How to Transition from Public School

[Biscuit Fan]

Our kids are in the public school now, but we are considering pulling them out and starting homeschooling as soon as possible.

I've heard it is best not to jump in with both feet, but this goes against my grain.

I'm afraid if I give them a break they will think "home-play" and it will increase the difficulty once we do actually begin the real curriculum.

What have your experiences been with this?

Thank you

[CoconutCookie]

I guess that would depend primarily on the home education approach you are taking.

Are you doing a "school at home" where you replicate the classroom feel? If so, then I would say go right in to it, because if you give the children a false sense of what to expect it may be harder to get them back in to the swing of things.

Or, are you taking a more laid back approach? If so, you can still start, and they may not know it This is the approach we use. I tried the "school at home, sit at the table working from 9:15 - 10:00 in math" and such, but it drove us both nuts. Instead, we have a more relaxed approach -- a list of what I would like to cover, and we do that work at whichever pace we choose. Lots of breaks in between, no being tied to a desk or tabletop to do the work -- if ds wants to read in the tub or out on the porch, that's fine. I am not any longer stuck on "how" the work is completed, as long as it is completed

[Biscuit Fan]

That is a good point.

I'm somewhere in the middle.

I'm planning on the Sonlight curriculum with Math U See, but I will allow them to do their work where they want with some flexibility on when they do it.

[momo3boys]

If you give them a vacation and let them know that this is what it is, they may be able to handle it better. Having a date that school is going to "officially start" being from a PS setting they will understand this. During this time, you can do some investigative stuff and find things out like learning styles and interests and levels. I took my children out after school was out for the summer, so I had all summer to "play" and then we started in Sept. It worked well for us. I was able to plan and research while figuring out how they ticked and how far behind they actually were.

[ncmom]

[Biscuit Fan]

[ncmom]

[Morgan]

[kerry1968]

[kerry1968]

I thought of another free field trip. A ride to a carpet/flooring store to learn how to figure out square footage. All kinds of measurements are fun hands on learning. A measurement tape, kitchen measurement cups and spoons can be fun and could be yummy at the time.

[jenareu]

I think Morgan said it all for me already.

I pulled her and her older brother out at the end of the first marking period a year ago. We used the first couple of weeks to get a plan together of what exactly they wanted/needed to do.

They are both very motivated so I didn't really have to worry too much about them thinking its play-time. The only thing I really do now is put together their curriculum, give them a schedule and off they go. We are pretty relaxed, they aren't slaving away at the books all day long. They are up and showered by 7am, just like when they were in school and usually done with all their "school" work by lunchtime. They also do work on weekends, and through the summer, by their own choice. The way I see it, public school is basically a whole lot of wasted time.

[StellarStory]

I wanted to de-school them but I didn't feel like I could because my husband was too primal-ly scared about home schooling in general.

I think if I had de-schooled them one month for every year they were in public school, they would have found their passion in natural learning so much faster than they did. It took YEARS instead of months.

[Calleigh]

Very interesting! I didn't de-school mine either; had never even heard the term actually. I was way too afraid of that also. I think I needed to be de-schooled even more than they did. It is taking me years to get a grip on the whole concept. Sorry to say, I'm still not completely there, and it is evident in the way that I home-school. I still have moments of "panic." Like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? Not a fun feeling.

Calleigh