The school year is over and thus ends our experimental year of kid in public school. Technically last year was a hybrid as she did virtual public school at home.
School at home: She could work at her own pace, the younger kid worked with her and learned more than I thought possible, she could take advantage of good days and take it easy on bad ones, and we could modify lessons to suit her learning style, such as the game of kinetic math where she jumped up and down a chalk number line to add or subtract and land on the right answer. At the end of the year she’d finished all her courses so she got to do extra studies on whatever she wanted to. We did dinosaurs and marine biology, with accompanying field trips. It was fun, and she learned a lot. She was able to do her best academically with an environment that suited her and with the work slanted to suit her style.
Public school: She didn’t advance academically at all, and we’re doing refresher study to get her back up to where she used to be. The environment was overwhelming, which is probably why she didn’t learn anything, and with public school classes it’s really not possible to individualize the studies for learning style or to take advantage of good days to get ahead. She did, however, come home with marker tattooes drawn on her, the idea that she should be thinner and stopped eating, and one of her friends taught her to make devil horns and draw skulls. While I understand the appeal of goth and she’s always going to have a flare for the dramatic, I think age 6 is too young for makeup, tattooes or anorexia. And we saw her lose the social skills she’d built.
This is the thing people always scream about with home schooling; “they won’t get any socializing”. Not true; our home school experience included monthly group field trips and live lessons with the other students in her grade once a week. But beyond that, it’s not like home school students never leave the house. They interact with neighbors, extended family, church, go along on errands and shopping, visit the library, etc. All of which is real-world social experience. The big difference is that they do their school work at home, in quiet, uninterrupted, which is why they can learn more and get it done faster and then have more time to explore areas of interest.
So for academics and social skills, homeschooling wins. There’s the added factor of special needs, and here is where I think homeschooling is really the best choice for autism spectrum for the ability to work in a supportive environment and work at their own pace. Advanced learners aren’t held back and the home school environment can be structured to support their needs in ways public schools simply can’t match.
What are we doing next year? Calvert school, which has terrific curriculum and provides everything you need, including teacher support if you want to sign up for it. (I think that’s worthwhile for older students, but probably not essential for elementary grades.) We’re also doing outside classes once a week to provide elective courses beyond Calvert. (You can sign your kid up for dance, gymnastics, art or music lessons, whatever suits the interest level, and is available in your local area. That provides extra social time and gets specialized instruction in areas you maybe can’t match. For instance, I can’t teach gymnastics but my kids are interested.)
Cost: Public school is free, but Calvert is reasonably priced. You can also do a virtual public school for free for the hybrid option. Check your state availability for K12 or Connections Academy as a public school option (K12 and Connections are both available as a private option for a reasonable cost, also.) For local classes to add on, prices will vary wildly but you can often find lessons in everything from painting to karate through Community Education at a very reduced cost. You might also be able to team up with other homeschoolers to teach your specialities. For instance, I’m highly qualified to teach creative writing. Experts exist in every community.
Why Calvert; it’s what the public virtual school used and we couldn’t find anything better. The curriculum is integrated so that you reinforce the lessons in one course in another. We saw how rapidly our kids learned with Calvert and we’re sticking with what works.
Posting this now, because now is when decisions need to be made and enrollment is open. In September your choices may be a lot more limited. Also I’ve spent the last month going over pros and cons and comparing programs so I might as well get a blog post out of it.
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