organisational stuff that goes on the school day starts to get a lot shorter.  As for one to one attention in a class of 20 to 30 students? They'd be lucky to get 10 minutes in a day!