Read Adventures in Homeschooling: Part One and Part Two for some background.
(1) Edmonds Heights (45%): A K-12 homeschool resource center connected to our local school district. Essentially a college for kids, there is a wide variety of mixed-grade classes available to choose from – some cost money, most are no-cost. Interestingly, the resource center kicks back to us for educational use a portion of the taxes we pay the state, a majority of which we use towards classes at the center. So far this year our kids have taken the following courses: Latin, Musical Theater, Geography, Team Sports, Active Games, Engineering, Science, Literature, RPG (Role Playing Game) Maker, Ballroom Dance and Swing Dance.
(2) Maesar Academy (45%): We decided to experiment with online education for the first time this year. The Maesar Academy is an accredited online LDS-based curriculum that uses a combination of streaming videos, virtual labs, interactive practice activities and a variety of other tools to create the learning experience. Units covered include history, life sciences, language arts and math. For the most part, the experience has been a positive one for the kids and for us. We think the material is sufficiently varied and challenging and we like the fact that assignments/quizzes/tests have deadlines and are graded. Our biggest frustration has been the lack of flexibility in the schedule. There is no functionality to schedule vacation or down-time … the deadlines just keep on coming. This has, at times, been frustrating for our sixth-grader as she’s tried to stay on target.
(3) Parent-As-Teacher (10%): Cher’s role has been reduced due to the Maesar Academy, but she continues to supplement the above with memorization work (our youngest is working on the Gettysburg Address), scripture study and participation in a field-trip co-op.
While we realize homeschooling is not for everyone and carries a wide range of stigmas and stereotypes, we continue to find great value in shaping our children's educational experience. That being said, we are staring the dreaded junior high years in the face and contemplating questions such as "Is college an option or a must for our children?" Scary stuff. What the next few years hold, we don't know, but we can't wait to find out.
7 comments:
We homeschool as well and our children have gone on to college (child number six just got accepted to BYU Provo) without ever stepping foot in a junior high and without high school diplomas. With so many resources available now and with the time freed up for real world learning, homeschooling is a great way to prepare kids for any path they choose. Thank you for sharing your experiences--it helps to counteract the stigmas and stereotypes!
My wife was home schooled and we plan on home schooling our children. Though there are shortcomings, I feel like you really can tailor an education better to fit the child. You know your kids way better than any teacher ever could. Plus it forces you to relearn things yourself. With a 3 and a 4 year old already starting in on the process, our home schooling mostly consists of maze books and dot-to-dots. They're fun and tailored to what the kids need at this age. Plus I like doing their school work with them. They like it too. The temptation will be to slack off as a teacher as the kids get older.
Just curious - does the Northwest's famously liberal education system have anything to do with your decision to home school? Liberality definitely helped us make the decision. One high-school teacher in town here tried to stimulate his students' minds by describing child pornography to them. This was supposedly to turn their minds on and get them thinking, but I assure you their thoughts weren't on schoolwork after that.
How has your experience been with Maesar? My children DO NOT want to be home schooled but their current school isn't teaching at the same level as their future school. I am trying to find a good program that allows them to learn what they are missing at school.
App Par, I don't remember liberality playing into the decision. Could have been because our kids were so young or the fact that we're pretty liberal ourselves. What attracted us most was the flexibility.
Jenn - email your phone number into MMM and I'll have my wife give you a call.
Mamagale- Thanks for the encouraging story! Always good to hear about homeschoolers doing well.
Apparent Parent-
It has been fun relearning things as we work with the kids. There hasn't been a temptation to slack off as they get older because we feel too much responsibility for their education to do that. We DO encourage independence as they have gotten older so they can take ownership of their learning. That simply lessens the time I'm actually teaching, but I still need to be available at all times as a resource and to keep tabs on them.
Our initial reason for homeschooling was to pursue a better lifestyle. We dreaded the evenings with homework, sports, music, etc. and felt there was no family time. We were stressed. Homeschooling allows us to get school work, piano practice and lessons, etc. done during the day. This opens up a lot of time for us to be together without having to crack the whip, so to speak. Plus we are all at our best during the day, which makes our interactions more positive.
We do find, however, that an added bonus has been that the kids are experiencing life and it's challenges at age appropriate times, instead of before which can happen in public school. Although none of the people I know that have children in public schools have mentioned a problem with its liberality. The incident you mentioned sounds rather isolated and random.
Jenn- Maeser has been great but I'm not sure it would work if you were simply going to supplement. With it's deadlines, etc. it would be very overwhelming, as if they were attending two schools.
Instead I would pick subjects that you want to enhance and buy individual programs for those. Singapore math and Math U See, Institute for Excellence in writing and maybe an individual class from Maeser like science which we've really liked.
I love hearing these updates; keep them coming! Your kids are turning out fabulously, and I am incredibly impressed with your parenting and homeschooling skills. It's fun to hear a few more details about how exactly you're going about it.
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