OK so im wondering can i homeschool my kids through one of these online programs out there for k-12 programs WHILE my kids continue their regular grade. That way they can skip a grade? In other words for example. My son is in 6th if i enroll him and get him to excel based the online classes or course work would it legally cause him to skip a grade in his public school? My reasons is because my son doesnt want to leave public school yet he is not learning as much as he could be. thanks
I don't know your location, and I'm not an education expert. My input is therefore suspect. That being said, here's my 2 cents. In Texas there is no set criteria that would "cause" a student to skip a grade. Generally, if we as parents feel that our child is qualified to skip, and would benefit from doing so, then we simply contact the administration and discuss the matter. It seems there is usually another way to enhance a child's education without bringing on many of the social integration challenges that are inherent (especially in your stated age bracket) in skipping grades. At an age where there is such rapid advancement in cognitive, emotional, and physical development, it can be a real challenge for a child to perform well among older children, even if academic performance is not an issue. Don't take me the wrong way here, but I'm going to throw something else out for consideration. Do not let your ego as a parent influence your child's progress. I believe that we as parents always want to see our children excel, and are inclined to believe that our child is superior to others. This is basic human nature. Parents too often see skipping grades as a "status symbol" of sorts that proves the superiority of our children, and so try to find ways to make this happen without giving due consideration to whether or not it is beneficial to the child, even if they are qualified intellectually. With that in mind, I would be remiss if I did not state that I do believe that there are children who truly are exceptional. The plain truth is that most states' public educational systems are not well equipped to maximize these children's potential, and if you are the parent of such a child, then you have limited options. Private schools are generally much more flexible and adaptive, and can be a great option, though expensive. Homeschooling allows complete flexibility, but puts huge requirements on you, and can have implications regarding the future sociability of the child. Or, as you say, you can simply supplement the education the child is getting at school. I, personally, would say to absolutely supplement with home materials. Concentrate not on facts and subjects, but on thinking skills. Work on the maths, sciences, and liberal arts. This is what we do with our son. He is much younger, and so we are on a more basic level, but I can see definite progress. We may someday homeschool him, we may someday ask for him to be advanced to the next grade. But those are not the goals, those are the means. The goal is for my son to achieve the absolute zenith of his potential, both intellectually, socially, emotionally, etc... So I guess my advice, from one parent to another, is to approach it with an open mind. Supplement work at home not with the ultimate goal of being able to skip a grade, but with the goal of further intellectual stimulation and fulfillment. I hope this helps.
It depends on your state (you can check www.hslda.org) but I'm betting he won't get to skip. Public education grades are based on age, not mastery. P.S. building on the excellent advice of Emissary, which shouldn't be minimized, I'll add that the perfect time to put your child 1 grade ahead is at the end. Most states have compulsory attendance until a certain age (IL is age 16) so at that point, simply pull them out of public school and "enroll" them in homeschool (read: give them a homeschool diploma). Move forward with college credit earning options and you're child is good to go.
Excellent point. In Texas, we have a state-funded home school option whereby the state sends you equipment and curriculum, provides live teacher support, etc... But, you cannot accelerate your child ahead of his age grouping. No exceptions. I had actually forgotten about how rigid the age/curriculum correlation is. The education system here (maybe not where you are?) is absolutely geared to teach certain things to certain ages, regardless of intellectual development. HSLDA.ORG is an exceptional resource. I'm not active there yet, but it's on my very short list. I 2nd cook's recommendation of checking them out. You will find info more specific to the logistics, rather than philosophy, of your inquiry. We have increasingly been looking at homeschooling, both because I'm an anti-establishment, progressive, long-haired hippie at heart, and because I think I can better serve my children's educational needs than the public school system. I know that you, cookderosa, do homeschool. Someday soon I hope to pick your brain on several areas of concern. But, that's for another thread. Anyway, back to the thread. Nj593, what if you were to begin supplementing materials now, so that when your child is high-school age, he/she will be ready to begin serious work on college level classes? There are stories on this forum of parents who have 18yo kids receiving their Bachelor's through the Big 3 by following this process. What an incredible advantage this would be in so many ways. Utilize patience, prudence, humility, and just a touch of ambition. You're extremely fortunate to have a gifted child. Enjoy it. Don't push too hard. I do everything I can to make sure that my little prodigy genuinely enjoys his childhood. It's the only one he's got, and it's my only shot to make it incredible.
My family is a homeschooling family also (for purposes of clarity, we homeschool K-12). Basically, our HS philsophy is that while the kids are in the elementary and junior high years, we emphasize the 3R's, along with learning what they want to learn. In other words, if one of our children wants to learn about butterflys, we let them learn as much as they want to about butterflys, until the kid hits the "finish line", meaning he/she doesn't want to learn anymore on that subject. As the kids move into High School, then you can move into the CLEP/DSST options, etc. Shawn
I wanted to add one more thing, and I realize that this is probably VERY close to stepping over the education line and into the parenting arena- not my intent. I just wanted to encourage you in the area of making the best educational decisions for your children, no matter what their opinions may be. I think allowing a child to have an opinion is good, but I don't think it's controlling to be the one who, in the end, makes the decision about WHERE your child attends school. A child has one set of priorities, a parent another....I'm sure they look like very different lists lol! Your child is likely concerned about losing friends or playtime. While this is true for some families, it has been my experience to a much lesser degree than I expected. In a homeschool setting, each family dictates social relationships (for good or bad) while in school the child does. I have a standard line for my kids "I won't pick your friends, but I have veto power." My kids have not had any trouble making and keeping friends (same or opposite sex, same or different age). My oldest dates, they all go to local football games, they are in sports and music. It's an aspect of homeschooling that CAN BE a non-issue. Academically, the online k-12 programs have not been showing anywhere near the outcomes as parent led homeschool. You can (should) google for more info before making a final decision- I'm not a fan so I won't comment.
Hey, cookderosa and shawn A, besides HSLDA, are there any really good resources out there? Are there any homeschooling forums that approach the quality of degreeinfo?
As a homeschooling parent myself (we also home educated K-12 and then have our kids start college early), we have found a lot of great resources. Here are a few to start: Homeschool.com - The #1 Homeschooling Community (a nice portal with a number of resources) BYU Independent Study - Online Courses (one of the largest university independent study programs, also with middle school and high school courses--some free) Homeschooling (Home Educator Magazine: well-established resource for the home school community) Conference Home | InHome Conference (The InHome Conference, held in March in Illinois, is one of the largest and most diverse non-sectarian homeschool conferences) Khan Academy (The Khan Academy is a collection of free instructional videos in math, science and economics)
I agree that emissary had some really great stuff to say, but I do take exception with one phrase: "and can have implications regarding the future sociability of the child." The idea that home educated children suffer from inferior social skills is a myth with no empirical evidence to back it up. All studies on the subject fail to show that home educated children are any less socialized that those attending public or private schools.
VERY tough question to answer. Homeschoolers, you would think, is one big happy group making up ~7% of the educated children in America. Ha! Welcome to the most segregated, stratified, and label-loving group of people you'd ever meet. To answer your question, you'd have to qualify it- secular or religious? What religion? Within that group, do you unschool or use curriculum? Then, which state are you in? (all 50 have their own laws.) I could write a book- I won't. I do have something for you though. I think I would rather suggest a book instead of a link. See if you can find Hard Times in Paradise by Colfax in your library. You need to kind of look at school through a different lens before you decide if/when/how to educate your own child. Homeschooling isn't really just doing schoolwork at home, there is a unique dynamic when ALL learning happens at home.... and I can think of no better book to show you the difference between education and school. Spoiler- all the kids end up in the Ivy League, and it will possibly change your life.
That's interesting because, at least back in the mid-late 1980s when I was at Oberlin, my friends (including my homeschooled friends) all recognized that we could tell who at Oberlin had been homeschooled and who had not, based on social adjustment. The differences were subtle, but they were there, and the homeschoolers knew and acknowledged that they had a little more difficulty with socialization than their conventionally schooled peers. Now... that's anecdotal data, from a very small group, and Oberlin itself is not representational of a cross-section of college students in general, because for some reason it always tended to attract, as they so euphamistically said, "students who were often outside the social mainstream in high school." Additionally, the homeschooling movement was, to my understanding, pretty much in its infancy in the early 1970s when these people would have started their homeschooling, and there was decidedly less emphasis on encouraging outside peer interaction, as seems to be the case now. So perhaps the myth has its basis in those sorts of circumstances, and I would be surprised if there were any meaningful studies of social adjustment among homeschooled kids back in that time (given the small population), so the issues may well have been more prevalent back then. I will add that there were plenty of socially inept people at Oberlin who had gone to regular schools; the difference is, I can't quite put my finger on *how* I would describe it, but there were often a lot of subtle cues that I saw in the homeschoolers that I didn't see in other "normally adjusted" students or even in other socially inept students.
Dr. Pina, you are absolutely the education expert here, and can definitely offer more objective advice to the op than I can. Like Chip, my experiences are purely anecdotal. My statements are based 100% on my own observations, which are by no means universally applicable to all situations. I personally question the logic of sticking my son in with 150 other kids his age under what is usually inadequate adult supervision only to receive a mediocre academic experience. However, anyone who is considering home schooling needs to be cognizant of the importance of supplying adequate opportunities for their child to interact with age-appropriate peers. It appears as if we have gone on a tangent from the op's original question, but I am thoroughly enjoying the conversation. Due to very recent developments, it appears as if we will be homeschooling our son for the foreseeable future; this topic is therefore very pertinent to my situation. Perhaps we should start a home schooling thread.
We live in Wisconsin, so we are members of the Wisconsin Parents Association (the state homeschooling group). Jen is right, homeschooling does come in all shapes and sizes, so best to do some homework in your state and narrow down based on your interests. Shawn
That's not exactly accurate. In the younger grades, elementary mostly, I'd agree with you. However, once a student moves into the upper grades it is more based on mastery. I was never skipped ahead, mainly because I WANTED to stay with my friends, but I was two years ahead in math. I took Algebra I and Geometry in 7th & 8th grades, when normally they're 9th & 10th grade classes. My parents, along with the parents of some of my friends, requested that we be placed into these classes. We had the test scores to prove it, and so the school created courses for us. One of our classmates was actually a 6th grader who skipped 5th grade. That kid was a flippin' genius though, and he's got his MD now. At the high school level it's definitely based on mastery. The grade level is basically determined by the number of credits earned, so if someone is an over-achiever, he or she can easily fly through. -Matt
I graduated a year early due to this. I essentially skipped my junior year. I took Algebra I in the 8th grade, Geometry in the 9th, and then I took Algebra II the summer before my 10th grade year, which allowed me to take Trigonometry that year. I also took two semesters of English comp at the local community college to substitute for junior English. Doing this allowed me to take a mixture of junior and senior courses in what would have been my junior year, so I was able to graduate a year early. Then a combination of my comp classes, CLEP, and AP credit enabled me to graduate from college a term early, so I finished my BA when I was 20 years old.
I certainly cannot disagree with you regarding the importance of providing adequate opportunities for social interaction for home-educated children. And I do not doubt that both you and Chip have seen poorly socialized home-schooled children. However, as a former middle and high school teacher, I have certainly seen my share of poorly socialized public-schooled children With some estimates of home schooling as high as two million (and public school, of course, many times higher), it is difficult to make generalizations, but the research conducted thus far shows home schooled children as being no less socialized than public or private schooled children (except that the home schooled children studied tend to exhibit less peer dependence). Home schooling is not for everybody and has some definite challenges, but it does work well for many. I have found that home educated children tend to do well in college, where skills in self-directed learning carry some advantages.
