Public, Private, or Home Schooling?

AnD · Feb 24, 2007

Keep in mind, too, that if you decide on homeschooling, there are varying degrees of social interaction-some homeschooling groups are in name only, some have a huge opportunity for meeting people and making friends, going on field trips (like zoo, Children's Theater, symphony, etc), weekly meetings for adults and children, keep up transcripts for you, having a prom, joining church or community sponsered sports teams, tutoring, etc. It takes a lot of research, but IMHO, it is worth it if you are considering it.

I am considering it for my noncf daughter because 1) she won't be bringing me home a new disease every week, like most of the kids I know around here (2 I have 2 friends who homeschool (one who now lives in my state, but was in another, the other lives out of state) and their children are doing really well with it and 3) it gives me more time with her, to get to know her.

I went to public school, and to tell you the truth, I liked it until about 4th grade or so, then I hated it (digestive problems don't make you very popular, let's say- kids are mean).

One of my friends just took her baby out of daycare, because he caught something there and had to be hospitalized. I went through school and didn't have any problems until I was in highschool. But I know homeschooling would not have worked for me and my mom<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">, even if it was a thought at the time.

If it was my child who had cf instead of me, and if I couldn't homeschool, I would probably choose a small private school that was willing to work with me. It all just depends on you and your child. Like the others have said, you do have time.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> We are going to give homeschooling a trial run this spring/summer and see how it goes. Since my daughter's b'day is in Oct., we can do a whole year's worth of homeschooling before she can even go to 4 year old preschool. I also have a homeschoolers' support group at church, and they belong to different homeschool associations, use different curriculm, so I am getting a chance to see a lot of different options.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

AnD · Feb 24, 2007

Keep in mind, too, that if you decide on homeschooling, there are varying degrees of social interaction-some homeschooling groups are in name only, some have a huge opportunity for meeting people and making friends, going on field trips (like zoo, Children's Theater, symphony, etc), weekly meetings for adults and children, keep up transcripts for you, having a prom, joining church or community sponsered sports teams, tutoring, etc. It takes a lot of research, but IMHO, it is worth it if you are considering it.

I am considering it for my noncf daughter because 1) she won't be bringing me home a new disease every week, like most of the kids I know around here (2 I have 2 friends who homeschool (one who now lives in my state, but was in another, the other lives out of state) and their children are doing really well with it and 3) it gives me more time with her, to get to know her.

I went to public school, and to tell you the truth, I liked it until about 4th grade or so, then I hated it (digestive problems don't make you very popular, let's say- kids are mean).

One of my friends just took her baby out of daycare, because he caught something there and had to be hospitalized. I went through school and didn't have any problems until I was in highschool. But I know homeschooling would not have worked for me and my mom<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">, even if it was a thought at the time.

If it was my child who had cf instead of me, and if I couldn't homeschool, I would probably choose a small private school that was willing to work with me. It all just depends on you and your child. Like the others have said, you do have time.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> We are going to give homeschooling a trial run this spring/summer and see how it goes. Since my daughter's b'day is in Oct., we can do a whole year's worth of homeschooling before she can even go to 4 year old preschool. I also have a homeschoolers' support group at church, and they belong to different homeschool associations, use different curriculm, so I am getting a chance to see a lot of different options.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

Foody · Feb 25, 2007

I would have to add also that as far as Ben's treatments go, our decision to home educate/unschool our daughter has given me a tremendous amount of flexibility in when his treatments are done. I don't have to get up at dawn to get them in before the morning routine/school rush starts. As long as they are done before 11AM I am happy. We are able to set our own rhythms which work for us...a major perk for a non-morning person such as myself

Foody · Feb 25, 2007

I would have to add also that as far as Ben's treatments go, our decision to home educate/unschool our daughter has given me a tremendous amount of flexibility in when his treatments are done. I don't have to get up at dawn to get them in before the morning routine/school rush starts. As long as they are done before 11AM I am happy. We are able to set our own rhythms which work for us...a major perk for a non-morning person such as myself

Foody · Feb 25, 2007

I would have to add also that as far as Ben's treatments go, our decision to home educate/unschool our daughter has given me a tremendous amount of flexibility in when his treatments are done. I don't have to get up at dawn to get them in before the morning routine/school rush starts. As long as they are done before 11AM I am happy. We are able to set our own rhythms which work for us...a major perk for a non-morning person such as myself

Scarlett81 · Feb 25, 2007

It affected me only in classes that you really had to be at each class to keep up-like math for example. But, other than that it didn't affect me much. Everytime I'd go on ivs or in the hosp I'd have a tutor with me who kept up with my school assignments and taught me. She'd come like 3-4 days a week when I was sick. She coordinated everything between us and the school.
It was hard sometimes, and there were some uncooperative teachers through the years, but the experience of going to school and learning discipline far outweighed the problems my cf brought up.

Scarlett81 · Feb 25, 2007

It affected me only in classes that you really had to be at each class to keep up-like math for example. But, other than that it didn't affect me much. Everytime I'd go on ivs or in the hosp I'd have a tutor with me who kept up with my school assignments and taught me. She'd come like 3-4 days a week when I was sick. She coordinated everything between us and the school.
It was hard sometimes, and there were some uncooperative teachers through the years, but the experience of going to school and learning discipline far outweighed the problems my cf brought up.

Scarlett81 · Feb 25, 2007

It affected me only in classes that you really had to be at each class to keep up-like math for example. But, other than that it didn't affect me much. Everytime I'd go on ivs or in the hosp I'd have a tutor with me who kept up with my school assignments and taught me. She'd come like 3-4 days a week when I was sick. She coordinated everything between us and the school.
It was hard sometimes, and there were some uncooperative teachers through the years, but the experience of going to school and learning discipline far outweighed the problems my cf brought up.

Chelsayyy93 · Dec 7, 2008

Hi
I'm 15 and I'm a sophmore in high school. I have gone to public school all my life. It is kind of hard to catch up in my classes after being out (I'm in all advanced classes). my school only allows you to miss 5 days of school in a semester(which is 90 days), so I don't get to stay home all the time if i feel sick. I have missed 8 days of school this semester, so I have pretty much lost my credits for all those classes even though I have As in them. I can go in on a holiday and make up the days, but you can only make up 2 days. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly. This year has been one of the hardest years for me. I hate having to catch up. I also hate having to go to the nurse before lunch to take my enzymes instead of walking straight to lunch with my friends. i love seeing my friends, but its getting harder and harder to get motivated to go to school.I only have 2 more years of high school, then college.I have never had the option to homeschool because my mom and dad are split up and my mom has to work to support me and my brother and sister. Homeschooling sounds cool, but public school is pretty cool.

Chelsayyy93 · Dec 7, 2008

Hi
I'm 15 and I'm a sophmore in high school. I have gone to public school all my life. It is kind of hard to catch up in my classes after being out (I'm in all advanced classes). my school only allows you to miss 5 days of school in a semester(which is 90 days), so I don't get to stay home all the time if i feel sick. I have missed 8 days of school this semester, so I have pretty much lost my credits for all those classes even though I have As in them. I can go in on a holiday and make up the days, but you can only make up 2 days. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly. This year has been one of the hardest years for me. I hate having to catch up. I also hate having to go to the nurse before lunch to take my enzymes instead of walking straight to lunch with my friends. i love seeing my friends, but its getting harder and harder to get motivated to go to school.I only have 2 more years of high school, then college.I have never had the option to homeschool because my mom and dad are split up and my mom has to work to support me and my brother and sister. Homeschooling sounds cool, but public school is pretty cool.

Chelsayyy93 · Dec 7, 2008

Hi
I'm 15 and I'm a sophmore in high school. I have gone to public school all my life. It is kind of hard to catch up in my classes after being out (I'm in all advanced classes). my school only allows you to miss 5 days of school in a semester(which is 90 days), so I don't get to stay home all the time if i feel sick. I have missed 8 days of school this semester, so I have pretty much lost my credits for all those classes even though I have As in them. I can go in on a holiday and make up the days, but you can only make up 2 days. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly. This year has been one of the hardest years for me. I hate having to catch up. I also hate having to go to the nurse before lunch to take my enzymes instead of walking straight to lunch with my friends. i love seeing my friends, but its getting harder and harder to get motivated to go to school.I only have 2 more years of high school, then college.I have never had the option to homeschool because my mom and dad are split up and my mom has to work to support me and my brother and sister. Homeschooling sounds cool, but public school is pretty cool.

Chelsayyy93 · Dec 7, 2008

Hi
I'm 15 and I'm a sophmore in high school. I have gone to public school all my life. It is kind of hard to catch up in my classes after being out (I'm in all advanced classes). my school only allows you to miss 5 days of school in a semester(which is 90 days), so I don't get to stay home all the time if i feel sick. I have missed 8 days of school this semester, so I have pretty much lost my credits for all those classes even though I have As in them. I can go in on a holiday and make up the days, but you can only make up 2 days. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly. This year has been one of the hardest years for me. I hate having to catch up. I also hate having to go to the nurse before lunch to take my enzymes instead of walking straight to lunch with my friends. i love seeing my friends, but its getting harder and harder to get motivated to go to school.I only have 2 more years of high school, then college.I have never had the option to homeschool because my mom and dad are split up and my mom has to work to support me and my brother and sister. Homeschooling sounds cool, but public school is pretty cool.

Chelsayyy93 · Dec 7, 2008

Hi
 I'm 15 and I'm a sophmore in high school. I have gone to public school all my life. It is kind of hard to catch up in my classes after being out (I'm in all advanced classes). my school only allows you to miss 5 days of school in a semester(which is 90 days), so I don't get to stay home all the time if i feel sick. I have missed 8 days of school this semester, so I have pretty much lost my credits for all those classes even though I have As in them. I can go in on a holiday and make up the days, but you can only make up 2 days. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly. This year has been one of the hardest years for me. I hate having to catch up. I also hate having to go to the nurse before lunch to take my enzymes instead of walking straight to lunch with my friends. i love seeing my friends, but its getting harder and harder to get motivated to go to school.I only have 2 more years of high school, then college.I have never had the option to homeschool because my mom and dad are split up and my mom has to work to support me and my brother and sister. Homeschooling sounds cool, but public school is pretty cool.

Transplantmommy · Dec 8, 2008

I'm 27 and graduated almost 10 years ago so things may be a little different in the school systems...don't know. What I can tell you is that I went to public school all my life and many different schools at that because my Mom was a single mother with 4 kids and was always looking for work. I didn't have a single problem with any of the schools that I went to. I ended up in one high school from 10th grade to graduation and I never had a problem with any of my teachers at all. They all understood what I was going through and if I needed to do school work at home, they let me. When I was in my Junior year of high school, I got a really bad case of pneumonia and I was out of school for 3 months straight. I had a few teachers that said that there was no way I was going to keep up with the work and wanted to send me to Summer school, but I proved them wrong, kept up with all of my work and went on to my Senior year on time.

I missed quite a bit of school my Senior year too and also had a full course load. I think that I took 8 classes that year...Pre-Calc I and II, Health, Government, Economics, English, Driver's Ed, and French V. I finished everything on time and I also graduated with Honors. I also ended up with 2 scholarships at graduation.

I seriously think that if a child is motivated enough and wants to do well, they can get through anything. There are some children who will use the CF as an excuse to not want to go to school. What you do with your children all depends on what you feel comfortable with. Staying in a public school was a great way for me to know how college was going to be. I went through the same stuff in college that I went through in high school. I was absent from classes a lot and that even when I started doing IV's regularly at home and that's also when I had my first lung bleed and embolization (during my last semester and 3 weeks before graduation). I still did all of my work, took all of my finals, and graduated college on time.

You also have to know though that I am a VERY determined person and when I set my mind to something, I do it. I am also very stubborn and don't let people tell me what to do.

Transplantmommy · Dec 8, 2008

I'm 27 and graduated almost 10 years ago so things may be a little different in the school systems...don't know. What I can tell you is that I went to public school all my life and many different schools at that because my Mom was a single mother with 4 kids and was always looking for work. I didn't have a single problem with any of the schools that I went to. I ended up in one high school from 10th grade to graduation and I never had a problem with any of my teachers at all. They all understood what I was going through and if I needed to do school work at home, they let me. When I was in my Junior year of high school, I got a really bad case of pneumonia and I was out of school for 3 months straight. I had a few teachers that said that there was no way I was going to keep up with the work and wanted to send me to Summer school, but I proved them wrong, kept up with all of my work and went on to my Senior year on time.

I missed quite a bit of school my Senior year too and also had a full course load. I think that I took 8 classes that year...Pre-Calc I and II, Health, Government, Economics, English, Driver's Ed, and French V. I finished everything on time and I also graduated with Honors. I also ended up with 2 scholarships at graduation.

I seriously think that if a child is motivated enough and wants to do well, they can get through anything. There are some children who will use the CF as an excuse to not want to go to school. What you do with your children all depends on what you feel comfortable with. Staying in a public school was a great way for me to know how college was going to be. I went through the same stuff in college that I went through in high school. I was absent from classes a lot and that even when I started doing IV's regularly at home and that's also when I had my first lung bleed and embolization (during my last semester and 3 weeks before graduation). I still did all of my work, took all of my finals, and graduated college on time.

You also have to know though that I am a VERY determined person and when I set my mind to something, I do it. I am also very stubborn and don't let people tell me what to do.

Transplantmommy · Dec 8, 2008

I'm 27 and graduated almost 10 years ago so things may be a little different in the school systems...don't know. What I can tell you is that I went to public school all my life and many different schools at that because my Mom was a single mother with 4 kids and was always looking for work. I didn't have a single problem with any of the schools that I went to. I ended up in one high school from 10th grade to graduation and I never had a problem with any of my teachers at all. They all understood what I was going through and if I needed to do school work at home, they let me. When I was in my Junior year of high school, I got a really bad case of pneumonia and I was out of school for 3 months straight. I had a few teachers that said that there was no way I was going to keep up with the work and wanted to send me to Summer school, but I proved them wrong, kept up with all of my work and went on to my Senior year on time.

I missed quite a bit of school my Senior year too and also had a full course load. I think that I took 8 classes that year...Pre-Calc I and II, Health, Government, Economics, English, Driver's Ed, and French V. I finished everything on time and I also graduated with Honors. I also ended up with 2 scholarships at graduation.

I seriously think that if a child is motivated enough and wants to do well, they can get through anything. There are some children who will use the CF as an excuse to not want to go to school. What you do with your children all depends on what you feel comfortable with. Staying in a public school was a great way for me to know how college was going to be. I went through the same stuff in college that I went through in high school. I was absent from classes a lot and that even when I started doing IV's regularly at home and that's also when I had my first lung bleed and embolization (during my last semester and 3 weeks before graduation). I still did all of my work, took all of my finals, and graduated college on time.

You also have to know though that I am a VERY determined person and when I set my mind to something, I do it. I am also very stubborn and don't let people tell me what to do.

Transplantmommy · Dec 8, 2008

I'm 27 and graduated almost 10 years ago so things may be a little different in the school systems...don't know. What I can tell you is that I went to public school all my life and many different schools at that because my Mom was a single mother with 4 kids and was always looking for work. I didn't have a single problem with any of the schools that I went to. I ended up in one high school from 10th grade to graduation and I never had a problem with any of my teachers at all. They all understood what I was going through and if I needed to do school work at home, they let me. When I was in my Junior year of high school, I got a really bad case of pneumonia and I was out of school for 3 months straight. I had a few teachers that said that there was no way I was going to keep up with the work and wanted to send me to Summer school, but I proved them wrong, kept up with all of my work and went on to my Senior year on time.

I missed quite a bit of school my Senior year too and also had a full course load. I think that I took 8 classes that year...Pre-Calc I and II, Health, Government, Economics, English, Driver's Ed, and French V. I finished everything on time and I also graduated with Honors. I also ended up with 2 scholarships at graduation.

I seriously think that if a child is motivated enough and wants to do well, they can get through anything. There are some children who will use the CF as an excuse to not want to go to school. What you do with your children all depends on what you feel comfortable with. Staying in a public school was a great way for me to know how college was going to be. I went through the same stuff in college that I went through in high school. I was absent from classes a lot and that even when I started doing IV's regularly at home and that's also when I had my first lung bleed and embolization (during my last semester and 3 weeks before graduation). I still did all of my work, took all of my finals, and graduated college on time.

You also have to know though that I am a VERY determined person and when I set my mind to something, I do it. I am also very stubborn and don't let people tell me what to do.

Transplantmommy · Dec 8, 2008

I'm 27 and graduated almost 10 years ago so things may be a little different in the school systems...don't know. What I can tell you is that I went to public school all my life and many different schools at that because my Mom was a single mother with 4 kids and was always looking for work. I didn't have a single problem with any of the schools that I went to. I ended up in one high school from 10th grade to graduation and I never had a problem with any of my teachers at all. They all understood what I was going through and if I needed to do school work at home, they let me. When I was in my Junior year of high school, I got a really bad case of pneumonia and I was out of school for 3 months straight. I had a few teachers that said that there was no way I was going to keep up with the work and wanted to send me to Summer school, but I proved them wrong, kept up with all of my work and went on to my Senior year on time.
 
 I missed quite a bit of school my Senior year too and also had a full course load. I think that I took 8 classes that year...Pre-Calc I and II, Health, Government, Economics, English, Driver's Ed, and French V. I finished everything on time and I also graduated with Honors. I also ended up with 2 scholarships at graduation.
 
 I seriously think that if a child is motivated enough and wants to do well, they can get through anything. There are some children who will use the CF as an excuse to not want to go to school. What you do with your children all depends on what you feel comfortable with. Staying in a public school was a great way for me to know how college was going to be. I went through the same stuff in college that I went through in high school. I was absent from classes a lot and that even when I started doing IV's regularly at home and that's also when I had my first lung bleed and embolization (during my last semester and 3 weeks before graduation). I still did all of my work, took all of my finals, and graduated college on time.
 
 You also have to know though that I am a VERY determined person and when I set my mind to something, I do it. I am also very stubborn and don't let people tell me what to do.

TestifyToLove · Dec 9, 2008

We homeschool all of our children and have since they started schooling. We currently have 5 officially homeschooled. M is on homebound until we get his adoption finalized and then he will be officially homeschooled as well.

CF was not the deciding factor in homeschooling for us, so perhaps I come at this from a different angle. We actually started homeschooling because we had a child with unique educational needs (highly Gifted but ADHD) and lived in a state with a TERRIBLE school system. We knew she would wither and die in that system, and we couldn't afford private school. The more we considered homeschooling, the more private didn't make sense for us.

Then, our second to join the homeschooling had only known English for 2 years at homecoming. He had also been taught under a Colonial English system, lots of ote memorization but little real learning. We had to take him back to pre-K academically. We had the option of either putting him in 2nd grade, where he was by age and making him feel stupid because he couldn't possible keep up. Or, put him in Kindergarten where he would be able to catch up academically but tower above the other children, again feeling stupid. OR...keep him home, let him start where he was academically and work at his pace to catch up but able to interact socially with his age peers. Guess which one we went with.

Anyway, M has several issues. He has mild to moderate MR. In fact, he was placed in a self contained special ed classroom by his last school system and most definitely was NOT learning how to socialize and interact with normal people. Additionally, I have since learned that the worthless schoolwork he was doing, whereby he was being presented with grade appropriate academics ad naseum despite his inablity to learn them yet was because its required under No Child Left Behind.

The local school system, M's IEP cordinator and his Homebound teacher have been 1000% supportive of the fact that we will be homeschooling him. I've had a wonderful opportunity this fall to use a 30 year special ed teacher as a resource and sounding board as I have developed a program and thought process on how to educate a child who is MR versus Developmentally Delayed (did that one with ds#3 and he's caught up at this point). I'm grateful for the experience and the support they have given me. But, I know I can provide M with a better education than what any school environment can provide him with.

While I haven't tackled *this* unique educational challenge before, I've tackled every others. And, I've learned that the one thing homeschooling gives me is absolutely flexibility to address the specific needs of the child in question and not require they confirm to a box academically. Socialization is SOO easy to provide a child. It just takes stepping outside your home (or having a family so large you get socialized at home). But, meeting my kids where they are and working with them there is invaluable to me.

I don't homeschool my Hemophiliac becuase of his hemophilia. But, it has meant that when he has a signficant bleed, he doesn't miss school in the same manner that his peers would. It just means he does his academics from the couch, possibly with an elevated limb and an ice pack. I didn't choose to homeschool our CFer because of his CF. But, it does mean his exposure to outside illness is reduced. It also means that if he is able to function behavioral, then he's able to do school. Although right now he's in preschool academics, mostly in a Waldorf style unschooling program, in the future it will mean school won't stop for sickness for him, except when he needs to sleep but will also mean we can accomodate his need for more sleep while still maintaining school.

Adjusting for the medical needs of medical needs children is a nice side benefit of homeschooling children who happen to have medical needs. I don't think I would consider it a good primary reason to homeschool them though, unless I found with time that they were unable medically to tolerate a school environment first.

TestifyToLove · Dec 9, 2008

We homeschool all of our children and have since they started schooling. We currently have 5 officially homeschooled. M is on homebound until we get his adoption finalized and then he will be officially homeschooled as well.

CF was not the deciding factor in homeschooling for us, so perhaps I come at this from a different angle. We actually started homeschooling because we had a child with unique educational needs (highly Gifted but ADHD) and lived in a state with a TERRIBLE school system. We knew she would wither and die in that system, and we couldn't afford private school. The more we considered homeschooling, the more private didn't make sense for us.

Then, our second to join the homeschooling had only known English for 2 years at homecoming. He had also been taught under a Colonial English system, lots of ote memorization but little real learning. We had to take him back to pre-K academically. We had the option of either putting him in 2nd grade, where he was by age and making him feel stupid because he couldn't possible keep up. Or, put him in Kindergarten where he would be able to catch up academically but tower above the other children, again feeling stupid. OR...keep him home, let him start where he was academically and work at his pace to catch up but able to interact socially with his age peers. Guess which one we went with.

Anyway, M has several issues. He has mild to moderate MR. In fact, he was placed in a self contained special ed classroom by his last school system and most definitely was NOT learning how to socialize and interact with normal people. Additionally, I have since learned that the worthless schoolwork he was doing, whereby he was being presented with grade appropriate academics ad naseum despite his inablity to learn them yet was because its required under No Child Left Behind.

The local school system, M's IEP cordinator and his Homebound teacher have been 1000% supportive of the fact that we will be homeschooling him. I've had a wonderful opportunity this fall to use a 30 year special ed teacher as a resource and sounding board as I have developed a program and thought process on how to educate a child who is MR versus Developmentally Delayed (did that one with ds#3 and he's caught up at this point). I'm grateful for the experience and the support they have given me. But, I know I can provide M with a better education than what any school environment can provide him with.

While I haven't tackled *this* unique educational challenge before, I've tackled every others. And, I've learned that the one thing homeschooling gives me is absolutely flexibility to address the specific needs of the child in question and not require they confirm to a box academically. Socialization is SOO easy to provide a child. It just takes stepping outside your home (or having a family so large you get socialized at home). But, meeting my kids where they are and working with them there is invaluable to me.

I don't homeschool my Hemophiliac becuase of his hemophilia. But, it has meant that when he has a signficant bleed, he doesn't miss school in the same manner that his peers would. It just means he does his academics from the couch, possibly with an elevated limb and an ice pack. I didn't choose to homeschool our CFer because of his CF. But, it does mean his exposure to outside illness is reduced. It also means that if he is able to function behavioral, then he's able to do school. Although right now he's in preschool academics, mostly in a Waldorf style unschooling program, in the future it will mean school won't stop for sickness for him, except when he needs to sleep but will also mean we can accomodate his need for more sleep while still maintaining school.

Adjusting for the medical needs of medical needs children is a nice side benefit of homeschooling children who happen to have medical needs. I don't think I would consider it a good primary reason to homeschool them though, unless I found with time that they were unable medically to tolerate a school environment first.

Public, Private, or Home Schooling?

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