KalamaQuilts

Preface by saying I don't have kids so I don't have an personal agenda for or against.

Just curious if you home schooled your kids or were home schooled yourself and how you feel about it in retrospect.
And why you took it on to begin with, were you an educator? My friends who did it weren't, they said they studied just ahead of whatever their kids were learning

I practice Spencerian writing script and got my books from a home school supply place and was totally impressed at how many options they carried for learning things outside the reading/writing/arithmetic spectrum. None involving sports...

liking quilting

We did not home school our children, but our area (small rural community) has a large amount of people who have or are home schooling. My perspective is that there is a large amount of disenchantment with the traditional, public school systems along with a yearning to incorporate religious instruction into the lessons. From what I've observed, those parents add a "coop" to the picture which allows the parents someone else's expertise in teaching a class in which they have an expertise. They share a group's strength to give the students the best of the group's teacher (art, science, etc). The children do very well if in later school years, they go to finish eduction at the high school level. I don't envy or feel sorry for the home schooled kids. It all depends on the kids and the parent's commitment.

Jordan

I was not home schooled nor did I home school my kids. My daughter-in-law was home schooled and feels she missed out on all the social activities if she had gone to a public school. Also, she is very shy and cannot deal with people or be out in the public. I don't believe in it.

charley26

I worry about religious instruction with home schooling, and the reliance of bible study over science and evidence based teaching, and especially that children are missing out on building peer relationships.

NZquilter

I was homeschooled and my DH was too. My parents unfortunately didn't follow any set curriculum and just picked and chose books willie-nillie to study from. We lived out in the country and my parents didn't like driving us around for social stuff, so my siblings and I didn't get many friends. I feel like I didn't get the full advantage of schooling because of that approach.

My DH, on the other hand, his mother enrolled her children in a proper correspondence school and stuck to a schedule. She was willing to hire tutors to teach a subject if she couldn't. Hubby even learnt Greek and Latin! He is super nerdy about Old World history! DH had plenty of social activities, like city baseball and State archery competitions, both which he excelled in. He also joined in church activities and had responsibilities with other boys through that. He had a very wholesome homeschooling experience.

We are intending on homeschooling our own children. I will be doing it like my mother-in-law. She still has all her texts books and the correspondence school she used hasn't changed their curriculum much. Her "school" is still legal in the State of Kansas, so we will "enroll" our children in it and make me the official "principal". I intend to get my kids into 4-H and city sports for social interaction and for peer relationships.

Homeschooling is one of those things in life that it will only be what you make it be. It isn't easy, and it will always take effort. I know many homeschooling families who have given up, but I also know many who have stuck to it and their kids have gone onto college and been top of the classes.

lberna

I can only relate to you as it applied to my granddaughter who is now 12 years old. Even though she was in Brownies, Girl Scouts, and dancing, she had no close friends. She didn’t get to select those girls she was compatible with. She missed out, to a large degree, acting silly and goofing off with a friend in a non- structured environment, such as at her house or a friend's house. Being an only child, she really needed to be around her friends. When she was 11, she begged her parents to let her go to school. They were ok with that and now she is very happy. I realize what is good for her may not be the answer for others. Every family is different.

Tartan

Unless you are a teacher yourself, I think some children get cheated out of their education. If they want to go to university, they have to make up any areas that they are deficient. I know the system isn’t perfect but for the vast majority of students, school is better.

Jingle

I really have no opinion on it. Not home schooled nor were our kids. They did learn a lot of bad stuff being in public school. Stuff they really did not need to know. Once they start school it is hard to influence them in what you want to do.

SillySusan

I am a retired teacher who did not home school my kids, but I should have! I did provide extra educational help and when my daughter ran into serious problems in elementary, she was transferred to an excellent private school. Later, she went to a public high school. There was all kinds of problems, but I felt that she had to learn to navigate the world and that it was better done while she was home and could be supported and counseled, instead of being naïve and on her own away at the university. She has done very well... ended up with an MBA, good job, etc.

I would encourage home schooling. It takes extra effort, but is well the trouble. Public schools, especially in large cities, are not like they used to be.

Iceblossom

Everyone is different, both parent and child and situation and locations. I grew up in Alaska and knew people who were home schooled or who were home schooling. Just like quilting or anything else, it can be well done or not so well done.

There are positives in social skills from having to deal with diverse people and discernment of who is really your friend, sometimes hard lessons learned that way. Teachers face many challenges and hurdles, they can't do everything for every body -- but they can have set ups for specializations that you don't get so easily at home like chemistry. I'm really distressed at the loss of electives in the arts that expose students to different concepts and ideas. I'm also concerned about STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) in public schools and even more so for the home educator. I've just met too many math-phobic people even quilters and we use math and geometry every day! I know in our relatively well off Seattle area there are resources/classes where people knowledgeable in math or other subjects can teach the sciences. With shifting populations, one of my nearby elementary school was used as one of those locations for a year or two.

School was hard on my son, he has some ADD issues and the basic standard classroom is about the worst sort of place for him be. I was a hard working single parent and we just were getting by, couldn't afford private education. The schools never figured it out but I finally did, too late in his senior year, that he was not an auditory learner. After about 5 minutes (or less) lecture turns into the Charlie Brown blah blah blah teacher's voice. At the same time he is gifted and was curious, he probably could have benefited in some ways from home schooling.

On the other hand, I had a friend who was an elementary teacher and early education reading specialist. She had the opportunity to move with her husband and her then 3 year old to a remote site for two years. She confided in me that she could tell her kid wasn't one of the average kids and she needed to get him into a group of peers fast. That was the education he needed more than things she could teach him. When the remote assignment was done, they moved into town and she started him in a pre-kindergarten.