Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Homeschooling vs. public schooling concern

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Dear elizabeth,

I'm late to the conversation here, but also wanted to say welcome! I'm so glad your son is feeling so much better--and I'm sure the friend situation will come with time. I have found it a bit difficult, too (especially as I am very shy myself), but I'm sure you will find that things do improve gradually-- there will surely be some very nice people out there who also want to have lovely chums!

One small idea, that may or may not appeal to you--here we have a homelearners' "hotline"--an email list of activities people are doing, which they invite others to join. If you have something similar where you are, would you feel comfortable posting an activity yourself? I have had the best luck so far just posting something like "we'll be at John Smith park tomorrow at 10; come join us for a walk!", as I find that there are always people looking for informal ways to connect. A lovely child we know loves history, and his mom posted an "old-timers club" recently on the list--and got a bunch of very nice, very interesting children out for the first meeting, where they planned lots of upcoming field trips. Maybe something music-related, since that is one of his passions?

Anyway, welcome, and good luck! It can't hurt that the nicer weather is coming--maybe some beach/park/woods types of outings will be easier to arrange now--

peace
minnie

PS Another place I have sometimes found nice kids is hanging out at the public library during school hours! Any 10 year old out in "public" between 9 and 3 on a school day is probably a homeschooler...

There are a couple homeschool groups in my area. They come together once a month for play group. They have classes and field trips on top of that. They also form groups for competitions.

We also have many public homeschool charter schools. Most HS'er goes there. They set up academic classes and fun classes (free!) on different days of the week. However, they require you to submit paper works every 5 weeks. They also give you money to pay for the curriculum.

There are Yahoo groups for homeschool in my area. People gets together for playdates and field trips. They also sell used curriculums. I have posted a few messages in my local Yahoo homeschool group and they have been very helpful.

Community choir and bands are also good ways for socialization. There are also archery and robotics classes for homeschooler. Private teachers (eg. music teachers) like homeschoolers because they can take lessons during normal school hours. Local YMCA also hosts many homeschooler classes.

There is something called Math Circle in the local university that provide classes for upper elementary/middle school students.

I am going to start homeschooling ds7 coming fall. I am an introvert and ds, unfortunately (for me), is an extrovert. Just today, there was no school so he was home all day. Every 5 minutes, he came to me saying, "Can you play with me?" After dealing with him all day long, I really just wanted him to leave me alone. He is an attention seeker whereas dd4 always play by herself. I really don't know how it's going to play out when I homeschool him. I might just need lots of playdates, computer and classes to occupy ds.

minniemarx,

Thanks for the idea re. the hs activity hotline--it is a really good idea. And I'm discovering your observation about school aged kids at the library during the day is true. I'm sort of standing back at this point, but have noticed some of the same families there during the day. We love our "little library that could" and are there several times a week at least so that is a fabulous idea. I will need to encourage DS that it is okay to visit with other kids perusing the shelves in his section. Perhaps they will be new friends.

Thanks for the input. It's so nice to hear from those who've been here before--

We have a yahoogroup for HSers where events are posted. SOme are days at the parks, some are classes at museums that have been organized by someone, some are movies, there is a monthly game day at a Panera Bread etc.

I find you don't need quantity, you need quality.

Good luck to you on your new HS adventure this fall. Yes, it is an adjustment. I love all your suggestions and am going to check into them. We've already run into one HS family a few weeks ago when we visited the archery range (DS loves this). Have not thought about public homeschool charter schools. I'll have to google that with the proper wording and see if I get additional hits for HSers in our area.

Thanks!

I'm still getting the hang of the Yahoo groups thing. I'm probably showing my age that my kiddos are more comfortable with all this stuff than I! I'm sure I'll become increasingly comfortable. It seems there's an awful lot of "stuff" listed on the groups pages that is completely irrelevant to the group--perhaps I'm not doing it right. There must be some filter or something so I can filter out the "50-ish grandma who wants to chat" threads . . . .

Regardless, I'm willing to wade through the posts to find the good ones. Already, I've found a posting for used curriculums. How helpful.