Home schooling

[Walkingtree]

I was also home-schooled from K-12, so here's my hat in the ring:

 

- It is an incredible amount of work. In addition, school is never "off" - there is always something else that should be done whether in planning, grading, reviewing, etc. Don't underestimate this.

 

- It is incredibly helpful for the child. My siblings and I, along with most other home-schooled children we know, were able to pursue our particular strengths provided we had parents that provided for and pushed us. I was, and still am, interested in philosophy. My sister loves music. My other brother loves gymnastics. Accordingly, provided the core subjects were satisfactorily completed, we had plenty of time to dig deeply into our passions. I spend a summer hacking my electronics and writing reports on it.

 

- If you decide to go this route [my wife and I plan to once we have children], consider meeting up with other families once a week or twice a month for shared studies. This can reduce overall workload for the parent, expose children to other's strengths, give public speaking practice, and build a miniature community for social interaction and support.

 

- There are curricula available if the prospect of providing the entire gamut of education is too daunting. My parents used a curriculum for me [the oldest child], but as they became more comfortable moved away from it slowly as they gained experience. So far, all of us that wanted to attend university were able to do so via placement tests.

 

- There is something to be said for this style of education that I feel is lacking in institutional education [with me using my university experience as data] in that one doesn't have to teach /for/ and particular goal other than general knowledge and mental flexibility. One should occasionally submit the child to standardized placement tests to ensure competence, but apart from those the parent can accept or reject any work for any reason. Do you suspect your child is only using test taking strategies to get the right answers? Fail him or her on that assignment. Did they provide the wrong answer, but support it well with shown work and reasoning? You are free to reassign the project after some clarifications have been made.

 

I'll stew on this topic some more and see if any other thoughts come to mind.

[buffyfraz]

I was home schooled for an ironic reason. My dad is a teacher and when he did his student teaching at the middle school level he thought it was so bad that he didn't want us to go through it... So this is what happened.

My mom taught us at home in what are called unit studies. This is where all your information is linked together so it makes sense. You start with a historical time period, say Ancient Greece/Rome You,as the teacher, create a unit of information by studying the art, sports, technology, math, political system, lit, culture food, scientific discoveries. Any writing you do ties into one of these topics. You can create mini aqueducts to show the engineering, make lunch with an "authentic" fish sauce, study the astronomy associated with the legends and myths, have your kids put on a play about a story they learned using masks and garb from that time. Eat ect. We learned a lot as we played and because of that my brother and I developed a life long love of learning You will probably max out the number of library books you can check out and will be on a first name basis with all the librarians. But it is awesome in the true sense of the word. We met in a co op of about five or six families once a week to do more group activities and play. We also played sports, and had friends from our neighborhood so we socialized quite a bit.

My freshman year of high school my parents asked if I wanted to go to public school or stay the course. It was a very hard decision for me because we had recently moved to another state and I didn't know how good the school system was in my area yet. Also I was very athletic and constantly played sports. Staying home schooled ment I had to give that up due to Indiana state law. I ended up deciding to homeschool because I thought I could have a better edu. At home and I believe I did. I ended up picking up swimming so I could be on a club team in the area so that was fine. As far as my mom and dad being able to teach me at that level, they taught me in the areas they felt comfortable with and I took once a week classes at a consortium or took on line classes.

Something my mom did my senior year was that she told me that I was on my own for my learning. If I needed help with anything just ask and she would help but I was in charge of checking my own work( including tests), doing my homework, and getting my work done. She checked in periodically ( I had to keep records of everything) to make certain everything was above board but she wanted me to get a taste for what it would be like in college. BEST IDEA EVER when I got to college the next year I was the only freshman I talked to who knew what to do, how to schedule time for projects, how to be proactive in finding help, how to create a study schedule around a varying schedule among other things.

Thank you for reading my ramblings , so in closing... If you take the time to do it right home schooling is one of the best gifts you can give your child. I have so many life experiences that children in public schools simply can't do because of the nature of a large group class and it still amazes me that what I took for granted wasn't something everyone got to do.

[CalebTheTiger]

Love this question! I was homeschooled - I was also the first-born. That meant I was the guinea pig! My parents were not homeschooled so we made lots of mistakes during my early years of schooling. But, even so I knew that it was the only way to educate my children (I now have three and we're starting soon with the oldest).

 

I'm a proponent of hybrid un-schooling. The reason why is because every child is different. They learn in different ways and at different speeds. Public schooling has attempted to conform every child into an age-based grade system that assumes children will learn at the same rate. That breeds two things - kids feeling left behind and kids feeling held back.

Homeschooling allows you to personally interact with each child on a one-to-one basis. It's an incredible relationship building opportunity, which is one reason I believe it to be essential for parenting in general. You have an opportunity to invest in your child consistently, every single day. A chance to instill the values that are most important to you and you wish to be carried on to the following generation. Instead of shipping your kids off every day to someone else and allowing them the privilege of bonding with your kid and instilling their values in them. Why would you accept that trade off?

 

We like hybrid un-schooling for similar reasons. I had 7 brothers and sisters and as the oldest I participated in most of their education. Some enjoyed math and went super far (even college level), some didn't so they stopped at Alegbra 1 (like me). Some really enjoyed English so they went really far and others couldn't read until they were 9 years old. Every kid is different and learns different, so why should we force them into a general mold?

 

Instead, I believe in teaching my children the basics of education (reading, writing, math, and some science) so they can function in the world and then focusing the rest of their education on the things they are most passionate about. If my kid wants to grow up and be an entrepreneur I want to enable him to have an education tailored to that desire (even if he changes his mind, he'll learn more faster if the initiative and drive is there). I also believe experience is the greatest teacher, so we'll spend less time in books and more time out experiencing the world.

 

What better way to learn math than to see what it's like to run a business for a day? What better way to learn science than by experimenting in creation? I'm not a total un-schooler - but the principles are definitely worth a look, regardless of how to practically apply them.  

[pseudophyte]

Currently homeschooling 4 kids.  Reasons:

• O.M.G. why would you ever want to send your kids to public school?! Our schools are pretty bad.  Cater to the lowest learner and ZERO discipline.  My kids would be lost (as in, they'd never get attention) in this environment.  I am a product of public school, my wife homeschooled; can you guess who stays home and teaches?  My kids are smart and creative and I cannot see them getting the attention and freedom to explore their passions at a public school.  Also, public school kids suck (sorry if you've got one, but they do).  They're mean and rude and smelly.  BONUS: my kids will never have to worry about using a dirty public school bathroom.
• Parent/Child bonding.  I am so jealous that my wife gets to stay at home and hang out with our children EVERY day.  It's pretty depressing to come home after 9+ hours of work and realize that I only have 3 or 4 hours until my kids go to bed.  I really miss them.
• Flexibility.  Honestly, not having to wake all my kids up at the crack-of-6am is awesome.  They get some extra sleep and dig in around 9am after a everyone-sit-at-the-table breakfast.
• Finance/Affordability.  Daycare/Childcare in our city is $800 per kid per month.  With 4 kids, that's $3,200 after taxes that we'd need to clear.  It's actually cheaper for my wife to be a stay-at-home mother and homeschool our kids.
• We get to make the decisions.  I like that we get to make the decisions about what are kids are taught.  We still have state-level type requirements to meet, but we get to make a lot of our own personal choices.