Tell Us Your Story.... - Page 2

[umbrella]

Hi All!

My dd is currently 4 years old, and actually enrolled in a Montessori school right now, while I finish my degree.

Homeschooling is something that I've always kept in mind, since I was in high school, and saw quite how far our homeschooled counterparts were ahead of us, even in the honors courses.

When I am done with school, in December, I'm taking dd out of preschool, as it is largely serving as a daycare for us. I've never felt that preschool was necessary. Dd actually loves going to school, which has made it that much easier for me to send her there, but I still feel that homeschooling would be best.

We're an AP family, and I was a sahm with dd until she was 2, and I needed to take on the traditional university student schedule. I have to say, it is very hard for an AP sahm to take on a wohm schedule. Dd has continued to thrive (she was in a home-day-care), but I still considered the circumstances second-best. I think nursing helped the transition to day-care be a smoother one, and she continued to nurse until she was 3.

We'll be ttc around the winter holidays, and getting back to the sahm lifestyle. I anticipate maintaining more of an unschooling approach for at least the early years, and seeing where we go from there. I think that homeschooling may be particularly right for us as a military family, with moves being so frequent. I have personally enjoyed each new place, and taken it as an opportunity to explore, and have new adventures. I think continuing that will be easier while homeschooling, rather than regularly dealing with the trauma of switching schools.

[NCCelticlady]

I'm a recovering PTA Mom (OK, bad joke, but that's how I feel)! DD, 8yo, was in 3rd grade in the ps around the corner from our house. I've had problems with the principle since she was in k. Her teacher was concerned because dd seemed to "fade out" (her words) and lose focus. You almost always had to touch her to get her attention, but only happened on the playground or when she was in "deep thought" mode. They decided to test her hearing. Not a problem, but I wanted to be there. The teacher, who I really liked, called me one afternoon and asked me to stop by. I did, and she apologized for it, but they tested her hearing that morning. Uh, permission form did say I wanted to be there. I went to the principle and was told, " we don't have time to accomodated every parent, there ARE over 1000 students in our school." That has been her mantra since then. She drove me nuts! DD had wonderful teachers in k and 1. I was really lucky!
Second grade she was put in a class that had a large number of kids that were slower learners. She had lost the draw of the teacher card. It wasn't that she was a bad teacher, she had so many that didn't have a grasp of the concepts that she had to slow it down considerably. The few she had that "got it" were just dying of boredom. DD was one of them. They didn't cover the grammar that was needed for 3rd grade, and spelling was a joke. My dd could spell Tyrannosaurus Rex (obviously her Mother can not!) but can't spell "paper". T-rex was one of her spelling words! They were stressing that they needed to know certain things for the end of grade test(for 3rd grade) and dd began to have nightmares, and was having stomach aches. Her doctor said stress. DD decided to "skip 3rd grade and go to 4th" (her words), she thought she wouldn't have EOGs in 4th grade.
I don't know what possessed me to send her back this year, but 3rd grade was awful for her! There were concepts that she didn't get last year, and she was bored by the repetition. At one point she made a 77 on a math test. When I asked why, she said, "Mommy, she's already given us one test on that, and it was on the EOG pre-test, and then she gave us another test on it. I'm tired of doing it." What could I say?
The school is set up on a gifted and talented theme. Basically, for 2 45 minute periods each day they were sent to another class, like butterflies, dance props, and fit for life. Meanwhile, kids who need remedial help get it during that time. I finally sat down and figured it up, with getting from class to class, lunch, and bathroom breaks (2 a day), her teacher was lucky to be able to give 10 minutes to each child. Now figure in keeping roll, constantly testing, giving instructions and handing out all of the daily worksheets, and there was no time. There was one child who needed way more attention than the others because he was always disrupting class and needed constant supervision (he kept trying to take dd's test booklet during the EOG pre-test, and she still managed to only miss 3 on the whole test). Add in the stress dd had over trying to find time to take 1 AR test on the 2 computers in the class (can't take a test until you finish your work, so those finished first always grabbed them!) I had to fight with the child who used to love to read to get a few pages read. Oh, and the 45 minutes of homework that grew to take 2 hours was a monster in our house. We had no family time at all! Play time this year was walking laps around the teachers' parking lot. I couldn't take it anymore!
I took my family back! DD is back to the wonderful, loving child I used to know, and although it has only been a month, I've seen wonderful changes in her.We are taking out time, flipping around and looking at different concepts when she's bored. We can come back to it later has become a popular phrase in our house. I just wish I had done this last year!

Oh, and that loving principle, she's Principle of the year in our county!

Sorry this was so long, I could have gone on, but you get the picture!

[UnschoolnMa]

Welcome to the board and to homeschooling I am so glad you took back your family, and are enjoying yourselves! It's great isn't it

[mommamoon]

our story

When my Oldest was finishing 3rd grade I found myself very interested in homeschooling. I had a new baby and ds wanted to be home with us. It seemed so nice being together. Plus it fostered a relationship between my widely spaced children. Doesn't mean the are always loving brothers! They have gotten to spend time together though. My oldest is 13 now and my youngest 4 1/2. We still homeschool I have to say that Ienjoy it more now than I did in the beginning. This is our 5th school year and we are pretty relaxed-I use a lot of Waldorf style learning with my youngest. My oldest ds uses Oak meadow 8th grade. He enjoys it. Before this year I pretty much gathered our learning materials and taught unit study style. ds (13) is such an independant learner though. He prefers to do a lot of the reading on his own. We do math together and I suggest (assign) books that I know we can discuss. I love homeschooling though. I love being able to go on a trip when we want. All of our family is out of state-we can leave for three weeks visit them all in WV and then come back to TN at our leisure. there is less stress in times of illness because we aren't on someone elses schedule. We can heal in our time. ds broke his arm ad was able to work at his own pace without feeling any stress about falling behind.
He feels good about what he accomplishes because he realizes that he didn't have to do anything. Therefore what he does get done exceeds what he had to do. Make sense?
I am rambling now!
homeschooling is great for our family though-I guess I just wanted to give a little background on why it is so great for us.
Even though my house looks like a preschool with pictures taped up everywhere and a nature table in the living room-chalkboards everywher against the walls-plus we still have all the usual living room stuff! its crowded but cozy right?
Gretchen

[Linda KS]

Hi! I'm new to this board and very excited to be here.

My name is Linda and I have 2 little girls who are 6 and 8. They have never been to school. Homeschooling is just a natural extention of the way we parent. When they were little they nursed, sleep with us, and where never left to cry. They are past those things now but we are still AP parenting! They learn in an atmostphere of love and respect.

We are relaxed but not unschoolers. I make sure that they are progressing in their skill subjects of reading, writing and math at a pace that is comfortable for them. We use materials that work best for them and I focus on helping my kids learn rather than getting through a curriculum. We use all sort of resources for other subjects from good books to fun projects to occasional curriculum (they love Five in a Row and Great Adventures in Science).

I look forward to getting to know you all better!

[babyboy20]

How I came to homeschooling.

My oldest is 11yrs old and we jsut started homeschooling this week.
We had moved from NY to Florida in August. In NY Cory was in a special ed class and was classified as Learning disabled.Howver last year he was mainstreamed for 3 classes and the goal this year was full mainstream with resource room.
When we moved we made the decision to put him in a private school as the district we are in is less then optimal. The school had won the blue ribbon of excellance and they assured me that they would work with cory as much as needed. Well I am unsure between 3 hurricanes and a move wether it was the stress on him or that the school was truly to hard. (They would take 10 points off of a test if his heading wasn't right) His report card consisted of all d's and F's. The school and I had decided that this wasnt for him. So they gave me a number for another school. I went to see it and it seemed like a great program for someone that needed it.(It was geared for more emotionally challanged children) After calling every private school within an hour of here and getting no where I made the decision to homeschool him.
We have only been at it for 2 days now and so far he seems much less angry and tense and more interested in learning so I am thinking this was the best choice.

Terrie

[caitlinsmom]

Our homeschooling journey

Dd is only 2 so we havent started an offical homeschooling routine but we do learn together....anyway soon after I found out about AP and Natural parenting I ran across a few posts on a board about homeschooling.
I started to check it out a bit, but the real kicker for me as when my 12 yo brother asked me where Wisconsin was!!! i was shocked. He had no idea where it was located on a map.

From there I went nuts, I rented every book on home schooling I could find, even the ones that wont apply to us for years (like teenage liberation) and devoured all the info I could. I joined boards and read all the laws in every state that I ever had thought about moving to. After I had all this info I decided to approach Dh. He was really hesitant about it, since everyone he knew from school who was hs'd were "weird". lol.

Anyway to make a long story short dh went into the army and met quite a few HS'd guys who were "normal". So he started to think a little tiny bit about it. About this time i got my hands on a copy of Dumbing us Down. That was the life changer. Dh (who previously wanted to be a ps teacher) was totally convinced! We talked about it a lot and now we are both anti public school as can be, him even more so than me!! lol

So we no longer talk about "if" we will hs, it is just a fact. Our life has already had a slight shift just because we try to utalize learning time more.
Caitlin is thriving and learning at a pace that I can barely keep up with.

for us this is the only choice.

[Mylie]

Why we homeschool

I started homeschooling my son in 6th grade...When we lived in Michigan he went to a private Christian school that treated him like a person and loved him.He did well there.Had many friends and made terrific grades even though he has ADD and attention problems.We moved to Kentucky his 6th grade year.Not only did they torment him,they teased him terrible for his accent,the way he walked,the way he smiled,the way he felt,ect...School was a torture chamber for him.We tried 3 different schools here including one christian school.They were all the same.He was treated like a non-person for all to wipe their feet on.I remember being bullied in my younger years and couldn't bear for him to have that happen to him.So I pulled him the day they called me saying he hit another student...He was suspended for two weeks for defending himself...They were pulling his hair,shoving him down when he walked and calling him names I can't even repeat.My son would never hurt a fly let alone a person.He didn't deserve that kind of treatment.No one does... That is what called us to homeschooling.

On a side note my happy confident happy with himself son went to withdrawn and depressed in a matter of months..It took 6 months of unschooling to get him to like learning again.He still hasn't regained his love of learning like he did although he loves to read...He will never see the inside of a school building again until college and that is his choice..He wants to be a Marine Biologist and study sharks.Has since he was in pre-school...He is a great kid and we love homeschooling...Love mylie xx

[PrincessPerky]

I am not an AP parent, however I never left my kids to unneccessarily cry. And really with what I see in schools, there is alot of that. Or than again maybe it is neccessary in the mass setting. Anyway I am a 'normal' parent, I want my bed for fun with my hubby, I like time alone, I like kids who can clean up after themselves, and I have no qualms about insisting it goes my way. I also like to play with them, make them laugh and read to them.

But with schooling, it is so up to him. If he wants to learn to read I will gladly teach him, if he wants to learn to add I am all for it. If he doesn't want to write his letters than ok it can wait. I suppose I homeschool, cause we do do lessons when he is in the mood, but I do not 'school at home', I leave the choice to work up to him. I do not unschool, all I have read about it means I might need to give up bedtime and chores, way not happening.

My kids are 1 girl and 2.75 boy. The one year old want's to read too, but somehow it isn't happening yet

[mwherbs]

Before we ever had kids we talked about homeschooling them. We were both somewhat social outcasts, and not happy with the cultural aspects of school. The only time I had friends as a child was before I went to school and a few vacation summer time friends. I got straight A's all the way through and still managed to have some teachers "pick on me". I was a babysitter or nanny from age 11-20 and the amount of influence I had because of the amount of time I spent with the kids was fairly astounding. and I studied anthropology so knew some of the ways children were raised historically and world wide. So when we had kids attachment parenting and homeschooling just ran together. Our kids have taken some college classes at this point and I am satisfied with how things went. Probably with our first 2 we worried more than we needed to and worked harder at socialization- of course homeschool groups back then were smaller- the group we use to belong to that had only about 10 families the more recent group has about 100 families and the younger kids have many more friends, and feel less like they are different. Our youngest is 16 and still homeschooling- spends a great deal of time on line and just recently took a science class from a doctorate student who had been homeschooled herself- She was probably the best teacher I have seen in a long time. Very excited about the subject and really about everyone learning the info she was presenting.

[poppyqwn]

How we came to be happily homeschooling:

Hello everyone. I really enjoyed reading everyone's stories. I found alot that I related to.
I am now happily homeschooling my 1st grader. He went to public preschool and kintergaten with two totally differnt experinces. The preschool was not a good fit for us, but I was naive and didn't pull him out. The teacher and my son didn't get along well. I volenteered at the school 5 days a week in the library so I could be closer to him. I didn't want to be in the classroom, I knew it would be very distracting for him and the teacher. Well he was constantly in trouble, I still can't tell why. He was even sent to the asst principal's office (instead of letting me handle things, I mean really I was there.) They wouldn't tell me either, I would get a note at the end of the week. But the teacher left for maternaty leave and things got much better for my son. He finshed the year out and headed on to kintergarten.
The school system where we lived had decided that the kintergateners needed a full day of school. I am very much against that, I think a half day is better for that age. Well I found a wonderful magnet school that had half day kindergaten. He was in an open enviroment school, which was great and the staff was excellent. His teachers were two of the kindest and sweetest ladies and the principal was incredible. She seemed to know every student and something about them with out anyone being introuble. She remembered parents names and children and was sincerely interested in your family. Paul learned so much and loved the school. I would have loved to keep him there, however, the Navy sent us to California. Before we moved I tried to find an open enviroment school like he was in with no luck, but I did find several charter schools for homeschooling. The idea of sending my "baby" off for 8 hours or more a day just devestated me. I just didn't feel like it would be good for him, or the family. How could we stay as connected if we didn't see eachother for the majority of the day. I guess that is one of the things I cling to being a Navy wife. With my husband being gone so much it is already very stressful on eveyone and our family unit, I thought that sending Paul off to school would add to the stress. He wouldn't get to see his dad as much when his dad was home. But,I will move on. I found a charter school to handle all the legal stuff and get our circulum, and we have been off and running since. It is going well, and is coming much more naturally than I thought it would. My son, husband, and I really love Homeschooling.

[myjourney]

homeschool...yea!

I am new to this site and feel like I have found friends. Thanks everyone for sharing your stories. Now, this homeschooling thing. I homeschooled my daughter after we left elementary. Fortunately we had a good school, with attentive and involved parents, teachers, and administration. My son also went there (he's 5 years older than his sis and boy did I learn alot). His middle school experiance was awful. We changed schools twice and finally found a sort of fit for him. However, when my daughter got to the middle school point I was ready to do it right. She had the option of continuing in a public school or private or school with me. She entered public, got about 1 month into it and very articulately and succinctly stated she wanted out. She was appalled at how she was treated. She had observed her brother and our struggle to make it work for him. She wanted me to "fix" it. I had always volunteered at her elementary, even substitute taught about once a week and just generally was very involved. Her middle school had about 1200 kids and 12 parents (including myself) who served as the only ones to volunteer for anything. It was appalling. Coming from an elementary of 200 or so kids and so many parents,grandparents and friends involved that new activities were formed just to accomodate parents was shocking to both of us as well as the 12 of us who were at the school almost daily trying to enhance all the kid's education. I'm rambling and could go on , but will not. Long story short we unschooled at the end of her first semester and had a marvelous 21/2 years of learning. We have now moved to another town. I heard so many wonderful things about the public school system here I had to look into it. We visited and toured, talked to other parents and past and former students. THey all had great things to say about this school district....So my beautiful, independant, intelligent, funny daughter dicided she wanted to return to public school. That was a year ago and now we're both looking at alternatives. THe environment is oK. Mostly very polite children with invloved parents and individual grade level schools....However, some of the old issues are still there. We both couldn't believe corporal punishment was practiced here. I don't hit my daughter so why would I allow anyone else to hit her? She tells me one of her teachers makes rude comments about her algebra class. He actually to the class they were worthless! Fortunately my daughter interprets his comments as his problem not hers. But, this isn't very motivating for her. I couldn't figure out why she disliked his class so much. I had talked to her about it since the beginning of this school year. She recently told me she views this school as social development and is now ready to start academic learning. So she wants to homeschool again. I am all for it. She tested to enter this school system and maxed out at 12.5 on most of the test administered. I don't think we will have any problems readjusting to real learning.

[cresorchid]

My HS story

Wow! It's been great to read all the different stories on this thread. My story is rather different though.

I was living in Maryland, right outside of DC when my son was about 3 or 3 1/2 years old. There was a Montessori school right around the corner from where I was working. I decided to enroll him there. The best decision I ever made! They were wonderful!!! It turns out that my son has severe dyslexia and also had some other problems way back then–receptive and expressive language disorders, sensory integration disorder, strabismus (crossed eyes). He was wearing glasses at that time for the strabismus, but hadn't been diagnosed with any other problems yet. They realized there was a problem and had me take my son for testing within a few months. Despite all the problems and the fact that he didn't learn reading or pre-reading along with the other kids, he was welcomed and very much an active participant in the classroom.

Unfortunately, when my son was 8 I moved to Texas. I tried to get him into a Montessori school here, but they didn't give me the information I needed in time, so he started out in the ps system. We lived with that for one HORRIFYING year. Due to my son's dyslexia, they told me he was basically bad at math–only the following year in a new Montessori program, he was doing algebraic equations. I'd love to see them try to explain that. The ps threw out the ARD my son had received only DAYS before from Maryland, basically because they didn't want to meet his needs. From the time school started at 7:45 am (!!!) in the morning until he came home (2:45 pm), the kids were supposed to sit at desks with their hands folded on top of their desks and not move, except for the times they were going from one class to another or outside for recess. That's unreasonable even for an adult.

So I put him in another Montessori school I found. My son liked it better, but there were problems with the school. I think the people who started the school were on big ego trips and cared more about aggrandizing themselves than in helping the children. Despite that, it was better than sending him to ps. It never even occurred to me to hs him then. Then he hit the upper elementary school classroom at the Montessori. The teacher's true motivation for being there was to teach her own son who was in the classroom and still get paid. She would hand out a little packet of worksheets each week for the kids to complete. If they couldn't do a page because they didn't understand the concept, instead of teaching the concept, she would have them skip the page (!!!). She even had a parent who worked as an editor at a publishing house come in to teach grammar because she didn't want to be bothered. When the parent hit a rush at work, they simply discontinued the grammar. As if that weren't all bad enough, in late March, they came to me and told me they didn't think my son fit in. Of course, that is waaay to late to start looking to apply to other private schools, but they didn't really care.

The next year I ended up sending him to a school that advertised specializing in working with kids who have dyslexia and ADD/ADHD, but they assumed all of the students had ADD/ADHD and my son doesn't. They were totally anal about some things like the way everything should be organized and having a backpack. One day one of our cats urinated on his backpack but he took it to school anyway without my knowing because he was AFRAID not to. I didn't find out until that evening when I promptly washed it. The school NEVER made me feel welcome when I came to pick up my son. They were always putting my son down and picking on him. I think that almost all the teachers were from one local Christian church and since we aren't from that church or even Christian, they were determined to let us know that we were bad people. In January or February they called me to a conference because there were "problems." I was told that my son was going to become a gang member because he liked watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and that he had been telling them for a month that he was suicidal and they would inform him that it was inappropriate for him to say that. This from a child who had LOVED school in the past. And they waited a month to tell me he was claiming to be suicidal???? Apparently they didn't much care. I left that meeting in shock, picked my son up that afternoon and never sent him back.

He then went to another school working with kids who had learning problems but which was much more relaxed and open. My son stopped obsessing about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" because they didn't taunt him about it. They just accepted it. I wasn't sure how much he was learning, but I felt he was learning something and not being mentally and emotionally TORTURED. Yes, things got better for a few years–until the director ran off with all the school funds.

Yes, this is all true. The remaining teachers decided to re-organize and re-open the school under a different name. I decided to wait and see what would happen. My son loved it, but I felt that the teachers were really young, immature, and wasn't confident my son was learning much. After sticking it out for a couple of years and feeling more and more insecure about what my son was actually learning, I finally pulled him out. I don't even remember the reason, except that I felt the school was more like a summer enrichment camp where they supported academics rather than an academic school with some electives. There were so many problems I can't even name them all.

I decided to enroll him in the nearest local hs at that time, as my son was 14 and ought to have been entering 10th grade. Only because the private school had been unaccredited, he would have had to test out of all the freshman courses. I knew he would never pass all the tests because of his dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Which meant that I had 3 choices: let him start hs over, send him back to this school (at $10,000/year) for the next 3 years so he would graduate or hs.

I decided to hs with 2 weeks notice. When I had him tested academically to see where we needed to start, I learned to my fury that he was still at elementary school level in almost all subjects. In fact, the only subject that my son mastered and still mentioned from the last 2 schools where he did middle school and freshman level hs is biology. I had to teach my son ALL his grammar. It has been slow going but my son is a much better reader now and we are focusing on math this year. Last year we focused more on the language arts. No, he isn't up to grade level in any subject, really. But he is functional and doing very well. .

I am pregnant and due again in July with my 2nd child and plan to hs from the beginning. I would never use the ps or a private school again after my lousy experiences. I have learned my lesson in spades. I feel stupid that it took so long to come across the idea of hs'ing. Yet I don't want to have to wonder whether my child is learning or not or fight to have my child treated with respect.

[7kiddosmom]

Why we homeschool

I am new to the forum, but have posted a few times. My name is Kasey and I have 6 children with #7 due at the end of April.

I have been intrested in homeschooling since my now almost 12 yr old dd was in kindergarten, I just was so afraid to take the leap. My oldest dd was premature and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was a year old. She started school as soon as she turned 3 yrs. At the time I thought it was a great option as they provided physical therapy and she really was thriving. I just didn't realize that I could have been doing the exact same thing myself at home. When she was in 1st grade she got the label "learning disabled". In 2nd grade we held her back because she was having a very difficult time with almost every subject.

My 2nd dd is just a year younger than my oldest. She seems to clash with most of her teachers. I think that she is more mature than most kids her age and her teachers just don't know how to deal with it. When she was in her early grades (K, 1st, 2nd) she excelled and was tested and placed in the GT program at her school. We moved and the new school tested her and she was not considered GT. From their she seemed to start sliding in her grades and what she really knew. I also think making friends was more important to her than doing her school work.

My 3rd dd is 8 now. She has always been above average on her class work and all the standardized tests. She catches on quickly.

My ds is 5 and like my oldest has been in school since he turned 3. He was in an ECI program and they transition the children to PS when they turn 3 (same for my dd). He had a speech delay. He started school in Sept. and in Dec we had tubes put in his ears and his adnoids removed. On the ride home from the hospital he realized he could finally HEAR! More than anything I know that this was what helped him more than school, but we left him in because he seemed to enjoy it so much. Nevermind that he would sleep from the time he got home at 12:00 until the other kids came home from school at 4:00, sometimes he wouldn't even wake for lunch.

Still I was reluctant to homeschool, though I considered it often and would even mention it to dh. When dh began traveling alot for work the idea was more tempting. We could go with him. STILL I didn't do it. The kids are in a good school, they are learning, etc. etc. etc. Then we moved again.

I went to the school to enroll my 4 dc that were eligible. They had no problem with my oldest 2, but when it came to my 2nd grader she was missing an immunization that is required in the county we moved too, but wasn't in the county we moved from. I had stopped immunizing and was not going to have her get the shot anyway, but had to wait for the exemption form from the state. The school could have just told me not to show the immunization records and she could have entered with a 30 day admission. She NEVER enrolled but they made copies of all her paper work. I was mad.

But that was only the beginning. My ds had been in a special program known as PPCD and also in a Pre K class, they didn't offer either of these programs at what was considered his "home school" so he would have to attend a different school. I waited 2 weeks and never heard from anyone as to where he was suppose to go.

Another factor...my 10 yr old had been in school there for 2 weeks and had still not recieved any books. She was sharing with another girl. My dd said she could see lice crawling around in the girl's hair. (that is ANOTHER story)

Finally I have to have a meeting within 5 days for my oldest dd because she is considered special ed. We had the meeting but the paperwork was never sent to me. They handed me the paper work AFTER I withdrew her from school.

I had finally had it. DH called and I was crying because of frustration and anger. I told him I just wanted to take my kids out of that ***** school and homeschool them. He told me to go do it. Right then! I was shocked! I marched into the school and took my precious children OUT! I was nervous but felt such freedom!!! I always knew I wanted to do that, I felt like the PS system no longer had control over my children and I! Woooo Hooo.

This was at the beginning of Dec 2004, we took off for the holidays and began hs in January. It was the BEST decision I made for my children.

What is more funny is that here recently the city we live in was named the 2nd dumbest city in America. Didn't suprise me a bit.

Kasey

[dharmamama]

I chose to homeschool for many reasons:

1) My negative experiences, socially and academically, in school. I was always an outsider, and I made outstanding grades but was never very challenged academically.
2) I don't believe it is in children's best interests to be sent away from their family for the majority of their waking hours, nor do I think that children were made to be socialized by large groups of other children.
3) I don't believe that group teaching is the most effective way to learn.
4) I don't believe that children should be assigned schoolwork to do outside of school hours.
5) I don't think that the school's focus on grades, getting the right answer rather than really learning, and competition is the right way to go.
6) I don't approve of a lot of the values taught in school.
7) I didn't want my family's life to revolve around school.
8) I don't believe in an artificial segregation between school/learning and not-school/not-learning.
9) I don't believe in an artificial segregation amongst science/math/social studies, etc.
10) I was a textbook editor for a while before I had kids and I would never subject my kids to what is, in my opinion, trash.

The flip side of these things:

1) I want my children to have peers who have similar values, and I want their learning to be challenging and relevant to their lives.
2) I believe children do best when their primary environment is their home and family.
3) I believe children learn best when they have the freedom to do so in the way that suits them best, and I believe that the smaller the adult/child ratio, the better.
4) I think children need more time to play than they do time to "study."
5) I don't think learning should be quantified, scored, or measured against any external yardstick.
6) I want my children to learn my family's values, not pop culture's values.
7) I want our family to be free to attend to our own needs and live by our own rhythm and schedule.
8) I believe that learning happens all the time and a designated "learning time" is unnecessary and counterproductive.
9) I believe that all subjects are interrelated and the best way to learn something is to see how it relates to the world at large.
10) I want my children to learn from real, quality books, not artificial ones.

Namaste!

[RyvreWillow]

Greetings!

Our story is short, as we've just begun homeschooling--well, formally at least!

I've always been a SAHM, so when our son (age 3; we also have a 1-year-old daughter, and a baby on the way) started showing an interest in preschool activities, i started documenting everything he does, so i get in the habit when it's time for his "real" education to begin.

It just seems natural to teach the children at home, since we're parents, and that;s what we do anyway!

[mommyofshmoo]

Originally Posted by Wilhemina

How I became a homeschooling mama:

I was a ps school teacher (6-8th grade) until I was @5 months pregnant with DD#1. I have a Master of Arts in Teaching and have always believed strongly in the value of public education. However, I believe more strongly in gentle discipline and our district (and every surrounding district) allows corporal punishment. Sure, as I have been reminded SEVERAL times, I can write a letter to the school and no one would hit my DD. But corporal punishment would still affect her.

- It represents a school culture that disrespects students as individual people.
- It creates a climate of might makes right and justifiable violence.
- It maintains at atmosphere of coercion and fear which is grossly at odds with at atmosphere of exploration and security.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT! IT'S 2005!!!!!

I'm really really suprised. Where do you live? when I was a little girl I lived in NY and corporal punishment had already been banned from public schools (I started in 1978.) I went to a private school till 3rd grade and the nuns kinda chaffed at this policy, so there was certainly some physical roughness, and one teacher did hair pulling. but even at a private school, they felt the need to basically tow the same line as the public ones.

I have found, though, that the tone of discipline at some schools is harsher than I feel comfortable with. Most parents are not AP/GD oriented, and the school system follows suit.

Too bad.

[Lillian J]

A friend of mine recently rounded up a bunch of moms who had graduated their kids already to write their stories. We wanted to help support and reassure new homeschoolers who were going through doubts and anxieties. Here's my article - it includes an interview with my now grown homeschool grad son, and some words from my husband that he put in especially for other dads who might be going through the doubts he had at first. My son tells also about what some of his homeschooled friends are doing now:

Homeschooling - A Wonderful Way of Life! Lillian

[spin462002]

With every respect love2Bamom, why would you send your children to Sunday School when you have a homeschooling lifestyle? Isn't it that kind of behaviour (the teacher's behaviour) that you are trying to protect your children from?
You shouldn't need to justify your lifestyle and choices to a "hireling".

Maybe your children need to stay with you in church?

bless you for wanting to do what is best for your children

Lynn 49
Homeschooling mother of Toby 24, Zoe 22, Josie 20 and Naomi 11.
Grandchildren Caitlin 3 and Jake 3 months.
Homebirth, homeschool and now home-church!

[Wilhemina]

Originally Posted by mommyofshmoo

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT! IT'S 2005!!!!!

I'm really really suprised. Where do you live? when I was a little girl I lived in NY and corporal punishment had already been banned from public schools (I started in 1978.) I went to a private school till 3rd grade and the nuns kinda chaffed at this policy, so there was certainly some physical roughness, and one teacher did hair pulling. but even at a private school, they felt the need to basically tow the same line as the public ones.

I have found, though, that the tone of discipline at some schools is harsher than I feel comfortable with. Most parents are not AP/GD oriented, and the school system follows suit.

Too bad.

I live in smallish town TX. It is absolutely shameful, I know. FTR, the private schools I interviewed do NOT use corporal punishment. But the public schools - hands or paddles for swats by principles, teachers, officially even a substitute has that "right." (Though the district does discourage subs from asserting that "right".)

You would also be surprised at how many parents think corporal punishment is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY in schools.