Do you homeschool? What do you / will you teach your children?

reply to post by luciddream


The only poor social skill one is guaranteed to learn in public school is rudeness, which I fell prey to when I was in public school. I am not saying public school is horrid, and I know it is necessary for most people in this country. But I also know I can teach my children more, and better, than a public or most private schools could. I would think my researching this four years in advance would be proof of that- I am an obsessive researcher, and will instill that same love of learning and knowledge in my children in a way teachers can't.

I've raised two very successful children. My daughter is getting her Phd and my son is an Engineer. Both were at the top of their class in high school and very near the top at their Universities.

I know that many people fear public school but we chose to live where the schools are excellent. If you don't have that choice then I think that home schooling has a great deal of value.

We emphasized effort when our kids did their school work. My opinion is that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

One of the first things that we as parents did was read to our kids. To me, that is one thing that I find in common with kids that are successful. They know how to read. You also have to show them that you are a recreational reader. It's one thing to tell your children to read, it's another all together to have your kids wake up from a nap and come out and see you reading. We read to our kids a lot, even after they became readers for themselves.

It's much easier for kids to succeed if they can read and comprehend what they've read.

Also, construction toys. Kids learn to read directions and assemble things. It makes a huge difference in how they process information. To be able to read a set of plans (instructions), figure out what the words and pictures mean and then assembling something really helps their cognitive abilities. Our kids were natural group leaders as they got older.

Teaching history is important but it needs to be appropriate for their age level. Many people on this site seem to lack the ability to see things in perspective.. ie teaching the Columbus was an evil person.
Columbus was a man of his times with all the built in prejudices of people from that place and time. By our standards he may be evil. By the standards of that place and time he would be perceived differently. The history of the world is a history of civilizations conquering and being conquered. History is written by the winners.

Best of luck to you in you child raising.

Originally posted by luciddream
First off, parents that are ready to Home school MUST COMMIT. this is no walk the park or "ill just watch some TV while teaching crap" or "we will take a couple of days break" excuses like that. This is why Home School get bad reps, because of under qualified "teachers".

No homeschool teachers I know act like that. What you just posted was a bunch of hooooooey that the NEA likes to put out about homeschool when it simply isn't true. They are irked because there are a lot of (union paying) teaching jobs that are lost to homeschoolers ever year. I"m going to make a common sense statement that most every parent who decides to homeschool, is capable of teaching their grade school children just fine.

You guys acting like they only learn bad social skills from public school,

Bad social skills aren't the 'only' social skills ... but those are definately there, especially in the city schools. YOU are acting like parents aren't capable of teaching their children basic skills.

if you already have these kinda thoughts in you head, im not sure if your ready.

Oh please ... that's just silly. Look at the ignorant thoughts about homeschool you are putting down. Maybe I should say that you 'aren't ready' for something.

Its like a biased parent teaching kids.

Again .. oh please. :shk: The public schools are notoriously left wing. The teachers in public schools are largely biased. Are you giving them a free pass? BTW Parents have a RIGHT to be biased. It's their RIGHT to teach their children what they wish to.

Social skills is one of the main factors ...

The vast majority of homeschooled kids are given social skills just fine.

. i know a home schooled kid that had social anxiety attack on the first week of school and end up home schooled for life because he was afraid of going into a crowded place,

Basic psychology .. being homeschooled probably didn't make the child have anxiety attacks. Kids in public school get them too. BTW ... I can do what you did ... pull out a vague problem situation to make it fit the arguement - I know a whole lot of public schooled kids who were subjected to physical and mental abuse by other students.

The parents must be unbiased when teaching their kids,

that's absolutely wrong. parents have a RIGHT to teach their children whatever they want.
They can teach their own bias all they want.

Religion should be taught for what it is, a faith, there is no fact.

Who the heck do you think you are? You have NO RIGHT to tell a parent what they can or can't teach a child. Parents have the RIGHT to teach their child their faith - be it Jewish or Christian or Muslim or Wiccan or Buddhist or whatever. There are church schools all across this country that have religion as part of what is taught in the school. Homeschool is no different. And you have NO RIGHT to tell parents what they can or can't teach their children.

Science should be taught as something you agree once you tested or some peers tested but have an open mind that they change when new information is added. Math should be taught as much as possible, unless the child is not interested but, Mathis a universal language

YOUR personal bias is showing. That's not how Homeschool works. Homeschool has a well rounded and full table of courses that are taken. And when a child shows special interest in any course, that child can go further in those courses and not be held back by others who are moving slower.

You seriously don't know anything about homeschool.

Originally posted by SangriaRed
reply to post by doom27

 

Ya know, I've heard this often, but to tell you the truth....

The 'social skills' I see coming out of our local public schools amounts to:

Kids mouthing off to authority figures
Kids using horrible, foul language with parents and peers
Kids skipping school.
Kids teasing peers for doing their school work and paying attention.
Kids with no work ethic.
Kids with a severe lack of morality.

And honestly:
I know people who work in the schools where my kids would go to school.
And this is exactly what is getting reported.

Teachers up and quitting because they can't take the kids.

On the other hand:
In our group, it is very common for the kids to get together for classes where they are taught how to work with one another, respect authority and at the same time politely engage in debate with both adults and peers.
They often learn to work alongside their parents or other adults at younger ages to earn money.
Many of them are heavily involved with 4H or scouting and so learn the value of community work and/or competing.

I'm not saying that children in public or private schools don't do any of those things, but what I see coming out of the public schools, on average, is not positive social behavior.
I'm also not claiming that all home school children receive the above, but believe me, I know very few parents who are home schooling kids and are not giving them the opportunities to socialize properly with others.

Perhaps you have seen some poor examples, heaven knows I have, but be aware that it is fast becoming less common than it has been in previous years.

The problem with homeschooling is that it is not possible to teach kids how to survive in the outside world without exposing them to all the bad things that exist there.
My oldest daughter homeschooled her 4 kids, and was trying to make them understand all about peak oil etc and trying to make them able to be self sufficient in a future world without clean water, enough food etc etc.
She has taught them to grow their own food as much as possible.
I had philosophical discussions with her plenty of times and finally got through to her that in a world without oil and not enough food, it was not just about teaching kids to be self sufficient, but they also have to be able to defend their own food supply.
I suggested that it was fine to teach them to grow cabbages, but they also had to know how to stop others from stealing them.
Being a "goody goody gumdrop: was not going to cut the mustard.
Her kids are now at school and thriving in that environment learning how to deal with people at random, not just learning to socialise with other homeschooled kids who, incidentally were kids that my daughter choose for them to socialise with.
Academically they were doing fine being homeschooled, well ahead of schooled kids, but now they are also learning how to react to other kids in the relatively uncontrolled environment that is the school yard.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
I homeschooled my kids until middle school and then gave them the choice to either do the public school system, private schools or stay home schooled.

They all chose either public or private at the time.

I had a pretty hard regiment for them. Focused on literature, math and sciences. Proper history courses, critical thinking and journalism.

There are usually very strict guidelines though that are set by the state, in this case my province as to what they need to learn in order to qualify for their graduation diploma. That's why I didn't want to do the whole homes school for highschool as it presented far too many challenges for them in the future.

~Tenth

Could I enquire where you got the elementary level journalism courses from. I am going to homeschool my son for 2 years until middle school and I know that there is a basic mandatory course base, but that is one thing I find I would like to do as well, writing/journalism.

Originally posted by Sailor Sam

The problem with homeschooling is that it is not possible to teach kids how to survive in the outside world without exposing them to all the bad things that exist there.
My oldest daughter homeschooled her 4 kids, and was trying to make them understand all about peak oil etc and trying to make them able to be self sufficient in a future world without clean water, enough food etc etc.
She has taught them to grow their own food as much as possible.
I had philosophical discussions with her plenty of times and finally got through to her that in a world without oil and not enough food, it was not just about teaching kids to be self sufficient, but they also have to be able to defend their own food supply.
I suggested that it was fine to teach them to grow cabbages, but they also had to know how to stop others from stealing them.
Being a "goody goody gumdrop: was not going to cut the mustard.
Her kids are now at school and thriving in that environment learning how to deal with people at random, not just learning to socialize with other homeschooled kids who, incidentally were kids that my daughter choose for them to socialize with.
Academically they were doing fine being homeschooled, well ahead of schooled kids, but now they are also learning how to react to other kids in the relatively uncontrolled environment that is the school yard.

edit on 20-6-2012 by Sailor Sam because: spelling

Goody goody gumdrop huh?
Wow, she is so not in my group! LOL!!

Er..uhm... so that's one way to do things.

It sounds like you're going from one extreme to the other.
I don't think not mouthing off to adults and teachers is goody goody gumdrop.

AND .... I actually have a bigger reply, and an interesting experience to share with you...
But it has to wait because my kids are hungry and the pizza is so not going to hop on the grill itself and I really want to grab a beer.

You make a great point, and I want to take this further. But I may need to wait til tomorrow.
I just didn't want to say nothing for a good day and have you wondering where I went.
I know how annoying that is.


In all....this kind of reminds of that other great thread about women in the workplace...

Respecting other people's choices is important.

Originally posted by cetaphobic
reply to post by Dero

 

You had no reason to be rude, and I hope you feel ashamed of yourself.

You're kidding, right?

No, I don't. I always bust balls when people love to flaunt. Another thing I'm teaching my kids- it's a way of keeping everyone down to earth.

Originally posted by Sailor Sam
The problem with homeschooling is that it is not possible to teach kids how to survive in the outside world without exposing them to all the bad things that exist there.

Not true. My homeschooled daughter survived in the world just fine. She had PLENTY of social exposures ... through sports at the YMCA (which had practice everyday) and art classes and playing with the neighborhood kids etc etc etc. Are you trying to say that children can't possible survive in the world without being bullied ... without being the victims of pedophilia or child abuse which goes on in the pubic schools more than in the Catholic Church ... etc etc? that's just silly.

reply to post by doom27


You definitely don't know what you are talking about, spewing the usual fear... "they will be socially akward!..."

----

OP, you will see that without the school environment, your child will learn in 4 hours what will be thought in school in 8 hours. There are less distractions.
And then, you can go explore the world for the remaining hours, go more often to museums and things like that, or simply relax sometimes. There are also associations ( at least where I live ) that will support you with homeschooling, and you will be able, through the association, to meet other parent who practice homeschool. But in French, we don't say homeschooling as school isn't at home; instead, we say education at home. Here it is a legal thing.

Also, I've met many young adults who had education at home, up to the university, and they had received decorations by the government because of the excellence of their work!!!

Education at home is a formidable experience. And if/when your child asks to go to real school, they will be much more confident about themselves, than being "thrown under the bus" at age 4 or 5.

And if you do it in a few years, homeschooling, it will give you time to prepare yourself for what you don't master adequately.

Oh, and my children didn't become my friends because they stayed ay home for a few years more, but we have a friendly relationship together. And their friends think we are SO very cool...

reply to post by Sailor Sam


I'm back.

First: I apologize if my thoughts come across a bit more scattered that usual. A lot has come down between last night and today and I've got a fairly big decision resting on my shoulders, but I didn't want to let this go without a comment.

Second: It sounds like your sister possibly did want to raise them in a bubble. The only side of the story I have is yours, not hers, so I'm taking you at your word. I, perhaps wrongly, assume that the majority of homeschoolers out there today realize that kids cannot be raised in a complete bubble apart from society. Doing so will ultimately do more damage than good. I'm actually reminded of the story of Buddha.
So, I admit I jumped on the socialization factor quickly, but I am, as others are doing, using my own frame of reference. That frame of reference does not currently include people who are raising their kids in a more isolated way.

Third: When it comes to conflict resolution and the schoolyard, I really don't think the school yard is a great place to learn how to defend yourself. It's, imho, a great place to learn how to submit to bullies because brawn and toughness is so often admired or at least feared over brains and intelligence. I do admit that in this day and age things have changed a bit what with children having access to any number of gadgets and gizmos. The line between nerd and bully is not quite as clear as it was 20 something years ago (there you have my age). Still, I see and hear of more lousy incidents coming from the schools that resemble much of what life was like for me or my friends years back.
The idea in parenting a new generation of children is to get rid of the habits that have not worked out so well for humankind and to instill in them habits and character which will ultimately form a compassionate, logical, well educated adult that can lead our world into an era that we, as parents, can be proud of.
I don't believe that there is anything wrong with taking these formative years to lay a very solid foundation both in intellect and character.
I also believe that it is possible to do this while having your kids go to school, but I also think it's swimming upstream. Perhaps you may argue that this creates a tougher kid, but I don't believe that is necessarily true. And that may be where we disagree.

Fourth: With regards to defending territory...
The story I told you I would tell you....

A few months back, my younger dd and I were reading Joy Hakim's Story of Science (I believe that was the name of the book). We were discussing the matter of ziggurats. We had gone over Sumeria several months back but the point that Ms. Hakim was making with regards to these ancient structures was important.
The book explains that it is believed that the priests would make sacrifices to the gods in the ziggurats and that there were other 'secret' things that went on.
If people learned of what was going on in there, they had gained power.
When dd and I talked about what this looks like in real life she figured out pretty darn quickly what this meant>

She and her girlfriends could have their 'clubhouse' in our tree in the backyard and the boys wouldn't be allowed unless they ate poop or some other crazy thing (a sacrifice).
So I asked her, but why would they care about coming in there?
Her reply was that they had to think something super cool was going on in there that they were missing out on.

I explained to her this is what we call manipulating people to get them to do what we want and this is what these priests were doing.

They were telling people 'the gods told us you have to do ____________'.
And people thought "hey they talk to the gods" they must be more powerful.

Without knowing what was going on in that ziggurat (or in the tree house) the people on the outside have much less power while the people on the inside control everything.

So, being a 9 year old girl she grinned ear to ear thinking of lots of ways to have fun with with the boys.
Until I explained to her:
this is not okay, this is wrong and this is how people end up dying in wars and giving allegiance to rulers who don't care about us.

And she said:
Well why do those rulers stay rulers?

Me: people vote them in.

Her: why do people vote them in?

Me: knowledge is power, they just don't know any better.

What does this have to do with defending your territory?
If the shtf as bad as you suggest it could, at that point, yes, brawn is important, but having leaders who know how to keep the people in line and can help them all survive could mean that instead of the zucchini being raided, a community of people know how to work together to create the farm that serves many people and they pick off the zombies with the zombie guns on the outskirts.

Off to make decision now.