Any other Homeschoolers out there?

[WDW2002]

I don't homeschool, but I do intend to take the time we are at WDW to do some "schooling." My children will miss 2 weeks of school. There is so much that can be turned into fun learning and luckily both my children like to learn.

 

[pwoodham]

We homeschool our oldest 4 boys, and we have a 1 yob also. I agree that this is a vacation, so I don't want them to feel "burdened." I did make a memory book for them to write in each day, we've studied four of the Epcot countries, and know a few words in Spanish, French, and Japanese to use while we're there. other than that, it's a free week!! That's why we start school in July, so we can take off two weeks in September.

 

[disneywith6kids]

We just started our 7th year of homeschooling. We have 6 kids. DD17 DS15 DS12 DS8 DD7 and DS3. This will be our 2nd time ever to WDW. We do not school at WDW, however, we usually make up for lost time on Saturdays or sometimes into the summer.
One of the greatest things we have taught our children is how to budget. We have spent 7 months planning this trip. It was supposed to be for a week. However, with proper planning we are able to spend the same amount and stay for 18 days!!!!!!!!!! The bonus is that the kids helped me with all the planning. So not only did they learn how to budget, they learned how to plan, organize and enjoy life to its fullest!!!
So which public school is going to offer that??This is where the rubber meets the road.
All of our kids love WDW. They can't wait for our upcoming trip. The hardest part of the wait is keeping their focus on their school work. We try to do something Disney oriented every week to keep their excitement in check. This week we will all be making our own luggage tags using neon colored poster board and lots of clear contact paper. Yes our oldest children love doing this too!

Soon we will be working on our mousekeeping envelopes. Right now the older kids are trying to earn enough money to go to Discovery Cove. Its amazing how hard they are willing to work to earn something.
This may be our oldest DD's last family trip since she will be graduating this year and going off to college in August. One thing I have to say is enjoy every moment with your children-you will not regret it!!!

 

[heart4dis]

I hope it is clear that I intend for our vacation to be a vacation! Our unit study will be done in the months BEFORE we go in order to diffuse our eager anticipation and to get more out of the experience once we are there. The children will journal, watch their money and have a great time.
BTW Does anyone know if the original Mickey Mouse cartoons have ever been put on VHS and if so how to get them? (eg Steamboat Mickey).
I love the responses we've gotten here. Great ideas.

 

[Angel M]

We're in our 4th year of homeschooling. Last year my oldest son went back to ps, he's now in 8th grade and taking advanced classes. He does very well in school, but I wish he still was at home (sometimes).

Our younger sons are 9 & 10 and we're using Calvert to homeschool them this year, we've done unit studies in the past and I needed a break from all the planning. We're having a good year at home, too.

We just got back from Disney last night, we took our older son out of school for 3 days and yesterday was an off day for them, so we were there from 9/11-9/16. We had a blast! I didn't plan anything for school with them, but we learned a lot anyway. They really liked Epcot this time, they've never been interested before so that was a learning experience in itself.

It's funny that you mentioned Alabama. We're originally from Alabama and Birmingham is our home, but we spent the last five years that we lived in Alabama in Mobile. At that time, only our oldest son was school age. I worked and he went to a private school, we vowed he would never attend a Mobile County school. We moved to south Florida in 1996 and he started attending ps due to financial reasons. In the fall of 1998 I was able to stop working and then we started homeschooling in 1999.

The schools in our area are not the best, but they're not too bad either. We just choose to educate our children our way. I'm not sure what the future holds for us, but for now this is what we choose.


Angel

 

[Barb D]

I homeschool my 11yo and 9yo, and my 9yo homeschools my 2yo. (They're doing "preschool" together this year, since my 9yo always finished her schoolwork much faster than her older brother!)

The big kids go to a 2-day-a-week classical school. I work those two days a week, and the little one stays with Grandma. The big kids get history, science, Latin, Grammar, and Composition at school, with assignments to do on the home days. We do math, spelling, etc. at home.

This has worked out well for us. I'm still their official teacher (and still accountable to the county as a homeschooler) and we still have the closeness and one-on-one attention that hsing provides, but they also have experiences working and dealing with other kids, and with being accountable to teachers other than me.

Edit: Oh, and about school/Disney... When the kids were younger I had them read For Kids By Kids and make an outline of all the parks and attractions for reading and handwriting. All they wanted to talk about was the trip, so this was a way of getting them to do some schoolwork at the same time. Last year I counted EPCOT as a school day. I think I counted MGM, too, since we did the animation tour, etc.

 

[KerriKaden]

Hi! Just wanted to add our family to the list of homeschoolers. This is our 3rd year to hs. We are using HomeSat by Bob Jones. We love it. It has really taken the stress off of me. We have a new baby (4 months). I don't think I would have been able to hs w/out HomeSat.
I've really enjoyed the comments about learning at Disney. This will be our first trip. I may have my DD do a journal. That would be a great keepsake. We are going the last week in January. Hopefully we will be staying for a week!! I love the flexibility of homeschooling!

 

[Spirit Feather]

Okay, I'll admit it, we homeschool also! We have a 13 y/o and 5 y/o.

My kids learn all the time. I tried to make them stop while we were in WDW but they just would not stop!

We do not use anything formal and avoid pre-packaged curriculum whenever possible. I suppose we are child-led learners, in that we let the kids study what they want, when they want and for as long as they want. Right now the current interests are fundraising, saving, dancing, basketball, physical science experiments, sign language, particiapating in historical re-actments as costumed interpreters and camping. Some of these things could change tomorrow or maybe not for a year or maybe not forever.

BTW- I am planning a WDW trip for Ohio Homeschoolers and I think we are going to be getting a great rate. This will include two Disney educational programs, park admission, BB admission and DQ admission. You can PM me if you have kids that would me interested.

 

[momofdbsdc]

We homeschool our children also. We didn't do "school" per say on our vacation either, but rather expounded upon teachable moments. Leading up to our vacation though, we studied the states that we would be travelling through to get to Florida, studied about Walt Disney the man, and made our own t-shirts to wear in the parks. We also wrote in a journal when we were their to keep all the wonderful memories alive!

Blessings,
Kim

 

[jldriscoll]

Originally posted by catwho
As far as the people who would nay say homeschooling, well, they obviously haven't dealt with the substandard schools where I live (Alabama). Just got the report card for our school district and it fails nationally! I have 3 very right kids who would be bored to tears in school. My oldest one was so we pulled her out. If we had a better school system then maybe our kids would be in school and I'm not about to pay more than my house payment for private schools! (not on top of what I have to shell in out taxes to support a school my kids don't go to!) Yeah, I have a chip on my shoulder about the school system here, but most parents would if they saw their child start hating learning!

Well said!! I don't home school, BUT we sent DD #1 to private school for k-1. (Yes, tuition was more than our house payment!) Then we moved to a new town with wonderful schools!! ALL because I toured the schools in our old district and was horrified!!! I couldn't send my child there for an afternoon let alone every day!!!! My dad laughed at me when I told him how much tuition and then our increased morgage for the new house were. Said that was as much as it cost to send me to college!!! We firmly believe it is an investment in our child!! The BEST one you can make!!! I applaud all homeschoolers for caring so much for your children!!!

 

[~Czarina~]

We have homeschooled for eight years. We leave our standard homeschooling matrials at home and do studys on things such as how planes work while sitting in the air port in Atlanta for four hours. There was the geogrpahy lessons when we drove or flew. When we drove the boys kept tabs on what roads we were taking where. When we flew they told us how many miles and how long it was going to take so we got to figues the speed we were traveling. EPCOT is one big school room and so is Animial Kingdom. If the children find something really interesting they come home and we can teach them more about it. I am fifteen and have basics in Japenesse, French and Spanish so the passports are a blast for me. I love being able to tell the people what they just wrote and since I am teaching my brothers those languages it is kind of a creative reading assignment. Manybe they should make a DIS board for homeschoolers....there seems to be a ton of us on here.

~Joey~

 

[Hsminnie]

Ah the joys of homeschooling!! We vacation in Dec instead of buying Christmas presents and we usually take the whole month off! WOOHOO!

This year our trip is our very first vacation to WDW Dec 12-19!!

 

[Belle5]

We are in our 11th year of homeschooling. We have read a lot of the books on the Sonlight reading list. Many of them deal with Oriental themes. My kids have taken special interest in spending time at the museum-like displays at the Chinese and Japanese pavillions at Epcot after reading these books. "The Samurai's Tale", "Young Fu of the Upper Yangze", Dragon's Gate", " Dragonwings" and the "Master Puppeteer" are some of the books they read on these subjects.
Those areas of Epcot might not draw a lot of interest from kids who don't feel familiar with the cultures. My kids could have spent hours looking at those displays! I thought that was so neat!
BTW, we have 5 boys ages 16 (just had a birthday), 14, 12, 10 (just had a birthday) and 5 (just had a birthday). They are in 10th, 9th, 6th, 4th and Pre-K. Even though we take big breaks to go to WDW my kids are involved with lots of outside activities (scouts and sports) and they are very advanced in their school work. My 10th and 9th graders are taking precalculus, Spanish (they've already studied Latin for 2 years) chemistry (biology was last year), economics, etc. My 4th grader is doing all 6th grade work and my pre-K kiddo is reading and doing double digit math. I mention this because sometimes folks wonder when we get our school work done with all our vacations and activities. Perhaps their time would be better spent wondering what other kids are spending their time on.

 

[Hsminnie]

Belle5:

We use Sonlight as our primary curriculum and this year my oldest is using year 5 - heavy in the Asian cultures. I am so excited for her to see WS!!!! My middle has been studying world history in year 2 but there is a heavy emphasis on third world countries and missionary needs. The exposure is wonderful and has created and interest in anything 'non-western' as far as cultures are concerned. We may be the only family of kids 10, 7 and 2 who won't leave Epcot!

I know it can be excrutiating at it's worst, but I love homeschooling, don't you??

Czarina: Did you say you were 15? What a fabulous life to be homeschooled!!!

 

[Evil Princess]

I have a question for everyone who home schools their children or who have been home schooled themselves. Keep in mind this is in no way meant to judge or criticize.

Currently I am filling out college applications, and I would just like to know what colleges look at when they see that a child is home schooled.

I live on Long Island and attend a public school district with very high academic standards. I was taking high school classes in 8th grade and am currently enrolled in college courses at my high school. (I pay money and actually receive credit from St. John’s University, which many colleges will accept next year). I also realize that there are many public schools in America that are nothing like mine.

I'm not asking you to explain the entire home schooling process to me, but I'm curious as to what a home schooled high school senior fills out when it comes to extra curricular activities, class rank, GPA, teacher recommendations...how does it compare? The college application process is crazy enough when you attend high school, how is it for the home schooled child?

For any parent who has home schooled their child, how did they do on the SATs? Are they used to that kind of testing situation? How did they perform?

Just curious, college application time is crazy for me right now!

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

We are not there yet, but I can give you a little info.

There are colleges that are more home school friendly than others. In our situation, we would be required to present a portfolio (which we have to keep for the state and to get through the NCAA Clearinghouse as well) and provide ACT/SAT scores.

From what I have gathered, there are more and more colleges that will accept home schooled young adults... and the requirements are about the same as for a student that attended public high school. Test scores and personal applications probably are weighed a bit heavier, I would guess. Also if you have taken college courses already that can only help.

Our son scored a 22 on the ACT as a 6th grader, and will take the SAT this year as a 7th grader. He is not currently homeschooled, but that possibility is always there since offerings at our public (small) HS are limited.

Good luck and it sounds like you have everything in order to be very successful in college!

 

[ilovefh]

I have a lot of respect for parents who homeschool! Its a tough job!
I would love to homeschool my children, but financially I dont think it will be possible. (we dont have kids yet, so who knows what will happen in our future).
I do have a ? for homeschoolers though. What do you do for extracurricular activities? Do you children play sports (ie. Little League, Pop Warner, dance class, etc)? And how do you develop your children socially?
I ask this, because I have known only 1 homeschooled child in my life and this child had NO social skills! I'm sure she is in the minority.
I am very unfamiliar with the homeschool process, which is why I'm asking.

Thanks,
Elena

 

[DiznEeyore]

Elena,

Thanks for the interesting question. I would agree that the one child you know is probably an exception. Socialization is every anti-homeschooler's favorite issue (I'm not saying you're anti-homeschool ). The best response I've heard is to ask someone if they'd rather have their child "socialized" by a bunch of other kids whose families don't share your values, or if *you'd* rather be the one to socialize your child.

My ds (9) is an only child, is homeschooled, and is virtually the only kid in our neighborhood. If anyone should have socialization issues, he should! LOL However, he's extremely outgoing (unlike me!) and is very comfortable in situations with people of all ages. With kids, he acts like a typical goofball boy, and with adults, he's respectful and responsive. I work part-time as our church's secretary (one morning per week usually) and ds obviously comes with me. There are often others out doing various things at the same time (mostly folks in their 60s & 70s) and he loves nothing more than to be right in there working along with them. I never cease to be amused to walk into the fellowship hall and see him sitting with gentlemen older than his grandpa, having "coffee" and shooting the breeze.

Ds was involved with tae kwon do for many years, but decided this past year it wasn't for him. He hasn't picked anything new up yet, but I do hope he will. He has friends at church that he gets together with every now and then (we're quite a ways away from the church so it's not easy to do "play dates"); I wish we could do it more often.

So, I don't know if that gives you any insight at all ... I'm sure others will have lots to say, too!

 

[CJMickeyMouse]

We actually dual enrolled - which means our boys were at school part of the day and at home the rest. Even if they are homeschooled full time they are allowed to participate in athletics and various other clubs/activities at school.

I feel that homeschooled kids may actually have an edge socially - our kids went to meetings with the governor, city meetings, etc from a very young age - learning how to interact with adults. The sports and activities keep them in touch with their agemates. So in the end, like the previous poster's child... may be more well-rounded than the average kid that spends all day with his or her agemates.

Just FYI I hate the word PEER, because it is misused so much. I would consider the high school kids in my 7th grader's advanced classes his peers and he interacts with them as such.

 

[sha_lyn]

Elena ....
Thaank you so much for asking instead of prejudging. We are very busy with "social" activites, not because I fell my kids have to socialize (or at least not the amounts that ) but because they are doing things that they enjoy.
My 13 DS has in the past played basketball, baseball,football, soccer and wrestled. This started when he was in PS and continued until this year. It was to the point where he was always participating in a sport, and sometimes they would over lap. Now we have backed off on the sports and he takes Karate 2x a week and begins competions in Dec.
My 5 DD has played soccer and baseball, but has also decided on Karate instead.
We are active in 2 homeschool groups. The larger of the 2 is devided into age groups. DS in in the teen group. They have just started so he has only attended one activity (bowling). The plans are to meet once a week eventually. They will do the following activities a differnt week each month ... Social- bowling, skating etc. A Movie (video) with discussion after. They will be given a list of movies to vote on that have "educational" value. Either adaptations of works of liturature, or historical movies.Also a comunity service project. They will probably do this 2 x a month. Once week being a long term project (adopt a mile, adopt a grandparent etc)and the other picking one for the month (such as a can drive, coat drive etc). They haven't picked their comunity projects yet.

The younger kids in this group have 4H , art classes etc, among other things. We tried to start a girl scout troop, but didn't have enough people interested in it.

We also have a weekly social day and orgainzed activities through the year such as field trips.

In the other group we have 2 playdates a month, a monthly field trip and several educational co op a year.

My DS is also in Trailblazers ( a scout type group through the YMCA).

I'm not asking you to explain the entire home schooling process to me, but I'm curious as to what a home schooled high school senior fills out when it comes to extra curricular activities, class rank, GPA, teacher recommendations...how does it compare? The college application process is crazy enough when you attend high school, how is it for the home schooled child?

It really depends on the college and how the child is homeschooled. For the most part it really isn't that much different. We use an Umbrella school that issues exams and grades. I grade DS's daily work (following their lesson plans) and sends in 1/4 exams to them. While some schools will take HS issued grades and SAT/ACT test scores alone, other require additional test such as SATII and or a portfolio.