HELP - Need home-schooling info !! - Vanity

self

[dfwddr]

Help !!!! My wife and I are taking my 15 year old daughter out of the public school system, and home school her. Our school system $ucks, and I'm sick of fearing for her safety every day. I know there are a lot of home schoolers here on FR, and I would love any info, advice, insight, or comments from those in the know. We are in Tennessee (Nashville).

[dfwddr]

Can you help ? Thanks !!!

[ventana]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=homeschoollist

[politicket]

First item on the agenda should be a web visit to http://www.hslda.org. You definitely want to be a member. It's very inexpensive and will protect you if you are ever harassed.

Secondly, here is a link to a list of homeschool support groups in Tennessee. Contact a Christian one in your area.

One last bit of advice: Beware of movement called "K-12". It's basically "public school" taught at "home".

Good luck with your exciting change!

[JenB]

Dave's got the ping list. What sort of help are you looking for?

I was homeschooled. It was the best thing my parents could have done for me.

You'll want to check out homeschool law in your state and find what requirements there are.

[dfwddr]

Thanks !!! I've been to the hslda.org site, interesting !!! Also, thanks for the support group link, should be a lot of helpful info there !!

Thank you all !!

[dfwddr]

What do you think is the best method, online classes in conjunction with text books, just one or the other? Should I follow a strict format the "experts" tell me works, or go more the eclectic method?

I have been checking the laws in TN, but the state site seems to be a little out of date.

THANKS for your help!

[JenB]

You know your daughter. What works best for her? Does she work well on her own, or need structure? What are her strengths? Play to those.

At her age, whatever you choose to do, I'd recommend having textbooks on hand. She'll be used to that and once she gets to college that's the norm. Find a good library nearby. Where does she need the most improvement?

If she really loves writing, let her write essays and papers to prove she's learned history. If she needs to get her math skills up, have her concentrate on that. Homeschooling is customized to the kid. That's our advantage!

[IronMan04]

My wife and I although not having the time and resources to home school are working to organize an Education Co-op with others in our community.

Thus far we have in our group: A Math PhD

An Attorney

A Biology Professor from UT

A Commodities Trader

A Chem. Engineer

A Professor of History

A Theologian

A Writer with a MA in English

My wife and I cove two of the above and are looking for a Political Scientist and a Physicist. For next school year it will just be an after school program but we hope to take it full time in 2006.

[AZLiberty]

Consider community college as an option, or as an enhancer. Admission to community college is pretty easy, even for high-school-age kids, but the standards are high, in the experience of our two kids. Our 18-year-old daughter is transferring to a four-year college program she's really excited about. Our 14-year-old son has already taken 3 semesters each of calculus and Japanese, as well as history, chemistry, and computer programming.

For the most part, community college students are there because they choose to be there. Makes a big difference in the atmosphere.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I homeschooled my kids. They are married now, so it's been awhile, but we used the ACE (Accelerated Christain Education) program. I highly reccommend it. It was designed strictly for homeschooling.

Rose has just started using it this past month.

Becky

[Xenalyte]

You're not in Houston, by any chance, are you? (I doubled in political science and English.)

[Xenalyte]

How's your son doing with the Japanese?

I have a theory that children are little knowledge sponges. Especially up to seven or eight, they absorb just about everything dropped into their minds. I think it'd be as easy for a child to learn three or four languages from birth as it is to learn one.

My three-year-old niece knows quite a bit of Spanish. When you ask her what color something is, she gives the Spanish name for the color, and she prefers to count in Spanish. It amazes me . . . I'm trying to convince my sister to start her on a non-Roman-alphabet language, like Russian or Japanese or Chinese or Greek.

[ovrtaxt]

We are doing a variation of the home schooling this year. We are enrolling our kids in an online school. They log in and get their curriculum, and work at their pace. They have 24/7 unlimited acces to tutor.com. They can talk to live tutors through their laptops.

The tuition is very reasonable, and the school is accredited.

Here's the one we're using: Ablaze

Here are some others:

http://brilliantschools.com/virtual_school.htm

http://learningbygrace.org/

http://www.k12.com/dg/dg_K12_2.html

http://www.flva.org/

http://www.laurelsprings.com/default.asp

http://www.northstar-academy.org/pages/ushome.htm?11,14

Also, check homeschool.com for advice.

[Rose of Sharn]

I started using ACE, Accelerated Christian Education just 2 weeks ago for the first time. It helps the children study and learn by themselves with you for guidance. It is the BEST thing I have ever done. I highly recommend it. We looked at lots of different systems but this one just stood out. Paynoattentionmanbehindcurtain recommended it to me.
It has another part called Lighthouse academy where there are online tutors, individual attention and their work is sent of to be graded. This I recommend for your daughter as she is in high school.
To find out more, go on aceministries.com
My (just turned) 11 year old is doing grade 8 and some grade 9. She is finding it fun and easy to understand. She loves it and when she said her prayers at the dinner table, she thanked me and her Dad for homeschooling.
We started because the school work offered to her, even though she was already put a year ahead, was not challenging enough. She was bored. Good luck with your new life. The rewards will be plentiful. : ) Rose

[dfwddr]

THANK you all very much. You've been a big help.

FReepers are the best !!!!

[Rose of Sharn]

You are very welcome! Good Luck! : )

[ovrtaxt]

You're welcome.

[Cedar]

Wish you all the best. Homeschooling is definitely the way to go.

[AZLiberty]

My son did really well in Japanese. He started at 11 because his then 14-year-old sister wanted a partner when she decided to take Japanese. He actually did better than she did, and I'm sure it's partly because because of the age. There are scientific studies that show that languages are easier at earlier ages. For many people, once they reach puberty they seem to lose the ability to learn a new language without a severe accent.

My younger brother married a Chinese woman, and they have a beautiful 4-year-old daughter who is totally bilingual. She's disappointed that her father can't speak Chinese.

More generally, I think part of the problem with the education system is that serious learning is delayed until high school and college. As you say, kids are knowledge sponges, and they're just as comfortable learning the languages of math, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science at an early age as they are learning different spoken languages.