Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. ~ Ronald Reagan
As I mentioned earlier I began homeschooling our kids in the Fall of 2007 right after we came back from our 3 months in Australia. Our first go at it was a mess, at least in my opinion it was. I tried the "Independent" way of it, which consisted of a lot of educational internet sites, books from the library and even ordering a less common box curriculum called A.C.E. It really wasn't making us feel very confident in our decision.
After moving to Alaska in 2008 we discovered a way that we could continue home schooling and provide them with the best available. Alaska has a wonderful program called I.D.E.A. which stands for Interior Distance Education of Alaska. It's a state wide home schooling program (the first of several now in the state) out of the Galena City School District. IDEA receives states funding per student, the same way other public schools do, then issues an allotment to the parents of almost $2,000 per child that we can then use on almost any educational materials. They will even cover the cost of field trips to the museum or zoo, science kits, books, curriculum and school supplies.
Some of the different options include All in One box curriculums such as Calvert or K12, or using different publishers such as Pearson-Prentice Hall or Houghton Mifflin for each core subject. For instance this year we decided to go with Calvert for our students in K-7 then Pearson for our 9th grader. We also supplemented the Math program for them all with Saxon Math (which I love) as well as an Art program called Atelier. Home schoolers in Alaska can also have their children take music classes or join a chess club and the state will pay for it.
On a separate note, I've never been the most organized person out there, just ask my wonderful husband why I can never find my keys. One of the beauties of homeschooling is you will learn to organize yourself or you will fail and your kids will suffer. It didn't take long and every year I've found what does and does not work for my family and every year we get better.
I truly love home schooling our children not only for the freedom it allows our family but also because I know my kids are actually learning. If one of our kids doesn't get something the first time around, we don't have to move on and tell him "that's too bad" we can cover it again and again until he or she does.
Home schoolers in Alaska are very fortunate, Alaska has no regulations whatsoever regarding government interference on how you or I educate our children. Some states however are not so lucky, those such as New York, and North Dakota have very strict regulations where parents have to report to that state's Department of Education their student's test scores and professional evaluations.
I wish the rest of the country was more accepting of home schooling the way that Alaska is. Here it is embraced and almost the norm. When my family and friends down South found out about my home schooling, we got the usual list of questions such as, how will they be socialized or make friends, or play sports etc? Considering the fact that we actually have 6 kids, they are rather social and outgoing to begin with, but they have also been in "regular" schools most of their lives, with the exception of our younger three. They have kept in touch and visited with the friends they've made from prior school years. We also attend church where they've made friends as well as neighborhood kids and our adult friends' children.
It's rather a shame the way the world has changed its stance on homeschooling. Years and years ago a child's ONLY teacher was their parent. Mothers not only taught their daughters how to cook and sew and their boys how to tend livestock and the fields but were often the ones who taught them Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Unfortunately today's parents often forget they are their child's first and most important teacher in life, and not only are our schools letting our kids down, but so are the parents.
I honestly don't know if I will continue homeschooling once we settle in Australia or not. I have heard a lot of wonderful things about the school systems in Oz and I think we will be trying them out, at least for the first year. After that, who knows!
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Quite the array of Curriculum
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Our homeschool room, it's not much but it works
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Homeschool.com - A great place to begin
Homeschool Legal Defense Association - Find out the regulations in your state
Educators at home blog - This lady has some wonderful tips on homeschooling along with reasons why we should
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