Homeschool

[ClaraD]

How many parents in here have homeschooled or are homeschooling?
What were the positives and negatives, in your opinion?
What support did you get from your state for homeschooling?

What extra subjects or learning activities did you do?

The girls are asking me to homeschool them. Right now I have enrolled them in public school. Our schools are pretty good, but I am not opposed to Homeschooling, just wondering how difficult it is and what everyone's experiences were positive and negative. Their dad is on board with the idea too, but wants me to research more before committing, because once we commit there is no going back. (the school will let us, but we have made that choice.)

 

[iamwhatiseem]

My daughter is homeschooling her daughter, and is planning on it till she reaches junior high, maybe high school
She lives on Indy, there are lots of resources and support for homeschoolers there.

 

[Sven Karma]

I once had an interview to give classes to some kids that were being homeschooled. Never heard back from them. Couple of years later I was working as a supply teacher in a nearby secondary school and the kids were enrolled there, happily enough iirc though it wasn't a great school.

That's all I got.

 

[Mr Person]

I wouldn't do it. It's so much harder to socialize your kid. They're in the cocoon of home. And while they can make friends, they aren't fully immersed in the rough and tumble of what is a truly cold world at times.... and you need that to deal with life. Because at the end of the day, few people actually give a shit about you. You have to learn through adversity.

Dealing with bullies. Dealing with not getting your way. Dealing with having to keep an asshole teacher happy so they don't screw you unfairly on grades even though *they* are the bad person. There is so much you can only really learn through dealing with unfair bullshit.

Sucks....but so does humanity, no the whole.

 

[KingLeo]

Should homeschooling be an option for parents? Yes.
Is every parent a capable teacher? No.
I think the majority of parents would not be good at it but a minority of them would do fine.
It is not for everyone.

 

[Fearandloathing]

How many parents in here have homeschooled or are homeschooling?
What were the positives and negatives, in your opinion?
What support did you get from your state for homeschooling?

What extra subjects or learning activities did you do?

The girls are asking me to homeschool them. Right now I have enrolled them in public school. Our schools are pretty good, but I am not opposed to Homeschooling, just wondering how difficult it is and what everyone's experiences were positive and negative. Their dad is on board with the idea too, but wants me to research more before committing, because once we commit there is no going back. (the school will let us, but we have made that choice.)

My parents neighbors home schooled their kids. At first I was leery but as time went on I found the kids to be especially friendly, outgoing and intuitively smart. They weren't about what they knew, but about what the experienced.

Sometimes very smart people piss me off. These kids were refreshing.

To me public school was freedom - I came to the US system from a parochial Catholic Grammar school where corporal punishment was the rule. Nuns are especially good at pinching and sensitive areas and absolutely cruel when granting permissions like going to the bathroom.

Needless to say I recommend NOT going religious but maybe working out a course of study outside of the public system based on interests.

 

[ClaraD]

I wouldn't do it. It's so much harder to socialize your kid. They're in the cocoon of home. And while they can make friends, they aren't fully immersed in the rough and tumble of what is a truly cold world at times.... and you need that to deal with life. Because at the end of the day, few people actually give a shit about you. You have to learn through adversity.

Dealing with bullies. Dealing with not getting your way. Dealing with having to keep an asshole teacher happy so they don't screw you unfairly on grades even though *they* are the bad person. There is so much you can only really learn through dealing with unfair bullshit.

Sucks....but so does humanity, no the whole.

I’m not so sure that my autistic daughter being bullied by kids is the right thing

 

[Taylor]

It is, of course, a job. The families I know that do it have dedicated "classrooms," stick to schedules, and curriculums, all that. The kids all seem extremely polite, friendly, bright, and outgoing. They all attend weekly, sponsored get-togethers with other home schooled kids for social interaction.

It really comes down to how good you think you'd be at teaching. All else being equal, of course the kids being taught at a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio are going to do better than kids taught at a 20 or 30 to 1 ratio. But teaching isn't for everyone.

 

[ClaraD]

It is, of course, a job. The families I know that do it have dedicated "classrooms," stick to schedules, and curriculums, all that. The kids all seem extremely polite, friendly, bright, and outgoing. They all attend weekly, sponsored get-togethers with other home schooled kids for social interaction.

It really comes down to how good you think you'd be at teaching. All else being equal, of course the kids being taught at a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio are going to do better than kids taught at a 20 or 30 to 1 ratio. But teaching isn't for everyone.

The Georgia dept of Education has a homeschool program that is set up on a charter school system. They also have the do your own system. I taught school in Honduras. I liked teaching, but I am not sure how I feel about homeschooling

 

[Taylor]

The Georgia dept of Education has a homeschool program that is set up on a charter school system. They also have the do your own system. I taught school in Honduras. I liked teaching, but I am not sure how I feel about homeschooling

Yes, something like this...

About Georgia Connections Academy - Online School in Georgia

Learn more about Georgia Connections Academy, an accredited online school in Georgia offering a free full-time online education to students in grades K-12.

www.connectionsacademy.com

... would appeal to me more, kids still work from home and parent is there to help, but they do all the structure and curriculum, etc. Allows your kids to attend field trips, extracurriculars at your local school, etc. Seems a good compromise for some students. The social opportunities, though, are really important as we learned from Covid.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

I wouldn't do it. It's so much harder to socialize your kid. They're in the cocoon of home. And while they can make friends, they aren't fully immersed in the rough and tumble of what is a truly cold world at times.... and you need that to deal with life. Because at the end of the day, few people actually give a shit about you. You have to learn through adversity.

Dealing with bullies. Dealing with not getting your way. Dealing with having to keep an asshole teacher happy so they don't screw you unfairly on grades even though *they* are the bad person. There is so much you can only really learn through dealing with unfair bullshit.

Sucks....but so does humanity, no the whole.

I was homeschooled until college.

I’m in Army, have a job as a software engineer, and never had trouble socializing or adversity.

There are way more ways to learn those things that the single little path the government shoves everyone through. The biggest danger is that the parents suck or are incapable of properly providing those experiences to their kids. But school destroys a lot of kids mentally too and teaches a lot of bad lessons. And a lot of parents let school parent their kids instead of themselves and other kids (and teachers) pay for it.

The main thing for me, is the amount of time I was able to spend with my two younger brothers and my parents is invaluable. I wouldn’t give that time up for anything.

 

[ClaraD]

Yes, something like this...

About Georgia Connections Academy - Online School in Georgia

Learn more about Georgia Connections Academy, an accredited online school in Georgia offering a free full-time online education to students in grades K-12.

www.connectionsacademy.com

... would appeal to me more, kids still work from home and parent is there to help, but they do all the structure and curriculum, etc. Allows your kids to attend field trips, extracurriculars at your local school, etc. Seems a good compromise for some students. The social opportunities, though, are really important as we learned from Covid.

yes, I have looked at them. There is another one as well. I think a total of 3 that are free. I agree about social opportunities...I think my biggest concerns are around my 10 year old daughter who is autistic. I am considering, not being distracted might be more beneficial for her. She has had some issues with being bullied, by both teachers and students.

 

[ClaraD]

I was homeschooled until college.

I’m in Army, have a job as a software engineer, and never had trouble socializing or adversity.

There are way more ways to learn those things that the single little path the government shoves everyone through. The biggest danger is that the parents suck or are incapable of properly providing those experiences to their kids. But school destroys a lot of kids mentally too and teaches a lot of bad lessons. And a lot of parents let school parent their kids instead of themselves and other kids (and teachers) pay for it.

The main thing for me, is the amount of time I was able to spend with my two younger brothers and my parents is invaluable. I wouldn’t give that time up for anything.

Do you think you did better in homeschool? What benefits do you think you had that a regular public school cannot give you?

 

[Josie]

How many parents in here have homeschooled or are homeschooling?
What were the positives and negatives, in your opinion?
What support did you get from your state for homeschooling?

What extra subjects or learning activities did you do?

The girls are asking me to homeschool them. Right now I have enrolled them in public school. Our schools are pretty good, but I am not opposed to Homeschooling, just wondering how difficult it is and what everyone's experiences were positive and negative. Their dad is on board with the idea too, but wants me to research more before committing, because once we commit there is no going back. (the school will let us, but we have made that choice.)

@cpwill would be able to help you.

 

[Taylor]

yes, I have looked at them. There is another one as well. I think a total of 3 that are free. I agree about social opportunities...I think my biggest concerns are around my 10 year old daughter who is autistic. I am considering, not being distracted might be more beneficial for her. She has had some issues with being bullied, by both teachers and students.

That's a really tough one. I have a nephew who was being bullied constantly and was too embarrassed to tell his parents so it went on and got worse and worse until it really messed him up and eventually came to light and the school did... nothing. Ridiculous. So they pulled him from that school and put him in a neighboring public school, and suddenly he's one of the more popular kids there (???). Never would have guessed that outcome, but maybe sometimes there's just a really bad fit.

I also have a neice and nephew with autism - and know enough to know I don't know anything. It affects them in different ways, and there are different severities - I can only imagine how much of a struggle it would be as a teacher with 25 students to learn those idiosyncrasies well enough to give them what they need to thrive, and with one of them, it would probably take up way too much time. One is not in school yet, the other just transfered to a specialized school and went from dreading school every day to having it be the thing he looks forward to the most.

 

[Ishm]

We home schooled our 2 kids right through. My wife was a teacher before children arrived, so that helped. I am an engineer, so got more involved in their academic education at the higher levels of maths and the sciences. We also changed countries a few times with my job, so home schooling provided a stable environment for the kids.

Key comments:
- In general, the standard anti home schooling rhetoric about 'socialising' is rubbish. Normally from those who have never been close to home schooling. So long as the parents utilize the resources that exist in most places, your kids will make plenty of friends and have a normal social life. Our kids played lots of sports, did drama classes and acted in plays, competed in competitive robotics including the high school level world champs, and all sorts of stuff that kids do when their parents support them properly. If you have a busy life yourself, or are a little less energetic, you might however find this more challenging than shovelling the kids out the door to school each day.

- Many areas have home schooling support groups. You can often arrange a lot of sport and social events through simply contacting your local group.

- The focussed learning when you have a parent/teacher and only 1 or 2 kids creates time for extended learning. By the time our kids reached their mid teens I had taught them how to build engines, do general car repairs, do light construction and use all the tools, and a bunch of other life skills. My wife had taught them how to cook, manage a household, sew clothes and many more of those types of skills. All without compromising their academic learning. How far you go with this type of stuff is only limited by the parents ability to be involved.

- To simplify the process, it's best to connect into a recognised schooling syllabus. Whether a local US one or an international one. Doing that gives you the basic learning process and yearly targets so you know what to do and what levels your kids should be hitting along the way. There are usually books or online content that connect closely with those programs. Many programs have full online courses with external tutors etc in correspondence school style. This can make life a lot easier for parent and child.

- Someone has mentioned it already I think, but my observation is that home schooled children tend to be a little more confident in adult company, a little more mature, a little more polite, and a little more self reliant in general. That is just a generalisation, so doesn't apply in every case, but it is a fact. Being a trained teacher, my wife ended up looking after some groups of young kids when ours were young and she took them to some summer childrens camps. She would come back after a week despairing over how our children were the only two among a dozen or so she was minding that could quite happily grab whatever toys etc were available and spend the day inventing games and entertaining themselves. The rest needed her ongoing attention to stimulate and comfort them. Ours were the only two being home schooled. Home school kids in general remind me of kids that have gone through a Steiner based education if you know any of those.

- One of the benefits that I like is that your children are not being influenced by children raised by other parents who are doing a bad job and raising shitty kids. I think that's why most home schooled kids turn out more respectful and considerate. Of course that may be different for kids that are only being home schooled because they are to disruptive for public schools and have been kicked out etc, but I haven't personally met any of those, even though they definitely do exist. Our children could hold a genuine and engaging conversation with a visiting adult from around 10 years old. They knew how to listen, how to be respectful, how to be polite, and had a wide enough view of life to find common ground and have a discussion. We definitely had the "terrible twos", but never saw the rebellious teen stages.

Over 5000 characters. Part 2 follows

 

[Ishm]

Part 2
Overall, if done properly, there is no downside other than that it is a lot of work for the main stay at home parent. That parent effectively has to put themself back through the schooling system again. Some will find that easier than others, so be honest with yourself when thinking about this. For my wife as a teacher this was simple up to the final year or two when the academics get more challenging. For me, getting involved in the final year or two of their math and science learnings meant remembering stuff I hadn't done in nearly 40 years, plus learning new stuff that didn't get taught 40 years ago. But I learnt it sitting alongside my kids, so mostly it was fun, and I was a little amazed at how much I did actually remember. Not everyone learns stuff in the way I do, and not everyone is going to remember back 20 or 30 years as easily as I could. Those last 2 or 3 years could be a challenge, but at that stage you might also look to finish their schooling in a formal environment. By that stage you have already shaped your childrens' characters.

Don't be scared to home school, but be honest about your own ability to commit to it, because that will determine the outcome.

 

[ClaraD]

That's a really tough one. I have a nephew who was being bullied constantly and was too embarrassed to tell his parents so it went on and got worse and worse until it really messed him up and eventually came to light and the school did... nothing. Ridiculous. So they pulled him from that school and put him in a neighboring public school, and suddenly he's one of the more popular kids there (???). Never would have guessed that outcome, but maybe sometimes there's just a really bad fit.

I also have a neice and nephew with autism - and know enough to know I don't know anything. It affects them in different ways, and there are different severities - I can only imagine how much of a struggle it would be as a teacher with 25 students to learn those idiosyncrasies well enough to give them what they need to thrive, and with one of them, it would probably take up way too much time. One is not in school yet, the other just transfered to a specialized school and went from dreading school every day to having it be the thing he looks forward to the most.

I really appreciate this post.

 

[ClaraD]

Part 2
Overall, if done properly, there is no downside other than that it is a lot of work for the main stay at home parent. That parent effectively has to put themself back through the schooling system again. Some will find that easier than others, so be honest with yourself when thinking about this. For my wife as a teacher this was simple up to the final year or two when the academics get more challenging. For me, getting involved in the final year or two of their math and science learnings meant remembering stuff I hadn't done in nearly 40 years, plus learning new stuff that didn't get taught 40 years ago. But I learnt it sitting alongside my kids, so mostly it was fun, and I was a little amazed at how much I did actually remember. Not everyone learns stuff in the way I do, and not everyone is going to remember back 20 or 30 years as easily as I could. Those last 2 or 3 years could be a challenge, but at that stage you might also look to finish their schooling in a formal environment. By that stage you have already shaped your childrens' characters.

Don't be scared to home school, but be honest about your own ability to commit to it, because that will determine the outcome.

I taught school in Honduras. Education in the US is very different than education in Honduras. I’m confident in languages, English, History, Literature. My worry is competency in Math. I do okay in Math, but definitely not my forte. If I can get passed that concern I think it may be a bonus for my girls.

 

[Ishm]

I taught school in Honduras. Education in the US is very different than education in Honduras. I’m confident in languages, English, History, Literature. My worry is competency in Math. I do okay in Math, but definitely not my forte. If I can get passed that concern I think it may be a bonus for my girls.

That's where we were a little lucky with our kids. My wife is trained and competent in pretty much everything other than higher level Physics and Math. Those two happen to be my own strengths, and we worked through a couple of other bits together. If you use a correspondence school type facility you also get the support of those teachers when stuck, but the level of support is very dependent on who the teacher is we found. Biggest issue for me (and the kids) was that I could only work with them after work hours and on weekends. Tiring for me even though I enjoyed it, but ate into the kids free time. Good thing about home schooling however was we could adjust the kids free time schedule to fit around my availability and still leave them with enough time to get out and play. One of ours needed to be chained to their desk, and the other one needed to be dragged away from it for their own sanity.

Not sure what age your kids are, but as teenagers our kids both liked using an online resource called "Education Perfect". I worked through a lot of the problems with them and found it to be a pretty good tool compared to some other resources we tried. If you are going to find math a challenge, I would suggest you investigate EP to see if it might help you as well as the kids. There are also a bunch of online private tutor resources available. We never used them, but others we know have used them to help out when they have been struggling.

 

[ClaraD]

That's where we were a little lucky with our kids. My wife is trained and competent in pretty much everything other than higher level Physics and Math. Those two happen to be my own strengths, and we worked through a couple of other bits together. If you use a correspondence school type facility you also get the support of those teachers when stuck, but the level of support is very dependent on who the teacher is we found. Biggest issue for me (and the kids) was that I could only work with them after work hours and on weekends. Tiring for me even though I enjoyed it, but ate into the kids free time. Good thing about home schooling however was we could adjust the kids free time schedule to fit around my availability and still leave them with enough time to get out and play. One of ours needed to be chained to their desk, and the other one needed to be dragged away from it for their own sanity.

Not sure what age your kids are, but as teenagers our kids both liked using an online resource called "Education Perfect". I worked through a lot of the problems with them and found it to be a pretty good tool compared to some other resources we tried. If you are going to find math a challenge, I would suggest you investigate EP to see if it might help you as well as the kids. There are also a bunch of online private tutor resources available. We never used them, but others we know have used them to help out when they have been struggling.

Thank you. I’ll look into it. My daughters are 10 and 12. My 10 year old is autistic, but not severe. She is diagnosed level 2 but is between 1 and 2. She’s verbal but has regressive traits. My 12 year old is a year ahead. The 10 year old is far behind. (They are my bonus daughters) mom didn’t care during Covid and both fell far behind. Over summer the older one has caught up and is actually ahead. Both are begging to homeschool

 

[Ishm]

Thank you. I’ll look into it. My daughters are 10 and 12. My 10 year old is autistic, but not severe. She is diagnosed level 2 but is between 1 and 2. She’s verbal but has regressive traits. My 12 year old is a year ahead. The 10 year old is far behind. (They are my bonus daughters) mom didn’t care during Covid and both fell far behind. Over summer the older one has caught up and is actually ahead. Both are begging to homeschool

If your 12 year old is a little ahead, EP might well be worth looking at already. It's more kid friendly than some other resources we tried. We only used it for some maths and science stuff, so not sure how it is for anything else. Due to my wives training, we didn't use a lot of external resources until our kids were in their early teens, so not sure about resources for younger than that, but expect EP probably have them as well. We did spend a bunch of money on books that I think in hindsight was mostly wasted. Kids generally find online more instinctive for some reason.

My wife has gone back teaching since the kids left home. She gets a lot of autistic or otherwise harder to educate children in her classes as she also has a degree in Educational Psychology. She often talks about the challenges of supporting learning for kids with tougher challenges in front of them, and I have learned how much of her time can get spent with some of these children. She has some tough days, but loves it when she can see them beating their personal learning challenges. Good luck with your educational adventure if you take it on. It's pretty rewarding IMO.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

Do you think you did better in homeschool? What benefits do you think you had that a regular public school cannot give you?

I dont know how to gauge “did better” but I’m sure I did better than I would have if I went to public school. In a lot of ways homeschooling was more like college where I had more freedom in what I studied. The other thing I noticed in college is a lot of kids had NO ability on motivating themselves to learn or do things on their own, which a lot of college work is. Either school helped them/forced them to manage their time or their parents did. Now that they were on their own they were lost on how to get themselves to manage their free time/work. I still hadn't had the love of learning things just to learn them beaten out of me by school like a lot of my peers clearly had.

But there are so many amazing things I was able to do. I had time to work on programming projects just because I liked it. Traveling we visited every national park near us or on the way and would do the Junior Ranger program there which is an almost unique way to explore and see the country. I've literally been and seen almost any place of historical significance in US history. My mom was amazing and did a great job at connecting with other traveling families with kids of similar ages and setting up events for us.

Also spending so much time with my two younger brothers was a huge benefit. We are all like best friends and just did everything together. I can't imagine going to school and being in separate grades and not seeing them half the time growing up.

 

[BirdinHand]

Don’t set yourself or your family up to make a “forever” choice.

Try homeschooling and set it out as a “test run” for one year.

I’m a big fan of listening to kids - and if they are asking for this and giving reasons that are sound - then try it for a year.

You can always change your minds later.

 

[zincwarrior]

We have known three families who homeschooled.
1. Had Aspergers. This allowed him safety while getting more direct attention. Turned out good.
2. Hippy family. vegetarians. Daughter would take care of the kids and literally scarf down every sweet we had (so we would stock up more for her tee hee). last saw, she was a cashier but a very sweet kid.
3. Religious. they had issues. We quit associating when boy pulled my daughter's hair and she smacked the living hell out of him. Thats my girl! Probably didn't end great because their educational levels were only moderate (we moved so don't know what happened).

Having said that, homeschooling has revolutionized with online classes and materials and mini schools where a group of parents will hire teachers or tutors for given subjects like math or such. They even have their own sports leagues. Again a lot like a protoprivate school.