Homeschooling: yes or no?

[GZA]

I know someone who went to a boarding school and loved it. I don't know much else though...

 

[Tigerlily]

I don't know much else though...

You're not supposed to tell everyone that!

 

[Wolf]

im going to go out on a limb here and say this is the sort of thing children should be exposed to. perhaps not to such an extent, regardless, the controlled confines of home and family are not a good example of the wide variety of things and people that children will run into in the outside world, making the confines of home and family an inadequate venue of preparation for adulthood. i feel it is the responsibility of parents to prepare their children for the "real world", and, in that regard, schooling outside of the home is a far more immersive example of reality. whether i can personally oversee little billy doing his math homework comes secondary to this parental objective.

there is simply no intention of homeschooling that isn't "sheltering" in some way because the point of it is to remedy something.

The problem is that your POV is skewed by your personal bias. You are certainly the product of government schools and therefore believe it's the "right way" and that anything else is to remedy the problem with government schools. You do not allow for proactive parenting and independent thought.

To a parent when government schools were just beginning (a person that almost certainly was taught everything they know by parents and mentors), the government schools were a remedy to a problem that had been created and homeschooling was preferable to this new government abomination.

It's all a matter of how you look at it.

 

[FemMecha]

For some reason a significant percentage of my music lesson students have been homeschooled. The ones whose family culture is such that they seek out opportunities like music lessons are typically quite learning oriented. My home-schooled students practice a great deal more on average. The public school kids are usually exhausted and have trouble focusing at lessons. I had four teenager piano students once and they practiced 10-20 hours a week and advanced at a phenomenal rate.

 

[Electric]

No one is thinking about going to a private school? Generally, this is how I favor schooling,

1. Private School that are adaptive to college
2. Public School with good AP programs and/or dual credit
3. Homeschooling
4. Private school
5. Small and isolated public school

As a child, I went through a good public school that had exceptional AP programs. I really took advantage of these and it saved me lots of time and money in college. I believe some higher private schools have even better programs. Such as dual credit, which offers college credit without any standardized testing! These programs usually take place at a college so there's lots to experience. Institutions like these will help your children out definitely as they provide a vehicle into college.

I have to warn home schoolers advocates that they don't have these kinds of resources. Homeschooling is sure flexible to the child's time, but will the child be thankful that he is denied good education? Homeschooling can be lacking in academics and can be more expensive if you know what I mean.

All this depends on your child I guess. If the child expects to live a humble and content life then I guess he doesn't need to go through the storm of success to achieve bliss.

Also, I barely socialized at all in public school. Even though my class had around 500 people, I mainly talked to the teachers. I did not have a normal social life for sure. I wouldn't go to public school just to learn how to talk to people.

 

[mooky]

No one is thinking about going to a private school? Generally, this is how I favor schooling,

1. Private School that are adaptive to college
2. Public School with good AP programs and/or dual credit
3. Homeschooling
4. Private school
5. Small and isolated public school

As a child, I went through a good public school that had exceptional AP programs. I really took advantage of these and it saved me lots of time and money in college. I believe some higher private schools have even better programs. Such as dual credit, which offers college credit without any standardized testing! These programs usually take place at a college so there's lots to experience. Institutions like these will help your children out definitely as they provide a vehicle into college.

I have to warn home schoolers advocates that they don't have these kinds of resources. Homeschooling is sure flexible to the child's time, but will the child be thankful that he is denied good education? Homeschooling can be lacking in academics and can be more expensive if you know what I mean.

All this depends on your child I guess. If the child expects to live a humble and content life then I guess he doesn't need to go through the storm of success to achieve bliss.

Also, I barely socialized at all in public school. Even though my class had around 500 people, I mainly talked to the teachers. I did not have a normal social life for sure. I wouldn't go to public school just to learn how to talk to people.

WOW, this has grown over night!

Couple of things I’d like to chip in really.

I feel that you are saying that to achieve success you need to go to a good school. And that home schooling is at the expense of the child’s education and prospects. Could I just point out owarinoTenshi, who is home schooled and in collage at 15!! You don’t need to go through the Storm of success in a school to be successful, nor if you’re home schooled do you need to expect to live a humble life

My father went to a military boarding school; he went there to get away from a BAD home life.
However life there wasn't very good, and he was bullied quite badly............for a bit, he came out very tough. My farther had us kids quite late in life and I’m glad of that, he got himself together and made quite a good dad; and listening to storeys of when he was younger are like listening to storeys about some-one else, they just don’t match up with the man i know.

And thirdly, over here (in the UK) home schooling is regulated, the local authority makes regular checks to see how things are going and to make sure a suitable education is given, these are not mandatory, but if they feel you are not giving your child a education appropriately then they can take you to court and force your child into public school.

 

[Electric]

I feel that you are saying that to achieve success you need to go to a good school. And that home schooling is at the expense of the child’s education and prospects. Could I just point out owarinoTenshi, who is home schooled and in collage at 15!! You don’t need to go through the Storm of success in a school to be successful, nor if you’re home schooled do you need to expect to live a humble life
.

Well I don't know then. I just think that home schooler will find it more difficult to go to the college they want unless they live in Florida. There are some important credentials such as rank that will be missing. The resources in school are diverse and located more conveniently. Especially if the school has some college connections, it is easy to utilize college resources. Job fairs are a good example. Also some high schools provide accelerated programs that allows for graduation at 16. Although, this doesn't beat your friend's record. I wouldn't say this is a benefit or cost as it depends on the person's preference.

I'm not saying that homeschoolers are humble. I'm just saying that there's no point in going through school if you don't plan to achieve much.

School is not for everyone. The same goes for home school.

 

[Tigerlily]

I just received a phone call from our son's school saying that we need to come in and withdraw him which is exactly what I tried to do last week while he was tracked out but the data manager was on vacation. She called today and left me a message and I called her back.

She was a bit annoying. It started out in her telling me that we need to bring in a certification from our State. I told her that I was informed that I didn't need to be certified to home school our son. She said that she needs a little card that they mail out.

Turns out her daughter suffer from anxiety and her son has Tourettes and OCD among other things.

Anyway I check our stated education website and here is what it said.

REMINDERS

1. To avoid needless delays, always use this Notice of Intent form when sending your notice of intent.
2. Please DO NOT send a Notice of Intent to the Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) for the present school year if the only students to be enrolled in your home school: (a) Are currently under age 7 and will not turn age 7 before this coming June 1; or, (b) Are currently 18 years of age or older.
3. Please send your Notice of Intent a month in advance of your home school's initial opening date. If any of your children will turn age 7 before this coming June 1, please send your Notice of Intent by four weeks before the child's 7th birthday. One Notice of Intent per school -- not per student.

Okay well this means that even though I sent in the paperwork to notify them I wasted my time because I need to wait until he turns 7?

So now I need to go into his former school and try and get them to understand this so that they can stop marking him absent! This is becoming very frustrating. What next a social working stopping by for tea?

 

[Poser]

BTW, one of the seminars I went to actually said to not even try to send it in early. They are swamped and will reject it outright if it is "too" early.

 

[Ivy]

I just received a phone call from our son's school saying that we need to come in and withdraw him which is exactly what I tried to do last week while he was tracked out but the data manager was on vacation. She called today and left me a message and I called her back.

She was a bit annoying. It started out in her telling me that we need to bring in a certification from our State. I told her that I was informed that I didn't need to be certified to home school our son. She said that she needs a little card that they mail out.

Turns out her daughter suffer from anxiety and her son has Tourettes and OCD among other things.

Anyway I check our stated education website and here is what it said.



Okay well this means that even though I sent in the paperwork to notify them I wasted my time because I need to wait until he turns 7?

So now I need to go into his former school and try and get them to understand this so that they can stop marking him absent! This is becoming very frustrating. What next a social working stopping by for tea?

OMG I totally thought he was 7! I don't know why I thought that. But no, the compulsory age of schooling in NC is 7- so before he's 7 you don't have to do ANYTHING.

Just print out the stuff from the HSLDA website that I sent you and you should be well prepared for any bullshit they send your way. I wish I could say I'm surprised that they're trying to do this crap.

 

[Wolf]

My parents belonged to HSLDA before they had a website. Heh.

 

[Eileen]

I know one family (the four kids are all adults now) that just gave the kids options. One of them homeschooled all the way through high school, and one chose public school, and one chose private Christian school, and one flitted about (I think). They all went to college and thrived in their particular choices. I think that if a parent is able to give that kind of choice, that's pretty great. I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to homeschool my hypothetical children because I anticipate teaching other people's kids, but if I could find a way to fit it in, I would certainly want to be able to offer my child that option.