Calling all mums who homeschool! So many questions!

Irooni

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Latest post on 22 January 2011 - 03:32

Hi Irooni, Just a quick reply as Im about to feed the baby. We homeschooled our 2 older children for over 5 years. They are currently in school at the moment ( back in Oz), but we afterschool them, and are still active in our homeschooling community. I hope this info answers a few questions you may have. How hard was the decision? Not very hard at all.When we first started homeschooling, I was a little nervous, but once we started, we never looked back. Best decision we ever made. Do you ever regret it? No. The kids had some wonderful experiences, many of which they would not have had if they were tied to a school schedule. We had some brilliant times together, and to be honest, there were some very ugly days too, but overall, it is something we look back on fondly. Is it hard to manage with two children? When we were homeschooling I schooled the 2 older children and also had a toddler to entertain. I personally didn't find 2 kids hard to school. My elder 2 are only a year apart, so most subjects I combined for the 2 of them, making 'lessons' quite easy to plan and complete. Do you teach each child at a different time? I didn't as such, though when needed, I worked one-on-one with whoever needed extra help at the time. How many hours a day do you spend for each child? depending on the weeks workload, but generally we we finished 'schooling' within 3-4 hours ( that was last years hrs for a grade 6 and Yr 7.....less when thy were younger) Do the children miss the social factor of school? Heck no. We swam most days at the pool and there were always other kids around, played tennis, went horseriding etc. There is also an excellent homeschooling group ( Northern Emirates Homeschool Association), and we enjoyed lots of activities and get-togethers with them too. Are there lessons or topics that you find hard teaching? When homeschooling, you really need to be prepared and willing to learn alongside your child. Math was one of my weaker subjects and I just tried to keep a step ahead of them. I was amazed at how much I had forgotten since leaving school, but was equally as amazed how much I learned over the past 5 or so years teaching the kids. Are the children required to sit end of year examinations? We wer not required to sit exams at all, but most curricular pieces we used had their own 'tests' built in. We were comfortable moving the kids to a new level/topic etc when we thought they were ready to move up. Do any of you have experience getting your child accepted into senior school? We moved back to Australia 6 months ago, and the 2 older children had no issues at all being accepted into schools. They had both won scholarships to a brilliant school here ( which we declined),and they ahd no shortage of schools wanting to take them on...because they were homeschooled. They have been in school for a few months now ( currently enjoying the last 2 weeks of summer holidays), and will start this year in Yr 7 and Yr 8. We found the schools were very keen to take the kids on, and with the school we ended up selecting for them, they have been wonderful in making the transition from homeschooling to schooling as seamless and smooth as possible. My apologies for so many questions. Thanks very much. If you need more info, feel free to email me on sgilli3 at gmail dot com. I may be a little slow in getting back to you this week as we welcomed a baby into our family last week- so trying to rest as much as possible at the moment. Cheers

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