Taking kids out of PS mid-year, how to transition to home.

[brinalicious]

I have two sons, 6 and 9, who I will begin homeschooling (God willing) starting in April. I have spoken hypothetically about it with my sons, and they are very excited about the prospect, but I haven't actually told them that we are going to start doing it yet. I don't want them to "give up" on what they are doing in school right now, since it's still a month away.

Anyway, my question is: when should I tell them, their teacher, and their friends? What advice can you give me about making this transition easier on them?

I have some curriculum goals in mind for them that prevent us from having an extended period without doing any schooling, but I want to give them adequate time to adjust. Thanks, in advance, for any advice you have about this.

[One_Girl]

I pulled my dd out at Christmas break. We talked about it for two weeks before hand and talked about what we would do after the break. Some people had recommended a decompression time, but I found that our Christmas break was more than enough time for that. My dd loves routine so we do the same subjects at the same time each day and that has made the transition very easy. A teacher I worked with did the same thing for her son when she homeschooled him because she he was the kind of child who wouldn't do work at home without a lot of fight otherwise. If your kids like routine or you think that they may be resistant to doing schoolwork at home, then I recommend setting up a routine and having that be a non-negotiable part of life. After the first two weeks she did have a few days where she resisted doing work and tried to get me to let her play and watch movies instead. Once she understood that I wasn't going to let her stop doing school work just because she is at home she stopped pushing for playing all day.

[momo7]

Well...I pulled two of my children out one day and the next day we were HSing. Another child I have I took him out one day and waited two weeks to start HSing. I think it depends.

If you actually like his teacher(s) then you would tell them...if you don't like them you don't owe them anything. If you have talked to your children about it already, then I would gradually get them ready to do it.

IT sounds as if your children are really open to the idea and that is half the battle right there. It really doesn't matter what their teacher(s) think. You would only be telling them as a courtesy. However, it is better to work with them if they are open to your decision. Their advice on your children's academic "weak spots" will be invaluable.

[blizzard_babe]

From a teacher's perspective, I'd give the teacher a week's notice, because if your kids have any longer-term projects going, they might want to give them extra time on them so they can have the satisfaction of producing a finished product... or so they could send the unfinished product home with them so they could keep working on it if they/you chose to do so.

I know it was hard for me when kids would move away with no notice, and I'd be sitting there with a beautiful, but half-finished piece of work. I would forward it to their next school (never had a child leave to be HSed), but always wondered if the student wished they had had a chance to finish what they had been working on. I know that, as a student, I always LOVED it when I finally had a nice, neat, finished product on my hands, and leaving things half-finished never felt quite "right."

[Lillian J]

It's pretty rare to be able to go right into studies when leaving school without plenty of decompression/deschooling time for everyone, parents included. It's a great investment - it makes a remarkable difference in the way it will go. At their ages, any curriculum goals can easily come together quite quickly later - you'll have all the time in the world. Lillian

[brinalicious]

Another question.

Thank you all for your responses! I decided to tell their teachers because their parent/student/teacher conferences are coming up and I want their feedback about what they think needs the most attention--although, I think I am already aware of this, but could be surprised.

As a follow up question, what did you do about starting new curriculum mid year? I have priced all the curriculum that I want and it's a lot of money to spend just for a few more months of their grade level. Do you have any suggestions on this front?

[chantald]

I pulled my son out without notice last year in January.. he was in a miserable situation that was worsening every day and I gave no notice..

Be ready for negative comments and for them to try and change your mind..We spent a good month just decompressing..getting out of the public school mindset and learning how to live with eachother 24/7..

I didn't buy a boxed curriculum.. I got a math curriculum, language arts and history.. most of it used off of homeschoolclassifieds.com. We switched math 3 times until we found one that worked for his learning style and my teaching style and we spent the rest of the school year catching him up to where he needed to be to use those curriculums..

Since my state required quite a bit of reporting.. I wrote up his IHIP as if it was a full year and stated at the top that material to be covered would reflect his X number of days IN public school at X school and also restated this on his first quarterly that I sent in (which was the 3rd quarterly report)

[dannic]

You could either being the curriculum and continue with it til you're finished (one of the perks of HS is that you don't have to follow the public school yr) or give you and your kids time to ease into things by playing, reading, crafting, lots of free time and outings for the rest of the year and begin your curriculum later. (I have a friend who just pulled her kids and this is what she is doing.)

[brinalicious]

I wasn't planning to buy a boxed curriculum either. I have picked out individual math, writing, reading, grammar, history, etc., too. I'll look into the site you suggested, since it would be great to get some of it used. I guess it will be a work in progress . Thanks for the input!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by dannic

You could either being the curriculum and continue with it til you're finished (one of the perks of HS is that you don't have to follow the public school yr) or give you and your kids time to ease into things by playing, reading, crafting, lots of free time and outings for the rest of the year and begin your curriculum later. (I have a friend who just pulled her kids and this is what she is doing.)

You'll be able to think in much broader and more realistic terms than grade level, age, or schedules. I'd suggest not buying anything at all at first, but just taking a nice breather together, starting to closely observe each child's knowledge, skills, strengths, and ways of learning best - they'll most likely be different from what you've come to believe on the basis of their school experiences. Then you can pick up a little of this and a little of that as you go along. Don't worry about any of them "getting behind" - you'll find that it just doesn't work like that, but it takes some time and distance from the school experience before it can all fall into place.

- Lillian