Home school problems?

Vickie Sterbenz: Many people get confused about homeschooling.Homeschool - Homeschooling is not free unless you use your local library. You can homeschool cheaply or not, it's up to your parents budget. Your parents are your teachers. Your parents pick and choose what you will learn. They will give you assignments. True homeschooling provide maximum flexibility. You won't be at the mercy of anyone other than your parents. You won't be given "busy work", unless that's what your parents assign. To homeschool you need to find out what the homeschooling laws are in your state. http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/directory/Lega... As a homeschooler, unless your parents outsource all your classes to a "regionally accredited" school, your homeschool credits will not transfer back to a public school. Yes you will be able to attend college with a homeschool diploma. Many homeschoolers receive scholarships.Public School Online - This is just like public school, but you ! work from home. Public school online is NOT homeschooling. Your work is done online. You will have teachers. You will have "busy work", just like in public school. Credits earned online through a public school, will transfer back to public school. Yes you will be able to attend college with an online public school diploma....Show more

Carter Edstrom: No one pays for homeschooling but you because IF you are homeschooling, you're telling the state "No thanks!" to the education they're offering you. You have decided to provide it on your own. And they're good with that, you're legally able to take that option in all 50 states, no issue. But don't expect to hand them the tab and get it paid for. That they won't do. They're also not going to provide you teachers and textbooks. After all, you declined their offer of education, and technically, they're not obliged to loan out their stuff. It does all cost money, after all. So you'll also need to supply that on your own! . With young children who haven't really mastered reading and ! writing yet, mom and dad are the teachers. Once a kid gets old enough that they can handle it on their own, homeschooling becomes a much more self-directed process. You can pick and choose who you want as a teacher, whether you're good with learning mainly from books and supplementing with lectures and such, or if you want to skip directly into taking a few community college courses, or do a more project-based approach. If you're thinking of the online stuff, it's not actually homeschooling. You are actually counted as a public school student. And the Dirty Little Secret here is that the school district gets to keep the federal funds for you if you enroll in a Virtual Academy / Cyberschool, so they have a vested, financial interest in keeping you (A) in public school, and (B) in a "Virtual Academy" if they can't keep you enrolled in option A, cause at least they get half the money for you that way. The advantage to the VA is that you can do most of the stuff from your house! and it's paid for with taxes. The downside is that you lose your freedom and become subject to the political whims of the district. (In our state they wanted to prove that online school "can't ever work," so they made the online workload about twice as difficult as the brick-and-mortar schools.)As to credits, it will depend on your district. In ours, they have a big warning on their website that they require grades and tests and even standardized test scores, but I think the most offensive thing is that the district has its own special little test they devised JUST for homeschoolers, and they assure you that "most homeschoolers are at least a year or two behind." (Never mind that the average score on the state standardized tests is in the 36th percentile. Do you know how low that is?? My own kids score over the 80th percentile nationally, and the kids in my old school are pulling down 98th and 99th percentiles in the same national tests.) See how much BS can be involved? W! hile in the next district over, you are welcome to even pick and choose! which classes you'd like to take at the public high schools, and which you would rather homeschool for. They are an absolute dream to work with. (The private high schools here are accommodating as well, totally open to anything you would like.) The key to getting into college is going to be your ACT and SAT scores....Show more

Luis Mellon: Are you wanting to be independently homeschooled or use a correspondence/online program? If you will homeschool independently, you do not need to apply. You would research and follow your state homeschooling laws. Your parents would teach you. They would also decide what you will learn and buy your books. I usually spend $500/year, but you may spend more or less depending what curriculum you decide to get. You would not be associated with your local school district. If you decide to return to your school, the school would determine what work to accept for credit. You would be able to graduate. You may have to take a placement test ! to determine what classes you would need to take. That depends on school policy. Being independently homeschooled should not negatively affect your getting into university.If you use a correspondence/online program run by a public school, it would be free and include all your books. However, they are not available in all states. There also private correspondence/online programs that you have to pay for. In any program, you would not have much choice in what you study other than picking your classes. A teacher would not come to your house. The work would be done online or through the mail. If the program is accredited, you probably won't have trouble transferring the work to your school for credit....Show more

Sabra Roers: That is NOT homeschooling. LEGALLY, homeschooling is where your parents accept legal responsibility for you education, create a curriculum and teach you themselves. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with public or private education. There are no cred! its, and if your parents choose they can issue you a diploma. Schools l! ike K12, Connections and Insight are public schools. About 29 states permit these for-profit PUBLIC schools to operate. Instruction is provided over a computer that is loaned to you (may vary from state to state) in your home. Because it is a public school it is important to follow whatever schedule is set out for you in order to meet your state's laws about attendance. Just like your regular public school, it is paid for by the taxpayers. IF your state does not permit them to operate they are considered private schools and your parents pay for them. Because they are public schools you get the same credits as any other public school. Whether or not you go to college is up to you, your grades and how you perform on SAT, ACT tests and your application. Colleges get to pick and choose who they accept. Please don't confuse homeschooling with online schools. Homeschoolers resent it for a lot of reasons....Show more