Homeschool Questions

Yes, I am and so are they. They are glad they didn't have to deal with all the social drama. Not that they haven't had any, but its much less frequently and usually has a better outcome. They also feel better prepared for entering adult life, as they know how to run a house, and deal with a variety of age levels, not just their peers.

She received a diploma signed by us, so it's not from an accredited school, but she can legitimately put on and application that she is a high school graduate having met the requirements of our private school. I could also prepare a transcript for her if needed, which is what she would be required to show as proof.

One of the things B~ did in high school was take an ROP class for cosmetology. Before taking and passing her state board exam, I had her tested at Fullerton College to verify that she had special needs so she could get testing accommodations. High School students can take certain college classes through a special admit program. Her last semester of HS she took another college class so she's in their system. She is registered for the fall semester and I didn't have to summit a transcript, now that she's in the college's system. She is also working part-time.

L~ will be in 11th grade and yes we are still homeschooling her. This year she was an average student, I wish I could have spent a little more time with her over the years, but am thankful for the time we had. This year our core subjects will be Bible, math, Spanish, writing and Government (Fall semester). The last three will be outside class which are taught by others so this will cost me a bit of money.

Studies have shown that there is little to no difference in the outcome of homeschoolers being taught by a credentialed teacher vs. non-credentialed. As to whether they got a better education that requires a more detailed answer and is only my opinion. I think B~ got a better education in that she has a lot of special needs, which we were able to make accommodations for. She is very dyslexic, but is willing to read, and loves to learn. I don't think that would have happened if she had gone through the system. We are actually aquatinted with someone who had some of the same disabilities, he is now an unwed father, not working and has been kicked out of his parents home. In some ways L~ may have gotten a better education academically at public school, because B~ took so much of my time. But she also would have gotten a whole lot more of the humanist world view, and probably more bad attitudes and trouble as a result of all the socialization with peers.

These sites will help answer some of your questions even better, they are written by Brian Ray, Ph.D. who has been researching homeschooling for several years.
Getting Started
Homeschooling Grows Up

Over the years of living on one income and that at less than $40,000 a year I have seen that God is Faithful. You can homeschool through the government, which is free, but I don't usually recommend that. You can homeschool frugally using library books, used curriculum and doing a lot of it yourself. There are some programs that teach everything via video, computer or satellite, but those are usually pretty pricey.

New to Homeschooling is a lens I wrote that may answer some of your questions.

This page at HSLDA.org (Home School Legal Defense Association)has a lot of useful information.

Christian Home Educators Association of Calif. has a link called Getting Started on their home page.

There is a plethora of information on the Internet. HSLDA and CHEA of CA are good places to start. Both are included in the sites I've already mentioned.

This page at CHEA's site lists many vendors/service providers and support groups.

This lens has lots of info and links regarding high school and college.

That varies depending on the student, subject etc. I try to finish everything I need to do with my students in the morning before lunch. When you first bring your kids home it may take more of your time, until you learn how to organize your and their time, and they learn to work more independently. They may have some subjects they can do completely on their own, and others that require more help from you.

That varies, if you want a complete Christian program, you can check BJU or Abeka. At a glance, it looks like Abeka would run around $400. Alpha Omega has a complete consumable, booklet based program for $270, and a computer based program for $350. These are complete, new curriculums. However, you can find those used online for about 1/2 the price maybe even less. In researching this for you I found used online 4 subjects, from different publishers for $63.00 including math, Lang. Arts, science & social studies.

You can also go through the public school system, and the costs will be less, plus they usually have days and times when the student goes to a facility. There is also something call K12, this is also government funded. I normally wouldn't recommend this, because you are inviting the government into your home. However, you may want to consider this for your high schooler, for the first year, until you know for sure that you'll homeschool him all the way through HS. The reason for this is that public high schools may or may not accepted your private school credits and he'd have to repeat them. In high school you can go from public to home school easily, but it's not easy to go from private home school to public school.

This site explains some of the issues with programs like K12.

Even if you decide to go that route with J~, I would encourage you to try and do E~ on your own for Jr. high.

If you go the private school route, it is highly recommended that you join HSLDA, which cost $100 a year, although they have a payment plan for $8 per month. Most ISP's and PSP's require this for membership. It's kind of like legal insurance and they have many benefits.

In our area, it appears membership to private support groups runs between $200 - $400.00 per year. These are usually paid in payments over 10 months. The benefits of a group are they file the affidavit, the keep you accountable, they provide support for the teacher, and activities and fellowship for the students. Some parents file their own affidavit with the state, but we have always belonged to a group. B~ had known her fellow graduates since 1st grade.

If you don't feel comfortable teaching this subject, there are video courses such as chalkdust
Other options would be to do it yourself and call someone for help as needed. This is what I did, one of the moms in our group was and engineer, so when I couldn't remember something or figure it out with the text I'd call her. Another family in our group would arrange to have her tutor her daughter through a difficult concept, which usually consisted of 30 to 60 minutes at the park or here home to get her over the hump and going on her own again. Our church offered tutoring for a while before youth group on Tuesday nights. There's lots of help all around.

I remember honor roll as being school specific, recognition of achievement and referred to your GPA. I believe there is AP (advanced placement) options, but since going directly to a 4yr college was not the path we perused, I don't know how this works, but I'm sure there's AP credits available.

Yes, but again this isn't the route we took. I know of three graduates two who got sports scholarships, and one an Airforce academy scholarship, which I'm assuming, was academic. I don't know if this is available through the public school avenues that I mentioned earlier. And the activities and academics they used did involve expense.

We also cannot afford a 4yr college, but there are other options. Currently, B~ is going to Fullerton College, which is a community college. Her classes and books this semester cost about $470.00. We will also be pursuing grants, and aid for books. The girl's grandmother gave them some money for education, which is currently in CD's. L~'s is growing, and B~ has been using the interest when hers matures. My mother worked her way through college, as did I for the years I attended. I think it makes you value what your getting, it means more to you and you put more effort into your classes when you pay for it yourself.

Yes, but not necessarily a daily basis. When they were younger, we went to the park days weekly and field trips monthly. Now most of the field trips have already been done so we go less often, probably quarterly or less, and we go to the park days, monthly, we also go to school events about six times a year. They have both taken dance classes; L~ currently takes guitar as well and is involved with the youth group at church. They may get lonely at times, but life is not perfect and we don't always get what we want. It has been our experience that too much socialization with peers can have negative aspects.

Yes, they do make friends. We just got back this week from spending a week with some friends in Colorado. They have three children ages 12-18 and they both interacted with all of them. Our 2nd day home L~ had a friend come spend the night. Friday night L~ has a birthday party for a friend from church, Sat. night she has a party for a friend from school, and Sunday we have a family gathering with friends from our Bible study, which will involve kids from JR high on up. This is a busy week friend wise, and sometimes it comes and goes in spurts. Last year L~, had dance, guitar, youth group Tue & Sun, and Biology, all involving her peers. B~ is not quite as social, but gets along well with adults. She count's many of the Mom's in the home school group as her friends, and asks them for advice when she's struggling with decisions. She recently started going to a college group on Thurs. nights at a different church, she also has a job at Hollister, and on Mon will start college. She had no problem getting along with fellow students or her professor last semester. She does better in small groups than with lots of people, but that's just part of how she's wired.