New Here!!

**Supergirl9801** · 01-19-2012, 01:10 PM

Hey Everyone...new here. My name is Rachael....I have two little ones...Julia 7 and Ethan 4. I have Julia enrolled and hope to contribute!

**MamaToHerRoo** · 01-20-2012, 11:57 AM

Hi Rachael,
Welcome to Time4Learning. My daughter was about the same age as Julia when we started homeschooling and Time4Learning. Five years later we are still at it and I am already looking into where to go when we age out of Time4Learning. I was not a homeschooling fan to begin with, in fact, I thought homeschoolers were totally weird and I certainly didn't want to be one of "them". Now I can't imagine school any other way. We have such freedom and flexibility!
Welcome to the grand adventure of homeschooling! Feel free to ask any questions you might have, and certainly contribute!
Happy Homeschooling!

**ebarczak** · 02-08-2012, 12:09 PM

Hi everyone,

I just registered today because I'm very seriously considering home schooling my daughter (currently in 10th grade in a public high school). Yes it's late in the game, but she's very bright and over the last year or two has become frustrated with public school. I was educated in public school a (large) number of years ago, and I admit I'm frustrated myself because I don't think she's getting half the education I received.

I've spent a lot of time reading books and talking to the few people I know who are teaching their children. However, the families I'm acquainted with have never enrolled their kids in public school, so their experiences have been much different to ours. I'm working very hard to get my head around the concept and execution of home school. It's vastly different in so many ways from what we're used to -- sometimes I feel quite confused about how it all works, because at times it sounds too good to be true!

I'm intending to let my daughter finish the current academic year in public school. I would love to hear from other parents whose children have spent several years in public school before being home schooled -- about how they dealt with their schools and districts; about whether or not they've joined home school groups; about how they went about deciding on curriculum (or not). I'd especially like to hear from parents of high school aged students because I'm finding the curriculum choices rather challenging.

Thanks in advance. Have a great day.

Elly

**MamaToHerRoo** · 02-15-2012, 08:10 AM

Elly,
My daughter is 11, we started homeschooling middle of 1st grade year, so we are in our 5th year. I would recommend homeschool groups very highly. I'm not sure we would have made it the first year if I had not had that support as I was not overjoyed about homeschooling. I certainly understand your dilemma regarding curriculum choices. Though we are not to high school yet, I am looking at what is available. I really can't help you with that at this point, I just haven't done enough research yet, as our timeline still has a couple of years until high school.
I will tell you that homeschooling does look too good to be true from the outside, but once you get into it, it just seems to work, at least for us. Part of what makes it easier and look so good is that you are removing a lot of variables. No changing classes, no getting used to a new teacher's style for each subject, and each year, no bullies, individualized instruction so that your child only has to deal with her own timeline and her own needs. Additionally, you save time during the day by not having to change classes, wait in lines, or the commute to and from the school building each day. While those things seem minor, they add up to minutes and hours of a traditional school day, time that is not being spent on instruction.
Unless you or your daughter are heart set on finishing the school year in public school, then take the plunge into homeschooling as soon as you are ready. There's no time like the present!
Let us know how things work out for you.