Watching your children grow and get closer to school age can be tough. Before you know it, Susie is five and ready for kindergarten. For many families, deciding where to send a child to school does not even enter the equation. They automatically send them to the local public school. But for many others, public school is not an option. There can be many reasons for this; parents may not like the level of academics in the local school, violence could be an ongoing problem, classroom size may have grown extensively or they may want an education that includes religious instruction in their particular faith.
Whether you are home schooling your child yourself, or in an online school, the question will inevitably come up about their socialization. You may hear this from relatives, friends or acquaintances. You may also have these nagging doubts yourself. Socialization is a broad term. By this, does one mean that the student will not be exposed to diverse cultures, and nationalities? The implication here is that the home schooled student may not be prepared to cope with democracy in this country. Dr. Brian Ray of the NHERI (National Home Education Research Institute) in 2003 studied the question of civic involvement of adults who had been home schooled.
When planning college applications with your student, you will often have specific questions that you would like to get answered. Sometimes there are easy "yes/no" type questions that will be consistent from college to college. More often than not, however, the answer may vary depending on the college. Take for example the question on whether a college will still consider your student a freshman if they have an AA degree and more than 90 credits. Some colleges take a hard line at the 90 credits. Others will show some flexibility. The best approach to these types of questions is to call the admissions office directly and ask.
When I was homeschooling 6th and 8th grades (my two boys are two years apart, ) I began by keeping a daily schedule of their lesson plans. Having this check list for their lesson plans gave me a record of everything they did. I figured I was training myself for the next year - when it really mattered. So if your kids are about that age, one thing that you can do now is keep some sort of records, and using a schedule can provide those records for you. Another thing that you can do is have a place where you keep all your records. That might include all their work, anything they have written, math tests, any workbooks, etc.
Field trips are very educational. Sometimes it is very nice to leave the house and experience the outside world. As the school year begins we feel it is important to plan a few field trips. When you determine what field trips you wish to take, mark the field trips on the calendar and allow the kids a chance to look forward to them. Here are a few field trips we will be taking this school year. The first field trip we will be taking is to Tumwater Falls Salmon Hatchery in Tumwater, Washington. There is a lovely walk by the river where we will be observing Salmon fighting their way up river. We will do a lot of research on the internet and at the library about Salmon before we go to the Hatchery.