Would you homeschool differently if you knew your dc would be going to school in a couple years?

[Neldavi]

I'm just starting to homeschool my ds, who just turned 6. He's never been to school, but I'm probably going to be enrolling in nursing school in a couple of years, at which point I may need to put my kids in school/daycare (I also have a 3 y.o. and a newborn).

So I'm reading about all kinds of homeschool philosophies and getting excited and making a plan, but then I think about him having to be thrown into 3rd or 4th grade and should I, for example, do some formal grammar with him so he'll have a clue when he's in school. At this point I'm leaning towards a loose Charlotte Mason approach, which doesn't deal with grammar until age 10 or so, which is just fine by me. There's other things I can think of, too, that aren't necessarily things that I would cover by choice, but that might make school easier for him down the line if we covered them now, yk?

So I'm just looking for some advice. Should I just not worry about it and figure he'll catch up or figure it out once he's in school, or would you keep school in mind and do things differently?

Thanks for any advice, Sarah

[lach]

I wouldn't worry about it, but at the same time forewarned is forearmed. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Something like that.

I wouldn't change what you wanted to do drastically, but I'd also keep an eye on your district's standards and what they expect kids in each grade to know. Your district probably has a website that lists everything. You can get complete curriculum workbooks at a bookstore, and look through it every once and a while to see what a child that age is "supposed" to know. And you don't have to freak out and make him do the whole book over the summer or anything, but you can just get an idea of what a 1st grader (2nd grader, 3rd grader) is learning at most public schools, and see if you can work into your teaching the major points.

The reality is that if he went to one public school and you moved and he transferred to a different district, the two schools would most likely have done slightly different things and he'd probably have areas that he needed to catch up in, and areas that he would be ahead in. Two different districts, for example, could do math totally and completely different ways. Or one studied earth science in 3rd grade and another one biology. So, no, I don't think that you need to lose sleep or anything over keeping him exactly at grade level. But, since you know that this is something that you will probably be doing it doesn't hurt to keep it in mind over the next few years.

[mom2ponygirl]

When we first started homeschooling we thought we'd try it for a year. We wanted her to be able to fit back into the school system as easily as possible. Well, that lasted part of a year. Recreating school at home wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I think if you are going to go to all of the trouble of homeschooling, you should strive for great. You may not get there, but you get better all the time!

We began to diverge more and more from standard grade level curriculum and think more about investigating interests and about what a good education meant to us and how best to help our daughter on that journey. This year our daughter was interested in school. She attended half-time high school - on paper as an 8th grader but taking high school classes. She hadn't been in school since K and hadn't gone through all the grade level curricula, taken any notes, listened to lectures, written many formal papers, etc. Despite it being a rigorous school, she was totally underwhelmed with the challenges of school. She found much to enjoy and 2 of 4 classes were great. During the others she completed a manga novel, LOL. She's earned straight 'A's. She decided to homeschool full-time next year and is excitedly planning hers studies. Astrobiology anyone?

So, I would say - homeschool how you want while you can. If your kid loves to learn, can read, can have a little patience with themselves when figuring out a new problem, they won't have any problem with school when the time comes. It will be a fun social adventure. Mine felt a bit like a cultural anthropologist or psychologist trying to understand why her classmates hated school or hated to learn anything hard or why they behaved in certain ways.

On a more general note, I always think you make a mistake when you make a decision based on fear. Don't be afraid to homeschool the way you think would work with your child. You know your child better than anyone. Trust yourself, do it your way, adjust as necessary (adjustments are the norm when you homeschool!) and have fun. Worry about 3 years from now, a few years from now.

Good luck!

[LauraLoo]

After HS'ing our ds for the past 2 years, he has decided to go back to school for 4th grade. So, while I didn't know that he was going back to school when we started, we are now in a situation where he is going back.

If you are certain that your ds will go back to school, I would just look at your school district standards and keep them in mind as you go forward. I don't know much about the CM approach; we've been following a loose classical method. I'm not suggesting that you do "school at home," or even changing your method, but knowing what the school expects may help you softly weave it into your approach so there isn't a huge gap when he goes to school.

I would also suggest that when are ready to make the switch that you ask for a class observation. I did this on two days - one with a class at his current grade (3rd) and the grade that he'll be in next year (4th.) In our situation and because of our state testing in 4th grade, there are some writing & essay skills & technical vocabulary that I'll need to brush him up on this summer. The 3rd graders were also being taught test taking skills which as HS'ers we don't focus on. So, there were some things that ds wasn't being exposed to at home, but easily taught before he goes to school.
Since your ds won't have gone to school before this, you might also see if he can observe as well. Sometimes kids pick up on other things that may be important to them to know in advance.

HTH!

[Linda on the move]

My kids homeschooled in a relaxed way until they were 10 and 12 and then they started school.

On one hand, I recommend homeschooling in a way that is peaceful and blissful to you and your kids. At the same time, I'd keep them moving along in the 3Rs.

We did mostly hands on math and games, and I enrolled them in a math tutoring center for a few months before they started school. They both do fine in math.

Both my kids were late readers, but were reading well by the time they started school, which carried them well in their other subjects.

I have two regrets. I wish we had done more hand writing because it was very hard for my kids to get up to speed (literally) with how quickly they needed to be able to write. One of my DDs has some mild special needs and I wish that I had created a paper trail for her. Homeschooling can easily mask mild special needs, so if there are any red flags, I'd recommend getting evaluations, specialists, therapists, etc.

There are a lot of things that my kids never did much of at home, like grammar, that they've learned at school. It's worked out fine. Sometimes they are really learning when most of the other kids are reviewing, but I wouldn't trade all the time we spent in nature, reading books, and making crafts for my children to be learning less now that they are in school!

[CrazyCatLady]

My dd is 5 and we're wrapping up her kindergarten year at home. There is always a good chance that she'll have to go to school someday (I'm single, broke, have health problems, etc). So what I do is unschool at home 95% of the time. Every once in a while I throw in a worksheet or something if she's interested. Then during the summers she works with a family member who is also a special needs teacher. The goal is to do our best to keep her somewhere near where she needs to be for her grade.

But with my unschooling philosophy and my dd's special needs, she is still pretty behind. So worse come to worse, she would just have to be held back a grade if she ever goes to public school (she's young for her grade anyways). But hopefully we can keep homeschooling, and if not hopefully the tutor can catch her up enough. I'll deal with the fall out of looking like a bad parent in the eyes of the public school system if and when I have to. I'm not worrying about it for now.

So my answer is yes, I do some things differently knowing that she may be in ps someday. Because if the threat of that were less, we would just unschool 100% and I wouldn't bother paying for a tutor to "catch her up". I would just let her do her own thing and learn stuff when she's good and ready too.

[iamme]

I knew my dc was going to school after years of hsing, and yes, it changed my plans-but just slightly. I looked online at the districts scope and sequence, and objectives. I decided to be sure she was at grade level in the three 'R's. Well, she ended up being above and beyond her peers on all subjects. Thankfully she has decided to come home to continue schooling.

If I knew my dc was entering the system at an earlier age, I would still focus on the three R's, but ever so gently. The first 12 weeks of each year(roughly) are review of last years ending studies. Something like the last three months of 2nd grade =the first few months of 3rd grade.

hth

[elizawill]

I wouldn't worry about it. If you decide to send your son to school down the road, you would only need a few months to work with him probably. He is going to be on level or ahead in some areas naturally, and the couple of areas he may need help with will be easy to bring him up to speed.

[accidental_hs'er]

I probably would, a little

I feel relatively confident that my dks would be ahead in most areas in school but my ds(7) is "behind" on writing and we've been pretty lax with math. If he were going to school in a year or two I would catch him up with math and work really hard at improving his writing. Our local school is not very homeschool friendly and I would hate to see him centered out. They wouldn't care that he was reading at a high school level. They would consider it negligent parenting that he still likes writing in capital letters.

Michelle

[craft_media_hero]

No, I wouldn't do things differently. I feel like even though we're really relaxed and don't put in a lot of "school" hours, my girl is getting a pretty robust education. We're also involved in a charter program, so I get feedback and know that she's right on in keeping up w/ grade level expectations---except for maybe writing/spelling which I'm not worried about because I think a big part of it is just maturity, more exposure to words as she becomes a fluent reader, and we're going to do a little bit of spelling formally starting next year.

I guess if I felt she was slipping behind her grade level expectations I would re-evaluate, and if I felt like we were doing everything we can at her own normal developmental pace, then I would probably "hold her back" for a year just to give her a little more time to grow. I've thought about doing this anyways because the expectations get pretty hefty around 3rd and I've always felt like she started school a year too early anyways.

[eclipse]

The only thing I might work on more heavily in my family is handwriting. I think, at the elementary level, as long as their reading and math skills are around grade level, nothing else really matters. Whatever history or science curriculum is being used in a school is usually very easy to jump into wherever they are - and homeschooled kids seem to have a good grasp of those subjects even without a formal curriculum, since most homeschool families that aren't using a set curriculum for them are instead following their kids' interests in those subjects - and most kids have asked questions like "how does a seed turn into a flower" and "where is our house on this map?"

So, I guess if I had a child who was struggling to learn to read or do simple math, I would be more concerned about it if I knew they were going to school in a year or two and act earlier to get them assistance in those areas. If they are generally good at grasping math (for example) concepts, I wouldn't be concerned if we were following some math rabbit trails rather than staying with a grade level curriculum - because kids who grasp the concepts usually have an easier time with things like addition and subtraction facts. If I had a child that I absoloutely knew would be headed to fifth grade and didn't know their times tables by heart, I would work on that specific skill so they had an easier time when they started. But if I thought that they might, sometime in the future, end up at school, I wouldn't drill math facts - because by the time school happened, they might have picked them up on their own.

[Neldavi]

Thanks to everyone for such helpful and thoughtful replies! I'm NAK, so can't write much, but you've all helped me organize my thoughts on the subject.

I'm learning already that I can come up with a plan but when I implement it is when I make adjustments according to what actually works for us. So I'll just take it day by day for now, keeping school in the back of my mind for the future.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by Neldavi

I'm just starting to homeschool my ds, who just turned 6. He's never been to school, but I'm probably going to be enrolling in nursing school in a couple of years, at which point I may need to put my kids in school/daycare (I also have a 3 y.o. and a newborn).

I just made it through nursing school, and homeschooled the whole time. It really went fine until the end, when I got pregnant with bad morning sickness and exhaustion on top of it all. My kids were 3y and 4m when I started prerequisites, and 6y and 3y when I graduated. Another of the students in my class also homeschooled at least one of her kids, and one of the instructors, who completed her MSN during our time in nursing school, was also a single mom who homeschooled her kids (who are older and presumably more capable of working on their own!).

This isn't meant as a guilt trip or anything! Everyone ends up having different studying needs and so forth, and DH works from home so childcare during school wasn't an issue for me. Just reassurance that it isn't totally undoable if that's what you want!

In any case, to answer the original question...

Many homeschoolers take a more relaxed view towards reading and writing. In the long run, this generally works out fine, and is quite likely healthier in terms of developing a good attitude towards reading and writing. However, since public school relies heavily on reading and writing for instruction and assessment (while a homeschooling parent is more free to read things aloud or listen to oral responses), being able to read and write roughly at grade level will be more important.

It's probably best to have Math roughly at grade level, too.

For social studies and science, if I were planning to put a child in school, I'd probably pay more attention to the state standards than I would if I were planning on homeschooling more long-term, but since these subjects don't tend to build on previous years to the same extent as math and language arts and vary more across the country, I don't think they'd be at a huge disadvantage if what you had covered in previous years wasn't exactly the same.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by ocelotmom

For social studies and science, if I were planning to put a child in school, I'd probably pay more attention to the state standards than I would if I were planning on homeschooling more long-term, but since these subjects don't tend to build on previous years to the same extent as math and language arts and vary more across the country, I don't think they'd be at a huge disadvantage if what you had covered in previous years wasn't exactly the same.

From my earlier post, this is what I found during my observations. The science and social studies/history units taught in school were independent and nothing from a previous year was necessary to know in order to be successful the following year.

And, even though I had some concerns with the writing components that would be required, the 4th grade teacher assured me that every year she has new students and that every student comes in at a different level with writing/language arts abilities, so she was accustomed to working with varying levels. Math, however, seemed to be the area where grade level abilities were expectations.

[NightOwlwithowlet]

We had planned on home schooling for a year. So I had DS's progress checked every three months by the first grader teacher at his former private school. He goes to the school for music and art class. She spends 30 to 45 minute with him. It's not a test, she listens to him read, they play some math games and I bring her samples of his work. She looks at his journal, math work sheets, etc.

It gives me an idea of where he should be if we send him back to that private school. Occasionally, I ask my friends with kids in PS in the same grade if I can look at their school/homework. From what I can tell the standards of PS vary greatly from district to district even in the same state.

[BeanyMama]

I wouldn't, no. We have an eclectic, relaxed style but I try to keep them at or above the standards for their grades.

Have fun making your plan!

[Neldavi]

Originally Posted by ocelotmom

I just made it through nursing school, and homeschooled the whole time. It really went fine until the end, when I got pregnant with bad morning sickness and exhaustion on top of it all. My kids were 3y and 4m when I started prerequisites, and 6y and 3y when I graduated. Another of the students in my class also homeschooled at least one of her kids, and one of the instructors, who completed her MSN during our time in nursing school, was also a single mom who homeschooled her kids (who are older and presumably more capable of working on their own!).

This isn't meant as a guilt trip or anything! Everyone ends up having different studying needs and so forth, and DH works from home so childcare during school wasn't an issue for me. Just reassurance that it isn't totally undoable if that's what you want!

Yeah, I do have it in the back of my head that I'll be able to just keep homeschooling while doing nursing school. I've heard it's possible, I just don't know if I'm the person to do it. I just want to keep my options open. Childcare is an issue, too. My dh doesn't work from home, but can have a flexible schedule .. I just don't want to run myself ragged, you know?


Are you working now?

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by LauraLoo

The science and social studies/history units taught in school were independent and nothing from a previous year was necessary to know in order to be successful the following year.

Same here. I was concerned, too, how it would work if we had already studied something and they did it again at school, but the way the teacher approached it was different and it worked just fine.

I wouldn't worry about those at all.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by Neldavi

Are you working now?

Nope. I just got my license (today!!!), which will hopefully help in the search, though I'm not holding high hopes of finding anything before the baby gets here, especially as I start to show more. Don't let anything they say about a nursing shortage fool you - there are next to no openings for new graduates right now. We graduated a month ago, and, as far as I'm heard, 6 of the 45 students have job offers (I don't believe any of them have actually started, as budget issues caused BRN slowdowns which means that only a few of us have been able to even take the NCLEX yet) - at least one of those people was working in a hospital in a tech position at the time of graduation, and I believe all of them had previous medical employment (I know one was a paramedic, one a tech, and one a nutritionist). Some students from the last graduating class (over a year ago) still don't have jobs. This will hopefully change by the time you're ready to graduate, but you can't count on it being an assured instant job, as it has been at some points in the past.

[DaughterOfKali]

I homeschooled my son this year knowing that I'm probably going to send him back to public school next year.

I kept the town's school website on my bookmarks and would regularly check it to make sure my son was learning what he's 'supposed' to for his grade.