Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Home Schooling High School ?!

If you look over there at the sidebar,====> it says that I have 18 or 19 years of experience home schooling my 6 children!

But I've never taught high school.

When my oldest was in 8th grade, we had a bit of back and forth about school, but we had decided to continue at home when she was given a full, 4-year scholarship to an awesome high school. ( As an aside, they really knew what they were about by giving full scholarships to Catholic kids who have lots of siblings! ) Thus began our foray into Catholic Schools.  And I wasn't sorry, because, at the time, I had lots of little ones at home, and it honestly made things so much easier for one child and her heavy course load to be crossed off my to-do list.

I had purchased most of her 9th grade curriculum, and I had to return it all.  Now, I'm sort of wishing I had kept it...because, after all these years, my current 8th grader is now saying he wants to stay home for high school!


For months....nay, years....he's been saying he couldn't wait to go to school (because they all just want what the older ones have).  Now, all of a sudden, he's singing a completely different tune, and I don't know what to make of it.  What I find most interesting is that this occurred after he returned from a weekend camping trip with our home schooling group.

We couldn't go, because, hello, I have a child in high school!  They always have homework or events that prevent them from going, so we don't go on this annual weekend with our homeschooling buddies.  But one of Pip's friends invited  him to "sleep over" on this trip, so I dropped him off early Saturday morning.  All his best friends were there, and he had a great time.  He didn't seem to mind praying 3 times a day----Angelus, rosary, Divine Mercy, and then Mass (which is a bit more than we do during a day)!

And now, he's all I want to stay home because I'll never see my friends again if I go.  Which is, sadly, very true.  If he does see them, he will have changed, and there will be a wide gulf between them that doesn't exist now.  He's also looking at all the other benefits to school at home:  a more relaxed schedule, no spending 8 hours at school and then doing 4 hours of homework, fun activities with his friends, more time for scouting.   Oh, and more money for stuff he wants.  ;-)  I could get behind that one, too!


Even though it's been only 4 days since he first came home with this revelation, he wants to know why I haven't decided yet!  I say, it's not time to decide.  We need to pray about it; we need to research the curricula and hybrid school options; pray; we need to research extra-curricular activities; and, above all, we need to act as though we're still applying for Catholic school, in case this is just a passing whim.  Oh, and pray some more.

It's such a shock that he's willing (at least for now) to stay home, but I'm very willing to continue being his school teacher.  All these years of School at Home have prepared me for this task.  Ha!  But it's a much less daunting idea that it was 10 years ago when I couldn't keep up with school, housework, and toddlers, too.  All these years, I have praised the women who keep their kids home for high school whether they have a large family or not.

Have you faced this decision in your family?  How did you handle it?  I'm all about tips on how to succeed with high school.  I have a good friend who is going to be very tired of my questions before long!

If you've got a Hail Mary available for our discernment, I'd be most grateful!

God bless!
Sara

11 comments:

  1. I've never been home schooled nor did I know anyone that ever was, I couldn't imagine what it is like not meeting people and kids growing up. Did your kids have the chance to socialize with others growing up? How was this achieved? Very interested...

    -Solomon Berkovitch

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    1. Home schooled children are some of the most well-socialized people on the planet! They interact with children of all ages, as well as adults, because they are involved at their churches, their homeschooling groups, their extra-curriculars, like scouting, and they DON'T spend all day in classrooms full of kids who are their same age and level of maturity.

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  2. Sure will pray as you and your family discern the best choice for his education!

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  3. I am currently homeschooling high school, and I think it's going great! I am sure you will make the best choice for your family, whatever that may be. I would just encourage you not to avoid homeschooling during high school out of fear. It's not as hard as we convince ourselves!

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    1. I think the hardest part is providing the extra-curriculars he wants in terms of sports, so we'll see what we can find!

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  4. Our boys went to high school. It's all-boys, Catholic and the same school my husband attended. They just always knew that's where they would go and no one wanted anything else.

    Faith, on the other hand is already telling me she wants to go to school. She told someone the other day that she is going to school next year. I told her no she isn't. It isn't her choice. Unfortunately,every time she brings it up, the conversation goes downhill until I am say "you are staying home --end of discussion." Sigh. She really doesn't get a choice because I feel she would have an awful time at school. She's the kind of kid who gets all upright about social issues. Any advice? Have your kids ever asked to go before high school?

    Frankly, I really don't know what started the whole thing.

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    Replies
    1. The Asking to go to School has increased over the years, because, as I said, they do want what their siblings have. They play with the neighbors and the yellow schoolbus is this amazing, romantic adventure that they want to have! I was really worried about how Meg would feel at home, alone, for 3 years, so I've been gently mentioning how great it will be when we can do fun stuff every day! Now she's upset that he might be staying home.

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  5. PS in regard to Pip, have you considered using an established curriculum with transcripts, like Seton? I don't know what the laws in Georgia are like but it's not easy to do your own thing in Ohio.

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    1. Yes, we would definitely use a school---either one of the local hybrids, or Mother of Divine Grace, most likely. Or there's Kolbe Academy, too. I've never liked Seton much but watch me end up eating my words!

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    2. Seton was a great fit for my boys in grade school, but not for Faith. I don't know about high school, though. Very challenging.

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Thanks for dropping by! I would love to hear from you. Have a beautiful day! :-)

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