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I'm seriously looking into homeschooling. I am giving up on the school system to teach my children.

How do you know what style of teaching will work best for your children? I have looked up the different styles of learning, but they seem to be able to learn under all styles. I would think, there would be a dominant learning style. How do you know for sure, before buying?

How did you get started with homeschooling? What was your first step? How did you explain it your children? The number one fear I have is, I won't be able to teach them well.

If homeschooling doesn't work out, how difficult is it to integrate them back into public or private school.

How long do you plan on homeschooling your children? Is it a good idea to reintroduce them back into school when they reach HS?

Sorry, I know I still have a lot of questions.

We started h/s when radical acceleration proved to be a bad fit for DS6. I told him that we were going to "do school" together just he and I so that he could move at watever speed he needed to and explore topics that he wouldn't have the opportunity to do in school.

We started with one subject. Math because it was DS' favorite. Once I felt like we had that down, we added another, grammar. One piece at a time until I felt like his curriculum was full. Everything we use was bought independent of everything else, we don't have any boxed curriculum. I had a lot of conversations with him regarding what he'd like to learn. We've only been at it a couple of months and I already have a list from him as to what he'd like to learn next.

As far as styles go, he hates worksheets so I try to keep them to a minimum. Other than that, he's pretty open. History is his least favorite subject so we read the text out loud together. We also are charting the explorer's courses on a wall map and using movies to supplement the text.

I don't believe that I'll have the option of integrating DS into the school system, he's just to far ahead on everything.

As far as being a good teacher goes..... The most important quality in a teacher is someone who cares. You obviously do. Teaching is a lot like parenting, you're just teaching geometry instead of table manners. Give yourself some time to settle in, find out what works and what doesn't and just know that you are in the unique position of meeting your child's need on an individual basis. Teachers in school can't do that!

Enjoy!

My first suggestion is to take it one day at a time. We started "emergency homeschooling" with plans to return to some bricks & mortar school after a year. We just started our third year, with no plans for that b & m school on our horizon. It's hard to predict the future!

I'm not saying that you shouldn't think about the future at all, of course, but I feel like it's hard enough to make a good choice for right this second. Trying to anticipate what my kids will need years--or even a decade!--from now is just impossible. Small steps...

If your kids do well with all styles of learning, then don't worry about that. Do a little bit of everything and adjust as needed. I think some kids really require a certain teaching stye. Others don't. If you have a "don't" kid, then rejoice in your good fortune and don't worry about it. One less thing.

Are your kids onboard about homeschooling? Do they like the idea? If not, then it will be significantly harder to do it. My current homeschooling motto is "You can lead a kid to homeschooling, but you can't make him learn." So if they aren't buying in, you will have a hard year.

If they are buying in, then the conversation(s) about it should be pretty easy. Because I'm homeschooling one and have one in public school (who may well go to a private school next year...), I talk about homeschooling--and school in general, for that matter--in terms of meeting needs. Different kids have different needs. It's hard for a classroom to meet the learning needs of some kids, so we'll try something else. A laidback, nonthreatening, non-critical attitude helps, I think. That's not easy if you feel let down by the school system. I know from personal experience! But it is helpful, especially if you want your kids to be able to play with kids who are in a b & m school.

My best advice is to buy VERY little/nothing your first year. Most of what you buy won't work for you. If you buy, I'd recommend that you buy cheap stuff you won't feel bad about dumping if it doesn't work. The first year of homeschooling is more of a learning period for you than for your kids. It is NOT the time for big investments.

As for how long we plan to homeschool...until it doesn't work for him as well as something else would, I guess. I suspect that he may want to do something different at puberty (though he currently attends a "school for homeschoolers" a couple of days a week, so he sees some girls). That would be fine with me. But he's only 8. I have a hard time thinking that far ahead!

Keep talking, if it helps.

Thank you for the replies.

BWBShari,without a curriculum are you nervous you will miss something he needs to know later? I hear what your saying about be too far ahead to reenter school. My thought was, HS offers so much diversity in courses available to them. I wouldn't want them to miss out on something they enjoy.

Also when HS age arrives, I'm fearful they will be way beyond my abilities to teach. I would be learning as much as they are.(LOL) How can you teach, if you don't know the subject??

My husband right now is still on the fence. He has issues with socializing part of it. I can convince him, if I have enough facts to back me up.

I have submerged myself in reading anything and everything I can about homeschooling. Most of the sites I've been to have redundant info, which is good. I did come across one thing that bothered me. One site said "some colleges require higher SAT or ACT scores and higher sub scores to be admitted". Another site said "some colleges were seeking out home schooled kids for admittance"

Kriston, Small steps comes very hard to me. I have to plan as much as possible. I know things change, but I readjust accordingly. I just don't want to set them up for failure down the road.

I haven't talked to the kids about homeschooling yet. I'm still in the research stage. Oldest son could stay in school, he is happy at school, but there are a couple of issues he needs addressed. Nothing major. The youngest, needs to be home schooled, things are not improving, he is an underachiever and has low self esteem. He needs help, but he's not getting it at school. The teacher doesn't know what to do with him.

Do you guys have any favorite home schooling sites you visit, with up to date info and resources?? There's soo many out there. You just don't know which ones are good, especially if your new to this.

Hold the phone...

Be aware that "curriculum" just means "what they learn and what skills they should possess." EVERY child has a curriculum. But this doesn't have to be something pre-packaged.

There are websites like http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/grade2 (all grades are listed there on the sidebar, not just grade 2) and books like "What Your Xth Grader Needs to Know" by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. to help parents put a cohesive plan together.

It's not as hard as you think, I promise. Our first year, we read a lot of library books. Cheap, easy and flexible!

Kriston, I can't thank you enough! So much is congealing in my brain with your help.

I was at the library yesterday and did see those books.

Thank you again for all the info and encouragement.

One last question. What happens when the the student knows more than the teacher?

I second all the advice already given. For reading up on curriculum and listening to others state pros and cons I look to http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/index.php It is the most active homeschooling board I have seen. You can find people there who use just about everything although the board originated for those using "The Well Trained Mind". There is also a forum for accelerated learners. I find the curriculum and high school forums very helpful. There are also many great lists out there that you can pull from and use when you visit your local library. Many are mentioned on the board referenced.

I second not buying to much the first year until you get a feel for how you are going to teach and how your child would like to be taught. After our first 15 months I changed just about everything but my younger DD's math program. I changed my approach completely and my kids are really liking the new way. I call it my learning year.

There will always be resources, online classes, community college classes, tutors, DVD or CD-Rom instructed programs, teacher's guides, you name it there will be a way to find what you need for your child. Sometimes half the fun is learning as we go. I am learning so much more than I remember learning in school, right along side my DC.

It happens a lot. There's no shame in saying, "I don't know. Let's look that up!" After all, you wouldn't expect a teacher in a bricks & mortar school to know everything, would you? So why should you have to? A lot of things we learn together.

Gaps scare everyone once in a while. I just had a gap panic at the start of this year as were were facing down pre-algebra and I was doing all I could to delay it. My foot-dragging didn't go well, however. DS8 has some gaps--he doesn't have all his times tables down 100% cold yet, for example--but he needs the conceptual work that pre-algebra provides, given where he is in math, or he gets cranky. Reviewing without giving him new concepts, too, was a bad, bad thing for his behavior (and my sanity!). Now that we've moved ahead and we merely toss in some facts review as a side dish instead of the main course, he's back to his usual cooperative self. Live and learn...

Remember that kids in b & m schools have gaps, too. No school teaches *everything there is to know*, after all, and even if they did, some kids don't get stuff the first (second, third...) time they're exposed to it. The nice thing about working with GT kids is that they learn quickly, so if there are gaps, they will be able to fill them quickly.

If you find that your kids don't know something they need to know to learn the next thing on the list, you can always go back and teach/review it. It's one of the biggest benefits of an individualized education.

I know it's scary. Totally BTDT, I promise! But keep in mind that you just have to do as good a job as the school is doing. That thought helped me a lot the first year so that I didn't become overwhelmed. If you're unhappy with how your school is doing with your kids, then that's not that hard to do, right? That first year, I realized that if my then-DS6 read a developmentally appropriate book for 30 minutes a day and played outside the rest of the time, he'd be happier and would learn more that he was in his b & m 1st grade.

Naturally he did much more than that the first year. But setting the bar pretty low helped me gain my footing. Remember that your child's education is a marathon, not a sprint. There's plenty of time. Perfectionism is not your friend if you're homeschooling. You WILL make mistakes. That's normal. (It can actually help you with your kids if you use your mistakes to talk about perfectionism. I sure do!)

As for getting back into the schools, I have a friend who says homeschooling is addictive, and I think she's right. Be warned...

We have not transitioned back into a school, so I can't speak from experience about that. I am with Shari, though, that I think it would be a challenge to do so with an HG+ child, given how they tend to gallop through the curriculum. We try to go deep and wide (i.e., studying things like foreign language that wouldn't be taught in our school system), but some measure of going fast is pretty inevitable, especially in the areas that are the child's strengths. That tends to make a return to school challenging after a few years of homeschooling.

However, if you try it for a year and don't think it's for your family, the public school has to take your child/ren back. The fit may be harder, but they can't refuse your boys.

I second the "what your X grader needs to know" series. It's a good place to start from. Also you can look up your state educational standards and just make sure you cover them in some way or another.

When the kid knows more than the teacher? I think that happens a lot in school to HG kids. I think Wolf knows more than I do about dinosaurs and possibly the solar system. The answer? Books, books, and more books with a side of internet thrown in for good measure. Then you can add in mentors or outside classes etc...

Also if your district offers a homeschool based charter or Independent Study program you could see about transferring to that. It will give you the teacher back up and support you might feel you need starting out homeschooling (it's what I did) but you still have to make sure it's a good fit... Also most curriculum supplies are supplied by the district that way and you can still work at your own speed and level.