Giving It Thought

Hi! I'm getting married in August & moving to FL. My girls have been in a very good public school for 1st & 2nd grade. They have excelled & are in the GT program - both well above grade level in everything. In FL the school they are zoned for is not so good, I won't be working & my fiance has experience homeschooling. There is a "Parent Directed Education" school he recommends highly. The girls would go to school M & W and I would teach them at home the other 3 days. I'm a certified K-6 teacher - but I'm not sure that will help at all with my biggest fear. I worry that my girls won't take me seriously, will "play" me and will lose ground. I'm also considering a traditional Christian school. My biggest goal is to make the transition into the new family, to a new home, to sharing me...as easy as possible for the girls. Any thoughts? Advice?

 

Hey Nikki,

I don't homeschool or know anything about it, but I had another thought.

Is Florida a school of choice state? Indiana legislature recently made it law that kids can attend their (the parents) school or choice - the money follows them to whatever school they attend - the school just doesn't provide transportation, but since you won't be working that probably wouldn't be an issue anyway. We lived in Arizona for a few years and they were also school of choice.

It might be something to look into. Some of the faith-based schools are also approved to accept the school choice vouches, so state's money follows that child to faith-based schools and parents don't (usually) have to pay any tuition.

Might be something for you to look into.

Congrats on your engagement and your move!!

Edited:

Looks like Florida does have school choice, see link:

http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/Information/faqs_general.asp

 

After going 12 out of 13 years to private Christian school and now homeschooling my own children, I would recommend giving serious thought to homeschooling. Unfortunately, with private schools you can get great education in one subject and terrible in another. Especially with your background I would highly recommend homeschooling.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GiftedHF/

This group may not only help, but could actually give you some great ideas for choices for homeschooling gifted children. It has provided me with great insight. It is through Hoagie's gifted website, which is a great resource for any parent with a gifted child. You can join and ask all the questions you want, evn if you aren't homeschooling yet. New people come on all the time just to help them decide which choice would be best for their family.

I changed schools multiple times throughout my schooling. And while the spiritual upbringing was good, the actual education lacked in some areas while others were way ahead. Now, I know this is just my experience and that there are some wonderful and highly academic Christian schools out there. I hope whatever you decide that your girls thrive.

 

Nini I couldn't agree more regarding the christian private schools and homeschooling. I grew up in Mayport, Fl (from 5-13), it's in Duval county which was one of the worst ranked school districts in the nation. Mom and dad put me in a private catholic school (it was the only one there at the time) and honestly the education was horrible. With that combined with the health issues I had and the way they treated me b/c I wasn't catholic and the lack of a quality education my mom decided to pull me out and home school me (started in 3rd grade) it was by far the BEST education I could have ever gotten, she home schooled me until we moved to northern virginia. I had to test (basically like the SAT's) to get back into public school and I ranked in the top 3% of the nation in scores. I was put into all GT classes and then when I was in highschool I started in the AP classes too. Although I was in those classes and the education sadly was better than the regular classes I still felt like I had gaps in my education compared to when my mom homeschooled me, I had no gaps. We started and finished the text books, there were a bunch of us that we home schooled so we'd all get together and go on field trips together and what not. I had the same text books and pretty much the same ciriculum as the local schools, we just covered everything in order rather than skipping around chapters and what not.

I haven't completely decided whether or not to homeschool my twins (I still have a little bit to decide on that) but honestly I'm a huge advocate for it.

Most people think that homeschooled children have no social skills and are just awkward and while there might be those out there, I've found they're few and far between.

And as for respecting my mom as a teacher, she was a hard ***, I'm not kidding! But she was a great teacher, somehow we did it and I didn't take advantage of anything. We had a set time to get started for the day and I had to be dressed and ready to go, we'd do a few subjects, take a break for lunch, finish the rest, and I was done with school by 1 pm, and done with my homework by the time the other kids in school got home for the day.

Not sure if any of this helps, but I thought I'd share my experience.
~Alex

 

Thanks for all your input! I'm really excited about the homeschool/Christian school hybrid....the girls will have 2 days of classroom, 2 days homeschool following the curriculum of the class with appropriate modifications & 1 day of activities.