MY BEST ADVICE TO HOMESHOOLERS:

FIGURE IT OUR YOURSELF!

Well not exactly. I had the opportunity yesterday to advise a woman who was strongly considering homeschooling her son. She lives in one of my old hometowns, and my Sis n law gave her my number as she is one of her clients at the Oxford learning center sis owns.

Her complaints about school mirrored the problems my son had. The child is obviously gifted or at least already knows everything they are teaching. However, the school thinks it's ok for him to settle with getting the highest grades in the class and not challenging it any further. Therefore she wants to take his education into her own hands.

My exact advise was to wait a little while. Since They are one semester in, I suggested she wait until holiday break while enriching him at home using Reader rabbit at an advanced level and critical thinking books and software. Meanwhile she needs to go into learning mode. Read everything about homeschooling that she can get her hands on. Find out about all of the philosophies, approaches, learning styles, and curriculums available to her... because there is alot. Unfortunately, or fortunatley as some may see it, the school district will give no guidance in this area. However, you can easily access your states curriculum guidelines so you know the least amount you need to teach your child.

I also suggested she go to a couple of homeschool seminars and speak to a couple of "experts" and veteran homeschoolers. . I also explained to her how I was going about homeshchooling my kids and for what reasons.

The hardest advice I gave her is to take much of what she reads and learns with a grain of salt and to form her own opinions and approach from everything she has learned. When she knows that she knows enough to start homeschooling, then at that time, take the child out of school and begin homeschooling.


I wish I could have given her more exact advice such as use this curriculum, go to these websites, use these books, but as homeschoolers we know that our children are individuals and each childs education needs to be individualized.