Homeschooling, pros and cons?

oh geez louise! this whole socialization deal about homeschooling drives me insane!

On a serious note, you can start home schooling at any age. Especially if it benefits her. I hear iep's dont always work. Always check the laws in your state. hslda.org has some info.

There is "school at home". You can use an approved online school in your area.And the school district will pay for it. A few of them are k12.com, calvert and connections academy. There are webinars and videos that accompany some lessons.

Then there is "home schooling". The parent puts the curriculum together that will benefit the child. It is mainly child and or parent led. At her age it will be more interest led. And if she is having trouble with math, add Khan Academy. It is free.

You can buy a boxed curriculum, or use the library. There are many religious based and secular based. k12.com has an assessment as well as singapore math. Singapore math is very popular. oakmeadow.com is secular, it has ap courses and pretty neat electives. Ambleside is free, is religious based(easily secular if need be) and has recomendations for math.

There are many homeschool groups, activities, sports, field trips and conferences specifially geared toward home schoolers. Even home coming and prom events and science fairs. FFA and 4H as well. If you look for homeschool groups in your area, you will be sure to find them. so poo on all of you for trying to use the socializing excuse. ( she will probably socialize more if she homeschools)

I wish you both the best of luck! :)

Your child has a legal right to a free public education so the district will have to provide her with transportation. not an issue.

We started homeschooling with a 15 year old so - yes - you can make a significant difference in your child's life by homeschooling. it is never too late.

Check your state's laws at

homeschooling.gomilpitas.com

and follow them.

You can purchase math curriculum that will meet your daughter's unique needs. But know that not everyone is a math (or language or science or any other subject) whiz. Make sure she has the basics and can balance a checkbook but don't expect calculus. I'm sure she has other gifts that more than make up for her struggles with math. Anecdotally, a lot of parents believe music improves a students math comprehension.

Choose the educational alternative that best fits both your child's unique needs and your family's lifestyle.

There are entire BOOKS on this topic.

I homeschool my own kids, but we aren't isolated geographically, we're part of a suburb of a city with over 2 million people in it.

Does she know any of the kids in the area? This might be a difficult experience for her. My spouse moved from a very populated area (Toledo, OH) to a tiny berg of under 1,000 people when he was in 6th grade. Turned out that if you weren't already part of that community, the kids weren't welcoming AT ALL. He spent most of his teenaged development years getting the snot kicked out of him by the agrarian, redneck good-old-boys who saw him as an outsider. Let's just say he didn't develop fond memories of high school.

Would homeschooling have been better? Hard to say. In a community that small, you see the same people at school that you see in town. So if you're popular at school, you're popular everywhere. If you're not...well, you're not.

My situation was far different, because once I left school, I didn't see those people out and about in the rest of the community. If I could have avoided school, I could have avoided most of the knuckle-dragging morons that made life difficult.

The con is that it is a lot of work.

The pro is that it is work worth doing. :)

If the two of you are willing to devote the time and money needed to learn, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to make it work. There is a wealth of information out there. There are forums where you can ask any question you can think of, where people can help you work out why whatever isn't working doesn't work.

Spend an afternoon reading online and that should help you work out what questions you need to ask.

She needs to socialize she's a kid who has to be around other kids. Especially since you live in the country she will never see anyone her age. Plus she will get comfortable and school wont really be school..it'll become easy and unchallenging. Highly suggest putting her in school...plus she's going to be 16 soon so she could drive to school herself.

Don't homeschool her it would suck, who wants to have like no friends?