BEGINNING ASSUMPTION TRAPS:

1. Assumption: Your child should be working on education for the same amount of time that he would be at public school. Reality: Your child will be able to work at his own speed. This means faster at things he gets quickly and slower at things that are harder for him. Because time won't be taken to go to different classes and to discipline other kids, he will likely get learn more in less time.

2. Assumption: Your child is goofing off when she is playing on the computer, watching TV, engaged in her favorite hobby. Reality: Your child can learn in a multitude of unstructured environments. In chat rooms and on message boards, she can learn new vocabulary and typing (keyboarding) skills. There are many educational games which kids find fascinating. See my personal list later. See the benefits of watching TV shows and movies below also. You can turn any hobby into an education in itself. For example, take the care and showing of horses or dogs. Your child can learn how the horse has evolved (science: biology, archeology); how the horse got to America, what role has it played in wars, farming, technology, sociology, class structure (history, sociology, technology), care of horses including what they eat and how much (math), their physical needs, how their species fits into other classifications (science: anatomy, health, biology), how they act (psychology), develop horseback riding skills (physical education). She can also learn responsibility, dependability while pursuing such a hobby. If she is interested in this hobby as a business, you can add business subjects such as business math and business plans. Reading stories with horses as a part of the story (Black Beauty, the Black Stallion and other books by Walter Farley) and writing reports about what she learns while engaged in her hobby will fulfill her English requirement. If she participates in 4H Clubs, she will engage in social interaction, reading, competitions, etc.

3. Assumption: Your child can't learn anything if he isn't sitting down with a book and/or pencil and paper. Reality: In centuries before this, many children learned by doing and through apprenticeship. He can learn as much (probably more) by preparing the fish he caught himself as he can by reading a book about a fish's anatomy. He can learn more about math and measuring by building a dog house than he can by measuring a few lines in his math book.

4. Assumption: Your child can't learn anything if you don't lay it out for her. Reality: Learn to find teachable moments in life. Are you cooking dinner? Measuring ingredients is math. Do you want a larger or smaller quantity than the recipe calls for? Converting it to larger or smaller quantities is math. Do you walk in the woods? Take a bird book or a tree book or an insect book to recognize and understand what you see there. Do you go out at night? Look at the stars. Learn to recognize various constellations.

5. Older students and decompressing. Assumption: As soon as you start homeschooling, things will be better in your family or that your child will jump into her studies and become an excellent student. Reality: You may be beginning homeschooling for social reasons: to remove your child from bad influences or from physical and emotional attacks at school. The longer she has been in public school, the longer she needs to decompose. This doesn't mean that learning should be ignored but it does mean that education may not look like it did in public school. (See above assumptions.) Warning: The average length of decompression is about a year.

SPECIAL ON GRADES FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS:

There is a book called Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+la by Barbara Edtl Shelton with lots and lots of forms including lesson plans, weekly plans, and records for transcripts and
such.

Transcripts: More and more colleges accept homeschool transcripts straight out of your computer. Design your own. You'll need to check with the college/university you want to attend. Until recently, the military has required an accredited degree or GED but there have been changes. Check with them first if your child is headed in that direction…better yet, have him/her do the checking. Your solution may be to sign up with an accredited correspondence program. Some local high schools will grant a diploma with testing. Check with your public school system.