NewWorldOrder
July 28th, 2007, 10:54 AM
We have been homeschooling for about 9 years. My oldest is 16, and she is very hard on herself about getting her schoolwork done. She plans on attending college, and is already getting recruitment letters from a couple of them. We will be using Teaching Textbooks Geometry because it is written and focused on the student. I don't have my children tested very often. I can see how they are doing. My oldest is right on track, if not a little ahead; and my youngest has been reading well since Kindgerarten, so i don't really do phonics with her anymore, there's no need.
I think you may be over analyzing what your kids need. When you homeschool you have the flexibility to let them learn at their own pace. If they want to move faster they can, if they need to slow down a little, they can and should be able to do that. When I first started homeschooling, I stressed over what curriculum to get, if they were keeping up with public school kids, making sure I was teaching everything that needed to be taught. Then I realized, after a lot of frustration, crying (both me and my child) that we aren't in a public school. We homeschool. We can make our homeschool fit our needs and not the needs of what somebody, who doesn't even know us, thinks we should be doing. My kids are very well rounded, with plenty of friends, and I don't see any difference between them and the other kids they play with. Most people who meet us have no idea our children are homeschooled. Every once in a while someone may ask if my children are in AP classes at school, and that's when I tell them they are homeschooled. My 8 year old has a pretty wide vocabulary, and will use words her peers don't. All we did for her to know a little more vocabulary is talk normally around her and make her read books. It's amazing what reading does for a child's vocabulary.
So, don't stress over what standardized tests say. If your children are learning, and they are enjoying it, and you are enjoying it, then that is most important. BTW, colleges don't really go by grades for homeschoolers, but how well they do on the SAT. There are classes that can be taken to improve your score. My daughter has already taken a very good class on how to prep for the SAT, and she feels much more confident.
I think you may be over analyzing what your kids need. When you homeschool you have the flexibility to let them learn at their own pace. If they want to move faster they can, if they need to slow down a little, they can and should be able to do that. When I first started homeschooling, I stressed over what curriculum to get, if they were keeping up with public school kids, making sure I was teaching everything that needed to be taught. Then I realized, after a lot of frustration, crying (both me and my child) that we aren't in a public school. We homeschool. We can make our homeschool fit our needs and not the needs of what somebody, who doesn't even know us, thinks we should be doing. My kids are very well rounded, with plenty of friends, and I don't see any difference between them and the other kids they play with. Most people who meet us have no idea our children are homeschooled. Every once in a while someone may ask if my children are in AP classes at school, and that's when I tell them they are homeschooled. My 8 year old has a pretty wide vocabulary, and will use words her peers don't. All we did for her to know a little more vocabulary is talk normally around her and make her read books. It's amazing what reading does for a child's vocabulary.
So, don't stress over what standardized tests say. If your children are learning, and they are enjoying it, and you are enjoying it, then that is most important. BTW, colleges don't really go by grades for homeschoolers, but how well they do on the SAT. There are classes that can be taken to improve your score. My daughter has already taken a very good class on how to prep for the SAT, and she feels much more confident.