Why do people homeschool? - Page 11

[mathaaa]

first time

this is my first reply....there seems to be a lot that i don't know about this forum...but i like it and want to get involved...

HOMESCHOOLING has been a discussion for my husband and i since my 4 year old was a baby...i have always been a devil's advocate to the subject until recently. i picked up a book called "essential homeschooling" which actually has a lot of factual information and has helped me with the validity of the concept. did you know that the required time for "focused" learning for a preschoolerkindergartner is 30-60 minutes? i thought that was interesting. the rest of the time should be spent (in my opinion) investigating, creating, playing, eating and so many other positive activities...

[joesmom]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

First of all, I did not post this thread here. I posted it in TAO, (where ~40% of people do not homeschool). Moderator transfered my thread here.

I am glad you mentioned this. I meant to point it out, in fairness to you, a few times on this thread, but I kept getting pulled away...

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by mathaaa

this is my first reply....there seems to be a lot that i don't know about this forum...but i like it and want to get involved...

HOMESCHOOLING has been a discussion for my husband and i since my 4 year old was a baby...i have always been a devil's advocate to the subject until recently. i picked up a book called "essential homeschooling" which actually has a lot of factual information and has helped me with the validity of the concept. did you know that the required time for "focused" learning for a preschoolerkindergartner is 30-60 minutes? i thought that was interesting. the rest of the time should be spent (in my opinion) investigating, creating, playing, eating and so many other positive activities...

Welcome to Mothering!

[LeftField]

M of M: I appreciate that your thread originally started in TAO (which would explain the "argumentative" nature of the wording). The audience you were originally writing to was not a homeschool support community. This helps me to understand where you are coming from now. Also, I admire that you have stuck around and continued to post in the thread.

[Potty Diva]

Originally Posted by PJsmomma

We homeschool for a myriad of reasons.

The one I'm quite pleased with currently is my son's reading ability.

This year was Kindergarten. He knew his letters and some sounds before we started but did not read.He's now reading either 2nd grade level or 4th grade level depending on the test he took.

Public school can't touch those results even if they tried.

Actually they can. My daughter is in Kindergarten and reads at a 2nd grade level, although it is through the cooperative efforts of both her teacher and us.

[LeftField]

Originally Posted by Potty Diva

Actually they can. My daughter is in Kindergarten and reads at a 2nd grade level, although it is through the cooperative efforts of both her teacher and us.

Also, learning to read is developmental. Re: a child who goes from learning letters to reading on a 4th grade level in less than a year...that's a credit to the child, not the teacher, IMHO. He'd probably do that in school too, I would guess. If it were as simple as great homeschool technique, all homeschooled 5 year olds would be reading on a 4th grade level. Kudos to the kid though...

[alima]

My son read at a 7th grade level in grade 1, not through the efforts of his teacher, nor.

He went from barely knowing his alphabet to a 4th grade level in French and a junior high level in English in 8 months, but the personality conflict between him and his teacher was so huge that she insisted he couldn't read at all. She tried to fail him, gave him remedial work, made him read beginner books when he was reading Harry Potter and The Hobbit on his own.

I finally had to bring in an outside agency to test ds and mediate in the confilict between a 6 year old, and a 50 year old woman with 25 years of teaching experience. She eventually lost her job because of how she treated ds, but is still allowed to teach. Ds, on the other hand, can never be given back the year she stole from him.

[mamarhu]

We unschool because...

at 4, YoungSon saw a painting and asked, "Was that painted by the guy who cut off his ear?"

at 6, DD had a real job, was paid real money, as a mother's helper,and today at 12, plans to be a midwife or doula. She has never wavered in her interest in babies. It is totally fair for her to realize she will never need algebra in her life.

at 17, ElderSon had the self-confidence to join the Army, in spite of his pacifist mother. I don't like his chioce, but I admire his strength of character.


Put simply, we unscool because it works.

[BusyBee]

Why Homeschool? The question is almost the same to me as why go to public school, religious private school, Waldorf, Montessori etc...? For me it is because it fits with our family, our expectations, our experiences, and relationships to each other. Many homeschoolers are cynical about public education and think they CAN in fact do better. Others feel a need to be better connected to their children and education during their short childhood. There are about as many reasons to homeschool as there are there are homeschoolers. I see school as ideally an extention of the family and community. Family, community and school should complement each other and uphold each other. Not everybody or family is the same, which is why I am a proponent of diverse educational options. I'm homeschooling and this year one of my children began attending a private school. I find myself lucky to have found a school that IS a good fit for us (and my ds)--I also realize that in many places I would not have had this option. In that situation we would still be homeschooling ds.

As for having the ability to educate a young person... both my husband and I are highly educated and have held several demanding jobs, but for me the hardest one and the one I was least prepared to do was being a stay-at-home-mom to an infant. Yet somehow I managed, and what was even more humbling was that almost everyone can do it. I see homeschooling in the same light. Because you are committed to these young people and to homeschooling, you just do it and somehow you are able to do it. By the way, my sister is a teacher, but when she gets stuck in her lesson plans, she calls me for ideas!

[moonfirefaery]

I didn't jump to conclusions or make any judgements on you. I simply stated that I found that ironic, and I'm sorry you find it disrespectful and offensive.

If you came in without an opinion you aren't doing a good job of demonstrating that neutrality, which should be clear from the way people are responding to you. You don't seem neutral to me, so you're not portraying that too well.

Regardless of where you posted the thread initially you need to be respectful of those who take the time to respond--and not accuse us of being disrespectful as a retaliation to us stating we find your words and tone offensive.

[Kailey's mom]

reasons I'm already thinking about homeschooling

My daughters not even a year old yet but my husband and I are already talking homeschool. my perfect "plan" is that I meet a group of mothers who are also homeschooling and work together so our children can still be in a nuturing environment, do more hand's on learning etc.. I believe I will know how to teach my daughter, and I don't want to leave her for hours/day so she can sit at a desk, then she comes home, eats dinner, does homework, and bed. Why not homeschool.

[Quindin]

Originally Posted by pookel

Can I ask where you went to school? One thing I have found talking to people online is that many people who went to school in Europe, for example, have limited experience with some of the problems many American schools have. I've talked to Europeans who could not comprehend why anyone would homeschool until I told them what school was like for me, and then they understood. And what they told me about public school in their countries made me think I might not homeschool if we lived over there, although of course it depended on the school and the country.

I know a lot about schools in Europe, US and Brazil either by first hand knowledge or by talking to people who have attended or worked in those schools. I can say for a fact that several of the problems in the US school system seem to apply to most schools anywhere nowadays. People may be negative towards home schooling at first, but once I tell them about how wonderful it has been for us, they agree it is a better option. Now, Germans in general seem to be the only ones I have met that are profoundly against home schooling: there is a fear that children may be taught dangerous ideas at home.

[lauracd]

Originally Posted by pookel

I feel like the public school system in America is the worst of both worlds - on the one hand, regimented, authoritarian, rules-based, focused on conformity and meeting norms, but on the other hand, lacking the serious academic focus that makes that kind of formality worthwhile.

I love this! This is SO true.

[M_of_M]

Originally Posted by pookel

The impression I've gotten from other Europeans is that school in Europe, especially at the high school level, is more like university here - less goofing around, less wasted time, more serious study of subjects students are taking voluntarily. If that's accurate, then it does sound far removed from homeschooling, but it sounds like what I think formal schooling should be like, if you are going to take formal schooling.

I feel like the public school system in America is the worst of both worlds - on the one hand, regimented, authoritarian, rules-based, focused on conformity and meeting norms, but on the other hand, lacking the serious academic focus that makes that kind of formality worthwhile.

The school I went to could be described as follows:
1) less goofing around
2) no wasted time
3) significantly more serious study of subjects with "real" complicated georgraphy, "real" chemistry, "real" literature, "real" biology as well as a mandatory class where they teach you how to make clothes, cook, etc. by the time you are in 4th-5th grade.

4) students must take all the classes (absolutely no choice). If they don't like math or not good at math, they still must take very challenging math classes (that at times are much harder than the math I took in my 3rd year of university here). Everything that is taught in school is considered to be general education (i.e., the minimal amount of knowledge that any adult should have).
5) my school was definitely regimented, authoritarian, very much rule-based, focused on conformity and meeting norms.
6) School starts at the age of 7 and ends when you are 17.

[Quindin]

Just curious: what happened when the kids for some reason or another could not follow these challenging classes?

I went to a catholic school in Brazil all my childhood. The academic content was top and they did not waste any time messing around. HOWEVER... the kids who could not follow really suffered. I was a top student and thrived, but I watched many of my friends falling through. I wish there was more flexibility and support to those children - after all, we are all human and all different!

[cottonwood]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

The school I went to could be described as follows:
1) less goofing around
2) no wasted time
3) significantly more serious study of subjects with "real" complicated georgraphy, "real" chemistry, "real" literature, "real" biology as well as a mandatory class where they teach you how to make clothes, cook, etc. by the time you are in 4th-5th grade.

Parents who homeschool solely because the academic programs in American schools are so poor, and who value a serious commitment to academics, would probably consider this type of school acceptable.

4) students must take all the classes (absolutely no choice). If they don't like math or not good at math, they still must take very challenging math classes (that at times are much harder than the math I took in my 3rd year of university here). Everything that is taught in school is considered to be general education (i.e., the minimal amount of knowledge that any adult should have).
5) my school was definitely regimented, authoritarian, very much rule-based, focused on conformity and meeting norms.
6) School starts at the age of 7 and ends when you are 17.

None of this would be acceptable to me. So I guess I'd be homeschooling in your country, too.

[M_of_M]

Originally Posted by polihaupt

Just curious: what happened when the kids for some reason or another could not follow these challenging classes?

I went to a catholic school in Brazil all my childhood. The academic content was top and they did not waste any time messing around. HOWEVER... the kids who could not follow really suffered. I was a top student and thrived, but I watched many of my friends falling through. I wish there was more flexibility and support to those children - after all, we are all human and all different!

What happened? Those 'bad students' suffered exactly like you described.

I forgot to mention that students were only allowed to study for the last 2 years of school (from age 15 to 17) if they were doing well overall (which still represented a majority of students though). Otherwise, at 15, you could go straight to college (which is very different from university in my country) and learn the skills for the job of your choice (not requiring complicated math/chemistry/etc.) and by the time you were 17-18 you would have a profession.

For those students who were doing pretty bad in school (ex. math) but wanted to go to university, parents usually paid for a private tutor (for math).

The other option was to go to a specialized school that concentrated on (ex.) language/literature and not on math/science. You still had to go through the same challenging math courses but you were given simpler assignments in math and more complicated assignments in language/literature classes.

[3momkmb]

I find this very interesting and have a couple of questions

Originally Posted by M_of_M

3) significantly more serious study of subjects with "real" complicated georgraphy, "real" chemistry, "real" literature, "real" biology .

What do you mean by *real*?

Originally Posted by M_of_M

6) School starts at the age of 7 and ends when you are 17.

So school actually doesn't start until they are 7? No preschool or kindgarten? Frankly, if that's the case I would love to see that here!

[Quindin]

Regarding M_of_M's last post:

Don't you have a problem with the word "allowed" when it comes to a child's education? And what about parents who could not afford a tutor? Bad luck? It sounds like a elitist and unfair system to be quite honest, and I agree with fourlittlebirds: points 4,5 and 6 of your description of your school would also make me want to homeschool in your country.

That's one of the biggest beefs I have with school education: everybody has to fit in this small pre-set box and nobody cares if you don't! Isn't it unfair considering that children are people with individual needs and wishes?

Take my DD for example. She was having the hardest time in school in some subjects because her way of learning did not fit in the school's plan. Teachers were beginning to want to label her or implied she was not really able, which I knew was BS because I know DD and know she could do it! With homeschool, we were able to adapt what she learned to HER needs and she is excelling! She is actually ahead of all the kids her own age in subjects like MAth, English and History! Had she been in school, she would have been labelled unable or difficult, the teachers would not have bothered and her self esteem would have been crushed.

[MamaWindmill]

Originally Posted by M_of_M

The school I went to could be described as follows:
1) less goofing around
2) no wasted time
3) significantly more serious study of subjects with "real" complicated georgraphy, "real" chemistry, "real" literature, "real" biology as well as a mandatory class where they teach you how to make clothes, cook, etc. by the time you are in 4th-5th grade.

4) students must take all the classes (absolutely no choice). If they don't like math or not good at math, they still must take very challenging math classes (that at times are much harder than the math I took in my 3rd year of university here). Everything that is taught in school is considered to be general education (i.e., the minimal amount of knowledge that any adult should have).
5) my school was definitely regimented, authoritarian, very much rule-based, focused on conformity and meeting norms.
6) School starts at the age of 7 and ends when you are 17.

I would never put my kid in a school like that.