AmerLisa

Interesting Izibear. I'm not sure that I'd have the patience for homeschooling and of course as CB pointed out...perhaps I need to learn grammar. Anyway, I do believe that public education has a lot of shortfalls. I will be looking at private education soon for my daughter. Although from what I can see its hard to find anything that isn't Christian based or Montessori.

rincewind

No offence taken

If you are interested in private schooling with no religious tutoring, there is a school that provides that. My wife may remember the name of it and I think they have places all over the States.

Celtic_Angel

I totally agree with you...i'm against homeschooling...if you feel that the school system is letting your children down then get involved or supplement their schooling.
I have a friend who was a teacher and now stays home to homeschool her two kids, she does a wonderful job with her kids but they're missing out on the whole wonderful experience of school, friends , it's an important part of growing up , warts an all

Bob

that's true, you make some of your best mates from school...

rincewind

And you learn how to communicate with the opposite sex.

"Alwight luv? Corrrrr. Can I smell your gym bag???"

Bob

naaa....that's after school

TouristTrap

No. Because the majority of people who are opposed to it, are ignorant when it comes to the subject.

pcave

Finally an intelligent comment from some who has knowledge and experience of the subject. I have so far found out how I stand legally in Texas, which was a pleasant surprise. Yes, I can take my kids out of school when I want and there is nothing the state can do about it. Secondly, I have starte to research the subject both on the internet and at the library.

The suggestion that this is the lazy option taken by some parents is to me "bizarre". It must be easier to send you kids to school. I want better, not easy. I have 5 large books to study over the next two weeks as the frirst step in preparing. One is "The well trained mind, a guide to a classical education at home" by Jessie and Susan Wise. The others are intro's to home schooling.

As my kids are English I want gear the curriculum to the English National Curriculum (we assume our assylum is a temporary one). I am amazed at how much stuff is out there and how many people are doing it. Even to the extent of classes offered in some schools for homeschooled kids.

Any other tips from you would be welcome.

pcave

We have found that where we live in Katy, Texas. There is the british school but the first years fees for our two would be around 35,000 dollars and rising at about 8% a year. Since we have to pay that ourselves we are not keen.

QUOTE=AmerLisa]Interesting Izibear. I'm not sure that I'd have the patience for homeschooling and of course as CB pointed out...perhaps I need to learn grammar. Anyway, I do believe that public education has a lot of shortfalls. I will be looking at private education soon for my daughter. Although from what I can see its hard to find anything that isn't Christian based or Montessori.[/QUOTE]

hayley82

I know someone who did this and it worked so well for them. She was really dedicated and the kids liked it. She also made sure they did things to mix with other kids, like dance classes, gymnastics, martial arts etc.
If you plan on going back to England when they are still at school/college age I think it's a great idea to teach them 'English stuff' aswell, so they don't feel so freaked out when you move!

jjmb

If you want the kids to keep to the UK schooling standards then there are plenty of CD- roms on available and some of them offer testing over the internet.

To be honest I always moan about the schooling over here but then my kids were lucky to have been educated in the Perthshire. However, my sisters kids all attended the crap schools in Medway and you going have to walk down Chatham high street to see what education they received. I don't think I have seen so many young girls with babies in my life.

TouristTrap

Ah, 'The Well Trained Mind' is an excellent book, one which is worth forking out $$ for, and one which I possess. It has come in very handy over the years. We follow the classical approach, and the book is an excellent resource. Even though I'm not a Brit, I got a British education (grew up in the colonies you know ), and my kids will be writing Brit exams when the time comes.

There is a Well-Trained-Mind forum:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/

http://www.vegsource.com/homeschool/

is another great resource with boards for any method you might want to follow, including a secular board.

Bear in mind that many of the sites you find are religious, but there is always good information you can glean off them.

Another one that I am particularly fond of is : www.classical-homeschooling.org , since that seems to be the approach toward which you're heading

It is pretty thorough, along the lines of the Well Trained Mind, and has excellent resources, including a link with over 1000 books geared for every age/grade level. (Note that there is some religion, but you can spit out the 'bones', if you're not that way inclined).

http://www.geocities.com/sueincyprus/index.html is geared toward Brit homeschoolers, with some good information (don't know if they're religious or not)

Here you can find some more info, and support groups in your area maybe?

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/...pportLists.htm

Your local library is often a great resource for support groups and activities. If you don't like the one group, move on till you find one that you do like.

There are classes available for any subject under the sun, basically found throughout the US. For example, two former high school teachers in my area, have 'labs' with 8th grades and above, twice a week. Your local Museum of Science probably has science classes once a week/month for homeschoolers (ours meets once a month and they do various activities geared to elementary age homeschoolers).

They have group music classes available, art classes, latin classes, drama clubs, the YMCA locally has a Tuesday morning gymnastics class for homeschoolers..etc..etc..

There are ice-skating social meetings for teens at the local rink once a month, bowling once a week etc..etc......many times you'll find that there is a mix of religious/non-religious kids meeting, with the intention of having fun!

There is literally so much available, that if we didn't severely restrict their activities, they'd never open a book.

Good luck

Forgot to add:

Your Brit exam board should have the syllabi for the coming years posted on its website, so that you can follow along (if they're anywhere near writing GCSE's when they return of course).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ is a good site to peruse, and if you enter home education in their search engine, you'll find some articles on home education in Britain.

CaliforniaBride

Bit of a sweeping generalisation.

TouristTrap

Is it? How much research have you done on the subject?

dclay

You seem ignorant on the subject of homeschooling and well as rude.

QUOTE=CaliforniaBride]Bit of a sweeping generalisation.[/QUOTE]