Posted on 03/11/2013 8:11:33 PM PDT by MacMattico
I never thought of Homeschooling as a viable alternative, but now I'm at my wits end with my daughter's HS. This was my HS in the late 80's and I thought it was great. I went to a good college and got good grades. But now their policies having to do with grading are all over the place, two specific subject teachers seem totally out of their element, and I asked and was even told by the Principal that there are certain things he would change, but he can't go against the union contract! My daughter missed a whole week of Social Studies (they have block scheduling and for reasons I won't bore you with missed the two days that week covering, of all things, Islam and the crusades). Her teacher said she needed to stay after to make it up, get notes, and study. I said no, I would teach it to her, just give her the work and review sheet. It's apparent I'm not this teachers favorite person. Well, to make a long story short, we worked on it over last weekend and she took the exam with the rest of the class on schedule. This teacher always makes a big deal out of "who got the highest grade" on a test. She said literally nothing to my daughter and hasn't called on her in a week. The student teacher told my daughter "congratulations, you're the only one that got 100 on the test. No one else even got in the 90's and the questions were directly from past regents (state) exams". What the heck are teachers teaching? It's the same in a couple of other classes. All year has been a struggle for ME to teach her what she needs to know. If it was just her, fine, but I've found out many of her honors friends are having the same problems. There's literally been teacher/parents verbal fights in the hallways! (not me)
my niece home schooled thru HS. She was pretty good to try to stay with her schedule - though I know she and her mom had some tense moments about it at times. My niece did well over all and is in christian college now. She used Abeka home school. I don’t know much about it, but I’m thrilled my sister was open to allowing her to home school. I wish she would do it for her boys. It is scary how schooling has changed so much, but when I think back to my catholic grade schooling in 70’s we were even taught some twisted history and science ideas and the start of prioritizing other cultures over our own national heritage.
Just ignore newbie OKRA2012, aka “the sardonic Paragraph Nazi.”
Cheers
Thank you!
Thanks all for some great replies! I think I should also add that I’m in NY state and they say they require every student to have a Regents diploma. Can you get around this requirement homeschooling? Do you still have to take the Regents exams to be accepted as a HS graduate? NY can be so screwed up at times...
I also had my kids in private and parochial schools. They were all good experiences. The one thing I was adamant about was that I did not want my children taught contrary to my moral outlook. And I worked hard to achieve that.
As far as socialization is concerned - if your kids have contact with others they are being socialized. Music lessons, group sports, swim lessons, scouting, I even took my boys on field trips like the one time we attended a political outdoor event during the day and got our picture made with Chuck Norris. The boys still talk about that one.
If you can find a good affordable private of parochial school that would be good. If not talk to homeschoolers in your area and read books about it.
Quality music lessons can be had very inexpensively - if it is actually music that you want your child to study, practice and learn. If one becomes at least semi-accomplished at music, it can be a edifying hobby or simply make listening to good music a wonderful enjoyment.
I went to public school and wasted far too many hours being in every band there was. I was quite proficient, one of the best in the school, but spent too much time on it and not enough studying the real subjects. And my career has had nothing to do with music. In exchange for a few simple “life lessons” that I would have acquired in other fields of study, I trashed my academic career. By my last year, no one else was really serious about preparing for our “big trip”, I was trying to work my part-time job to earn needed money, so I quit. Everyone wanted the “fun” trip, the musicianship was in the toilet by that point.
Athletic activity can be easily done without the school, if you just spend some time searching the internet. Same advice, IMHO, don’t go crazy with sports, it’s just about getting some exercise, and those same simple life lessons, i.e., learning to compete fairly, physically demanding work dedicated to preparing and improving, etc.
The lure that pulls parents in is the “organized” part of sports and music - the awards, the trips, the uniforms, the “social” aspect. It’s all about dreams, fantasies, etc. That actually detracts from what a child’s education is supposed to be about, which is preparation for life. IMHO, children need to be taught to think about and plan for their family life, not some dreams (actually lies) that new world order tells them they will find happiness in.
I rarely have heard of a parent being a “taskmaster” when it comes to music - but that’s how music was always historically taught to children. And that teaching discipline gave us all the great classical composers and performers.
And most children today have not a clue about music - that is why so many like the junk propaganda that passes for music today.
We took the plunge and did it about 10 years ago. Best decision I could EVER make in my life. You will not regret it. The fist few weeks were scary, but then you realize that nobody loves your children more than you do, and the rest falls into place shortly after that.
Both my kids received full scholarships to college. Universities LOVE homeschooled kids these days.
I just wanted to ditto what St_Thomas here said. I will add that IMHO, a *good* high school would be a viable alternative if you can find one that you can afford in your area ... but ya know, good luck with that.
If you are seriously interested in homeschooling, do some googling and see if there is a homeschool association in your area. For instance, there are two in my area (Sonoma County, CA), a secular homeschooling group (SCHN, of which we are members) and then a more religiously oriented group as well. Local homeschool groups can point you toward resources in your area (for example, perhaps a charter school that will work with you in homeschooling your child — we have a lot of those here). They can also be invaluable in providing socialization, since many local homeschool associations have clubs & groups that meet weekly, organize fieldtrips, etc. *My* kids would be very lonely without all the homeschooling friends we have now! :)
Best of luck with whatever you decide, and bless you for watching out for your girl!
P.S. In particular, check out hslda.org, and their page on New York homeschooling organizations: http://www.hslda.org/orgs/?State=NY
congrats
but who ever thought that gov could do anything competently??
All you need to do is stand in line at the dmv for ten minutes to see the wisdom and efficiency.
democrats baffle me.
Takes about 40 hours of instruction to cover a course. Say 10 courses over a typical school year, you could finish in 20 weeks with 20 hours a week instruction.
BTW, The girl was an honor student and couldn't pass the same home school courses my daughter was taking. My daughter was far more advanced than she was and when they graduated, my daughter and her went to the same college and were roomies. She dropped out in 1 year and was pregnant in 2. My daughter graduated with a Bachelor degree in Poly Sci and a minor in Psychology.
It sounds to me this parent is just mad at the school and it would be a huge decision to take the child out of HS now. If the child was for it and not just talked into it, it might work. Home school kids learn to be self starters. If either the parent or the child think home school is easy peasy and doesn't need to be finished, they will fail and drop out. It is a MAJOR undertaking, but IMO, anybody can do it if they want it bad enough.
BTW, we used ABEKA and Saxxon math and loved it.
—— Home school kids learn to be self starters. -——
I remember being bored during school vacation weeks. When my girls hear about kids that are bored during vacation, they’re mystified. “There are so many things to do!”
But this is one of the great lessons of schooling that isn’t written on the chalkboard. Wait for someone to tell you what to do.
I used to tell my buddy, school throws you, bound and gagged, onto the street of life.
Your daughter missed school. You helped her study the material she missed. She got 100 on the test.
What is your complaint?
I graduated from home as did my wife. My siblings were also homeschooled. Of those 5 people all went to college and collectively got 5 bachelors degrees two masters and a doctorate. Of that group there is a veterinarian and four engineers and a fighter pilot. Yeah homeschooling can work and yeah transcripts for college are not hard. These days any college admissions officer can tell you homeschoolers are sought after because they are known to be good students.
What you did with your girl WAS homeschooling. And in no time at all you did a better job teaching her than the ‘real’ teacher did for anyone else in that class. It is just as simple as that. It does not even take that long; far less time than ‘normal’ schools. In highschool, if your kid in actually interested in learning, most of the study can be self directed.
Lazy and off track? Nah, a reasonable fear but educating is pretty forgiving. You make a plan and if you get behind you know how much to catch up. There are lot of resources out there to make getting up to speed and doing some planning easy.
There are other options for sports and music. Sometimes you can even still do those at the public school. Otherwise there are also teams and programs that are not school affiliated. There are also community youth orchestras, and private music lessons... lots of options out there.
And socialization... that is over rated. BIG time. Prior to being homeschooled my older sister was in highschool and wanted nothing better than to be a cheerleader. Within a year of coming home she wanted to be a pilot. She did a stint as a marine jet pilot before settling down with another marine to home school her own kids.
-— . In my experience it leads to a closer more rewarding parent child relationship. -—
Ditto. One of the best, unexpected benefits for us.
If you think well of Hillsdale College, they have a K-12 Curriculum available on their website free of charge.
DonnaYoung.org is free and the best site for record keeping resources. Learner.org has high school/college level courses, some of which are completely self-contained.
If you live in California I can give you more advice, since there are some state-specific rules.
Also, some community colleges will allow high school students to be concurrently enrolled. One semester of college equals a year of high school on the transcript, and also counts (in most cases) toward an associates and, possibly, transfer to four-year college.
This. And there has to be time in a day to be able to do this. Public school children are so often frentically over-scheduled that there is no opportunity to listen to the small still voice.
We did homeschool our three. The youngest will graduate this May, and for her, especially, I am so glad we did. She has such a great heart for God- she prays every day for the persecuted church, reads the Bible daily, and has a very deep wisdom and compassion, far beyond her years. Her friends all come to her for prayer and advice. Her example has made all of us better people.
We did not put that connection there- God did- but we did facilitate the time and the space which it needed to emerge. It was worth every sacrifice that we made.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.