I homeschooled and got stuck turned to Public schools for help, I thought I 'm sure I blogged about that. So I went and looked on my blog for a post for you. BUT 2009 is empty oh yeah I remember now... I never had time to blog I was too busy freaking out. You have to understand I'm not a morning person. Getting up at 6am is not my idea of a good time it's more like chinese water torture, and that is when I needed to get up to get her ready for carpool on time. While my one child was public schooled and the other was homeschooled I learned the professionals may not always have the answers. In reading: my child was a grade level behind in comprehension and 5 grades ahead in word reading ability. The school successfully managed to drop her comprehension one grade level in one year... yes you did read that right. Math she was way behind as well.
Discovering the schools don't actually keep kids that learn at lower pace's at grade level was an EYE OPENER for me.
If a child gets behind in public school they get Special Ed. The work gets tailored to their needs. My daughters standardized tests were reduced to as simple as possible, and read to her, she was given extra time to complete them and all the "legal" help available. She always managed to pass once they built it around her. But that meant I had to attend IPE meetings, lots of talking to the teachers. the homework oh man the home work!!! Incomplete work was sent home and required to be done so her grade level would come up. All her grades were "accommodated." Do you realize what that means, she was not at grade level but on the books and for the statistics she was considered to be because of the "accommodations", about 1/4 of her class was accommodated to some extent. How can you compare such data? How is that different from a HS mom saying her DS is 4th grade math and 6th grade english?
After about 2 years in public school I pulled her back to home schooling. Her day at school was spent half in the special ed room anyway and 30 minutes a day she had a personal helper. Then she would come home with pretty much all her school work and we would work on it for hours, this is after her extra school hour of tutoring, in which she would cry about how the math was explained in school and just wanted me to do it because I made sense. I had many many reasons for putting her in PS and as many pulling her back home. I found better help for her special needs that was tailored far better to her as a whole person outside of the PT,OT and Special Ed labels.
Oh and I haven't touched on the filthy language and eye opening content her peers shared with her her first 6 weeks in 3RD! grade. PS are not the schools of our youth, they are not as we remember them to be.
This is my comparison of HOD to a AAA++ charter school that in many ways was fantastic.
The scope of HOD is far better than PS. Here History is learned, in Public school it is a "story" added on to a list of vocabulary words. Here spelling words turn into dictation and a life skill. In public school they are lists to memorize for a week and then forget. Yes the dictation appears far easier than spelling words for the corresponding grade but I find dictation is far harder and builds a skill for life. The science has been labeled light occasionally, I tested it side by side with a McGraw textbook for the corresponding grade, after a year I realized HOD and the textbook had covered the exact same material with 2 exceptions. HOD lacks all the Green language of environmentalism science that is polluting science textbooks, it also teaches creationism. Math.. well I think my DD's quote (dd stands for dear daughter) Mom you explain it better, is true. My child came home with math she was unprepared for and the Math is actually designed to force the child to ask for help. I'm serious I think I did rant about it after the fact. Seriously it literally was lets not teach division yet, but while we're doing skip counting lets give the kids division problems in their home work. I understand the Idea of teaching kids to seek help but It only frustrated my child. Poetry and music were pretty non existent in PS, one week out of the year they covered poetry and once a week they had a "singing" music class. In the school they were taught values as part of morning assembly one a week but they were based on being "good" not born out of a love for a creator and Jesus on the throne and the bible was on a need to know basis. One of the teachers had lived in China for years as a ESL teacher but was not allowed to talk about his ministry unless his student asked. HOD builds a foundation of Love for our creator.
it was a really great school they helped me through a tough patch in our family but they also frustrated me to tears.
Now if I was to send my Youngest daughter to that school right now... she is in 4th grade, but in all but math she doing 5th grade work. She would probably be bumped a grade and given tutoring in math to keep her there. It's like Night and day in this house.
and don't forget those standardized tests actually are not all that "standard."
), he was very hesitant about it. The few people he's known who have been home schooled have had somewhat negative results, and he hasn't had the opportunity to see positive homeschooling results up close, so his view of homeschooling was a bit slanted. We've continued discussing it off and on for a long time, and, after hearing more about homeschooling from me, he is much more open to the idea than he was at first. 
(We don't miss this. 
) Certainly, Carrie does write with academic standards in mind, and provided dc are doing all of the guides' work as planned, standards are met. 
However, we have both come to believe that keeping Christ at the center of all learning is the highest standard to be met, and that is reflected in each part of the plans as well.