I am from the United States. I was never homeschooled and have only known two people who were ever homeschooled. It is not going to take over the world. If there are 3,000,000 homeschoolers in the States that is only around 3% of the student age population. Most people in the States are not homeschooled and most parents don't consider homeschooling their children.

It is, of course, your choice and i am glad you all enjoyed your time homeschooling, but if i have children i also will not consider homeschooling them. I just always feel like this site gives people in other countries the idea that homeschooling is the norm in the States and it is not.

I'm home-schooled too! And I know lots of home-schoolers.

Yes i am home schooled!!! I'm in eighth grade in some stuff and ninth in some other stuff. You homeschoolers know how that goes! I am really thankful my parents homeschool me! Thanks mom and dad!!!!

I think in general if you are homeschooled you know other homeschoolers, but people who go to public or private school don't know that many homeschoolers because most of the school aged population in the United States go to public or private schools.

I can see both the good and the bad of being homeschooled, but having never been homeschooled, just as a lot of you have never gone to school, so I will not speak against it.

It is not going to take over the world.
I just always feel like this site gives people in other countries the idea that homeschooling is the norm in the States and it is not.

Maybe, decarus, but don't be offended if someone said it might take over the world--they might have been quoting a comedy video on youtube which says that as a joke--though you never know, it could happen.

You're right, homeschooling isn't the norm in the U.S. --I don't know if we're trying to make it sound that way... Sorry if you're bothered by it. And even if people from other countries thought homeschooling was the norm here--I guess right now I don't see why it would be a really bad thing. But I know we don't want to give false impressions either...

You're right, homeschooling isn't the norm in the U.S. --I don't know if we're trying to make it sound that way... Sorry if you're bothered by it. And even if people from other countries thought homeschooling was the norm here--I guess right now I don't see why it would be a really bad thing. But I know we don't want to give false impressions either...

True. I wasn't trying to say that we'd be taking over the world, just that the US has the most homeschoolers. And homeschooling is growing slowly but surely. Back when I was small no one had heard of homeschooling and I'd have to go through a lot of explaining which was pretty tedious. Now people understand what I mean and most tell me they wish they were homeschooled.

Whether or not there are homeschoolers in your neighborhood also depends on what part of the U.S. you live in. There are different homeschooling laws for each state, some have practically outlawed homeschooling, others accept homeschooling with almost completely open arms. You are more likely to hear about homeschoolers living around you if you live in one of the more "free" states, such as Texas or Michigan.

To clarify, I was joking when I said homeschoolers would take over the world. I didn't mean it literally. Although I personally wouldn't mind..........

I live Holland, where it's not allowed to homeschool children, so I'm in a public high school right now. And I just wondering about a few things of homeschooling:

- Do you teach yourself? Or are your parents supposed to know so much about the things that they can teach you?
- Can you choose the subjects self or are do you have to do subjects?
- What about school time. When do you start? Every day at the same time and when do you stop and do you have standard breaks?
- What about homework, do you have homework?
- And holidays?

Well my mom taught me herself for most of grade school...now that I'm in highschool I'm sort of teaching myself. My mom finds the books and writes the schedules, and I do the rest. For a few courses, but I also take online courses from RCA and Scholars Online ( http://www.reginacoeli.org - http://www.scholarsonline.org ) which used to be one school, Islas, but split a year after I joined. (No, it wasn't my fault. *cough*)

There are subjects that I have to do, but I choose a lot myself, as long as I get enough credits, my mom's happy.

I start at 9:00 every morning and work all day...At least, sort of. If I actually did nothing but work until my schoolwork was finished, then I'd probably end at around 3 or 4...maybe 5 or 6, depending on how much I had. But I'm lazy and procrastinative, so it takes longer. *g*

Homework...it's kind of all homework, in a way. If you take classes, like online ones, then it's more like a public school (at least, how I picture a public school to be >_>) where you get assigned homework, but otherwise the courses are the homework, sort of...

And I get the same holidays as public schoolers. Actually, I probably get more, because homeschooling is so much more flexible...and if a holiday would work better on a different week than it's officially on, then we just move it. *g*

Okay, I should get back to my math, now.... >_<

I think that they are open about homeschooling in my state. I just think that because i was not homeschooled, i just don't know very many people who were homeschooled. I mean most of the kids i knew when i was still in school were from school and no one at my church was homeschooled. I don't think i knew anyone in college that was homeschooled when they were younger. If they were i did not know it.

In the youth group i helped with for a few years there was only one kid that was homeschooled and that was under circumstances where he switched schools mid year and the best way for him to remain on track to graduate on time was to do homeschooling for the remainder of that year. I actually only know one kid who was homeschooled throughout most of his life.

I am just saying that while homeschooling is more accepted now it is not the norm in the United States and most people don't consider homeschooling their children. I just feel like this site gives that impression to people in other countries.

You are more likely to hear about homeschoolers living around you if you live in one of the more "free" states, such as Texas or Michigan.

I live in CT and surprisingly they are the most lax about homeschooling laws. They don't even require samples of our work or standardized tests. I know that in no state is homeschooling "practically outlawed".

I live Holland, where it's not allowed to homeschool children, so I'm in a public high school right now. And I just wondering about a few things of homeschooling:

- Do you teach yourself? Or are your parents supposed to know so much about the things that they can teach you?
- Can you choose the subjects self or are do you have to do subjects?
- What about school time. When do you start? Every day at the same time and when do you stop and do you have standard breaks?
- What about homework, do you have homework?
- And holidays?

First of all, the parents don't even need to have a college degree. They pretty much start their children off with the 3 R's and continue on from there. I'm in high school now and doing most of my work on my own. My parents just grade me.

You can choose the subjects yourself if you're part of the "unschooling" movement. If you're part of a distance-learning program like me, then you still have a little wiggle room but you have to basically stick to the subjects you're given. For instance, I take Logic and Latin at a college but the program still counts those classes and gives me credit for them.

We have no school time! As long as we get the grade done during the year we're good. This means we can take a day off in the middle of the week if we want and make it up on the weekend. School can be done at 6 AM or 11 PM. It really gives me a whole lot of free time.

Nope, no homework! Well, I have to do homework for a class I'm taking but that's a class taken outside of the home.

Holidays vary with the religion of the students and how much time they can afford to take off. Right now I'm taking a couple of days off because I have the flu.
The way it works in my family is that we get a couple of days off for Thanksgiving, and a week or two off for both Christmas and Easter. However we don't get days like Memorial, Labor, and Columbus Day off.

-Eliza-: To answer your questions:
1. My Mother used to teach us when we were younger... Once you get to a certain age though, at least in our family, you start to "teach yourself"... Read the materials, write it out, etc. I mean, Dad and Mom kind of oversee it, but--we pretty much teach ourselves. That's our family though. Families are different... Of course.
2. Once we're in the "upper grades", we read the materials we have, our parents wouldn't need to know anything about the subject and we could still learn about it...
3. We have some set subjects that we can't get out of, but we're allowed to learn about something else if we want to...
4. When do we start? Well, for us it depends when we get done with breakfast. Usually I wake up at 6:30, we have breakfast at 7:00, get done at 8:00, and I start school around 800 AM. It depends on the day.
5. We go until we're done with our set school for the day. I have my set amount, and if I go on Narniaweb all morning, (example...) then I still have to finish all the school for the day. If I really work at it hard with no breaks, I usually finish before noon. I've finished as early as 9:00 before, but it was a light day and I started early and worked really hard. It really depends. Us older kids are pretty much in charge of our own selves, but the younger ones do what Mom says, and they have to ask for breaks, whereas us older ones can usually choose if we want a short break, and Mom doesn't mind as long as we get our work done.
6. Homework? It's all homework. *laugh* I don't really know what homework is. Hm. I mean, we sometimes have extra assignments, extra reading to do on our own, and papers to write and stuff... Is that what you mean?
7. Depends on the family as usual, but in our family we get holidays off, at least the big ones. We usually don't take a week off for Winter break though... We take off a day at random sometimes to do other stuff, etc... We've gone on week vacations in the middle of a school month before. That way there's not as many people when we go sight-seeing and stuff...

Anyway. I hope that wasn't too boring and it kind of gives you more info.

Now I have to go finish my Math lesson for the day. Hehe.

Thank you all very much for answering my questions.

@QS: Homework is: in public school you get classes at school. The teacher explains things in the class and sometimes you get the chance to work (f.example Maths. We just work and if you have questions, you can go ask) and you get work to do for the next lesson to do at home. So I usually go to school from 8.15 to 15.00 o'clock. I have 6 to 8 lessons of 50 minutes a day. Then I go home and at home I have to do 2/3 sometimes even 4 or 5 hours of homework! So actually I'm working at school the whole day too!

-eliza-,
Homeschooling differs from person to person, but seeing as I've tested most styles of homeschooling, I'm confident I can answer your questions in a general manner.

Do you teach yourself? Or are your parents supposed to know so much about the things that they can teach you?

Publishing companies have created many different cirriculums. Some are much like the ones you use in school, other are vastly different. There are normally four different ways to be taught.

1) Learn as you go. This is one of the more shunned and looked down upon methods. Basically whatever the mother is doing for the day the child learns. For example, a mother is backing cookies for the flee market. The child would then get a lesson about fractions and measuring. In these sorts of situations, most of the learning is done by what the child wants to learn and includes a lot of reading. Also if the father is envolved with the teaching it is also helpful. Say he runs a construction business. The student would then learn not only how to swing a hammer, but also the geometry envolved in sturcturing a roof.

2) Book Cirriculum. This method is using the many published cirriculums made especially for homeschoolers. Some even have day-to-day lessons planned, so that all the mother has to do is present it. This works well for grade school kids, because the mothers know most of the material. When this method is used for high schoolers, most of the material is simply read.

3) Video Cirriculum. I find this method the best way for highschoolers to learn. A publishing company will film a class room and make DVDs for sell. Most parents do not have to teach anything, simply take a back seat and help with homework once in awhile. they may have to grade quizzes and tests though. This method is very similar to online streaming.

4) Co-op. Parents get together and figure out which subject they know best. They split the kids up by into classrooms. It very similar to an extremely small school (with like only 20 kids).

Can you choose the subjects self or are do you have to do subjects?

The normal subjects (math, English, history, science) are every year, but toward highschool, I was able to choose my subjects. It mostly depends on your parent.

What about school time. When do you start? Every day at the same time and when do you stop and do you have standard breaks?

This also depends on your parents. I normally start at 8:30 or 9:00 and stop for a half-hour lunch at 12:30, then I go until I'm done, which is about another hour.

What about homework, do you have homework?

This depends upon the type of cirriculum being used. Some have homework, some do not. When I was in junior high, I had homewoork, but I just did it at the end of every class.

And holidays?

I'm pretty sure most homeschoolers take off for the holidays. Though I have known some people who traveled around a lot, they would do school in the summer. I don't see how they could stand that!!!
But the cool thing about being homeschooled is you can take your holidays when you want them. Last year I was planning a week-long trip in January, but I still wanted to finish school before June. So instead of taking a two-week vacation at Christmas, I only took off one week. So, yes, I did school on New Year's.

Hope that answered all your questions!

Going from homeschool to private school (and later public) was a shock for me, there's a lot more to worry about when you go to a school. But I think it was good for me cause then going to college wasn't such a huge shock. I always wonder, how do people adjust to college after doing homeschool all the way up to 12th grade? Seems like that would be a huge transition.