Welcome to Home Schooling in the Burbs! This site is dedicated to discussion about homeschooling.

Purpose of Home Schooling in the Burbs

The purpose of this site is to create a place where people can share their ideas. I have reviewed some curriculum on other sites and decided that it was a lot of fun sharing what I am passionate about. So, I decided to start blogging about it. There are a lot of home school blogs available on the web because there are so many different ways people teach their kids at home. We each have our own unique ideas. Some of us, myself included, gathered those ideas from multiple places. I hope that Homeschooling in the Burbs will help you to add some spice to your home school life.

Home schooling comes in many shapes and sizes.

There is traditional home schooling where families are 100% on their own, no government influence whatsoever. These families may buy their curriculum or create it themselves. Some do a little of both. They must submit an intent to home school form to their local school district and are not compelled to take state mandated tests in most states.

There are cyber schools, also referred to as virtual schools and/or academies. These families get their curriculum from an online company such as k12.com. Often, materials are on loan and consumables are paid for by the local school district. The materials are then sent back at the end of the school year. While these schools are somewhat influenced by school districts and must comply with local and state laws, students engage in most of their learning at home with a parent.

There are part-time cyber school students. These students only report half or less of their school work to teachers and/or school. Often, they do not have to take state mandated tests. The rest of the time they are traditionally home schooled.

There are students who home school for credit recovery or to get ahead, but are primarily schooled in a brick and mortar building. Credit recovery is for students who failed or earned a low grade. This student (or their parents or the school) wants to increase the grade the student received. Sometimes, recovery is the student’s only option to be promoted to the next grade or qualify for graduation. Other students want to get ahead in school and choose to do extra classes that do not fit into their schedule. In some states, students can opt-out of “sex ed” in the regular classroom setting and can choose to do an online class guided by their parents, who may provide moral guidance along the way.

A new form of home schooling that just came out is kind of like a la carte homeschooling. Kids are still primarily taught at home, but can sign up for a class or two during the week and meet other kids in the area who are home schooled, too. Sometimes, tutoring is available. The school is often a brick and mortar leaning heavily toward the cyber school model. Students aren’t in the building more than a few hours a week.

Everyone is Welcome Here

Many of the people from all of the different models mentioned above find that home school co-ops are beneficial. Some offer lessons in whatever the parents are talented in, which changes from year to year. Others teach lessons such as art, music, PE, history, and science. Still others have a single activity that all the children participate in. No matter how the co-op is set up, some level of service is required by the parents and some learning is completed by the children. The benefits of co-ops is that parents have a venue to swap teaching methods, ideas for crafts, compare curriculum, and have someone besides children to talk to. Children grow from this experience by learning how to work in groups with their peers, talk about their experiences in home schooling, and often develop clubs based on mutual interest.

No matter which model you follow, plan to follow, I welcome your comments. I simply ask that we critique thoughts and ideas, not people. I know that  rifts develop between people who use certain models because they are passionate about their choice. Use that passion to enlighten, not be little. Aggressive, harsh, and demeaning comments will not be tolerated. Everything else is fair game!

Thank you again for coming!

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