Homeschooling: yes or no?

[mooky]

I hear ya mooky. Have you looked into K12? They offer international classes as well for over the pond peeps such as yourself.

I will be starting this soon with our 6 year old son. I am waiting to hear back from his 1st grade teacher as to whether or not she will give us his books to finish off this year since I am taking him out early.

Mooky we are on a year round schedule since my 8 year old is still attending school and that is their schedule. I also happen to love it. They go to school for 9 weeks and then have three off instead of attending for 9-10 months and having the whole summer off.

So your schools are suportive of yr desire to homeschool? Cos I get looked at like im a weirdo for not sending mine to nursery! I have managed to get mine 2 (the 2 that go to school) into one of the better schools in our area, but still............

Will read through k12 when i get a bit of time, the babys poorly, so the house is a dump.

 

[Tigerlily]

So your schools are suportive of yr desire to homeschool? Cos I get looked at like im a weirdo for not sending mine to nursery! I have managed to get mine 2 (the 2 that go to school) into one of the better schools in our area, but still............

Will read through k12 when i get a bit of time, the babys poorly, so the house is a dump.

I'm not sure I understand your first question. When you home school, it's pretty much your schedule. Since my oldest daughter will still be in year round public school I am keeping our home schooled son on the same schedule. I also realize (having a Limey Husband) that schools in the UK are supposedly better than here in the US. I think the whole damn world is heading down the crapper so I'm not sure if he's right about the education system being superior in Britain. Maybe you can shed some light for us on schools in the UK.

 

[Oberon]

The "socialization question"... [rolls eyes]

I remember public school. It's why Lord of the Flies resonated so much for me.

In all of recorded history extending back to the earliest of oral traditions, the overwhelming rule was that primary education of children was done by parents. The last century and a half is the exception, not the rule, and I am by no means certain that the innovation of public schooling was an improvement except from the point of view of the state.

 

[sassafrassquatch]

Sas we're not homeschooling for religious reasons. I think more and more non religious folks are homeschooling because the education system just ain't working. Maybe we need to consider paying teachers more!

My experience with public schooling is that the kids are distracted, disruptive and disinterested. The don't care, they don't want to be there and no amount of effort on the teacher's part could change their behavior. I don't know how much teachers earn, they probably need to be paid better but I doubt it would have any effect on the academic situation.

 

[INTJMom]

I'm homeschooling. My 9th, 8th, and 7th-graders are all doing the Omnibus curriculum by Veritas Press for literature and history. Yeah, it's a little odd to have three different ages all working at the same level, but the 9th-grader was a little behind when we got him, so it's working out okay. We meet two nights a week for an hour at a stretch, but that will soon be increased somewhat as we've been falling behind. It's time to crank it up a bit.

The worst pain in the neck I get is when my two-year-old wants to come talk to me during class. She's very cute, which kind of makes it worse.

It's long been a fact that a private tutor is superior to a public school.
Keep up the good work!

 

[Poser]

We are currently homeschooling our children but I don't believe in it. Kidding. For us, it was more of a temporary solution. My oldest son wasn't mature enough to start school but he was ready to learn. I was amazed at the homeschooling resources that are out there plus I found that I live in a pretty good state (NC) that supports it.

My background is I started in a private school that had a starting class of around 40 kids in kindergarten and had a graduating class of around 10. I left in the 7th grade and went to various public schools. My first years in public school were the worst of my life but I am not sure if it was attributed to just that period of time (awkward age) or the school itself.

 

[mooky]

I bowed to family pressure and sent my eldest son to nursery for socialization, and it turned my lovely 3 year old in to a monster that if i didnt know better, i really would have thought had ADHD.

It wouldnt have been so bad if schools in my area wheren't somewhere you dumped yr brats so you can have 5 minutes to yrself.

I dont see why people feel that home schooled childeren lack socialization, because school isn't socialization, its Lord of the flies! The biggest bully wins.

But they are trying to better schools here in the UK, with tough ainty bullying campains, but still its a problem. Teacher turn a blind eye to most of it, well untill a parent goes in and complains; but they will happily lie to you in an effort not to get the school a bad name for bullying.

I think if you a dedicated parent then homeschooling would work much better.

 

[cafe]

My background is I started in a private school that had a starting class of around 40 kids in kindergarten and had a graduating class of around 10. I left in the 7th grade and went to various public schools. My first years in public school were the worst of my life but I am not sure if it was attributed to just that period of time (awkward age) or the school itself.

That's backwards of what I did. I went to public K-8 and private 9-12 (except for half of my Junior year). Public wasn't horrible. (Well, sixth grade I was bused to a school with what seemed like rich kids when I was poor. The teacher was great, but the kids were like piranhas. That was kind of horrible.) I was nervous about going to the private school, but I loved it, probably mostly because it was small. There were fifteen kids in my graduating class.

 

[mooky]

but I loved it, probably mostly because it was small. There were fifteen kids in my graduating class.

I think small classes are a must, they have restricted infant class sizes here to 30 to a teacher.

But I think 30, 4 an 5 year olds to one teacher is way to high.

 

[Poser]

I was homeschooled K-7 and I'm somewhat in favor of it so long as religious homeschooling is not allowed.

I will say that I favor some type of regulation in homeschooling like yearly exams. I know this is regarded as the downfall to US education but some type of benchmark is necessary but I am not sold on what that would be. Maybe instead of just standardized tests, the option for an interview with the child and a representative voted on by a homeschooling association? I dunno. I am speaking out of ignorance because I am not 100% sure what the regulations are here (my son is still too young to have to worry about it yet). I was just freaked out when I went to one clinic by an association and a mother stood up and said she had no curriculum and just let God show her the way.

 

[cafe]

I think small classes are a must, they have restricted infant class sizes here to 30 to a teacher.

But I think 30, 4 an 5 year olds to one teacher is way to high.

That is pretty high. It could work with older kids if the teacher is excellent, but I don't think there should be more than 20 kids to a teacher until the kids are around 6 or 7.

Three of my kids go to regular school and two are in elementary. My sons are in second and fourth grade and I think they both have around 18 kids in each of their classes. It's a nice size, IMO.

The schools here have been really working on the bullying, too. I have had to talk to staff a few times, but it seems as though it isn't as bad as it was when I was a kid. There have actually been kids suspended over my complaints, so they aren't just telling me what I want to hear to make me go away.

US schools have a pretty bad rap and I was reluctant to enroll my kids in them, but three out of the four have done okay so far. I only have one at home now.

 

[faith]

When I was in school, I used to wish my mom would homeschool me.

Socialization? Plenty of better ways to socialize than in school--all that wasted time with half-hearted chit-chat and notes back and forth in class because you're so bored your brain is about to burst. Silly immature games of gossip and who-hates-whom that have no significance outside of the strange subculture of jr. high and high school.

Learning? I would have learned much more if I could have been left alone to read the books myself. Teachers trying to jerk your thoughts around this way and that, not enough time to let the details sink in and thoroughly explore a real idea because half the class has the attention span of an excited gnat (to steal Lee's metaphor). Long after I graduated, when I learned that ISS was really just the opportunity to sit alone and read and write all day (what heaven!), I became rather bitter about the fact that the "bad" students got the good school and the "good" students had to keep going to the crap classes full of distracting other students who won't shut up.

I'd considered that maybe all those ideas were the product of my angsty teenage brain and perhaps public school is much better than I'd imagined. After teaching 10th and 11th grade English for 8 months, I'm convinced I was right after all. It's very very difficult to teach a prescribed curriculum to a room full of 30 different abilities, interests, and motivations. I don't see how it can possibly be ideal either for the more advanced students or for the ones who fall behind.

Unless my children (if I have any) turn out to be very opposed to the idea, I think they'd benefit more from homeschooling than from being run through the public school system.

 

[aeon]

I support homeschooling, and the form I support most is unschooling.

I was not homeschooled, save to the degree I schooled myself, unschooling style, when I got home from public school.


cheers,
Ian

 

[mooky]

You know yr all making want to home school again,

 

[Ivy]

I support homeschooling, and the form I support most is unschooling.

I was not homeschooled, save to the degree I schooled myself, unschooling style, when I got home from public school.


cheers,
Ian

This is how my mother homeschooled us. It was excellent for me because I got to choose the direction I took-- and I wanted to take a direction. It wasn't as good for my younger brother because he wasn't very self-directed. She did have to nudge him a bit more to actually learn stuff instead of playing video games all day.

 

[prplchknz]

I always wanted to be homeschooled, but my mom always said no. I remember begging her all the time, this was of course after she said that it's the law that I have to be in school. I think I was about 8 when I started suggesting that I be homeschooled, yet I never was. My mom used the excuse of she didn't have time/she'd do a bad job, I don't know if home schooling would have been right for me socially but then again I was trying to leave school because of the social aspects of it. Until fourth grade none of my friends were in the same school as me I knew them from church and an afterschool program. So I was like I either want to go to the public school down the street from my house (where my friends went) or be home schooled but my parent's were advised by my kindergarten teachers that I would drown in a big class so that's why I didn't go to public for first-eighth like my brother.
I could have been homeschooled then gone still gone to the afterschool program as it was private and you paid for it out of your pocket and would take anyone of age and willing to pay. I guess homeschool is good for some and not so for others.

 

[swordpath]

I home schooled up until 5th grade and then again my Sophomore year in H.S.

I think in either schooling environment, you're gonna learn the essentials (reading, writing, math etc.) however I feel adapting in a social environment and growing socially in those formative years is almost more important than your HS education all together. So, as long as your getting the essentials I'd say going to school is more beneficial for the well-being of an individual (generally speaking). If you are home schooled but involved in other activities away from home (church, sports, clubs) then I don't think it would be an issue though. I have known a few home schoolers that were very socially awkward and almost handicapped. Just depends though, everyone's different. What works for some doesn't for others.

This has been a post, brought to you by Gloria Estefan.

 

[Wolf]

Ivy: You were homeschooled?

Was anyone else here homeschooled?


I think faith's commentary on it is rather telling, especially considering her career choice...

 

[Ivy]

Yep, I was. Not for the whole time, though. I went to public school from K-5. I started out at a public middle school for 6th grade but quickly became depressed and stopped working because it was big and corporate and I didn't have a connection to anyone. So my mom took me out and homeschooled me until Christmas. The second half of the year I went to a Quaker private school where I stayed through 9th grade. Then I was homeschooled for the rest of high school. I mostly audited classes at a local university though, didn't do much at home. And "the rest of high school" turned out to be only one more year, since I got a GED on my 16th birthday and started taking college classes for credit then.

 

[celesul]

I've never thought that much about home schooling, but I can see how it would be good, especially for students who don't fit in with the norm as much.

I actually go to private school, which is good for a number of reasons. One being that I'm not all that socially adept and the local school is known for being rather bratty and vicious, while a smaller school at least allows the teachers to monitor people more closely. Actually, despite my classmates being ridiculously rich, and I do mean ridiculously, they are very nice about it, and don't care if their friends have money. I'd get along better with them if I shared common interests, such as popular music and movies, but they are all nice enough to me.

Another problem is that I've a few learning problems, although none are severe, and while the school isn't intended for LD (rather, it's intended for high achievers) the small size helps enormously. Sure, it's still hard to sit still with adhd, but at least the teacher is attentive and realizes that I'm not trying to be annoying, so they focus less on punishment and more on how to improve. So I don't have any problems in school right now, more the opposite, but I think it has a lot to do with the school. My smallest two classes this year have 8 kids, the largest two have 20, and one is somewhere in-between. I think the typical class size at my school is 13-15 kids. The thought of having a larger class astonishes me. I have some trouble with 20 kids, although not with a good teacher, but even a good teacher couldn't make a class of 30 kids work. For me, 20 is a large class.