Some thoughts on home schooling help?

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My kids are raised, guess they're NT don't actually know for sure. Long story, not for here.

This is an international community, hence the answer/s will be different and probably very long according the different areas. I hope to ease that part, for now and again later.

So to try to keep this of value, I'll first ask this. The money aspect of home schooling must be a burden on many. It is common at least here in the states to need a 2 family income to make it, a one parent family most be hugely hard. My question is what forms of finical assistance is there for this problem? Would there be moneys available for special needs children that might not normally be for an NT home school? I don't come here that often as I'm older and have yet to sort through what was a lot of my early trauma. Hence I don't know if this is stickied some place or has been discussed at length. The reason I bring it up is I noticed several more parents just arriving, both mentioning home schooling and one mentioning the financial burden, but also saying it was very worth it. This is getting longer then I intended. What I'm wondering is this, would not a handy link directing new comers to any thoughts from others and how they have coped be of some use? Perhaps to other sites where more details are available? I don’t really need the answers to the above questions it was more of a lead into the last question. So again I ask, would not a more directed thoughts on help with the home schooling be an idea? It might even help someone that thinks home schooling a non-option. Thoughts?

Still looking around trying to answer my own questions. I noticed this in a comment "Home Ed Articles" as a reference to a newcomer, but sure don't see it in this section. What happens in all our areas is, things get buried over time.

Ha! THe answer is NO. B/c according to American public schools, they are able to meet EVERY child's needs, which is obviously not true. If you want to homeschool, you're on your own.

And being a Jewish family in Indiana, we are REALLY on our own since ALL of the homeschooling groups around here are very Christian.

I homeschooled in Ontario for 4 years. It was the best thing for my son, who was "dying" in the public system, however it was hard on us financially and we are burried in debt currently because of it, mostly because I could not work at the same time. I had nearly finnished a college diploma, and having done that, I was going to see if I could get a job in a water treatment plant or a lab. They pay very well. Instead we decided to have me stay home for a year and homeschool, with our new born daughter. 1 year turned into 4. In the process we decided to have another child too, thinking now was the time to do it, as at some point the goal has been to get me working and stopping "again" would be very difficult.

Maybe we could have done things differently, and briefly I did try a retail job, but the whole thing blew up in my face, socially I ended up in a lot of trouble, and we had no family life left because I had to work when my husband was "off". I think it was just too many things on my plate and I did not cope with it the best.

I am still at home because I am so removed from my college experiance and never did get into the field, I need to do upgrading before I can get back into it, if I ever will. The only kind of job I can get now would not cover my daycare expenses. I am looking into my options to get a BSc over the next few years, going back to some sort of job in September 2008 when my youngest enters school.

We did a lot of bad planning, and I am sure that is partly to do with the mess we are in today not just the homeschooling, but we never lived a lavish life, one car bought used, ridiculously small house that has fallen apart over four years due to neglect (repairs we could not afford), second hand clothes etc. We used up all my savings trying to "pad" my husbands income a little, and then he ran up $17,000 dollars worth of debt between two credit cards without disclosing the situation to me. Again, this was from stuff we needed, like car repairs, mortgage payments he was short on, etc. The death blow came last year when the car we where still making car payments on died and the bill to fix was more then it was worth. My husband lives over an hour away from his office since the company moved 2 years ago, so going sans car is not an option, now we are making payments on two cars! His parents help us a bit, but it is embarassing!

He makes good money now, and if it where not for all the debt, we would be ok, but the debt is crippling. We are looking at consolidating it with our mortgage at renewal this summer and may finally be ok, provided nothing else goes wrong! (knock on wood)

It was hard to keep our relationship intact between my husband and I. It seems as though in the last year or so we are always fighting about money. Is government help out there? Yes, but we just scrimp past the point where we could get subsidies, not for homeschooling but for daycare and such so I could work. Honestly I did better in some ways when I was 17 and on welfare as a single mother! I think a lot of young families find themselves in this situation, where they don't qualify for help because they "just miss" the cut off points for assistance.

I do know that some governments I think in Ontario too, won't let you homeschool if you are on public assistance. They feel that if you need public $$ then homeschooling is a luxury you cannot afford. In the case of certain medical conditions with your child they may be more lenient, however they put a lot of stock in their public system, so to say "your school can't meet my childs needs" just does not fly in most situations, the disability would have to be very extreme. The only homeschooler I knew who was on public assistance was legally blind, so she was disabled, and it was different.

In Ontario, there really is no support, they won't pay for supplies, books, courses, unless you enroll in a "school at home" program that is very new for the grades 1-8. That program is inflexible though, you have to follow "there" cirriculum and lesson plans, you have to do the whole grade and can't make modifications, say, "gr. 6 math and gr. 4 language arts". You also have to finish in 1 year. This generally does not suit children who can't do a regualar school! You are also not eligable for any testing or special services through the school board unless your children go.

Ironically you can drop off the map, if you sign a form that says "I intend to provide satisfactory education for my child this year" then they take that at face value and do no follow up, they are not really allowed to even ask for a lesson plan unless they have a tip you are indeed not. They are very open to the concepts of "unschooling" too, which we did a fair amount of.

In other parts of Canada though, things are a little different, I know some provinces will even give a limited budget for supplies or courses!

In the States, it's different. Home-schooled children are entitled to school district supplies, special ed services (Speech, Occupational therapies), access to the playground and libraries, etc. Some districts have home school supervisors that help organize supplies and make sure that students are provided access to school events (dances).
However, one reason we pull our kids out is because the curriculum is inappropriate. I bought my own supplies when I pulled out my son and it was expensive. For a quarter, it was about $100. It would be another $50 for the whole year. He learns in an accelerated pace at home, so you have to keep getting stuff.
A valuable resource is the internet (and printer) because there are sites that have worksheets for math, spelling and stuff. You can make your own worksheets and there are sites with appropriate "games" and reading. We made it a feature after concentrated study.

The "stay at home is costly" problem is here too. In California, my husband and I both worked opposite each other in low paying jobs so that we could work more hours yet still have someone home at all times. We were stone broke and hating each other.
Here in AZ, my husband has a very good paying job and while we are still in debt (see Earthcalling's post) we are a lot more comfortable. I'm at home because my husband's schedule changes so much. I don't know if I can find a job with the hours I'm available.
However, stay at home is not due to homeschooling. Just our values about parenting.


Wendytheweird, try Arizona, the homeschooling is different here. Though I hadn't joined any groups when I did it. There is a huge Jewish population here with vast resources. In fact, they provide many services for disabled people. It's more secular here, so nonJews are comfortable with attending their facilities. There are non-religious homeschool groups.

Here in the states you get no help. We are homeschooling our 9 year old this year due to pathetic public schools who harbor bullies and teachers who should not be allowed around children. (Sorry, it was a frustrating year)
We are putting him in private next year, we can afford it thankfully and he needs to be around other children. Poor little guy is getting so lonely.

The only "compensation" I can imagine a homeschooled family receiving would be disability payments for the child. There ARE some districts in the US with virtual charter schools that pay for supplies and teacher consults.

Homeschooling is a predominantly middle class phenomena because it really does require a parent at home, or the money to pay for a nanny and tutor.

Supplies are not that expensive. It's having a parent home that can be costly. In my case I'm not really sure I'm employable, and I wasn't employed when I got married, so we took no loss.

My son is homeschooled 1/week and goes to school 4/week.

I think when my youngest starts school in 18 months I will change to homeschool 2/week and school 3/week.

I work 5 days/fortnight and we need this financially but mostly for my own sanity.

Have you considered part-time schooling?

I am thinking that when my son goes into rotating classes next year, I might see if I can take over his math classes, and maybe just ditch French all together. he likes french well enough, but he is impossibly behind and it just is not an area we really have the luxury of spending enough time on to get him caught up. If we can work it into his schedual, so he just goes in late or leaves early, then I guess we will be PT homeschoolers again!

Interesting info. I didn't really expect the examples of situations to be much different then what some of you have reported. That indeed it does depend on the areas you all come from. However having said that there were good pieces of advice. This subject line is poorly worded to attract just the things you all have found that is positive in your task of creating a home school with less stress. I also suspect some come here with a mail alert and don't pay much attention to the forum at large. The question remains, would it be good to have a more easily found thread where people might add useful info?

Consider it a data base that can be added to over time. We're talking real live money ideas. System money, get it from the government, we're not begging, we paid the taxes.

I don't know. I think the money and systems vary so much area to area, country to country, province to province, state to state, even sometimes district to district that a thread like that would be very difficult.

For the most part I found my local Homeschooling support groups the biggest assistance that way, letting me know what I was entitled to and not. Generally though to make something like this a sticky? I don't think it really makes a lot of sense. There are TONS of subjects that COULD be made a sticky, this one I just don't see being a high profile enough issue to really bother... Everybodies situation is so unique, I think few really read over stickys or back dated posts looking for answers, they are at a forum for the purposes of discussing their situation with others on the site and get unique input etc, not just to do research.

I wanted to make a database of this sort of stuff, (off site) not so much funding options, but just a help database for Aspies, topics could include searching for what subsidies a family may be entilted to, to what sort of jobs Aspies have success with to give tips to people looking at continuing ed or a career change, to tips on how to bring out the best in your aspie child! I thought I had a venue for it, but I don't now, so I think it is something that will be back burnered for a long while, maybe one day unless someone else does it!

Hi postpaleo - I've just added further information to the "Home Ed Articles" thread, so consider it bumped for the time being. I add to it now and then as time allows. It contains quite a few highly recommended links and articles. Hope it's helpful.