Dana Said:

Writing report on home-school, any help?

We Answered:

My son homeschools, he is in the fifth grade. He has been homeschooled since age 6.

He chose homeschool at first because we moved to an area that lacked a school that could adequately meet his needs. He tests as highly gifted, nearing profoundly, and attended a gifted school for his early elementary. By age 6, he was doing at least 2nd-3rd grade work in every subject. He was also understanding abstract concepts in literature that we read aloud (6th grade + level) and solving math problems by performing algebraic functions in his head instead of learning the simple arithmetic.

When we moved to a different state, we found that the educational system was completely different and not willing or prepared to accomodate his needs. There was no school with a true gifted program within an hour's drive for under $15,000 a year (which is way outside our budget), so we tried an "advanced" private school. Due to our state laws, they placed him in first grade solely due to his age. He spent the first day of school learning to write the letter "A" and the number "2". In his previous school, he was reading early chapter books and learning multiplication. He came home crying his eyes out, begging me to homeschool him.

I talked with the teacher the next day and was informed that not only does my child have severe behavioral problems (gasp! he talked when he was bored, at age 6), but that he was severely ADHD and WILL be medicated if he's to remain in her classroom. Funny, at age 9 he can take on a research project by himself, stay on it for hours at a time, and devise his own evaluation project. Darn problem kid. :-)

After finding out that the administration's position was to blindly fall in step with the teacher's recommendation, and that it would be easier to align the cosmos than get my son accelerated (due to those lovely state age/grade correlation laws), I went to the library and checked out every book I could about homeschooling. I took them home and devoured them, and I found out that homeschooling is so very different than what I thought it was.

For the third day of school - a Monday - I taught my 6yo son to daydream without being caught and spent the morning observing a friend of mine who homeschooled. Again, I found out that it was so different than what I had previously seen it as. I spent the early afternoon at the curriculum supply store (we have one in town that carries several strong hs curriculum choices) finding out what our options were. Then, I went to my son's school, filled out the paperwork to pull him out, and went to pick him up. You should have seen the look of joy on his face as he packed up his school supplies.

We went to Borders after school, where I let him pick out some books that would be his for "after school". He was so excited! We went to the curriculum store and picked out his curriculum, and the next day we got started.

It hasn't been a cake walk - keeping up with a gifted kid never is - but it has been so, so worth it. I got to know him better in the first 6 months of homeschooling than I did in the previous 6 1/2 years of his life. We made mistakes, and we learned from them. We had successes, and we celebrated them.

Advantages...wow. Where do I start? He is truly thriving in all areas - academically, socially, physically, and spiritually. He is above grade level in nearly everything (we found out last year that he's dyslexic, so the physical act of writing is kind of glitchy for him, but he's easily at grade level even in that). Some subjects, he's several years above grade level.

I determine his core subjects, but he gets a say in the curriculum and format of his day. His dad and I have the final say, but he is largely independent in nearly everything. I determine his lesson plan, hand it to him, and he does everything. When he's finished, he has time to work on extra projects, electives, new skills, and Scout badge work.

He also gets to go at his own pace. Most things, he picks up right away, and honestly doesn't need the review. Whatever he learns - which is a lot - is in his brain permanently. There are things that we read 3-4 years ago, one time, that he can still summarize the finer points of the story for. He can tell me about experiments that his kindergarten teacher led him in performing, what the point of the activity was, and what he found out from it. He's almost done with 5th grade!

He gets to learn according to his interests and future plans, and in a way that makes sense to him. He's teaching himself Greek, taking Spanish from a native speaker, and he writes either a full story or a research paper every other week. He researches things that interest him and decides on electives that he'd like to take. He has a monthly job delivering flyers for a local businessperson, is active in Scouts and AWANA, and plays competitive baseball. There's no way that he'd be able to take these things on if he weren't homeschooled.

He also gets the schedule that he needs. He contracted SARS about 5-6 years ago (Feb. of '02), which left him critically ill for several weeks. It also affected his immune system to the point that he can't fight off illnesses if he's around a lot of them (like he would be in any of the large schools where we live). He needs a specific sleep pattern and diet in order to stay healthy, which really doesn't correspond well to the logistics of a school schedule. He has grown steadily more healthy over the last few years...which his pediatrician attributes to him being homeschooled.

He can choose his own friends according to their personality and choices/behaviors rather than just who's in his class. He has the choice of hundreds of kids that he's around on a regular basis (through our neighborhood, homeschool co op and activities, Scouts, AWANA, and places like the library) to be friends with. He doesn't choose his friends based on how much money they have, which gaming systems they like, how they dress, or how popular they are. He chooses his friends according to whether or not they are good friends to him and others. Are they kind? respectful? loyal? Do they help others, or make fun of them? Do they accept him for who he is, or do they expect him to follow the crowd just because it's there?

These are just some of the benefits we've found in homeschooling. The only disadvantage was the financial shock of both my husband and I having very nice paychecks (before we moved) to my husband working time and a half to keep things afloat. There have been times it's been rough...but it's been completely worth it. We make it a point to spend quality time as a family whenever we have it, and we make the most of everything we've got.

Hope that helps!