I’ve decided to put Sierra in public school next year. I’d do the same with Bailey, only her birthday is two weeks after the district’s cut off, so they won’t let me. I’ll be putting her in the year after.
Why have I decided to do this? Well, I think it will be the best thing for my kids. They’ll get the social interaction that public school offers, make new friends, and have multiple teachers. It will give them a chance to get out of the house. They’ll have a lot of extra curriculars, which I won’t be able to give them, and I’ll get to have a full day to myself each week.
Oh, did I mention that they’re only going to be going to school one day a week?
That’s right. I’m still going to be homeschooling my kids. It’s just that now they get to go to school in a classroom setting one day a week with other homeschooling kids.
The Aurora Public School District here in Colorado offers this “Options” method of schooling so that parents can benefit from the tax money they pay and give kids those added experiences that they are often missing while homeschooling (ie, classroom settings, group activities, extracurriculars, and occasional homework). They have several locations in most of the larger cities throughout Colorado. Longmont is currently working on getting a second. Among us homeschoolers, it’s a very popular program.
Basically, once a week, my kids go to “school” for 7 hours; six one hour classes, ½ hour lunch, ½ hour recess. Kindergarten and first grade have a sort of fun/play/experiment day similar to an actual school setting, but focused more on the fun stuff. Once the kids reach 2nd grade, they get to start choosing their classes (with their parent’s help, of course). Some of the options for classes include dance, art, drama, choir, keyboard, cooking, computer skills, Spanish, science, history, math games, literature, etc.
As an added benefit to parents, they can check out popular homeschool curriculum for the year at no cost, grades k-3 get two free consumable workbooks of their choice, and juniors and seniors can get two college classes per semester paid for (as long as they pass, that is).
And all of this costs a measly $25 per student per year.
Who ever said you couldn’t have your cake and eat it too?
3 comments:
Homeschooling speaks to my soul and stirs something within me! Seriously, I LOVE the idea of homeschooling and we've talked and talked and thought about it sooooooooooo much for our Mia. But....I'm going to have a new baby and Wyatt is starting at the special needs preschool at the same time....too overwhelming for me right now. Charter school is the way we're going this year. But PROPS big time to you for doing homeschool with your children. Such a noble thing to do! Fun blog, too!
You know, if Mia will be in kindergarten, things don't have to be overwhelming. Sierra's kindergarten took up a whopping 30 minutes a day. That's it. And in Colorado, at least, you don't even have to register the child or even take attendance until they are seven (usually 1st grade). And if it doesn't work out, no harm will be done if you put them straight into 1st grade the next year.
Basically, with my oldest, all I did was work on reading, handwriting (because she was already really good at it), and math (which you don't have to do at all until 1st grade).
Seriously, if you want to try it out, get a good phonics based reading book, a library card, and simple books like "Hop On Pop". Then take 10 to 15 minutes a day, building to 30 by the end of the year, to teach her to read. Other then that, let her play, and do what you already do. That's kindergarten.
Some good resources are "Teach You Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", "Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading", Bob Books (very simple books that children can read almost from day one), and "The Well Trained Mind".
Charter schools are a great option though if you still think it's too much.
OOOh! I'm jealous. I mean, we love Time4Learning homeschooling--it's easy, I don't have to teach everything, the work is fun fun fun and gives instant feedback. (Bree--you might look at Time4Learning for Mia--they do Pre-K and K up to 8th grade and the learning is all on the computer and all fun. Even my 7 year old fourth grader does his work in 30 minutes a day or less, and he's still getting the whole curriculum with no problems).
But one day a week where they choose their classes and make friends? I wish we had that here in Nevada!
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