The Whole Truth

How wonderful. You will love homsechooling the kids, and they will love it also. I have been homeschooling for 14 years, was a single mom for many of those years, worked full time and ran a business. I am now working from home again and trying to get my blog off the ground but would never give up homeschooling unless it were for a very good reason. The best of luck to you…. *smiling ear to ear*. {twitter-cupcakes5}

You can do it, Alexis! You will get a lot of feedback like that, but you will also have a lot of support. Like anything, there are naysayers when you want to do something great and different. Homeschooling though is becoming more of a trend, and I am a huge supporter of it. Your kids will learn more, and they will have the flexibility to learn valuable things they will never learn at school… like how to be an entrepreneur or making a movie (like my son did). Your kids will learn MORE in LESS time, and they will learn hands-on. The most important thing is planning and setting a vision for the school year. In a lot of ways it’s like running a business… Set short term and long term goals. The kids know what to expect and it helps you stay on track. One more thing: It will take up some of your time, but you will be amazed how much they learn on their own. They’ll be teaching you things. You have a homeschooling friend in me!

http://www.modishplum.com

I’ve also been homeschooling for 14 years, and both my husband and I work from home now. Over the years, he’s worked at home off and on, and I’ve always been home.

Biggest thing to remember is you’re not teaching so much as tutoring and helping them learn on their own. Find a curriculum that needs little input from you. Remember it’s okay to switch whatever you start using – you’re not tied to it forever! not even for the whole school year.

Also, you will *not* screw up your kids. You have to try really hard to manage that.

I must say I’m kind of appalled she suggested that you make sure your kids learn how to get along with other kids…

Congrats on the big decision. I’ve been mulling over that very idea for some time now. My kids are in an good school district and doing well, but I don’t feel they are challenged enough with the number of students per teacher. I work from home now and I believe I’ll soon have the opportunity to home school my two oldest girls. I also believe that there is a personal touch I can give them that’s not available from any teacher.

We homeschooled my 10 yo daughter for two years. She just started “regular” school this past October. My 2 1/2 yo is at home, my husband stays at home, and I work at home. I am hoping she will want to be homeschooled. My 10 yo is so social. She just wants to be at school with a bunch of kids.

Anyway, I love the freedom from school’s schedule. The morning rush, school ending in the middle of the day, having to plan vacation around school time…hate it! I also loved that my daughter’s whole day wasn’t wasted. It takes schools 8 hours to teach 1 hour of anything. There was so much more I loved about it. I feel like I got to see that my daughter learns on her own. I used to attribute anything she learned to school, but they are really just learning all the time.

If I could give any advice:
-Be flexible. You may get over excited with planning a whole lot, and it might not work out the way you had planned it.
-Don’t start in right away with schooly stuff. Let them have time to regroup and breathe after they are done with school.
-You don’t need to do school for 8 hours a day. When we actually used curricula, we only spent about 1-2 hours 3-4 days a week on it, and my daughter says it was harder tha what she’s doing now.
-Read “Dumbing Us Down,” by John Taylor Gatto.
-Connect with other homeschoolers in your area. Your kids may get to a point where they feel isolated and freakish. Connecting with other homeschoolers will make them feel like it’s really cool.

I guess that’s all for now, LOL. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask. There’s a pretty great homeschool forum on the Mothering.com website. They have curriculum reviews and a bunch of other info.

Good luck and have fun!

I LOVE this topic!

I have five children and I homeschool, in addition to managing my husband’s practice and especially running my own business.

I do get help. I have childcare for the younger ones for 1.5 -2 hours in the morning with Grandma Delta, who used to have the kids play at her house, but decided to start coming here. She does alphabet and stories and practices reaing and can help with the youngest ones’ homework, plays games, etc. I focus on the older kids during that time.

For the older children, my favorite “aide” is live online classes at Lukeion.org. Classes in Greek and Roman history, art, culture, and language. My boys started auditing the classes when they were eight and nine even though they are high school classes, because they are so well done in picture and story, taught live by Amy and Regan Barr. My sixth grader is now taking his first high school class for credit from them — Greek and Latin word roots.

You can also hire Jr. Highers and High schoolers in your area inexpesively to do other things that help your investment. Our family found it much more fun to pay the local Jr. High viola whiz kid to help my boys practice their string instruments instead of me — it worked beautifully.

Approach homeschooling the same way you are already approaching everything else — decide where you really contribute the most and enjoy it together, and then outsource or automate the rest. Jubilee was an online program I was considering at one time, for instance. Starting the classes in January instead of September makes them really cheap, and they get to take as many as they can fit in for one price. Working intensively on homeschooling in spurts is an approach that can work well for some.

One thing I started doing last year, that I love, and so do the kids — sending them to public school in the afternoon for the “fun” or “soft” subjects. It works very well in our small town where a lot of the social life, and showing you care about your community, means getting involved in school. The kids have more friends and don’t feel left out of the school social events in our tiny town of 1500, and they get to do PE and play in band, etc. States vary greatly on how much they will let you “pick and choose” from public school offerings. That is one regard in which Oregon is excellent.

Don’t freak out if you don’t get all the books done in a curriculum. I have one girl who LOVES math workbooks and zooms through pages with no trouble focusing. I had one boy who could not make it through a single long division problem on his own or sit still for books for the life of him. I did “hot chocolate” math (our phrase for using math concepts in real life situations, born of a complicated problem involving making multiple cups of hot chocolate in a pan on the stove) with him. He skipped the first two years of math workbook and dove straight into third grade math book with no problem. All the hours of agony we were spared by that risking choice of skipping a math book for him for the first couple of years!

Setting up checklists of things they need to do (chores, instrument practice, online practice like at Mathscore.com (through Algebra) or Starfall.com for reading for the little ones) and then rewarding them for independent work on the checklists, with clear guidelines, works nicely. IT works even better if there is a reasonable consequence for not doing the list.

You’ll do great. Looking forward to hearing your ideas.

Hey Alexis,

Thought I’d share that, we too (wife and I) homeschool our son. My wife taught elementary in public school for 5 years.

Here’s some food for thought:
• Home-schooling is not bringing school to home. It’s more about experience, encouragement, interaction, hands-on, and nurturing… all while having fun learning with your kids.
• It takes less time to “school” one/two/three kids — than a class of 30.
• It will be challenging at times… but it’s worth it.
• People worry about learning good social skills… I gotta tell ya… the social skills at most public schools are not what I’m aiming for.
• We can still send our son to school for classes (even though he’s home-schooled). (i.e. PE, music class, art class, etc)
• Don’t feel like you have to buy EVERY home-school curriculum.
• We’re building (everyday) character, integrity, and leaving a legacy with our son — as we homeschool.
• Field trips rock! (which can be big or little — like grocery shopping)

So the times you called and I didn’t answer? I was checking math problems

My wife said to call us anytime! She’s willing to answer any questions and help with ideas, curriculum, etc (you know the number).

-Matt Clark | creative guru and design extraordinaire |
@imagedesigns

Alexis,

Wow. I hate to be naive here, but why would you choose homeschooling? Isn’t that mainly if you are religious? Or live in a rural area? Why don’t you find a good private school with small class size or a charter school?

My concern for you is that you are very busy. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to “outsource” the teaching to a professional teacher? This is probably the best way to use outsourcing to manage your businesses and life.
Maybe you should write a follow-up post about how you came to this decision, because it’s pretty life-altering for you and your kidlets.

Julie

Hi Alexis,
Just for further info, homeschooling is not just for religious reasons as it is misunderstood at times.
I am a single mom and work from home getting my info marketing and affiliate marketing business successful and profitable. Homeschooling is one of the best decisions I have ever made. My daughter loves it, and I would reiterate what some have already said, you will spend less time with making sure that your kids learn what they need to because of the one on one time and you will have an opportunity to get to know your kids as people. You are going to be amazed, is all I can say. That is not to say that everything will go perfectly and it will take some flexibility. One suggestion I would make is to read Deschooling Gently by Tammy Takahashi. There is a lot of support here in southern California. There is a group called the South Bay Homeschoolers. I, myself am on the west side near Marina Del Rey and Westchester and there is a group called CWHN (Culver City Westchester Homeschool Network and http://www.homeschoolla.org Please check them out and if you have any more questions, do not hesitate to ask. Continued success and Blessings for you and you kids.
Tracey

Hi Alexis,
I am a former teacher. I have seen children who have been homeschooled. They have a magnificent quality about them.

No need to worry about kids interacting with other kids or not. Children home schooled get to interact more with adults closely associated with your family. This situation will fall into place successfully and on its own.

I went to Grade 8 in a 1 room school that is now a farmer’s granary. The teacher had 8 grades to teach. The older kids would help teach the younger ones. Wealth of experience on this.

Obviously, the teacher could not teach us much in the way of content to each grade. What I recall mostly was that we learned how to learn on our own.

“We learned how to learn”. This is more important than your children learning a whole bunch of facts and things. Your adventure of learning to grow your business can be your guide to teach your children how to learn.

I think you will grow in this concept as well. Sorry, no good luck comments from me. I just know that you are going to do well. Patience is golden. Even if it seems you make a mistake on something you really have not made a mistake. It will be a necessary learning experience for you and your children to work through.

Sincerely, Glen Osborne

Alexis,
I have recently found you through my brother who is doing your personal family lawyers program, and my husband who has signed up for the Dave and Alexis program. I wanted to see what else you were up to. What fun to find the first bog on homeschooling, which I have done for the last 8 years!

You will never regret it…how could you regret spending time watching your children discover their world? I started after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I am fine now, but at the time I thought “What if I only had 5 years? I’d want my children to have every childhood memory with me…not Mrs. So and so. I want them to love what I love, to value what I value, and I don’t want to miss a minute of their lives!” Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me or my family. I realized that being a mom wasn’t about having a perfectly clean home and getting to go to lunc h with my girlfriends. I had been given a brain and I was expected to do a lot more with it.

Homeschooling came naturally. I have my secondary education degree, and now I get to use it with the kids I love most in the world. I have recently put my children in a private school, all five of them, as I have gone to work with my husband in the business we started 4 years ago. But here is my advice:

Get over people who feel threatened with you moving out of the mainstream. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and what you have decided to do as a mother.

Do not recreate school in your home. It’s impossible. If you want school, leave them in the public school. What you want to do is learn from life happening!

Realize that you can spend a whole week, or month, on a topic. You don’t need to hit everything ever day.

I found that I was happiest and most successful when I realized that my job was to teach the basics, reading, writing, and math, and with that knowledge, my children could delve into the music, science, history, or whatever. Like I heard once, Mom prepares the banquet and invites the children to the table. You just make it available.

Don’t ever wory about the “socialization” thing. My kids focused on academics during school hours, and then had all afternoon to socialize in karate, scouts, dance, piano, etc. If that parent is social, the child will be social. If the parent is reclusive, the child may be reclusive. School is not the only opportunity to learn to interact, by any stretch of the imagination!

Lastly, think about what you remember from your school days. It was the storytimes, it was the friendships, it was the caring teacher, it was the holiday traditions. You can provide all of that for your family…school is not the only place to get that.

You will do fine. Life ebbs and flows, try it now, and if it doesn’t work, you haven’t failed, you succeeded by following the promptings you had to look into it!

To our children!
Roxanne Thayne

Alexis,
I have recently found you through my brother who is doing your personal family lawyers program, and my husband who has signed up for the Dave and Alexis program. I wanted to see what else you were up to. What fun to find the first bog on homeschooling, which I have done for the last 8 years!

You will never regret it…how could you regret spending time watching your children discover their world? I started after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I am fine now, but at the time I thought “What if I only had 5 years? I’d want my children to have every childhood memory with me…not Mrs. So and so. I want them to love what I love, to value what I value, and I don’t want to miss a minute of their lives!” Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me or my family. I realized that being a mom wasn’t about having a perfectly clean home and getting to go to lunc h with my girlfriends. I had been given a brain and I was expected to do a lot more with it.

Homeschooling came naturally. I have my secondary education degree, and now I get to use it with the kids I love most in the world. I have recently put my children in a private school, all five of them, as I have gone to work with my husband in the business we started 4 years ago. But here is my advice:

Get over people who feel threatened with you moving out of the mainstream. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and what you have decided to do as a mother.

Do not recreate school in your home. It’s impossible. If you want school, leave them in the public school. What you want to do is learn from life happening!

Realize that you can spend a whole week, or month, on a topic. You don’t need to hit everything ever day.

I found that I was happiest and most successful when I realized that my job was to teach the basics, reading, writing, and math, and with that knowledge, my children could delve into the music, science, history, or whatever. Like I heard once, Mom prepares the banquet and invites the children to the table. You just make it available.

Don’t ever wory about the “socialization” thing. My kids focused on academics during school hours, and then had all afternoon to socialize in karate, scouts, dance, piano, etc. If that parent is social, the child will be social. If the parent is reclusive, the child may be reclusive. School is not the only opportunity to learn to interact, by any stretch of the imagination!

Lastly, think about what you remember from your school days. It was the storytimes, it was the friendships, it was the caring teacher, it was the holiday traditions. You can provide all of that for your family…school is not the only place to get that.

You will do fine. Life ebbs and flows, try it now, and if it doesn’t work, you haven’t failed, you succeeded by following the promptings you had to look into it!

To our children!
Roxanne Thayne

Alexis,
I have recently found you through my brother who is doing your personal family lawyers program, and my husband who has signed up for the Dave and Alexis program. I wanted to see what else you were up to. What fun to find the first bog on homeschooling, which I have done for the last 8 years!

You will never regret it…how could you regret spending time watching your children discover their world? I started after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I am fine now, but at the time I thought “What if I only had 5 years? I’d want my children to have every childhood memory with me…not Mrs. So and so. I want them to love what I love, to value what I value, and I don’t want to miss a minute of their lives!” Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me or my family. I realized that being a mom wasn’t about having a perfectly clean home and getting to go to lunc h with my girlfriends. I had been given a brain and I was expected to do a lot more with it.

Homeschooling came naturally. I have my secondary education degree, and now I get to use it with the kids I love most in the world. I have recently put my children in a private school, all five of them, as I have gone to work with my husband in the business we started 4 years ago. But here is my advice:

Get over people who feel threatened with you moving out of the mainstream. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and what you have decided to do as a mother.

Do not recreate school in your home. It’s impossible. If you want school, leave them in the public school. What you want to do is learn from life happening!

Realize that you can spend a whole week, or month, on a topic. You don’t need to hit everything ever day.

I found that I was happiest and most successful when I realized that my job was to teach the basics, reading, writing, and math, and with that knowledge, my children could delve into the music, science, history, or whatever. Like I heard once, Mom prepares the banquet and invites the children to the table. You just make it available.

Don’t ever wory about the “socialization” thing. My kids focused on academics during school hours, and then had all afternoon to socialize in karate, scouts, dance, piano, etc. If that parent is social, the child will be social. If the parent is reclusive, the child may be reclusive. School is not the only opportunity to learn to interact, by any stretch of the imagination!

Lastly, think about what you remember from your school days. It was the storytimes, it was the friendships, it was the caring teacher, it was the holiday traditions. You can provide all of that for your family…school is not the only place to get that.

You will do fine. Life ebbs and flows, try it now, and if it doesn’t work, you haven’t failed, you succeeded by following the promptings you had to look into it!

To our children!
Roxanne Thayne

Alexis,
I have recently found you through my brother who is doing your personal family lawyers program, and my husband who has signed up for the Dave and Alexis program. I wanted to see what else you were up to. What fun to find the first bog on homeschooling, which I have done for the last 8 years!

You will never regret it…how could you regret spending time watching your children discover their world? I started after I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I am fine now, but at the time I thought “What if I only had 5 years? I’d want my children to have every childhood memory with me…not Mrs. So and so. I want them to love what I love, to value what I value, and I don’t want to miss a minute of their lives!” Cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me or my family. I realized that being a mom wasn’t about having a perfectly clean home and getting to go to lunc h with my girlfriends. I had been given a brain and I was expected to do a lot more with it.

Homeschooling came naturally. I have my secondary education degree, and now I get to use it with the kids I love most in the world. I have recently put my children in a private school, all five of them, as I have gone to work with my husband in the business we started 4 years ago. But here is my advice:

Get over people who feel threatened with you moving out of the mainstream. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and what you have decided to do as a mother.

Do not recreate school in your home. It’s impossible. If you want school, leave them in the public school. What you want to do is learn from life happening!

Realize that you can spend a whole week, or month, on a topic. You don’t need to hit everything ever day.

I found that I was happiest and most successful when I realized that my job was to teach the basics, reading, writing, and math, and with that knowledge, my children could delve into the music, science, history, or whatever. Like I heard once, Mom prepares the banquet and invites the children to the table. You just make it available.

Don’t ever wory about the “socialization” thing. My kids focused on academics during school hours, and then had all afternoon to socialize in karate, scouts, dance, piano, etc. If that parent is social, the child will be social. If the parent is reclusive, the child may be reclusive. School is not the only opportunity to learn to interact, by any stretch of the imagination!

Lastly, think about what you remember from your school days. It was the storytimes, it was the friendships, it was the caring teacher, it was the holiday traditions. You can provide all of that for your family…school is not the only place to get that.

You will do fine. Life ebbs and flows, try it now, and if it doesn’t work, you haven’t failed, you succeeded by following the promptings you had to look into it!

To our children!
Roxanne Thayne

And you think I’m crazy!!

Seriously.. you know how to do this.. find the folks who do it well…figure out what they do and model their actions! Simple

I’ve spend some time at my kids’ school. Great teachers and kids but they waste so much time (just because there are so many kids–this is not a criticism)… you can get done in 2 hours what they take 6 to do!!..

go for it..

Ben

Good luck on your homeschooling journey… one of the best places to start is by connecting with other local homeschoolers to get a sense for what style best suits your family – unschooling, public charter homeschool, online academy, etc. I know you’re somewhere in the LA area… not sure where but if you’re anywhere close to South Bay LA, I’d start with this yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SBHN-talk/ They are a great group of families that will help you sort through your options and they have a weekly park day for “socialization”. Sorry, I had to throw it in quotes because its such a hot topic issue when people mention homeschooling… sigh!

I homeschool with 4 kiddos (8, 6, 4, 2), twins on the way, and running several websites. It definitely can be done… some suggestions include:

1) slowly ease into a routine so that you have set time to work and set time to be with the kids
2) remember that as their mom, you know better than anyone what your kids need to learn best – don’t get sucked into a one-size fits all homeschool approach – it will just stress you out and contribute to unnecessary battles b/w you and the kiddos
3) Don’t forget how much your kids will learn by being included in some of your work day… Can you do math by having them help with some accounting, english with marketing or customer relations, etc. The real life ed they’ll get by just being in that enviro will far supersede anything a formal school could offer.

Good Luck and e-mail me if you need more help/suggestions. I no longer live in LA but still have an extensive network there:)

Hi Alexis,

I live in the UK and maybe like the USA there is a mixed view on homeschooling and a lot of misinformation or plain ignorance.

My daughter is now into her first year at a local college doing a National Diploma in Art and Design, the youngest student they have ever taken on and she’s doing great. She was homeschooled through choice when we moved home several years ago. Previously she’d attended a local private school with exceptional academic track record and she’d been very happy there. The school certainly instilled a “hard work” ethos in their kids and they were all a pretty disciplined lot. So maybe this stood us in good stead when we came to homeschool? Whatever the reason we had a great time and she thrived. I also ran a home based business so this worked really well with being a home schooling mum.

People were worried about her “socialisation skills” and whether she’d get “lonely and cut off”. What total nonsense. At home she could choose who she wanted to spend time with unlike school. We got out and about when the stately homes, museums, art galleries and so forth were less busy. She mixed with people of ALL AGES – so now she’s great with older people unlike many school taught kids.

She loves her own space, is very independent and very disciplined. So much so that she sat exams a year ago after studying for only 6 months that would take school kids two years to do!

Alexis – just go for it. You’ll so much enjoy that precious, special time with your kids. It never comes round again. Do what your heart tells you is right for your kids. Maybe you will find it doesn’t suit them so well – nothing is cast in stone – you can get them back into mainstream schooling. However, I think that you will see them thrive like never before. You will also reinforce a great bond with them. My daughter and I are good friends as well as mum and daughter. She knows she can always talk to me honestly and openly. I find it so sad when I see/hear of friends of hers at college etc who have no relationship at all with their parents.

I’m not going to wish you good luck because you won’t need it!
Happy Home Schooling.

[...] It is March Break Week here in Toronto. Lots of activities for children going on and I am enjoying participating in some of them with Safia. I homeschool her and was thrilled to find Alexis Martin Neely, a million dollar entrepreneur also homeschooling her children. Check out the comments on her blog.  [...]