Posted on 07/23/2007 8:57:03 AM PDT by DBCJR
Thinking about home schooling your kids? ...
Establish a vision for your family. Why are you doing this? What are your goals? You need to have this before you start. This will sustain you during rough times. If you believe you have God's direction in it, this establishes faith to make things happen when, at times, it seems impossible.
Raising relaxed, well-adjusted children is one goal you might want to consider... Classroom education must address the learning style and pace of the majority. This creates stress in a child that learns differently...
For such children, classroom education can be destructive...
A growing trend in public education is the dumbing down of the mean to prevent the poor performing from dropping out. Such trends can make regular classroom experience boring, and the gifted child susceptible to all sorts of negative influences. A similar trend of cultural permissiveness and aversion to asserted authority allows a plethora of such negative influences to abound in these settings... Homeschooling protects our children’s self-esteem and confidence to learn. Children struggling to learn are often the butt of jokes, as are children who are gifted and frequently give the correct answers. Either incidence impedes the childs motivation and confidence to learn. A home environment provides a consistently supportive, can-do environment that builds your child. And who is it that is building your child? You, the parent. Can you think of anyone more qualified for that role?
Conquering mountains together is a family-building exercise as well...
Homeschooling affords flexibility and choice, and choice fuels motivation to learn. Pursuing your child’s strengths and interests at various stages of thier development is much more motivating than a mandatory curriculum...
(Excerpt) Read more at searchwarp.com ...
You are so right about rampant cheating in classroom schools. It has to be harder one-on-one if the parent is not totally abdicating their role.
From research papers downloaded to ipod “cheat sheets”, to students for hire, classrooms are no context in which to measure academic performance. The abdication of authority and consequences in the classroom has made public education obsolete. The penchant for social and political agendas of the teacher’s unions have made public education irrelevant.
Revival of public education would be based upon:
1. Objective and measurable standardized testing.
2. Eliminating the monopoly of public funding and generating free market competition through increased charter school development and private school voucher programs.
3. Eliminate the fat of EDDs and PhDs in thick layers of bureacracy in Administration so that increased funding can filter down to teacher salaries to attract the best and brightest. It is the “innovation” of EDDs and PhDs that has led to hair-brained philosophies and programs that created the mess we are in. Almost ANYTHING would be better!
Hmm, I think that article has some good points. I grew up homeschooled, as did my husband, so I tend to read articles like that and say “yeah, that’s obvious, what’s the point?”. Any article discussing the pros and cons, or the mindset needed for homeschooling, strikes me that way. A valuable service for people just starting or considering home schooling, I am sure.
It reads like a good introduction for parents of young children. Parents of already-school-aged kids, who are thinking of yanking their kids from government schools, need more emphasis on the freedoms of homeschooling, of how the most important thing to do is remember that you are the boss and the teacher and you don’t have to follow a 5 day a week, 7 hour a day schedule if you don’t want.
“Any article discussing the pros and cons, or the mindset needed for homeschooling, strikes me that way. A valuable service for people just starting or considering home schooling, I am sure. It reads like a good introduction for parents of young children.”
That’s why I named the article The Basics of Home Schooling. It is very basic. It gives people a framework of issues to think about and resources to explore more deeply.
That might have been an ignorant over-statement on my part, but it was inreference to the overwhelming tide of cheating in the classroom context. At this juncture, I would have to re-direct responsibility away from the public school system and the teacher toward parents. PostModern parents fail to instill the sense of values, honor, and integrity needed in a classroom setting. However, the field of education goes overboard in supporting permissiveness and a lack of consequences. While there are notable exceptions, most likely yourself included, the vast majority is a lost cause. One cannot measure the performance of a student through another’s work.
For our first year to homeschool, I wasn’t sure how much money to budget or how much it would cost so I was looking for the best quality product for the least amount of money. I knew we had a learning difference to work with, so I took that into consideration as well. Another thing I looked for was state law concerning homeschools and grade requirements (Texas is an awesome state for homeschoolers).
Finding curriculum is easy. You could homeschool with a Bible and a library card (supplies extra) if that’s all you could afford. The library is an extremely valuable resource for homeschoolers. I wouldn’t recommend going to a curriculum fair for first year homeschoolers because they are so overwhelming. However, they do have a lot of products that you may not know of or that are new to the market. I have never been to the local bookfair, but I have heard it’s great. I think I may make a point to attend next year, though I don’t think that it will change what we’ll do school-wise for the up-coming year. Who knows, it might :-)
When we decided to take the plunge, I went online and did a search for various curricula. This is an extremely liberating experience for former ps teachers! We get to CHOOSE our curricula? WooHoo! I knew about several products already and searched those out first. I also went to the local teacher store and browsed the aisles (and the books).
Then I went online again and found homeschool support sites with free stuff! Free is always good. I discovered DonnaYoung.org and made a planner according to her pages. I still like her pages, but I needed something different this year and ended up making my planner from scratch. You don’t really need a planner, but they help keep you on track and if you have to keep records, they will also keep you organized so you CAN. You do not have to buy something fancy. A regular old day runner will even do the trick. All you need is a calendar with enough space for daily notes.
We also joined a local homeschool support group. You don’t absolutely have to do this. I found that this is the best way for my son to find friends with something in common with him. We are actually in two groups locally and some online curriculum groups as well. The two groups are different in nature, but both strive to create a network of friends. The curriculum boards are such a bonus. If you ever have a question, just ask. You will get fresh perspective and good advice as well an encouragement. In some cases, the author is a poster on the board and you can go straight to the source.
Okay, I think that about covers it without writing a whole book. If you are interested in the actual curriculum I have used, I could go into detail, but I won’t unless you ask :-)
There is almost too much curriculum available from school on dish and TV to traditional workbooks. I use computer based as it makes my job easier. For third through fifth I use switched on schoolhouse. My older child does FLVS this is online school through the state of Florida and is free for Florida residents.
this sounds like us... although we have been moving more toward a Latin-Centered approach... the less is more way of doing things... i love our homeschooling lifestyle and would not want to live any other way...
btw--there is a free online seminar, or "webinar" next Friday and Saturday... fantastic line-up of speakers... a kind of "who's who" in the Classical Christian education world... here is a link:
http://www.classicalhomeschooling.org/home.shtml
scroll to the bottom to see the list of speakers...
Just a thot — we homeschooled. I approached cursive in ‘3rd grade’ like I thought I should, but my perfectionist son was not capable of the coordination necessary to do it. I taught him to type instead.
What exactly IS the reason for cursive? Letters to Grandma? Signing your name? If it is communication, you can do that (and indeed, I do it quite a bit better) on a computer. He finally learned cursive when he was 14 or so. It took about 1/2 hour.
We loved homeschooling too. Great fruits. If you are at all considering it, DO IT.
Thats right, I homeschool my own kids. My reasons are many but one of the biggest is my memories of the stranglehold I saw the teachers union had on my high school teachers and how it allowed a rotten teacher to remain in the classroom. Even worse than that I watched a wonderful teacher who was new to the school get demoted and then have no control over the curriculum. Pathetic, sad and tragic for the kids who really wanted to learn. I will always love Mr. Phillips, who was my Machine Shop teacher for 3 years at Northeast Regional Vocational and Technical High School with all my heart for what he tried to do. But I don’t think anybody else ever noticed..
Excellent point. That's what I love about homeschooling--the ability to break the mold, to ask why you should do something a certain way. Often times, most will respond with a "Because that's how I learned it in public school."
See, I loved that too about hs. And I learned to challenge my assumptions right and left — it’s quite eye-opening.
As for everything being a learning opportunity; He's been helping me restore a 1972 Super Beetle. Just ask him how an internal combustion engine works, and sit down for a while.
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What exactly IS the reason for cursive? Letters to Grandma? Signing your name? If it is communication, you can do that (and indeed, I do it quite a bit better) on a computer. He finally learned cursive when he was 14 or so. It took about 1/2 hour.”
I like your approach here. While I am a strong advocate of classical approaches (I’m so-o-o-o tired of graduating students who can’t read, write, or do arithmetic, but are well endoctrinated into politically correct “sex education” decadence and political philosophy)I do think that technology has created a legitimate paradigm shift. We do need to ask what is the importance of handwriting. In the not so distant future we will all be texting from our pocket PCs. Therefore, we must embrace the essence of classical thought and education as technology changes the forms and structures of how that is communicated. To insist that Socratic method be recorded on papyrus scrolls totally misses the classical method. Bravo on your capturing the essence utilizing contemporary technology!
Yes, many children will need to be institutionalized for their education. We need orphanages too, but no one is suggesting that orphanages are “normal”.
And,,,,by the way,,,,,I have never met a fat homeschooled child who has been homeschooled from the beginning. In fact, I can’t even recall meeting a chubby one.
I did not teach grammar until my kids were 12. I had tried earlier, but had little success. At 12 they were sufficiently literate to grasp the concepts.
I enjoy reading these threads on homeschooling. Although our children are in public school, we know many parents who homeschool their kids, most with pretty good success it seems. Even though I am a former high school teacher, we decided that public school would be good for our kids for a number of reasons. My wife was/is already a bit overprotective (our kids were referred to as “the bubble children” where she works) and I was concerned about socialization and exposure to some aspects of society at a time when we would not be able to exert influence on our children. For us it has worked well. We get our kids to think critically when confronted with perspectives presented at school with which we disagree, whether presented by teachers or other students.
Our daughter had a friend at school who had two “mommies.” Hannah was invited to her friends’ “mommies’” wedding. When we told her that she would not be able to attend she was upset. As we questioned her, we learned that it was because they were serving cake. We got her cake and the matter was solved (she was in 2d grade). We are involved in our kids’ school and see what goes on. We keep up with what the teachers are teaching, and when the emphasis is on something we disagree with, like “saving the earth” we provide our viewpoint and encourage critical thinking by our children.
For us it has worked out very well. All of us are not cracked up to be homeschool teachers— including some who are trying to homeschool. But, to each his own.
I am sorry that your child has less than an idea home/educational situation, as described by you. It is a shame, but in these circumstances, your child will need to be institutionalized for her education.
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