"You're Home Schooled? What do you Do?"

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

When people ask me where I go to school, I answer, "I'm home schooled." This usually brings one of two responses: 1) a response such as "oh, ok" which means that either the person was just asking out of courtesy or that my response didn't hit home or 2) a blank stare followed by a bombardment of questions such as "Do you get to sleep in as late as you want?" "Who teaches you?" "Do you have a set schedule?" "What do you use for books?" "Do you like it or do you wish you went to a 'regular' school?" and so forth....

The purpose of this page is to try to answer some of those questions and tell you a little more about my personal experience with home schooling. First a brief synopsis: I went to public school through the sixth grade, at which time my family made the decision to homeschool my sisters Ashley (at the time a fourth grader) and Caitlin (who was not yet in school) and me. We have home schooled every since and this is our sixth year. It has definitely been a learning experience for everyone involved, but I believe we made the right decision.

There's a lot more work to home schooling than meets the eye. It takes dedication from the entire family. The parents have to be truly dedicated to providing their children with a quality education. The students have to be willing to give of themselves, work hard, and do their best, even if it is Mom who's the teacher. I hope that this page will give you some insight into what's involved in this complex process and help answer any questions you might have had.

The first question I'll address is a common one, "Why are you home schooled?" (or alternatively, "Why did your parents decide to home school you?"). Families that home school do so for a multitude of reasons and there is no set response to this question - the answers will vary as much as the people who are asked it do. My family decided to home school us because they thought they could better meet our individual educational needs and provide us with a better academic education than what we were getting at the time. Other familes home school because they want to instill their moral and religious beliefs in their children or because they feel their child's needs cannot be adequately met by the other schooling alternatives available to them.

The next group of commonly asked questions all fall can be summarized as, "Well, what exactly do you do?" This is a question that has to be answered in the form "This is what my family does," since of all the home schooling families I know, no two approach it in exactly the same way. Some use a pre-packaged set of materials, such as those available through Bob Jones and Abeka, where everything is already layed out and in some cases, the students' work is sent in somewhere to be graded (sort of like a correspondence program). Others use video series (I know one of the more commonly used ones is put out by Abeka) which have daily lectures in each subject on a videotape, then workbooks and assignments to accompany them. Our family uses textbooks like those you will find in any public or private school (or college in the case of some of the texts I have used in the past few years). We have to read the material, and do problems/questions, just like you would in any course. In some cases, we discuss the subject with one of our parents after each lesson or chapter, but it depends on the subject and the student (not even within a family is home schooling identical for each child - my sister and I have taken different subjects in different years of high school, used different texts, and even used different approaches to learning the material).

"Do you have to get up at a certain time?" Yes, we do have to get up at a given hour each morning, though perhaps the hours are a bit more flexible than they are for a traditional school student (for example, if we have to go somewhere mid-day, we can make up the lost time that evening or late afternoon).

"How much time do you have to put in?" State laws on home schooling vary from state to state. In Georgia, the minimum number of hours is 4 and a half daily for 180 days each academic year (nope, home schoolers don't get "sick days"). But our family puts in approximately 50 minutes a day for each subject that we're taking that year (so 7 courses means 5 hours and 50 minutes) and we don't include break time (such as lunch break) in those hours - though some families do, I'm sure.

"Who teaches you?" and "Do you have a set schedule?" My parents are responsible for my education (and that of my sisters) and they teach us (with the exception of any classes I take at the local university, of which there has only been one to date). As for a set schedule, I mentioned earlier the average amount of time we put in per subject per day, but this doesn't mean I spend exactly 50 minutes on every subject Monday through Friday. I might spend two or three hours on one subject one day, then not do it the next, making sure to make up for those subjects I might have sacrificed the previous day. This allows one to finish a concept or chapter without having to worry about a class period ending and disrupting your thought process. We also don't have a specific order in which we do our subjects each day. We tend to try to do them at the times when we can best concentrate and be most productive in that subject area, which might mean always doing math when you're least tired, whether that be early in the morning or last thing in the afternoon (that's just an example, not one that's actually relevant in my case, since I love math and can do it anytime :) ).

"What subjects do you take?" This is one of my favorites! Here's a listing of my coursework for 9th through 12th grade. Note that those subjects listed as AP mean that I either took the AP exam in them already (for those in 11th grade) or am taking it this spring (those in 12th grade) - and yes, home schoolers can take AP exams, we just have to find a school (public or private) willing to administer them.

9th grade: Geometry, Biology, Computer Science, US Government, Honors Freshman English (this consisted of a Vocabulary course, a Grammar and Composition text and a Literature book), Music (1/2 credit) and Physical Education (1/2 credit).

10th grade: Algebra II, Precalculus, Honors Chemistry, World History, Honors Sophomore English (once again with the three components), French I, Physical Education (1/2 credit), Music (1/2 credit).

11th grade: AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP American History, AP Macroeconomics, AP American Literature and composition, French II.

12th grade: Abstract Algebra, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics, AP Government and Politics, AP Microeconomics, AP British Literature and Composition, Music.

"Do you like being home schooled? Do you miss 'regular' school?" This is probably one of the hardest questions to give a clear answer to. Yes, I like being home schooled. I like not having to get up and get ready to go to school every morning. I like being able to move at my own pace in my subjects (within limits of course, since I have to finish my books by the end of the year). I like being able to take the courses I want to take (even if it means I end up teaching them to myself). As for whether or not I miss 'regular' school, I certainly don't miss sitting in those horrid desks or having kids tease me unmercifully. But yeah, I suppose I do miss having the opportunities to go to dances or football games and be around lots of people everyday. But overall, I think I like home schooling much better than I would like attending a "regular" high school and I would do it all over again if given the opportunity.