HI all.... It was mentioned in another thread about homeschooling and activiities such as band and sports teams. I was wondering if anybody can explain something ot me. I belong to another scrappers group and some of the women homeschool but if you ask a question, it some how ends up turning ugly. Not from them but people who either don't agree or try to make a point and these women end up trying to defend themselves. So I thought I would ask here, knowing we are a much more peaceful group.
Take an activity such as band... is it marching band or just concert band? Do you compete? or football... do they play high schools? How is the insurance on an activity such as this? and how do you get enough members? I know the women involved here said there are many families homeschooling but I can't get them to explain any of how it works.
I don't know how you guys homeschool! Hats off to you. I can't even be a supplemental teacher to my daughter, she is having such a hard time, and when I work with her I get sooooo frustrated :( Soni in NV
Me too Soni, I get so frustrated! So does my DS - I am considering Sylvan or Huntington but my friend told me they cost $6000.00! I really am stunned people can homeschool their own children and enjoy it and succeed! It is a bloody nightmare for us to just do homework LOL!!!!
We took stepson to Sylvan in March and tested his reading since he was failing and has a hard time reading and pronouncing words (especially if he doesn't know the word). He was at the end of his 9th grade year in school and tested at 6th grade, 9th month/7th grade, 2nd month with reading and vocabulary. He has been going ever since then (completing work at 9th grade level which he tested at 11th grade, 5th month) and has recently been working at 10th grade level testing at 12th grade, 7th month.
We have been sending him since March, 4 hours a week (the max) @ $38 per hour!!! OUCH!! But as you can see he has definitely improved. So we use 2 hours a week for Reading/Comprehension/Vocabulary and he has started 2 hours a week of Study Skills. They can teach him the skills but it's up to him to use them.
Now, why did I tell you all this? I think Sylvan is expensive but I also believe it is worth it if you have a child that has a low self-esteem because of reading/writing problems (SS does have many probs with writing too). It has been very helpful to Josh's pride. He started school this year (technically still a 9th grader because he failed 1/2 a semester of math or English - he failed 1/2 math and passed English by a point!!). He seemed to be doing well - esp. in JROTC which he really likes! Report cards come out tomorrow and he has told us that he will be getting a 63D in English!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY, we asked. HE IS TOO D*** LAZY TO DO HIS HOMEWORK AND TURN IT IN!!!!!!!!!!! We put over $1500 on credit cards and also got a $4000 loan to pay for Sylvan classes through beginning of December and HE IS TO F***ING LAZY TO GET OFF HIS A** AND DO THE WORK.
(in case you can't tell, we are P***ED OFF) So now he has 6 weeks to get his grades up or he will be pulled out of Driver's Education and then JROTC. He doesn't think we can or will do it but he doesn't realize that we mean business, esp. since we spent so much money to make sure we did our part to help him have a better chance of becoming successful.
BTW, he lives 2/3 time with his mom and 1/3 with us. If he says he doesn't have homework, she leaves it at that. And, NO, she didn't and won't help us pay for any of this. I tell my husband that if SS grows up to be a loser, at least he can say he did what he could to help him. (He didn't do his homework for him like his other parent did when he was in elementary school)
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**Patty H in Florida**
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Wow, I better jump on it then before he is too lazy too! He has that tendency (don't all kids???!) and is in 6th grade middle school. So if we get at it now...maybe we wont get to your point? Thanks again, I appreciate your comments a lot! Lori K.
FWIW, there are several homeschooling newsgroups. Lurk there for a while and you may get some of the answers you are looking for. Just go to your server list of groups and type homeschool or home-school in the search field. HTH
I took my daughter to Sylvan when she was 6 years old towards the end of 1st grade, so I started early and nipped it in the bud. She has excellent study habits now, as she has no trouble with the work (reading / writing/ comprehension).
wow Patty you can surely say that you guys have done what you can especially when you opnly have him a third of the time. stick to your guns and dont back down that kid has got to learn you mean business for sure. One thing I dont like about highschool is that they expect the student to be old enough to be responsible for their own learning ----- while kids are in the lower grades we have a hold over their homework - - - hit highschool we lose them altogether which is why im trying to instill good working habits in my ss before he hits hs ---- mind you he also is soo lazy i think all what i do for him now is a total waste of time. --- He is so lazy he will not go for a bike ride with the rest of the kids --- and I told his dad there is no way he is getting a new bike to ride once a year lol. Good luck with SS and hope he buckles down before its too late. Shaz
Yes. I belong to misc.education.home-school.christian. Many of the great people there would love to answer your question without becoming angry or defensive. We do it all the time. ;-)
I've crossposted your question there. Warning - just ignore any responses from Mark Tindall or Steve Winter. They are crazy people who spew their hatred all over the web. Killfile them and your life will be much easier. :-)
Sorry you had such a reaction Tara! There are some people out there who have such a strong anti-homeschool attitude, that sometimes we home schoolers feel a strong need to defend ourselves.
I've crossposted this message to meh-sc, where you will get some great answers from the regulars. So, Kanga, Scott, Papa, Streetrat, John, MaG, Nancy, TEACHES, SAO, Dalene, and everyone else, can we help Tara out?
I can address the insurance for sports groups - I'm currently in the middle of the process of obtaining a policy for our local home school sports association. You just pay a premium! :-) Seriously, our insurance company referred us to a place out of Indiana, I think, that specializes in sports groups insurance. Actually a reasonable rate, based on age and number of kids.
Our area has a very small home school "concert" band - probably small because it's only been around two years. That's one of the most difficult things about home school group activities - getting them up and going! The first few years are very hard, because there is little involvement. The PS programs have "always" been in place, so it's easy. We currently have no home school football, and probably won't for quite awhile, as one of the private schools - which already owns the pads, the equipment, has bleachers, a field, etc. etc. lets homeschool kids participate in their programs, and there have not yet been sufficient numbers of home schooled boys asking for a football program to generate one. Catch 22 here - no program, so they play at Brazos Christian; since they play at Brazos Christian, no program.
I'm also working on breaking that Catch 22 for girls' volleyball this year. We've had about 8 requests for a volleyball team. That's enough to get it started, and hopefully, watch it grow, as we've done with our basketball program. We'll start by offering "clinics" this spring after basketball is over, and then probably to ahead and schedule a few matches for this fall against some other home school groups and small schools. I have a feeling our first year could be depressing! :-) However, you have to start somewhere.
Our basketball program has waivered for the first two years we were involved; evidently it was nearly "re-inventing the wheel" every year before that, as there was no structure, organization, authority, anything. Five of us Moms with 8th graders said, "we're not doing this (re-inventing) every year for the next 4 years - let's write this all down, set some guidelines, elect someone to be "in charge" and go with it," so we did! We have 4 teams this year, working on tax free status, corporate sponsorships, insurance, we have a definite age bracket (last year, we had 4th graders wanting to play on the junior high team, and no one wanted to say NO, they're too young, because no one was "in charge"), and it's definitely growing!
Getting home school sports teams and bands together is definitely difficult and challenging. One of the "problems" in our area is that a large percentage of the home schoolers do not WANT their kids interacting with large groups of totally unknown kids, or under the authority of another adult besides themselves. As home schooling grows into a viable option for others than "scary religious" types, there will be more kids involved, I think. We also had some parents who felt like they were nearly compromising on an VERY major issue in allowing their daughter to wear shorts at the practices and games.
Another difficult issue is finding competent coaches. Most parents do not have the expertise to teach band or football or basketball competently. So someone has to go searching the highways and byways to find someone who 1) can teach 2) will do so for whatever you can or cannot pay 3) does not offend the group with too diverse beliefs and 4) can match the schedule of home schoolers to coach/teach. We've been VERY blessed to tap into the Kinesiology Dept. at Texas A&M, where the entire class roster of "Coaching Basketball" WANTS coaching experience, and NEEDS community service activities.
So, after all this rambling, the basic "how it works," is that some Mom/Dad has to be so determined to have the group exists that they go through a labor of love and push it into existence. They make a lot of phone calls. They ask a LOT of people. They suffer through a year of all losses with a team of only 7. They pay extra money themselves to rent the gym because no one else wants to commit yet. They carve the "Wilderness Trail," for other parents to follow down later!
Hats off to all of you that take interest in your childs learning. Most of my family are teachers and I tend to only hear the horror stories. It is good to know there are parents out there like you guys!
I just wanted to second that opinion of Sylvan! It is expensive (It cost me $265 per month, going 2 days a week.) but it was worth every penny. Both my kids went....one for reading and help with organization and one for Algebra. It is also good if you have to deal with the schools at all for learning disabilities or whatever they will come and be the childs' advocate. They test your child when they start and then after so much time they retest. Just wanted to let you know we loved it too.
Another note on Sylvan- Ours is 45 minutes away (2x a week since March-DH says it's getting tiresome) and we got a Sallie Mae loan through Sylvan. It was for $4000 and they financed it for 15 years. This makes the payments low (about $40) but you can always pay more than that if you want to pay it off quicker - which is what we are doing. We try to pay at least double but we didn't want to be obligated to pay a higher amount - just in case. It wasn't a difficult form to complete and they suggested it after 3 months of charging $500 to the credit card and we decided we couldn't afford to pay for it like that. They came up with $4000 by determining how much time he would need to get back up to his level and we agreed on that amount and time frame.
ON A SEPARATE NOTE:::: My stepson got his report card today. Of course, he made the 63D in English. But he made 90 somethings in Science (which he totally failed last year) and American History (i think). He got an 88 in his math class and he made 90 somethings in Driver's Ed and JROTC. THIS IS A TREMENDOUS IMPROVEMENT!!
Last year's last 6-weeks grades were: Algebra - 12 F Science - 25 F World History - 61 D English - 63 D
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**Patty H in Florida**
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