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Thursday, January 3, 2019

Public School to Homeschool

If you are withdrawing your child(ren) from a public school system then this post is for you.

When we first started homeschooling our oldest was in public school, grade four. When we started the homeschool resources were far and few. There was maybe a hundred thousand homeschoolers in the United States if that and the websites were at the beginning of being built up with resources, including mine. Lol. Today we are around or over 3 million homeschoolers in the United States and more websites then we can count. That should say a lot to all you new homeschool families. My how far we have come. :)

  • How is public school different then homeschool?

First and foremost we will be here all day on this one because there is a lot different between the two. In brief the public school is on an agenda and the classroom sizes are certainly larger then your homeschool. There is no one-on-one teaching unless the child has a learning disability and even then there is no guarantee of one-on-one. But the most important thing to note is the curriculum is a huge difference, especially since they wanted to add common core. Thankfully most states are eliminating the common core. Most public schools are more focused on indoctrinating our children and yes that also includes dumbing them down. 

Homeschool is one of the greatest alternatives to families all over the country and even around the world. There are many reasons families choose to homeschool and we again can be here all day noting reasons. Just a few to name: 

1) Families are able to instill their family values and core beliefs in with daily life lessons for their children to learn. 
2) Parents are able to ensure their children are getting the best education they deserve and they are the ones choosing the best curriculum for their family. 
3) Homeschooling offers one-on-one lesson learning  
4) Homeschool offers flexibility with family schedules and school lessons. This is a huge plus since every child learns differently. The list really can go on. 

  •  Is testing really necessary after you remove your child from public school?
   
YES! I whole heartily recommend testing. Doing a placement/assessment test will help you determine where your child is at in their learning as well as assist you when it comes to curriculum purchasing as well as teaching your child. That is one test I definitely recommend and I will explain more on that in a second. The other test I recommend is a learning style test. Why? Testing your child on their learning style will also help you in selecting the best curriculum for your child as well as aid in the style of teaching you use. Up front I will note that I do not care how old your child is, I will always recommend that you incorporate hands-on learning with every child. I recommend this from years of experience working with various age groups. Trust me! Children learn better and enjoy learning when they get to be involved in the lesson.

Please note: Coming out of a public school means a major detoxing is coming for your child and your family. Prepare yourself ahead of time. There will be many frustrating moments and melt-downs galore. The first two years will be rough as you adjust from public school to homeschool. Understand that you will be making many adjustments through out your school year until you find a routine that works best for your family. Trust me when I say adjusting will always be a part of homeschool up to graduation. We all can offer advice for everything. But the simple answer is this: What works for one family does not guarantee it will work for your family. We are all tweaking our agenda, curriculum, school year to work for our family. You will have some tweaking to do in your own family to find what works for you. So relax, take a deep breath and take it one step at a time. Other then that embrace everything, learn the lessons life brings you and enjoy the adventures with your child(ren) and your family. No family homeschools perfectly! Remember you are not the first to experience some of the joyous struggles in homeschooling, nor will you be the last!

Why I recommend testing.

Not always is testing necessary. But since you are coming from a public school to homeschool I do recommend it. Things to consider here a) public school vs homeschool curriculum will be different, b) public school agenda on teaching each grade will be different vs homeschool and here is the biggest reason why.

Our oldest daughter was in the public school system from K through 4th grade. We decided towards the end of the 4th grade that we were bringing her home for various reasons that we will save for an other day. I prepared and dropped off the required withdraw letter requesting our daughters transcripts and records be ready for me to pick up by the end of the school year. The school had about 4 weeks notice to have her records ready as the end of the school year was nearing.

On one of the days I was picking our daughter up from school I was notified that the principal had received our letter and he requested a brief word. I walked to his office before the bell was set to ring and we shared a few quick words to which he ended requesting one final meeting before the end of the year to which he would have transcripts and records ready for me. I agreed with no hesitation. Our family had a great relationship with our school principal so I had no concerns about this meeting and I was actually curious about what he had to say.

Let me explain further. The results from our daughters test indicated that she was at a 3rd/4th grade learning level over all and 5th grade level for a few subjects. Now I remind you that our daughter was in the 4th grade and the school did pass her to go in to the 5th grade. (HUH!?) How is that even possible? I was about to find out. Since I was the one bringing up the concern and questions our Principal was able to give me the answers and information he could not offer in the meeting we previously had. His reply blew me away.  

You see public schools in most states are required to test their students with standard state testing, mainly ISTEP. It is because of the ISTEP that schools and required grades spend a lot of time recapping the previous school year vs working on the current grade school year. In other words our daughter was recapping most of grade 3 in her 4th grade school year for the ISTEP test. After ISTEP was over that left them anywhere from 2-5 months of school to work on the current grade year. One school year is almost 10 months. At that time our school had changed the testing time to be around mid winter. Used to they would test a month or two after school started. So the change only meant more time recapping and less time working on the current year. All I knew was sometime after the holidays were over would be time to prepare for ISTEP. So from the time school first started in (Aug) to mid winter, which roughly was around (Jan) the school was recapping grade 3. That left roughly 3 to maybe 4 months of school to get through grade 4 curriculum. Hahaha! Not happening! 

What did his answer mean for us now that we were homeschooling?

I was really starting to panic after hearing his reply. I had pre-purchased 5th grade curriculum shortly before we tested our daughter. We basically were going on the belief that we were graduating to 5th grade based on what the school had said. Not only that I had no idea about learning styles or their tests. I had no idea what would be a great homeschool curriculum nor did I even know that homeschool curriculum was more advanced then public school systems curriculum. I took advice like most of you are doing and we purchased and went forward using AOP curriculum. Head in palm moment. Thankfully, our principal could see me start to panic and he already prepared for me some tips and advice to help through the first year of homeschooling. I truly feel we were blessed by this man and his advice.

Our first year of homeschool was stressful from the detox of the public school and trying to work out our own routine and agenda. We did continue with the 5th grade material even though our daughter tested over all 3rd/4th grade level. We also included a separate lesson plan like the principal recommended for the areas where our daughter was still at the 3rd/4th grade level. This meant that not only were we working the 5th grade lessons, we had an additional lesson or two to include in our day that covered the other grade areas. (How many lessons we added would depend on how long the lesson was and how long it took her to learn it). Some lessons we breezed right through no problem. Other lessons we had to spend a little more time on. None the less I really believed our first homeschool year was going to be overwhelmed with so much to do. Honestly, it was not as bad as it sounds like it could be. We ended up finishing all of the curriculum a month and a half before the public school system did and we started the same day the public school system did. Now that is impressive.

Advice I always offer for every new homeschool family:

  • Know your state laws and legislation. Print them off and put them in a binder in arms reach for when you need them.
  • Document everything!
  • If you are withdrawing your child, Test them for placement/assessment testing and learning style testing.
  • Do Not copy the public schools agenda! You want to detox the public school not homeschool like the public school. Time is on your side, pace yourself and work your own agenda. (samples are below this post)
  • Research your curriculum options based off of what your test results and learning style results say.
  • We all had a lot of questions in the beginning. None of us had all the answers when we first started because some answers won't arrive until after you begin homeschooling. If you wait out to get every question answered, your kids will graduate the public school system. (Truth! Some questions won't have an answer right up front.)
  • Advice is great, but understand that what works for one family will not always work for your family!
  • We are all tweaking our homeschool to find out what works best for our families. You will do the same. Your not the first to experience the homeschool jitters or struggles and you will not be the last. Take a deep breath, do one step at a time and enjoy the journey with your family.
  • Google is your friend. You can find all sorts of FREE Homeschool lessons, object lessons, copywork, notebooking, lapbook, grade curriculum and more. You can even find FREE Placement/Assessment and Learning Style tests. You would not believe all the things FREE on the Internet.  
 
Sampling Agenda:

Minus the lunch break, When we first started homeschool our daily routine was like this:

Mon-Fri  9a-3p; We literally crammed every subject in.


Today our homeschool is more relaxed and looks like this:

Mon - Thurs   9/10a - at latest 3p. Fridays are our doctor/eye appointment days and field trip outings. Sometimes our days are longer and sometimes our days are shorter. It all depends on the lesson, how long it is, how fast we get through it and if they want to stop or keep going. Some lessons we keep rolling through because we may be having to much fun and we don't want to stop. We do not cram every subject daily. Math and history is daily. Everything else we are more relaxed on. We may do English/Lit 2 times a week or more/less. Science is 2-3 times a week and so on. If they want to add an extra day for any subject we do it, if not we just keep moving on. Our lessons vary being about one lesson or sometimes a couple lessons. Go with what works for your family.

In closing I hope this helps someone who is coming out of the public school to homeschool. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Happy Homeschooling! 

(Pardon the spell hiccups. I re-edited my late night write.)

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