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

I am not yet a mother, but will be within the next 3 years. I already know I will be homeschooling, and have been researching techniques and programs and all sorts of parenting and homeschooling things for the past year. I'm the kind of person who plans and prepares well ahead of time.

So I have a few things I intend to teach. I am an Islamic Pagan, but before really delving into Pagan or more complicated theology, I will be teaching my child about Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Of course I will also teach them maths and plenty about science. The early years will be focused on nature and getting outside, but as they get older we'll discuss creationism and of course, evolution and how they're not mutually exclusive.

As for history, I refuse to water things down like they do in public schools. I felt betrayed every time I was told what I learned last year wasn't the *whole* truth. I won't be lying to them, saying that Columbus was a great guy who discovered America. They'll learn the whole truth about the Native Americans. They'll learn the whole truth about slavery, racism, and the economics of the civil war.

I'll also teach them to never give in to propaganda. To never say the pledge of allegiance, nor to sing the national anthem. I'll teach them that America is not always right, that the government and the police are not always (or even often) there to help them. I'll teach them about laws and their rights.

So. What do you teach your children?

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

reply to post by tothetenthpower


By high school I will likely have to send mine off to a private school, most likely Interlochen.

Originally posted by cetaphobic
As for history, I refuse to water things down like they do in public schools. I felt betrayed every time I was told what I learned last year wasn't the *whole* truth. I won't be lying to them, saying that Columbus was a great guy who discovered America. They'll learn the whole truth about the Native Americans. They'll learn the whole truth about slavery, racism, and the economics of the civil war.

I'll also teach them to never give in to propaganda. To never say the pledge of allegiance, nor to sing the national anthem. I'll teach them that America is not always right, that the government and the police are not always (or even often) there to help them. I'll teach them about laws and their rights.

So. What do you teach your children?

Bravo. My period for parenting is over but may I suggest some additional things to teach?

I'd suggest teaching them about the parasites (Federal Reserve) that gained control of our nation in 1913 and their conduct in warping our nation to line their pockets.

I suggest teaching them that challenging the Federal Reserve Banks and CIA are dangerous thing to do. I'd tell them about presidential commissions that say that a 1960's era bullet can change direction 47.5 times, severely wound two men and still maintain 98% of it's original weight.

I'd teach them about a government commission that was supposed to tell us all about 9/11. A commission that tells us they were lied to by the military. A commission that tells us the official report is bogus.

I'd teach them that the 2008 crash was largely the result of in-your-face, overt fraud by the Banksters, Wall Streeters and the politicians. This massive crime was protected and smoothed over by the controlled media and 24/7 propaganda.

I'd teach them that the victor writes the history and that false flag operations are SOP for the US government. I'd teach them that the US economy burned so bright for so long (in part) because the US reserve currency status effectively was a world tax on every nation.

I'd teach them the mean time between failures (MTBF) of governments and the chaos that reigns when they fall.

I'd teach them .....

reply to post by cetaphobic


What I love about homeschooling is that I know they're not going to get bits and chunks of information without context or if she is having a difficult time with one thing, we can spend more time on that or try a different approach so that when she does move on she sees the connection.

It's fascinating to see how things are connected.

It's not just math OR science, or science OR history or art OR science etc.

Take a step back in time and at any point in history it's all connected and awesome.

Show kids how to make a mummified chicken and bam you show them early chemistry and why it was important.
Look at art and see the styles change through the centuries and learn about the historical references and the geometry used.

I ultimately want for my kids, specifically my younger one, to understand a few major things:
Being responsible for what she says and for what she does. There will always be a consequence, and you have to live with that.
Life is connected. Change one thing and you change a lot more than what you realize. You can make a change for the better or the worse.

It is my belief that skimming the top and then going back over the details is a great way for kids to learn. By the time they do get to high school they've learned about world history a couple of times and have then come to understand how we've gotten to where we are today.

The biggest skill to teach home schooled kids is social skills, because its the one thing they will lack that is learned from public/private schools.

As much as I'd prefer to homeschool, both the wife and I work. So I plan to 'fill in the blanks' so to speak in regards to the public school system.

Always do the right thing, even if nobody's looking.
All actions have consequences.
No such thing as a free lunch. (except from mom and dad, of course!)
Stand up for yourself, even against the odds.
Stand up for others, even against the odds.
Your teachers are not always right, but they're the masters of your day from 0800-1500 so just smile, nod and tell them what they want to hear- and we'll figure out the rest on our own later.
If you want to believe in religion, that's up to you.

Also just friggin BEING THERE as an involved parent- unlike what I see so much of where I live.

I forgot to mention I am a firm believer in 50s era etiquette and manners, and these will be taught and strictly enforced. While publicly trained students get more and more rude, my children will not.

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.

reply to post by doom27


My children will be doing Interlochen summer camp every year that they can, as well as hopefully finding a group of secular homeschoolers with which they can interact. They will also spend plenty of time in church, mosque, and many other religious groups. They're not going to be locked in the house. We'll be at a museum once a week, the library once a week, the park every day. My sister intends to have children around the same time I do, which will probably be publicly schooled. Therefor, my children will interact not only with hers but also their public school friends.

Social interaction is not something I nor my children will have to worry about.

Alot of it will be about your actual planning so that everythings ready when you decide to do something especially if its a more practical lesson, a 'lesson' growing crops wont be much use if you have to spend an hour nipping to get the spade from a friend etc

and dont forget you may have several little ones at different ages all competing for your time and its going to be hard to teach a 5 year old basic addition when you've got a 6 month old crying for food/nappy change and a 2 year old trying to unscrew every electric socket in the house with a knife so you are lucky to have 5 mins of time to concentrate on a single task

so do the basic planning now on what you want them to learn and gather the suitable learning materials as and when available so you have time yourself to read it and be ready when during a lesson they ask 'but why does......' and you can answer it correctly

Originally posted by cetaphobic
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

By high school I will likely have to send mine off to a private school, most likely Interlochen.

Give them the choice, it's the only good piece of advice I can give you. Sure public education sucks, but if they have a really good foundation, it won't matter, they'll get their information, score high and be some of the best students those public schools have seen.

ALSO, it's really easy to get scholarships and bursaries to universities and colleges from public schools, not so much from private.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Will do. However, scholarships will not be an issue unless there is a very strange, very large change in our life.

reply to post by cetaphobic


Thankfully I had the funds to pay for it regardless, but it was nice that my daughter got a free ride on a 100K education I'll tell you

Also the public schools do give them a jungle sort of livign where they do learn about how cruel and hard life is among the rest of the populace and there's a lot of good lessons to learn.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Fair enough. :3

Thanks for your insight! It's helped a lot and has been added to my notes.

Originally posted by cetaphobic
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

Will do. However, scholarships will not be an issue unless there is a very strange, very large change in our life.

Translation: LOLZ I has moar monies than u.

I have been Homeschooling in UK for 9years.

These are the first things I wish someone had told me immediately after deregistering both kids.

Find out how your kids learn-ie Visual, audiotory or kineasthetic or a mix.
DO they prefer a learning style-ie hands on, projects, doing it by themself, classic workbooks.
How you teach-ie projects, hands on, or classic or a mix.

Then you have to combine your teaching methods and their way of learning.

I prefer to teach projects but my eldest prefers workbooks and the youngest hands on with food if possible.

I taught number bonds/pairs with raisins in chocolate. I would put 6 down and say make it total 10, and if she got it right she would get the 4. Remembers that lesson even now.
I really didn't have to 'teach' her maths after that, she got maths much quicker than her sister who was taught at school the regular way.

You can decide what to teach you kids now BUT how you teach is far more important, as the wrong type of learning and they WILL NOT learn. A hard lesson I learnt after the first year.
Good luck.

reply to post by Dero


Please read back over my past posts in other threads, and how I have always been on the side of those less fortunate, how I have always tried to make it known that not everyone has the same privileges those of us born with wealth have.

If I have enough money to do without a scholarship, I am not going to take money that would be better off giving someone else the same chances my children will have.

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

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".

You guys acting like they only learn bad social skills from public school, the social skill they learn in school far outweigh these bad social skills you guys heard, but wow, if you already have these kinda thoughts in you head, im not sure if your ready. Its like a biased parent teaching kids. Social skills is one of the main factors other than education what a grown adult would need in a work place. 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, i,m not sure how is his life now.

The parents must be unbiased when teaching their kids, at younger age, they are like a recorder, which would affect their adult life.

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

Subjects other than Math and Science is option of what the kid might be interested.

When i have kid of my own, i will send hm to public school but also have him tutored as well as develop his interest(im hoping he will be interested in Astronomy/Microbiology like i was so i can teach him a lot, but sadly my parents were not interested in that field or took an interest in my interest until high school, but it was kinda too late then).

All i can say is, be a unbiased parent when teaching, just because you heard something is bad or you hate "The Man", because all the parents i see who wants to home school has an agenda that is something other than their kid's education.

We homeschooled until 5th grade. Then we transitioned over.

At first I was scared I'd mess it up. But our homeschool of choice had excellent courses and had everything all worked out. We could 'tweek it' to fit how we liked. We also had a lot of activities at the YMCA ... sports and art classes and such. When our daughter transitioned to regular school in 5th grade, she went in skipping a grade and still gets very good grades. She just turned 16 and is going to be going to school next year for a Chemical Engineering/Chemistry double major. Homeschool worked out very well.