If anyone has experience with Homeschooling middle school age children, I would love some input.......

[rebate_queen]

I know there is an old thread about homeschooling, but I wanted to start a new one to hopefully get some fresh input.

Here's my backstory:

My DD is 11 and in the 6th grade at a public school. Elementary school was OK as far as the education went I guess, but when it was time for her to go to middle school, my choices weren't great and I was toying with the idea of homeschool. Well, most of my family was against it, and I ultimately decided to put her in school. The first part of the year was OK, and so far she has been getting good grades, but alot of that is because I stay on top of things and help her. The last week or so I have just gotten so frustrated with the stuff going on with the teachers and 1 class in particular, and it just reminds me why I dislike our public school system.

I cannot afford private school, so I am back to the idea of homeschooling her for the 7th grade next year. I believe I have the ability to homeschool, so that's not an issue, and I am plenty organized. What I am worried about is trying to start now, this late in the game. Does anyone else have any experience with starting homeschooling in the later grades? What have you had success with as far as curriculum or anything else?

I would love some feedback and advice. I'll answer any other questions if I've left out any important info. Thanks!

[clippyclippy]

We started homeschooling when my oldest dd was in 6th grade. She had finished elementary school and was facing middle school. I had good friends who were homeschoolers, and they had encouraged me for a long time to do it. My dd was bored in school, and very motivated.
When she asked who her teachers would be for the new year, I asked her, "how about me?" Her face lit up and she was thrilled at the idea.

The first few years were a little rocky though. I didn't realize how not being in a classroom would affect her. She had been used to being at the top of her class in everything, and got a lot of positive attention from other kids for being so smart. Now that she was at home, there was no one to impress I guess. She wasn't completing assignments, she was sloppy and I wondered if I had made a huge mistake.

Thankfully, she started to pull out of it as the years went by and by high school, she was back on track again. At this point, we gave her the option of going to ps if that was what she wanted to do. She gave it some thought, thought it would be cool to see what it was like, but then firmly decided she would do better on her own.

And did she ever... she graduated last year, off to college on a full ride scholarship with future plans to go to medical school. I take no credit for that though, I always say she did it in spite of me!

I have 2 younger ones. When the oldest started homeschooling, we pulled them out of school too. The middle dd was starting 3rd grade, youngest ds was starting 2nd grade.

They did pretty well - lots of co-ops, classes and all. But last year as we watched oldest finish successfully, my ds was not doing so well. He was ready for high school, and I knew it would not be the same for him. He was not motivated, had too much time on his hands, and wanted to spend too much of it playing video games... not a good situation.

We could have done things to continue homeschooling him, and things probably would have improved, but one day this summer, I came home after being out of town for a week, and when I walked in the door, he barely said hi. He just went into this plea to go to school. He said, "Mom, I'm not performing to the best of my ability at home, and I'm lonely. I think I need to be in a classroom." Wow. Something clicked in me and after talking to my dh that night, we enrolled him in a private christian school.

He is loving it there, and doing well. I think homeschooling was good while it lasted for him, but having a high school son home under Mom's authority is difficult, and being accountable to someone else is a better situation. And he doesn't have much time for video games!

My middle dd on the other hand is kind of stuck. She is at home with me, in 10th grade. She would go to school if we allowed her to go to ps, but as long as her option is homeschool or private school, she chooses to stay home.

She's always struggled quite a bit academically, and so my goal is to get her caught up, while she has a year at home alone with me. Although we still have a preference for private school, we would possibly consider the ps where her friends are at this point. She's very grounded and level-headed and the things I was concerned about in the earlier years are passing as she matures.
She's a social butterfly (one reason why school has been so hard!). She makes the best of it though, getting the extra babysitting jobs, and doing some extracurricular things she couldn't do if she were in school.

So who knows. I may be all done with homeschooling after this year, or she may choose to go all the way. I'm not clear on anything right now. Just praying.

Not sure that helped at all, it's just our experience. If I had it to do over again, I still would do it. I may do some things differently, but I think it was good for them, and for our family as a whole.

If you do decide to home school, the main thing about starting late is that so many habits and attitudes are deeply ingrained, and can get in the way of trying something new. It takes time to "de-school" and step out of the box. That can be as hard for the parent as it is for the kids.

Let me know if you have any more specific questions.

[mopets]

i pulled my oldest out of middle school i let her finish 6th grade and started homeschooling. they didnt have the virtual k12 programs then so i just went with the alpha omega program. she hated me for a solid 6months but did the work because i promised her that if she did well, changed her attitude, and upheld her end then we would talk about letting her go to highschool when that time came. she was/is a good girl but i just wasnt comfortable with what she was having to deal with in a middle school environment...pregnancy (not hers but others) drugs, language, attitudes of disrespect towards teachers & other adults in general. my daughter is now a sophmore we did let her attend public highschool but there was always the threat of... if we see changes we dont like we will yank you right out... shes a great kid and now she thanks us for taking her out of school during that time. it really helped her develop her own sense of worth and strengthened our bond. we now have a child in kindergarten and i am homeschooling her in the k12 virtual program. i wish they would have had the program back then its so much better/would definately check and see if its available in your area. and as always pray hard about everything and you have the promise that everything will turn out allright

[madamimadam1]

I was in 4th grade when my parents moved me from private school to homeschool. I had 2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister who were also pulled out to do homeschooling. I loved homeschooling - my brothers didn't enjoy it as much. But all of us have done well - all graduated from college, two have masters degrees. My advice would be to really look at the options you have for curriculum. There are so many options available for every type of teacher and student. Find out when there is a homeschooling convention in your area - a lot of them have a website with contact information for local homeschooling groups that can help you one on one. Try to think about what kind of learner your daughter is - will she be self motivated? look at alpha and omega. Does she need someone to do the teaching? A Beka or BJ press might be a better option. Do you want to do the teaching or have someone else do it via DVD? look into distance learning with A Beka or BJU Press. Don't feel like you can't change your mind if a curriculum isn't working for you. If you have narrowed down what you think you would like to use then check out vegsource.com/homeschool - they have a lot of homeschool resources for sale - usually fairly cheaply. I say go for it! The rewards are worth it! Were there hard moments? Of course. But I wouldn't have changed it.

[rebate_queen]

Right now, my DD is not very self motivated. I don't know if that would change if I homeschooled though. She is very bright, but "lazy" when it comes to homework. The teachers always say she is great in school though, and very involved. So I don't know what to make of that.

Thanks for some tips on curriculum, that is where I am struggling right now. I would definitely like to teach her as much as I can, and then maybe supplement with some interactive things online (she loves anything like that, and would think it's a game) and let her do some worksheets and such on her own. Does that sound reasonable?

[madamimadam1]

Those sound like good ideas. Do you know what the homeschooling laws are for your state? You might want to check HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) for their recommendation for your state. (I recently moved from CT where there are NO regulations to PA where there are a bazillion) That may help you with forms and keeping track of what subjects need to be covered.

[rebate_queen]

In KY the rules look to be pretty lax. No testing from what I can tell, you just have to teach certain subjects and for a certain amount of instructional hours.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this? Especially with curriculum info? TIA!

[kirstiharrison]

I homeschool my 7th grade dd, 5th grade ds and 1st grade dd. They all LOVE it compared to the school they went to last year. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our Sonlight Curriculum and for math Teaching Textbooks all the way.

My 7th grader had NO homework her whole school year. She never wrote a paper and the behavior was really bad.

They are involved at church and with our homeschool covering + extracurriculars, and we are SO happy we made the decision to bring them home!

[rebate_queen]

Anyone else???

[rebate_queen]

Any more thoughts? I have pretty much decided to do this, and I have been looking at curriculum. Many of them seem expensive, and I don't mind paying if that's what I need, but has anyone done it in less expensive ways? I need some sort of structure and a plan to follow, but certainly there are some subjects I should be able to do without curriculum, right? Especially for 7th grade.