@fledge1, I can't tell you anything about Illinois, but what I can tell you is that the HSLDA website should be able to link you immediately to any and all state laws.

https://hslda.org/content/laws/

@Movie Aristotle, absolutely agree with regards to labeling. I guess I was asking because one of the number one reasons I hear of children being pulled out of public school and taught at home is because of some kind of learning disability or special need.
But there's an ever growing group of people who are realizing that their gifted kids are thriving in a homeschool setting instead of being stuck in school where they're held back by their peers. That's just the way it works out when everyone is stuck together by grade rather than skill.
And so, as a result, I was wonder if there are any resources out there for homeschooling kids that are well above their "public school grade" or if you just teach to their level and not worry about any kind of label?

Gonna start reading my kids 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' today. I'm so excited.

fk, I'm not sure if I would have been labeled "gifted", but I definitely didn't find school a challenge the same way as some of my friends and siblings did. I basically started a year ahead in math and my mom let me do...fourth or fifth grade of all the rest of my subjects over the corresponding summer so that I started that fall with everything at the same grade-level. So, I did technically graduate a year early - but still with most of my friends.
I also checked with my mom and she said that, at a certain point, she just kept adding curriculum classes (such as accounting, home economics, computer programming, etc.) and let me work through them at my own pace until I finished (which usually didn't take the full year). I actually hadn't realized that was what she was doing until she said that, but it does explain why I had a bunch of classes my sisters didn't. But this did give me the opportunity to study some things I found really interesting and wouldn't have necessarily been able to study otherwise (such as Scottish history).
Also, she said she would've put me in more college classes in high school, but I ran up against a lower age limit.

I know that several of my friends would've been called gifted growing up and their parents mostly handled it by either adding classes or giving them more and more challenging classes.

My mom also mentioned, when we were younger, letting us do some things at our own pace and then just adding in and expanding extracurricular activities (art, music, PE, etc.). Also, we had a lot of free reading time, I think.

I will check with my wife on the material we use but I am glad to see others who homeschooling on the forum. My home schooled 16 year old boy showed me this forum. As a libertarian minded christian I wish to see government schools done away with. Because our boy was home schooled and we chose curriculum, he read Narnia and fell in love with it. Soon he is making me read them as well lol.

Well we are here in Illinois and settled. We actually sent our kids to school, we were running out of time and wasnt sure what to do and really feel like we failed in this area. Two of them wanted to go and our oldest wanted home schooling. We may rethink this all after this summer. Thanks for all the insight. Life has been crazy!

I take no credit for my kids' natural ability with Phonics, it must be a God-given gift, but I had to order the next level tonight because they've almost finished this year's curriculum. I guess that's one of the often repeated biggest benefits of homeschool is that you can go along at your own pace, no matter how fast or slow it is.

I also bought a bunch of "slightly damaged" books for next year's curriculum because they were 50% off. I do not care at all about slightly damaged books, especially since I got them, I can barely even find any damage. Only one book was particularly beat up... the cover had been applied wrong when it was being made, so it was crooked and half of it had been torn off. *shrugs* It still reads fine. Maybe I'll print off another cover and glue it on.

fantasia....
We maybe talking in the near future. We keep going back and forth when it comes to HomeSchooling...just not sure. And we are not happy with how things are with them at school. So many things to learn and figure out!

* crawls out from under her rock *

Mainly because I have a couple questions, but, hey. Here I am.

A friend of mine is moving to Tennessee and will be homeschooling her sons starting next fall (jr high and high). She has never homeschooled before, nor have her sons experienced anything other than public school. She's turned to me for advise, and, well, basically all of my expertise has nothing to do with Tennessee. So, question 1: Does anyone have any familiarity with resources available there?

My friend is also the sort that needs everything planned out in a very detailed manner long before anything actually goes into motion. Besides the general observation that, well, homeschooling just doesn't work that way, does anyone have any book recommendations? I'm figuring if she can go on a grand book tour of the matter, it will probably help.

On an entirely different note, Fantasia, you had mentioned unit studies and the like, and I realized it doesn't appear that anyone here has mentioned Teachers Pay Teachers. While the site is designed for classroom teachers, there are a lot of good resources, and if you create an account, there are regular free downloads that get sent out. It can be quite helpful, for everything from seasonal science experiments to language building skills and book worksheets.

@fledge1, shoot me a PM any time. But I must recommend looking into FB groups in your area (if you're on FB that is). That's where I get all of my advice.
@Wren, thanks for the link. I took a quick glance through and it looked really interesting. I will try to keep it in mind! And no, I know nothing about Tennessee. But I'll give you the same advice I gave fledge1, check out HSLDA's website and they should give you direct links to the laws of the state and hopefully your friend can go from there (if she hasn't already found the same info).

I am nearing the bottom of my Google Sheets spreadsheet itinerary. Only 6 and a half more weeks to go and then we'll be done! Our co-op group ends in four weeks, my daughter's dance class ends in five weeks. The end of our first homeschool year is in sight! Wow!

I'm still trying to decide if I want to shift to a year-round homeschool curriculum for next year (six weeks on, one week off, month of December off) as my two older kids function SO MUCH BETTER on school days. My fear is burnout... burnout for me, burnout for them. And I haven't really found anyone that I can talk to about it in person because when I hear someone go "oh yeah, we homeschool year round" what they mean is that they do take summer vacation, but their kids still have to read and do math problems every day to keep from forgetting everything during the summer. Not quite what I'm looking for.

But regardless of what I decide, I'm amassing my curriculum for next year. It's not changing much as we've had great success this year. Sonlight for the bulk of the history, geography, reading, science. Shiller for math (halfway through book 2/3) and Logic of English for Phonics, Spelling, and additional Reading (starting level 3 next week)...those will just carry over.

I've also started gathering a pile of things to do in the interim so I don't go insane. All of our KiwiCrate and AtlasCrate boxes we haven't done, lots of games, some book lists, and (if I'm feeling REALLY crazy) my Rosetta Stone Spanish software.

After several weeks of working and reworking.... and reworking a few more times... I think I have finally come up with a schedule for next year that both my husband and I are happy with. Should be interesting! I'm going to take the plunge and try a six weeks on, one week off, with four weeks off around Christmas and four to five weeks off June.

The biggest negative is that I will miss a big block of time off during the nicest time of the year (April and on) but I think this will help with cleaning the house and giving the kids a much needed break on a consistent basis.

And if it doesn't work, we'll go back to the same schedule we used this year... start right after the fourth of July and finish up mid-April.

Speaking of finishing up... three and a half weeks left until we're done! Whaaaaat????

Followed by...

That actually sounds like an amazing schedule. We sadly are still torn about what to do school wise. They are in it now, but we HATE the schools here, one wants to stay in because she is a social butterfly, one doesnt care and one wants out. And then the age old question....are we even qualified to home school. This thread has been really helpful.

....one wants to stay in because she is a social butterfly, one doesnt care and one wants out.

One of my homeschool mom friends only homeschools her kids through approximately 6th to 10th grade. So she's got younger ones in grade school, one home right now, and three that she's homeschooled back in high school and now on to college.
I've heard of many other families mixing and matching public school vs homeschool and some even let their kids choose. You can always try homeschooling the one that wants out, and the one that is on the fence can observe and make a decision later. Perhaps you'll even convince the social butterfly.

And then the age old question....are we even qualified to home school.

First thing to do is find out the laws of your state. What do they require to homeschool?
Second (actually, this should probably be first) if I haven't mentioned it already, I HIGHLY recommend finding a homeschool group in your state on Facebook that has knowledgeable people and can answer your questions and point you to official websites to back up their answers. Fellow homeschool moms and dads have been my biggest help. One lady I barely knew (we met through a mutual friend) invited me over to her house to look through all of her curriculum so I could see samples of what was out there and what I might like. That's how I picked out two of my three programs.
Your kids are older right? I hear Teaching Textbooks for upper math is amazing and it's all online. You wouldn't have to do anything other than check to make sure they're actually doing their work. I'm not sure what else there is out there for other higher level subjects (I love Sonlight for history/geography, but it's a LOT of reading, don't know what your thoughts are on that?)
I know for me when I first started I thought I'd have to write my own curriculum and I was like "I could probably handle that for Kindergarten at least...." but yeah, I'm a little more knowledgeable know as to the insane amount of stuff out there. It's a matter of finding the combined strong points of you (or your wife) and the kids you're teaching.

And then the age old question....are we even qualified to home school.

One of the best things I heard at a homeschool convention was in a session by Dr. Jay Wile. I believe he was speaking to parents who were not sure if they could teach their children and make sure they would do well in college. What he said was that the most important thing is to teach your children how to learn. This is part of what gives homeschoolers an edge in college, because they know how to learn without someone prodding and pushing them. If they are a good learner and love doing it, they will be fine in college even if they have to do remedial work.

I don't know what all he covers in this video, but at the beginning he does a really good job of explaining homeschooling (high school in particular).

Also, The Apologia science textbooks he authored/co-authored are awesome!

Well I think for sure we will be homeschooling two of the three, however the oldest (12) is not saying maybe she wants to hm as well. We just bought a house, (close on the 29th woot woot) and there is an extra room that is already all set up for what would be a great schooling room.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and lots of information. I was actually kind of against it, until hearing more from Fantasia and Anfinwen. So thanks so much!

I'm late to the party!

But my sister and I have experienced it all: public school, private school, homeschool. We have a big age gap, so the grades and reasons we would switch are completely different. IMO, each one has their pros and cons. There is not one right way, only what is right for each individual child.

@fledge1 I am not an expert or even a homeschooling parent, but I was homeschooled in Illinois. Not sure if I can help with anything, but I do know that in Illinois, homeschools are considered private schools. You are expected to at least keep up the public school educational standards at minimum. No testing is required, but personally I think it's a good idea to do it anyways. But it is up to you as the parent.

@fantasia - my sister was gifted, she graduated a few years early. She was no longer homeschooled for high school and instead did a combination of private school and dual credit classes at a community college, so she already had her Associate's Degree at age 17.
I was not gifted, but I was ahead in some subjects and behind in others. My parents allowed me to do self-guided curriculum and living books for my good subjects, and I received extra tutoring in my challenging subjects (this was all in high school).

I'm late to the party!
Not sure if I can help with anything, but I do know that in Illinois, homeschools are considered private schools. You are expected to at least keep up the public school educational standards at minimum. No testing is required, but personally I think it's a good idea to do it anyways. But it is up to you as the parent.

Thanks so much. Yes we read that, and we want to keep up with Illinois, however I dont think that will be an issue right now. One of the reasons my daughters want to hm is because we just moved from Kansas and they are re-learning stuff they learned two years ago. We brought in their work from Kansas and the schools even said, oh they will learn that later. So we want them to stay where they are. And my youngest son has an IEP and the schools here do not have the man power to get everything he needs. They are great teachers, just so many students. So we are going to try to do it with him. Finding lots of support, and thanks again for your thoughts!!