I'm homeschooled too! I have been for my entire life and absolutely LOVE it.

What I like most is my birthday is taken off every year (although even if I went to a school I still would get it off... It's during Christmas break.)

And since my Dad travels a lot, we get whatever day he's at home off. So if he has the day off, we have the day off.

I don't get my birthday off, Melian_Maia. Occaisonally I do when it's on Sunday or Saturday or Thanksgiving but if it's on any other day, I don't get it off.

Six days until I graduate!

My video is almost done. I just need to cut out a few more pictures to get it shorter.

Most of my friends are homeschooled and are not lazy and they are self-disciplined. I even once dated a guy who was homeschooled and he was very active. He had many acres of land rode horses, was very mature, went to youth group every week like a good boy, went to some of my school dances, and is now one of my good friends in college.

I was homeschooled only in one semester of third grade because the school I was at was very bad. I will say the work was harder and longer then going to school itself. But it wasn't a big deal to me because it was only for 16 weeks really.

questiosn for homeschoolers

do you have to do exams?

My mother was lamenting last night that she didn't home school any of us children (she did try it out on my youngest sister last year but had to stop due to some impracticalities) but I was perfectly happy at the private Christian college I went to; which had its pros and cons. Interestingly my sister missed all her school friends the entire time and was happy to get back to school -however I must say her grades improved/steadied while she was at home! One on one time really is key when you're young....unless you're a child prodigy or Matilda.

I wouldn't be comfortable going from being home schooled to university straight away -I think that's more because of my personality type though. School forced me into roles I wouldn't naturally have assumed; and I was surrounded by so much variety in my friends 5 days out of the week I learnt a lot about kids outside my own family...sometimes this was great, sometimes not so great.

And I say all this remembering that homeschooling in Australia is nowhere near as big as it is in the good ol' US of A. There aren't really any support groups; and there's almost no such thing as community based extra-curricular programs (like drama or debating). If you want that you have to pay private companies (well, with the exception of some sports). From the h/s American people I've talked to (both here and IRL) if anything you seem to have more opportunities to extend yourselves than regular schooled kids.

Still, I wouldn't rule out homeschooling my own kids one day; I think the opportunities a child receives are ultimately dependent on the level of parental effort involved.

I don't get my birthday off, Melian_Maia. Occaisonally I do when it's on Sunday or Saturday or Thanksgiving but if it's on any other day, I don't get it off.

Six days until I graduate!

Aw, that stinks... Congrats on graduating though!!!

questiosn for homeschoolers

do you have to do exams?

We do the ACE program, where basically we do the tests at home, my mom scores them and then we send the results to the school that we are registered. That's how my family does it, I can't speek for all homeschoolers, though.

Interesting to hear all the different styles of homeschooling.
Americangirlemmie

We do the ACE program, where basically we do the tests at home, my mom scores them and then we send the results to the school that we are registered.

Wow, wouldn't it be very easy to cheat with this kind of method?

I'm homeschooled! And take some classes here: http://www.pottersschool.org This year it's the quilting class, General Science, and Intro to Music (which my Mom teaches, btw). Next year is deff. High School German (I get high school credits in junior high!!) and probably a science class and maybe something else. Depends. I have a list with 29 classes that I want to take--all of them writing/reading, science, and history. Haha.

Yayness for homeschoolers!

I know this was a while ago, but that's pretty cool, I've taken classes from TPS since highschool. Last year I took 3, and that was kind of a lot, (well, it really depends which courses you take) since the workload was rather high in all of them. Unfortunately because of that my other classes that I was doing not online (teaching myself or getting help from my parents) got pushed aside in favor of completing the online stuff. So that means I'll be doing chemistry and math all summer...

We do the ACE program, where basically we do the tests at home, my mom scores them and then we send the results to the school that we are registered.

Wow, wouldn't it be very easy to cheat with this kind of method?

My mom is with us when we do the tests and so there is no way we can cheat. Plus, my mom is very strict about cheating and so there is no desire to cheat for fear she will catch us.

Well, I graduated from homeschool a couple weeks ago. I even got some scholarships! Including one that on the application, it said "For City School seniors only". lol

congrats narnian_at_heart
I only gradute this winter (sometimes when you homeschool your grades get rather off)

De_De, y'all do the ACE program, too? Fun! It's really neat to see someone who does it, too, since it isn't too famous... (Except we don't send the results anywhere.)

Reep, yeah, but if one's been taking the ACE program for a while then they probably would know better than to cheat. That's generalization on a huge scale, of course. It teaches self control overall. And, either way, my mom keeps all the important stuff hidden away. Basically with the program, if we cheat while doing the book then we're going to fail the test. It's not for students who have the urge to cheat because there is plenty of opportunity. If one wants their best interest, then they won't cheat. [/ramble]

I am eighteen and a homeschool graduate. My older brother (21) was also homeschooled, and my sister (13) is too. I am planning to go to college in the fall.
I'd have to say the best thing about it was the freedom. We still had to study certain subjects, but we could choose how we'd study them. And outside those subjects we were free to pursue our interests, whether quilting or animals or history... We didn't do a whole lot of assignments and we never did grades as far as I can recall. And no specific curriculum either, just different resources here and there. We all read a lot, though.
As for topics like evolution--we know it exists, and we know people think that way. But as for why it is wrong, we didn't just have Biblical explanations, we read about scientific reasons too. It wasn't just because the Bible said so. Though we read the Bible together, and alone as well, most of the time no one made us memorize verses, though whenever we read it aloud we would discuss it.
I have friends who go to school, and I don't think they are any worse Christians because they do. And sometimes I did disagree with the very conservative Christians in some homeschool groups.
As for going to college. I think that, if you are given the opportunity to take control of your own learning while you are still at home, you will probably do better in college than many schooled people. And if you have a strong faith and get in touch with fellow Christians, that will help you navigate other problems, even if you go to a secular university.