Posted on 06/14/2009 5:44:54 PM PDT by appleseed
I don’t remember when I first become convinced that homeschooling was the only type of education I wanted for our children. I do know it was long before I ever became pregnant! Now that we’ve finished our fifth year of homeschooling and we’ve started taking “prepping” seriously, I’m more glad than ever that we chose this route for our family.
Homeschooling provides a continuous flow of education in spite of changing circumstances.
A dramatic decline in income might force a family to move to another neighborhood, city, or even to a different state. Other than losing some time in the moving process, kids pick right back up where they left off in their studies. The trauma of leaving one school and starting over in another is a non-issue. A multitude of free homeschooling resources online can take the place of more expensive curriculum if need be.
In the case of a pandemic, kids would already be at home, along with their textbooks, computers, and everything else they need to learn. We wouldn’t have to worry about school closing down nor be concerned about what to do with the kids in the case of a quarantine. Think I’m crazy? Look at all the schools that shut down during the (very) mild Swine Flu “epidemic”!
Any event that would normally disrupt the school year doesn’t have nearly the same impact for homeschoolers. During a time of intense stress and change, a homeschooling family is together, along with the reassurance and the anchor that only parents can provide.
Summer has just begun. If the idea of homeschooling has ever crossed your mind, now is the perfect time to take a closer look. You’ll find a variety of helpful articles here. There are thousands of resources online, but for basic information, here are a few of my favorite sites.
Homeschooling.About.Com
Donna Young
Guilt-Free Homeschooling
You’ll find expert advice at these sites and hundreds of others. Additionally, please feel free to ask me your homeschooling questions on this blog or via email.
“Follow your heart,” isn’t always the best advice, but when it comes to homeschooling, I think it’s an excellent guide. If your heart is telling you to, at least, consider homeschooling, there’s no better time to do that than over the summer!
I have been homschooling about 14 years now. What the heck are “Preppers?”
I wouldn’t send my kids to a government school if Hussein Obama paid me to do it! The public schools do not teach. They propagandize and indoctrinate. The government schools are the reason we have two generations of idiots who care more about American Idol and “global warming” than they do about the soft tyranny that we are now subject to. We can win our country back in a generation or two if we start really educating our kids, and getting them away from the left wing propaganda factories called “public schools.”
My guess is that it’s prep school.
“You’re lucky if your kids have enough savings and scholarships that they don’t need you to contribute to their college educations”
I never said that. I said my oldest received a ton of academic and athletic scholarship money (basically, her tution is free, a full ride). She received that scholarship money based on her academics (from a public high school, GASP). She earned that money from her academic performance throughout high school, honors and AP classes, high gpa and high SAT score.
Of course, we as her parents, get to pay the rest...room and board, fees, etc. And, she also has to contribute. And she’s the oldest of 4 so we have 3 more to go, if they decide to go that route.
I went to Penn State. Did I have liberal profs? Of course.
“What I was trying to say is that there are a few good colleges where students are Not indoctrinated with Leftist ideology. Those are preferable. If you can’t send your child to one of those schools, it might be better if they don’t go.”
And, I disagree. If their minds are so mushy that they’ll believe anything, then it doesn’t really matter if they go to college or not. And, it doesn’t matter where they attend college.
“Both my parents were Republicans, and I was too, until about the second year at a state university. It took a long time before my political/economic ideas matured”
See? You had your own mind. Now, me, both my parents were Conservative Republicans. And I was, too. And, I continued to be a Conservative Republican throughout college, at Penn State :) College and all its “stuff” didn’t change any of my views. A couple of my brothers weren’t as Conservative back when they were in high school and college or the early years. They struggled but somehow ended up being Republicans once they had to pay taxes.
My husband was made to be completely “financially independent” as a senior in high school...by his evangelical, conservative, republican parents. He was also made to believe that he wasn’t going to college unless he could pay for it himself (he wasn’t the “Golden Child” who was parroting their beliefs). Wonder why he was a lib in college, lol! Yet, he’s the one that got a full ride, engineering, to Penn State. He’s a Conservative in spite of his background (or despite his background). It took him a long time to understand just how screwed up his evangelical, so called conservative parents were. Their idea of family, conservatism was wacked. It made him into the man he is so it wasn’t all bad ;)
We all have our stories. I grew up in a close family, education was valued and attending college was a privilege, something to aspire to. It didn’t matter if I got any scholarship money (fortunately, I did), if I wanted to go, my parents would make sure I could go. It wasn’t available to them but it was to their kids. And govt help wasn’t a determining factor.
My parents may have worried about what I was learning in college, along with all the partying, but I was an adult and treated like one.
No one can be indoctrinated without their permission.
“If you can’t send your child to one of those schools, it might be better if they don’t go”
That’s a huge cop out, imo.
I was a high school teacher. Currently, just a sub and probably going back full time soon. Depending on the district and area, you’ll probably be in good company.
In my content area, history, we teach facts and logical/analytical thinking. Much depends on the district (and location). It varies State to State, District to District.
Not everyone is cut out for college nor should it be the end all. College is not for everyone.
“I think way too many people go to college, for ‘the experience’ of getting wasted and stds I guess. “
Really? People are willing to spend $80,000 upwards for the “experience of getting wasted and stds?” Just how many stds occur with college students? I’m interested in those numbers. And is it limited to college campuses or a general problem?
LOL hmmmm...I guess it could apply to students in prep schools. LOL
Preppers is kind of a trendy term right now for individuals and families who are preparing for uncertain futures by stocking up on food, growing their own food, learning self-sufficient skills, and in general, just getting ready for whatever difficult times lie ahead.
LMAO!
Public and Private schools are bad. Let’s blame them. That’s the ticket.
Schools can only teach from two possible worldviews: godless and God-centered. Both are very different from the other and both have **profound** NON-neutral religiously, political, and cultural consequences!
Government schools must by law teach everything from a god-less point of view. Children for nearly all of the day are forbidden to practice or speak or publish anything about their religious faith. This teaches children to compartmentalize their faith. It also teaches them another profoundly non-neutral lesson. It communicates to the child that faith is somehow shameful and needs to be hidden like a bathroom activity.
The above applies to **all** government schools: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The children rarely spent more than 2 hours in formal homeschooling. The rest of the day they **played**. Large muscle, run around the yard PLAY!
It was a fascinating process to watch. My children could work **intensely** on a project for hours! Sometimes their projects spanned several months. One attic project consisted of a miniature city made of blocks, and electric train, and legos. This project spanned a few years.
Gradually, their intense play gradually transformed into highly focused adult work and hobbies. The two younger graduated with B.S. degrees in math at 18. All are accomplished ballroom dancers. One is a nationally and internationally competing athlete. All sing in the choir and play an instrument.
Play is rarely mentioned as a reason for homeschooling. It was surprising to me how important these free and unstructured hours were to the children's development.
By the way, if children are constantly interupted from their work or play is it any wonder they fail to learn how to concentrate? How can they learn to concentrate if they are rarely given an opportunity to practice?
Interrupting children to suit the adult’s 20 to 40 minute schedule teaches the child three things:
1) It teaches them how to be ADD.
2) that the teachers schedule is more important than their learning.
3) the clock is always more important than their work.
I’m hardly saying college is worthless, just that I did see some kids in college just to go to college, they scraped by getting bs degrees (and I don’t mean bachelor of science) in ‘fashion marketing’ and similar majors and then wound up doing minimum wage jobs. They spent more time partying and chasing tail than anything useful and had precious little to show for tens of thousands of dollars.
I’ve seen some kids, bright ones, being pushed into college by parents but they don’t have any clear goal. In many cases I think the best thing is a brief stint in the military and then college. But that’s just my opinion.
It took him a long time to understand just how screwed up his evangelical, so called conservative parents were. Their idea of family, conservatism was wacked.
Do you understand how much this says about colleges and universities working to undermine values taught in the home and supports FFranco's position?
Nope. What I understand from my husband is how screwed up his parents were.
You so didn’t get the point. Not surprising.
He became a conservative DESPITE OR IN SPITE OF his looney parents. His college had nothing to do with it.
Nice you took quotes from what I said about a couple of my brothers and interpersed them with the comments about my husband’s wacky evangelical upbringing.
Nah, all it says it what I already knew about you.
The Origins of Political Correctness by Bill Lind delivered to various AIA conferences including the 2000 Consevative University at American University:
[...]
"...The totalitarian nature of Political Correctness is revealed nowhere more clearly than on college campuses, many of which at this point are small ivy covered North Koreas, where the student or faculty member who dares to cross any of the lines set up by the gender feminist or the homosexual-rights activists, or the local black or Hispanic group, or any of the other sainted "victims" groups that PC revolves around, quickly find themselves in judicial trouble. Within the small legal system of the college, they face formal charges – some star-chamber proceeding – and punishment. That is a little look into the future that Political Correctness intends for the nation as a whole...."
PC? George Orwell had it pegged long ago:
In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
Then this written in 1959 by an FBI agent now educator. Since communism is a failure perhaps another word can be used to replace it in the goals:
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
[…]
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Of course the Department of Education was formed under Carter.
Nobody bothered to point out there is nothing in the Constitution about this being a federal task. It belongs to the states.
This is a much more clear.
We decided, when the two younger ones were in middle school, that we'd give homeschooling a try. It worked out well for both of them. They may not have gotten the strong organizational skills the older ones did, but they not only learned what they needed for the required courses, but had the time to enjoy learning the things they WANTED to learn, outside of those courses. They're now both in college, and doing well. We enjoyed the time homeschooling them because it meant we really got to know them well, and they are fun folks to be around.
For those who think that they couldn't stand to be teaching their kids for 6 hours a day, consider this; the typical school day for kids is only about 2-3 hours of actual instruction time. The rest is lunch, homeroom, roll taking, handing out and picking up papers, and trying to get the class under control. Most folks could do ALL of the homeschooling in the morning, and have their afternoons free to do field trips, outside classes for music, art, dance, etc, volunteering, or whatever else they'd like to do. Of course, high school might take an extra hour or so, but nothing like they have to do in high school, then have homework on top of that. Our kids did Community College classes for some of their high school work, like upper level Math, and Sciences with labs. When they graduated high school, they each had 12-15 college credits available to transfer to their four-year colleges. That saved a semester's worth of tuition at the higher rate!
Most folks could do ALL of the homeschooling in the morning, and have their afternoons free to do field trips, outside classes for music, art, dance, etc, volunteering, or whatever else they’d like to do.
That’s the way it worked for us. What’s more we set the schedule for the school year and could travel whenever we wanted to go. Homeschool is freedom.
We told our kids, when the oldest was in 9th grade that they'd better start studying hard, because they were either going to have to get scholarships, or loans, to pay for college. We'd sent them to Catholic school from grade 1, and were anticipating four years of high school as well, which was a considerable 'investment' in their futures. We explained that since college was THEIR investment in their own futures, we expected them to largely foot the bill. We'd see what happened to too many friends whose parents had paid the their tuition to Ivy League or other private colleges, and the kids didn't take their education seriously. This left the parents in huge debt, and the kids still not particularly well educated. We'd either gotten loans or scholarships for our college educations, so we didn't waste time or effort. We told our kids that we wanted some money to retire on, and not be living in poverty while doing so, so we weren't going into debt for THEIR college educations.
They all understood, but also understood that if they truly needed some extra money from time to time, we'd help them out. They worked summers, and sometimes had part-time jobs during the school year, though we didn't encourage that because we wanted them to concentrate on their studies. They've all turned out to be thrifty people, and have even told us they were glad that we didn't hound them about their grades, and scholarships all through school. We reminded them once or twice, and that was it. They took it from there.
That's true, and you can take advantage of times when everyone else is in school, to take the family on trips to places that would be crowded at the typical 'out of school' times.
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